One of my favorite draft tips seems like nothing more than a suggestion until disaster strikes. Every year, I tell everyone to wait to hold your draft to avoid as many preseason pitfalls as possible. You can gather more information to differentiate training camp hype and legitimate, role-solidifying performances. Most importantly, you don’t have to sweat through games and practices hoping your players stay healthy.
Those who drafted Julian Edelman before or during last Friday night’s preseason action learned just how detrimental meaningless games can be to a fantasy roster. According to Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com, Edelman suffered a torn ACL and will miss the 2017 season. While that may boost the fantasy values of Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan, it takes away a player firmly in the WR2 range.
On the same night, the Kansas City Chiefs saw veteran running back Spencer Ware go down with a knee injury. According to BJ Kissel of Chiefs.com, the team’s head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder said Ware has a torn PCL in addition to other damage. Ware will get a second opinion, but the injury is expected to end his season. That opens the door for rookie Kareem Hunt to lead the way, which is a huge boost to his fantasy value.
Since this is only a mock draft, I will note it was conducted a day before the injuries to Edelman and Ware, so it’s hard to truly assess the values of any players affected by those situations.
This is a 12-team, points-per-reception format with a starting lineup of one QB, two RB, three WR, one TE, one FLEX (RB/WR/TE), one K and one D/ST. It includes a collection of my Twitter followers, as well as myself picking out of the No. 7 spot. You can check out the full results of the draft here.
In addition to analyzing each round, I’ll take you inside my head to explain the strategy and process for each of my picks.
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NFL
Fantasy Football
Rankings/List
Andrew Luck
Spencer Ware
Cam Newton
