Fantasy Football Today - 08/14 Fantasy Football Podcast: Golladay Inn, Backfield Battles

Episode Date: August 14, 2017

Back from the weekend to give some preseason hot takes! Should Eddie Lacy be the third SEA RB drafted (4:40)? What's going on with the KC backfield (8:00)? And could Hunter Henry be a total dud this season (11:04)? ... A lot of Ezekiel Elliott talk (15:48) as Jamey drafted him pretty early in a weekend draft. Does Jamey regret it? We also give injury updates on Andrew Luck (23:10), Leonard Fournette (27:50), Paul Richardson and discuss future Hall of Famer Kenny Golladay (29:03) ... Our thoughts on Joe Mixon's debut (37:14), handcuffs in SD and OAK (38:44), Robby Anderson (41:55) and the analyst draft that Jamey and Adam participated in this weekend (44:00) ... Your emails 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 fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Here we go! If you still draft quarterbacks in round one, we're here to help. Let's go! Now, here's a little combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to preseason week two, everybody.

Yeah, technically it's week three, but we don't count the Hall of Fame game. Nobody watches that. I'm Adam Azer, Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg, Heath Cummings. We're all here. We're talking about Ezekiel Elliott, some news on his six-game suspension, a report from our Jason Lockenforer, just a little theory from him. Jamie and I were up in New York doing the Flex Draft this weekend with some industry writers and analysts. We'll tell you how

that went and who the industry guys like and dislike. Andrew Luck may not be ready for week one. I'm going to stop talking. I'm a little sick today, so I apologize for my bad voice and bad performance. Good morning, guys. What's going on? So flex means that it's flexible in how long you're there, like you can leave before it's over or not get there until after it started. Oh, no, I got there way before it started. He was definitely on time. As a matter of fact, I bought him lunch, so he was well in advance of the time he was supposed to be there.

So you got there, you had lunch, and then you left early. Are you sure it wasn't me who was there? I highly, highly, highly recommend the Greenwich – Greenwich? Greenwich. Greenwich Street Tavern. Yeah, it's a very good place. It's down in Tribeca.

Now, I did not exactly leave early. I had to pick a defense, and I had to catch a train. So I wrote down my priority of DSTs, and I handed it to the commissioner. I don't even know who I ended up with. I think you got the Rams. Okay, great. You deserve the Browns.

I actually said that they should have given you the Jets. Yeah. Well, the Jets might have some decent moments on defense. He needs the Saints. Saints defense is not going to be good. So, anyway, yeah, I got the Rams. Thank you. And I left with two seconds left in the draft. I didn't leave early.

I had to catch my train. You know, it's funny because I was actually going to say – because I had a car there, I could have driven you to the train station. Yeah, but then you would have had to leave early. Anyway, nobody cares. We're going to talk about Jamie taking Ezekiel Elliott early in the second round, really for kicks and giggles, I guess we can say, and how that worked out for him, where T.Y. Hilton fell, all those things.

Let's get some preseason hot takes. We had a lot of games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Dave, preseason hot take me. I am worried about Lamar Miller and Carlos Hyde keeping their starting jobs this season. Whoa. That's hot for Miller. Okay.

I mean, I get the Hyde thing. We've talked about that. But Miller, you're worried about him keeping his starting job Yeah the running backs behind him look good Against Carolina Who are they playing against They were Buckets backups I know I know But there's still potential there

And Lamar Miller didn't look great against the starters Who do you think is taking Carlos Hyde's job I think it could be Brita or Williams Brita I was surprised Brita apparently is. Brita. Is it Brita? Brita. Brita. Because Brita, I was surprised. Brita apparently is ahead of Williams. He was on the field ahead of Williams.

He was ahead of him in the spring, too. I think Williams is a little bit better. What do I know? Brita, both. They both had really good moments. I thought Williams was the better pass blocker. Now, hot takes are supposed to be. Hightower didn't play, right?

Hightower did not play. Yeah. He's going to be the number two guy. Lamar Miller ain't losing that job. No are supposed to be. And Hightower didn't play, right? Hightower did not play. Yeah. He's going to be the number two guy. Lamar Miller ain't losing that job. No. Not to Alfred. Are you worried about him losing touches? Yes.

Because that's something that the coaching staff made a point to say. Well, Brian said it during the offseason. He said it to me. I'll say the same thing I said at that time. And I said it last week. The total number of carries that he had in 13 games, he'll have over 16 games. So you dial back whatever number that is per game, he's going to lose some touches. He could potentially lose some goal line touches to Foreman.

He could lose some work throughout the course of the game. He's still their primary back. There's no way that they're taking him off the field barring injury unless Foreman is just completely a monster. And I don't know if that's going to happen. Yeah, that would definitely. But I don't think he's going to lose to Alfred Blue. We know who Alfred Blue is. No, he's not losing to Alfred Blue.

