Fantasy Football Draft Strategy Guide 2026: Which Draft Approach Is Right For You?

The title of this article poses one of the biggest questions in fantasy football. What is the best fantasy football draft strategy? And I’ll answer that question for you right here in the very first paragraph. There is no one singular best fantasy football draft strategy. There is no shortcut. The reality is that you need to understand your league, take the best players available for your format, and PIVOT to these strategies if need be. And the real secret is learning them ALL via our fantasy football draft strategy guide.

So that’s what we are going to do in this article. We are going to cover all of the running back draft strategies so that you understand how they work and how to execute them in the event that you need to pivot to one during your draft. Whether that’s zero RB, hero RB, or robust RB, you should know all of them as well as what players to target along the way. And make sure you keep in mind that these strategies do not stop at the draft - that is only the beginning, especially with zero RB or hero RB.

Zero RB Strategy

What is the Zero RB Strategy?

This strategy first gained widespread popularity back in 2013 with Shawn Siegele’s famous article on Zero RB. The short and sweet was that running backs were largely drafted early, they were the most fragile in terms of injury, and they were the easiest to find breakouts or handcuffs later on. A lot of that is true, and very few people were doing it at the time, so it could take the fantasy industry by storm.

The idea is very simple - you wait on running backs. You draft elite wide receivers in the early rounds. You likely get your quarterback and tight end as well. And then you load up on running backs, trying to catch lightning in a bottle. You also need to be AGGRESSIVE on the waiver wire to hit on any breakouts or injury handcuffs as they come along. If you can manage to plug those two RB spots in your lineup with stud WRs filling the rest of your spots, you can capture elite upside.

When to use Zero RB Strategy?

Modern fantasy drafts are not as RB-heavy as they were towards the front end 10-20 years ago. Especially in the early 2000s, taking a wide receiver first overall was unheard of. But now the early rounds are a mix of both WRs and RBs with QBs and TEs peppered in. So there’s no clear, pre-planned way to zig when everyone else zags.

That said, drafts HAVE gone back to being more RB heavy over the last two years in the early rounds. And you might find that the best player available every time you are drafting for the first 4-6 rounds is actually a WR, QB, or TE. And we’ll never shy away from that if that is the case. What we do is simple - draft the best players available in the early rounds and then, in the later rounds where ADP doesn’t matter as much, we’ll grab a bunch of running backs. On top of our Fantasy Football Rankings for all formats, we’ve also put together a list of the 2026 Fantasy Football RB Sleepers, which includes all of our favourite late-round targets.

One thing to keep in mind with your Zero RB drafts is that you still have to start two running backs in Week One. As much as we would like to focus exclusively on upside, you could bleed too many losses if you can’t get guys in the lineup early on that offer some kind of floor. So what we recommend is to go with a mix between guys that offer standalone value and pure upside to make sure you are covered. If you only draft handcuffs, for instance, you might get eliminated from the playoffs by the time any of the starters get hurt. 

Hero RB Strategy

What is the Hero RB Strategy?

Lucky for us, Hero RB is exactly as it sounds. It’s also sometimes referred to as “Anchor RB”, but Hero RB is the much catchier nickname. And the idea is simple - you employ the exact same philosophy as you do Zero RB, but this time you actually do take at least one running back that you trust somewhere within the first few rounds. 

Notable Hero RB seasons have included Alvin Kamara’s six-touchdown championship week, as well as when notable Zero RB proponent used Hero RB to win Underdog’s Best Ball Mania, drafting Austin Ekeler in the first round, then loading up at wide receiver.

When to use Hero RB Strategy?

Much like Zero RB, I’m really only going this route if the draft board dictates it. I’ll also be more likely to go with Hero RB if the top RB I do get is truly reliable and not a high-risk, high-reward upside play (like Jeremiyah Love, for instance). If you lose that draft capital AND your player is a bust, you are basically running Zero RB without the superpower WR benefits. 

Given that you are only filling that one RB2 spot, you can be a little more aggressive targeting upside with your bench RBs when you go Hero RB vs. Zero RB. And, given the similarity of the strategies, we are targeting players from our 2026 Fantasy Football RB Sleepers article.

