Fantasy Football Today - 08/09 Fantasy Football Podcast: 2-QB Draft, Special Guest Interview!

Episode Date: August 9, 2017

Dave has a new take on Brandin Cooks (7:30)! Let the debate begin. We also update the RB battles (14:30) in CIN, KC and JAC. And is Robby Anderson now a #4 WR (17:35)? ... 2-QB draft talk (24:00)! Different strategies for all four of us including Heath's decision to wait on QB. What's the difference between waiting wisely and waiting too long? ... Hear from the #7 Fantasy Football player in the world, Kimra Schleicher (39:30). Last year's World Champion, Kimra tells you some players she likes and dislikes ... 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! We're here to help you win the ultimate bragging rights. A fantasy title. Let's go! Now, here's Adam D.

Well, we have completed our half PPR, 10-team, two-quarterback league, and we're going to talk about it. Welcome to the show. This is Fantasy Football Today. Tight end preview coming tomorrow. Possibly running backs preview part one on Friday. I am Adam Azer with Jamie Eisenberg. What up, Jamie?

What up, dude? Oh, not much. Heath Cummings, hello. Hello. And here's Dave Richard. Good morning, everybody. Hey, we got a game Richard. Good morning, everybody. Hey, we got a game tonight. We do.

Cool. Exciting. Football is here, and it's not the kind where it's all backups playing for four quarters. It's the one where backups play three and a half quarters. Yeah. All right. It's on NFL Network tonight, so everybody watch. Here's the Caffrey debut. Yeah, very fun. Now, We have a very special guest coming on the show.

You think you know fantasy football? You think you're good? You think we're good? We're talking to a world champion today. Kim Rush Lisher is coming on. She's at Scout.com. She's the number seven world-ranked fantasy football player and the first female world champion.

So we're going to talk to her, find out who she likes and dislikes, find out her process when evaluating players. And that'll be in about 20 minutes or so, 25 minutes. I want to talk about quarterbacks. We did the quarterback preview yesterday. And I just had one question. I thought it was a pretty thorough preview, so I didn't have that many leftovers. But just one question. You think about the last two years. Cam Newton, number one quarterback, sort of, you know, surprisingly. Matt Ryan, number two quarterback, pretty surprisingly. And these were veterans who bounced back from bad seasons. So I wonder, and not that I disagree, but let's just talk it out. Why do we have guys like Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, pretty unproven players over Eli Manning,

Phillip Rivers, Carson Palmer, guys who have done more in their pretty immediate past, actually, than these young guns. Do you think we need to reevaluate that at all? I think you're banking on upside and you're banking on those guys taking a significant step, which Jameis Winston did for 45 minutes of hard knocks last night. In the last five or so, he was terrible.

It's just Winston hasn't exactly finished far behind those guys the last two years. He was better than Eli last year by comparison. Mariota, had he played 16 games, probably would have been there also. Oh, definitely. It's just expecting those guys to continue to progress.

And I think with Eli and Palmer, I guess Rivers as well, but it's just age factoring in that at some point these guys could have a decline in production. And when that decline happens, as Jamie's said many times, times and it's true they fall off a cliff without warning they they go there is no going from oh he's not doing so well to oh my god he's awful like it is the slope is almost straight down i'm making like a karate chop move with my hand see heath see what i'm doing? It's really not working. Yeah, but that's the point is that when a quarterback is bad, he's bad.

Yeah. But the biggest thing for me is the upside. There's not much difference between QB6 and QB16. So I'm ranking those guys that I think could take a step into the top five. And I don't see a situation where Eli Manning is the top five quarterback this year. Yeah, I feel that. Same with Palmer, right? No, I don't see Palmer doing it either.

Rivers is possible, but I'd rather bet on Mariota for sure. All right, guys, so I just wanted to bring that up. Fun, good, done with quarterbacks, on to tight ends tomorrow. Dave has some new thoughts on brandon cooks we will get to that i just want to tell you that if you don't do two quarterback leagues please please do two quarterback leagues yesterday that is my favorite league it has become my favorite league it's a 10 team two quarterback league half ppr i love it guys my new favorite format i wouldn't want to do too many two quarterback leagues, but I want to be in at least one every year.

I enjoy them in small sample sizes. Like, not too many. Not too many of them. Not small sample sizes. In small doses. That's what I meant. That was the word. Doses.

How do you guys feel about two quarterback leagues? I'm still pretty new to them, and I just love them. Every year is my favorite league. I think they're fun, and lots of points scored in those types of formats. And that's always fun to have high-scoring games, so I don't necessarily mind them at all. And I specifically don't mind them if we're talking about a smaller league. We had a 10-team league yesterday. There are people who play in eight-team leagues.

I think as long as it's not 12 or more owners. See, I would really have enjoyed yesterday's draft more if it was 12. It's more challenging, for sure. But I think you have a little more fun working your way to building an elite roster when you've got 10 or fewer teams. And it's that way whether it's one or two quarterbacks. But if you're in a 12- or a 14-team league and there's two quarterbacks, you have to start two quarterbacks every week. I think it places just too much of a premium on the position,

and it makes it a little harder to do well if you either draft a bust or see somebody who you drafted who's a stud get hurt. Well, I think what you're seeing more is super flex leagues, more so than two quarterback leagues where you don't necessarily have to start two quarterbacks. And when you do those leagues, which I think you see more often than not, most two quarterback leagues are four points for passing touchdowns

compared to six points for passing touchdowns. I don't know that to be factually accurate, but I would imagine that you're trying to de-emphasize the scoring from quarterbacks just a little bit. I'm going to go ahead and confirm that it's factually accurate. I have not done a super flex league. I wanted to do the super flex this weekend, but Jamie and I are in the 12-team standard scoring league in the flex drafts,

which we'll tell you more about. But if there are 12 owners in a super flex league, super flex being you can use any position at flex, quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, how many of the 12 owners would you anticipate using a quarterback at flex? If there's no buys that week, I would say 12. Okay. What it really does is it helps you during the buy weeks, but it's pretty rare that there's a running back or wide receiver that outscores even a bad quarterback. But I guess the difference between a super flex and a two-quarterback league is I'm guessing you wouldn't roster three quarterbacks in a super flex league. Like you're going to do that in a two-quarterback league.

