Fantasy Football Rankings - NFL Fantasy Draft Rankings 2024
Is there a better time of year than when you start to look at fantasy football rankings? Whether you’re playing in high-stakes leagues or friendly leagues with your friends and family, drafting your squad is easily the best part of fantasy football.
Our rankings are updated in real-time, reacting to breaking news, trades, and more. The fantasy football rankings were last updated in April 2024.
Being armed with the best information makes drafting even more fun. That’s where the FantasyLife Rankings Tool comes in handy. Our team of experts can tell you your best option every time you’re on the clock, so you’re never forced to panic as the timer slowly ticks toward zero.
Why Are Fantasy Football Rankings Important?
Having a good set of fantasy football rankings is vital to dominating your draft. It doesn’t matter what format you’re playing – it could be anything from a best ball league, a high-stakes league, or a home league with your friends – getting the right players at the right time is the easiest way to set yourself up for success.
Rankings show which players are being underdrafted in your leagues. If you’re routinely able to get players after when they should be going in drafts, it allows you to build an excellent roster.
Rankings can also help you plan out your draft. Let’s say that you need a third receiver and a tight end to round out your lineup, and you’re on the clock with two players that you’re interested in drafting. If the receiver is routinely being drafted a round later than the tight end, you should consider grabbing the tight end first.
Comparing rankings to average draft position – or ADP – is the easiest way to navigate our way through a draft successfully. Fortunately, Underdog ADP is baked right into our Rankings tool, so it gives you a great idea of which players we believe are currently being overlooked.
Who Are Fantasy Life's NFL Fantasy Rankers?
Our Rankings Tool is currently comprised of three separate rankings: Dwain McFarland, Ian Hartitz, and a composite.
Dwain McFarland is the Director of Analytics and Lead Fantasy Analyst at FantasyLife. Previously with Pro Football Focus, Dwain is famous for his Utilization Report, which looks at how each player’s role adapts throughout the course of the year. He’s used his football acumen to accrue three top-five finishes in the FFPC.
Ian Hartitz is our Senior Fantasy Analyst, and he’s spent time at The Action Network, NBC Sports, and Pro Football Focus. His process relies on a mix of film analysis and data study.
Rob Waziak is one of the most accurate rankers in the fantasy industry. Regularly placing in the top 10 in expert competitions.
The composite ranking is merely an average between Dwain, Ian, and Rob. If one player has a strong feeling about a strong player one way or the other, the composite ranking is a great way to balance out some of that risk.
Matthew Freedman is our Head of Betting, specializing in NFL betting (spreads, totals, futures, and player and draft props). Formerly of FantasyPros and Action Network, he is a five-time top-20 finisher in the FantasyPros rankings accuracy contest.
What is the Fantasy Life Fantasy Football Rankings Tool?
The FantasyLife Rankings Tool allows you to easily compare how our staff feels about each player when you’re on the clock. You can view the rankings overall – with Dwain McFarland and Ian Hartitz each ranking their top 150 players – or you can view the rankings by position.
What Formats Do the Fantasy Rankings Support?
Currently, our Rankings Tool only supports the “best ball format.” But that’s only because we’re currently smack-dab in the middle of #HotBestballSummer. The best ball contests are flying off the board at Underdog Fantasy, so our rankings have been formulated to support those contests.
If you’re unfamiliar with best ball leagues, it is essentially a format where you draft a team with zero in-season management. There are no waivers, no trades, and you don’t even have to set a starting lineup. Each week, your roster is optimized to give you the best possible score, so it takes all the tedious aspects of fantasy and throws them out the window.
We recently launched a Best Ball Hub that can you with everything you need to know to get in on the fun.
However, we’re not leaving you hanging in other formats either. Our Rankings Tool will be updated throughout the summer to support standard-scoring leagues, PPR leagues, 0.5-PPR leagues, and superflex leagues.