It’s that time of year again; fantasy football is heating up more and more by the day. Last night – Wednesday August 8 – several members of the Fantasy Alarm crew got together for the annual Mock Draft for the Draft Guide. I sat this one out because of a late start time (10:30 pm ET), but now I get to break down my colleagues’ drafts. Where did they go wrong? What picks did they crush? The draft board is below, but if looking on mobile, you can also click here to open in a new window.

Draft slot one – Dom Murtha

Dom left his draft feeling really good about his team: “Went running back with the first three picks, and with absolutely no regrets. Zeke 1st overall may be controversial, but I believe with the exodus of playmakers out of Dallas this offseason, the Cowboys are likely to rely upon him even more this season. Truth be told, I would be mildly surprised if Zeke didn't lead the league in rushing yards, touchdowns, and overall usage for 2018. Christian McCaffrey and Jordan Howard are young, talented, and the focal point of their respective offenses, which makes them more than worthy of their selections as well. Followed those picks up with two quality wideouts (especially in a PPR format) in Golden Tate and Demaryius Thomas . Self explanatory with their selections, as neither is a high-upside pick, but both offer a decent floor and consistent attention in their respective offenses. With my two RB's and flex spot already filled, I needed reliable production each week from my top two wideout spots. 

Round six is where it goes off the rails briefly... 

So as I was setting up my back-to-back selections, I heard the clock run down on time. The sound the system makes is more alarming than a nuclear meltdown, and unbeknownst to me it starts with still 15 seconds left on the clock. I figured it was closer to five seconds, which is where my issues began... Unfortunately, when the alarm began to scream I panicked. I ended up fumbling my beer in my lap, in a maddening and embarrassing scramble, and blindly picked Allen Hurns . 

ALLEN EXPLETIVE HURNS IN THE SIXTH ROUND. 

I really wanted Devin Funchess and then Corey Davis with my back-to-back selections, but once I screwed up the Hurns pick, I was forced to choose between the two. I went with Funchess and unsurprisingly Davis was gone by the time I was back on the clock. 

Eventually I got back on track, as I got a quarterback whom I boldly predicted would lead the league in passing yards this season – Matt Ryan – and a tight end whom I expect to be one of the breakout fantasy players of the year – Trey Burton

As is typical with most of my drafts, I rounded out the team with high-potential rookies. Michael Gallup – one of two Dallas receivers that I would have rather taken instead of Allen Hurns – Anthony Miller , Kalen Ballage , and Dante Pettis all fit the bill. At least one of them is bound to stick as a legitimate fantasy stud this season. 

As for defense and kicker, the Broncos are my second rated defense this season – behind the Jaguars – so I'm happy with them, while Matt Bryant fits my archetype of fantasy kicker – one who plays in a dome, is backed by an explosive offense, and is generally accurate. “

My Take: I really love this team; I think it is the best team coming out of the draft, even despite the Hurns hiccup. If I had to pick a weakness, it would be the bench, but that was by design, taking high upside young players and hoping to hit on one or two of them. It is a thin bench that cannot be relied upon in the early going, but that is completely fine when your starting lineup is strong and doesn’t have risk in it. The Jordan Howard and Trey Burton picks are ones that I think will pay huge dividends for Dom, I really like both of them this year. While Matt Ryan is not a very sexy pick for your starting QB, he will provide 20+ touchdowns and 4000+ passing yards and can be plugged into the starting lineup on a weekly basis. He grabbed the Broncos D as the seventh defense off the board and I think they will find their way into the top-five in fantasy points at the end of the year (amongst defenses).

