Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 5th in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Aug 18, 2023

Perfect Draft: 5th in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Truth be told, I haven’t always been a fan of the 5 spot in fantasy football drafts, but this year is different. Drafting from the fifth pick, fantasy managers will get a top-notch first-round talent to open their draft, and be in a great spot to add quality players around their star. While the lack of having picks close together means people picking fifth cede some control over the draft, that is more than made up by the fact that there will not be any long turns in between picks.

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 Fifth

Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, six bench spots

It is obviously 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. 5 spot:

Load up on receivers: Because Yahoo! leagues start three wide receivers as well as a FLEX, I want to prioritize securing high-quality receiving options because there will be a higher demand for them in the later rounds. This will give me more flexibility with my in-season roster management.

Avoid the running back dead zone: The RB dead zone has shifted down a couple of rounds this year, as I find it very difficult to get excited about a lot of the running backs going between rounds six and nine. So, I’m more concerned with taking other positions in the middle rounds and will address running backs at the beginning and end of the draft.

Draft a QB and TE above the streaming level: Because I’m going to stay away from running backs, that opens the door for me to take both a QB and TE in the middle rounds. This will be helpful as I can then focus my late-round picks on taking lottery ticket players, as opposed to settling for a mediocre tight end that will give me six points a week.

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