The annual Fantasy Football Marathon mock draft is always a temperature check on the market. This year's 10-team PPR edition ran hot for running backs: 13 of the first 20 picks were RBs. That is not a subtle signal. It is a stampede.
So what do we do with that information? First, it means the draft room collectively believes the top of the RB board is the safest foundation. In a 10-team league, you need two starting backs minimum, and the drop-off from the top tier to the replacement level is brutal. By Round 3, you're picking through committees and handcuffs.
The other half of the story is what they didn't do. Most teams waited on quarterbacks. In PPR, that's a patient play that usually pays. The scoring difference between the best QB and the 12th is usually smaller than the gap between the top RB and the 24th, so letting the quarterback run go while others panic is good process.
My call: in your own 10-team PPR draft, do not take a quarterback in the first five rounds. Let the other managers overreact to this mock and jump on RBs. You'll be sitting at the turn with a choice: join the run or collect the falling wide receivers. I'm taking the receivers. You can find pass-catching backs later, the kind who score in PPR, and you'll still land a top-five QB by Round 6 or later.
This only changes if the running backs they drafted early turn out to be fragile. If injuries dent the top of the RB board, the late-RB crowd gets vindicated. But we can't predict that on draft day. We can only react to the board in front of us.
The Marathon mock this year is a warning shot: running back scarcity is back. But it's also an opportunity. When the herd moves one direction, the value is in the opposite lane. Let them take the RBs. Take the receivers and the late quarterback. That's how you win a league, not by following the crowd but by reading it.
That's the verdict from this year's Marathon. The RB run is real; the counter-move is realer.