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Zero RB Strategy in 2020 (1 Viewer)

OnTheReg

OnTheReg

Footballguy
I did a search and haven't seen a ton on the Zero RB strategy and was wondering what everyone thinks about it this year? Of course, strategies vary from league to league based on a number of factors. But to me, I feel like there are just so many RB2s and RB3s out there who can be gotten for cheap that it makes sense to load up on WR this year and then horde a bunch of those guys.

What say you? 

 
OnTheReg said:
I did a search and haven't seen a ton on the Zero RB strategy and was wondering what everyone thinks about it this year? Of course, strategies vary from league to league based on a number of factors. But to me, I feel like there are just so many RB2s and RB3s out there who can be gotten for cheap that it makes sense to load up on WR this year and then horde a bunch of those guys.

What say you? 
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I believe it's the complete opposite and that teams that load up at WR will be facing an uphill battle all season. WR is so crazy deep this year.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
I think that it is not a good year for Zero RB because I think that there is a ton of depth at WR that you don't need to load up at the top of the draft.  I'm also not sure that that are that many slam-dunk WR choices at the top that will be so much more valuable.
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This. From a tiering perspective, after Julio, it’s nearly impossible to draw a line. Just a slow trickle downward. 

 
Thanks for the responses guys, guess I was coming at this from a different perspective! I guess my thought was after running a bunch of mocks that I preferred the teams I was getting where I was really focused on drafting higher end WRs and then grabbing a bunch of mid level RBs. Granted, that strategy is highly dependent on those RBs outperforming their ADP.

 
OnTheReg said:
Thanks for the responses guys, guess I was coming at this from a different perspective! I guess my thought was after running a bunch of mocks that I preferred the teams I was getting where I was really focused on drafting higher end WRs and then grabbing a bunch of mid level RBs. Granted, that strategy is highly dependent on those RBs outperforming their ADP.
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That's because people convince themselves their mid level RBs will all work out when the truth is most will not.

 
If you do it, I think you do it with Mahomes in the first, Kelce or Kittle in the second, WR in rounds 3 and 4, and start targeting RB in round 5 like the Hunts in PPR. Load your bench with the lottery ticket RB and wait to hit on one.

 
I mocked it several times at the 8 spot in a 12 teamer.

Even my teams with Michael Thomas and Julio as 1/2, I ended up not loving the finished product.

Either way you need to let the draft fall to you. My draft was last night. I was still planning on grabbing Michael thomas at 8 of he was there. He went 7 and I ended up taking CEH and then Miles Sanders on the turn. 
 

Then went receiver 3/4/5.

This team feels much stronger than any of the WR WR teams I mocked.

 
OnTheReg said:
Thanks for the responses guys, guess I was coming at this from a different perspective! I guess my thought was after running a bunch of mocks that I preferred the teams I was getting where I was really focused on drafting higher end WRs and then grabbing a bunch of mid level RBs. Granted, that strategy is highly dependent on those RBs outperforming their ADP.
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can you give an example team doing this?

 
The rotoviz guys that supposedly first came up with the notion of zero-RB, say this is the best year ever for it, in terms of all the conditions being ripe for it. 

Not sure I agree. I've done a couple this way this year and I just don't like the later RBs the way I have in years past.

 
I've tried the zero RB strategy a few times.  You are constantly battling everyone for the next big RB waiver wire pickup.  You'll get it right a few times throughout the year and go on a hot streak for 2-3 weeks.  But then you quickly return to a big disadvantage at RB.  I would much rather have RB strength all year, and try to catch that season-long lighting in a bottle at WR from the waiver wire (D.Parker, AJ Brown, even D.Samual or B.Perriman for the 2nd half of the year)

 
Synthesizer said:
I've tried the zero RB strategy a few times.  You are constantly battling everyone for the next big RB waiver wire pickup.  You'll get it right a few times throughout the year and go on a hot streak for 2-3 weeks.  But then you quickly return to a big disadvantage at RB.  I would much rather have RB strength all year, and try to catch that season-long lighting in a bottle at WR from the waiver wire (D.Parker, AJ Brown, even D.Samual or B.Perriman for the 2nd half of the year)
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That's why your load your bench with the Dillon's and Love's

 
barackdhouse said:
The rotoviz guys that supposedly first came up with the notion of zero-RB, say this is the best year ever for it, in terms of all the conditions being ripe for it. 

