Redraft Strategy, the Late Rounds

Photo: Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports

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The Re-Draft Roundtables Series

The Footballguys staff looks at various strategies to help you in redraft leagues.

Participating in a redraft league is a process that starts with the draft and hopefully ends with a championship. The Footballguys staff has answered several questions about various strategies to help you achieve your championship dreams. From the beginning to the end and everything in between, we've got you covered to give you the tools and knowledge needed to dominate your redraft league.

Without getting too much into player evaluation, what, not whom, are you targeting in the later rounds of your draft? Let's remove kicker and defense from this equation.

Ben Cummins

If my league has Injured Reserve spots, I’m targeting injured players I can add straight to the IR. This essentially gives me extra roster spots since I can head straight to the waiver wire and replace the injured players on my bench. I’m also targeting players I view to have extreme upside should something happen to a teammate in front of them on the depth chart. Getting out in front of a heavy waiver wire/FAAB run where everyone is going for the same player can guarantee you get the player and save you waiver priority or FAAB.

Jason Wood

In traditional redraft leagues, I think one of the bigger mistakes can be handling the draft's end game. History tells us that we'll turn over a big chunk of our redraft roster during the season, even if you have a great draft and are instantly a contender. Since you know many of your drafted bench spots will be replaced because of injuries, breakouts, and bye-week maneuvering. It makes no sense to draft slightly above-average players late. Take fliers, or proverbial lottery tickets, who can hit early in the season and act as pre-emptive acquisitions before a lot of other leagues will be spending huge amounts in free agency FAAB dollars on them. Another nuance to this is to avoid drafting rookies who need multiple injuries to matter at the end of your draft. The odds you'll be able to hold onto them deep into your season are slim. Better to grab known No. 3/4 receiver on great offenses or unproven players who earned starting roles in camp.

Christian Williams

Upside, upside, upside! The late-round strategy I have found most successful is to take players with a murky outlook and clarity coming early in the season. The last few draft picks are ideally the players you're cutting after Week 1 or 2 for waiver adds, and taking a known-role veteran with limited upside is a strategy that could complicate waivers early on. Take the No. 3 wide receiver for a team that could see a No. 2 workload in Week 1 and never looks back instead of the No. 2 receiver with a defined, limited-upside role.