• Start with a balanced team: Selecting Jonathan Taylor and Puka Nacua in the first two rounds provides flexibility and opens up several strategic options for the rest of the draft.
• Add a quarterback and tight end early: The best quarterbacks and tight ends have an ADP of around 30, giving someone picking here a unique opportunity to add elite options at all four positions.
• Dominate your fantasy draft: Subscribe to PFF+ to get full access to PFF’s suite of fantasy football tools, including the fantasy mock draft simulator, live draft assistant, fantasy draft rankings, cheat sheets and more! Click here to subscribe!
Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
The Perfect Draft series integrates current ADPs from both expert and casual drafts to identify the best available picks at each selection. This draft strategy is tailored for 10-team PPR leagues, specifically for those picking 10th.
Last updated: 7:15 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29
Round 1, Pick 10: Draft a running back
It is generally too early to select a quarterback or tight end within the top 11 picks. In 12-team leagues, strategic planning is essential to find value at those positions, requiring careful consideration of your picks early in the draft.
However, in 10-team leagues, there's more flexibility, allowing you to focus on selecting the two best players available, whether that's two running backs, two wide receivers or one of each. If the first nine picks follow ADP, the optimal choice is to select one running back and one wide receiver.
Top Target: Jonathan Taylor (Player Profile)
As a runner, he has been elite when everything is going right. If he can follow his point of attack, if the play is perfectly blocked, or if he only has to face seven players in the box, he’s ranked in the 95th percentile or better of running backs despite being injured on and off for two of the last three years. He has an offensive coordinator that uses 11 personnel more than most teams, which will keep him facing seven or fewer men boxes, and he has one of the best offensive lines. As long as he can stay healthy, he’s in for a monster season.
Possible Targets: Jahmyr Gibbs, Derrick Henry, Isiah Pacheco, Saquon Barkley, Kyren Williams
Round 2, Pick 11: Draft a wide receiver
Top Target: Puka Nacua (Player Profile)
Nacua finished with the fourth-most fantasy points among all wide receivers last season, making it one of the best rookie seasons by a wide receiver of all time. His situation this year is very similar to last year, with Sean McVay as his head coach, Matthew Stafford as his quarterback, and Cooper Kupp as his primary competition. It is certainly possible that Nacua will have an even better sophomore season. Still, he has a one-year sample size of excellent play compared to the wide receivers selected ahead of him who have been clear elite options for multiple seasons.
Possible Targets: Garrett Wilson, Davante Adams, Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, Drake London