2024 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Practicals to Prepare for Your Draft
This is beginning of a series polling our fantastic team of writers for the Fantasy Footballers.
Each week leading up to Week 1’s kickoff, we will be discussing Fantasy Draft Prep tackling the biggest questions involving strategy, the ADP landscape, and how to practically begin to piece together your drafts. While it is possible to over engineer and overthink fantasy football (trust us, we’ve all been there), having a clear vision and plan for your league draft starts right now. Spending time and mapping out a plan while working backwards from your league’s draft is a framework to start with.
For this first edition, let’s get everyone back up to speed and start from square one for draft prep.
1. If someone has been out of the loop of free agency, NFL Draft, or fantasy football world, what is the easiest way to get back up to speed?
A very effective way to get up to speed with all the trades and free-agency acquisitions is by listening to the Fantasy Footballers divisional breakdown episodes, where they discuss every important player in each team. And if you still need a more visual quick reference, you can always bookmark the recap articles for those episodes, right here on the Fantasy Footballers website. – Javier Manzenera (@elmantis)
Welcome to the year 2024, where Kirk Cousins is now a Falcon, Stefon Diggs will be catching balls from C.J. Stroud in Houston, and Russell Wilson will cost the Denver Broncos $53m this season despite him now being a Pittsburgh Steeler! Whether you’ve been keeping a casual eye on the fantasy landscape, or been on a Jay Griz style hibernation since the Super Bowl – there’s a lot to catch up on. Getting your paws on the Ultimate Draft Kit and digesting the 100+ player profile videos will have you up to speed in no time, and is the ideal way to get the low down on all the key free-agency moves, as well as how the latest intake of rookies will impact NFL rosters and more importantly your fantasy team. -Paul Marnie (@PaulMarnie)
3 Letters: U. D. K. Not only are you getting tiered rankings, but also video analysis of the players. Sleepers, breakouts, busts, values, coaching changes, rookie reports, free agency reviews, news, and everything in between. The Ultimate Draft Kit, paired with listening to the Ballers, is the ultimate tool to get up to speed before your draft. -Brittney Foxworth (@bfoxworth07)
2. What is one thing fantasy managers should NOT do if they are starting to prep for their drafts in late July?
If you’re ramping up your draft prep in late July, my top suggestion is to start forming opinions but remain flexible. Keep an open mind because training camp is just beginning, and the landscape of the league will rapidly change as NFL kickoff approaches. Feel free to do mock drafts, but remember that ADP is fluid and will change drastically. It’s crucial to stay updated with the latest ADP trends to ensure you’re in the best position to crush your draft. While the early bird gets the worm, staying vigilant and prepared ensures you won’t fall prey to unforeseen changes. – Joe Beldner (@JoeBeldner)
My recommendation if you’re drafting in late July is DON’T base your draft blindly on one source. Compare opinions and do your own research to complement what analysts say. Nobody has a crystal ball and many things can still happen during training camp and preseason. When you trust your instinct despite what experts say and things go the way you expected, there’s no better feeling than that. – Javier Manzenera (@elmantis)
Do not get married to any player take, draft spot, or draft plan. The Ballers always preach to stay water, and this is the perfect time to follow this mantra. Be open to all the news and opinions, and slowly condense them into your player takes closer to draft time. – Julia Papworth (@juliapapworth)
Do not go out and buy a physical fantasy football magazine off the shelf. Those magazines were likely written in May or June before being printed and distributed. They won’t be updated as we get new information in July and August, especially once training camp and preseason games start. Those things are essentially out of date the second they hit the shelves. -Aaron Larson (@aalarson)
Be open to changing your opinions and takes on certain players. Situations change. Players age. Don’t get stuck in your opinion on a player because of what you knew last year. -Kurt Mullen (@KurtKnowsBest)
Don’t forget to remember! It feels like forever since the 2023 fantasy season ended, and unless you won a #FootClanTitle, it’s all too easy to act like it never happened in the first place. Jump back in time and listen to the Ballers Top 10 Things to Remember episode, as well as The Truth series before even starting your research for 2024. Putting last year into context will give you a much better grasp on the overall player landscape ahead of the draft season. -Paul Marnie (@PaulMarnie)
One thing fantasy managers should NOT do when gearing up for their drafts in late July is to freak out over early training camp buzz and preseason hype. Besides don’t you remember when all the news out of camp was that Ja’Marr Chase couldn’t catch the ball? Don’t let camp buzz deter you from what we know historically and statistically about a player. -Brittney Foxworth (@bfoxworth07)
