Fantasy Football Draft Strategies for 2025: From Zero RB to Hero RB

Entering any individual fantasy football draft with a predetermined strategy is risky business. As my friend/Fantasy Life Director of Analytics, Dwain McFarland, once said: “Every season is different, and every draft is a dynamic, living organism.”

Hilarious description of fantasy drafts aside, Mr. Dwain is correct. Drafters should be willing to embrace value as it presents itself during any given draft; locking in a strategy before the picks start flying isn't good for fantasy business. Take a page out of the great Bruce Lee's playbook and be like water in fantasy drafts of all shapes and sizes.

That said, it's usually clear what direction drafters should go after the first few picks of the draft, so knowing the sort of archetypes to target based on what your roster needs is important. With this in mind, let's break down when some of the bigger-name fantasy draft strategies make sense as well as the dos and don'ts of each.

Strategies for your 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts

Zero RB

This strategy refers to drafting, you guessed it, zero RBs for the first handful of rounds in your draft. Naturally, doing so will result in snagging several dope WRs as well as possibly an elite QB and/or TE through four to five rounds. The general idea behind this is the belief that finding high-producing RBs in the mid-to-late rounds is easier than other positions due to the differences in injury-induced turnover.

Consider: The average overall pick number in terms of pre-draft ADP of last year's top-20 RBs (49.6) was nearly a full round later than the WRs (39.1). While all positions have the occasional late-round sleeper, RB is unique in its ability to quickly produce newfound stars with one swift change on the depth chart. Tyjae Spears and Ameer Abdullah were top-nine fantasy performers during the 2024 fantasy playoffs for crying out loud!

Of course, embracing this draft strategy will result in taking swings on less sure-thing RBs in the later rounds. Two key rules of thumb when prioritizing zero-RB targets:

1. Embrace muddled backfields. RBs with clear-cut paths to a workhorse role won't be available after the first 50 picks, but more fluid situations can be taken advantage of. Last year, eventual top-24 finishers Chase Brown, Rico Dowdle, and J.K. Dobbins were all drafted outside of the top-100 picks due to the uncertainty surrounding their respective roles; sharp drafters should be willing to go after this sort of theoretical three-down talent in the mid-to-late rounds. Some good examples this year to chase: Jaguars (Tank Bigsby, Travis Etienne, Bhayshul Tuten), Giants (Tyrone Tracy and Cam Skattebo), and once again the Cowboys (Javonte Williams, Miles Sanders, Jaydon Blue).

2. Prioritize handcuffs in the later rounds. Not every backup RB is created equal, but the best of them are truly just one injury away from inheriting the same fantasy-friendly workhorse role as their team's starter. Last year, Zach Charbonnet and Sean Tucker were responsible for two of the position's top-eight biggest single-week fantasy performances. The later rounds are littered with RBs *one* injury away from being on the cover of the next week's waiver wire article, making them absolutely ideal options to fill out your bench. Some examples of late-round RBs who could be racing up the ranks in a hurry should the Injury gods decide to be dicks: Trey Benson, Isaac Guerendo, Ray Davis, Tyler Allgeier, Jaylen Wright, and MarShawn Lloyd.

Of course, sometimes you simply can't help but pass up the shiny RB toy at the top of the draft ...

Hero RB

This strategy is basically the same as Zero RB with one key exception: Drafters WILL take exactly one RB to build around inside the first two or three rounds of the draft before ignoring the position until later. "Superhero RB" refers to taking two elite RBs in the first few picks.

Note the key word in that above paragraph: Elite.

The thesis of this strategy revolves around targeting only the most perfect options at the position—AKA youthful RBs who ideally combine high-end talent with a workhorse role inside of a very good offensive environment. No fantasy prospect is perfect, but a look at the top-5 overall fantasy RBs from last season does demonstrate the allure of targeting talented backs with 300-plus touch upside inside quality offenses:

All of those RBs will again be priced as early-round options in 2025 drafts, and for good reason! Drafters shouldn't shy away from embracing these potential ballers if unenthused with options at other positions, BUT don't get carried away. Last year, guys like Travis Etienne, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Zamir White wound up being some of the worst picks in all of fantasy football, undoubtedly in large part due to their (fairly predictable) respective presences inside not-so-good real-life offenses.

This strategy is essentially taking a page out of Ricky Bobby's "First-or-last" playbook: Embrace the upper-end RBs who are priced as high as they are for a reason, but afterwards lay off the potential mid-round landmines in favor of late-round zero-RB targets after sufficiently stocking up at other positions. I would give those aforementioned five RBs the "Hero" card once again ahead of 2025, while guys like Ashton Jeanty, Christian McCaffrey, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, and Chase Brown also fit the archetype.

Tired of all this anti-RB propaganda? Me too–let's give the position some love with our next strategy!

Robust RB

What happens when you LOVE the RBs available in Round 1 … and Round 2 … and yes, even Round 3?

