Mock Draft: 12 Teams, PPR Scoring

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In late June, 12 members of the Footballguys staff got together for the site's first mock draft of 2013. Before we can look at the results, however, here are few of the details. After all, the details of your league are as important as the players on your team. If you're loaded with yardage monsters in a league that is touchdown-only, you'll certainly struggle. If you're weak at quarterback in a league that starts two of them every week, you'll be lucky to sneak into the playoffs.

League Parameters

• 12 teams
• 22 roster spots
• Starting Lineup
• 1 quarterback
• 2 running backs
• 3 wide receivers
• 1 tight end
• 1 flex (either a running back, wide receiver, or tight end)
• 1 place kicker
• 1 team defense

League Scoring

• Offensive Players
• 4 points - passing touchdown
• 6 points - rushing/receiving touchdown
• 0.05 points - passing yard
• 0.1 points - rushing/receiving yard
• 1 point - reception
• -1 point - interception thrown
• Place Kickers
• 3 points - field goal from 0 to 29 yards
• 4 points - field goal from 30 to 39 yards
• 5 points - field goal from 40 to 49 yards
• 6 points - field goal from 50+ yards
• Team Defense
• 6 points - touchdown
• 2 points - turnover forced
• 2 points - safety
• 1 point - sack

The Draft Order

The draft order was created using the Kentucky Derby Seeding method. As such, the participants are randomly ordered (via dice rolls) from 1 through 12. In that order, they are allowed to select which pick they want in the first round. After the first round, the draft continues in a regular serpentine manner.

Here is the initial order of draft pick selection and the pick each person took.

1. Jeff Haseley - took the 1.04 pick
2. Jeff Tefertiller - took the 1.05 pick
3. David Dodds - took the 1.07 pick
4. Mark Wimer - took the 1.01 pick
5. Sigmund Bloom - took the 1.06 pick
6. Jene Bramel - took the 1.08 pick
7. Chad Parsons - took the 1.09 pick
8. Jason Wood - took the 1.03 pick
9. James Brimacombe - took the 1.10 pick
10. Heath Cummings - took the 1.02 pick
11. Adam Harstad - took the 1.11 pick
12. Aaron Rudnicki - was left with the 1.12 pick

And now, starting with Mark Wimer from the 1.01 spot, we will go over each person's strategy before and during the mock draft.

Mark Wimer

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

A lot of my draft strategy arose out of the fact that the PPR scoring for this league is set at one point per reception regardless of position. This non-weighted PPR scoring tends to favor the few elite, prolific wide receivers over even the few remaining elite, featured running backs.

Consider these two sets of examples using the league's scoring system (1 point per 10 yards rushing or receiving, 6 points per rushing or receiving touchdown, and 1 point per reception) from 2012 for Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson, who are top three fantasy picks in most PPR leagues:

• During Week 3, 2012, Johnson had 12 targets for 10/164/1 vs. Tennessee, scoring 32.4 fantasy points
• During Week 10, 2012, Peterson posted 27/171/1 rushing and 3/5/0 receiving vs. Detroit, scoring 26.6 fantasy points even though he had 12 more yards during that particular game than Johnson did during week three

Here is another pair of similar games from these two players:

• During Week 6, 2012, Peterson posted 17/79/0 rushing and 7/50/0 receiving vs. Washington (seven receptions in a game was Peterson's high for 2012, by the way), and scored 19.9 fantasy points.
• During Week 6, 2012, Johnson caught 6/135/0 receiving vs. Philadelphia and scored 19.5 fantasy points.

Even on Peterson's best day for PPR points, he barely edged Johnson in fantasy points on a day when both had similar yardage totals and neither player scored. Peterson's high for receptions last year was seven, and he averaged 2.43 receptions per game. Johnson's high for 2012 was 13 receptions (he had six games with 10 or more receptions, by the way) and he averaged 7.62 per game. Based on last year's results in this league's scoring paradigm, Johnson would have put up 348.4 total fantasy points over 16 regular season games, while Peterson would have scored 342.4 despite a TD disparity of only five for Johnson (abnormally low for someone with 122 receptions) vs. 13 total touchdowns for Peterson. Peterson did that scoring in a year in which he achieved the incredibly rare feat of rushing for over 2,000 yards, which has been accomplished only seven times in NFL history, and a feat that has never been repeated by any NFL back during their career.

I think the above illustrations indicate why in this particular scoring system, I selected Calvin Johnson at 1.01. He is, in my opinion, more likely to meet or excel last year's effort during 2013. Detroit is a very pass-heavy, and Matthew Stafford relies heavily on Johnson. Meanwhile Peterson owners can expect some level of drop-off in rushing yardage - about 200 yards fewer, minimum, would be consistent with other backs who have managed to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season - see here for a list of the top single-season rushing efforts in NFL history http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/rush_yds_single_season.htm. Both players will be 28 sometime during the 2013 season, but Peterson has had one knee reconstructed and also had offseason sports hernia surgery this year. Wide receivers take hard hits just like running backs, but absorb a lot less contact in any given season (Peterson had 388 touches on the football last year, vs. Johnson's 122 receptions).

In short, I believe that Calvin Johnson is the safest pick among the elite tier of PPR players, both from the viewpoint of his ability to score at an elite level again this year (with possible upside if he gets closer to or above double-digit touchdowns - he scored 16 touchdowns two years ago and 10 three years ago, so double-digit touchdowns are not an aberration for Johnson - the low of five touchdowns last year is the statistical outlier). Meanwhile comparable elite running backs like Adrian Peterson have more downside risk in terms of both probable productivity and possible health issues issuing from on-field contact. This is why I selected Calvin Johnson first in this particular draft - I wanted to be 100% certain of drafting him, and no other draft position would have made that pick certain.

I continued the theme of drafting heavily-productive, high-target receivers for my top three wide receiver spots for the same reasons that I drafted Johnson first overall (see below).

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

Other than Calvin Johnson, I definitely wanted to snag Roddy White if possible (he's had 83 or more catches for six straight seasons, and 100 or more in two of the last three, with 1,351 yards and 7 scores on 92 catches last year). I hoped to team White up with Matt Ryan; that worked out for me later in the draft so I'm very excited to own just a tad under 50% of the Falcons wide receivers' probable receptions for the 2013 season and all of the Falcons pass attempts/completions on this team. Beyond targeting Johnson, White, and Ryan, I had hoped to snag Darren Sproles for my RB1 (due to the huge number of receptions he gets week in and week out), but he went six picks before the slot I had assigned to running back during the first four rounds (3.01 on my board) so I had to roll the dice and gamble on DeMarco Murray. I think Murray has top-10 potential in PPR leagues, but he hasn't been very durable so far in his career so I view him as a better RB2 in fantasy leagues. However, with Felix Jones finally out of the picture in Dallas and largely unproven talent behind Murray on the roster, I think Murray will get a ton of work when he is on the field.

I also believe that Martellus Bennett is currently being underrated at tight end, and I wanted him to plug in at tight end each week. He came to me at 8.12 so that also worked out.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

Yes, I did execute it -- even down to getting the backup wide receiver combinations for my bench that I favored (Mohamed Sanu/Marvin Jones and Jacoby Jones/Tandon Doss). About the only players I really wanted and didn't end up drafting were Sproles and Ronnie Hillman (who went three picks before I wanted to snag him at 10.12).

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

I may have been too anxious to make sure Johnathan Franklin wasn't sniped from me, taking him at 9.01. If I had selected Hillman at 9.01 I probably would have both Hillman and Franklin on this roster, and not have to cross my fingers and hope that Michael Bush is plunging in touchdowns during Green Bay's and Dallas' bye weeks. Hillman is likely to get a lot of catches up in Denver this year, which would have made him a more steady and reliable backup fantasy running back in this scoring paradigm.

However, I play with a lot of these experts in a dynasty league, and Franklin was drafted at 1.12 in the rookie draft, just nine picks after Eddie Lacy, so I think my concern was pretty justified. I'm not certain I'd redo the pick as I outline below in another question why Franklin is basically a mandatory handcuff to Lacy this year in my opinion.

Team-Specific Questions

You started the draft off with Calvin Johnson and proceeded to take three wide receivers with your first four selections. Explain your thoughts here.

As I explained at length in the section on Calvin Johnson above, I think that elite wide receivers are more valuable than elite running backs in straight-up PPR leagues. I wanted to be able to field three starting receivers who had the potential for high-single-digit to double-digit receptions each and every week that they are on the field and healthy. Johnson and White are among my top five receivers on my PPR board (No. 1 and No. 5, respectively) and, along with Wes Welker, are all heavily targeted players who fit that bill - there is some more uncertainty around Welker in his new role with Denver, but I still believe that 80 receptions is the floor for him in Denver. Plus I got him at a discounted price (4.12, 48th overall, is 22 spots lower than where I have Welker on my overall PPR board at 26th overall). In short, with two elite wide receivers to headline my team, and a third, Welker, who has the proven ability to be in the same range and could easily also finish among the elite tier of wide receivers, I'm confident that the drop-off in points I suffer at running back due to this strategy will be more than offset by the 1-point per reception scoring rules for this league.

