Over the span of the next few weeks, we’re going to be bringing you our 2024 versions of the “Perfect Draft.” Anyone who has followed us for any length of time knows you can’t enter a draft without a strategy but which strategy you choose will directly affect who you want to target. With that in mind, these are the strategies we’re going to cover:
- Win Now
- Value
- Balanced
- Productive Struggle
- Fake Punt
- Bully QB/TE
- Robust RB
Today, we’ll continue the series with an analysis of a 1QB draft looking for balance. A balanced draft should look like a mix of all of these other draft strategies. You want to win now, and you want to win in the years to come. You don’t want to have to worry about being weak at a certain position going into the season. You want to build depth with young, ascending talent to establish a dynasty for years to come. We’re going to look at three different areas of the draft to demonstrate how to execute this strategy from anywhere in the draft order. Early is defined as picks one to four, middle as picks five to eight, and late as picks nine through 12. Many start-up draft picks are bound to be traded and every draft format is a little different but this will give you an idea of who you can target throughout the draft.
Using July ADP, let’s have the perfect dynasty startup draft.
First Round
In one quarterback leagues, the elite wide receivers will be the first players off the board. CeeDee Lamb, Ja'Marr Chase, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jefferson are all outstanding picks, and all of them are under 26 years old. Jefferson is my pick here because he has the fewest red flags for me. He’s been relatively available, consistent and his team has the quarterback position figured out, hopefully, for years to come.
Christian McCaffrey has been my choice for the number one running back in dynasty, but since we are focusing on balance in this draft, Robinson is the ideal pick. If you believe the hype out of Atlanta, you could be drafting the 22-year-old version of CMC this year in Robinson. Those are lofty expectations and the Falcons will need to put their money where their mouth is, but he certainly has the talent to fulfill those goals.
Late (Team Three) : Puka Nacua, WR LAR
There are several exciting wide receivers at the end of the first round of dynasty ADP, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Nacua’s age and Sean McVay’s history of spotlighting a ball hog in the passing game gives him the edge to me. He’s a WR1 for this year, and his ceiling will only increase once Kupp takes a step back.
Second Round