Oh, no, it's the same formula. Is it really? You draft three? I would definitely draft three. Now, not everybody will get three because most of those are 12 teams, and there's not 36 quarterbacks that you want to own. Right. I'll just give you an example.

I'm in a Superflex Dynasty League, and I have Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz, but I only have two other young quarterbacks. I don't have a third guy that I would start in lieu of those guys should one of them get injured. I have Josh Dobbs and Nate Peterman. So it's not like I'm in a good situation there, barring those guys getting surprise starts. Right. All right. Dave, let's transition. We'll come back to our two quarterback draft in a little bit, but let's transition to Brandon Cooks. You wanted to talk about Brandon Cooks. You're changing your mind a little bit on

the New England receiver. So earlier this week, it might have been last week, I told everybody that I was going to go back and look at Willie Sneed and kind of do the same type of work on him that I did on Jamison Crowder because I turned out loving Jamison Crowder. And I don't know if this is an indictment of Sneed or not, but the best player or the best thing that I learned while reviewing all that film from last year is that Brandon cooks is very good. Like he's more than just this five foot 10 guy with straight line speed. He runs incredible routes and he's just, he he's, he doesn't have the size that you want at receiver, but he can do a lot of other things.

That's really, really great. And I'm kind of changing my tune on him because of all the reports that we've seen about him having great chemistry with Tom Brady, making plays in scrimmages against Jacksonville, and in training camp. And what we've been saying all along about the targets being there for him, it's still true. But I think he's still going to deliver as a number two fantasy receiver.

I moved him up closer to 15 than 20 which is where i had him and now i think he's worth taking in round three i think he's going to be safe with some spectacular weeks in in the in the season to come the caveat being we don't know how defenses are going to go about defending this patriots offense now that cooks is there but i'll say this when randy moss came to town and cooks isn Moss, but he's got some unique skills. They didn't hesitate to fire at him as much as they possibly could. And I don't know. I see it with Brandon Cooks.

I think he's going to end up being better than we're giving him credit for. And I feel as though by the end of the year, he will have a stat line at least similar to what we've seen the last two years. I disagree. I think he's going to. I think what you said is accurate about him having some good weeks and some bad weeks, and would not be surprised if he does finish as a number two receiver based on volume by the end of the season, because he will have some of those monster weeks. But I think it's going to be closer to what we saw last year from Emmanuel Sanders,

to an extent Larry Fitzgerald. You can say the extent from what we saw from Brandon Cooks. He had six games last year with double digits in fantasy. That would be better than Sanders and almost on par with Fitzgerald. I would say that he'll do better than six. I'll say seven or more. Okay. But the rest will be probably completely frustrating because that's the type of offense he's going to be in.

So depending on when those seven come, it could be very good for your fantasy team. Look, he's going to go in the first five rounds, whether you take him in the second round or the third round, based on what his average draft position is, end of the second, beginning of the third. I still think that's too high. I just don't see all the targets that he's going to need. Yes, they're obviously featuring him now in training camp

because they need to get him on the same page with Tom Brady. He knows what he's doing with Julian Edelman. He knows what he's doing with Rob Markowski. There was a report yesterday as well that he's featuring Dwayne Allen a lot in the red zone. Duh, he's got to get him going too. He's got to get on the same page with these guys. So, of course, they're going to be trying to do it in a joint practice with Jacksonville. It's a great sign because Jacksonville has some amazing cornerbacks.

Obviously, Brandon Cooks has elite speed. What is Brandon Cooks showing you in his career? I'm sure you saw this on tape yesterday. When he was indoors against the Saints, he probably looked like an amazing Randy Moss-like type receiver. When he was outdoors, he probably didn't look just as good because he does not play the same indoors versus outdoors. He's going to have to change his game.

It will easily come for him. It's just a matter of when you draft Brandon Cooks in your fantasy team. The third round, I believe, is too soon. And I don't think it's a good idea to say that Brandon Cooks has the chance to outperform his draft value. Not that you did. But I don't think that's a way to approach it because there's no way if he's going 27th overall, he's going to live up to that. Let me give you some receivers I moved him ahead of. And you can tell me if I'm –

If you have him near 15, there's going to be a lot. Alright, so Demarius Thomas. We don't have to go through this. They can look at our rankings. No, no, no. Let's go through it. Let's go through it. I enjoy this. Demarius Thomas and Keenan Allen. He's ahead of those guys. I'd rather have both by a long shot. Devontae Adams. I'd rather have Adams.

Ah, they're more similar to me because I think Adams is going to be a little more sporadic this year I don't expect him to score 12 touchdowns But I'd still barely rather have Adams Alshon Jeffrey Jeffrey Buzzclough, I don't really love Jeffrey I'm downgrading Jeffrey to Cooks territory

Allen Robinson Robinson Golden Tate Tate Jamison Crowder Jarvis Landry Crowder and Landry and PPR, Cooks and Standard. I mean, I think you need to see the touchdowns.

Cooks has a better chance maybe than a lot of those guys who score touchdowns, including someone like Demarius Thomas, who did have 90 catches. He does that every single year, but less than 1,100 yards and only five touchdowns. And if Trevor Simeon is going to beat out Paxton Lynch, if Lynch doesn't take that next step, I mean, I'm not going to take a side here. I think it's good that we have a little disagreement, but I don't think it's crazy at all that Cooks could be better than Demarius Thomas. Demarius Thomas was really disappointing. Yeah, I mean. Totally agree. And he's being drafted as such.

