How much do you mock?

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

I mock for redraft a lot, a lot a lot. I do it so that I get a really good feel on where my targets are going and how realistic it is to build the team that I want. I also try a bunch of strategies to see which way my team looks the best.

It's a 10 team non ppr, so right now I am seeing Kelce fall to me pretty regularly. If Kelce doesn't fall then Evans seems to fall to me. This is a 6 pt all td league so Mahomes will jump up into the top two rounds ahead of my pick. I know some people don't like to mock much, but It has always done well for me. It makes me feel pretty comfortable where I can get guys. I pretty much got every single player I wanted last year where I wanted because of the mocks I did.

[cyclone24 1,814]

I do mocks just for fun just to try out a few things but I'm not really sure why. My live draft never looks anything remotely similar.

[Bier Meister 1,514]

1 hour ago, Frozenbeernuts said:

I mock for redraft a lot, a lot a lot. I do it so that I get a really good feel on where my targets are going and how realistic it is to build the team that I want. I also try a bunch of strategies to see which way my team looks the best.

 

this.  I do it a bit starting about a month out to check player movement.  I will also pass on my targets in certain rounds to see how far they will fall before I am compelled to draft them.

[Ehlana 25]

I do it a fair bit but computerized. I think I fall into a trap of "oh this guy always falls at this pick" and then in my real draft that doesn't happen. I think I'd be better off doing the mocks against real people to improve the unpredictability.

[Phil Simms 11 127]

I do a couple a day.

 

I use Fantasypros, just did one on Yahoo live and it was completely different results. May need to do a few more lives ones

[cbfalcon 824]

I’ve never done a mock draft even once. I refuse to even consider it. I’m not a monster 

[LaChup 154]

As often as I can. I love it when the computer picks for the losers who never show up. 

[Vikings4ever 496]

I do the June mock here at FFT to get back in the swing of things and get started researching, but I don't really find mocking all that useful for any real drafts.

[oldtimer 84]

I seemingly say this every year, but I avoid doing ANY mock drafting.  I'll check them out online, but not participate nor base my draft plan on them.  Mock drafts do not give you a true idea of a players ADP.  I know people who use Mock Drafts only to throw off the perceived value of a player.  I've also seen some crazy stuff, like Mahomes going in the 2nd, Mark Ingram in the early 3rd and D. Watson going as the 1st overall QB in the 2nd Round of a mock.  Those are obviously not going to happen in a live money draft. 

This is only from my experience, so I'm not trying to upset anyone that likes to Mock.  When real money is on the line in a real draft, you tend to notice the Mocks were pretty far off base.  Mocks are filled with people who will not be playing in money leagues, people who may not draft in a real league at all and people trying to throw off the ADP of certain players, particularly those in the 6-10th rounds.  Those are the rounds where Mock Drafts offer no help.  We all know how the first 3/4 rounds are going to play out, barring some weirdo making a crazy pick.  It is the middle rounds that make up your team and people have different drafting styles.  People I know aren't going to show their hand before they draft for money. 

[listen2me 23 1,542]

None.  Fantasy football is majority luck based.  I dont put that much time into it.

I play IDP anyway.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

2 hours ago, oldtimer said:

I seemingly say this every year, but I avoid doing ANY mock drafting.  I'll check them out online, but not participate nor base my draft plan on them.  Mock drafts do not give you a true idea of a players ADP.  I know people who use Mock Drafts only to throw off the perceived value of a player.  I've also seen some crazy stuff, like Mahomes going in the 2nd, Mark Ingram in the early 3rd and D. Watson going as the 1st overall QB in the 2nd Round of a mock.  Those are obviously not going to happen in a live money draft. 

This is only from my experience, so I'm not trying to upset anyone that likes to Mock.  When real money is on the line in a real draft, you tend to notice the Mocks were pretty far off base.  Mocks are filled with people who will not be playing in money leagues, people who may not draft in a real league at all and people trying to throw off the ADP of certain players, particularly those in the 6-10th rounds.  Those are the rounds where Mock Drafts offer no help.  We all know how the first 3/4 rounds are going to play out, barring some weirdo making a crazy pick.  It is the middle rounds that make up your team and people have different drafting styles.  People I know aren't going to show their hand before they draft for money. 

