Drafting from the turn: a board based plan for picks 1 and 12

The turn is a different draft

A drafter in the middle of the order picks every 12 picks, more or less evenly. A drafter at either end picks twice in a row and then waits 22 picks. That changes the whole problem. The middle drafter asks "who is best now." The turn drafter asks "which tier will still exist in 22 picks," because anything that will not survive has to be taken now, in pairs.

The September 3 board tells you what is waiting at each turn. Here it is for both ends.

Source: Parlae board, Sep 3 2026, PPR. Players listed are the first ones priced at or after each pick.

Slot 1: the easy pick and the hard turn

Pick one is Gibbs at 1.5, and the room's deviation on him is 0.7 picks. It is not a decision.

The second turn is where slot 1 earns its keep. Picks 24 and 25 land exactly on the largest shelf on the board: Omarion Hampton at 22.2 is the last player in the first tier and Zay Flowers at 25.6 is the first in the second, a 3.4 pick gap. In most rooms the first tier will be gone by 24. What is waiting instead is the top of the second tier with the whole tier intact: Flowers, Nabers, Garrett Wilson and Jeremiyah Love inside 1.7 picks of each other, then McBride at 29.1 and DeVonta Smith at 29.5.

That is the best turn on the board, because the tier is fourteen players deep and you are picking first from it. Take two, and take them from the positions that will not survive the next 22 picks. After pick 25 the board's next running backs are Kyren Williams at 31.4, Breece Hall at 32.3 and Javonte Williams at 35.4, and then the third round back tier ends. The next receivers run all the way to Terry McLaurin at 48.6. So at 24 and 25 the back is the one that runs out. Love plus a receiver, or Love plus McBride, is the shape.

At 48 and 49 the board is offering the last of the fourth round receivers in McLaurin, the first of the fifth round backs in Judkins, and the first quarterback shelf in Maye at 52.0. Then 22 more picks pass, and at 72 and 73 the board is the round six back group with Price and Dowdle, a quarterback in Daniels, and two receivers. By 96 and 97 it is Addison and the tight end cluster starting with Kraft.

Slot 12: two from the same shelf

Slot 12's first turn is picks 12 and 13, and the board puts a tier boundary in the middle of it. Cook at 11.5, Jefferson at 11.7, C. Brown at 13.0 and London at 13.4 are the last four players of the second group before the 2.6 pick gap to Henry at 16.0. The slot 12 drafter takes two of those four and gets a back and a receiver from the same tier with the same pick, which no middle slot can do.

The second turn at 36 and 37 is a harder one. It falls at the end of the third round group, where Higgins at 36.2 is the last of the seven third round receivers and Etienne at 37.1 is the first fourth round back. The tier is thinning, not starting. Whichever position you did not take twice at 12 and 13, you take here, and you take the one whose shelf is closest. On this board the receivers keep running to McConkey at 38.4 and Adams at 42.0, while the backs go Etienne, Skattebo at 39.9, then Swift at 44.2. Neither runs out, which makes 36 and 37 a turn for filling need rather than beating a shelf.

At 60 and 61 the slot 12 drafter has the best running back turn on the board: Stevenson at 61.6, Warren at 62.3, Henderson at 64.7 and Pollard at 68.4 all inside seven picks, with the wide spread receivers Parker Washington at 63.2 and Marvin Harrison Jr. at 63.8 alongside. At 84 and 85 it is the quarterback floor, Purdy and Caleb Williams, with Dobbins and two receivers. At 108 and 109 it is the tight end cluster with LaPorta and Goedert.

The rule for pairs

At every turn, the pair should come from the same shelf when the shelf is about to end, and from two positions when it is not. The reason is the 22 picks. A tier with six players in it will not survive; a tier with fourteen will. So count the tier at each turn before deciding whether to double up.

The other rule is never to take a player early at a turn to beat a run. The run is 22 picks long every time. If you reach at 25 for a player priced at 40 because you are afraid he will be gone at 48, you have paid 15 picks for the fear, and the board says the price at 48 is a McLaurin or a Judkins, which is not a catastrophe. Turn drafters lose more by reaching than by waiting.

The decision

Slot 1: Gibbs, then two from the second tier at 24 and 25 with the running back first, then treat 48 and 49 as the place to take a quarterback if Maye is there and a receiver if he is not. Slot 12: two of Cook, Jefferson, Brown and London at 12 and 13 across two positions, then the position you have one of at 36 and 37, then two running backs at 60 and 61 because that is the deepest back turn on the board.

What to do with this

1. Write your nine picks as pick numbers, not rounds, and beside each write the ADP of the first player the board prices after it. The rankings page sorted by ADP gives you that in one pass.
2. At each turn, count how many players remain in the current tier on the tier breaks page. Fewer than 22 and the pair comes from that tier. More than 22 and the pair splits positions.
3. Run your slot in the mock draft tool and write down who was there at your second turn. If the second tier is intact at 24 every time, you have your plan. If it is not, the room you are in is faster than the board, and you move your running back up a turn.