But at the same time, he did. I watched that game too. At the same time, their first team offense looked horrible. They were playing without their left tackle who wants a new contract, Dwayne Brown. But that was what was really concerning to me. It was not really concerning. It was one possession or whatever. But it was how bad the offensive line looked.

And that was a problem for Houston last year. They got better, but they got better as the Panthers pulled starting defenders off the field. And none of that really matters. Heath, hot take me. Eddie Lacy should be the third Seahawks running back drafted. Wow. Behind Procise, too? In PPR, behind Rawls and Procise.

Yeah, he's going to start to fall behind Rawls. It's crazy. Our average opposition is starting to reflect, I think, what it will start to look like, barring crazy scenarios. But Rawls, I think, is moving up 19 spots, and Lacey's dropping like 15 spots. In the flex draft over the weekend, Lacey went, I think, 17 picks ahead of Rawls.

They were back-to-back rounds. Same owner, though. Oh, good. That was a smart move by him, then. He took Rawls right in front of me. He was picking right in front of me. I forget Frank's last name. I apologize.

He works with Nando at the Fantasy Network. He picked Rawls right. I was like, okay, good. I'm going to get Rawls right in front of me. He was picking right in front of me. I forget Frank's last name. I apologize. He works with Nando at the Fantasy Network. He picked Rawls right. I was like, okay, good. I'm going to get Rawls. Sure enough. What round was that? I don't recall. Round two?

No. Three. Pretty soon. Round nine. Round eight for Lacey. Round nine for Frank Stample, who was picking. Yeah, so he had the 105th pick with Rawls and with Lacey, the 88th pick. I'm not taking Lacey with a single-digit round pick any longer.

Okay, so it's hard to know what's real and what's an overreaction at this point because – I don't know. You know what I forgot to do, and I'll try to do it for tomorrow, was go back a year ago and look at some of the notes and see who was running first team and who was running second team and see if it actually played out. Well, what we know is that the tweets from practice have been, Rawls is working with the first team, Rawls is working with the first team. Yeah. Russell Wilson got one series, and Thomas Rawls was the running back with him.

The one thing, though, that's been consistent with that is Lacey working his way back from the ankle injury and still learning the offense. But if the ankle injury was something significant, I'm not saying serious, he wouldn't have even bothered playing on that. Totally agree. But he was out there. Yep. And he wasn't great.

But he also may not be, and start the jokes now, but he may not be in the right condition to be playing better than Rawls. Rawls may be, at this point, better than him. But will he be better than him three weeks from now? Rawls struggled last year. 3.2 yards per carry, but 5.6 yards per carry as a rookie. And he was really good. So that's interesting.

And, yeah, we'll see. All right, so he's going to take Rawls ahead of Lacey. Dave and Jamie, which running back are you taking first in Seattle? I'll still take Lacey, but it's like almost back-to-back. Can I say I just don't want either one? I'm just going to let Heath take Lacey whenever and Jamie take Rawls whenever. I don't think I want either one. If you're going to get them at the right price, it's not a bad idea to get both.

Are either of you convinced that Seattle's offensive line is better and that they'll be able to functionally run the football better than they could last year? The first part of that, yes, they'll be better because they can't be worse. Okay. Second part of that,

no, but if you're still talking about a fourth running back on your fantasy team, that's not a bad team to buy into because I think still their philosophy will be to try and run the ball, especially inside the five. I mean, you know, the Super Bowl play notwithstanding, that's typically been their MO. All right. So that's Rawls versus Lacey. Jamie, preseason hot take?

Kareem Hunt is not close to passing Spencer Ware. So Spencer Ware is still the guy there. I don't think – I think it's too soon to say that. I agree. Ware looked good on that one drive that he had where he caught the pass, broke a tackle, and then scored on a two-yard touchdown pretty easily. But Hunt barely played. Barely played with the second team.

He had one carry. With the second team. I'm not ready to give up that one yet. Well, and that's the other thing. I mean, it could take – you took both guys, Jamie, in your – I took both in the flex draft, yeah. Yeah, in the sixth round, third pick of the sixth round, 63rd overall, you took Spencer Ware. This was a 12-team standard scoring league with actually two flexes and three wide receivers,

so deep starting lineups. And then in the eighth round, so you took Ware in the sixth round, you took Hunt in the eighth round. And yeah, I mean, I think that's a real interesting topic of conversation right now for fantasy football owners is how much do we buy it? Are we really surprised that in preseason week one, the rookie Kareem Hunt is not running ahead of Spencer Ware? And I don't think it's a huge surprise.