You used three picks to lock up the Green Bay backfield. What are your expectations with this group? Will one player emerge?

I knew that by going with Johnson with a premium pick early in the first round (in this case, 1.01), I would be passing on the entire tier of featured running backs that really reside at the top of the fantasy-points-scoring curve at the running back position. Therefore, I knew I'd have at best two starting-caliber (meaning a running back in the top 24 at his position) fantasy running backs on this team. So I wanted to be sure to be deep behind the particular backs that I ended up with at starting positions. If I had managed to land Sproles, I would have placed a premium on also landing Pierre Thomas for this roster, as he is the second-best receiving back on the roster and would have likely inherited at least some of Sproles' receptions in the event of an injury or suspension knocking Sproles out of the coming season.

As things played out, I was able to secure what most people feel is the likely depth chart at running back in Green Bay with Eddie Lacy, Franklin, and DuJuan Harris. I believe the Packers when they say that A) they want a more balanced offensive attack with more running plays and B) more effective running play results when the running plays are called. That's why they burned two relatively high picks on running back in this year's lottery - they made it a priority. Having a big piece of an explosive NFL offense like the Packers can only be a good thing in fantasy terms, which means that if Lacy (or Franklin) proves to have it at the NFL level and claims a strong lead role in Green Bay this year, the potential upside from one of these guys could be fantasy RB1-level production. That's the sort of potential upside I had to look for while drafting one of my starting running backs smack dab in the middle of sixth-to-seventh round (picks 6.12 and 7.01), which was where I knew I'd be going after my second starting running back in this draft.

What I would like to see happen (and what I hope happens) is that either Lacy or Franklin ends up securing the lead back role in this stable, and manages to garner 65-70% of the touches in that role. Which guy that will end up being come September is an open question right now, in my opinion, with Lacy having slight favorite status because of his higher draft position (61st taken vs. 125th taken for Franklin).

Frankly, though, it's an open competition up in Green Bay at this position and therefore if a fantasy owner selects Lacy in a redraft league this year, you are committing yourself to reaching for Franklin early in your draft order to have a realistically high percentage chance at actually owning the fantasy-worthy player at running back in Green Bay. Forget where Franklin is being drafted in mock drafts - don't let that be your guide here. I would advocate taking Franklin to back up Lacy as soon as you have filled out your starting roster (minus place kicker and team defense, which should wait until very late in the draft) in any given league's draft in which you take Lacy. That's exactly what I did here in this draft, and I'm not sorry I did. There are widely divergent opinions on which of these two guys will win the starting job in Green Bay - there is almost certain to be someone in Franklin's camp willing to pull the trigger on him in your draft well before what ADP says should be the case with Franklin this year. You have to aggressively go after Franklin this year if you are a Lacy owner, friends. DuJuan Harris just sort of fell into my lap after I got my backup tight end and because I'm so heavily invested in Green Bay's rushing attack, I added him to my bench as worst-case injury insurance - Harris can do the job well enough to keep a fantasy team afloat in the worst-case scenario that both Lacy and Franklin end up sidelined for an extended period this coming year.

You were able to get wide receivers Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones effectively guaranteeing you the player to start opposite of A.J. Green. What kind of production do you expect from these players?

First of all, I like the progression of Andy Dalton in Cincinnati. He's added 29 completions, 271 yards passing, 0.3 yards per attempt, and 7 touchdowns from his rookie season of 2011 (300/516 for 3,398 yards passing, 20 touchdowns, and 13 interceptions) to his sophomore season of 2012 (329/529 for 3,669 yards passing, 27 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions), and also has a nice added pop of rushing yards, with 47/120/4 rushing last year. So, he threw more completions, for more yards per pass, and improved his TD scoring by about a third last year. Given that the Bengals have acted to upgrade their receiving corps for three straight drafts (Green drafted 2011 with Dalton, Sanu and Jones in 2012, and now tight end Tyler Eifert in 2013 to complement Jermaine Gresham, class of 2010), the Bengals passing attack is loaded for bear (or Ravens and Steelers). I think the chains come off Dalton now that he is a seasoned NFL veteran, and that Cincinnati starts throwing the ball more - perhaps up to 570-580 attempts for Dalton this year. I think the receivers behind Green in the pecking order (Green saw 176 targets last year, so I really don't see Green getting too many more passes during 2013 regardless of how many more passes Dalton throws overall) in Cincinnati will ALL get more targets during the coming season.

Given that Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones will now have a year of practice reps and some live NFL game experience under both their belts, I expect one of these guys to emerge as a legitimate No. 2 wide receiver for the Bengals this year. My money is on Sanu, as he has a skill set that complements Green and Sanu would make a fine possession receiver (among other things - he can also throw the ball pretty well and had one long pass for a TD last season) - but he has such a short track record due to last year's fractured left foot, that I also wanted to have Jones on the bench, just in case he wins the starting nod. Whoever the No. 2 guy is, I think it is reasonable to think that guy will see 110 or so targets with 65-70 receptions, which could easily add up to 840-900 yards receiving and mid-single-digit touchdowns, and there is some upside potential from this relatively modest baseline - perhaps 135 or so targets with 85-90 receptions and over 1,000 yards receiving as a best-case scenario ceiling.

I think that the Sanu/Jones combination on my bench is an excellent tandem of backup fantasy wide receivers, and I'll be comfortable plugging one of them in as bye week replacements when the matchups favor Cincinnati over my other excellent tandem of potential No. 2 starters up in Baltimore (Jacoby Jones/Tandon Doss). I'll be able to play matchups on weeks I need to call on my bench and start either Sanu or Jacoby Jones, depending on which has the weaker opposing pass defense on their plate that week. From top to bottom, I really like this fantasy team's wide receiver corps. The only week I'll need two bench players to step into the starting lineup due to bye weeks is in week nine, so during the other two bye weeks I'll have the luxury of min/maxing my bye week stand-in at the wide receiver position.

Heath Cummings

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

First, let me say that the 1.02 slot is not where I'd want to be. I thought beforehand that my preferences were middle-front-back in that order, but after this draft I'm not so sure that No. 1 and No. 2 aren't my last two choices. I was thinking running back all the way in round one, and hoping that Chris Johnson would fall to me in the second. The plan was best available running back or receiver for the first six rounds, and then reevaluate the quarterback and tight end market at that point. That plan went awry in round five, but more on that later.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

Mike Williams and Andy Dalton were two players that I really expected to drop well below where I had them valued, and I ended up with both players.

Williams was a WR2 in both his first and third seasons in the league, and I fully expect him to be at least a WR2 in 2013. The fact that I could draft him at 6.11 as my WR3 was a major bonus.

I like Dalton to put up QB1 numbers this year, with a talented cast of young weapons. I had anticipated taking him as my QB1 around the 10th round, but since Cam Newton fell to me in the fifth, I ended up waiting until 13.2 and still got Dalton as a QB2.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I don't want to get too much into my biggest regret since that's the next question, but I deviated at the 4/5 turn and that changed the face of my draft quite a bit. I didn't take the best available on my board at 4.11 because I misread Mark Wimer. Wimer had one running back and two receivers at the time and I felt strongly he was about to take Matt Ryan. I assumed he'd also take a running back, and that would mean I could take Wes Welker at 5.2. That's what led me to take Ryan Mathews at 4.11, and then when Wimer took Welker immediately after that I may have gone on tilt.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

Three, first being that I didn't take Welker at 4.11. I think the lesson to be learned is that I was right about Wimer taking Ryan...but still it's a dangerous game when you leave a higher rated player on the board because you don't think the guy behind you will take him, no matter what his roster suggests.

The second leads into my next question regarding tight ends. I waited one round too long on Jordan Cameron; I'd like my tight ends a lot more if I had him instead of Jermaine Gresham.

Finally, I went a little crazy chasing running backs after the Ryan Mathews fiasco. Most notable was my selection of Joseph Randle in the 12th round.

Team-Specific Questions

You waited until round 14 to take your first tight end and then proceeded to take four of them. Discuss your thinking here.

I should have taken Jordan Cameron a round earlier, or even in the 12th round when I took Joseph Randle. But even then my strategy wouldn't have differed much. I had every intention of trying to load up on this crop of rookie tight ends. There is a lot of potential there, and all three find themselves in intriguing situations. What's more, all three are available very late in the draft. Travis Kelce is the guy I'm most excited about because he's the guy that should have the best chance to start right away.

What is your expectation of Ryan Mathews this year?

