Fantasy Football Daily - Odell Beckham in Baltimore and How to Deal with Draft Rumors | Take Talk Podcast

Episode Date: April 15, 2023

In Take Talk 51, Steve O'Rourke (@callmesteveo7) and Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) break down Odell Beckham Jr.'s signing in Baltimore, the overall depth of the 2023 NFL Draft Class, and how to sort through unsubstantiated draft rumors to find the best tidbits to run with. Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Stephen O'Rourke, and as always, I'm with my co-host, Brett Whitefield. And Brett, we have an exciting giveaway this week. promised it to everyone. People follow directions. And now we're here and we're ready to announce the winner. Yeah, listen, I mean, I came down pretty hard on you guys last week. And then you followed through. You prioritized and executed and we got it done this week.

So I think, you know, initially there were three people that did it right, Steve. And we're going to give one of those guys a sub. Then we created a second giveaway, which almost doesn't seem fair. I know. That's hilarious. that we're rewarding. Incompanic. Isn't that like the whole thing about parenting is you're not supposed to reward?

Yeah. Like that type of stuff. Here's the, I'll give a little defense on that. So of the initial batch of guys that submitted it wrong, I didn't get many re-entries. We actually got a lot of new entries. So in a way,

we're not really rewarding those guys. And to be fair, the winner of that pool, He was not a double applicant. So. Gotcha. Yeah. But anyways, so episode 50, we promised you guys a giveaway to celebrate today is episode

51 and we are announcing the winners from the guys who did it right pool the first time. A guy by the name of Craig Gebhard at Craig Gebhardt on Twitter, you have won a premium subscription on fantasy points.com. Congratulations. round of applause for Craig five-star review this is what he wrote love the crew they got going on over here extremely informative for all the different fantasy football podcasts they drop i listen to every single one thanks boom shabum love it um for the second pool the the late ads the guys who got after it he first of all it's kind of funny he i'm looking through our dms now he said that he has a seven and a five year old as well and he says multiple times a day what is your job right now kind of speaking to prioritize and execute which is that is the phrase i say a hundred times a day as well what is your job right now so um this is scott boyd on twitter he is at scott and boy

congratulations you have won a premium subscription to your fantasy points dot com thank you guys so much for the support of the pod it's been pretty awesome um i know The pod has done bits, as the kids say. Yeah. The pot has done bits. We've got a lot of reviews. Even with the whole the Apple podcast feed, screw up,

we're still doing bits. So that's good. I don't even know. Have we addressed that publicly, Steve? I don't have we? I don't really think so. I mean, it even threw me for a loop one day because I remember I was going to look at it for

just posterity's sake. And I was like, why I'm like January 31st was the last time we put out a podcast. I'm like either someone is just not doing their job, which I mean, we know they are. We're in the discord every like every day and, you know,

constant checks and double checks. But it was like what is going on? And then I, that was when I realized and everybody started kind of realizing and putting into a fact like, hey, something messed up. yeah that it's kind of funny right because i i had a similar moment the first time i realized i kept

getting dms like hey podcast isn't up yet what's going on and i was like what the heck so i immediately jumped to the conclusion of somebody screwed up man right so i was like you know came in guns ablazing to the team like hey guys what's going on why why were we prioritizing recording this if it's not going up until whatever anyways long short it actually wasn't an issue on our end it was an issue with Apple and we got it sorted out but there's a chance you had to unsubscribe and resubscribe. But yeah, that said, the pod has done well despite that mishap. So here we are. We're trucking. Episode 100 is coming up quick, Steve. We're halfway there. I mean, it's going to, yeah, it's going to hit probably midseason if I had to guess. I think so. So, well, cool, without, I guess we got

nothing left to say about that. Why don't we jump right into some NFL news before we hit the topic of the day, Steve? Yeah, it's been mildly stagnant other than mostly just, you know, the usual draft rumors running around. But this week we actually got some concrete news that Odell Beckham signed with the Ravens. For a truckload of money. For a much larger amount of money than I really thought that he was going to get. Is this, Steve, is this purely just like, we're going to pay him what he wants to make Lamar happy?

Is that what happened here? Or is this a further finger pointing at this receiver free agency class that got paid no dollars? Because they'd rather pay Odell significantly more than any of those guys got, and he hasn't played football in two years. I mean, what are you doing here? What bucket do you think it falls into? I think it's the trying to, you know, put everything in front of Lamar and say, like, see, look, we're not, we are trying to make this team competent.

You know, they went and got Todd Monkin to do their, to be their offensive coordinator and they're bringing in Odell. I think they're trying to put forward their best foot and show Lamar that, you know, they are still making the effort to build a competent offense around. him. Now, whether O'Dell is the answer to that remains to be seen because this, I mean, this does fit in with what Baltimore has done as far as getting weapons around Lamar Jackson. Yeah. Like, this is not, it's kind of just like falling into the same cycle where, like, do I think, I don't know if O'Dell is where he was. I don't know if he's going to come out and play. similarly to how he did in Los Angeles, before his injury where he was looking good.

He was looking like he was integrating into that offense well. He was looking like he may not have been the absolute bona fide superstar that he was when he was younger in New York, but he at least was showing that, you know, he was still a top 30, 20, 30 receiver. And I don't know if he still is that. But this is just that cycle that Baltimore gets into where they go after retreads and these guys that, you know, it's, it looks good on paper, but in actual execution, how is it going to play out? Yeah.

And it's, I mean, he's, last time we saw in play Steve, he's probably a solid number two guy, like you said. And, but he's making wide receiver one money now. Yeah. Again, still making wide receiver one money. I don't, I don't know. I think this is definitely a, let's, let's buy Lamar's love and affection. Yeah.