Not sure I agree. I've done a couple this way this year and I just don't like the later RBs the way I have in years past.
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is the rationale that there is so much uncertainty this year, making it more viable?  it tends to rely on uncertainty and fragility as one of its key underpinnings, which does make sense, though this year feels like too much uncertainty to properly predict and plan for.

 
I agree with most of the others - WR is very deep this year, so grabbing a "stud" RB or two early makes a lot of sense.

In one draft I found myself very weak at my RB 2 spot because I drafted CMC, Golliday, Godwin, Waller, and Murray with my first five picks. 

I really like a lot of the rookie RB's this year, but most likely they won't hit until later in the year. So I drafted Kerryon Johnson assuming he would start out the year well, and picked up Akers and Moss and Henderson (Rams) later. I figure out of that group, I should be able to piece together my RB 2 spot.

I guess I'm saying if you do go zero RB, you should find a couple guys who most likely will start the year well (Kerryon, Mack, Ingram) and backfill with some rookies. Then you hope for one or two of those rookies to take over before your early year guy falters. A guy like James White might be a good pick up too. He's probably not going to become a RB 1 at any point, but he should be servicable most weeks until one of those rookies gets going.

Good luck!

 
I've found if you go Zero RB this year (WR/WR/TE/QB) in some form that it's best to target entire backfields immediately after  (Mosert/Coleman) (Taylor/Mack) (Johnson/Swift) (Ingram/Dobbins) etc . It ensures a starting level RB to pair with the star WRs.

 
Absolutely not this year.  RB RB RB even in full PPR seems to give you WAY better teams than WR WR WR.  RB's are GONE by the 4th round.

 
Good year to do a hybrid.  If you can land 1 stud RB, then take a bunch of fliers late you can build a really nice squad. 

but it feels like there’s a deep top-heavy group of RBs, and then after the Kareem Hunt and (maybe) Taylor tier it falls off a cliff.

anywhere in the 1st you should be able to land an anchor. In the second I’m warming to Drake as a potential 1st round value.

but I could see going WR-TE-WR or TE-WR-WR then taking a chance on a David Johnson or Ronald Jones in the late 4th/early 5th. 

lots of good strategies this year,  but I think you need at least 1 RB in the first 5 rounds to anchor your team. 

Certainly possible to do zero RB. I’d just prefer not to. 

 
I watched a expert fantasy draft on youtube a week or so ago. Guys like JJ Zacharison Rich Hribar and so on drafting.

One drafter went zero RB strategy. I hated their draft. The drafter took like 6 RB in the later rounds while other teams were getting value picks at that stage of the draft. None of them were good RB. It just seemed like a lot of wasted opportunity cost.

If your draft falls in such a way that you go WR/WR early or WR.TE early I think that is fine but to follow it up with so many bad RB after that is not.

If you are going to do it or end up doing it because of the flow of the draft I suggest being more selective with the later RB picks and to not make so many of them.

This year with the way ADP is shaking out I think you need to select a RB within your first 3 picks or you will be behind the 8 ball.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
I think that it is not a good year for Zero RB because I think that there is a ton of depth at WR that you don't need to load up at the top of the draft.  I'm also not sure that that are that many slam-dunk WR choices at the top that will be so much more valuable.
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Ship Chasers disagree they say this is the BEST year for zero RB

 
barackdhouse said:
The rotoviz guys that supposedly first came up with the notion of zero-RB, say this is the best year ever for it, in terms of all the conditions being ripe for it. 

Not sure I agree. I've done a couple this way this year and I just don't like the later RBs the way I have in years past.
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I just posted this.  While I didn't go no RB to the limit they did this year I find it interesting how they get claim for creating this zero RB stuff.

I will make a long story short because no one here cares but in 2003 I did my first ever high stakes league it was also my first ever PPR league.  I seen how it was all RB's almost in rounds 1 and 2 back then and barely any WR's.  I drew pick 8 and I said if the top 6 RBs were gone I was going Harrison coming off a 143 catch season.

Then in round 2 as all the RB's were gobbled up I went Randy Moss.  Hines Ward round 3 and Toomer round 4.

