Fantasy Football 2022: Early Mock Draft for Next Season

The 2021 NFL season is so last week.

Sure, there might be a few scraps of confetti still swirling around SoFi Stadium, but it's time for football fans—or, at the least, fantasy football managers—to move forward.

The slate has already been wiped clean for 2022, so no matter if you're looking to defend a league title or trying to make a worst-to-first leap happen, a new day has dawned.

Let's get busy, then, with an early fantasy football mock using FantasyPros' mock draft simulator. After laying out the picks we made, we'll give you a few peaks behind the curtain to break down the thought process behind the selections.

Fantaasy Football Mock Draft

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We were randomly assigned the seventh pick in a 12-team, point-per-reception format using FantasyPros' standard lineup settings. Our picks went as follows:

Round 1 (Pick 7): Cooper Kupp, WR, Los Angeles Rams

Round 2 (Pick 18): Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

Round 3 (Pick 31): Antonio Gibson, RB, Washington Commanders

Round 4 (Pick 42): DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Arizona Cardinals

Round 5 (Pick 55): Josh Jacobs, RB, Las Vegas Raiders

Round 6 (Pick 66): Jerry Jeudy, WR, Denver Broncos

Round 7 (Pick 79): J.K. Dobbins, RB, Baltimore Ravens

Round 8 (Pick 90): Miles Sanders, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

Round 9 (Pick 103): Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks

Round 10 (Pick 114): Sony Michel, RB, Los Angeles Rams

Round 11 (Pick 127): Chubba Hubbard, RB, Carolina Panthers

Round 12 (Pick 138): Corey Davis, WR, New York Jets

Round 13 (Pick 151): Justin Fields, QB, Chicago Bears

Round 14 (Pick 162): Denver Broncos D/ST

Round 15 (Pick 175): Matt Gay, K, Los Angeles Rams

Early Strategy

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By the time my first selection came around, the following six players were all off the board: Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry, Joe Mixon, Ja'Marr Chase, Austin Ekeler and Christian McCaffrey. While I'd normally prefer to open my draft with a running back, I just wasn't wild about the options still available. Dalvin Cook drew the most consideration, but he has yet to play more than 14 games in a season and just saw his touchdowns plummet from 30 the previous two campaigns combined to six.

So, rather than hoping for the best with Cook, Najee Harris or Alvin Kamara, I went where the numbers said I should. Kupp became the pick after a monstrous PPR effort saw him snare 145 receptions on 191 targets for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. That's an all-caps ELITE option, and he'll stare wear that tag even if he only replicates 75 percent of that production.

The first five picks of the second round were receivers—Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs and Deebo Samuel—so I wasn't wild about the options at that position or running back. Hence, I went with Kelce, giving me a great opportunity to have both the top tight end and the best receiver.

Obviously, running back left a glaring hole on the roster, so that's where I turned my attention for four of my next selections. In a vacuum, there isn't a great option between Gibson, Jacobs, Dobbins and Sanders, but I feel good about how that position should treat me most weeks.

The Quarterback Question

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It's only fitting that the most critical question in fantasy football revolves around the most important position in professional sports: When should you draft a quarterback?

Josh Allen was the first to go at the top of round three, Patrick Mahomes went late in round four and the position wasn't touched again until the sixth round. The four picks ahead of my Jeudy selection were Kyler Murray, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. Maybe if one of those would have been available, I would've gone that direction, but I really wanted to bulk up my receiving and running back spots still.

The sixth and seventh rounds also took Dak Prescott, Aaron Rodgers, Trey Lance and Matthew Stafford out of the equation, and the position went untouched again until I snatched up Wilson in the ninth round. Only one other club still needed a starting QB by then (eventually taking Deshaun Watson in the 12th round), so perhaps I could've waited even longer, but Wilson offered a high enough reward for me to pounce.

Granted, he didn't have a great 2021 season (259 completions for 3,113 yards), and he may not have a future in Seattle, but at this stage of the draft, I was comfortable taking on that kind of risk. He still showed his typically expert ball control this past season (25 passing touchdowns against just six interceptions), and a split from the Seahawks wouldn't necessarily be the worst news for his potential numbers.

Saying that, though, I felt like my QB room needed another dart throw, so I spent my third-to-last selection on Fields. His first season saw more downs (58.9 completion percentage, 10 interceptions) than ups (seven passing touchdowns, 420 yards and two scores on the ground), but his natural talent is obvious and significant. There's a universe in which he takes a massive step forward in 2022, and if it's the one we're living in, I could be sitting pretty at this position despite my late start.