With only a few weeks until Week 1 kicks off, the team of experts at Roto Street Journal conducted its highly anticipated 2024 fantasy football draft. In this detailed review, we break down the most effective draft strategies, highlight the best picks, identify the worst picks, and pinpoint the top value picks to help you dominate your 2024 fantasy football draft.
For more Round-by-Round strategy, be sure to check out The Wolf’s 2024 Fantasy Guide! For just $10, you can support a small fantasy brand while getting the guide that pushes you over the edge!
The Roto Street Journal staff league has the following format: Half-PPR scoring (Start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 K, 1 DEF; 6 Bench Slots; 1 IR slot)
If you want to see a detailed review of each expert draft, click below:
READ MORE: “How to draft” from the… 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 pick
2024 Fantasy Football Draft Results
Do you have an overall draft strategy (i.e. Hero RB, Zero RB, Elite Onesies) you feel is best for 2024 Fantasy Football drafts?
I used to be a “Bellcow Breeding” RB-RB purist. Best Ball has helped me embrace the Zero and Hero RB approaches, and now I like to “jellyfish” to the best values and let the draft “flow” to me, with a few tent poles to guide me. In 2024, I do think Hero RB is ideal if you can land a Top-3-to-5 RB, and I love shooting for “Elite Onesies” at QB & TE, as I feel there’s some real WR depth in redraft. – Wolf
Going into a draft with a strategy is the same as going into a boxing match with Muhammad Ali with a plan. What’s the old adage? Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. The best strategy one can have is staying water and being well-versed on the risks and virtues of each player and the cost that draft button holds. Leveraging value and balancing floors and ceilings is half the battle. The other half is all luck. – Duck
I’ve always been a WR early and often-type drafter and this year is no different. I think there are many plug-in RB that can be found in layer rounds, but the target hog wideouts go quickly. Grab as many as you can. – Anthony
I don’t really buy into these strategies, but I think you can craft a winning team with any approach as long as you build balance and hit on a risk pick. I do believe in preparing before your draft with the latest information and doing what I call a bottom-up draft (I’ll detail this in a strategy article soon). – Trader Tim
Depending on your league, there are many ways to go in this draft – you have to adjust to what your league mates are doing. Or, as I like to say, Zig when they Zag. With that being said, I personally prefer to go one position heavily at the start between RB or WR. If you hit on multiple, you have great trade leverage; even if nobody bites, you have your starters and flex spot in great shape. This year, that was WRs for me. – O’B
I believe each season of redraft is its own special snowflake. I used to firmly believe that RB-RB was the best start, but it seems that hasn’t necessarily been the case in the past couple of years. WRs are running up the boards in redraft, and the truly elite WRs are such big difference-makers. Where you can find a late-round gem at RB, it is far more difficult to find a starting WR in later rounds. The best way to approach this, in my opinion, is to look at the entirety of the board from back to front, find your values, and adapt to your draft room. – Liam
Thinking about strategy can almost be a crutch. Anchor Strategy (whose last article absolutely needs an update) is the name I give my approach to avoiding getting too caught up on sticking with Hero-RB, Zero-RB, Elite Onesies, but honestly, I don’t think there’s any substitute for the grind, keeping up on any news and any relevant metrics and advice that you can. Just in general, the less you rely on the grind, the more you’re relying on luck to succeed. The grind could even mean just watching a lot of football if you have a gift for administering the eye test on players, schemes, etc. But ultimately, if you grind enough, the draft board starts to fall in line naturally. You start to see where tiers break, where positional values are, how long you can wait on grabbing positional anchors, and which guys you’re looking to target and avoid in each round. And the more grinding you do, the more you’ll be able to keep tabs on what worked for you and what didn’t. – Chase M-G
I used to think building depth was the most important should a player get injured for weeks or end up on injured reserve. However, after creating my own spreadsheet model that takes the previous season’s production, combined with this year’s projections, team build-up, and offensive scheme, I now draft more than not on value at the position. While I may have 4 to 5 wideouts before I take a kicker – if the best kicker is available and I have maximized my points, Justin Tucker can look really pretty. –Kayla
This season, I will opt for a Hero RB strategy that features elite onesie (if possible) in most drafts. I operate in my drafts by spending the first four rounds grabbing a few receivers, grabbing one RB, and one TE/QB. I executed this in our draft, grabbing Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Josh Allen, and Josh Jacobs. The 2024 version of Josh Jacobs stretches the definition of Hero RB and I am not exactly a fan of him this season. But at the end of Round 4, I was willing to take the plunge. – MOH
I generally avoid falling into positionally focused strategies around running backs and receivers early in the draft. Stacking one position is great, but you end up paying the price elsewhere, and I’ve had more success in fantasy when I try to build a well-rounded team with early-round studs and some mid-round guys I like at every position. I fell into the RB-heavy strategy a bit this year just based on where my picks fell and who went around me, but generally, I try to keep all major positions well-stocked early and go for a QB in the middle rounds, which I feel is undervalued. – Keegs
Besides yourself, of course, which team do you think had the best fantasy football draft?
This field has plenty of strong teams and a ton of different examples of draft strategies. I’ve gone back and forth between Liam (Pick 6) and MOH (Pick 2) as my top two, and ultimately, I think I like Liam’s just a tad more. It definitely has some “boom-or-bust” to it, but if Rashee Rice avoids a major suspension, this WR room will be absolutely loaded. For investing minimal capital at RB, he came out with a depth chart with as much upside as any in Achane, Warren, BRob, and Chase Brown. This is a masterclass on the types of backs to target in Hero or Zero RB. – Wolf
I call it a toss-up between Dane and OJOB! Dane put together a beautiful tapestry of high ceilings and tremendous upside. Drafting at the turn always forces a player to reach, and Dane’s reaches appear well-calculated. OJOB’s triple WR approach sets him up for explosive weeks and down weeks. No position has a higher variance in output than the WR position. That variance needs to be supplemented with high-floor, high-volume running back play, and he cashed in on those in the mid-to-late rounds. – Duck
I think OJOB crushed. The WR room is loaded, and if Brooks can come in halfway through the year and give them anything at running back, that’s all she wrote. He also has the potential QB1 upside with Mahomes. It was tough to give praise when he sniped both Waddle and Brooks from me, but credit where credit is due. – Anthony
I’m going to go with CJay for this. I love the Chase/London combo at the top, and Pacheco and Mixon give him some grinders at RB. Dalton Kincaid has a real shot at being Josh Allen’s top target and I think he can piece together enough good starts with his rookie QB strategy to be a viable contender. – Trader Tim
I’m a big fan of what CJay was able to do. The first two WRs he took, Ja’Marr Chase and Drake London, could easily both be top-5 WRs this year and the second two, Chris Godwin and Diontae Johnson, seem like high-floor guys with the potential to feast on receptions. The RB room looks great, and I love the late back-to-back rookie QBs – I think Jayden Daniels or Caleb Williams will be a top-7 QB in fantasy. – O’B
I think MOH has a strong team. I also like CJay’s squad, but it seems almost everyone does. For me, I am particularly fond of Jayden Daniels, Diontae Johnson, and Chris Godwin. For MOH, though, he drafted an elite QB in Josh Allen, three extremely strong WRs in Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, and Tank Dell, and a high-upside, extremely talented TE in Brock Bowers. He combined this with a strong RB room to build a nice starting squad that includes some potentially big dart throws late (Rico Dowdle, Rashid Shaheed, Ty Chandler) – Liam
I think Keegs has the best potential based on his current roster. Although I have never been a D.J. Moore believer – and also, drafting rookie Rome Odunze is risky – C.J. Stroud, Bijan Robinson, and Saquon Barkley can be a core three to carry the team. I also think some of the WRs (or RBs) currently on his bench could be inserted as starters, should others struggle. Sam LaPorta is the icing on the cake. – Kayla
I liked what both Liam and Trader Tim were able to do in this draft. Liam’s team features an incredibly deep room of wide receivers, an elite TE, and upside swings at running back to complement the lack of early-round draft capital at the position. RotoDragon’s team was built in a similar mold; he hammered three receivers that I personally really liked this year. He tacked on some quality veteran running backs while taking shots on some rookies. My Ohio bias may come into it a degree, but I think Joe Burrow is a steal in Round 7 as the QB8. – MOH
I’d have to go, Liam, whose team reflects the depth advantage that you get with the recently less-popular late-QB draft strategy. Jaylen Warren’s upside at the RB2 slot is worth the risk of Arthur Smith still hating his best players. Brian Robinson and Chase Brown give you two chances to hit at RB3, so while it’d be nice if they both did, you shouldn’t need to rely on it. Same with DeAndre Hopkins and Rashee Rice vying for WR3. – Chase M-G
