How to draft in Yahoo leagues using FTN fantasy football rankings

One of the challenges of fantasy football today is that information is everywhere and even your average league mate probably isn’t that bad on draft day. 

But this is where you can use a hack to gain an advantage. If many of your league mates are going to use the generic built-in ADP data to form their draft list, you can compare that ADP data to rankings from top-tier fantasy pros, such as FTN’s Jeff Ratcliffe and Matthew Freedman.

That’s exactly what we’ve done. This article will compare ADP from Yahoo fantasy football leagues to the FTN Fantasy rankings to help you find the players the community is either over drafting or under drafting to help you sail through your draft. While the generic site ADP data is a decent guide, it’s still created from the general public and is not as efficient as top-tier rankers.

Here are eight players to draft and eight to avoid (at cost) in the first 10 rounds of Yahoo fantasy football leagues in 2021. We also wrote how you can hack your way through ESPN drafts here.

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8 players to draft in Yahoo fantasy football 2021 based on ADP

These are players that are falling lower in Yahoo fantasy football draft than they should.

• Damien Harris, RB, New England Patriots (ADP 78, rank 56). Perhaps the ADP here hasn’t had enough time to catch up to the Sony Michel news, but Harris is in a great position to be an RB2 in non-PPR leagues. We currently have Harris projected to rush for over 1,000 yards and 6 TDs.
• Michael Carter, RB, New York Jets (ADP 106, rank 96). Carter is not the biggest steal, but he is going a round later than our rankers think he should. He’ll contend with Tevin Coleman for touches early in the season, but the path to three-down duties is not hard to envision.
• Laviska Shenault, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars (ADP 124, rank 72). The people are not ready to accept that Jacksonville’s WR bench is deep with fantasy goodness. But Trevor Lawrence is not going to take long to adapt to the NFL — if at all — and Shenault is a premiere playmaker and arguably the biggest beneficiary of Travis Etienne’s unfortunate injury.

• Will Fuller, WR, Miami Dolphins (ADP 118, rank 62). This one is so far off, it’s laughable. Fuller is going nearly five full rounds later than our rankers think he should. Fuller’s injury history is hard to overlook, but so is his talent. He was a fantasy WR2 or better in 55% of his games last season, and you can get him near the 10th round on Yahoo.
• Amari Cooper, WR, Dallas Cowboys (ADP 45, rank 31). All eyes are on CeeDee Lamb, and it’s driving Cooper’s price down. Cooper is absolutely still in the mix to lead Dallas in receptions, yards, and TDs. Take the full round discount given here.
• Jerry Jeudy, WR, Denver Broncos (ADP 93, rank 53). I’m a bit lower on Jeudy than others, but this Yahoo ADP is ridiculous (late Round 7 or early Round 8). Jeudy should push for 75 receptions and 1,000 yards. He’s going nearly three rounds too late and is a great discount at that price.
• Antonio Brown, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (ADP 108, rank 78). It’s weird that a big name like Brown is going two or three rounds later than he should in Yahoo drafts. Perhaps the crowded Tampa talent pool has people scared, but Brown is a huge discount at his current price.
• Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs (ADP 12, rank 7). Do not be afraid to press “draft” on Kelce in the middle of the first round after the big-name RBs are off the board. He shouldn’t be slipping to the late first or early second in any draft. He’s as good as any fantasy WR1 but also gives you a huge positional advantage at TE over your league mates.

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8 players to avoid in Yahoo fantasy football 2021 based on ADP

These are players that are being drafted too high in Yahoo fantasy football leagues. They aren’t bad players, but they are reaches at their current ADP.

• Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs (ADP 17, rank 39). Yahoo has the same problem as ESPN: All of the QBs go too early, headlined by Mahomes, who is coming off the draft board in Round 2 when he should be coming off in Round 4, at the earliest.
• Tom Brady, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (ADP 67, rank 93). Yahoo drafts are scooping up Justin Herbert, Aaron Rodgers and then Brady all in the sixth round. It’s a mini QB run accelerated by FOMO. Brady is usually the last of this tier to come off the board, but the truth is all three of them are being overdrafted here. That runs should start in Round 8 or Round 9, not Round 6. It’s part of the over drafting QB trend happening in Yahoo lobbies. Don’t get swept up, even when it seems like a “Tier” is about to dry up (which is the case with Brady, who is viewed as the last in the top tier in many circles).
• Nick Chubb, RB, Cleveland Browns (ADP 7, rank 14). This one was eye-opening. Yahoo drafters seem to be inserting Chubb in right after the consensus top RBs come off the board. This is the wrong move. Take Kelce or an elite WR in this spot. Chubb is not correctly valued here.
• Myles Gaskin, RB, Miami Dolphins (ADP 59, rank 80). Gaskin had an up-and-down preseason. First, he was the clear starter, then he appeared to be the backup, then he was the starter of a committee. The last part (leader of a committee) is most likely the truth. The rocky preseason should have been enough to move Gaskin from a sixth-round pick to a seventh, but ADP hasn’t caught up.
• Josh Jacobs, RB, Las Vegas Raiders (ADP 40, rank 50). I like Jacobs as a value where the FTN rankers have him (fifth-round pick), but reaching for Jacobs in the late third or early fourth is not the right move, and that’s where you’d have to take him in Yahoo drafts. The threat of Kenyan Drake is too real, and there are safer options going in this range.
• Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings (ADP 41, rank 49). Thielen was on this list in ESPN leagues, and he’s on the Yahoo list as well. Thielen’s ADP isn’t too far off from his actual value, but it’s still more than a half-round too early. The biggest drag on Thielen is that he was too TD-dependent last season, boosted by an unmanageable 19% TD rate.
• Allen Robinson, WR, Chicago Bears (ADP 31, rank 37). In truth, not many WRs are going drafted too early in Yahoo leagues. Robinson’s ADP of Round 3 is a tick off his FTN ranking of early Round 4, however, so he gets highlighted here. You might be better off taking one of the elite TEs — George Kittle or Darren Waller — in this range instead.
• Tyler Higbee, TE, Los Angeles Rams (ADP 71, rank 104). Higbee, a value in ESPN, is way overdrafted in Yahoo leagues. Nobody knows what to make of him — but a Round 6 pick certainly ain’t it. Logan Thomas and Noah Fant are going nearly two rounds later.