We just had our yearly fantasy football keeper league draft at work this week. I will be breaking down the draft in the fourth of my five-piece mock draft series. Keep in mind, when I list an owner not having a pick in a certain round, it simply just means that pick was used on a keeper and they have elected to forfeit their pick in the current round for the 2011 season. We each had an opportunity to keep up to four players, but some owners chose to keep less. Either way, this draft will give you a great indication of where players are being selected in a keeper league format. In most instances in a keeper league, you must over value and consequently over draft some players due to the lack of depth from the player pool. For example, Jason Witten is on average being draft between rounds 4-6 in normal drafts. However, in a keeper league with a more shallow player pool available, Witten is being taken anywhere from rounds 2-4. Keep that in mind when evaluating our mock draft. It is a standard league scoring PPR (point per reception) format with bonuses for 150+ yard games rushing or receiving. Quarterbacks also get a five point bonus for throwing over 400 yards. It is a snake style draft format, so the player with the last pick in the round will select first in the following round, so on and so forth. We do not use a tight end position. Instead, he have 2 running back starters, 2 wide receiver slots and 2 flex positions that you can play RB, WR or TE’s. We could not keep anyone selected in the first three rounds of last year’s draft, so the first three rounds should be close to a normal fantasy football league draft.
Owners:
#1 overall pick – Cowboy
#2 overall pick – Andrew
#3 overall pick – Jeff
#4 overall pick – Tim
#5 overall pick – Tony
#6 overall pick – Adam
#7 overall pick – Lucas
#8 overall pick – Ryan S.
#9 overall pick – Erik
#10 overall pick – Corey
#11 overall pick – Ryan B.
#12 overall pick – Billy
Mock Draft Round 7:
73) Hines Ward
74) Lance Moore
75) No Pick (Vincent Jackson, keeper)
76) Packers DST
77) No Pick (Hakeem Nicks, keeper)
78) No Pick (Santonio Holmes, keeper)
79) No Pick (Jeremy Maclin, keeper)
80) Steelers DST
81) Ronnie Brown
82) Pierre Thomas
83) No Pick (Percy Harvin, keeper)
84) Greg Little
Round Overview: This is the round when defenses started going off the board. I never feel you should pay too early for a defense, but the Steelers and Packers are justified. I can only see myself reaching for these two units. However good the Packers may be though, I would never take them over the Steel Curtain. This is the best fantasy defense in football and has been for years. I like the Pierre Thomas pick here. Last year, he was way overvalued, this year he has been forgotten about. If Ingram fails or just simply needs a rest, Thomas will be there to clean up the mess. He actually had a better season in 2009 versus 2010 when he was in a reserve role. The Greg Little pick with the last selection of the seventh round was way too early. I have no explanation for this pick.
Mock Draft Round 8:
85) Jason Snelling
86) Ravens DST
87) Jets DST
88) Eagles DST
89) No Pick (Malcolm Floyd, keeper)
90) Rob Gronkowski
91) Steve Smith (CAR)
92) Brandon Jacobs
93) Thomas Jones
94) Willis McGahee
95) No Pick (Dez Bryant, keeper)
96) No Pick (Ahmad Bradshaw, keeper)
Round Overview: Here come the back up running backs round. Snelling, Jacobs, Jones and McGahee are all chosen in the eighth round. I can not ever hate on taking a back up RB in any situation. Some owners must go out of their way to take one because they also have the starter from that team. It is justified overpaying for a back up, however you have to make sure it’s the right one. I think this was a great time in the draft to do it, and I even took Brandon Jacobs with my pick. If you can’t find a starting fantasy RB by this round, you better hope his back up is willing to shoulder the load when called upon. This was a very smart and savvy round by all the owners. The Panthers Steve Smith has been highly undervalued due to the horrible QB situation in Carolina. However, no matter who is calling the shots there, Smith with assuredly get most of the looks from his signal caller. Check out my next article for rounds 9 & 10 to be reviewed…