Everyone who has ever drafted a Fantasy Football team at one point or another has felt this. The draft concludes, you look back over your picks and your entire squad and you think -- holy you know what -- I did it. I drafted the best team of the entire draft season. Everything fell into place. Those same people have probably also experienced these "perfect drafts" fall into the waste basket after an injury or two, but August is a time for hope! We'll tackle the injuries when they come. I'm amped up for the season after drafting this squad at No. 4 overall in our Fantasy Football Today full-point PPR pick-by-pick draft!
If you have your choice of any pick in a full-point PPR draft, go with No. 4 overall. The benefits including picking in the middle-ish of the round so you don't have to worry about position runs or reaching for value, but you also guarantee yourself one of the elite wide receivers or one of the big-three running backs -- all of whom have reception-based upside in this format. Here's how my team played out from the fourth overall spot.
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Here's how my team shaped up from the 4th pick:
1.04: Breece Hall, RB, NYJ
2.09: Chris Olave, WR, NO
3.04: Cooper Kupp, WR, LAR
4.09: Rashee Rice, WR, KC
5.04: Stefon Diggs, WR, HOU
6.09: James Conner, RB, ARI
7.04: D'Andre Swift, RB, CHI
8.09: Jaylen Warren, RB, PIT
9.04: Brock Bowers, TE, LV
10.09: Rashid Shaheed, WR, NO
11.04: Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB, NYG
12.09: Trevor Lawrence, QB, JAC
13.04: Justin Herbert, QB, LAC
14.09: Luke Musgrave, TE, GB
If you're drafting from the 4th spot, you'll have an excellent opportunity to create a balanced team build. In a full-point PPR format, it's always an objective of mine to fill my Flex spot before my QB spot. This goes for just about any format, but it's even more important here because of rule No. 2 for me -- fill my Flex with a WR. I did just that while also finding a way to build solid RB depth and multiple players who can compete for that RB2 spot as Hall locks down RB1.
As I run through each round, I get more excited. Hall has a chance to be the RB1 overall in this format if the reception jump he made last season carries over. Olave and Kupp should finish in the top-10 overall in WR targets with the former having an opportunity to see top-5 targets. Rice won't be too far behind if his suspension doesn't take effect until 2025 as now expected. Conner might be the single most undervalued player in all of Fantasy and the Bears have such massive plans for D'Andre Swift that they barely played him this preseason. It's rare to see a draft play out exactly as you planned but this is that one for me. You may get one every year!
Regardless of format, Conner is a value this year. He benefits from playing all of his games with Kyler Murray, which will undoubtedly boost Arizona's red zone opportunities and add Marvin Harrison Jr. to the offense. More importantly, Conner was really good last season. Like really, really good. According to Jacob Gibbs' research, the only RB who averaged more yards after contact (minimum 100 attempts) per rush in 2023 was De'Von Achane. And only Jaylen Warren posted a higher avoided tackle rate. Only four RBs had a better overall PFF rushing grade and only five RBs had a better PFF pass-blocking grade. Conner might just be a top-10 Fantasy RB in 2024. If he can stay healthy, he almost definitely will be.
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I've been the high man on Kupp all offseason here at FFT and even had him ranked above Puka Nacua before the Nacua injury. To grab Kupp in Round 3 after an injury-plagued 2023 feels like stealing to me given the fact that no other player in this range has ever posted a triple crown in receiving with back-to-back seasons as a league-winning top-five overall Fantasy player. However, I'm not going to sit here and act like the advanced metrics on Kupp haven't declined in recent years. He's older now, and likely more susceptible to soft tissue injuries than ever before. Betting on older WRs is a bad wager historically, but I believe Kupp's unique rapport with Matthew Stafford will negate that.
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Bowers as a ninth-round draft pick is not make-or-break in the traditional sense, as I can possibly find a tight end off the waiver wire if he fails, but the talented rookie gives me the best chance I'll have all season at finding top-10 TE production. Bowers is one of the best TE prospects to enter the NFL and he can align in every spot -- H-back, Y tight end, big slot, whatever. If the Raiders feature him in the passing game, and the targets follow, he will turn this roster into an edge-setter at the TE position.
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