Fantasy draft tips

What I learned from the PFW mock snake draft for a basic scoring league

By Ron Pollack, Editor-in-chief
May 7, 2000

This was a 10-team snake draft (e.g., Team One picked first in odd rounds and last in even rounds) incorporating a basic scoring system.

Here are the things I learned:

• Running back is very deep this year. Getting two starters you can feel good about should not be a problem. Furthermore, there is enough depth for a lot of teams to have a quality third running back in a 10-team league. In 12-team leagues, I think the people taking their second running back on the late side will be more satisfied than usual with what they get.

• Wide receiver is not particularly deep. There are six first-tier wideouts (Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, Antonio Freeman, Isaac Bruce, Keyshawn Johnson and Cris Carter). The first and second tiers of wide receivers have only 15 players combined. After that, there is a substantial drop-off. I think fantasy drafters will be surprised at how iffy the talent becomes after this point. When your draft hits the WR wall, TE Tony Gonzalez becomes a viable consideration.

• There are three super-elite quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Brett Favre), after which there is a drop-off in talent. Steve McNair and Brad Johnson are in the second tier. Daunte Culpepper, Steve Beuerlein and Rich Gannon are in the third tier. After these players are gone (and maybe even before a couple of them go, if you are not a believer), there is no reason to be in a big hurry to select a quarterback, if you have not already taken one, because there doesn’t seem to be that much difference between the next dozen or so quarterbacks. (Steve Young is an exception if he plays and you are not worried about him getting hurt.)

  To Pollack's draft tips for yardage league

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