With August nearing a close, fantasy football owners face one of their biggest annual crunches.
It’s mock draft time in all formats, ranging from basic standard leagues to keeper or dynasty leagues, where owners will either start a new long-term league or build upon a base team drafted years ago.
Either way, the return of fantasy and the knowledge required to have successful drafts can be both swift and intimidiating—probably akin to what being alone and tasked with taking down Le’Veon Bell in the open field would feel like.
Let’s provide some reinforcements for those owners lagging a tad behind. An informed league makes the experience more enjoyable for all involved, so here’s a look at a mock draft and keeper-league advice based on standard Yahoo scoring.
Mock Draft
Drafting is an inexact science in any format and anyone telling owners only one way works is a snake-oil salesman to avoid, sort of like Bell in the scenario mentioned above.
Most of the discussion around fantasy football mock drafts centers on the almighty quarterback position, which makes sense. Signal-callers are by far the easiest position to project on a week-to-week basis, which usually divides owners into two camps:
- Those who want to gobble up the big names and not worry about it
- Those who want to wait and stream the position almost weekly
The above mock leans more toward the latter, with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers the first at his position off the board in the second round. He was far ahead of any other quarterback in scoring a year ago, sitting past the 350-point mark as one of five at his position who actually made it past 300.
Granted, there isn’t anything wrong with taking a quarterback in the first round, it just comes with a tough pill to swallow in the form of missing out at production elsewhere. Running backs and wideouts, outside of about the top three at each spot, are nearly impossible to project on a year-to-year basis compared to how simple quarterbacks are and lineups require more of them. It makes more sense to load up on skill positions early and often.
Quarterbacks have the most recognizable names in football, so yes, it can be a little weird to draft a Jay Ajayi or Jordan Howard over say, Aaron Rodgers. But as Tristan H. Cockcroft of ESPN.com explained, quarterback scoring continues to flirt with fantasy football history.
“Last year’s No. 11 scorer, Derek Carr, scored 268.48 fantasy points, which would have been good for second-most at the position 10 years earlier. Even more incredibly, last year’s No. 20 scorer, Joe Flacco (242.48), would’ve been the fifth-best quarterback using 2006 standards,” Cockcroft wrote.
And if names are really a big deal, one glance at an average draft position (ADP) chart should ease concerns. Ater all, Andrew Luck has an ADP of 7.10. A guy like Ben Roethlisberger can still typically be had in the ninth round. Steady starter material like Andy Dalton will likely be there in the 11th round.
Then there are keeper leagues to consider.
Top Keeper Rankings
Keeper leagues are an incredibly fun way to play fantasy footaball—provided owners come correct on the initial drafts.
In a way, keeper leagues can make an owner feel like an actual general manager of a franchise, with factors like age and injury history really coming into play.
Readers will notice from the cheat sheet above that the same logic mentioned toward quarterbacks still applies, though if it were extended into the hundreds, some of the older quarterbacks would be much farther down the list than compared to a normal standard league draft.
It’s not hard to see why the rankings fall as they do. Getting and keeping assured production like Odell Beckham Jr. or Mike Evans at an up-and-down position like wideout puts owners at a huge advantage for years.
Think about it: While other owners scramble over multiple rounds to compensate for the production a Beckham affords, the Beckham owner can turn around and redraft more running backs or take the best possible quarterback off the board. The same logic applies to an owner lucky enough to keep a Bell or Ezekiel Elliott.
Readers will also notice high-upside gambles fall further down the board than usual. Keeper league success stems from assured production at difficult spots over a handful of years, whereas gambles should only come off the board later in drafts.
Gambling on production while the rest of the league takes surefire names usually leads to an unenjoyable experience on a year-to-year basis until an owner can recover or gets incredibly lucky.
Granted, luck plays a major factor in all fantasy football arenas. But it sure doesn’t hurt to come prepared with sheets and strategy, regardless of format.
All scoring info, points-against info and ownership stats courtesy of Yahoo standard leagues. Average draft position (ADP) courtesy of Fantasy Football Calculator.
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