I am lucky to partake in a lot of fun things in my role at Fantasy Life. 

My job essentially involves:

Last week, I was given another extremely painful (jk) task of participating in an 18-team Guillotine League with the rest of the Fantasy Life staff. Some guy named Matthew Berry even showed up. 

I have played in eliminator-type leagues before, but this was admittedly my first true 18-man Guillotine League, played of course on the now Fantasy Life-owned Guillotineleagues.com

Our best ball and fantasy guru Pete Overzet recently did a great job of breaking down his entire draft, and as the person who drafted in front of Pete in said draft, it is interesting how similar some of our picks ended up being. We both went RB-RB to start, went with later round uncorrelated QBs, and both prioritized TE. 

However, there was some major divergence in our drafts later and, quite frankly, probably a couple of mistakes by me (it’s my first time, gimme a break, OK). 

Since he already did a great job of the pick-by-pick stuff, I’m simply going to give you my general thoughts and biggest takeaways from how my first draft went, along with any tips or changes I might make for my next draft (note: public leagues are now open on the site). 

Let’s dive in and see what went right, what went wrong and what pearls of wisdom I have to share from my first Guillotine draft of 2024. 

Be mindful of any early round landmines

In Guillotine leagues, any players from teams who get eliminated immediately go back into the free agency pool and will be available to bid on in the following week — by teams that are still alive. This creates an interesting dynamic in terms of FAAB spending but should also affect how you draft. 

Since you’ll have a weekly shot to bid on some high-profile players as early as Week 2, just ensuring you survive the first couple of weeks should be a soft goal. While it’s not a surefire way to avoid elimination, avoiding drama with your top players is a good way to make things easy on yourself in the early weeks. 

Specifically, going into this draft, I wanted my first few picks to be devoid of the following issues. 

  • A contract dispute or holdout candidate
  • Injury of any kind (and also not have any potential lingering issues from training camp to monitor)
  • An extraordinarily tough Week 1 matchup 

That’s not to say we need to avoid a player altogether if he’s a little banged up (think sore foot, not strained ACL) or faces a tough defense Week 1 (not everyone gets to face the Patriots this season), but these are the sorts of things I’d label as good tiebreaker metrics if you’re stuck between two players. 

My early-round strategy was simple. I wanted the best high floor/high upside player available who didn’t come with baggage. Luckily, I landed the sixth spot, and Breece Hall was still available when my turn came around. (I picked 6 — For Whom the Dell Tolls, and yes I selected Tank Dell thank you for asking.) 

Ja’Marr Chase had just been taken, but Hall would have been my pick there regardless. Chase’s contract situation is still lingering as I type this, and having your first-round pick miss Week 1 is an easy way to “get got” early in this style of league. 

On the flip side, Hall is entering the season fully healthy, is assured of big usage and gets a massive QB upgrade in 2024 in the form of Aaron Rodgers. His Week 1 matchup isn’t ideal (49ers), but everything else lines up for him to be a great first-round pick in this format. Additionally, just given how big the floor is for a true bell cow back like Hall, I may have even taken him as high as third overall in this format. Thankfully, I didn’t have to decide, but it would have been close between him and any WR not named CeeDee Lamb. 

Since I secured Hall, I was also comfortable with more volatility (from a usage standpoint) in my next two picks, where I selected De’Von Achane and Tank Dell. I do think upside is still important to consider in this format (as long as you’re not only drafting boom or bust players), and Dell and Achane both have enough upside to carry my teams on their own on a week-to-week basis. 

Don’t wait on TE. Full Stop. 

This is a good time to remind people that Guillotine Leagues are 18-man drafts and, simply put, there are not 18 good fantasy TEs available. There may not even be 12, but that’s a larger topic (sidenote: our FantasyLife+ subscriptions come with full season-long and weekly TE projections).

Given the fact we are playing not to be last every week, just having a solid TE can provide you with a good early-season advantage in this format. We all have to start at least one TE, and any of the teams without an elite option at that position will be in danger of getting outscored dramatically — and at higher risk of elimination. 