Grade: A

Draft slot two – Dan Malin

Dan liked how his team turned out: “Starting off the in two-spot made it pretty easy for me. I assumed Dom would take either Bell or Gurley so I was just going to take whoever he didn’t pick. To my surprise he took Zeke, so I opted who I felt was the best player and went with Gurley. When it came back to me I wasn’t thrilled with the prospects at running back so I went with Kelce. The thought process behind that was that I just wanted to go into every week having a significant advantage at that position... A few rounds later I was the first to take a quarterback. It’s a 12-team league and Aaron Rodgers was sitting there at 50th overall. Similar to the thought process drafting Kelce, I took Rodgers at that spot to once again have an advantage on a weekly basis at that position. I’m OK with the depth at running back and wide receiver, but I'm not wild about it. I know I don’t have a great group of WR’s, but I’m content rolling out a mix of Adam Thielen , Will Fuller V, Pierre Garcon , and Kenny Golladay (who I’m very high on this year) based on the matchups.”

My Take: Dan took a very balanced approach in this draft, grabbing a RB, a TE, two WRs, and his QB with his first five picks. I like the balanced approach on most occasions and while I don’t hate Dan’s team, I think he left himself a glaring hole at RB. He took Todd Gurley with his first pick, but then didn’t draft another RB until round 7, when he grabbed Aaron Jones . He rattled off four straight RBs at that point, but none of them are clear cut lead backs who can be relied upon at the start of the year. He also encountered an issue at the end of the draft, “My apologies on missing the last few rounds of the draft last night. The fire alarm in my new apartment building went off around 11:20 last night and regretfully I forgot to grab my phone to let anybody know my predicament.” Fortunately for Dan, the auto-draft scooped him up a pick that I really loved in Keelan Cole in the 13th round. He is currently listed as a starting wideout on the Jags depth chart above Donte Moncrief and he showed real promise as a rookie last season, catching 42 passes for 748 yards and three scores.

Grade: B

Draft slot three – Matt Selz

Selz stated that his strategy for his team was to “get the most consistent players available at the time of the pick (or a guy I really wanted in the case of Mike Williams )”

My Take: Selz started the draft off really strong grabbing David Johnson , Jerick McKinnon , Stefon Diggs , and JuJu Smith-Schuster with his first four picks. McKinnon is no lock at pick #22 overall, but there are a lot of reasons for optimism. He is in a system that should show off his skills and he should lead the team in touches. I like the upside. However, something I didn’t like about his draft was his all-in approach on the Vikings. He selected Diggs and then picked Kyle Rudolph , Kirk Cousins , and the Vikings D as his TE1, QB1, and DEF1 respectively. Stacking is better suited for DFS and not seasonal play, it can lead to bye week issues or lack of production if a key cog on the team is injured. My favorite picks by Selz were his selections of Marquise Goodwin in the 6th round and Austin Seferian-Jenkins in round 13.

Grade: B+

Draft slot four – Brandon Marianne Lee

Here is what Brandon had to say about the draft “I felt like I benefited from having my own rankings printed out. Going by the rankings on any site can be perilous. This is especially true at the beginning of August when the majority of ADP numbers are based on bestball drafts and before we’ve learned anything about camp. When you have a shorter bench, every player needs to be startable. I was surprised that people took chances within the first five or six rounds. I'm boring. I like balance. “

My Take: While she may feel her team is safe and boring, and it is to an extent, I do think she took some risks in the draft. She took Mike Evans in the second round and Evans is coming off a down year and will be without his QB for the first three games of the season. She followed that pick up with Alex Collins , Collins was solid last year, but I wouldn’t really say he is a lock for a big year. She grabbed Sammy Watkins in the eighth round, who we know has talent, but hasn’t really put it together yet. One pick I really liked was her selection of Jimmy Garoppolo in the eleventh round, I feel like he could easily have a better year than a lot of the QBs that were picked a round or two earlier in the draft. Overall I think this team is solid, but not overly exciting.

