Andrew Erickson’s Favorite Picks for Every Round (2022 Fantasy Football) - FantasyPros

The 2022 NFL season is approaching, which means it’s time to prepare for your fantasy football draft.

The goal of every fantasy football manager is to complete the perfect draft.

Let’s call it a stretch goal and strive for fantasy football glory.

Here’s Andrew Erickson’s perfect 2022 fantasy football draft!

Now’s the time to try your new secret weapon for your draft: Draft Intel.

Draft Intel analyzes up to 5 years of drafts and breaks down all your league-mates’ draft tendencies!

Whether it’s best ball or redraft fantasy football, the golden standard approach of selecting a running back with your first-round pick has not changed.

Although, of course, it wasn’t so long ago that the elite tier of WRs like Davante Adams, Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, and Antonio Brown was drafted in the top half of Round 1.

Every fantasy football draft is unique, but one thing’s for certain — running backs are the drivers behind fantasy-winning teams.

However, unlike in some previous years, when the strategy was hyper-focused on grabbing a workhorse running back no matter what, 2022 presents us with a different approach in the second half of the first round.

If you miss out on the Tier 1/high-end Tier 2 crop of running backs — Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, Austin Ekeler, Dalvin Cook — be open to drafting an elite wide receiver in the second half of Round 1.

This is less so the move in half-PPR formats because receivers can’t make up ground versus running backs as easily without being rewarded a full point per reception.

Mid-Round Players to Target.

Fantasy managers should feel comfortable taking an elite wideout in Round 1 because Round 2 is filled with a plethora of running back talent.

The non-first-round running backs — Joe Mixon, D’Andre Swift, Alvin Kamara, Aaron Jones, Nick Chubb, Saquon Barkley, Leonard Fournette, James Conner, Javonte Williams and Cam Akers— provide enough production for a roster’s RB1 slot.

If you went with a running back in Round 1, consider whoever remains from the Tier 2 wide receivers — Stefon Diggs, Davante Adams, CeeDee Lamb, A.J.

Solidifying running backs in Rounds 1 and 2 also helps you avoid reaching on running backs in the upcoming RB Dead Zone, where your primary focus should be pounding WRs poised for significant leaps in 2022.

Tight end Travis Kelce is also an option in Round 2, with his 2022 point projection just shy of Cooper Kupp.

It’s essential to draft at least one running back in the first two rounds because the talent pool starts to fall off at the start of Round 3

If, for some reason, you’ve avoided running backs up to this point or the other drafters went extremely receiver-heavy through the first three rounds, don’t shy away from another stud running back if one falls with zero-RB all the rage nowadays

Andrew Erickson’s 2022 Redraft Fantasy Football Rankings