Fantasy Football Daily - 2024 Post Draft Recap | IDP Corner Podcast

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Justin Varnes (@DownWithIDP) and Tom Simons take a look at al the off-season happenings in the IDP space. Everything from big free agents to the NF Draft the IDP corner has you covered for this off-season. Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. The IDP corner here at FantasyPoint.com, if you didn't know, it was presented by Fantasy Points. My cohort here is holding up a Fantasy Points hat for those of you who are able to watch this. via video. It's shaking. I hope that's not Thomas actually shaking. How you doing tonight, Thomas? Hey, boo-boo.

I'm better than the average bear. How about we go get us a picnic basket? I really hope everyone's just listening to this and not watching this. I'm doing extremely well, Justin. How about yourself? Doing well. It's been a while since we've hopped on one of these. Yeah, that's why he did the boo-boo, you know, the yogi bear, because it feels like coming out of hibernation. We've been so long since we've done anything.

It literally has been. Pretty eventful off-season so far. We just wrapped up a draft where we didn't have many IDPs. I put it on Twitter. I was like, this is the most boring first round ever if you're an IDP guy. But then things kind of heated up, man, a really heavy second round and then throughout there. Thomas, you did some great work on these rookies. Well, the first thing we have to point out is that for the first time in NFL draft history, there were 14 straight offensive players taken right off the bat, never been done before. And then it was 15 picks in before you saw your first IDP come off. Now, there was out of the 257 players that were drafted, 132 of them were offensive players. And then there was 121 that were defensive players. And then I believe it was four or five, four.

special teamers. Now, that's kind of unique, especially when we, in the IDP rookie preview that I did, I mentioned that there could be a possibility that to be more often, defensive players taken than offensive players. And that's almost what happened here. So some of the footnotes, I'm going to cheat here a little bit and look at some of my notes. Some of the footnotes that we had from the draft that there were 43 trades made, which also sets an NFL record. Of the 257, as I mentioned, 47% of them were IDPs. Now round five, I believe, was the most IDPs taken, which was 25 players taken in that round. And then there was 36 cornerbacks taken, 24, no, excuse me, 20 defensive end slash edge rushers, 24 defensive tackles, 20 linebackers, and then 21

safeties. Now, in the seven rounds that were taken, all the skill positions, you know, the edge defensive end, defensive tackle, linebacker, cornerback safety, only four of the rounds of the seven rounds were there one player or more from each of those skilled positions taken in that round, and that was rounds two, three, six, and seven. And over 50 percent of the, I believe it was 56% of the NFL teams, they drafted over 50% or more IDPs with their draft picks. And then another seven or eight did 40% or more. And that's a lot of IDPs to be taken in a draft when you consider this 32 teams. Yeah.

And when you consider that there was very little activity up front, it looked like it was setting itself up to be a really offense heavy draft. But that's actually not how it ended up. That's a great point. So Thomas and I are the IDP analysts over at FantasyPoint.com. And one of the great things about being a member of FantasyPoints.com is that if you're a premium subscriber, you can join us in the Discord app. We've got a couple of channels for IDP. And that's really where Thomas and I live during the season. We're really going to be there a lot during training camp and during the preseason to help everyone prepare for their draft.

That's a great place to catch up with us one-on-one, ask very specific questions, ask follow-up questions. We've even, you know, one of my favorite things to do, and I think it is for you, too, Thomas, is, you know, sometimes we'll have these runs going where somebody in Discord will be drafting, and it's, it might be a slow draft, and they'll be say, hey, I just drafted so-and-so, what should I be doing next? So round-by-round draft help is something that's kind of fun to do for IDP. So if you are a fantasy point subscriber, make sure to upgrade to premium so you can have a lot more personalized IDP access between the two of us. With that said, I want to start diving into these rounds. Again, first round started slow and then it kind of heated up. And that was, we're going to kind of go round by round here. And right before we get launched off here, we're going to talk.

about some of these first round draft picks and then we're going to move into the second round. But before we do that, we're going to pause for just a second and take a short commercial break. When you're flying Emirates business class, enjoying a good night's rest in your lie flat seat, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Okay, Thomas, let's dive into this first round. You want to get us started? Yeah, well, you know, as I mentioned earlier, the first defensive player taken wasn't until the 15th pick. And then nine defensive players got taken in the last 17 picks. Now, the first IDP to come off the board was edge rusher, La Aatu Latu from Indianapolis.

And it's looking like, you know, obviously when we go and look at depth charts at this point in time, it's really difficult because there are no official death charts. and you've got to wait until the rookie camps and the training camp start before you start to generate true depth charts. But you can find some out there through ESPN, our lads, so on, and so we're CBS sports. And if you really dig hard enough, you can find them. And I'm seeing LATU is being ranked as the starting defensive end over Quitty Pay, which kind of surprises me.

Do you think that that's a possibility, especially with the fact that LATU's got to came into this draft with. a health issue on his neck. He had a disc problem when he was with the University of Washington, had surgery on that. He basically did a medical retirement and left the University of Washington and then moved down to Los Angeles and went to UCLA. And then all of a sudden he's back playing football again. And he had a heck of a year last year. So that was one of the reasons why he didn't go so early in the draft because he's considered one of the best edge ratchers, but half the teams in the league are afraid of this neck issue that he's had. What do your thoughts on that?

