Fantasy Football Daily - Scott Barrett's NFL Rookie Press Conferences: 50 HOURS in 45 MINUTES!

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Get ready to catch up on all the highlights of NFL rookie press conferences in this condensed 45-minute video! We've packed in 50 hours of press conference information, giving you everything you need to know about the newest stars in the league. From standout moments to behind-the-scenes insights, this video has it all. Don't miss out on this comprehensive overview of the NFL's top rookies! Stay tuned and hit play now! Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Where to find us: https://twitter.com/ScottBarrettDFB FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts #fantasypoints #fantasyfootball #nfl #nfl #fantasyfootball #bestball #dynasty #dfs #nflbetting #fantasyfootballadvice 0:00 - Intro 0:42 - Jayden Daniels 0:59 - Drake Maye 1:24 - New York Giants QBs 1:56 - Michael Penix Jr. 2:19 - JJ McCarthy 2:32 - Bo Nix 3:44 - Drake Maye vs JJ McCarthy 4:59 - Michael Penix Jr. Continued 5:51 - Jonathon Brooks 8:20 - Trey Benson & Blake Corum 10:39 - Marshawn Lloyd 12:30 - Ray Davis 13:48 - Bucky Irving 14:58 - Audric Estime 16:12 - Brock Bowers 19:04 - Ben Sinnott 22:05 - Ja’Tavion Sanders 22:32 - Cade Stover 23:56 - WR Intro 24:11 - Malik Nabers 25:31 - Rome Odunze 26:25 - Xaiver Worthy 29:35 - Brian Thomas Jr. 31:21 - Ladd McConkey 32:24 - Keon Coleman 33:46 - Xaiver Legette 36:24 - Ricky Pearsall 37:16 - Adonai Mitchell 37:52 - Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker 38:35 - Troy Franklin 39:41 - Jalen McMillan 41:53 - Malik Washington 43:29 - Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk, business. Ladies and gentlemen, you are listening to the Fantasy Points podcast. I'm your host this lovely evening, Scott Barrett. You're going to be a solo pod. What is this? my annual post draft presser review podcast. What did I do? I listened to and watched about 50 hours

of post draft press conferences. And here I am to distill this into, I don't know, about a 45 minutes show, everything you need to know from those 50 hours of post draft press conferences. We're going to start off with the quarterback position. I think what was most notable to me was just finding out what these other teams thought of these quarterbacks. Jaden Daniels really seemed like consensus was top two quarterbacks in this draft. Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, Washington's GM said they thought Jaden Daniels was, or he said Jaden Daniels was their highest ranked player in the draft. Drake May went 103.

Patriots head coach said, we were comfortable with all three of those guys and it just so happened to be. Drake. You know, that's kind of how New England pressers always go. They kind of just feed you BS. Seems like they were much higher on Drake because the Vikings and Giants aggressively tried to trade up for three. Patriots were never close to trading the pickaway. What's also interesting to me is that the Giants thought all quarterbacks after that top three were worse than Jewelock. That's according to Daniel Jeremiah. And it's notable for two reasons. One, they were contrasting these quarterbacks against Drew Locke and not Daniel Jones. And two, it's kind of crazy.

They're saying Michael Pennix, J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix, top 12 picks aren't on the same playing field as Drew Locke, who, I don't know, I think we have a good enough sample size on Drew Locke to know he's going to be a backup throughout the remainder of his career. Michael Pennix went 108. You know, a lot of people viewed this as a reach, but we had Jim Nagy on last month telling us, and I don't know, he's probably going mid-round one. And we found out, courtesy of James Palmer, that the Seahawks, Saints, and Raiders

all tried to trade into the top 10 for Michael Pennick. So it seemed like the NFL was a lot higher on him than the consensus mock draft boards. J.J. McCarthy, again, it's notable that the Vikings try to trade up for three, presumably to take Drake May. But the commanders had McCarthy above May, above Pennix, above Nix, that's per John Kime. And then Bo Nix, what's interesting here is, according to Todd McShay, you talked to about a dozen people around the league.

And the Broncos were the only team to have a round one grade on Nix. Everyone else had a backup caliber grade on him. But Sean Payton, very, very high on Bo Nix. That was clear his day from the presser. Adam Schaefter later reported, Sean Payton feels as strongly about Bo Nix as he did about Patrick Mahomes. So even if it is a reach, you're going to reach on any position. it better be quarterback really versus taking him late round one. You're really only giving up about a round three pick and draft capital.