This is the absent father act where it's like, I'm going to give you the best birthday party ever, even though I haven't seen you in three years. Yeah. And I think if I had to guess, it's just that Baltimore put a number out there that nobody else was going to hit. Yeah. And it guaranteed them that he was going there. Yep. And it looks like it may have worked. You know, we've seen the FaceTime screenshots of Lamar and OBJ talking on the phone.

So it seems like maybe they're going to make it work. I hope for Lamar's sake it works out. The guy deserves, I mean, if it works out, Bateman, having Rashad Bateman, OBJ and Mark Andrews, on paper is a decent set of weapons. And, like, that's a step above, again, Bateman got hurt last year. But if they all can stay healthy, in an offense that seemingly is going to air it out more this year, with their new offensive coordinator, it seems to be moving in the right direction.

Again, it's a kind of, well, with OBJ, it's a question mark. And I think that a lot, like the minute OBJ goes down, or let's say OBJ is performing at wide receiver three level, that value and that how well that offense runs can completely change. But at least they have a chance and it's at least something in the right direction. Like signing OBJ to this is better than, you know, when they went and got Deshawn Jackson and said like, hey, look, here's our new pretty weapon. It's like, all right, that, you know, Deshaun Jackson, you know, was a one-trick pony at this point. And at least now they have a

guy that seemingly could be functional in several different areas of the offense. Yeah, and for me, so I guess the big question then this time of year is does this change what they're going to do in the draft. I think it probably, from a Baltimore standpoint, it probably does change what they're going to do because that's how Baltimore operates, but I don't think it's good. I would still go out and get a receiver,

whether that's, you know, if the right guys there for them at 22, I'd probably still draft the receiver there. If we're talking, you know, like a Jordan Addison or Quentin Johnson is there. I know those are two very different players, but those are both guys that'd be interested for Baltimore at 22.

I'd grab one of those guys. And then they don't have a second round pick because of the Roquan Smith trade. So then you're looking at, Pick 86. Seems like they got to get another receiver in there, man. I don't want OBJ because here's what's going to happen. Like you have you have Bateman and OBJ both coming off catastrophic injuries.

Yes. So like the chances of one of them, it's all about probabilities, Steve. The chances of one of them establishing themselves as a true number one are low. Granted, you have Mark Andrews to be your true number one. But I want I just want a little more. I want Lamar to be insulated. I'm not going to make the same mistakes. made in the past. I think I'm still

going to draft the guy, whether it's in the first round or with the third round pick. We'll get into the depth of this draft class in a minute, but I do think receiver is a spot. You could get a very good player at 86, probably. Someone that fits their offense well to, you know, whether

you want just a peer separator, like a Charlie Jones at the end of the third round, or you want a bigger body guy, maybe like a you know, Andre Oslovis from Princeton, in Michael Wilson from Stanford might be there. Pooka Nakuwa might be there. There's a lot of options of guys that really like that they could get in the third round and help.

Tank Dell, you know, if you want to kind of recreate that Marquis Brown role in the offense. Yeah. Tank Dell could do a lot of that stuff. So there's options there, man. And I think they need to keep adding to the room. Yeah, I agree. Like you said, it shouldn't change it. It might.

But Odell's still only there around a one-year contract. There's no guarantee beyond this year. And if you plan on moving forward with Lamar, you have to surround him with more weapons. I mean, we've seen him start to show some nicks and bruises here and there. You know, he hasn't, I mean, he's had some injuries pop up. And part of that is just not having a lot of weapons around you, I think. And the best thing they can do is just continue to bolster the wide receiving court around him. Yeah, so

Was there other news this week? Oh, there was, Steve, there was massive news this week in the NFL. Dan Snyder being out of the ownership group. Finally. You say it like they like pushed him out. The man sold a business for $6 billion. He should have been pushed out. It should have been a push out, but it wasn't.

but I hope for Washington's sake because I every time I look at Washington's roster I get excited and then there's always been that storm cloud over them of like I don't want to get behind that team and I hope for their sake and everything that this moves them in the right direction they can rectify all the mistakes and just horrible misgivings that were done done by the previous ownership group. Yeah. If you had a chance to buy an NFL team in the 90s or in the early 2000s, it may have been the best investment in the entire world.

It's unreal. It is, it's crazy, man. Like you didn't. Snyder bought the Redskins at the time for $800 million, which is a, that's not Trump change. That's a lot of money.

Yeah. But to then 25. years later, not even 25 years later, sell that for six plus billion, is outrageous. I mean, think about it. They, like, they had a stadium that fell apart and they had to pay out money for that. They repeatedly were just absent-minded with what they were doing with the team. And still, because of the profitability of the NFL, because of being a cog in this gigantic machine that just can't fail.

We've heard several times in the last year how we're going to see the decline and yada, yada, yada. It's never happened. The NFL only keeps getting bigger. And so it's like, I mean, I don't think you can find. I don't think there's in this world, there's another investment that has the guaranteed returns like owning an NFL team is. Yeah.

Well, what's crazy too is around the time Snyder, bought the Redskins, there was, there were multiple NFL teams at the time that weren't profitable year to year yet. Right. No, obviously there were some, some that were crushing it, but Roger Goodell hadn't, like, I know a lot of people, like, joked about Roger Goodell getting pushed out and fired. There's no chance because of how much money he's made these owners. Oh, yeah.

Because he, he turned the NFL into basically a cash. printing machine. He's been incredible for the NFL. And I, you know, it's crazy to see where the NFL's come in just 25 years. I know there were, you know, legitimate, I think Jack, I think Detroit had a year in the 90s where they lost money. Jacksonville lost money several years early on in their life. Carolina was a team that had lost some money early on.