I like Liam’s roster a lot – a great receiver group of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Deebo Samuel, Amari Cooper, and Brock Purdy to complete the 49ers stack. I could also see Duck making a run with his roster if he gets more booms than busts out of guys like George Pickens, Jameson Williams, and Rhamondre Stevenson. He’s also got some solid depth with guys like Raheem Mostert and Jerry Jeudy on the bench. MOH definitely has a shot too, but the core of that roster would’ve scared me a lot more 2-3 years ago. – Keegs
What was the single best value/pick of this 2024 Fantasy Football Draft?
From the top, allowing CeeDee Lamb to fall to five is just egregious. Sure, he’s “holding out.” This will get solved, and Kayla will get a WR with 200-target, 2,000-yard, and 18+ TD upside. The man averaged 28.9 FPPG after the Cowboys’ bye, the most of any WR all-time. Jalen Hurts (3.9), Amari Cooper (5.6), Hollywood Brown (7.8), Ladd McConkey (8.6), and Chase Brown (10.7) also stand out. – Wolf
I’d like to shout out myself for snagging Raheem Mostert at the 7.09. I live and die by the creed that chasing touchdowns is foolish. They’re about as sticky as bacon grease. But no rushing attack is more potent and more friendly to explosion than the Miami Dolphins backfield. Mostert scored 5.1 fantasy points over expectation last season, second to De’Von Achane’s 5.9. Are you seeing a pattern here? Mostert was the RB4 in ppg, and the coaching staff routinely referred him as the team’s lead back. His workload is his to lose. Now on to the actual best value pick, MarShawn Lloyd. Josh Jacobs is not good. Matt LaFleur is an outspoken committee backfield advocate, and the only running back worse than Jacobs is AJ Dillon. Lloyd is an elusive, explosive back who can take every touch to the house. Once he has his feet under him in the league, he will take hold of the backfield. Don’t believe me? Look at the Packers’ commitment to Dillon beyond this season! – Duck
It remains to be seen if he can return from the gruesome injury, but my vote goes to Nick Chubb at the 8.12. Already with CMC at 1.01, if Chubb can regain any of his former glory, watch out. – Anthony
I like Chase Brown at 10.7 for the best pick. I know I praised CJay earlier for the best team, but I think his pick of Zack Moss is one he’ll regret when Brown is available later. In fairness to CJay, the news of Brown practicing with the starters came out after we drafted, but I was on team Chase over Moss before that happened. – Trader Tim
In my experience, the team with the best QB, RB, or WR isn’t always the best team. But I seem to always see success from the team with the best TE. I believe that the player who was picked all the way at pick 3.8 was Sam LaPorta. If he is the best TE this season, like I think he will be, that selection being made three-and-a-half rounds deep is amazing value. – O’B
Tank Dell at 5.02 seems pretty ridiculous to me. It is not out of the question that Dell will be the WR1 in Houston this year after a stellar rookie season. Sure, there are a lot of mouths to feed, but each of these WRs is discounted, in my opinion, and Tank is especially cheap. If Tank takes a year two leap, I think he could cement himself as a round 1-2 guy for many years to come. – Liam
Kirk Cousins at 15.4 is stupid. He’ll have Bijan Robinson (who accumulated nearly 500 receiving yards with DESMOND RIDDER), Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and deep threat Darnell Mooney at his disposal this year in Atlanta. Cousins, aside from the Achilles injury last year, finished top-12 or better in the last six years. Michael Penix isn’t a threat to him this year, either. – Kayla
CeeDee Lamb at five is the most obvious pick here. But I will (tentatively) say Rashee Rice is the best value in this draft. Things seem to be trending in the positive direction for him, with no news being good news. It’s seeming increasingly likely that a suspension won’t be handed down until 2025. If that ends up being the case, Round 6 Rice will be theft. – MOH
I think Trevor Lawrence is a fringe QB1 with a ceiling as a mid-range QB1, considering his light dual-threat ability. 2023 was just a little bit off in general for TLaw in the sense that the talent is there, it just didn’t seem to click 100-percent for the Jags offense, but there’s still time for it to happen. And that’s not a bad bet at all for DLo in round 14. – Chase M-G