Well, yeah, you say one of the chances, or is it possible that he's going to end up winning the starting job over Quitty Pay? It's absolutely possible. Is it likely? Absolutely not. Quitty pay has really blossomed last year. I mean, the last couple of years, you know, we're going to talk about this probably multiple times over this podcast, but right now everybody's super excited about all these rookies. We've seen all their amazing college tape. They've been hyped to the moon because people are trying to sell articles and they're trying to sell TV commercials on ESPN. So all, every one of these rookies that were drafted look like they're bound for Canton already. But the reality is, particularly for IDPs, most of these guys drafted are not going to be

starters. Obviously, there will definitely be some, but the majority of these will be not, will not be. To me, Quitty Pay is a rising star. I mean, the Colts just picked up his fifth year option. He had kind of a breakout season last year. We've seen steady growth. And that's something that we're used to when it comes to defensive linemen. You know, the first year or two, it might take them a while to get used to running up against consistently grown men who have been in the NFL wait room for three or four or five years and have seen every move you think you've got coming out of. college. There is certainly a little learning curve there. It's hard to imagine that Latu's just

going to jump in and immediately take over unless it's an injury. Now, I do think the sky's the limit for him, but I can't imagine that he's just going to jump in and start playing a thousand snaps this year unless an injury. And especially with the fact that chances are it'll be pay Grover Stewart and DeForest Buckner who start on that defensive line. And then they pull Stewart out and bring in Latu to be a pass rusher. And they might slide pay inside a little bit. You know, they, they can play three technique, five technique. All three of them can, and when I say that, I mean, you know, pay, Latu, and Buckner

can all play nose tackle three technique and five technique, whereas Latu is not as much a nose tackle, but they're flexible enough to bring them in and give them the snaps and get them on that pass rushing ability fired up and running so that they can, you know, you know, use him and utilize his skills. The only problem is I just don't see him starting and everybody thinking, oh, he's an automatic starter. Well, he's going to get 75 to 80% of the snaps. That's just not going to happen.

Yeah, and Grover Stewart, in my opinion, is a highly underrated player. Grover Stewart is a monster. And he's playing next to DeForest Buckner. Yeah, I totally agree. This is not going to be the slam dunk that maybe some people think is. Great draft capital. And I definitely think it's worth the investment, but investment for the Colts, I'm saying. But for IDP purposes, I think it's going to take, we always talk about hurdles.

How many hurdles does this player have to jump before he's taking a thousand snaps? And he's got a couple of very large and talented hurdles to jump. That he does. I'm going to move on to the second pick taken in the first round. That was an IDP. And that was Byron Murphy the second by the Seahawks. Excuse me. I'm almost positive that John Schneider in that whole war room fell off their chairs when there was that run on offensive players, especially with six quarterbacks taken in the first 12 picks. So when they got on the board or came up on the draft board at 16 and Murphy was sitting there, this guy's a beast.

Now, he's going to automatically start most likely, I shouldn't say automatically. nothing's automatic when it comes to the NFL, especially with injuries and everything. But Jonathan Hankins, who they signed in the off season, is most likely going to be the backup to Jaron Reed now. And they're going to use Murphy as the nose tackle. Mike McDonald was looking for a big, big-bodied beast to use at a nose tackle position. And Murphy, if you watch the game against the University of Huskies, Washington Huskies, in the final four. playoffs. This kid Murphy just was a beast. I mean, his name was being called every other time. And if he wasn't making a play, he was around the ball during that play. Yeah, love Byron Murphy. I think this is

great. Obviously, Seattle's been looking for this kind of player for a while. They've tried, you know, and they've gotten some success out of Jaron Reed, you know, some hit and miss. But to me, you know, they're still trying to get those monster defensive tackles that they had when they were the Legion of Boom. They're still trying to chase that. I do think Byron Murphy has that sort of upside. So I'm excited about seeing him. Probably my favorite player in this draft was the next guy drafted, and that's Edg Talus Turner. I think this is a great fit for Minnesota as they continue to restock this defensive line.

They also brought in Andrew Van Ginkle. But this is a serious line. And I think, although, you know, again, Turner will have hurdles to jump to get enough playing time. Long term, I love this pick for Minnesota. What did you think about Dallas Turner going to Minnesota? I was surprised. I mean, obviously, when Atlanta picked Pennix, everybody went, uh-huh. It just blew my mind that they didn't take Dallas Turner at in their.

draft slot. And the fact that he fell this far, when Seattle came up on the board, I was thinking, well, maybe Seattle takes Dallas Turner because they obviously needed an edge rusher. But with Murphy being similar to Justin Matabweke in Baltimore, Mike McDonald probably weighed in heavy with John Schneider and said, take Murphy. Well, I love Turner in, you know, Minnesota, with the fact that Minnesota lost Hunter and Wunham on the outside through free agency. And then they, you know, they brought in, like you mentioned, they brought in Andrew Van Ginkle. I just, they have a whole new linebacking core in there now. And I think that that Turner, even though he may start as a backup to Van Ginkle,

they will find ways to get that kid on the field. He's just that superior. Yeah, I agree. And they got Jonathan Gernard as well. And I still, I really like Grenard. I mean, he's, you know, he's battled some injuries, but he has really put up some good numbers when he is healthy. And I like, I like Andrew Van Ginkle. He's somebody who can obviously play inside as well, which they may use him as.