Grade: B-

Draft slot five – Colby Conway

Colby’s draft didn’t go as he planned “The team didn't quite turn out how I wanted, because Brandon Marianne Lee stole at least three players that I was ready to take! Additionally, I didn't plan on opening with three wide receivers, but that's just how this draft happened to play out. However, I love the WR trio of DeAndre Hopkins , A.J. Green and Tyreek Hill to open the draft. My running back crew is a bit scary, especially until Mark Ingram returns, however, there should be enough there to at least get by. Delanie Walker is a consistent option at tight end, while Jared Goff gives me a solid quarterback. Also, load up on the Houston Texans defense, because Romeo Crennel is back, baby!”

My Take: Colby took the Zero RB approach (not on purpose) in this draft and his roster reeks of risk. For starters, I don’t like the Zero RB approach. When he took his first RB in round 4 it was Mark Ingram , who is suspended for the first four games, and then followed that up with a pair of rookie RBs in Rashaad Penny and Kerryon Johnson . His RB core is a glaring weakness. He also waited on his first TE and first QB, selecting Delanie Walker in round 9 and Jared Goff in round 12. Walker will be 34 and is coming off his worst season since 2013. While Brandon took a more boring approach with one rookie, Colby jumped for rookies seemingly every chance he got, finishing with a draft-leading four. Outside of the strong WR core, there just isn’t much I like about this roster, sorry Colby!

Grade: C-

Draft slot six – Brett Talley

My Take: Talley also took the Zero RB approach with his draft, but I think it turned out a bit better than Colby’s did. After taking Antonio Brown , Davante Adams , and TY Hilton with his first three picks he selected Dion Lewis as his lead RB. While Lewis will be in a timeshare with Henry, given that this was a ½ PPR format, Lewis should be fine as a weekly starter. He took Allen Robinson with his next pick, giving him a bench player in the fifth round. I like ARob a lot this year, but grabbing a bench player in the fifth round isn’t overly ideal. I think in hindsight if Talley could go back, he would have selected a RB in round one or two, had he known he would land Robinson in the fifth round. Since this wasn’t a best ball format, if this were a real league, he would likely look to make a trade. He took Tyler Eifert as his only TE, which given Eifert’s injury history, he could be looking at streaming TE’s early and often. Overall, for taking the Zero RB approach I think Brett’s team turned out OK.

Grade: C

Draft slot seven – Jon Impemba

Jon seemed content, but not overly thrilled with how his roster panned out: “It was my first time drafting out of the 7 spot this year, I have been lucky enough to be top 3 in the drafts I have done so this was a bit of a new experience for me.  

I am big on Melvin Gordon this season, his versatility as a runner and pass catcher in this 1/2 pt PPR provides solid upside.  I am also hoping with Hunter Henry out and Antonio Gates gone that maybe in those goal line situations the Chargers run more than look for the tight end matchups in the red zone.

As a fan of the New England Patriots I was pleased to land Rob Gronkowski .  

I like to build up my RB depth but to say I had hoped for Mixon, Jones and Coleman to be that depth would not be true.  It's not that I don't think those three players in a PPR format do not provide solid value, but I think going forward I may have passed up on Gronk if I knew which RB's would be available to me.

I also am not the biggest fan of my WR's.  A lot of receivers I had hoped to land ended up getting drafted before me.  My lack of experience drafting in this position certainly came back to haunt me.  My group of Parker, Meredith, Nelson, Benjamin and Enunwa all have some upside but none of them are considered WR1's and are borderline WR2s in my opinion.  Hopefully with Landry out of Miami and Tannehill back under center Parker will have a breakout season.  Reports outta Raiders camp are very positive for Jordy Nelson , but Carr is an average fantasy QB based on last year’s results.  Benjamin is apparently in the "best shape of his life" but who knows how good AJ McCarron will be this season and Quincy Enunwa had a breakout 2016 but missed all of last year and will likely have a rookie QB throwing him the football while competing with the likes of Robby Anderson and Jermaine Kearse .

At QB, I like the upside of Andrew Luck at this spot.  I know everybody is worried about him but if he is healthy he can be a Top 5 fantasy QB.

I was the first to take a Defense in this draft and went with the loaded Rams who added Aqib Talib , Marcus Peters and Ndamukong Suh this offseason.”