Those same TE “drifters” will also potentially be looking to spend aggressively early to upgrade that position (when the first team gets eliminated) which could hamstring them from a FAAB perspective later on in the season.

In our draft, three TEs came off the board in Round 2 (LaPorta, Kelce, McBride, in that order) with Mark Andrews getting taken a couple of slots before me in Round 3. That left me with a decision to make. I considered taking Dalton Kincaid for my Round 3 pick, who I think is great for this format, or waiting until Round 4 and praying like hell one of Kyle Pitts, George Kittle or Evan Engram was still there. 

Given the fact I hadn’t taken a WR yet, I opted for the upside of Tank Dell to get the ball rolling at that position and was lucky to be able to snag Engram in Round 4, who I would argue should be ranked higher than Kittle or Pitts in this format (the Jaguars TE was fourth in receptions last season and this league has 1.0-point PPR scoring). Even if his numbers dip a little with Christian Kirk in the lineup again, Engram’s floor will be phenomenal most weeks. 

Regardless of your take on Engram/Kittle/Pitts, the message here is simple. Once the draft is in swing, draw up a plan for TE and don’t leave yourself chasing later on. You may get lucky and get good value on a middle-tier name, but the floor of earlier-round players like Engram and Kincaid are likely to help keep you safe in the beginning and also help you preserve your FAAB. 

Embrace the flex position

One mistake I made (or at least I think I made) was waiting too long to grab a third RB. 

After my Engram pick, I (unfortunately) made it a big priority to keep grabbing WRs. I’m happy with my picks — Doubs and Allen offer every good floor/upside appeal, and Hopkins was/is undervalued due to minor injury concerns (he missed camp but is likely to play Week 1). 

The issue with my WR run is that with two Flex spots it wasn’t all that necessary. I could have grabbed a third starting RB over a WR in one of those spots and also provided myself a little backup to my first two selections (both RBs). 

Ultimately, my best ball instincts took over a bit as my early-round spending on RB led me to believe I needed to overdraft at other positions (specifically WR) to increase my lineup’s upside. This is Guillontine, though, and no one cares about your final yearly score, just whether or not you can stay out of last every week.  

If I could have done it over, I likely would have passed on Allen or Doubs and just grabbed the best available RB in the fifth or sixth round. I should be OK for Week 1, but if Achane or Hall gets hurt you’ll see me in the FAAB bidding like this on whichever RBs are available for Week 2. 

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Be mindful of your leaguemates' needs at the turn

My endgame strategy was simple: Look to grab an RB or two who would provide instant starter-level production if the team’s starter gets hurt — or even some standalone value as part of a tandem backfield — and grab solid backups at TE and QB. 

Going into Round 10, I knew what I needed but got greedy. Josh Downs had drifted down a ton, and, like DeAndre Hopkins, his drop wasn’t warranted in my mind as he’s nearing a return to practice. 

In true narcissistic fashion, I figured I could grab him and then get whichever QB fell to me as a backup, as Smith, Levis, Mayfield and Watson were all on the board. Unfortunately, four of the five people who picked before the turn swung back to me also needed backup QBs… and they all took one. 

If I had looked harder at everyone’s roster before selecting in Round 11 I would have just let Downs go. He definitely could develop into a steal if I’m lucky enough to get through to Week 4 or 5, but he is just a luxury as my fifth WR. 

I will say that my Round 11 selection, Justice Hill (who I took with all the QBs I wanted now gone), may end up being a solid pick, as Keaton Mitchell isn't expected back until November. However, with a mid-level starter in Jared Goff, I’d much rather have Geno Smith on my bench than Josh Downs/Russell Wilson right now. 

I’d be starting Goff in Week 1 regardless of which backup QB I got, so it’s not the end of the world, but I may be firing early on a QB in the waiver wire bidding. Getting Smith or even Levis could have saved me some FAAB flexibility later on.  

So there you have it, my best advice and biggest regrets for anyone making their first foray into this awesome new format. 

As we roll through more guillotine leagues before the season starts, I’m sure I’ll have even more advice for you (and more mistakes for you to laugh at). For now, if you’re starting up, I hope my review provides you with at least a little bit of guidance and helps you avoid an early beheading in 2024.