Written by Leo Howell at ESPN.com
It’s never too early to draft a fantasy football team, as long as you’re aware of the potential risks and rewards at the time you draft.
While many fantasy footballers will stick to drafting the week before the season kicks off, if you want to play in quite a few leagues or have difficult schedules to maneuver around, sometimes you just have to draft a bit earlier. That means you might have Le’Veon Bell and his possible four-game suspension on your roster as a first overall pick, or you might have the recently reinstated Josh Gordon as a last-round pick.
In our most recent staff mock draft (10-team, 2-QB PPR) — the first since Gordon’s reinstatement became public — it was Eric Karabell who selected the Cleveland wideout, who went in the eighth round. Gordon was Karabell’s fourth wideout selected, and his sixth potential “flex” (running back or wide receiver) option.
“By the time I chose Josh Gordon with pick No. 75, I felt like I had properly handled the portion of my draft in which I focused on securing two of the top 12 quarterbacks (due to the 2-QB league format), reasonable starting running backs who can catch some passes and at least two wide receivers who would really pile on the catches.” Eric said of his pick. “I did that better than I expected I’d be able to, so it became ‘upside time,’ and I felt like Josh Gordon and, three rounds later Arian Foster, were excellent examples of that strategy, so I acted and kind of enjoy the results.”
“After all, if Gordon [and Foster] fail or don’t even get on the field at all, it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s certainly worth the risk. This team has depth. If I had to choose Gordon probably one round earlier to secure him, then I probably wouldn’t have done it.
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