In a regular Fantasy Football Mock Draft, you get a very clear gauge on players that you're drafting because most of them have a long enough resume that you know what their total-point outcome will be at the end of the regular season. Taking guys like Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson in a veteran draft isn't that hard. Maybe you draft them one or two spots higher than you should. But in the end, the first few rounds are fairly simple.
Rookie-Only Drafts are a totally different story. Getting a chance to grab someone who will help your dynasty team for years to come isn't as easy. Unless the draft class is brimming with talent at every offensive position, you really have to do your homework if you don't get the chance to pick within the first 5-7 spots.
Picking rookies BEFORE the draft is as hard as they come. The big-named guys are easier to decipher. And guys who aren't ranked as high as those guys sometimes fall in the right situation. But because we are drafting before the draft, we won't know how well we did until after. The best example I can think of in that respect is Matt Forte. Forte wasn't ranked as high as guys like Darren McFadden or Jonathan Stewart in the 2010 NFL Draft. But when the Bears had drafted him 44th overall, his fantasy football stock shot up. He wound up rushing for over 1,000 yards that season and the rest is history. But without knowing where the lower-tiered players are going to end up, you could be taking a guy who will either contribute right away or wind up riding the pine for most of his early career. It's a crap-shoot.
With that said, yours truly was invited to draft with several other industry experts in a four-round rookies-only draft sponsored by Dynasty Football Warehouse. I had never tried one of these, so I thought why not? Below are the first two rounds, with the rest of the mock located at My Fantasy League. How do YOU think I did? How did the rest of the picks go? Is there someone who may have slipped down too far? Someone drafted too high? You be the judge.
1.01 1. @_Knuckleheads - RB Eddie Lacy
1.02 2. @JDBeckler - WR Cordarrelle Patterson
1.03 3. @JeffRatcliffe - RB Giovani Bernard
1.04 4. @Orca_DFW - WR DeAndre Hopkins
1.05 5. @Ladd_Davies - RB Montee Ball
1.06 6. @WildThingFB - RB Joseph Randle
1.07 7. @draftcalc - RB Le'Veon Bell
1.08 8. @evansjo5 - WR Tavon Austin
1.09 9. @Bill_Riccette - RB Kenjon Barner
1.10 10. @JeffHaseley - RB Jonathan Franklin
1.11 11. @zbullsmoke - TE Tyler Eifert
1.12 12. @ShanePHallam - RB Marcus Lattimore
2.01 13. @_Knuckleheads - WR Keenan Allen
2.02 14. @JDBeckler - QB Geno Smith
2.03 15. @JeffRatcliffe - WR Justin Hunter
2.04 16. @Orca_DFW - RB Andre Ellington
2.05 17. @Ladd_Davies - RB Knile Davis
2.06 18. @WildThingFB - RB Mike Gillislee
2.07 19. @draftcalc - RB Zac Stacy
2.08 20. @evansjo5 - RB Jawan Jamison
2.09 21. @Bill_Riccette - WR Stedman Bailey
2.10 22. @JeffHaseley - WR Markus Wheaton
2.11 23. @zbullsmoke - WR Da'Rick Rogers
2.12 24. @ShanePHallam - WR Robert Woods