There are about 500 different combinations of league settings out there, so there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all fantasy football cheat sheet.
This is my personal cheat sheet for one of the most common formats. The overall rating (RTG) is my custom rating that allows me to compare players across positions and build out my overall draft board.
Of course, I’m not simply drafting the highest-rated player available every time I’m on the clock. Think of this as a guide for how I value players entering a draft, with league settings, roster construction, and ADP all playing a role in how I actually use it.
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How I Use My Overall Ratings
For the first two or three rounds, I tend to stick fairly close to my overall ratings. At that stage of the draft, I’m mostly trying to accumulate as much value as possible.
Once I have two or three players, roster construction starts to matter much more. From there, I’m drafting based on a combination of my ratings, positional value, and what my specific roster needs.
That means the highest-rated player on the board isn’t automatically the player I would draft.
ADP is also critical.
You can see that I have Trevor Lawrence and Jalen Hurts rated very close to each other, but Lawrence typically goes nearly 30 picks later. That doesn’t mean I would take Lawrence around where Hurts typically goes. Doing that would eliminate the entire value of being higher than the market on Lawrence.
Instead, I want to have a feel for when Lawrence is likely to go and wait until closer to that range before targeting him.
It’s an important distinction when using any set of rankings on draft day: how highly you value a player and where you should actually draft that player are two different things.
Adjusting for Your League
This cheat sheet is built for a specific format, and any wrinkles to your league settings should change how you use it.
If your league awards zero points per reception, you can see how my rankings change for certain players. Derrick Henry, for example, becomes much more valuable. Move to full PPR, and Henry becomes less valuable relative to players who derive more of their value through receiving.
The same applies at quarterback. If passing touchdowns are worth six points instead of four, Dak Prescott becomes much more valuable, while Malik Willis becomes less valuable.
Roster settings can have an even bigger impact.
If you only start two WRs, loading up on the position early becomes less urgent. In a 10-team league, onesie positions like QB and TE become a bit less valuable because the waiver wire is going to be more loaded, which is an asset if you decide to punt one of those positions.
In a 14-team league, the opposite starts to happen. The waiver wire gets thinner, making QB and TE more valuable, especially if you only plan on drafting one at each position.
Start two QBs? Well, QB becomes WAY more valuable.
The goal isn’t to account for every possible league setting on one sheet. It’s to understand how those settings affect player value and positional scarcity, then adjust your approach accordingly.
Download my personal cheat sheet below!
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