And should it really matter if you didn't really like Ware that much to begin with and you felt when they drafted Hunt that he was eventually going to be the guy? I'm not saying you're wrong with the way you drafted them a way or two rounds earlier, but if you felt that eventually Hunt was going to take over and be the number one running back for the Chiefs, has anything really happened to give you pause on that, or has it basically just played out as we expected? I mean, we're one week into the preseason, you know what I mean? Well, I think the difference would be that Hunt didn't split the first team reps.

He had one snap, I believe, in the first quarter. Right. Like McCaffrey's working with Stewart with the first team. Mixon was working with the first team a little bit. Jamal Williams has been working with the first team. Hunt's been working with the first team in practice. So I'm not giving up on Kareem Hunt. I just think that if I had Hunt ranked higher than Ware,

I don't think that's the right way to approach it anymore. So he hasn't made as much progress as we would have hoped at this point. No, I think he's making the right progress. But again, doing a draft this past weekend, if I'm drafting today, if I'm drafting tomorrow, I'm going to take Spencer Ware ahead of Kareem Hunt. I don't think Spencer Ware's ADP is reflective of where he should go. Right now he's in the third round in our drafts,

fourth round on Fantasy Pros. That's just too high. So if I can get six and eight, I'll do that all day. Spencer Ware, he got very unlucky with touchdowns last year. That's obvious. But he only had three rushing and two receiving and a lot of touches. He's not an explosive player. Three carries of more than 20 yards last year on 214 carries.

That was 33rd in the league. But then again, he had a very good 2015. All right, so that's the Chiefs, Seahawks backfields, Texans backfields, Niners backfields. I'll give you a hot take about tight ends. Wow, you want to talk about overreacting from one drive. Hot take, Hunter Henry has a chance to be a total bust this year. Because Gates got the touchdown.

I think he has a chance. I don't know about total bust because if a guy is being drafted in the 8th or 9th or 10th round, I barely even consider those guys bust eligible. That's fine, I suppose. But yeah, I think he could just not be a startable tight end. Yeah. I mean, he's better than Gates, and Gates will slow down as the year goes on.

Would you start Hunter Henry in a game at Denver? Probably. Nope. That's week one. They struggled with tight ends last year. Yeah, I don't know if I'd run away from that. I mean, I don't know that I'd have a choice.

Would you start Jesse James against Cleveland or Hunter Henry against Denver? As of now, it's Henry. Okay. Willing to take my lumps so that I could use him week two against Miami. Yeah.

Week three, it's Kansas City. No. We know what Eric Berry's track record is against tight ends. I think he scored against them last year. Or Gates did. Maybe they both did in the final game of the season. Yeah, I don't think Eric Berry's record against tight ends on wearing Chargers uniforms is very good. Really?

Because Gates has just taken him to school repeatedly. I don't know if that's true. I don't think that's accurate. Double check it. I got it. I'll look it up. By the way, you talk about just these matchups and this is a little off subject, but the reason I didn't draft Phillip Rivers, I think I was the last person to draft the quarterback in the draft on Saturday. The reason

I didn't draft Phillip Rivers... Gates week one last year three for 20. Sorry, Adam. And then five for 55 in a touchdown. Both of them scored against the Chiefs last year in week 17. The reason I didn't draft Philip Rivers. Gates week one last year, three for 20. Sorry, Adam. And then five for 55 in a touchdown. Both of them scored against the Chiefs last year in week 17. The reason I didn't take Rivers was I don't like his early schedule. It seems like every other week you might want

to start him, but he's got Denver twice. So these are the first eight games for the Chargers, for Rivers. At Denver, no. Miami, sure. Kansas City at home? I don't know, probably not. Philadelphia at home? Okay, yeah, could dig that.

But at the Giants, no. At Oakland, yes. Then Denver, then at New England. So I think we're talking four games you want to start Rivers, four games you don't want to start him, and then his bye. So if you're drafting Rivers to be your starting quarterback and you're only comfortable starting him in four of the first nine weeks, that is why I avoided him. I took Carson Palmer and Eli Manning instead. This is the first year I've really paid attention to schedule with quarterbacks,

probably because so many of them are very similar at the end of drafts. So I think early season schedule is something that's going to sway me a little bit. And early season schedule is tough to predict, but two games at Denver, one game at New England, at the Giants. I just don't like it for Phillip Rivers. Is Denver early potentially as scary as they could be? With Shane Ray not knowing if he's going to play. I mean, with that secondary, and Derek Wolfe hurt too, yeah. But with that secondary.

That's a pass rush. It may not be the same. I don't know. You're really going to start. Where's Rivers going to be in your week one rankings at Denver? If both those guys are out? Yeah. Low number one? Really? Probably

15-ish for me. That's kind of what I thought Jamie would say. Dave, Rivers at Denver? I think he'll have to throw a lot. It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up having a game where he had over 300 yards, two touchdowns, and two picks. Maybe not 300 yards.

