Fantasy Football Zero RB vs. Hero RB Strategy - Best Draft Strategy in PPR & Half-PPR Leagues (2025)

Zero RB or Hero RB: Which fantasy football strategy gives you the edge in 2025 drafts? John Laghezza compares both draft tactics for PPR and Half-PPR formats with expert tips and roster-building advice.

To Hero RB or not to Hero RB (and when), that is the question in fantasy football...

Allow me to come clean before we kick things off. For years, I didn't put much (if any) thought into altering strategies based on scoring format. Instead of performing any necessary due diligence, I took the easy way out -- resting on generic tropes like drafting good players on good teams, then letting the rest sort itself out. While it worked more often than not, in time, I wondered if this method failed to capture some nuance, preventing my fantasy teams from reaching their ceiling.

Today, we'll take a look at the two prevailing running back draft strategies and whether or not they're particularly advantageous in PPR versus half-PPR scoring formats. Then, I'll whip out the old scientific graphing calculator and run weekly correlations to see if it's even worth shaping our strategy. And who knows, maybe we'll learn something along the way.

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Hero RB vs. Zero RB Approach

Though not objectively defined, the idea of a Hero RB strategy is simple enough to grasp. Get your stud tailback early. It doesn't have to be a top-5 pick, but let's say the assumption's roughly a top-15 overall player at minimum.

Every year, the majority of flex assets that eclipse 350+ fantasy points play the RB position, and some drafters will always want a piece of that action, even if it comes with an elevated injury risk. The general thinking thereafter is to stack your starting slots with stars and circle back to fill the RB2 position, arguably the most volatile in fantasy football.

Without necessarily knowing it, I guess I was a Hero RB drafter all along. Especially in this recent age of specialization, leading to near-universal committee usage, give me a player projected for 300+ touches on a high-powered offense every time. Then, you can always figure there's still plenty of strong wideouts to choose from in the next two rounds, getting your squad out to a strong foundational start. Plus, it comes with the inherent peace of mind from not having to hit on multiple long shots in the later rounds.

RB with 300+ touches by season:

2000: 19
2001: 13
2002: 16
2003: 15
2004: 12
2005: 14
2006: 14
2007: 11
...
2008: 9
2009: 9
2010: 11
2011: 8
2012: 10
2013: 9
...
2014: 5
2015: 4
2016: 7
2017: 6
2018: 5
...
2019: 9
...
2020: 4
2021: 4
...
2022: 8

— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) January 30, 2023

Even though I consider myself extremely savvy and thorough working the waiver wire, it can be incredibly difficult sometimes to find one starting RB, let alone two. Plus, of course, the clock's always ticking.

Fantasy football's a small sample game, one in which we can't afford to fall too far behind. As a relative boomer and at least somewhat conservative player, the idea of not rostering a top back terrifies me. However, as I always say, there's always a thousand ways to skin a cat without scratching his backside (or in this case, at least two).

Other, more risk-adjacent drafters deploy the Zero RB strategy, which I can readily admit works at times, even if it hasn't been for me in the past. Also lacking a concrete definition, it usually implies waiting until at least Round 5/6 to draft your first running back. Potentially scary stuff if mishandled.

However, in years past, this meant being relegated almost exclusively to split backfields and handcuffs only. Since running back ADPs have fallen on the whole, it's the first time I can envision myself jumping on board that late if it means Tony Pollard or Isiah Pacheco as a one-two punch in the sixth and seventh rounds.

Suddenly, there's an avenue to fortifying your entire starting roster while waiting on the most often injured position at the same time ... color me interested.

Tony Pollard's rank by Yards After Contact per Attempt
[+ among RBs, min. 125 carries]

2021: 1st
2022: 2nd

*Fractured his leg and had tightrope surgery after the 2022 NFL playoffs*

2023: 23rd
2024: 4th pic.twitter.com/DpXdqDVhmZ

— Fantasy Points Data (@FantasyPtsData) July 29, 2025

PPR vs. Half-PPR Scoring

I'll spare you all a bludgeoning with the obvious stick and not go on a diatribe explaining the difference in PPR versus half-PPR scoring — it's as simple as it sounds. Perhaps not as intuitive, however, is the impact it has.

Sure, we've all heard how half-PPR boosts TD-dependent backs while hurting receiving-heavy scat RBs, and we act accordingly. These tropes get repeated endlessly as an exercise of muscle memory. Yet, it wasn't until the fine folks here at RotoBaller asked me to investigate any tangible format-based differences that the lightbulb truly switched on ... and the results may shock you.

