2020 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Patrick Mahomes leaps into the first round in latest PPR mock

Quarterbacks don't tend to go early in expert mocks, but one drafter bucked that trend in our latest draft.

By Jamey Eisenberg

Aug 25, 2020 at 12:01 am ET • 3 min read

I like it when we see different things in our mock drafts. Not "Draft a kicker in Round 1" different. But different is good. It's reflective of what can happen when your real Fantasy football draft is underway. For example, we don't usually see quarterbacks get selected in the first round of our one-quarterback leagues. But here in this 12-team PPR mock draft, Patrick Mahomes went at No. 11 overall to Bryant McFadden.

McFadden followed that up with Derrick Henry, Todd Gurley and Amari Cooper, which is a solid start when you have the No. 1 quarterback heading into the season. Bryant told me after the draft that he has a "championship-like team," so check out his roster to see if this is something you'd want to replicate.

Another different tactic was seen in Round 2 here, George Maselli drafted George Kittle ahead of Travis Kelce at No. 18 overall. Heath Cummings drafted Kelce one spot later, and he was thrilled about that outcome. Now, Kittle could be better than Kelce this season. But Kelce typically gets drafted a few spots earlier than Kittle, so it was fun to see something different.

Some other things that stood out in this mock draft included A.J. Green getting picked ahead of Stefon Diggs and DK Metcalf, Damien Harris going ahead of James White, and Bryce Love being drafted ahead of Antonio Gibson. These picks made for good talking points.

I would much rather have Diggs and Metcalf over Green, who has missed a week of practice with a hamstring injury. But Ben Schragger is hoping Green rebounds after being out in 2019 with an ankle injury, so he drafted the guy he wanted.

I'm excited about Harris with Sony Michel and Lamar Miller banged up, but I'd rather have White in PPR. Dave Richard drafted White six spots later than Harris in Round 8.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Love is better than Gibson this season, even in PPR. But Gibson still appears to have the higher ceiling in this format, and he should be drafted ahead of Love for now.

Gibson was my pick in Round 9, and I was happy to draft him as my No. 5 running back behind Alvin Kamara, Aaron Jones, Jonathan Taylor and Devin Singletary. The running back corps is the strength of my team, including Chase Edmonds also on the bench.

I have a Super Six quarterback in Deshaun Watson, and sleeper Mike Gesicki is my tight end. While I like my receiving corps, I wish that I drafted a better No. 3 receiver than Darrius Slayton. JuJu Smith-Schuster and D.J. Chark are my top-two receivers, which is awesome. And while Slayton is a fine No. 3 receiver — with Anthony Miller, N'Keal Harry and Curtis Samuel in reserve — I should have passed on Singletary for a receiver in Round 6.

Someone like Jarvis Landry, Julian Edelman, CeeDee Lamb, Marvin Jones or Jamison Crowder would have likely made this team more complete. Next time, I'll do something different to fix this mistake.

In this league, all touchdowns are worth six points, and we award one point for every 10 yards rushing and receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing. We also award one point for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, FLEX (RB/WR/TE), K and DST. There also are six reserve spots for a 16-round draft.

Our draft order is as follows: