Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 4th in a 12-Team ESPN PPR League
Drafting from the number four spot in 2023 ESPN fantasy football leagues gives you a unique advantage that few other draft spots offer this year. If you do it right, you have the draft's first actual decision and get the most significant positional advantage in fantasy football.
There are plenty of options with the fourth pick, but only one perfect pick: the tight end who has finished as the TE1 overall in six of the last seven years, Travis Kelce. From there, you can capitalize on some of ESPN's full-PPR scoring ADP and offseason injury discounts.
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 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 Fourth
Roster Settings: 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (WR/RB/TE), 1 Kicker, 1 DEF, seven bench spots
You should be flexible in every draft. Odds are, if you hold firm to one strategy, you will reach and miss value, but if things fall according to ESPN ADP, my go-to draft strategy is as follows from the four spot:
- Target Travis Kelce
- BPA (Best Player Available) with an edge to wide receivers
- Try to use a wide receiver in your Flex
- Get a top-5 QB—lock up positional advantages at the "onesie" positions (TE and QB)
- Balance my bench—Going elite QB/TE in the first five rounds means you need upside at the RB/WR position more than your league mates
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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