PPR vs. Half-PPR Correlation

As your faithful narrator, it's important to display full transparency in my errors, but also my small victories — even if this one occurred purely by chance. Earlier, I mentioned maintaining a blasé attitude toward stringently binning RBs by format, instead choosing to appeal to priors.

Determined to uncover the truth this go-around, I spent entirely too much time mining weekly data for both PPR and half-PPR weekly finishes to identify any correlation between those results last season.

Not sure I'd have believed you if you told me this before we started, but altering RB ranks based on point-per-reception is as close to a non-factor as possible. The correlational results speak for themselves. We're talking about near-perfect correlation by any objective measure.

Only one time all season (way back in Week 2) did a running back outside of PPR's top 15 manage to crack top-12 status in half-PPR: Jahmyr Gibbs (13-84-0, 7-22-0) leapfrogged Josh Jacobs (32-151-0, 0-0-0) and Devin Singletary (16-95-1, 1-0-0) by posting seven receptions in an otherwise lackluster RB scoring week.

Every other week on the 2024 box score boasted the same 12 tailbacks assuming the role of RB1, just shuffled around a bit. For reference, just six running backs posted a +25 point difference between the two formats on the season (De'Von Achane, Alvin Kamara, Bijan Robinson, Breece Hall, Chase Brown, and James Conner).

PPR vs. Half-PPR Top-50 Weekly Fantasy Finish Correlations, 2024:

• Week 1: R = 0.995
• Week 2: R = 0.992
• Week 3: R = 0.991
• Week 4: R = 0.992
• Week 5: R = 0.990
• Week 6: R = 0.995
• Week 7: R = 0.995
• Week 8: R = 0.994
• Week 9: R = 0.995
• Week 10: R = 0.992
• Week 11: R = 0.993
• Week 12: R = 0.986
• Week 13: R = 0.994
• Week 14: R = 0.996
• Week 15: R = 0.989
• Week 16: R = 0.991
• Week 17: R = 0.993
• Week 18: R = 0.995
• Season Total: R = 0.993

So, even though we can now confidently assert with some degree of data-backed certainty that running back archetypes should not drive positional rankings by format, our work's not quite done.

There's still the question of execution, and whether or not the early investment's worth paying a premium for this time around. Unfortunately, there's no magic wand to wave and reveal a simple answer, but generally, the truth's found somewhere in the middle.

One look at last year's overall results makes as compelling a case as any for a Hero RB approach -- the top fantasy scorers at the position (Jahmyr Gibbs, Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, Derrick Henry, De'Von Achane, and Josh Jacobs) were all parked pretty comfortably atop draft boards. Successful Zero RB strategies may have yielded Chase Brown, Bucky Irving, or Chuba Hubbard ... but if you missed out on that trio, it likely didn't end well for you.

Conversely, in 2023, Hero RB approaches essentially failed outside of Christian McCaffrey's RB1 campaign, with three of the top six positional finishes (Rachaad White, Raheem Mostert, Kyren Williams) coming from the final round of drafts, or even the Week 1 waiver wire. Bottom line is, when chaos represents the norm, I'll continue to expect the unexpected.

Conclusion

With an unpredictable variable like health playing such a critical role in any final determinations, the answer honestly boils down to a case-by-case basis.

Am I willing to bet on health as the new leaguewide standard for RBs? Of course not — but at the same time, you can't play scared. I refuse to pass on Bijan Robinson from the three-hole.

In that particular case, group me in with the heroes. I'll stack a few top pass-catchers in Rounds 2-4, maybe even grab a QB with time, and circle back for a discounted RB who has a shot to lead Week 1 touches on a strong offense (Isiah Pacheco ADP 80, RJ Harvey ADP 91).

By contrast, when CeeDee Lamb's your first pick, plan to keep that drafting head on a swivel if you want a feature back. Sometimes Ashton Jeanty, De'Von Achane, Jonathan Taylor, and Bucky Irving all come off the board by Round 2, suddenly transforming me into a Zero RB guy — smashing the button on Nico Collins, Ladd McConkey, or Drake London instead.

Point being, prioritizing value makes more sense than forcing a specific strategy in a game with such tremendous opportunity costs in the early rounds, especially now that we know not to go wild adjusting ranks for half-PPR. My sincere apologies if you came for a binary answer to our initial question, but hopefully you learned as much as I did during this little exercise.

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