He's being drafted right now, four picks ahead of Thomas and three robbed receivers ahead of Thomas based on average opposition. I would take Thomas in PPR. All right. But I think Cooks is going to be a little bit better than we're giving him credit for. All right. Well, you know what's better than what people give him credit for? Just because maybe you haven't heard of it. Maybe you don't know about it.

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Chuck Pagano said there's no timeline for Andrew Luck's return. These are your quarterback news items. Trevor Simeon's going to start preseason week one. Paxton Lynch expected to start week two. Brock Osweiler's going to start for Cleveland. Tom Savage is going to start for Houston in their preseason openers. This does not mean the battles are over. Just some updates for you.

Well, here's the problem. I wanted to talk about the two-quarterback draft. I think we should. We do have our guests coming on in about 10 minutes, and we have a lot of notes to get to. So, hmm, how should we play this? You know what? Let's just get through the notes.

Let's see what we can do here. Tell me how important this is. Joe Mixon right now on the depth chart is Cincinnati's third team running back. Not important at all. Not even true. I would not say that it has a 0% significance, but it has like a 2% significance. Okay. Kareem Hunt getting more reps, more first team reps for Kansas City.

I think that has a little more significance, certainly more than the last one. 15% significance. I'll say we have to put a percentage on it, Adam. Is that what this game is now? You can ask Heath. He makes the games now. You're the games master.

I was not trying to create any new game. Most of these things don't matter that much, but there's a little something there. Okay. First Coast News reporter Mike Kay expects Chris Ivory to be the short yardage back at the beginning of the year, and he expects all three Jags running backs to split carries early in the season.

Makes me cry. Although, on the other hand, could it drive down Leonardonard fournette's adp nothing can i believe it when i see it right i'm still going to draft him where i'm drafting i'm still not going to draft him where you're drafting him so i won't get him yeah you're not going to get him i'm interested in taking him in late round two as of now and i think it it would just be a matter of time i'm not sure how often you're going to get him in late round two he's gone in early round two and a lot of drifts yeah then i'm

not going to get him that much either then i guess all right that's leonard fournette next up jamal charles is not going to play in denver's preseason opener does anybody draft jamal charles ever i have i've taken him in a couple of weeks. I've only taken him when I drafted C.J. Anderson. I've taken him in several that were more than 15 rounds, like 20-round drafts. I don't mind taking him in the double-digit rounds. Jamal Charles. All right. Eddie Lacy met his weight goal of 250 pounds. Awesome.

Good for him. Cleveland wide receiver coach Al Saunders said Duke Johnson is going to be a dynamic player who can run and catch. I've been saying that about him for years, and technically he's done those things. He does run. He has caught passes. He just doesn't give you the stats that you desire for fantasy football superiority. But they might want to get Duke Johnson more involved this year. Could he have a theoretic-type season?

Could Duke Johnson—I know this is lofty. Could he catch 80 passes this year? I wouldn't go to 80, but I would say 70 is possible. What do you have left? You're 60, right? 80 would be an Isaiah Crowell injury. Okay. And just a name to throw out, Elijah McGuire for the Jets has been getting a lot of work with Forte and Bilal Powell dinged up.

Elijah McGuire, you don't have to know him, but now you do. Wide receiver still. No relation to Mark McGuire. I haven't checked on that. We'll see. We'll Wikipedia that. Quincy Inunua out for the season. Any interest in Robbie Anderson, who had a nice little surge weeks 12 through 14.

He scored double-digit fantasy points in all three of those games. They made a quarterback change to coincide with it. Okay, Robbie Anderson, is he even a number four wide receiver now? Hell no. Listen, they're going to throw the ball 550

times, and there's not one player on their team that's going to pass catcher that's going to have relevance in fantasy? I don't think that's probably true. Who are their quarterbacks again? Josh McKeon. And? The guy, anybody else?

Hackenberg. Oh, yeah, him. Anybody else after him? Because both those two guys are going down. I don't care if it's Charlie Brown throwing passes. I will take Charlie Brown throwing passes. Somebody is going to have fantasy relevance. Get that bald-headed kid on the field and let's go.

No, but he's making a good point. I mean, somebody's got to catch passes. They're going to be behind all the time, in garbage time, all the time. You might as well start calling Bilal Powell Oscar the Grouch. Robbie Anderson is the most. He's going to live in that garbage can. Just to give you an example, a guy that a lot of fantasy analysts are high on, including Keith, and this supports Heath's argument about Robbie Anderson.

Quincy Anunua last year, more fantasy points than Stephon Diggs. So if he's going to get right now, which I would still anticipate Robbie Anderson being in this range, which is why I like Quincy Anunua, if he's going to be in the neighborhood of 120 targets, we've talked about that number a lot. Now, all these guys didn't necessarily have great seasons, but they still ended up finishing as top 24, 25 fantasy receivers. That's the range that probably one of

these guys, whether it's Anderson or Darius Stewart or whoever, Jalen Marshall, I believe Marshall suspended to start the season, but you're talking about targets, and targets is what leads to fantasy production. So it may not be something that you want on your fantasy team, but if you're looking at it with a late-round pick and you're comparing Robbie Anderson and Marquise Lee and, you know. Adam Thielen. Marvin Jones. J.J. Nelson.

J.J. Nelson, Taylor Gabriel. I mean, you know, you've got to put them in that group. And certainly I think Anderson showed last year that when he did have some playing time, he was productive. Anderson is the most likely on the team to finish as the number four receiver. I still think if he can get healthy and have a good preseason, Ardarius Stewart might be the most likely to actually be somebody you want to start at a flex or something. They're tanking. It makes sense for them to tank using their young guys so would you rather have all right would

you rather have jj nelson or robbie anderson i still think there's more upside with jj nelson because we saw what he could do last year with targets he's in a much better offense and there's there's clearly a likelihood because we've seen it of John Brown maybe not being up to 100% for 16 games. And he's dealing with a quad injury right now. So if he goes down, with Fitzgerald being in his mid-30s, there's a chance that J.J. Nelson's fantasy stock goes up a lot. I would say, yeah, there's definitely more upside with Nelson. If I had to bet my life on who's going to score more fantasy points this year, I might bet Anderson. We won't make you do that, Heath.