I don't remember a year where mock drafting didn't help me. I am always getting the players I want for the most part. Maybe it's the way you interpret them? It seems that some people do a mock and then don't understand why a gut didn't fall in the real draft, but for the most part it seems to be fairly accurate. The mocks I do relate to players aggregate rankings, which is somewhat close to how most people rank the players.

[PunkRockRedneck 8]

I do a few every week. Mostly on lunch break at work lol  I don't put alot of stock in them but it does give me an "idea" about how some guys could fall in different positions. Of course, my real draft rarely mirrors any mock draft. Every owner has their favorite players they want and will usually reach for them. So that will change up results. But they're a good time killer if you're bored.

[oldtimer 84]

1 hour ago, Frozenbeernuts said:

I don't remember a year where mock drafting didn't help me. I am always getting the players I want for the most part. Maybe it's the way you interpret them? It seems that some people do a mock and then don't understand why a gut didn't fall in the real draft, but for the most part it seems to be fairly accurate. The mocks I do relate to players aggregate rankings, which is somewhat close to how most people rank the players.

 

I may seriously ask you how you approach your mock drafts.  Personally, I have not found them to be useful at all, but if they were, it would be a boon to my teams success.  I tend to look at them and say "Well, so and so is going in the sixth round in all the mock drafts I've seen.  Therefore, he will go in the sixth round of my money draft."  In reality, that player will go early in round 5, or even the late 4th.  The end of the mocks have always been useless to me as people do not want to show who their sleepers are, so they will take just anyone after a certain round.  Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention or watching the wrong ones.  I have even noticed that some of the guys writing for various websites do this.  They will list their surprise sleepers, or breakout players, yet they didn't select them in their mock draft a week earlier.  Was that simply to protect their name from getting out before they wrote their article?  Probably, is my guess.  I would love to learn to use Mocks to my advantage though. 

[Bier Meister 1,514]

27 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

 

I may seriously ask you how you approach your mock drafts.  Personally, I have not found them to be useful at all, but if they were, it would be a boon to my teams success.  I tend to look at them and say "Well, so and so is going in the sixth round in all the mock drafts I've seen.  Therefore, he will go in the sixth round of my money draft."  In reality, that player will go early in round 5, or even the late 4th.  The end of the mocks have always been useless to me as people do not want to show who their sleepers are, so they will take just anyone after a certain round.  Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention or watching the wrong ones.  I have even noticed that some of the guys writing for various websites do this.  They will list their surprise sleepers, or breakout players, yet they didn't select them in their mock draft a week earlier.  Was that simply to protect their name from getting out before they wrote their article?  Probably, is my guess.  I would love to learn to use Mocks to my advantage though. 

I have been playing since approx 1991.  started doing wcff/ffpc 10-15 years ago.  past 7 years or so mocking has become one of my favorite tools/resources.

select my scoring and position.  then start casually mocking about a month out, paying more attention and conducting more as the draft approaches.  People have different values for players (so may reach, or let some slide). I mentally note player movement (maybe a decent pre-season, or injury..whatever). What it really does for me is let me know that if there is a player I want, where I need to pull the trigger.  And the range of players at each pick. This year I have a #1 and a #11.  A great example is at qb... the runs for qb have started around 7-8.  so in the league with my #1 I find that i want to grab my qb at my 6/7 turn to get wentz, brees, goff.  I can wait a little in my league where I draft at 11 (7/8).

[Kopy 491]

20 years ago, this place was a little more hoppin. Plus there was some great trolling with football guys from the mange board. I also played in just redrafts back then. I think I did 1 or 2 mocks a day for the whole month of August.

Fast forward 20 years. I'm older, and life's a b!tch. The site/boards are a little different than the good old days. And I can't remember the last time I played a redraft. I got 1 Dynasty and 1 auction/salary cap/contract league. So I have no need for mocks. Haven't done one in over a decade now at least.

