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Fact or Fiction? Looking At ADP Vs. Pre-Draft Rankings Using "Teams In A Vacuum" Concept

Christian McCaffrey - Fantasy Football Rankings, NFL Injury News, DFS Lineup Picks

Glenn analyzes ADP vs. pre-draft rankings using "Teams in a Vacuum" (TIAV) concept. Teams In A Vacuum switches to draft order using Average Draft Position from the past 10 years.

We live in a world of acronyms -- ASAP, GPS, IMHO, LOL, etc. Even in our fantasy football world, we have certain acronyms -- D/ST, FA, IDP, IR, PPR, RZ, ADP, etc.

The other day, a fantasy football buddy said to me: “You’re doing that all wrong. Don’t you know that if you’re drafting, ADP (average draft position) is better to use than PDR (pre-draft rankings)? A cumulative group of people is a more accurate DS (data set) than the so-called experts.”

To add insult to injury, a statistics friend said: “The article about drafting QBs (quarterbacks) is NV (invalid). Using the SD (standard deviation) is correct but base your H-zero (hypothesis) on the f-e (expected frequency) of wins over time, not f-o (observed frequency) each year!” Silly me. In this piece, I'll use the Teams In A Vacuum concept to test whether ADP is greater than pre-draft rankings.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2025:

 

Is ADP > PDR?

The original question was, since QBs score the most points, should you draft them first? The fantasy experts say: “No. Because the top QBs score about the same number of points, you can wait until later rounds to draft a QB.”

The standard deviation calculation mathematically confirms this concept. The smaller the standard deviation, the closer together the values are. In terms of fantasy football, a small standard deviation for a position indicates you can wait on drafting that position because several players will score nearly the same number of points.

Conversely, a large standard deviation means you should draft one of the better players for that position. As you can see from Table 1, running backs (RBs) have the largest standard deviation. Therefore, they should be drafted first. The one exception is that QBs have a larger standard deviation than RBs in 16-team standard leagues.

10-Team Leagues
10-Year Avg Standard Deviation
12-Team Leagues
10-Year Avg Standard Deviation
16-Team Leagues
10-Year Avg Standard Deviation
Standard Scoring
1 QB 34 36 78
2 RBs 44 46 70
2 WRs 29 31 53
1 TE 28 30 43
Point-Per-Reception Scoring
1 QB 34 36 78
2 RBs 55 56 86
2 WRs 40 43 77
1 TE 38 39 64

Table 1 – 2013-2022 Standard Deviation Averages

Teams In A Vacuum (TIAV) is a programming exercise. Changing the input data from draft rankings to the average draft position just entails finding the data. Unfortunately, websites value their draft rankings higher than historical ADP. I was only able to obtain the past 10 years of ADP data.

Standard League Scoring Point-Per-Reception Scoring
Rank Name Position ADP Rank Name Position ADP
1 Jonathan Taylor RB1 1 1 Jonathan Taylor RB1 1
2 Christian McCaffrey RB2 2.5 2 Christian McCaffrey RB2 2
3 Austin Ekeler RB3 3.5 3 Austin Ekeler RB3 3.8
4 Derrick Henry RB4 5 4 Cooper Kupp WR1 4
5 Dalvin Cook RB5 6 5 Derrick Henry RB4 5.3
6 Cooper Kupp WR1 6 6 Justin Jefferson WR2 5.5
7 Najee Harris RB6 6 7 Dalvin Cook RB5 7.5
8 Justin Jefferson WR2 6.5 8 Najee Harris RB6 8
9 Joe Mixon RB7 9.5 9 Ja'Marr Chase WR3 8.3
10 Ja'Marr Chase WR3 11 10 Joe Mixon RB7 10.3
11 Alvin Kamara RB8 12 11 Davante Adams WR4 12.3
12 D'Andre Swift RB9 12.5 12 Stefon Diggs WR5 12.5

Table 2 – 2022 Average Draft Position

For this exercise, TIAV will snake draft teams from the yearly ADP lists, correlate the number of points scored to the corresponding players for that season, and add the teams' points together to see which one is the winner. Because the fantasy artifacts are limited to 300 players and will not include enough Defenses and Kickers, TIAV will contain:

  • 1 QB
  • 2 RBs
  • 2 WRs
  • 1 TE
  • 1 Flex -- best available RB, WR, or TE when the other position is filled

Anyone who has participated in a snake draft knows that QBs are not drafted in the first round. To demonstrate the idea of drafting a QB first, TIAV will draft the best QB from the corresponding year first followed by the rest of the ADP list.

