Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Fantasy Football Mock Draft: 10 Teams, 8th Pick

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. While we may not be able to draft a "perfect" fantasy football team, the more we practice, the better our teams will be.

Starting on June 10th, we began drafting (at least) one fantasy football team per day using the 2017 Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator and we will continue to do so up until the start of the 2017 NFL season.

Each day, we will switch things up -- e.g., PPR vs. standard scoring, league size, draft slot, 2-QB leagues, auction leagues, etc.

In addition, we will centralize links to our daily fantasy football mock drafts for an easy way to keep track of our mock drafts.

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Details of today's mock draft:
  • Scoring: Standard scoring (i.e., not PPR scoring)
  • # of Teams: 10
  • Draft Slot: 8
  • Starters: QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, Flex (RB/WR/TE), K, DST
  • Bench Size: 6
With that said, here are the results of today's mock draft:

1.08 - Devonta Freeman, RB, Atlanta Falcons: Setting career highs in efficiency (4.8 YPC and 8.6 Y/R), Freeman now has back-to-back seasons with 1,000-plus rushing yards, 1,500-plus YFS, 50-plus receptions and 13-plus touchdowns.

2.03 - Jay Ajayi, RB, Miami Dolphins: Only Le'Veon Bell (243) had more carries and only Ezekiel Elliott (1,219) had more rushing yards than Ajayi (242 and 1,197) from Weeks 5 to 17 last season. Entering 2017 as the team's bellcow back, Ajayi could challenge for the league lead in carries in 2017.

3.08 - Amari Cooper, WR, Oakland Raiders: Overall his numbers were solid as Cooper set career highs in both receptions (83) and yards (1,153) in his sophomore campaign. Personally, I expect my next selection to score more fantasy points than Cooper, but the pick predictor with the simulator suggested I had a better chance to get both by drafting in the opposite order.


4.03 - Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos: Thomas set five-year lows across the board: 90 receptions, 1,083 yards and five touchdowns; not bad for "five-year lows." Before last season, he had averaged 100/1,447/10 in his previous four seasons. It's reasonable to expect an improvement over last year's numbers even if he doesn't return to a 100/1,400/10 level of production.

5.08 - Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals: Back for (at least) one more season, Fitzgerald has finished as a top-20 fantasy wide receiver with 100-plus catches and 1,000-plus yards in back-to-back seasons. Going into his age-34 season, Fitzgerald is a safe WR2/3 for fantasy owners.

6.03 - Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints: The good news is that Ingram played a full 16-game slate for the second time in his career while posting career highs of 1,043 rushing yards, 5.1 yards per carry and 10 total touchdowns. The addition of such a talented back like AP is a concern, but Ingram has now finished as a top-15 fantasy running back in three consecutive seasons.

7.08 - Marcus Mariota, QB, Tennessee Titans: Finishing as fantasy's QB12 in 2016, Mariota threw for 3,426 yards, 26 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Given the team's offseason investments to put an improved supporting cast around Mariota, 2017 should be even better — perhaps much better — for this ascending quarterback.

8.03 - Stefon Diggs, WR, Minnesota Vikings: Diggs had a few monster games -- back-to-back 13-catch games to start November and two separate 160-yard performances including his 13/164 outing on Nov. 13th. The Vikings should run the ball more often in 2017 than they did last year, but Diggs is clearly the team's best fantasy option at wide receiver and a solid value as my WR4.

9.08 - Danny Woodhead, RB, Baltimore Ravens: Missing the majority of the 2014 and 2016 seasons, Woodhead has played just 21 games over the past three years. Woodhead has finished as a top-24 fantasy running back (standard scoring) in each of his past three full seasons. Given the season-ending injury to Kenneth Dixon, it's possible that Woodhead extends that streak if he can stay healthy.

10.03 - Pierre Garcon, WR, San Francisco 49ers: Garcon is coming off his second career 1,000-yard season (79/1,041/3) and he could be in store for a bigger season in San Francisco with limited competition for targets. Garcon had 113 catches on 181 targets in 2013 when Kyle Shanahan was his coordinator in Washington.

11.08 - Darren McFadden, RB, Dallas Cowboys: If Zeke serves his six-game (or a reduced) suspension in 2017, McFadden becomes the Cowboys' starter (and a fantasy start) for those games. In his first season in Dallas without Zeke and Tony Romo injured most of the year, McFadden rushed for 1,089 yards (4.6 YPC) on 236 carries and added 40 catches for 328 yards.

12.03 - Hunter Henry, TE, Los Angeles Chargers: Henry finished his rookie campaign with 36/478/8 and he was especially productive during a four-game stretch early in the season (18/290/3 from Weeks 3 to 6). Even with Antonio Gates back, it's likely that Henry leads the position group in targets and production.

13.08 - Coby Fleener, TE, New Orleans Saints: In his first season in New Orleans, Fleener set four-year lows in both receptions (50) and targets (81), but his 631 receiving yards and four touchdowns (three receiving and one rushing) were the second-most of his career. While he disappointed fantasy owners (compared to his ADP), Fleener scored the 12th-most fantasy points in 2016.

14.03 - Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers: Newton set career lows as he completed just 52.9 percent of his pass attempts and averaged only 6.9 yards per attempt and 4.0 yards per carry as he finished as fantasy's QB17 last year. I expect Cam to bounce back some, but there is a strong possibility that he runs less in 2017.

15.08 - New York Giants DST

16.03 - Dan Bailey, K, Dallas Cowboys

- View full mock draft results here

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