We can hopefully all agree that every fantasy draft or mock conducted by industry experts is useless in the same way. All of them are chalky. If you have access to industry consensus ranks, then you already more or less know how every expert draft will play out. Most analysts are very solid fantasy managers, but our draft behavior is robotic and highly predictable.That is to say, we are nothing like the goofballs in your home league. When you get the full sloppy squad together in Nick’s brother’s garage for the annual draft, half of the managers in the league are underprepared and nearly everyone is overserved. Bizarre selections are made — reckless, not-at-all-expert choices.Well, your friends at The Athletic Football Show decided to throw together a draft involving the hosts (Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman), two fantasy analysts (Jake Ciely and myself), one reformed fantasy analyst (Michael Beller) and four distinguished sports media personalities who were too kind to refuse the invitation (Adam Amin, Carmen Vitali, Courtney Cronin and Kevin Fishbain). The results align well with what you might expect out in the real world, in America’s bars, basements and garages.
But our draft board doesn’t resemble a standard-issue fantasy industry mock. You can watch the full exercise unfold right here:Here’s a look at our first dozen rounds:I won’t waste any words on a breakdown of my draft or Jake’s. We did what was expected of us, in the numbingly dull manner of fantasy veterans. (Credit to Jake for remaining very on brand and refusing to select a kicker on draft night.) Also, I won’t feed you a series of takeaways; you don’t need an expert to tell you that quarterbacks are plentiful and running backs are not.Instead, let’s focus on the agents of chaos in this league. Our draft involved five distinct manager-types who can be found out in the wild:
