Fantasy Football Today - 04/12: PPR Mock Draft Review Part One (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 12, 2019

On today's show we'll take a broader look at the draft with some trends and PPR strategies (6:48). Much of your strategy will depend on what you do at TE ... We each give our two favorite (17:25) and two least-favorite picks (29:30). We discuss the GB and SF RBs, Andrew Luck, Tarik Cohen, Dante Pettis, DeSean Jackson and several others ... Getting into the first three rounds of the draft (36:05). Discussing Todd Gurley, lots of Chiefs, Robert Woods, George Kittle etc. ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. And with the first pick of our 12-team PPR mock draft,

it was Saquon Barkley, no surprise. And then Jamie was on the clock with the second pick. Could have had anybody other than Saquon Barkley. Who did he take? Jamie, who did he take? I don't know. That guy sucked. Took Ezekiel Elliott over Alvin Kamara, over Christian McCaffrey.

The first six picks were running backs. Welcome to our show here on Friday, April 12th. I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Jamie Eisenberg. Hi, happy Friday, guys. Hi. Okay. Two more days, buddy. Two more days. Yeah, Game of Thrones.

All right, fun. I can't wait to hear Jamie and Adam talk about Game of Thrones, and I have no idea what they mean. There's a fun debate I've heard and read. Given that HBO is free this weekend, and that – at least I believe it's free. I apologize if it's not. And that it is considered an event, this show. Are you allowed to talk about it on Monday?

I know your answer is going to say no because you're very anti-spoilers. No, you can't do it. I thought you were going to say is it going to have more views than the Masters. No, because CBS is awesome. Exactly. Good answer. Okay, let's – no, you can't.. Exactly. Good answer. Okay. No, you can't.

You can't spoil it. What do you think, Jamie, real quick? I think the answer that I've seen the most is yes, because it's one of those things that are – it's like a sporting event. No, you can't do it. I'm not going to, but I don't have a problem if people do. In fact, really, anytime there's a big sporting event and you want to talk to somebody about it, you should ask that person, Hey, have you seen the game or did you DVR it? I think it's more like our medium. I'm just kidding.

And radio stuff. You talked over my joke. It was really funny. So it was a 12-team PPR draft that we did. This will be the first of two parts where we recap yesterday's draft. 15 rounds. Again, PPR, one quarterback, six points per passing touchdown. Two running backs, two wide receivers, a tight end, a flex, a kicker, and a DST.

Again, the first six picks were running backs. Did that surprise you guys? No, I think you'll see that in most drafts. You'll definitely see five running backs in the first six picks yeah i was i guess a little surprised that girly went sixth i thought he might fall a little farther it was barkley zeke camara mcafree melvin gordon todd girly and then some wide receivers came off the board. And as I was looking at this, I thought, you know, wow, Antonio Brown, Keenan Allen, A.J. Green, Mike Evans, those were the first four picks of round three, 25, 6, 7, and 8 overall.

And I thought, man, there must be some terrible picks. But no, not really. I think I have identified, like, I think 27 picks that personally I feel great about as any of my first two or three picks. I don't know if you guys felt like I can't sit here and say there were only two picks I thought that were bad. Patrick Mahomes and Tariq Cohen in the first two rounds. And other than that, like I don't see it. The fact that Allen, Brown, Green, and Evans were all available in round three, it's actually

going to happen in some drafts. Devontae Adams going in round two is a travesty. Yeah. Too early. Too late. Too late. Too late. That's the one that we got the most critiques over when I was tuning the picks. Really? Oh, for sure.

Not Mahomes going at 15? No, because I think you're going to see. I believe his average opposition will be round one by the time we get to drafts. I mean, maybe. You say no? No, like, oh no, it shouldn't be that way. Oh, no, I agree with you. It's funny because I did round one of sleepers,

breakouts, and busts, and I have Mahomes as a bust simply because of that fact that I believe he's going to be drafted in the first round. I mean, he's ranked number one. I don't think that anybody's going to argue where he's positioned in most people's rankings. And the Kansas City Star picked up my story and said, CBS writer calls Mahomes a bust. No way.

That's awesome. But I very clearly state in there that he's my number one guy. You're just going to have to deal with the lack of production, or the regression of his production. It's simply based on the fact that he's going to go as he did here in the first 15 picks. So who did you see get taken

ahead of Devonta Adams who you would have... Well, he's number two for me in PPR. He's number one for me in non-PPR. So after DeAndre Hopkins, all the receivers who went, which were Michael Thomas, Julio Jones, and Juju Smith-Schuster in the first round, I think you could probably have a safe argument with all three of those guys. I think the one that jumps off to most people, which is the one that we got, again, the most critiques over,

was Juju in round one. And unfortunately, Heath is not here to defend it. Heath is the one who took Juju Smith-Schuster at 12. Yeah, and then he took Joe Mixon at 13, and then Devontae Adams went. You know what would have been even better if the Kansas City Star had been like, CBS writer Heath Cummings says that Patrick Mahomes is a bust just to ruin Heath's name. CBS writer and Kansas City native. Well, it really came at an interesting time because if you recall in our last podcast, just to ruin Heath's name. CBS writer and Kansas City native.

