Fantasy Football 2019: FanSided Mock Draft – Pick 1.03 Breakdown

Fantasy Football – FanSided Mock Draft: Rounds 1-3 Breakdown

1 – (03) – RB – Christian McCaffrey – Carolina Panthers

Just one fantasy writer’s opinion here, but what a dream scenario to land McCaffrey with the third pick. As soon as I saw the draft order, I began thinking about what I was going to write about Alvin Kamara, but “Thunder Dan” Palyo chose Kamara at two, and CMC fell in my lap.

With Ezekiel Elliott and Melvin Gordon holding out, landing one of the top three picks to select one of these two or Saquon Barkley is the ideal draft situation.

I do currently have McCaffrey as my number one overall pick, but in early drafts that I have done, the feeling of passing on Barkley is gut-wrenching. However, I think the opportunity to score more fantasy points this season lies in the hands of McCaffery.

While both teams are thin at the wide receiver position and both backs will be relied upon heavily in their teams passing attacks, I am giving McCaffrey the edge with a better quarterback, and the fact that he proved his toughness in durability last season.

McCaffrey is entering year three. After a rookie season in which it looked as though he was going to be nothing more than a receiving threat, he put that idea to bed, proved he could run between the tackles, and gained almost 1,100 yards on the ground on just 219 carries. He added another 867 yards through the air on 107 catches and amassed 13 total touchdowns.

2 – (22) – WR – Mike Evans – Tampa Bay Buccaneers 

Now the only good thing about picking third overall is getting a top-tier running back. If you do not take a wide receiver with your next pick, and your third pick as well, you might limiting your depth at the position in the long run, especially in a 12-team league.

There are some interesting mid and later round guys with some intrigue, but landing a potential 100 catch, 1500 yard, 10 TD potential wide receiver to go with McCaffery for me was mandatory.

I knew he was not going to make it back to me, but sniped just three picks earlier, Juju Smith-Schuster is one of my primary targets this season. However, getting Mike Evans at pick 22 overall was a solid consolation prize.

Evans is entering his sixth NFL season, and while he has never crossed the 100 catch plateau, he is coming off of his best season yardage wise, as he comes into 2019 off an 86 catch, 1,524-yard season, in which he found the end zone eight times. So far so good, now is when things get interesting.

3 – (27) – RB – Todd Gurley – St. Louis Rams

To say I am not worried about Gurley and his health after the Rams spent a third-round pick on Memphis tailback Darrell Henderson would be a lie, and I can honestly say that I am not targeting Gurley per se this season.

However, it was just too impossible to pass on this talent at this point in the draft. I have a handful of other backs I am interested in over the next couple of rounds, but the prospects of a healthy Gurley with McCaffrey as my number one back is the stuff of championships.

I knew I needed a wide receiver, but I felt it was a little too early yet for Adam Thielen considering the target share with Stefon Diggs, and I really have no faith in Keenan Allen to stay healthy. Gurley is just 24-years-old, and I think Henderson will cut into his workload either way, but if he was 100% going into the season he would arguably be the top overall pick.

Gurley has found the end zone 40 times over the last two seasons, scoring 30 times on the ground and 10 through the air, and you just are not supposed to find that sort of production in the third round of your draft. It’s a curve-ball I wasn’t prepared for, and it threw off my draft a bit, but thinking about what could be with these two backs and Mike Evans to start my team is solid.