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 standard (non-PPR) scoring with the 3rd pick:
1.03 - Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys
A little less involved as a receiver in 2019 (54/420/2) than 2018 (77/567/3), Elliott has exceeded 300 carries every year except for his 10-game 2017 season and he's led the NFL in rushing yards per game in three of four seasons. Guaranteed for a massive workload behind one of the league's top offensive lines and in one of the league's most prolific offenses, Elliott is a slam-dunk top-three pick in 2020.
2.10 - Chris Carson, RB, Seattle Seahawks
Carson (hip) is expected to be ready for Week 1. Playing 15 games last season, Carson handled a career-high 315 touches for 1,496 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns.
3.03 - Chris Godwin, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
With DeSean Jackson departing in free agency, Godwin (more than) delivered on the breakout that was expected of him. Despite missing two games, he shattered previous career highs with 86 catches for 1,333 yards and nine touchdowns to finish as fantasy's WR2.
4.10 - 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.
5.03 - DeVante Parker, WR, Miami Dolphins
It was the unconvential fifth-year breakout for Parker, who shattered previous career highs with 72 catches on 128 targets for 1,202 yards and nine touchdowns. Over the final eight games with UDFA Preston Williams sidelined, Parker was at his best -- 44/802/5 on 76 targets in eight games without Williams; 28/400/4 on 52 targets with him. Given the opt outs of the 2020 NFL season by Albert Wilson and Allen Hurns, the duo of Parker and Williams may see an even larger target share with Wilson and Hurns sitting 2020 out.
6.10 - A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals
Green has missed at least six games in three of the last four seasons including the entire 2019 season. The obvious risks are Green's durability history as well as the difficulty of establishing chemistry with a rookie quarterback in such an unorthodox offseason, but there is upside from his low-end WR2/high-end WR3 ADP as well. In 2018, Green averaged 5.1/77.1/0.7 per game, equivalent to a full-season pace of 82/1,234/11.
7.03 - 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.
8.10 - Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots
Coming off multi-year lows in completion percentage (60.8, six-year low), TD% (3.9, 11-year low) and Y/A (6.6, 18-year low), things are looking up for Brady in terms of his fantasy outlook as he replaces Jameis Winston in Tampa's high-powered offense. While the team should play with more leads and Brady likely won't lead the NFL in pass attempts (like Winston did in 2019), he inherits a supporting cast loaded with talented pass-catchers -- Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, O.J. Howard, (an unretired) Rob Gronkowski, etc.
9.03 - Matt Breida, RB, Miami Dolphins
Breida was the odd-man out in San Francisco's backfield down the stretch and he moves to a situation where he has a legitimate shot to lead Miami's backfield in usage and production. The former UDFA has averaged 5.0 yards per carry and 8.4 yards per reception over his first three NFL seasons. While Miami had the league's worst offensive line last year, they made numerous investments -- via the draft and free agency -- to upgrade the unit.
10.10 - Tony Pollard, RB, Dallas Cowboys
Based on his talent, Pollard probably deserves more snaps and touches than he got as a rookie, but he's purely a handcuff to Elliott. Pollard, who averaged 5.29 yards per carry as a rookie, got double-digit carries in only four games where the Cowboys' average margin of victory was 24.25 points. If Elliott were to miss any time, however, Pollard would become a must-start.
11.03 - Jalen Reagor, WR, Philadelphia Eagles
Injuries decimated Philadelphia's receiving corps last season and the front office invested heavily into adding reinforcements with Reagor being the headliner of the incoming crop of pass-catchers. An explosive athlete that runs faster than his tested time (4.47) in Indy, Reagor can provide a DeSean Jackson-like impact to the receiving corps. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if he outproduced the veteran receiver.
12.10 - Chase Edmonds, RB, Arizona Cardinals
Edmonds played 60 snaps (94%) against the Giants in Week 8 and exploded for 150 YFS and three touchdowns on 29 touches. Missing all of November and playing only 15 offensive snaps in December, the third-year back out of Fordham enters 2020 as Kenyan Drake's primary handcuff.
13.03 - Hayden Hurst, TE, Atlanta Falcons
Hurst doubled his production in 2019 to 30/349/2, but that paled in comparison to (now former) teammate Mark Andrews. Hurst's trade to Atlanta does wonders for his fantasy outlook as Austin Hooper signed a free-agent deal with Cleveland. Before Hooper's mid-season injury, he was fantasy's top-scoring tight end and finished second behind Julio Jones in team targets.
14.10 - Patriots DST, DST, New England Patriots
15.03 - Harrison Butker, K, Kansas City Chiefs
16.10 - Chase Claypool, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers
Claypool provides the Steelers with a physical mismatch due to his size (6'4", 238 pounds) and athleticism (4.42 forty and 40.5" vertical). While he may start out as the team's fourth receiver, it's possible that he pushes James Washington for snaps in three-wide sets. Not only are teammates calling Claypool a "PROBLEM" (in a good way), The Athletic's Mark Kaboly recently wrote that "practice after practice, the rookie is making non-rookie-like plays after running non-rookie-like routes and making non-rookie-like catches."
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