275. Okay. Two on two. All right, so we'll move on. We'll talk more about preseason stuff. We've got to update you on the Andrew Luck situation. Marquise Lee with a high ankle sprain. Paul Richardson, who's been running as a starter,

or I guess catching as a starter for the Seah Paul Richardson, who's been running as a starter, or I guess catching as a starter for the Seahawks. He's got a sprained AC joint in his shoulder. We've got your emails at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. I did something over the weekend that I've never done before. I traded draft picks. It was really fun. I traded up from the 10th overall pick to the 4th overall pick. No, you were 9th.

No, I was. We were 10 and 11. Yeah, but when we got to the draft, by the time. No, you were nine. No, I was. We were 10 and 11. Yeah, but when we got to the draft, by the time you traded, you were nine. No. Well, when I made the trade, I thought I was 10. I didn't realize I was nine. But I traded from 10 to four. I would have traded from nine to four anyway.

I like picking fourth. It was a good spot. And the only bad thing was I didn't get to sit next to Jamie. But, yeah, trading picks is fun. I loved it. We didn't sit next to him because I didn't get you sick. Who did you sit next to? I sat next to Pat and Scott.

I sat next to Scott Barrett and Pat Thorman. They were very nice guys. I'm checking their Twitter feeds to see if they're sick. All right. Right on cue. Ezekiel Elliott. Jason LaConfora, our CBS Sports NFL insider, does not see a scenario in which the NFL reduces Ezekiel Elliott's suspension. So based on that, he would probably say he's going to be suspended six games.

The NFL is very thorough. They have their information, and six games is what he expects. Do you guys feel the same way? I think it's interesting, and we've gotten this question a couple times, is can this go the same route as the Brady suspension

where Zeke just sues the NFL, and this gets put off for a year? A judge would have to put it off. My understanding is they can still use the restricted list in cases like this, and they could just place him on that list like they did with Peterson. It's messy. I think you've got to assume that it's six games at this point.

You assume it's six games until it's not. But what I did in our flex draft is if it's not six games and you're getting him at a value price, which I think anything second round or later is value. I think anything outside of the top three is value. Wow. He's not going to go into first round. Well, I mean, if he's not suspended at all, then you're absolutely getting a value.

Right, but you don't know that. So until you know that, I think anything in round two or later is valuable. But is he still a value in early round two? If he's not suspended? Knowing that you can't use him. If he's suspended six games. Then he's not a value. But if he's not suspended at all, then he's a tremendous value.

Of course. And that's the risk that you're taking. And if he's suspended only four games, then it's still a pretty good value. Sure, because Le'Veon was drafted in the second round last year, missed three games, was still a monster. I would be very surprised if he's suspended six games, given the Brady situation, given the fact that he wasn't charged in the court of law. He's only being charged by the NFL. So for them to levy this penalty on him, and they're going to, I would assume,

I believe Adam Schefter said this morning he has until Wednesday to file his appeal. So we'll know by Wednesday if he's appealing this. He's definitely appealing. Then he has a chance to get knocked down. My guess would be it gets knocked down to four games. They play the Packers on week five. That's the NFL looking at dollar signs and wanting to have the Cowboys not without arguably their best player in what could be the best non-prime time regular season game of the season?

Adam. Yes, sir. When we spoke on Friday, we all kind of talked about Zeke being a third round pick. I know that's how I felt when I left. And then the idea got in my head. If I'm taking David Johnson or Le'Veon Bell in the first round, and I have a chance to get Ezekiel Elliott on the same roster,

would I really pass that up? And have those two guys on my fantasy team? I don't think I can. I think I would take Ezekiel Elliott in late round two. Now, I don't think I did a great job of finding a replacement-level guy for him in the flex draft because just the way the draft unfolded for me.

But it's manageable without taking McFadden to get through those six games. There's enough running backs out there. Sure. I didn't think that, Jamie, that that was the right—I know you really wanted to take zeke so you did it kind of just for fun but i didn't think that was the right format because it was a three receiver league and two flexes so that's two extra starting spots uh that we then we usually have in our standard scoring leagues and that does make it a little bit tougher to just have dead weight on your roster yeah i mean look every every league is going to be a different way to approach it.

You can certainly get away with it more in a 10-team league than you can in a 12-team league. Flex is being a part of that. Right now, if I had to do my starting lineup without him in it, I'm starting Corey Coleman as my second flex option. That's not bad. That's not bad, though. No, my starting lineup would be

marcus mariota davante freeman spencer where kareem hunks i have both and then terrell prior michael crabtree willie sneed hunter henry cameron meredith cory coleman oh you know meredith and coleman are your flexes who are your other options in case you didn't want to start cory coleman well then i have i i like I said, it didn't unfold the way I wanted it to. I have Cooper Cup. I have the two Raiders backup running backs, and I have D'Angelo Henderson. So that's my bench. You know what, Jamie?