But I don't see Van Ginkle as being a heavy threat for snaps in terms of Turner. So to me, he's got, of all the edge rushers, to me, he's got the best chance at, the most number of snaps. I still don't think it's going to be 1,000, but I should be somewhere in the 6 to 800 range, which we will take. And speaking of edge rushers, Jared Verst was the next guy to come off, and that was by the Rams. And Verst could be a starter or at least challenge Michael Hoyt at the left outside linebacker position as early as opening day.

So versus another high-motored speedster off the edge that could, supply the Rams with a much-needed push, especially with the fact that Aaron Donald is now no longer, you know, he retired. And so teams are not going to have to focus their double teams and triple teams on Donald. So they spread their offensive game plans out a little bit. But with verse and we'll mention another pick or two down the road that the Rams made for interior defensive linemen, I think verse is going to be a, a, another one of these first round picks that gets a plenty of snaps in their first season. Yeah, I agree.

I'm talking a little bit about the next edge to come off the board. This was actually, I had this GI Joe character when I think it was about 12 years old. I remember playing out in my backyard. And then he just got lost in the sand. He's somewhere buried in a backyard in Florida. But he emerged. He reemerged in Florida. and now he got drafted by the Miami Dolphins, and that's Chop Robinson.

He had, I feel like he had a bayonet or something. It was something like that. But when you have a name like Chop Robinson, I hope you expect to be an action figure, they certainly, the dolphins certainly expect for him to become an action figure, taking him 21st overall. That's a team. I think they're pretty solid in the middle,

particularly with Zach Seeler there. And they've got some great, you know, outside linebackers and Chubb and Phillips. But I could see Robinson work. in his way in in uh over the next uh i don't see him starting over either of these guys uh dolphin's just picked up the fifth year option on on on jillin phillips as well remember they lost phillips midway through the season last year but he looks to be on track but chop robinson to me is certainly a dynasty stash at least that's how i interpret how do you feel about this pick for miami no i i i

totally agree i think that this is a a clear dynasty stash type move for IDP owners that are out there, mostly in deeper leagues. I think you hit the nail on the head by stating that he probably won't see a lot of snaps in the early part of the season, unless there are injuries. And as you and I both know, as the season goes on, that list that we have in our podcast gets bigger and bigger and bigger with the injuries to the point where there's more words generated in our notes from injuries and there are in our discussions of players that are coming up in the in the games that week so i think that in chop robinson's case i think you're right i think he's going to be a serviceable option but in early on he's probably not going to be

that pertinent for fantasy owners now um philadelphia eagles were the next ones to to bring an IDP off the board. And they drafted the cornerback Kenyon Mitchell, who's a speedster. And a lot of people didn't hear of him leading up in probably a full month to the draft until the combine came out. And then after the combine, his pro day, and he had an extremely fast 40-yard dash, which kind of blew people's mind. So right now he's going to push James Bradbury the fourth at right cornerback. And we'll mention, you know, Cooper DeGine, who they also drafted. The Eagles went after that cornerback, that vulnerable cornerback spot that they showed vulnerability in the playoffs last year. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, I think you just hit the nail on the head when it comes to why they invested so heavily in that, you know, they were a really solid unit. And then as the season went on, we definitely, you know, I just think we started to see their age. And these once great cornerbacks, you know, at some point their legs start to go and they started to get picked apart. They had an amazing start to the season. They just kind of wore out the end. And I think Philly realizes while they still have this Super Bowl window open, they've got to restock here. So, and, you know, I do think that the draft.

was was was pretty loaded with with cornerback prospects. And I do think that they got themselves a good one. And with both with both Bradbury and Slay getting up there in age, I think Mitchell could be one of these guys that we see who is fantasy relevant. We've talked about this at nauseam over the years about how hard it is to to pick the handful of cornerbacks who are going to actually be fantasy relevant. And some of those, you know, sometimes we'll get to. these players who are fantasy relevant as as rookies, there tends to be certain things that have

to happen. Number one, they've got to play over a thousand snaps. They've got to basically have a starting job for the beginning of the year. They usually have to end up being a first round pick. I mean, more often than not that that rookie corner who comes out of nowhere almost always comes within the first, let's say, 40 picks. And they have to be in a defense that allows them to spend a good amount of time playing the run and emphasizing, you know, tackling in the run game. I think Mitchell hits all three of those, which takes his chances of becoming fantasy relevant from 10% to like 30%. So that's pretty high, actually for a cornerback, but it's still something hard. I'm not taking Mitchell early in drafts just because the math doesn't add up. But if you

play in a quarterback only league, that he's probably one of your better shots. Don't you agree? Yeah, well, we've talked about this ad nauseum in the past about cornerbacks are a dime a dozen when it comes to fantasy owners. And rookie cornerbacks are even more extremely hard to dig up. You know, last year it was Devin Witherspoon, and the year before it was Sauce Gardner. And even then, those two were great rookie cornerbacks,

but they weren't fantasy studs. So, you know, even if they do get a thousand snacks, It doesn't guarantee that they're going to produce for you as a cornerback. Now, the next person on the board was Detroit's pick of another cornerback, and it was Terry and Arnold. Now, Arnold is projected as the starting right cornerback over Amick Robertson, who was signed off of the Las Vegas Raiders during offseason free agency. But it looks like Arnold could be the starter over Robertson if he has a really good campaign. And again, this all depends on just how well he transitions at the next level and whether or not he can turn that corner and make the leap at the higher, faster speed in the NFL. Yeah, I agree.

