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This is the only fantasy draft board you need

ORCHARD PARK, NY - OCTOBER 4: Eli Manning #10 of the New York Giants and Odell Beckham #13 exchange pleasantries with Tyrod Taylor #5 of the Buffalo Bills after their NFL game at Ralph Wilson Stadium on October 4, 2015 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

We’ve all been there. It’s draft day, and you’re up in three picks. You have your guy. He’s highlighted, underlined and circled on your draft board. You can already see him helping your team to the league championship.

One pick goes by, and then another. Your guy is still there. Just one pick left. As you start to rise up out your chair to head over to the draft board, he gets picked.

D’oh!

Panic sets in. Everyone is looking at you. Who do you pick? Quick, make a decision. You frantically scroll through a top-300 list and then rapidly glance at some positional rankings hoping a name, some name, any name sticks out. Then one does. You casually put his sticker on the board, acting like nothing happened, and walk nonchalantly back over to your seat.

As soon as you sit down, you see it: The obvious pick you overlooked in your desperate search. It was right there in front of you, and you’re already starting to kick yourself. It gets in your head and doesn’t go away. You keep thinking about this mistake for the next several rounds. And you know what? You make more mistakes because of this one slipup. To borrow a term from poker, you’re on tilt.

Of course, this is an absolutely worst-case scenario, but even small mistakes on draft day have a ripple effect that can potentially impact your entire draft.

To avoid these mishaps, you want to go into draft day prepared and with a solid draft board in place. I already discussed the thought process behind producing a draft board. Today, I’m going to give you my actual 2016 draft board. You can use this to help build your own board and make sure the nightmare situation above doesn’t happen to you this year.

Rounds 1-5

It’s easy to sit here and tell you that you should draft Antonio Brown or Julio Jones, but that isn’t going to do you any good if you end up with a pick at the tail end of a snake draft. Instead, I recommend coming into a draft with a strong set of overall rankings.

In a 12-team league, I recommend covering five rounds of the draft, which equates to roughly 60 players. To get you started, here are my top 60 players:

Top 60 Overall
Rk Player Pos Tm Bye Rk Player Pos Tm Bye
1 Antonio Brown WR PIT 8 31 Jonathan C. Stewart RB CAR 7
2 Odell Beckham Jr. WR NYG 8 32 Greg Olsen TE CAR 7
3 David A. Johnson RB ARZ 9 33 Brandin Cooks WR NO 5
4 Julio Jones WR ATL 11 34 Keenan Allen WR SD 11
5 Todd Gurley RB LA 8 35 Jarvis Landry WR MIA 8
6 Adrian L. Peterson RB MIN 6 36 C.J. Anderson RB DEN 11
7 Ezekiel Elliott RB DAL 7 37 Golden Tate WR DET 10
8 DeAndre Hopkins WR HST 9 38 T.Y. Hilton WR IND 10
9 Jamaal Charles RB KC 5 39 Latavius Murray RB OAK 10
10 LeSean McCoy RB BUF 10 40 Melvin Gordon RB SD 11
11 Lamar Miller RB HST 9 41 Eric Decker WR NYJ 11
12 Devonta Freeman RB ATL 11 42 Cam Newton QB CAR 7
13 Rob Gronkowski TE NE 9 43 Julian Edelman WR NE 9
14 Dez Bryant WR DAL 7 44 Ryan Mathews RB PHI 4
15 A.J. Green WR CIN 9 45 Matt Jones RB WAS 9
16 Mark Ingram RB NO 5 46 Jeremy Maclin WR KC 5
17 Doug Martin RB TB 6 47 Demaryius Thomas WR DEN 11
18 Le'Veon Bell RB PIT 8 48 Larry Fitzgerald WR ARZ 9
19 Brandon Marshall WR NYJ 11 49 Kelvin Benjamin WR CAR 7
20 Carlos Hyde RB SF 8 50 Dion Lewis RB NE 9
21 Allen Robinson WR JAX 5 51 Donte Moncrief WR IND 10
22 Alshon Jeffery WR CHI 9 52 DeMarco Murray RB TEN 13
23 Thomas Rawls RB SEA 5 53 Coby Fleener TE NO 5
24 Matt Forte RB NYJ 11 54 Giovani Bernard RB CIN 9
25 Eddie Lacy RB GB 4 55 Frank Gore RB IND 10
26 Jordan Reed TE WAS 9 56 Jeremy Langford RB CHI 9
27 Jordy Nelson WR GB 4 57 Randall Cobb WR GB 4
28 Mike Evans WR TB 6 58 Aaron Rodgers QB GB 4
29 Sammy Watkins WR BUF 10 59 Russell Wilson QB SEA 5
30 Amari Cooper WR OAK 10 60 Rashad Jennings RB NYG 8

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