1 Man, 5-Round, Early 2014 Fantasy Football Mock Draft

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Is it ever too early to look at a 2014 Fantasy Football mock draft!?! We’re into the new year, and we’re ready to put the 2013 season behind us. Whether you won last season, finished in the playoffs or carried home your league’s Toilet Bowl trophy as the worst team in the league – we’re always curious about the next year’s draft.

Always.

So I’m taking this time to do a one-man 2014 Fantasy Football mock draft. How does this work, exactly? Well, I sit down and figure out which players I think should be drafted in each round.

I understand nearly everyone that reads this will take issue with at least a few players and where they’re placed in this mock. But hey – that’s what makes it fun!

Drop a comment below to tell me where you’d rather take a player! And chime in on which players I should have in the first five rounds, or which players I should dump into the middle rounds.

Either way, this is the officially kickoff to the 2014 Fantasy Football offseason! And we can all agree – that’s awesome!

2014 Fantasy Football Mock Draft

This early mock draft is for a 12-team, non-PPR league that starts 1-QB, 2-RB, 2-WR, 1-Flex, 1-TE, 1-K and 1-DST, with 4 pts for a touchdown pass. I will work on editing this mock draft up until the 2014 NFL Draft, and then I’ll post an entirely new one once we figure out where the new rookie class will be headed.

ROUND 1

1.01 Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City

1.02 LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia

1.03 Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota

1.04 Marshawn Lynch, RB, Seattle

1.05 Matt Forte, RB, Chicago

1.06 Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit

1.07 Eddie Lacy, RB, Green Bay

1.08 DeMarco Murray, RB, Dallas

1.09 Peyton Manning, QB, Denver

1.10 Zac Stacy, RB, St. Louis

1.11 Josh Gordon, WR, Cleveland

1.12 Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans

Not too many surprises here in this first round. The top three players could end up being interchangeable by August, much like A.P., McCoy and Ray Rice were back in 2011 draft season. Forte and Lynch, for me, are just too consistent to ignore in the first half of the first round. Forte is getting older, but in Marc Trestman’s offense, he’s used in a lot of ways and one of the best featured backs in the game.

Megatron is back in the top five for the third consecutive season, no arguments there.

It’s interesting that Lacy and Stacy, two rhyming rookie running backs, end up in the first round, considering we all hated this 2013 running back class last summer. Who would’ve thought we’d get two first rounders out of that sophomore group?

I’m still not going to be taking a quarterback in the first two rounds, but I know Manning’s record-breaking season means he could end up as a top-five draft pick – especially in leagues that reward six points per passing touchdown. I doubt he falls out of the top 10 in any draft this summer, though.

Gordon will be a controversial pick, too, since the Browns have tons of quarterback issues and now they’ll have an entirely new offensive system installed. The guy set the NFL record with 774 receiving yards in a four-game stretch, and he did it with two different quarterbacks! Even more surprising is that those two quarterbacks were named Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden!

ROUND 2

2.01 Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver

2.02 Le’Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh

2.03 A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati

2.04 Reggie Bush, RB, Detroit

2.05 Dez Bryant, WR, Dallas

2.06 Arian Foster, RB, Houston

2.07 Alfred Morris, RB, Washington

2.08 Julio Jones, WR, Atlanta

2.09 Doug Martin, RB, Tampa Bay

2.10 Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay

2.11 Giovani Bernard, RB, Cincinnati

2.12 Alshon Jeffery, WR, Chicago

Plenty of players that have first-round potential found themselves in the 2014 second round, but they do have some question marks surrounding them.

Guys like Foster and Martin, who are coming off of season-ending injuries. Foster will likely return to a Texans team that won’t have Ben Tate stealing carries. Martin comes back to a Bucs team that was snake-bitten with a lot of injuries and unforeseen circumstances, like a MRSA outbreak. Who knew? Look at Bobby Rainey’s success, and you figure Martin should be able to bounce back from a shoulder injury. That’s key – it’s not a knee injury, just the shoulder.

Julio Jones, however, is coming back from a knee foot injury. But he’ll come back to a similarly snake-bitten Falcons squad, that will likely be without Tony Gonzalez. Jones could come back with a vengeance, with the potential to be the No. 1 Fantasy WR by season’s end.

