The 2024 Perfect Dynasty Draft: Superflex Balanced
We continue with our 2024 “Perfect Draft” strategy series, focusing on how to win your startup dynasty drafts. 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 superflex draft looking for a balanced team. In an SF league dynasty draft, if you want to draft a team that is balanced between positions and young and old players, you need to take a look at the current ADP of different positions in order to not miss out on a run of players in a specific round.
Quarterbacks, especially young ones, typically go early in SF drafts. If you are going for a balanced draft, you can look at drafting a young QB early and an older QB later on in the draft or grab the top position players in the first round to pair with a QB in the earlier rounds.
Young wide receivers are usually highly coveted in startup drafts, so you want to keep an eye out for when to grab them. Usually, I want to make sure to grab a young stud running back early in the draft to pair with an older productive RB later on.
For this draft, my focus will be on drafting the safest player at each point in the draft, so you can maximize your potential point value and minimize your risk. Since I am going with a balanced approach, my goal was to also finish the first ten rounds with two quarterbacks, two to three running backs, three wide receivers and at least one tight end.
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’s DLF ADP let’s have the perfect balanced dynasty superflex startup draft.
First Round
Early: Patrick Mahomes, QB KC (Team 1)
The top four picks in most superflex startup drafts are some combination of quarterbacks the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Bills’ Josh Allen, the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, and the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson. Which one you prefer really depends on your league’s scoring and how risk-averse you are in fantasy.
The safest pick is Mahomes. The guy just produces in fantasy and has shown that he can be productive no matter who is playing around him in the Kansas City offense. He is also tied to one of the best offensive coaches in the league in Andy Reid.
While Mahomes doesn’t give you the rushing upside of Allen, Hurts, and Jackson, he also doesn’t bring with him the injury concerns of a running QB. Mahomes has been typically better at protecting the football in his career than his counterparts, which is also a bonus.
Mid: CeeDee Lamb, WR DAL (Team 2)
At this spot, it is hard to pass up on the WR1 currently in ADP. Not taking QB is a risk, but if I can grab a QB in the second round, this will pay off. The production is going to be insane on a pass-first team that has to feed Lamb as much as they possibly can.
Justin Jefferson is my other option, but he has a rookie QB or Sam Darnold throwing him the ball. I want the more for sure thing in Lamb with Dak Prescott as his QB.
Late: Ja'Marr Chase, WR CIN (Team 3)
There are QB options available here. You could go with the Bengals' Joe Burrow or the Cardinals' Kyler Murray. I think Chase is the safest long-term move here. He has elite ability whether he plays his entire career for the Bengals or moves on one day.
If I’m picking at the end of the first round, I would love to pair Burrow and Chase together if I can. You could go Burrow here, but the injury concerns can’t be ignored. I would rather go with Chase if I had to choose between them.
