2015 Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Round 5

Scoring: This mock draft is based on standard-scoring formats and is 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 or 10 receiving yards.

Mock Draft Start Date: Saturday, August 22nd
Mock Draft End Date: Tuesday, September 1st

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.

Round: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 - Teams | Positions

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Here are Round 5 results of our 2015 Fantasy Football Mock Draft:

5.01 - Dan Yanotchko (Team I): Golden Tate, WR, Detroit Lions

Tate had a career year with 99 catches for 1,331 yards and four touchdowns plus 30 rushing yards. From Weeks 4 to 8, Calvin Johnson missed three games and was a decoy in two other games (19 total yards). During that same five-game span, Tate averaged 119.8 yards per game and scored three of his four touchdowns. If Megatron is healthy for the entire season, Tate is unlikely to repeat last year's career numbers, but he's otherwise a solid low-end WR2 in 2015. In this case, he's a WR3 for Dan's team with T.Y. Hilton and Julian Edelman ahead of him.

5.02 - Kevin Hanson (Team I): Travis Kelce, TE, Kansas City Chiefs

Kelce played only 52.3 percent of the team's offensive snaps from Weeks 1 to 10, but that percentage jumped to 86.7 percent from Weeks 11 to 17. Despite his snap-count limits during the first half of the season, Kelce still finished with 67 receptions, 862 yards and five touchdowns and the ninth-most fantasy points among tight ends last season. With good health and no playing time limitations, the sky is the limit for Kelce in 2015.

5.03 - Brendan Donahue (Team I): Russell Wilson, QB, Seattle Seahawks

A top-three fantasy quarterback in 2014, Wilson rushed for 849 yards and six touchdowns, both of which were career highs, and netted fantasy owners an average of 7.56 fantasy points per game from rushing stats alone. While he won't post gaudy passing statistics in Seattle's run-dominant offense, Wilson is the first quarterback in league history to throw 20-plus touchdowns with 10 or fewer interceptions in each of his first three NFL seasons, per Pro Football Reference. Trading for Jimmy Graham gives Wilson an elite red-zone option for the first time in his young career.

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5.04 - Brendan Donahue (Team II): Peyton Manning, QB, Denver Broncos

With a slow finish to the season, Manning finished the year as the QB4 (312.68 fantasy points) behind Aaron Rodgers (354.14), Andrew Luck (350.74) and Wilson (327.6). In the first 11 games of the season, Manning averaged 23.96 fantasy points per game (323.45 YPG, 34 TDs and nine INTs). In the final five games of the season, however, he averaged just 9.83 FPPG (233.8 YPG, five TDs and six INTs) and never scored more than 13.02 fantasy points in any of those games.

Much of last year's decline can be attributed to his thigh injury, but Manning's passing production also tends to slow as the weather turns colder. In a more balanced offense with some issues on the offensive line, it's possible that Manning fails to produce a top-five fantasy season. (He's the QB6 currently in my rankings.)

5.05 - Sean Beazley (Team I): Davante Adams, WR, Green Bay Packers

After a boost in playing time down the stretch and a strong offseason, all signs pointed to Adams taking a step forward in year two. In addition, no player benefits more by the ACL injury to Jordy Nelson (from a fantasy perspective) than Adams, who finished with 38/446/3 numbers as a rookie.

5.06 - Sean Beazley (Team II): Martavis Bryant, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers

Inactive for the first six games, Bryant went on a scoring spree in his first four NFL games with a total of six touchdowns during that span. After that point, however, Bryant had just 12 catches for 239 yards and two touchdowns in the final six games of the season. Not only does he currently project as the team's No. 3 receiver, Bryant will miss the first four games of the season due to league suspension.

[Note: Sean made this selection prior to the news of Bryant's pending suspension.]


5.07 - Dan Yanotchko (Team II): LeGarrette Blount, RB, New England Patriots

As we've seen from Blount in the postseason, he can go from one yard on three carries (vs. BAL) one week to 30 carries for 148 yards and three touchdowns (vs. IND) the next week. Blount's carries in his final six games through the Super Bowl were as follows: 20, eight, 10, three, 30 and 14. While we can't always count on consistent running back workloads from Belichick, Blount figures to be the "guy" in the Patriots' backfield. And Blount has been dominant at the goal line for the Patriots with 15 rushing scores in his past 15 games (including playoffs) with the Pats.

5.08 - Dan Yanotchko (Team III): Chris Ivory, RB, New York Jets

Although he averaged a career-low 4.1 YPC, Ivory once again rushed for more than 800 yards and set a career high with six touchdowns. The Jets signed Stevan Ridley in free agency and traded a seventh-round pick for Zac Stacy, but Ivory should lead the team's backfield in both workload and fantasy production. More productive than most probably realized, Ivory finished as a top-20 fantasy running back last season.

5.09 - Kevin Hanson (Team II): Allen Robinson, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

With Antonio Brown and Nelson as my first two picks, the injury to Nelson hurts what I expected to be this mock's best receiving corps. Quietly off to a strong rookie season before a Week 10 foot injury ended his season, Robinson averaged 5.22 receptions and 60.89 yards per game with four-plus catches per game from Weeks 2 to 10. Assuming good health in 2015, Robinson is poised for a breakout season.

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5.10 - Kevin Hanson (Team III): C.J. Spiller, RB, New Orleans Saints

Following his breakout 2012 season, the Bills (new and since ousted) coaching staff failed to utilize Spiller correctly over the past two seasons. That's certainly not a concern in 2015 as Payton & Co. should maximize Spiller's production on a per-touch basis.

Since Payton took over in New Orleans in 2006, the Saints have roughly one-third (six of 19) of the 70-reception seasons by running backs. One concern entering the season, however, is Spiller's recent arthroscopic knee surgery, but he is expected to ready for Week 1.

5.11 - Brendan Donahue (Team III): Nelson Agholor, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

Landing in Chip Kelly's up-tempo offense bodes well for Agholor's short- and long-term fantasy outlook. While the Eagles lost Jeremy Maclin (6-0, 198, 4.48 forty) in free agency, Agholor (6-0, 198, 4.42 forty) has earned comparisons to the departed receiver. An excellent route runner, Agholor has the ability to play both inside and outside and finished with a 104/1,313/12 stat line last year for USC. With that said, there are several receivers still on the board that I'd take before Agholor (WR25 in this mock).

5.12 - Sean Beazley (Team III): Rashad Jennings, RB, New York Giants

Dealing with multiple injuries, Jennings played in just 11 games in his first season with the Giants. Second-year back Andre Williams will steal some goal-line opportunities and Shane Vereen will steal some of his passing-down work, which limits the weekly upside of the soon-to-be 30-year-old Jennings.

On a positive note, the Giants used the ninth-overall pick on Ereck Flowers, one of the best run-blocking offensive linemen in this year's draft class. Only the Cardinals (3.3) and Chargers (3.4) averaged fewer YPC than the Giants (3.6) last season and at least part of those struggles can be attributed to the line play.

> Continue to Round 6 of our Fantasy Football Mock Draft
> Go back Round 4 of our Fantasy Football Mock Draft

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