.The 2023 fantasy football season is here and even though it’s only mid-July and we are still waiting for NFL training camps to officially open, your fantasy football draft prep should be underway. The Fantasy Alarm Fantasy Football Draft Guide is loaded with everything you could possibly need from updated fantasy football player rankings to offensive line breakdowns; from top sleepers and busts to draft strategies for all fantasy football league formats. Our analysts are tirelessly working around the clock to help you win a fantasy football championship this year and one of the best ways we can do that is by sharing our draft thoughts in a fantasy football mock draft. You can study the fantasy football ADP all you want, but until you see it in action, it’s nothing more than a list of numbers. A strong roster build is paramount to your success, but where and when you draft a player is just as important as why you are drafting that player. 

 

Welcome to the Fantasy Alarm Staff Mock Draft 1.0

Let’s start off by sharing the draft board with you. We’ll paste it here into the article, but you can also click here to open the board in a new window so you can easily reference it as you are reading.

The Draft Specs:

  • 12-teams, 16 rounds, snake-draft
  • Full-point PPR scoring with the usual touchdown and yardage scoring (no bonuses)
  • Starting Rosters: QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, Flex (R/W/T), K, DEF
  • Bench: 6 players 

The Players (in draft order):

If you’re on Twitter, give everyone a follow, please. They are all worth it!

Before we get to what everyone thought about their own draft and what strategy they employed to achieve their goals, allow me to share with you what I did, because my game plan was more about you, the readers and subscribers, than it was about sharpening my own draft game.

By now, you’ve seen the title “Lead Fantasy Analyst” on Coop’s bio. He’s got it for a reason and I believe in him and his analysis 100-percent. I believe in everyone on this team, don’t misunderstand. This team crushes it with each and every take in every article, video and podcast. But as the lead, Coop’s got a lot to live up to. He’s front-and-center here. No pressure at all, right? Haha! Well, I thought this would be a great time to put his draft skills to the test and, in turn, give you a deeper look into his thoughts on players and draft strategy. For the first half of the draft, I built my roster the way I would normally build it. I attacked the running back and wide receiver positions early and waited on quarterback and tight end. But after my eighth-round pick of Courtland Sutton (yeah, you all are sleeping on him and that’s a mistake), I went after all the players Coop has been touting as mid-to-late round targets. 

He's very much into Michael Thomas

He likes Devin Singletary too

He’s been whispering Dalton Schultz

And even Tyler Higbee

So, what I wanted to do was take those players away from Coop and see where he would go. Yes, it’s fun to see his reactions to all the sniping, but it’s way more than that. What I’ve said for years when I was running my Mock Draft Army is that everyone should do at least one mock draft where they don’t take a single player they’ve been drafting in every other mock draft. If someone takes your favorite targets away, where will you go? What’s your back-up plan? And that’s exactly what I wanted to do to Coop in this mock – not only to put him to the test and see who he picks, but get insights into late-round strategies he believes will work. And, in turn, that’s going to help you even more. Coop has his favorite targets – sleepers if you will – and he offers them up to you every day. But what happens if they aren’t available? Who else does he like to draft and why? So, you’re welcome. I just handed you yet another fantasy football draft weapon to destroy your competition.

You can now check out all of Coop’s thoughts on his draft

I'm not sure what the heck Howard was doing but he drafted pretty much every single player I've tweeted about since February. So I needed to pivot big time from what I normally do in this one. Early on I played it pretty safe at wide receiver then went super risky at running back later on. Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams were WR2 and WR3 in targets last year and DraftKings has the yardage line for both set at ~1,300 so that feels pretty good. And say what you will about Baker Mayfield but I’m okay with Mike Evans as my WR3. He'll get his 1,000 yards one way or another like he has for nine years in a row. In rounds 9 through 12 Bender was back to exclusively taking MY targets so I decided to just lean into uncertainty given how early it is to draft. I ended up with an incredibly high-risk stable of RBs in Breece Hall, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Leonard Fournette, and Ezekiel Elliott but at least I have six chances to hit here. Let the chips fall where they may.

We also heard this from Britt Flinn…

I typically don't take quarterbacks this early, but with a limited number of bench spots, I didn't want to wait and potentially have to carry two on my roster. Going with Jefferson at the 1.01 felt chalky, but I just couldn't bring myself to go with Ja'Marr Chase. I think my running backs have a ton of upside and opportunity for scoring, and I stayed on brand by getting Treylon Burks, so overall, I feel good about this team.

Kevin Tompkins says…

As the only drafter who selected three wide receivers in the first three picks, Cooper Kupp, Chris Olave, and a falling Jaylen Waddle (who should have been at minimum a top-16 overall pick) clearly represent the best wide receiver trio of every team in this mock. 