It looks like Ryan Mathews will never be the elite running back that many of us once projected him to be, but that doesn't make him totally useless. On the high side, I could see Mathews putting up very solid RB2 numbers in the range of 1,300 total yards and 6-7 touchdowns. More likely, he's probably a borderline RB2, scoring somewhere around 170 fantasy points in PPR.

You had two running backs and two wide receivers after four rounds. Do you prefer this balanced approach or did this represent a case of best player available?

A little bit of both I guess. Like I said above, I should have started with one running back and three receivers, but that's only because of my draft slot. I would say my preference is to start with a running back and then go best available running back or receiver for the next five or six picks. In most mocks I've done so far, I've seen a lot more value at receiver from rounds three to six, so that's where I've gone a majority of the time.

Cummings' Team

Jason Wood

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

Generally when I'm drafting against tough competition, I try not to be too rigid going into the draft, as anything can and usually does happen. I knew that I would take a running back at 1.03, but from there I would let the draft unfold naturally. I'm comfortable enough in my own ability to draft value and seize the opportunities as they're presented, whether that means going RB-RB-RB in the first three rounds, or taking RB-WR-QB as I ended up doing.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

I knew drafting at 1.03 that I wanted to come away with one of my top three running backs. The owners of the first and second picks made the choice very easy for me by letting Adrian Peterson fall to me. If I do another 50 drafts this year, this is probably the only time I'll see Peterson fall to 1.03 so needless to say I was thrilled with my good fortune.

I also wanted to come away with Philip Rivers as my backup quarterback. I'm finding that enough people are myopically looking at last year's season and forgetting that Rivers remains a hyper-accurate quarterback in his prime that has one of the league's highest touchdown rates. With Mike McCoy and Ken Whisenhunt taking over, I LOVE Rivers as a bounce back candidate and you can roster him relatively late in the draft. In keeping with the Chargers, I also have been targeting Vincent Brown and am willing to go a round or two higher than his ADP to secure his services. To me Brown is one of the best breakout candidates this year.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I came away loving my team, in spite of taking WR/QB in the second and third rounds. As I mentioned earlier, you have to be flexible in a draft because it will rarely go according to your preconceived notions. I think it's important to trust your own evaluations and not panic depending on how position runs play out. I knew going in that I wouldn't bother grabbing a tight end early for the sake of it, and that allowed me to grab exceptional value at the wide receiver position and target Owen Daniels in the 10th round. Had I panicked and taken someone like Kyle Rudolph or Dennis Pitta earlier, I think my team would've turned out much weaker in looking through the draft results.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

Our staff usually waits on quarterback and this draft was no exception. Tom Brady went in the 7th round. Dodds grabbed Peyton Manning in the fifth round. If I knew those guys would be available that late, I might have reconsidered drafting Rodgers in the early third. Yet, I really can't complain about my decision because Rodgers should have come off the board earlier based on his relative value and his pedigree. Our league was unique in our quarterback passiveness, but if our subscribers are looking at this mock to help them shape their draft expectations, they need to understand that they will HAVE to draft the elite quarterbacks earlier than we did. In a real league, Rodgers in the third was highway robbery.

Team-Specific Questions

You took the first quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) at 3.03. Do you advocate taking an elite quarterback early this year or was this just a case of too much value at this spot? What is your expectation of Rodgers this year?

I laugh every time I hear someone say how deep the quarterback position is and that fantasy owners should wait at the position. That could be the worst advice I've seen given in our hobby in years. This false sense of depth is born out of a historically unusual year (2012) that saw very few quarterbacks get hurt. Six quarterbacks managed 600+ attempts (versus the 10-year average of 1), 16 quarterbacks attempted 520+ passes (vs. the 10-year average of 9), etc...Simply put, we saw an astoundingly small number of missed games last season. If (when) things normalize, we'll see a much more normal distribution curve between the top quarterbacks and the middle-of-the-pack.

As a result, taking Rodgers was an easy decision. Having rostered the best running back in the league (Adrian Peterson) and an elite receiver (Andre Johnson), when Rodgers -- my No. 1 fantasy quarterback -- was still there for the taking, I jumped at the chance. Rodgers has been one of the premier quarterbacks for years, and remains in his prime. Coupling him with the rest of my roster should give me a decisive advantage in most weeks.

You have some high upside players in Rueben Randle and Ryan Broyles. Can these guys be difference makers this year?

I keep hearing people talk about the depth at quarterback this year, and yet the real depth is at receiver. You could credibly make a case for the 70th receiver off the board in draft emerging as a surprise star. In a pass happy era, particularly PPR leagues, you have to build your team by grabbing a handful of high upside receivers that COULD emerge as stars if the dominoes fall right.

After grabbing Andrew Johnson, Dwayne Bowe and Cecil Shorts as my top three receivers, I went ahead and grabbed three more receivers in rounds 9 through 12. Vincent Brown in the 9th was highway robbery, and I will be shocked if he's not going several rounds higher once the preseason gets underway. He's been THE star of the Chargers preseason, and is 100% healthy and I would say a good bet for 1,000 yards and 70+ receptions. Ryan Broyles is high risk, but he appears healthy after missing his rookie season and could earn the No. 2 role for a team that throws the ball 650+ times. Randle is a clear backup for now, but Hakeem Nicks is no pillar of healthy and Randle would step into a starting role for a team that routinely throws for 4,000+ yards and 25+ touchdowns.

Your starting tight end (Owen Daniels) will be 31 this season. Any worries at this position?

I believe with the health concerns for Rob Gronkowski and the obvious issues with Aaron Hernandez, Jimmy Graham represents exceptional relative value this year and advocate targeting him in the second round of any PPR league. But I also believe that if you're going to miss out on Graham and don't want to take a chance on Gronkowski in the third round, it pays to wait VERY late to grab your fantasy tight ends. To my mind the likes of Dennis Pitta and Kyle Rudolph could easily end up TE15 as they could TE5, yet people are targeting them as though they're can't miss players.

I took Daniels in the 10th round as the 12th tight end off the board. This for a guy who finished TE8 last year and netted more than 700 yards. I will have zero concerns starting Daniels in this lineup particularly considering how stacked I am at the other positions. Meanwhile I grabbed Dustin Keller late -- a guy that was a top-eight fantasy tight end in each of his last two healthy seasons. He's playing in Miami under a one-year deal and is healthy and motivated. I may not have Jimmy Graham, but I believe I have as good a chance to have a top-six fantasy tight end as anyone outside of the Graham/Gronkowski/Gonzalez/Witten owners.

Wood's Team

Jeff Haseley

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

My predraft strategy out of the 1.04 slot is to take a strong, elite running back with high-catch ability with my first pick and see who is available in the second and third round between running backs and wide receivers. I am a firm believer in waiting on both quarterback and tight end, unless a top option falls into my lap like Jimmy Graham late in the second round or Drew Brees late in the fourth. In my opinion, securing at least two running backs in the first three picks is a very good rule to go by for redraft leagues, especially this year when the wide receiver position is so deep.

I would rather draft a top six quarterback than take a flier on someone who hasn't proved consistency i.e., Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, or Robert Griffin. Rounds 10-12 generally are good for handcuffs and selecting a QB2. Rounds 13-17 are more filler picks for running back and wide receiver depth or a second tight end. The last rounds are devoted to defense, kicker and a deep sleeper running back or wide receiver.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

I definitely targeted C.J. Spiller or Jamaal Charles with my first pick. Both are focal points of their respective offenses with a history of high yards per carry and the ability to excel as a receiver. I also targeted Montee Ball as my RB3. The lead running back role on a Peyton Manning-led offense is almost a given to be a fantasy success. I expect him to have that role sooner rather than later, provided he shows adequate pass protection skills. To be safe, I also was able to secure Ronnie Hillman, who I believe will be the lightning to Ball's thunder in the Broncos high octane offense. Obtaining both Denver backs gives me a greater chance of success from my RB3 role.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

For the most part I was able to execute my draft strategy. Some of my big interest players didn't fall to me, but I was able to find good alternatives and strengthen positions of weakness with quality or high ceiling reserves. For example, I missed out on Tony Gonzalez or Vernon Davis, but I did manage to get Kyle Rudolph in the 8th round followed by Brandon Pettigrew in the 13th and Jordan Cameron in the 14th. All three are capable of reaching 50+ receptions this year. That's probably the best I could've hoped for after missing out on Gonzalez and Davis. The rest of the draft was primarily filling key positions with quality reserves and upstart talent, like Keenan Allen at the end of the 16th round and Julian Edelman in the 18th round.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

I was hoping to land Fred Jackson and Ronnie Hillman as handcuffs to C.J. Spiller and Montee Ball respectively. I missed out on Jackson, who went at the middle of round 10, but I was able to secure Hillman at the end of the 10th round. Had I picked Jackson early in round nine, I would've missed out on T.Y. Hilton as my WR4, who I thought was good value there. I contemplated taking Reggie Bush with pick 3.04 to give me three consecutive running backs to begin the draft, but instead I took Randall Cobb as my first wide receiver selection. Based on my other wide receivers (Reggie Wayne, Kenny Britt, and T.Y. Hilton) and my RB3 selection of Montee Ball, I believe I made the right decision.