So, you know, if you're that convicted and, you know, Sean Payton's evaluation on a quarterback has to mean something really not egregious. It's more so just the concern from a fantasy perspective because this landing spot is awesome. I mentioned this multiple times, but Sean Payton's track record with quarterbacks is incredible. That's James Winston, Eddie Bridgewater. Aesam Hill, a 40, 41-year-old Drew Breeze. These guys are always putting up low-end QB-1 numbers. Even Russell Wilson, low-end QB-1 by fantasy points for dropback, and he's been hooked

for quite some time. Circling back on Drake May, what was interesting was Patriot saying, ultimately he has to win that job. We're not just going to give it away. I don't think many rookies are ready to just jump in and play. Look, at the end of the day, our philosophy is the best players will play. So I wouldn't be surprised if he sits for a while, sits for maybe the first half of the season. But then again, you can just say this is typical, you know, Patriots speak.

This is how he always view it. But just from this presser, but he also kind of gave in an honest assessment about his concerns, about his NFL readiness, really wouldn't surprise me. Whereas I think, you know, the top two quarterbacks are going to play right away. I think Bo Nix is going to play right away. McCarthy, a little bit more of a question mark. really to back up what I was saying about them trying to trade up for May. It really seemed like they were sold on taking a quarterback,

but not necessarily this quarterback. And that's what Kevin O'Connell said. They said, yeah, well, Turner, the guy they took at the end of round one after the quarterback pick, was a guy we were planning on targeting once we had selected a quarterback, note, not the quarterback. And again, that was just the vibe I got. It did seem like the NFL was a bit higher on Pennix than maybe McCarthy. And then with Pennix, I know people are confused why they made that pick.

They just told us this was done with the future in mind. We're not going to be picking this low again, et cetera, et cetera. But this wasn't something, you know, we were forcing. We just have a lot of belief in Pennix. They cited the Green Bay model as for why this worked. I put out a thread and why, you know, it's not inherently a bad process pick, but, you know, probably wasn't the smartest. thing in the world. And the thread I kind of detailed why I think, you know, people are, you know,

this team, many people around the league are saying, oh, yeah, well, look how well it worked out for Green Bay. I'm still viewing that as an L, the Jordan Love Pick. But anyway, that's the thoughts on the quarterbacks, really not a ton to go on there. Running backs will have some more actionable fantasy takeaways for you. And just right off the top, the most notable might have been from the Indianapolis Colts Press conference, the GM, Chris Ballard. who, by the way, like, it's probably my favorite GM in the league. Quessie's up there, just Uber genius. Quessie is like me if I had 20 more IQ points,

but Bout is just like a bro and he's hilarious and a genuine guy, really sharp. He said, yeah, I really like the top two running backs in this class, really like Jonathan. He's going to be a great pro, really like Trey Benson. And that's kind of what I was saying all throughout the draft process, especially pre-draft is you got these top two running backs and then there's a big tier after that. And so for some reason, he went out of his way to hype up both running backs,

even though didn't draft any of them. We also heard Jerry Jones hype up Jonathan Brooks, who went RB1 overall. Jerry Jones said while he was still on the board at the end of round one on Jonathan Brooks, he's outstanding. He's just outstanding. He's a great football player. We've got him high, high, high, and he's a good player.

Pretty bold to do that while he's still on the board. We all saw what Canales did with Rashad White last year. This is definitely a player to get excited about. This is a player I love at cost right now in rookie drafts. Canales was asked, what was it about this running back? What's his skill set that fits you? And he said, it's versatility. First and foremost, our system calls for a back who can be used in the traditional way, handoffs.

And then how can we get him in space? Get him perimeter screens, checkdowns, empty sets, reflects him outside to get matchups. So he brings so much from a versatility standpoint. He also said he's the best back in the class and we were so fired up to get him in the building. I love this. This is this is awesome. So like they had him RB1. They they're taught and they have them RB1 for the same reason I had him RB1. It's like past catching upside do it all every down running back in a way that no other running back from this class was. So he has that PPR cheat code. Remember in a PPR league targets are worth 2.5 times as much as carries. That's just a massive advantage. And look at what

Rashad White did last year under Dave Canales, another PPR cheat code. And this is a rich man's Rashad White for sure. So Jonathan Brooks, RB1, tremendous value in rookie drafts. Love this. Moving on to Blake Corum, but first, a quick little ad read. You didn't get too much from the Trey Benson Presser. The Blake Corum one was a little bit more interesting. Shaw McBea just said, well, the thing that really jumped off is there's a lot of traits that reminded me of Kairn Williams. And you guys know I love Kiron Williams. And then he talked about Kiron Williams for a bit. And this is notable because Jordan Rodriguez, maybe the Rams best beat writer, said pre-draft, she could see the Rams drafting a player who reminds them of Williams because they're

not trying to deviate from how they ran the ball last year. So if Williams needs a spell for any reason, including keeping his legs fresh, they want to run the same stuff. And this also mirrors what I said of Blake Quorum pre-draft, where it's like rich man's Alexander Madison. He, I don't know that he's a starter, starting caliber running back, but he's at least like an elite RB2, or if the, the RB1 goes down, he could be used in a belcow role and smash where like DFS winner. It's just I don't know that he's talented enough to hold on to that role for very long. And it seems like that's what the Rams are doing here. Keep in mind, the Rams have drafted a running back in like the last seven consecutive draft

