One of the coolest moments of your Fantasy Football season happens at the beginning. You get an email, text or some notification about your draft position, and then you know it's real. You know Draft Day is coming.
But finding out your draft position also comes with a wide range of emotions.
If you have an early pick in Round 1, you're ecstatic and maybe doing cartwheels. You get a pick in the middle of the first round, and you're happy but not thrilled. A pick near the end could bring on a panic attack, especially for the novice player, but now you have to come up with a plan.
And we're here to help.
What we've done here with this 12-part series on CBS Sports is a four-man PPR mock draft between me, Dave Richard, Heath Cummings and Ben Gretch. We each built three of the 12 teams in this 15-round draft to show you a different strategy from each spot.
This is an outline that you can follow if you pick from any of these draft spots in your league. The key is to study the strategy and not necessarily the players to see if this works for you.
Each team is different, and we offer an explanation on how each roster was built. None of these teams are perfect, but the strategy behind them is something you might use on Draft Day.
As a reference point, all touchdowns in this league 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 also award one point for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, K and a FLEX (RB/WR/TE).
Here's my team from No. 1 overall:
- 1.01 Saquon Barkley, RB, Giants
- 2.12 Antonio Brown, WR, Steelers
- 3.01 Nick Chubb, RB, Browns
- 4.12 Tyler Lockett, WR, Seahawks
- 5.01 O.J. Howard, TE, Buccaneers
- 6.12 Austin Ekeler, RB, Chargers
- 7.01 Jarvis Landry, WR, Browns
- 8.12 Jordan Howard, RB, Eagles
- 9.01 Derrius Guice, RB, Redskins
- 10.12 DaeSean Hamilton, WR, Broncos
- 11.01 Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Cardinals
- 12.12 Jared Goff, QB, Rams
- 13.01 Kareem Hunt, RB, Browns
- 14.12 David Moore, WR, Seahawks
- 15.01 Rams DST
There are four players deserving of the No. 1 overall pick in PPR (Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey), and the last thing you want to do is screw up this selection. I like Barkley the best after his outstanding rookie campaign in 2018, so he was my choice here.
The wait for your pick in Round 2 could be excruciating as you watch stud players come off the board, but I was surprised to get Brown in Round 2 at No. 24 overall. His Average Draft Position is slightly higher than that at No. 21 overall, but don't be afraid of Brown at this spot even with his move from Pittsburgh to Oakland. He could be a steal.
In Round 3, I chose Chubb, which could be a mistake since I passed on guys like Amari Cooper, Leonard Fournette and Todd Gurley, but I expect Chubb to be great for the first eight games while Hunt is suspended. Once Hunt is back, things will change, but I don't expect a huge downturn for Chubb at the end of the season. I also was able to get Hunt as a potential handcuff in Round 13.
Starting in Round 4, I landed three of my favorite players in succession with Lockett, Howard and Ekeler. I love Lockett and Howard as breakout candidates, and Ekeler could be amazing if Melvin Gordon's holdout lasts into the regular season. We might see Ekeler's ADP start to rise the longer Gordon stays away from the Chargers.
I will always wait on a quarterback, so getting Goff in Round 12 was perfect. And I like my reserve running backs in Howard and Guice, especially if Guice is ready for Week 1 following last year's ACL injury.
At receiver, I also like this bench behind Brown, Lockett and Landry with Hamilton, Fitzgerald and Moore. Hamilton could emerge as the best receiver in Denver, I still like Fitzgerald as a key contributor for Arizona and Moore could be the top replacement for Doug Baldwin this year.
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Lockett is one of my favorite players this season, and I love getting him in Round 4 in any format. With Baldwin retired, the hope is Lockett's targets will rise, which should only enhance his production. Last year, Lockett was Seattle's most productive receiver. He set career highs in targets (71), receptions (57), receiving yards (965) and touchdowns (10), and he scored at least 10 PPR points in 14 games. Lockett was the No. 16 receiver in PPR leagues. But he had the fewest targets of the top 31 PPR receivers last year. In fact, he was No. 55 in targets among receivers in 2018. If he can get close to 100 targets and remain as efficient as he was last year -- he caught more than 80 percent of his targets and scored once every seven targets -- then he could be a top-10 Fantasy receiver this season.
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I love Chubb's talent. He was excellent in 2018 when he took over as Cleveland's top running back, scoring at least 13 PPR points in seven of his final 10 games. In four of those games, he had at least three catches, so he might be underrated as a receiver. And the Browns should be a highly-competitive team this season, giving Chubb plenty of scoring opportunities. But while Chubb could get your year off to a good start, we don't know what's going to happen with Hunt in Week 10 when his suspension is over. Hunt will take some touches away from Chubb, maybe more than we know, and it could be tough to trust him in the Fantasy playoffs.
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If Gordon misses significant time, Ekeler, along with Justin Jackson, could be great Fantasy options. I would expect Ekeler to get the majority of touches without Gordon, and he could be a steal in Round 6. The nice thing about drafting Ekeler here is that he has standalone value even if Gordon shows up for Week 1. Last season, Ekeler scored at least 11 PPR points in five of his first seven games while sharing touches with Gordon. He reached 11 PPR points three more times in his final seven outings (he missed two games with a groin injury). Ekeler would make this Fantasy team a potential monster if he's a featured option for the Chargers if Gordon is out.
