Death, taxes and wait on a quarterback.
If you've played fantasy football for any length of time, you've probably heard that adage -- at least the last part. And it's cool. You're certainly free to wait on drafting a quarterback. If you're into that sort of thing.
Or you can avoid the groupthink and look at things in a whole new way.
Yes, there's more depth at the quarterback position than there has been in a long time. And there's less depth at the running back position than there has been in the last decade. Which is the exact reason that it makes increasingly less sense to reach for a runner in the early rounds of the draft if there is a quality player at a different position available.
Let's put it another way. If I'm sitting at the seventh spot in my draft and the top six running backs are off the board, do I consider drafting DeMarco Murray (who comes with a lot of question marks in a crowded Eagles backfield)? Or do I take Aaron Rodgers, who I can reasonably count on for around 20 points per game? In that scenario, I'm going with Rodgers all day. Heck, I'd even consider Antonio Brown.
When it comes to creating strategy, "value" and "relative value" get tossed around as buzzwords. But what does that really mean? The name of the game is to outscore your opponent every week. That means finding players you believe can consistently deliver solid performances on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes that means taking the best player on the board rather than slotting for certain positions in certain rounds.
Here's another thing to keep in mind: Unless you experience some sort of fantasy football miracle, the team you draft isn't going to be the team you finish the season with. Because there isn't as much depth as positions like running back and tight end, you're going to dig around on the waiver wire or swing some trades to build a legit contender. So unless you draft one of the six or seven elite fantasy running backs, most everyone else will be fairly interchangeable.
Go back and look at last year's top 25 fantasy running backs. Guys like Justin Forsett, C.J. Anderson and Matt Asiata were all players that were snatched off the waiver wire to have success. That's not an anomaly -- it will happen again this season as well.
One last thing on the "wait on a quarterback theory" -- it only works if everyone else in your league is going along with it. That's fine if you're playing in a more advanced league where all of your opponents have a similar thought process, but in plenty of leagues you're likely to see a run on quarterbacks in some of the earlier rounds. In that situation, you might be forced to dump your strategy and grab a signal-caller earlier than you'd like.
Waiting on a QB has been a well-tested method of fantasy drafting for some time, but the NFL is changing and fantasy enthusiasts should adapt accordingly. You can continue to consider the old ways of building your team or you can try avoid fantasy social Darwinism and evolve ahead of your peers. Survival of the fantasy fittest.
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Marcas Grant is a fantasy editor for NFL.com and a man whose attempts to get fit for summer are continually thwarted by beer and Dodger Dogs. Follow him on Twitter @MarcasG.
