Perfect Draft: 1st in a 12-Team ESPN PPR League

Aug 13, 2024

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

One great thing about picking from the first spot in a 12-team draft is you get to pick whoever you want and can’t get sniped. It’s the only time anyone can say that. You control the draft room and get to set your draft strategy the way you want. You can go elite running back with Christian McCaffrey or elite wide receiver with CeeDee Lamb or Tyreek Hill.

In this article, I will walk through my favorite players in each round that should be available to me based on ESPN ADP and discuss my overall draft strategy from the No. 1 spot in a 12-team PPR league.

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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 From The 1 Spot

Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, 6 bench spots

It is important to remain flexible during your fantasy drafts, but here’s a general overview of how I’d like to build my roster from the No. 1 spot:

First and foremost, I’m not drafting a kicker and defense until my final two picks.
At the top of the draft, I’m using the hero RB approach. That will lead you to where I’m headed with the first pick.
I want to target quarterbacks with elite rushing floors and will look to pair my QB1 with one pass-catching target.

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