My wife asked me if she should join her company's fantasy football league the other day. Sensing the opportunity to dominate her unsuspecting colleagues I've never met spend some extra quality time with her, I responded, “Absolutely, and I'm happy to help.”

Mrs. Hartitz (WILD move by her taking that last name btw) then asked, “OK. How do I draft a good fantasy football team?”

Man, what a great question.

Apparently, not everyone has the time or desire to spend every waking moment pondering the intricacies of infinite fantasy football variables. Wild, I know, but this got me thinking: What is a good five-step fantasy football draft plan for someone who has never played before?

Obviously a helluva lot more than just drafting goes into capturing fantasy championship gold — maybe we'll address that at a later date — but for now let's just take things one step at a time. Today's goal: provide a quick and easy game plan for anyone looking to try out America's greatest tradition (objective fact) for the first time.

A quick glossary on some football lingo you'll see in your draft room:

  • QB (Quarterback – the guy who throws the football)
  • RB (Running back – the guy who runs and catches the football)
  • WR (Wide receiver – the guy who catches the football)
  • TE (Tight end – the guy who catches the football and blocks)
  • K (Kicker – the guy who kicks the football)
  • DST (Defense and special teams – the guys who defend against the offense)
  • ADP (Average draft position – where someone is usually picked in a fantasy draft)
  • Queue (Just like on a music playlist; you can "star" players in order of who you want to draft next)

As always: It's a great day to be great.

1. Find out how many QBs your league can start

While Fantasy Life's Draft Champion is a mock draft tool designed to handle all the wild customizations that exist in the wild world of fantasy football, one simple league setting pretty much supersedes all else when it comes to your general early-round draft strategy:

How many QBs does your team have to start during any given week?

With that in mind:

  • If your league only starts one QB, don't worry about drafting one until AT LEAST Round 3. There's truly no rush to fill this position in the early rounds and you only need one total.
  • But if your league identifies as "two-QB" or "superflex"? Don't be a hero: Leave the first two rounds with at least one, preferably two, high-end QBs — and finish with three.

Stuff like the amount of points awarded per reception and premium scoring are also plenty important — and Fantasy Life has rankings for all major formats available — but nothing alters early-round strategy more than the number of startable QBs.

Speaking of knowing when to draft someone…

2. Use average draft position (ADP) as a guide, but not a rule

Players are usually sorted by ADP when it's time to actually draft. It's the number, often showing a decimal, next to a player that indicates where they have been drafted on average for that specific site.

As an example of what to expect. the following screenshot is from a Yahoo fantasy draft that is sorted by ADP:

 

Early-round ADPs are sharper and better to follow than what you get in the later stages of drafts — for this reason you should NOT make a habit of scrolling past the "recommended" top picks during the first 10 or so rounds.

This isn’t to suggest you should be a slave to ADP. Feel free to draft the ADP RB7 ahead of the guy the public has deemed the RB6. Have fun! Just don’t make a habit of going after players with an ADP well below (12-plus spots) where you’re presently picking in the early rounds, as there's a decent chance they'll still be available the next time you're on the clock anyway.

Looking to take your use of ADP one step further? Using our ADP tool (shown below), you can compare ADP across various platforms to identify players being over- or under-valued.

 

Now that we know when to take QBs as well as how to generally avoid making too big of a mistake in the early rounds…

3. Try to have your starting offense filled by Round 10

Key word: offense. If you're playing in a league that starts defenses and special teams (DST) and/or kickers (K), do NOT draft them before the final two rounds. Don't do it. Please. If you see the rest of the league doing it, still don't. Trust me. More on this in a bit.

Anyways, specific starting positions vary by leagues, but a traditional starting lineup will often look something like this:

  • 1 quarterback (QB): You only need to draft one total.
  • 2 running backs (RB): You should draft at least five total.
  • 2-3 wide receivers (WR): You should draft at least five total.
  • 1 tight end (TE): You only need to draft one total.

You'll also be asked to start anywhere from one to three FLEX players — this starting spot can be filled by an RB, WR, or TE. "Superflex" includes QBs. These FLEX spots are obviously important, too, but their innate versatility allows you to fill them with excess RBs OR WRs.

For this reason: Look to at least somewhat balance your RB and WR coverage while landing one QB and TE inside of the first 10 rounds of drafts in leagues of most shapes and sizes. Ideally, you'll be one of the lucky managers who finds some hidden gems with your late-round picks, but it's generally wishful thinking to expect all that much out of players drafted in the double-digit rounds — covering your bases early allows you to not fall too far behind at any individual position before the season even gets started.

