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 2021 NFL season, we will use the 2021 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.
Half-PPR Mock Draft: 12 Teams, 9th Pick
1.09 - Davante Adams, WR, Green Bay Packers
Not only did Adams miss two games in 2020, but he has missed multiple games in three of his past four seasons. Even so, the seven-year veteran led the NFL in receiving touchdowns (18) and yards per game (98.1) and also set a career high in receptions (115). With double-digit touchdowns in four of five seasons, Adams has a total of 58 scores in 71 games over that span. With Aaron Rodgers still playing at an MVP level, Adams is the clear choice to be drafted as fantasy's WR1 (as long as Rodgers is under center for the Packers) in 2021.
More: Green Bay Packers 2022 NFL Mock Draft Roundup
2.04 - Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
Missing a significant chunk of time due to injury and playing at less than 100 percent when returning to the field, Ekeler averaged 5.5 yards per touch and scored only three touchdowns, both of which were career lows. Especially given his immense upside as a receiver, Ekeler is a top-12 running back when healthy.
3.09 - D'Andre Swift, RB, Detroit Lions
Swift was much more involved in the second half of the season and he finished his rookie campaign with 114/521/8 (4.6 YPC) rushing and 46/357/2 (7.8 Y/R) receiving. Swift had three-plus catches in 12 of 13 games and his ability as a receiver gives him the upside to outperform his draft slot.
4.04 - Robert Woods, WR, Los Angeles Rams
It was a disappointing season for Woods and the Rams offense in general. Woods tied a career high in receptions (90), but his receiving yardage (936) and yards from scrimmage (1,091) were three-year lows. Replacing Jared Goff with Matthew Stafford generates some optimism for all of the skill-position players.
More: Los Angeles Rams 2021 NFL Power Rankings Roundup
5.09 - Kenny Golladay, WR, New York Giants
Golladay exceeded the 1,000-yard milestone in back-to-back seasons (2018 and 2019) with the Lions and led the NFL in receiving touchdowns (11) in 2019. Although 2020 was a lost season due to a hip injury, Golladay had either 50-plus yards and a score or 100-plus yards in the four games he played before sustaining the injury. Signing a four-year deal with the Giants, the QB downgrade from Matthew Stafford to Daniel Jones and more crowded receiver room limits his ceiling a bit, but he's still a solid No. 3 fantasy wide receiver for this team.
6.04 - Mark Andrews, TE, Baltimore Ravens
Andrews missed a couple of games and Marquise Brown (58/769/8) outproduced Andrews (58/701/7) over the full season, but the third-year tight end led the team in YPG (50.1). Even if he gets the biggest slice of the pie, the team's passing offense ranked last in the NFL (171.2 YPG) in 2020.
7.09 - Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks
It was a tale of two seasons for Wilson. In his first eight games, Wilson averaged 29.52 fantasy points per game and scored no fewer than 21.9. In his final eight games, he averaged only 17.08 and scored more than 21.9 only once during that span.
Despite Pete Carroll's prioritization to establish the run, Wilson has never finished worse than the QB11 (2016) and has finished as a top-six fantasy quarterback in five of the past seven seasons. While the Titans may be the "favorites," the Seahawks are also in the mix for a potential Julio Jones trade.
More: Seattle Seahawks 2021 NFL Power Rankings Roundup
8.04 - Ronald Jones, RB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Bucs re-signing Leonard Fournette likely slides Jones back into his secondary role behind Fournette. Despite missing a couple of games and the fact that Fournette emerged as the team's primary back, Jones had his best season as a pro with career highs as a runner -- 192 carries, 978 yards, 5.1 YPC and seven touchdowns. RoJo took a step back as a receiver, however, with a 66.7% catch rate (77.5% in 2019) and 5.9 Y/R (10.0 in 2019).
9.09 - Kenyan Drake, RB, Las Vegas Raiders
Josh Jacobs and Drake combined for a total of 570 touches last season as lead backs of their respective teams and that combined number will (obviously!) drop significantly. The Raiders plan to use Drake in a variety of ways including at receiver, but Drake shouldn't be drafted as anything more than a flex option in 2021. His value as my RB4 in Round 9 is certainly fair, though.
More: Las Vegas Raiders 2022 NFL Mock Draft Roundup
10.04 - Mike Williams, WR, Los Angeles Chargers
In 2018, Williams had 10 touchdowns. In 2019, he led the NFL with 20.4 Y/R and posted his first (and only) 1,000-yard season. Not only were overall numbers (48/756/5) disappointing, but he had only four top-36 performances (half-PPR) out of his 15 games last season.
11.09 - Jamaal Williams, RB, Detroit Lions
In his four NFL seasons, Williams has averaged 736.5 scrimmage yards, 155.5 touches and 30.5 receptions per season with the Packers. While he remains his team's RB2 (to D'Andre Swift instead of Aaron Jones), Williams should get 8-10 touches per game even with both Swift and Williams healthy. For this team, he provides some insurance in case Swift misses any time.
12.04 - Christian Kirk, WR, Arizona Cardinals
With DeAndre Hopkins dominating targets, Kirk's targets dropped from 108 (8.31/G) in 2019 to 79 (5.64/G) in 2020. The vast majority of his fantasy production including all of his touchdowns occurred during a five-game stretch from Weeks 4-9 (20/343/6, 17.15 Y/R, WR7). While Larry Fitzgerald has not yet retired, the team has signed A.J. Green and drafted Rondale Moore, which means that Kirk's 2021 numbers are unlikely to improve much from last season.
More: 2022 NFL Mock Draft
13.09 - Marlon Mack, RB, Indianapolis Colts
Mack missed nearly all of 2020 with a torn Achilles, but he has re-signed with the Colts this offseason. For this team, he is purely a bench stash that would need an injury to Jonathan Taylor to become a useful fantasy option.
14.04 - Baltimore Ravens DST, DST, Baltimore Ravens
15.09 - Justin Tucker, K, Baltimore Ravens
16.04 - Robert Tonyan, TE, Green Bay Packers
Entering 2020 with 14 career receptions, Tonyan scored nearly as many touchdowns (12 counting the playoffs) as he had career receptions prior to last season. While teammate Davante Adams led the NFL with 18 touchdown receptions, Tonyan's 11 regular-season scores tied a position high with Travis Kelce. The biggest threat to Tonyan's 2021 outlook is the offseason drama between the Packers and Aaron Rodgers.
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