Mock drafts are a good place to try something new when you're busy preparing for fantasy football drafts. That's exactly what I did in our most recent staff mock, a 12-team PPR draft.
It's easy to lock in on a pattern or a few key targets and never deviate from your standard approach, which could easily be thrown off when your real drafts come along. You could simply be missing a better way to draft, and trying different techniques in a mock could open your eyes to a better approach for when it's time for the real thing.
In this latest mock, I tried something different ... and I didn't like it at all.
I am a fairly strict believer in waiting on a quarterback in fantasy football drafts, but in this mock, I found myself changing course and taking Aaron Rodgers in the fifth round. I know what many of you are thinking ... "Fifth round for Aaron Rodgers? That's an obvious pick!"
Based on our average draft position, you're right. Rodgers normally finds himself on a roster in the first 25 picks in ESPN Standard drafts, and I took him with the 52nd pick of this mock. But our expert crew generally waits at QB, meaning that, relative to his peers at the position, he wasn't a value. Cam Newton went a few picks prior, and Russell Wilson and Drew Brees went in the next 15 picks.
I was unable to adapt properly to my new strategy, spending the next few rounds after selecting Rodgers trying to get caught up at running back and wide receiver. This meant I wound up waiting too long to select my tight end and selected Jordan Cameron with my final position player pick.
How could things have gone better? Julius Thomas was available when I selected in the 11th round and instead picked LeGarrette Blount, and Tyler Eifert was on the board the round before. Instead of taking another bench flex player (which is something I feel is valuable but potentially prioritized too much), I could have locked in a TE1 and felt better about my draft.
Alternatively, I could have followed my usual strategy and selected Matt Jones or Latavius Murray in the fifth round, moving back my QB pick until the end, when steady, reliable QB1 options such as Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer and Eli Manning all went in the 10th round, or even later.
So while I understand those of you who like to take your quarterback early, and see the benefit in posting the highest score at the highest-scoring position every week, this mock solidified my belief that waiting at QB is the best approach.
Waiting on tight end, on the other hand, might not be as smart of an approach this season, as I found out the hard way in this mock.
But now I know, and my pride wasn't on the line in a real league. I encourage you to try new strategies when you participate in a mock draft, and then review the mock afterwards and consider how well your team turned out -- where you could have improved your squad using that new strategy or how it may have changed using your normal approach.
Here's the full recap of our draft, broken down by team rather than round. The participants this week, in drafting order, were: Field Yates, Jim McCormick, Mike Clay, Leo Howell, KC Joyner, Pierre Becquey, Eric Karabell, Matt Bowen, Tom Carpenter, Keith Lipscomb, Tristan H. Cockcroft and Kyle Soppe.