Fantasy Football Mock Draft
What is a Fantasy Football Mock Draft?
The fantasy football mock draft is one of the most essential parts of draft preparation. Mock drafts allow you to participate in an unofficial draft against computers and other people online to test out your draft strategies and to see which players are typically getting drafted in each round. Most fantasy football websites like Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, and NFL have mock drafts available for team owners, but not every fantasy owner takes advantage of it.
Mock drafts do not count for your fantasy league, and are only used as practice. For this reason, when people join a mock draft, they are not usually as serious about it as there are no year-long consequences for poor decisions like in a real draft. Therefore, many teams might autopick, letting the computer pick a player. The computer tends to pick the next best available player according to their rankings, whereas real people have personal preferences and rarely follow the rankings exactly. More competitive owners use the mock drafts to size up other owners and test player choices they’ve prepared.
Mock Draft Strategies
There are multiple different reasons why using a mock draft is beneficial to your draft strategy in fantasy football. Read below to learn how to use mock drafts to your advantage.
Possible Draft Position
One major reason mock drafts are useful is to see which pick will most likely yield the best team possible. By doing multiple mock drafts at different positions, you can see where the players you favor can be obtained early or left to steal in a later round.
The more drafts you participate in, the more ready you will be for your actual league. One problem that can occur with mock drafts is that the computer cannot keep up with real-time issues, meaning they may draft a player that is battling an injury or has recently gotten into legal trouble that the website has not cataloged yet. It is important to keep in mind these potential glitches and to double-check any player information you come across.
Whether it’s practicing early, mid, or late round picks, it is essential for competitive fantasy football owners to always have a backup plan. In leagues that have tons of money up for grabs, players are likely to repeatedly get their number one player stolen during the course of the draft. Mock drafts allow players to have a safe backup plan, or several backup plans, during these fun but intense drafts.
Draft Rankings and ADP
If you are new to fantasy football, you can use certain sites to check out current rankings of all players in the league. These lists will usually have helpful categories like PPR Rankings and Non-PPR Rankings in addition to ranking each player by position and listing their recent stats.
Average Draft Position, or ADP, is another statistic used to strategically draft. ADP denotes the expected draft pick used for each individual player. For example, Christian McCaffery of the Carolina Panthers might have an ADP of 3, meaning he is expected to be drafted with the third overall pick in typical fantasy football leagues. Using this statistic in conjunction with a mock draft will help you to understand where exactly a player will be picked in your real draft.
FAQ
Where can fantasy football players complete mock drafts?
Fantasy football players can participate in mock drafts on all of the top fantasy football platforms. A few of these platforms include ESPN Fantasy, Yahoo Fantasy, and NFL Fantasy. Generally speaking, any website or app that houses fantasy football leagues will also have mock draft options and maybe even a mock draft simulator.
What is a mock draft in fantasy football?
A mock draft in fantasy football is a tool used to practice draft strategies by running an unofficial draft between players or against the computer. Most fantasy owners will run multiple mock drafts to get the best sense of where a player will go in the draft and when certain players should be picked. Mock drafts do not have any effect on the real draft in the league, but is a helpful tool for any fantasy owner.
What does Zero-RB mean in fantasy football mock drafts?
Zero-RB is a common draft strategy in which you focus on pass catchers early in the draft, while stockpiling high upside running backs later in the draft. Players using this draft strategy usually use their first 2-3 picks on WRs and/or TEs, then pick multiple running backs who have the potential to break out in rounds 4-7. Many high level fantasy players practice the RB Zero strategy during their mock drafts, but it can be risky.
What does Zero-WR mean in fantasy football mock drafts?
Zero-WR is a common draft strategy in which the team owner will focus on high floor running backs in the early round, hoping to grab sleeper wide receivers in the middle to late rounds. Zero-WR is essentially the opposite of a Zero-RB strategy and can be helpful during mock drafts, especially in dynasty leagues, where competition for running backs is more intense.