When getting ready, a bit early for the 2018 Rookie campaigns for fantasy football rookie rankings, you obviously will want your fantasy draft to go well at the rb position. 

Therefore this is the most critical position to be prepared for, and where you should spend the most time gathering more info on these rookies.

Hopefully you are already familiar through the combine, pro days, and draft process for what these RB’s bring to the table. Also after hopefully watching some of the 2017 college football season. We will also scatter some other positional players to look out for as well.

Here are the guys we are taking a look at if your are in regular daft or franchise type leagues where you are drafting only rookies and free agents on your team.

#1 Overall Pick: Saquon Barkley

As obvious as this move is, hopefully to your, you will hopefully not be wrong on this one. The first pick, will be a high enough caliber player in his class to actually lead the league in rushing. He compares to David Johnson and should have a much better rookie campaign then Johnson as DJ did not start for about the first half of his rookie season.

# 2 Rookie Pick: Ronald Jones

You have likely heard about the comparisons to Jamall Charles. How about the recent news of Jones getting 15-20 touches. This however does not mean that he will get 20 carries per game, but more likely 10-15 as some of these 15-20 touches will be receptions, good for PPR leagues. In any case, he does compare to Charles, hopefully without the injuries which occured later in Charles career.

#3 Rookie Pick: Rashaad Penny

With the surprise of drafting Penny this high, he automatically bolts himself into the top 3 overall in rookie plays for 2018 in fantasy football. 

The underrated Penny will not have much trouble adapting to the pro game despite his smaller school SDST upbringing. He has already made strides in the pass blocking skill set, an essential one for getting playing time and carries in the national football league. 

#4 Rookie Pick: Sony Michel

While I have been hesitant to put Michel on the rookie map this year, it appears the patriots have their man at RB this year. The problem in fantasy football drafts has always been the sharing of workloads in the backfield. Will the likes of Rex Burkhead, Mike Gelislee, Jeremy Hill, and James White interrupt his progress, making it annoying for Michel owners. It could be at least at first. But as the season progresses, he should get more than his fair share of opportunities as THE best blocking back in the draft, making sure he does not fumble as well. 

# 5 Rookie Pick: Calvin Ridley

Rounding out our list of guys to look out for and make an immediate impact in their rookie year, Ridley is the best candidate to make the #2 or #3 wideout spot for the Falcons work for his fantasy value during the 2nd half of the season, if not sooner. He can beat a corner in various ways, being down field short, or intermediate routes. 

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When going into a nfl fantasy football draft, if you want to excel at your draft, you will need a strategy in place as well as practice.

We will first discuss some main strategies, which you can use as the core of your drafts, and then I will explain why you need to practice and how along with where you can do so. Leave any comments please if you have had experience in these subjects.

Draft Strategy #1 Best Available Player

While this probably should be the #1 and most popular strategy, many people traditionally in standard leagues will go ahead and place more emphasis on getting the stud running back in the first round. However, while this may be ok in a 10 team league, you may get a much better value in your 2018 draft, even in a standard scoring league, if you look else ware after a certain number of stud guys have been taken off the board.

For example, if you realize that with the 10 pick overall ADP, or Average Draft Position if all players selected running back for whatever reason you could end up with LeSaun McCoy or Dalvin Cook as your first round pick and #1 running back.

Would not this sound much better in a snake draft, or draft that run with the person with the 10th pick also having the 11th pick, and then going backwards?

You could actually pick the best Wide Receiver in the draft, and the pick Cook if you believe he is worthy of that pick with the #11 pick.

Or let’s say, more realistically that Antonio Brown as the overall adp WR usually taken first comes off the board and you have the 9th pick overall. While Cook and Brown would maybe both be taken, you could certainly make due with the potential of Devonte Freeman and Jordan Howard with the 12th pick, while grapping DeAndre Hopkins, who is at times, being drafted as the #1 overal WR in many draft formats. 

Draft Strategy #2 Favor WR’s for low risk

Let’s face it, all RB’s are high risk when it comes to drafting them high. While the same could happen to a WR, there is much more significant risk for the RB position, so you could certainly to a WR with your #1 pick, and if you feel there is not a guy worth it at your 2nd pick at the WR position, you could look to see if the best 2 TE’s are perhaps available off the board. Who would those be? Rob Gronkowski as a higher injury risk with great upside, or the safer option in Travis Kelce. But in a 10 team league, you might be able to grab Kelce in the 3rd round and get another really good WR. Just see how your draft goes. You can take many guys at running back who are rookies, 2nd year players, fill in players when guys get hurt, and over the hill runners who could see significant playing time. 

Draft Strategy # 3 Drat RB’s High and often

This 3rd strategy is one that I could recommend but I won’t Simply because even in standard scoring leagues there is simply too much value at other positions, as mentioned to ignore and just draft RB’s with your top 3 or 4 picks. Also, most leagues allow you to play only RB’s with maybe a flex. While it may be fine to take 2 running backs in the fist 2 rounds, your 3rd rounder should then hopefully another position of value, unless you are able to utilize a flex spot, which allows usually a RB, WR, or TE. 

How to Practice your Draft? 

The only free way to practice drafting is through a free site draft such as yahoo. I don’t really know if other sites offer free practice draft rooms, since I do not play on espn, or others. If you intend to use Draft.com This site has an adjuster similar to Yahoo, in which you can pre-rank your top players. 

Its an excellent format and place to play for special discounted free play by clicking on the link provided above, including the best ball games, allowing you to draft players where all of the players you draft score from week to week, without having to worry about benching. Just draft, and hopefully win Cash!