Lance's 2022 Near-Zero WR Draft Strategy

Some of you may have followed along with this strategy last year as I documented how each of my weeks went in my work league. That ended with an 8-6 regular season record and me in fourth place by the end of the playoffs. I also used that strategy in my father-in-law’s league…sort of. His is a keeper league where you get to hang onto one player from the previous year and give up the round you drafted them in. I kept Jonathan Taylor for a third round pick, followed the strategy for the rest of the draft and ended up with a 10-4 record and a second place finish.

I’d call that a decently successful test run, but I’m not going to settle for not finishing in first, and I certainly can’t call the experiment a success after just two attempts at using it. After reviewing my teams from last year I think the main difference in my fourth place finish compared to my second place finish was when I took my first Receiver. See the near-zero strategy means taking one early on and counting on the depth at the position to stockpile Receivers in the 6th-10th round range. Last year, in my work league, I took my first Receiver in the third round. In my father-in-law’s league I took my first one in the first round (pick 9 out of 10) before selecting a RB in the 2nd and of course having Taylor in the third. I also wanted to make it a point to not jump on a QB in the fourth or fifth round just because I’m running out of options when it comes to my top players at the position. Last year I forced myself to select Rodgers in the 5th, but had I held off a few rounds I could’ve taken Jalen Hurts as my QB1 and used the 5th round to get better value at my RB3 or WR2 spots. However, the league I’m in that these articles will follow this year is a neighborhood league that saw almost exclusively RBs and WRs go in the first five rounds, so I did take my QB in round 6. That league also 3 WRs, 2 RBs and a flex in the starting lineup so this should be a very good test. I also used a little bit I learned from my ADP project which you can find here.

Enough of that, without further ado I give you my near-zero WR draft for the half-PPR redraft league I’m in this year (I picked 7th out of 12):

1) WR Ja’Marr Chase (Cincinnati)

2) RB Nick Chubb (Cleveland)

3) TE Mark Andrews (Baltimore)

4) RB JK Dobbins (Baltimore)

5) WR Marquise Brown (Arizona)

6) QB Kyler Murray (Arizona)

7) WR Elijah Moore (NY Jets)

8) WR Chase Claypool (Pittsburgh)

9) RB Kenneth Walker (Seattle)

10) WR Skyy Moore (Kansas City)

11) RB Kenneth Gainwell (Philadelphia)

12) QB Trey Lance (San Francisco)

13) K Daniel Carlson (Las Vegas)

14) LA Chargers “D”

15) WR Kyle Phillips (Tennessee)

We use Yahoo to run the league. Last year they had me finishing 6th at 7-7, I outdid both of those predictions. This year they have me finishing 7th at 7-7. Let’s see if I can beat their projections again. I will post a weekly update on how my game went and any transactions I make.