Team-Specific Questions

Tell us what you expect from C.J. Spiller?

I am a big fan of C.J. Spiller this year. He finished as the sixth-best running back last year (RB7 in non-PPR), despite only totaling 207 carries. His 6.0 yards per carry average on over 200 carries has only been accomplished in a season by Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, Barry Sanders, and Jamaal Charles (see why I like Charles so much too?) That's outstanding company. My interest in Spiller grew after hearing that new Bills Head Coach Doug Marrone was not going to take him out for goal line carries. It is evident that Marrone and the Bills will utilize Spiller early and often in 2013. Last year teams stacked the line against the Bills, daring Ryan Fitzpatrick to beat them with his arm. Not only did Spiller average 6.0 yards per carry against eight and nine in the box, but he also was one of the best backs in the league in yards after contact. The 2013 season will feature more touches with a more potent offense. Don't forget defenses will have to account for EJ Manuel's rushing ability, not to mention his ability to throw deep. Spiller will be a major part of the offense that I believe will propel him to the top of the running back rankings.

After six rounds you had three running backs and three wide receivers. Do you prefer starting with a balanced approach while waiting at quarterback?

This all depends on what quarterbacks are on the board in round six and how many have already been selected. Generally rounds one through five I tend to select running backs and wide receivers, unless there is an elite tight end or quarterback that has fallen well past his expected ADP.

What was your best value pick?

I have a few value picks that I like a lot including Jordan Cameron in the 14th round and Julian Edelman in the 18th round, but securing a top flight quarterback in round seven may be my best pick in terms of value, VBD, and production. The fantasy world tends to think that the sky is falling in New England with the loss of Aaron Hernandez and the uncertainty of Rob Gronkowski, so naturally the trickle-down effect is the uncertainty of Tom Brady. Randy Moss is not walking through that door, but I am confident that Tom Brady will make the offense and passing game work, regardless of who he has at his disposal. As long as Gronkowski is on the field, the Patriots will have options all over. I'm a firm believer in that. As a result of people wavering on Brady, I was able to grab him in the seventh round.

Haseley's Team

Jeff Tefertiller

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

I chose the 1.05 spot so I could get an anchor at the RB1 spot and load up on wide receivers then be one of the last to take a quarterback. This is my usual strategy given the depth of the receivers this season. The one aspect I do not plan for is who (and where) to take a tight end. Given the ability to start four wideouts, I like having a strong group at the position.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

While I do not specifically target players early in the draft, I usually end up with one or more of the unpopular players (who I see as value) like Maurice Jones-Drew, Larry Fitzgerald, or Andre Johnson in the third or fourth rounds. I also seem to end up with Justin Forsett, Rashad Jennings, Brandon Lloyd, and Rod Streater later in drafts. I see each with having upside at a great price.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

Everything went as expected other than taking the chance on Rob Gronkowski in the third round when I could have had Jones-Drew as a good RB2 or Victor Cruz, a player I love at that draft spot. Taking the tight end early meant hammering receivers (other than Bradshaw in the fifth round) until taking a quarterback (Colin Kaepernick) in the eighth round.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

I might have held off on taking Bradshaw that early. I like him as a solid fantasy PPR RB2 this season. However, I could have taken a Mike Wallace, Pierre Garcon, Antonio Brown, or Torrey Smith instead and then addressed the RB2 spot with either Bradshaw or one of the rookie ball carriers. I still ended up with Stevie Johnson in the sixth round (as a WR3) so it did not hurt much to reach for Bradshaw.

Team-Specific Questions

You pulled the trigger for Rob Gronkowski at 3.05. Any concerns that he will miss some games?

I definitely expect the Patriots tight end to miss at least a couple of games. He missed five contests last season. It would be foolish to think Gronkowski will play all 16. But, when on the field, he gives my team a huge advantage at the position. Gronkowski's role should be immense with the Aaron Hernandez situation and the turnover at the receiver position for New England.

Josh Gordon will miss two games to start the season, yet you still drafted him in the seventh round. What are you expecting from Gorgon when he returns?

I took Gordon as my WR4 in the seventh round. There were plenty of quarterbacks I liked still on the board. I saw a dropoff in talent at the receiver position coming soon, so I chose Gordon over Justin Blackmon. This was not an easy choice, but I went with the player who will miss two games over the one missing four because I had Gronkowski -- and his injury worries -- and wanted the upside of Gordon for the playoff run. In retrospect, I love this pick given the ninth-round pick of Denarius Moore to cover the Gordon suspension. These two middle-round picks give me great upside and the risk is remediated.

There has been seemingly little interest in free agent Brandon Lloyd this offseason. Where do you think he lands, and what is your expectation?

I took Lloyd in the 18th round, just ahead of Julian Edelman and Montario Hardesty, who were taken with the next two picks. It might take an injury to a top-flight pass catcher for him to land a starting gig. Those types of occurrences happen every season. The teams most likely to bring in the veteran would be ones with playoff hopes and a strong coaching staff. Teams that come to mind are the Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins, or even the Kansas City Chiefs.

Tefertiller's Team

Sigmund Bloom

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

Getting 1.06 assured me of one of my top six running backs (Peterson, Charles, McCoy, Foster, Martin, and Spiller) and a strong RB2 at 2.07 (who ended up being Sproles). The third round could be a best player available situation, and the fourth and fifth were reserved to build a wide receiver corps. I would take my tight end and quarterback somewhere between the sixth and ninth depending on value, unless I took a tight end (Gronkowski) in the third. I felt comfortable enough with the wide receiver depth in the mid-rounds and uncomfortable enough with the running back options in the same rounds to focus my early picks on running backs.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

I am getting Jordy Nelson in the fourth round of almost every draft I am doing this year. He produced at a WR1 clip before getting hurt last year, and he is in line to be the No. 1 outside receiver in a very good passing offense. Likewise, Miles Austin is my seventh (or even eighth) round pick in every draft. He might not be the most durable, but Austin is a proven borderline WR1 producer when healthy, with a good quarterback and Dez Bryant to make sure Austin is often drawing less than the opponent's best cornerback.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

Everything stayed on schedule for all of the draft. I would have taken my tight end (Gronkowski) in the third if he had lasted one more pick, and I was ready to take a fourth running back (Chris Ivory) in the sixth round if he had lasted one more pick. Waiting late at quarterback yielded Tony Romo in the eighth, and I cobbled together a mix of upside (Jared Cook, Fred Davis) and high floor (Brandon Myers) tight ends from the ninth round on. Having a 22-man roster made TEBC a more palatable strategy.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

When I took Josh Boyce in the 18th round, I was throwing a dart at a Patriots passing game that is in flux, but I had forgotten that Julian Edelman, who Jeff Haseley took just two picks later, was still on the board. Edelman is the ONLY incumbent wide receiver in the Patriots pass offense, and he was playing ahead of Wes Welker early last season. The somewhat fragile Edelman has to still stay healthy and make the team, but if he does, he'll likely back up the injury-prone, No. 1 receiver Danny Amendola in the slot.

Team-Specific Questions

You started your draft with three straight running backs. Is that wise to eliminate some of your flexibility to get the best player available?

There was a moment that I almost went with my fourth back in the sixth round that would have illustrated the exact focus of the question. I liked Chris Ivory as a strong RB2 candidate too much to pass on him in the sixth, and that would have made me wish I had gone with a non-RB in the second or third. I still think running back is brutal after the Top 25 or so, and there is always a shortage of top fantasy backs, making successful ones an outstanding trade commodity. If you are going to hoard any position early, the answer is clearly running back, and I would recommend taking two in your first three picks unless two of those picks are Calvin Johnson and Jimmy Graham.

What is your expectation of wide receiver Pierre Garcon?

Garcon is a tough player to value because he produced like a low WR1/high WR2 for most of the games he played, but he was only 100% for a very short part of one of them. This implies that he could be as good or better if the foot injury that hampered him has improved, and that he can still be a strong fantasy option even at less than full health. He has said that he isn't sure if be 100% this year, but I still believe he'll be a viable WR2 any time he is active.

You waited until the eighth and ninth rounds to grab your quarterback and tight end. Talk to us about the benefits of waiting at one or both of these positions in drafts this this year.

Quarterback is outstanding 12 deep this year, so you can easily wait until 9 or 10 of them are off of the board to time your pick. Having a draft slot in the middle of the round makes it easier to time your pick with less risk of getting shut out if you wait another round. I like Tony Romo to be a mid-low QB1, as he usually is, and in a four-point-per-pass touchdown league, I feel even more inclined to wait at quarterback and eschew the chance of an elite scorer at the position.

