Fantasy Football Mock Draft: Quarterbacks Fall, Wide Receivers Rise

Round 10

Best Pick: Bilal Powell

In three of the final four weeks of the 2015 season, Bilal Powell was money.

People sort of forget that Powell was essentially an RB1 in PPR formats from Week 13 on last year, averaging eight targets per game with some rushing work mixed in. He was taking some work from Chris Ivory, and it was working for the Jets.

This year, Ivory's gone, but Matt Forte is in town. To many, that's bad news for Powell, as Forte has been known as a superior pass-catching back throughout his NFL career. It's not all that bad, though.

First off, the contracts Forte and Powell signed with the Jets this offseason are nearly identical, with Forte getting a little more guaranteed money. That may be a surprise to some, but Forte's going to be 31 years old in July, while Powell is hitting his prime.

It may be assumed that Forte takes all early-down work in the Jets' offense, but that's not exactly the case. Already, we're hearing that Powell could be in store for "major touches" this season, which will come in the form of both attempts and targets in the passing game.

So picking Powell in the double-digit rounds does provide some sort of floor -- he's going to be involved in the offense.

And what happens if Forte goes down? There's the upside.

I've mentioned this type of scenario plenty when reviewing this mock, but it's important to think about how a running back can perform if the guy in front of him gets hit with the injury bug. In Powell's case, he's a pass-catching back who would end up seeing an uptick -- along with Khiry Robinson -- in early-down work.

Powell has flex appeal to begin with, but he also has upside if something were to happen to an aged, highly-used Matt Forte. You have to love that.