RosterWatch 2014 Fantasy Football Draft Guide and Cheat Sheet Now Available
The RW Draft Guide and World-Famous 3-Step Cheat Sheet are now up for download at RosterWatch.com to our members. It can be downloaded by clicking here or on the “premium” banner on the right side of RosterWatch.com. Membership at RosterWatch is FREE and the download is instant. Please make sure to FOLLOW THE RULES and enjoy your fantasy drafts, RosterWatch Nation.
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Hi,
I am new to this site and just started to play fantasy football last year. I have the 2nd pick this year in a 12 team full point ppr redraft league. According to your cheat sheet, I should draft Adrian Peterson unless LeSean McCoy falls to me. However, I listened to your show today and heard two different callers planning to take Jamaal Charles as the 2nd pick due to LeSean McCoy probably being picked first. Should I take Adrian Peterson or Jamaal Charles as the 2nd pick? I figured I would take AP as Minnesota’s schedule is easier than Kansas City’s schedule this year. Plus the loss of three starting offensive lineman to free agency for Kansas City bothers me. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
WMCGRATH-
We like Peterson for a big bounce back this year, it’s why he’s our #2 overall rb. However, in full point PPR formats we would give Charles the nod there. If McCoy falls to you- he’s the guy.
Best of luck, let us know in any comments section of any article if you have more questions throughout the season. We will answer them promptly.
Hey,
Big fan of your radio show….and I need some help. I joined a league, and may have bitten off more than I could chew…
14 team league with no flex, and instead of just a DST….has DST, DB, LB, and DE. Do you know where I can get the rankings for defensive players that is reliable? I don’t know enough individual defensive players!
Burton8518,
Thanks for being part of RosterWatch Nation. Nothing is too much to chew, if you have us on your side. We will answer your questions all season long in the comments section of any article.
This IDP section w/ our friends over at Fantasy Pros is a good place to start—-> http://www.fantasypros.com/nfl/rankings/idp-cheatsheets.php
If you get into the middle of your draft and need some IDP sleepers, let us know. We’ll give you some idea, since we just completed a 50 round FULL IDP start up Draft for an experts Dynasty league. We had to dive pretty far into the IDP dumpster, but came away with some real gems. Look out for DeMarcus Ware at DE.
Is this based off of half point ppr?
Jeells
Technically, it’s based on standard scoring- however it works VERY well for half point ppr. Full point ppr leagues we recommend just making some minor manual modifications, such as moving high target volume WR up the board (ex- Andre Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Wes Welker, Kendall Wright, etc) – while maybe circling some of the late round receiving RBs on the chart to target (ex.- Shane Vereen, Pierre Thomas, Danny Woodhead, Darren Sproles, etc)
In a 12 man league, full PPR, in the 8th spot. If I have to choose between Eddie Lacy and Dez Bryant, which way should I go? I feel like I should take Lacy, but in all of the mocks I have done the team ends up looking better if I go WR in the first 2 and sometimes the first 3 rounds.
Jpayne81
Great question. It’s literally close enough, that if there is one guy you personally would much rather have on your team- that either is justifiable, and that’s what we would recommend. For us, it’s Lacy here- if healthy, he is a candidate for 50 receptions, 2000 total yards, and 15 TDs. Even in PPR- we believe WR is a position of depth relative to RB. Also, don’t forget- we love Dez too- but his median scoring was a bit disappointing last year.
You can plug and play on Lacy every week and relieve a lot of headaches- while still getting great PPR receivers in the early to middle rounds of your draft.
Are James jones/Riley cooper worth keeping in 9th. Have ant brown in 7th, stills in 12th, maclin in 13th. Picking 5th, 13th, and 19th to start.
0.5 ppr 3 wrs, 2rbs, 2 flex
Josh
Love the value on Antonio Brown, and Maclin- solid on Stills. James Jones and Riley Cooper are NOT worth keeping for a 9th. Good luck, the beginning of your draft sounds like it should be a great start.
Thanks! Thinking I’ll have Peterson, Calvin, or forte in first. Possibly choosing then between gronk and best wr available at 13 and then hoping for Brees/Rodgers at 19. Should be a good start with that
What if the scenario comes up where the best remaining player is a qb 1 or 2 rounds after I’ve already drafted a qb (probably a pretty rare occurence)? Do you recommend going with that QB or moving to the next highest skill player on the list?
Thanks!
grh1988 –
We like the way you think. In years past, this has been a worthy strategy. BUT, this year we DO NOT recommend drafting multiple quarterbacks. In almost all situations we tell you to move to the next highest skill player on the list.
The only exception, is if you don’t take a quarterback until late- and maybe a couple of B+ guys with upside like Philip Rivers and Tony Romo both fall to you in late rounds- then we don’t mind the strategy of stockpiling two QBs with pretty big upside as matchup plays throughout the season or possible trade bait at some point. I think that would be a fairly strong play IF the value presents itself and guys are sliding way too far. Otherwise, it’s hands off this strategy this season.
