There are plenty of different drafting strategies when the day of your Fantasy Football draft arrives. There are also different levels of Fantasy Football. At the bottom of the levels are the home leagues. These are leagues comprised of long time buddies who share the love of sports like football. Drafting in these leagues is much easier, as many times some of your friends don’t pay close attention to the off season and training camp. In these leagues, the big names always go early, but that doesn’t mean they are the best value at that position. For instance, in many home leagues Patrick Mahomes will be selected in the first two rounds. Aaron Rodgers might be too! Take advantage of this draft guide and become a smarter Fantasy Football player. There are also leagues with more experienced players who follow the headlines closely. Here, it is much harder to steal players late in the draft as not many people reach for overrated big names. Whatever your situation happens to be, I have assembled a strategy here that has helped me consistently finish at the top of my league.
Now, let’s get to the draft! Big Thank you to the team at Fantasy Pros and Draft Wizard for making this mock draft possible.
Round 1: With the clear top 4 RB off the board, there is a tough decision to make. Go for the best WR or the next best RB, David Johnson. There is some uncertainty with Johnson in the new system, but in my opinion you must secure a high tier RB in the first round. I love Hopkins but I can find WR value in rounds to come.
Round 2: My plan was to select another RB with my 2nd pick as well. But the sight of Odell Beckham Jr. still on the board was too much, even with my love for Nick Chubb, the next best RB. Odell will single handedly win you some weeks, and now I have a superstar RB and WR after two rounds.
Round 3: Really wanting to select another RB in this round, I found myself in a similar situation. It seems as though Tyreek Hill will be eligible to play in all 16 games this year, and at the end of the third round? Yes, Please.
Round 4: Now I seriously need another RB, no matter who the available WRs happen to be. AJ Green is enticing, but he isn’t Odell or Tyreek. The best available RBs are Kerryon Johnson, Josh Jacobs and Sony Michel. I don’t like the state of Michel’s knees at this early an age. The Patriots selected RB Damien Harris for a reason. Josh Jacobs seems to be the starter in Oakland, but just how effective will that offense be? Game flow in losing games might lead Jalen Richard to a lot of 2nd half playtime. That leaves me with Kerryon Johnson, who showed flashes of greatness in his rookie campaign last year. He did also sustain an injury but I do believe Kerryon has the ability to be an every down back, and the Lions need all the offense they can get.
Round 5: Now with 2 WRs and 2 RBs, I wanted to select another RB to solidify a FLEX with a high floor. For this reason I went with Chris Carson, who happens to be the lead RB on the offense who ran the ball the most out of any team last year. He has great value here, as even if he doesn’t score a TD, his high floor makes him a great play alongside more volatile players such as Tyreek Hill and Kerryon Johnson.
Round 6: This is where it starts to get interesting. Round 6 and on is where you can find great sleepers and players with enormous value that their ADP might not justify. I have 3 solid RBs and 2 unbelievable WRs. Now I want to grab a third WR with a solid floor like Carson. Tyler Lockett and Alshon Jeffery are there, but D.J. Moore is more intriguing. He is the clear cut #1 WR on CAR with the departure of Devin Funchess, and Moore had 7 or more targets in 6 out of his final 7 games of 2018.
Round 7: With 3 RBs and WRs, I took a look at the available TEs. Kelce, Kittle, Etrz, Howard, Henry and Engram are the consensus top 6, and after that there is a significant drop off. Lucky enough, the 6th best TE Evan Engram was still available. Elite value in the seventh round. Engram will be the #1 option in the Giants passing game.
Round 8: I wanted to draft my 4th RB here, but really wasn’t interested in the top options. Round 8 is too early to start grabbing rookies that still have an uphill climb on the depth chart. I wanted a player in a good offense, and for that reason I selected Eagles WR Alshon Jeffery.
Round 9: With these mid-late round picks I like to either draft a consistent player or a player with major upside. I decided to go with one of the top RBs available in Rashaad Penny. Penny is the clear handcuff to Chris Carson. If anything happens with Carson, Penny will be in for a ton of work. Penny showed glimpses of his potential in his rookie year last year, but only played a limited role for the Seahawks.
Round 10: This is about where I like to see what is left at the QB position. Since this is a 10 man, standard scoring league I know that only 9 QBs have been selected so far. No one is crazy enough to draft their backup already. The best available QBs are Cam Newton, Drew Brees and Jared Goff. I like Newton’s floor with his running ability but he is too inconsistent. This very well could be Goff’s best year as a pro but I’m going with Mr. Reliable and selecting Drew Brees.
Round 11: I now have all of my starters besides D/ST & K. I already have two decent bench players. Now I start to reach for potential sleepers or players that are significantly undervalued at their ADP. I don’t love any of the RBs available, and I know I can still wait a few rounds before drafting unknown rookies. But there is still a lot of value remaining at WR. Reports coming from Green Bay say that Marquez Valdes Scantling has been excellent at camp and will be the starting slot WR. With the potential of being the #2 WR in an Aaron Rodgers offense, I’ll take that in the 11th round.
Round 12: This is about where the undervalued rookies start to fall. But before I drafted any of them, I saw Jerick Mckinnon still on the board. Yes he is coming off an ACL tear, and yes the 49ers signed Tevin Coleman. But all reports seem like they will split touches in the backfield, which means anything could end up happening.
Round 13: This is the point in the draft when most players lose interest and just randomly select the best player available. This is an amazing opportunity to draft rookies with the potential to become starters some time throughout year 1. With tremendous upside, I drafted rookie out of Oklahoma St. Justice Hill. Even in a messy backfield, Hill has the chance to breakout in his rookie campaign. Mark Ingram and Gus Edwards are good backs, but there is no reason not to take a chance on Hill at this position.
Round 14: With 3 picks remaining, I wanted to select another rookie with potential. This time I went with Kalen Ballage, RB for the Miami Dolphins. Miami doesn’t have a great offense, and will be down in most of their games, but they don’t have much in the backfield. Kenyon Drake is nice, but has he proven his ability as a 3-down back? I don’t think so. It might take a while, but Ballage could make his way to the starting tailback by the end of the season.
Round 15: Second to last round is where I will select my D/ST. Of the best available, the Los Angeles Chargers were the no doubt selection.
Round 16: Last but not least the Kicker. Kickers can win and lose you weeks, but it is often pretty random. My advice with kickers is just go with someone on a good offense that you know will have plenty of opportunities per game. I went with Ka’imi Fairbairn of the Houston Texans.
Below are some graphs that represent my team versus the others in my league. It projects the standings and shows the rosters for each team. Let me know what you think of this draft/anything you would like me to cover. Leave a comment or DM me on Instagram @NFL_SR.
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