Fantasy Football 2016: Breaking Down Mock Draft and Cheat Sheet

The road to fantasy football glory begins with an excellent draft.

There are other important factors—making the right trades, scouring the waiver wire and, of course, navigating your lineup decisions on a week-to-week basis—but nailing your draft is the first step to bragging about how much smarter you are than your friends. 

When it comes to drafting, there are several ways to build a strong team. If you read up on fantasy football strategy, you'll see some who prefer to stay old school and grab elite running backs in the opening round. You'll also see those who say you should forsake the early-round running back and go with as many elite receivers as you can. 

The truth is, league championship teams can be built using either of those strategies or adopting a less extreme method and trusting your ranking of the players to take the best available. 

With that in mind, here's a look at a cheat sheet with rankings for the top 15 at each position.

Rank	QB	RB	WR	TE
1	Aaron Rodgers, GB	Todd Gurley, LA	Julio Jones, ATL	Rob Gronkowski, NE
2	Cam Newton, CAR	Jamaal Charles, KC	Antonio Brown, PIT	Jordan Reed, WAS
3	Russell Wilson, SEA	Lamar Miller, HOU	Odell Beckham Jr., NYG	Greg Olsen, CAR
4	Andrew Luck, IND	Adrian Peterson, MIN	DeAndre Hopkins, HOU	Travis Kelce, KC
5	Drew Brees, NO	David Johnson, ARI	Dez Bryant, DAL	Coby Fleener, NO
6	Ben Roethlisberger, PIT	Ezekiel Elliott, DAL	Jordy Nelson, GB	Delanie Walker, TEN
7	Carson Palmer, ARI	Le'Veon Bell, PIT	A.J. Green, CIN	Tyler Eifert, CIN
8	Tom Brady, NE	Devonta Freeman, ATL	Alshon Jeffery, CHI	Gary Barnidge, CLE
9	Blake Bortles, JAC	Mark Ingram, NO	Allen Robinson, JAC	Jason Witten, DAL
10	Tyrod Taylor, BUF	Eddie Lacy, GB	T.Y. Hilton, IND	Antonio Gates, SD
11	Andy Dalton, CIN	LeSean McCoy, BUF	Mike Evans, TB	Jimmy Graham, SEA
12	Philip Rivers, SD	Doug Martin, TB	Brandon Marshall, NYJ	Ladarius Green, PIT
13	Eli Manning, NYG	Thomas Rawls, SEA	Sammy Watkins, BUF	Zach Ertz, PHI
14	Matthew Stafford, DET	Matt Forte, NYJ	Keenan Allen, SD	Julius Thomas, JAC
15	Kirk Cousins, WAS	C.J. Anderson, DEN	Brandin Cooks, NO	Dwayne Allen, IND

The key to good drafting is to know where you stand on a player. As much as fantasy football players would like to say that drafting is a matter of skill, there's still an amount of luck that simply can't be accounted for. You want to stock up on guys whom you are high on and prepare for any one of your players to tear his ACL the day after your draft. 

Using FantasyPros' mock draft simulator, which uses average draft position (ADP) to simulate the 11 other owners, here's a glance at what your draft might look like. Players who are likely to be the best value in each round have been highlighted.

Pick	Position	Player	Team
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
1.01	WR	Antonio Brown	Pittsburgh Steelers
1.02	WR	Odell Beckham Jr.	New York Giants
1.03	RB	Todd Gurley	St. Louis Rams
1.04	WR	Julio Jones*	Atlanta Falcons
1.05	RB	Adrian Peterson	Minnesota Vikings
1.06	RB	David Johnson	Arizona Cardinals
1.07	RB	Ezekiel Elliott	Dallas Cowboys
1.08	WR	DeAndre Hopkins	Houston Texans
1.09	TE	Rob Gronkowski	New England Patriots
1.10	WR	Dez Bryant	Dallas Cowboys
1.11	WR	A.J. Green	Cincinnati Bengals
1.12	RB	Lamar Miller	Houston Texans
2.01	RB	Devonta Freeman	Atlanta Falcons
2.02	RB	Le'Veon Bell	Pittsburgh Steelers
2.03	WR	Allen Robinson	Jacksonville Jaguars
2.04	RB	Jamaal Charles	Kansas City Chiefs
2.05	WR	Jordy Nelson	Green Bay Packers
2.06	WR	Brandon Marshall	New York Jets
2.07	RB	Doug Martin	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2.08	WR	Alshon Jeffery	Chicago Bears
2.09	RB	Mark Ingram*	New Orleans Saints
2.10	RB	Eddie Lacy	Green Bay Packers
2.11	QB	Cam Newton	Carolina Panthers
2.12	WR	Mike Evans	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
3.01	WR	Amari Cooper	Oakland Raiders
3.02	RB	LeSean McCoy	Buffalo Bills
3.03	WR	Brandin Cooks	New Orleans Saints
3.04	WR	T.Y. Hilton*	Indianapolis Colts
3.05	QB	Aaron Rodgers	Green Bay Packers
3.06	WR	Sammy Watkins	Buffalo Bills
3.07	WR	Keenan Allen	San Diego Chargers
3.08	RB	Thomas Rawls	Seattle Seahawks
3.09	WR	Demaryius Thomas	Denver Broncos
3.10	RB	Matt Forte	New York Jets
3.11	RB	C.J. Anderson	Denver Broncos
3.12	TE	Jordan Reed	Washington Redskins
4.01	RB	Carlos Hyde	San Francisco 49ers
4.02	WR	Kelvin Benjamin	Carolina Panthers
4.03	WR	Julian Edelman	New England Patriots
4.04	QB	Russell Wilson	Seattle Seahawks
4.05	WR	Randall Cobb	Green Bay Packers
4.06	RB	Latavius Murray	Oakland Raiders
4.07	QB	Andrew Luck	Indianapolis Colts
4.08	TE	Greg Olsen	Carolina Panthers
4.09	WR	Jeremy Maclin*	Kansas City Chiefs
4.10	RB	DeMarco Murray	Tennessee Titans
4.11	WR	Doug Baldwin	Seattle Seahawks
4.12	RB	Jeremy Hill	Cincinnati Bengals
5.01	TE	Tyler Eifert	Cincinnati Bengals
5.02	WR	Jarvis Landry	Miami Dolphins
5.03	WR	Golden Tate	Detroit Lions
5.04	RB	Jonathan Stewart*	Carolina Panthers
5.05	WR	Eric Decker	New York Jets
5.06	WR	Michael Floyd	Arizona Cardinals
5.07	QB	Ben Roethlisberger	Pittsburgh Steelers
5.08	RB	Ryan Mathews	Philadelphia Eagles
5.09	WR	Larry Fitzgerald	Arizona Cardinals
5.10	QB	Drew Brees	New Orleans Saints
5.11	TE	Travis Kelce	Kansas City Chiefs
5.12	WR	Emmanuel Sanders	Denver Broncos

