Now is the time you should be doing mock drafts. Do as many as you can between now and your real draft. It's the best way to prepare, and you can do all kinds of mock drafts on CBS Sports right here. I love doing mock drafts. If I could, I would do a mock draft every day from the time the Super Bowl ended until kickoff of the following season. I'm a junkie, I admit it. I'm addicted to drafting. My boss thinks it's work to put together these mock drafts, but I have him fooled. This is fun.
The reason to do mock drafts is to learn how you want your real draft to go. You get to practice different strategies -- Zero RB, waiting on a quarterback, double tight ends, multiple kickers (kidding), etc. -- and see what you want to do on your Draft Day.
In this 12-team, 0.5 PPR mock draft featuring members of our CBS Sports staff, I tried a different strategy from recent drafts. Instead of leaning on running backs early, I went with a wide receiver and a quarterback with two of my first four picks.
Picking from No. 11 overall, I drafted Austin Ekeler and Davante Adams to start my team. I'm excited for Ekeler once again this season, and Adams is falling a little bit with the uncertainty surrounding Aaron Rodgers. If Rodgers is guaranteed to stay in Green Bay for this season then Adams is likey a top-10 overall selection. Since he could be traded, you might see Adams slip into Round 2, as he did here.
I drafted Chris Carson in Round 3 and then took the first quarterback off the board in Patrick Mahomes in Round 4. Now, we know quarterbacks fall further in industry drafts compared to most of your leagues because we take waiting on the position to an extreme. I usually draft the tenth quarterback or so compared to the first, but I wanted to build my team in a different way.
If I didn't draft Mahomes, I probably would have selected a third running back (Travis Etienne or David Montgomery) or my second receiver (Amari Cooper or Robert Woods). But I wanted the biggest difference maker on the board in Mahomes, and it's always good to draft those kind of players when available.
I like the way my team came together with Chase Edmonds, Zach Moss, Devin Singletary and Joshua Kelley rounding out my backfield behind Ekeler and Carson. Hopefully, one of Moss or Singletary becomes a featured option in Buffalo's backfield (I like Moss the best), and Edmonds has star potential if he can hold off James Conner for the lead role in Arizona.
My receiving corps along with Adams: Courtland Sutton, Curtis Samuel, Mecole Hardman, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Cole Beasley. Sutton should be a steal in Round 6 if he's 100 percent healthy coming off last year's knee injury, especially if the Broncos somehow make a trade for Rodgers. And I love the potential of Hardman as the third receiver in Kansas City and St. Brown as the potential No. 1 receiver in Detroit.
My lone regret is waiting on a tight end, and I went with Zach Ertz in Round 15. We'll see where he ends up playing this season after the Eagles eventually trade or cut him, and hopefully, he lands in a favorable destination (maybe Jacksonville). I also could have selected Cole Kmet, Rob Gronkowski, Tyler Higbee or Blake Jarwin, and all of those tight ends are available on waivers.
You should examine all of the teams in this mock draft, but take a look at Chris Towers' roster since he took a Zero RB approach. Towers started his team from No. 9 overall with Travis Kelce, Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, Woods, Tyler Lockett and Lamar Jackson before selecting his first running back in Round 7.
His backfield is obviously questionable with Melvin Gordon, Kenyan Drake, Darrell Henderson, Gus Edwards, Sony Michel and Chuba Hubbard, but Towers only needs two of those guys to be successful for this team to be great. And he has Michael Gallup and Rondale Moore also on his bench.
There are many ways to build your Fantasy roster. And doing multiple mock drafts allows you to practice different ways to construct your team before your real draft happens later this summer.
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 0.5 points for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE, FLEX (RB/WR/TE) and DST. There also are six reserve spots for a 15-round draft.
Our draft order is as follows:
1. R.J. White, Managing Editor, SportsLine and CBS Fantasy
2. Andrew Baumhor, CBS Sports HQ Producer
3. Adam Aizer, Podcast Host
4. Jacobs Gibbs, SportsLine Fantasy Analyst
5. Heath Cummings, Senior Fantasy Writer
6. Meron Berkson, CBS Sports HQ Producer
7. Dan Schneier, Fantasy Editor
8. Frank Stampfl, Fantasy Baseball Podcast Host
9. Chris Towers, Senior Editor, Fantasy
10. Dave Richard, Senior Fantasy Writer
11. Jamey Eisenberg, Senior Fantasy Writer
12. Scott Engel, SportsLine Fantasy Analyst
| Round 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Team | Player |
| 1 | R.J. White | |
| 2 | Scott Engel | |
| R.J. White | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rd | Pk | Player |
| 1 | 1 | |
| Scott Engel | ||
| Rd | Pk | Player |
| 1 | 2 | |
