Fantasy Football Party Mock Draft #2

by Anthony Maggio | Aug 17, 2016 | 2016 Season, Fantasy Football

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 10^th, while I took Philip Rivers in the 13^th.

Overall I liked where people drafted QBs, though, even the folks who didn’t wait on one. Aaron Rodgers in the 4^th and Russell Wilson in the 5^th were particularly shrewd, and Carson Palmer in the 9^th was a steal.

Bo put together a very solid squad, with Travis Kelce in the 10^th 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 1^st and 3^rd rounds, and his Brees selection in the 4^th 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.

Fantasy Football Party: Mock Draft #1

by Anthony Maggio | Aug 11, 2016 | 2016 Season, Fantasy Football

Our first preseason mock draft is in the books! Thanks so much to Urban Growler for hosting during the monsoon of the century on Tuesday night. Before I give my thoughts on the mock, here’s a quick rundown:

• 10 teams, starting 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX, 1 K, 1 DEF. 2 bench spots.
• Snake draft format
• Standard (non-PPR) scoring

At first blush I think my favorite team among these belongs to R’obert, though I don’t mind what Randy did, either. I like my team a lot, but there’s WAY too much risk involved. I kinda got carried away and figured what the hell, it’s a mock draft, go big or go home. There’s certainly a ton of upside with this squad, but overall probably way too much risk. I could’ve mitigated it with later round picks given larger benches so I’m not necessarily throwing a team like this out—especially since it’s a 10-team league so there’d be a deep waiver wire—but given the parameters of this mock I could’ve played things a bit safer.

Philip Jennings surprised folks off the top by taking Adrian Peterson, but I like that pick. In PPR or ½-PPR leagues I’m all for taking the top 3 WRs first, but in standard leagues I think it’s smart to take advantage of the few true bell-cow RBs out there. Wide receiver is incredibly deep this year (as are QB and TE), so while everyone is loading up there I’m all for going after elite RB talent and letting everyone else roll the dice on the committees. Some will work out, some won’t. But you’ll be set at the position, and still have plenty of solid WR options available to you.

Ryan put together a nice squad as well, though with Lewis, Green, Watkins, Nelson and Parker there’s a ton of injury concern a la my team.

What I liked about R’obert’s team is the way he was able to take advantage of the market’s current position on a couple of RBs I’m extremely high on—Doug Martin and Latavius Murray. I think both are underrated in general, so getting them in the 3^rd and 4^th round showed that the middle-round selection of top WRs is a fine play as well if the folks up front don’t snag that top tier of WRs right away.

Alex got some great values at RB as well, and I liked the boldness of taking Coby Fleener in the 6^th round as the third TE off the board. He’s certainly got top 5 TE upside, and at that later point in the draft I like being aggressive there.

My favorite pick of Harley’s was probably Sammie Coates in the 10^th. I’ve got him too low on my cheat sheet. He’ll be moving up soon.

Thanks again everyone for participating, and we hope to see you out at our next events!