No matter what size league you are in, every team manager needs to know how many players to draft in fantasy football this year. It's a question that can vary from league to league and >impacts how you approach your fantasy football cheat sheet.
This review will help you figure out your ideal fantasy football roster breakdown. It will also detail how this breakdown impacts your fantasy football rankings and will provide you with details on how many QBs or RBs you should draft.
Understanding Roster Spots and League Settings
The ideal fantasy football roster strategy begins by understanding the available roster spots on your team. You will also want to be familiar with your league's other settings, as this type of information has a major impact on how you view fantasy football auction values.
How Many Quarterbacks Should You Draft?
When considering how many QBs to draft in fantasy football, you need to begin with how many quarterback starter spots are required in your league. In most leagues that number will be one. In that case, you'll want to have one reliable starter plus a backup quarterback for bye weeks or for spot starts in the event your starting quarterback is dealing subpar fantasy football news such as bad weather or an injury.
If you are in a 2QB or Superflex league, you will want to have at least three starting quarterbacks. In those situations, you will do well to generate custom fantasy football rankings, as run of the mill rankings just won't cut it for stocking that specialized roster.
Running Back Depth: How Many RBs Do You Really Need?
Next up in this fantasy football draft guide for beginners is examining how much depth at running back you really need.
Most leagues have two starting running back spots. These leagues also typically have one flex spot that allows for a RB, WR or TE to start. That means you have as many as three starting running back spots. In this case, you will definitely want at least five running backs if you are in a league with a short bench. Those in leagues with longer benches will want at least six running backs on the roster. You can hone your RB draft search skills with the RotoWire Mock Draft Simulator.
Wide Receiver Strategy: Building a Solid WR Corps
There may not be a position with more quality depth than wide receiver. That would make it appear easy to build a solid WR corps, but the reality is this is also a position that deals with a lot of injuries. That means most of the time you'll want to have at least six WRs who will see 100+ targets in a season. You can find wide receiver target projections in the our fantasy football draft kit.
Tight Ends, Kickers and Defense: One or More?
The TE position has a few top players, but the value at this position levels out after that. This makes rostering two TEs a luxury. You should never roster more than one kicker. It is a good idea to roster more than one D/ST, as getting ahead of the curve can assure that you always have a D/ST with a favorable matchup against a weak offense.
Flex and Bench Spots: Filling Out the Rest of Your Roster
The reason you don't want to stockpile too many TE, D/ST or kickers is you need to save as much space as possible for flex and bench spots. These depth players make surviving bye weeks and injuries possible. You can find the top flex and bench players in the draft via RotoWire, which has the best draft assistant fantasy football tool around.
Sample Roster Breakdown for a 2025 Fantasy Football Draft
The standard fantasy football league consists of the following: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, a flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 K, 1 D/ST, seven bench players.
No matter what your league's roster size is, subscribing to RotoWire will help you build the best roster in that league. It has every powerful tool discussed earlier plus many more, so be sure to sign up today!