A couple in the early rounds stand out. CeeDee Lamb falling to 1.05, obviously, and I’ll shout myself out for snagging Saquon Barkley at pick 17 with an ADP hovering around 10-11. I’m not a huge Saquon fan, but I think he’s got another good year or two left in him in the right offense, which Philly should be. I see a few guys later on, like Xavier Worthy and David Njoku, that went at or even above their current ADP, but I think those guys are being undervalued and like their picks at 7.5 (Kayla) and 8.4 (Duck), respectively. – Keegs
What was the single worst pick of this 2024 Fantasy Football Draft?
In a strong room, awful picks are tough to find here. While an IR spot mitigates some risk, I do think Nick Chubb (8.12) and especially TJ Hockenson (10.9) went way too early, with Hockenson being more egregious. Given the timing of his MULTI-ligament tear, the earliest Hock should be expected back is ~9-10 months. He didn’t have the surgery til January, so there’s a real chance we won’t see him til November or even December. And if the Vikings suck and have no reason to play him with nothing to contend for, there’s a real chance the whole season is lost. Sure, if you want to punt the position and chase late-season upside…OK. But with Evan Engram already a high-floor option, when will Owen ever want or need to trust Hockenson (without Kirk Cousins)?
P.S. Tony Pollard at 7.11 is horrendous, too. The guy will be trapped in an even timeshare and possibly outscored by Spears, who went two rounds later. – Wolf
Josh Jacobs at the 4.11 is still too rich for my blood. For him to return value, he either has to be:
- Explosive and efficient with the ball—In three of his last four seasons, Jacobs has not scored more than 4.0 YPC on the ground. I see no reason that will change now.
- Receive enough volume to justify his cost. Last season, Aaron Jones’ role was only worth about 14.8 xFP/g, and will definitely be stuck in a split backfield (AJ Dillon 10.5 xFP in 2023)
I don’t want to saddle my wagon to an inefficient back that is sharing touches. Jacobs’ ceiling is something I am perfectly happy bypassing. – Duck
If Aaron Rogers is truly cooked, it could be my selection of Garret Wilson at the 1.07, taking him over the likes of Bijan Robinson and Breece Hall. As stated above, I’m a wide receiver hoarder, and I liked Wilson best out of who was left after my heart was broken that Amon-Ra didn’t fall to me. – Anthony
So, it’s funny that Anthony mentioned Nick Chubb at 8.12 as the best pick of the draft, as I view him as the worst pick of the draft instead. There were at least seven RB in the following two rounds after the Chubb selection with a legitimate case for 150-200 rushes this year. Chubb won’t get to that mark. He (along with JK Dobbins) is not even on my draft list. What is the goal that anybody is trying to achieve here with Chubb? I don’t get it. The last time we saw this man on the field, parts of his leg faced the wrong direction. Think that through. A 28-year-old RB with a lot of wear on his body and a prior significant knee injury tore all of the ligaments in his knee less than a year ago… What has to go right for him to become a valuable member of a fantasy team this year? He needs to fully recover from a devastating knee injury, maintain the same level of yards per carry as before that injury, and have his coach be willing to give him high-end volume despite that injury when that coach also has Jerome Ford and D’Onta Foreman at his disposal. If any of that fails to happen, Chubb just doesn’t do enough to be worth taking in the 8th round. The old Chubb value was based on volume and consistency, it isn’t fair to expect either from him this year, just say no! – Trader Tim
