Right off the bat, I know I want to lock up a good running back core, hopefully find a quarterback with some Konami ability, and find some stability at WR with a high upside when drafting from Pick 11 in a 2024 fantasy football draft.
Pre-draft planning is all about mock drafting in the platform that you will be using. I know ESPN fantasy mocks can be brutal, but if you are still playing on that archaic platform, you need to know how their rankings will influence others’ picks. Play fantasy football like the RSJ team this year; use Sleeper. Even better, their current draft positions are always reflected in the FantasyPros ADP tracker.
After that, ensure you understand where you can draft players versus where you should draft players. Use your favorite analysts’ 2024 Fantasy Football Rankings and Big Board to compare the ADP to where they are being drafted. This does not have to be gospel for your draft, but it will help you better understand where you are looking to get value.
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)
READ MORE: “How to draft” from the… 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 pick
Check out our full 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Breakdown!
2024 RSJ Fantasy Football Draft Results
HOW TO DRAFT FROM PICK 11 IN 2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL
Early Round Draft Strategy for Pick 11
The first eight or so picks seem to be a “locked” stud, followed by six picks that are a bit more risky. I hoped that A.J. Brown would drop to me; however, RotoDragon snatched him right before my pick.
At 1.11, the real question is, what is a more significant drop in your rankings and tiers with running backs and wide receivers? The gap between Gibbs and Taylor/Barkley or the gap between Puka/Harrison Jr. and London/Adams.
As you can see, I have two “higher” ranked WRs. My choice at 1.11 was Jahmyr Gibbs, with the hope that Wolf would go for a WR/RB split of picks so that I could select whoever is left between Puka and Harrison Jr.
My recommendation for this spot is to pick your “stud,” no matter what rankings say. It helps if you know who is drafting right behind you, and really helps if you have rankings and tiers of the person who is picking after you. But either way, rank your studs, figure out where the tier gaps are for yourself, and be ready to take a compromise at your next spot. Put yourself in pick 12’s shoes and try to think of their upcoming picks. This will be a theme of this draft and of this spot in every draft.
As anticipated, Wolf took a WR/RB split with Puka Nacua and Jonathan Taylor. At this moment, I am happy with my decision, for I am much more optimistic about a high-powering offense with Gibbs as my RB1 instead of Taylor. This pick for myself is easy to take a WR due to the league format (3WR PPR), so the choice is between Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, and Davante Adams.
Although I worry about Marvin Harrison Jr. this year, this may be the last time you can draft him in Round 2 in the next decade. Coach Jonathan Gannon is already impressed by the rookie, saying his consistency, ball skills, and route-running are already on display in training camp. It will take a drastic change in Kyler Murray’s playing style as of late, but if these two can “click”, I may have just gotten the steal of the draft.
Two things were important in my decision to take a WR here:
- Look ahead. You have a lot of picks until it is your turn, but you also can see how every other team has drafted thus far. Seven of the top 10 picks were for WRs, so I can imagine there will be a decent little run on RBs. Plan for the six next consensus RBs to be taken and see if you are happy with what you get. For me, any of Pacheco/White/Cook would be just fine as an RB2 on my team.
- Drafting at the end or beginning of any 12-team league is tough due to the significant gaps in between your picks. I recommend looking to “swing for the fences” on at least one of your picks because we do not play this game to win second. Without taking an upside pick in the first two rounds at the 11 spot, you almost guarantee a struggle to put up big numbers. Sure, you may find yourself as a “consistent” team, but the most consistent team rarely ends up on top at the end of the season.
After selecting Harrison, I need to be honest: I got nervous pretty quickly. During the second round, there was a run of five straight running backs, making it so my “hope six get taken” idea look like crap. However, two teams went for the RB/RB stack, so at least I know they shouldn’t be taking another RB in the third round.
To my delight, the third round went 1/10 on RB picks, so my genius was confirmed with my earlier premonition. It went so well that I started to think a little about the future… what if I stacked my 3rd and 4th rounds with two more WRs and really solidified my WR core?
So the plan was then made: take Stefon Diggs, my favorite Texans WR, in round 3 so Wolf couldn’t steal him away from me and then take another incredible value in Cooper Kupp in round 4. Even better, there was no risk in taking Diggs ahead of Kupp because Wolf was the Nacua owner, so there was no way he would take Kupp.
In this part of the draft at your home league, you may feel some pressure to draft a QB or TE. First of all, don’t take a QB. Historically, the QB position does not reward the investment in the early part of the draft. If you are itching for a TE, I understand you, I hear you, I am just not on the same team as you. It also does not hurt that both Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta were already selected, so my decision to pass was clear.
What just happened? Wolf now owns both Kupp and Nacua, and I am on the clock and need to decide. Why did he do this? What was he thinking? Honestly, the answer to those questions does not matter; what matters is my next pick.