And now these teams are all going to be valued five plus billion dollars every single one of them, which is crazy. Yeah, it's funny. Like, what does it? Goodell makes, I think, I think it came out sometime this year. He makes like 80 million a year. And worth every penny. There's an, yeah, you could make an argument that he's one of the more underpaid people in the NFL. Yeah.

Because, like you said, because of like what he did to take over for, it was Tagglabu before him, right? Yep. Yeah, what he did to take over and what he did to take that, this sport and these teams, to another level is, you know, you can't, you can quantify it in dollars and cents, but it's a large number. He turned, I mean, every, every franchise in the NFL right now would be valued and sold at over a billion dollars easily. Oh, I think they'd all get close to $5 billion.

Yeah. What the Broncos just sell for? They were, were they like $2.5 billion or were they? Only $2.5. I don't remember exactly. but let's see I'm looking it up no 4.65 bill okay 4.65 yeah that's what I mean that was a year ago and Denver is a small market team yeah like if you're getting small market market teams near 5 billion like what would the cowboy sell for right now I mean

all the giants like what yeah or the yeah 10 billion at least I would say like it'd be 10 figures oh man how much should Jerry Jones pay for the Cowboys again? It was something absurd, right? Wasn't it like 100 million? 140 million. Yeah, that's comical. Forbes is saying that the Cowboys are worth 12 billion.

So, yeah. So the return on that investment is literally over 100X. It's actually almost right at 100x, exactly. That's crazy. That's hilarious. In 25 years, he 100xed a business. And it's most of it. Roger Goodell that did it.

It's a fail-proof system right now. Pretty sick. So, all right. Let's, I don't, there wasn't any more news. Was there nothing crazy? Nothing, no, nothing groundbreaking. A lot of the draft rumors are starting to come out, which is always fun and exciting. I would say a lot of a fake draft.

Yeah, I was going to say all the smoke screens are starting to come out in bunches. The ones that crack me up, Steve, I want to spend a ton of time talking about this, but the ones that are, you can just tell, aren't sourced by anybody that's reliable or even thought through their fake allegation. Like, C.J. Stroud, for example, getting, like, people saying the Texans and C.J. Like, they're going to draft C.D. Stroud now. If Bryceon goes, it's not going to happen. Anyone that knows anything about the NFL knows this. David Maldgetta is. C. T. Strowd's agent. David Mulligeta is also Deshawn Watson's agent. There is legitimate bad blood between those two

people. It will not happen. Yeah. Cedishrod might go second overall, but it will not be to the Houston, Texans. I don't care how much they like him. I don't think they would take him. Yeah, just for the sake of not having to work with him again. And I'm pretty sure,

no, I'm not a source. I'm not sourcing this. But I'm pretty sure I've heard that Stroud's agent has told the Texans, no. We're like, no. We're not. So it's mutual. It's like there's a mutual understanding here that we never want to speak to each other again. Right. He doesn't have a single player that plays for that organization.

So I, yes. Anyways. So the rumors are crazy. You're going to see a lot of fake rumors and then some good ones. You know, when I see guys like, and I'm not throwing shade here, but when I see, see guys like Matt Miller and Dove Clyman coming with hot takes about, you know, sourced information, you got to, you got to wonder why. Why is, why are those two guys getting, they're not, they're getting sourced. Like, people are telling them things. I have no,

I have no doubt. Yeah. I think they're more being used to, to shift markets and things of that nature than anything. I don't think this. Like, I, I have sources too. And, but I don't go tweet my sources or talk about them on a podcast either. But like I don't, you know what I mean? Like guys aren't telling me things that are 100% true. I'll just say that. You'll get me in a ballpark. Like I can ask questions. They'll say, yeah, this might be true. This isn't true. And, you know, they kind of steer me in that direction. I don't, I just, some of the guys that have like definitive sources right now, you just know they're not actually definitive sources. That's the takeaway. Just please don't listen to anything people say and take it as gospel.

Yeah. And follow the sort of follow the path. Like that's like before retweeting all of that, follow the path. See where and how it might have gotten there. Yeah. A great example, Steve. And I just, I just reverse engineered this myself the other day. Was like, when did the Okuda trade happen? That was other news we missed by the way.

But that was that Tuesday night? Yeah. It must have been like Monday or Tuesday. Tuesday. So I think that happened Tuesday. So then Monday night, though, there was this rumor that the Rams and the lines are about to do a deal for Akuta and it was going to be

for a third and a fifth. Okay, or a third and a sixth or something like, or fourth and a six, something, whatever, two picks for Akuta. Yeah. That part doesn't matter. And I'm like, okay, that's weird. I have sources in L.A. myself, so I text my guy. What's going on?

Nothing, literally heard nothing about it. Okay, cool. But I'm just like, or why, why, why is this being rumored? So I kind of start reverse engineering where this rumor comes from. It comes from one of these meme accounts. Yes. And it is verified. It's a verified account,

but as we know, it's not super hard to get verified these days. And it came from a meme account. And so then I was like, well, where did the meme account get that information? So I kind of go through their likes on Twitter. And within five minutes,

I sourced where the rumor initially came from. And it was from an athletic article that Colton Pounce he wrote. He's a Detroit Lions beatwriter. Yep. And in the article, he at no point said this is a source that I have, the Rams and Lions are going to do a trade for Akuta. He literally says, I don't

see a pathway for the field to Akuta. Their best idea would be to trade him probably and just recoup any assets they can get. Here's three trade candidates that make sense for them. That's it. It was just an analyst piece. Yeah. And then other sources, verified sources took that as like

a news aggregator and just said, oh, Rams are trying to trade for Jeff Akuta. And like, now he ended up getting traded to Atlanta, but it's like this is how rumors start in the NFL circles, though. And a lot of times, even with some of the bigger accounts, I'm not going to mention names, you can find the source of their quote unquote rumors pretty quickly. Yeah.