And what I find interesting in the first round is that basically we learn more and more, or I shouldn't say that. the evolution of defenses is such that what's happening right now with how defenses are being used, edge rusher and cornerback are probably the most valuable positions or the positions where if you can get a game changer at that position, you can build your defense around it, or you can take a leap up in terms of what you can do. If you have a shutdown corner, it makes things a lot of. easier if you've got an edge rusher who's dominant if you if you end up getting he's on an edge rusher but if you end up getting an errand donald or you end up drafting a von miller we've seen what that can do

so it's no mystery that the first round is basically nothing but edges and cornerbacks that is the defensive version of getting of drafting a quarterback which is the other run that we saw people are just are are focused on trying to get that one game changing player in the first round round and the way defenses are set up and the way offenses are set up right now, that is edge and cornerback. You know, 10 years ago, that was linebacker. You were looking for the next Luke Keekely, but that's just not how defenses are run now. So should go, of course, that's going to lead us right into our next first round pick.

And that's Darius Robertson, 27th overall for Arizona. What do you like about Darius? And do you like, there's anything about this pick that you don't like? Well, the one thing I like about the. pick is that their depth chart at defensive end is so thin. I mean, they've got L.J. Collier and they've got Ben still, but neither one of these two is a stud. And Robertson brings them pressure off the edge that they haven't had since they had a guy like JJ Watts. So I think that Robinson could actually take over the defensive end starting job as early as opening day. But of course,

he's got to beat out L.J. Collier, which doesn't seem like a mountain of an effort that has to be made. But as we both know, you know, rookies coming into the league, sometimes they can get a little bit squirly and take time to develop and understand the game and what's going on around them. If he makes a lot of mental mistakes, and obviously they'll go with a season veteran, I wouldn't call him a veteran because Collier is kind of young too. but still, I like the Darius Robinson pick in that position for the Cardinals, and I think he's going to give them some help. Now, you brought up a very valid and solid point regarding cornerbacks.

For once, I brought up a very valid. Write this down. Time stamp this, everybody. Anyways, you brought up an extremely valid point about defenses, and they're constantly changing and evolving. So you can have a defense that, you know, is a certain way one year. And then they don't change their staff or their players,

but then they shift their schemes and stuff accordingly every year. And it changes how they use their players. You've got a lot of cornerbacks out there that either will play outside or they play inside. And if you've got a cornerback who doesn't tackle much and is not a great tackler, especially against the run, well, then they don't see the field as often. And they'll tend to play more of a slot position than that. they will anything else. So there's a lot of variables that come into play when you're talking cornerbacks. And that's what the last pick in the first round for defensive players was, who was

Nate Wiggins and Baltimore drafted him. And he's projected to battle, if not beat out, Brandon Stevens at the cornerback position. So what are your thoughts on the Ravens? I mean, they obviously use Humphrey at the left corner. And they've got Stevens as they're projected right corner, but they drafted Wiggins. Do you think Wiggins can win that job? Well, I don't think there is another team that hordes cornerbacks the way the Baltimore Ravens do. I mean, I swear we've had seasons where it's like, they've got six starting cornerbacks. I don't know how that's possible, but they somehow do. And that's been that's been their. I think the Ravens were one of the first defenses who realized we,

That is the game changer. The game changer is loading up on cornerbacks and using them in a multitude of ways. And so it doesn't surprise me that they went a cornerback in the first round. As to how they are used, you know, sometimes, you know, they use a bunch of them. We've seen a little bit of a rotation. Obviously, you know, this is a team that also got longer in the tooth when it came to cornerback. You know, it happens quickly. They lost some elite corners.

And Marlon Humphrey is another one who is, you know, man, it's hard to call someone a veteran who's like 20 years younger than you are. But here we are. But, you know, old man, Humphrey. Yeah, he could be like that. That's the thing about the Ravens is that the Ravens use a five-level secondary frequently. And, I mean, sometimes they go two-corner. and three safeties. Sometimes they go three cornerbacks, two safeties. But they use that often. And that's one of the reasons why your point makes, you know, becomes valid when you're saying that they have so many cornerbacks and so many of them are starters because of that fact. So I think what we should do is move on to round two. Instead of going through each pick, let's pick a couple of players each that we like from the next few rounds and discuss them because we've already. burned through about 25, 26 minutes of our podcast.

We don't want to bore the heck out of our subscribers. Absolutely. And there's, we have a few of these that I'm really excited to talk about. And I know, I already know a few that you're excited to talk about. And we're going to talk about these guys right after this brief message. Thomas, let's dive into round two. I know there's a couple guys you're really excited to talk about. Yeah, I'm going to start off with Rucke Oro, Ro, Ro.

from Atlanta. Now, Atlanta was slammed pretty heavily for the Michael Pennick's draft pick after they signed Kurt Cousins to $180 million. Then they turn around and they traded from 43rd to 35th pick. And instead of taking a guy like Jerzan Johnny Newton to fill a defensive tackle position which they desperately needed, they went and took a row, row, and people are trying to figure out Why did they do that? Now, there's a good chance that this rookie is going to be in a rotational DL situation, a DL by committee, which Atlanta is famous for.

So, one, you trade it up to get this to make this pick. And two, you made a pick that probably wasn't the best suited pick. And that's why a lot of people are thinking that, you know, Atlanta did not have a very good total draft. in this regard. What are your thoughts about them moving up and getting him for that position and not taking a guy like Newton? Yeah, it was weird. I mean, obviously, you know, that's a team that's had a monster defensive tackle for years.

And so they are well aware of the value that the heavyweight defensive tackle can have on the game. And that can happen because they've had Grady Jarrett for years. And that can happen by like a game changer in the stat sheet with somebody like Aaron Donald. But it can also happen, you know, or, you know, somebody who is super tackle heavy, like we've seen that out of New England and Miami's defensive tackles. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that. It can be a clogger. Like, you know, Indomacan Sue for the back half of his career was a monster player more as a clogger.

Like, you know, you're not going to get anything past him. and all the other linemen are going to be free to jump and hop and skip around because Sue's just got to like bear hug the entire offensive line. So obviously this is a team that understands that. They, you know, they literally, they trade it up for them. So they must see something that we don't see. I project him to be a solid player. I mean, I could see him being a starter.

But it seems like that high in the draft, you're, let's put this way, you're expecting this player to have an impact out of the gate. And I'm not sure I'm seeing that. Yeah, I'd have to agree on that regard. And another defensive tackle that was taken a few picks later was Tavondre Sweat from Texas. Now, Tennessee took them because Tennessee has a desperate need at defensive tackle and nose tackle. And Sweat's most likely going to play nose tackle for the Titans. Now, they have Jeffrey Simmons, but their depth is really, really thin. Excuse me. With sweat, you know, he had the DWI, and that was a question mark coming in. That's why a lot of teams were scared of him. And, you know, when you think about what they're

going to do with their interior line, you know, sweat's going to struggle just to get on the field. Excuse me. He's going to struggle to get on the field. But I'm going to let you, expand a little bit while I clear my throat. I got you. You've been doing a lot of talking. So I'm happy to jump in. There's a couple here in round in round two that I'm, I've got my eyes on for,

these are the kind of guys that I don't think are going to impress a ton in training camp, but they have the potential to buy week four or week six, something like that. All of a sudden, these guys are that, that waiver. pickup. It has to do with talent and injury history. But the first one is Kamari Lasseter, the cornerback that was drafted by Houston. You know, Houston's defense has been picked on pretty mightily over the last couple of years. All those extra snaps, all those extra plays by

offenses has created a ton of tackles for that Texas defense. They have made some upgrades, but I don't think it was enough. They swapped edge rushers by swapping out Jonathan Grinard to Minnesota, to take Minnesota's DeNeil Hunter. It was like, okay. Yeah, that was like a straight up swap. They might as well. Pretty much.

Yeah. So Hunter, hopefully he's still got some legs underneath them. Now remember, they do have Will Anderson, Jr. This will be a second year, so we should see some upgrade, upgrade there. They definitely did upgrade their defensive line, which will help. They also picked up Aziz Al-Shayr to kind of run their linebacker position. But the other linebackers aren't necessarily anything to write home about Christian Harris is serviceable.

Henry Tooto, same thing. And if they can get some good legs out of Jeff Okuda, I think this could be a decent cornerbacking crew. But Jalen Petrie and Jeremy Ward don't necessarily excite me. So this doesn't look like a massively overhauled or massively improved defense. So what does that mean? You know, they've been back and forth on Desmond King. It could be that they elect to move King out of that nickel spot. And if it turns out that they go with the rookie Lasseter at that nickel corner position,

that could be somebody who shows up suddenly he's putting up four to six tackles a game. And he kind of came out of nowhere. So I'm looking at him. Another kind of similar situation is in Green Bay. This will be the first linebacker. Hey, we finally get to talk about a linebacker. It used to be all linebackers. Now we barely mentioned their names.

Oh, how the table is absurd. Yeah, it used to be the running backs of the defense. Right, yeah. So we're going to go with, speaking of running backs, shares the same first name as a Hall of Famer linebacker, Edgeron Cooper. So he's going to be, you know, the Packers have been trying to get some stability there inside linebacker for a while. They've had, you know, they got some really good veteran play out of Devondry Campbell,

but he definitely slowed down last year. They have really tried to find that stalwart at inside linebacker and hasn't really happened yet. They do have Isaiah McDuffie, but after that it's Quay Walker. Both of our solid players. They do have plenty of upside. but there isn't that like lockdown. This is definitely going to be our guy. So this is the sort of situation where if for some reason,

