Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 1st in a 12-Team Yahoo! Half-PPR League
The first overall pick of a fantasy football draft is always one of the best spots to pick from, and this year is no different. In a season where there isn’t a consensus 1.01, managers will have plenty of control over how they want the positional allocation on their roster to be distributed. While there is obviously a clear downside to picking first—there are long turns in between picks—this is offset by managers getting back-to-back picks, giving them even more command over how the draft plays out.
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 draft 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 First
Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, six bench spots
Your strategy from the 1.01 will vary based on who you take first. If you go with Justin Jefferson, here would be my general plan of attack:
- Take at least one RB at the 2/3 turn to avoid the RB dead zone
- Load up on middle-round receivers
- Take either a QB or a TE in the first five rounds (but not both)
- Don’t be afraid to reach a little bit to get ahead of positional runs due to the long turns
If you choose Christian McCaffrey instead of Jefferson, then here’s how I’d want the rest of my draft to play out:
- Go Anchor-RB
- Draft almost solely WRs in the middle rounds
- Target an RB2 around the 8th or 9th round
- Draft lottery ticket RBs in the later rounds
Continue reading for a breakdown of my favorite picks through Round 10 and a list of the best late-round targets at each position.
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