Well, it really came at an interesting time because if you recall in our last podcast, we were talking about Josh Allen versus Mahomes in the throwing competition. And I said that they should do it someplace other than Kansas City. Right. So I apologize again to Kansas City. No, you hate Kansas City. I don't know why.

They have terrific barbecue, Jamie. Okay, so we'll get into, I don't know, first four or five rounds, something like that, and we'll break it all down for you and then probably talk more about the late-round picks. You know what I'd like to do on Monday is I'd like to get at least one person who's not us or Heath that drafted with us on the show to talk about their team. So I'll let you guys figure out the best. We can do that right now if you want.

There's a bunch of people outside. Your favorite person can do it. Who, Coca? Matthew Coca. Coca, all right. Does Coca have a good team? Michael Thomas, Odell Beckham with his first two picks. Oh, he had my favorite pick in the draft.

So let's get into that right now. What was your PPR strategy? Go ahead. Take it away. I had quite a predicament with my fifth pick that I think is an interesting PPR discussion. But what was the strategy that you took into this one? I didn't have that big of a strategy because it's April, and this is the time when we form strategies, not necessarily go into a draft with a strategy.

I just knew that I wanted to wait to get a quarterback and that I was interested in getting a tight end at a good value, but I wasn't going to force the issue. I wasn't going to reach for a tight end. Those were the only two strategies I had. Okay. I do think something that you said on a previous show, Dave, held true. And it's almost like your draft strategy is probably going to depend on your tight end strategy. Yes. I think it's going to come down to that because there's enough at running... When's

the last time we were able to say this? There's enough at running back and enough at wide receiver to make you feel good through the first four rounds at least. It might even be five when it comes to running backs. And quarterbacks, you know that position runs deep. Tight end is the most shallow position this year by far. So getting one of those stud tight ends I think is going to make you feel good, but you have to do it at a point where you're not reaching for one. I was about to say something, but now that I think about it, it might be completely wrong. But I'm going to say it anyway, and then we're going to decide if it's wrong.

Because I made a decision to draft Hunter Henry. Let me just see where I got him. I think it was round six or seven. You got him at 76th overall. I took him over will fuller who was the very next pick will fuller would have been my number three receiver hunter henry is obviously my starting tight end um i also had a flex at that point so fuller would have been a bench spot um my thinking was it's really hard to throughout the course of a season, we've played fantasy for so long, you know your season doesn't end after your draft. Who you pick up off waivers is

going to really determine your success in so many cases. It's much easier to find even running backs, I'd say, or wide receivers. You look at your roster at the end of the year and you say, wow, I can't believe I started Jamal Williams in the fantasy championship and won, you know?

Wide receivers too. Tight end, you know, I was going to say that's a difficult position to find a star on waivers, but you could argue there were two last year in Ebron and Kittle. But I still think, I still stand by that, which is why I went with Hunter Henry because I just felt like if we were playing this out, which unfortunately we were not, because it's the best team I've ever drafted, but if we were playing this out, I'd be able to find that number three wide receiver throughout the year

and probably not a tight end that I'm thrilled about starting. No, I get that. And for the record, I don't think Hunter Henry was that bad of a pick in round seven. I have him as a round seven pick. I would have taken him in the fifth round. Why didn't you? Because I took Evan a pick in round seven. I have him as a round seven pick. I would have taken him in the fifth round. Why didn't you? Because I took Evan Ingram in the fourth. So I did the same thing, Adam.

I wanted to get one of the top four tight ends. I believe I had the chance to. I'll have to go back and look. I think I could have taken Zach Ertz at some point. No, maybe not. Well, you could have in round one. Yeah, that's it. He went just before your second pick.

Ertz went 22nd overall. You were the 23rd pick. Would you have taken him at 23rd overall, James? No, no, but I thought maybe round three. So 26th overall. Yeah. That's where you got Antonio Brown. And Kittle was already gone too, right?

No. Kittle was still on the board. Yeah, I think that's what it was. It was Kittle. But I'm going to avoid Antonio Brown in most situations. The fact that he was there in round three, I did it really mostly for the talking point. But I probably would have taken Kittle in that spot.

Okay. And then getting Ingram in the fourth round to me was good value. Yeah, it's just now in retrospect you see this play out. Maybe you'd wait for Hunter Henry. When did Ebron go? Ebron went in round seven. Ebron and Henry went in round seven. I don't know if we can expect that,

but perhaps they're better. I think when Henry's healthy, he's going at the latest round six, and I think you'll see round five. Okay, so Jamie, did you have any other strategy you wanted to talk about? No, I just got the one thing that I think I'm going to try and do a little bit more is basically

what you said and it's don't overlook your starters just to get depth at certain positions. Because it came to a point in the sixth round where deshaun watson was still there i'd already taken tight end i don't usually take tight end and and quarterback

uh within the first seven rounds eight rounds or so um but i just didn't love anything on the board so i was like okay where's the biggest difference maker i could find and it was deshaun watson it wasn't because there were two quarterbacks picked in front of you? Not at all. And you just saw that position sort of snap up? No, I would never ever do that, nor would anybody should. It was just, you know, I had an idea of when I wanted to take one of the rookies. I was the first one to take Josh Jacobs. That was a spot I would have considered at all, so I ended up getting him around seven. But when I just got to that point in the draft, I was like, you know,

