To get this out of the way quickly, 84 was chosen for one reason: that is the total number of players that would be drafted through seven rounds of a standard 12-team fantasy football draft. After the seventh round of drafts, your focus should shift towards two things: filling positional holes on your roster and upside.

Heading into drafts, running backs will be my priority. This is because there are so few that provide week-to-week consistency. Sure, there will be a few mid-round guys that everything falls into place for and they breakthrough, but you’ll have a much better chance at finding consistency from the mid-round receivers (i.e. Torrey Smith, Marques Colston, Emmanuel Sanders, the list goes on) than those mid-round running backs. Roddy White even finds himself falling into the fifth round regularly and he presents WR1 upside.

Instead of a handful of mid-round backs stretching from your starters to your bench, struggling over who to start each week, the running backs better served for your bench are the lottery ticket types such as Lance Dunbar, James Starks, and Ahmad Bradshaw. You’ll have clear-cut starters and high-upside handcuffs that would become trading chips if you don’t need them. I have never played in a league where there weren’t at least a few teams desperate for starting quality backs.

This doesn’t mean you should avoid early-round wide receivers. Quite often, they will be the best value on the board and my top-84 provides an accurate depiction of how I will navigate through the early rounds this year.

At tight end, I would like to secure an elite option, but if I do miss out on them, it only makes sense to wait. This is because there is a rather large contingent of borderline TE1 players and the difference between them is negligible. Heath Miller, for example, can be had in the 13th round.

While the quarterback position receives much of the talk, the devaluation of the position that is caused from abundance of depth, makes the decision for you. Tony Romo, Russell Wilson, and Jay Cutler are the 12th, 13th, and 14th quarterbacks being drafted. All of them are worthy QB1s and their ADPs place them in the eighth round or later. My plan is to keep an eye on those top-14 quarterbacks and then draft the last of them as the tier is about to expire. However, if a Matthew Stafford or Andrew Luck type falls near or into the seventh round, I’d be happy to scoop them up.

Below is a representation of the order I personally would select players throughout the first seven rounds of a standard fantasy league draft. Of course, if I were to begin with three running backs, I would then value the other positions more highly. Also, barring a once-in-a-lifetime value that you can not pass up, I see no point in drafting bench players before filling all of my starting running back, wide receiver, and flex positions.

Top-84First Round (Rank-Player-Position-Team-Bye)
1 . Jamaal Charles RB KC 6
2 . Adrian Peterson RB MIN 10
3 . LeSean McCoy RB PHI 7
4 . Matt Forte RB CHI 9
5 . Calvin Johnson WR DET 9
6 . Eddie Lacy RB GB 9
7 . Jimmy Graham TE NO 6
8 . Demaryius Thomas WR DEN 4
9 . Julio Jones WR ATL 9
10 . Dez Bryant WR DAL 11
11 . DeMarco Murray RB DAL 11
12 . Montee Ball RB DEN 4
Second Round
13 . Rob Gronkowski TE NE 10
14 . Arian Foster RB HOU 10
15 . Marshawn Lynch RB SEA 4
16 . A.J. Green WR CIN 4
17 . Jordy Nelson WR GB 9
18 . Doug Martin RB TB 7
19 . Giovani Bernard RB CIN 4
20 . Brandon Marshall WR CHI 9
21 . Julius Thomas TE DEN 4
22 . Andre Ellington RB AZ 9
23 . Le’Veon Bell RB PIT 12
24 . Alshon Jeffery WR CHI 9
Third Round
25 . Alfred Morris RB WAS 10
26 . Antonio Brown WR PIT 12
27 . Toby Gerhart RB JAC 11
28 . Reggie Bush RB DET 9
29 . Zac Stacy RB STL 4
30 . Randall Cobb WR GB 9
31 . Vincent Jackson WR TB 7
32 . Andre Johnson WR HOU 10
33 . Victor Cruz WR NYG 8
34 . Peyton Manning QB DEN 4
35 . C.J. Spiller RB BUF 9
36 . Aaron Rodgers QB GB 9
Fourth Round
37 . Roddy White WR ATL 9
38 . Keenan Allen WR SD 10
39 . Drew Brees QB NO 6
40 . Ryan Mathews RB SD 10
41 . Ben Tate RB CLE 4
42 . Torrey Smith WR BAL 11
43 . DeSean Jackson WR WAS 10
44 . Pierre Garcon WR WAS 10
45 . Frank Gore RB SF 4
46 . Percy Harvin WR SEA 4
47 . Michael Floyd WR AZ 9
48 . Larry Fitzgerald WR AZ 9
Fifth Round
49 . Jordan Cameron TE CLE 4
50 . Trent Richardson RB IND 10
51 . Joique Bell RB DET 9
52 . Rashad Jennings RB NYG 8
53 . Steven Jackson RB ATL 9
54 . Michael Crabtree WR SF 4
55 . Emmanuel Sanders WR DEN 4
56 . Stevan Ridley RB NE 10
57 . Lamar Miller RB MIA 5
58 . Mike Wallace WR MIA 5
59 . Wes Welker WR DEN 4
60 . Marques Colston WR NO 6
Sixth Round
61 . T.Y. Hilton WR IND 10
62 . Cordarrelle Patterson WR MIN 10
63 . Kendall Wright WR TEN 9
64 . Chris Johnson RB NYJ 11
65 . Reggie Wayne WR IND 10
66 . Ray Rice RB BAL 11
67 . Pierre Thomas RB NO 6
68 . Shane Vereen RB NE 10
69 . Bishop Sankey RB TEN 9
70 . Rueben Randle WR NYG 8
71 . Andrew Luck QB IND 10
72 . Matthew Stafford QB DET 9
Seventh Round
73 . Greg Olsen TE CAR 12
74 . Terrance Williams WR DAL 11
75 . Mike Evans WR TB 7
76 . Nick Foles QB PHI 7
77 . Tom Brady QB NE 10
78 . Vernon Davis TE SF 4
79 . Cecil Shorts WR JAC 11
80 . Golden Tate WR DET 9
81 . Eric Decker WR NYJ 11
82 . Kenny Stills WR NO 6
83 . Colin Kaepernick QB SF 4
84 . Cam Newton QB CAR 12