Robust RB Strategy

What is the Robust RB Strategy?

If you have been playing this game for a long time, the existence of Robust RB as a name is kind of funny. Because that’s what we used to just call a “fantasy draft”. But Zero RB became so popular that we actually needed a name for someone who uses three or even four early picks on the running back position. So that’s what Robust RB is - loading up on running back early and figuring out the rest later. 

When to use Robust RB Strategy?

There is actually one league setting quirk that makes me MUCH more likely to go Robust RB. Virtually every league has two starting running back spots. Yet we, as an industry, are kind of undecided on whether there should be two or three wide receiver spots. If there are only two wide receiver spots in a league, I am far more likely to target running backs heavily early. I can find two wide receivers, but running backs in that format may be at a premium.

Like our other strategies, we are largely letting the board fall to us. To me, it’s not really Robust RB unless you are drafting at least three high-end backs that will occupy your two RB spots and a flex. I’d also like to caution people that, if you plan to go all in and take four or even five high-end backs, make sure that you are in a league that is open to trading. I know that it’s an injury-prone position and depth is good, but you don’t want to be making tough decisions every week and bleeding points on your bench while your WRs, QB, TE all struggle.

Fantasy Alarm Draft Strategy Cheat Sheet

As we have implied throughout this article, we do not want you to sit down at the table and say “I’m going Zero RB today!” before the draft even starts. That, to me, is a bad process. But it’s okay to stand up from the table and say, “Man, I had to pivot to a bit of a Hero RB there”. That happens - if you let the draft come to you.

That said, we do have a general idea of what ADP looks like. So I just wanted to give you a couple of quick examples of how the draft could pan out and how you could end up utilizing these strategies based on what we know about ADP.

Hero RB Example - Draft Slots 1-2

Our recommendation in most formats is to take either Jahmyr Gibbs or Bijan Robinson with pick 1 or 2. They have the best combo of floor and upside. But, so far in early ADP, there is a big running back run at the end of the first, early second round that covers guys like Ashton Jeanty, James Cook, Omarion Hampton, De’Von Achane, Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, etc. When the swing comes back to you, you DON’T need to force another R and instead can grab two WRs. 

In rounds 4 or 5, you might see another WR you love as well as a QB or TE. At this stage, without much effort on your part, you’ve now proceeded to round 6 with only one running back on your roster - and you may have all three of your WR spots filled. That’s how quickly a “Hero RB build can sneak up on you, where you need to know those late round targets.

Zero RB Example - Draft Slots 3-5

It’s very popular at this stage to take Ja'Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, or Jaxon-Smith Njigba in these spots, especially in full PPR. And, as we mentioned above, there is a pretty big RB run at the beginning of the second round. So far in early drafts, I have seen a lot of Zero RB builds from these three spots.

In fact, as of the writing of this article, the average draft position board for the Big Gorilla Tournament over at FFPC shows draft slots 4 and 5 starting with four straight WRs on average. Here is how the first rounds from those spots looks based on ADP:

Those are both very strong starts. If you do that, the running backs waiting for you in round five might be guys like Bucky Irving, TreVeyon Henderson, David Montgomery, Bhayshul Tuten, or D’Andre Swift, which is manageable. Or you can push things even further by taking your QB and TE. 

Robust RB Example - Draft Slots 11-12

I find myself deploying this strategy most often from these two spots in early drafts. The top six wide receivers go in the first 10 picks in most cases. And you don’t want to reach for AJ Brown, Drake London, or Nico Collins just yet. So you pick two guys from that pool I mentioned earlier in the second round RB run. A nice RB-RB start.

Then the next swing comes back, and there are still some great running backs there. I’ve done drafts where I start with Omarion Hampton and Kenneth Walker at the swing, then the following turn comes around, and there’s Javonte Williams - another target we like. I’m not going to pass up on value there, so I simply make my move and plan on hitting our Late Round Wide Receiver Values to patch things up later. Don’t force anything, let the draft come to you!