I don't appreciate it. I'm just letting you know if I did. Well, what do you win? You get double life? No, just my life. You get to come back? Just my life. That happens in movies.

It sure does. I get to keep podcasting with Adam. TV shows. Yeah, that's nice. Other wide receiver notes. Rams rookie receiver Cooper Kupp having a good camp. Cooper Kupp or Robbie Anderson?

Kupp. I believe I don't have either of them ranked in my top 60. I'd like to wait to make a decision on that until I see Cooper Kupp. Really, I want to see Jared Goff. I'm going to say Anderson. Because if Jared Goff looks like a total nincompoop out there, then what's the difference

between the receivers in LA and receivers in New York? Well, the thing about Cupp is he's not going to score a lot of touchdowns probably, but he's probably going to catch a ton of passes. And so he'll have like a Cole Beasley type year from a year ago. All right. Has Cupp moved up your rankings at all or are you not really that interested? Oh, he's in my top 60 for both standard and PPR, and in PPR he's my highest-ranked Rams receiver. Okay. Doug Peterson said Jordan Matthews will not have a reduced role this year,

but now we have a report about some trade rumors involving Jordan Matthews this morning. So we'll see what happens there in Philly. And Jarvis Landry says he did not commit battery against his girlfriend. Landry's girlfriend said she was not physically harmed. I mean, if you're drafting now, are you worried about a Jarvis Landry suspension? Nope. No. Doesn't sound like he committed any crime.

All right. Tight end news. Just that Jimmy Graham says he's feeling almost 100 times better at this point this season than compared to last season. And the Tacoma News Tribune reports that Graham could be used more at the goal line this year. I drafted him yesterday in the two-quarterback league. And I look forward to talking about Graham tomorrow on the tight end preview. And the Jaguars, do you think Brandon Albert will play for the Jaguars this year?

Nope. So what's the deal there? They put him on the reserve retired list, and then he wanted to come back. He retired and realized that he owed them $4 million if he retired and tried to un-retire. I see. They've said, we'd rather have the $4 million. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it.

So could he work something out where he plays for less money or plays for another team? Or do the Jaguars hold all the cards? They have all the – yes, the Jaguars hold all the cards. Could they cut it? So they can come to him and say, listen, you're going to play for the veteran minimum if you're going to play at all. Yeah. At which point I would imagine Brandon Albert would say, see ya. Yeah.

All right, so let's not assume they're getting any help there on the offensive line in Jacksonville. And Dallas defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford hurt his ankle in practice, and it looked like it might be bad, and that's an important player for them. They really are very thin on the defensive line to start the season with some suspensions, and now Crawford hurt in practice. So we hope for the best for Tyrone Crawford and the Cowboys defensive line. We are going to bring on our guest now, Kim Richlisher, and we are going to talk to her about fantasy football and get some insight from one of the best in the world.

After the interview, we will review our two-quarterback league because we took some very different strategies in this league, and the quarterbacks, as I suspected, they fell even farther than I would have suspected. So we'll come back to that. All right, we're having a little bit of technical issues trying to get our guest on here, so that will hopefully be coming in a little bit. In the meantime, what you've all been waiting for. Let's talk about the two-quarterback league, the best league ever,

and very different strategies. So it was a 10-team league. It was half PPR. You start two quarterbacks, two running backs, two wide receivers, tight end kicker defense, and one flex. And Dave had the first pick. I had the second pick. Jamie had the fourth pick.

And Heath had the eighth pick in this 10-team league. Two of us took quarterbacks. Two of us didn't. All right, Dave, you went with the first pick. You took Aaron Rodgers. So just talk about your overall strategy, your overall strategy uh in this two quarterback league with the number one overall pick i knew that in a 10 team two quarterback league there would be 20 quarterbacks started every single week i knew that the position while very deep in a one quarterback

league suddenly not so deep in a two quarterback format so the chance to get the number one quarterback on my board the player who i think is the best passer in fantasy right now i didn't overthink it i wanted to take him do you regret because seeing how the quarterbacks fell i mean let's look at how they went round by round 29 quarterbacks drafted overall three in the first round, one in the second, two in the third, one in the fourth, three in the fifth. It took us five rounds to get 10 quarterbacks off the board, two in the sixth, five in the seventh, and so on. I could have gotten a combination like Andrew Luck and Kirk Cousins in rounds two and three. Or I could have even taken just one of them then.

As the way the draft shook out, I could have taken none of them and still gotten Kirk Cousins in the four or five turn, which is where I ended up getting him. But I didn't care. I wanted a quarterback in a league where a lot of people are going to start quarterbacks and they'll be happy with 20 points from them. I want the big gun. And Aaron Rodgers has that crazy potential.

Everybody knows what he can do. In this particular format, I think it gives my team an edge to have one of those elite passers. Fair enough. The next pick was Le'Veon Bell. No, I'm an idiot. The next pick was me. It was David Johnson, then Le'Veon Bell. That's great.

Maybe that's a Freudian slip. Did you want to take Le'Veon Bell there? No great. Maybe that's a Freudian slip. Did you want to take Le'Veon Bell there? I wanted to take half PBR. I know they're both going to catch passes. I definitely wanted to take David Johnson. Bell went third. And Jamie had said on yesterday's show that he was either going to take David Johnson, Le'Veon Bell, or Tom Brady. So Johnson and Bell were off the board, so Jamie took Brady. Then it was Breeze, Antonio Brown, Ezekiel Elliott, Julio Jones,

Tahith, Odell Beckham, A.J. Green. So the first 10 picks were the three running backs, three receivers, plus Rodgers, Brady, Breeze, and A.J. Green. Let's go how you constructed your team. And Dave, you can start. You started with Aaron Rodgers. And give me like, give me the final thoughts on your team, what you like about it, what you don't like about it, and lessons to be learned here.

