Mock Draft Simulator: Practice Your Draft Against AI Opponents
announcement · feature · draft
Draft season is here, and preparation is everything. Today we're launching the Mock Draft Simulator — a new Draft Prep tab that lets you practice your upcoming draft against smart AI opponents, using your actual league's settings, draft order, and traded picks.
No other tool does this natively with Sleeper data. Your mock draft knows who picks where, which picks have been traded, and what every team's roster looks like going in.
How It Works
From League Mode
Select your league and the simulator auto-detects everything: draft type (rookie or startup), number of rounds, draft order (snake or linear), and which picks have been traded. Just pick your speed and hit Start.
The draft board uses the same column layout as Sleeper's real draft board — teams in draft order left to right, with traded pick ownership shown as arrows in each cell. Your picks are highlighted so you can see exactly where you're picking across all rounds.
Smart AI Opponents
AI teams don't just take the best player available. Each pick is scored across four factors:
- Dynasty Value (45%) — best player available by dynasty ranking
- Positional Need (25%) — fills empty starter slots and upgrades weak positions
- Positional Scarcity (20%) — if only 3 startable RBs remain, RBs get a boost
- Team Window (10%) — contenders prefer proven players, rebuilders prefer youth
Plus slight randomness so each draft plays out differently. The result is realistic boards where position runs happen and value falls the way it does in real drafts.
Player Profiles
Click any player in the pool to expand their profile. You'll see combine percentile bars (40-yard dash, vertical, bench press) and season stats (PPG, games, touchdowns, usage, efficiency) — all color-coded by percentile. The top 2 players are auto-expanded so you can compare at a glance.
AI Draft Advisor (Premium)
Premium users get AI-powered pick suggestions on every turn. The advisor analyzes your roster, empty starter slots, positional scarcity, and the available player pool to recommend a Best Pick with specific reasoning — not generic "adds depth" advice, but quantitative analysis like "Only 4 RBs left and you need to fill RB2. Jeremiyah Love at 7.0k is 2.7k more valuable than the next RB and won't last 9 picks."
Two alternative picks are suggested for different strategic angles (BPA vs need, win-now vs rebuild).
Draft Results
After the draft completes, you get a full breakdown:
- Draft Grade — uses the same VORP + Roster Fit methodology as our Draft Grading tab (70% value over replacement, 30% roster fit)
- Draft Board — scrollable round-by-round recap of every pick
- League Draft Summary — every team's picks ranked by total value with delta vs league average
- Projected League Standings — where each team would rank in overall roster value after the draft, with rank change indicators
- Share Card — 1200x630 image with your grade, picks, and league standings to share in your league chat
Draft History
Logged-in users can view their past mock drafts from the setup screen. Each saved draft stores the full board, all picks, grades, and projected standings — so you can compare different strategies across multiple runs.
Custom Mode
Don't want to use league settings? Switch to Custom mode and configure everything manually: number of teams, rounds, draft order (snake or linear), and your pick position. Great for practicing general strategy or preparing for a startup draft.
Try It Now
Head to the Draft Prep tab in any league dashboard. Select your league, hit Start, and practice your draft strategy before the real thing.