Perfect Fantasy Football Draft: 6th in a 12-Team ESPN PPR League

Aug 21, 2023
Perfect Draft: 6th in a 12-Team ESPN PPR League


I don’t usually love drafting in the middle of the round, and would ideally be drafting earlier, but this year I feel like there is a clear top seven picks and have found myself enjoying builds from the middle more than in years past. Drafting from the sixth spot, you’re guaranteed to get one of the elite talents in the draft and set up a strategy to take advantage of tier breaks later in the draft.

The big downside to being in the middle of a 12-team draft is the uncertainty of what can happen between picks, but that’s what we are here for! To help you have a plan for when you’re on the clock and to know how to plan between picks.

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 Sixth

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 but if things fall according to ESPN ADP, my general plan of attack is to:

  • Exploit Mispriced WRs Early: If you’ve been drafting all summer on Underdog, DraftKings, or elsewhere you’ll no doubt notice a few quirks in the ESPN ADP that you can exploit. Loading up on receiver, especially early, can be scary as the elite running backs fly off the board, but we can make up points loading up at receiver.
  • Kelce or Wait at Tight End: I’m not waiting until the absolute final rounds for a tight end, but I’m not going to spend premier capital in the early rounds if I miss out on Travis Kelce.
  • Finding Running Back Value: I’m not going out of my way to draft a running back in the dead zone, but if certain backs fall to Round 4-8 I’m not going to pass either.
  • Waiting on Kicker and DST: Under no circumstances am I drafting a kicker or DST before my final two picks.
  • Top-8 Quarterback: Since I’m not going out of my way to target anyone specific in the top eight, it’s more of a general rule.

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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