Fantasy Football Mock Draft On ESPN Using Matthew Berry's Rankings

Just. Keep. Drafting ... in a fantasy football mock draft.

We’ve now reached mid-August, and your home league fantasy drafts are right around the corner. Best ball drafts are a blast, but they don’t exactly get you prepared for your home leagues. 

The Draft Champion fantasy football mock draft simulator has you covered.

In just minutes, you can sync your league with any provider and run through an entire fantasy football mock draft to get your reps in. And one of the many helpful features is the ability to choose one of our awesome experts' fantasy football rankings to draft from. So for this week’s mock, we’ll be drafting using ESPN ADP and the boss man, Matthew Berry’s rankings.

You can check out the entire draft here.

Using Matthew Berry's Rankings For An ESPN Fantasy Football Mock Draft

1.11: Saquon Barkley | RB | Eagles

With this being a 3-WR format, I definitely gave plenty of consideration to Justin Jefferson. But because it’s a mock, I wanted to experiment with an RB-RB start (spoiler for my second pick) to see if I could make up ground at wide receiver. 

I’ve been pretty bullish on Barkley’s bounceback case for 2026, and I have him ahead of Kenneth Walker and Ashton Jeanty, who Matthew prefers in his rankings. Barkley’s 2025 campaign was mostly situation-based, as Kevin Patullo called a vanilla offense, while the offensive line was rarely at full strength. We saw multiple starters on the Eagles offensive line miss time, most notably RT Lane Johnson, who left a handful of games early before ultimately missing the final eight games of the year with a foot injury. Philadelphia was also without C Cam Jurgens for two games, while Landon Dickerson also missed one contest. But the absence of Johnson clearly told the story.

With Johnson on the field last season, Barkley’s overall numbers were clearly still down quite a bit from 2024, but they don’t look as bad when you consider what he did without his all-world right tackle. Barkley averaged 4.2 YPC and 1.97 YBC/ATT with Johnson on the field, while posting a 16.9% first-down-per-rush rate. But with Johnson sidelined, the numbers plummeted even more, as Barkley averaged 4.0 YPC and just 0.88 YBC/ATT. And unsurprisingly, the Eagles offense was much worse without their star lineman on the field, averaging an ugly -0.04 EPA/Play and 5.1 yards per play, while posting a success rate of 39.1%. With Johnson on the field? 0.05 EPA/Play, 5.4 yards per play, 42.2% success rate. 

The offensive line should be healthier in 2026, while the scheme is much more creative. New OC Sean Mannion is set to deploy more under center snaps, which could be a boost for Barkley. Philadelphia has primarily operated from the shotgun over the years, leading to 445 runs out of shotgun from Barkley since 2024, the most in all of football. An uptick in under-center run plays is an exciting concept for Barkley, who can get downhill faster and see things a bit clearer. And although the sample size isn’t massive, we have seen Barkley impress on non-shotgun runs over the past two seasons:

• 5.3 YPC
• 2.04 YBC/ATT
• 22.2% avoided tackle rate
• 18.9% first downs per rush

2.02: Ashton Jeanty | RB | Raiders

Because we’re using ESPN’s ADP, I knew I could likely have Jeanty make it back to me here. A consensus first-round pick elsewhere, Jeanty is coming off the board in the middle of Round 2 on ESPN. There’s definite risk in starting RB-RB in a 3-WR league, especially at the turn. 

But that volume? Whew. 

With Barkley and Jeanty, I’m getting two running backs who rarely leave the field and dominate their team’s rush attempts. 

• Barkley: 79% snaps (3rd), 70% rush attempts (4th), 19.8 touches per game (5th)
• Jeanty: 78% snaps (4th), 78% rush attempts (2nd), 18.8 touches per game (8th)

Jeanty’s volume didn’t lead to huge fantasy numbers as a rookie, but the Raiders offense (and more importantly, the offensive line) told the story. Jeanty was stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage on a whopping 26.7% of his carries, the highest rate in the NFL. The Raiders averaged 3.50 adjusted line yards per attempt, tied for the worst mark in the league, while Jeanty averaged just 3.3 yards per carry on runs inside the tackles. His 27.6% success rate on such runs was also comfortably the lowest rate among qualified rushers.

