For years, we’ve been telling you to draft elite WR’s first and then stockpile mid to late-round RBs because you never know what is going to happen with injuries and time-shares at that position. Wide receivers is just a safer, more consistent pick. Finally, draft boards are reflecting this. So is it time to go against the grain and go back to a RB-first draft strategy?
It depends on your draft position.
If you have the first pick, take Antonio Brown. Period. I don’t care if it’s PPR or standard scoring. He’s the top pick.
After that, it gets interesting. A healthy LeVeon Bell puts up a ton of points in that offense. Odell Beckham Jr. could single-handedly win you any week with a 3 touchdown performance. Julio and Hopkins are very consistent receivers who are PPR monsters. Personally, we would take LeVeon #2 and ODB 3rd. But there isn’t a clearcut hierarchy here. One thing we can tell you is that if you don’t take a wide receiver in the first round, there are plenty of good ones in the 3rd round range (Keenan Alan, Demaryius Thomas, Amari Cooper, Julian Edelman and Kelvin Benjamin) who could be serviceable #1 receivers on a team that has two stud running backs.
Here has been our strategy thus far.
Round 1: take a WR if you can, but LeVeon Bell and Adrian Peterson are also good options. If you’re at the end of the order, Gurley, David Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins should be your targets. We usually don’t take Gronk as the TE position is pretty deep this year.
Round 2: We’re almost always taking a RB (Doug Martin, Ingram, Rawls) or Jordy Nelson/Allen Robinson. Be wary of Devonte Freeman as he tailed off significantly at the end of last year and Tevin Coleman is fighting him again for the starting spot.
Round 3: Grab one of the aforementioned WR’s or think about LeSean McCoy or Cam Newton.