You know what's interesting? So you took, as I mentioned, Ware in round six, and then with the third pick of round eight, you took Kareem Hunt. And you weren't picking again for a long time after that Kareem Hunt pick. I took McFadden six picks later. Why didn't you lock up the Cowboys backfield and take McFadden in the eighth round, 87th overall, instead of locking up the Chiefs backfield where you took Kareem Hunt there? For a couple reasons.

One, I thought there was a better chance of McFadden coming back to me than there was for Kareem Hunt. I think there's a chance that KareFadden coming back to me than there was for Kareem Hunt. I think there's a chance that Kareem Hunt could overtake Spencer Ware still. So having that situation. Plus, I also think there's a scenario of both guys still being somewhat fantasy relevant, kind of like a poor man's Titans. But I don't know how good McFadden will be in those six games. I don't know if it'll be all McFadden. We talked about this last week. There's still a chance it could be Alfred Morris or Rod Smith sharing time with him.

I know McFadden got all the first-team reps in yesterday's game. Yeah, and he looked pretty good. Yeah, I mean he's certainly the one you want to target, but the Cowboys schedule really sucks. And, you know, McFadden, if it's three games, do I really want to waste an eighth-round pick on McFadden? No, not if it's three games. If we knew. Maybe, actually. If we knew it was six games and I did that, I would have taken McFadden over on it.

Yes. All right. I just think if you're drafting right now, let's wrap it up with this. If you're drafting right now, how many games are you expecting Ezekiel Elliott to miss? Honestly, I'm going to just say six. Me too. Heath, six. Dave?

Six plus the bye week. Yeah, that's seven. So seven games for your fantasy team. He's playing week five against the Packers. Okay. Wow. And I think the worst person to pair Ezekiel Elliott with is probably Amir Abdullah because he's got the bad early season schedule,

and he's got a bye during the same amount of time that Ezekiel Elliott might miss, which would be week seven. That would be the maximum. Yeah. The running backs to go after would be McFadden, obviously, and then all these running backs have late season byes. Bilal Powell, Frank Gore, Kareem Hunt, Spencer Ware,

Terrence West, LeGarrette Blount. And, alright, everybody just stop. Don't get sick. Jonathan Stewart. Alright. Well, no, I mean, it is interesting. You don't want to, like, if you're saying, oh, I'll take Zeke now, but I'm going to start Lamar Miller or whatever, just be aware Lamar Miller has a week 7

buy. Ezekiel Elliott would, in theory, be out that week. I'm going to take C.J. Anderson. You may have four different running backs by the time you get to week 7. Alright, I'm going to start Lamar Miller or whatever. Just be aware, Lamar Miller has a week 7 bye. Ezekiel Elliott would, in theory, be out that week. I'm going to take C.J. Anderson. You may have four different running backs by the time you get to week 7. Alright, I'm going to take C.J. Anderson. Well, he has a week 5 bye. There are no byes weeks 1 through 4, so if the suspension gets knocked down in just four games, then you should have an easier time navigating.

Okay, Andrew. Adam, by the way, you got really excited about Amir Abdul. What was that thing, UIM me? No, no, not going to reveal that. I did get excited that I got Abdullah 69th overall in round six. And then Paul Perkins seven picks later as my numbers two and three running backs behind Mike Gillisley. I went receiver, receiver, receiver in a three-receiver standard scoring league. And it was interesting. Talk to me about Andrew Luck.

Let's go to the news and notes. We'll recap preseason stuff still. We got emails. Oh, a fun Twitter poll. Actually looking forward to talking about this. Andrew Luck may not be ready for week one. Scott Tolzien is the backup. Okay.

Let's frame it like this. T.Y. Hilton, I took 21st overall. He was the ninth wide receiver off the board. Andrew Luck went in the ninth round with a 12th overall pick. The last pick of the ninth round, 108th overall in a four-point-per-passing touchdown league. What are you valuing Andrew Luck as right now? He's my number seven quarterback. He's still my number 4 quarterback

I moved him down to 9 But after this The fact that he may be back by week 2 I put him back to 6 Alright so we're expecting I think we should play it safe And if you draft Andrew Luck Don't expect him to play week 1

The report coming out of the broadcast After speaking to Chris Ballard Was that the assumption is he's throwing. Yeah, because his arm strength is better than last year's. That would be the only way they would know that. Right. So that to me was the reason I moved him back up. I do really love getting Carson Palmer late if you take luck.

Yep. Because that early season schedule is so good for Palmer. Yeah. Okay. Did I see on Twitter – did you guys see this? I don't know how you would know if I saw it on Twitter, but did you see that Blake Bortles' first pass of today's scrimmage was tipped and intercepted? That's just a bot account, and every day they practice, it tweets that out.

