Mock drafting is a popular method many fantasy football players employ to prepare for draft day, and while this is a great concept on the surface, practically everyone has become reliant on them, and this can lead to unexpected consequences if not careful.
MOCK-turbation will make you go blind
The reason I say this is that when you become so reliant on how your mock drafts have come out and something happens in your real draft that throws you off, your reaction to the new situation is handicapped.
An obvious argument against my sentiment is that mock drafting allows you to practice your reaction and recovery skills. The problem occurs when a pick is made that is so off the board and sets off a run at a position that may not have ever been foreseen by you or experienced in your mock drafts. Once such a run occurs, all the mock drafts you have done are out the window.
Participating in mock drafts is comparable to a single man going to a strip club alone. He may have fun spending hours enjoying the scenery, but at the end of the night, he still goes home alone with nothing but an emptier wallet.
Mock drafting may not empty your wallet, but the time spent is just as fruitless without any real payoff except a false sense of accomplishment such as when you believe the stripper may like you.
When you mock, you will construct your team out of a particular draft slot based upon your own personal preference & strategy. What many fail to consider is that a portion of their opponents in those mock drafts may not be aware of the scoring parameters set for the mock league along with the possibility that some of those opponents’ picks may also be auto-drafted by the computer itself.
When auto-draft comes into play during your draft, it may seem irrelevant at the time of the draft, but when one of your opponents ends up with 2 or 3 Quarterbacks before they have their allotments of Running Backs and Wide Receivers completed, the integrity of the draft is completely shot.
Yes, you may have constructed the team of your dreams out of a certain draft slot and may feel comfortable there, but what happens to that team after the mock draft is complete? It becomes nothing. That team is not followed through the year, nor does it get rewarded for any depth plays you may have made in the later rounds.
The grading of these mock drafts is flawed in several ways:
1. The software will take into account projected stats for all the players and then factor in the total points each team drafted will have. The projections a software tool may have will never ever match everyone else’s projections perfectly.
For example, say that you are in the camp that believes C.J. Anderson will be a producer this year in a Denver offense with a new identity, so you take him in the late 2nd Round. The software may not share your optimism and projects him to be a middle of the 3rd round talent instead.
This discrepancy in projections causes your grade to drop when in reality, your speculation may be correct. The fact that such a pick will diminish your grade is so subjective that you cannot give it much thought.
2.Fantasy Football leagues are not won in Rounds 1-5. Mock draft software rewards those who draft well early.. The reality is that season long Fantasy Football leagues are most always won because of a combination of players drafted in Rounds 6 -15.
Two years ago, many leagues were won by owners who took a late round flier on Odell Beckham Jr., who went as late as round 17 in one draft I was in.
Last year, David Johnson and Jordan Reed were on a lot of teams that won their championships.
The fact is that there will always be a number of players who exceed preseason projections and play a role later on in the year when championships hang in the balance.
3. Mock Drafting does not reward any forethought of possible injuries to current starters. Injuries for the most part cannot be predicted and will always throw everyone a curve.
DeAngelo Williams last year was another player that helped champions win their titles, but like last year, he is projected as a sixth or seventh round pick because Le’Veon Bell is supposed to only be out so many games based upon outside factors.
Williams could have been argued as a potential fantasy MVP last year and may possibly repeat it this year if Bell gets injured again upon his return. Who knows? And who had even heard of Charcandrick West (outside of Kansas City of course) before Jamaal Charles was knocked out for the year? If you knew of him and drafted him, kudos to you, but I would love to see that draft board as proof.
Best Ways To Prepare
Fantasy football is a game that demands attention, preparation, and an ability to mind your surroundings. The reality is that you will not win your league on draft day. You may have the most awesome draft ever conceived in the history of the game, but there will always be something that happens to throw you off.
Most leagues in fantasy football are head to head, not rotisserie. This makes the challenge all that more difficult because you may end up with the second highest score in the league, but may play the top scorer in the league by pure chance alone. It is rough when this happens, but it is another reality that mock drafting will not take into account.
The best way to prepare for any fantasy league in any sport is to educate yourself on as many players as you possibly can and identify with them as to how you feel they will perform over the course of the year.
The best way to prepare for upcoming drafts is to review drafts performed within the industry. These may be found published in magazines or on popular sites where you see that reputable experts participated.
If you choose to Mock-turbate, there is no law against it and you can say that it is a natural occurrence in our fantasy sports lives that we all will try at some point. Just don’t get yourselves hooked on it. It will simply end up in a mess that may cause you to lose focus on drafting for real.
Drafting for real is where the money is, and when you are best prepared, you will be a much better fantasy player.
Experts
Experts are just like the rest of us. Some have great drafts and some do poorly. By reviewing those drafts, you can see what they did and grade them yourself and see what worked for them and what did not work for them. In these publications, the best ones include testimonials from those who drafted as they offer their own reasoning for making their picks. You may or may not agree with their assessments, but you will gain a perspective that you may not have had before.
As always, your feedback is appreciated and I am sure there are some Mock-turbators that see there being nothing wrong with what they do in the privacy of their own homes.
You will be better off if you do not blind yourselves to reality.
Be well, and good luck with your drafts that count.