Fantasy Football Offseason: Early 2019 Non-PPR Mock Draft

We held this 12-team, non-PPR mock draft for 2019 right after there were six new coaching hires in the NFL. And it was interesting to see the impact it had on where several players were selected.

Green Bay (Matt LaFleur), Arizona (Kliff Kingsbury), Tampa Bay (Bruce Arians), Denver (Vic Fangio), the Jets (Adam Gase) and Cleveland (Freddie Kitchens) all got new coaches this week. And aside from Fangio, who was the former defensive coordinator for the Bears, all of these hires come with the potential of offensive upgrades given the backgrounds for these coaches.

Kingsbury, the former head coach at Texas Tech, will hopefully make the Cardinals offense thrive in 2019, which should help David Johnson. And Matthew Coca is buying in, selecting Johnson at No. 5 overall.

Now, I don't necessarily agree with that pick. I'm still drafting Johnson toward the end of Round 1 or beginning of Round 2 at the earliest. But Fantasy owners getting excited about new coaches, especially when it relates to talented players, is something that will happen heading into next season.

I took some chances on a few players based on the new coaches as well. For example, Christian Kirk in Round 8, Ronald Jones in Round 9 and Jameis Winston in Round 13. Kirk should be no worse than the No. 2 receiver in Arizona, and he could even be the No. 1 guy if Larry Fitzgerald decides to retire, which makes Kirk attractive in Kingsbury's offense. And Jones, who had a disastrous rookie season in 2018, could benefit with an increased role under Arians.

I was the last owner to draft a quarterback, but I'm excited about Winston as a starter this year. Arians should keep the passing game humming in Tampa Bay given his history as either head coach or offensive coordinator with guys like Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck and Carson Palmer.

For the rest of my team, I started running back heavy from the No. 7 spot with Christian McCaffrey in Round 1, Nick Chubb in Round 2 and Kerryon Johnson in Round 4 (with George Kittle in Round 3). In this format, with two running backs and a flex in non-PPR, I love having McCaffrey, Chubb and Johnson on my roster.

Receiver could be an issue since I don't have a true No. 1 option. I passed on Kenny Golladay, Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods in Round 4 for Johnson, which could be a mistake, but my starters are fine with Julian Edelman and Tyler Boyd, especially pairing them with my running backs and Kittle.

I took some chances on several receivers with my reserves, including Kirk, Dante Pettis (Round 7), Sammy Watkins (Round 10), James Washington (Round 11) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling (Round 12). I'm excited about Washington as the potential No. 2 receiver opposite JuJu Smith-Schuster in Pittsburgh if the Steelers move on from Antonio Brown this offseason. Washington is a sleeper to target in all leagues.

As I explained in our recent PPR mock draft, we know it's early to do Fantasy drafts. And a lot will change with many of these players with free agency and the NFL Draft, and hopefully we have no major injuries in the NFL playoffs. But this is the first glance of where players might go in non-PPR drafts heading into next season.

In this league, all touchdowns are worth six points, and we award one point for every 10 yards rushing and receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE, FLEX (RB/WR/TE), K and DST. There also are six reserve spots for a 15-round draft.

Our draft order is as follows: