2015 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Round 9
Scoring: This mock draft is based on standard-scoring fantasy football leagues for the 2015 season only (i.e., not keeper or dynasty leagues). 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.Mock Draft Start Date: Saturday, May 9th
Mock Draft End Date: Friday, May 22nd
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 | Positions
Here are the Round 9 results of our 2015 Fantasy Football Mock Draft:
9.01 - Sean Beazley (Team 1): Kendall Wright, WR, Tennessee Titans
One year after his 94/1,079/2 breakout season in 2013, Wright's production dropped year over year to 57/715/6 although the issues at quarterback were at least partly to blame. And even though the Titans lost 14 games and nine of them by double digits, Wright saw 10 targets in only one game last season. Assuming that second-overall pick Marcus Mariota is the full-season starter, it's possible that Wright doesn't have a bounce-back season in 2015.
9.02 - Brendan Donahue (Team 1): Zach Ertz, TE, Philadelphia Eagles
Ertz saw a year-over-year jump from 36 catches and 469 yards as a rookie to 58 catches for 702 yards, 11th-most among tight ends last season. With Jeremy Maclin leaving Philadelphia for Kansas City, Ertz could become more involved in the passing game than he was last season.
9.03 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 1): Jason Witten, TE, Dallas Cowboys
Other than his rookie season, Witten's 64 receptions and 703 yards last year set or tied career lows. Witten lacks upside at this point in his career, but he's a solid late-round option that should come close to last year's top-10 performance once again.
9.04 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 2): Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Tennessee Titans
Off-the-field issues with Green-Beckham led to his dismissal from the Mizzou program and he sat out the entire 2014 season, as required, with his transfer to Oklahoma. While he gets some comparisons to Calvin Johnson, DGB isn't nearly as athletic as Megatron, but he has sub-4.5 speed with tremendous size (6-5, 237). Green-Beckham, the No. 1 overall high school recruit in 2012 (via Rivals.com), has the upside and potential to emerge as the best fantasy receiver out of this draft class, but a fellow rookie at quarterback and sitting out a year should limit his first-year impact.
9.05 - Kevin Hanson (Team 1): Ryan Mathews, RB, Philadelphia Eagles
Two seasons ago, the oft-injured Mathews played a full 16-game season and rushed for a career-high 1,255 yards. Playing only six games last season and gaining a yard shy of 400 yards from scrimmage, Mathews has now missed multiple games in four of his five NFL seasons. Although Mathews will be (at least) second in line for touches behind DeMarco Murray, the Eagles play at such a fast pace and Murray has his own durability concerns that I would not be surprised if Mathews reaches 200 carries if he can stay healthy.
As my fourth running back, I won't need much from Mathews, but he would become a plug-and-play RB2 behind Marshawn Lynch (this team's RB1) in weeks that Murray misses. And after nearly 500 touches in the regular season and playoffs last year, there is a good chance that Murray misses a game or two this season.
9.06 - Kevin Hanson (Team 2): Eric Decker, WR, New York Jets
Decker's first year with the Jets (74/962/5) was worse (no surprise) than his recent seasons in Denver, but he still finished as a top-30 fantasy wide receiver in both standard- and PPR-scoring formats. Both of Decker's 100-yard games came in the final three weeks of the season including a massive 10/221/1 line against the Dolphins in Week 17. Given the team's quarterback situation, Decker's upside is capped, but the addition of Brandon Marshall as a true No. 1 wide receiver could actually help (take the attention off) Decker.
9.07 - Brendan Donahue (Team 2): Mike Wallace, WR, Miami Dolphins
The Dolphins certainly had some buyer's remorse after signing him to a big free-agent contract two offseasons ago and traded him to the Vikings this offseason. Wallace has three consecutive mediocre seasons of less than 1,000 yards and has averaged just 13.1, 12.7 and 12.9 Y/R over the past three seasons, respectively. Perhaps the change of scenery and Norv Turner's vertical-passing attack will help Wallace live up to his potential and exceed this draft slot.
9.08 - Brendan Donahue (Team 3): Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots
As Brady faces a four-game suspension for the DeflateGate scandal, it's unclear whether -- and by how much -- his suspension will be reduced following his appeal. (My guess is that it gets cut to two games.) Brady had a rough four-game start to last season as well as he averaged just 197.75 Y/G with only four total touchdowns during that span. From Week 5 on, however, things clicked as only Peyton Manning (31) threw more touchdowns than Brady (29) over that stretch. With good health once again for Rob Gronkowski, Brady could post top-five production on a per-game basis in 2015.
9.08 - Brendan Donahue (Team 3): Tom Brady, QB, New England Patriots
As Brady faces a four-game suspension for the DeflateGate scandal, it's unclear whether -- and by how much -- his suspension will be reduced following his appeal. (My guess is that it gets cut to two games.) Brady had a rough four-game start to last season as well as he averaged just 197.75 Y/G with only four total touchdowns during that span. From Week 5 on, however, things clicked as only Peyton Manning (31) threw more touchdowns than Brady (29) over that stretch. With good health once again for Rob Gronkowski, Brady could post top-five production on a per-game basis in 2015.
9.09 - Sean Beazley (Team 2): Marcus Mariota, QB, Tennessee Titans
Whoa! To me, this is the biggest surprise (reach) of the mock so far, by far. If you were wondering, yes, Sean is a Titans fan. (Perhaps this pick gave it away.) Not only does Sean's (fantasy) team already have a starter (Tony Romo), but there are still a dozen or so fantasy quarterbacks that I'd take ahead of Mariota in re-draft leagues.
When I asked Sean about why Mariota, he pointed to his ceiling (due to his rushing ability) and the potential to move him if he gets off to a hot start in terms of fantasy production. Without a previous track record in the NFL, a hot start from Mariota (compared to non-rookie options available) would keep other fantasy owners from putting the same limitations on his rest-of-season outlook as they might with other fantasy quarterbacks (in Sean's view).
I disagree with the pick for a few reasons. As noted above, I have more than a dozen QBs ranked higher. Given the relative stability of quarterback production compared to the volatility of running backs, I'd rather use this pick on a running back where there is a greater chance of hitting a home run as opposed to a second QB. (Four of the top-12 fantasy running backs in 2014 had ADPs outside the top-30 running backs.) Last but not least, Sean could have waited to the last round of this mock if he really wanted Mariota.
[To be fair, Sean was the most-accurate fantasy expert in 2014 quarterback rankings (via FantasyPros) so who am I to question this pick?]
9.10 - Sean Beazley (Team 3): Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals
Fitzgerald had 63 receptions for 784 yards and a career-low two touchdowns last season and his 784 yards were only four more than the career low he had as a rookie. Given the injuries to Carson Palmer and then Drew Stanton, the decline certainly wasn't solely the fault of Fitzgerald, who also missed two games. That said, Fitzgerald now has three consecutive seasons with less than 1,000 yards.
9.11 - Kevin Hanson (Team 3): Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants
While he started slowly, Manning finished as a top-five fantasy quarterback in five of his final 10 games last season. (And a sixth game was inside the weekly top 10.) With a full season of Odell Beckham, the (likely) return of Victor Cruz, the free-agent addition of one of the league's better receiving backs (Shane Vereen) and more comfort and familiarity within Ben McAdoo's offense, Eli has the potential to post career numbers in 2015, which is coincidentally a contract year. In addition, only Tampa and Washington have a more favorable fantasy strength of schedule than Eli does.
9.12 - Dan Yanotchko (Team 3): Shane Vereen, RB, New York Giants
One of the league's better receiving backs, Vereen set career highs last year with 52 catches for 447 yards. Especially with both Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams likely to get more carries, Vereen is a much better fantasy running back in PPR formats. That said, he should be to outproduce his draft status (RB42) in this mock.
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