Fantasy Football Mock Draft, 12-team 2-QB: Still taking McCaffrey at No. 1

Fantasy football mock draft for a 12-team, 2-QB league picking first overall.

It’s full-blown fantasy football draft season as the 2020 NFL season is now just barely over a week away. Though COVID-19 has taken its toll on the season in many ways, the NFL and fantasy football alike are carrying on. So it’s best to be prepared, whether that’s parsing through countless rankings or perusing one fantasy football mock draft after another, including this one.

One of the recent trends in fantasy as of late as been 2-QB or Superflex leagues, the latter of which meaning you can play a quarterback in the FLEX spot, making it essentially a 2-QB league as they score the most points consistently. Thus, it only makes sense that we’d dive into this world for another fantasy football mock draft.

For this mock draft, which was compiled on Fantasy Football Calculator, I chose the No. 1 overall pick. The reason behind this was to see how you could fare at quarterback in a 2-QB league if that first pick wasn’t at the position and, thus, you have to wait until the next turn. That was the goal here in this 12-team mock draft, featuring seven users (me included) and five computer autodrafts.

Let’s see the team we ended up with a round-by-round breakdown of this fantasy football mock draft for a 12-team, 2-QB, non-PPR league.

Note: All stats are via Pro Football Reference and 2019 fantasy date via ESPN fantasy.

Round 1

• Team 1* (1.01): Christian McCaffrey, RB, CAR
• Team 2 (1.02): Saquon Barkley, RB, NYG
• Team 3 (1.03): Ezekiel Elliott, RB, DAL
• Team 4 (1.04): Michael Thomas, WR, NO
• Team 5 (1.05): Patrick Mahomes, QB, KC
• Team 6 (1.06): Lamar Jackson, QB, BAL
• Team 7 (1.07): Dalvin Cook, RB, MIN
• Team 8 (1.08): Alvin Kamara, RB, NO
• Team 9 (1.09): Josh Jacobs, RB, LV
• Team 10 (1.10): Derrick Henry, RB, TEN
• Team 11 (1.11): Russell Wilson, QB, SEA
• Team 12 (1.12): Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, KC

There was no touching Christian McCaffrey in fantasy football last season. The Panthers running back rushed for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns on 287 carries while also catching 116 balls for 1,005 yards and four more touchdowns. It was one of the most incredible all-around seasons we’ve ever seen from a running back.

While he obviously had more value in PPR leagues given that he garnered over 100 receptions, CMC was still by far the No. 1 running back in fantasy. In total points, he was 78.6 better than No. 2 (Derrick Henry). For reference, that’s roughly the difference between the RB2 and RB9 from last season. McCaffrey also averaged 3.8 more fantasy points per game than the next closest player.

Though the Panthers have changed quarterbacks, coaches and much of the offense, the simple fact that remains is that McCaffrey remains the focal point. He’s going to get close to 400 touches again and he’s proven what he can do with that.

Sitting at the No. 1 pick in a 2-QB league, it may feel strange not taking a quarterback. But if you have the opportunity to take Run CMC and you pass on it, chances are that you’re going to end up kicking yourself by about Week 4 of the regular season for making such an obvious and easily avoidable mistake.