It's pinned. Do you think there's a chance that Blake Bortles loses his job? Yes. How would that affect Allen Robinson? Chad Henney? How big of a drop is that from Blake Bortles to Chad Henney? I would assume significant if Henney's not playing yet.

I think there is a 40% chance that Blake Bortles does not get hurt and does not start 16 games. That's an interesting percentage to put on that combo. How much time did you spend? 40 seconds. Oh. Yeah. Would you drop Allen Robinson if it were Chad Henney?

Would you drop in your rankings? I've already dropped Allen Robinson. I put him at a point where I'm just not going to get him. I don't think he's 1,000 yards anymore. It's funny, though, because he's still with the same quarterback that helped him get 70, 1,414 two years ago. And the quarterback has seemingly regressed, and now the offense is going to be Taylor. Not seemingly. He's regressed.

I guess you're right. And the offense is now going to be far more conservative. They don't want to throw the football, and I don't blame them. But he could still return fourth-round value, which is where he's being drafted. I've got Robinson 15th at receiver, and the next tier behind him is Crabtree and Tate. I don't know if I can drop him behind Crabtree and Tate. You can drop him behind Crabtree. The two guys I struggle with with Robinson are Crabtree and Adams.

I think I have Crabtree ranked ahead of him. Or no, I'm sorry. I have Crabtree behind Adams. I think I have Crabtree ranked ahead of him. Or no, I'm sorry. I have Crabtree behind him. You should. If Robinson, look, he's got a contract here. And hopefully that leads to him being better. And what we did see with Doug Marone when he took over, that's kind of I think what you have to hope is that they move him around a little bit.

That helps him out. And maybe the run game does draw an extra defender into the line of scrimmage where they didn't have that at all last year. So he's still an exceptional talent. And hopefully that talent carries him to some big numbers. You talk about Alan Robinson, not Blake Bortles. And Leonard Fournette has a foot injury. We'll talk about that in just a second.

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Patrick Mahomes has moved up to second string for Kansas City. Running back news, and I'd like to go through the news fairly quickly if we can. Okay, Leonard Fournette, he has a foot injury. They say it's minor, but how concerning is this to you with Leonard Fournette? Anytime a person whose job it is to run has a foot injury, I don't like it, and that's what's going on here. Maybe the Jaguars are just being careful because they know how important he is to the entire offense. Because they don't want to have to lean on Blake Bortles 35-plus times a game.

Right, but what's the actionable item here? Are you doing anything in your rankings with Fournette? Because of the foot, no. I certainly didn't like that Chris Ivory and TJ Yeldon played before him and maybe that was just a rookie thing. And I thought the offensive line was okay. It wasn't great for Jacksonville. The left side was better than the right side.

I don't think I'm doing anything yet. No. He says it's a bruise. He's got a little boo-boo. Devontae Freeman is at the concussion protocol, and Jay Ajayi is close to getting out of the concussion protocol, but technically still in it. He should be out pretty soon.

Wide receiver news. Okay, Marquise Lee has a high ankle sprain. I would assume that puts him in doubt for week one. And has Marquise Lee – oh, we haven't even – we have not even talked about Galladay. Kenny Galladay. No, he needs to be discussed. Yeah. All right.

So he's like ahead of Marquise Lee now, right? I mean, obviously. Galladay is – he should have been one of the hot takes. Hot take. Kenny Galladay needs to be drafted in all 12-team leagues. Agree or disagree? Oh, it's not just drafted. It's where are you drafting him?

And what are you expecting of him? Yeah, you tell me. I think he's got a chance to be the number one receiver for the Lions before the end of the year. And it's not based solely on what I saw in one preseason game. I know the reports have been very, very

positive coming out of training camp. But you think about his competition for playing time there. It's Marvin Jones. Jones was the reason why Stafford threw an interception in that game. And Galladay just has that huge size that makes him a big threat in the red zone. And he proved on all three of his catches that he's aware of how to use his strength to put himself in position to make a catch. He's not going to be better than Golden Tate, though. No. Well, I don't think he'll get

as many yards as Golden Tate, but I don't think it's going to take a whole lot for him to win over Stafford, win over the coaching staff, and play a lot more often than Jones. He also was used a lot on running plays with the backups, and he would move from out wide to in line like a tight end, and he'd block. He's 6'4". He's a big dude. He's got a big chest and big arms, and he's strong. And the Lions are using him in a situation where they can play him on running downs as well as passing downs.

He's not just solely a red zone guy. Yeah, passing Jones is easy. I mean, he may have done that already. But that could happen soon. There's still, depending on which side of the Eric Ebron conversation you come out on, that's where the touchdowns will come between those two guys. Because Golden Tate's not going to be a big touchdown guy. He's probably going to settle in somewhere in the neighborhood of six.