Cooper can really impress in training camp and they feel like that he's got, you know, he's got a skill set that will replace one of these guys. Cooper's the kind of guy. I think you'll be picking up off the waiver wire if the Packers think that he's somebody that can probably replace an Isaiah McDuffie, which I think has a who I think has a, little bit of a limited ceiling. Yeah, I think you're right. And there's a possibility that Cooper is a starter by October. So, you know, even earlier, it's to be seen. It all depends on how he does in

training camp. But yeah, I think you're right in that regard. I'm going to talk now about Dallas's pick of Marshawn Neelan in that first round. Neelan is classified as an edge rusher, but he's not a really solid outside edge rusher. And I think Dallas drafted Neelan basically to bring him in as a defensive tackle pass rusher than more than an edge rusher. Because they're going to bring in Micah Parsons, they're going to use him in the dual role that they used him last year at linebacker. And also they'll use them at defensive end. When they use them at defensive end, they may bring in Neal in and put him inside to a apply pressure inside so that it'll free Parsons up from the double and triple teams on the

outside. But I don't see Neelan being your typical three-down player, and I don't see him as an edge pass rusher. Yeah, I think you're right. The last player for me that I mentioned here in round two, and there's actually, there's a lot of good players here. We're just trying to highlight a few. Otherwise, this podcast will go on until July. Forever. Another one out of Green Bay would be safety Javon Bullard, who they drafted. Their safety room has changed a little bit. They brought in Xavier McKinney, which I think is a great move on their part.

But their free safety position right now is projected to be Anthony Johnson Jr. And I would not be surprised to see Bullard get that role of free safety. We're going to see how. Yeah, and we're going to see how this, you know, they've got a new defensive coordinator, Jack, sorry, Jeff Hapley there. I'm curious to see how they're going to use these two safeties, but it's hard to imagine, you know, nowadays, particularly with as progressive as the Packers have been lately over the last couple of years, hard to imagine they're going to do one of those old school, you know, single high sets

where McKinney plays exclusively in the box and our free safety just floats back there. and, you know, picks daisies. My guess is we'll see a lot of two safety sets. So Bullard is one of the few safeties we've seen so far that I think has, as we've talked about before, fewer hurdles in front of him to get 7,800 snaps. And to me, I think that's a pretty good fit for Green Bay and a good fit for IDP. And, you know, and you had mentioned there's just a few that we're talking about here. in the second round. I mean, there's Braden Fiss, the Ram signed him. He's projected defensive tackle. There's Tyler Newman and the Giants safety. I had mentioned earlier, Cooper DeGine,

who is a safety, but the Eagles are going most likely turn him into a cornerback and start him in nickelback. You know, and you've got others like Chris Jenkins on Cincinnati and so on and so forth in the second round that are all projected possible starters or at least get significant playing time. Yeah, Cole Bishop is another safety. Yes, Cole Bishop. You and I both like him, yeah. Especially with the fact that Buffalo has, you know, they lost Jordan Poyer and Micahide.

So Bishop could be a solid option for them and could be a surprise. You could be a sleeper. Yeah, absolutely. So now we're going to move into the later rounds. We might do these a little bit more rapid fire. But who do you like in round three? Well, I have a couple of players that are. both linebackers and the first one I'll mention is junior Colson.

The Chargers drafted him out of Michigan. Now, Colson depends on who you talk to. He's a boom or bust type of linebacker. He is going to be pushing Denzel Perryman, who is injury prone himself at the linebacker position for the Chargers. I like Colson. I think that he, as long as he can stay healthy and doesn't make too many mental mistakes and ends up getting more splinters in his butt than he does on the playing field.

I think Colson is going to be fantasy relevant at least by mid-season, if not later. Yeah, I like that. I like that pick as well. I'm going to talk about, see now, it's funny how all these middle rounds are clogged with the linebackers. I want to talk about Trevin Wallace, the linebacker out of Kentucky. To me, you went about closing speed. So this guy is quick. This guy's got a lot of burst.

And what's funny is he's projected to be the backup to Shaq Thompson. And Shaq Thompson was that kind of player, similar player, I should say, coming out of college. Took Thompson a long time to develop into starting caliber linebacker there. Now he had huge shoes to fill because he came in after Luke Keekly. But Wallace is somebody to keep an eye to keep an eye on. depending on how they're shaking things up there in Carolina. I guess he Wallace, just based on his tape, based on his numbers, as being somebody who pops at the major league level.

He obviously did in college as well. A lot of these players don't translate as well. But to me, Wallace is one of these guys, I think. One of the footnotes on Wallace and Jack Thompson in particular is Thompson's only played one 17 game full season in his nine career years. And he's coming off of fractured fibula surgery back in September. So that's something to keep an eye on going into camp, see if that's affected him at all or if he's completely over that.

Now, I'm going to go to another linebacker, and that's Peyton Wilson, who I thought would go higher than he did. But Pittsburgh drafted him, and there's a very strong possibility that he's going to be a Landon Roberts back up, but in Landon Roberts has never been an impressive linebacker, and he's been a two-down linebacker a lot in the past. And I know that Wilson has excellent past coverage skills, so he may see the field early on in his first season as a cover linebacker. So this is somebody who's a dynasty stash that could make some noise in the Steelers defense.

Yeah, I mean, I think the Steelers must have just put over the moon that he was still sitting there. I mean, he's, this guy's got great speed. You know, I, I, I, I, I, I remember seeing a clip about Luke Kekley, raving about Peyton Wilson. If you can get Luke Keechley, by the way, that's the third Luke Keeckley drop for me today. I probably haven't said that man's name in three years. And all of a sudden, I've got, I got three of him.