In the entire contest all teams combined only 1 other team even went WR/WR to start.  Every other team took at least 1 RB in first 2 rounds and most 2 RB's.

I was only WR-WR-WR-WR start and I was called "dead money" on the message board after my draft because no one was doing this.

I was in 1st place for the overall championship all the way until week 16 Monday night 4th quarter when Favre hit a 3rd and long bomb to set up the guy who was in 1st who had Favre and Ahman Green and Green ran in a short TD knocking me off 1st place for the overall title.

It still hurts to this day but I proved in that day and time zero RB in some form could work.

 
Dez said:
I just posted this.  While I didn't go no RB to the limit they did this year I find it interesting how they get claim for creating this zero RB stuff.

I will make a long story short because no one here cares but in 2003 I did my first ever high stakes league it was also my first ever PPR league.  I seen how it was all RB's almost in rounds 1 and 2 back then and barely any WR's.  I drew pick 8 and I said if the top 6 RBs were gone I was going Harrison coming off a 143 catch season.

Then in round 2 as all the RB's were gobbled up I went Randy Moss.  Hines Ward round 3 and Toomer round 4.

In the entire contest all teams combined only 1 other team even went WR/WR to start.  Every other team took at least 1 RB in first 2 rounds and most 2 RB's.

I was only WR-WR-WR-WR start and I was called "dead money" on the message board after my draft because no one was doing this.

I was in 1st place for the overall championship all the way until week 16 Monday night 4th quarter when Favre hit a 3rd and long bomb to set up the guy who was in 1st who had Favre and Ahman Green and Green ran in a short TD knocking me off 1st place for the overall title.

It still hurts to this day but I proved in that day and time zero RB in some form could work.
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Yeah I mean they're the ones that try to say they came up with it, not me. Here is a link to what they've been saying as a perfect storm for zero-RB this year. I guess the first premise is that early RBs tend to bust at a very high rate, as opposed to early WRs. They *do* lobby for taking one of the elite backs in the first half of the first round, though. 

https://www.rotoviz.com/2020/06/recency-bias-and-the-natural-tendency-to-zag-why-zero-rb-is-set-to-crush-in-2020/

 
Dez said:
I just posted this.  While I didn't go no RB to the limit they did this year I find it interesting how they get claim for creating this zero RB stuff.

I will make a long story short because no one here cares but in 2003 I did my first ever high stakes league it was also my first ever PPR league.  I seen how it was all RB's almost in rounds 1 and 2 back then and barely any WR's.  I drew pick 8 and I said if the top 6 RBs were gone I was going Harrison coming off a 143 catch season.

Then in round 2 as all the RB's were gobbled up I went Randy Moss.  Hines Ward round 3 and Toomer round 4.

In the entire contest all teams combined only 1 other team even went WR/WR to start.  Every other team took at least 1 RB in first 2 rounds and most 2 RB's.

I was only WR-WR-WR-WR start and I was called "dead money" on the message board after my draft because no one was doing this.

I was in 1st place for the overall championship all the way until week 16 Monday night 4th quarter when Favre hit a 3rd and long bomb to set up the guy who was in 1st who had Favre and Ahman Green and Green ran in a short TD knocking me off 1st place for the overall title.

It still hurts to this day but I proved in that day and time zero RB in some form could work.
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You have to realize that your one anecdotal thing doesn't prove anything.  Fantasy isn't a game of what can happen.  It's a game of "What is most likely to happen?"

CAN you go ZERO RB and win?  Sure.  Are you likely to in 2020?  No.

 
Dez said:
I just posted this.  While I didn't go no RB to the limit they did this year I find it interesting how they get claim for creating this zero RB stuff.

I will make a long story short because no one here cares but in 2003 I did my first ever high stakes league it was also my first ever PPR league.  I seen how it was all RB's almost in rounds 1 and 2 back then and barely any WR's.  I drew pick 8 and I said if the top 6 RBs were gone I was going Harrison coming off a 143 catch season.

Then in round 2 as all the RB's were gobbled up I went Randy Moss.  Hines Ward round 3 and Toomer round 4.

In the entire contest all teams combined only 1 other team even went WR/WR to start.  Every other team took at least 1 RB in first 2 rounds and most 2 RB's.