he's going to play every week for me if he's healthy. Uh, obviously you heard Heath's argument. If you listen to the show the other day, he could be the number one quarterback. I don't necessarily agree, but I think he's top five guy. He was the number six quarterback last year. And, uh, there's just a lot to like about Deshaun Watson. So it was, um, get the guy who's going to start for me as opposed to a guy who I can probably find a backup running back or backup receiver on waivers if you know need be because of injury and the other point I would have brought up to you is that you picked with the second to last pick in round six so you

were up pretty early and the guy picking in between you had two picks obviously because it's the back to back picks he didn't have a quarterback if you felt the same way about Deshaun Watson and Matt Ryan you could have easily waited to take a quarterback in round seven, and then you probably would have just gotten Jacobs in round six, knowing you, because I know how much you like him. But I like that you didn't do that. You clearly like Watson better than Matt Ryan, and you took him when you did in round six,

and you still got Jacobs in round seven. Cool. So my strategy predicament, I would say, my PPR predicament was my fifth pick. I started with Christian McCaffrey won, so I had the fourth overall pick. Christian McCaffrey, T.Y. Hilton in round two, Mike Evans in round three. I was very happy with that. And then I took Devontae Freeman, and let me see how long it took me to make that pick.

Three seconds. I was me to make that pick. Three seconds. I was very excited about that pick. And then round four, I was debating between Mark Ingram and Devontae Freeman there, and I took Freeman in round four, and then, what, eight picks later? Seven picks later, I took Mark Ingram in round five. He was still there. So my question is, that gives me a starting lineup with Mark Ingram as my flex. And my running backs are McCaffrey, Freeman, and Ingram.

My wide receivers are Hilton and Evans. Do I have enough catches in PPR? Should I have taken, instead of Mark Ingram, should I have taken a wide receiver? Unfortunately, the next wide receivers off the board were Robbie Anderson, Mike Williams, Tyler Boyd. No certainties there. So do I have enough catches? Should I not have taken Mark Ingram as my flex in round five in this format? Well, I think it's also you have with Freeman the uncertainty of how healthy is he and how healthy will he be based on the last two years.

So it's almost like not only have you worried about your flex, but I almost looked at Ingram as kind of like a swing player for you where you may have to end up being in a starting lineup for you no matter what regardless if Freeman doesn't come back to health. I know that's not something that most people will look at it that way, but, I mean, Ingram's a wild card because he can be a 50-catch guy. He's been that before. I don't think anyone's catching 50 passes on that offense.

But if anyone does, it would be a running back, right? One of the tight ends could. Yeah. It might mean the other one getting hurt. I would have gone with Tyler Boyd. If you're looking for those catches, he carved out a role in the slot. Zach Taylor's offense is going to be from the Sean McVay tree. That's the Kyle Shanahan tree.

That's good for slot receivers. I think Tyler Boyd could be just as good as he was last year, even with A.J. Green back for 16, hopefully. And I think the three picks that went before Ingram, I probably would have taken all of them ahead of Mark Ingram. Brandon Cooks, James White, and Cooper Cupp. Yep. So at that point, I think I just said,

look, running back depth is running back depth. This gives me three guys that I think are going to be very involved in in christian mccaffrey davante freeman and mark ingram and hopefully i can figure out wide receiver later and because this is an early draft and you know i i always like doing early drafts because since we're podcasting all year round we seem to have a bit of a leg up on on the other people we're drafting with i I do feel like I got some good wide receiver depth. Like Doug Baldwin, I got pretty late. And who else? Geronimo.

Geronimo Allison, Trey Kwan Smith, A.J. Brown. So, all right. Anyway, let's get to the best picks and the worst picks of this draft, and then we'll start breaking down the rounds. Real quickly, I want to tell you, it is Masters Week, a tradition unlike any other. CBS Sports is where you can get direct streaming access on your phone or computer to live coverage all day for each round of the tournament.

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reporting live from Augusta National all week long. The best picks of this 12-team mock draft. Dave, what were the best picks? We already talked about Devonta Adams going in round two, 14th overall. He is a top 10 player, regardless of format. I don't know if he's going to be as he'll finish as a top two guy because I think the Packers will add somebody in the next two weeks to their receiving core, and it's already pretty deep as it is.

They'll add somebody with a little more talent, but Adams is going to be that number one guy. Getting Aaron Rodgers' target is a good move. Getting him in round two is like stealing from the rest of your league. And I'm going back to the Deshaun Jackson well this year, and he went in round 11 in our draft. I love having that guy on the bench. In this Philadelphia offense,

they should throw a lot. They want a deep ball threat. He's definitely capable of doing that for Philadelphia. You're not going to start him every single week, but when you do, it's going to be the same thing that he's been for the last six seasons. Boomer bust, high upside. At least now he's got a quarterback that he should be able to have some chemistry with. So love Deshaun Jackson in round 11. Wish I had taken him. 123rd overall. And we'll transition to Jamie's two best picks. I asked each of you for two best and two worst.

