Fantasy Football 2015: Mock Draft Strategy and Top Sleepers to Watch

Your fantasy football draft is coming up in a few weeks, and your plan is to bookmark some rankings the night before, order a pizza and dive in when the draft room opens.   

After all, you know that in most cases you should still go for a top running back with your first pick and that Andrew Luck will be one of this year's hottest quarterback commodities.

You know that there will always be that person who drafts his or her favorite team's defense in the mid-rounds.

And you know that in your 12-team standard league, you'll need to end up with one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one flex position, one kicker, one defense/special teams and five bench spots per team.

Fantasy owners are now managing multiple teams at once, and there's only so much time in a day. Sure, you can show up a few minutes before the draft room opens and fly by the seat of your pants. Maybe you'll get lucky. But strategy is everything in fantasy, and mock drafts are your friend. Use them. Let them work for you. 

Here are the top player rankings as of mid-July for standard 12-team leagues to help you when you begin your mock drafts ahead of draft day.  

Player	Position	Team	Bye
Adrian Peterson	RB	Minnesota Vikings	5
Jamaal Charles	RB	Kansas City Chiefs	9
Eddie Lacy	RB	Green Bay Packers	7
Marshawn Lynch	RB	Seattle Seahawks	9
Le'Veon Bell	RB	Pittsburgh Steelers	11
Antonio Brown	WR	Pittsburgh Steelers	11
Dez Bryant	WR	Dallas Cowboys	6
Rob Gronkowski	TE	New England Patriots	4
Demaryius Thomas	WR	Denver Broncos	7
Arian Foster	RB	Houston Texans	9
Julio Jones	WR	Atlanta Falcons	10
Odell Beckham Jr.	WR	New York Giants	11
DeMarco Murray	RB	Philadelphia Eagles	8
C.J. Anderson	RB	Denver Broncos	7
Calvin Johnson	WR	Detroit Lions	9
LeSean McCoy	RB	Buffalo Bills	8
Jeremy Hill	RB	Cincinnati Bengals	7
Matt Forte	RB	Chicago Bears	7
Jordy Nelson	WR	Green Bay Packers	7
A.J. Green	WR	Cincinnati Bengals	7
Aaron Rodgers	QB	Green Bay Packers	7
Andrew Luck	QB	Indianapolis Colts	10
Alshon Jeffery	WR	Chicago Bears	7
Randall Cobb	WR	Green Bay Packers	7
Mike Evans	WR	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	6
T.Y. Hilton	WR	Indianapolis Colts	10
Justin Forsett	RB	Baltimore Ravens	9
Frank Gore	RB	Indianapolis Colts	10
Alfred Morris	RB	Washington Redskins	8
Jimmy Graham	TE	Seattle Seahawks	9
Emmanuel Sanders	WR	Denver Broncos	7
Kelvin Benjamin	WR	Carolina Panthers	5
Mark Ingram	RB	New Orleans Saints	11
Melvin Gordon	RB	San Diego Chargers	10
Lamar Miller	RB	Miami Dolphins	5
Brandin Cooks	WR	New Orleans Saints	11
Andre Johnson	WR	Indianapolis Colts	10
Carlos Hyde	RB	San Francisco 49ers	10
Jordan Matthews	WR	Philadelphia Eagles	8
Russell Wilson	QB	Seattle Seahawks	9
Jonathan Stewart	RB	Carolina Panthers	5
Peyton Manning	QB	Denver Broncos	7
Latavius Murray	RB	Oakland Raiders	6
Joseph Randle	RB	Dallas Cowboys	6
Keenan Allen	WR	San Diego Chargers	10
DeAndre Hopkins	WR	Houston Texans	9
Andre Ellington	RB	Arizona Cardinals	9
DeSean Jackson	WR	Washington Redskins	8
Brandon Marshall	WR	New York Jets	5
Julian Edelman	WR	New England Patriots	4

Mock Draft Strategy

Based on the rankings in the above table, there are a few different ways to attack your mock draft. Let's break down some of them. 

Take a RB if you have picks No. 1 - No. 6 overall 

Orlin Wagner/Associated Press

One thing you may notice right off the bat about this year's rankings is that running back is not a deep position group in terms of talent. The players who could really carry your team are concentrated at the very top of the draft. 

Case in point: Only six running backs scored 200 or more points in 2014: DeMarco Murray, Le'Veon Bell, Marshawn Lynch, Matt Forte, Arian Foster, Eddie Lacy and Jamaal Charles. 