Add in Jahmyr Gibbs and Aaron Jones at running back, who both carry excellent receiving profiles in a PPR format, and Chris Godwin (who I wrote about here) in my flex, Dallas Goedert at tight end, plus Jahan Dotson, and this receiving group is unmatched. Oh, and a double-tap at quarterback with Tua Tagovailoa and Anthony Richardson in Rounds 9 and 10 captures some of the best floor-to-ceiling upside at the position.

Toss in 2022 fantasy league-winner Jerick McKinnon in an ambiguous backfield in Kansas City and Damien Harris, who could gobble up high-value touches in a high-powered Buffalo Bills offense? Can I have this team in a high-stakes league? 

Heard from Dan Servodidio…

Picking from the No. 2 spot, I wanted to prioritize a top-tier running back and opted for Christian McCaffrey over Austin Ekeler in the first round. CMC could be in line for a massive season as the San Francisco 49ers’ stat-stuffing back in a fantasy-friendly offense. Jalen Hurts in the third round satisfies the Philadelphia Eagles fan in me, but it also gives me an elite dual-threat QB. My wide receiver group could be better, but I took upside swings on Michael Pittman, Jordan Addison, and Allen Lazard. My 11th round pick of De'Von Achane is a potential league-winner if he emerges as the Miami Dolphins’ lead RB at some point this season.

From James Grande…

I love the balance my team has from top-to-bottom. My wide receiver position is stacked up top and has some high-upside players at the back end of the position in Gabe Davis, a fifth-rounder last year, Wan'Dale Robinson, and Rashee Rice. I was sniped a few times at quarterback as I wanted Deshaun Watson or Daniel Jones and was hoping one or both would be available in the eighth round, but Dak Prescott is a solid consolation prize. And by the way, Travis Kelce. That's the tweet. 

A quick-hit from Justin Vreeland

I don’t normally go four rounds without a RB, but I like how the team turned out. The lineup is filled with studs at QB, WR, and TE. I think I would have 2 decent enough backs between Alexander Mattison, Rachaad white, and David Montgomery.

Ray Kuhn had this to say…

With good reason, I am high on AJ Brown entering his second season in Philadelphia but I should have gone with Nick Chubb in the first round knowing I was on the wheel (11th overall) as he was the last top RB. I'm not complaining about Garrett Wilson as my WR2, especially in a PPR league and I think Travis Etienne at 3.11 is a great spot. 

I have mixed feelings about Joe Burrow in Round 4 after seeing Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr going undrafted, but he was the best player on my board at that spot and gives me an advantage at the position each week. 

RB2 will be a revolving door between D'Andre Swift, Isiah Pacheco, and Chuba Hubbard, but I think it will be fine there after focusing on WR depth to capitalize on the PPR scoring system.

Thoughts from Dan Malin:…

Picking out of the fourth spot, I was hoping that one of Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, or Ja'Marr Chase would be available. When Chase was there it was pretty easy to take the upside of the WR1 in the high-powered Bengals offense. My one regret was taking Derrick Henry in round three when Jaylen Waddle was still there, but if Henry holds up and does what he normally does, albeit behind a worse offensive line, then he'd be fine at that value. Overall the team has good balance and some late-round upside that I'd be happy with rolling into the 2023 NFL season

This just in from Jon Impemba:

If I can come out of a draft with Austin Ekeler then I am a happy man. I've snagged him in leagues in each of the last two seasons which included taking him as the 1.01 pick last year over Jonathan Taylor and Christian McCaffrey. It only got better from there as I landed Rhamondre Stevenson in round two and then Patrick Mahomes in round three. This being my first time drafting on RTSports this year made drafting wide receivers a bit of an adventure as the rankings and ADPs were a bit different than I was use to which meant I was able to get some pretty decent values in Jerry Jeudy in round six and Zay Flowers in round eight as depth behind Christian Watson and Mike Williams. I was the first to take a kicker, snagging Ravens Justin Tucker, hard to not take the GOAT.

What did Colby Conway have to say…?

Although I missed on my top two targets at #8 (Kelce & Kupp), Bijan Robinson isn't a bad consolation prize. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tee Higgins, and Diontae Johnson form a solid trio at wide receiver, and Dameon Pierce in the fifth as my RB2 was a gift from the rest of the league. A third proven running back would have been nice, considering that after my two workhorses in Robinson and Pierce, all I have Robinson's handcuff, and two backs in a timeshare. Overall, I like this team, and for the most part, I have solid floors and tangible upside at each position.