16-0 Draft Strategy: Position Rankings

Going 16-0 means winning every game, so your roster can’t have a soft spot that a good opponent will find. This guide ranks the nine positions by how much they move your chances across a full 16-game season, and covers how to spend your three rerolls.

The tiers

Tier 1 — win here first

• Quarterback. The most important pick, full stop. It’s the largest single input to your offensive rating, and a weak quarterback turns close games into losses. If you use a reroll anywhere, it’s often here.
• Offensive line / defensive line (the trenches). Line play sets the floor on both sides of the ball. Strong trenches protect your quarterback, open the run, and pressure the opponent. In eras that reward physical football, this is nearly as valuable as the quarterback.

Tier 2 — high leverage

• Defensive back. A shutdown defender in the secondary blunts the exact thing that wins modern games: the pass. A strong DB keeps you competitive even in shootout-heavy eras.
• Wide receiver (your first one). Your top target raises the ceiling of the whole passing game. The second receiver matters less — treat it as a Tier 3 pick.

Tier 3 — round out the roster

• Running back, tight end, linebacker, and your second wide receiver. These still matter, but a solid-not-spectacular pick here won’t sink a season the way a weak Tier 1 pick will. Don’t burn rerolls chasing perfection at these spots.

Spending your three rerolls

You get three rerolls for the entire draft, and they don’t refill. The rule of thumb: reroll for impact, not for depth. A weak candidate pool at quarterback or on the line is worth a reroll; a weak pool at second receiver usually isn’t. Going into the draft planning to protect your Tier 1 spots keeps you from wasting rerolls early and getting stuck with a bad quarterback later.

Keep your era fit coherent

Every player comes from a decade, and your roster’s chemistry rewards a consistent identity. A lineup that mixes a 1960s ground-and-pound back with a 2010s spread-era receiver and a 1980s defense can end up pulling in different directions. You don’t need all nine from the same decade, but leaning toward a style — physical-and-run-first, or pass-and-space — tends to score better than a scattered build. For a full breakdown of what each decade rewards, see which era should you draft in.

Playing Blind Draft

In Blind Draft mode the ratings are hidden, so this positional framework matters even more: when you can’t see the numbers, spend your attention and rerolls on the positions that carry the most weight, and let the depth spots ride. It’s the mode that rewards actually knowing football over reading a stat line.

Ready to build one? Review the full rules in how to play 16-0, then draft your roster and chase the perfect season.