Adam Murfet | Fri, Aug 4th 2023, 7:05am EDT

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy & Advice: Tiers (2023)

You have likely heard of the term “tiers.” However, you might not know why it is so important to have tiers and keep them up to date.

Fantasy football tiers are a method of grouping players at similar skill levels within the same position. They are useful for several reasons which we’ll explore in the article below.

But in order to be able to have a basis for your tiers, you’ll need some fantasy football draft rankings and ultimately a ‘cheat sheet’ to use on draft day. We have you covered. You can use our Cheat Sheet Creator to instantly create fantasy Football cheat sheets for your upcoming draft. Our tools let you easily customize rankings, add player tiers & import notes. Combine rankings from your favorite experts into one consensus cheat sheet today!

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Tiers Explainer: What Are They & How Do You Use Them? (2023 Fantasy Football)

Player Evaluation

Tiers help fantasy managers quickly assess the relative value of specific positions. Instead of trying to rank individual players, which can be subjective and time-consuming, tiers provide a more intuitive and qualified approach. For example, when you are looking at the running back position, you might find it very hard to separate Breece Hall, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard and Rhamondre Stevenson. Therefore, it would make sense to group these players into a tier. This would allow you to see them as having similar values, and therefore, you wouldn’t be unhappy having one of these players over another when it comes to a certain spot in your fantasy drafts.

Draft Strategy

During a fantasy draft, tiers allow managers to plan their selections better. It helps identify positions with deeper talent pools, allowing managers to wait on certain positions while prioritizing others where the position is shallower. Using the running back example in the paragraph above, let’s look at a theoretical example.

If you are drafting at the 2.10, and all of the above players are still on the board, then selecting a running back here will not return you, according to your tier evaluation, colossal value.

Instead, you should also have a list of wide receiver tiers in this situation. So if you have A.J. Brown and Davante Adams in the same tier and Garrett Wilson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle and Chris Olave in the tier below, the best value on your board would be to take one of Brown or Adams at the 2.10. Then take one of the running backs in your tier at the 3.03, as it is likely one of those four come back to you.

Having tiers allows you to have a vertical rankings board, meaning a ranking of all players, and a horizontal rankings board, whereby you see who represents the strongest value by position due to having fewer players available in a tier.

Risk Management

Tiers help fantasy players recognize players with similar potential and performance but varying levels of risk. Managers can make decisions based on their risk appetite by selecting players from different tiers. For example, players that carry risk this season at the running back position are Joe Mixon and Alvin Kamara, due to potential suspensions, and Hall and J.K. Dobbins, due to returning from injury or currently being injured.

Therefore, if these players’ situations were 100% certain, they would likely be in a higher tier due to their potential range of outcomes. However, as their situations are uncertain, you are likely to lower them by one to maybe even three tiers. This is especially the case with Kamara due to the uncertainty and the risk you take on when selecting these players in your fantasy drafts.

In-Season Management

Throughout the season, injuries and unexpected performances can impact player values. Tiers allow managers to identify potential replacements or waiver wire targets based on the tier they are in and the relative value compared to their current roster.

Most players don’t tend to update their tiers in season. They tend to work on gut feel and the previous week’s or two weeks’ performance. Therefore, updating your tiers constantly will give you a significant edge when it comes to owning your waiver wire. This is because you will see value other players will not and be able to snag players on an upward trajectory instead of just chasing points.

Trading

Tiers provide a common language for trade discussions. Fantasy players can compare players across positions more easily and make more informed decisions on player trades based on the tiers they belong to. Similar to in-season management, keeping your tiers up to date will allow you to potentially gain additional value in trade negotiations and obtain your trade targets for less. It could also help you trade players off your roster for more than you might have expected.

Setting Lineups

Tiers also aid in setting lineups for game weeks. When deciding between players, fantasy football managers can consider tier levels and matchups to make more confident choices. For example, if you drafted both Adams and Olave, and you only have one roster spot for these players, then you would likely start Adams over Olave based on your evaluation of these players in your tiers.

The best way to describe fantasy football tiers is as a dynamic and flexible tool that helps managers organize and understand player values, enabling them to make better decisions throughout the season. It provides a structured approach to player evaluation and streamlines the decision-making process in drafting, trading and managing fantasy football teams.

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Adam Murfet is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Murf, check out his archive and follow him @Murf_NFL.

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