With the NFL season only a week away, the time to draft a fantasy football team is dwindling. This article will provide you with a top tier guide of how to bring home a win this season regardless of your league size. One of the most important things you must do is to take a running back in the first round. With a surplus of wide receivers who arguably will get you the same points as some of the higher tier receivers, you must take a running back first round. Especially in a PPR (Points Per Reception) league, these running backs are crucial to the foundation of a winning team. Everyone who is lucky enough to be gifted a first round pick this year, have fun with Jonothan Taylor. But to those with the second pick I must warn you, do not take Christian McCaffery. As a Panthers fan myself I am warning you to not take him as a higher pick in the first round. There are plenty of other running backs who will do a better job than he will this year. For example, Austin Ekeler and Derrick Henry are both much safer and more viable options. Christian McCaffery, in my opinion, will be solid this year, but he is too injury prone to waste a higher first round pick on. Dalvin Cook was my first round pick as he fell to the 9th pick in my 12 man league and am hopeful to see him dominate the field as the Vikings offense will be very solid this year. Whoever you may pick this year, do not waste a high first round pick on CMC, there are better options.

Your second round pick should either be targeting another running back or a wide receiver. Likely the lower picks of the first round will have snagged the higher tier wide receivers like Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, or Justin Jefferson. However there will still be many other great picks such as CeeDee Lamb, Aaron Jones, Alvin Kamara, and a personal favorite Joe Mixon. He saved my season last year after a catastrophic trade agreement for James Robinson the week he got hurt. I believe Joe Mixon is on the come up to be one of the better running backs in the league this year after a stellar 2021 season and would be a great second round pick for those looking for a solid running back. 

The third round is where the player skill starts to drastically diminish and who you should pick will start to become less clear, especially to new players. Personally, I like to use the third round to pick up a solid tight end who is consistently getting targets and possibly even touchdowns. Travis Kelce will likely be gone by this round. After his outstanding season last year and the loss of star rec

eiver Tyreek Hill, this will only mean more targets and even more dominance than last year. However there are still some great options for a tight end pickup. Darren Waller is on the rise this season with Derek Carr predicted to have a great year. Along with the new addition to the raiders offense of Davante Adams, most of the defensive backs will likely be doubling up on him, which leaves Waller and Hunter Renfrow to be the best targets left.

A large part of winning your fantasy football league is maintaining a highly skilled team with players who consistently put up lots of points each week. Sounds easy enough right? Just draft the players who drop the most points and let it play out. Although this works some of the time,  injuries are still prevalent in the NFL. Your team can go from the best team in the league that stomps each of its o

pponents, to dead last and having to do whatever punishment your group decided on all because your first round pick got injured (CMC don’t take him). It’s an unfortunate part of the learning process that is fantasy football. However if this happens to you not all hope is lost, there are still many players available that may not put up the same points your first round pick was putting up, but still get the job done

. These players are called sleepers as there is a possibility that no one has drafted them in your league depending on its size. Some sleepers this year that may not have been drafted or will go in the later rounds of your draft are Brandin Cooks, rookie Breece Hall, and Cam Akers coming off an injury last season with a chip on his shoulder. All three of these players I believe will have a stellar season, especially Breece Hall as he was a monster of a running back at Iowa State and will likely win the starting job for the Jets.