Jones will still get three or four. And will Galladay take Bolden's touchdowns? Because if he just replaces Bolden, Bolden, even though he led them in touchdowns and scored, what, seven or eight? Yeah. He wasn't even a top 30 fantasy receiver. Right. I wouldn't go crazy with Galladay, but he's certainly somebody to put in the beginning of the double-digit round.

That's exactly what I was going to say. I think round 10, if you want to take a stab right now, that's where you do it. Devontae Freeman. Did I mention Devontae Freeman? I did. Okay. Oh, we're on wide receivers. Sorry. So Alshon Jeffrey is going to return to practice this week. John Brown did not play. He may be able to play this week. Seattle wide receiver Paul Richardson sprained a C joint in his shoulder. Last four games for Richardson last year, two regular season, two postseason, he scored 10 fantasy points, 4, 10, and 8 in standard scoring leagues. He did that without a lot of catches or without a lot of targets.

He caught two touchdowns, but he came on strong, I guess we could say, about Paul Richardson. Should Richardson be drafted in 12-team leagues? No. No. Okay. Not our standard 15 rounds, no. If it's a 20 round draft, sure

Okay, Buffalo wide receiver This is getting, you know, gotta get used to saying it Buffalo wide receiver Jordan Matthews Chip fracture in his chest He is weak to weak Weesh Okay, any reaction here? I dropped him behind Zay Jones

My understanding Give me Kenny Galladay over him? From what I read is that he should still be okay for week one. But no rapport with Taylor at all. That's the problem. It's funny because the rookie has the best rapport with the quarterback so far.

Would you draft Zay Jones or... You're going to draft Galladay over Jones. Jones or J.J you're going to draft Galladay over Jones. Jones or J.J. Nelson? Jones. I think J.J. Yeah, I'm going J.J.

Sterling Shepard's back at practice. Juju Smith-Schuster for the Steelers. He left with a concussion. And Bears wide receiver Marcus Wheaton broke his finger. Some tight end news. Jordan Reed is going to use special orthotics for his injured toe. Travis Kelsey's back at practice. Julius Thomas for the Dolphins. He mispracticed with a back injury. They say it's nothing, but he does have a history of back issues. And a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Zach Ertz could be a high volume receiver with Jordan Matthews gone. And

two games without Jordan Matthews last year, Zach Ertz had 22 catches on 32 targets in 218 yards and three touchdowns in two games. Now, the second of those two was against the Cowboys backups in Week 17. Of course, Alshon Jeffrey wasn't there. But do you buy that Zach Ertz without Jordan Matthews could be a high-volume receiver? He was already a high-volume tight end. So I moved him up when this went down. I've got him seventh in standard standard now And 6th in PPR So you have him ahead of Kyle Rudolph for now

Yep Hurts over Rudolph for Heath Back to back for Dave, Jamie and Heath Dave and Jamie have Rudolph one spot ahead of Hurts And some non-offensive news Well, Roberto Aguayo He got cut and then he got signed by the Bears. He's going to compete with Barth Vader for Chicago.

And bad news for the Lions. Kerry Heider, significant Achilles injury. He led them in sacks last year. Ziggy Ansah still on the pup list, so their pass rush looks nonexistent right now. And, well, Ansah will be back. But they start with Arizona and Carson Palmer. And the Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman's out four to six weeks with an ankle injury. All right.

Are you ready for a fun, cool, controversial Twitter poll? Yeah. Da-da-da-da. All right. How do you feel about this commissioner rule? And I should have specified, but I didn't. Non-keeper leagues. How do you feel about this commissioner rule?

Once a team is eliminated from playoff contention, that team can't make trades anymore. A, like it, or B, no way. And got over 3,600 votes for this. Once a team is eliminated from playoff contention, that team can't make trades anymore. Like it or no way. How would you have voted? Like it. Like it. Like it or no way? How would you have voted? Like it. Like it.

Like it. Yeah, 72% said like it. 28% said no way. And some of them probably were thinking for keeper leagues or dynasty leagues. This is a great rule. Institute it. Dave. Yes, Heath.

Have you ever been in a league where the commissioner has to set playoff matchups and they send you an email like the week of the first playoff matchups and tell you who all is in the playoffs? And they tell you that you're in the playoffs only to a couple hours later have to correct themselves because they made a miscalculation and you're actually out of the playoffs? I don't know if that's ever happened to me on either way, where I'm the commissioner and i

screw up or if i'm the fantasy owner and it's screwed up against me no i don't think i've ever what do you think should happen to the commissioner in that if if he's telling someone they made the playoffs and they didn't he should probably give that team his playoff spot uh no i don't think that that's fair i don't think that that's – am I missing something here, Heath? Yes, you are. I did that this morning to poor Mike Coulter. I told him he was in the playoffs. And then the guy who was really in the playoffs said, hey, isn't the tiebreaker total points? And I said, yes. Did I screw up?

