Fantasy Football Keeper League's New Value Based Philosophy: The Zero TE Strategy

In 2009, I busted out the Zero RB Strategy and set the fantasy football world on fire. It wasn't literally never draft a Runningback, but it was deferring the selection of RBs to later rounds and focusing on players less likely to get injured, namely Wide Receivers in early rounds. The reason being is that their floor is higher and they are more likely to still be putting up big points during fantasy playoffs time. 

This week, we previewed Tight Ends on Fantasy Football Factory and I introduced a new strategy. It should primarily be used for keeper leagues that draft before pre-season is over. It's called the Zero TE Strategy. I've used it before and it has the potential to help you out long term. Here are the guidelines:

- You DO NOT Draft a Tight End. At all.

- Instead, you use a last round pick, Round 15, 16, 17 etc. on a scratch off ticket. A young rookie who had a decent pre-season or up and comer that had a good early pre-season game. Zamir White or Tyron Johnson from last night would be interesting options if your draft is soon.

- Pick up a Tight End from the Free Agent pool the weekend of opening games. Outside of the top two Tight Ends, you could argue top six, everyone else doesn't really have a draftable grade. Therefore, maybe a Tight End could even emerge like a Darren Waller or Julius Thomas in a pre-season.

The objective: it buys you time. Drafting early can be used to your advantage. Why not take a flier on a guy who takes advantage of pre-season whose role could emerge into something bigger? This could give you a leg up on your leaguemates. Additionally, if it's a keeper league, if gives you an extra lottery ticket that could turn into a dynamite keeper. OR if you have an IR spot, why not draft Jameson Williams in your last round who is likely out til November. Then stash him on IR and pick up a Tight End later. That could pay dividends for years to come.

The downside: Your platform you use (Yahoo, ESPN, Sleeper, CBS etc.) will likely give you a very poor Draft grade. Understand that draft grades are a formula based on projected points. Since you do not have a Tight End, it'll project you at 0.00 points from that position, so your grade will suffer. Your leaguemates will clown you, but just know you're doing the right thing and they're dummies.

This isn't a strategy for all leagues or everyone at all. But utilized correctly, could be a big help for a long time. However you go about it, be sure to check out Fantasy Football Factory's positional previews. So far we've done Quarterbacks 

and Tight Ends

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Runningbacks, Wide Receivers and Defense/Special Teams previews to come! Subscribe here.