Well, something funny happened to me during this draft. I took a few liberties knowing that it's a 10-team league and that everybody was going to have an all-star roster. I also had many occasions where players I wanted were picked right in front of me. There was one point in the draft where I went a little crazy, but if I'm going just as an overview of it all, I was surprised by the lack of quarterbacks taken between picks two and 19 overall. So when I was up at 20th overall, I had a feeling that I'd be able to get one of my top 10 quarterbacks fall back to me at the end of round four. So I took two running backs knowing that that position

would get drained pretty quick. Jordan Howard to Marco Murray. It's the direction I went in there. Round four comes around and sure enough, Kirk Cousins is still there. So is Devonta Adams. At the time, I had Adams ranked higher than Brandon Cooks, so I took him. But there was a part of me that wanted to pull the trigger on Cooks then. I was already working through my studying of the Saints. Rounds six and seven come along, and Edelman and Cooks were both available. They were the highest-ranked receivers at the time. I needed wide receivers to half-point PPR.

They both made sense. And then right when I was— You took Edelman and Cooks, huh, back-to-back in rounds six and seven? Yeah, I don't know if I really love it. I figure between starting them both each week, one will be great, one will be not so great. I think it will be rare where they're both doing great for my fantasy team. And I'll just take a wait-and-see approach. They'll probably both start for me to begin the season, and we'll go from there.

Rounds eight and nine, I did something interesting. I was the first one to take three quarterbacks. Dalton is one of the last decent quarterbacks that I like this year. I got so mad when you took him because you don't want to neglect your third quarterback. If you have an injury, you're in trouble. Again, pointing to the fact that there's only 10 teams in the league, you can go ahead and take those chances and get that third quarterback then

and still be able to recover from that in the draft and pick up other good players later on at running back, receiver, and tight end. I paired him with Pierre Garçon. That polished off all the receivers and quarterbacks I was going to take. Then in round 10, I wanted Derrick Henry. I wanted Tyrell Williams. Both of them went in the picks, I wanted Derrick Henry. I wanted Tyrell Williams.

Both of them went in the picks right in front of me. When you took Tyrell Williams, Adam, I was cursing like a sailor. I would do it now, but, you know, I'm just a gentleman, I guess. This was the highlight of so far 2017 draft season. What happened next? I flipped my wig. Pardon my French. So I said, screw everyone, and I took back-to-back tight ends at 100th and 101st overall with Tyler Eifert and Zachary.

Screw everyone. Most of all, my own team. Screw you. No, but. All you did was screw yourself. I don't know if I did or if I didn't, but it's definitely something out of the norm. I didn't like anybody else. I didn't want another quarterback. i didn't want another quarterback didn't want another wide receiver i would have been happy to take tyrell williams and a tight end the best part was you realizing like three picks later dave at this point on his roster had three quarterbacks two tight ends and two running

backs this this is not like me i i like to take a lot of running backs and i and i decided at that point that maybe i should start taking a few more running backs it was also at this point where he kindly reminded me that this was not a mock draft and that we were playing this league out and then right after that jamie said yeah and by the way we're playing for money jamie told me how much money we were playing for i walked right over to his desk i dropped the money that i owed for the league on his desk first to pay, props to me. And I just went ahead with my life after that. But I do like the running backs I picked later on. A lot of good depth, especially for a half point PPR. Also monumental because it was the first time that Jamie has ever collected money

before the start of the season. Yeah, yeah. Dave took Theo Riddick and Duke Johnson with his next two picks. He took Jamal Charles in round 15. All right, yeah, I think the thing that I learned with the number two pick was it's hard to know. It really is. But the quarterbacks did fall farther than I expected. So I went with David Johnson, one, and then I took Michael Thomas, and then I took Russell Wilson. And I didn't regret any of those picks. Running back, David Johnson. Wide receiver took Michael Thomas. And then I took Russell Wilson. And I didn't regret any of those picks. Running back, David Johnson. Wide receiver, Michael Thomas.

And then my first quarterback, Russell Wilson with the second pick of the third round. So that would be 22 overall. And then I took Alshon Jeffrey. Then I took Marcus Mariota in the fifth round. And I was fine with it at that point. There were still good quarterbacks on the board. But I figured we would get the run. I was waiting and waiting for the run. It really didn't happen.

And then I see, like, Jamie takes Derek Carr in round six. I don't know if he would have fallen to me two picks later. Cam Newton goes in round seven. Remember, I took Mariota in round five. Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, Tyrod Taylor, Eli Manning in round seven. Look, I like Mariota better than those guys, but I don't know if I like them two or three rounds better.

I might have misplayed that. I wish that I had been able to anticipate quarterbacks going later than I thought, but that's how fantasy football works. Things happen. You don't anticipate them. I don't have to go through my entire team. I just wanted to bring that up.

This is two quarterback leagues, especially if it's a 10-team league. There's a lot of depth on waiver wire. You don't have to reach for anybody. Try to get as many studs as you can. But I do think people typically wait longer than I expect on quarterback. That would be my lesson. Jamie, you had the fourth overall pick, and you started with Tom Brady. How did your team turn out?

I was very pleased. I got four receivers that are in my top 25 range of Dez Bryant, Terrell Pryor, Martavis Bryant, and Willie Sneed. So I was thrilled with that group. I was thrilled with my collection of running backs with Jay Ajayi, Isaiah Crow crowell uh amir abdullah both redskins running backs and jamal williams big surprise i took jamal williams and uh like you said i i took brady in round one and and waited and got derrick car in round six i like the value for those two guys and i was uh either me or scott White were the last owner to draft a tight end after a couple of people took two. I just ended up with Delaney Walker, who I don't love this year. But if I get him in the 14th round, I will gladly take him.

