Welcome to another edition of The Roundup. It was a busy week at Fantasy Points, so strap in for a 🔥 collection of content.

If you’ve missed the preseason games, don’t worry. Just read our 2023 Preseason Fantasy Game Reviews: Week 1. Part of Graham Barfield’s TLDR:

• Tank Dell goes viral

• CJ Stroud has a night to forget on two drives

• Tyquan Thornton makes a nice catch, but is behind Pats WRs Parker, Smith-Schuster, and Bourne

• Ty Chandler shows three-down skillset

And Jordan Addison had an incredible toe drag catch ruled incomplete because the refs couldn’t believe he caught it (probably).

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Thanks for joining us, let’s get after it.

— JR

DRAFT SERIES

The Guru’s Draft Plan

John Hansen delivers his roster-building strategies for 2023 fantasy football, including his "Hansen 70" list of most targeted players.

This year more than ever, Hansen’s draft plan centers around a small collection of top-100 overall assets. They’re mostly breakout types, as usual. Hansen narrowed them down to his top-12 important targets for optimal roster construction. He calls this list “The Twelve.”

Two of The Twelve:

2. Rachaad White (81.4) — A White stan from Day 1, so far everything Hansen’s said about White has been correct. Now, at 80 overall, White might be the best RB2 value in a decade.

12. Najee Harris (39.6) — The Steeler OL is actually good now, and they will remain pretty conservative, yet when they do throw, their offense should be better compared to last year. It’s a fairly rare opportunity for a young three-down back who’s led all RB in touches the last two years being available in Round 4.

Guru’s 2023 Plan

Quarterback: There are more QBs than usual commanding an high cost this year, and Hansen might be out on all of them. Hurts, Allen, and Mahomes are extremely expensive, and Lamar Jackson and Justin Fields, who all have more risk due to their active running, are also too costly.

If he’s using an early pick on a QB, it’s Justin Herbert (LAC, 53 ADP). It’s the right time to buy Herbert, given all the improvements on offense, and his lowered cost. And things are looking good with new OC Kellen Moore in camp.

Running Back: There are simply too many good RBs falling down the board and too many owners looking to hoard wide receivers. However, Hansen is targeting one guy at the 1-2 turn.

Nick Chubb (Cle, 12.6) — Hansen’s never felt this good about Chubb, and this is a guy he called a “stud” before he took a snap in the NFL. Chubb’s looking good for 350+ carries, and Hansen loves the roster and trajectory the Browns are on.

For running backs, rounds 3-8 is where it’s at, and Hansen isolated NINE excellent options in this range. He likes these NINE assets so much that he’s even willing to go “Zero RB” through the first three rounds. This list includes Cam Akers:

“The OL came together, and Akers was a different player down the stretch - the numbers bear that out. Akers averaged just 3.3 YPC in the first 11 games, but that numbers rose in the final six to 4.9 YPC, and he looked all the way back from his Achilles injury. In his contract year, Sean McVay is likely to lean on Akers heavily. The LA Rams may be bad again this year, and we are worried about their OL depth, but Akers can do plenty of damage in the passing game if needed.”

What else is inside:

• The specific players Hansen’s targeting at each position at or around their ADPs

• The 2023 Hansen 70 (my 70 players targets from the top-215).

• His favorite picks this year by round (1-18).

• The Draft Plan in action.

Get it all by reading the full article.

DRAFT SERIES

Scott Barrett’s Draft Guide

How is Scott Barrett approaching 2023 drafts? Where are his rankings? Who are his top draft-day targets? Who are his Exodia players – the players he doesn’t want to leave my draft without?

Quarterback: Although he doesn’t love going early-round QB, Scott doesn’t hate it. And he has a clear favorite from within this ADP range. Jalen Hurts ranks as his overall QB1, but is priced as just the QB3 on ESPN, NFL, and Yahoo!. That’s the earliest he’ll take a QB, but he doesn’t mind Lamar Jackson or Justin Fields several rounds later either.

After those three QBs, he’d rather wait until the later rounds to take a QB – unless someone else falls a sizable distance by ADP. Priority targets would be Daniel Jones (his QB10) and Anthony Richardson (his QB11).

Running back is the most important position in fantasy, and there isn’t a close second. If you win or lose your league, it’s probably because you drafted the right or wrong running backs more than anything else. And league-winning RBs typically only reside in the earliest rounds of your draft.

In a vacuum, the optimal approach is grabbing two RBs in the first three rounds of your draft. But we don’t exist in a vacuum. We live in the year 2023, where there are some absurd value at the position in the middle to late rounds of your drafts.

After the first two tiers of RBs, Joe Mixon glaringly stands out as a must-draft value and as a potential Exodia RB. He’s Scott’s RB10, but is priced as just the RB19 on Yahoo! and the RB17 on NFL.com.

After that, Jahmyr Gibbs is a strong value if you can get him at his RB20 price tag on Yahoo!, or maybe even at RB16 on ESPN (Well, so long as you’re playing in a full PPR league).

In the next tier range, Scott has two clear “circle your draft sheet” / “borderline-must-draft” / Exodia-tier values:

• Rachaad White (RB13): RB29 on Yahoo!, RB27 on NFL.com

• James Conner (RB15): RB25 on NFL.com, RB24 on Yahoo!, RB22 on ESPN

Wide Receiver: The top-4 WRs should be the first four draft picks in most leagues. Literally, they all seem to have equal odds of finishing as the overall WR1.

The next few tiers of WRs are pretty straightforward – there are some slight ADP values here in Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR10 on NFL.com and Yahoo!) and A.J. Brown (WR8 on ESPN and Yahoo!).