OK, at this point we've covered three pretty straightforward concepts that should lead you through the first ~60% of your draft:

  1. Find out how many QBs you need to start because this heavily influences when the position should be drafted. Two QBs? Take 'em early. One QB? You can wait.
  2. Use your site's ADP as a guide, especially for the first half of your draft. Using a "wisdom of the crowd" approach is a much better move in the earlier stages vs. later rounds.
  3. Look to fill out your core starting positions by Round 10 at the latest.

Is everyone still with me? Cool — now let's attack those pesky final six or so rounds of your draft.

4. Fill out your bench with “handcuff" RBs and young WRs

"Handcuff" denotes backup RBs who are basically one unfortunate injury to their team's starting RB from getting the sort of role that will quickly make your leaguemates jealous that you already have them on your bench. Some good ones to target in Rounds 11-plus:

  • Rams RB Blake Corum (pick 131.6 ADP on ESPN)
  • Cardinals RB Trey Benson (138)
  • Seahawks RB Zach Charbonnet (140.7)
  • Falcons RB Tyler Allgeier (152.9)
  • Vikings RB Ty Chandler (160.8)
  • Patriots RB Antonio Gibson (162.2)
  • Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle (165.1)
  • Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard (165.9)
  • Bills RB Ray Davis (N/A)
  • Jets RB Braelon Allen (N/A)

Additionally, don't be afraid to spend some late-round draft capital on the following rookie WRs in Rounds 11-plus of your draft, as they regularly go quite a bit earlier in leagues with less casual audiences:

  • Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy (117.3 ADP)
  • Bills WR Keon Coleman (120.6)
  • Bears WR Rome Odunze (123)
  • Chargers WR Ladd McConkey (124.1)
  • Jaguars WR Brian Thomas Jr. (143.5)
  • Panthers WR Xavier Legette (163.3)

I'd also extend late-round dart recommendations to guys like Lions WR Jameson Williams (131.4), Bills WR Curtis Samuel (148.1) and Saints WR Rashid Shaheed (153.4), who for one reason or another also seem to be a bit too cheap on traditional home sites like ESPN and Yahoo.

Now we've made it to the last two rounds of your draft, leaving us with one final thing to do…

5. Go ahead and take your DST and kicker in the final two rounds

Just not before. NEVER before. Not even if there's a fire.

The following five DSTs are my favorite LATE-round options with an ESPN ADP outside of the top-160 picks, meaning they should be available in Rounds 14-15 in more drafts than not. In order or preference based on how good the group looks to be in real life and the ease of their early-season schedule:

  1. Las Vegas Raiders
  2. Los Angeles Chargers
  3. New York Giants
  4. Cincinnati Bengals
  5. Green Bay Packers

As for kickers: We're generally just trying to get someone from an offense expected to score a lot of points. The top-12 highest-projected scoring offenses per Vegas game totals this season are the: 49ers, Chiefs, Lions, Dolphins, Bills, Bengals, Ravens, Texans, Cowboys, Eagles, Packers and Rams. If you don't see any of their kickers available, go ahead and just draft whoever has the lowest ADP. Let's not overthink the most pointless position in all of football (just ask Larry David).

Side note: At the risk of getting too complicated, I actually prefer NOT drafting a kicker and DST at all if the league doesn't force you to do so. Loading up on even more handcuff RBs who could benefit from an injured teammate between now and Week 1 carries a ton of upside, and if not you aren't costing yourself all that many projected points by simply cutting them and picking up your kicker and/or DST on the waiver wire before the season starts. Feel free to simply draft the positions in your final two rounds if what you just read made absolutely no sense. Just not before then. Cool? Cool.

And that's that! One more time everyone:

  • Find out how many QBs you have to start. One, you can chill. Two, draft them early.
  • Try to avoid drafting anyone more than 12 spots past ADP during the first ~10 rounds of your draft.
  • Try to fill out your team's starting OFFENSE by the end of Round 10.
  • Load up your bench with the aforementioned list of handcuff RBs and young WRs.
  • Take your DST and K in the last two rounds, with the former leaning on easy early-season schedules, and the latter on high-scoring offenses.

I had my wife go through a mock draft with our Draft Champion tool with minimal assistance from myself using this strategy. She came away with the following squad:

Not too shabby! CMC was her first choice because: "He's hot," and naturally landing Taylor Swift's boyfriend was a priority. She went on to only draft one QB/TE (yay!) while loading up at RB and WR throughout the draft. Thankfully no kickers or DSTs were taken before the final two rounds (I may or may not have emphasized this point repeatedly).

When asked if she feels ready for her fantasy football draft: “With your help, yes.”

Looks like we still have some work to do — but an improvement nonetheless! Good luck to everyone in their drafts this year!