Mock Drafts are a great tool to prepare you for the real fantasy football draft. If you haven't starting mocking you better get on the ball! Some of my buddies invited me to a mock draft via Google Hangouts and I couldn't resist. We had a blast and recorded the entire mock for you in case you're bored at work. I've also included a screen shot of round 1 through 4 for your view pleasure. Some of the guys in the mock sent me their take on mock as well as some other helpful information as your prepare for the 2015 fantasy football season.
Here's My Take
I had the second pick and took CJ Anderson (gasp). If you watch the first couple minutes in the video below you'll see how hard I got absolutely ripped for this pick. It's not good when I open up an article defensing my pick but ask yourself this question: who will be the best fantasy scoring RB in 2015? If you had asked yourself that in the previous year would you have said DeMarco Murray? I doubt it very seriously, the point is no one knows and typically the top 5 backs don't hit number 1 at the end of the season. CJ Anderson is one of the younger top backs (in my mind) that has a sure enough opportunity and talent to become the 2015 top fantasy scorer. Peyton Manning was noticeably weaker as the season dragged out and I expect CJ to handle a larger load this year and get plenty of red zone touches. I wasn't sure CJ would make it back to me so I took him at 2, end of story.
Best Pick of the Mock Draft:
The best pick in my opinion was D. Murray in the middle of the second round. Some people are low on Murray, other are really high as you can clearly see in our fantasy football draft rankings.
Worst Pick of the Mock Draft:
CJ Anderson was taken early, probably could have waited until my second pick. I only know this because everyone freaked out when I drafted him otherwise I'm good with my decision and it's only a mock draft!
Sleeper Pick: S. Bradford
There's no secret I'm high on Bradford this year. He's in the right place at the right time (finally) and we all know how deadly accurate he has become. Check out many of our other sleepers here.
Avoid Pick: J. Stewart
Yes he's the #1 back this year. Yes Williams is gone and the next closest back isn't going to be trusted early in the season. No he won't stay healthy!
Best Pick of the Mock Draft:
Worst Pick of the Mock Draft:
Sleeper Pick: S. Bradford
Avoid Pick: J. Stewart
Best Pick of the Mock Draft:
I'm guna cheat here while simultaneously tooting my own horn on how wonderful my teams turned out. The Julio Jones/Jordy Nelson combo at picks 12 and 13 was the best pick(s) of the mock. Both Julio and Jordy have the ability to be the #1 receiver in all of fantasy being attached to quarterbacks that love to dial their number. Julio had the second most yards per game (behind ODB) even with Matt Ryan running for his life every play behind a line that had 43 people injured by Week 5. Jordy most likely would've bested Antonio Brown for #1 receiver last season if the Packers weren't so outrageously good on offense to pull the starters in the 4th quarter on multiple occasions.
Worst Pick of the Mock Draft:
There's a few picks in this draft that made me cringe, but just to pile on the punishment I gave my FKH co-host Mark Milano during the mock, Jonathan Stewart in the back end of the 3rd round is how you lose in fantasy. Injury-risk, limited carry upside, touchdown vultures abound and did I mention injury-risk going in the third round? Cam Newton and OG Vulture Mike Tolbert will steal goal line carries when Stewart plays, he will lose carries to Cam in all situations and has never been the true workhorse on this team. Even during his admittedly impressive run at the end of the regular season, he only got in the endzone once. He may get you a few top-24 weeks (while he's on the field), but he will also have a bunch of games with 8 points or less...or the zeroes sitting quietly on the bench.
Sleeper Pick: T. Eifert
People quickly forgot how much talent he possesses as a mid-first round pick out of Notre Dame. He started 2014 very nicely, hauling in all three of his targets from the Soulless Ginger for 37 yards in two drives before a gruesome elbow injury ended his season. Just like Kelce is referred to as "Baby-Gronk", consider Eifert "Baby-Olsen". I see Eifert matching or even outdoing Kelce's 2014 stat line. No, not Kelce's overall TE1 2015 statline, his 67/862/5 line on 87 targets. If Eifert gets into the 80-100 target range, I can see very similar production coming this season.
Avoid Pick: J. Graham
Sorry for staying tight end centric, but if you think Jimmy Graham can return value in the 3rd round, or even 4th, we are not going to get along. Here are a bunch of reasons why Jimmy doesn't even come close to break even on an early investment this season. Russell Wilson threw the ball a total of 452 times last season while Brees had 456 completions. Need more numbers? I'll oblige. Graham had a shade under 19% of the total targets in New Orleans to hit 125 last season. To reach that target total in Seattle's offense, Graham would need over 26% of the total targets just to hit that same figure. Numbers aside, Brees is a better quarterback than Russell Wilson. Add all that up with the realization that Graham wont see nearly as much redzone love in Seattle with Beast Mode in tow and that whole throwing the ball on the goal line costing the Seahawks a Super Bowl thing they've got going.
