Friday, August 4, 2017

Fantasy Football Mock Draft: 14 Teams, 4th 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: 14
  • Draft Slot: 4
  • Starters: QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE, Flex (RB/WR/TE), K, DST
  • Bench Size: 6
With that said, here are the results of today's mock draft:

1.04 - Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys: Leading the NFL in rushing attempts (322) and rushing yards (1,631) as a rookie, Elliott had a minimum of 80 rushing yards in every game from Weeks 2 to 16. Finishing second to David Johnson in fantasy points scored, Elliott had a minimum of 10.7 fantasy points in all 15 games played. A short suspension appears to be on the horizon and I'd likely have selected Julio Jones here -- Antonio Brown was already off the board -- if this league started three WRs.

2.11 - Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos: Thomas set five-year lows across the board: 90 receptions, 1,083 yards and five touchdowns. Thomas battled a hip injury for much of last season (and is better now), but those are not bad numbers as "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.

3.04 - Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs: Kelce set career highs in receptions (85), yards (1,125) and 100-yard games (six) and led the position in fantasy points scored despite scoring only four touchdowns. With Jeremy Maclin now in Baltimore, Kelce should be even more of a focal point of the passing offense and has a chance to finish as fantasy's TE1 even if Rob Gronkowski plays a full season.

4.11 - Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings: Cook exceeded the 100-yard rushing mark in nine of his final 10 games for the Seminoles with an average of 190.7 YFS per game during that stretch, but he slipped to the second round due to other concerns. Cook should become the lead back by the end of the season (if he isn't by the start of it).

5.04 - Tevin Coleman, RB, Atlanta Falcons: Once again, Coleman missed multiple games, but he showed his big-play ability when he was on the field. While Devonta Freeman will continue to lead the backfield in usage and production, Coleman had double-digit touches in 11 of his 13 games and finished the year as a top-20 fantasy running back.

6.11 - Emmanuel Sanders, WR, Denver Broncos: It's normally not preferred to have my top-two receiviers on the same team, but Sanders is a nice value here. After a career year in 2014 (101/1,404/9), Sanders has at least 75 catches and 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons. Both of those -- 75 catches and 1,000 yards -- seem to be reasonable floors, but there is some upside for improvement over the past two seasons with Mike McCoy returning to run Denver's offense.

7.04 - Jameis Winston, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: A top-15 fantasy quarterback in each of his first two seasons, Winston has the potential to post his first top-10 fantasy season in 2017. The Buccaneers added DeSean Jackson, one of the league's best vertical threats, in free agency and O.J. Howard and Chris Godwin via the draft, all of whom should take some pressure off of Mike Evans and really open things up for the passing offense in general.

8.11 - Eric Decker, WR, Tennessee Titans: Released by the Jets this offseason, Decker had 1,000-plus yards and double-digit touchdowns in three of his previous four seasons before missing 13 games in 2016.

9.04 - Corey Coleman, WR, Cleveland Browns: Battling injuries to finish with just 33/413/3 over 10 games in 2016, Coleman is an explosive athlete when healthy and the Browns will be counting on him to take a big step forward in his sophomore campaign with 1,000-yard receiver Terrelle Pryor now in Washington.

10.11 - Mike Wallace, WR, Baltimore Ravens: Even though Wallace had his first 1,000-yard season since 2011, he has finished as a top-30 fantasy wide receiver (standard scoring) in seven of eight seasons since entering the league in 2009.

11.04 - Kenny Britt, WR, Cleveland Browns: Despite quarterback and offensive concerns with the Rams, Britt posted his first-ever 1,000-yard season with a 68/1,002/5 stat line in 2016. Even though Britt is going into his ninth season, the veteran receiver is still only 28 years old (turns 29 in September). Britt will have to deal with questionable quarterback play once again, but it's possible that he approaches his 2016 numbers once again.

12.11 - Dion Lewis, RB, New England Patriots: It appears that Lewis may not even be one of the top two scoring running backs on his own team, but the one thing we know is that we don't really know how the Patriots will use their running backs in any given week. Lewis provides some late-round running back depth and upside for this team.

13.04 - Tyrod Taylor, QB, Buffalo Bills: No team threw the ball fewer times than the Bills (474) in 2016, but that didn't keep Taylor from finishing as a top-10 fantasy quarterback (QB8) last season. Generating much of his production from his rushing stats, Taylor has rushed for 1,148 yards and 10 touchdowns over the past two seasons.

14.11 - Pittsburgh Steelers DST
 
15.04 - Mason Crosby, K, Green Bay Packers

- View full mock draft results here

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