Tight end is a position that I will let the rest of league dictate for me this year. If I draw a pick in the second half of the first round and my top six running backs are gone, I may go with Jimmy Graham, and I'll certainly take him in the second round. If Rob Gronkowski is there in the third, I'll go with him. If Vernon Davis is there in the sixth or seventh, I'll be tempted to pull the trigger. Otherwise, I will put together a committee of high floor and high ceiling options. This league having 22 roster spots makes that an even easier strategy to execute. In a league with 16 or 18 roster spots, I would be inclined to err on the side of taking one of my top six tight end. Jared Cook is a player who will either greatly outperform his draft position, or greatly underperform it. He has wide receiver physical skills -- and they have flashed at times during his stint in Tennessee, but he never consistently produced or held down a big role in the offense. If he can do that in St. Louis, he could easily break into the top half of the tight end position, because he might be the best big-play threat at the position from the standpoint of mismatches in athletic talent and speed.

Bloom's Team

David Dodds

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

I love the middle spots this year as you will start with a solid running back and be in a position to grab a great wide receiver (or Jimmy Graham if he slides in the second). In this format, being in the middle while starting very flexible (with one running back and one wide receiver) allows you to grab the players that slide, I almost never take quarterbacks early and usually also wait on tight ends. That translates to a predraft plan of running backs and wide receivers in rounds one through six unless ridiculous value emerges elsewhere.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

WR Danny Amendola - I think the Patriots are going to lean on him heavily with the uncertainty at the wide receiver and tight end positions. IF he can stay healthy....and I know that's a big IF, he has roster changing potential in the 4th round.

TE Jermichael Finley - People are sleeping on him in drafts this year. Universally overhyped the last few years, I now think the pendulum has swung the other way.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I started down that path, but opted to pull the trigger on Peyton Manning when he was still on the board in the middle of the fifth.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

Despite initially loving my pick of Peyton Manning in the fifth, I think my team would have been even stronger had I kept stockpiling running backs and wide receivers instead. This error was magnified when Andrew Luck was still available in the ninth (which represented such ridiculous value that I took him too).

Team-Specific Questions

For someone that preaches waiting forever at quarterback, you selected Peyton Manning in the fifth and Andrew Luck in the ninth. Explain your thoughts here.

Both represent unbelievable value that I felt I could not pass up. Should a key quarterback go down, I should be able to trade away one of these for some needed running back support. The backs available from the fifth to the ninth weren't game changers (with the exception of Chris Ivory that I got in the sixth anyway). I considered wide receiver Antonio Brown in the fifth, and in hindsight that could have yielded a better roster. Despite me taking a quarterback in the fifth here (and still fielding a solid roster), I stand by my statement that you generally end up with a better team by waiting until 10 to 11 quarterbacks are selected.

You were able to land running back Doug Martin at pick 1.07. Did that influence your approach the rest of the draft?

It absolutely did. I have Martin as the second-best player behind Adrian Peterson in PPR leagues. I had zero expectation that Martin could slide to Pick 7. When he did, it made it much easier to go wide receiver with the next three picks (and to a lesser extent Peyton Manning in the fifth).

You reached a bit for wide receiver Danny Amendola (against ADP). What is your expectation of him this season?

As stated earlier, he is a guy I am targeting heavily in PPR leagues. I think he has a chance to lead all wide receivers in points per game played. If he can stay healthy all season, I expect a beast of a season.

Dodds' Team

Jene Bramel

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

My drafting approach relies on tiering players and fitting those tiers into a value-based drafting philosophy. I like the high floor players in the second tier of quarterbacks and the third and fourth tiers of wide receivers better than the higher risk depth in the later running back tiers and tight end tiers. But, in general, I'll go where my tiers take me. If we're outside the top running backs and Jimmy Graham is off the board, I'm happy to take an elite wide reciever.

With that in mind, I wanted a draft slot between six and nine. That ensures I'll get one of the backs in my elite tier (which runs ten deep). The six or seven hole would give me the benefit of grabbing a top three back on my board if one fell (which exactly what happened for both Sigmund Bloom and David Dodds, who chose the 1.06 and 1.07 slots ahead of me). The eight or nine hole would ensure the top back and put me in position to snag an elite talent who slid into the upper second round. All four slots are close enough to the midpoint of a round to keep me from feeling tied in to reaching on a turn to prevent getting caught on the wrong side of a tier run.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

I have a few preferred targets in the middle tiers. I like the upside of Tony Romo and Andrew Luck as potential top-five players you can draft at a relative bargain to Cam Newton and Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford. I like Shane Vereen to potentially become a Darren Sproles kind of player and a priority RB3/RB4 target. Antonio Brown, Steve Smith, Cecil Shorts, Anquan Boldin, Kendall Wright, Vincent Brown and Ryan Broyles all seem undervalued in redrafts right now. Among the elite tiers, I'm willing to pull the trigger on Jimmy Graham near the first/second round turn. And with the uncertainty surrounding Rob Gronkowski and the end of Aaron Hernandez as a fantasy option, Jason Witten stands out as a very strong near-elite tight end.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I rarely script a draft strategy. I ended up getting the fifth player on my board at 1.08 with LeSean McCoy. There wasn't much chance of getting Jimmy Graham in the second round with this crew, but I was pleased to get another of the 10 elite anchor backs on my board at 2.05 in Alfred Morris. That worked out as hoped it might when I chose the eight slot. Jason Witten in the fourth round was also an expected pick given how my tiers set up. And I fully expected to slough quarterbacks until late.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

No regrets. Mocks like this always work to tweak your draft strategy, however. In this draft, I liked the relative advantage I get with Frank Gore as my RB3 and Jason Witten as my TE1. But that costs me a chance at Vincent Jackson, Jordy Nelson, Marques Colston, or Dwayne Bowe as a near-elite WR1. That will have me re-evaluating my tiers to decide if my comfort level with Shane Vereen or Lamar Miller or Dennis Pitta or Kyle Rudolph is high enough to priortize a better WR1 over the relative advantage at tight end or flex slots.

I also do these mocks specifically to flesh out my late round upside targets and remind myself that it's time to ignore ADP (especially after the seven, eight, and ninth rounds) and not get cute hoping a player falls just one more round. I wouldn't have taken Vincent Brown over Tavon Austin, but passing on Dwayne Allen to draft Stephen Hill and Darrius Heyward-Bey won't happen again. I also probably need to revisit my bias for backup running backs with 20-touch potential if the starter goes down over third down backs with more stable target counts in PPR leagues with a flex. Jonathan Dwyer and Daniel Thomas won't ever be flex options without injury. Mike Gillislee or another flex potential at wide receiver may be smarter values in those later rounds.

Team-Specific Questions

You did not take a single wide receiver with your first four picks. Talk us through this approach. Can you be strong enough at WR to compete?

It was a tier-based decision. I'm not yet comfortable with many of the backs outside my Top 30, but I like the depth in the WR20-WR40 range. So taking Frank Gore in the third round was a fairly easy decision. The decision to take Jason Witten in the mid-4th was tougher. I had eight high floor WR2 with upside available at that pick and only one tight end with an elite floor that would approximate WR2 level production at the tight end position. In a perfect world, Cecil Shorts or Jeremy Maclin or Miles Austin falls to me in the eighth round as a WR3 and I get a small upgrade over Anquan Boldin, but I think Antonio Brown, Steve Smith (severely underrated at an ADP of WR26), Anquan Boldin, and Tavon Austin make up a strong group of high floor options.

What is your expectation of Isaiah Pead in St. Louis. Can he be the bellcow there?

That pick was a punt of sorts. I fully expected to take this draft's QB12 and my first quarterback at 9.08. When Andrew Luck went at 9.07, I didn't feel pressed to take a quarterback out of my deep tier of QBBC options. But there wasn't a back or receiver who stood out either. I considered Kendall Wright as my WR5 and Ben Tate, and then narrowly took Pead over Danny Woodhead. I don't think Pead will be a bellcow, but there's 200-touch potential (though different types of players, a similar workload of an Ahmad Bradshaw or Pierre Thomas in recent years). That's reasonable upside for a RB4 in the ninth round.

You demonstrated the value of being patient at quarterback and were able to land Ben Roethlisberger and Josh Freeman in the 11th and 14th rounds. Is this your drafting strategy this year at the quarterback position?

I didn't intend to be quite so patient. Nine teams had taken a quarterback at my 8.05 pick. Two teams were without one and both had picks between my 8.05 and 9.08. Tony Romo, Andrew Luck, and Colin Kaepernick remained on the board, and those three filled out my tier of those with elite (Top 5) upside. In other years, there would be less certainty that one of those three would be left for me if I passed. But this year, owners tend to really like the first quarterback they get. If you draft Matthew Stafford or Matt Ryan or Russell Wilson in the middle rounds, you're not looking for their backup in the ninth. Maybe you're nervous if you rostered Robert Griffin III, but his owner didn't have another selection until after the 9.08. So I had every incentive to take a player like Tavon Austin with my eighth rounder, knowing I'd be happy with whichever of those three fell to me at 9.08.