I was only WR-WR-WR-WR start and I was called "dead money" on the message board after my draft because no one was doing this.

I was in 1st place for the overall championship all the way until week 16 Monday night 4th quarter when Favre hit a 3rd and long bomb to set up the guy who was in 1st who had Favre and Ahman Green and Green ran in a short TD knocking me off 1st place for the overall title.

It still hurts to this day but I proved in that day and time zero RB in some form could work.
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Having Moss and Marvelous in their prime won a lot of people leagues back then.

Shawn Siegle wrote a very convincing article based on a study he did and to the best of my knowledge coined the phrase zero RB as the title of it. I think he deserves credit for that. Doesnt mean no one had used the strategy before.

Even minimalist WR strategy included getting Moss first back then. 

 
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I posted this in the early TE thread, but here is basically a zero-RB draft I did in the FPC the other night. 

1.09 - Michael Thomas (I can't believe it)
2.04 - Kittle
3.09 - Mahomes
4.04 - McLaurin
5.09 - Dobbins
6.04 - Hunt
7.09 - Lindsay
Higbee, Slayton, Vaughn, Hardman, Hines, Love, Edwards, Darrel, Watkins, Claypool, Minshew, Zane G, Bucs

 
In 2020, WR is ridiculously deep.  And the gap after the first 5 or 6 guys really isn't much 2-3 rounds later.  

In 2003, maybe it made more sense.  But in 2020, ZERO RB is not the way to go.  

I also dislike the idea of "Zero RB" as a labeled strategy.  It implies that you intend to go WR early rather than just taking the best available player.  You shouldn't have a rigid draft strategy.  People do silly things sometimes and unexpect values almost always happen.

 
barackdhouse said:
I posted this in the early TE thread, but here is basically a zero-RB draft I did in the FPC the other night. 

1.09 - Michael Thomas (I can't believe it)
2.04 - Kittle
3.09 - Mahomes
4.04 - McLaurin
5.09 - Dobbins
6.04 - Hunt
7.09 - Lindsay
Higbee, Slayton, Vaughn, Hardman, Hines, Love, Edwards, Darrel, Watkins, Claypool, Minshew, Zane G, Bucs
Click to expand...
I like this a lot better than the other zero RB draft I saw and was referencing. You still jumped on value picks like Hardman and Watkins instead of 7 RB in a row from round 6 on who had some of the same RB picks like Edwards but I don't think had Naheem Hines who might be the savior of this kind of draft in PPR.

I don't like the drafts that are 6 or more RB in a row from round 6 on. All the advantage gained by passing on RB early gets washed out by no value picks in the later rounds.

In my view if you do it, you want fewer RB picks and something more like what you did in this draft.

 
Biabreakable said:
I like this a lot better than the other zero RB draft I saw and was referencing. You still jumped on value picks like Hardman and Watkins instead of 7 RB in a row from round 6 on who had some of the same RB picks like Edwards but I don't think had Naheem Hines who might be the savior of this kind of draft in PPR.

I don't like the drafts that are 6 or more RB in a row from round 6 on. All the advantage gained by passing on RB early gets washed out by no value picks in the later rounds.

In my view if you do it, you want fewer RB picks and something more like what you did in this draft.
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That is Bryan not Gus

 
barackdhouse said:
Huh? Raiders baby. 
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Oh well even better.

Yeah I thought that was Chase Edmonds rather than Edwards. That is who the other zero RB drafter took.

My bad. Edmonds close to Edwards but not the same guy at all. Incidentally I can see Edmonds being a decent player to take late.

 
Biabreakable said:
Oh well even better.

Yeah I thought that was Chase Edmonds rather than Edwards. That is who the other zero RB drafter took.

My bad. Edmonds close to Edwards but not the same guy at all. Incidentally I can see Edmonds being a decent player to take late.
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Yeah I like Chase as well. To piggyback off other comments, it is good to be flexible with draft strategy and let it fall as it will. I say that because I had no intention of taking eithe an early TE or QB here but they fell for me. 

 
barackdhouse said:
I posted this in the early TE thread, but here is basically a zero-RB draft I did in the FPC the other night. 