And they're not usually actual sources. Yeah. Always be weary of those meme aggregate accounts. Yes. Even with some of these accounts, Steve, have like 300,000 followers. Right. Because it's just like, you know, I mean, like I know that my biggest thing during free agency

during draft is just like putting out notifications and following as many of these people as possible. And sometimes those, you know, those meme accounts, those aggregation accounts, they get thrown in there because, you know, they can, they're usually just as quick to the punch as everyone else. Now, whether they're putting out the right information, that's a whole other thing, but they're right there. And so, like, they get the followers because it's an easy place to go. It's an easy feed to just go back to because it's usually just all information. There isn't any of that like fluff in between. There isn't like personal tweets. There isn't anything like that

in between. It's literally just the news. But at the same time, it is like they're, you know, they're summarizing. They're pulling quotes. They're pulling things that, And they're pulling these things and twisting them a little bit into what was what was either like floated as just a possibility by a beat writer. Yeah. Or what was, you know, like the loosest thing someone heard. They put it in and they write it in as this is actually happening. And then people buy into that. And then that's how, you know, the ball starts getting rolling.

And all of a sudden you're seeing these things. And it's like, how did we even get here? when, you know, when, and come to find out, like, yeah, it did come from a beat analyst floating the possibility because of something they heard that is like three degrees of separation away from what is now being put out there. Exactly. Exactly. All right.

Let's get to the actual topic of the day. Yes. And we wanted to discuss draft stuff, of course, because we're less than. than two weeks away from the draft at this point. And we wanted to talk the strength of the draft class, Steve. And I know I do a draft podcast every day, and I also do a lot of appearances. You've been on that podcast as well.

I don't think I've ever once discussed the draft class as a whole. I'm usually talking specific players or specific positions. Yeah. We've never once actually done draft class as a whole. So I think it'd be cool to get into the strength of the draft class. And we talk a lot about team building on this pod. Yes. And how can the strength of a draft class affect your team building?

And I think there's some elements to be taken away from that as well. So, Steve, where do you, you know, I don't know how many guys you've watched at this point or done research on, but how many, like, how do you see this draft class as a whole? I see it as a deep draft, but not a blue chip heavy draft. I think that's a very good. I think there are a lot of guys that are going to. to contribute for NFL teams. But I don't necessarily think you're going to see the like bona fide star power year over year all pro talent that you see out of some classes.

I think you're going to see a lot of very functional, very useful players who fit a system, fit a team. And, you know, like we've heard it a lot where there is so much differentiation between what who teams think is the best at different positions. And I think it's because of this that it isn't these guys who are just a, a fix-all, drop them in anywhere and let them go. There's a lot of guys that it's like they fit a certain scheme. I know we talked about it a little bit with like quarterbacks of like

Devin Witherspoon and Christian Gonzalez the other day. It's a lot of that in a lot of these different positions where it's guys that are going to be a much better fit in different places. than they are in others. Yeah. I agree with your take there. I think this draft is very deep. I think you're going to be able to get starters

into the fourth round comfortably. I think certain position groups are loaded as well with depth. But I don't think there's a huge, I don't think there's a guarantee that there's going to be a lot of superstars in those guys. No, granted, guys develop. Like, we might not look. at a guy who's a good example we might not look at a guy like a mazie smith as a superstar potential guy is in a blue chip prospect right course he can turn into one he has the the physical

tools to do it but you know the way these guys project right now though like i have i have one blue chip player in this class to be honest and that's jalen carter yeah i don't see will anderson is a blue chip guy i think will anderson's a really really good prospect but i think he does have some deficiencies i think there's some concerns with the way he was used at alabama and how that translates to the NFL. So I think he's a great prospect. I just don't think he's a blue chip prospect. So there's a one one guy and he's got massive off-field concerns.

Yeah. So some would say there's zero guys, zero blue chip guys. Right, right. And that, yeah, the Jalen Carter thing is, it's every day. It seems like there's something. But, yeah, I agree that, again, obviously there's a chance for guys to develop. up, but, you know, there's just not the, there's not the bona fide superstars. And that's okay.

And, you know, if anything that makes the draft more fun, in my opinion, I think that it, like, that's why we're hearing so many rumors about trades and so many teams jockeying to get into different positions. It's because everybody has their guy ranked higher than other people. And that's why there is going to be a lot of movement. And that's why there are going to be guys that I feel like more than a lot recently where you could see a guy go in the mid-30s who every draft analyst had ranked in the 60s. But because that guy fits the team scheme, he is 30 spots above, you know, maybe the next guy. Yeah, for sure.

I've talked about this at length. but I have 22 first round grades in this class, Steve. That's going to be more than some teams. I give a positional value boost. Yeah. Positions, which bumps extra guys in. Like, for example, what's a guy that gets in because of, like, Deonti Banks? I don't actually, he didn't score as a first round player for me.