ROUND 3

3.01 Brandon Marshall, WR, Chicago

3.02 Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans

3.03 Knowshon Moreno, RB, Denver

3.04 Rob Gronkowski, TE, New England

3.05 C.J. Spiller, RB, Buffalo

3.06 Ryan Mathews, RB, San Diego

3.07 Pierre Garcon, WR, Washington

3.08 Randall Cobb, WR, Green Bay

3.09 Chris Johnson, RB, Tennessee

3.10 Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore

3.11 Frank Gore, RB, San Francisco

3.12 Antonio Brown, WR, Pittsburgh

Who would you rather have in 2014: Jeffery or Marshall? They’ll likely be drafted near each other for much of the summer, sort of like how Jones and Roddy White were in the summer of 2012. Jeffery’s the future star, with Marshall in the second half of his career.

Gronk and Spiller are two guys that have the talent to finish with first-round numbers, but there are concerns with both.

CJ2K, Gore and Rice are former first-rounders that will work well as RB2s in 2014. Don’t get too down on Rice, who suffered from horrible offensive line play. The 2012 Super Bowl champs should work to fix that in the offseason.

Brown moves up an entire round if you play in PPR formats. Was there anyone happier to see Mike Wallace in a Dolphins uniform this season? Maybe Ryan Tannehill, but still.

ROUND 4

4.01 Vincent Jackson, WR, Tampa Bay

4.02 DeSean Jackson, WR, Philadelphia

4.03 Jordy Nelson, WR, Green Bay

4.04 Keenan Allen, WR, San Diego

4.05 Shane Vereen, RB, New England

4.06 Wes Welker, WR, Denver

4.07 Andre Ellington, RB, Arizona

4.08 Cam Newton, QB, Carolina

4.09 Lamar Miller, RB, Miami

4.10 Rashad Jennings, RB, Oakland

4.11 Ka’deem Carey, RB, Rookie

4.12 Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville

DeSean Jackson drops a bit, in spite of posting a career year in his sixth NFL season. Jeremy Maclin, who is a free agent coming off of a torn ACL, could return to the Eagles and take away targets. Jackson’s 82 regular season catches in 2013 were 20 more than he had ever caught in any other season.

Allen made huge strides in his rookie season, and he could have a Josh Gordon/Alshon Jeffery-type sophomore season.

Ka’Deem Carey has Spiller-like potential, with plus speed and great ability in the passing game. This doesn’t look to be a great group of rookie running backs, however, so we have him as a top-50 guy right now, depending on where he lands.

MJD will test the free-agent waters, so his draft status depends on where he lands. He’ll be 29 years old next season, and we’ll basically be looking at him as this year’s version of Falcons RB Steven Jackson. If MJD leaves Jacksonville, Jordan Todman moves up into the first five rounds of this 2014 Fantasy Football Mock Draft, although, they might draft Jones-Drew’s replacement, also.

ROUND 5

5.01 Andre Johnson, WR, Houston

5.02 Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona

5.03 Nick Foles, QB, Philadelphia

5.04 Victor Cruz, WR, N.Y. Giants

5.05 Fred Jackson, RB, Buffalo

5.06 Ben Tate, RB, Houston

5.07 Percy Harvin, WR, Seattle

5.08 Montee Ball, RB, Denver

5.09 Carlos Hyde, RB, Rookie

5.10 Stevan Ridley, RB, New England

5.11 Michael Crabtree, WR, San Francisco

5.12 Roddy White, WR, Atlanta

Tate’s eventual destination could change his draft stock considerably, although, he’s also coming off a rib injury that ended his season early.

Johnson and Fitzgerald are yesterday’s superstar wide receivers, but they also have plenty left in the tank. Johnson will be dealing with a new offense, and he has quarterback issues. He’s where Fitzgerald was entering last year. No. 11 will get a second season with Carson Palmer throwing to him – but he’s also giving up some targets to third-year wide receiver Michael Floyd.

Harvin is coming back from a hip injury that derailed the entire 2013 regular season, save one ball thrown to him in Week 11 against his former team, the Vikings. His play in the NFL Playoffs, if he does play, will go a long way in determining his draft value going forward.

Newton and Foles will likely flip-flop in many drafts, but I like Newton a little more over Foles just because he’s done it in successive years. Plus, I imagine the Panthers get him some help in the passing game with an early pick spent on a rookie wide receiver.

Let us know who you think is wildly overrated or sickly underrated in my early 2014 Fantasy Football mock draft! Follow me @DavidGonos and stay tuned for more offseason columns!