The safest approach to the quarterback position in fantasy is to wait. In most leagues I’ll wait until after the 7th round, as plenty of decent QBs emerge over the course of a season. Here are my rankings as of this weekend:
1 – Aaron Rodgers
2 – DeShaun Watson
3 – Tom Brady
4 – Russell Wilson
5 – Andrew Luck
6 – Drew Brees
7 – Carson Wentz
8 – Jimmy Garoppolo
9 – Cam Newton
10 – Ben Roethlisberger
11 – Matthew Stafford
12 – Jared Goff
13 – Philip Rivers
14 – Kirk Cousins
15 – Patrick Mahomes
16 – Marcus Mariota
17 – Tyrod Taylor
18 – Case Keenum
19 – Matt Ryan
20 – Derek Carr
21 – Andy Dalton
22 – Eli Manning
23 – Mitchell Tribisky
24 – Dak Prescott
25 – Alex Smith
26 – Sam Bradford/Josh Rosen
27 – Jameis Winston
28 – Ryan Tannehill
29 – Blake Bortles
30 – Joe Flacco
Andrew Luck’s ranking is contingent upon his own health and that of TY Hilton, so monitor them in exhibition games. I’ve aggressively ranked some of the rookies. This is due to their situation and relatively high ceiling, making them attractive in terms of roster construction. It’s not a raw points-based projection. You can afford to take a lot of chances with this position because you can always find something serviceable on the wire. If you draft Carson Wentz, you need to handcuff Nick Foles or have a Plan B, preferably the latter. I’m not convinced Wentz will be ready for week one, and Nick Foles’ ineptitude this preseason is rather concerning.
Sam Bradford will be lucky to make it to week three before he gets hurt, at which point Josh Rosen should slide in. If you’re focused strictly on ceiling, you could make a case for Russell Wilson being ranked ahead of Tom Brady. The Seattle Seahawks defense is weak and will force Wilson to stay on the attack.
Similar to quarterbacks, it’s normally best to wait until round 8, give or take, to roster a tight end. Here are my top 25:
1 – Travis Kelce
2 – Rob Gronkowski
3 – Zack Ertz
4 – Greg Olsen
5 – Delanie Walker
6 – Evan Engram
7 – Jordan Reed
8 – Jimmy Graham
9 – Kyle Rudolph
10 – OJ Howard
11 – Charles Clay
12 – David Njoku
13 – Trey Burton
14 – Mike Gesicki
15 – Ben Watson
16 – George Kittle
17 – Eric Ebron
18 – Jack Doyle
19 – Cameron Brate
20 – Vernon Davis
21 – Austin Hooper
22 – Austin-Seferian Jenkins
23 – Jared Cook
24 – Vance McDonald
25 – Hayden Hurst
Relying on production from first-year tight ends is usually a fool’s errand. If you partake, you almost have to proceed as though you didn’t draft one. That is, assume you’ll get nothing from them, and make sure you draft another startable tight end. That being said, Mike Gesecki is a matchup nightmare: big, fast, outstanding leaping ability.
Yes, you still have to draft a kicker. I’ve got Greg Zuerlein at the top, followed by Justin Tucker, then Stephen Gostkowski. I’m in the minority in that their elevated ADP doesn’t scare me. A reliable, consistent, high-scoring kicker is very hard to come by. These three will all finish in the top 5-7. After this trio wait ‘til the end, as it’s a crapshoot from the rest of the kicker pool. The general guideline is you want healthy, accurate kickers that play for teams that win a lot of games. Losing teams trail a lot, and big deficits don’t translate into many field goal attempts.
Defense/Special Teams: there’s Jacksonville, then everyone else. I probably won’t end up with any shares of the Jaguars given their current ADP, but if you reach for them I wouldn’t argue too much, but after that, wait until the last couple of rounds. There’s way too much volatility from year to year. If you “punt” DST, then looking at the schedule and grabbing teams that will face either bad or inexperienced quarterbacks to start the season is a reasonable approach.
