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.
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Brian Hall | Andy Tellijohn | Dave Campbell | Harley Schultz | Dave Handeland | |
QB | Ben Roethlisberger 6 | Cam Newton 2 | Eli Manning 10 | Tom Brady 7 | Russell Wilson 5 |
RB | Doug Martin 2 | Jeremy Hill 5 | Devonta Freeman 3 | Todd Gurley 1 | David Johnson 1 |
RB | Carlos Hyde 5 | Matt Jones 6 | Latavius Murray 4 | Le’Veon Bell 2 | CJ Anderson 4 |
WR | Antonio Brown 1 | Odell Beckham Jr. 1 | Julio Jones 1 | Jarvis Landry 4 | Keenan Allen 2 |
WR | Jordy Nelson 3 | Brandon Marshall 3 | Tyler Lockett 5 | Golden Tate 5 | Brandin Cooks 3 |
WR | Demaryius Thomas 4 | DeVante Parker 7 | Larry Fitzgerald 6 | Donte Moncrief 6 | Kelvin Benjamin 6 |
TE | Delanie Walker 8 | Tyler Eifert 11 | Jordan Reed 2 | Julius Thomas 10 | Greg Olsen 8 |
FLEX | Ryan Mathews 7 | Samuel Watkins 4 | Melvin Gordon 7 | Mark Ingram 3 | Frank Gore 7 |
K | Justin Tucker 14 | Dan Bailey 14 | Matt Prater 14 | Steve Gostkowski 12 | Blair Walsh 14 |
DEF | Broncos 12 | Chiefs 13 | Seahawks 9 | Rams 13 | Jaguars 13 |
BEN | Jordan Matthews 9 | Michael Floyd 8 | Ameer Abdullah 8 | Josh Gordon 8 | Sterling Shepard 9 |
BEN | Steve Smith 10 | Derrick Henry 9 | Corey Coleman 11 | Emmanuel Sanders 9 | Danny Woodhead 10 |
BEN | Theo Riddick 11 | Charles Sims 10 | Anquan Bolden 12 | Blake Bortles 11 | Sammie Coates 11 |
BEN | Tavon Austin 13 | Eric Ebron 12 | Tevin Coleman 13 | Torrey Smith 14 | Kamar Aiken 12 |
Pooch | Noah | magsh | 2V | Bo | |
QB | Andrew Luck 4 | Drew Brees 4 | Philip Rivers 13 | Carson Palmer 9 | Aaron Rodgers 4 |
RB | Arian Foster 6 | Adrian Peterson 1 | Jamaal Charles 1 | Lamar Miller 1 | Ezekiel Elliot 1 |
RB | Chris Ivory 7 | Eddie Lacy 3 | LeSean McCoy 3 | Dion Lewis 5 | Thomas Rawls 3 |
WR | Allen Robinson 2 | Amari Cooper 2 | DeAndre Hopkins 2 | AJ Green 2 | Dez Bryant 2 |
WR | Alshon Jeffery 3 | John Brown 6 | Julian Edelman 4 | TY Hilton 3 | Eric Decker 5 |
WR | Doug Baldwin 5 | Allen Hurns 7 | Jeremy Maclin 6 | Randall Cobb 6 | Stefon Diggs 7 |
TE | Rob Gronkowski 1 | Gary Barnidge 10 | Zach Ertz 12 | Coby Fleener 8 | Travis Kelce 10 |
FLEX | Michael Thomas 9 | DeMarco Murray 5 | Jonathan Stewart 5 | Mike Evans 4 | DeAngelo Williams 6 |
K | Graham Gano 14 | Adam Vinatieri 13 | Brandon McManus 14 | Chandler Catanzaro 11 | Steven Hauschka 13 |
DEF | Bengals 13 | 14 Texans D | Cardinals 11 | Panthers 12 | Vikings D 11 |
BEN | Giovani Bernard 8 | Matt Forte 8 | Jeremy Langford 7 | Rashad Jennings 7 | Michael Crabtree 8 |
BEN | Duke Johnson 10 | Desean Jackson 9 | Marvin Jones 8 | Justin Forsett 10 | Bilal Powell 9 |
BEN | Isaiah Crowell 11 | Laquon Treadwell 11 | Kevin White 9 | Matt Stafford 13 | Willie Snead 12 |
BEN | Christine Michael 12 | Travis Benjamin 12 | Rishard Matthews 10 | Markus Wheaton 14 | Mohamed Sanu 14 |
Magsh, I agree pretty much with your assessment of my team. I didn’t really intend to go Cam Newton in the 2nd round, but the RBs I’d hoped would fall didn’t. I don’t like Devonta Freeman – he was really only great for about seven games last year and I think he’s going to lose more carries than expected (https://www.zoneblitz.com/2016/04/26/fact-fantasy-devonta-freeman/) and none of the others felt like good values at the time. And I kept getting sniped on RBs. About five rounds in I hated this team. I think I got some decent values later on that made me like it a bit more. I would say it’s a team I’d be comfortable starting a season with but also one I know would need some work if it was going to compete for a championship.