But, you know, yeah, if you're impressing Luke Keeckley, you're really doing a good job. So, yeah, I think Pittsburgh must have been over the moon to get them late in round three. My last pick for round three, I'm going to focus again on the Texas. You heard me talk about some of their issues in the secondary and how they're, and how they don't have as strong of a safety core as I'm sure they would like. So it was smart of them to pick up Kalin Bullock, the safety who I think has a good chance of replacing Jimmy Ward sooner rather than later. and, you know, Thomas, you always do such a good job of reminding me of how often players are injured. And I know there's, quote, quote, no such thing as injury prone, but there are players who continually get injured.

And so let's just say Jimmy Ward's unlucky because he gets injured a lot. Exactly. And that bad luck might turn into good luck if you stashed Kalyn Bullock. Indeed. So why don't you start us off in the round four? and we'll pick off a player each here. Go ahead and start with your first choice in this round. Yeah, I'm going to go linebacker again.

And that's Cedric Gray, who was drafted by Tennessee. Another linebacker. Another linebacker, right. Remember, we had just mentioned how Aziz Al-Shayr is no longer at Tennessee. He had a really good season for them. I think he played really well. But regardless of how well he played, the whole idea is if you are a starting inside linebacker and you are the every down linebacker, you are going to get tackles. That's just how the math works.

And Jack Gibbons, I think Jack Gibbons really played well for his station last year. But that station doesn't scream, you know, every down linebacker, you know, build your defense. defense around linebacker. They did pick up Kenneth Murray Jr., but Kenneth Murray Jr., obviously wasn't what the Chargers hoped that he would be, and obviously, they jettisoned him. So maybe he's got a rebirth there, but again, as we talk about hurdles, Jack Gibbons shouldn't be somebody that would scare you about taking this pick. And Kenneth Murray, you know, hopefully he turns it around.

But if he doesn't turn around, which is the more likely of the two scenarios, Cedric Gray has two shaky people in front of him for a starting job. And if Tavondre Sweat works out and doesn't have any off-field issues and plays well, you're going to have Sweat and Simmons in front of Cedric Gray, and that is going to be very, very fantasy relevant for owners to keep in mind. if gray can win one of the starting jobs inside and if sweat stays on the field it's going to be hard for for offenses to get a body on gray now guess what i'm position i'm going to talk about in this round the first you get three guesses in the first okay first two don't count half back linebacker oh that was close i'm gonna go with tyrese knight on seattle a lot of people when that that draft pick came up were like, who?

What are you doing? There's been a lot of speculation that this was a reach pick for the Seahawks. But what people don't really understand and haven't done their research on is that Knight was a freaking tackling machine in college. This kid was a beast. He would penetrate the holes and be a massive disruptor in the backfield. And that's what the Seahawks are counting on. Now, yes, the Seahawks went out and they,

signed Tyrell Dotson and they signed Jerome Baker. Both of them are going to start inside and Knights most likely not going to see much playing time. And if he does, it'll be a limited amount most likely in his first year unless there is an injury. But Knight is not your special teams type of pick. And the biggest key to keep in mind is that both Dotson and Baker were signed on one year contracts. So after this year, Knight could be a huge dynasty stash in that he fits the mold of a Mike McDonald interior linebacker that stuffs the run and could be a three-down linebacker because he can be a pass coverage inside linebacker as long as they get their hands on him and teach him and he learns. So I like Knight in the sense that both Dotson and Baker are one year, you know, prove it contracts and that the Seahawks are going to look tonight for down the road, especially if next year they go out and draft a linebacker with one of their early picks. Now all of a sudden they have their Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen of the Ravens on the Seahawks. Yeah, I agree.

I think this is a great pick for them. And, you know, obviously they've got, they've had Hall of Fame linebackers so they, so they know what they're doing when it comes to that position. And Jordan Brooks didn't quite pan out the way they were hoping, although he ended up being a solid player, but he was, you know, remember when he was their first round pick. I love Tyrese Knight. One of the things that caught my attention after they were drafted was when Mike McDonald raved about his ability to quickly read keys and diagnose. And that is the sort of thing. You know, I know that right now linebackers aren't drafted at the same value that a quarterback is, but they still usually are the quarterback of the defense, although we see that being safety more off than not now.

But the idea is that if they are in the middle of the field, they should, they are the best one, they're in the best position in the middle of the field to, you know, be as heavily involved in the action as possible. and what you need for that is a smart player, somebody who can quickly read and diagnose. Now, I know there are a few technique things to kind of clean up to make him a complete three-down player, but the fact that he's processing quickly and in a way that impresses his, that impresses Mike McDonald, tells you that to me, I think more often than not, and we see this a lot in the linebacker. We will see less athletic players stay on the field. Sanzolone, stay on the field.

Who? Because they are smart players. They are running the defense. They are putting people the right position. They are reading their keys quickly and all that. And if you've got a player who's slow to react in the middle of the field, they will get picked on mercilessly. So I agree.

