2014 Fantasy Football Mock Draft — 2-QB League: Round 1

Scoring: This mock draft is based on 2-QB fantasy football leagues (i.e., each team starts two quarterbacks) and uses standard (i.e., non-PPR) scoring. Passing touchdowns are worth four points while rushing and receiving touchdowns are worth six points. In addition, one point is earned per 25 passing yards, 10 rushing yards and 10 receiving yards.

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Mock Draft Start Date: Saturday, August 16
Mock Draft End Date: Sunday, August 31

Four of our site's contributors — Kevin Hanson, Brendan Donahue, Sean Beazley and Dan Yanotchko — will make picks for three teams of this 12-team mock. The mock will go 12 rounds with no kickers or team defenses selected.

Although this is a slow draft, we will post picks as they occur, along with comments from Kevin Hanson, as opposed to waiting for the entire mock draft to be completed.

More Rounds: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Teams

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Here are Round 1 results:

1.01 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 1): LeSean McCoy, RB, Philadelphia Eagles

In a standard 12-team, one-quarterback league, I wouldn't even consider taking a quarterback with the first overall pick. In two-quarterback leagues, however, that deserves real consideration.

After all, the league starts 24 quarterbacks, all of whom obviously have a bye week. If each of those 12 owners want to ensure that they don't get a big fat ZERO for two of their weeks, they need to draft a third quarterback as a bye-week replacement. If every owner drafted three quarterbacks, that would be 36 quarterbacks and there are only 32 NFL teams.

That said, I agree with Dan here. Although it's not wrong to take Peyton Manning here, I'd prefer to lock up a stud running back like McCoy and then perhaps go QB-QB at the turn on the way back. There should be at least one top-12 (QB1 in this format) available on the way back.

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McCoy led the NFL in rushing yards (1,607), yards from scrimmage (2,146) and touches (366) in his first season playing in Chip Kelly's offense. Essentially, it's a coin toss between McCoy and Jamaal Charles, both of whom are on separated by a fractional point in my 2014 fantasy football projections.

1.02 - Brendan Donahue (Team 1): Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

As noted above, it's neck and neck for the top running back spot in my rankings. In fact, McCoy is my top-ranked player in standard-scoring formats and Charles is my top-ranked player in PPR formats.

Charles led the league in total touchdowns with 19 — 12 rushing and seven receiving scores. As great as that was for his fantasy owners in 2013, it will be unlikely for Charles to repeat. Playing only 15 games as KC rested their starters in Week 17, Charles set a career high in yards from scrimmage (1,980), finishing second to McCoy. That said, Charles was more consistent as no player had as many games with 100-plus YFS than Charles (13).

1.03 - Kevin Hanson (Team 1): Peyton Manning, QB, Denver Broncos

Especially if you've been reading my fantasy football mock draft per day series, one of the things I usually point out when it comes to my QB(s) drafted is the gap between the top-three fantasy QBs and the rest of the QB1-type options (i.e., QB4-QB12).

In other words, the projected gap in fantasy points between QB3 (Drew Brees) and QB4 (Matthew Stafford) is essentially the same as the gap between QB4 (Stafford) and QB12 (Tony Romo). Therefore, I prefer to land one of the top three QBs or wait in one-QB leagues.

The same is true here, though. I'd prefer to get Manning, Aaron Rodgers or Brees as my QB1 or go with guys like Colin Kaepernick and Jay Cutler as my starting duo a little later.

It was a historic season for Manning, a (now) five-time league MVP, as he broke the single-season records for both passing yards (5,477) and touchdowns (55) previously held by Brees and Tom Brady, respectively, as well as numerous other records.

More impressive than the total numbers he posted was the way Manning was dominant on a weekly basis. Throwing a touchdown in every game last season, Manning had more games (nine) with four or more touchdowns than he had with less than four scores (seven). To put that into perspective, Manning had as many games with four-plus TDs as the next three quarterbacks combined — Brees (five), Ben Roethlisberger (two) and Andy Dalton (two). No other quarterback had more than one such game.

1.04 - Sean Beazley (Team 1): Aaron Rodgers, QB, Green Bay Packers

While he missed a significant portion of last season with a broken clavicle, Rodgers has a combined passer rating of 112.7 over the past three seasons with a 101:20 TD-to-INT ratio during that span. Over the past three years, he has averaged 4,589.6 passing yards per 16 games.

In addition, Rodgers has consistently posted solid rushing stats for a quarterback. Since becoming the starter in 2008, he has rushed for an average of 279 yards and 3.3 touchdowns per every 16 games.

1.05 - Sean Beazley (Team 2): Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints

For a long time, 5,000 passing yards seemed like a special feat. And it is ... for everyone else. For Brees, however, it's become an expectation.

