Getting a top 10 RB and top 10 WR with your first two picks is the way to go. Photo by New Orleans Saints/Facebook
The fantasy season is almost upon us and that also means you are reading the last edition of Mock my mock for 2018. For those that are unfamiliar with this article, each week I have drafted from a different draft slot to help illustrate how different a fantasy team will be based purely on which draft pick you have. I have done this exercise from the #7 spot and the #2 spot based on a twelve team league. This week I drafted at the turn, pick no. 12.
The key to drafting in this spot is having an idea about which players will make it back to you in the following rounds. I’ve tried going RB-RB and WR-WR in other mocks, and I feel like I’m chasing RB or WR the rest of the draft, so I advise taking one of each. I started this draft taking Chargers RB Melvin Gordon, and then followed that with Saints WR Michael Thomas. I have participated in a few mock drafts where Odell Beckham made it to me, and if that happens to you, don’t hesitate to draft him.
Next, I have a long wait before I get to pick again but when it’s finally my turn, I take Raiders WR Amari Cooper and Dolphins RB Kenyon Drake. I’m not too worried about Frank Gore stealing touches from Drake, and Cooper could be poised for a bounce-back year. Tyreek Hill got taken right before I picked, and that would have been my selection if he was available. For me, waiting on QB when you’re drafting in the #12 spot is the way to go. In general waiting on QB is a good idea this year. The position has never been deeper.
In the middle rounds, I focused on adding RB depth, and I did just that with my next couple picks. I selected Pats RB Rex Burkhead and Lions rookie RB Kerryon Johnson. If I had this mock draft to do over again, Greg Olsen would have been one of my picks here.
In round 7 I took Sammy Watkins and then followed that with Redskins TE Jordan Reed. I love Reed’s talent but he’s always hurt. I think this team would be better with Olsen at TE, and I could have grabbed more RB depth a little later.
I finished the draft by grabbing more depth at RB and WR. I was able to get Kenny Stills in the 9th round, and I think he’s the No.1 WR in Miami. DeVante Parker’s family has my condolences because he’s officially dead to me.
I finally got my QB in the 11th round and I was very pleased to come away with Falcons QB Matt Ryan. I think he’ll have a nice season in year 2 of Steve Sarkisian’s offense. The important thing to take away from this exercise is how your first 4 picks turn out and how you handle QB and TE. You can wait forever on QB, but you better take a TE in the first 5 or 6 rounds unless you’re okay with streaming TEs. Let’s face it, David Njoku and Jordan Reed have a lot of uncertainty surrounding them. One guy’s never done anything, and the other seems to leave the game every time he gets tackled.
This is my final edition of Mock my mock and all my mock drafts have been on ESPN, just so you know the ADP I’m working with. Be sure to check out my new show MoneyLine with Jerry Bo on ESPN 97.5. We’re on every Sunday from 10-noon, and we’ll talk a lot about fantasy football and NFL gambling. Our goal is to get you ready for your draft, and to help with Start/Sit questions when the regular season begins. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter. If you missed last week's article drafting from the #7 spot, you can check it out here. You can also check out my first edition of Mock my Mock where I drafted from the #2 spot here.
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There was a conversation Cleveland guard Donovan Mitchell had during training camp, the topic being all the teams that were generating the most preseason buzz in the Eastern Conference. Boston was coming off an NBA championship. New York got Karl-Anthony Towns. Philadelphia added Paul George.
The Cavs? Not a big topic in early October. And Mitchell fully understood why.
“What have we done?” Mitchell asked. “They don't talk about us. That's fine. We'll just hold ourselves to our standard.”
That approach seems to be working.
For the first time in 36 seasons — yes, even before the LeBron James eras in Cleveland — the Cavaliers are atop the NBA at the 25-game mark. They're 21-4, having come back to earth a bit following a 15-0 start but still better than anyone in the league at this point.
“We've kept our standards pretty high,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And we keep it going.”
The Cavs are just one of the surprise stories that have emerged as the season nears the one-third-done mark. Orlando — the only team still unbeaten at home — is off to its best start in 16 years at 17-9 and having done most of that without All-Star forward Paolo Banchero. And Houston is 16-8, behind only the Cavs, Boston, Oklahoma City and Memphis so far in the race for the league's best record.
Cleveland was a playoff team a year ago, as was Orlando. And the Rockets planted seeds for improvement last year as well; an 11-game winning streak late in the season fueled a push where they finished 41-41 in a major step forward after a few years of rebuilding.
“We kind of set that foundation last year to compete with everybody,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, we had some ups and downs with winning and losing streaks at times, but to finish the season the way we did, getting to .500, 11-game winning streak and some close losses against high-level playoff teams, I think we kind of proved that to ourselves last year that that's who we're going to be.”
A sign of the respect the Rockets are getting: Oddsmakers at BetMGM Scorebook have made them a favorite in 17 of 24 games so far this season, after favoring them only 30 times in 82 games last season.
“Based on coaches, players, GMs, people that we all know what they're saying, it seems like everybody else is taking notice as well,” Udoka said.
They're taking notice of Orlando as well. The Magic lost their best player and haven't skipped a beat.
Banchero's injury after five games figured to doom Orlando for a while, and the Magic went 0-4 immediately after he tore his oblique. Entering Tuesday, they're 14-3 since — and now have to regroup yet again. Franz Wagner stepped into the best-player-on-team role when Banchero got hurt, and now Wagner is going to miss several weeks with the exact same injury.
Ask Magic coach Jamahl Mosley how the team has persevered, and he'll quickly credit everyone but himself. Around the league, it's Mosley getting a ton of the credit — and rightly so — for what Orlando is doing.
“I think that has to do a lot with Mose. ... I have known him a long time,” Phoenix guard Bradley Beal said. “A huge fan of his and what he is doing. It is a testament to him and the way they’ve built this team.”
The Magic know better than most how good Cleveland is, and vice versa. The teams went seven games in an Eastern Conference first-round series last spring, the Cavs winning the finale at home to advance to Round 2.
Atkinson was brought in by Cleveland to try and turn good into great. The job isn't anywhere near finished — nobody is raising any banners for “best record after 25 games” — but Atkinson realized fairly early that this Cavs team has serious potential.
“We’re so caught up in like the process of improve, improve, improve each game, improve each practice," Atkinson said. “That’s kind of my philosophy. But then you hit 10-0, and obviously the media starts talking and all that, and you’re like, ‘Man, this could be something special brewing here.’”