Never mind. Let me look. Quentin Johnson's maybe a good example. If I remove his positional value, you bump that he gets. He probably scores as like a early second for me. Yeah. But because right receivers such a valuable position to me, he gets a little bit of a bump and he's a, he's a firm first round player. I have three first round ride receivers. Um, point being though, 22 first round grades total. Five of them are quarterbacks. So you take away, if you're not a

quarterback needy team, you have a pool of 16 to 17 guys and my board to pick from, which means if you're picking 16 to 32 Steve, you're not getting a guy with the first round grade more than likely. Right. Especially if you're drafting it all for need. There's a chance that doesn't necessarily line up with, you know, first round grades and team needs. So what ends up happening in a draft like this is if you're picking at 20,

you might as well be picking at 40. Honestly, cheaper pick, trade back. You get, you can recoup some assets. assets. Now the problem is you need a partner to trade up to 20. But I think a lot of teams are going to have that mindset of like, well, like that tier for me, like let's, I'm just going to look really quick while we're talking. So after 2022, the first 22, which are first round grades, I have probably the next, my next tier is probably 35 players deep. And if you took the guy 35th on that list, like say Rishi Rice or the guy, one.

on that list. Now, this is tier two. We're talking Deontay Banks. Yeah. Similar caliber players, to be honest. Banks might be a bad example because I think consensus is a little higher on him. But like a Jamir Gibbs is at the top of the second tier. You get Gibbs or a Rice, they're probably going to have a similar impact in your offense,

but you're going to draft them anywhere between 30 and 50 picks apart. Right. It's a massive tier two in this draft. And then tier three is another massive tier where, you know, I'm looking at like, late day or sorry midday two grades to early round four grades dude we're like that's 60 something deep so it's it's honestly crazy but you know I don't think about it from this perspective what would you say so like say you're the cardinals or the lions or the raiders like is there a non-QB at 367 that

you're that excited about other than Jalen Carter that you have to stay put? Or are you going to try to move back for one of these teams that want a quarterback? You're going to want to move back. Because just like you said, with the depth in this draft, accumulating more draft picks is going to be beneficial in this draft. Yeah. I mean, it's typically beneficial in every draft, but it's especially because of the depth. But, you know, like you said, normally being at three in some drafts you have the quarterbacks that are up there that are going to go one two in there and then there is that like next best guy there's that best edge rusher there's the best defensive tackle there's the best cornerback you know your your acutas your

you know your your your edge guys you know like a miles garret guys like that there isn't like you said there isn't really that and so it's not as beneficial to stick and take that guy when maybe you could get back to, you know, say you're, like you said, say you're the Cardinals and the Lions want to move up to number three. Like, why not go back, take eight, you know, take 18 or six in a second and a third? Because for some of those teams at the top of the draft, you know, they're there for a reason. They have talent deficits. And why not have as many swings as, as many swings at that second tier of guys who are, you know, are all projecting to hopefully be functional starters in the NFL, get more of that, get more

talent in your room rather than get a big talent, one big talent in the room, get a lot of functional players that can help you, you know, take the next step as a team. And that's what, that's what I think this draft offers is the opportunity to kind of gather a lot of starters in that top 100 pick area. Yeah. So, Let's look at it this way, too. I'm going to go through some positions, and you give me answers on these questions. So I'm going to go through premium positions.

Is there a consensus edge one in this class? I don't know. I mean, there's not. Tyree Wilson or Will Anderson. Yeah, it's really changed in the last month. You're even seeing Tyree Wilson get mocked at number two overall recently to the Texans. Yeah. Jane Zerline just did that.

Okay. Cornerback. Is there a consensus number one guy? Again, no, no. It's not. I mean, it's consistently between Gonzalez and Witherspoon. But again, there are some people that have, you know, Witherspoon as like definitively above Gonzalez.

And then there are other people who view Gonzalez definitively above. And then there's even, you know, there's even people who throw up. you know, Joey Porter Jr. up above one of those guys. It's all over the place. And again, it's, it just speaks to that, you know, like Christian Gonzalez. And I mean, we, again, we talked about him last week where Christian Gonzalez and Devin Witherspoon aren't necessarily just a plug-in-play guy, no matter your system, just drop them in and go. Like Derek Stingley was that. Jalen Ramsey was that. Jeff Akuta was viewed to be that way.

But like these guys, they have very, they have defined strengths and weaknesses. And obviously that can change. They can develop. But like right now, there is a system that definitively fits Christian Gonzalez better than that than it fits Devin Witherspoon. Yep. And even among the top draft guys, like guys I respect, Daniel Jeremiah, Dane Bruegler, Lance Zeerline, myself. We, uh, there's no consensus even among them. So, and they're probably the most plugged into the NFL teams.

All right, let's hit another one. Offensive tackle. Is there a consensus number one tackle? No. There's not even the consensus top three probably. Like you could ask 10 different analysts who their top favorite tackle is. I bet you get four different names. Yeah.

Some guys that don't care about arm length, we'll say Skoronski. Guys that prefer big gritty length, you know, mauler type. Darnel Wright. Yep. You're going to get Parris Johnson Jr. because the athletic traits. Yep. And you'll get Broderick Jones because he was the starting left tackle for the national

champion Georgia Bulldogs. Yeah. You literally will get four different answers if you asked 10 different people. So let's keep going. Wide receiver. Is there a consensus number one? I think we're almost there. I think everybody's afraid to say it.

Like you're probably one of the few people that have been like, definitive on saying that like I'm planting my flag, but it's getting there. But think about it. It took us until two weeks until the draft to get here. Yeah. So point being, these are all extremely valuable positions. I also think all four of those position groups we just talked about have relatively good depth in this class. Yes.

But there's no consensus guy. So why? So the value of getting OT1 in this draft isn't there necessarily unless he's a perfect scheme fit. Yeah. So if you're the Detroit lines at 6 and you know you want Witherspoon, but you're pretty confident the next five teams don't like him. Why wouldn't you make, you'd rather make that pick at 11? 12, 13, whoever wants to come up. And I feel like a lot of the teams in that range are going to feel similarly.

