What’s The “Zero Running Back” Strategy In Fantasy Football?
It's fantasy football time again, and we're going to look to get more fantasy football talk onto The Tiger this year. One of the first things we need to take a look at this year is a draft strategy that's been heating up since 2015 is the "Zero RB Draft" strategy.
This idea goes against the common draft knowledge, which usually states you have to draft stud running backs as early as you can. The idea in this approach is that you stack up on the greatest wide receivers in the NFL while everyone else is scrambling for running backs. So when someone is reaching for Lamar Miller in the second or third round, you're stacking Dez Bryant into your wide receiver corps.
So the real idea behind this is that running backs are spread so thin, and the guys who are in the middle and low end are always one bad game away from being replaced, that reaching for a guy who might be on the bench by week 6 with your 2nd round pick just doesn't make sense. So why not stack guys who will score tons of points every week?
Here's how this could work out in a 12 team draft if you were picking 6th:
First Round: Odell Beckham Jr
Second Round: Dez Bryant
Third Round: Amari Cooper
Fourth Round: DeAndre Hopkins
Fifth Round: Golden Tate
Sixth Round: Bilal Powell
Seventh Round: Frank Gore
Eighth Round: Thomas Rawls
Ninth Round: Dak Prescott
If you got done with your draft, and had those 5 WRs stacked, and two starting running backs for every week, plus a dual threat quarterback...would you be upset?