Fourteen Team PPR Mock Draft

            I have officially completed the next mock draft in our line of On the Clock mocks courtesy of fanspeak.com. If you want to see my results yourself please go to https://fanspeak.com/fantasyotc/share.php?d=18ba5423dcb1ebffe2bc3c15b49ae37f, and while you there make sure you try out a fourteen team PPR draft for yourself.

As I always do for these mock drafts, I choose my draft position based on the results of an online random number generator. This time, I was award the seventh overall pick in the draft. This means I would have an equal number of teams selecting their players between each one of my draft picks. I personally prefer these mid-round picks to picks closer to the beginning or end of the snake formats. For me, this is especially true in deeper leagues due to sudden drop in the talent pool towards the middle of the draft.

When my first pick came up on the On the Clock mock draft simulator, I had a choice between Adrian Peterson, A.J. Green, and Eddie Lacy. I felt that Lacy had more upside as a pass catcher than Peterson and it was a bit too early to choose Green. I had to go with the Packers’ running back. He was great all season long, but he was best when Aaron Rodgers was under center. The Packers definitely saw a lot of great things from Lacy in 2013 and will surely try to get him more involved in the passing game this season.

Though I like Doug Martin this year, I really wished I could have gotten Aaron Rodgers.

I almost had exactly who I wanted in the second round. Unfortunately, two pick before mine Aaron Rodgers went off the board. I was really excited by the thought of having both the Packers’ star quarterback and running back. Since that did not happen, I decided to grab my second running back. I chose Doug Martin. Martin had a fantastic rookie season, but followed it up with a poor start to the 2013 year and ultimately finished the year on IR. With all the work the Bucs have put into their offense this season, there is no reason to think that Martin does not have a chance at a big time come back.

In the third round I chose Rob Gronkowski. The more the offseason goes on, the higher I get on Gronk. He is such an amazing talent. When he plays, there is not a better tight end in the league. However, by drafting him, I made a commitment to draft a tight end later on.

I finally got my first wide receiver in the fourth round. This is something I would normally never do in a PPR league, but whenever my picks came up there just was not a wide receiver on the board that I felt was good enough to take at that particular pick. I had a choice between DeSean Jackson and Julian Edleman. I chose Jackson because I already had Gronk. This way I would not have two holes to fill on a bye week. Pierre Garcon led the league in receptions last year. It is not a stretch to believe that Jackson will not take a few of those targets away from him this season.

I wanted to grab another wide receiver in the fifth round, but once again there were no wide out that I felt comfortable picking at this point. I decided to get my quarterback. Cam Newton was still on the board. Everything I have heard about the no name cast of Panthers’ wide receivers has been positive. It appears Newton is doing well with what he has. I would not expect his passing stats to drop too much. However, I would not be surprised if his rushing stats increase this season. There will definitely be situations when Cam needs to make some plays happen with his feet because his receiving corps cannot get open.

All the talk coming out of Panthers’ camp about Cam and his wide outs is positive. Maybe he can have another huge season after all.

I was hoping that either Jeremy Maclin or Reggie Wayne was going to drop to me in the sixth round, but that did not happen. Instead I had to take Emmanuel Sanders. By this point, I was desperate for a wide receiver and Sanders was the best on the board. He is going to be filling Eric Decker’s role in the Broncos’ offense this season. If he can put up stats comparable to Decker’s 2013 season, he will make a fine second wide receiver.

Next I went with Anquan Boldin. Boldin will have less pressure on him from defense since Crabtree will be back this season. He performed great even when Crabtree was gone. Boldin is such a great PPR receiver because of his ability to use his strength to overpower defensive backs. He hauls in a lot of balls and is a sure thing every season. With the wide receivers I have right now, I was definitely happy to get a more consistent player like Boldin.

In the eighth round I wanted to grab my backup running back. By this point the running back position was getting very slim and I knew if I waited any longer to get my backup, I would not have very much to choose from. My decision came down to Ray Rice or Steven Jackson. I decided it was best to go with Rice. He is only serving a two game suspension, so by the time I would need him he will be back on the field. This choice came down to who has the better offensive line. Though neither team has a good one, the Ravens’ line looks just a tad bit better.

Next I went with Ryan Tannehill. Though I think Cam Newton can perform very well this year, I cannot say that will be the case without a slight bit of uncertainty. Therefore, I knew it was going to be a smart move to grab a good replacement. I almost had Tom Brady. I was pretty upset when he did not fall to me.

The tenth round was pretty hard on me. I had to watch as pretty much every single wide receiver I wanted flew off the board. By the time I was up the choice was obvious: wait on wide outs. I ended up taking Darren McFadden. I thought this was a good move after I did it. I now had four strong running backs and would not have to worry about that position for the rest of the season.

I am not a fan of rookie wide receivers. However, I am pretty high on Kelvin Benjamin this year. I think by the end of the season he will claim the number one wide receiver position for the Panthers and could end up being a good long term investment. I took him even though there were about five wide receivers ranked higher than him on the draft board.

I decided my twelfth pick was going to be spent on a defense. When I was looking at the defenses, I wanted to get one that had a bye week on a different week from any of my other starters. The only one that fit this mold was the Bengals’ defense. I was very happy with this choice because they are one of the top defenses in the league and they are not going to have to play the AFC West like the Seahawks, 49ers, and Rams do.

I followed up my defense pick with Jerricho Cotchery. As I said earlier, I think Kelvin Benjamin will be the number one wide receiver for the Panthers by the end of the season. However, until the rookie finally surpasses him, that role is going to be Cotchery’s to lose. At this point in the draft, getting a number one wide receiver for any team is a steal.

It is always good to grab a top ranked kicker.

Then I filled my final starting position. I draft Ravens’ kicker Justin Tucker. Tucker is the best kicker to own in league that award points for the distance of a kick. With the way my team has shaped up, I can see at some point I will need some big games from my kicker.

With my final pick, I finally got my backup tight end. I took Zach Miller. Miller always seems to do alright. He is never a stud, but he can be worthwhile as a spot starter from time to time. With the lack of depth at the tight end position, I was pleased that there was a player on the board who is as consistent as Miller.

At the end of my fanspeak.com On the Clock mock draft for a fourteen team PPR league, my roster looked like this:

Eddie Lacy is could be considered a top five fantasy football running back.

• QB: Cam Newton
• RB: Eddie Lacy
• RB: Doug Martin
• WR: DeSean Jackson
• WR: Emmanuel Sanders
• TE: Rob Gronkowski
• FLEX: Anquan Boldin
• K: Justin Tucker
• DEF: Bengals
• BENCH: Ray Rice
• BENCH: Ryan Tannehill
• BENCH: Darren McFadden
• BENCH: Kelvin Benjamin
• BENCH: Jerricho Cotchery
• BENCH: Zach Miller

I would not want to own this team in a real PPR league. By waiting until the fourth round to grab my first wide receiver, I feel like I really hurt myself. My receivers on this team are just too weak. Even worse than that there is no depth on my bench at that position. This would make it extremely hard to rotate my wide receivers base on matchups. I like my running backs, but none of them are big time pass catching threats. This just does not feel like a championship roster to me.

Try you drafting skills at https://fanspeak.com/fantasyotc/. Hopefully, you can do better at the fourteen-team PPR draft than I did.