Fantasy Football 2022: Examining Expert Mock Drafts After Preseason Week 1
It can be tricky to glean the right information from NFL preseason stats, but think of them as another tool at your disposal ahead of the fantasy football season.
Mock drafts are in the same bucket, though less reading between the lines is required with them.
An expert mock puts real-life fantasy minds into action and shows exactly what happens when people are on the clock and need to make a pick. Even if they experiment a bit more than they would normally, that can be helpful to know since there's a good chance your draft will force some deviation away from your initial strategy.
Let's dig into the latest expert mocks to find a few takeaways.
Two Dramatically Different Approaches at CBS
The questions seem straightforward, but the answers can be anything but: When should you select your first running back? What positions must be prioritized early in the draft? How much depth is too much depth?
It feels like those inquiries should produce concrete conclusions, and yet, the easiest answer to all three is: it depends. It depends on everything from scoring format and league depth to the strategies and whims of your leaguemates.
That's perhaps best captured by a recent CBS Sports expert mock. In a 12-team, 0.5-PPR mock, experts Jamey Eisenberg and George Maselli drafted just two spots apart (Nos. 3 and 5 picks, respectively) but approached their selections entirely differently.
Maselli spent his first four picks on running backs: Dalvin Cook, Saquon Barkley, James Conner and Ezekiel Elliott. Maselli still managed to get Jalen Hurts at quarterback and Cole Kmet at tight end, but his receiver spots took a hit. He had to take the upside route more often than not, resulting in a starting trio of Gabriel Davis, Drake London and Russell Gage.
Eisenberg, meanwhile, grabbed Austin Ekeler at the No. 3 pick but didn't go back to the running back position until the eighth round (Rhamondre Stevenson, No. 94 overall). Eisenberg built a loaded receiving group (Mike Evans, Michael Pittman, Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown and Adam Thielen) and did decent at tight end (Dalton Schultz) and quarterback (Russell Wilson), but the running back spot is Ekeler and a bunch of dart throws, like Isaiah Spiller and Tyrion Davis-Price.
The QB Market at ESPN
When fantasy experts tell you to wait for quarterbacks—as they always do this time of year—they apparently really mean it now.
ESPN's expert crew recently linked up for a 10-team, PPR mock. A full four rounds would come and go before the first mention of a quarterback. Once 10 rounds in the books, only nine quarterbacks were off of the board—and three went in that 10th round.
Josh Allen, as per usual, received QB1 status,as Joe Kaiser made Allen the first pick of the fifth round. Mike Triplett joined in to get Patrick Mahomes three picks later. Tristan H. Cockcroft spent the sixth round's third pick on Justin Herbert. Tom Carpenter and Damian Dabrowski attacked the position in the back half of the seventh round, getting Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts, respectively.
Liz Loza nabbed Kyler Murray midway through the ninth round. In the 10th, Matt Bowen, Daniel Dopp and Eric Moody took Dak Prescott, Tom Brady and Derek Carr in that order. Kyle Soppe, the last drafter to take a quarterback, added Joe Burrow in the 11th round and Russell Wilson in the 12th.
Salary Cap Draft
While most leagues use a traditional draft format, some have pivoted toward a salary cap structure instead.
If your league falls under that umbrella, you'll be glad to know we stumbled on a salary cap mock from the CBS Sports crew. It was a 12-team, PPR league with a $100 draft budget.
Chris Towers nearly plowed through that budget on Christian McCaffrey ($32), Dalvin Cook ($26) and Alvin Kamara ($21 alone). That's as loaded of a running back trio as you'll find, but there's an obvious opportunity cost here, too. Towers only added three other players for more than the $1 minimum: Jerry Jeudy ($7), Robert Woods ($3) and Chris Olave ($2). Towers' two $1 quarterbacks were Derek Carr and Jameis Winston.
On the other end of the spectrum, Drew Davenport didn't spend more than $15 on any player and really spread his budget around. He made his biggest mini-splashes at wide receiver (Tyreek Hill, $15; Tee Higgins, $12; Terry McLaurin, $10) and at running back (Travis Etienne, $13; Ezekiel Elliott, $12), which left enough money for a decent option under center (Russell Wilson, $5) and solid depth pieces at most spots.