Those usual suspects land at the top of this year's rankings again topped by Adrian Peterson. With Peterson's official return to the Minnesota Vikings, owners who had reservations about selecting him first overall should feel mollified. Peterson had hit at least 1,200 yards in every season where he's played a minimum of 14 games.

Still unsure? Feel free to go down the list to Charles, but you may find that your coworker who selected Peterson No. 2 overall can't stop gloating on Tuesday morning. 

Why has Charles risen in 2015 rankings when he was third in scoring and 13th in yards in 2014? Look at his numbers since head coach Andy Reid arrived in 2013. He nearly doubled his season-high touchdown record with 12 that season and followed up with his second-highest single-season touchdowns mark (nine) in 2014. 

Reid's willingness to use Charles in the red zone is a major benefit to fantasy owners. 

As ESPN fantasy analyst Matthew Berry likes to say, "You can't win your league in the first round, but you can lose it." Don't get too cute with your first pick if it's early in the first round. Grab your running back and then focus on other skill positions. 

If there's an early run on QBs in your league, you may have to go there sooner than you'd like

In a standard 12-team fantasy league, one—maybe two—quarterback should be drafted at the end of the first round. This year, it won't be surprising to see Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck taken then. If you have a draft position of No. 7 or higher, you can consider them. 

But don't jump the gun: You can find a solid No. 1 quarterback as late as Round 5.

That all, however, depends on the mentality of your league. Is this a serious group of people who are focused on taking down every top running back, wide receiver and tight end before turning to quarterback? Or is this a crowd that tends to get nervous if it doesn't have a franchise passer by the end of Round 2?

If you're savvy about your other selections, you can turn a player like Matt Ryan in Round 5 into a cornerstone of your team.

But if three or four quarterbacks are already off the board by the end of Round 2 and you want someone in the top echelon (Rodgers, Luck, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees), you may have to board that train earlier than you'd wanted to. 

A fantasy draft is a herd mentality. In a vacuum, you could map out target positions and players for each round and knock them off one by one, but in a reality, your competitors' moves may dictate your own. 

TE gets shaken up in 2015

During your mock draft, someone will inevitably select Rob Gronkowski toward the end of Round 1. However, after that, another tight end might not come off the board until Rounds 3 or 4. If you're in position to take a top-five tight end, knowing which order you should rank them is essential.

Last year's top tight ends look fairly different from the crop expected to top mock drafts this season. In points last year, the top five tight ends were Antonio Gates, Gronkowski, Julius Thomas, Jimmy Graham and Coby Fleener. 

This season, Gates will be suspended for the first four games of the season, so keep him in mind for a waiver-wire target after the first quarter of the season. Thomas signed a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars, making him too much of a question mark to take in the first few rounds. 

This season, the player to target after Gronkowski is Graham. Despite moving from New Orleans to Seattle, Graham could easily become Russell Wilson's top receiver and a huge scoring threat for the Seahawks. Don't be afraid to target him as high as the end of Round 2 if it fits your draft order. 

USA Today senior fantasy editor Cory Bonini thinks Graham could hit 103 catches and at least 13 touchdowns in 2015. If that's the case, getting him in Rounds 2 or 3 is a no-brainer over using a late first-round selection on Gronkowski. 

Top Sleepers to Watch at Every Position

Sleepers are the secret weapon of fantasy, and they don't all have to be drafted. If the waiver wire is good to you, then you can pick up a hot player after his breakout game. 

But if you want a list of sleepers to watch as you make your way through your fantasy draft, the following players are good bets.

Position	Player	Team	Bye
Quarterback	Derek Carr	Oakland Raiders	6
Running Back	Ameer Abdullah	Detroit Lions	9
Wide Receiver	Marqise Lee	Jacksonville Jaguars	8
Tight End	Maxx Williams	Baltimore Ravens	9
D/ST	Kansas City Chiefs	Kansas City Chiefs	9
Kicker	Caleb Sturgis	Miami Dolphins	5

Where is the best place to target sleepers? That is one of the key pieces of information that doing a mock draft with your league can teach you. Is this a league of people who are serious about their sleepers and want to lock them down in the mid-rounds?

Or do these players not typically come off the board in your league until the late rounds? 

Once you do a mock or two with your team, you can determine the best round to select your favorite sleepers. For the players listed above, begin to consider them in Round 6 or later to fill your bench.