Bludgeoning Your Draft With Barkley: When to Attack the RB2 in Single-Elite RB Builds

Blair Andrews
September 1, 2020

Our writers are drafting in real events and breaking down the player picks and draft tactics for readers. In this edition, Blair Andrews and Dave Caban co-draft an FFPC team. They look to answer the key question for 2020: How long can you wait for your second RB in single-elite RB builds?

When you get the second pick this season, you have two options: (1) hope that the guy or gal picking first prefers someone else over Christian McCaffrey^[1]As the owner with the first pick did in the Main Event draft I did with Shawn Siegele. or (2) take Saquon Barkley.

When Dave and I got the second pick, we went with Option 2. In either case, picking one of the top running backs in the league opens up your team to go in a lot of different directions. The optimal direction in most cases is to make use of the principles of Zero RB for the remainder of the draft.^[2]This is why some people refer to Single-Elite RB builds as “modified Zero RB.” If you go that route, the obvious question is, how long can you wait to get your RB2?

After recently covering some of the controversial choices we faced early, today I look at the provocative issues facing us in the middle rounds.

Pick 5.02

Membership Required

You must be a member to access this content.

View Membership Levels

Already a member? Log in here

Footnotes[+]Footnotes[−]

Footnotes
↑1	As the owner with the first pick did in the Main Event draft I did with Shawn Siegele.
↑2	This is why some people refer to Single-Elite RB builds as “modified Zero RB.”

Please subscribe For Full Access to all RotoViz content and tools!

What’s included in your subscription??

Exclusive Access to RotoViz Study Hall
- A treasure trove of our most insightful articles that will teach you the metrics that matter, time-tested winning strategies, the approaches that will give you an edge, and teach you how to be an effective fantasy manager.
Revolutionary Tools
- Including the NFL Stat Explorer, Weekly GLSP Projections, NCAA Prospect Box Score Scout, Combine Explorer, Range of Outcomes App, DFS Lineup Optimizer, Best Ball Suite,and many, many, more.
Groundbreaking Articles
- RotoViz is home of the original Zero-RB article and continues to push fantasy gamers forward as the go-to destination for evidence-based analysis and strategic advantages.
Weekly Projections
- Built using RotoViz’s unique GLSP approach.
Expert Rankings
And a whole lot more…

Blair Andrews

Managing Editor, Author of The Wrong Read, Occasional Fantasy Football League Winner. All opinions are someone else's.

2025 Post-Draft Wide Receiver Prospect Lab Scores – Live Updates Through Day 2

Blair Andrews April 25, 2025

The Wide Receiver Prospect Lab has been one of the most reliable tools for evaluating rookie receivers for years. Like its RB counterpart, it uses a linear model to predict early-career fantasy performance based on key college metrics. The beauty of this approach lies in its simplicity — by focusing on a few critical variables, the model avoids both overfitting and overreliance on a single…...

Membership Required

You must be a member to access this content.

View Membership Levels

Already a member? Log in here

2025 Post-Draft Running Back Prospect Lab Scores – Live Updates Through Day 2

Blair Andrews April 25, 2025

The Running Back Prospect Lab is one of my favorite tools on the site, but it’s not exactly a precision instrument. It uses a simple linear model to predict an RB’s early NFL career based on a few important college metrics. However, the simplicity ends up being a benefit — it knows what to look for and isn’t often fooled by outliers. I’m updating this…...