There’s no denying that the best-ball format has taken over fantasy sports. Everyone loves to draft and everyone claims to be too busy for in-season roster maintenance. As a result, the draft-and-hold format has grown in popularity and people are dropping $10 to $20 per team just to take their shot.

There are a number of different strategies you can employ, depending on who some of your key targets will be this season. If you feel like you need to take Patrick Mahomes in the third round, we can help you adjust your draft strategies to fill in the rest of your spots with quality players. If locking down Travis Kelce is your game, we can help there too.

Now, obviously, there’s more than one way to skin a cat which means there’s never one way to draft a winning fantasy football team. The Alarm team is going to run a series of best-ball draft write-ups over the next two months here in the Draft Guide so you can see the variety of strategies we use. For this piece here, I am going to share my thoughts and strategies for drafting each of the fantasy positions and we’ll see if we can’t get you into the money across the board.

Quarterbacks

Just like we see in seasonal fantasy formats, the general consensus is to wait on quarterbacks. While others are taking the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson in the third or fourth round, you can find strong production out of the likes of Jared Goff or Philip Rivers in the 12th. Last season, the top three scoring quarterbacks were Mahomes, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger . Fourth was Deshaun Watson , followed by Andrew Luck , Rodgers and Goff. Between Big Ben and Goff, there was only a 30-point gap between the two which comes to fewer than two points per game, on average. You have to be looking for value in drafts and based on the numbers, there’s plenty more value in waiting for Goff than jumping early for Ryan or Rodgers.

You can certainly make a case for drafting one of those elites so if you were compelled to do so, but you’re going to have to be willing to make a serious sacrifice elsewhere. Again, though, anything before the fourth round is tough for me because running backs are your bread and butter here. I’ve done drafts where I’ve taken Luck in the fifth round, but only if I land at least two bell-cow running backs in my first three picks. As you will read further down, you can push off the wide receivers in this format so you can take the quarterback early, but rest assured, only if you have some elite runners.

As for how many quarterbacks to take in this format, most will tell you three and, for the most part, I am totally onboard with that, especially if you make the early move for a Rodgers or a Watson. If you lose one early in the season, like we’ve seen with both in the past, you need to give yourself future options and protect yourself from additional injuries and bye weeks. It can be tough to roster three if you don’t have a deep bench, but you also don’t want to be stuck without a starting quarterback in any week.

Running Backs

I’ll say it again -- they are your bread and butter. Just a glance at the ADP will tell you that as the top-15 are usually off the board by the end of the second round. To further illustrate their importance, just look at the ADP for the next 15 as most of them are usually gone by the end of the fifth. If you try to wait on the position at all and then find yourself lurking around the backfields of teams like Tampa Bay, Buffalo or even New England, you’ll see just how unpredictable (read: trashy) things can get. You want to know who is getting the touches and how many they are seeing per game. No, it’s not an exact science and some weekly match-ups will be tougher than others, but simple math will tell you that 15-to-20 touches per game for Leonard Fournette give you a better chance to score than the 6-to-8 Jamaal Williams may see.

Even in a PPR format, which most best-ball leagues are, trying to get cute with something like the Zero-RB strategy may prove to be your ultimate demise. Relying on the likes of Tarik Cohen , Duke Johnson or Chris Thompson is incredibly risky as you need at least two backs to have strong, productive weeks. Considering all of these guys share the backfield with other running backs, you can’t exactly rely on consistent touches, can you? And what happens if their team is leading the game and they’re trying to chew up the clock in the second half? Fewer passing formations means fewer chances for these guys and that’s not going to help you win each week.

As for how many you look to draft, understand that you can never have enough running backs. Leave room to grab your defenses and kickers, but you can never have enough running backs.

Wide Receivers

Now here is where you can play around a little more. Owning a stud like Antonio Brown or DeAndre Hopkins is a no-brainer, however, I won’t take any receiver if Saqoun Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott , Alvin Kamara or Ezekiel Elliott are on the board. I’d even be hard-pressed to take one of Brown or Hopkins before Christian McCaffrey or Melvin Gordon . While owning a high-end wide receiver can be a real treat, especially if they’re seeing double-digit targets every game, you run a greater risk having to rely on weekly production from the position.

Again, guys like Brown and Hopkins are true studs and while they will have the occasional down game, like anyone will, their overall production cannot be argued against in any format. But look down the list to names like A.J. Green and Keenan Allen and you’ll see several more games where they failed to live up to their draft position. Top-flight wideouts routinely see double-coverage and if they do find themselves in a one-on-one situation, you can bet the defensive coordinator has some safety help drifting over. Allen illustrates the point best as there were at least eight games where he failed to provide you with strong numbers, even in a PPR format. This is why you can wait on the position in best-ball.

To wait on receivers isn’t to say you don’t take any in the early rounds. I like grabbing at least one strong wideout inside the first three rounds, but after that, I tend to go running back heavy (I want RBs so good that one lands in my flex spot each week). Maybe I’ll even do that Andrew Luck grab in the fifth. The reason for this is because I will then load up on wideouts who are in the third or fourth tier of the position. If you only start two receivers (maybe three) and you draft eight or nine in total, your odds of having two guys hit each week are pretty strong. Maybe one week it’s Julian Edelman and Chris Godwin . Maybe another week it’s Nelson Agholor and Anthony Miller . You see less week-to-week consistency from wideouts not named Brown or Hopkins, so why not just bulk up on the mid-tiered ones and play the percentages?

Tight Ends

Overall, this position is hot trash. It’s like the catcher position in fantasy baseball. You’ve got a few decent guys who will cost you a higher pick than you’d normally like to invest and the rest are a crapshoot. That being said, I’ve really turned around on my opinions of grabbing that elite tight end early, especially in best ball. Taking a QB or a TE early means you have to sacrifice an early pick on something else. If we’re prepared to already sacrifice the wide receiver position on the whole, then why not use that early pick on a TE instead of a second high-end wideout?

In a best-ball format, I would be willing to take Kelce early and maybe give consideration to Zach Ertz and George Kittle somewhere in the fourth or fifth round. You can certainly wit until the sixth or seventh round where you will see guys like Eric Ebron , Hunter Henry and O.J. Howard go, but for a first tight end, I probably wouldn’t wait longer than that. The last thing you want to do is end up with a Jack Doyle /Will Dissly tandem for your season.

Similar to the quarterbacks, many will tell you to draft three tight ends. I can understand the reasoning, especially if you take an injury-risk like Jordan Reed , but with the lower-tiered tight ends being so spotty, it almost doesn’t make sense to waste the extra bench spot. Drafting two tight ends should be sufficient unless you are drafting in a league like the FFPC where tight ends get a 1.5 PPR instead of the standard one-point.

Defense/Special Teams

Here’s another situation where people will sometimes take three instead of two, but I’m just not that guy. I don’t like to reach for a defense, even if you’re talking about the Jaguars. I’ll wait until Round 15 to grab a decent one like the Broncos, Chargers or Eagles, but then wait until the rest of the room starts going defense-crazy and then I’ll grab my second one. Since injury risk is a non-factor, two is plenty as it covers your bye week.

Kickers

If the running backs are at the top of the pecking order, kickers are easily the last. Two will suffice when drafting and, in all honesty, can wait until your last two picks of the draft. Sure, you can reach a round or two and grab Greg Zuerlein , but it’s really not that necessary in a best-ball format. One of your kickers should produce. Worrying about a third just in case seems like overkill.