Fantasy Football 2016: Mock Draft Analysis and Selection Strategy

The biggest debate about the first pick in a fantasy football draft seems to always come down to running backs against wide receivers.

But the answer might surprise some fantasy owners—either works. That’s the beauty of fantasy football, where an owner can get risky in the first round and still win a league. An Aaron Rodgers-Rob Gronkowski combo over the first two rounds has a way of doing that.

Owners can also go the more traditional route, of course, sticking to what has worked in the past and then using week-to-week savvy on the trade and waiver markets to fill needs as necessary.

It’s all viable, with the mock below based on standard scoring in a 12-team format providing one avenue for owners to explore. After, we take a look at some of the strategy going into the mock.

Selection Strategy Analysis QBs

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One of the first things owners will notice is the lack of a quarterback in the first round of the above draft.

The late-round quarterback strategy promises two things. One, owners can find a starting-caliber player each week on the waiver wire, which they can. Two, the position is ridiculously easy to predict because quarterbacks touch the ball more than anyone else.

Think back to last year. Streaming options such as Tyrod Taylor and Kirk Cousins came out of nowhere to act as close to a QB1 as owners can get, both scoring 258 or more points and finishing among the top 16 scorers at the position.

That’s 16 quarterbacks who scored at an elite level. While owners didn’t get burned taking Cam Newton (378 points) early, they sure did with Ben Roethlisberger (222), Andrew Luck (126) or Tony Romo (39).

Granted, this happens at every position, big-name guys going on to have miserable outings. But quarterback is different because there are so many surefire ways to avoid the pitfall or make up for it should it happen.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a quarterback early, but it’s like playing with a handicap at the other spots.

RBs

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