Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 3rd in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Aug 18, 2023

Perfect Draft: 3rd in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Emilee Chinn/Getty Images

With an early draft slot, your first pick is just about dialed in this year. There’s very little debate as to who the top three picks are, even if you switch up the order a bit. Three is specifically the easiest first-round pick for me because I just select the player that fell. That first pick often sets up the rest of my draft, especially dictating my running back strategy.

In the Yahoo half-PPR format, I still prioritize pass-catching running backs like I would in a full-PPR league, but I’m less likely to count on volume receivers and tight ends with low potential for big plays and touchdowns in the middle and later rounds.

In this article, I will walk through my favorite players in each round that should be available to me based on Yahoo ADP and discuss my overall draft strategy from this spot.

More Perfect Drafts

ESPN 12-Team PPR: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |12
ESPN 10-Team PPR: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
Yahoo 12-Team Half-PPR: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |12
Yahoo 10-Team Half-PPR: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

The 4for4 staff uses the Draft Hero software for all of our leagues. Draft Hero syncs directly to your league and optimizes each pick using projections and value-based rankings from 4for4. Draft Hero lets you customize your draft experience with settings on which rounds you want to draft a position, how many players you want at each position, and players to target or avoid.

For those new to Draft Hero, be sure to explore this walkthrough of the app!

My Plan of Attack When Drafting Third

Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, six bench spots

Obviously, I like to draft for value and remain open to different draft strategies on the fly, but when I’m drafting in the early portion of the draft, this my general approach:

Use a Hero RB build – With an early draft slot, I’ll take one anchor running back in the first three rounds, and then look to build depth later.
Look to draft a quarterback in the 7th-10th round – The second tier of quarterbacks this year runs from Lamar Jackson to Trevor Lawrence, in my opinion, which provides a very large range to work with when targeting a quarterback. If I miss out on the top three signal-callers, I’ll happily wait until the later part of the middle rounds to snag one.
Take advantage of late-round running back value – This year has a large number of running backs with high potential for volume smattered about in the middle and later rounds. If I can hit wide receiver early on and then grab several running backs later, I like my build a lot better. I fully expect to be starting a wide receiver in my flex spot after this draft.
Bargain-shop at tight end – I’m not opposed to taking a second-tier tight end in the middle rounds if they fall, but I’m not reaching for one. Stacking a pair of late-round guys with upside is fine, and I can always stream the position if necessary.

Continue reading for a breakdown of my favorite picks through Round 10 and a list of the best late-round targets at each position.