10-Team PPR Fantasy Football Mock Draft from 10th Position | Puka Nacua, Jahmyr Gibbs, C.J. Stroud, Malik Nabers, Ezekiel Elliott and More
Morgan conducts his first fantasy football draft of the year, selecting 10th in a 10-team standard setup.
The fantasy football season is closing in quickly, which means it’s time to start preparing for draft season.
Today, I decided to conduct my first mock draft of the season. I used the FantasySP Fantasy Football Mock Draft tool and was selecting 10th in a 10-team PPR standard setup. The starting slots were: one QB, two RB, two WR, one TE and one RB/WR/TE. Instead of wasting time with a defense/special teams and kicker, I skipped those positions, but still drafted seven bench slots.
Let’s dive into the mock draft!
Get ready for draft season! Practice Mock Drafts, check out ADPs and get advice for trades with our trade analyzer.
First Selections
When selecting from the last position in a fantasy football draft, I always try to pick players at different positions with my first selections - so I won’t draft two RBs or WRs.
In this mock, I took Los Angeles Rams’ Puka Nacua with the final pick in round one. In his rookie season, Nacua was sensational, catching 105 of the 160 passes thrown his way for 1,486 yards and six touchdowns. He added 89 rushing yards on 12 attempts.
Los Angeles will run pretty much the same offensive players out there this season. Many might be worried about Nacua’s numbers falling off with Cooper Kupp around, but I see Kupp on the decline and think Nacua will be the clear No. 1 target for Matthew Stafford. If Nacua isn’t able to match his catches and yardage from a season ago, an extra couple scores should be able to make up the difference.
I grabbed Detroit Lions’ running back Jahmyr Gibbs with the first pick in round two. Gibbs was fantastic in his rookie season, despite splitting the workload with David Montgomery. Gibbs had 945 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 182 rushing attempts, while catching 52 of his 71 targets for an additional 316 yards and another score.
Montgomery is still around, and the Lions’ offense as a whole is pretty much unchanged. A lot of fantasy owners would shy away from the Lions’ backs because they have two good ones, but last year showed the duo can both excel, and I expect Gibbs to take another step forward this season. I simply preferred the upside of Gibbs over anyone else at pick No. 11.
Next Two Picks
In rounds three and four, I hoped to add another running back and wide receiver. I accomplished just that by taking Baltimore Ravens’ Derrick Henry in the third and then grabbing Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Mike Evans in the fourth.
Henry will not be playing on the Tennessee Titans for the first time in his career. He joins a much better offense, and there’s a lot of hype surrounding him now that he has Lamar Jackson handing him the rock.
Henry has scored double-digit touchdowns on the ground in six straight seasons, and even if his yardage and overall workload dips a bit, Henry should be in line to reach at least 10 rushing scores again. He’s had 612 receiving yards over the past two seasons, and if he can remain involved in the passing game, he should be in line for another big fantasy season.
Evans is another model of consistency in the NFL. He’s gone over 1,000 receiving yards in every season of his career. Last year, Evans had 79 grabs on 136 targets for 1,255 yards and 13 touchdowns.
His touchdown production has varied a bit over his career, but consistently going over 1,000 yards has kept Evans a reliable fantasy asset. The only thing that could maybe slow Evans is age. The Bucs have a very similar group of offensive players in place for the upcoming season, and Evans should easily be the team’s top wideout all season.
After the first four picks, I was feeling great about how things were lining up, which allowed me to possibly be a bit more aggressive and target some potential sleepers later in the draft.
Rounds 5-6
With my next two picks, I decided to round out my starting lineup (excluding the flex spot). I took Baltimore’s Mark Andrews in round five and then got Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud in round six.
Andrews dealt with an injury last season, but has consistently been Jackson’s top target in Baltimore for the past several seasons.
Zay Flowers emerged last season as a big-time threat for Jackson, and with Henry around, a little of the workload might be lifted from Andrews’ shoulders. Still, when he’s healthy, he can be one of the top fantasy TEs in the game.
It’s a great value pick in my eyes, and could be a big-time steal by the end of the season.
I typically prefer to wait to draft my quarterbacks, but Stroud was simply too tempting here.
He completed 319 of his 499 pass attempts a season ago. Stroud had 4,108 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He added 167 rushing yards and three scores.
The offensive players around Stroud improved since the season ended, so I expect any even bigger season from Stroud in his sophomore campaign. He’s got Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell as his top receivers, a strong tight end in Dalton Schultz and a better running back now in Joe Mixon.
I think there’s a very strong chance that Stroud finishes as a top-five fantasy quarterback, which is why I decided to select him in the sixth round.
Filling in the Gaps
With my last batch of picks, I selected Chicago Bears’ D'Andre Swift, New York Giants’ Malik Nabers, Los Angeles Chargers’ Ladd McConkey, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Jaylen Warren, Dallas Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott, Green Bay Packers’ Romeo Doubs, Chargers’ Justin Herbert and Philadelphia Eagles’ Dallas Goedert.
In Philly last season, Swift rushed for 1,049 yards and five touchdowns, while catching 39 of his 49 targets for 214 yards and another score.
Chicago has a whole new offense, and despite the receiver trio of D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen, I like Swift to enjoy another productive fantasy season. I don’t see a ton of RB competition for Swift, and if he stays healthy, I think could be a fantasy draft steal.
Taking Nabers and McConkey has some risk involved, but again, after liking my draft picks early on, I wanted to take some swings on some potential breakout players.
I don’t like the Giants’ offense all that much, but someone has to serve as WR1, and that should be Nabers. I expect him to be a big-time part of start/sit stories all season.
With Allen in Chicago, there’s not much left for receivers for the Chargers. McConkey has a chance to step right in and be the team’s top wideout.
Despite being massively undervalued right now, Herbert is still a top-end quarterback, and he can make any receiver a good fantasy option. I like McConkey being his favorite target, and think he’ll be starting more often than not for fantasy teams this season.
Speaking of Herbert, he’s a perfect backup fantasy quarterback. I don’t anticipate his ADP being this low all draft season, but if it does, getting him late could open up some trade opportunities later in the season for the fantasy owners that draft him.
Warren is part of a RB duo in Pittsburgh with Najee Harris. It’s risky to take him after getting Gibbs early in my draft, but both teams showed that two RBs can be good fantasy assets. Warren is serving as a depth option for me, and could turn into a much bigger asset if Harris were to go down, so it was too hard to pass on that value here.
Elliott should be the main RB again in Dallas. The offensive weapons are mostly the same otherwise. His prime has passed, but Elliott is still a pretty solid backup fantasy option, and someone who could be a draft steal by the end of the season.
Doubs is part of a logjam of receivers in Green Bay. He had 674 receiving yards and eight scores a season ago. It’s really a mystery as to which Green Bay WRs will lead the way from a fantasy perspective, so using a late pick on one of them is like buying a lottery ticket.
Goedert serves as my No. 2 tight end. He had a rough go of things in 2023, but I’m expecting a bounceback season in 2024. There’s not much risk involved this late in a draft, so why not take a gamble on a bounceback?
#mock-draft #2024-fantasy-football
