Mock drafting is obviously the most important aspect of fantasy football preparation. I don't have the exact numbers, but when I really begin my preparation, I usually knock out 3 or 4 mock drafts a day. Mock drafts are extremely important because they allow you to see how your draft will generally play out. Although every draft is different, they still give you a good idea of when each player will be drafted, and thus allow you to enter the draft with a plan, ESPECIALLY if you know the draft order beforehand and know what pick you have. Last year, for example, after countless mock drafts picking out of the 5-hole, I came into the draft with a short list of players to target in each round, and ended up with Brady-Marshall-Doug Martin-Reggie Bush-Decker for my first 5 picks. Not too shabby. When you do many many many mock drafts, you see basically most of the different ways your actual draft could go, which means when your actual draft rolls around, you are rarely ever left with a pick where you are flummoxed and end up making an irrational/quick decision. Mock drafting is the most important and easy way to make sure your season gets started on the right foot.
Where should I mock draft?
There are a number of mock draft websites yet you really should try to keep your mock drafting to two sites. The reasoning for this is simples: the player rankings on ESPN/Yahoo/CBSSports suck eggs, so I find it difficult to really learn from these websites. HOWEVER, if your league is on one of these sites, it is important to do at least a few mock drafts on that site, so you can get a gage of where your sleepers are ranked. Everyone has different sleepers so there is the most parity in rankings regarding them. If one of your sleepers has a 13th round ranking on yahoo but a 9th round ranking for ESPN, you are more likely to end up with him in yahoo, because the clueless schmuck in your league who didn't do much draft preparation does not scroll down that deep in the rankings. Therefore, it is necessary to do mock drafts on the website you will be drafting on, simply to view where players are ranked.
For my other mock draft website, I like to use Fantasy Football Calculator, as I tend to agree with their rankings more than other sites, and because you can view past drafts to get an even better idea of where players are being drafted. Average Draft Position (ADP) is the single most important stat for fantasy football preparation, as finding players who will exceed their ADP will allow you to win your league. We will delve further into this as the summer progresses.
Things to keep in mind when you mock draft
1. It's just a mock draft! - this is your time to tinker with your draft plan. Don't always go into the mock with the same plan. Go rb-rb-rb in the first three rounds, then the next time go rb-rb-wr, then go wr-rb-qb, etc. Once you do enough mock drafts with each different strategy, you'll find that one strategy will typically lead to the best results. Once you find the strategy suits you best, start using that method and figure out your plan for the later rounds.
2. Ask your fellow mockers questions - this is a great way to gain some insight from other fantasy footballers. You must be careful, however, not to put too much stock in what someone says, at least not without doing research into what is said. There are smart fantasy footballers and there are dumb fantasy footballers, and it can be difficult to determine which group someone you are mocking with falls into. One way I can usually tell is by the person's team: if they drafted Greg Jennings in the 3rd round, you probably shouldn't really read into anything they have said. On the other hand, if their team looks like a top 3 team in the mock draft, you may want to spend some time researching what they have said.
I have asked about sleepers, and I think this is a GREAT way to find sleepers. Some people throw out names of players you wouldn't think of, so this helps broaden your sleeper list.
A second thing to ask about deals players that were reached on. If you see someone having a very good mock but they reached a round or two early on a certain player, feel free to ask why. This is a great way to gain insight into players you yourself may want to reach for come draft day.
3. Find a way to store your mock draft data - don't simply mock then do nothing. Write down information for players you are interested in, such as where and what round they were drafted (such as early/middle/late in whatever round). By doing this, you can see the draft trends for those guys, whether they have been moving up in the draft or down. This gives you a better idea of where they will be available come draft day, such as whether you may have to reach for a player or can wait an extra round before drafting.
4. There is a lot of parity in mock drafts, and in real drafts - so don't form only one permanent draft plan, because come draft day, your plan could all be blown to pieces.
As you can see from these pictures, after the first round there are many differences in where players are drafted. So if your draft plan revolves around you drafting aaron rodgers late in the 2nd round, just know that he may be drafted before your 2nd round pick rolls around, so be prepared with backup plan. This is the beauty of mock drafting, there is no limit on how many mock drafts you can do, which allows you to come up with a main plan for draft day, a backup plan, and even a backup backup plan if you want!
5. Try to avoid mock drafts where it isn't only humans - it is hard to glean information when computers are drafting according to the sites rankings. If there is one computer that is ok, but once you get two or more computer drafters, then the parity of mock drafts starts to become compromised.
