Fantasy Football Drafting for Beginners (2025 Guide)
Draft Day Made Easy: How to Crush Your First Fantasy Football Draft
5 Top Takeaways:
Know your league rules
Build around your league roster format
Draft with a plan (but stay flexible)
Be ready with player rankings AND tiers
Practice with mock drafts
This guide breaks down the basics every beginner needs to know — from scoring rules to draft strategies — with five key takeaways to help you crush your first draft.
1. Know Your League Rules (Scoring Matters!)
Scoring rules shape everything in fantasy football, so know yours before drafting. The three main formats are:
Standard: No points for catches (TDs and yards matter most).
Half-PPR: 0.5 points per catch.
PPR: 1 point per catch.
PPR makes pass-catchers (WRs, receiving RBs, TEs) more valuable, while standard boosts TD-heavy RBs. Rankings change a lot between formats; the same WR could be a league-winner in one format and just average in another.
Note: Always confirm if your league uses the platform’s default scoring (ESPN, Yahoo, Sleeper, etc.) or if custom rules apply. If it’s not standard, ask your commissioner what’s different.
2. Build Around Your League Roster Format
Most leagues use this lineup: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 D/ST, 1 K. Some add extra WRs, flex spots, or make other changes, so double-check yours before draft day.
For this guide, we’ll focus on 10 and 12-team PPR leagues (the most common). In 8-team leagues, QBs and TEs rise in value since every roster will have strong RBs/WRs earlier in the draft. In 10 and 12-team leagues, rankings stay mostly the same.
3. Draft with a Plan (But Stay Flexible)
Every year I like to have a strategy for my roster construction. This helps me make decisions on the fly and build the best team. While it is important to have an idea for how you hope the draft plays out, you need to be flexible with your plan to account for unpredicted outcomes.
5 Guiding Principles for 2025 Drafts:
Draft one of the top 4 QBs in round 3 or 4, or wait until after round 8 and grab two QBs.
My top 4 QBs are Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, and Jalen Hurts in that order. I’d be happy with Josh or Lamar in round 3 and Jayden or Jalen in round 4.
If I can’t get one of those top 4, I like waiting until at least round 8 to target my first QB. In this scenario, I like drafting at least one mobile QB (a QB that runs a lot). Some later-round mobile QBs include Bo Nix, Drake Maye, Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy, and Justin Fields.
If you don’t get a top 4 QB, consider one of the top 3 TEs.
My top 2 TEs are Brock Bowers and Trey McBride. If you can get either in round 3, that would be a steal. I’d be ok with taking either at the very end of round 2.
My 3rd-ranked TE is George Kittle. I like taking him at the end of the 4th round or 5th round if I get lucky.
Avoid doubling up early on QB + TE. It leaves you thin at RB/WR, where depth matters most.
Take at least 2 RBs in the first 5 rounds. The drop off at RB this year is steep; it can be hard to find week 1 starters after round 5. I like taking 2 RBs in the first 4 rounds, but if you take a QB or TE in the 3rd or 4th, then grab your second running back in the 5th. Getting an RB in the 6th round is doable, but make it worth it.
Pick players on good offenses. Offenses that score the most points during the season are more likely to generate fantasy points for players. Try to stock up on players from these top offenses. Here’s Fan Duel Sportsbook’s NFL Projected Point Totals for Each Team in 2025.
Do not draft a kicker or a defense before the last 3 rounds of your draft. The top kickers and defenses will sometimes go high in drafts; let other people make this mistake. These positions are volatile, hard to predict, and easily replaceable.
4. Be Ready with Player Rankings AND Tiers
Every fantasy football platform will have its own rankings. It is wise to print out or keep a tab open with another platform’s player rankings. There can be large discrepancies between platforms and having other rankings to give you the confidence to reach for a player you like can help you make good decisions on the fly.
Rankings tell you who’s best. Tiers tell you when you need to act. Always know if you’re about to hit a tier drop-off; it can be the difference between a strong roster and chasing scraps. For example, in round 4 you are deciding on if you want to draft a RB or a WR. You have 5 WRs that you like all in the same tier but only one RB left in your top remaining tier. In this example you should draft the RB even if you have them ranked a few spots lower than the top available WRs. The hope is that you get the last RB in the tier in round 4 and can still grab one of those 5 WRs you liked in round 5.
My two favorite rankings come courtesy of The Ringer Fantasy Football and Underdog Fantasy.
The Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings: Player rankings with the option to select your league type (the link provided defaults to PPR rankings. The rankings are set by the 3 hosts from the Ringer Fantasy Football Podcast. The guys collaborate to create one set of rankings. Notably, this is not their average composite rankings, but rather when they disagree on players, they work together (negotiate/argue) how to move them up and down their rankings. If you click on the PDF printable rankings you will get their rankings with positional tiers. I suggest printing out a copy of these tiered rankings for your draft.
Underdog Fantasy Rankings: Underdog Fantasy is the premier site for Best Ball tournaments. Best Ball is mix of fantasy football and sports gambling where teams are drafted before the season and rosters remain untouched after drafts (read more about Best Ball here). As a result of being the primary site for Best Ball, Underdog Fantasy gets access to great data from millions of drafts from sharp gamblers each year. Hayden Winks uses this historical data to put together great analysis every year. The rankings in the link provided are for half-PPR leagues and are set by Hayden Winks. Here is a link to Hayden’s 2025 PPR top 150 rankings.
5. Practice with Mock Drafts
Don’t go into your real draft cold. Mock drafts let you practice, learn the draft room software, and test different strategies without the pressure. For beginners, the biggest benefit is getting to understand your platform’s draft lobby. Each platform is a little different, so do a mock/practice draft on the platform you will be using. This will help you navigate your draft comfortably.
Key Notes for Navigating your Draft:
Proj.: Proj. stands for projections. Each platform will have a column for each player’s projected points on the season.
ADP: ADP stands for Average Draft Position. This refers to where each player is drafted in average on the platform. For example, Derrick Henry is ranked 19th on ESPN, but his ADP is ~12. This means he is typically drafted around the 12th pick in drafts.
Player Injury and Suspension Designations: You will notice different injury designations linked to different players. It is important to know what these mean.
IR: This means this player has been placed on Injured Reserve and will miss at least the first 4 weeks of the season.
O: This means the player is designated Out for the next game and will not play.
Q: This means the player is designated Questionable for the next game and may or may not play.
SSPD: This means the player has been suspended and will not be able to play until after the suspension.
Pro Tips and Rookie Mistakes
Pro Tips:
Take a few risks; fantasy football is about coming in first place. As Ricky Bobby says, “if you’re not first, you’re last.” This can mean drafting rookies or taking a chance on a player starting the season on suspension.
You should aim for 5 WRs and 5 RBs each on your roster. It is easier to find replacement free agents in other positions. Players will get injured, so be ready with backups.
Draft WRs or TEs from the same team as your QB — this is called stacking. When your stack connects for multiple touchdowns, it gives you a huge advantage that can make your team nearly unbeatable that week.
Rookie Mistakes to Avoid:
Do not draft a QB in round 1. You can get better value later in the draft.
Do not draft multiple kickers or D/STs.
Avoid players that have serious injuries with unknown return times, e.g. Joe Mixon. If you want to draft them, wait until one of the last 3 rounds of the draft.
Needed you to drop this article a week ago 😩