Perfect Draft: 3rd in a 12-Team Yahoo! Half-PPR League

Aug 17, 2021

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Drafting from the third spot in 2021 will practically always have me starting things off at the running back position unless we have a serious shake-up before the preseason ends via injury or other unforeseen events. After that initial pick, I may have a broad idea of what I will do with the rest of my draft but I don’t want to pigeonhole a strategy considering the vast gap between our first and second-round selections.

This article will walk through a perfect draft with the third 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, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE) 1 Kicker, 1 Defense, 5 bench spots
No QBs before round five: Since I already know I’m not going to be starting 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 3 (3) - RB Derrick Henry, Titans

With questions on how the New Orleans Saints offense is set to run, I went the safer route and leaned Derrick Henry here over Alvin Kamara. Henry has huge week-to-week upside even though he is very rarely involved in the passing game. The addition of Julio Jones in Tennessee makes the offense even better and could result in even more looks around the goal line for Derrick Henry.

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: Davante Adams