We get it. “Let the draft come to you” is one of the most boring clichés in all of fantasy sports. As tired as you are of hearing it, though, fantasy football analysts are equally exhausted hearing you tell us you’re going RB-RB-WR with your first three picks. It’s not that we think you would be wrong for taking Melvin Gordon , Joe Mixon and Stefon Diggs . Those a three great guys around which to build a team. The problem is, when someone states a game-plan like that, it usually means they are going to stick to it regardless of who is still on the board.

Simply put, you cannot walk into your draft with such a rigid game-plan. What if you are picking ninth and the first eight picks are all running backs? Are you telling me you’re going to pass up DeAndre Hopkins for Dalvin Cook or David Johnson ? Yeesh. That would be a mistake.

And what if you said, “OK, I’ll take Hopkins here and grab two running backs with my next two picks,” and the next six picks before you were all running backs? Are you going to pass up Davante Adams , Michael Thomas , Julio Jones or Odell Beckham so you can get Phillip Lindsay or Aaron Jones ? Hopefully not, because that would be wrong too.

Obviously, this is all sounding very extreme, but it emphasizes the point you need to take away here which is…

I almost said “let the draft come to you,” but that would have just been wrong.

Be flexible when you walk into your draft room.

It may sound like another cliché, but when it comes to snake-style drafts, the truth is, you don’t pick your own team. The rest of the room picks it for you based on what they’ve left you. If they’re going to leave the No. 1 wide receiver on the board for you, take advantage of it. If they’re going to leave you the two best, by all means, take them. The fact that you know you’re going to have to lean a little heavier on the third and fourth-tier running backs in the coming rounds means you know what you’re doing.

And if you see Travis Kelce staring at you in Round 3? Exactly! You jump on that without hesitation.

While everyone else then spends the coming rounds looking for receivers and tight ends, you’ll be scooping up an array of talented backs such as Derrick Henry , Josh Jacobs, Chris Carson and David Montgomery. You’ve seen the way the running back position has gone over the last few seasons. Any one of those guys can and will be a No. 1 back for their team.

So again, your strategy should never be something as rigid as I need three running backs and three wide receivers with my first six picks. If you want to say you’re going to wait on quarterbacks, that’s one thing. If you want to go into your draft hoping to grab one of the top-three tight ends, sure. Just understand that you have to be fluid and make the pick that is best for your team at that moment. If that means you push off running backs by a round of two than what you normally like to do, so be it.  

And it’s not like we’re saying “best player available” is the way to go either. You certainly can. We’re just saying not to lock yourself into anything because you never know what the rest of the room is going to do.

This is why your prep work is so vital. When it comes time to draft, you should be well-versed in a number of different strategies. You probably threw down in a few best-ball drafts, studied ADP in conjunction with your tiered-rankings and have an array of mock drafts under your belt which have enabled you to see how numerous drafts end up from being in a different spot in the order. You know the player pool like the back of your hand and once a draft starts, you know exactly what you’re going to do as soon as you assess the situation at hand.

By the time you walk into the war room, drafting a strong team should be as second-nature as breathing.