Basically, fantasy probably stayed the same. While I changed. It sure was fun as f0ck those days though. We used to mock over at antsports. I couldn't even tell you if it still exists.

 

[JediMaster 20]

20 minutes ago, Kopy said:

Basically, fantasy probably stayed the same. While I changed. It sure was fun as f0ck those days though. We used to mock over at antsports. I couldn't even tell you if it still exists.

 

Antsports!!!!! Used to love that site lol

I'll mock here and there to get an idea of where guys may go. My live draft never goes the way I mock. So basically it's a time killer.

[Ray_T 591]

problem with mocks is they are only as good as the people participating.

some mocks will reflect reality, and some simply wont.

If you notice one or two people using an off the wall crazy draft strategy, you likely dont use the mock.   you make note of it in the event you see someone else doing the same strategy, but most likely you will not use it.

usually in the post mock anaylysis you look at the final teams and check to see how logical each participant was and how realistic it is.   from there you decide to use it or not.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

1 hour ago, Ray_T said:

problem with mocks is they are only as good as the people participating.

some mocks will reflect reality, and some simply wont.

If you notice one or two people using an off the wall crazy draft strategy, you likely dont use the mock.   you make note of it in the event you see someone else doing the same strategy, but most likely you will not use it.

usually in the post mock anaylysis you look at the final teams and check to see how logical each participant was and how realistic it is.   from there you decide to use it or not.

Over at FFC I haven't seen one single person screwing around. Maybe a little heavy at rb or wr, but nothing that a normal team wouldn't do. Now that the real drafts are approaching I am assuming there will be a few jackaloons to take a K in the first. I think it used to be worse when ffc didn't have nearly as many mocks and the wait to get in one was always 10 minutes. So it was a little more of a pain

[weepaws 2,460]

Little bit, I get bored when I mock, and I think it really misses with my rankings. 

So I take very little stock from it.  

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

One pick in a mock caught my eye. Pollard was making it to me consistently in the 12th round. One draft he was taken in the 6th. It showed me how high someone could take him without searching through real drafts. I like the talent in Round 6 too much to take him there, but I will be looking at round 8 possibly to take him. Hopefully ahead of the League. 

[weepaws 2,460]

I wouldn’t hesitate to take him in the 6th in a mock either, just wouldn’t bother with him until late in a real draft. 

[AintNoStoppinMeNow 68]

A couple of times. I want to get used to the new layout/draft room before my real draft. I also want to see how and where that site has players ranked. Lastly, I'll practice team building strategy (RB-RB-RB, best player available, taking a TE early vs not, etc) just to see how my teams turn out. 

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

Mocking for me also challenges me to think. I was hoping for these players to land here, but they didn't, so what's my plan. There's nothing worse than being in a draft, my few main targets are sniped, and now I am scrambling to figure out who to take in this spot. It's especially critical drafting on the ends where passing on a target a little farther down my list may get sniped again before it makes it all the way back to me. 

[IGotWorms 3,315]

Not much these days. Everyone’s all concerned about the gays, midgets, retards etc now. You can’t even safely mock anymore

[Rick Dalton 0]

On 8/20/2019 at 8:50 AM, listen2me 23 said:

None.  Fantasy football is majority luck based.  I dont put that much time into it.

I play IDP anyway.

Says the guy with over 13,000 posts.   I know you're referencing mock drafts, but I read that and laughed.

[IGotWorms 3,315]

36 minutes ago, Rick Dalton said:

Says the guy with over 13,000 posts.   I know you're referencing mock drafts, but I read that and laughed.

Dude posts mainly at the Geek Club — the poor bastard 

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

Well the draft is in the books. How much did mocking help? A ton. My team turned out exactly as I planned minus one player who got sniped a little earlier than he typically went, Curtis Samuel. I was able to land as many upside rbs as I could fit on my team, and I took them at the spots where everyone was like Damn, that's a good pick there.

