Fantasy Football 2023: Sleeper Cheatsheet and Strategy Tips for Mock Drafts
The recent opening of NFL training camps should have been a signal to fantasy football managers.
It's time to get your draft preparations in order.
The more pre-draft research you can finish, the better. We'll touch on two topics here by highlighting a few sleeper targets and breaking down some mock draft strategies at each of the three marquee positions.
Quarterbacks
1 of 3
Sleepers: Daniel Jones, New York Giants; Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks
Jones' first season under head coach Brian Daboll was a wildly successful one. The pair not only helped the Giants snap a five-year playoff drought, they also pushed Jones' stat sheet to previously unseen heights. If he can be anywhere near as productive—3,205 yards and 15 touchdowns passing, 708 yards and seven scores rushing—he could push his way into the position's top 10.
Smith, like Jones, will face some skeptics who doubt his ability to match his 2022 stats. Their hesitance to buy-in could be your opportunity to add a highly productive passer at a discount. Smith was all-caps AWESOME last season, throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns while rushing for another 366 yards and a score.
Strategy: Place a different priority on this position in every mock.
Mock drafts are best used in multiples. A random draft room may not offer a ton of insight, since a few off-the-wall picks could throw everything off course, but a handful of mocks can help you learn trends and get a better feel of what's likely to happen at your actual draft.
That's why it's helpful to utilize different strategies, especially with your quarterback position. You've likely read that you should wait on this spot, and there can be merit to that strategy, but that also obviously denies you access to elites like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. So, what happens when you pounce on Mahomes in the second round or Allen in the third? And what caliber of quarterback will you wind up with if you don't draft one among your first five picks?
Running Backs
2 of 3
Sleepers: Raheem Mostert, Miami Dolphins; Damien Harris, Buffalo Bills
Assuming the Dolphins don't bring in Dalvin Cook, Mostert should be in position to repeat—or even improve on—what was a successful 2022 season. In 16 games (14 starts), he carried the ball 181 times for 891 yards and three touchdowns while adding 31 receptions for another 202 yards and two scores.
Harris, who spent the past four seasons in New England, was brought in to beef up Buffalo's rushing attack and up its effectiveness in the red zone. He was a touchdown machine back in 2021 (15 scores in 15 games), and he could have the opportunity for a similar output.
Strategy: See what happens when you wait on running backs—and when you don't.
A mock draft is only valuable if it allows you to learn from the experience. Putting different strategies in place is your best bet for making that happen.
Even in this increasingly pass-crazed league, can you build a formidable roster with running backs as your first two picks? Mock drafts can give you a real-time answer to that question. Similarly, you can also see what your team looks like if you load up on pass-catchers (and maybe a quarterback early), before adding your running backs in later rounds.
Wide Receivers
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Sleepers: Jerry Jeudy, Denver Broncos; Elijah Moore, Cleveland Browns
Jeudy, the No. 15 pick in 2020, has fallen short of expectations so far in his career, but the stars could be aligning for his long-awaited breakout season. The combination of Russell Wilson and new coach Sean Payton could do wonders for this aerial attack, and Jeudy could be the primary beneficiary of it. A 1,000-yard season with double-digit scores is not out of the question.
Moore needed a change of scenery after his career seemingly stalled with the Jets and a relocation to Cleveland gave him exactly that. Now, he can get things back on track as potentially the No. 2 target for Deshaun Watson, who had a three-year run (2018 to 2020) in which he threw for 12,840 yards and 85 touchdowns.
Strategy: Run some real-time risk assessments by loading up on upside in one mock, then targeting only safe veterans in another.
Recent NFL drafts have been overloaded with wide receivers at the top. The past three drafts alone saw 15 different receivers taken in the first round. If you want to add some of this young talent, you absolutely can, but you'll have to target some of these young pass-catchers early. Try starting a mock with a couple of upside-rich receiving prospects, then see if you can find enough safety later on to offset some of the downside attached to unproven players.
Then, try flipping the script and playing it safe with your receiver picks. You won't find as much excitement in adding one established veteran after the next, but you could still wind up in a better spot by raising your floor and minimizing risk. You won't know which works better until you put the two strategies into practice, though, so fire up those mocks, folks.
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