Each and every year, there are a number of great traditions that you just don’t mess with. We are talking fireworks on the 4th of July, absurd amounts of candy on Halloween, and, of course, a mouth-watering turkey dinner on Thanksgiving (or Jack in the Box…we see you, Mike). Well, just like all of those great American customs, it wouldn’t be draft season without The Fantasy Footballers’ Top 10 Tips & Tricks to Win Your League!
This is the eleventh year that Andy, Mike, and Jason have delivered their list of game-changing pro pointers to help you dominate your draft and win your fantasy league.
And remember, if you are a FootClan member, you also have access to The Ballers’ FREE digital book Fantasy Football Unleashed: 55 Tips, Tricks and Ways to Win at Fantasy Football.
10. Late Round Lottery Tickets and Mystery Bags
Every year, the later rounds of fantasy drafts are littered with rookies – new and shiny players all packed with mystery and hope, but also with the danger that we have no real idea how they will perform for our fantasy team. Andy highlights how so many fantasy managers reach the tail end of drafts and feel the need to play it “safe” by adding tried and trusted veterans to their teams, highlighting Nick Chubb, Zack Moss, Marquise Brown, and Javonte Williams as just some of the guys taken in the 8th round in 2024. You know who else had an ADP in the 8th…some guy called Ladd McConkey.
Drafts of the past are loaded with examples of late-round rookies who balled out in their debut season – Brock Bowers, Brian Thomas Jr, Justin Jefferson, Jaylen Waddle, David Johnson, Le’Veon Bell, Miles Sanders, and Kenneth Walker are just some of the names drafted beyond the 6th round who provided fantasy gold as a first year pro. Andy really hammers home just how much value some of these later-round picks can deliver, highlighting that on average, three rookie wideouts drafted in the 6th round or later end up inside the top-24 at the position come the end of the year.
The path to fantasy success may not always seem clear, and that’s what makes these guys so cheap. Too often, we let the situation these unknown or unvalued players are in put us off drafting them. Last year, Brian Thomas Jr. had Christian Kirk and Evan Engram ahead of him in the pecking order on what was considered a bad Jaguars team, and because of that, he was being drafted in the 9th round…whoopsies! As Mike eloquently points out, betting on talent will help you more often than it will hurt you.
9. The Pendulum Swings Every Year
Whatever happened last year is bound to happen again this year, right? Uh, no.
Jason recaps last year’s first round of drafts, noting that on average only three RBs were taken in those first twelve picks. Christian McCaffrey, Bijan Robinson, and Breece Hall (shudder) were the only consistently selected backs by fantasy managers in round one this time twelve months ago…but why? Well, it’s as simple as this – WRs dominated in 2023, so obviously they were going to double down and repeat the feat in 2024…but they did not repeat. Fast forward to 2025, and we are presented with an oh so familiar tale. Fresh off the success at the RB position last season, this year’s early picks are awash with big-name RBs, with only three WRs – Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, and CeeDee Lamb – being drafted inside the top-10 based on current ADP.
With fantasy managers now chasing these supposedly safer RBs in the first, top-tier wideouts such as Nico Collins, Malik Nabers, and Brian Thomas Jr. are falling as far as the early second round – presenting huge value picks for those drafting nearer the turn. Jason’s advice here is not only to focus on these guys at the end of the first due to the value baked into their draft cost, but also because of the relative safety they present when compared with the remaining RBs on the board at this point in the draft. Don’t fall into an ADP trap and draft highly questionable, yellow-flag RBs such as Ashton Jeanty, Jonathan Taylor, or Bucky Irving over true stud WRs.
8. At Risk Starters
A tip of the cap to Mike Wright as he very astutely put forward the names of Bucky Irving and Tank Bigsby in last year’s Players We’re Embarrassed To Love episode, as players further down the depth chart who could overtake their respective starters as the season wore on. The Hitman prophesied that both Rachaad White and Travis Etienne Jr were at risk of losing a grip of their jobs to talent who were at that time behind them in the pecking order, and boy was he on the mark…but what about this season?
