Fantasy draft auto-tuned

If the NFL is going to lockout its players then it is locking out its fantasy players as well. So we at Athlon Sports took that to heart for this April's mock fantasy draft.

Just as we have conducted a mock draft on the first Monday of February and March, we did so again this month. However, we did it with a lockout twist. We locked ourselves out of it.

Want to know what it will look like if John Connor was right and Skynet takes over? Well this is it in mock draft form. We simply let the computer do the drafting for us.

The only parameters that were given were what positions we wanted in the first two rounds and what round we wanted our tight end selected in. We also had the computer draft a backup quarterback for us. From there, the computer went right down the line of our top 275 board and produced a 12-team, 16-round draft that not many of us are proud of.

This, folks, is what a fantasy draft lockout looks like. This is the future when computers take over. Of course this was originally done to show you what could happen if you ever get stuck in an auto draft league and let the computer do the work you should have been doing.

So enjoy — or cringe.

The highs and lows for the 12 teams "participating" in the Athlon Sports April Mock Auto Draft.

No. 1 slot: Matt Taliaferro (RB, RB)
Highs — Arian Foster, Jonathan Stewart in the first two rounds.
Lows — Having six straight receivers drafted from Rounds 3-8 and no QB until Sanchez in the 13th.

No. 2 slot: Mitch Light (RB, WR)
Highs — Adrian Peterson, Calvin Johnson, Greg Jennings in the first three rounds.
Lows — Considering it was an auto draft, none really.

No. 3 slot: Tim Clark (RB, RB)
Highs — Reggie Wayne, Jason Witten and Jeremy Maclin from rounds 3-5.
Lows — Blount as a second rounder was a result of pre-determining he wanted RB, RB to start the draft.

No. 4 slot: Charlie Miller (RB, QB)
Highs — Pretty solid first seven rounds despite having two QBs selected in a span of three rounds (a mandatory backup QB bit him there).
Lows — Had six RBs selected for him between rounds 7-15.

No. 5 slot: Rob Doster (RB, QB)
Highs — Chris Johnson, Michael Vick and Dwayne Bowe is a stellar start at the fifth spot.
Lows — The auto pick got him good with a roster full of RBs — seven of them, including five in seven picks.

No. 6 slot: Mark Malone (QB, WR)
Highs — Actually resembles a real draft with Aaron Rodgers, Matt Forte, Larry Fitzgerald, Vernon Davis, Santonio Holmes and Anquan Boldin as his first six picks.
Lows — Ended up with a string of RBBCs — five of them between rounds 7-13

No. 7 slot: Victor Drazen (RB, RB)
Highs — Held out for QB and TE and wound up with Jay Cutler and Owen Daniels in the ninth and 10th rounds — great value in this auto setup.
Lows — Have RBs will travel. The auto draft loaded him up with six RBs in his first eight rounds.

No. 8 slot: Patrick Snow (RB, QB)
Highs — The all-potential team came after his first two picks of Rashard Mendenhall and Philip Rivers. They included Mike Williams (Tampa), Vincent Jackson, Shonn Greene, Josh Freeman, Mark Ingram and Chris Cooley.
Lows — With the ninth pick in an auto draft it's hard to find where the computer might have screwed him on this one.

No. 9 slot: Steven Lassan (RB, QB)
Highs — MJD and Peyton Manning are not a bad way to start a draft.
Lows — Seven of the first 13 picks were RBs and six of them are questionable in regards to carrying a fantasy team.

No. 10 slot: Braden Gall (RB, RB)
Highs — Another spot that seemed to turn into more of a traditional draft with LeSean McCoy and Steven Jackson as his first two picks.
Lows — Hard to find any (outside of maybe being saddled with RBs for his first three picks) considering it's auto draft.

No. 11 slot: Corby Yarbrough (QB, RB)
Highs — Starts strong with Tom Brady and Darren McFadden and then Antonio Gates in the fourth.
Lows — Falls off the rails after the seventh round and pretty much until Akers is selected last.

No. 12 slot: Nathan Rush (QB, WR)
Highs — Drew Brees, Andre Johnson, Dez Bryant to begin a draft selecting in the last spot is phenomenal.
Lows — However, just as it was with the No. 1 overall slot, Rush is saddled with nine receivers and just TWO running backs between rounds 2-14.