Drafting from the 1.10 isn’t an ideal spot, but with a bit of planning, we can still take advantage of the current draft landscape to build a strong roster.
As I have written about in other editions of this draft strategy series, it’s important to always be looking ahead a few rounds to understand what positional values you like later in the draft that can help decide your earlier picks.
This comes into play primarily in the middle rounds as we aim to fill out our roster around the core of players drafted in the early rounds. With a long wait and then back-to-back picks in quick succession, understanding the draft board and staying ahead of positional runs is critical when drafting from the 1.10 spot.
And be sure to leverage all the ADP tools available on Fantasy Life to familiarize yourself with how many drafts are playing out in 2023.
The early rounds
Starting from a late draft slot offers an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that WRs are being drafted earlier than ever this year. The flip side of that coin is that RBs who used to go early in the first round now regularly go in the late-first or early-second round.
Two prime examples in that ADP range are Saquon Barkley and Tony Pollard. Both players are locked into workhorse roles on offenses that should at least be above average, if not better. This dynamic in drafts makes an anchor RB approach a great strategy.
Based on the players usually available in the late-first and early-second rounds, I like to target a stud WR in Round 1 and then grab Pollard on the way back in the second round.
My personal rankings of the WRs I’m targeting at the end of the first round are:
- A.J. Brown
- Amon-Ra St. Brown
- Davante Adams
Brown is one of the premier WR talents in the NFL, in the prime of his career, and playing on one of the league's best offenses.
In fact, he set or tied career-highs in most receiving categories last season and has a real chance to top those numbers in 2023. The Eagles blew out their opponents so frequently last year that they essentially played just three quarters in many contests.
With a more difficult schedule and the potential for a less stingy defense in 2023, Jalen Hurts & Co. may be asked to do a lot more in the fourth quarter, which bodes well for his top pass-catcher.
With Brown locked in as the WR1, my attention then turns to the aforementioned RBs, Barkley and Pollard. Barkley falls to the early-second round in many drafts, but I prefer Pollard as in the same RB tier, and he's often available at the 2.03.
Coming back in the late-third round, I would love for Calvin Ridley to make it to my pick. But with a lot of preseason buzz, he's now often selected before this range.
From looking ahead to the next few rounds, I know that there are RBs and WRs I like a lot coming up, so I'm willing to grab one of the truly elite dual threat QBs in Lamar Jackson at 3.10. This gives me a legitimate shot at the QB1 at a bit of a discounted price compared to Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen drafters.
The middle rounds
With a balanced start of Brown, Pollard, and Jackson through three rounds, the middle rounds of the draft can go in a lot of different directions depending on which players you like and who falls in your draft.
Personally, I don’t love the WRs available in the early fourth round, so I like grabbing my second workhorse RB in Joe Mixon since it appears that he's unlikely to face a suspension in 2023.
Similar to Pollard, Mixon has tremendous upside due to his every-down role on an efficient offense.
At this point in the fourth round, I'm generally willing to overlook some efficiency concerns to lock up Mixon's workload in what projects to be a high-scoring Bengals offense.
Last season, Mixon ranked second in expected fantasy points per Pro Football Focus (PFF) and is one of just three RBs projected for 200-plus carries and 50-plus receptions in Fantasy Life’s 2023 projections. The other two RBs in that prestigious group (Christian McCaffrey and Saquon Barkley) both have ADPs in the first round, so Mixon could be a steal at ADP.
With two every-week starters at RB through four rounds, I now want to hammer WRs over the next few rounds to build depth and upside behind Brown.
My favorite WR targets who have a reasonable chance to be available when this team is on the clock over the next few rounds include:
- Mike Williams (Round 5)
- Brandon Aiyuk (Round 6)
- Diontae Johnson (Round 6)
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Round 7)
- Jahan Dotson (Round 7)
Based on a RB-heavy start, I wouldn’t be afraid to draft three straight WRs in Rounds 5-7, and I'd be thrilled to come away with a trio of the guys mentioned above.
For the sake of this exercise, let's go with Williams, Johnson, and JSN, which now gives this team a strong stable of WRs to complement the workhorse RBs.
The later rounds
As we get to pick No. 100 overall and beyond, ADP becomes much less important. In the later rounds, I want to prioritize getting players I like that fit my roster needs. For this hypothetical team drafting from the 1.10 slot, that means RB depth with late-season upside and some late-round TE targets.
When taking swings on late-round RBs, I want guys with high upside even if they might not see a lot of early-season production. In theory, I shouldn't need to start them early on with Pollard and Mixon locked in as my Week 1 starters.
The list of RB targets who fit this mold includes rookies Zach Charbonnet and Tank Bigsby as well as second-year RB Jaylen Warren, who is pushing for a bigger role in the Steelers' backfield this year.
The final position to address is TE. ADP precludes an elite early-round TE when drafting from the 1.10 without reaching, and I don't find any of the middle-round TEs to be very compelling targets this year.
Because of how the draft board lines up, I would rather build RB and WR depth in the early and middle rounds when drafting from the 1.10 and wait to grab a few late-round TE targets.
Once the draft is into the double digit rounds, I generally look at how many other teams still need to draft a TE to make sure that I can get my targets before someone else grabs them.
The two late-round TEs that I would prioritize are Juwan Johnson and Sam LaPorta. Both are being undervalued relative to the role they will have on their respective offenses and should provide a similar weekly ceiling to the TEs who go multiple rounds earlier.
And finally, in addition to these late-round RB and TE targets, I want to add one or two WRs to complement the four that I took earlier. A few of my late-round WR targets include Skyy Moore, Zay Flowers, Nico Collins, and Jayden Reed. All of these young WRs have ADPs after pick No. 100 overall but carry high ceilings in the event of breakouts.
On top of having high upside, we should be able to see what kind of roles and target shares these young WRs have in the first few weeks, which will help make roster cuts easier when making waiver wire additions.
The final result
After a balanced start of taking a different position in each of the first three rounds, I made sure to load up on WRs in the middle rounds before closing with my favorite targets at the RB and TE positions.
You definitely don’t have to agree with all the player-specific takes, but this general approach to drafting from the 1.10 yields a well-rounded roster. This type of team can start the season strong and put together some early wins while also having the upside dart throws that can take a roster from contender to champion if and when they hit later in the year.
- Round 1: A.J. Brown
- Round 2: Tony Pollard
- Round 3: Lamar Jackson
- Round 4: Joe Mixon
- Round 5: Mike Williams
- Round 6: Diontae Johnson
- Round 7: Jaxon Smith-Njigba
- Round 8: Skyy Moore
- Round 9: Zay Flowers
- Round 10: Zach Charbonnet
- Round 11: Jaylen Warren
- Round 12: Nico Collins
- Round 13: Sam LaPorta
- Round 14: Juwan Johnson
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