The excitement surrounding draft time in fantasy football always seems to stem from who your first round pick is going to be. I am constantly fielding questions about which player should be taken in the top 6 picks or what two guys would I take with picks eleven & twelve. I do enjoy those questions, mostly because they are the easiest to answer and it's typically fun to talk about stud players, but the draft goes so much deeper than these studs. The saying out there is "you can't win your league with your first pick, but you can lose your league with it." I couldn't disagree with this anymore than I do. The league is not won or lost with the first round pick, not even close. In my opinion the league is won through many facets of a fantasy season. Every little part plays its role; the waiver wire, trades, evaluating when a player is due for a decline compared to finding players with a fortunate schedule in weeks to come and of course the draft. When dealing with the draft I like to focus on rounds 4-8 as the most crucial collection of players I acquire on my team.
These are the in-between rounds from the studs to the sleepers and have always provided me with good value. Between running backs and wide receivers, since 2012, there have been an average of 7 players drafted in these rounds to finish in the top-12 at either position.
4th-8th Round RB or WR w/Top-12 Finish
|
2015
|
2014
|
2013
|
2012
|
Doug Martin
|
Lamar Miller
|
Eddie Lacy
|
CJ Spiller
|
Todd Gurley
|
Jeremy Hill
|
Fred Jackson
|
Dez Bryant
|
Danny Woodhead
|
TY Hilton
|
Danny Woodhead
|
Demaryius Thomas
|
DeVonta Freeman
|
Emmanuel Sanders
|
Josh Gordon
|
Eric Decker
|
Chris Ivory
|
Jeremy Maclin
|
Antonio Brown
|
Reggie Wayne
|
Brandon Marshall
|
Golden Tate
|
Pierre Garcon
|
Vincent Jackson
|
Allen Robinson
|
|
DeSean Jackson
|
|
Larry Fitzgerald
|
|
|
|
Jarvis Landry
|
|
|
|
I think there are a number of players currently being drafted in these rounds that have this potential. My top-10 favorites are:
- Thomas Rawls
- Dion Lewis
- Duke Johnson
- Ryan Mathews
- Jeremy Hill
- Donte Moncrief
- Michael Floyd
- John Brown
- Doug Baldwin
- DeVante Parker