Upside guys I was able to land

Pollard

Henderson

Justin Jackson

Jalen Samuels

Damien Harris

It's only a 10 team league which made it a little easier. I felt pretty confident that the players I wanted most on my next pick would make it to where I targeted them with my mock data. I can't just look at an adp list and figure my team from there. I need to practice drafting to feel comfortable

[jimaveli 119]

I like mocking with the computer on a few sites. For one, it is much faster. Also, the computer is more ‘on the rails’ (no 2nd round Mayfield stuff) and you get to practice a few doomsday scenarios (Ie: what if you miss a huge position run?). Sure, you can’t say ‘I always get player x at 7 in my mocks so I’m cool’. It’s more about trying different strategies, seeing what kind of team other drafters can creat right next to you, those types of things. It has always helped me have an idea of what players could be available in a real and solid draft. I’m fortunate to not play in any total trash leagues where a bunch of ridiculous things happen in the draft.

[listen2me 23 1,542]

On 8/29/2019 at 11:58 AM, Rick Dalton said:

Says the guy with over 13,000 posts.   I know you're referencing mock drafts, but I read that and laughed.

I dont mind talking football.  Even I will think a bit about fantasy even though I know it is a waste of time.  

If you play with a bunch of people who know football then it comes down to mostly luck.  An injury here.  A good waiver priority when there is a top pick up there.  A game where your opponents QBs team is up by 30 and they pull him with a quarter to go.  You cant account for any of it.  

Ive played fantaay football since I was 10 years old. So over 20 years.  Less now.  But ive realized the end result is mostly just a crapahoot.  It is paying attention more so than some deep thinking strategy or weeks of putting in time on rankings.  

Id love to see a study on this.  Send 1 capable guy in with some espn or fftoday rankings and have him draft the next guy on the rankings each pick.  Have him do normal waivers and trades.  I bet on average he does just as well as anyone else who spends weeks, months of mocks and prep.  

It isnt rocket science to draft a capable team if you know football and are up on whats going on in the league.

 

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

6 hours ago, jimaveli said:

I like mocking with the computer on a few sites. For one, it is much faster. Also, the computer is more ‘on the rails’ (no 2nd round Mayfield stuff) and you get to practice a few doomsday scenarios (Ie: what if you miss a huge position run?). Sure, you can’t say ‘I always get player x at 7 in my mocks so I’m cool’. It’s more about trying different strategies, seeing what kind of team other drafters can creat right next to you, those types of things. It has always helped me have an idea of what players could be available in a real and solid draft. I’m fortunate to not play in any total trash leagues where a bunch of ridiculous things happen in the draft.

My roommate filled in as an emergency drafter, and he hasn't played ffball in years. I thought he may blow up my strategy, but he just used fftoday's rankings for his team. Which makes me want to make a separate thread about his draft. Fftoday had Lockett as WR13, whom I really wanted, so I was afraid my roommate would get him. Probably forunate for me he went Julio and then Mahomes as his top two and then went rb rb the next two rounds.

[Frozenbeernuts 1,652]

1 hour ago, listen2me 23 said:

I dont mind talking football.  Even I will think a bit about fantasy even though I know it is a waste of time.  

If you play with a bunch of people who know football then it comes down to mostly luck.  An injury here.  A good waiver priority when there is a top pick up there.  A game where your opponents QBs team is up by 30 and they pull him with a quarter to go.  You cant account for any of it.  

Ive played fantaay football since I was 10 years old. So over 20 years.  Less now.  But ive realized the end result is mostly just a crapahoot.  It is paying attention more so than some deep thinking strategy or weeks of putting in time on rankings.  

Id love to see a study on this.  Send 1 capable guy in with some espn or fftoday rankings and have him draft the next guy on the rankings each pick.  Have him do normal waivers and trades.  I bet on average he does just as well as anyone else who spends weeks, months of mocks and prep.  

It isnt rocket science to draft a capable team if you know football and are up on whats going on in the league.

 

It is luck, and I have been more than lucky in championship games. I am somewhere around the 10-3 mark in the championship. My buddy who has made the championship game 4 times in my main league has lost every time. Not sure how that works out.