Perfect Draft: 7th in a 12-Team Yahoo! Half-PPR League

Aug 26, 2021

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The seventh spot in fantasy football drafts can be difficult because the elite tier of running backs are off the board. The first five picks generally go as Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Derrick Henry, Alvin Kamara and Ezekiel Elliott. There’s also a chance that tight end Travis Kelce squeaks in at sixth overall. This leaves you wondering whether you should take another running back or take the plunge with an elite tight end like Kelce. In half-PPR formats, such as Yahoo! leagues, the seventh pick could be between three players: Travis Kelce, Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill.

The good thing about choosing seventh is that you can also go with the top tight end (Kelce) or top wide receiver (Adams or Hill), while still having the option of going with a high-upside running back (Aaron Jones or Jonathan Taylor). It’s a pick with multiple possibilities, unlike the first four selections. The bad part about this draft slot is that you miss out on one of the elite running backs, so if you want to target this position, you’ll have to select from a Tier 2 option.

In this article, I will go through a perfect draft with the seventh 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 (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, six bench spots.
No restrictions on when to draft positional players: In most standard-sized leagues, I prefer to take a quarterback in the late rounds, but I still want to know when a player is falling past their average draft position (ADP).
No Kicker or D/ST until the last two rounds: It’s much better to build up your depth before targeting a kicker or defense. The best strategy is to play matchups at each of these two positions. Target kickers who are on favored teams with high game totals because they’ll have more opportunities for field goal attempts. Target defenses who are on favored teams (the higher the point spread, the better) because they’ll be in a position for more pass-rushing opportunities while playing with a lead.
Limit 1 QB, TE, K, DEF: Using Draft Hero allows users to get familiar with the nuances of the software. One way to simulate a league full of advanced owners is to go to the League Settings from the Home page and manipulate the maximum number of players at each position under the Rosters tab. By capping these positions at one, mock drafts become much more challenging and realistic, especially in leagues like this one where there are only 15 roster spots.
Targets: D'Andre Swift and Jerry Jeudy. One useful feature of Draft Hero is the ability to target specific players. The software allows you to select players before your draft and Draft Hero will suggest your targets over the software’s top recommendation when it gets close to your targets’ ADP. I’ll explain why I like these specific targets in their respective draft rounds. You can also avoid players, but I usually opt against this feature since every player is a value at some point.
ADP Settings: Another great feature of Draft Hero is the ability to choose which ADP you use. In most cases, choosing the site ADP of your hosting site will lead to the most optimal drafting strategy. You can also upload custom ADP, which I did here since most platforms are still relying on mock draft data rather than paid leagues.

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

Round 1, Pick 7 (7) - WR Davante Adams, Packers

I like my first-round pick to have a nice combination of floor and upside, which is exactly what Davante Adams brings to the table. Adams finished as the WR1 with 21.5 half-PPR points per game last season, averaging 2.5 more points than WR2 Tyreek Hill. Adams also led in target share (34.1%) by 4.74% more than second-place DeAndre Hopkins. The Packers wide receiver remains tied to Aaron Rodgers as the top target hog in football in a high-octane offense.

While tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill are still on the board, I’d prefer to go with Adams because his floor is so high. This is a player who has finished as WR1, WR6 and WR1 in half-PPR points per game in his last three seasons. He’s a great bet to once again finish as a Top-3 wide receiver barring injury. I’ll now target a running back in the second round.

Suggested Alternatives: Travis Kelce, Aaron Jones, Jonathan Taylor

My Top Alternative: Tyreek Hill