Thursday, August 13, 2020

12-Team PPR Mock Draft 2020

The best way to become good at something is to practice. So, what should you do if you want to draft a better fantasy football team?

Practice, of course!

Leading up to the start of the 2020 NFL season, we will use the 2020 Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator (powered by FantasyPros) to complete fantasy football mock drafts.

We will use a variety of scoring formats -- PPR, half-PPR, standard scoring and even 2-QB leagues, league sizes and draft slots. The goal is to give you a good representation of the team that you may be able to construct given your league settings and the rationale of why we made the picks we did.

+ Our mocks will be tracked here: Fantasy Football Mock Drafts.

That said, nothing beats practicing yourself so (check out the simulator) and complete a mock in a matter of minutes.

Without further ado, here are the picks of our 12-team 2020 fantasy football mock draft using PPR scoring with the fifth pick:

1.05 - Alvin Kamara, RB, New Orleans Saints

Injury forced him to miss a couple of games in the middle of the season and limited his effectiveness down the stretch, but Kamara still finished as fantasy's RB9 on a per-game basis in 2019. One of the league's most talented receivers out of the backfield, Kamara has exactly 81 catches in each of his three seasons, but he averaged a career-high 5.8 receptions per game last year. Kamara, who scored a touchdown per every 15.35 touches in his first two NFL seasons, could be the benefactor of some positive touchdown regression as that number plummeted to one score per every 42 touches in 2019.

2.08 - Allen Robinson, WR, Chicago Bears

Playing a full 16-game season, Robinson had a career-high 98 receptions for 1,147 yards and seven touchdowns in 2019. With steadier quarterback play, Robinson should post another top-12 fantasy season in 2020.

3.05 - Leonard Fournette, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

While he only scored three touchdowns in 2019, Fournette ranked third in the NFL in touches (341) and converted his 100 targets into 76 catches for 522 yards. Despite the lack of touchdowns, he was the only player in the league to get 100% of his team's carries inside the five.

4.08 - Tyler Lockett, WR, Seattle Seahawks

While the Seahawks rank near the bottom of the league in pass attempts every year, Lockett is one of the most efficient receivers in the NFL and saw a significant uptick in target share (21.3% in 2019 vs. 16.4% in 2018) with the retirement of Doug Baldwin. Despite playing through injury in the middle of the season, Lockett set career highs in targets (110), receptions (82) and yards (1,057) in 2019. The 5'10" receiver led the NFL in red-zone targets (23) in 2019.

5.05 - Melvin Gordon, RB, Denver Broncos

It was a surprising move for Gordon to stay in the division as the Broncos already had a back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher that is also a capable receiver out of the backfield. Even so, "the belief" is that MG3 will be the team's "bell cow." Before his holdout-shortened season, Gordon was a top-10 fantasy back in three consecutive seasons.

6.08 - Darren Waller, TE, Las Vegas Raiders

In his breakout season, Waller finished second amongst tight ends in receptions (90), third in targets (117) and second in yards (1,145). With the team's additions via free agency and the draft, Waller will have much more competition for targets in 2020, but he's still a top-five option at the position.

7.05 - Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks

Few teams are more commited to the run than the Seahawks, but Wilson has finished as a top-three fantasy quarterback in four of the past six seasons. One of the league's best deep passers, Wilson has thrown more than 30 touchdowns in three consecutive seasons and he's a near lock for 300-plus rushing yards and a couple more scores. If the Seahawks sign suspended free-agent receiver Antonio Brown (and Peter King currently refers to the Seahawks as favorites to sign Brown), it could make Wilson even more "DangeRuss" down the stretch and into the fantasy playoffs.

8.08 - Mike Williams, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

Williams has yet to reach the 50-catch mark in any of his first three seasons, but the former top-10 pick eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark (1,001) last season by averaging 20.4 yards per reception. One year after scoring 10 touchdowns on 43 catches, Williams had just two touchdowns.

9.05 - Golden Tate, WR, New York Giants

Serving a four-game PED suspension to begin the year, Tate performed as fantasy's WR28 from Weeks 5 to 17. Tate averaged 7.7 targets, 4.5 receptions and 61.5 yards per game and scored six touchdowns, tied for the second-most in his career.

10.08 - Latavius Murray, RB, New Orleans Saints

Over a two-game span that Kamara sat out, Murray performed as fantasy's RB1. In those two games, Murray accounted for 307 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns on 62 touches. If Kamara were to miss any time in 2020, Murray would become a must-start play.

11.05 - Duke Johnson, RB, Houston Texans

While he's always been efficient on his touches (4.4 career YPC and 9.2 Y/R), Johnson averaged only 7.94 touches per game in his first season with the Texans. On a positive note, James White (315) and Christian McCaffrey (303) are the only two running backs with more receptions than Johnson (279) since he entered the league in 2015. Better in PPR formats, Johnson has finished as a top-30 PPR running back in four of five seasons including 2019 (RB29).

12.08 - Jared Cook, TE, New Orleans Saints

In his first season in New Orleans, Cook averaged a career-best 16.4 yards per reception and scored a career-high nine touchdowns on just 43 receptions. The addition of Emmanuel Sanders in free agency bumps Cook down a notch on the targets pecking order and it's unlikely that he maintains his unreal efficiency levels from 2019, but he remains a top-10 option heading into 2020.

13.05 - Brandon Aiyuk, WR, San Francisco 49ers

With Emmanuel Sanders in New Orleans and Samuel suffering a Jones fracture, Aiyuk will have an opportunity to make a large impact immediately. Aiyuk averaged nearly double-digit yards after the catch over his career, per PFF.

14.08 - DeAndre Washington, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

It's obvious why Clyde Edwards-Helaire was a first-round pick (1.08) in this mock, but Washington provides some cheap exposure to the high-powered Chiefs offense for the end of my bench. If CEH misses any time, Washington would become a viable starting option even if he forms a committee with some of the team's other backs.

15.05 - New Orleans Saints DST

- View Full Mock Draft Results

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