It’s never too early to start drafting, and Drafters already has live best ball contests. If you’re not ready to stake real money, our fantasy football mock draft simulator tool can give you a flavor of how the drafts might play out, and in a much quicker way than real drafts.
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Fantasy Football Mock Draft
Drafters Settings
Drafters is full PPR, with two starting running backs, three starting wide receivers, one quarterback, one tight end, as well as one FLEX spot (RB/WR/TE). The main difference from most best ball sites is that Drafters features cumulative scoring.
Meaning we don’t have to worry about the pod-luck element of tournament weeks. Instead, we have one simple goal: To score more points than anyone else. Because of that, we should draft with the mindset of never taking zeroes at a position, as every point matters.
Early Round Picks
It’s not impossible to win with Zero RB on Drafters; it’s only a couple of years since we last saw someone do so, but typically, it can prove smart not to get too far behind at running back. With Puka Nacua going first overall, our choice at pick No.2 came down to Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs. Both have great ceiling potential, but we’ll lean toward Robinson due to slight concerns about the Lions’ offensive line.
Chris Olave and Chase Brown in rounds two and three keep us nicely balanced to start things off. Olave had an incredible 2025, finishing as the WR7 in PPR points per game, showing out when it mattered most. Look at this stretch of play:
- Week 15: 20.50 points (WR9)
- Week 16: 36.8 fantasy points (WR2)
- Week 17: 25.9 fantasy points (WR2)
Olave set career highs in targets (156), receptions (100), yards (1,163) and touchdowns (nine). A similar season would be excellent news for this team.
In the fourth round, Terry McLaurin fell to us, slightly behind his usual average draft position (ADP). McLaurin isn’t a perfect receiver, but he’s a solid bet for 1,000 yards when healthy, and this Commanders offense can bounce back if Jayden Daniels also stays healthy.
While we don’t need to stack as aggressively in cumulative points best ball, the chance to pair McLaurin with Daniels in the fifth round is too good to pass up. If we’re betting that McLaurin is a good value, it likely means the Commanders’ offense in general is a strong bet to make.
In round six, we add some volume with Chris Godwin. Without Mike Evans, Godwin is the clear veteran of the Buccaneers’ receiving room, and his floor can be healthy in this format. In round seven, we shoot for more upside with Tucker Kraft, who looked to be having a true breakout season before suffering a season-ending injury. We’re betting on Kraft being a value here, but taking him means we’ll likely need three tight ends, in case he gets off to a slow start.
Middle Round Picks
In round eight, we grab some rookie upside in Jordyn Tyson. We don’t want to overdo rookies in this format, as they can be prone to giving us zeroes when we need a high floor, but mixing in a few per draft helps us in case they break out and smash their ADP.
In rounds nine and 10, we worked on running backs, which we’ve left alone since round three. Aaron Jones seems undervalued now that we know he’ll be back in Minnesota, most likely as the lead back ahead of the unimpressive Jordan Mason.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt was one of the big winners of free agency, with the Commanders only adding Rachaad White on a measly $2 million deal. Croskey-Merritt isn’t likely to be a three-down workhorse, but the team seems to love him, and volume can be handy as our fourth choice at the position. This selection also stays in the mindset we struck on earlier that the Commanders’ offense would be better than expected.
In round 11, we shoot for a little more upside in Jalen Coker, who, after he returned from injury in Week 7, went on to have the 15th-highest yards per target for the rest of the season and had five games over 45 receiving yards.
In round 12, we add a little security for our tight end room with Jake Ferguson, who gives us depth in case Kraft is slow to get going. Next, we add a little more Tampa Bay correlation by adding Jalen McMillan, who impressed late in 2025 after suffering a neck injury during preseason. If he’s healthy and the Buccaneers don’t add another receiver, he’ll be the clear No. 3 WR, at worst, in this offense.
Late Round Picks
Chris Rodriguez Jr. is undervalued. In real drafts, you might see him go a couple of rounds higher. The tag team he’ll form with Bhayshul Tuten might be infuriating at times because of their similarities, but in best ball, it’s a much easier pill to swallow as our RB5. Isaiah Likely is our TE3, and we’ll be hoping recent reports of him being featured in the Giants’ offense turn out to be true. His 15 career touchdowns are encouraging enough that he warrants a place as our third tight end.
In rounds 16 and 17, we fill out our quarterback room with Malik Willis and Tyler Shough, both of whom have shown in small sample sizes that they offer upside, will add an element of rushing and aren’t afraid to push the ball downfield. Ideal choices for best ball.
To round out the draft, we fill out the wide receiver room with upside swings on Tory Horton, who had a very impressive start to 2025 before a shin injury, Tank Dell, who sounds like he’s finally healthy after his horrific 2024 injury, and Elijah Sarratt, who analytics folks love.
Draft Wizard Insights
Draft Wizard gave us a B+ for this draft, which is probably fair, as we made some reaches occasionally. It might have been higher if we’d gone with a sixth running back, but this team relies on the two running backs we took in the first three rounds. As long as they’re cooking, we should be fine.
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