Monday, July 9, 2018

2018 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: 2-QB PPR League, 12 Teams, 6th 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: Point-per-reception (PPR) scoring
  • # of Teams: 12
  • Draft Slot: 6
  • Starters: 2 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:

1.06 - Antonio Brown, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers: As good and consistent as it gets, Brown has finished as a top-three fantasy wide receiver in four consecutive seasons. Over the past five seasons, Brown has 582 receptions for 7,848 yards and 52 touchdowns. Leading the league by a wide margin in those categories, second-most in those categories are 481 receptions (Demaryius Thomas), 6,897 yards (Julio Jones) and 46 touchdowns (Dez Bryant).

2.07 - Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers: Since entering the league in 2011, Newton has finished as a top-four fantasy quarterback in all but two seasons (2014 and 2016). Of course, a huge part of his fantasy success is generated by his rushing production. Averaging 7.7 rushing scores per season, Newton has 100-plus rush attempts and 500-plus rushing yards every year except for 2016.

3.06 - Devonta Freeman, RB, Atlanta Falcons: Missing two-plus games last season, Freeman still managed to finish as the RB13 after much better seasons in 2015 (RB1) and 2016 (RB6). Over the past three seasons, only Todd Gurley (4,599), Le'Veon Bell (4,522) and LeSean McCoy (4,396) have more yards from scrimmage than Freeman (4,357) and his 35 touchdowns are tied with Gurley for the most over that stretch.

4.07 - Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos: DT is coming off his worst season (83/949/5) since breaking out in 2012. Signing Case Keenum may not return Thomas to the days of 90/1,400/10 numbers he posted from 2012 to 2014, but a bounce-back campaign to the tune of 90 catches and 1,200 yards seems reasonable with steadier quarterback play.

5.06 - Kenyan Drake, RB, Miami Dolphins: Over the final five games of the 2017 season, Drake ran for a league-high 444 yards on 91 carries (4.88 YPC) with two touchdowns and added 17 receptions for 150 yards. Adding future HOFer Frank Gore to the running back room with rookie Kalen Ballage likely means that Drake won't see his December workload (21.6 touches per game) carry over into the 2018 season, but he's still likely to be the team's most productive back.

6.07 - Michael Crabtree, WR, Baltimore Ravens: As part of a 1-2 punch with Amari Cooper in Oakland, Crabtree had three (well, two if you don't count 2017) productive seasons as a Raider. During that span, Crabtree has 25 touchdowns -- eight-plus in each of the past three seasons. The move to Baltimore means that Crabtree now becomes his team's clear No. 1 wideout.

7.06 - Pierre Garcon, WR, San Francisco 49ers: Garcon (neck) missed half the season and was on pace for an 80/1,000 season before the injury. His last full season (2013) playing in Kyle Shanahan's offense, he posted a career-best 113/1,346/5 stat line. Unlikely to repeat those numbers, a 1,000-yard season is certainly within reach.

8.07 - Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints: Ingram set career highs in 2017 with 1,124 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns, 58 receptions and 416 receiving yards. To a certain degree, his four-game suspension creates more fantasy appeal as there is a discount given the level of strong production expected from Weeks 5 to 16.

9.06 - Derek Carr, QB, Oakland Raiders: A disappointing season for both the team and Carr, he threw for 3,496 yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2017. Before last season, he threw for 3,900-plus yards in each of the previous two seasons with a total of 60 touchdowns.

10.07 - Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants: The Giants lacked (the threat of) a running game, had one of the league's worst offensive lines and their receiving corps was decimated by injuries. With a healthy receiving corps, stud rookie running back and improved offensive line, Manning will have a chance to bounce back in 2018 after finishing outside the top-20 fantasy quarterbacks in back-to-back seasons.

11.06 - 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.

12.07 - Jack Doyle, TE, Indianapolis Colts: Doyle finished second on the team in targets (108) last season and posted career highs with 80 catches and 690 yards last season.

13.06 - Cameron Meredith, WR, New Orleans Saints: While he missed all of last season with a torn ACL, Meredith had 66 catches for 888 yards and four touchdowns over 14 games with the Bears in 2016. Even though he's the WR2/3 on the team behind Thomas, Meredith has some upside in a better offense with Drew Brees as quarterback.

14.07 - Theo Riddick, RB, Detroit Lions: With 50-plus catches in each of the past three seasons, Riddick has a total of 186 receptions during that span.

15.06 - 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.

16.07 - Baltimore Ravens D/ST

17.06 - Will Lutz, K, New Orleans Saints

- View full mock draft results here

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