Fantasy Football Draft Strategy 2018: Latest Mock Draft and Cheatsheet Tips

For all the information available to info-seeking fantasy football players, nothing helps the preparation process quite like a mock draft.

Sure, it's critical to know rankings, sleeper candidates and the boom-or-bust types who populate do-not-draft lists. But all of those items are subject to change based on the actions of your specific draft room.

If five teams take quarterbacks in the first two rounds, every other signal-caller's rankings must be adjusted. That doesn't mean you must always overreact to what's happening around you—if everyone else decides kickers should go five rounds earlier, let them—but you should be familiar with contingency plans for different scenarios.

We'll help point you in the right direction with some cheatsheet tips after laying out a three-round, 10-team mock draft using standard scoring courtesy of FantasyPros.com.

Mock Draft

Round 1

Team 1: Todd Gurley, RB, Los Angeles Rams

Team 2: David Johnson, RB, Arizona Cardinals

Team 3: Le'Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Team 4: Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys

Team 5: Alvin Kamara, RB, New Orleans Saints

Team 6: Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants

Team 7: Antonio Brown, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

Team 8: DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Houston Texans

Team 9: Melvin Gordon, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

Team 10: Leonard Fournette, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

Round 2

Team 10: Kareem Hunt, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

Team 9: Odell Beckham Jr., WR, New York Giants

Team 8: Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings

Team 7: Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta Falcons

Team 6: Davante Adams, WR, Green Bay Packers

Team 5: Christian McCaffrey, RB, Carolina Panthers

Team 4: Jordan Howard, RB, Chicago Bears

Team 3: Michael Thomas, WR, New Orleans Saints

Team 2: A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

Team 1: Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

Round 3

Team 1: Devonta Freeman, RB, Atlanta Falcons

Team 2: T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indianapolis Colts

Team 3: Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England Patriots

Team 4: Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Team 5: Tyreek Hill, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

Team 6: Zach Ertz, TE, Philadelphia Eagles

Team 7: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

Team 8: Joe Mixon, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

Team 9: LeSean McCoy, RB, Buffalo Bills

Team 10: Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings

PPR Top-50 Cheat Sheet

1. Le'Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers

2. Todd Gurley, RB, Los Angeles Rams

3. David Johnson, RB, Arizona Cardinals

4. Antonio Brown, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

5. Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas Cowboys

6. Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants

7. Alvin Kamara, RB, New Orleans Saints

8. Odell Beckham Jr., WR, New York Giants

9. Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta Falcons

10. Kareem Hunt, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

11. DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Houston Texans

12. Dalvin Cook, RB, Minnesota Vikings

13. Leonard Fournette, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars

14. Melvin Gordon, RB, Los Angeles Chargers

15. Michael Thomas, WR, New Orleans Saints

16. Keenan Allen, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

17. A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals

18. Devonta Freeman, RB, Atlanta Falcons

19. Davante Adams, WR, Green Bay Packers

20. Christian McCaffrey, RB, Carolina Panthers

21. LeSean McCoy, RB, Buffalo Bills

22. Mike Evans, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

23. Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England Patriots

24. Joe Mixon, RB, Cincinnati Bengals

25. Jerick McKinnon, RB, San Francisco 49ers

26. Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

27. Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals

28. Jordan Howard, RB, Chicago Bears

29. Stefon Diggs, WR, Minnesota Vikings

30. T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indianapolis Colts

31. Adam Thielen, WR, Minnesota Vikings

32. Zach Ertz, TE, Philadelphia Eagles

33. Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos

35. Tyreek Hill, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

34. Doug Baldwin, WR, Seattle Seahawks

36. Allen Robinson, WR, Chicago Bears

37. Golden Tate, WR, Detroit Lions

38. Jarvis Landry, WR, Cleveland Browns

39. Kenyan Drake, RB, Miami Dolphins

40. Brandin Cooks, WR, Los Angeles Rams

41. Amari Cooper, WR, Oakland Raiders

42. Alshon Jeffery, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

43. Jay Ajayi, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

44. Josh Gordon, WR, Cleveland Browns

45. Royce Freeman, RB, Denver Broncos

46. Marvin Jones, WR, Detroit Lions

47. Derrick Henry, RB, Tennessee Titans

48. Dion Lewis, RB, Tennessee Titans

49. Robert Woods, WR, Los Angeles Rams​

50. JuJu Smith-Schuster, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

Find Your Safety Net

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

Misfiring on an early selection can sink your entire season. But assuming you guess right on the studs, the second-most important task is establishing your comfort threshold at each position.