And you have a guy that went three picks after Deshaun Jackson, Deshaun Hamilton, 126th overall. That's Bronco's second-year wide receiver, Deshaun Hamilton. Yeah, he was great at the end of last season. Once Emmanuel Sanders was lost for the year with the Achilles injury, and who knows how healthy Sanders will be coming into this year. We'll see if he develops a quick rapport with Joe Flacco and how Flacco does. Typically, Flacco is decent with his outside guys,

as we saw last year with John Brown. But he'll connect with his slot receivers also. And I think Hamilton should be one of the top three receivers for Denver. He could be as high as their number one most targeted guy, just again depending on when Sanders does return and how healthy he'll be. But I just think it's great value for the way that Hamilton played at the end of last year and what they're talking about him. At both the combine and and the owners meetings whether it was

john elway or vic fangio um you know both expecting big things from the two second year guys uh i guess you throw tim patrick in there also but um sutton and hamilton you know they're expecting them to step up and play in a bigger role and uh and hamilton you know i think gets overlooked a little bit by what sutton's pedigree is but but he was great at the end of last year, and I think he'll be very good this year. So Hamilton, at the end of last year, as Jamie keeps mentioning, his last four games he had eight or more targets, five to seven catches, not a lot of yards, only 7.3 yards per catch, 40 to 49 yards in each game, and two touchdowns.

That was good for 17, 11, 16, and 9 PPR fantasy points. It's a little over 13-something PPR points per game. Who would you guys rather have? Deshaun Jackson or Deshaun Hamilton? I'll take Deshaun. Yeah, I'll take Deshaun in this format. I don't know how I didn't realize they basically

have the same first name. That was dumb of me. What was the other pick that you highlighted, Jamie, as one of the best? I think it was Dante Pettis in round six. I wouldn't be surprised if he's a round five guy and produces higher than that as well. Again, similar toward the end of last season, produced at a very high level. We talked about this a lot so far in this offseason. Their receiving core, I think, will have another addition to it. But, you know, you look at it, it's George Kittle one, and I think Pettis is clearly two. You know, he did a lot of his damage once Pierre Garçon was lost and Marquis Goodwin was dealing with his family

situation and injury. So we'll see how, you know, Goodwin back healthy. They added Jordan Matthews, so we'll see if he plays a role as the slot guy. You know, that's where his predominant success has been. But I do think that Pettis proved himself, and Kyle Shanahan's been saying great things, again, to reference the combine and the owner's meetings. Very high on Dante Pettis, I think, as fantasy owner should be as well. Take a bow, Dave Richard. I'm bowing, can't you tell?

Yeah. The thing that I like about Pettis is that he was great out of the slot last year. So I'm kind of hoping, what I'm assuming is that the 49ers are going to move him all over the place. And that's what they should do. Look for matchups every single week. Get them up against the weakest defensive back that they can find and exploit that matchup. They don't have to keep him in the slot full time. And Jordan Matthews can do the same thing.

We've seen him play better in the slot than outside the slot. Let's see if Jordan Matthews even makes the team. And I agree with Jamie. They're going to add another receiver, but at this point, it's not going to be an impact receiver that's going to take a huge percentage of the targets away from Dante Pettis. Loved getting him in round six. Considered taking him in round five. And here's a fun stat about Dante Pettis that's not so predictive but is fun he had seven targets three times and he caught at least one touchdown in all three of those games

so just give the man some targets and one more note he did all this without jimmy grapple yeah exactly uh and i think that in this draft i mentioned that run uh brandon cooks james white cooper cup right before i took Mark Ingram. You look at just the wide receivers there, Brandon Cooks and Cooper Cup. And then I said Robbie Anderson, Mike Williams, Tyler Boyd, Sammy Watkins, Tyler Lockett, Dante Pettis. Oh, Coca took Tyler Lockett. Good.

I can't wait to rip that pick apart. Dante Pettis. I like Pettis better than all those guys. Maybe not Cup, but Cup and Cooks maybe. After Cup and Cooks, I mean, is what I was going to say. There's a drop-off at wide receiver. Some of those guys are going to be good. There's reasons to like them, but they're not so proven.

We're kind of looking at a tier. Dante Pettis. My two favorite picks were Geronimo Allison, 100th overall, fourth pick of round nine. The reason it was one of my favorite picks is because it made Jamie very mad. And it made him think about his rankings.

I changed it right at that moment. I told you. Because when you took him, I think I said a few expletives to you. And it was right after I took Corey Davis. And I think I let the clock run down as far as. And it was right after I took Corey Davis. And I think I let the clock run down as far as I possibly could because I was going back and forth. I'm like, do I really like Corey Davis better than Jeronimo Allison? Do I want the – I guess he's the number one receiver for Marcus Mariota, depending with Delaney Walker's health,

comparatively to the number two guy for the Packers. I disagree with Dave. I don't think they're going to add another receiver just after what they did in the draft last year, you know, and getting Kumaro back. So I look at Allison and what he was through the first four games last year, was on an amazing pace over 16 games. They're excited to have him back.

And so I switched my rankings. I moved Allison ahead of Davis. And had we done this draft five minutes earlier or got to that point five minutes earlier, I would have taken Allison over Davis. I took Allison in five seconds. That was an easy pick for me. I was pumped about that. I believe you even said, because I think

we were two picks apart, right? You said, I'm so excited to make this pick after I picked. I was pretty pumped. That was a great pick by you. I was surprised. Well, we'll see, I was pretty pumped. That was a great pick by you. I was surprised. Well, we'll see. I was surprised Jamie didn't take Geronimo Allison.