If you're out on Carter because of off field and you don't feel Will Anderson is this consensus. blue chip guy, there's no reason for you to stay where you're at in the draft. And you, so the cost to come up for teams like Atlanta or Tennessee that need quarterbacks, it might be cheaper than we realize. Because I think some of these teams are going to want to get out of there. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically like Tennessee coming up from 11 to 3 would cost two first round

picks plus a good amount of change. It might not. It might not cost that much. If you're Arizona, you got no business sitting at, at three. Like, no. No. So, so you're going to get a similar quality player at 11 anyways, plus you're going to get all the extra draft capital. I think you just do it. You just take best offer and move on. Don't care if the charts match up or whatever. You're just going to do it. And it's, it's funny because along the same line, like a big reason that we are in this position

is that there isn't like the consensus number one, number two, number three quarterback. that's a good position. That's all over the place. And so like, so like different teams are valuing different quarterbacks. And so it's all going to be, you know, about getting the right trade partner. And especially if a team is privy to someone being in love

with a certain quarterback prospect, like that's something that you can use against a team. And, you know, you've seen that in years where, you know, GMs are able to hold that. over other GM's heads and use that as the ability to trade up or trade down for less or more, it falls right in line with the rest of the draft class where, you know, there isn't the definitive ranking of QBs.

It's kind of all over the place. And, you know, you could, Will Levis could be number one for some teams, like, say, the Colts. And it could be number five for others. Yeah. All right, real quick, before we get out of here, Steve, let's talk about some of those position groups that are loaded. I mentioned tackle. I don't know that I actually believe that in looking at my scores now. I think tackle is very top-heavy. I was going to say there seems to be, what, four guys? Skoronski, right. Well, and, you know, some teams won't even have Skronkki as a tackle on their board. He's going to be in IOL.

I think because of the positional value, you have to try him at tackle. Because having an above average tackle is significantly more valuable than having an elite guard. I know that's hard for people's brains to understand, but I think the recent studies we've had done from analytical minds bear that out to be true. Anyways, I have Scoronsky as a tackle, so I'm listing them in this group. Skoronsky, Wright, Paris Johnson Jr., Broder Jones, and then DeWan Jones. I think that's a solid group of guys. DeWan Jones, I do have a second round grade on because I have concerns with his movement ability. Yeah.

he's in the same tier as like Anton Harrison. So that's six guys right there. You're probably finding like a year one starter at tackle. Then after that though, it falls off a cliff, bro. Like you got Blake Freeland who he did score as like a midday two guy for me, but you're just betting on the traits of him. Like he's not a developed player at all. Yeah.

Cody Mock, small school kid who looks great, played all five positions, can probably play tackle, play guard, play center, doesn't matter. But like, he's coming from North Dakota State. You're not going to rely on contributions from him early in his career. We've seen this with other, like, they keep pumping offensive linemen into the NFL.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a developmental curve there. We've seen that with just about all of them, to be fair. So I don't think Mock will be any different in that regard. And then after that, man, I don't know what we're doing. Matthew Bergeron, Assam Richards, Jalen Duncan, Tyler Steen, Ryan Hayes, Like these guys are not playing football for me in the next couple years, that's for sure.

Yeah. So I think tackle falls off a cliff. But I think if you do need a starter, it's a good draft to need a starter. You're just going to have to invest a high pick into one. Yes. Yeah, you're going to have to, if your guy's there, you're going to have to go get him. Yes. Like, honestly, I don't have first round grades on Harrison or DeWan Jones,

but you probably got to take him in the first round if you want, if you identify that as a need and want that. guy. Yeah. That's kind of my opinion there. And it's funny, another position that's very deep and could it'll just be interesting to see how it shakes out. It's not a premier position, but running back is a really interesting class this year. Very interesting class. There's, it's one of the, I'd say one of the deeper running back classes on paper that we've had in a while as far as like top tier talent all the way to mid round talent. Yeah, you can make the argument there's 15, 16 guys that are viable in this draft, which is a lot.

I have it kind of, I have two tiers at the top. I have Bijon in his own tier. Yep. Then has Gibbs in his own tier. Yep. That next tier, though, is rich. You got Zach Charbonnet, Rochon Johnson, Tadjee Spears, Tank Bigsby, Israel Ebony Akonda, Kendry Miller, Devin A-Chane.

A lot of different flavors in there, too. Yeah. You get some, you know, Tajay Spears is kind of like a Jemir Gibbs, light Devin A chain is like a I don't know he's like a mix between Darren Sproles and Tyree Kill Yep So why it's just a really unique player I've made the statement on the pot a couple days ago if he were a slot

If a team drafted him went up to the podium and announced him as a receiver I'd immediately bump his draft score by a round I'd give him a firm second because that's I've been saying it for Since what October that this guy's a receiver I don't know why he's playing running back. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. A lot of people say that about running backs I can catch. Like, oh, he can play in the slot. Like, did you mirror? Gibb? Like, no. It's not the same. Gibbs is a good receiver for a running back. A chain

is a good receiver for receivers. Like, his movement skills, a short area quickness, his ability to separate. Like, he has all of those traits already. I don't know why he's playing running back. He's 175 pounds. So. Yeah. Where you're like, yeah. If you're going to invest the pick in him, where do you want, like, you want longevity out of him? longevity and value. You're getting way more value out of a receiver than a running back. But I digress.

For now he's a running back. Chase Brown, like this guy, he's very scheme dependent. He needs a team like Miami or San Francisco or L.A. who's going to run a lot of stretch zone. Cincinnati would be a great spot for him too. Can catch the football a little bit, run some routes. Is he a great running back?