In other words, who are the lowest-ranked players you'd still feel comfortable starting? Having that baseline can help dictate the direction of your draft in a way that seamlessly adjusts to the actions of your league mates.

This is often undertaken by creating tiers. While you ideally collect as many top-tier players as possible, the basic purpose is classifying similar players by projected production and average draft position (ADP) to maximize the value of your picks.

Let's say you're the fortunate soul who lands Antonio Brown. Well, you might have him on a tier all to himself. That might sound hyperbolic, but the stat sheet says it's not. He's had at least 100 receptions, 1,200 receiving yards and eight touchdown catches in each of the last five seasons. The rest of the NFL has eight such campaigns over that stretch, and only Brandon Marshall has had more than one (two).

With a tier-one talent like Brown in hand, you might be comfortable leaving the wide receiver position alone until the third or fourth tiers come around (depending on how the draft goes, of course). That could free you up to grab a couple of second- or third-tier running backs like Devonta Freeman, Christian McCaffrey, LeSean McCoy or Joe Mixon before adding another wideout.

Don't Reach for Quarterbacks

Jeffrey Phelps/Associated Press

If Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady haven't been selected by the fifth/sixth-round, we'll understand if you think you've found enough high-level skill players to grab one of the elite passers. We probably wouldn't go that route, but we'd forgive you if you did.

But chances are your league isn't going to wait that long. Not when Rodgers and Brady are marquee, household names. Rodgers isn't even getting out of the third round in most leagues (3.06 average draft position), and Brady is going early in the fifth (5.03).

That's the wrong way to extract the most value in a standard league.

While Brady led the league with 4,577 passing yards last season, he only finished third at quarterback in ESPN standard leagues (295.9 points). He didn't even outscore Alex Smith by a full point (295.2). More importantly, Brady only had a 40.6-point advantage on the No. 12 quarterback, Jared Goff. That equates to just 2.5 extra points per week over the 16-game season.

Goff is getting drafted in the 11th round (11.02). Good luck finding another position where you can wait six rounds and sacrifice less than three points per week.

"When you take a quarterback this [season], you've got to feel like you're stealing him from the rest of your league," CBS Sports' Dave Richard wrote. "Like it's larceny. If you don't have that feeling when you are drafting a quarterback, you're picking the wrong player."

How To Handle the Rookie Class

Adam Hunger/Associated Press

We're obviously huge Saquon Barkley fans, and so is seemingly everyone else. More importantly, the New York Giants are the biggest Barkley backers of all, having spent both the No. 2 pick and $31 million on him. They'll give him every opportunity to prove the wisdom of that investment, which his 43 touchdowns from scrimmage over the past two seasons at Penn State suggest he's more than capable of doing.

Patience will be the key with fellow first-rounder Rashaad Penny. He's trailing Chris Carson in the race to become the Seattle Seahawks primary rusher, per ESPN.com's Brady Henderson, but Penny's upside is massive. All he did the past two seasons at San Diego State is transform 443 carries into 3,266 yards (7.4 per attempt) and 34 touchdowns.

Staying in the backfield, Sony Michel found himself in an interesting position when the New England Patriots grabbed him with the 31st pick. A recent knee procedure isn't expected to impact his availability "for a significant portion, if any, of the regular season," per ESPN.com's Mike Reiss, meaning Michel will potentially factor into the backfield equation. There are other options, but none as dynamic (Rex Burkhead, James White).

But wait—wasn't the 2018 draft all about the quarterbacks? Yes in real life, but not so much for fantasy.

Recent history suggests running quarterbacks have the most success as rookies, and the best ball-carrier of this bunch sits third on his team's depth chart (Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens). Josh Rosen and Baker Mayfield have veteran starters ahead of them. If Josh Allen and/or Sam Darnold win their respective competitions, hiccups should still be expected.

There's nothing wrong with stashing a freshman passer as an upside play on your bench, but make sure you have a reliable option elsewhere to get through the growing pains.

Statistics used courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com. Average draft position (ADP) obtained via Fantasy Football Calculator.