classes. They do not have a lot of depth of that position. And to me, this is just, okay, if Kyron Williams goes down for any reason, we've got, you know, a slightly poorer man's Kyron Williams right here. Or, you know, if he wants, he needs to take off a series, you can just do all the same stuff with Blake Corum. Obviously, so much of Iron Williams' fantasy value was that he had like a 95% snap share. He was an Uber Belkow. He was in the Todd Gurley role. And so the question is how much does that come down? And I don't really know. If Corum struggles in training camp, like could be back at

95%. If he really impresses, I think I'm still seeing like 75% plus for Kyron. And just based on the upside he showed last year. I think he's going to be a player I draft. But there definitely is some downside risk here. Like what if this is a committee? Luckily, I don't think Sean McVeigh likes committee. He likes just the one guy who's good as both a runner and a pass catcher so you can disguise the run pass and it puts an extra strain on the defense. But this is my takeaway. Marshawn Lloyd, Jeremy Fowler said recently, the Packers see shades of Aaron Jones and Lloyd, not only with his rushing ability, but also his ability to catch passes out of the backfield. So the expectation is they're going to get him acclimated pretty early, try to use him a lot.

Matt LeFleffor said, he definitely can be a weapon out of the backfield. I think he could be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. And this is big because, you know, he was really impressive on a per target, per catch basis, but just didn't see a lot of passing volume. And so that was a big concern. Like what's his upside there? Because, you know, I place such a high importance on that. But it seems like they really think there's untapped potential there.

And then there's the Aaron Jones comp. We know Green Bay likes these committee backfields, even when it doesn't seem to make any sense at all. Like, A.J. Dillon is not good. Aaron Jones is very good. And so, yeah, this is interesting. I will just say because they love committee backfield so much, I don't see. league winning upside for either running back. AJ Dillon's still there.

But really strong basketball pick for sure on Marshawn Lloyd. I also had concerns is this is a since LaFleur has been there, one of the most zone heavy rushing schemes in football. And Marshall Lloyd really struggled running in zone

was one of the best running backs and man gap concepts. Brett isn't too concerned just because that was mostly inside zone in college, which Green Bay doesn't really run a ton of, but then you just have Lloyd with like no resume in outside zone. So there's, that's a concern. But I mean, really big, really fast. I could see him being super successful in it. So, so not a major, major concern. Ray Davis went to the bills. I think he is someone who's going to be a little overrated

in dynasty, a little underrated in best ball. The GM who was asked about him, spent the first three minutes talking about him as a blocker, which you don't love to hear. Bean was honest in his assessment. He had a round four grade on Ray Davis. He took him in round four, said the running back class was thin at the top. So again, that hand set what I had, which is the top two in a tier to themselves. And then he said, and then it's deep in that mid three to five range. And he thought he'd start going off the board quickly. And that's exactly what you saw. Did say he's still very raw at the position, was asked if he viewed Ray Davis as a starter and he kind of was like, well, what is it? What is a starter?

You know, I think he'll hop right into his role. And like, yeah, that's how we should be viewing him, which is maybe the past protection back, the goal line back, which we saw from Latavius Murray last year. And what is that worth? Probably not, not much. And I think James Cook's going to continue to get his dozen plus carries, although this is a more run heavy offense under Joe Brady. but Josh Allen doesn't like to target the backs too often.

He's also going to vulture some rushing touchdown. So again, overrated in Dynasty, underrated and best ball. Bucky Irving really seems like the Buccaneers were high on him, raised him for his ability after contact, and by forcing this tackles, the first guy to put his hands on him doesn't bring him down. You really see that in the analytics profile. I wrote up on him in spite of his size.

Liam Cohen said, Yeah, he's boys with the Oregon OC who told him. Bucky was his favorite player he's ever coached. Liam Cohen, the new OC, also said, this is a point of emphasis for them. They really want to get better in the run game to take that step from good to a leap. And yeah, I think, you know, I think given his size, I'm skeptical there's Belcal potential or workhorse potential. But, you know, Dave Canales no longer there. maybe Liam Cohen views this backfield a little differently. Ultimately, I think, I think just a

handcuff, change of pace guy, but you never really know. He was a tricky analysis eval for me because it was really just the size. If he was like 15 pounds heavier, I would have been insanely in love with him. Might have had him top two, top three in the class. Audra Gastamay, last running back we'll touch on. Sean Payton said he was a first and second down runner for them, early down workhorse, wasn't sure about the past catching, doesn't really like to, you know, reject that out until he gets his hands on him. He said he had a much higher grade on him than where he went in the draft. Why did he like him?