Note: The draft was based on composite ADP rankings from FantasyPros using a standard scoring system. The entire 20-round draft can be found here. 

Breakout Candidates

Putting together a championship team requires finding the players who are going to outperform their draft positions. Here's a quick look at some players who might be primed to put together their best seasons yet. 

Coby Fleener, TE, New Orleans Saints

Former Indianapolis Colt Coby Fleener only turned in one season as a top-five tight end with Andrew Luck throwing him the ball, so you'd be excused if the name didn't pique your interest. However, Sean Payton-coached tight ends have found a way to be top-tier fantasy tight ends.

Year	Player	Rank
2015	Benjamin Watson	8
2014	Jimmy Graham	3
2013	Jimmy Graham	1
2012	Jimmy Graham	1
2011	Jimmy Graham	2

Despite the inconsistency, Fleener finished the 2014 season as sixth-highest-scoring TE in fantasy football. Now that he no longer has to share reps with Dwayne Allen and still has a top quarterback throwing him the ball in Drew Brees, he should once again compete for a top-five finish. 

Lamar Miller, RB, Houston Texans

Lamar Miller is yet another example of a player whose new scenery might help him take the next step as a fantasy football asset. With the Miami Dolphins, the running back finished as the No. 6 back in 2015 and No. 9 in 2014. 

That was all while averaging a mere 15 touches per game. 

With head coach Bill O'Brien and Co. paying big money to bring Miller into the fold, one has to think they are prepared to build an offense around him. Last season, the Texans ran the ball 472 times with a trio of running backs that was led by Alfred Blue, Chris Polk and the remains of Arian Foster. 

That's a team dedicated to the run, and now the bulk of those carries are going to Miller. The new Texans back has a legitimate chance to end the season as a top-three running back and has a composite ADP of 13 overall on FantasyPros. 

DeVante Parker, WR, Miami Dolphins

If you wind up taking a running back with your early picks, you'll need to offset that by taking a few wide receivers with some upside later. That means targeting players like DeVante Parker, who is in a prime position to break out in 2016. 

Parker is yet another player who finds himself in the advantageous position of being put in a system where he could theoretically thrive. Parker is slated to be the Dolphins' second option behind Jarvis Landry, but head coach Adam Gase has managed two fantasy-worthy targets before. 

He's known for his work with quarterbacks like Tim Tebow and Jay Cutler, but Gase also has some impressive receiver duos on his resume such as Brandon Marshall and Brandon Lloyd, Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker and Wes Welker and Emmanuel Sanders. 

Parker only has to finish at WR31 to return value on his pick. As much as the Dolphins might be playing from behind this season, that doesn't seem like a stretch. 

Buyer Beware

Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Cam Newton's appearance on this list has nothing to do with his ability as a quarterback. Newton is one of the most special quarterbacks in the league, but his ADP of 23.3 is simply too high. 

Newton finished as the top scoring quarterback last season, but it's going to be difficult for him to keep that distinction. First, the Panthers quarterback saw a huge boost in passing touchdowns when he went from 18 in 2014 to 35 in 2015. Yes, it appeared he took a step up in 2015, but it's also just as likely that his 2016 passing touchdown total lies somewhere between those two numbers.

Newton also received a large boost with rushing touchdowns last season. He took 10 scores in for himself and thus scored 60 points on rushing touchdowns alone. That production is difficult to repeat for a quarterback and is hard to rely on. 

For instance, Russell Wilson had six rushing touchdowns in 2014 but just one in 2016. Paying for rushing touchdowns from the quarterback position is risky business. Let someone else take that gamble while you wait to snag a quarterback later in the draft.