This is going to happen in your draft. There will be an “obvious” path to your next pick that just won’t work out. But you are smarter than the average fantasy player. Reading articles like this, studying tiers of players made by your favorite analysts, and forming them according to your own beliefs is what puts you ahead of the pack. Give yourself a nice little pat on the back because you are much better equipped for issues like this that will arise in the future.
Because I made a switch on the fly in the third round, I still can switch back and go to my original plan- 2RBs and 2WRs to start the draft. Wolf took DeVonta Smith, which could have made me reconsider still trying to stack WRs, but I am not bought into the more balanced draft with WRs such as Michael Pittman, DJ Moore, and Zay Flowers all “next” in the line of mediocracy.
The decision is now between James Cook and Rachaad White. With the 241 vacated targets previously marked for Gabe David and Stefon Diggs, Cook has nowhere to go but up in this Bills offense. This stat, along with the AFC East being so competitive this season, should lead to an incredible season for James Cook and a stud as my RB2.
Mid-Round Draft Strategy for Pick 11
The stack I was hoping for did not materialize. Three picks before mine, C.J. Stroud was taken, making the dream of the Diggs-Stroud handcuff a fantasy. At this point, there are a lot of similarities in tiers between the RBs and WRs, and I am still not considering TEs due to the depth and opportunity to get Jake Ferguson in later rounds.
QB is still a need. However, I know Wolf won’t take one this early, so I will push that off until the next round. Even if he did, I’d have my option at either Kyler Murray or Anthony Richardson. I’d rather have Kyler just for handcuffing purposes, but I’d happily take either in the sixth. The real question is, what does my team need more, a mid-tier WR or a mid-tier RB?
This will be a similar question that you will have at this spot in your draft. Depending on your league structure, it can depend, but seeing that my team still only has two receivers and each team needs to start three at a minimum, I am going to go WR. I would have loved it if Tee Higgins dropped one more spot, but I will take my chances on Christian Kirk being a top option for one of the league’s most underwhelming offenses.
Wolf went TE (great value for Kittle) and WR (six rounds and only one RB, interesting Wolf). I get my pick of QB and as I said earlier, my choice is Kyler Murray. I am reaching for him a little bit at this spot in the draft, but if he pans out, so will Marvin Harrison Jr., and I am looking at 50 points each week from my QB/WR combo.
I know I already gave you the “we do this to win the game” speech before, so I will save you the soapbox talk, but risks like this are what we live for. If the combo crashes and burns, I will win the same bragging rights as the person who came in second (in my eyes, at least).
This may be a specialist round for you as well in your draft. Tight ends like Engram and Kittle will probably be here, as will quarterbacks like Murray, Borrow, and Anthony Richardson. You may feel pressure to take one of the specialist positions here, but always remember that you also have hidden gems like Jake Ferguson, David Njoku, Jared Goff, Jordan Love, etc. all waiting for you in later rounds. Going too much further than this point in the draft without a QB or TE can be scary, so I always recommend grabbing one by the end of the sixth round. Since my next pick isn’t until the end of the seventh, it is double important.
This is where leagues are often won or lost. Too many people go into Sleeper, create a fantasy draft, check to see what their starting lineup will look like in the first five rounds, and make their way out. The depth needed for season-long success comes into play in the seventh round.
This round, we have some solid pieces on the board. RBs include names like Pollard, Swift, and Warren, who will all see a bulk of their teams’ carries. WRs include up-and-comers like Jayden Reed, Rome Odunze, and Ladd McConkey, and TEs like Njoku and Jake Ferguson are still sitting out there. Because I was able to draft three WRs in the first five rounds, I think my target for the 7/8 swing will be TE and RB for some stability.
As always, knowing your opponents and seeing their team build is key to understanding where to go. Wolf is right behind me, and only has one RB, so I would have to imagine he will select at least one RB in his next two picks. Also, if I want a TE, he already has drafted one, so unless he is going completely off-script, there is no way he would draft two TEs in the first eight rounds, so I should be safe waiting for my TE pick at 8.
With this rationale, I went with Tony Pollard. This gives me three starting RBs in my stable, and hopefully, Pollard can do more with his opportunities with the Titans than he did with the Cowboys. CJay has already set the table for how this season could be a disaster for Pollard. However, if his efficiency finds an uptick with the Titans, we could see fringe starter performances from Pollard.
I swear to God, I have no idea what Wolf is doing. I was not pegging him down as a modified zero-RB, but here he goes, drafting the Green Bay stack of Jayden Reed and Jordan Love and waiting until the end of the ninth round to draft his RB2. This may be due to my pick of Tony Pollard, or this may have been the choice all along, but I am happy that I at least have my choice at TE at this point.
Update: during my July 4th vacation, Wolf put out this incredible article about his Hero RB strategy. I guess all of those words about “knowing your opponent” doesn’t work when Wolf is dropping gold while I am dipping my toes in the Atlantic.
