Eric Mack: Foster, Ride lead NFL fantasy 2012 mock draft

No matter the scoring format, Arian Foster's skills as a runner and pass catcher has made him the top pick in many fantasy drafts.

George Bridges/MCT/LANDOV

Every fantasy football league is different and every draft is the same, especially if you consider the scoring differences of a Points-Per-Reception (PPR) league. Understanding the subtle differences make or break your draft.

Before we present to you SI.com's first Mock Draft for 2012 (a PPR league, by the way), we give you a few final pointers of things to weigh before you get to pickin'.

1. Draft according to your format

This should be beyond obvious to everyone, but it tends to be where the least amount of time fantasy owners spend preparing for their draft. You can know the NFL and its players upside down and inside out -- like your TV talking head of choice -- but if you don't know fantasy and your scoring nuances, you are ostensibly picking blind. Player rankings and average draft position (ADP) differ greatly depending on your format and scoring system. For example, in some leagues that reward points for yardage-against and points-against for Defense/Special teams, it can make sense picking your D/ST before your starting quarterback even. Seriously. D/STs can score big points in some formats, hardly anything in others.

2. Know your league's draft history

Like knowing your scoring system, if you play in a league that has generally had the same members, you can gleam a lot of knowledge from past years' drafts. Watch where the first defenses go off the board (on average); note where the second- and third-tier QBs start going off the board. Fantasy football drafters are creatures of habit. You can learn more about what will happen by looking back at what has.

3. Know your draft location

We aren't talking about showing up at the right address here. If you pick online, know the rankings, projections and ADPs of the website you are drafting on. Where you draft tends to have a significant impact on how your draft goes. A draft on Yahoo.com or ESPN.com will vary from one on CBSSports.com. The wisdom of the crowd tends to get us closer to reality, so have multiple sources of rankings and ADPs. (MockDraftCentral.com has good, frequently updated and multi-format ADP rankings that generally are unaffected by the major commissioner host website's rankings.)

Now that you have those three tips in mind, the draft below is a standard, 12-team PPR league that doesn't value D/STs that greatly. The participants, like most fantasy analysts drafts, generally value running backs and receivers, waiting a bit on quarterbacks. The draft was hosted on CBSSports.com, so it might not follow SI.com's top 200 rankings as closely as some other drafts might.

A few key notes on the draft below:

1. QB -- Three went in Round 1, two went in the middle of Round 2 and then there was a significant wait for the rest of the teams to lock up a starting QB.

2. RB -- Round 9 was roughly the start of owners picking up handcuffs for their elite starting RBs. If you pick Arian Foster (Ben Tate), Fred Jackson (C.J. Spiller), Darren Sproles (Mark Ingram), Beanie Wells (Ryan Williams) and DeAngelo Williams (Jonathan Stewart), you are going to have a tough time locking up your RBs proper handcuff.

3. WR -- They tend to go in bunches. Rounds 2 and 3 were heavy on WRs and RBs.

4. TE -- The elite duo goes off the board early in Round 2 and the next tier waits all the way until Round 5 and 6.

5. K -- If you don't like waiting until the final round, you shouldn't go any earlier than third to the last round. Even then, you should only pick a kicker if you are at the back end of the round. That figures to be where you can start a run on the few top kickers.

6. D/ST -- As reminded above, this league wasn't heavy on D/ST points, so the first unit went off the board in Round 10 and most owners waited even later. If you are in the league with bigger D/STs points, you can consider picking the first unit -- unanimously the 49ers -- in Round 7 or 8.

This draft was held Wednesday, Aug. 22, so there could be significant changes if you are drafting after the pivotal third week of the preseason. That week tends to give us the best information on how offenses and players look, because it is generally the teams' dress rehearsal for opening day. Keep that in mind, as well.

SI.com's 12-team mock draft (PPR)

Round 1

Pick Team Player 1 Team 1 Arian Foster RB HOU 2 Team 2 Ray Rice RB BAL 3 Team 3 LeSean McCoy RB PHI 4 Team 4 Aaron Rodgers QB GB 5 Team 5 Calvin Johnson WR DET 6 Team 6 Chris Johnson RB TEN 7 Team 7 Marshawn Lynch RB SEA 8 Team 8 Darren McFadden RB OAK 9 Team 9 DeMarco Murray RB DAL 10 Team 10 Tom Brady QB NE 11 Team 11 Matt Forte RB CHI 12 Team 12 Drew Brees QB NO

Round 2

Pick Team Player 13 Team 12 Rob Gronkowski TE NE 14 Team 11 Jimmy Graham TE NO 15 Team 10 Wes Welker WR NE 16 Team 9 Cam Newton QB CAR 17 Team 8 Matthew Stafford QB DET 18 Team 7 Trent Richardson RB CLE 19 Team 6 Larry Fitzgerald WR ARI 20 Team 5 Greg Jennings WR GB 21 Team 4 Jordy Nelson WR GB 22 Team 3 Andre Johnson WR HOU 23 Team 2 Victor Cruz WR NYG 24 Team 1 Roddy White WR ATL

Round 3

Pick Team Player 25 Team 1 Ryan Mathews RB SD 26 Team 2 Adrian Peterson RB MIN 27 Team 3 Jamaal Charles RB KC 28 Team 4 Fred Jackson RB BUF 29 Team 5 Maurice Jones-Drew RB JAC 30 Team 6 Darren Sproles RB NO 31 Team 7 Julio Jones WR ATL 32 Team 8 A.J. Green WR CIN 33 Team 9 Brandon Marshall WR CHI 34 Team 10 Steven Jackson RB STL 35 Team 11 Hakeem Nicks WR NYG 36 Team 12 Doug Martin RB TB

Round 4

Pick Team Player 37 Team 12 Frank Gore RB SF 38 Team 11 Reggie Bush RB MIA 39 Team 10 Michael Turner RB ATL 40 Team 9 Ahmad Bradshaw RB NYG 41 Team 8 Shonn Greene RB NYJ 42 Team 7 Steve Smith WR CAR 43 Team 6 Percy Harvin WR MIN 44 Team 5 Willis McGahee RB DEN 45 Team 4 Donald Brown RB IND 46 Team 3 Marques Colston WR NO 47 Team 2 Dez Bryant WR DAL 48 Team 1 Eli Manning QB NYG

Round 5

Pick Team Player 49 Team 1 Antonio Gates TE SD 50 Team 2 Matt Ryan QB ATL 51 Team 3 Tony Romo QB DAL 52 Team 4 BenJarvus Green-Ellis RB CIN 53 Team 5 Mike Wallace WR PIT 54 Team 6 Demaryius Thomas WR DEN 55 Team 7 Dwayne Bowe WR KC 56 Team 8 Jeremy Maclin WR PHI 57 Team 9 DeSean Jackson WR PHI 58 Team 10 Miles Austin WR DAL 59 Team 11 Steve Johnson WR BUF 60 Team 12 Antonio Brown WR PIT

Round 6

Pick Team Player 61 Team 12 Eric Decker WR DEN 62 Team 11 Michael Vick QB PHI 63 Team 10 Aaron Hernandez TE NE 64 Team 9 Vernon Davis TE SF 65 Team 8 Jason Witten TE DAL 66 Team 7 Jermichael Finley TE GB 67 Team 6 Ben Roethlisberger QB PIT 68 Team 5 Philip Rivers QB SD 69 Team 4 Torrey Smith WR BAL 70 Team 3 Brandon Lloyd WR NE 71 Team 2 Kevin Smith RB DET 72 Team 1 Vincent Jackson WR TB

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/eric_mack/08/23/mack-mock-draft/index.html?eref=si_latest

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