House of Zig
Everything you need to know about running mock drafts — setup, CPU opponents, grading, and results.
The Mock Draft lets you run a simulated snake draft against AI-driven opponents using your House of Zig projection board as the basis for suggestions and grades. Configure your settings on the setup page, then start drafting in real time.
Before drafting, configure:
Draft Board — Use the default or a board you built in the Football Machine
League Size — How many teams
Scoring & Format — PPR, superflex, pass TD points, TE premium
Keepers — Optional (see below)
Your Draft Position — You can randomize your draft spot
Settings affect VORP calculations and ADP matching throughout the draft.
Expand the Keepers section to set up keeper picks before the draft starts. Choose how many keepers each team can have, then add keeper rows — each row has a player (selected from a searchable player list with headshots), the round they were kept in, their draft spot, and a "Mine" checkbox for your own keepers. Keeper picks are pre-filled on the board before the draft begins. Their VORP counts toward your overall roster value — a strong keeper like a top RB still improves your team's projected score — but keeper picks are not individually graded since there's no draft decision to evaluate. You can save and load keeper configurations as named sets (requires a free account).
The board shows all picks across every round and team. Your column is highlighted. Tap any empty tile to manually assign a player to that slot using the player picker. Tap a filled tile to view the pick or remove it. On mobile, switch between the board view and your roster using the tab buttons at the top.
The Suggested tab shows the top available players for your next pick, ranked by VORP or ADP (toggle between them). Suggestions factor in your current roster needs. A yellow banner flags players likely to still be available at your next turn — useful for deciding whether to wait a round or pick now.
CPU opponents draft with realistic human tendencies — they follow consensus ADP as their baseline but don't always take the "right" pick. They reach for players they like, pass on value, and make the kinds of decisions you'd see in a real league. The early rounds play out close to expected draft position, and things get more unpredictable as the draft goes on — just like in real life. Don't expect the board to fall perfectly; the CPU field keeps you honest.
Every pick earns an instant letter grade (A+ through F) the moment you make it. Two things drive the grade: how highly your own board rates the player, and whether you got them at a good price relative to where the market expected them to go. Your board's projection carries more weight than the market consensus — a great player at a fair price beats a bargain on someone you don't rate.
Taking the best available player around their expected draft position earns the strongest grades. Reaching far for someone you don't even rank highly earns the weakest. The system also accounts for context — sometimes you have to go get your guy before someone else does, and it understands that.
STEAL badge — Awarded when you land a highly-rated player well below where the market expected them to go.
Keeper picks are not individually graded — since they're pre-determined before the draft, there's no pick decision to evaluate. They don't inflate or deflate your per-pick grades.
VORP is the core ranking metric powering the Mock Draft. It answers: "How many fantasy points is this player worth compared to the worst starter in your league?"
All flex-eligible players — RBs, WRs, TEs, and QBs in Superflex — compete in a single pooled ranking. The replacement baseline is the projected output of the last player who would realistically be a starter somewhere across the league, based on your roster construction. Every player is measured against that shared threshold, then adjusted for how scarce their position is and how many roster slots they fill.
Pooled flex baseline — one replacement level shared across all flex-eligible positions, derived from your league size and roster settings
Scarcity adjustment — positions where the drop-off from starter to replacement is steep (typically TE) get a premium
Demand adjustment — positions that occupy more starting slots earn a larger share of the baseline value
Superflex — QBs enter the flex pool, raising the baseline and making elite QBs significantly more valuable
VORP lets you compare players across positions on a common scale — a scarce TE with elite upside can outrank a middling WR with more raw points. The Suggested Players tab and pick grades both use VORP as the primary signal. Your roster construction settings (flex slots, superflex, bench size) directly shape every VORP value on the board.
ADP reflects where players are being drafted across thousands of real mock and live drafts, pulled from Sleeper and updated throughout the offseason. It serves as the consensus baseline the CPU opponents draft from.
ADP automatically adjusts to match your chosen scoring format and superflex setting — so the list you see is always relevant to your league type.
CPU Draft Logic: CPU teams pick players near their ADP with realistic variance. In round 1, no CPU team will take a player significantly above their ADP — keeping the early board realistic and preventing CPU teams from jumping on obvious steals at pick 1.
Pick Grades: Your ADP signal compares where you took a player against their consensus draft position. Taking someone 10 spots before their ADP is a mild reach; 30+ spots is a significant one. Falling relative to ADP is a value pickup.
Compare ADP against VORP to find value gaps — players the market is undervaluing relative to their projected output. The Suggested tab can toggle between VORP-first and ADP-first sorting to let you see both perspectives on any pick.
When the draft ends, you receive a single Draft Grade — one letter that captures the full picture of your draft. It weighs how strong your starting lineup projects to be relative to the rest of the league, and how well you navigated value against the market throughout the draft. Your board's VORP projections carry the majority of the weight.
Below the grade you'll see context: where your starting lineup ranks in total projected value across all teams, and whether you were consistently drafting ahead of or behind expectations. Scroll down for a pick-by-pick breakdown with individual grades and STEAL badges for standout value picks.
Keeper VORP counts toward your overall roster score — a great keeper still helps your team's projected value and factors into where your lineup ranks league-wide. What keepers don't affect is your pick-by-pick grades: since there's no draft decision being made on a keeper, those slots aren't graded individually.