How to approach the turn in fantasy football 2021

Fantasy football draft order value changes every year, but one thing does not ever change: People either love or hate drafting at the “turn” — the 1.12 position.

One the one hand, it’s nice because you get to double-dip. This lets you create stacks or ensure you get the player you really want, even if it means taking them a half-round before their ADP. One the other hand, there is absolutely no chance of players making it back to you if you risk it, because you have to wait 20-plus picks until it’s your turn again.

Regardless of how you feel about drafting at the turn, this article will serve as a guide for those who draw the position in their 2021 fantasy football drafts.

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A few key notes about drafting at the turn

We mentioned some of these in the intro above, but we’ll reiterate here what makes the turn unique.

Pros

The double-dip: Picking back-to-back has its perks. As your pick draws close, you get to pick two players from your target list instead of just one. You can create QB-WR stacks, quickly fill a position of need (going RB-RB, for example), or start a positional run
Get your guys (every other round): If your target player has an early- to mid-round ADP in the odd rounds, you probably will not be able to draft that player unless you really reach a full round-plus early. But if your target player is going pretty much anywhere in the even rounds, you’ll most likely have first dibs at that player when you’re on the clock. I suppose this is a pro and a con, since it only works half the time, but we’re looking at this optimistically.
Play the draft a little slower from a mental perspective: If you’re doing a live draft, drafting at the turn means you get a little bit more of a break in between picks. This buys you more time to study the board, see how the teams around you are drafting, etc.

Cons

The long wait: Watching 20-plus players evaporate from the draft board in between your turns is painful.
Forced hand: Sometimes your picks at the turn can feel forced. Perhaps the value is too good to pass up, even if you don’t really want the player. Or you desperately need a running back but you don’t like any of the options left — but you hate the options that will be there when it will be your turn next, so you take one anyway. Or maybe you felt you had to reach a little too far to get the guy you wanted, because you knew he wouldn’t be there by the time you picked again. The end result can be leaving the draft with a team you feel disconnected from, even if the team itself is perfectly fine.
No elite TEs: At least in 2021, it’s going to be really hard for you to land one of the elite three TEs (Travis Kelce, Darren Waller, George Kittle) just based on ADP.

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Three recent real-life examples of my drafts at the turn

I dug through some of my recent Underdog Fantasy drafts to see when I picked from the 1.12 position. I found three drafts that had unique starts. Let’s take a look, and I’ll walk you through the thought process from each one:

The zero-RB draft

1.12	Calvin Ridley, WR	7.12	Chase Edmonds, RB
2.01	DeAndre Hopkins, WR	8.01	Michael Thomas, WR
3.12	Julio Jones, WR	9.12	Ronald Jones, RB
4.01	Chris Godwin, WR	10.01	Dallas Goedert, TE
5.12	Kyler Murray, QB	11.12	Irv Smith, TE
6.01	Myles Gaskin, RB	12.01	Latavius Murray, RB

The zero-RB draft strategy can feel natural from the 1.12 position. Usually, all of the top-tier RBs are off the board by 1.12, but several top-tier WRs are still available. That’s what happened in the above draft.

I stuck to the strategy at the 3-4 turns, and then scooped up a top-tier QB (Kyler Murray) at 5.12 before starting to scoop up some zero-RB targets between Rounds 6-12: Myles Gaskin, Chase Edmonds, Ronald Jones and Latavius Murray.

The RB-heavy draft

1.12	Saquon Barkley, RB	7.12	Curtis Samuel, WR
2.01	Jonathan Taylor, RB	8.01	Michael Thomas, WR
3.12	Mike Evans, WR	9.12	Tom Brady, QB
4.01	Chris Godwin, WR	10.01	Henry Ruggs, WR
5.12	Mark Andrews, TE	11.12	Leonard Fournette, RB
6.01	Kyler Murray, QB	12.01	Tre’Quan Smith, WR

If a top-flight RB, such as Saquon Barkley, slips to 1.12, this becomes an even more viable strategy in my opinion. But it’s also possible to pull off with Aaron Jones, Austin Ekeler, Nick Chubb, and Jonathan Taylor.

After securing Barkley and Taylor in the first two rounds, I knew I didn’t need another RB until much later in the draft. So I double-dipped and took both Tampa WRs at the 3-4 turn, followed by high-end TE and QB picks at the 5-6 turn. It was a mistake to take a QB here, because I was able to grab Tom Brady at 9.12 to complete the Tampa stack, but we live and learn.

I didn’t have to take another RB again until 11.12. This helped me focus on WR-TE (and QB, perhaps too much) during the bulk of the draft.

The balanced approach

1.12	DeAndre Hopkins, WR	7.12	Trey Sermon, RB
2.01	Jonathan Taylor, RB	8.01	Darnell Mooney, WR
3.12	D’Andre Swift, RB	9.12	DeVante Parker, WR
4.01	Chris Godwin, WR	10.01	Trey Lance, QB
5.12	Dak Prescott, QB	11.12	Tre’Quan Smith, WR
6.01	Mark Andrews, TE	12.01	Nelson Agholor, WR

In this third draft, I scooped up DeAndre Hopkins at 1.12 and Jonathan Taylor at 2.01, kicking off a balanced draft strategy. The trend continued at the 3-4 turns with another RB-WR turn before addressing QB and TE at the 5-6 turn.

Find the approach that you like best — or head into draft day feeling flexible

As the above examples show, you don’t have to be pigeon-holed into a single draft strategy just because you’re drafting at the turn. It’s important to be aware of the cons of drafting at the turn, but it’s more beneficial to use the pros to your advantage. You have a ton of flexibility from the turn.