1.09 - Michael Thomas (I can't believe it)
2.04 - Kittle
3.09 - Mahomes
4.04 - McLaurin
5.09 - Dobbins
6.04 - Hunt
7.09 - Lindsay
Higbee, Slayton, Vaughn, Hardman, Hines, Love, Edwards, Darrel, Watkins, Claypool, Minshew, Zane G, Bucs
Click to expand...
I like this team actually. Would never be able to replicate in my main league as no way Mahomes drops to 3rd (6pt/td league) but it's well crafted imo.

 
Wu-banger said:
I've found if you go Zero RB this year (WR/WR/TE/QB) in some form that it's best to target entire backfields immediately after  (Mosert/Coleman) (Taylor/Mack) (Johnson/Swift) (Ingram/Dobbins) etc . It ensures a starting level RB to pair with the star WRs.
Click to expand...
If you go wr/wr/te/qb there's no way you can get Taylor in the 5th in most leagues.  Even Swift/Johnson might be dicey. Mostert/Coleman should be doable.  Ingrams/Dobbins you need an early 5th.

 
jm192 said:
In 2020, WR is ridiculously deep.  And the gap after the first 5 or 6 guys really isn't much 2-3 rounds later.  

In 2003, maybe it made more sense.  But in 2020, ZERO RB is not the way to go.  

I also dislike the idea of "Zero RB" as a labeled strategy.  It implies that you intend to go WR early rather than just taking the best available player.  You shouldn't have a rigid draft strategy.  People do silly things sometimes and unexpect values almost always happen.
Click to expand...
I can’t imagine not drafting a RB in the first two rounds or two RBs in the first 3 rounds. I draft the opposite of zero RB. 

 
Truebluey said:
I like this team actually. Would never be able to replicate in my main league as no way Mahomes drops to 3rd (6pt/td league) but it's well crafted imo.
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Yeah he hasn't lasted this long in any of these that I've done. And in 6pt/TD leagues I think he is 1st round material.

 
I'm in round 13 of a FFPC draft. Pick 5.  Thought I'd mix it up an do a modified 0 RB. Definitely risk in my RB's but volume should be there in PPR.

1.5 Thomas
2.8 Hopkins
3.5 Golloday
4.8 David Johnson
5.5 Le'Veon Bell
6.8 Singletary
7.5 Kyler Murray
8.8 CeeDee
9.5 Hunter Henry

 
OnTheReg said:
I did a search and haven't seen a ton on the Zero RB strategy and was wondering what everyone thinks about it this year? Of course, strategies vary from league to league based on a number of factors. But to me, I feel like there are just so many RB2s and RB3s out there who can be gotten for cheap that it makes sense to load up on WR this year and then horde a bunch of those guys.

What say you? 
Click to expand...
its a bad move

thanks for coming to my ted talk

 
So looking back over the past few years, do we have any data on this Strategy? Has anyone won a championship using zero RB?

 
3nOut said:
So looking back over the past few years, do we have any data on this Strategy? Has anyone won a championship using zero RB?
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In reading some of the old posts about waiting on rb, it certainly doesn’t look like it.  The guy that won my auction league last year took Mahomes, Kelce and m sanders with his first 3 picks.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
I think that it is not a good year for Zero RB because I think that there is a ton of depth at WR that you don't need to load up at the top of the draft.  I'm also not sure that that are that many slam-dunk WR choices at the top that will be so much more valuable.
Click to expand...
I agree, but if I'm at 11 or 12 in a 12-team PPR redraft, I'm almost certainly going WR-WR. There is definitely a top tier. 

There also seems to be a fairly solid "plan B" group of RBs in the 3rd-5th round range that we haven't had for a couple of seasons. Some promising rookies at very decent value, and a couple question mark guys like Mike Davis in ATL is going pretty late. Couple teams that I think will be RBBC come in handy for RB3/4 with RoJo/Foutnette/Bernard all likely fantasy relevant, Gordon/JWill, Ekeler/(whoever wins the RB2 gig).

But for sure if I'm sitting that late and one of the RBs I really like this year falls there like Mixon, Taylor, Chubb, maybe Akers, so I could see going any combo of RB/WR there. 

This may change in the coming weeks, but at the moment I'm more exited about the depth of the first 2 rounds than any year in recent memory. 
 

ETA: I now realize that I was responding to a post from last year in what I thought was a new topic. 
:doh:  

 
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