Blair Andrews discusses four contrarian fantasy football principles that will help you elevate your approach to home leagues. 

If you’re a new RotoViz reader just starting to get into some of the more advanced topics we cover, you might be looking for the perfect point of entry. This article is for you. If you’re coming to RotoViz because your goal is still to dominate your friends and family in your home league, and you don’t know where to begin, this article is for you.

We have coverage on the best value picks and strategies for a ton of different formats and ADPs, including ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS.

2024 RotoViz Home League Workshops

• The Defaults Are Giving You 10 Crazy Upside Opportunities in CBS Leagues by Shawn Siegele
• The Sharks Think You Should Sprint to Draft These 12 Players in ESPN Leagues by Blair Andrews
• The Starting Lineup Wins at Home: Set Your Team Apart Through QB and TE Selections by Kevin Szafraniec
• Your Opponents Are Too Afraid to Draft the Best RB Options in Yahoo! by Mat Irby
• Zero or Hero: How to Build a Dominant RB Game Plan in Yahoo! Leagues by Kevin Szafraniec
• Want Great Value and Free Upside At WR? The Must-Draft Receivers in Yahoo! by Mat Irby
• Our WR Analysis Is Even More Valuable in Yahoo! Formats: 2024’s Home League Game Plan by Kevin Szafraniec
• Is Your Home League Holding an Auction? Dominate at ESPN With These Tactics by Dave Caban

But every draft is different, and sometimes things might not go according to plan. In these situations, you can’t just default to the site rankings and take the player at the top of the ADP list. You need some guiding principles that will inform what you’re going to do when you’re on the clock and the player you were targeting has just been taken. But they can’t just be any principles. To truly pull ahead from your league mates, you have to be one step ahead of them, which usually means approaching the draft in a slightly different way.

Make the Leap: 4 Contrarian Principles for Home League Domination

With that in mind, here are some of the contrarian principles we like to keep in mind when drafting. Many of these principles form the tacit foundation of a lot of our player recommendations. They inform our strategic and tactical considerations, even if we don’t always acknowledge them.