Mike notes that there are a number of ambiguous backfields right now in the NFL, but this isn’t what we are focusing on here. Every year, there are RBs whose fantasy value seems to stem from nothing more than the fact that they are the guy, and as such will volume their way to some form of relevance for your roster – these are the guys that are at risk. This isn’t necessarily a draft day situation, more something to monitor in the opening weeks as we get a clearer picture of some of the efficiency metrics of the starter versus the backup.
Who is this year’s Bucky Irving, you ask? Well, Mike has suggested five teams where there could be a transition at some point early on in the year if the starter doesn’t perform.
7. Become a Stalwart
It’s time to take emotion out of fantasy football – no, not the elation of winning and proudly showing off your trophy at any given opportunity (hi Owl) – but developing a mindset that no longer allows our own personal biases, affections, and afflictions to dictate how we play the game.
Andy discusses just how important it is to take off those rose-colored glasses and also to let go of any ill feelings towards players who may have burned us badly in the past. Andy continues by highlighting how hanging onto players we have invested high-draft capital in, or relentlessly looking down on those who we may hold a grudge against – regardless of how they are performing now – is only going to have a negative impact on our fantasy teams moving forward.
Fantasy managers who drafted Josh Jacobs during his Fat Thor season in Las Vegas could have been forgiven for not wanting to go anywhere near him in 2024 after his move to Green Bay – and after the opening four games of the year, they would have been vindicated in their decision – but things change. Jacobs was the RB5 over the remainder of the year and led the entire league in rushing TDs from inside the 10 with 14 – he was the ideal trade for candidate heading into October, but some managers’ apprehensions towards Jacobs and how he has performed on their team in the past, saw them miss out of a potential league winner.
As fantasy managers, we get far too emotionally attached to players so we don’t trade them away, or sit them on our benches fast enough, regardless of how they are performing – Tyreek Hill managers last season will attest to that.
6. Avoid Double Onesies
No, we are not talking about layering up your favorite footie-pyjamas. In fantasy circles, when we talk about the onesie positions, we’re referring to the skill players that in most re-draft leagues you only need to start one of – specifically the QB and TE. Jason’s advice here isn’t to avoid drafting more than one at each position (Mike may have another tip about this very topic later in our list), but not to take a QB and a TE in the first five or six rounds.
Every year, fantasy managers look for a positional advantage at the onesie position by drafting a player that gives you the edge over others in your league each and every week – think Lamar Jackson at QB or Brock Bowers at TE. However, with every pick comes an opportunity cost, and investing too much too early into the onesie position can significantly harm your depth at RB or WR. Don’t hear what we’re not saying – grabbing Lamar or Bowers in the middle of the 3rd is great value – but if you do elect to take an elite QB and TE early, you need to ask yourself “what other players am I missing out on?”.
Drafting both onesie positions in the opening five rounds means you are doing so at the expense of your second RB or WR. Putting this into context, by drafting Lamar Jackson and Trey McBride at the 2/3 turn you are passing up the opportunity to grab Chase Brown or Kyren Williams as your RB2 as well as Jaxon Smith-Njigba or Tee Higgins as a second wideout – sure, you will have a significant positional advantage at QB and TE…but do you really want to be drafting D’Andre Swift or Tony Pollard as your second RB and Chris Olave as your WR2?
Drafting a player at the onesie position early is fine, just don’t wreck your draft by doubling up.
5. Anticipate Offensive System Tier Jumps
Every single year, we see high-powered offenses emerge seemingly out of nowhere (remember when the Bucs were a bottom-6 scoring offense only 2 years ago?). As we’ve discussed in Tip No.9, far too often fantasy managers view players and teams through the lens of how they performed last year and expect more of the same for the upcoming season.
Mike drops a knowledge bomb that over the last decade, at least three teams every single year have jumped 13+ total TDs from the previous year. Adding to that, last season a whopping five teams scored 17 or more total TDs than they did back in 2023 – those teams being the Bucs, Jets, Bengals, Commanders & Panthers.
In order to potentially capitalize on these shifts, there are a number of factors we as fantasy managers can consider in order to identify potential anomalies in players’ ADPs:
- Was the offense awful last season?
- Were there injuries in the previous year?
- How has the strength of schedule changed for the upcoming season?
- Is there a new offensive coordinator?
