2013 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Not Many Detroit Lions In Top 70
By Zac Snyder
Dec. 2, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (81) celebrates after catching a pass for a touchdown in the third quarter against the Indianapolis Colts at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
There are football fans out there that decry the release of mock NFL drafts in January. Well, what about a fantasy football mock draft this time of year?
Seems kind of silly but like early mock drafts, an early fantasy football mock draft is just for fun. Yahoo’s Andy Behrens recently put together a 2013 fantasy football mock and admits as much, warning the general public to ‘NOT TRY THIS AT HOME’.
Since Behrens did the work of putting together a ten round mock for a standard ten team league we can talk about the results while heeding his advice to not take part in such lunacy.
It doesn’t take long to find the first Detroit Lions in the mock. Not surprisingly, it’s Calvin Johnson with the third overall pick, behind Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster. Behrens admits to at least briefly considering Johnson for the top spot in his discussion following the first round of picks:
"Peterson at the top is one of the easiest calls in any draft in recent memory. He’ll be coming off a historic season, the best of his six-year career. The man has never failed to reach double-digits in touchdowns, no matter how lousy his supporting cast. I might be able to construct a (weak) case to draft Megatron over AP — based on the likely separation between each player and the No. 2 at their position — but in practice, I’d always draft Peterson."
Fair enough.
I figured Matthew Stafford would be the next Lion taken so I started scanning…and scanning…and scanning.
Sure enough, I was right, but Stafford’s name didn’t appear until the seventh round. That’s lower than I had expected, even considering Stafford took a step back in 2012, but the reasoning has, at least in part, to do with a deep crop of quarterbacks. Behrens explains as much when discussing the lack of quarterbacks in his first round:
"Why no quarterbacks in the first round? I’ll admit it seems a little unrealistic, because in a public-style league, someone almost always snags their favorite team’s QB in Round 1. But the player pool at QB is awfully deep; in a 10 or 12-team fantasy league, every owner will be satisfied with whatever they get on draft day. It’s the one position you won’t be able to screw up. Right now, the tenth highest-scoring quarterback in our game (Matthew Stafford) is averaging 313.0 passing yards per game."
That’s the extent of Lions selected in Behrens’ mock. Mikel Leshoure finished 2012 ranked ninth in the NFL for rushing touchdowns with nine. If he can do that again and improve his yardage totals he could be a good value pick. Perhaps a sleeper to keep in mind as reports of his progress come out over the offseason.