Every great player gets to an age that they aren’t anymore. I have no problem selecting older players later in the draft – maybe they have another year of value, and if not, losing a 10th-round pick doesn’t hurt too bad. But banking the team on a 30-year-old skill player? That I cannot get behind. Derrick Henry (selected 2.8), I’m looking at you. Even if he has an ‘okay’ season, it will only be because he’s propped up by rushing touchdowns, which will be extremely volatile week-to-week. This guy has been declining for three years now. In that same vein, I’m not a fan of Davante Adams (2.11) or Cooper Kupp (3.12) to return their value either. Although, for some reason I’m completely optimistic about Tyreek Hill. – O’B
Nick Chubb at 8.12 is pretty bad, but that seems to (mostly) be the consensus. I’ll go with Calvin Ridley at pick 7.1. I think Deandre Hopkins (7.6 in this draft) is pretty clearly the alpha in Tennessee, so I’m not very excited about spending an early 7th on Ridley. I’d much rather have the 6 guys that went in the next 20 or so picks: Diontae Johnson, Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, Jayden Reed, Rome Odunze, and Ladd McConkey – Liam
MarShawn Lloyd in the 11th. I know we, as a group, research, study, and worship fantasy as our jobs, and because of that, why was he even drafted? Josh Jacobs is the starter, and his rushing style of taking on 15 or more touches fits with Matt Lafleur and the Packers. Lafleur has had a running back have 15 or more rushes in 67 of 83 regular season games at the helm for Green Bay. If Lloyd was guaranteed to backup Jacobs, you may have a case, but he isn’t. A.J. Dillon is alive and well. – Kayla
Nick Chubb in Round 8 is egregious, but others seem to have adequately covered this pick. Outside of Chubb, I don’t understand taking Tua Tagovailoa in the 10th after grabbing Dak Prescott in the 8th. Adding a pure pocket passer onto your team after drafting another two rounds earlier doesn’t make much sense. Tua likely won’t provide any value to this team unless Dak takes a significant step back or is injured. In the case of regression for Prescott, it will still likely be incredibly difficult to pick and choose which player to start. I understand wanting to add a backup quarterback to a Dak team; just save it for Round 14 or 15. – MOH
For my money, I’d have to say it’s my selection of Nick Chubb. I’m just kidding. Keenan Allen is runner-up for me, not so much because I think a mid-5th is egregiously high, but as my Nick Chubb pick will tell you, I put more emphasis on the second half of the season than the first (a lot more than others, apparently), and I think it’s Keenan, not DJ Moore, that suffers whenever Rome Odunze ascends, and I’m not betting on that ascension holding off until next season, and certainly not at my WR2 slot.
The top spot for this is Jameson Williams, Duck’s WR3, at 9.09. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs: where is the room for this guy to succeed in fantasy? I see too many 2-3 target games even if the mission Dan Campbell says Jameson is on is Mission: Impossible, and the receivers Duck picked after Jameson: Jerry Jeudy, Khalil Shakir, and Josh Palmer all fall into the same bucket: guys I don’t want to have to rely on to start for my fantasy team. Coincidentally, Odunze, and projected rookie target monster Ladd McConkey were taken immediately after Duck grabbed David Njoku the round before, in much better situations than Jameson. Without Joe Flacco in town, Njoku isn’t a tier above a few other tight ends that went later, and I could have much more easily waited to take one the next round. To me, Duck’s got two wide receivers on a fantasy team that starts three wide receivers. – Chase M-G
After an obligatory mention of Nick Chubb at the end of the 8th round before several guys who aren’t coming off catastrophic injuries and are going to likely miss at least the first handful of weeks this year, I have to say I’d be worried about taking Brandon Aiyuk as early as 2.9 like OJOB did. I love his talent, but there’s a real possibility he plays this season in SF with one foot out the door. If they do honor his trade request, you’re at the mercy of the situation he ends up in. It could work out to be a great pick, depending on how his situation is ultimately resolved, but it’s a high-risk selection that I personally wouldn’t have made that early. – Keegs
What is 1-2 “snipes” you were hoping to get but were mad to not make it to you?