Enter Dodds, who chose to backup his fifth-round selection of Peyton Manning with Andrew Luck at 9.07. Still, I was able to land a committee of Roethlisberger (Round 11), Freeman (Round 14) and Matt Schaub (Round 18). So, yes, even if your best laid plans of waiting to see which of the last near-elite quarterbacks falls to you is thwarted by your boss, you can still find very good value by waiting and rostering other positions. For the record, my tiers would have had me strongly considering Aaron Rodgers at 3.08 (went 3.03), Drew Brees at 4.05 (went 4.02), Peyton Manning at 5.08 (went 5.07) or Matthew Stafford at 6.05 (went 6.03).

Chad Parsons

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

I drew the ninth position, which I consider ideal in 12-team leagues this year. That slot is early enough in the first round to get one of the top tier running backs and has the advantage of better options returning in the second. My plan was to likely go RB-RB to open the draft and possibly another running back in the third round if a target player fell. That plan fell into place as Trent Richardson, one of my top-5 backs, fell to me in the first. Steven Jackson was an easy choice in the second. Rob Gronkowski would have been a great value in the third, but was selected a handful of spots ahead of 3.09. My middle round approach was to target wide receivers and possibly a quarterback like Luck, Griffin III, or Russell Wilson if they fell into the ninth round range. That was not the case, so a late-round quarterback committee was formed. Outside of getting Graham in the second or Gronkowski in the third, I was very content to seek value much later at the tight end position.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

Steven Jackson is a player I find myself drafting quite a bit early in the second round this season and was a target, outside of Jimmy Graham falling there, in this one. Late in the first round, an owner cannot target a specific running back as the order of the top tier backs coming off the board will differ in each league. In this one, Richardson fell to the end of that tier, who I was more than happy to draft at 1.09. My target players tend to be the bigger boom-bust options. After the initial rounds, impact is the name of the game. Drafting the WR30 and getting WR30 production will not improve a team's title chances. I am one to take high risk options that can end up being unquestioned weekly plays. In that vein, Torrey Smith, Justin Blackmon, Danario Alexander, and Michael Vick are on my short list in the mid-to-late rounds. Later on in the draft, I want to highlight two players that also fit this bill: Latavius Murray and Nick Toon. Murray is a backup in Oakland to Darren McFadden, who has yet to play a full slate of games in an NFL season. While Marcel Reece saw situational starts down the stretch in 2012, it may be Murray, who had a great predraft process, that becomes a hot name to know in 2013. Nick Toon is the reserve receiver most in the mold of Marques Colston in New Orleans. In an offense that manufactures receiving production at will, Toon, like Murray, could be a valuable option if the starter in front of him, misses time like Colston has in the past.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I deviated from my middle-round wide receiver strategy to draft Shane Vereen in the sixth round. There was a huge drop-off on my board after Vereen at the running back position and collecting four top-25 PPR options with the ability to start three each week is a huge advantage. Drafting Vereen did cost my team the ability to add a Kenny Britt or Mike Williams as my WR3, which was the downside of bolstering the running back group. I was not going to draft a kicker or defense before the last three-to-four rounds, but still get my preferences: a strong Week 1 matchup for my defense and a dome kicker on a high-powered offense. With the Colts and Dan Bailey, those objectives were achieved in this draft.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

The pick that really stands out is the selection of Jacob Tamme in Round 20. I had contemplated drafting a third tight end behind Dennis Pitta and Coby Fleener a few rounds before that, but Tamme really does not excite me at all. For every selection, an owner should be able to tell a plausible story how they can rise to prominence and impact your team's chances. I cannot write that story for Tamme. Julius Thomas is getting positive buzz, Wes Welker will dominate the short targets over the middle, and Joel Dreessen was the primary tight end target in the red zone last season in Denver. Instead of Tamme, Justin Hunter or even Knile Davis has an easier story to write in that Round 20 range of the draft.

Team-Specific Questions

You started with three running backs and also grabbed Shane Vereen in the sixth. Were you able to get enough at wide receiver with this approach?

I knew a few of the owners in the sixth and seventh round mix were going to be eyeing Shane Vereen, so the early sixth was my only real opportunity to draft him. Vereen is an ideal third running back in PPR this season, and he was drafted as my RB4. Not only is Vereen a potential top-24 PPR option in his own right, he would likely see an uptick if my RB3, Stevan Ridley, were to miss time. In doing Vereen, however, it did prevent me from adding a receiver in the prime window of rounds four through seven. Between my sixth and seventh round selections, Kenny Britt, Mike Williams, James Jones, and Josh Gordon -- all targets of mine -- were drafted. I did finish the draft with less quality depth at receiver than I typically do, but I chose high-upside options. Hakeem Nicks has been a WR1 when healthy and Torrey Smith is in line for a boost in targets with the departure of Anquan Boldin. Because I chose Justin Blackmon -- who will miss the first month of the season -- as my WR3, I snagged Danario Alexander as my WR4. Alexander was impactful when healthy in 2012, and he can fill a starting spot while Blackmon is out. Michael Floyd and Chris Givens are both capable of 1,000-yard seasons from my bench, and lastly I took a shot on Michael Crabtree in Round 18. At that point even Crabtree is worth a flyer that he can return late in the season to be a factor. With my quality depth at running back, I project to start three backs and three receivers on a regular basis.

You were the last to grab a quarterback and then proceeded to draft four of them including Vick, Bradford, and Palmer. Talk us through your thoughts of using a QBBC this year.

I am firmly of the opinion to wait until at least seven or eight quarterbacks are off the board to consider drafting one this season. Of course if Aaron Rodgers makes it into the fifth round or something like that, value will present itself earlier, but that is the rare exception. The quarterback scoring in this league, four points per passing touchdown, suppresses the elite options enough to give even greater benefit to a committee approach.

Andrew Luck was on my target list as the ninth round approached, but he was drafted just before my walk to the podium. After that, Michael Vick in Round 12 was the next prime value opportunity on my board. Vick is one of the highest upside plays outside of the top-12 quarterbacks and has the chance to be an impact performer. Of course that potential upside carries with it the chance that Vick is slowed by injuries once again, is not even the starter in Philadelphia, or the Eagles offense flames out more than sizzles. With the depth of this draft, I knew most of the starting NFL quarterbacks would be drafted, so accumulating at least three options was necessary given the likely options on the waiver wire. As the other skill positions were running on fumes in the later rounds, I was able to snag my other three preferred inexpensive quarterbacks: Sam Bradford, EJ Manuel, and Carson Palmer. With four quarterbacks, all with top-12 upside, I have the flexibility to play the matchups and have multiple options in this deep league even through the bye week gauntlet.

What do you like about the Colts defense in 2013? Can they be elite?

What I like most about the Indianapolis defense this year is their Week 1 matchup, at home against the Oakland Raiders. I prescribe to the practice of streaming defenses throughout the season based on advantageous matchups, so the Colts would be just a one-week play. I also think drafting a defense highly in a draft has some negative consequences. When investing a pick in one of the first defenses off the board, say Seattle or San Francisco this season, an owner can miss out on good waiver wire plays because they will overvalue the defense they drafted rounds earlier than most teams. While I certainly have my doubts about the Colts defense over a longer stretch, getting the meager Oakland offense at home to open the season is a likely advantage out of the gate for fantasy teams at a bare bones draft cost.

Parsons' Team

James Brimacombe

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

I knew going in at the 1.10 spot I was going to miss out on all the top tier running backs so I needed an edge somewhere else. I was hoping Jimmy Graham would be there for me at 1.10, and he was. The rest of my strategy was fairly simple as I would wait and see who fell to me in the draft and take guys with more upside and not play it safe. In so many instances it is easy just to take the safe pick in a fantasy football draft, but I have learned with that approach it usually leads to a mediocre team at best and if you want to win at fantasy football you have to go all in and a boom-or-bust type of approach is much more satisfying -- win or lose.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

Cecil Shorts, Giovani Bernard, and Kendall Wright have been constant targets of mine in the middle rounds. I was able to get Bernard at 5.10 and Wright at 9.10 which I thought were both excellent value. I feel Bernard is being undervalued even as a rookie, and I feel very confident in him as a RB2 this season. The Bengals have a very young and talented offense, and Andy Dalton at quarterback is one that likes to play it safe and adding a weapon such as Bernard is going to get that offense even more potent as the season goes on. BenJarvus Green-Ellis does not scare me a bit as his yards per carry the past two years has been awful and is only continuing to decrease. I see Bernard in a very similar situation as to what Doug Martin was in last year as a rookie, and I like my chances. Kendall Wright is a guy that I see as being a game changer and one that is still flying under the radar a bit. He grabbed 64 receptions as a rookie in a Titans offense that struggled, I don't think a 90+ catch season is out of the question. Cecil Shorts is one of the guys that I had targeted and missed out on as I went with Matthew Stafford at 6.03 and Shorts later went to Jason Wood at 6.10.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

Well it started off okay with the Jimmy Graham pick at 1.10, and from there it was a boom or bust approach with me targeting players that I thought could have breakout type of years. I can not count the amount of times that I just barely missed out on a player I really wanted and he was selected one or two picks ahead of me. This is where tier rankings can become so valuable in a draft strategy. People are often going to take those one or two guys that you are targeting and are hoping fall to you, so you need to have a backup plan in place and with tier ranking it allows you not to panic and you can re-adjust on the fly much easier.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

Taking Matthew Stafford at 6.03 and then seeing quarterbacks such as Brady, Wilson, Romo, Kaepernick, and Luck all fall in rounds six through nine. At 6.03 I should have gone for my WR2 and rolled the dice with Cecil Shorts or played it safe with Steve Johnson. The only other regret I really had was not having a top-eight pick to start out the draft where I could get one of those stud running backs.

