We are back with our 3rd Draft Champions mode mock draft. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Draft Champions mode, it is the new game mode that will be on Madden 16 that combines fantasy football with Madden. It is a variation on the ever-popular Madden Ultimate Team mode. This is the 3rd mock draft of this series, if you missed the first one you can find it here, and you can find the 2nd one here. For this draft I am going in with the mentality of building a smash mouth football team. Without any further ado, lets dive into another draft and see how it turns out.
- RB Matt Forte (85) – Matt Forte is faster then Arian Foster. I never really considered the RT here because I want to start off with a good running back this time.
- RG T.J. Lang (88) – Right away in round 2 I get to pick up an elite interior linemen to help clear the way for Forte. I held out at QB because I would like to snag a mobile guy if I can.
- ROLB James Harrison (81) – I value linebackers more then defensive linemen, and I really want to build this as a smash mouth football team so I passed on the WR here
- LT Jason Peters (88) – Should probably take Green here, but I went with Peters because I am determined to run the ball with this team.
- RG Zack Martin (86) – Here I take a 2nd RG who will slide in at LG for me. Now I have 3 offensive linemen rated 86 or above. Probably time to start focusing on the defense and the WRs.
- RE Mike Devito (80) – I thought about taking the MLB here, but I’m going to hold out for a better anchor for my defense and bolster my defensive line here.
- SS George Iloka (85) – Will be a great help over the top to help take away deep ball aggressive catches.
- RT Doug Free (84) – This offensive line is shaping up to be killer! My offense is complete as far as running the ball goes. Now lets hope I can get the defense to pair with it. If I can draft 7 straight defensive players here I could have a really good team!
- CB Alterraun Verner (83) – Verner will help upgrade my secondary. Hopefully I can still get an elite corner and slide Verner into my #2 CB slot.
- DT Dontari Poe (86) – A stud DT to anchor my D-line. It was really tempting to go with the QB here, but ultimately I had to stick to the vision of my team as a run and play defense type of team.
- QB Tom Brady (90) – Well, with the offensive line already taken care of, and a good HB already on my team, I guess it makes a lot of sense to go QB here. My passing game just became relevant again.
- CB Darius Slay (81) – I’m already set at ROLB and DT so I will pick up my second CB here. Still hoping I can pick up an elite #1 though.
- LOLB Julius Peppers (83) – All three of these guys would have fit a need for me but I decided to go with a linebacker here. You can’t be a smash mouth team if you can’t stop the run.
- FS Charles Woodson (81) – I am glad I didn’t take a FS last round because I don’t really need another average CB or a QB here. That worked out perfectly. Now lets go legends round! Give me a defensive star!
- RE Bruce Smith (93) – It was very tempting to take Finneran here to give Tom Brady a target to throw too. But I stuck with the plan and anchored my defensive line with another solid DE.
Team Strengths: My offensive line and running back are set up to succeed. I should be able to run the ball on just about anyone with 4 linemen rated 84 or above and Matt Forte at RB. Picking up Brady was a nice surprise, and he should be able to destroy defenses off of play action if they sell out to the run. My defense is pretty solid all around, but its’ strength is the defensive line with 2 players rated 86 or above.
Team Weaknesses: My passing game is an obvious weakness with no drafted WR’s or TE’s. But I feel like Tom Brady can still make some magic happen throwing behind that offensive line. On defense my secondary isn’t exactly weak, but it isn’t strong either. Hopefully it can hold its own against some of these loaded passing teams.
What would your draft look like? Sound off in the comments below.