Both Raheem Mostert (7.9) and Gus Edwards (9.11) would’ve been a nice sources of volume & TDs for my shaky RB room (Hero-RB approach) just ahead of my 7.12 and 9.12 picks, respectively. I also got giddy at the thought of Jalen Hurts (3.9) falling all the way back to me at the end of Round 3 and giving me the Elite Onesie I had dreamed of, but alas, Duck sniped me. Hurts was a tremendous value that could provide a weekly 5-10+ point advantage on nearly every other QB in the league (especially if Kellen Moore rebounds as an OC, super fast pace in all stops), but now in Round 3 instead of the Early Round 2. – Wolf
There were a couple of times I almost pounded on my desk and said, “Now you listen here” out loud. But my 5-month-old son was sleeping upstairs, and I’d rather get sniped than deal with my wife after I woke up the baby! DLo snatching Malik Nabers from me, knowing full well the amount of accolades I’ve already bestowed upon him, was just cruel and unnecessary. A couple of rounds later, I thought the fantasy gods were making things up to me when, low-and-behold, Liam sniped Amari Cooper from me at the 5.06. Come on, man! – Duck
Too many to count, but Deebo Samuel at 3.06 and JK Dobbins at 13.06 are the ones that stick out most. Along with Jonathan Brooks going at the 7.04, which prompted my “on tilt” selection of Trey Benson. –Anthony
I got “sniped” twice at tight end with George Kittle at 5.12, then Jake Ferguson at 8.2. I’m not super crazy high on either of them, but on both occasions, I was hoping they would slide as I viewed them as the last remaining tight ends at their respective tiers. I think I’ll be fine with Dallas Goedert and Cole Kmet as my tight ends, but it’s my weakest position, and I would have preferred one higher-level tight end over guessing which of these two to start each week. – Trader Tim
The 10-11 turn watching Curtis Samuel, Jaylen Wright, and Dontayvion Wicks all go hurt pretty bad. I loved all three and thought at least one would come back to me. Also, Isaac Guerendo, at 14.12, just before I selected, hurt as well; he will be ultra-valuable if anything happens to Christian McCaffery. I decided to bank on two TEs, one injured (TJ Hockenson) and one not even a real TE (Taysom Hill), instead of selecting the other guys, though, so I’ll take the blame for that. – O’B
Jayden Daniels and Jonathan Brooks. I think these two are pretty clear values, and I would love to have them on 100% of my redraft teams. CJay and I were the last two teams to not have a QB, and I should have taken Jayden two rounds earlier than his ADP knowing CJ would have two picks back to back before I was able to pick again. Jonathan Brooks went around two rounds before his ADP at 7.4, and I am pretty content having taken Rashee Rice with my prior pick at 6.7 instead of a major reach for Brooks. But still, getting sniped three picks before definitely hurt. – Liam
Keaton Mitchell in round 16 was my only real snipe. I mean, he won me $100 for Article of the Year… he needed to be on my team. #GoPirates – Kayla
I was really hoping that Derrick Henry would fall to me in the back of Round 2. I probably would have enjoyed this team a lot more with Henry as my anchor RB and addressing WR2 in Round 4. It’s not the end of the world, considering Jacobs saw an enormous slide, but I did get my hopes up thinking Henry might make it to me. I also would have definitely taken Chris Godwin over Aaron Jones if CJay had not taken him right before me. – MOH
I actually didn’t have too many of these in this draft. I had my eyes on Amon Ra St. Brown in the first and Deebo Samuel in the third, but both guys went to Liam two picks before. I would’ve loved to pair Kyren Williams with Bijan Robinson as my first two picks, but Duck snagged Williams a pick before me. Later on in the seventh round, I had my sights set on Xavier Worthy, but Kayla snagged him three picks before me, and I settled for his teammate, Hollywood Brown. – Keegs
