Fantasy Football 2023: 1st-Round Mock Draft and Winning Strategy
Fantasy football draft season is upon us.
Have you formulated your plan of attack yet?
With the 2023 NFL season creeping closer toward its opening kick, time is of the essence. Considering the many steps of the pre-draft process—gathering information, using it to develop strategies, practicing those strategies in mock drafts—you'll need to get rolling pretty soon.
We'll help you get going, as we're laying out a mock first round (standard scoring), then providing a pair of tips that could bring you a step closer to a league title.
Round 1 Mock Draft
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1. Christian McCaffrey, RB, San Francisco 49ers
2. Justin Jefferson, WR, Minnesota Vikings
3. Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers
4. Ja'Marr Chase, WR, Cincinnati Bengals
5. Cooper Kupp, WR, Los Angeles Rams
6. Nick Chubb, RB, Cleveland Browns
7. Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs
8. Bijan Robinson, RB, Atlanta Falcons
9. Jonathan Taylor, RB, Indianapolis Colts
10. Tyreek Hill, WR, Miami Dolphins
11. Josh Jacobs, RB, Las Vegas Raiders
12. Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans
Aim for Balance
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Given the wealth of information available nowadays, if you look, you can probably find recommendations for every possible top-of-the-draft combination.
Some will push for RB-RB or WR-WR starts to your draft. Others will say you should split your first pick between the positions. Some might tell you to ignore those positions and put all of your chips in the Kansas City Chiefs' basket by starting off a draft with Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes.
The truth is, you can take this any direction you want, but make sure you cover all bases along the way.
What exactly does that mean? Simply, you don't want to leave yourself deficient in any area. If you're going to wait on a tight end or quarterback, don't wait so long that the position becomes a burden on your team. If you're going to prioritize safety in the early rounds, then make sure you chase upside in the later ones.
Read the (Draft) Room
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While mock drafts can be helpful in terms of identifying trends and getting a clearer read on player values, maybe the biggest benefit is simply being able to go through the drafting process.
If you've played fantasy football at all, then you know your draft room will feature some surprises. Being able to quickly recognize and process those surprises will be critical to your success.
Since you can't, by definition, prepare for specific surprises, we can't give you a step-by-step guide on what happens if, say, your league decides to take five quarterbacks in the first round. We can, however, just say you need to be ready for some curveballs and should have an idea of how you want to react.
If a position group is being pushed up the board, would you rather draft it earlier than you planned (and avoid the risk of being shut out) or focus on the positions that are falling farther as a result? If your league decides that Jonathan Taylor's uncertainty is worrying enough to let him slip into the back half of the second round, do you view him as a bargain, or are you equally disinterested in taking on that uncertainty?
The surprising situations might differ in your league, just know that they are coming and be ready to pivot accordingly.
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