And Heath, you intended to wait and wait and wait on quarterback. And you had the eighth overall pick. You started with Julio Jones and Mike Evans. Are you happy with your team? That was what I thought would happen because that's what I thought everyone else would lead me to do. But if Drew Brees had been there at pick eight, I would have taken him in the first round. That's not the way

it worked. Every time I thought, I'm going to take this player and I hope this player is there with my next pick, every single time they were there. It was except for danny woodhead which i think was round six but i started with julio jones mike evans and doug baldwin in the first three rounds took travis kelsey in the fourth so after four rounds had zero running backs

zero quarterbacks but a lot of fantasy points let me just hold on i have a cool stat about doug baldwin i was looking because i was researching jimmy graham russell wilson's but a lot of fantasy points. Hold on. I have a cool stat about Doug Baldwin. I was looking because I was researching Jimmy Graham. Russell Wilson has been the quarterback for five years. In those five years, one player has had more than seven touchdown catches in a season. It was Doug Baldwin in 2015. He had 14. I don't really know.

I just think that's cool. I don't really know if it requires much analysis. I was really going to bring it up for Graham, whether or not they both could catch seven or both could catch eight, because only one player has ever had more than seven touchdown catches with Russell Wilson, and that was 14 touchdown catches for Baldwin in 2015. Just thought it was interesting.

All right, so what's the rest of your team, Heath? I took running back with my next two picks. I got Ty Montgomery in the fifth round, Paul Perkins in the sixth, and then very, very nervous from that pick in the sixth round, waiting for my seventh round pick to see if any starting quarterbacks would make it back to me. And the last two did. I got Tyrod Taylor and Carson Palmer. Actually, Andy Dalton was still there, and I would have taken Dalton over Palmer, but Taylor and Dalton have the same bye week.

So in a two QB league, pairing those two wouldn't work very well. So I got Tyrod Taylor and Carson Palmer at quarterback, and then I felt like the real weakness was running back, so I took Spencer Ware, Frank Gore, Giovanni Bernard to kind of give me some depth at running back. When you picked Perkins, other quarterbacks on the board included Carr and Rivers. Any second thought? Cam Newton was also there. I know you're a big Cam guy.

If you could do it again, would you take the safety of one of those quarterbacks first and then go running back quarterback with your next two picks? No. I know you're a big Tyron guy, and we're both Carson Palmer guys. So you're probably loving the quarterbacks that fell to you 15 picks later. Yes, because I don't remember what running backs were there when I took Tyrod Taylor. Maybe there was one that was comparable to Paul Perkins. Probably not, in my opinion.

But the big thing for me is I don't see that much separation between Tyrod Palmer and Derek Carr. So I'd rather take those two guys. And then as far as safety goes, I was able to get Alex Smith as my third quarterback. Alex Smith is not exciting at all, but he's an excellent third quarterback in a 2QB league. Like you waited on quarterback in a smart way with taking Tyrod Taylor and Carson Palmer because yesterday we talked about there are like 17 to 20 quarterbacks that we like as starters. I don't want to criticize someone who's not on the show and can't defend himself, but Chris Towers, his quarterbacks are Andrew Luck, Brian Hoyer, and Deshaun Watson.

I think he waited a little bit too long. At some point you're taking bench players before you're taking your number two quarterback, who's a starter for you, and Luck's injured. So Brian Hoyer and Deshaun Watson As your number two quarterbacks with Andrew Luck I think that's overkill In my opinion I don't know what round it was I wrote it in the story

But he had the chance I believe Where he took CJ Anderson He had the chance to take either Dalton or Palmer there And I thought he would I was hoping he wouldn't take Palmer Because I thought I was going to be stuck with two QBs and say bye. Which would have made a lot more sense for his team. Now, look,

we kind of illustrated this yesterday. I don't know if we explained it, but Keith took Tom Brady in the seventh round of the 2015 season because of the fear of suspension, and that ended up being a big reason why he was able to win the league, along with a lot of other great players on his team.

If Andrew Luck is right, as we talked about in our quarterback preview, he could be the number one quarterback. And so to get that at the end of the third round. No, that's great, but it's Hoyer and Watson. There was at least one team, I think two. There is no quarterback drafted for the Broncos. So both Broncos' potential starters are out there. And there was no quarterback drafted for the Broncos. So both Broncos' potential starters are out there. And there was no starter drafted for the Jets,

which, as we talked about with Quincy Inunua, they're going to still throw the ball a lot. So if Chris wants to play, and I don't believe Tom Savage was drafted either, so if Chris wants to just play the streaming option, luck's right, get 16 games out of luck, stream the second guy, He could still be successful. Yeah, maybe.

I mean, C.J. Anderson, you said that he took C.J. Anderson over Andy Dalton. Anderson was his number three running back. He already had Devontae Freeman and Mark Ingram. So he could start Anderson as a flex, but that might be a bench player for him. I just don't know why you wait so long and you take Hoyer as your number two. You don't need to go to that extreme, especially in a 10-team league. There's going to be talent at other positions. If you

take a quarterback a little earlier than you anticipated, you'll be all right. Because of all the quarterbacks being drafted, I talked about this with Heath yesterday. Corey Coleman, not drafted. Matt Forte, not drafted. I don't think Adam Thielen was drafted. There's a lot of guys that could be

potential starters for you, but certainly guys that you might need. Eric Ebron. Eric Ebron was supposed to be drafted, but I accidentally auto-picked Jonathan Williams instead of Eric Ebron. That will be my first waiver claim.

We've got to let Dave and Jamie go. Heath and I are going to try to get Kimra on now. If we can't, we'll read some emails. But you're going to want to hear from her. We'll get her on at some point, even if it's not today. Dave and Jamie, bye. Bye. And as promised, we are now joined by Kimra Schlicher.

She is awesome at fantasy football. She's the number seven world-ranked fantasy football player from Scout.com and the first female world champion. She won the world championship last year. And, Kimra, welcome to Fantasy Football today. Thank you so much for coming on. Hey, thanks for the opportunity. How are you guys doing today?