No, but you're going to get him in the fourth round, and he's going to be very productive. if he lands on the right team. So I agree running back is kind of loaded this year. Yeah. And Edge is another one that's deep. There are like, I mean, yeah, the edge is deep. You've got your Will Anderson.

You've got Tyree Wilson. Those seem to be the top too. And then you get into just a real, you've got Vaness, you've got Andre Carter, you've got Ojolari, Anu Dike Uzoma I mean all of these guys that again they're functional and they

have their traits and you can project them anywhere from back of the first round all the way to third fourth round and it's all you know in the eyes of the beholder

that's the phrase right yes um Derek Hall. So there's a common fallacy with edge defenders. A lot of drafts people will say, oh, just, you know, you can get an edge defender on day two.

The reality is you usually can't. You can't find pass rushers on day two. Pass rushers and past protectors, they all go on day one if they're good. Yeah. This year is a little different. Like, because of the strengths of the draft and the way I think the tackle market's going to come off

quickly in the first round, you have the four to five quarterbacks in the first round. I don't know that you're going to get more than five edge defenders off the board in the first round, which is going to leave guys like Anadukee Uzoma, Will McDonald the 4th, Etabobo R.A., B.Jalari, Kiann White, Derek Hall. Like, you're going to get a decent player on the edge in day two. This kind of happened last year, too, actually. Like Josh Peshaw was a very good prospect, and he went day two, probably more because of some length concerns.

But still, you're going to find guys. You mentioned Andre Carter. There's even more that I'm not mentioned. I mean, Nolan Smith is, he's gotten run in the last couple weeks from some of the draft guys. I think it was, was it Daniel Jeremiah that said that there's rumors that he could go even in the top 10? Yeah, eighth to Atlanta is the new hotspot for him. Yeah, I mean, I don't have a first round grade on Nolan, but he's going to go in the first round. I have no doubt about that.

He is, he's got all the traits in the world. So if I were a team picking in the back half of the first round, I would be drafting Nolan Smith for sure. So I guess it's, there's some irony to the fact that I'm saying, I don't have a first round grade on him. Yeah, I'd take him in the first round. But that's because I have 22 first round grades. My scores are my scores.

That's the thing. I don't class adjust my score, Steve. Right. So there might be years I have 26 first round grades. They might be years I have 18. This year I have 22. Nolan Smith isn't one of them, but I'd still take him in the first round. So it is what it is.

Lucas Van Ness is a guy I'm lower on than just about everybody. I have him as a just a mid day two or round two guy. Yeah. I don't get the hype with him, but still, you know, whether you're taking him at the end of the first or second round, like there's still value to be had there. And Adduke is almost the interesting one. I think he's most draft classes,

he's a first round guy 100% of the time. And he's going to go probably in the second round this year. Yeah. It'll be fun because I think edge and corner, both are positions of, they obviously, you know, a lot of value. Those are two positions that in this draft, once you see after like those, you know, those top two, three guys go in both positions, it'll be fun to see because you could, it could be one of those where once that first domino falls from that second tier of guys, you start to see a run on corners and edge. In corners specifically, I'm glad you brought corner up, Steve.

It's going to be the Wild Wild West. There's so many guys that can play this year. So many. I wouldn't be surprised if we broke draft records for corners drafted on day two this year. Because you got Witherspoon Gonzalez Porter who are probably first round locks. Yep.

Then there's a handful of guys that could all get in the first round. Like think of Deonti Banks, Cam Smith, Forbes, Keeley Ringo. Like he was crowned as a top 10 pick a year ago. Yeah. I'm like on the second round now. DJ Turner ran a 42540.

Someone's going to overdraft him because of speed. Julius Brent. Julius Brent is loved by a lot of different teams. I need Seattle to draft him in the second round. It's such a perfect pick. Dude, could you imagine Terry Quillan and Julius Brett? Like the length? Like you're not completing avert on the outside against them ever again.

No. Just wouldn't happen. You better hope that you can live on in breaking routes against them. Yes. Yes, that would be so fun. I'm not the biggest Brent's guy, but if he landed in Seattle, I would become the biggest Brent's guy. I think that'd be such a good fit for him.

Yeah. But like think about a guy like Travious Hodges-Hollinson too, Steve. Like this dude can flat out ball, but he's 5-8. So it's not going to be around one guy, not probably going to be around two guy. But you're going to get third, fourth round a starter. in the nickel from day one of his career. It reminds me a lot of Chauncey Gardner Johnson, actually. He's got a lot of similarities to his game.

Plays bigger than his 5-8 frame. Now, Chauncey's not 5-8. I'm not saying that, but as far as, like, playstyle goes, very similar. He got, legurious need vibes with him. Yeah. Wicked, wicked slot guy. And that's one where corners a position that you,

I think that we'll see guys who are taken in the fourth, fifth, sixth round that end up getting a chance at starting. Because there's so much depth, you know, there will be teams that'll wait on it and they'll push because it's like, okay, well, we have, you know, we have player A ranked, you know, two spots above player B. Player A is, you know, we're hearing that he's going to get taken top of the second. But our player B's, we're not even hearing talks about him until the third. fourth round. So like why why when maybe we have a different position that we value

and we have a larger gap between two guys? Why spend it on the on the position that we have a small gap in like corner where I think that'll be when you can just sit and wait and go get a guy that you have maybe a little bit lower ranked but you still view as a guy that

can jump in and you know, compete for a starting spot? Yep. I agree. I mean Jaylon, I'm just going to throw some day three potential guys out there that I think could start quickly in the NFL. Jalen Jones, Darius Rush, Riley Moss, Eli Ricks,

Cayu Blue Kelly, Jacorian Bennett. I know there's more. Hold on. The Oregon State kids, both those guys. They're a little scheme dependent, but I think both those guys can play a little bit. Terrell Smith from Minnesota.