Team-Specific Questions

You selected tight end Jimmy Graham with the 10th pick overall. What are you expecting from him this season?

Missing out on the top running backs and Calvin Johnson, I felt that Jimmy Graham was the best option at my draft position 1.10. Graham offers a unique advantage at tight end in 2013 with so many other question marks at the position. When I project Graham's 2013 season, I envision more of what he did in 2011 rather then his injury-filled 2012 season. I think he will be healthier this year and will have Drew Brees looking for him once again every time they hit the redzone. Having Sean Payton back on the sidelines is also going to bring the fantasy production up. A 100-reception, 1,300+ yards, 10+ touchdown season could very well be in reach.

By taking both a quarterback and a tight by Round 6, were you able to roster strong enough wide receivers? What later wide receiver picks do you expect big things from?

After Julio Jones, my wide receiver group may look very suspect on paper with DeSean Jackson, Kendall Wright, Greg Little, Santonio Holmes, Golden Tate, Leonard Hankerson, Mario Manningham, and Brandon Gibson left to pick up the slack. Taking Stafford in Round 6 was a big gamble and one that saw a lot of WR2 types (Steve Smith, Greg, Jennings, Steve Johnson, and Cecil Shorts) fall off the board before my next pick. I initially liked where I got Stafford and thought he could be a difference maker on my team as he has average 5,000+ passing yards over the past two seasons, and I felt that is expected once again in 2013 with an increase in touchdown passes. I like the possibilities with DeSean Jackson in a Chip Kelly offense and think he will see more opportunities with the ball in his hand. Kendall Wright is a player I am a big believer in and think he is incredible value to roster as a WR3/flex play. The rest of my wide receivers have talent but many question marks surrounding them. With the exception of Greg Little to start the season most will be bench type players that are wait and see what happens types.

What is your expectation of running back Darren McFadden?

McFadden is the perfect running back to roster in a PPR league when you are going boom or bust right? I actually got caught in the running back run and going TE/WR in my first two rounds didn't leave many options at running back. The fact that he has never played a full, 16-game campaign in his first five seasons is a scary fact. Also add in that he is playing for the Raiders who have little talent on the offensive side of the ball, makes it really tough to be a McFadden supporter. I did go back and look at McFadden's 2010 season when he put up 1,664 total yards, 10 total touchdowns and 47 receptions (in 13 games). If he can even stay healthy for a majority of the season, he has potential to put up similar numbers. At 3.10 it is worth the gamble.

Brimacombe's Team

Adam Harstad

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

First of all, drafting at the end of the first, I went in anticipating that I wouldn't have a shot at any top-tier running backs. My predraft plan was to ensure that I was strong at receiver, tight end, and quarterback early, and then just use the shotgun approach to fill out my running back depth chart. The later running backs are flawed in some way, but a surprising number of them have the potential to secure a huge workload -- you'll often see players such as David Wilson, Lamar Miller, Le'Veon Bell, or Chris Ivory still hanging around once 20 backs are off the board. Additionally, players like Ryan Mathews, Montee Ball, and Jonathan Stewart are potential committee backs who offer massive upside. I was intending to get two or three guys in this area in the middle rounds and then round out the depth chart with a glut of high-upside backups or committee backs throughout the rest of the draft. That would leave me free to grab cornerstone talents at wide receiver and tight end in the early rounds, which would let me get by with less depth at those positions late in the draft, giving more room to stock lottery tickets at running back.

Being near the turn also influenced my predraft strategy. In the middle of the draft, there are only 10-12 players selected between your picks. At the end, I was looking at 20 players selected between my picks. As a result, I couldn't be nearly as cute passing on players that I liked and expecting them to fall all the way back to me again. I had to be much more willing to reach on players ahead of their ADP, especially since I was drafting with a dozen guys who each had their own very strong opinions about players (and who would presumably be more willing than the typical owner to also ignore ADP and reach on a player they really loved).

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

There are a lot of guys I like at their current prices, but for the most part, I was more targeting certain tiers than specific players. For instance, I was looking to land a pair of first-tier wide receivers or tight ends in the first two rounds, and then turn around and grab some fourth- or fifth-tier running backs in rounds four and five. Within those tiers, there were several guys that I liked, and I didn't much care which one of them I wound up with as long as I got one of them.

Later in the draft, there were a couple of players who I anticipated would be landing on my team, as I'm higher on them than the general consensus. I think Denard Robinson, Lance Moore, Joe Morgan, and Jermichael Finley are going to wind up on a lot of my teams this year. There are some other guys who I'm higher than the consensus on who, for one reason or another, never really made sense for me in this draft; for instance, I expect to get Ryan Tannehill or Josh Freeman as my second quarterback pretty often this year, even if I didn't wind up with either in this draft.

While I'm not usually targeting specific players, there is one giant exception. Robert Griffin III, as the 11th quarterback off the board on average, is the biggest steal in fantasy right now. When he's healthy, he's easily the fantasy equal to anyone, and all of the early reports on him have been glowing. If his injury history scares you, he also is one of the few quarterbacks who can be effectively handcuffed, as backup Kirk Cousins proved to be very competent when pressed into action last season. I think whoever drafts Robert Griffin III will get production on par with the Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Drew Brees owners with a price tag three, four, potentially even five rounds later. Drafting with experts who are all up-to-date on camp news, I didn't know how far I could trust Griffin to fall, but I knew that I desperately wanted him.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

Once the draft starts, plans go out the window. I had built my plan around the assumption that I wouldn't have a shot at any high-end workhorse running backs. I opened according to script, taking Brandon Marshall in the first to give me a PPR monster anchoring my wide receiver corps, but was shocked when Marshawn Lynch fell to me in the second and Maurice Jones-Drew made it all the way back to me in the third. At that point, I decided to thank my good fortune, toss out the playbook, and build around my running backs.

I had also originally planned on relying on Robert Griffin III at quarterback, but I was nervous about it. When drafting with experienced owners, you can't be surprised if a player goes well before his ADP, and if I missed out on Griffin I worried about being too weak at quarterback. When Drew Brees was still on the board in the fourth round, I had to pull the trigger. I think Brees and Rodgers are basically a coin flip as the top quarterback, so getting Brees a full round later represented a real coup. Griffin did wind up falling to the eighth round after all, so I took him anyway. Quarterback seems very deep this year, but elite options still provide a huge advantage. Drew Brees has been a top-10 player in total VBD in four of the last five years, and I expect Griffin to keep pace, as well. After a couple weeks, when everyone else's favorite sleepers are proving slow to wake up, I'm sure I'd be able to trade one of my two studs for substantially more than my cost of acquisition.

The downside of changing my plan is that instead of being a position of strength, wide receiver got neglected a bit. Still, Brandon Marshall gives me a cornerstone, and owning both Brees and Griffin gives me the flexibility to address needs as they arise during the season.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

I don't really have any regrets. At least, I don't regret anything that was within my control. I would have loved to have a chance at one of the top running backs and Rob Gronkowski, but from my draft position, neither was really possible. I also would have loved being able to draft more from the middle, and not having to reach as much to get the guys I wanted. I think the 10th-12th picks are the worst position to be drafting from. Still, I'm thrilled with what I managed to put together from there. I think with a cornerstone quarterback and wide receiver and a pair of workhorse running backs, I have a rock-solid core to build from. I also think my second elite quarterback gives me huge flexibility to deal with any unexpected issues that arise during the season. I stayed very true to my rankings, and the result is that even looking back at how the draft played out, I don't see many picks that I would have done differently even if given the full benefit of hindsight. I might have redone my picks at the 13/14 turn and grabbed Robert Turbin and Christine Michael instead. I think there was a chance that Robinson and a defense I liked would still be available in the 15th, but as I said, when you're at the turn, you have to reach on players. I thought the Seattle backs would be more likely to fall than Robinson or the top defenses. They didn't wind up falling, but there's no guarantee Robinson or a top-tier defense would have made it back around if I'd passed on them, either.