Byron,
Thanks for your response/clarification. This is my 3rd year playing fantasy and I’m very new to roster watch so I have one more question. I’m 10th pick in a 12-team league with 1 keeper per team. This has resulted in Lacy, Manning, and Demaryius not being in the 1st round and Le’veon Bell and Gio Bernard not being available in the 2nd. Based on the sheet and some simulated mock drafts (with keepers) I’ve done on fantasy pros, it’s looking like i’ll be going WR-WR and by the time I get to my pick in the 3rd and 4th round picks, most of the time Rashad Jennings and Cordarrelle Patterson are the highest remaining players left on the cheat sheet and then there’s a long time until the 5th round and all the 2nd tier . Is going 3 WR and 1 RB in the first 4 picks with jennings being my RB1 with somebody like t-rich being my RB2 a good strategy?
grh1988,
Yes, we would be very happy with Rashad Jennings and TRich as our 1 and 2. We LOVE Rashad. By default, TRich is in line for a lot of action- even if it is unspectacular. Same if it’s Ray Rice there. If your team was Dez Bryant, Julio Jones, Cordarrelle, Rashad, TRich, RG3, Jordan Cameron – you would feel insanely sick- and so would we for you.
These drafts are unpredictable- especially in keeper leagues- so in the case your roster limits start getting way out of balance as the draft progresses- then you can fudge around a bit and draft for positional needs if the players are at least semi-close on the chart. We wouldn’t fudge it too much. Worst case you end up with a lot of sick trade bait on your bench, and you play the waiver wire a little more at say RB this year. Keep in mind, whether you are in a league that trades a lot or not.
p.s. there is a new version of the cheat sheet up- look for more updates over the next few days.
also- if you end up with Rashad- make sure and get his backup Andre Williams- who is very sick himself- in RD 9 or 10
Awesome! Thanks again for the feedback
Byron might be better suited to answer this, as he’s implemented a similar QB heavy strategy in the past. I think it really depends on how trade happy your league mates are. If they are the kind of guys who make a lot of moves in season, then in might be worth a shot. If they are uptight about trades, you might be in for a frustrating season of wasted points on your bench, or the though choice of picking between two marquee QBs every week only to have the QB you don’t start be the one to go off that week.
-Trashman
Question with who should be my keeper. 10 team standard league. We get 1 keeper. I am torn between Le’Veon Bell in the 11th which I know is a great value but with this recent news about Blount getting the goal line work I am starting to second guess myself. The other potential keeper would be Gronk in the 5th round. Thanks!
ttsnow-
Close call. Good question. The goal line news about Bell is concerning. We tend to think he’s still going to get a lot of work. He’s also a sneaky pass catcher on third down. Let’s not forget at between 230-240 pounds- Bell is no slouch himself around the goal line- he’s going to get some of those.
In a 10 man league- depending on the keeper situation- both of these guys are probably going to be RD3-4 picks. They would be chosen very close to each other in general. So the additional value you get on Bell in exchange for an 11 is significant.- especially when you consider the argument that RB may be a dicey position this year. We do like Gronk this year, though- so maybe you can get him too!
In a 10 Team std league, with a superflex position. QB gets 4 pts for passing TD and 1 Pt per 15Yds passing, everything else is std. Should I grab a top 10 QB in 1st rd. then another qb later in draft for the flex, or try to fill the flex with a hi end wr or rb? With the scoring change to QB points was wondering if the flex is still a QB.
Thanks
Wahoo-
We would grab an elite QB who throws for a lot of yards in the 1st round (Manning, Brees, Rodgers, Luck, Stafford), but we probably aren’t taking just any Top 10 QB there. There are 15-20 QBs who will be decent scorers in your league- so there isn’t such a shortage that you have to be the one to over-draft players.
In fact, if others do that you will have some superior skill players fall to you in the first half of the draft. We’d be plenty happy with a Romo / Cutler combo in this league. Heck we could liver with a Russell Wilson / Colin Kaepernick combo, or a Matt Ryan / Ben Roethlisberger. Our thought is you will likely want to flex a QB most weeks- but we still wouldn’t roster more than two QBs- and we would continue to draft highly rated skill players.
If you have options- you can then see how the scoring starts to shake out in your league to determine where you can get the most production in your flex.
Wahoo-
Given that strategy- if you don’t go QB in RD1- we’d expect you to probably have to look at a couple QBs in RDs 2-5 deepening on how things fall
Thanks awesome feedback, love the site, keep up the great work.
Rookie draft ppr league. Cooks goes first. I have picks 2,4,&5. All will sign 3 year contracts. Who do I target?
schles14
Mike Evans, Kelvin Benjamin, Sammy Watkins, Odel Beckham, Bishop Sankey, and possibly Devonta Freeman- your team is going to be filthy sick. These guys are the next AJ Greens, Alshon Jefferys, and Cordarrelle Pattersons of the world.