With Kolton Miller healthy, center Tyler Linderbaum in town and head coach Klint Kubiak upgrading the offense, Jeanty has top-five upside as a sophomore. 

3.11: Tee Higgins | WR | Bengals

With my two elite running backs solidified, it was time to load up on wide receivers. I debated between multiple wideouts, but because I was at the turn, I knew I’d be getting two players I really liked. 

Like Jeanty, Higgins’ ADP is suppressed on ESPN, as he’s usually a top-34 selection over on Underdog. I was thrilled to see him fall to me at the end of Round 3. Last year, Higgins played 15 games (his most since 2022), finishing as the WR13 in PPG (14.1), buoyed by 11 touchdowns. He’s scored double-digit touchdowns each of the past two seasons, while averaging 0.93 end zone targets per game during that span. That ranks 9th in football, just behind teammate Ja’Marr Chase (0.94). 

Playing alongside Chase does cap his target ceiling, as Higgins has been held under a 20% target share three of the last four seasons. However, the Bengals throw more than enough for Chase to post overall WR1 numbers, while Higgins can still finish as a high-end WR2. Plus, there’s that elite contingency upside if Chase were to ever miss any time. In six career games with Chase sidelined since 2022, Higgins is averaging 8.3 targets, 6.0 receptions, 93 yards and 18.3 PPR PPG. 

4.02: Jaylen Waddle | WR | Broncos

This was probably the easiest selection of the draft. 

I mean, I just wrote an in-depth breakdown of why I love Waddle this season. Please check that out, but long story short? Waddle is an immensely talented player who, for the first time since his rookie season, is going to be schemed targets in a good offense.

All of those abandoned screen passes from his final four seasons in Miami will resurface in Denver. Although offensive coordinator Davis Webb will be calling the plays this season, Payton will surely still have plenty of influence on the offense. And that offense will likely once again heavily feature the screen game. Since 2023, the Broncos have ranked seventh in the NFL in WR screen-pass attempts (113) and fourth in overall screen passes. And this past season, Troy Franklin actually tied for the second-most screen targets among all wide receivers with 21. A large chunk of those looks should be heading the way of Waddle, allowing him to use his speed to create explosive plays.

Given the track record of recently traded wide receivers, Waddle has top-12 potential in Denver.

5.11: DJ Moore | WR | Bills

Look, I’ll be honest here. I’m a massive Buffalo Bills fan, but I try my best not to let my fandom impact my fantasy football decisions/analysis.

I’m failing.

After an ugly 2025 season, many believe Moore is declining. But watching the rapport he’s developed with Josh Allen has me thinking anything but. Granted, it’s just camp, but Moore looks great, is being used downfield and gets an offensive upgrade. Caleb Williams was a lot of fun last year, and is very likely to become a star. But he struggled with consistent accuracy, as Pro Football Reference charted 20.7% of his passes as “bad throws.” Only Michael Penix and J.J. McCarthy were worse. And when watching the Bears last season, there were a handful of times when Moore and Williams weren’t on the same page. Individually, nearly 17% of Moore’s total targets were deemed inaccurate. 

I don’t believe Moore is going to step in and become the next Stefon Diggs in Buffalo. But what about a stat line like 72 catches, 115 targets, 1,060 yards and 6 TDs? That’s what John Brown posted alongside Allen back in 2019, and Moore certainly has more upside than that, especially if Joe Brady and Pete Carmichael throw the ball a bit more. 

I’m perfectly happy with Moore as my WR3.

6.02: Jameson Williams | WR | Lions

The wide receiver run continues with Jameson Williams in Round 6. 