3. What are the biggest overall changes in fantasy ADP for 2024 versus 2023?
One of the most significant changes in ADP to watch for this upcoming season is how last year’s rookies are being drafted as they enter their sophomore seasons. For instance, after a historic rookie season, Sam LaPorta is now being drafted in the second round. Puka Nacua has become a first-round pick, while CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson are going in the fourth and fifth rounds. Some of these players went undrafted last year and most were late-round picks. Although these players have great potential, their increased draft cost might make them feel like a reach. Additionally, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers are being drafted higher than any other rookie wide receivers in NFL history. – Joe Beldner (@JoeBeldner)
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
The craziest change I’m seeing in fantasy ADP this year is how many WRs are going in the first two rounds. Eight out of 12 players in the first round are wideouts. Last season there were only five according to ADP. This opens up interesting questions: Should I grab those top RBs nobody’s taking or should I get on the WR train before I’m left without a WR1? My recommendation: use the tier-based rankings from the UDK to help you with these difficult decisions. – Javier Manzenera (@elmantis)
After a letdown from the top three or four drafted QBs last season, this year looks to be the return of the late-round QB ( always to friend of the pod JJ Zachariason). Sure you could draft Josh Allen in the second round, or you could wait and grab two perfectly start-able QBs much later and capitalize on a star WR or RB in that spot. – Julia Papworth (@juliapapworth)
The TE landscape has shifted dramatically ahead of 2024 and that’s mainly due to our hero TEs aging and the influx of young TE talent the league has seen over the last few NFL Drafts. Due to that, we don’t have a 1st-Round TE for the first time in a couple of years, which has pushed the position down as a whole. Being able to get an elite TE doesn’t cost the same as it has over the last several years AND there are more players than I can remember who you could make the argument they’ll finish as the TE1. -Kurt Mullen (@KurtKnowsBest)
The Puka Nacua effect on the ADP of rookie wide receivers. After the record-shattering 2023 season posted by the Rams 5th round draft pick, fantasy managers are willing to put a lot more faith in debutant pass-catchers heading into 2024. Marvin Harrison is currently being taken as the WR9 at the 2.03, Malik Nabers is commanding WR2 draft capital going early in the fourth round, and Rome Odunze (arguably the third-choice receiver in Chicago) is going off the board as the WR32. Since 2020 there has only been one rookie wideout taken inside the top-30 at the position in drafts…Ja’Marr Chase back in 2021 as the WR27. -Paul Marnie (@PaulMarnie)
The ADP cliff at RBs feels like it’s earlier this year. Quarterbacks also aren’t as steamed up as much as last year, with big names like Mahomes going as late as Round 5. The later availability of top QBs allows you to strengthen other positions early while still landing a high-performing QB in the middle rounds. -Brittney Foxworth (@bfoxworth07)
4. What is one practical draft prep exercise you recommend before August arrives?
Once I know my draft position, I rapidly ramp up my mock draft preparations. An underrated strategy is trying out multiple platforms to identify variations in player costs. After spotting these discrepancies, I focus on the specific platform I’ll be drafting from to devise the best strategy for achieving roster balance and capitalizing on value. I constantly consider the risk-reward of selecting a particular position in each round. Breaking your draft board into tiers is immensely helpful for this process. While taking the best player available is important, I personally prioritize roster balance, especially if a positional tier is nearing its end. – Joe Beldner (@JoeBeldner)
Mock-a-lock-a-ding-dong! There’s no better practical draft preparation exercise than mock drafting. I recommend doing several mock drafts from the 3rd, 7th, and 10th positions. This way you can get a real idea of the players you could be taking each round and plan different ideal roster builds depending on your draft position. – Javier Manzenera (@elmantis)
What rhymes with sock craft? MOCK DRAFT. Mock early and often, and make sure to experiment. Mock drafts are where you can take risks and see if it pays off or causes you anxiety later in the draft. After completing each mock, look at it and do a post-mortem to see what you might have changed – jot it down on a Post-it or in the notes app for future reference. – Julia Papworth (@juliapapworth)
Have you ever wanted to be a fantasy football analyst? Now is your chance! Seriously, it’s your team, so prep to draft the players you want. You can download a spreadsheet of the rankings from the UDK and adjust as you see fit or just write down your own ranks on a piece of loose-leaf paper. Get as much advice and insight as you can from the pros at the Fantasy Footballers, then make your own rankings and tiers to use at your draft. -Aaron Larson (@aalarson)
Mock draft your heart out! The years I feel the most prepared ahead of fantasy drafts are the ones where I’ve been plugged in early enough and taken the reps drafting in as many different scenarios as I can to get an idea of how I’d handle those situations. I think this is most important in Keeper leagues where draft boards don’t look the same as a full Redraft and some of the premium players are already off the board! -Kurt Mullen (@KurtKnowsBest)
You can never participate in too many mock drafts! To quote one of history’s greatest mathematicians: “The limit does not exist”. Ok, yes, that’s a Lindsay Lohan Mean Girls reference, but if Archimedes or Pythagoras played fantasy football, you can bet they would have said the same thing. On top of doing plenty of mocks, familiarize yourself with the concept of tier-based drafting. Knowing exactly how many players at each position you place similar value on will help when making difficult decisions in your draft, particularly in the earlier rounds. Check out Julia Papworth’s article The Thinking Behind Tier-Based Rankings & Drafting for a full breakdown on how the strategy works.-Paul Marnie (@PaulMarnie)