Standard League Scoring Point-Per-Reception League Scoring
Draft Rank Player Name Fan Points Final Pos Rank Draft Rank Player Name Fan Points Final Pos Rank
30 Patrick Mahomes 416 QB1 29 Patrick Mahomes 416 QB1
19 Aaron Jones 189 RB11 19 Tyreek Hill 342 WR2
20 CeeDee Lamb 194 WR6 20 Nick Chubb 258 RB6
40 George Kittle 140 TE2 40 Terry McLaurin 229 WR14
42 Courtland Sutton 95 WR45 42 DJ Moore 199 Flex
60 Dameon Pierce 136 RB28 62 Clyde Edwards-Helaire 98 RB44
61 Dalton Schultz 86 TE9 65 T.J. Hockenson 215 TE2
Team 1 Total 1256 Team 1 Winning Team 1757
 Winning Team = 5 1418

Table 3 – 2022 Teams In A Vacuum 10-Team Leagues – Best QB Drafted First

Similar to using the FantasyPros draft rankings, drafting the best QB first and then using ADP for the rest of the picks produces underwhelming results. The observed results fall very close to the predicted results rather than showing concrete evidence that drafting an elite QB first will always win your league.

As indicated by the standard deviation and the fantasy experts, RBs should be drafted first. If your pick is at the end of the first round and you feel the elite RBs are gone, draft the best tight end or a wide receiver. If you have the last pick, please see the TIAV article on the Zero RB strategy. The one exception is 16-team standard leagues where standard deviation and TIAV show that QBs should be drafted before all other positions.

Standard Winning Years Expected Winning Percentage Actual Winning Percentage
10 Teams 10% 0%
12 Teams 8.30% 0%
16 Teams 2015, 2016, 2020 6.25% 30%
Point-Per-Reception
10 Teams 2017, 2022 10.00% 20%
12 Teams 8.30% 0%
16 Teams 2019 6.25% 10%
8.20% 10%

Table 4 – Teams In A Vacuum Using ADP – Best QB Drafted First Results

 

Is There A Favorable Draft Position?

In addition to starting with the best QB, TIAV also drafted a “conventional” set of leagues using ADP as the draft order input. The exercise involved 10-team, 12-team, and 16-team leagues in both standard and PPR formats. In other words, 760 teams were drafted for this exercise with 60 winners.

Number Drafted Per Simulation Winners Per Simulation Simulation Names Number Of Simulations Teams Drafted Total League Winners
10 teams * 10 years 10 QB Using Draft Rankings 3 1140 90
12 teams * 10 years 10 Zero RB 2 760 60
16 teams * 10 years 10 QB Using ADP 2 760 60
380 Teams 30 Winners 2660 Teams 210 Winners

Table 5 – Teams In A Vacuum Historical Data

On top of the simulations used in the articles, there have been thousands of TIAV leagues drafted and none have displayed evidence of a favored draft position. Because players score a random number of fantasy points, predicting the winning draft position proves difficult to impossible. Fantasy football drafts are fluid; therefore, make the best pick with the information you have at draft time.

Graph 1 – Teams In A Vacuum using ADP – All League Winners

So is the average draft position greater than pre-draft rankings? Using ADP as the input for snake drafting, Teams In A Vacuum proves that the results come out the same.

Standard deviation and the fantasy experts tell you to draft running backs first and both have proven correct. TIAV proves that ADP equals PDR. Above all, TIAV has not found a favorable draft position. Football players score a random number of fantasy points so there is no advantageous location in the draft order. Be happy with the spot you’ve drawn and make each pick count!



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