All the reasons I liked him. Best box adjusted yards per carry in the class. Great after contact. Great at forcing this tackles. And yeah, shout out to the Broncos analytics department who just keep taking my guys and taking my guys for all the reasons I was so high on them. Not much else. I mean, what is this?

I think the Broncos are viewing this the same way we're viewing it is like, what version of Giovante Williams do we get? Do we get the injury, Javante Williams? Do we get, or is who he was last year, who he's going to be this year? You know, this wasn't a player that was drafted inside the Sean Payton regime. So I don't know there's much tied to him. I see them just battling it out for the Mark Ingram role. And maybe estimate guess that because, again, this was a player.

I was high on. We're going to move over to the tight end position. But first, a quick word from our sponsors. Brock Bowers, my guy does not go to a great landing spot. But he's still one of my guys, because you always want to bet on the Uber elite talents. The freakish Uber elite talents tend to find a way in spite a bad landing spot. But to talk about the landing spot, Tom Telesco referred to Bowers as a hybrid receiver. and I think it's worth digging into the full quote.

Here's what Tom Telesco said. Yeah, I mean, and also we're looking to add more playmakers to the offense and they come in all shapes and sizes at all different positions. And we love Michael Mayer. I love Michael Mayer. And he's a really good player. He's going to take another big jump this year, but you get a chance to add just another dimension to the offense,

whether it's a tight end, hybrid receiver, whatever it is. You need more playmakers on that side of the ball. So I think he's really going to help us there. And I feel like he's a high level player in college, a true junior. He's 21 years old. So he's very young still, still developing. But he has some natural football skills combined with some high level athletic ability and speed.

So yeah, I'm really happy to have him. That was a direct word for word quote, said the scouts loved Brock Bowers. He loved Brock Bowers. The coaches loved Brock Bowers. But again, not a great landing spot. Poor quarterback play. You have a target hog alpha wide receiver one in Devante Adams. And then you have two tight ends.

The stat I had was dating back over the last, I don't know, 15 years. There's only ever been two FBS wide receivers to have multiple 800-yard seasons in their college careers. It was Brock Bowers and it was Michael Mayer who are now on the same team. So when you have two tight, tight ends, they almost always just cannibalize each other's upside. And so like maybe they're productive, but you're. You don't get the high-end tight-end one production, which is all that matters at the tight-end position.

It's a position wholly without a middle class. You really just only want the high-end producers outside of that. You're just better off punting the position. What's the difference between a tight-end 6 and a tight-end 14, really nothing? Not that valuable. Tends to get overdrafted. Some people are going to say, well, what if he's just the big slot? And I would say, well, you heard that last year with Dalton Kincaid, and then look at Kincaid splits with and without Dost.

and knox. It's just really rare to ever see a tight end working alongside another highly involved tight end put up high in tight end one production. You also tend not to see tight ends spend more than 60% of their time in the slot. Only outliers being Mike Jaseki wasn't great for fantasy. And Mark Andrews, who was, who also produced with Isaiah likely getting 40 plus targets. I don't know how many years ago. But again, not a great landing spot, but still love the player. And he's not a player I want to be betting against. Ben Sinat was drafted tight end two. Shout out to Mike Wright of the footballers who told me I should have him tight in two. He went tight in two. My Titan two went round seven. Ben Sinat. Oh boy, this was, this is tricky. I was hoping for some elucidation. I did not receive it.

And so here's what we got from the commander's direct quote from the GM. And just really from my experience at the 49ers learning from those guys and learning what they look for in tight ends with head coach Kyle Shanahan and everyone else there just seeing and you know it's a lofty comparison and i'm not comparing him to the guys we had in san francisco but he reminds me of guys like i'll juice check oh boy oh boy guys like Kyle juice check and george kittle okay all right all right we can breathe the way he blocks and in the way he moves and just the way he competes. He also later said, well, he can line up at fullback. He can do a lot of different things. He has that versatility as a blocker and then as a receiver. He can do everything you want to.

I think the sky is the limit for him. Also called him a versatile weapon. Yeah, just this gave me a headache because my concern with Ben Sinop pre-draft was just, I don't know if an NFL team is going to view him as a tight end. He won the low man trophy last year, which is an award given to the best fullback in college football. I didn't view him as a fullback. He only played like 60 snaps at fullback versus like 600 at tight end and receiver. But he, that happened and it's weird. And heading into the senior ball, you heard teams viewing him as a fullback, which obviously the difference between George Kittle and Kyle Chewshack for fantasy is massive. And he also, you know, every time he mentioned him, he brought up Ben Sinat as a blocker before mentioning him as a receiver.

But I mean, if he's, if he's George Kittle, that's, that's awesome. If he's Josiah Deguara or Kyle Juke's check, like that's a bus pick. Ultimately, I'm not that excited on this rookie tight end class after Bowers. I just see a bunch of guys who I don't see gaining value in the next 12 months. Remember, like with Tray McBride last year, that's a potent fantasy dynasty cheat code is you fade tight ends in the rookie draft and you get them when they're cheaper after these struggle in year one as the almost always do, although we had outliers like Sam Laporteur last year. And so, yeah, I just see kind of Zacherts being the, the primary receiver PPR cheat code in this Cliff Kingsbury scheme, even if he is super dusty. And then

Sinai, I don't know. Maybe he can grow into something. But, you know, when I wrote him up, I was lower on him, but I could definitely see tight end too. I can make the arguments for it. he would just be a hold probably gets over drafted in best ball probably a little overdrafted in dynasty but again there's there's not a lot of tight ends to like in this class jatavian sanders the panthers like his past catching potential which is important they don't view him as just a traditional in line tight end they really liked his contested catchability i wasn't that high in sanders i don't think contested catchability translates well to future fantasy production for tight ends but It was a pretty good landing spot, just given the available tight end targets there, the lack of

competition. Cade Stover went to the Texans, one of my guys, and I loved this press conference. The GM said one of our favorite players in the entire draft, speaking both for himself, Nick Asario and the head coach. And the reasons they liked him were all the reasons I liked it. Like, I felt like I was taking crazy pills. No one was mentioning this except for me, it felt like. and they were saying, well, we like him because for one thing, he was incredible last year,

despite having this MCL injury and wearing a bulky knee brace for at least half of the season, missing time in games, missing games, and the numbers were still incredible. And on top of that, it's a tight end who only had two full years of experience playing the position. He was a multi-sport athlete in high school. He was a basketball star, a football star, a football star, at running back and linebacker. And then, like I said, full tight end the last two years. But his last game before that, he was starting in the Roseball at linebacker.

And then just an immediate changeover to tight end. And what was he? He was the best tight end in Ohio state history, at least by the numbers. And so this is a guy I like, but what is he? He's another guy who's going to lose value in the next 12 months. Perhaps the eventual Dalton Schultz replacement, but not anyone we should be counting on for 2024 production. All right.

So I just tried to breeze through quarterback, running back. I'd end to the best of my ability. Wide receiver, just because this is, there were so many wide receivers taken and taken early. I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this. Wide receivers. We're going to start off at the top with Malik Neighbors. Really wasn't too much to go on with Marvin Harrison, Jr. And so Brian Davel said, why him over Romo Dunsay, toughness?

speed, et cetera. Malik checked a lot of boxes. He can play multiple spots. That's important to us. Really the versatility he can bring to the table. And this kind of just backs up everything as to why I was saying, I like this landing spot a lot where other people were more nervous just because obviously quarterback play is so poor. But to me, I like this landing spot in the immediate and in the long term Brian Davel, a former wide receiver coach. I think, neighbors can immediately, I think neighbors can immediately do all of the Wondell Robinson stuff, you know, the short area gimmicky screens, PPR cheat code stuff, and then do it at a much higher level than Wondell Robinson, as well as being their wide receiver one, they have like

no one to throw the ball to. Darren Waller just retired to make matters worse. And so massive PPR lore. I think he's going to get like three to four screens per game and then a couple deep shots. So really just tremendous volume for a talented player. So I like this landing spot. Bears, what was most notable from their pick of Romo Dunesay was just how much they liked him.

Ryan Poles said he was really nervous. Rome wouldn't be there for them. Ian had to hold me back to keep me from doing something crazy trying to trade up and get him. So you'd love to hear that just really high on the player. And people don't like this landing spot in the short term, but Keenan Allen's probably gone after this year as he's on the last year of his deal. Even DJ Moore doesn't have any guaranteed money after this year. And so, yeah, great opportunity to learn from a Hall of Famer.

Maybe that's a hot take, but possible Hall of Famer in Keenan Allen. And you know, you're tied to Caleb Williams for the entirety of your rookie contract. that's great opportunity to build rapport. And I like this landing spot a lot in the long term. If people are pushing him down post draft, I would definitely be a buyer. Xavier Worry, this will give us shades of the Ben Sinat headache.

But maybe I'm just reading too much into it. So pre-draft, I said, if Xavier Worthy goes to Kansas City, may God have mercy on our souls. And it's not just the obvious. It's not just the obvious. Well, Patrick Mahomes, QB, awesome. It's, and the need.

It's also just his low BMI was problematic for me. And I was saying he needs to go to a forward-thinking, smart, offensive-minded head coach or offensive coordinator who knew to use him in motion, get him free access off the ball to mitigate the size concerns. And where do you go? Kansas City, one of the top five offenses in percentage of plays that include motion. And so here's what Andy Reid had to say about him. We think he's a heck of a football player, good receipts.

good special teams, where Turner will do both to start off. He'll just work into that wide receiver rotation with Hollywood, Rishi, Kelsey, and the other fellows. Later on, he said, remember, there's a lot of verbiage to this offense. This is a complicated offense for rookies to learn. Brett Veach also said, you want to get him up to the 175 to 180 pound mark as the ideal weight for worthy says they're going to work with the nutrition staff to get him there. He's currently listed at 165.

And so all of this to me, perhaps overthinking it, is I worry he's going to get off to a slow start. Just because, you know, they're worried about that playing weight. They're saying it's a complicated offense for rookies. And we see that. Look at Rashid Rice last year. He was top 10 in yards per route run like every single week from week one till week 18. And it took until, I don't know, week 12, week 13 until he finally cleared a 66% route share. And then you go back to Andy Reid.

What do you say? He'll work into that wide receiver rotation with Hollywood, Rishi, Kelsey, and the other fellows. And I'm just so worried, so worried that Xavier Worthy is going to look awesome, is going to crush it. But he's just going to be capped at a 60% route share every single game. And like, you're like, why is Nicole Hardman on the field? Why is Justin Watson on the field playing over him?

This makes absolutely no sense. But remember, that's exactly what he did last year. And maybe they're thinking, well, we want to be in this for the long haul. We're trying to win Super Bowls. So yeah, let's do this four-way, five-way wide receiver by committee situation. We don't care about his fantasy points. We want to win Super Bowls. Ultimately, this is the nuts landing spot, right?

This is what I said. It's a player I like. Ideal landing spot. I'm not going to overthink it with my rankings. I'm going to overthink it here on this show with you. but not in my own personal rankings. And I'm just going to hope that's just paranoia on my part. But I don't know, sound off in the comments or hit me up on Twitter because it is weird to me.

No one's mentioning this. I'll just say if it is the case and he does get off to a slow start, do everything he can to buy. Week 7, he's 40% route share. Bye. Next player, Brian Thomas went to the Jaguars. He traded down and took him, but he said he would have been the pick at 17. He started off by talking about him as a deep threat.

at his 15 deep receiving touchdowns last year. I said throughout the process, it was the best deep receiving year of any wide receiver in PFF college history, but it was also just about only thing he did. 50% of his routes came on the go route. He said he has an element of speed that we haven't had since Calvin. We'll see when we get him in here,

but he can open up the field and open up some other elements of the offense. He can take the top off. The vibe I got was kind of what I said, pre-draft as well. It's like better in real football than fantasy football. I always go back to the Will Fuller on off splits where Houston had the most efficient offense in football when he was on the field and then like middle of the pack to below average offense when he was off the field. When you have an elite deep threat like that, it puts an added strain on the defense. And so like he's not getting fantasy points, but he's helping his NFL team win. And then also I worry that this

archetype is less valuable in the too high era, but ultimately player they were, they were, and not just that. Doug Peterson, wide receivers, just about always underwhelm, less their tight ends or slots. So you got the draft capital. I don't, I don't love this landing spot, but I mean, Gabe Davis isn't serious competition for me. So I'm just going to be a little lower on him than consensus, but he's another guy too, or if he's slow to start, I'd consider trying to buy low just because, yeah, you know, all that production came on one route, but he was a lead at that one route. And so, like, to me, he's probably a guy who starts off slow, but has some untapped potential beyond that. Ladd-McConkie to the Chargers, Harbaugh said he was the guy we targeted.

He also traded up to get him, so he can play insider out. Everyone's focusing on how this offense probably goes from one of the top five most past heavy offenses in football to immediately the bottom five, and that's real, and that's a concern. But lots of targets up for grabs, Harbaugh did well with a slot receiver and Michael Crabtree in 2012. About 45% of his receiving yards came from the slot. So the plurality by far coming from the slot there. And, you know, he had 1100 yards and nine touchdowns and 16 games. Roman Wilson, too.

He did well with a slot receiver last year in Michigan as the wide receiver one. I think that's what we'll see. A player I like. Good landing spot. Again, just so many vacated targets. Keon Coleman went to the bills. One last final word from our sponsors before we dive in. This Giving Tuesday, Cam H is counting on your support.

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He said, we needed to add a. guy like him to fill this vacant X-roll, which is a little bit of a concern. A lot of people thought he was a better fit as a big slot, given some separation issues in college. But then there would be redundancy to Dalton Kincaid with that. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I didn't have this in my notes, but it's, it's kind of reminiscent of what Dave Gettelman did with Cam Newton, where they had Calvin Benjamin and Devin Funches, where they kind of admitted Cam Newton didn't have the best accuracy.

so they got him a bunch of, you know, like basketball player, jump ball types to help mitigate that. I don't know. That's just sprung to mind right now. It seems like with the focal point of the passing attack being these two guys. But again, you're tied to easily one of the best quarterbacks in football. And there's not a lot of targets to go around. They lost Stefan Diggs. He lost Gabe Davis.

And so, yeah, again, I didn't love the player, but this is a great landing spot. I will just say the Buffalo GM was also really high on Matt Collins. So as like a last round basketball pick, I think he's an interesting target just based on how effusive he was in his praise. Xavier Leggett going to the Panthers at the tail end of round one. You know, there's a lot of talk over, did the owner strong arm them into this pick as he really did this desperate to draft Terris Marshall and Jonathan Mingo again? because that was the profile from a lot of analytics people, not necessarily me. But no, the head coach wanted him badly. He's boys with Leggetz OC, who really liked him, said a lot of positive things about him.

Canales said, yeah, we got the guy that we love. He did mention a few times he's a bit raw. He does need polish, absolutely, but I'm confident with how he fits into our system. He's got a long way to go. he's got to learn our stuff and figure out the system, but dot, dot, dot. And so one of the key quotes here, and Brett and I had a back and forth in this. Honestly, if you'll watch, it's our most recent video. If you watch the video, Brett seemed p-oed at me. It was weird. But here's the quote, Dave Canales, what jumped out when watching Xavier Legate? Out of the backfield, jet sweep, short crossers,

perimeter screens, down the field posts. There really isn't much else we do with the receivers, but really impressed on that stuff out of the backfield, jet sweep, short crossers, perimeter screens, down the field posts. He asked a guy to make a cut up of just that, and Leggett really impressed him on those routes. Media to take away from me is just, if you're leading off with what a guy does well, and you're talking about jet sweeps and screens and stuff out of the backfield, that is not a good sign for a player a lot of people said was very raw as a route runner.

Brett kind of argued the other way with it. It was like, no, no, this is a perfect fit. Because Canales does this so much, you have this like guaranteed floor, which I think is a great argument. The only thing I'll say is it doesn't subtract away from our concerns about the overall evaluation of Leggett and how talented he is. If you look at all receivers by percentage of yards coming on exactly that stuff out of the backfield routes, jet sweeps, crossing routes, post-rout screens, Leaders of the pack, Nicole Hardman, 69%, Lynn Bowden, 65%, Leviska-Cenault, 50%. Trey Berks was up there. And then who were the Buccaneers receivers last year?

Trey Palmer, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, all below 22%, but in that 20 to 22% range. And so that's just, again, it's a concern. Can you do the other stuff? If you can do the other stuff, this is a really exciting landing spot, but that's still the big question. But again, Brett love this landing spot. It's very high on Legate. That's going to be one of his guys in rookie draft. So next up, Ricky Pearsall. 49ers had a very, very high grade on him. He can play insider out, according to them. He was on their radar as a true freshman. He's a punt return option for them. What I thought was interesting was, you know, Brandon Ayup might have almost been

traded on draft night. And then after that pick, Iyuk texted the both of them in a group chat. That's a fire pick. Can't lie. I mean, you played together very briefly. And then C.J. shrouds comments on the pick were probably more interesting than anyone else is. Quote unquote, he's elite. I wanted him bad. Kyle's going to dial it up for him. He's going to crush in that system. And yeah, so it's interesting. You know, Shanahan and then one of his disciples, Bobby Slowick's quarterback, really wanted him. I thought that was a great scheme fit. Don't really have too much to say beyond that. Adonai Mitchell is another quick hit. Goes to the Colts.

Jim Bob Cooter loved him. Stuyke him loved him. But what was interesting to me was heading into day two of the draft. Ballard was caught saying, like, what are we going to address here tonight? And the first thing he said was, we need to get speed at Whiteout. And so to me, I think Adonai Mitchell, they're hoping is going to be a richer man's Alec Pierce, which is like a little ironic just because the analytics profile was basically like, oh, this is Alec Pierce. Really good athlete, but underwhelming production in spite

of it. Page 3. Its wide receivers, Jalen Polk and Javan Baker, first thing the head coach mentioned about Polk. They're like, all right, so why these wide receivers? First thing you mentioned was poke as a run blocker that he's unafraid to do the dirty work and you don't love to hear that. You want to say, oh, this guy, you know, separates at will. He's roasting cornerbags. Really good run blocker, unafraid to do the dirty work. Called Baker, a yak guy. Baker in his interview is interesting. He has some rapport with Drake May before May decommitted from Alabama. They worked together for like an entire summer.

Ultimately, you don't really ever get anything from Patriot's pressers. I don't think that changed without Belichick. So you can just disregard everything I said. But those were my notes. Troy Franklin, round four, Denver Broncos, which is interesting to me because pre-draft, I said, this is probably this year's version of Marvin Mims. and I don't know whether that's a compliment or not, but that's what it is.

And still, yeah, saw it as a great comp and Broncos take Troy Franklin. Sean said, Sean Payton said, he thought Franklin would go in round two. Instead, he got him in round four, asked to describe what he saw in the player. He's real quick in and out of his cuts. Very quick feet.

He can run. Whereas Valle, the other guy he drafted is a contested catch guy. He's good in traffic. But Franklin is a good yak guy with a lot of explosive plays. We see him as an outside Z. He has really good speed.

We were really impressed with him at the line of scrimmage. And so all this to me is just like, you're describing Marvin Mims. So much redundancy to Marvin Mims. And Josh Reynolds, who are going to be competing for that Z spot. So unless they trade Cortland Sutton, really murky situation,

not to get too excited about where one of my guys is going to get the short under the stick, it seems. Jalen McMillan went to the Buccaneers. They said, if he didn't get hurt last year, there's no way we could have picked him here. He missed some games last year, tried to fight through it. But the people in that building, remember Polk went earlier in the draft, Romo Dunezay went earlier in the draft. The people in that building had a high level of respect for Jalen and thought he was really

similar and close to the level of talent as the other two. And so that's basically what I said in my write-up, where I had him above Polk. he was always very clearly the wide receiver too of the offense closer to a dunesday than he was polk ran bad with injuries last year if he'd stayed healthy you might not even know who jalen polk is and so i saw a lot of upside there the big concern was just that he was like so slot only and remember we discount slot production and so it's possible pokes a better receiver he was primarily on the outside there's also like just about only a deep threat but yeah again a player i really liked and it seems they were very high on him.

Liam Cohen, the OC, said he's a true route runner. He's a guy that's wired to separate, has the ability to work the defense at all three levels. He has that competitive nature to be able to come in here and compete for early playing time. I see that being the case. And then the GM was asked whether he's slot only or not. And he said, well, Liam, Liam Cohen, the OC can tell you that. But he's pretty versatile.

I can see him being in the slot to spell Chris, Chris Godwin, who has. had a 34% slot rate last year down from 66%. The reporter never followed up with Liam Cohen, but yeah, I see this as an immediate starter in three wide receiver sets in the slot. The question is, how heavy do they go in three wide receiver sets with this new OC? I don't really know, but I think a lot. Maybe they move Godwin back to the slot, which is a concern. But the way I see it just based on the draft and all the comments is it's going to be

Evans and Godwin outside. It's going to be McMillan in a slot. And I'd definitely see him having more success than Trey Palmer had in that role last year. Not going to be a fantasy league winner, but certainly a player I'm excited about both for best ball and dynasty. Last player, we are going to hit on one of my favorites. Malikw, Washington, to me, was just a rich man's Malachi Corley. And it was shocking to see him go so much later in the draft in comparison to Malachi Corley. But per sources, the reason why he fell is due entirely to medical concerns. He didn't get much from Mike McDaniel in the press conference, but the call to Malik said a lot. Greer, who was on the phone with him first, man, Mike's been bugging me to draft you here in these last couple of rounds. McDaniel

gets on the phone. That's an understatement. I've been seriously annoying towards him. Your rookie year can be very productive if you're a pro, which I know you can do. be immediately because you're going to have the opportunity. Let's go. Awesome. This is exactly what you want to hear. You're hoping he can be a very, very rich man's Braxton Barrios. You saw sort of a committee for that wide receiver three role last year. And so like ideally Washington is just the full time wide receiver three. We have that tight end running like an 80 to 90% route share, but not doing anything with it. And so yeah, I think there's targets to go around after I, Rique after Waddle.

And you did see a committee with them of sorts. Tyreek was given time off. He had the most insane yards per route run ever, but wasn't playing fourth quarters all that often. He was coming out for a series or two or a handful of plays here and there. And so, yeah, I like him for Dynasty. I like him for best ball. It's certainly one of my guys.

That's about it. Hopefully this wasn't too long for you. This is about 50 hours of post draft press conferences distilled into about 45, 50 minutes. And all of this goes into my rankings. I will implore you to go over to fantasypoints.com, get a fantasy points subscription. I recommend the all-in package, which gives you access to the dankest stats in the world,

courtesy of fantasy points data. And then you can see my rankings. I don't know too many people in the industry who spent more time on these rookies than me and Brett Whitefield. I wrote over half the length of the catcher in the rye by word count with my redraft analysis and all of that went into my rankings alongside this 50 hours worth of post draft press conference videos.

So thank you for listening. Really appreciate it. If you would like, comment, subscribe, do all that good stuff, tell your friends. And we'll see you guys all again soon. It's now best ball season, folks. recommend reading grand barfield's articles watching his videos with high low and i'll see you guys all very soon