Keenan Allen (his WR12) is a glaring must-draft player at current ADP – WR18-21 on every major site. Scott is happy to reach a full round for him if need be. Right now, he reminds Scott the most of Amon-Ra St. Brown from 2022, who finished 10th in FPG last year (while dealing with injuries) at an ADP of just WR25.

Christian Watson (his WR16) is another “circle your draftsheet” player for Scott, priced as just the WR29 on Yahoo! and WR23 on NFL.com. “He’s going to absolutely wreck fantasy leagues this year.”

Read the full article for all of Barrett’s top picks in 2023. His full rankings can be downloaded here.

DRAFT SERIES

Auction League Guide

Auction expert Joe Dolan walks through his strategy for bidding in 2023 fantasy football auction/salary cap drafts, with example teams.

A few universal tips every auction drafter should know as they prep:

1. Think “Tiers” drafting — grouping similarly ranked players together instead of following a strict, rigid set of numerical rankings. That’s why we “tier” our Auction Cheat Sheet.

2. Last year, QBs started going earlier than ever, and the high-end cheat-code QBs mostly paid off. In the last two years, Joe has been more likely to bite the bullet on an elite QB.

3. If your league has one TE spot and isn’t TE premium (i.e., 1.5 PPR for TEs, like the FFPC), I think it’s only worth getting into a bidding war for a true difference-maker. Like Travis Kelce.

4. Building your auction team exclusively on “values” is a good way to suck in an auction league (and in most leagues). At most positions, you get what you pay for.

5. Be sure that at least one of the players you draft is one of the top-12 WRs. It won’t be easy to win this year without one of those guys.

This plan is for a 12-team league with a PPR scoring system, with 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 2 R/W/T FLEX, 1 PK, and 1 D/ST starting. $200 budget.

Read the full article to prep for your auction draft.

DRAFT SERIES

Superflex & 2QB League Guide

Graham Barfield breaks down his strategy, roster-building tips, and rankings for 2023 Superflex/2QB fantasy football leagues.

SuperFlex formats make all QBs more valuable. This gives you the “flexibility” to start 2 QBs but only forces you to start one. While the optionality to not start a second QB is nice during bye weeks, or if one of your starters is hurt, you want to start a QB2 every single time it’s possible. In SuperFlex leagues there should be a minimum of seven – maybe even nine – QBs taken in the first round this year.

A few suggestions:

1. Don’t worry about byes. Being too concerned with bye weeks can lead you to taking way worse-off values.

2. If you’re lucky enough to get a top-7 pick, don’t overthink it. Draft one of Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Fields, or Justin Herbert.

3. You want more receivers in leagues where you must start three WRs, regardless of format. When you only have to start two WRs, it evens out the RB2 vs. WR3 equation weekly. Typically, the RB30 and WR30 average 10.5-11.5 half-PPR fantasy points per game.

4. Draft Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase at 8-9 overall after the top-7 QBs.

5. Christian McCaffrey and Austin Ekeler are the only two RBs who should go in the first round of SuperFlex drafts.

Daniel Jones is the biggest value by our projections (QB10) vs. ADP (QB13). After finishing as the QB10 (18.1 FPG – tied with Kyler Murray) last season, there is certainly some room for Jones’ passing stats to grow with all of their new weapons in place. Pairing Jones with one of the top-5 QBs and just locking down two elite QBs at a discount is awfully tempting.

Brock Purdy’s ADP will continue to rise as we get closer to Week 1, but until then, he’s a must-target at his QB25 ADP. This 49ers scheme/system led by incredible talent produces lay-up fantasy points for the quarterbacks. The “49ers Team QB” has finished as the QB13 in back-to-back years with 17.2 (in 2022) and 17.8 (in 2021) fantasy points per game on average. Again, Purdy’s ADP is QB25.

Purdy isn’t a fluke — he was a legitimately good passer last season. Last year, only Patrick Mahomes (119.9) had a better passer rating than Purdy (113.9) from a clean pocket.

Read the full article to learn why Kyler Murray is the best QB3 target on the board.

Tweets

Dear Bill Belichick, please feed Rhamondre. Sincerely, us.

Is this the year for Rashod Bateman?

Ryan Heath on why he’s fading Deebo Samuel, George Pickens and D’Andre Swift.

Dynasty Corner

Preseason Darlings

Packers rookie WR Jayden Reed, the 50th overall pick in the spring, has already “cracked the Packers’ top three wideouts” as the team’s slot WR next to Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, per The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. Watson is the heavy favorite to pace the Packers passing attack but Green Bay’s pecking order is wide open with Jordan Love taking over at quarterback with first- and second-year players at the top of the WR and TE depth charts.

Cardinals rookie WR Michael Wilson, the 94th overall pick, is off to a strong start and has “consistently found himself open” in training camp. He’s headed toward a bigger role than anticipated as a rookie. Brolley is not a big believer in Rondale Moore and the rest of this receiving corps outside of Marquise Brown. The Cardinals will be motivated to get Wilson on the field plenty as a rookie as they look to the future.

As always, all this content and more is available at FantasyPoints.com.

All our cheat sheets are ready for your upcoming drafts:

• Season-Long Cheat Sheet

• Top 200 Ranking Cheat Sheet

• Dynasty Draft Cheat Sheet

• Auction Values Cheat Sheet

REMINDER: Take your Fantasy Points subscription to the max with access to all our fantasy football, betting, and daily fantasy (DFS) content. Just $150 for the season, our NFL Premium Plan includes everything in our NFL Standard Plan ($60) + NFL Draft Props, NFL Best Bets, College Fantasy Football, weekly DFS plays and much, much more.

We’re celebrating the Draft Guide Week by offering a discount code to all subscribers of The Roundup: PLANITGURU.

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