My Take: While overall I think his team is solid, I think he could have done a lot of things differently and had a stronger team as a result. While I won’t harp on his Gordon pick, I do want to point out that I do not like him; I simply don’t think he is very talented and I would rather own any of the six players that were picked after Jon selected Gordon. I know the Gronk pick came from his fan hood, but I think it hurt his team. Selecting a TE that early, especially one that will likely miss a few games, is not something worth doing in a 12-team league in my opinion. I think he would have been better suited taking Adams, Green, or Evans and having a real WR1. Which brings me to his WR core; it’s pretty weak to be frank. Like he said, it lacks a WR1 and it really doesn’t even have a high-end WR2. While he may be down on his RB group, I think his RB situation turned out pretty strong for a 12-team league. Lastly, I really don’t understand selecting the Rams D over the Jaguars D and that is nothing against the Rams, but more so that the Jaguars D is so young and talented.

Grade: B-

Draft slot eight – James Grande

My Take: Grande started off his draft with rookie sensation Saquon Barkley and I really liked the way his team was looking through five picks. He took a balanced approach with two RBs, two WRs, a QB, and a TE through six rounds. Michael Thomas and Jarvis Landry are both pass catching machines and in this ½ PPR league they should easily return 2nd and 4th round value respectively. Deshaun Watson in the 5th round gave him an explosive QB who showed last year that he can be a fantasy superstar. Rounds 6-through-8 things got a little off track in my opinion. Jordan Reed in the sixth round was a bit of a reach, but if he stays healthy he would make Grande look like a genius. However, I think he could have waited another round on Reed and instead selected Marlon Mack or Marquis Goodwin and still land Reed in the 7th round. He grabbed Carson Wentz in the ninth round, giving him two fantasy MVP-caliber QBs, in a one QB league, that could give him strong trade fodder later in the year. His 10th round selection of John Ross and 14th round selection of Christian Kirk both give him solid upside. This is one of the top drafts.

Grade: A-

Draft slot nine – Edward Raus

My Take: Raus started his draft off by selecting Alvin Kamara , Keenan Allen , Brandin Cooks , and LeSean McCoy . On paper that looks like a strong 1-2 punch at both RB and WR, giving him a strong start to the draft. I don’t overly love Allen at pick 16 overall though, given his injury history, I think you have more to lose than you do to gain by picking him there. If he stays healthy, he will likely finish in that range, but I think Michael Thomas would have been a safer pick with a similar ceiling. He snagged Phillip Rivers as his lone QB in the 12th round and while Rivers is tried-and-true, I would have rather seen Raus grab Carson Wentz or Matthew Stafford as his QB1. That’s just a little bit of nitpicking though. Overall this team turned out pretty strong and would likely not have a problem securing a playoff berth.

Grade: B+

Draft slot ten – Steve Pimental

My Take: Steve took an interesting route with his draft, only picking RBs and WRs until round 12. Despite doing this, I still am not overly high on his RB situation and waiting on TE and QB left him on the weaker side of the scale at those positions. Devonta Freeman is coming off a down year and will continue to fight for touches. Derrick Henry will be in a timeshare with Dion Lewis and given that this is a ½ PPR league, Henry loses value. I love his WR core of Julio Jones , Amari Cooper , Josh Gordon and Emmanuel Sanders . Marcus Mariota as a QB1 leaves a lot to be desired and George Kittle as his TE1 isn’t the best. The Saints D are unlikely to repeat their 20 INT / 19 FF (top-4 in the NFL in both) campaign from a season ago and I don’t think they will be a strong weekly play.

Grade: C

Draft slot eleven – Michael A. Stein

Michael had a plan going into the draft and he stuck to it: “I approached this draft trying to restrain myself from taking a quarterback before the 7th round because I do normally reach for one of the elite ones.  