And you even said, you're like, Corey Davis isn't really your type of guy. And as you're saying it, I'm like, you're 1,000% right. Like, I'm just tired of chasing Corey Davis. I know you so well, Jamie Eisenberg. All right. Should we share how we're going to communicate via text from now on? So, Dave, Jamie has decided he's only going to communicate via GIF with me.

He loves GIFs, man. He just loves them. But a certain kind with you. Die Hard and Jerry Maguire, I believe. Those are the only GIFs I'm going to send him. So what did I say? Oh, God. You called me effing weird?

Well, I texted Jamie this morning. Jamie and I share a fantasy baseball team, and every year it's really good. And this year's no exception. And I said, it's so nice to know that no matter how crappy my fantasy teams are, I will always have our team name. And he wrote, he gave me the you complete me, Jif. And you had me at hello.

And then later he gave me the Hans Gruber. You're amazing. You figured this all out already. And then show me the money. And then Jonathan Lipnicki, the little boy, saying, do you know the human head weighs eight pounds? I don't even understand what he's going for here, but it's entertaining. It's good stuff.

My actual favorite pick in the draft was Aaron Jones, and that was also to Matthew Koka. So he took him with the eighth pick of the third round look when aaron jones was featured weeks 5 through 11 his 16 game pace was about 1600 yards and 18 touchdowns a truly elite running back uh he averaged 5.5 yards per carry in that stretch he was on pace for 50 catches in those seven games i think he's clearly better than jamal Williams, and I was debating taking Aaron Jones, and even round two I was thinking about taking Aaron Jones. I went receiver, receiver in rounds two and three,

and then Jones won a few picks later, and I just love the pick. I guess Jamal Williams finishing as strong as he did after the Jones injury should give me a little pause. But did that pick of Aaron Jones stand out to you? No, but I see your point. I'm a little concerned with Aaron Jones because I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I think when he is the guy, he's fantastic. But Jamal Williams has been good when he's been the guy also. And I wonder if we're going to see, based on what Matt LaFleur said, that we're going to see more of them in a committee situation. LaFleur talked about how he learned from the Titan situation with Deion Lewis and Derrick Henry and kind of getting to the point where one guy was the guy.

But I also think you're going to see early in the season a little bit of a, a little more of a committee than what we saw last year when Jones was healthy. Because it really didn't, it really did not help the situation for Jamal Williams when Jones was healthy because he wasn't getting touches. But I do think he deserved more touches. Jamal Williams or Aaron Jones? Jamal Williams.

I mean, look, Aaron Jones is fantastic, but I don't think Jamal Williams is a slouch.ouch by the way we have a little bit of breaking news on a very minor scale uh chris hogan is signed with the panthers oh interesting hey man anyone who goes to new england if he had gone back to new england he probably would have been fantasy relative hey late round now i just i just did his uh his his outlook for uh for our magazine and the site. I appreciate him making this life decision to help me out before I sent these in and they've been published. However, he's been a little hard to trust

from a fantasy perspective, but he did find a good place to sign for himself because there are targets available in an offense that needs receivers. We'll talk about the worst picks in the draft after we take this quick break on Fantasy Football today. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight

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Jamie, you can go first. What were the worst picks? I didn't like the Jarek McKinnon pick. I thought that was a little too soon. You know, you look at, I think Dave might have taken Tevin Coleman, if I'm not mistaken, in the same round or round earlier. I think it's risky for both those guys in the spots that they went. Coleman would be the one that presents, at least on paper right now, the most upside. But if they keep all three guys as they have indicated, which seems to be the case, and McKinnon's healthy,

and Matt Breida's healthy, at least on a Friday practice basis, it's going to be a messy backfield that's going to have guys probably cannibalizing each other. I would have probably taken Coleman a round later. I would have taken McKinnon probably three rounds later and Breida in that same range. I chose McKinnon as the one to point out of the backfield for the 49ers just because I think he was the most glaring taking him that soon. All right, so just to give everybody the context here,

Coleman went 55th overall. That was the middle of round five. And McKinnon went in the middle of round six, 67th overall. And Jared Cook, you didn't like Jared Cook, 58th overall, late round five. No, I like Hunter Henry much better. If you told me Hunter Henry was that spot, I would be fine with it. Even the theory of Hunter Henry, as you have labeled him. Cook, I think you're, you know, look, it's a great spot, obviously.

You know, you're playing in an offense that historically has featured the tight end when the tight end has been good. This is probably the best guy that they've had since Jimmy Graham has left. We saw the Kobe Fleener failing, the Benjamin Watson retool. The first time he was there, he was good. The second time, last year as we saw, before retirement, not so good. But Cook, I think, is going to be the same type of guy he's been everywhere else he's played. Very good, four or five weeks, if not amazing, and then mediocre the rest of the way,

and I don't think that will change. So I think he's a number one tight end. You still draft him as a starter, but no way should he go in round five. Maybe round seven at the earliest. I would take him probably a little later than that. Jared Cook went one spot ahead of O.J. Howard. He went ahead of Eric Ebron and Hunter Henry, who were taken about 15 picks later. Dave, the worst picks that you saw were back-to-back.