I think Knight is a great steal for them. I think you have a very valid point here in that, you know, There's a lot of players. There are a lot of players out there that have to, you know, they have to learn more, you know, get better at certain things that they do, especially the rookies. And that's true across the board for almost every single one of these guys that we've mentioned. So I think that over time with the right coaching staff,

he's going to learn how to do certain things and adjust his play to develop better in the NFL. And I think that is a very strong pick for the Seahawks. Now, speaking of the Seahawks, in round five, they took a cornerback. And then a lot of people, again, were wondering why were they taking a cornerback? They have all these cornerbacks already. So, you know, they have Devin Witherspoon. They have Rick Wollin. They have Michael Jackson.

Hee. They have, you know, Kobe Bryant. It's just, why were they picking him? Well, Pritchie. is a burner. This kid did a 43940 at the combine and has been clocked as low as 429 in other cases, not at the combine, but at other attempts to time him out. He's also got long arms, and this is your prototypical long-armed, tallish cornerback that can quickly close the gap on a wide receiver, especially if he makes a mistake and gets behind, he can close that gap.

So Pritchett is a possibility of challenging and possibly even starting at the nickelback, and that would be a very impressive pick for the Seahawks. Yeah, and we want to think about their division and their conference just in general. One thing that sticks in my head is how I'm sure I remember which Super Bowl this was. I'm Blake on now, but I think it was one of the last ones. that the Patriots won, where they basically, they started a cornerback who didn't have a ton of experience, but he was incredibly fast. And that alone slowed down the fastest receiver on the other team. And as receivers, you know, particularly if you're the Kansas, you know, if you're playing

the Kansas City Chiefs a lot, you're playing the Arizona Cardinals, you're looking for ways to slow, you know, to match speed. Because what's, you know, once that receiver gets a enough separation, you know, it's over. And even if you don't have great hands, if you don't have great ball skills, if you can at least match that receiver stride for stride, it's going to help keep your safeties a little bit more in their own lanes. And it's going to prevent so many deep shots. So that alone, just his legs alone might get him on the field more quicker than it might seem,

even though he's a little bit unpolished. I'm going to close out round five talking about Jordan McGee. He was drafted by the Washington Commanders. He is slated to be the backup to Jamin Davis. And that's an important thing because Davis's fifth year option was just recently declined, which should really come as a shock to nobody because Davis just seemingly never panned out to be the player that they that they were hoping that they drafted. So they're looking, they're looking elsewhere.

So as the commanders scramble to try and get some sort of stability in the inside linebacker, that's, that's another team that had some athletically challenged players, at least on the NFL level. I say athletically challenged. They are not athletically challenged. I am athletically challenged. But by NFL standards, by starting NFL standards, They were, we saw players that didn't have the athletic talent that Jamin Davis did starting or playing in third down roles over Davis because it just, it just was not clicking.

So here's another opportunity where we might see a deep player all of a sudden moving into a starting role if they can kind of handle it. So fewer hurdles here, any little cracks in the membrane that would allow a younger player. to work his way up and not have as much traffic in front of them. I'm always going to grab those guys later in drafts. And McGee, for me as one of them. And also taking into consideration, the new coaching staff does not have any ties to Davis as far as they're being drafted by that team. So with the not signing him to the fifth year option is an obvious case of, hey, we're looking to move on. And McGee could be a great dynasty stash and could push him as early as this year.

year. So to finish this off for us, there was just a couple of picks, one in the sixth and one in the seventh of players that are projected backups and in one case may not make the final roster. But cornerback Ryan Watts was taken in the sixth round by Pittsburgh. He's most likely going to be Joey Porter Jr.'s backup. Will he see some time? Yeah, I think he might get 20 to 30% snap count in this first season, but mostly as a, you know, if Porter should get banged up or as a nickelback. And the other was safety James Williams from Tennessee. The Titans are kind of thin in the secondary as far as their safeties go, and they're projecting Williams to be a possible challenge for a starting role.

I think that's a big reach, especially for a seventh rounder. We've seen, you know, things that have happened before in the past. And they, the words that or the scuttle that I'm hearing right now is that they're moving Williams from safety to right inside linebacker, which kind of, I mean, obviously when you move somebody from safety to a linebacker, usually you do it to the outside. But in a three-four system, he's going to be playing the off ball right inside linebacker position. And that kind of makes me wonder if, you know, because he's going to get buried on the depth chart. and he's going to have to climb some two or three players just to make the roster and be a backup. Yeah, we've seen players with much, much higher ceilings move from safety to a linebacker and it not end well. It's more often than not that this doesn't, this doesn't end up being some amazing stash where all of a sudden you have a safety designation and they're loading up 162.

tackles as a starting linebacker. It's possible. It doesn't happen as well as most people think more often than not. And this is a seventh round pick. So this is deep, deep, deep, deep, deep. But, you know, stranger things have happened. Speaking of stranger things, I think that's about it for us, Thomas. Wow.

And I think we kept it under an hour. Yeah, we certainly did. Everyone, thank you all so much for listening. We will be back around. training camp time where things will pick up kind of hot and heavy for us. We'll start looking at training camp battles. Obviously, we'll start breaking down preseason action as well, get you all ready for drafts. But for now, just kind of wanted to reset the IDP landscape and look at some players for those of you who might be in Dynasty leagues. Dynasty is the big thing right now.

That's where pretty much everyone's focus are. So if you've got it, if you got some Dynasty drafts, I'm hoping our information helped you all a little bit. Until we see y'all come training camp time. Thomas, I think you have something you'd like to say to the people. Be well and be safe. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.