The football season is right around the corner, and with that, the experienced fantasy football manager knows that we should be working on our craft with mock drafts. Mock drafts help you work on different strategies, staying water during the draft and seeing where certain players fall. My favorite piece of advice is to mock draft from every position within the 12-team leagues to help mold your mind on how the board should shake out on draft day. The FantasyPros Draft Wizard helps us do it quickly and effectively, so today, we will look at a PPR (points per reception) mock draft from an early position (1.03).

I’ll be breaking the draft down by each pick, explaining my process and why you should consider this path if you end up drafting from the front of the draft. Let’s start with our first pick.

Other fantasy football mock drafts:

• 12-team, 1QB, full-PPR, late pick
• Analyst half-PPR mock draft
• 12-team, 1QB, full-PPR, early pick
• Andrew Erickson’s Live PPR Mock Draft
• 12-team, 1QB, full-PPR
• Analyst full-PPR mock draft
• Analyst Superflex mock draft

1.03 Cooper Kupp (WR – LAR)
The board started as I expected with Jonathan Taylor and Christian McCaffrey. Most people would lean into Austin Ekeler, but the odds of scoring 20 total touchdowns again are slim. In addition, Ekeler faces the 26th hardest strength of schedule (SOS); this leads to one of my favorite rules of fantasy drafting:

“You can’t win your league in the first few rounds of drafting. However, you can most certainly lose the draft here.”

With that thought in mind, I’ll take the mind-meld connection between Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford to create a safer floor for my team. With this setup, we’ll have to hope a running back who excites us falls to 2.10.

2.10 Aaron Jones (RB – GB)
Aaron Rodgers lost Davante Adams this off-season, and the Packers brought in an older Sammy Watkins and drafted Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs to fix the issue. Rodgers tends not to favor his rookie pass options, and the rest of the veteran crew doesn’t excite me, which means Aaron Jones could earn a considerable PPR workload this offseason. In eight games without Adams, Aaron Jones has scored almost eight more fantasy points a game. Jones also jumps from 2.5 reps per game to 4.5, leading to a full-season pace of 76 receptions. His receiving touchdowns would project out to eight for the whole season, with 824 yards. He would also jump from 10 rushing touchdowns to 13 if those eight games were projected for an entire season.

For my first running back, you couldn’t ask for better numbers to have a safe floor due to a high opportunity of touches. So now that I have safe floors at running back and wide receiver, let’s move into the third round and see where this draft takes us.

3.03 Keenan Allen (WR – LAC)
Another fantasy rule I love to use when drafting:

“Always draft the WR1 for teams when given the opportunity.”

Well, Keenan Allen is the WR1 for the Los Angeles Chargers, who have a very potent offense that loves to go for it on fourth down (extra opportunity for us). After Mike Evans, who was drafted at 3.01, Allen is my next favorite target. I took him over A.J. Brown and Michael Pittman. Both are great wide receivers but reside in offenses I trust less than the Chargers. Allen has 100 receptions in four of the five years (one year, he had 97 receptions). We continue on our path of the safe floor for consistency as we move forward toward our 4.10 draft selection.

4.10 Terry McLaurin (WR – WAS)
Sadly (at 4.08), I got sniped on Justin Herbert, who I wanted to stack with Keenan Allen. Right after that, I got sniped on Brandin Cooks. Cooks is the definition of a “safe floor” who has been preached throughout the article. With all this, we now introduce another rule:

“Stay water.”

Sometimes the draft doesn’t lean in our favor, don’t panic. Instead, just go with the flow and continue to draft your best talent available. For me, this means drafting Terry McLaurin. There is no denying McLaurin’s talent, and now that he has his best quarterback since he entered the NFL with Carson Wentz, we may finally see it all come to fruition.

McLaurin also has a promising start to the season, with three of his first five opponents being great matchups for wide receivers. First, he faces the Jacksonville Jaguars, who allowed the seventh-most receptions last year to the WR position. Detroit Lions, who allowed the ninth-most yards to the WR position. Finally, the Tennessee Titans allowed the fourth most TDS, the second-most yards, the second-most receptions and the second-most fantasy points to the positions.

5.03 Marquise Brown (WR – ARI)
Even with Breece Hall on the board, we are leaning into the Hero RB strategy. This RB build consists of building around one RB with many wide receivers surrounding him. Marquise Brown is one of my favorite players to draft this season. With DeAndre Hopkins suspended for six games, a prior connection in college to Kyler Murray and 13 of his 17 games being indoor (which only helps a speed demon WR like Brown), this pick could have the perfect upside I am looking for in drafts.

6.10 Dalton Schultz (TE – DAL)
I’m sure you are reading his saying, “Joe, you have to get a running back now, right?” Well, not when Dalton Schultz is on the board still at 6.10. Elijah Mitchell is the next best RB on the board, and he is a player I am not high on in 2022. However, I love Schultz and the opportunity in Dallas with Amari Cooper gone and Michael Gallup possibly missing the beginning of the season. Therefore, I expect Schultz to be highly targeted, even more than last year when he received 104 targets.

