Tuesday, July 10, 2018

2018 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: 12 Teams, 11th 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 July 7th, we began drafting (at least) one fantasy football team per day using the 2018 Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator and we will continue to do so up until the start of the 2018 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., non-PPR scoring)
  • # of Teams: 12
  • Draft Slot: 11
  • 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:

1.11 - Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta Falcons: With 1,400-plus yards in each of the past four seasons, Jones has a total of 6,317 receiving yards during that four-year span. Only Antonio Brown (6,349) has more and both have more than 1,200 yards more than DeAndre Hopkins (5,063, third).

2.02 - Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings: Unfortunately, Cook's rookie season ended prematurely due to an ACL tear. The Florida State product carried the ball 74 times for 354 yards (4.78 YPC) and two touchdowns in his four NFL games played and added 11 catches for 90 yards. If he's able to stay healthy in 2018, Cook is poised for a monster workload with the potential to finish as a top-five fantasy back.

3.11 - Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings: Thielen has only 10 touchdowns in his four NFL seasons, but the former UDFA built upon his breakout 2016 season to lead the team in targets (142), receptions (91) and receiving yards (1,276). Only four receivers had more yards than Thielen last season.

4.02 - Derrius Guice, RB, Washington Redskins: Regardless of why he slipped to the middle of Round 2, Guice is arguably the second-most talented running back in this year's rookie class. While Guice should dominate touches on first and second down, coach Jay Gruden comments about the rookie's pass-catching skills — "it's been very exciting" — is encouraging.

5.11 - Michael Crabtree, WR, Baltimore Ravens: Crabtree has 25 touchdowns -- eight-plus each year -- over the past three seasons. The move to Baltimore means that Crabtree now becomes his team's clear No. 1 wideout.

6.02 - Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints: To a certain degree, Ingram's four-game suspension creates more fantasy appeal on a relative basis. Granted, his full-season production will be lower due to the suspension, but the lower cost provides a discount given the level of strong production expected from Weeks 5 to 16.

7.11 - Chris Hogan, WR, New England Patriots: Hogan played only one regular-season game (Week 14) in the second half of the season, but he posted a 33/438/5 slash line in his first eight games. During that span, he was the WR7 in standard-scoring formats with the 13th-most on a per-game basis.

8.02 - Rex Burkhead, RB, New England Patriots: Missing six games in his first season with the Patriots, Burkhead scored eight touchdowns as he rushed for 264 yards and added 30 catches for 254 yards. Even though Dion Lewis is now in Tennessee, the Patriots drafted Georgia's Sony Michel in the first round and there will still be plenty of week-to-week volatility in the production of New England's running backs. That said, I'd expect Burkhead to lead the backfield in touchdowns.

9.11 - Sterling Shepard, WR, New York Giants: Even though he missed five games, Shepard posted a career high in receiving yards (731) and set a career high in receptions on a per-game basis (5.36). Shepard will have an opportunity to post full-season career highs as the team's WR2.

10.02 - Jordan Reed, TE, Washington Redskins: If he ever puts together a 16-team season, Reed has the potential to lead all tight ends in fantasy points. Unfortunately, he has missed at least four games in four of his five NFL seasons including 10 missed games last season. In his healthiest season (14 games in 2015), Reed had a monster 87/952/11 line.

11.11 - Philip Rivers, QB, Los Angeles Chargers: Except for 2012 (21st) and 2016 (14th), Rivers has finished as a top-12 fantasy quarterback in the eight of his past 10 NFL seasons. In addition, Rivers has thrown for at least 4,286 yards and 28 touchdowns in each of the past five seasons.

12.02 - Kenny Golladay, WR, Detroit Lions: Golladay's best games were his first (4/69/2) and his last (2/80/1). Missing five games, the rookie totalled only 22/328/0 in his nine games from Weeks 2 to 16. As ESPN's Matt Bowen predicts, Golladay is certainly a candidate for a second-year breakout.

13.11 - David Njoku, TE, Cleveland Browns: Playing less than half of the team's offensive snaps as a rookie, Njoku posted a 32/386/4 stat line in 2017. Njoku should be more involved in the passing game in his sophomore campaign and provides some insurance for a Reed injury.

14.02 - Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers: Big Ben has played a 16-game season only three times in his career so there's certainly a strong chance that he'll miss a game or two in 2018. With the league's best RB/WR combo in Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, Roethlisberger has weekly QB1 upside, but he's finished as the QB20, QB13 and QB10 over the past three seasons, respectively.

15.11 - New England Patriots D/ST

16.02 - Stephen Gostkowski, K, New England Patriots

- View full mock draft results here

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