Fantasy football mock draft – Jonathan Taylor leads RB-heavy first round in 10-team PPR

The NFL draft is in the rearview mirror, which means the countdown to the 2022 fantasy football season has officially begun. To celebrate the occasion, our ESPN Fantasy staff held its first mock draft.

This is a 10-team, PPR format, featuring the following participants (in order of first-round selection): Matt Bowen, Tristan H. Cockcroft, Keith Lipscomb, Matthew Berry, Field Yates, Stephania Bell, Eric Karabell, Mike Clay, Daniel Dopp and Eric Moody.

Below, you will find round-by-round picks, followed by brief takeaways from Moody. Finally, at the very bottom, we have included a listing of each team’s roster. Additional analysis of this mock from Berry, Yates, Bell and Dopp is on the Fantasy Focus Football podcast.

Round 1

1. Jonathan Taylor, Ind (RB1) — Bowen
2. Christian McCaffrey, Car (RB2) — Cockcroft
3. Austin Ekeler, LAC (RB3) — Lipscomb
4. Cooper Kupp, LAR (WR1) — Berry
5. Derrick Henry, Ten (RB4) — Yates
6. Justin Jefferson, Min (WR2) — Bell
7. Najee Harris, Pit (RB5) — Karabell
8. Ja’Marr Chase, Cin (WR3) — Clay
9. Dalvin Cook, Min (RB6) — Dopp
10. Joe Mixon, Cin (RB7) — Moody

Moody’s analysis: The possibility of drafting Mixon or Cook this late in the first round should excite fantasy managers. Mixon is an underrated running back in fantasy. Last season, he averaged 20.9 touches, 95.0 total yards, and 18.1 fantasy points per game. With an improved Bengals offensive line, he has a good chance of replicating those numbers in 2022. Meanwhile, Cook has been provided a consistent workload over the past three seasons while averaging 20.7 points per game. Production is not the concern, health is, as he missed four games last season and has missed at least two in each of his five years in the league.

Round 2

11. Davante Adams, LV (WR4) — Moody
12. Stefon Diggs, Buf (WR5) — Dopp
13. Deebo Samuel, SF (WR6) — Clay
14.