Love this piece. I know from personal experience that not having a structural plan leads to really sloppy draft. I've heard advice like "stay water"...which is a great way to drown and watch your team sink into the abyss.
This may be the best piece you’ve written! We’re adults. We can take it. You keep teaching. We are out here and we are listening…and learning! Thank you for taking the time to teach us to fish!
Perfect post. I’m going into my draft wanting to do a pure zero RB, but the entire point of the strategy is to be flexible. If you see a RB with elite upside by all means take the shot and adjust accordingly.
One thought I had reading this. ZeroRB is a mindset that I'm going to take a WR in every round. But then depending on my league settings and the room, the detour probability goes up. For one of my home leagues (standard scoring, 2 WR, 1 Flex) the detour probability shoots up to the RB-RB-RB start range as truly feasible.
I’ve never had good luck with it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. I look at it like you’re falling behind the avalanche too much. Feel like you’d be better with the one elite and then see if a value target like Thomas or Fant falls to a point where the WR depth is dried up.
Hey Ben. Love your work and thought process around fantasy football. I'm playing in a couple .5 PPR leagues this year and am planning to deploy a modified zero-RB / Hero-RB strategy, subject to how the draft plays out. I've traditionally gone RB-RB to start drafts and then shifted to receiver in the dead zone, but the antifragility argument on RBs makes a lot of sense for why this strategy hasn't panned out most of the time, even in .5 PPR. Reducing that risk by spending more high draft capital on WR makes sense in that regard.
I recently completed a mock draft using the new approach which got me thinking about a couple questions. Full roster is below.
1) I "detoured" twice in the 5th and 6th to grab Lamar and Pitts who both seemed like values at those spots (end of a tier), but by doing so didn't land as many WRs before the Fuller tier break. Would you have passed on Pitts since I already detoured for Lamar the round before, given the opp. cost at WR? If you can only afford to detour at one of the two positions, would you do so at QB (to land a top 4) or TE (to land a top 5)? Or are you fine going elite QB and TE if you think you can land some later round gems at WR (like Elijah and Terrace)?
2) I ended up with both Mostert and Sermon. Would you advise against this given they are somewhat opposing bets? Or is there value to locking up a productive backfield where Mostert is likely the early season play, Sermon potentially the late season play, and both carry upside if the other gets hurt? Curious what you think.
1) I do think it gets tougher to go elite QB or elite TE when you've already done the other one. There are occasions where I shoot for both, but it's tough.
2) I'm not a big fan of it for the reasons you note that they are somewhat opposing bets. I'm more comfortable with it at WR where you can win on both. At RB, the scenarios you describe where both play and both are good when they play so it works OK to have both are I think lower probability than the opportunity cost of locking up two pretty important picks and roster spots. Another way to look at it is if that's the scenario you're shooting for that justifies the picks, you shouldn't draft either player. You don't want to be betting on strategies that make sense if the individual players have subpar outcomes.
LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK BEN!
Love this piece. I know from personal experience that not having a structural plan leads to really sloppy draft. I've heard advice like "stay water"...which is a great way to drown and watch your team sink into the abyss.
Mic. Dropped.
This may be the best piece you’ve written! We’re adults. We can take it. You keep teaching. We are out here and we are listening…and learning! Thank you for taking the time to teach us to fish!
Perfect post. I’m going into my draft wanting to do a pure zero RB, but the entire point of the strategy is to be flexible. If you see a RB with elite upside by all means take the shot and adjust accordingly.
Ben, spot on buddy! Great post.
Welcome to Ben's fantasy Masterclass.
One thought I had reading this. ZeroRB is a mindset that I'm going to take a WR in every round. But then depending on my league settings and the room, the detour probability goes up. For one of my home leagues (standard scoring, 2 WR, 1 Flex) the detour probability shoots up to the RB-RB-RB start range as truly feasible.
Ben, great content as usual. Wondering if you ever looked at the Bully TE strategy in PPR formats?
I’ve never had good luck with it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. I look at it like you’re falling behind the avalanche too much. Feel like you’d be better with the one elite and then see if a value target like Thomas or Fant falls to a point where the WR depth is dried up.
I haven't really dug into it too deeply, no.
Hey Ben. Love your work and thought process around fantasy football. I'm playing in a couple .5 PPR leagues this year and am planning to deploy a modified zero-RB / Hero-RB strategy, subject to how the draft plays out. I've traditionally gone RB-RB to start drafts and then shifted to receiver in the dead zone, but the antifragility argument on RBs makes a lot of sense for why this strategy hasn't panned out most of the time, even in .5 PPR. Reducing that risk by spending more high draft capital on WR makes sense in that regard.
I recently completed a mock draft using the new approach which got me thinking about a couple questions. Full roster is below.
1) I "detoured" twice in the 5th and 6th to grab Lamar and Pitts who both seemed like values at those spots (end of a tier), but by doing so didn't land as many WRs before the Fuller tier break. Would you have passed on Pitts since I already detoured for Lamar the round before, given the opp. cost at WR? If you can only afford to detour at one of the two positions, would you do so at QB (to land a top 4) or TE (to land a top 5)? Or are you fine going elite QB and TE if you think you can land some later round gems at WR (like Elijah and Terrace)?
2) I ended up with both Mostert and Sermon. Would you advise against this given they are somewhat opposing bets? Or is there value to locking up a productive backfield where Mostert is likely the early season play, Sermon potentially the late season play, and both carry upside if the other gets hurt? Curious what you think.
QB: Lamar Jackson
RB: Swift, Mostert, Sermon, RoJo, Darrynton Evans, Chuba
WR: Tyreek, Diggs, Lockett, Gallup, Elijah, Terrace Marshall
TE: Pitts
1) I do think it gets tougher to go elite QB or elite TE when you've already done the other one. There are occasions where I shoot for both, but it's tough.
2) I'm not a big fan of it for the reasons you note that they are somewhat opposing bets. I'm more comfortable with it at WR where you can win on both. At RB, the scenarios you describe where both play and both are good when they play so it works OK to have both are I think lower probability than the opportunity cost of locking up two pretty important picks and roster spots. Another way to look at it is if that's the scenario you're shooting for that justifies the picks, you shouldn't draft either player. You don't want to be betting on strategies that make sense if the individual players have subpar outcomes.