Jace Amaro a little later could be nice at TE, and we LOVE John Brown WR late. De’Anthony Thomas is shaping up to be very legit in PPR- we love him mid to late rounds in Dynasty rookie drafts. If you can’t get him go Dri Archer.
So how does this cheat sheet change for a two qb league?
10 team
cjfly-
Please see the response we posted to WAHOO above- just yesterday. Your question is very similar. Short answer, it pushes QBs way up the board. However, QB is deep so you still don’t want to go bananas reaching for middle tier QBs over elite skill players. Thx for the question- good luck.
Love your guys show on SiriusXM. Freaked out because I tuned in on Saturday recently and didn’t hear you guys, but found out you moved to a different day. Anyways i have the 12th pick in my brothers money league. Finally came in some money last year, but not the big prize. I have to win it this year. My starting lineup last year was: tony romo, garcon, josh gordon, ty hilton, blackmon, jamaal charles, matt forte, sproles, vereen, witten and some other players and I still couldn’t win. I could barely buy a win the first few weeks, but I didn’t give up. It was a 10 team league and this year is 12.
Anyways I know I have some skills based on last years team. The league is full point ppr, qb, 3wr, 2rb, flex, te, k, def. because I have the last pick I am really leaning towards wr,wr for my first picks, however I have a hard time not drafting a rb with at least one pick. TD’s are 6 pts for all positions. I know at least 1 if not 2 of the top qb’s will likely be drafted as well as magetron and probablly graham. With that said if the following players are still left what mix to start do you like best of: demaryius thomas, dez byrant, demarco murray, or someone else I haven’t mentioned that should be available that you like. I am a huge believe that murray and or dez in a contract year will have a huge year. However I worry actually less about murrays health and more about dez if romo were to go down. I know dez did fine last year when romo went down, but just my thoughts this year.
I also still unsure of not taking a rb with one of my first two picks because I worry about who’ll be left there when my 3rd rd pick comes back. Appreciate you guys and your show!
yeagermeister-
Many members of RosterWatch Nation will have to get used to a stable of unheralded RBs this season. It’s OK. We’ve got you. You may not know your late round RBs, but we do. You need to draft the best players available this year. We’ll work everything out on the back end with sick in-season maneuvers.
NO WAY we are taking DeMarco 1st RD!!!!! If you are worried about Romo’s back- you could easily go for a combo of Demaryius, Marshall, or AJ Green. We’d also recommend Julio Jones there if you aren’t worried about his foot. If you go WR/WR- just load up on all the mid-late RD RBs we love on the cheat sheet and you will be fine.
In PPR- we’d pay attention to Ray Rice, Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas, Danny Woodhead as the draft progresses. Even De’Anthony Thomas or Dri Archer super late.
Downloaded your draft cheat sheet and have a few questions. Is it based of standard scoring or ppr? Regardless of whic just wondering why you have several guys such as rashad jennings ranked higher than demarco murray, as well as doug martin, giovani bernard. I can understand montee ball and even lynch, but not the others.
yeagermeister-
The cheat sheet is based on standard scoring, however with some minor adjustments it works really well for .5 point and even 1 pt PPR.
Rashad Jennings is ranked so highly, because he was ELITE over 7 games as a starter in OAK last year. He is healthy. The Giants have had some nice fantasy RBs over the years. Jennings already looked sick in pre-season. He’s a SNEAKY pass catching maven- caught a ton of balls last year and is inline for a bunch more this year.
Murray’s injury history is what knocks him down a few spots for us. Also remember, Lance Dunbar is supposed to steal some receptions out of the DAL backfield as well this year.
do you guys plan on updating the cheatsheet again before tuesday night? got my first draft that night and want to be prepared!
ebud-
There will likely be an update after all the WK3 preseason action is in the books. Should only be some small changes, though. The skeleton is in place, we’d suggest running some mocks and practicing with the current sheet. Good luck.
Byron,
Last Thursday I drafted, Julio (2nd), Patterson (5th) and Emmanuel (7th). How them apples looking? Good?
zrubin1189-
Those apples look INCREDIBLE. You had to love those monster TDs yesterday! Best of luck, that’s a terrific start to the season! Did you use the cheat sheet? It sounds like it!
I am in a non PPR league and have devalued WRs and TEs a bit. Otherwise, I really like your rankings and agree with 97% of it. I can’t wait to see your update this week!
mendelbaum-
Yes, a new version of the Cheat Sheet will be posted today. I think you will agree with 98% of the rankings once you see the modifications. Cheers
I need a RB
Of these backs which one would you pick up that has the most upside going forward:
Sankey, McFadden, D. Brown, Hyde or Tate who is expected back week 5 after the bye week ?