Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 7th in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Aug 10, 2023

Perfect Draft: 7th in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Michael Owens/Getty Images

Drafting from seven is one of the hardest areas of fantasy drafts this season. With the top few picks pretty much locked in, the seventh spot is the first time you really need to pick a definitive direction on your build. Do I go elite wide receiver, running back, or start a Travis Kelce build? In nearly every case, I like my overall team infinitely better when I attack the wide receiver position early and try to nail several upside running backs later in the draft. Last season, I had a championship squad that featured Jamaal Williams and Kenneth Walker at running back, with Cam Akers in the flex spot. While I love running backs and will take an anchor running back with an earlier draft slot—either in the first or the early-third round—I’ve been pretty much targeting wide receivers with mid-late draft positions.

With the middle-round slots, you get the benefit of not having to watch 20 players go off the board between picks like you do at the ends, but you also end up needing to make some hard decisions between two players you may have extremely close in your rankings while knowing one isn’t going to make it back to you.

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 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 Seventh

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 middle portion of the draft, this my general approach:

Get 1-2 top-tier wide receivers before addressing other positions – I like the running back depth in the draft this year, but after the first few rounds, I start to get nervous about the wide receivers. As such, I lock up the elite guys early when possible from this draft slot.
Don’t reach on a quarterback – I’m not opposed to taking a quarterback in the third round, but I don’t want to reach on anyone. If the league starts getting passer-happy early on, I have no problem waiting on the position. I think there’s value to be had at quarterback throughout the draft this year.
Stack middle-round running backs – This year has a large number of running backs with high potential for volume smattered about in the middle 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.
Wait at least until the sixth round for a tight end – I’m not opposed to taking one of the second-tier tight ends after Kelce if they slide, but at ADP, I’m far more interested in waiting. George Kittle in the sixth is a favorite target for me, but him lasting that long only happens occasionally. If he’s not there, I usually wait a few more rounds to snag one of the tight ends in the next tier.

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