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 sixth pick:
1.06 - Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings
Through three NFL seasons, Cook has played only 29 games but he had his healthiest campaign (14 games) in 2019, which was by far his most productive. The centerpiece of a run-first offense, Cook has averaged 4.6 yards per carry and 8.8 yards per reception over his career and only Christian McCaffrey averaged more fantasy points per game (half-PPR) than Cook (19.0) in 2019.
2.07 - Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Melvin Gordon returned to the field in Week 5, but Ekeler was ultra-productive -- 220 rushing yards, 270 receiving yards, 24 receptions and six touchdowns -- in the first quarter of the season without him and finished the year as fantasy's RB6. Even if Ekeler does not see a significant bump in overall workload from last year's 224 touches, only McCaffrey (142) was targeted more than Ekeler (108) among running backs last season.
3.06 - Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Teammate Chris Godwin ranked second in fantasy points per game; Evans ranked third. The dynamic duo gets a new (or old?) quarterback and the only thing that may hold back the passing game is the likelihood that Tampa plays with more leads, which in turn leads to fewer pass attempts in 2020.
4.07 - Calvin Ridley, WR, Atlanta Falcons
Ridley posted per-game career highs in targets (7.2), receptions (4.8) and yards (66.6) in 2019, although his season was cut short (Week 14) by an abdominal injury. Through Week 14, Ridley was a top-15 receiver across the board -- WR13 in half-PPR, WR14 in full PPR and WR10 in non-PPR. With a lack of depth behind starters, Ridley is poised for a big season as long as his health cooperates.
5.06 - Mark Ingram, RB, Baltimore Ravens
Despite being second on his team in rushing (behind the team's quarterback), Ingram still performed as an RB1 in all scoring formats in 2019. Ingram eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark, averaged 5.0 yards per carry and scored a total of 15 touchdowns for the league's highest-scoring offense. Ingram's grip on the lead-back role is weakened some by the team drafting a talented back (J.K. Dobbins), but the veteran back remains a viable RB2 in 2020.
6.07 - Jarvis Landry, WR, Cleveland Browns
Despite all the fanfare generated by the reunion with his former LSU teammate, it was Landry that outproduced Beckham across the board with 83 catches for 1,174 yards and six touchdowns as fantasy's WR13. Given a timetable of 6-8 months of rehabilitation time for his February hip surgery, it's not a lock that Landry will be ready for the start of the season, but it's a positive that he was recently activated from the PUP list.
7.06 - Marvin Jones, WR, Detroit Lions
Once again, Jones had his season cut short by injury as he missed three games in 2019 and seven games in 2018. Based on his per-game production when both Jones and Matthew Stafford were healthy, Jones was on pace for an 84/1,070/12 stat line in 2019.
8.07 - James White, RB, New England Patriots
Perennially undervalued in fantasy drafts, it was White, not Sony Michel, that has led the Patriots running backs in fantasy scoring in both of Michel's first two seasons. One of the league's best pass-catching backs, White has more than 70 catches in back-to-back seasons and that trend should continue in 2020.
9.06 - J.K. Dobbins, RB, Baltimore Ravens
Some viewed Dobbins as the RB1 in this year's draft class. The former Buckeye enters a situation where his long-term success can be maximized, but the presence of Ingram atop the depth chart puts some constraints on Dobbins' short-term (i.e., 2020) outlook. Even so, the workload gap between Ingram and Dobbins should be narrower than it was between Ingram (228 touches in 2019) and the team's RB2 (Gus Edwards, 140) last year and Edwards finished as a top-50 back. Much more of a receiving threat than Edwards, Dobbins could still vastly exceed his current ADP.
10.07 - 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.
11.06 - Matthew Stafford, QB, Detroit Lions
A back injury cut his season in half, but Stafford was on pace for nearly 5,000 passing yards, 40 touchdowns and 10 interceptions (4,998/38/10) and the QB6 through Week 9. Healthy now, Stafford is poised for a big season if he can stay healthy as the Lions return all of their top receiving options and added one of the best pass-catching backs (D'Andre Swift) in the draft.
12.07 - Mike Gesicki, TE, Miami Dolphins
Gesicki is athletic freak -- 4.54 forty and 41.5" vertical -- at tight end and he had a breakout second season, aided by additional opportunities with the season-ending injury to UDFA receiver Preston Williams. Gesicki had five-plus targets in all eight games without Williams but only five-plus in just three of eight with him. More big slot than tight end, Gesicki finished his sophomore campaign as fantasy's TE11. Especially considering the team's WR3/WR4 are sitting 2020 out, Gesicki has the potential to take another significant step forward in year three.
13.06 - Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals
Ranking second all-time in receptions and yards, Fitzgerald had 75/804/4 on 109 targets in his age-36 season. Like with Kirk, Fitzgerald will have difficulty matching those numbers with a new alpha receiver in town.
14.07 - Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers
The days of Rodgers being a perennial top-two performer are over. Since taking over from Brett Favre in 2008, Rodgers has finished as the QB1 or QB2 in seven of his first eight full seasons. In his two most recent campaigns, however, the future first-ballot HOFer has finished as fantasy's QB6 and QB9, respectively. In a draft loaded with wide receiver talent, the Packers brass failed to add any help for Rodgers and free-agent addition Devin Funchess has opted opt due to COVID-19 concerns.
15.06 - Chicago Bears DST
- View Full Mock Draft Results
More of our content:- 2021 NFL Mock Draft
- 2020 NBA Mock Draft
- Fantasy Football Rankings
- Fantasy Football SOS
- Fantasy Football ADP
- NFL Power Rankings
Keep track of our site's updates: Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook and/or Subscribe to our newsletter.
f