My 2019 fantasy football journey unofficially began Monday when I took part in my first mock of the year — a 14-team PPR experts draft to be printed in the annual RotoWire Football magazine.
My work on said magazine has kept me too busy for other mocks or best-ball leagues, but it's also given me a solid foundation of knowledge to prepare for the upcoming NFL season. I'll continue to refine my draft strategy throughout the summer...or at least that will be my excuse when I'm glued to my computer drafting five best-ball teams at the same time on a beautiful, sunny day in June.
While this first mock might be viewed as a rude awakening, I'll cut myself some slack given that I was drafting against the likes of Chris Liss, Mario Puig, Brad Evans, Dalton Del Don and Brandon Marianne Lee. There's also the reality of picking 13th, which forced me to start my draft with Travis Kelce rather than one of the three-down studs at RB (scroll down to see my picks in list form).
No regrets on the Kelce pick, but with the benefit of hindsight I'd switch my selection at No. 16 from Dalvin Cook to Julio Jones. My thinking was that Cook has a chance to enter the elite tier at RB based on his talent and the lack of depth behind him in Minnesota. Of course, there's a reason Cook is usually still available in
My 2019 fantasy football journey unofficially began Monday when I took part in my first mock of the year — a 14-team PPR experts draft to be printed in the annual RotoWire Football magazine.
My work on said magazine has kept me too busy for other mocks or best-ball leagues, but it's also given me a solid foundation of knowledge to prepare for the upcoming NFL season. I'll continue to refine my draft strategy throughout the summer...or at least that will be my excuse when I'm glued to my computer drafting five best-ball teams at the same time on a beautiful, sunny day in June.
While this first mock might be viewed as a rude awakening, I'll cut myself some slack given that I was drafting against the likes of Chris Liss, Mario Puig, Brad Evans, Dalton Del Don and Brandon Marianne Lee. There's also the reality of picking 13th, which forced me to start my draft with Travis Kelce rather than one of the three-down studs at RB (scroll down to see my picks in list form).
No regrets on the Kelce pick, but with the benefit of hindsight I'd switch my selection at No. 16 from Dalvin Cook to Julio Jones. My thinking was that Cook has a chance to enter the elite tier at RB based on his talent and the lack of depth behind him in Minnesota. Of course, there's a reason Cook is usually still available in Round 2 — injury history first and foremost, but also concerns about the general state of Minnesota's offense behind a shaky line.
I still prefer Cook to a few of the players drafted ahead of him in this exercise — namely James Conner and Joe Mixon — but it was a mistake to pass on Jones under the optimistic delusion that a WR like Robert Woods or Brandin Cooks might be available for me in Round 3 at No. 41 overall. Instead, I felt pigeonholed into drafting RBs with my next two picks, selecting Kerryon Johnson and Devonta Freeman rather than reaching for WRs that land outside the top 40 of my overall rankings (Kenny Golladay, Calvin Ridley, Sammy Watkins, Tyler Boyd, Allen Robinson, etc.).
The draft confirmed my most important observation from prior ADP analysis: I prefer the RBs over the WRs in the range of picks 40-60. The WRs all start to blend together after the first few rounds, while RBs available at No. 40 or later included the two guys I drafted plus Josh Jacobs, Phillip Lindsay, Derrick Henry, Kenyan Drake, James White and Tarik Cohen (remember, this is a PPR draft).
Lindsay, Henry, Drake, White and Cohen finished top 16 among RBs in PPR scoring last season, and each player besides White (No. 7) has a decent shot to see more work in 2019. In fact, I should've drafted Lindsay instead of Freeman — that's actually a bigger regret than passing on Julio in Round 2.
With Kelce and three RBs in place, I hammered WR in five consecutive rounds with Sterling Shepard (pick No. 69), Larry Fitzgerald (72nd), Anthony Miller (97th), Mecole Hardman (100th) and Marquise Brown (125th). Can't say I'm thrilled about taking Shepard and Fitzgerald in those spots, but a glance at the alternatives doesn't inspire much regret.
Hunter Henry, who went one pick after I took Shepard, wasn't a realistic option with Kelce already on my roster. It does leave me to wonder if it's better to have Julio + Henry or Kelce + Shepard? I think most people would lean toward the former, but I actually disagree given that Julio outscored Kelce by only 33.3 PPR points last season, while Shepard's 180.5 points put him ahead of all but five TEs.
Now let's take a look at my actual draft, then compare it to what I think I should've done with the benefit of hindsight, followed by what a conventional approach might've yielded. (This was only a 13-round draft, so we can assume my bench would have two more players in a typical league.)
My Actual Draft
R1 (No. 13) - TE Travis Kelce
R2 (No. 16) - RB Dalvin Cook
R3 (No. 41) - RB Kerryon Johnson
R4 (No. 44) - RB Devonta Freeman
R5 (No. 69) - WR Sterling Shepard
R6 (No. 72) - WR Larry Fitzgerald
R7 (No. 97) - WR Anthony Miller
R8 (No. 100) - WR Mecole Hardman
R9 (No. 125) - WR Marquise Brown
R10 (No. 128) - RB Jalen Richard
R11 (No. 153) - D/ST Philadelphia Eagles
R12 (No. 156) - QB Lamar Jackson
R13 (No. 181) - K Michael Badgley
What I Probably Should've Done
R1 (No. 13) - TE Travis Kelce
R2 (No. 16) - WR Julio Jones
R3 (No. 41) - RB Kerryon Johnson
R4 (No. 44) - RB Phillip Lindsay
R5 (No. 69) - RB Latavius Murray
R6 (No. 72) - RB Rashaad Penny
R7 (No. 97) - WR Anthony Miller
R8 (No. 100) - WR Mecole Hardman
R9 (No. 125) - WR Marquise Brown
R10 (No. 128) - WR Tyrell Williams
R11 (No. 153) - D/ST Philadelphia Eagles
R12 (No. 156) - QB Lamar Jackson
R13 (No. 181) - K Michael Badgley
A More Conventional Approach
R1 (No. 13) - WR Julio Jones
R2 (No. 16) - RB Dalvin Cook
R3 (No. 41) - WR Kenny Golladay
R4 (No. 44) - RB Devonta Freeman
R5 (No. 69) - TE Hunter Henry
R6 (No. 72) - RB Latavius Murray
R7 (No. 97) - WR Anthony Miller
R8 (No. 100) - WR Mecole Hardman
R9 (No. 125) - WR Marquise Brown
R10 (No. 128) - QB Jared Goff
R11 (No. 153) - D/ST Philadelphia Eagles
R12 (No. 156) - RB Kalen Ballage
R13 (No. 181) - K Michael Badgley
It looks like I still have a lot of work to do this summer, considering I'm not quite sure which of these three drafts is best (Ok, Option B is the best, but it's kind of close, right?). The common thread is my satisfaction with Miller, Hardman and Hollywood at their respective spots, making up for shaky WR selections (Shepard, Fitzgerald) in Rounds 5 and 6 of the actual draft.
