This just in: any league (8 or more individuals in attendance) that holds its draft at Northgate Brewing during The Fantasy Football Party mock draft event on Sunday, August 28th, will get a $50 Zubaz gift card courtesy of Zubaz and the show to be given to the league winner at the end of the season. That’s right—we’re adding $50 of Zubaz to the pot for your league champ just for hosting your draft at Northgate, starting between 1 and 4 pm. But to be eligible, you MUST let us know beforehand so we have the appropriate number of gift cards.
Simply email FFparty@zoneblitz.com and let us know you’ll be there drafting on Sunday, August 28th. Then check in with us when you’ve started and the gift card will be entrusted to your league commissioner. And, of course, Bo, John and magsh will be there to provide expert draft advice in real time. Pretty fancy, right?
So, call your friends, get your draft set for Northgate Brewing on Sunday, August 28th, starting between 1 and 4 pm, and your league will have expert draft help plus $50 in Zubaz for the 2016 champ. We’ll see you there!
The tight end position has more depth this year than in the past. Many big names up at the top are as would be expected: Rob Gronkowski, Greg Olsen, Delanie Walker and the currently injured Tyler Eifert are coming off big seasons that warrant early-to-mid-round selections.
As you get later in the draft, however, several guys with a lot of potential stand out, including both Julius Thomas and Martellus Bennett.
Thomas, one season removed from repeat 12 TD campaigns, is now playing in a high-flying, young offense with Blake Bortles and Allen Robinson as its centerpieces. The big-bodied former basketball star could put up big numbers as almost an afterthought – though he is not durable and he is coming off of a humdrum season.
Bennett left Chicago and Jay Cutler for the friendly confines of New England, where tight ends not named Gronk frequently find the end zone. But does the team’s TE2 warrant fantasy consideration in the latter rounds of drafts?
John, Bo and Maggio discuss the best passing games to target in 2016 fantasy football leagues, offensive lines and their impact on passing games, skill position players to watch for thanks to coaching changes, draft strategy and more.
Our second mock draft is in the books! Thanks to Ryan and all the wonderful folks at Eastlake for hosting us. The brewery, the beer, the swag—it all rocks. If you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend it.
As for the mock draft, we had some interesting twists and turns. Harley went with the 0-4 strategy—drafting Le’Veon Bell, Josh Gordon AND Tom Brady, all of whom will miss the first four weeks of the season. I could only endorse such a move if you’re in a shallow league with a LOT of bench spots. Even then, you’d better be a smooth operator on draft day to make it work. Don’t get me wrong, I think Harley’s got a team that would be tough to beat after the first four weeks. But starting 0-4 means needing to basically run the table the rest of the way, navigating bye weeks and injuries to make the playoffs. No easy feat.
Pooch didn’t draft his first running back until round 6, where he went on a run of Arian Foster, Chris Ivory, Giovani Bernard, and then after taking Michael Thomas in Round 9 returned to the RB well for the Cleveland backfield tandem and Christine Michael. Waiting on RB will work just fine this season considering some of the names that are falling in drafts, but this shows the risk of such a move: only Foster truly has a chance to be a legit workhorse, and if he achieves that status seems destined for injury. Personally I prefer jumping into the RB pool for guys like Latavius Murray and Jonathan Stewart, who continue to be undervalued clear No. 1 RBs behind solid offensive lines.
Dave Campbell’s go big or go home strategy was admirable (Jordan Reed in round 2, Tyler Lockett in round 5), but he got some very nice value with Murray, Melvin Gordon, and the Atlanta backfield combo of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. Soup and I both showed the value of waiting on QBs as well, with Dave snagging Eli in the 10th, while I took Philip Rivers in the 13th.
Overall I liked where people drafted QBs, though, even the folks who didn’t wait on one. Aaron Rodgers in the 4th and Russell Wilson in the 5th were particularly shrewd, and Carson Palmer in the 9th was a steal.
Bo put together a very solid squad, with Travis Kelce in the 10th along with the aforementioned Rodgers pick standing out to me. My squad has a few injury concerns, but I mitigated it by waiting so long to take a TE, QB, K and DEF.
Noah got some great value in the 1st and 3rd rounds, and his Brees selection in the 4th was solid, but I felt like he reached a bit on Amari Cooper and DeMarco Murray, ultimately leaving him with a very risky WR corps.
Dave Handeland put together a solid squad top to bottom. Very much a let-the-draft-come-to-you team, getting value in basically every round, mitigating his risk on guys like Kelvin Benjamin and Frank Gore because of how far they fell.
Tellijohn’s squad has my favorite WR tandem among those who drafted, but this is another example I think of waiting too long on RBs. Even in a standard league, which this is, I’m not sure I could stomach Jeremy Hill, Matt Jones and Derrick Henry as my top three RBs.
Brian Hall put together a nice draft too, much like Handeland letting the draft come to him to mitigate risk on players like Demaryius Thomas (QB concerns) and Carlos Hyde (crappy team concerns). He’s too thin at that RB position in my opinion, relying on Hyde/Ryan Mathews to be his RB2, but overall he built a team that can compete.
Want to get in on a mock draft with us? We’ve got three preseason events left! Check out our event page and let us know when you’d like to join us.
Donte Moncrief headed into the 2015 season with a lot of hype and early on he came through, putting up usable fantasy numbers through six of the first seven games.
Then Andrew Luck was injured. Things didn’t spiral down the tubes or anything like that, but Moncrief got a lot more inconsistent. He finished the uneven campaign with 64 catches, 733 yards and six TDs on 105 targets, a fine second season, but short of what his owners had hoped for after the hot start.
Now Luck is healthy and the Colts are hoping to rebound from a disappointing 8-8 season. Moncrief is projected to be one of the key pieces of that puzzle, as a complement to T.Y. Hilton and a catalyst on what will have to be a pass-heavy offense.
A year ago, some football fans were debating whether Melvin Gordon or Todd Gurley would be the better NFL rookie RB. Now, Gurley is going in the first or second round of most drafts while Gordon is languishing as RB27 at around an 8th round value, according to ESPN.
Gordon’s introduction to the NFL was a rough one. He averaged just 3.5 yards per carry and didn’t put the pigskin in the end zone in 2015. Worse yet, he frequently looked tentative in failing to do so while running behind a makeshift offensive line in San Diego.
So will having a year under his belt allow Gordon to come back strong and justify his 15th overall selection in 2015? Or was last season, in fact, the first indicator that he doesn’t have what it takes to make it as an NFL running back?
Loading ...
Andy P, good sleuthing. Horrible result from a horrible idea.
Guys I think we got our first clue this is going to be a small class I looked at the…
I like all the Senior Nominees but if I were to guess I'd say Sharpe,Holmgren Tyrer.
as per Tanier, he' active on social media with Hall stuff, especially with Talk of Fame and his own website…
Where you at, Robert The Greatest?