Drafting from the 11th Spot in a 12-team PPR League
Even though people typically hope to get an early pick in their fantasy football drafts, the back end actually isn’t so bad. You are guaranteed two top-end players and can go into the draft with a distinct plan of what you want to do with those first two picks that will shape the rest of your team. I especially like the 11th pick, because only one team will pick between each of your picks at the turn. This allows you to look at that person’s team to help you with your draft decisions. For example, if the person in the 12th slot picks a quarterback or tight end early, you can then plan your picks around them, knowing that they won’t snipe that position from you in the future. Let’s take a look at your options and how you should approach the draft if you’ve recently drawn the 11th overall pick, along with a hypothetical team you could build from this spot.
Rounds 1 and 2
The strategy of the first two rounds is simple, go into the draft with a list of your top-14 players, knowing you will get two of them. Personally, the 9-14 of my rankings are AJ Brown, Garrett Wilson, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jonathan Taylor, Saquon Barkley, and Marvin Harrison Jr. It’s also worth mentioning that Puka Nacua was originally in this range, but at the time of writing is week-to-week with a knee injury. If he looks to be good to go for week 1, he would slot in behind Garrett Wilson in my ranks. You can’t go wrong leaving the first two rounds with one running back and wide receiver, but I have gone WR/WR occasionally if I get gifted a combo of AJ Brown and Garrett Wilson. If both of them are gone before pick 11, I also wouldn’t mind starting with two of the three running backs listed.
Hypothetical Picks: Garrett Wilson and Saquon Barkley
Rounds 3 and 4
The next two picks (35th and 38th overall) open up a lot more strategy and potential ways you could build out your team. Your options will feature the best available running backs and wide receivers, but could also include one of the elite quarterbacks (Allen, Hurts, Mahomes, Jackson) or one of the top tight ends (LaPorta, Kelce). The best decision here will depend on what you did with your first two picks. If you took two wideouts with your first two picks, you should take at least one running back here. If you started the draft with two running backs, I recommended going back-to-back wide receivers here to avoid falling behind at the position. If you took one of each initially, you have some flexibility, and I find myself going either QB/WR or TE/WR in those scenarios. For the best wide receiver available, you’ll be looking at someone such as Cooper Kupp, DJ Moore, Devonta Smith, or DK Metcalf. For the onesie positions, I would rank the options in the order of Allen, Hurts, LaPorta, Kelce, Mahomes, and Jackson. Chances are most of them will be gone before it gets to you, but one or two should fall in most drafts.
Hypothetical Picks: Patrick Mahomes and Cooper Kupp
Rounds 5 and 6
Your next picks come at 59th and 62nd overall. In this scenario, we already grabbed Mahomes as our quarterback, but if we hadn’t, this is a great place to nab your favorite out of Burrow, Prescott, and Love. This would also be a great place to snag a tight end if McBride, Andrews, or Kincaid falls, and I strongly recommend that if it happens. However, since their NFFC ADPs are all slightly before pick 58, I’ll remove them as options for the hypothetical team I’m drafting. This presents a good opportunity to fill out the other starting spots in the roster by drafting our team’s second running back and third wide receiver. Some common names that go in this range are Tank Dell, Christian Kirk, Calvin Ridley, Rashee Rice, Aaron Jones, David Montgomery, Zamir White, and Rhamondre Stevenson.
Hypothetical Picks: Calvin Ridley and David Montgomery
Rounds 7 and 8
Next up are picks 83rd and 86th overall. These picks are notable because they will fill out the final spots of your starting lineup in a typical league where you start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, and 1 FLEX. To maximize the upside of the starting lineups, it’s smart to fill that out completely before drafting bench players, unless you’re deciding to punt tight end. However, I like the tight ends available in this range of ADP, so that leaves TE and the flex spot to fill in this case, and in a full-point PPR league it will be best to use a wide receiver rather than a running back in the flex. Kyle Pitts or George Kittle would both be slam dunks at this pick, although based on their current ADPs it would be lucky to see them available here. That leaves Evan Engram and Jake Ferguson, who are also both fine picks. On the wide receiver front, players I like in this range are Jayden Reed, Diontae Johnson, Marquise Brown, and Jordan Addison.
Hypothetical Picks: Evan Engram and Diontae Johnson
Later Rounds
The second half of the draft is all about filling out your bench spots in a way that can provide depth and security but also provide upside. It’s rarely worth it to draft a backup tight end, since you either drafted a really good one who will be a reliable starter every week, or you drafted one late and will most likely be streaming the position off of the waiver wire. Backup quarterbacks also aren’t necessary if you have one of the elite guys at the position, but if you waited on a quarterback it’s not a bad idea to draft two in the QB10-QB18 range and play the matchups. Since the mock team here has much stronger WR than RB, I’ll make it a focus to target RB heavily in the next few rounds.
Hypothetical Picks:
- Round 9 - Ezekiel Elliott
- Round 10 - Jerome Ford
- Round 11 - Zach Charbonnet
- Round 12 - Mike Williams
- Round 13 - Antonio Gibson
- Round 14 - Adam Thielen
- Round 15 - Defense
- Round 16 - Kicker
Recap
While the 11th pick might not be your first choice of preferred draft slot, you can certainly make it work. It provides a great opportunity to start your team with a very balanced build, allowing you to start your team with an elite running back and wide receiver, while also giving you access to the top quarterbacks and tight ends in rounds 3 and 4.
Final Hypothetical Team:
- QB: Patrick Mahomes (KC)
- RB: Saquon Barkley (PHI)
- RB: David Montgomery (DET)
- WR: Garrett Wilson (NYJ)
- WR: Cooper Kupp (LAR)
- WR: Calvin Ridley (TEN)
- FLEX: Diontae Johnson (CAR)
- K and DST
- BN: RB Ezekiel Elliot (DAL)
- BN: RB Jerome Ford (CLE)
- BN: RB Zach Charbonnet (SEA)
- BN: WR Mike Williams (NYJ)
- BN: RB Antonio Gibson (NE)
- BN: WR Adam Thielen (CAR)
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