Unfortunately, you can't always land all of "your guys" in Fantasy. Some players simply become priced out of consideration as the collective Fantasy hype builds around them and their average draft position (ADP) rises. I'm expecting a record-breaking year from Justin Jefferson, but it's not uncommon for him to be a top-five selection in PPR formats at this point -- you might not even be able to land him if picking from the back end of your draft order. I believe that it is well within A.J. Brown's range of outcomes to finish as the WR1 in Fantasy, but I think a similar possibility exists for Leonard Fournette at the RB position; unless you get lucky enough to grab them at the Round 2-3 turn, you likely won't be able to land both players. Michael Pittman was one of my favorite mid-round picks earlier in the offseason, but his ADP has pushed all the way up to the mid-third round.
So, we're going to focus on an attainable 'Must Draft' list -- the following 10 players all are being selected outside of the top 36 on average, and all but one are not currently top-50 picks according to August NFFC average draft position data. With some luck, you could conceivably land most or all of these players in your draft.
These 10 players are at the core of my team-building strategy in 2022 and are some that I have done my best to not leave my drafts without. You'll notice that wide receivers make up the good majority of the list -- that's because I'm almost always securing two running backs with two of my first three picks. If you're curious about the best strategy for attacking your draft on a round-by-round basis, I am publishing three articles on August 15-17 that will detail my preferred approach when drafting with one of the first four picks, picks 5-8, as well as picks 9-12. That team-level focus combined with this player-specific analysis should position you to have an edge over your opponents in each round of your upcoming drafts.
So which players outside of the top 36 should you be prioritizing in your fantasy drafts? And which players available deep in drafts will return massive value on their ADPs? ... Join SportsLine here to see the full Must Draft list from Jacob Gibbs for 2022!
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