There is an advantage to picking first. I’m in the middle of a 20-round PPR draft, and I noticed (holding the 10th pick) that there weren’t any players there I was excited about. Those guys look pretty similar to what’s being chosen in the middle of the second round.

So I ran the numbers, calculating expected return at each draft slot if I were selecting all 12 teams.

First I put together my over top 48 – showing the players I felt should be chosen in the first four rounds. This is a PPR league with three starting wide receivers and a flex, so wide receivers are more heavily represented. The numbers you see aren’t total fantasy points but adjusted totals (subtracting the baseline totals at each position to create an apples-to-apples comparison).

That is, I may figure I can get a lesser but serviceable wide receiver like Mohamed Sanu for relatively nothing. He’ll be there in the 14th round if you want him. So the totals for the wide receivers don’t show their overall totals, they show what’s left after you remove a Sanu-type chunk of production. You pick a Sanu-type at each position, and then we can more accurately compare those from different positions. With quarterbacks, for example, you can get a Flacco or Bradford for essentially nothing, so with the good quarterbacks, you look at how much better they will be than Flacco and Bradford.

IAN'S TOP-48 FOR FANEX DRAFT
PlayerPts
RB David Johnson209
RB LeVeon Bell198
WR Antonio Brown167
RB Ezekiel Elliott140
WR Odell Beckham Jr.121
WR Julio Jones117
WR Jordy Nelson115
RB Melvin Gordon110
• WR Michael Thomas108
RB LeSean McCoy107
WR Mike Evans106
RB Devonta Freeman105
• WR T.Y. Hilton99
QB Aaron Rodgers94
RB Jordan Howard92
WR Amari Cooper88
RB Todd Gurley87
• WR Tyreek Hill87
WR A.J. Green85
QB Tom Brady84
• WR Larry Fitzgerald84
RB Ty Montgomery82
RB Isaiah Crowell81
• RB Mark Ingram81
WR Michael Crabtree81
WR Demaryius Thomas80
WR Doug Baldwin79
WR Dez Bryant76
WR Golden Tate74
WR DeAndre Hopkins74
TE Travis Kelce74
RB DeMarco Murray73
RB Dalvin Cook72
• TE Zach Ertz71
WR Keenan Allen70
RB Leonard Fournette69
TE Greg Olsen68
WR Emmanuel Sanders68
QB Drew Brees66
TE Rob Gronkowski66
TE Jimmy Graham65
WR Sammy Watkins64
WR Pierre Garcon63
WR Willie Snead63
TE Jordan Reed61
RB Lamar Miller60
WR Davante Adams60
WR Terrelle Pryor58

Once we’ve settle on a top 48 and their relative values, we can then go in and look at who we might pick, given each of the 12 different draft positions.

With David Johnson, LeVeon Bell and Antonio Brown being available, the first three draft positions project to be the most valuable. The first draft slot projects to be worth about 95 more points than the worst choice.

VALUE OF DRAFT POSITIONS
PositionPoints
Slot 1427
Slot 2418
Slot 3385
Slot 4362
"Average"358
Slot 12343
Slot 5343
Slot 6340
Slot 11340
Slot 7339
Slot 10339
Slot 8334
Slot 9332

I’m not so much concerned with what happens after the first round, because at that point, the variances in people’s draft boards and strategies tends to become more telling than where they happen to be choosing.

In my own case, I didn’t care much for the first two choices I made (Michael Thomas and T.Y. Hilton). That could have just as easily been Jordy Nelson and Hilton, and I also thought about Jordan Howard with that early second-round pick. But after those ho-hum selections, my next three choices were all players I thought should have been chosen in the late second or early third rounds: Tyreek Hill, Larry Fitzgerald and Mark Ingram.

In the sixth round, I went off script. I felt I needed to square away the running back position (so I didn’t need to reach for one or two of them an upcoming round), so I went with Paul Perkins. I’m hoping he’ll come through and be a top-20 back.

Similarly in the seventh round, the quarterback run is underway, so I figure I’d better take one: Kirk Cousins. I’d like to have two capable arms, so I’ll probably add a second quarterback at 9.10 or 10.03. Other choice in that 9-10 area will be best available to add depth – either a WR or RB.

I really like Zach Ertz. In his final nine games of last year he was the most productive tight end in the league – 63 catches for 666 yards and 4 TDs in those games (crushing it in this PPR format, at 7 catches per game). So he’s the guy I just picked at 8.03.

In the chart above, I have the players I chose tagged with black dots. So despite the lesser draft position, I’m making up ground – I’ve got 6 of my top 36 players (when in theory I should have only three). So while I would have preferred to have one of those big pieces early – Johnson, Bell, Brown – this is the game we play, and I’m working to overcome and put together a playoff team.

If you want to follow along with this draft, it can be tracked at click here.

—Ian Allan