You did not like Isaiah Crowell, 83rd overall, and Jay Ajayi, 84th overall. Those were the last two picks of round seven, Crowell and Ajayi. Especially when you could have drafted any other rookie running back not named Josh Jacobs. Instead of going with one of those younger guys, you went with, J. Ajayi is not even on a team, and you're taking him in late round seven. That baffled me more than Crowell, who is with the team, he's with the Raiders. I would expect him to get company after draft day. I think the Raiders will take somebody. And by October, Crowell could be a non-factor.

I felt like those were two wasted picks in round seven. It just seems kind of obvious to me that neither of these guys are going to be appealing or be in appealing situations by the time we're drafting. Yeah, would you take Mike Davis over them? Yes. Carlos Hyde over them? Yes. Carlos Hyde over them? Yes. The Sean McCoy?

Yes. Okay. And my two worst picks were Andrew Luck, 44th overall in round four. Luck was the second quarterback off the board. I just think that with quarterback being as deep as it is, and in PPR when they obviously don't catch passes and they make up a smaller percentage of your total points, you've got to kind of read the room and don't start a run.

And not only did you not start a run by taking Andrew Luck fourth, you're on an island because there were no other quarterbacks that went until 69th overall. He went 44th. So Mahomes went early, 15th or something, then Luck 44th, and then you had Rodgers, Watson, Matt Ryan, and who was the other guy? Four in a row went. Baker.

And Baker Mayfield, 69th through 72nd overall, something like that. And it actually went Rodgers, Mayfield, Watson, Ryan. Yeah. So Luck just stands out. I bet the owner who took Andrew Luck probably thought more quarterbacks were going to go. But that's just, you know, 25 picks basically before Rodgers and Watson and Mayfield and Ryan. And then this one's really interesting. What did you think of Tariq Cohen at the end of round two, 24th overall?

He was the number 12 running back in PPR. He was 18th at non-PPR last year. He did that on 170 touches, which is very low. They don't have Jordan Howard anymore. I did not like the pick. What did you think of Tariq Cohen? I thought it was too soon. And that was another one that was interesting with the Twitter, the results I posted on Twitter.

And it was kind of split. I was surprised. I thought more people would be critical of it. I'd say it's probably 60-40 critical. But a lot of people going, oh, my God, that's how early I have to take Tariq Cohen now because of Howard being gone. I don't think you do. And you sort of illustrated this, that the receivers who went after him,

forget about just position, comparing him to other running backs. He went ahead of Brown, Evans, Green, Keenan Allen, all those guys, and that should never be the case. I can make a case for him in round three. I'd rather get him in round four. But if he does get the bump that we hope, again, he had 171 total targets last year. If that goes to 200 and he does get a few more or at least the same type of scoring opportunities, maybe different ways. He had a couple of big plays last year, if that goes to 200 and he does get a few more or at least the same type of scoring opportunities, maybe different ways. He had a couple of big plays last year. But if he gets

those scoring opportunities with Howard not being there and Howard scored nine touchdowns, then he's going to stay in that range and maybe even go up. So it's not as much of a reach as it probably seems, but it's a reach. So that was Kaiser who had the first overall pick. He took Saquon Barkley and then he took Tariq Cohen and Keenan Allen. If he hadn't taken Tariq Cohen there, if he had taken Antonio Brown and Keenan Allen, or any combination of Allen, Brown, A.J. Green, Mike Evans, or even George Kittle,

he waits until the end of round four, beginning of round five, for his swing picks, and he takes running backs there instead of Tariq Cohen. He could have any combination of Kerryon Johnson, James White, Mark Ingram. Obviously, every draft's not going to play out that way, but I would much rather start my team with Saquon Barkley, Antonio Brown, and Keenan Allen, and then Mark Ingram and Kerryon Johnson or something like that. That would be awesome. Mark Ingram and James White.

That would be a great start. So, yeah, I didn't really like the Tariq Cohen pick. I think it's time to get into the draft. And let's do it. So first round, we told you a lot of it. Barkley, Zeke, Kamara mccaffrey gordon girley thoughts made the pick easy for me at seven by taking hopkins if if that pick at six had been michael thomas or julio jones i i think think I'm still taking Hopkins over Gurley at this point.

What did that pick have been Hopkins? That's a good question. I think I'm taking one of the receivers over Todd Gurley. I don't like what I've heard about the knee. And he might even look fine in the preseason, but knowing that he's having problems with it. Les Knee already said he's not playing in the preseason. We may not see him until week one.

Do you think he practices and trains? The only thing that is a very positive situation for Todd Gurley right now is the one move that they've made is to bring back Malcolm Brown as a restricted free agent. They have not signed anybody else. I don't know if anybody else has visited there. I'm sure they had conversations with C.J. Anderson, who was with them at the end of the season and played with them in the postseason. But the fact that they have not added anybody with their free agency is a great sign for Gurley. Now, again, the draft is still coming, but I don't know what their pick situation is off the top of my head. We talked about this before

on a previous show. So I think they have enough picks clear if they need to go after another running back that can. But if it's just Malcolm Brown, who was their guy, let's just – I'll backtrack for a second. Malcolm Brown was their guy before he got hurt, and then Anderson took his job when they placed Malcolm Brown on injured reserve to end the season. So they're comfortable with Malcolm Brown. But the fact that there's no splashy free agency move, even of like a Frank Gore variety, you know, just a veteran guy who can provide some stability. It's encouraging for Gurley. But I'm with you.