With the 11th spot, I knew I needed one running back and one wide receiver with my first two picks so I targeted the best available at each position.  I was pleasantly surprised to land Odell Beckham , Jr. and Kareem Hunt to anchor my team.  Beckham is coming off an injury-shortened season and is currently looking to become the highest paid wide receiver in the league.  The Giants have a loaded offense on paper so OBJ should be highly motivated to light up the scoreboard.  Hunt is coming off a great rookie season and should continue to thrive in Kansas City’s explosive offense as well.  

The pickings were slim for my second running back so I grabbed Kenyan Drake in the third round looking to build off a great second half of 2017 after the Dolphins traded Jay Ajayi .  My second wide receiver is Doug Baldwin who is essentially the only viable receiving option left in Seattle so he will see plenty of targets.  Jimmy Graham could be a stretch in the sixth round but he did have a solid second half last year and now finds himself paired with the best quarterback in the league in Aaron Rodgers .  By the eighth round, I could not wait any longer to grab my quarterback because I was worried they would all be gone by my next turn.  I went with Tom Brady looking to cash in on the ageless wonders prolific production as there are no signs of him slowing down, regardless of his cast of characters. 

I rounded out my key positions with players such as Carlos Hyde and Alshon Jeffery who both had bounce-back seasons last year.  I finished my starting roster with Dan Bailey as my kicker and the Jaguars defense.  The Cowboys offense has taken a step backwards so there should be plenty of field goal opportunities for Bailey.  Jacksonville had arguably the best defense in the league last year and is in position to replicate that performance in 2018.”

My Take: I think Michael crushed it out of the eleven spot. Starting his draft with Odell Beckham and Kareem Hunt gave him a strong number one at both positions. Drake has his doubters heading into the 2018 season, but given the RB options that were left, it was the right choice. Alshon Jeffery will likely be slowed to start the year because of the surgery he had to repair a torn rotator cuff, but once he returns to full strength he should provide strong numbers as Michael’s WR3. He selected Tom Brady in the 8th round and Brady continues to defy age. What I loved about his selection of Brady, is that he ended up grabbing Matt Stafford two rounds later as an insurance policy. I think his selections of Paul Richardson in the 9th round, Doug Martin in the 12th round, and Eric Ebron in the 14th round each gives him high upside. He was able to land the Jaguars D as his defense and I don’t see how that could possibly not work out. They should finish top-three. Overall, I am a big fan of this draft.

Grade: A-

Draft slot twelve – Ivar Anderson

My Take: Ivar did a nice job out of the wheel. He selected three RBs within his first four picks and all should be locks for heavy workloads. His 1-2 punch of Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook is arguably the best in the draft. Larry Fitzgerald is as consistent as they come and while I’m not personally overly high on him, I can’t argue that selection too much, but I would rather have Jarvis Landry . He grabbed Russell Wilson in the sixth round to cement his QB situation and followed that up by selecting Cooper Kupp . My favorite pick from his draft has to be Evan Engram in the ninth round; Engram is coming off a strong rookie campaign and has the skill-set to be a really strong producer this year. One pick that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me was his selection of Drew Brees after already selecting Russell Wilson . I think he would have been better off selecting an upside WR like D.J. Moore , Kelvin Benjamin , or Mike Williams . Overall I think this team turned out well.

Grade: B+

My projected standings as of right now based on the draft alone would look like this:

  1. Dom Murtha
  2. James Grande
  3. Michael A. Stein
  4. Ivar Anderson
  5. Matt Selz
  6. Edward Raus
  7. Dan Malin
  8. Jon Impemba
  9. Brandon Marianne Lee
  10. Brett Talley
  11. Steve Pimental
  12. Colby Conway

Breaking down everyone’s teams has been an interesting process. Remember though, while the draft is very important, a league can be won through strong management even if you don’t come out of the draft feeling great about your team (not talking best ball, of course). Do mock drafts before the real thing, so you can get a feel for a draft and what you like and don’t like doing. Good luck this year FANation, bring home championships!