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Draft Strategy: Zero RB/WR





I don't think you're going to find a draft strategy that I like less than the Zero Running Back or Zero Wide Receiver draft strategy. There are a lot of misconceptions about what these strategies actually mean. We do videos like this all the time on the channel, and it never fails; we get comments from people consistently saying, "Well, you don't do this" or "You don't do that," and "I did a Zero Running Back strategy last year, but I drafted Breece Hall in the fourth round." That is not Zero Running Back.


So, before I talk a little bit more about them, let me clarify what Zero Running Back and Zero Wide Receiver actually mean. Those draft strategies essentially are saying that you're skipping on either running back or wide receiver to fill all of your other starter positions instead. So if you're doing Zero Running Back, you're drafting a quarterback, two or three wide receivers, a tight end, and potentially even a flex spot of another wide receiver first. For Zero Wide Receiver, you're drafting a quarterback, you're drafting two running backs, you're drafting a tight end, potentially another running back, or if you're in superflex leagues, maybe you grab a second quarterback starter as well before you start diving into the wide receiver position.


So again, just to clarify, Zero Running Back and Zero Wide Receiver mean you are skipping on those positions until you have filled every single starter spot and then you take a look at the guys late. Now, Zero Running Back has become much more popular over the last couple of years because the running back position just doesn't give you as many workhorses as it used to. So fantasy managers say, "You know what, I'm going to draft the wide receiver position instead and go after those targets instead of worrying about my running back coming off the field 40 or 45% of the time."


But unfortunately, the Zero Running Back strategy comes with a lot of luck, and people don't discuss that. Those of you that are winning with a Zero Running Back strategy are winning because you picked up guys off the waiver wire like Kyren Williams or Raheem Mostert last season. Obviously, if you get two top-10 running backs off the waiver wire, you're absolutely going to kill it. That's a no-brainer.


So really, to do a successful Zero Running Back strategy, you need to hope that there are injuries at the beginning of the season. You need to either have a high waiver priority or you have to say that you're willing to risk a lot of your FAAB early on. You have to pay attention, you need to know the next guys up, and you have to have a little bit of luck to go with that. If you have a bad backfield where there could potentially be a split of two different running backs, you need to make sure that you're picking up the right one off the waiver wire. If you don't do any of those things, you absolutely will screw up the strategy and your team could suffer from it all year long.


Now, for as much as I hate Zero Running Back, I don't necessarily hate Zero Wide Receiver nearly as much. But Zero Wide Receiver is a lot different than Hero Wide Receiver. If you're going with a Hero Wide Receiver type of strategy, you may be spending your first or second-round pick on a wide receiver and then not drafting another one until later in the mid-round section where you start taking a look at a lot of guys that are going to give you really good value.


The Hero Wide Receiver draft strategy I'm actually a big fan of because you stay balanced at the beginning of your draft, you don't skip on the running backs early, and then you look for a lot of those key wide receiver targets a little bit later in your draft. That, to me, is one of the most successful strategies you can use to win in fantasy football.


But again, just keep in mind if you really are doing Zero Wide Receiver or Zero Running Back, you have to wait until later to draft either of those positions. One of the main tips that we give our subscribers every offseason is the ability to stay fluid within your draft. Going into your draft saying, "I'm going to do Zero Running Back or Zero Wide Receiver" is such a definitive answer it doesn't allow you to move with your draft where maybe you get a running back that falls a couple of rounds that you didn't expect to be there.


Well, if you were going to go Zero Running Back and you decide to stick to that, you may be skipping over some really good value. Neither of these draft strategies allow you to do that. Stay balanced, Headliner Nation, and don't do Zero Running Back or Zero Wide Receiver. If you want to wait to draft a running back, feel more than welcome to. I won't agree with it, but I won't hate it nearly as much as you deciding that you're going to draft a bunch of RB2s and just hope somebody hits.

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