7.03 Jalen Hurts (QB – PHI)
Usually, we would stress late-round QB selections in a 1QB league. However, when you have the possibility of a “Konami Code” MVP candidate such as Jalen Hurts, you have to capitalize and draft him. He provides a rushing floor while touting one of the best receiving corps in the NFL this year with A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. Hurts finished ninth overall last year with a TD-INT ratio of 16:9. He should improve on that this season and is a steal at his current ADP.

8.10 Russell Gage (WR – TB)
At this point in drafts, you should be aiming for upside swings to your team. With Chris Godwin possibly starting the season on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, Antonio Brown out of the league, and Rob Gronkowski “retired,” Gage has an opportunity to outperform his ADP and elevate your fantasy team.

9.10 Chase Edmonds (RB – MIA)
In my past article, “Must-Have Running Backs,” I pushed Chase Edmonds, and now I practice what I preach. At this ADP cost, Edmonds is the perfect PPR upside swing you need for your team. Especially in this roster build, Edmonds can provide a PPR floor with receptions and give you solid stats all season long. Look for Edmonds to hit the 50 reception mark this season in Mike McDaniel’s system.

10.10 Rhamondre Stevenson (RB – NE)
Another rule of fantasy:

“When drafting a New England Patriots running back, draft the cheaper option.”

Insert Stevenson here! With Brandon Bolden in Las Vegas and James White struggling to return from injury, the receiving duties out of the backfield will fall to Stevenson. Combining this PPR upside with his ability to steal carries on first and second down, Stevenson becomes an excellent pick within the 10th round over running backs such as Isaiah Spiller and Alexander Mattison (both drafted after him at 10.11/10.12).

11.03 Ronald Jones (RB – KC)
We are in the 11th round of our draft. We have hammered home wide receivers, and now we have to look for opportunities for backs who can take over the backfield. The Kansas City Chiefs job is up for grabs with a less than stellar performance over the last few seasons from Clyde Edwards-Helaire. As your fourth running back, you should take a shot on RoJo. If he outperforms his ADP, you have a stronger backfield. If he doesn’t, and he falters, you drop him for the waiver wire darling you find at the beginning of the season.

12.10 Trey Lance (QB – SF)
Everything I said about the Konami Code/MVP possibility for Jalen Hurts also fits here. Instead of drafting a fifth running back or a sixth wide receiver, we grab the upside mobile quarterback. Lance will be a fantastic trade piece or the starter for our team.

13.03 Tim Patrick (WR – DEN)
After drafting Trey Lance, having Tim Patrick’s solid base drop to us in the 13th round seems like a fantasy blessing. Patrick faces the easiest SOS for wide receivers and will now catch passes from a future Hall of Famer in Russell Wilson. If Patrick can produce 85 receptions, 734 yards and five touchdowns with Teddy Bridgewater/ Drew Lock, then we should all be taking the dart throw on him this year in the 13th round.

14.10 Mark Ingram (RB – NO)
Due to our Hero RB build, we need to take some later-round shots on running backs. Right now, due to Alvin Kamara‘s legal issues, Ingram is the perfect late-round dart throw. If Kamara misses time, you have a starting running back. If Kamara doesn’t get suspended, you drop Ingram and find someone new on the waiver wire.

15.03 Sony Michel (RB – MIA)
Late rounds draft picks are prime for dart throws. But, instead of wasting your dart throws on a team’s WR3/4, let’s use it on an RB who could have a bigger slice of the backfield than we realize. Plus, we get a handcuff to our early pick in Chase Edmonds. Best case scenario: we get the running back who receives the goal-line work. Worst case scenario: he underperforms, and the backfield belongs solely to Chase Edmonds. Then we release him and play the waiver wire.

After 15 rounds, we end up with:

QB: Jalen Hurts, Trey Lance
RB: Aaron Jones, Chase Edmonds, Rhamondre Stevenson, Ronald Jones, Mark Ingram and Sony Michel
WR: Cooper Kupp, Keenan Allen, Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown, Russell Gage and Tim Patrick
TE: Dalton Schultz

The draft grade that the Draft Wizard bestowed upon us: B+

Strengths: WR
Weakness: None
Projections: Second highest-scoring team in the league
Reaches (2+Rds): Zero
Steals (2+ Rds): Trey Lance (12.10)
Value Picks (1Rd): Chase Edmonds (9.3), Rhamondre Stevenson (10.10) and Sony Michel (15.3)
Slight Reach (1Rd): None

The standard draft pattern is to draft running back early and draft your wide receiver position later. In this draft, I wanted to show you that you need to “stay water” and realize there is more than one build that can lead you to the promised land of your fantasy championship.

If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.