I would not have taken Gurley sixth. I would not have taken him in the first round. I hope to put him back in the first round by the time we get to training camp that the reports are good. But right now I am very nervous about Gurley's situation, and I'm very nervous about drafting the first round. To be fair, the Rams picked up C.J. Anderson off the street, put him on their team, and suddenly he was good. So they might not even want to spend serious draft capital on a running back. When they know that they can literally go on the street,

find a guy that's been in the league for five years, isn't in the best shape, and still put him on the field and get him in position to get over 100 yards a game and find the end zone. So there might be an undrafted running back that they end up signing. Sure. And they still may like John Kelly, who they drafted last year. Yeah. They've got guys behind them.

It's just a matter of how much do they put on those other guys' plates compared to what Gurley gets in relation to how Gurley used to be. There are veteran guys that have still gone unsigned that can still make an impact. TJ Eldon's one, for example, who they could bring in and fill that same type of role. So they're not necessarily done. But I think just the fact that they're not in an alarming situation

of we have to get somebody to fill that quote-unquote CJ Anderson role of veteran running back to take some work off of Gurley. But I think that's coming, and they also lost Affle. The offensive line is about to be the same. So that's an impact as well. Yeah, they've got to fill that offensive line up before they go and get another running back.

The Rams only have one pick in the top 90. Obviously they can trade, but they have the 31st pick. They don't have a second-round pick. They have the 31st pick of round three. So they have 31, 94, 99, 133, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, I mean, in the 90s, you can certainly see some running backs going in that range of the draft. I bet they trade out at round one. Maybe.

Okay, so the rest of round one in this ppr draft hopkins seven michael thomas julio jones james connor david johnson and juju smith schuster hopkins michael thomas julio jones james connor david johnson and juju smith schuster okay adam should have been there, obviously. Yes. Some of the running backs that get pushed around too are Joe Mixon, Le'Veon Bell, Nick Chubb, and Dalvin Cook.

Should any of them, Mixon, Le'Veon, Chubb, and Cook, have gone ahead of James Conner and or David Johnson? I currently have Bell ahead of Johnson and Conner, in that order, 12, 13, and 14 in my PPR rankings. I think it's fine. I say this every year, but the end of round one

and the beginning of round two, like the last four picks of round one, the first four picks of round two, they often feel interchangeable. Just great players, and you have personal preference on the order. Except don't take Patrick Mahomes there. So round two is Mixon, Devontae Adams, Patrick Mahomes, Le'Veon Bell, Odell Beckham. For some reason, that just felt late, even though it's really not that late.

I mean, Beckham should be a first-round pick, too. But who shouldn't be a first-round pick? They can't all be first-round picks, you know? I mean, for me, it's Gurley and Juju. Okay. I'd replace them with Adams and Beckham. Okay. Yeah, Bixson, Adams, Mahomes, Bell, Beckham, Nick Chubb.

Dave, you took Nick Chubb. Did you take Kareem Hunt? I did not. Holmes, Bell, Beckham, Nick Chubb. Dave, you took Nick Chubb. Did you take Kareem Hunt? I did not. I decided to back up Damian Williams, who I took in round three instead. Oh, okay. You feel good about Nick Chubb, 18th overall? Yes.

I would have had a tough choice if it was – it wouldn't have been that tough. I would have taken Odell Beckham if he had made it to me. But I would have done it knowing that I would be behind it running back going into round three and i wanted to have that versatility so i i don't remember who the other receiver was that i was looking at but it came down to chubb and it might have been tyreek hill and i just i couldn't i couldn't go for tyreek hill knowing that there's that possible suspension looming. I know that he's got this case from what happened off the field. I don't like that. I think Chubb was a pretty easy pick once Odell did go off the board.

Yeah, and Hill had 87 catches last year. He was the number one wide receiver in non-PPR, number five in PPR. After Nick Chubb, Dalvin Cook went, and that's maybe the most interesting pick of the round. Forget about Patrick Holmes. We talked about that. We talked about Tariq Cohen. After those two, Dalvin Cook feels like the most interesting pick of round two. He went 19th overall, Dalvin Cook.

Yeah, I mean, look, he's got the upside to be fantastic, as we saw when he was healthy last year. Healthy, the start of his rookie campaign before the ACL injury. You've got to worry about the injury concerns. But I do think that the addition of Gary Kubiak with Kevin Stefanski, the assistant head coach in Kubiak and the office coordinator in Stefanski. We saw last year the three games where Stefanski was calling plays. Cook really took a step forward. It was one giant game against Miami. But, yeah, he's a second-round pick for sure. I feel like Kelsey would have been safer.

Yeah, Kelsey to me, I mean, I was picking two picks after Dalvin Cook went, and I was really hoping to get Travis Kelsey. He went right before me, and then I took T.Y. Hilton. Kelsey, I mean, I don't know if we've talked about this, but if Tyreek Hill is suspended, I think it really helps. Travis Kelsey, I know people could make the argument, well, Hill draws coverage, that helps Kelsey. How much better can Kelsey be, though?

I don't know. If there's no Tyreek Hill? Look, I spoke to Andy Reid. I'm doing a story on tight ends for a magazine for offseason stuff, draft prep. I spoke to Andy Reid at length about why Kelsey is so special and how much he uses him. And he said they try to be so creative with him. Kelsey said the same thing. I said at the Super Bowl, why are there not more of you in terms of playmaking tight ends that just get featured in an offense?