Honestly, my biggest regret is a pretty silly one. I'm not a fan of kickers in fantasy football, but I do like to come out of the draft with the kicker for my favorite team, (the Denver Broncos), whenever it's feasible. Kickers score points whenever the team scores points, which just gives me a little bit extra reason to cheer whenever my team scores. I was tempted to take Matt Prater in the 18th, but I decided to get cute and took Foles, instead, thinking Prater would make it around the short turn back to me in the 19th. With hindsight, I would have just drafted Prater in the 18th. Not that it makes much (if any) difference in the quality of my team, but it always makes it more fun to watch my NFL team play on Sundays.

Team-Specific Questions

The rest of the staff did not seem willing to take running back Maurice Jones-Drew. What are you expecting from him this year?

In general, I tend to have a lot of faith in modern medicine. I would have been very nervous about taking Jones-Drew in the second round, but at the end of the third, I think he's tremendous value. It is very rare that you'll have the opportunity to select a guaranteed, slam-dunk, every-down workhorse (if healthy) as the 20th running back off the board. If he's fully healthy for the season, I believe I got first-round value. The last full season he played, he was a top-five fantasy back in all systems. At this point, it's hard to know how realistic that optimism is, since Jones-Drew still hasn't even started practicing... but everyone has value if they fall far enough, and I would draft Jones-Drew all day long at the end of the third. Especially because the goal isn't to have an average team, or even an above-average team. The goal is to have the best team in the league. To get there, sometimes you have to take some risks, make some high-variance selections, and hope to get a little bit of luck breaking your way.

You anchored your running backs with Marshawn Lynch. Any concern that he misses time with the pending DUI trial? What can we expect from him in the weeks he does play?

I'm far less concerned than I would have been two years ago. When Roger Goodell first came into the league, he was very quick to hand out discipline. I think after some of his higher profile cases have blown up in his face, he's cooled somewhat. He's still more of a disciplinarian than his predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, but in recent seasons we've seen several instances of Goodell choosing leniency where he might have once chosen to make a statement. As examples, Cedric Benson has an extensive history of legal woes, and was arrested twice for assault in 2010 and 2011, and was even sentenced to 20 days in jail for the latter offense. For the two arrests and his entire past history, he received just a one-game suspension. Kenny Britt had been at the center of eight incidents featuring police involvement since entering the league in 2009, yet when he refused to cooperate with a police investigation this offseason, the league offered no punishment. It seems to me that Roger Goodell has developed a new tendency towards leniency that was not there early on in his career as commissioner.

This doesn't mean that there's no chance Lynch gets suspended. DUI is a relatively cut-and-dried offense, and Lynch has already received a suspension for violating the league's personal conduct policy during his career. Still, there is no guarantee that Lynch will be found guilty, and even if he is, I would expect the suspension to only cover a couple of games at most. It's a risk, but it's a small enough risk that I felt comfortable with it, especially since I received a heavy discount. When on the field, Marshawn Lynch is a top-five running back, and I managed to get him with the 14th pick of the draft.

You were the 1st to take a defense when you grabbed San Francisco in the 14th. Are experts waiting too long to take their defense?

In general, no. In this format, yes. In most leagues, I'm a believer that you can get production comparable to the best of defenses simply by playing matchups and streaming defenses. In an expert league like this, I would expect at least half of the owners to be trying a similar strategy; it's a lot harder to stream defenses when you have to compete with six other owners for the defenses with the best matchup. Also, with 22 roster spots, everyone has the depth to grab defenses weeks in advance and hold them, which will reduce the depth available on the wire. As a result, I think getting an elite defense and holding it for the year makes a lot more sense. I wanted to get one of the San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver trio. I didn't much care which, and would rather have gotten the second or third off the board, but drafting at the turn limited my options. I had to reach and grab the first defense off the board rather than risk losing out on all three while waiting for my turn to come up again. In the 18th round, the Bears defense was great value, and gave me another top defense so I could still play the matchups some during the season. Defenses get a bad rap because of the quality that's usually available on the wire, but having a top defense can give you an advantage just like having the top player at any other position, and I'm happy to spend two roster spots to practically guarantee myself a strong positional advantage (and to save myself some headaches when making waiver claims).

Harstad's Team

Aaron Rudnicki

General Strategy Questions

Give us your predraft strategy for the set of rules (PPR and starting three wide receivers with a flex) and your particular draft spot.

My strategy going into a draft is generally to remain as flexible as possible. Typically this works great when picking in the middle of the draft order as it's easier to respond to what other owners are doing around you. Since I was picking last in this draft, I decided to focus to focus more heavily on players with upside who could significantly outperform their draft slot. In a PPR league with a flex spot, it's important to be very strong at wide receiver so I planned to focus heavily on that position. The quarterback and tight end positions have great depth so I felt comfortable waiting on those positions. As for running backs, I generally plan to take at least one player who can be relied on to anchor my lineup each week and then just look for values and parts of committees who could emerge as a feature back if things break right.

Did you have any players that you were targeting in this draft? If so, who were they and why did you like them so much?

As is usually the case with me, I don't typically go into a draft with any key targets in mind. When you participate in many drafts each year, however, you do tend to wind up with the same players on many of your rosters. Picking 12th in this draft made it difficult for me to get many of the guys I liked, so I just switched up gears and tried to take the best player available at each pick.

Did you execute your predraft strategy? If not, where did you deviate and why?

I think I did for the most part, but it's tough drafting from the 1.12 spot in a competitive group of owners like this. I think my receivers are probably one of the best groups in the league, which was part of my plan going in. To do this, I had to sacrifice a bit of strength at running back but that's a position you can improve during the year as players get injured and move in and out of starting lineups. I would plan to use a wide receiver or tight end in the flex spot most weeks, so as long as David Wilson (or Andre Brown) emerge as a reliable RB2, this lineup should compete.

Any regrets in your selections? What would you redo in hindsight?

The one decision I wrestled with the most was whether to take running back Chris Ivory at the 5/6 turn of the draft. He felt like the last potential RB1, but I'm probably less sold on him and his ability to carry the load without getting hurt than most. The indecision on Ivory led me to go with a safer choice in Tony Gonzalez as my TE1. He seems to show no signs of slowing down with age, but he could have trouble reproducing last year's numbers. Given the players at each position who were available with later picks, I'd probably like to do this pick over. For example, Ivory over Andre Brown at RB3 would have given me 3 potential starters instead of locking up two parts of one committee. At TE, I likely could have waited and grabbed Dennis Pitta or Greg Olsen.

Team-Specific Questions

At tight end, you have Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, and Marcedes Lewis. What do you expect from this veteran crew in 2013?

Gonzalez is very reliable despite his age and should continue to play a big role in the explosive Falcons offense. I don't see much of a shift there, although Steven Jackson is a much better receiving back than Michael Turner was and that could eat into his numbers a bit. Antonio Gates seems like an incredible value to me this year as I was able to land him at the end of the 11th round but he was considered a top-3 tight end or so just a year ago. If he can stay healthy and Philip Rivers can rebound under a new coaching staff, I think I could wind up starting Gates quite often with this team. Marcedes Lewis was just a late round flier but is a guy who I think has the talent to produce if his quarterback situation even shows modest improvement. I didn't spend much on this group but feel it's an average or even slightly above average committee and may fill a flex spot at times.

You selected quarterback Russell Wilson ahead of Robert Griffin III, Tony Romo, Colin Kaepernick, and Andrew Luck. What are you expecting from the second-year player?

I think the ADP and many rankings might have put some of those other players ahead of Wilson, but I was worried about the knee injury that Griffin is coming back from and the 49ers losing their best receiver to injury for Kaepernick. We've probably seen the best Romo has to offer at this point and he seems to always leave you wanting more. Andrew Luck will become an elite quarterback soon, but I liked Wilson's upside more because of what he can do with his legs in this scoring system. The fact that Wilson was putting up huge numbers late in this rookie year leads me to think the sky is the limit, and the addition of Percy Harvin to that offense should help him surpass these other guys from a fantasy perspective.

You had one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, and a tight end after seven picks. Do you prefer filling out your starters before adding bench players?

Since I was picking at the turn, I basically grabbed my third running back and starting quarterback together. I didn't necessarily plan things this way, but do like to try and balance out my early picks so I can remain flexible in later rounds. If I had loaded up on one position early and then a great value dropped to me in the later round, I might not be able to take him without leaving my team woefully thin elsewhere. I probably reached a little on David Wilson where I took him, but felt like I had to get a RB2 at that point and he was the last guy in that tier I felt comfortable with. In hindsight, I could have easily waited longer at both quarterback and tight end and still landed some quality starters while improving my overall depth at running back and wide receiver.

Rudnicki's Team

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