Terrell Smith had a phenomenal career at Minnesota, and I think he's getting some buzz. I think this is a guy you could see creep up some boards real quickly here towards the end as people are starting to get down down into the tape on, you know, those projected day three guys. I think you're going to see him get a lot of love. Yeah. Corners rich this year, like very rich.

And for those cornerback needy teams at the top of the draft, it makes it hard to draft one. Like if you're Arizona, let's say you trade back with Tennessee. Yep. And Christian Gonzalez is in there at 11. It's like, yeah, he's a phenomenal prospect. But man, we were passing. and some other stuff we could really use to get Gonzalez so we could probably get

a comparable player around two, three later, you know? Right, right. It's tough. It is tough. All right, we need to get out of here. Let's close with this. Any immediate thoughts on like where this draft class stacks up comparatively to recent

draft classes? I think of like 2017 is probably the most recent just phenomenal class. Yeah. The home's year. It's probably, I mean, it's funny because it feels like it fits so perfectly next to the 2018 draft. And I've, you know, I've heard that from like some of the guys at the athletic. But like the similarities are really there.

It's honestly comical when you look at it, like the Bijan and Sequin and the four quarterbacks and the four quarterbacks with the fifth one that's being rumored. it's like it fits right in there i think that i my gut says that this class will be better than the 2018 class overall but it's that's a pretty darn good class it was it was i i believe it i think these quarterbacks could be could turn out better than the quarterbacks that went in that 2018 class dude i Well, I mean, I don't know. You have Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. It's true.

I know that they weren't the, you know, top guys drafted. But yeah, I'm looking at the class now. There are a lot of similarities. I would say, like, dude, even receiver, like, eerily similar. Like, you had DJ Moore and Calvin Ridley were first round picks. And, like, that's right around how I see J.S.N. and Quentin Johnson and those guys, like Addison. Like Addison and Ridley are so similar, it's crazy.

There's a lot of similarities here. And then cornerback was very deep in that class. I would say this draft class has the advantage at tackle for sure. Yeah. Mike McGlenshy was the first tackle off the board. Colton Miller was the second one. Yes, not a lot of tackle depth. But big thing is this class does not have linebackers.

No. compared to like what that 2018 had and I would say that linebacker is probably the weakest position in this class like definitively terrible terrible linebacker class and even one of the guys that people like at linebacker drew Sanders isn't a linebacker he should play edge yeah yeah it's I yeah as far as the last 10 years this probably will I probably finishes it in the top, like probably the top 50% of the last 10 years. Like I would put it probably four or five with rank just because of the depth and the fact that I think that you can get starters later into the draft than you can't,

then you could seemingly get in a lot of other classes. Yeah. I agree. I'm kind of, I'm just. Yeah, it's Here because it's fascinating. This draft definitely has more D-line talent.

Edge was very, very void in that class. They had Bradley Chubb and Marcus Davenport were the only two edge defenders taken. I remember going to the senior bowl for that class and Davenport was there and just watching those edge guys, you were just like, oh my God, like,

someone's going to have to trade up to get Davenport because if you need an edge help, pass rush, or help, you're not getting one. Problem with Davenport is so stinking raw. He didn't break out until like his fourth, fifth year. Right. You know, it's like, so the Saints traded up for him, didn't get anything out of him for three years.

And then, yeah, that's, that's tough. But well, right on. Yeah, we can't, we can't leave a discussion about this draft class without mentioning the tight end group, Steve. We got to. Yes. Yes. It's, I mean, it's the best tight end class in the last 10 years. Since I've been doing this for sure.

Yeah. I have what? I have eight day two, day one and day two grades on tight ends. And then if you just do like early fourth round grades, I got like 11 guys. Like it's stacked. And like that's not a position I value a ton. So they get they get crushed in my system.

Right. They're still scoring on that level. Like Kincaid's a top 15 player for me. Musgrave, Meyer, mayor in Washington are all top 35 players for me. Laporte is a. top 50 player for me. Craft is 55. Yeah, so I got five tight ends in my top 50. Yeah, before we go out, how a hundred percent positive is it that the Cowboys

Draft a tight end? I mean, it feels like it, but I don't know. Yeah, it feels like they will, right? I mean, doesn't it feel like they're going to take a position? Like, there may be guys that could benefit their team better, but the Cowboys are always going to cowboy. And it's going to be a tight end or a running back and Cowboys fans are going to lose their minds. I've heard, you know, low-key that they really want Bijan obviously, but they would draft Charbonnet, potentially. No, no one's mocking Charbonnet anywhere close to the first round. So that would be wild, to say the least. That'd be hilarious.

It would be hilarious. Because the meltdown, the meltdown that would occur in Dallas, amongst Dallas fans would be astronomical. Right. Now, for clarity, I'm not saying, my source didn't say first round. He just said that they like Charbonnet. Yeah. So I don't, that would be crazy. We're going to see on a meme account here by the end of the day, Dallas, Dallas rumor to be taking,

Charbonnet in the first round sources say sources say Dallas King Charbonnet at PIC 26 hilarious that's not what I'm saying I just know they like him so anyways

we gotta get out of here Steve if we close this out within 10 seconds it's under an hour we're excited draft's coming all right draft's coming thanks for listening guys we will be back next week

out. 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 FantasyPoints.com.