Fantasy Football Draft Strategy 2017: Latest Mock Draft and Cheat Sheet Tips

Fantasy football is an inexact science, where a dash of luck comes into play before an owner hoists the league trophy.  

This aside, doing well in the fantasy landscape among fellow enthusiasts is one of the best feelings a fan of the sport can experience because it is perhaps the closest an owner will come to feeling like they're actually running a team.  

Look at last year. Owners who put in the work and eventually invested in a guy like Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott won a few games for their efforts. Ditto for those who weaved through the waiver wire in expert fashion, gobbling up Chicago Bears running back Jordan Howard. 

Being a successful owner takes dedication on a week-to-week basis, with droves of hours necessary to nail a draft before the season even begins. Owners these days live in amazing times, though, with more information than ever available at their fingertips.

Below, let's provide more with a look at a mock draft before diving into a cheat sheet, with everything based on 12-team standard Yahoo leagues.

Mock Draft

Pick
1.01	David Johnson
1.02	Le'Veon Bell
1.03	LeSean McCoy
1.04	Antonio Brown
1.05	Odell Beckham Jr.
1.06	Julio Jones
1.07	Jay Ajayi
1.08	Melvin Gordon
1.09	Mike Evans
1.10	Jordan Howard
1.11	A.J. Green
1.12	Todd Gurley
2.01	Devonta Freeman
2.02	Jordy Nelson
2.03	DeMarco Murray
2.04	Aaron Rodgers
2.05	Isaiah Crowell
2.06	Rob Gronkowski
2.07	Dez Bryant
2.08	Marshawn Lynch
2.09	Leonard Fournette
2.10	Ezekiel Elliott
2.11	Lamar Miller
2.12	Michael Thomas

Cheat Sheet

1	David Johnson
2	Le'Veon Bell
3	Antonio Brown
4	Odell Beckham Jr.
5	Julio Jones
6	LeSean McCoy
7	Melvin Gordon
8	Mike Evans
9	Jay Ajayi
10	A.J. Green
11	Jordan Howard
12	Jordy Nelson
13	Todd Gurley
14	Devonta Freeman
15	Michael Thomas
16	DeMarco Murray
17	Marshawn Lynch
18	Dez Bryant
19	Leonard Fournette
20	T.Y. Hilton
21	Rob Gronkowski
22	Amari Cooper
23	Lamar Miller
24	Aaron Rodgers
25	Isaiah Crowell
26	Ezekiel Elliott
27	Terrelle Pryor
28	DeAndre Hopkins
29	Tom Brady
30	Brandin Cooks
31	Joe Mixon
32	Doug Baldwin
33	Carlos Hyde
34	Sammy Watkins
35	Demaryius Thomas
36	Tyreek Hill
37	Spencer Ware
38	Christian McCaffrey
39	Travis Kelce
40	Allen Robinson
41	LeGarrette Blount
42	Davante Adams
43	Drew Brees
44	Doug Martin
45	Alshon Jeffery
46	Keenan Allen
47	Andrew Luck
48	Brandon Marshall
49	Mark Ingram
50	Jarvis Landry

A cheat sheet is all about coming up with projected value and production before slapping the players in order. 

Really, it's a grounded way of going about a draft with little in the way of surprises. Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson leads the way, and Le'Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers follows closely behind based on their production a year ago.

Readers will notice wideouts follow backs on the list. Owners can't go wrong taking a wideout over a running back if he's a top-five guy like Antonio Brown or Odell Beckham Jr.—in a vacuum, the wideout is likely the better choice. The problem is availability—for every top running back like a Bell, there are three or four wideouts. 

Scarcity creates demand at running back, which creates runs on the position right away. The same doesn't apply to quarterback, clearly, because the cheat sheet doesn't list one until outside of the top 25. 

While it's nice to have an Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady and not need to ponder a lineup decision on a weekly basis, it's often better to have skill positions shored up instead. Quarterbacks are easy to predict on a weekly basis, and even guys like Blake Bortles put up strong fantasy numbers. 

And like Doug Orth of FFToday.com (via USA Today) noted, the simple numbers game means it is safe to wait on quarterbacks:

"Winning championships in highly competitive leagues typically requires being able to start a top-five option at no fewer than three of the four skill positions every week. Quarterback and tight end are two of the four that require only one starter in most leagues, while the former is the only one of all the positions in which owners can generally accept the notion that supply equals or exceeds demand."

According to Orth, 13 quarterbacks tossed at least 25 touchdowns a year ago. In a 12-team league, owners can afford to wait on someone like Marcus Mariota of the Tennessee Titans, who has an average draft position of 8.06 (eighth round, sixth pick) and slotted as one of the 13. 

Owners will also notice the fine line the cheat sheet walks when it comes to new faces in new places. Rookie back Leonard Fournette of the Jacksonville Jaguars could be a workhorse, but it's hard to justify his ADP of 2.07 when there is no passing game to take the pressure off him and Chris Ivory and T.J. Yeldon possibly stealing snaps. 

The same measured approach applies to wideout. It's easy to get hyped about the idea of Alshon Jeffery with the Philadelphia Eagles after years of his struggles with the rebuilding Chicago Bears. But he's had injury issues and needs to fight with Torrey Smith for attention. Quarterback Carson Wentz also struggled during the second half of last season. LeGarrette Blount makes the running game more viable than usual, and Jeffery himself has struggled this preseason. 

Compare those factors with someone like Terrelle Pryor, who now suits up for the Washington Redskins and plays with a reliable fantasy producer in Kirk Cousins. 

Pryor put up a 1,000-yard season in Cleveland of all places a year ago and has spent some of his time this offseason working with Randy Moss, as captured by Stephen Czarda of the team's official website: 

The big takeaway is simple—knee-jerk reactions lose fantasy games, if not leagues. Jeffery has an ADP of 4.04, right around names like Tyreek Hill and Michael Crabtree. He's not the worst option, but owners can see the leaguewide details that go into constructing a cheat sheet of any length. 

As usual, the beauty of fantasy football is the fact any strategy can work. Proven approaches, real-world analysis and projections can only go so far once an owner gets in a live-draft environment. But grabbing a printable cheat sheet and marking it as a draft progresses (while keeping it away from the eyes of other owners) can offer a serious round-by-round advantage, provided the owner knows the workings behind the cheat sheet's order.

And really, there isn't anything cheating about a cheat sheet—if everyone has access to deep dives of information during live drafts, it's more a necessity for success these days than anything else. 

All scoring info, points-against info and ownership stats courtesy of Yahoo standard leagues. Average draft position courtesy of Fantasy Football Calculator.