Draft position is an annual source of stress for fantasy football managers.
While I often preach changing your league format to salary-cap style as a method of eliminate this, I also recognize the considerably larger time commitment involved and, therefore, the resistance. Sometimes, and in cases like these, deal with the stress we shall.
Ah, but stress no longer -- or, at least, let's decrease it for you. Each year, I map out a game plan for the first two rounds of your draft, illustrating the twists and turns with every selection in both 10- and 12-team leagues. Additionally, I provide my own recommended selection for each spot, an effective outline for your draft's early rounds and a window into what you should expect in subsequent rounds.
As always, this exercise is for an ESPN standard PPR (point per reception) league, so any reference to fantasy points scored follows suit.
Draft slot 1
Round 1 (Pick 1 overall): The top two picks in PPR leagues, Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook, are almost universally regarded as such. In ESPN drafts thus far, neither has lower than a 2.8 Average Draft Position (ADP), and in National Fantasy Football Championship (NFFC) drafts, neither has been selected later than sixth overall. For me, this one comes down to the facts: In 2019-20, McCaffrey averaged 7.5 more fantasy points per game than Cook. That's too much to overlook, despite McCaffrey's nine fewer games played in that time.
