Monday night saw the first round-plus of an SB Nation Fantasy analysts’ fantasy-football slow mock. Over the next few days we’ll be drafting a 12-team fantasy league under standard scoring, in hopes of giving a general look at strategies and draft rankings.
SB Nation Analysts’ Mock: A look at the first round
We’re through the first 12 picks of our too-early mock for the 2014 season. What picks were good? And what picks were awful?
Adam Bettcher
With one round in the books, here’s a look at how things went, along with comments from some of the owners on their picks:
| Owner | Draft Pick | Team | Position | Thoughts |
| Robert Keeley | Adrian Peterson | MIN | RB | This pick came down to one of three guys in Peterson, Charles, and McCoy. Then narrowed it down between Charles and Peterson because McCoy has had a down year recently. I ended up picking Peterson because he has shown consistency from year to year, and even though he may not finish as the top guy, it is hard to see him finishing lower than fifth at worse. |
| Daniel Kelley | Jamaal Charles | KC | RB | I've said it a few times, but you could put Peterson, Charles and McCoy into a hat and draft them in any order. I'm partial to Charles, but this was a toss-up. |
| Brad Coustan | LeSean McCoy | PHI | RB | No brainer, guys. |
| Wes Collier | Matt Forte | CHI | RB | |
| Jordan Cable | Calvin Johnson | DET | WR | Really wanted to go RB in the first round, but did not like the value of any at five. Lynch and Lacy were close, but I like keeping it safe early on and going for high-upside guys in the mid- to late-rounds. |
| Jacob Adler | Marshawn Lynch | SEA | RB | |
| Kylan Easterling | Jimmy Graham | NO | TE | Just outside the first four or five picks is kind of no-man's land. The RB position is so important in fantasy football, but I think it is much deeper this year than people give it credit for, and I can get similar production out of RBs in the next few rounds as I could find here. So I will take the most productive guy left on the board. TE is the one position you don't want to be left searching for in the later rounds, so I don't mind getting elite receiving production out of the very weak overall TE position. |
| Alex Welch | Eddie Lacy | GB | RB | Lacy is a steal at No. 8 in my eyes. He carried the Packers' offense at times with Aaron Rodgers out last year. Now they're back to full strength. He's in for a huge year, and running back is thin in 2014. |
| Brad Duffendack | Demaryius Thomas | DEN | WR | I usually prefer a RB-heavy strategy to load up on safer "high-volume" players, but with the heavy run on RBs, I was forced to grab my top WR available to ensure a safe, elite player with my first pick. |
| Dan Ciarrocchi | A.J. Green | CIN | WR | |
| Kenny Stein | DeMarco Murray | DAL | RB | |
| Ray Guilfoyle | Peyton Manning | DEN | QB |
If you're following along at home, that means the first round featured seven running backs, three wide receivers, and a tight end and quarterback each. Some big names were available to start the second round as well, highlighted by bounce-back candidates Doug Martin and Arian Foster, primo receiver Dez Bryant, and the next wave of quarterbacks with Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers.
I’ll continue to update the progress of the draft as we go through it, chime in in the comments with any feedback, and vote in the poll below.
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