Perfect Draft: 11th in a 12-Team Yahoo! Half-PPR League

Aug 18, 2021

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Drafting out of the 11th spot in 2021 could go many directions, all depending on what happens in front of you while you patiently await the most important decision of your summer. The first tier of running backs, a tight end and a couple of wide receivers are typically going to go before your chance to draft, so it’s good to have a few targets at your ready. Luckily at the back end of the draft, you can immediately create a core for your team, a luxury that is not afforded to those with the first handful of picks.

This article will walk through a perfect draft with the 11th pick in a 12-team Yahoo! half-PPR league. Each pick was optimized using projections and value-based rankings from the 4for4 Draft Hero tool.

Draft Hero Settings

Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE) 1 Kicker, 1 Defense, 6 bench spots
No QBs before round five: Unless I can start with Travis Kelce or Tyreek Hill, I have no reason to force the subject with Patrick Mahomes and that’s really the only quarterback I would be aiming for before the fifth round.
No TEs between rounds five and eight: My tight end targets tend to be one of the top-three and then I have some guys I like to aim for in the ninth or later. I’d rather be loading up on wide receivers or running backs who are sliding too far than to take a stab at a middle-tier tight end.
No Kickers or Defenses until the last two rounds: I honestly don’t mind exiting a draft without a kicker and/or defense but many sites force you to leave the draft with a full team, so we will relegate them to the very end.

For a comprehensive tutorial on setting up Draft Hero for your league, read our Draft Hero Walkthrough.

Jump to Pick: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Round 1, Pick 11 (11) - RB Aaron Jones, Packers

I'm perfectly content with landing Aaron Jones here, as I believe he is the end of a tier of running backs who could conceivably finish as a top-three option at the position. Jamaal Williams has left town, and even though A.J. Dillon remains on the Packers roster, I believe he could take some rushing work from Jones, leaving even more passing work for our first-round selection.

By going Jones I’m putting the onus on the 12-spot to select what wide receiver(s) they think will have the most potential fantasy production while I can simply select the leftover, as I see them all in the same tier.

Now that I have an anchor running back on my team, it gives me a few routes to go from here on, including attacking the position even further in the coming rounds or focusing my attention on wide receivers and/or a top echelon tight end.

Draft Hero also mixed in a few other positional suggestions in their top five, so there are multiple options if you have a different preference in roster construction.

Every round, Draft Hero recommends the top available suggestion along with four alternatives, as shown at the top of this section. Throughout the rest of the article, I will note those suggestions as well as my top alternative to the player I actually selected.

My Top Alternative: Stefon Diggs