I'm doing great. Heath, how are you doing? I'm doing wonderful. I was just wondering, you announced that she was the number seven ranked player. What are you ranked right now? I think I'm number eight. I was number seven. And then Kimra just bumped me down to number eight so you know tough break tough break for me but

i'm in good company kimra uh can you please just tell us about the fantasy football world championship like how do you become a fantasy football world champion well you uh participate in scouts tournament you can either do it online, which I wanted online last year, or you can make that great trip to Las Vegas and participate in live events. And depending on the years, you could be participating against anywhere from five to 600 teams. You're in a league of 12 teams and you advance out of your league, you play the first 13 weeks of the season. The first two weeks are an all-play, and then weeks three through 13 are the tournament within your own league.

And so pretty much you have to dominate that league or get lucky as a wild-card team, and then you get into a pool of a tournament in weeks 14, 15, and 16, and hopefully your team gets hot at the right time, which mine did last season. If you make it to the final week 16, you can pocket a cool $150,000 if you win the tournament. I was fortunate enough to do that last season. Yeah, so you were the first female world champion. What was that like?

I mean, I really honestly didn't think about it. I grew up with three boys in the household, so they beat me down quite a bit growing up. I honestly didn't really think about it because there's only, I think, four women that I know of that really participate in Las Vegas in the high stakes tournaments, and they're all very good. I'm surprised one of them hasn't won it before me. I've been close a few times i've been in the top 10 i think five or six different times and just was never fortunate enough to win it until last season so you know i think maybe hopefully to encourage women maybe to participate a little bit more there's a lot of women to go out there with their husbands and boyfriends and a lot of them just don't participate

on their own so but you know like i said hopefully they'll uh shatter the glass ceiling so to speak and hopefully some more may participate a little bit more. Because I know locally there's a lot of women who participate on a local level, but not many of them participate in that high-dollar range, those high-stakes leagues. Well, congratulations to you. That's really awesome. What are we missing? What is the general public missing?

How do you evaluate football players, fantasy football players? What are the secrets that the very best in the world do? I don't know if there's any secrets, so to speak. But last season, a lot of people were discounting Le'Veon Bell because of his three-game suspension. So in a fantasy football world championship, you have a lineup of 11 players. And so a lot of people were discounting bell so much so i thought wow you know he's a top three back when he comes back i just have to make it those first three weeks of the season and because of the value that i got from him i got him in round two and a lot of times

that's where he was falling last season so i was fortunate enough i kept telling myself if i could pick up david johnson and bell and then hopefully find some of those good receivers in the back end of the draft because if you're in the FFWC league a lot of the wide receivers the first 36 receivers will go off probably go off the board in the first 48 picks first four rounds so I kind of zig where everybody else was zagging or I zag where everybody else was zigging so to speak and I went running back heavy while everybody else was doing the wide receivers. But I was fortunate enough on my team last year to get Michael Crabtree, who outperformed Amari Cooper,

and also was able to get Michael Thomas from my New Orleans Saints, and he outperformed Brandon Cook. So in Golden Tate, and I just filled in some of the other positions, and I was able to withstand some of those other teams that had a lot of heavy wide receivers, because it's point-per-reception league. You can start five receivers. So I was going running back heavy when all the other guys were going wide receiver. And I'm normally, they always yell at me because I'm normally the yellow sticker girl

who always puts up the yellow stickers with the wide receivers. But I thought I'd do something a little bit different. And I'm so glad I did that last season. So I had a draft the other night, and I did the same thing. I went running back heavy. We'll see how that team turns out. Do you think that's really the key, though, in competing in these contests, where you're not just in a 12-person league, but you're going against 500 to 600 teams?

You've got to do something different, right? Yes, yes. I think for me, over the last few years, what I try to do is diversify my teams a little bit. You know, we always get stuck on a player we love, and then we want him on all of our teams. And the last couple years, I've gotten off that a little bit, and I'll put that player on my team. A majority, maybe 60% of the teams, but not all my teams. But when people start moving players up, then you lose the value. Like last year, people were discounting Le'Veon Bell so much, and he was a value, but

everybody was thinking, oh, I need wide receivers, I need wide receivers to play in this format. And then Bell came on, and he was, what, the top two back. So, you've got to be a little bit different at some point. Yeah. Who do you like this year? Anybody you find yourself drafting a lot,

Kimra? No, you're going to make me give all my secrets away. Okay, I understand. You don't have to. Whatever you can tell us, I guess, that can help the audience. Well, obviously, I'm big into Martavis Bryant right now, and you can get him in the fourth, fifth round, and some other good players, Terrell Pryor and Dalvin Cook.

Okay. He's got – you always look for a few things when I'm drafting running backs, looking for volume, opportunity, and talent. A lot of players have the volume and opportunity, but they don't have the talent. So in Minnesota this season, so to speak, Dalvin Cook is somebody I'm going to be targeting. You can pick him up right now in the fifth round, fifth, sixth round. And he's doing very well so far in the training camps. They love him.

Latavius Murray has been. He's coming off that injury in surgery. So a lot of people are probably overlooking Dalvin Cook, and they're looking towards Christian McCaffrey and Joe Mixon because those are the popular rookies. And I love McCaffrey, but you have to wonder at the goal line if Cam Newton's going to get all the carries or is Jonathan Sturt going to come in and steal some goal line carries.

But McCaffrey's going to be a beast with the PPRs. He's going to catch a lot of balls out of backfield. Exciting player, but a lot of people are going to overlook Dalvin Cook because Minnesota's not the trendy team sometimes, but they are a run-heavy team, and I think Dalvin will end up being very, very good this year. It sounds like you like upside. You don't love the safe players.

