The final fantasy draft weekend is upon us. After weeks of preparation, this is every league’s last chance to get set up before the official start of the NFL season. For those of you who waited this long to get your drafts in, be thankful you got to avoid drafting guys like Marqise Lee and Derrius Guice before they got hurt in the preseason.
To help you prepare in the final days, I’m here with my last mock draft of August using the FantasyPros Mock Draft Simulator. The Simulator allows users to set their specific league settings ahead of time and draft a team in only a few minutes to get an idea of where guys are going.
Here are the settings for this mock draft:
After doing a PPR league last time, I’m back with a standard league, this time picking third (based on random draft order). Here’s a rundown of my roster, including which round I picked each player in.
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Quarterback: Philip Rivers (LAC) – Rd. #12, Eli Manning (NYG) – Rd. #15
Rivers’ and Mannings’ careers will be forever intertwined, and now they can continue to compete for my affection on this hypothetical roster. This is a great value after waiting this long to take a quarterback. Rivers has finished as a top-12 fantasy quarterback every season for the past five years, and in 2017 he had eight games with 20 or more fantasy points. He’ll also be getting second-year receiver Mike Williams back for his first full, healthy season in the NFL.
Meanwhile, Manning seems to be overlooked in drafts this season. I’m not saying he’s going to finish as a top-10 quarterback, but how can you hate a guy who’s going to be throwing the ball to Odell Beckham Jr., Evan Engram, and Saquon Barkley all year? I’d much rather have him as a backup than someone like Derek Carr or Marcus Mariota.
Running Back: Todd Gurley (LAR) – Rd. #1, Mark Ingram (NO) – Rd. #5, Chris Carson (SEA) – Rd. #6, James White (NE) – Rd. #10, Devontae Booker (DEN) – Rd. #11
The first five weeks of the season would be a struggle with this roster, given that Ingram will be suspended for the first four games of the year and then on a bye, but I think I cobbled together enough value to fill in that second running back spot until he comes back.
I have no idea how Gurley managed to fall to me at No. 3 overall, but I’ll definitely take it. Between David Johnson’s sub-par offensive situation and Le’Veon Bell‘s contract situation (we still don’t even know when he’s going to be joining the Steelers) Gurley would be a no-brainer No. 1 overall pick for me anyway.
Carson seems to have the starting spot in Seattle locked down, especially with Rashaad Penny’s hand injury. Booker appears to be in a timeshare – at least for now – with Royce Freeman, a role that no doubt could disappear quickly as the season progresses. Still, Booker can be considered the starter, according to Broncos head coach Vance Joseph.
I also would much rather have White in Round 10 than Rex Burkhead somewhere in the sixth or seventh. With Christine Michael’s knee still hanging over him as a concern, and the Patriots’ propensity to switch running backs in and out at will, I’d much rather throw a dart at White this late in the draft. He was heavily involved in New England’s passing attack last season, averaging 7.7 yards on 56 catches. With a depleted receiving corps, I could see Tom Brady looking his way often early on in the year.
Wide Receiver: Mike Evans (TB) – Rd. #2, T.Y. Hilton (IND) – Rd. #3, Jarvis Landry (CLE) – Rd. #4, Jamison Crowder (WAS) – Rd. #8, Nelson Agholor (PHI) – Rd. #9
If you’ve read any of my other pieces so far this offseason, none of these picks should come as a surprise to you. I’ve been touting Evans and Crowder all month as guys who could have big years. The only reach I felt I made was for Landry in the early part of the fourth round, but I didn’t love my other options available to me at the time.
I wasn’t quite ready to spring for a quarterback, and I am slightly scared away from Golden Tate by the number of mouths to feed on the Lions offense. With Landry, I know he is going to be the focal point of the Browns offense (even if Josh Gordon is on the field) and will be a safe pick to go over 1,000 yards again this year.
Agholor also presents intriguing upside with Alshon Jeffery’s status up in the air. The latest reports say that he won’t be ready for at least the first two weeks. During that time, Agholor will be the go-to guy of whoever is under center for the Eagles with Mike Wallace acting as a decoy deep threat. Agholor has had drop problems throughout his career, but had a breakthrough third year, setting career records for targets (95), catches (62), yards (728), and touchdowns (eight).
Tight End: Delanie Walker (TEN) – Rd. #7, Tyler Eifert (CIN) – Rd. #13
There are two polar opposites here. First, there’s Walker, who has been nothing but consistent as a fantasy tight end. He has finished no lower than eighth in total scoring among tight ends since 2014, breaking the top five in two of those years, while being targeted more than 100 times each of those four seasons.
Then there’s Eifert, who can be a top-five fantasy tight end when healthy, but that’s a huge question mark. If he can stay on the field and produce, Eifert could be a huge lottery ticket for me. And if not, I won’t have to sweat about playing Walker on a weekly basis.
Defense: Los Angeles Rams (Rd. #14)
This is a round earlier than I usually like to take a defense, but I already knew I wanted Manning as my backup quarterback and assumed he wouldn’t be drafted before my Round 15 pick, so I just jumped at the defense I liked the best. The Rams’ secondary is primed to have a ton of interceptions this year with their new additions, so as far as fantasy defenses go, I can feel good about reaching for them here.
Kicker: Matt Prater (Rd. #16)
So there you have it, my latest mock draft using our free mock draft simulator. Keep on mocking!
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Jon Munshaw is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Jon, check out his archive and follow him @jon_munshaw