Brees has now thrown for 5,000-plus yards in three consecutive seasons. With four 5,000-yard seasons in his career, Brees is tied with all other quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. In addition, Brees has thrown for 128 touchdowns over the past three years.

Even if Brees doesn't reach 5,000 passing yards this season, he's going to come close and he's a lock to be a top-three producer in fantasy points at the position once again.

1.06 - Kevin Hanson (Team 2): Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings

While he's unlikely to ever duplicate his historic 2012 season, Peterson has put up monster numbers despite battling injuries and facing eight- or nine-men fronts over the past couple of seasons.

And while touchdown production tends to fluctuate for (most) running backs, Peterson has rattled off double-digit rushing scores in all seven of his NFL seasons. If there are some concerns with Peterson, it's the fact that he's now 29 years old and has racked up more than 2,000 career rush attempts.

That said, Peterson seems to be superhuman.

1.07 - Brendan Donahue (Team 2): Eddie Lacy, RB, Green Bay Packers

Personally, I prefer Chicago's Matt Forte over Lacy, but they are fourth and fifth in my running back rankings, respectively.

Lacy finished with 1,178 rushing yards, which ranked eighth in the NFL, and 11 touchdowns, only two RBs had more. From Week 5 through the end of the regular season, however, only McCoy (1,139) had more rushing yards than Lacy (1,127). No running back had more games with 20-plus carries than Lacy, but he averaged only 4.15 yards per carry last season.

With good health from Rodgers, Lacy should improve upon his YPC average and he has an excellent chance to duplicate his double-digit scores in the team's high-powered offense.

1.08 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 2): Calvin Johnson, WR, Detroit Lions

Megatron is my top-ranked wide receiver, but I'd prefer Forte over him (like with the previous pick). With tremendous size and athleticism, no receiver can take over a game like Megatron. Counting playoff games (or should I say "game"), Johnson has six 200 receiving yards in his career. Nobody has more. Over the past three seasons, Johnson has averaged a statistical line of 101/1,712/11.

1.09 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 3): Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans Saints

At a relatively weak position, there is no safer stud option than Graham. While I think Rob Gronkowski has higher upside provided he can stay healthy for a full season, Gronk carries significant durability risk with him into the 2014 season.

Graham led tight ends in the triple crown of stats, if you will: 86 catches for 1,215 yards and a career-best 16 touchdowns. It was only the second time in NFL history that a tight end had at least 16 touchdowns. (Of course, Gronk had the other season.) Over the past three seasons combined, Graham has a total of 270 receptions for 3,507 yards and 36 touchdowns; that equates to an average stat line of 90/1,169/12.

1.10 - Kevin Hanson (Team 3): Matt Forte, RB, Chicago Bears

Undervalued/Overvalued Compared to ADP
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Once it was my turn to draft, I did a "Matt Forte" search for any potential injury that allowed him to fall to 1.10. If you look up "theft" in the dictionary, it refers you to pick 1.10 of this draft. Ok, in all seriousness, I did at least wonder if there was some negative news item that I might have missed. If I were drafting for every team, there is no way that he would have slipped past pick 1.07, but it's a matter of personal preference.

In his first season with Marc Trestman as coach, Forte set career highs across the board: 1,339 rushing yards, 74 receptions and 594 receiving yards. He tied his previous career high in touchdowns (12). With a talented duo of outside receivers in Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall, Forte has protection from consistent eight-men fronts looking to slow down the run. In addition, both of those receivers are big-bodied wideouts that excel as blockers down the field.

As risky as first-round running backs can be (see 2013 drafts — C.J. Spiller, Trent Richardson, Ray Rice, etc.), Forte feels about as safe as you can get here.

1.11 - Brendan Donahue (Team 3): Dez Bryant, WR, Dallas Cowboys

Aside from Megatron, no receiver's best is as good as Bryant's best. Over the past three seasons, Dez and Megatron are the league's only two receivers to have accumulated 3,500-plus yards and 30-plus touchdowns.

The Cowboys should find themselves in their fair share of shootouts this season as the defense, which ranked 32nd (of 32 teams) last year, is even worse this year.

1.12 - Sean Beazley (Team 3): Demaryius Thomas, WR, Denver Broncos

As talented as I think Dez is, I would have taken Thomas as the second receiver off the board as he's part of an even better offense and even better quarterback. In his second with Manning, DT's numbers were nearly identical to his first season. After finishing with 94/1,434/10 in 2012, Thomas had 92 catches for 1,430 yards and 14 touchdowns last year. Thomas should be a lock for 90/1,400/10 (or better) in 2014.

> Continue to Round 2 of 2-QB Fantasy Mock Draft

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