On the latest episode of The Couch GMs Podcast, Cody and George participated in a 14 Round, Half-PPR mock draft. It is early, draft season is still 3 months away, but this is our first look at what rankings and a draft could look like for the 2022 season. What were some of the big takeaways?
WR Cooper Kupp, MVP finalist and the #1 fantasy WR in 2022 went 9th overall in our draft, taken by George, and was actually the 4th WR taken. This season could see a huge uptick in WRs in the first 2 rounds and that just shows how much their value now rivals the top RBs.
I expect there to be a lot of risk/reward at the WR position in the middle rounds. While there are still some safe options, a lot of stars have now fallen to rounds 5-8 for various reasons. A few notables are Saints WR Michael Thomas, Browns WR Amari Cooper, and Rams WR Allen Robinson. Thomas, who missed 2021 with injury, could come back to form this year with Jameis Winston and a good supporting cast. Amari Cooper was traded to the Cleveland Browns in the offseason and could break out as their top WR, but it is unclear who his QB will be for most of the season thanks to the Deshaun Watson situation. Finally, Allen Robinson was a stud regardless of QB play for the early part of his career, but injuries and what seemed to be bad game planning made Robinson a non-factor last season. Pair him with Matt Stafford on a prolific offense and he is poised for a bounce back. Those are just 3 of the many guys who could out-perform their draft value in these rounds.
Watch training camps for RB battles! This one will be just as big or bigger than usual. Some of the hot spots are Seattle, Atlanta, Buffalo, Jacksonville, and the New York Jets. All of these teams added RBs to the fold in the offseason and if you can choose an effective starter from those RB rooms in the mid-late rounds, the value is off the charts. For example, in this mock, Kenneth Walker was the first Seahawks RB off the board in round 8, Chris Carson went in round 12, and Rashad Penny went undrafted. Any of those 3 could lead the backfield on a run heavy team.
Waiting on the TE and QB positions still seems like a viable option as it has been in recent years. Despite waiting until rounds 9 and 10 to draft the positions, Cody and George escaped the draft with Dawson Knox and Russell Wilson, 2 solid players at great value.
Want to see the whole draft? Check out the full board below and listen to our latest episode here for a walk through every pick!
Comments