In the last three seasons, 10 of the 11 teams that tier-jumped had a new OC calling plays which suggest that 2025 could be a fruitful fantasy season for under-valued players on a number of teams who were a bottom-10 offense last year – most notably Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, New England and Cleveland. Well, maybe just the first four.
4. Doing the TE Dance
If you’ve followed Jason’s earlier advice relating to the onesie positions and elected not to draft one of the elite TEs, just what can you do to ensure you’re not at a complete disadvantage compared to others in your league?
Andy points out that only a small handful of TEs are being drafted at their true value, with Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, and George Kittle the three names that are of any real worth to your roster at their current ADP. Using the new ValueScout tool in the UDK, fantasy managers can get invaluable insight into how the true value of a player compares with where they are currently being drafted across a variety of fantasy platforms – and outside of those top-three guys above, TEs are being drafted way too high.
While it can feel incredibly uncomfortable entering the season without a powerhouse option at TE, it is one of the positions that can be streamed on a weekly basis. Take your shot at a later round TE in the draft (did somebody say Tucker Kraft?), safe in the knowledge that if it doesn’t go to plan in the opening couple of weeks, you can move on and cut with no regrets. TE is one of the more predictive positions when looking at opposition defenses, so using the in-season Stream Finder Tool can help identify matchups you want to be targeting and players you may want to grab off the waiver wire.
Stay water, and enjoy the dance.
3. Beware Overdrafting Pre-Season Hype Machines
As Albert Einstein once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” and that’s exactly what fantasy managers do every single year when it comes to drafting players who got a little too much buzz during the pre-season with expectations of that player carrying them to a title.
There are literally dozens of players we could talk about here, but none encapsulates Jason’s final tip more than his very own pre-season hype machine, the Abdullah Express – Ameer Abdullah. The 2015 Pre-Season King ended up with an ADP in the fourth round that year following a Barry Sanders-esque performance against the New York Jets in the Lions’ opening warm-up game…the result, an overall RB42 finish.
Even as recently as last year, we saw Caleb Williams being taken as a QB1 in some leagues after a combination of his high draft capital and impressive pre-season had fantasy managers practically salivating. That’ll be the same Caleb Williams who ranked 29th out of 34 qualifying QBs in “catchable targets” when outside the pocket last year.
Don’t react to pre-season matchups and be sure to completely ignore stat lines. In the wise words of Public Enemy, don’t believe the hype.
2. Mix and Match
Are the days of the late-round QB dead and buried? That may be an overreaction, but fantasy football has moved on, and so has the strategy relating to QBs. Mike professes that not only is he open to the idea of drafting multiple QBs in a single QB league, but he actively embraces it.
This tip isn’t for drafters who have pulled the trigger early on a Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson, but if you’ve waited until the later rounds to find the latest “breakout” QB, you greatly increase your chances of success by grabbing a second QB with the last, or second-to-last pick of your draft. This is a strategy we have seen The Hitman deploy in a number of mock drafts on the podcast this off-season, and it truly highlights the almost zero opportunity cost associated with taking a dart throw at the QB position instead of pinning hopes to RBs or WRs who have such a low percentage chance of working out.
Last season, only five RBs or WRs taken in round 13 or later were valuable for fantasy at any point in the season (that Rico Dowdle 13th round pick was sweet), proving just how droppable players taken in this range are. Would you rather have spent your last pick on Gabe Davis or hit the jackpot with Baker Mayfield (pew pew)?
Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love, and C.J. Stroud are all going in the double-digit rounds and are worthy of doubling up with your final picks.
1. Wipe the Slate Clean
“The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence,” what an incredibly deep and insightful end to this list from our resident philosopher and poet, Mr. Andy Holloway. What has happened in the past cannot be changed, so try not to dwell on it and impact your season ahead.
We’ve already highlighted how becoming a stalwart and casting aside emotion will help you make better decisions for your fantasy team, and there’s no better way of doing that than wiping the slate clean and letting go of the ghosts of fantasy past.
There is only one person in every league who should be bringing up the past, and that’s the CHAMP. If that happens to be you currently, congratulations – let your league mates have it for a few more weeks, but after that – or if you didn’t nab a #FootClanTitle last season – all attention must turn to winning in 2025.
Good luck!