You like the upside, huh? Risk, high reward, right? There you go. They don't give you any prizes for fifth place, so you might as well go win the league. No, donate your money and thanks for playing, right? But you must play in in plenty of leagues i mean i saw an interview with you you said you were in 22 leagues i don't know what year that was but um yeah but you know in a typical 12 team league that you're playing with your friends

do you take the same strategies and you're going for the upside guys or is that just reserved for the the high stakes stuff sure I take whatever they give me, and I'd like to go the high-risk players normally. Gotcha. Any industry trends that you're seeing, players that maybe the experts are high or low on right now here on August 9th? Well, one guy I really like right now is Cooper Cupp. Nobody's talking about him out of L.A.

I think once he plays maybe a couple of preseason games, he's already running with the starters. It's a guy that I'm getting right now in the 13th, 14th, 15th round. He's from, what, eastern Washington, I believe. He fits the profile. He's a football junkie. He's got the pedigree. And I think he's already established a good rapport with Jared Goff.

So, I mean, that's not somebody who's going to be your number one or two or three. But when you're looking for biweek fillers or somebody who can emerge and get them late in the draft, a good value pick, I think, would be Cooper Pepp. I know everybody in the industry talks about wait on quarterback. We talk about it all the time as well. But let's say you're in a league with a bunch of people that wait on quarterback what's the earliest you're willing to go after rogers or brady um depending on the makeup of my team and a lot of times i know some of the players i'm playing against and um like last year in my tournament team i was able my championship team i was able to get drew breeze in the 10th round i mean come on he's top five statistical quarterback.

But everybody's waiting on quarterbacks. So I'll start to look around the 6th or 7th round, especially if it's a four-point passing points for the quarterback position. Now, if it's a six-point league, I will move the quarterback up a little bit because I want to value the position. But if it's a four-point, which is in the FFWC, you're looking at just a small difference in the amount of touchdowns between Drew Brees.

That difference of that two points from the four to six. But I start looking around the sixth, seventh, eighth round and see who's there. And we're talking 12-team leagues, right? Yes, 12-team leagues, yes. I don't play in any 10-team leagues anymore. Too easy, right? Yeah, I don't know. It's like getting candy from a baby, right?

No, I just don't play in them because I'll probably end up losing. I got you. Kimber, we have our tight end preview tomorrow. Let me ask you a couple tight end questions. How do you feel about Travis Kelsey this year? Is he going to be able to repeat his stellar performance? I'm always concerned about players in the Chiefs passing game. What do you think Travis Kelsey this year? Is he going to be able to repeat his stellar performance? I'm always concerned about players in the Chiefs passing game. What do you think about Kelsey this year?

I love Travis Kelsey, but he's been injured a little. And I normally don't own the top tight ends on my team because I'm always looking for value plays later on in my draft. This year I really like Zach Ertz. I think he's developed a good rapport with Carson Wentz. He finished his season last year. I think he's developed a good rapport with Carson Wentz. He finished his season last year. I think he had their season finale. He finished with like 13 receptions for over 130 yards and two touchdowns. Never know where Jordan Matthews fits in there. They got all Sean Jeffrey, but

I still think Zach Ertz is a good value play for you. And I love Kelsey, but the injury scares me away and the high draft pick. I mean, he's going. I think the other night I was in our draft, he went in the second or third round. So I'm looking for other big players, stud players at that position and just try to find the value at tight end later in my draft. So no Gronkowski for you typically? No, I don't think I've ever owned Gronkowski. Wow. I love to watch him play.

I love to watch him run over guys. Never owned him. I don't normally own Kelseysey and i don't normally own olsen okay and i like hunter henry this year too i think um antonio gates will still be on the field probably for red zones or maybe third downs but hunter henry is a guy you can get really late in your draft and he's starting to emerge with san diego you saw that at the end of the season last year and i love jimmy Graham. I'm a Saints fan, and I was really sad when he left the Saints, but he was hurt all last season. I don't even know if

he practiced last year. He's already dropped 20 pounds. He looks great in camp already. He's a guy that people will be off of because he didn't have a good year last year. He's a guy that I'll be targeting along with Zach Ertz and most of my teams. Yeah, I think I'm going to be targeting Jimmy Graham too. In fact, I did take Graham in the draft that we did yesterday. I'm looking forward to that. He says he feels better and should get more work near the goal line. We love Willie Sneed on this podcast.

You're a Saints fan. Is Willie Sneed just going to step into that number two receiver role, put up big numbers? You hope so. I mean, he has the talent and he's got the quarterback in the system. He's starting to go higher, too, in drafts as well since Brandon Cooks went to the Patriots. So you're looking at Michael Thomas. You can't get Thomas.

You definitely want to get Sneed. You want a part of that offense. You want a part of the Patriots, the Saints, the Packers offense as much as possible. And so you've got to get the best players with the most targets and get those players on your team. Last question for you, Kimra. Your favorite type of league.

If you were going to create your favorite league, what would it consist of? The one she wins $150,000. Great answer right there, right? Hey, I love the 11-man league with the fantasy football world championship and i love ppr i don't play in any league i take that back i play in one local league and it's because it was the first league i ever started in they play uh individual defensive players i'm like who watches individual defensively i still play in that one league but my favorite league is the ppr leagues with the 12 teams and of course the prize the prize pool, $150,000. Yeah,

I'm playing in quite a bit of those this year. Yeah, I don't blame you. And congratulations on the win last year. And thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it. You guys have a great day. Thanks for having me on. That's Kimra Schlicher, the number seven world-ranked fantasy football player from Scout.com, or Scout.com's number seven-ranked player, first female world champion, and our guest today on Fantasy Football Today. Heath, thank you, sir. I appreciate it. I really enjoyed it.

That was a good interview. Yes, it was. I appreciate her not calling you out on saying that you were number eight because you were number 481 last year when you just got fishbowl. Good point. And there's no way you got up to number eight in one year. But, no, that's awesome. Yeah, thank you to Kimber, thank you to Heath, Dave, and Jamie.

And thank you all for listening. Back tomorrow with our tight end preview here on Fantasy Football Today.