This is the section of the draft where you either finalize your specialist positions or declare a punt to the last couple of rounds. Rome Odunze, Ladd McConkey, and Keon Coleman all gave me pause, but I am going to stick with my plan of drafting a TE at this spot because I hope that I do not have to worry about streaming TE every week.
With that, I am selecting Jake Ferguson. The Cowboys’ decision not to put any serious effort in filling skill position spots (Zeke in 2024 and a sixth-round WR do not scare me) enforces the probability that Ferguson will once again be the number 2 target on a team destined to figure it out one day. With the amount of pressure from the top, there has to be some urgency in scoring and winning games. For the “meat” to the stats behind Jake Fergusons’ upcoming season, the Wolf has already created a 2024 Fantasy Outlook for Jake Ferguson with persuasive arguments as to why to take him and where to sit in the tight end spectrum.
One pick until my spot and I see that RotoDragon has many of his starting positions other than a TE, so I have no idea which way he may go. There are still a lot of really great depth pieces, and my current lineup is set with my first eight draft picks, so this pick will be a bench pick, most likely Week 1.
At this point in your draft, look at your positions and see if there is a risk you took that you would want to fill incase it does not fill with a more “consistent” pick. On the flip side, if you took a conservative start to your draft, this may be where you want to swing for the fences with a gamble. My current team is built with a few risky picks at WR and more conservative picks at RB, so rounds 9 and 10 will be the reverse of these trends.
Looking at Wolf’s team, he still does not have an RB2 so I would have to imagine the 9-10 swing will be where he is looking for value at his RB position, and could even take two, so I think I will first go for my “swing” at RB and block him from one of his favorite picks this year. Gus Edwards walks into an incredible opportunity and could easily find himself in the position of being a weekly starter on any fantasy squad. I’ll let Wolf then get the crumbs left (Zeke, Spears, Ekeler) and hopefully make Wolf regret his decision to wait this long for his RB2. I hope that he won’t look a bit further down the projections to see Jacoby Meyers still sitting there and I’ll be able to grab him in the tenth.
Late-Round Draft Strategy for Pick 11
Honesty minute here: I am tired of missing out on WR2/Flex WRs that pop up at the end of the draft every year. I have sworn that this year, I am going to go WR heavy and find my RBs through drafts and free agency. My late-round strategy is to stack up on WRs that have quarterbacks who may need to rely on one person, and I am trying to find who that can be.
Jacoby Meyers has shown that he can be the security blanket for any quarterback. The signing of Gardner Minshew offers great opportunities for high usage in this new offense, which Meyers has already thrived in. 50% of his games played in 2023 resulted in a top-20 WR week even when only eclipsing the 11 target mark twice.
Xavier Legette is one of those players who has “all the pieces” to be a true stud, other than the fact that he got drafted by the Carolina Panthers. He has work to do as a route runner, but his physicality and speed give him a great opportunity to be a breakout candidate. He also takes a lot of pride in his special teams usage, giving him the opportunity to throw an extra 6 points on your team’s total at the end of the week.
I may have dropped the ball on this one. Quentin Johnston seems like an absolute bust that I cannot get enough of. If Mike Williams or Romeo Doubs is here at this pick, grab them over QJ.
Jared Goff is too good not to get drafted to this point, so he needs to be picked up if you feel like you took a risk at QB. Kyler Murray has proven that his reliability for a week-long season should always be questioned, so Jared Goff is always a helpful fall-back. If you punted on QB, Goff in the 13th is a steal.
I am a Patriots honk, and DeMario Douglas highlights have been filling my Twitter feed. This would be a stash pick with the hopes that Drake Maye finds his way into the starting lineup and finds Douglas to be a security blanket.
Reword everything said above about Drake Maye and Demario Douglas and replace them with Marvin Mimms and Bo Nix. This is a burned bench spot as long as Jarrett Stidham or Zach Wilson are taking snaps.
We need a kicker, so I’ll choose a team that moves the ball well but does not score as much as it should: Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY IF GIVEN THE OPTION? AND FINAL THOUGHTS
At the end of the draft, I somehow found myself with the second-least number of RBs. I stuck to the game plan of finding solid running backs to rotate while I found league winners at wide receiver.
The Kyler Murray and Marvin Harrison Jr. handcuff will either win me this league or leave me with scars to never trust a 5-foot quarterback and rookie wide receiver combo ever again. Due to the early draft date, my main watch list is the PUP list, watching players jump on and off as preseason progresses. I am hopeful that someone in the group chat will be looking to do a quick RB for WR swap to add a little depth to my RB room, but I am excited with how it went.
The overall grade will be a B, acknowledging that it could have been an A- if Stroud hadn’t taken just a few picks before mine. There are very few things I would change about this draft, but with the recent news of Tyjae Spears splitting RB1 carries with Tony Pollard, it may be to pick a player like D’Andre Swift or Rome Odunze in that spot.