There’s always going to be some volatility with Williams in fantasy. But as my FLEX, it’s a lot less of a concern. We’ll see which version of Williams we get this season—pre-Week 10 or post-Week 10? 

That was a turning point for the Lions last year, as it signaled the first week Dan Campbell took over playcalling duties. But it was also the week tight end Sam LaPorta suffered a back injury that would ultimately end his season. From then on, Williams’ usage took a massive jump:

Campbell appeared to get Williams more consistent looks, though LaPorta’s absence was certainly a contributing factor. Williams was targeted on just 14.7% of his routes with LaPorta on the field last year, a number that climbed to 19% with the tight end off the field. Williams averaged 7.3 targets per game from Week 10 on, up from 4.5 per game in Weeks 1-9.

Matthew has Williams ranked at WR27, so there’s plenty of upside with him as my WR4/FLEX.

7.11: Josh Downs | WR | Colts

With every day Alec Pierce doesn’t practice, Downs continues to move up the rankings. The Colts' passing game projects to be very concentrated in 2026. 

Any potential Pierce absence would only make it more condensed.

We should expect Downs to run more routes this season, which is exciting considering he commands targets when he’s on the field. Among wideouts with at least 100 routes last season, Downs ranked 11th in TPRR vs man coverage (29%). The absence of Michael Pittman should open up more opportunities for Downs, who didn’t play when the Colts were in two-wide sets last season. Last season, Downs ran just 17 routes out of 12 personnel, which ranked outside the top-100 wideouts in football. But in that very small sample size, Downs was targeted seven times. And on 122 routes with Pittman off the field, Downs has been targeted on 25% of his routes. 

8.02: Dak Prescott | QB | Cowboys

Still without a quarterback, this felt like the time to change that. With my next pick not for a while, I knew I’d likely miss one of my favorite tiers at the position. Always a contender to lead the league in passing, Prescott ranked second in dropbacks (654), second in attempts (600) and third in passing yards (4,552). Prescott honestly projects very similarly to someone like Joe Burrow, who came off the board two full rounds earlier.

9.11: Blake Corum | RB | Rams

Corum is a perfect bench running back. He’ll have a handful of weeks where he can provide standalone value, while vaulting to a weekly top-10 fantasy option if Kyren Williams were to ever miss time. Williams was the unquestioned lead back to open the season, but following the Rams Week 8 bye, Corum saw a larger role, averaging nearly 11 touches per game, while handling 37% of the rush attempts. From Weeks 1-8, Corum accounted for just 26% of the carries, averaging 6.4 touches per game.

10.02: Dallas Goedert | TE | Eagles

I was torn between Matthew’s TE12 (Isaiah Likely) and his TE13 (Goedert). Fortunately, Likely was selected one spot ahead of me, making my decision for me. 

Shoutout to you, Team 12.

After failing to catch more than five touchdowns in any season through his first seven years, Goedert exploded for 11 scores last season. He accounted for 40.9% of the Eagles’ targets from inside the 10-yard line, good for the second-highest rate in all of football. With the tush push losing effectiveness, the Eagles pivoted to the Goedert shovel, accounting for five of his total touchdowns. 

Some touchdown regression is on the horizon, but A.J. Brown’s absence and a potential slow start for first-round rookie Makai Lemon should solidify Goedert’s role. Goedert has been targeted on over 25% of his routes with AJ off the field since 2023.

Final Roster From ESPN Mock Draft With Matthew Berry's Rankings

• QB: Dak Prescott
• RB: Saquon Barkley
• RB: Ashton Jeanty
• WR: Tee Higgins
• WR: Jaylen Waddle
• WR: DJ Moore
• TE: Dallas Goedert
• FLX: Jameson Williams
• K: Cam Little
• DST: Jaguars

Bench

• Josh Downs
• Blake Corum
• Rashid Shaheed
• Keaton Mitchell
• Alvin Kamara
• Denzel Boston