Here are the first two parts of this series!

There are SO many ways to go about your fantasy football drafts. This is why practicing and preparing early is so important. We’re locked in on picks 7-9 here.

Pick seven is on an island here, as there is one locked-in pick at this spot. Based on Walter's projections, as well as who else is likely to be available, Amon-Ra St. Brown is who I would recommend selecting seventh.

Assuming the draft starts the way we’ve outlined in the previous pieces of this series, the only other players that would be worth consideration are pictured above. I’m advocating for ARSB because he’s been the WR3 overall for three consecutive seasons, he’s on a top-tier offense, and his schedule is one of the few advantageous ones. On top of that, he faces the Giants and Bears in the fantasy playoffs.

After selecting St. Brown, your second round options would look something like this in a 10-team league:

There are plenty of excellent RB options available here, and it would make sense to draft one. However, I am going to advocate for attempting the Zero RB strategy if Drake London is available. For more info on how to implement this strategy, check this out:

The pairing of Drake London and Amon-Ra St. Brown would instantly give you the best WR group in your league. It’s a rare opportunity to dominate one of fantasy football's premier positions.

If you start with ARSB and London, and you’re wanting to build a Zero RB roster, your next pick needs to be ANOTHER wide receiver. The thought process behind this is continuing to bolster your strong WR room into an even stronger one. One of the core tenets of the Zero RB strategy is banking on yourself hitting on one of the late round RBs, forgoing some of those middle-tier guys. Another reason to go after another WR in the third round is that it’s a “dead zone” for TEs and QBs (both positions I like to wait on, regardless of what strategy I’m implementing).

In 10-team leagues, the available WRs are most likely to be Tee Higgins, Devonta Smith, and Chris Olave. With the Saints drafting Jordyn Tyson in the NFL Draft, I would recommend taking either Higgins or Smith. If you are unsure which one you prefer, you can compare them within the WalterPicks Draft tool.

It’s close, but I’d recommend drafting DeVonta Smith in the third round. Doing this would give your roster a third WR that’s the clear WR1 on their team.

In rounds four and five, look to target more non-RBs if you’re continuing to firmly build a Zero RB roster. In round four, you will be looking at some iteration of Ladd McConkey, Luther Burden, Colston Loveland, and Lamar Jackson.

Some RB context: The top remaining RBs at this point in the mock draft I did for this article are Travis Etienne and Javonte Williams. Both these RBs are good options, but staying the course of Zero RB is what I’d recommend here.

Of the four potential round-four options listed above, the decision comes down to Colston Loveland or Lamar Jackson. I have been a heavy advocate of waiting on QB this season, and with the Ravens seeing a massive overhaul of their coaching staff, I am leaning Loveland. He offers a top-3 TE ceiling, further solidifying the immense positional strength of this roster.

The core approach of the Zero RB strategy is passing on RBs in the first four to seven rounds. In round five, I am recommending taking one if Bhayshul Tuten, Cam Skattebo, or Quinshon Judkins are available (they were in my mock draft).

These three RBs all have excellent opportunities this season. All three have ceilings of RB7 or better in our draft tool.

Sidenote: the available players will vary based on league size. Mock drafting with your league settings is super important for this reason…and you are able to do this in the Mock Draft tool HERE.

In 2026, if your Zero RB draft looks like this after the first five rounds, you should be feeling confident that you’ve cooked from pick seven.

Picks eight and nine are being paired together because the builds will be very similar, assuming you follow Walter's and my advice. You could certainly consider taking Jonathan Taylor with one of these picks, but his early-season schedule is daunting: Ravens, Chiefs, Texans, Steelers, Vikings, and Jaguars in the first eight weeks. Instead, I recommend drafting the players Walter deems most positionally valuable at picks eight and nine: CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson, respectively.

In ten team leagues, your board, in all likelihood, will look like this in the second round. Luckily for us, two of my favorite picks in all of fantasy football are available here.

De'Von Achane and James Cook are two players I will be targeting in round two of every one of my drafts, regardless of pick. Pairing a top-tier WR with who Walter and I believe is a top-tier RB is a great way to begin a draft. The safer of the two is Cook, while Achane offers a ceiling few players can match. For those reasons, I recommend pick nine select James Cook to pair with Justin Jefferson, while pick eight selects De'Von Achane to pair with CeeDee Lamb.

Since you’re starting your draft with one WR and one RB, you have tons of flexibility with your third round pick. Some of the options you can expect to see will be:

Of that group, Kyren Williams and Travis Etienne offer the safest workloads at RB. Devonta Smith, Chris Olave, and Tetairoa McMillan are the only WRs who are the clear top dog on their team. On paper, you cannot go wrong with any of those five players.
The position you select in round three does impact the direction you should go in rounds four and five. Pairing another WR1 with your first two picks is what I would recommend in round three.

To keep the team balanced, I also recommend avoiding TE or QB with your round four pick. There is a decent chance Etienne and/or Williams fall to you there, and I would take one of them in that instance.

After that, your fifth round options would look something like this if you sort by Walter’s rankings:

If you have read the previous parts of this series, you are well aware of how bullish I am on Jameson Williams. He is who I would run to the podium to select in round five from the eighth pick.

For pick nine, I would consider going with Terry McLaurin or Davante Adams. McLaurin has zero substantive competition for targets, while Adams is the Rams' go-to option in the red zone.

I recommend waiting on QB and TE when drafting from these picks. Both positions, especially QB, are very deep this year. You can find a gem pretty easily in the later rounds of your draft.

From either of these picks, you can build a roster consisting of two great RB1s, two great WR1s, and a flex spot with immense ceiling. Picks eight and nine are underrated right now in ten-team leagues.