Monday, August 13, 2018

2018 Fantasy Football PPR Mock Draft: 12 Teams, 9th 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.

Embed from Getty Images


Details of today's mock draft:
  • Scoring: Point-per-reception (PPR) scoring
  • # of Teams: 12
  • Draft Slot: 9
  • 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:

1.09 - DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Houston Texans: Leading the NFL in receiving touchdowns (13) last season, Hopkins now has four seasons with 75-plus catches and three seasons with 1,200-plus yards through his age-25 season. With a league-high 174 targets last season, Hopkins had 35-percent target share in 10 of 15 games and double-digit targets 11 times. As the focal point of Houston's offense, he arguably has the highest floor among all receivers in the league.

2.04 - 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.

- MORE: Devonta Freeman 2018 Fantasy Football Profile

3.09 - Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings: Thielen has only 10 touchdowns in his four NFL seasons, but he led the team in targets (142), receptions (91) and receiving yards (1,276). Only Antonio Brown, Julio Jones, Keenan Allen and Hopkins had more yards than Thielen last season.

4.04 - Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos: Thomas is coming off his worst season (83/949/5) since breaking out in 2012 (Peyton Manning's first year in Denver). 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 85 catches and 1,100 yards seems reasonable with steadier quarterback play.

- MORE: Undervalued Players Compared to Fantasy ADP

5.09 - Dion Lewis, RB, New England Patriots: Even though I expect Derrick Henry to lead the backfield in touches, I see somewhere in the neighborhood of a 55-45 split between the two backs. Lewis had 212 touches for the Patriots last season and finished as fantasy's RB12 (RB13 in PPR), but his week-to-week role should be even more secure in Tennessee.

6.04 - Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints: Even with rookie Alvin Kamara finishing as fantasy's RB4, Ingram set career highs in 2017 with 1,124 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns, 58 receptions and 416 receiving yards. Although he'll miss the first four games due to a PED suspension, that creates more fantasy appeal (to a certain degree) as there is a discount for his strong production from Weeks 5 to 16.

- MORE: Mark Ingram 2018 Fantasy Football Profile

7.09 - Tevin Coleman, RB, Atlanta Falcons: Even if he's the 2 to Freeman in the team's 1-2 rushing attack, Coleman has finished as a top-24 running back and exceeded 900 yards from scrimmage in each of the past two seasons with 19 total touchdowns since 2016.

8.04 - Marquise Goodwin, WR, San Francisco 49ers: Goodwin had the best season of his career with 56 catches for 962 yards and two touchdowns. Especially productive in the second half, Goodwin had a five-game stretch of 78-plus yards from Weeks 10 to 15 including three straight with 99-plus. Even with Pierre Garcon now healthy, San Francisco Chronicle's Eric Branch writes that "Goodwin remains the 49ers’ top wide receiver."

9.09 - Jordan Reed, TE, Washington Redskins: If he ever puts together a 16-game 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.

10.04 - Giovani Bernard, RB, Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Mixon missed a couple of December games, but Bernard was highly productive down the stretch. Gio had 507 YFS, averaged 4.75 YPC with 24 receptions and two scores across five December games.

- MORE: 16 Fantasy Football Sleepers

11.09 - Trey Burton, TE, Chicago Bears: With 23 catches for 248 yards and five touchdowns for the Eagles last season, Burton has plenty of breakout potential in Matt Nagy's offense in Kansas City.

12.04 - Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers: Throwing for 3,800-plus yards in each of the past five seasons, Big Ben has thrown 28-plus touchdowns in four of those five seasons. Roethlisberger 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, however, Roethlisberger has weekly QB1 upside (especially at home).

13.09 - Tyrell Williams, WR, Los Angeles Chargers: With Allen out for virtually of 2016, Williams had a breakout season with 69 catches for 1,059 yards and seven touchdowns. With Allen healthy, Williams had 43/728/4 in 2017 — and that level of production is a more reasonable expectation barring an Allen injury in 2018.

14.04 - Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, San Francisco 49ers: Starting Weeks 12 to 17, Garoppolo scored the 12th-most fantasy points (17th-most on a per-game basis, 14.5) during that stretch. His mediocre fantasy production was limited by the lack of touchdowns -- seven passing touchdowns in six games -- although he was efficient in terms of completion percentage (67.4) and yards per attempt (8.8). With a full offseason in Kyle Shanahan's offense and better/healthier weapons, there is plenty of upside in 2018.

15.09 - Carolina Panthers D/ST

16.04 - Justin Tucker, K, Baltimore Ravens

- View full mock draft results here

Complete your own mock drafts for free on our Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator page.

Check out more of our content: