One of the best ways to take advantage of FantasyPros’ fantasy football mock draft simulator is to see how your team shapes out when trying different drafting strategies. Today, I’m going to be drafting with one particular strategy in mind: Late-Round Quarterback. Waiting to be one of the last teams in your league to take a QB can be very profitable, especially with so many viable fantasy quarterbacks available this season. Let’s see how our team turns out.
This fantasy football mock draft will be for a half-PPR, 12-team league with one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one Flex and six bench slots. I was randomly assigned the sixth pick for this draft. You can check out the full draft board here, but read on for a breakdown of each pick.
One of the best ways to take advantage of FantasyPros’ fantasy football mock draft simulator is to see how your team shapes out when trying different drafting strategies. Today, I’m going to be drafting with one particular strategy in mind: Late-Round Quarterback. Waiting to be one of the last teams in your league to take a QB can be very profitable, especially with so many viable fantasy quarterbacks available this season. Let’s see how our team turns out.
This fantasy football mock draft will be for a half-PPR, 12-team league with one QB, two RBs, three WRs, one TE, one Flex and six bench slots. I was randomly assigned the sixth pick for this draft. You can check out the full draft board here, but read on for a breakdown of each pick.
I was very happy to see Bijan Robinson still available sixth overall. Both Amon-Ra St. Brown and Justin Jefferson would have been perfectly acceptable alternatives, but I like starting my half-PPR drafts with a stud running back if I can get one of Christian McCaffrey, Breece Hall or Robinson.
It is undeniably risky to take a rookie this high, but Marvin Harrison isn’t just any rookie. He’s the best receiver prospect we’ve seen in years, and he has landed in an excellent situation in Arizona. He should dominate targets enough to have a very high floor, and his ceiling is sky-high.
Nico Collins is one of my favorite players to click in drafts this season. If it weren’t for the arrival of Stefon Diggs, I think he would be going closer to the end of the first round than the middle of the third. After all, he finished his breakout 2023 season sixth in half-PPR points per game, seventh in Pro Football Focus (PFF) receiving grade and second in yards per route run (YPRR). Diggs is going to take away some targets, yes, but this Houston offense is built around Collins. He will get his, even in a crowded offense.
At this point, I’m drafting either Mark Andrews or Trey McBride in over half of my mock drafts. Especially in a draft like this, where I know I’m using a late-quarterback approach, it makes sense to have an elite option at the other one-off position. Andrews and McBride, in my eyes, bring similar value to Sam LaPorta/Travis Kelce for at least a full-round average draft position (ADP) discount.
I heavily considered taking Amari Cooper with this pick, but ultimately went with Higgins instead due to his higher contingent upside (if Ja’Marr Chase were to miss time). Higgins has missed more than his fair share of time himself but consistently performs when he is healthy. Grabbing him as my WR3 is a very comfortable place to be.
Najee Harris isn’t a particularly exciting pick, but he should see plenty of carries in Arthur Smith’s offense. He was also quietly efficient in 2023, ranking 10th in the league with a 41.9% success rate, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. And he could suddenly find himself in a true workhorse role if Jaylen Warren‘s hamstring injury ends up leading to more issues during the season.
Rashee Rice’s profile does have red flags. His rookie-year average depth of target (aDOT) of 5.2 was by far the lowest of any receiver with as much volume, meaning his production was heavily reliant on schemed targets and underneath routes. Given that the Chiefs have added to their receiver room substantially, he could be set for regression, and that’s before we consider the chance he is suspended at some point this season. With Marquise Brown banged up there’s also a chance he just runs it back as Patrick Mahomes‘ WR1, and that’s a bet I’m happy to take in the seventh round.
Speaking of red flags, I have spent a lot of this offseason entirely out on Chase Brown. In 2023, he posted an absurdly low 34.1% success rate, the worst of any RB with as many as his 44 carries. He also ranked 73rd out of 77 players with that many carries in PFF rushing grade. That was enough to keep me from drafting him. I’ve come around a little on Brown recently. He’s an explosive young back in an ambiguous situation, and that is a profile worth chasing. Compared to the other running backs on the board, I liked Brown’s upside as my RB3.
Brian Thomas, a rookie receiver with high draft capital on a relatively solid offense, is another player with a profile worth chasing. He might not contribute much out of the gate, but this roster won’t need him to, with four solid receivers ahead of him. Hopefully, he will adjust to the NFL and force his way into my lineup at some point.
Romeo Doubs is a player I find myself taking more and more as we get closer to Week 1. He is reportedly consistently performing in Packers camp and is even featured in Jordan Love‘s unstoppable play. If Doubs can indeed emerge as the top target in this ambiguous WR room, he is another player who could force his way into WR3 or even WR2 conversations.
Wow. Knowing I came into this draft planning to draft a late-round quarterback, I had resigned myself to a high-floor, low-ceiling pocket passer. Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa, Jared Goff and even Geno Smith or Matthew Stafford. I certainly didn’t expect to wait until every other team had selected a QB and still walk away with a true dual-threat option. The Draft Wizard even graded this as my best pick of the fantasy mock draft, a two-round steal according to the expert consensus rankings (ECR). Daniels, like any true dual-threat quarterback, has a legit top-five ceiling. Even if he isn’t a productive passer, he can still rush his way to QB1 numbers a la Justin Fields. If he can’t even do that, no worries. Some of those high-floor pocket passers are still available on waivers in a pinch.
In retrospect, I should have gone elsewhere with this pick, likely taking a running back. At this stage of the draft, all that matters is upside. And while Khalil Shakir does have the talent and team situation to have some upside, the fact that he is very unlikely to play a full-time role (he ran just five routes from 2-WR sets in 2023) caps his ceiling. Given that I have three running backs on this roster, another running back would have been a better pick.
While the same “should have been a running back” caveat applies to this pick as the previous one, I actually like Jermaine Burton a bit more as a late-round flier. If Higgins or Chase (who both have decent injury histories) miss time, the third-round rookie could claim a fantasy-friendly role as the Bengals’ WR2. More importantly, this late in the draft, taking upside shots with rookie receivers is better than betting on a relatively known quantity with a capped ceiling like Shakir.
Another upside rookie, Bucky Irving is essentially a pure handcuff. If you really squint, you can make a case that he will steal some work from Rachaad White, who has proven to be a very inefficient rusher… but I doubt it. Instead, this pick will pay off if White gets injured later in the season, allowing Irving to step in and provide some weeks of RB2 production when it matters most.