Presenting: Robust RB, where drafters load up on the position early and essentially ignore it the rest of the way. This brings about a fair amount of risk due to the drafter essentially forfeiting the chance to scoop up value at the position in the middle rounds, so this should only be instituted if you really feel fantastic about each early-round RB. Take a 2024 drafter who managed to snag Bijan Robinson in Round 1, Derrick Henry in Round 2, and someone like Josh Jacobs in Round 3: Back-to-back-to-back likely workhorses in likely really good scoring offenses.

Some possible examples in 2025 drafts:

Round 1: Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Ashton Jeanty, Christian McCaffrey
Round 2: Derrick Henry, De'Von Achane, Jonathan Taylor, Bucky Irving, Josh Jacobs
Round 3: Chase Brown, Kyren Williams, Joe Mixon

Now, unlike zero or hero RB, this strategy doesn't involve loading up on mid-to-late round FLEX/handcuff types. Your fantasy league likely only lets you start three or four RBs anyway, so adding excessive options to the bench doesn't make a whole lot of sense when trying to maximize your overall lineup's upside. This mindset should result in going hard in the paint for WRs before the well dries up, while also keeping an eye on potential cliffs at the onesie spots.

Accordingly, it makes a lot of sense for robust RB drafters to simultaneously embrace our next strategy as well …

Late-Round QB

Unlike RB and WR, there are often still plenty of solid QB prospects available in the later rounds. This is because drafters in traditional one-QB, re-draft leagues usually don't feel the need to take more than one signal-caller for at least the first 10 or so rounds of any given draft, leaving legit borderline QB1 options still available outside of the first 100 picks.

Look no further than last year to see how often late-round darts at the position can hit in a truly meaningful way:

QB4 Baker Mayfield (preseason ADP QB21, pick 158)
QB5 Jayden Daniels (QB12, 102)
QB7 Bo Nix (QB23, 192)
QB9 Sam Darnold (QB31, 210)

The former and latter QBs benefited mightily from playing in offenses with high-end playcallers and multiple great pass-game options, while the middle rookies parlayed big-time rushing production with better-than-expected passing numbers to record top-five rookie seasons ever in fantasy points per game.

It's probably not a coincidence that the other top-3 most-productive Year 1 campaigns featured similar archetypes: 2011 Cam Newton and 2012 Robert Griffin racked up big-time numbers on the ground, while 2020 Justin Herbert had the privilege of throwing to Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Hunter Henry, and Austin Ekeler under the tutelage of Shane Steichen.

Moral of the story: Prioritize late-round QBs with 1.) Fantasy-friendly rushing ability, and/or 2.) Starting jobs in quality offensive environments featuring plus playcallers and quality pass catchers.

The two late-round options I prefer the most ahead of 2025:

Justin Fields: Top 5 in fantasy points per dropback in each of the past three seasons, the verdict remains out on Fields' real-life ability to lead an offense, but don't let that distract from the fact that the dual-threat maven has ripped off three consecutive QB1-level finishes in fantasy points per game.
J.J. McCarthy: The 10th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft enters the exact same offensive environment that made Sam Darnold a fantasy (and real-life) gem last season. While McCarthy doesn't project to run for 800 yards, he can scoot, and there's underrated potential here for an aerial boom considering the weapons at hand.

Other possibilities fitting the bill include Drake Maye (rushing), Trevor Lawrence (improved playcaller and weapons), Tua Tagovailoa (offense remains lethal when right), and Anthony Richardson (just as long as he wins the job).

Now, late-round QB as well as our other RB-centered strategies have been for leagues with traditional scoring and lineup settings. The same can't always be said for our fifth and final featured strategy.

Elite TE

Now, as any longtime Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce drafters know, it can be very profitable to take the right TE in the early rounds of fantasy drafts. The position is unique in how completely different its role can be from one scheme to another, leading to TEs who serve as their offense's de facto No. 1 pass-game options to really make a difference in fantasy land.

However, the strategy becomes even more appealing under TE premium (TEP) scoring. Full point-per-reception (PPR) leagues award an entire point simply for the act of securing a catch. However, in an effort to make scoring between all three skill positions more similar, TEP scoring gives 1.5 points per reception to the TE position.

Don't underestimate the impact this can have. Just look at how the top-scoring TEs from 2024 stack up against other positions depending on the format. Among all TEs, RBs, and WRs ...

George Kittle: 30th in PPR points per game in PPR scoring, 11th in TE premium
Trey McBride: 32nd, 6th
Brock Bowers: 33rd, 8th

Obviously each of Kittle, McBride, and Bowers were awesome fantasy assets in regular leagues last season, but in TEP, we're talking about each being right next to world-beaters like Puka Nacua and Justin Jefferson. Accordingly, the elite pass catchers at the position are more than deserving of early-round treatment, while waiting too long could prove to be awfully detrimental.

Ahead of 2025, I struggle to see more than three players fitting this archetype, and they are (again) Kittle, McBride, and Bowers. These are the only options at the position whom I would really go out of my way for in the early rounds of drafts.

For those looking to dip their toes in the Elite TE waters, just realize that devoting an early-round pick to the position usually wipes away the need to address it again for the rest of your draft. The exception for this is in TEP scoring, where it's more feasible to slot in a TE as your FLEX player; just realize in traditional leagues, you're sacrificing precious late-round darts that are better thrown at the other positions that need more help catching up.