Been a while since our last fantasy football mock draft.

Not that I have forgone mock drafting altogether. I took my own advice since May and have done a few mock drafts a week, typically on my lunch break up until the 8th round or so. It has been good practice.

Despite all the practice, nothing is perfect. For most redraft leagues, owners do not know from which spot in the first round they will be drafting until just before the actual draft. With so many variables, the best idea is to practice drafting from each over the course of the summer mock draft season.

Not only do owners have to tweak draft strategy based on drafting position, but they also need to keep up with trends. A good place to start for that is a fantasy football mock draft database. Average draft positions courtesy of Fantasy Football Calculator and Mock Draft Central are awfully handy as well.

After completing nine rounds in this month’s mock draft, three things really stood out in my mind about this “team.”

Click on the draft grid below to view the results of July’s fantasy mock draft.

Some thoughts from the No. 6 hole:

1. I will take Steven Jackson at No. 6 all day, any day. Sure he has battled injuries each of the last two seasons, but when it comes to crunch time in a fantasy season no one gets it done quite like SJax. Dude comes to play during the fantasy playoffs.

If Jackson had been healthy each of the last two seasons — or maybe even just one of them — we all would be asking whether he or Adrian Peterson should go No. 1 overall. That is his ceiling, and I gladly will take the “risk” at No. 6 overall.

2. Brandon Jacobs is a risky complement to Jackson, but grabbing Marshawn Lynch in the 5th round certainly helps the fantasy backfield. Jacobs and Jackson both have shown a propensity for injury the last few seasons, so the chances are high that at least one of these two will miss some time in 2009.

The gamble here is that neither gets injured during the first four weeks. After that, Lynch should return from suspension and provide some nice fresh legs to this team. Overall, not a bad 1-2-3 fantasy running back punch.

3. The starting lineup looks pretty solid on paper:

Matt Schaub/Carson Palmer
Steven Jackson
Brandon Jacobs
Anquan Boldin
Braylon Edwards
Owen Daniels

And the depth is off to a good start as well. Palmer and Schaub should give the quarterback position some continuity. Both are capable of huge seasons. Lance Moore is a steal as a WR3 after last season. Not sure what the fear is about him. And then there is Lynch, who I already mentioned.

Explanation of the Daniels pick: He was the most intriguing, every-week-fantasy-starting tight end on the board in my opinion. Should finish as a top-8 tight end no problem. And there is the added bonus of the Schaub-Daniels double touchdown in fantasy scoring.

Spread the love:
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • StumbleUpon
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • E-mail this story to a friend!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!