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The Rant with Jeff Ratcliffe

RB Draft Strategies

The Rant with Jeff Ratcliffe

Jeff Ratcliffe

Sports, Fantasy Sports, Football

4.81.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jeff breaks down why going RB-heavy early, the old-school “Robust RB” approach, is more risky than rewarding in today’s fantasy landscape. He lays out the key reasons this strategy puts you at a disadvantage, from injury volatility to positional depth and opportunity cost. Then he dives into the two RB strategies that actually give you an edge: Hero RB and Zero RB. Jeff explains the pros of each, when to use them, and how to execute them. Whether you’re anchoring your roster with a bell cow or building from the WR position and attacking RB later, he has you covered. If you want to walk into your draft with a real plan at the most volatile position in fantasy, this episode is for you.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Rap back where you at?

0:14.1

Yo, what's going on?

0:16.7

This is the rant.

0:19.6

Let's talk some running back strategy on the podcast today.

0:23.2

It's a good time of year to kind of iron out some of those things and, you know,

0:26.7

talked to a little bit last week about handcuffing strategy.

0:30.9

Let's specifically talk, though, how to draft running backs.

0:33.7

And in particular, early and middle round.

0:36.9

Late round's going to be darts for the most part.

0:39.8

And when I talk about late rounds, I'm talking about double digit rounds. Those are dart

0:43.2

throws. And I do think it's worthy to throw a dart or two depending on how many rounds you

0:47.6

have. But really our draft strategy at running back comes down to the early and middle rounds.

0:53.5

And I will say this, your running back

0:55.2

strategy is also your wide receiver strategy. They're correlated to each other. I would not say that

1:00.1

about quarterback and tight end, which we'll get to those on another podcast. We still have plenty of

1:05.2

time until fantasy drafts. Most likely you're about a month out, right? But running back wide receiver

1:10.8

essentially one in the same. Now before I get into that, let me do the promotion, of course, FtnFantasy.com. If you want my draft strategy for this year, I break it down in the game plan draft guide, getting a lot of compliments about this year's game plan. It looks cool. It really, really looks cool, but the information is great as well. So it's smart and fun at the same time. My cheat sheets are up there. Sixteen of them. We update them every Monday. And then in Fantasy Draft season, those big draft days, I will wake up first thing in the morning on a Saturday. Update the darn cheat sheets. That's how we roll here at FtNFantasy.com.

1:45.2

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

1:46.8

Now, I recommend the pro subscription for the serious fantasy player,

1:49.9

and you can use the promo code Rat Pack to get yourself 10% off on that subscription.

1:55.2

Go check it out, FtNFantasy.com.

1:58.4

Now, let's dive into this.

...

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