Saturday, June 22, 2019

Fantasy Football Mock Draft 2019: 12 Teams, 7th Pick

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 2019 NFL season, Kevin Hanson will use the 2019 Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator (powered by FantasyPros) to complete fantasy football mock drafts.


- MORE: Check out Kevin Hanson's way-too-early 2020 NFL Mock Draft.


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 2019 fantasy football mock draft using standard scoring:

1.07 - Melvin Gordon, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

Only Todd Gurley averaged more fantasy points per game than Gordon last season (standard scoring) so there is plenty of upside if he's able to stay healthy for a full season. Unfortunately, MG3 has now missed multiple games in three of his four NFL seasons.

That said, MG3's YPC average spiked to 5.1 in 2018 and he set a career high in touchdowns (14). After a scoreless rookie campaign, Gordon has finished with 12-plus touchdowns in three consecutive seasons.

2.06 - Michael Thomas, WR, New Orleans Saints

Three years into his young career, Thomas continues to improve each season -- 92/1,137/9 in 2017, 104/1,245/5 in 2018 and 125/1,405/9 in 2019. Since Thomas has been in the league, there have been 19 100-catch seasons and, of those, only Christian McCaffrey (86.3%, 2018) had a better catch rate than Thomas (85.0%, 2018) over the past three years.

3.07 - Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings

Thielen reached the 100-yard mark in the first eight games (and only once in the final eight games) as he posted career highs across the board -- receptions (113), yards (1,373) and touchdowns (nine). Finishing as a WR1 (top-12) in each of the past two seasons. I'd be comfortable with him as my WR1, but I really like him as my WR2.

4.06 - Kerryon Johnson, RB, Detroit Lions

Playing just 10 games as a rookie, Johnson had exactly 150 touches -- 118 carries and 32 receptions. Averaging 5.4 yards per carry, Johnson was fantasy's RB15 through Week 11 before missing the remainder of the season. Provided he stays healthy in 2019, the second-year back should see north of last year's 15 touches per game and could once again perform as a top-15 back when he's on the field.

5.07 - Mark Ingram, RB, Baltimore Ravens

Suspended the first four games of the season, Ingram had a down year as Alvin Kamara took over as lead back in New Orleans. In the two seasons before that, however, Ingram rushed for 2,167 yards, added 104 catches for 735 yards and scored a total of 22 touchdowns.

No team ran the ball as much as Baltimore in 2018 and that trend should continue in 2019 with Ingram as their lead back and my projection of 250 touches could prove too conservative. Normally, I'd jump at the chance to draft him in Round 4 so I really love his value in Round 5 of this mock.

6.06 - D.J. Moore, WR, Carolina Panthers

Including his rushing yards (172), Moore had 960 yards as a rookie but only two touchdowns. A low-end WR2 based on my current projections, Moore has plenty of upside as this team's WR3.

7.07 - Tarik Cohen, RB, Chicago Bears

In addition to a year-over-year bump in touches (140 to 170), Cohen was more efficient (10.2 Y/R, 4.5 YPC) and scored eight touchdowns. Cohen finished as a fantasy's RB17 in non-PPR formats (like this one) and as much as I love David Montgomery, The Human Joystick is a great value here.

8.06 - Sterling Shepard, WR, New York Giants

It's possible that newcomer Golden Tate outproduces Shepard in the Odell Beckham-less receiving corps, but I like Shepard as my WR4.

9.07 - Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

Once again, Ekeler averaged more than five yards per carry and 10 yards per reception. But as he nearly doubled his workload (74 to 145 touches), MG3's complementary back finished as the RB27 last season. He has stand-alone value even if Gordon stays healthy and I don't normally handcuff on purpose, but I will do so more often with the MG3/Ekeler duo.

10.06 - DeSean Jackson, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

In spite of missing four games, Jackson finished 32nd in fantasy points (42nd in PPR) in 2018. Now back in Philadelphia, D-Jax gives the Eagles the deep threat they lacked. Jackson has led the NFL in Y/A in 2018 (18.9), 2016 (17.9) and 2014 (20.9). More than anything, he helps the next guy I drafted ...

11.07 - Carson Wentz, QB, Philadelphia Eagles

The obvious concern with Wentz is durability as he has now missed at least three games in back-to-back seasons. If he can stay healthy, however, he has as much a ton of upside compared to his current ADP. Wentz showed how good he could be in 2017 when he was the QB2 through Week 14 before missing the final three weeks of the season. The addition of D-Jax gives Wentz the best and most complete group of weapons that he has had in his young career.

12.06 - Trey Burton, TE, Chicago Bears

Posting career highs across the board (54 catches for 569 yards and six touchdowns), Burton finished with the sixth-most fantasy points at the position last season. Hopefully Burton will be more consistent in 2018 as he exceeded 40 receiving yards in only three games, but he's typically going a couple of rounds earlier in drafts and provides a nice value here.

13.07 - C.J. Anderson, RB, Detroit Lions

Let go by the Rams, Anderson was extremely productive down the stretch as Gurley dealt with his knee issues. In fact, no running back scored more fantasy points over the final two weeks of the season. Including their first playoff game, CJA had a streak of three games with 120-plus rushing yards and (at least) one touchdown. More coincidence than intention, I have now handcuffed my top-two running backs.

14.06 - Baltimore Ravens D/ST

15.07 - Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens

Starting just seven (regular-season) games last season, Jackson led the team in rush attempts (147) and was second in rushing yards (695) to Gus Edwards (718). Even though he threw for more than 200 yards only once (204 in Week 16), Jackson scored the eighth-most fantasy points per contest during his seven-week stretch as starter.

The goal may be for Jackson to run less (for durability's sake) in 2019, but offensive coordinator Greg Roman has had plenty of success orchestrating offenses led by mobile quarterbacks. Here are the fantasy QB finishes in Roman's last four seasons as OC: QB8, QB14 (Tyrod Taylor in Buffalo) and QB16, QB11 (Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco).

- View Full Mock Draft Results

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