And he said the first thing out of his mouth was Andy Reid, you know, so Reid will be creative in finding ways to get Kelsey open if Tyree kill is the reason why he gets some of the coverage that he gets. Um, I think the one that it would benefit the most though would be Sammy Watkins. So if you're looking for, if you're looking for the, theree kill replacement uh it would be you know Watkins would be the guy you want to sort of focus on in that regard I think the whole offense would be hurt if Tyree kill oh 100 but but I mean look I took Tyree kill I'm not drafting now with the idea of him missing time in mock drafts in real drafts that's a different story so I haven't adjusted my rankings uh as if he's going

to miss time until we find out he's going to miss time. Look, it's a potentially terrible situation if, in fact, he did what he did. But this is the world we live in that we have to look at the player and not necessarily the person. So for now, I'm not looking at it as he's going to miss time until we find out

he's going to miss time. Okay, so Kelsey went, then I took T.Y. Hilton, Zach Ertz was taken, Jamie took Tyreek Hill, and Tariq Cohen finished out round two, top 24 picks. Just looked it up right now. Travis Kelsey scored, if you made him a wide receiver last year, he would have been the number nine wide receiver in PPR. He outscored Mike Evans. The first four picks of round three are sexy.

Keenan Allen. Yeah. Antonio Brown. AJ Green. Mike Evans. Sexy picks. And then... What?

No? Not sexy? I'm thinking like sexy in a grandma wearing a bikini kind of way. Because those guys are all kind of older. The fact that you're getting those guys in round three is amazing. It's great value, but I don't know. They're getting a little older. Just a little.

Okay, not Evans. Green and brown, maybe. Evans is definitely in his prime. Allen feels old, but he's not old. Yeah, they all feel old. I've got a decade on all four of them, so I'm not one to talk. I look terrible in a bikini. So I think excellent value is a great way to put it.

And then Amari Cooper and George Kittle were the next two picks. How do you feel about that? I just realized that Sketcher Doodle is now going to make a picture of me in a bikini. Kittle was great. I like Kittle ahead of Ertz. So I think getting him in round three, I think both those guys are round two picks. I would have been happy to take Kittle at 31st overall. He went right in front of me.

And then you took Damian Williams. I did. Interesting. He was my favorite running back left on the board. Yeah, you had Aaronaron jones leonard fournette philip lindsey derrick henry sony michelle obviously not taking them so you took damian williams to give you nick chubb and damian williams and you did back him up with carlos hyde that was a must for me i wasn't going to let this draft continue on

um or at least i was gonna someone would have to have really reached for carlos hyde but he he immediately went into my queue he was in the top of my queue until i started adding players i was going to realistically take over him in round four round five round six round seven but i had i knew i had to have carlos hyde and uh after that to finish off round three julie oh aaron jones julian edelman adam thielen robert woods and leonard fournette yeah uh well okay what's your reaction edelman thielen robert woods leonard fournette the last four. I see three very good PPR picks and a running back who I hope doesn't get in trouble with his team for, what is it, speeding and not having a license or something like that? It doesn't seem that bad. He was arrested.

Fournette was— The only problem is that it's what the conversation about him was from the team coming off at the end of last year and the perception he has apparently done everything he's been told to do or suggest that he would do in terms of his training and getting in shape he went off to wyoming to work out with the trainer this is something that happened in november uh that he is dealing with now i think if i understand it correctly um it's just something that is a bad look, given the circumstances. But I don't think he's going to be in trouble. I would have taken Fournette over Damian Williams.

And, okay, Edelman is probably a safe 100-catch guy. I know he scored six touchdowns in 12 games, which was unusual for him, but I think it made sense. They didn't really have anybody else to catch touchdowns. And now they don't, for sure.s. Now they don't for sure. Now they don't for sure. And then Adam Thielen, I know, Jamie, you pointed out that Thielen's numbers went down

at the end of last year, but I also think we should point out he was playing through injury. Should he go ahead of Stefan Diggs? It's fine. I wouldn't personally because I just look at I think the offense is going to change a little bit, and that's really when his numbers dipped. Yes, he was playing through injury.

He's as safe as they come based on his production the last two years. Robert Woods, is that a good pick? 30 – what is that, 35th overall? Too soon. I think it's too soon. But again, safe. Safe, yeah. Who would you have taken instead? I've got to finish the show on this thought.

We'll get to round four and beyond and try to get Matthew Coca or somebody like that on the show on Monday to talk about their teams and what they did. Who would you have taken instead of Robert Woods there? Diggs, for one. Galladay, too.

And probably a handful of running backs, too. all right so good stuff he's he's he's safe yeah he had 86 catches last year only six touchdowns and i don't know who's gonna lead the rams in receiving touchdowns cooper cup next question what are you doing this weekend? I am hanging out with my son because my wife and daughter went away on a little trip. So he and I are going to be total sloths for the weekend, which is normally what we are every weekend. It's just this weekend the girls aren't around. Okay, great. Nobody will judge you for being a sloth.

Dave, Jamie, thank you so much for joining me me today we'll talk to you all on monday we will not recap game of thrones but we will want to all right that's it for us play us out dave