In the opinion of FFGator, mock drafts are not simply a way
for people to waste time waiting around for football season, they are a way to
understand actual value associated with players outside of rankings. Mock drafts can help you find sleepers or
even players you did not know about way in advance of your other owners who
grab a magazine and print out ESPN rankings an hour before the draft. You still may say it is too early to mock
draft or that you do not have the time to sit through one at all, so if that is
the case at least stop by FFGator every Tuesday to check out the latest
comments and insights on how your fantasy football draft might shake out this
year. I will be looking at all the
positions and checking out trends, injuries and holdouts that you will want to
know about prior to your drafts.
As it stands right now you can write in Foster, Ray Rice and
McCoy as the top 3 RBs. Rodgers will
likely find his way into the top 3 of a lot of drafts as well this season with Brady and Brees at the back
part of the first round. WRs and TEs are
interesting this year but you will have to check back next week for more on
them. For now I am focusing on RBs and
why it is going to be extremely important to know your strategy when it comes
to RBs in your draft this year. We
already mentioned the top 3 and those are easy.
MJD is next in line and has an Average Draft Position (ADP) of 6
currently. The number 5 RB is Ryan
Matthews with an ADP of 7. That was my
first surprise but as you read on it will make perfect sense. If you follow our Twitter tab at all you will
see Matthews' name come up quite frequently receiving all the hype of a top 5
back this year so get used to it. The
next 3 RBs to come off the board at the end of round 1/beginning of round 2 are
Chris Johnson, McFadden and Lynch. That's right, a lot of you might find yourself tying your fantasy football
hopes to a major bust last year, constant injury concern or seen it only once
in his career. So you are not even out of the first round yet and the RBs available might already be getting you to think grabbing a QB and WR tandem might be the way to go.
After Lynch and entering the 2nd round it gets
even scarier. The next five RBs taken (9 – 14) are Trent Richardson, DeMarcco
Murray, AP, Forte and Jamaal Charles otherwise known as rookie, unproven with
injury, shredded knee, holding out and shredded knee with more time to heal. All of these guys are being drafted before
the end of round 2 and a couple of them might not even be starting Week 1! After this bunch you
have a group of old guys (Steven and Fred Jackson, Gore and Turner) and your 20th
RB taken with an ADP of 39 is Doug Martin.
Do you know who Doug Martin is and why he is being drafted as a starting fantasy football
RB? This is why I am here to
help. Doug Martin was drafted out of
Boise State by Tampa Bay and early signs are that he will replace LaGarrette
Blount as the starting RB for the Bucs. He is more versatile than Blount and all the right words are coming out of Tampa about him.
Mock drafters are already aware of this possibility and drafting
accordingly. Blount himself is currently
being drafted at spot 104. I will continue to look at RBs in more depth as we near the season, but you can already understand why you might want to know what your draft strategy with RBs is going to be this year considering all the risks and unknowns you have to deal with before you even draft your 3rd RB. Other trends I
will continue to follow and update on are what to make of the Carolina and New
England backfields and will Michael Bush be drafted like a starting RB.
A lot more is going to happen over the next 15 weeks so
check back as I will continue to dive into positions, trends and strategies for
drafting your fantasy football team in 2012.
Luke
Fantasy Football Aggregator