And I screwed up. And, yes, I had to send a correction email. Mike Coulter, you are not in the playoffs. You are out of the baseball, fantasy baseball playoffs. So that was a fun morning for me. I enjoyed it. I think you should have your commissioner privileges revoked and someone should get to shave your eyebrows.

Well, Jamie would have to take over as commissioner then. Are you ready for that, Jamie? Nope. Okay. It looks like my eyebrows are staying. Although I'm getting a little annoyed that every time I go get my hair cut, they ask me if they want me for them to trim my eyebrows. It's a little insulting.

Yeah, they're trying to tell you something. They are, and I have big, bushy eyebrows, but I'm proud of them. And no, I don't want you to trim. If I ask you, then go ahead and do it. But you don't bring it up. You don't bring it up. That's not cool. Any more preseason takeaways?

Anything stand out to you guys over the weekend? There's, I mean, how much longer do we have on the podcast? Why don't you take a look at my notes and cherry pick? Let's go to Joe Mixon He was very good Unfortunately, Jeremy Hill actually looked pretty good too He didn't look as good as Joe Mixon No, but again, Hill was with the first team

I'm happy for Jeremy that he wasn't a slug on every single one of his carries. The speculation we've seen from my beat writer and what we've seen in evidence the past two years is that all Jeremy Hill has to do is not be the worst running back in the league to keep his job. Right, and he wasn't. He stinks. He doesn't that. He does stink. Mixon looked really good. Six for 31 on the ground, one for 11 in the air, and he made some really nice moves, too.

So it was a good start for him. How about the Raiders running backs? Jamie, you took both DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard. Now, Marshawn Lynch did not play, but Washington, is it safe to say he's ahead of Richard at this point? Well, he wasn't in the game. He wasn't? I thought he got the first series. I'm sorry, he wasn't on the depth chart.

First, they say there was a report that Washington was the second guy taking all the second team reps. Then the depth chart came out, and that was Jalen Richard second. And then in the game, Washington was the second guy in. No, he was first. Excuse me. Washington was the first guy in with Marshawn not playing. Yeah, I just took both. I think Jalen Richard's a better player, but

they're both going to get an opportunity here if the 31-year-old coming out of retirement gets hurt. Okay, is it fair to say that Brandon Oliver is the number two running back for the Chargers? Yes Handcuffed to Gordon Todd Gurley was interesting

Four carries for two yards, one catch for ten yards And no room to run No room to run Goff actually looked pretty good He completed a nice pass to Cooper Cup He got lucky on a touchdown The ball was fumbled and then recovered by Cup, right? Yes

In the end zone Robert Woods caught it, fumbled it. Cup came up with it. And I don't know. And go Sammy Watkins, though. Keep that in mind. Right. Sammy was on the sideline.

He didn't play. It's too bad he didn't play because he could have played in five preseason games. Any thoughts on Todd Gurley who has won 100-yard game in his last 24 games? I'll tell you what was the most frustrating part about Gurley. When he was out of the game and Malcolmcolm brown came in and then justin davis came in those guys were good they were gaining decent yardage and todd girly averaged half a yard per carry he had no chance though like it wasn't his fault he was smothered he was he was smothered and covered. And now I'm thinking about Waffle House. Let me get back to football.

I didn't like that Brown, specifically Brown, I didn't like that he was able to perform better than Gurley with either the same line or obviously the second string line. And maybe the Cowboys defense played a role in that as well. But, man, I hope that Jared Goff puts it all together and Sammy Watkins becomes a thing that defenses have to account for play after play after play and he doesn't get hurt because that might be the only thing that really helps Todd Gurley

from seeing stacked boxes and getting smothered and covered with cheese and grilled onions. There you go. And I will say, running back's preview starts tomorrow. We'll definitely talk about Gurley. He's so interesting to me. Heath, anything that you want to talk about for the preseason? I do think it's interesting.

I'm pretty down on this whole Darren McFadden thing, but he was the only one working with the first team. They pretty much went to him on 75% of the snaps when Zeke was out. I don't think he looked that bad. For a 30-year-old? Ran with power? Not 30 yet. He'll be 30

very shortly. Give him some time. Yeah. That was interesting. Let's talk about the Chiefs because the first pass of the game, downfield throw, 32-yard completion to Tyreek Hill, and they went right back to him on the next play. No Travis Kelsey in this game.

But any more or less excited about Tyreek Hill based on how they featured him right away? No. I still view him as a low-end number two, and it's more of a borderline number two slash number three. It was interesting. There were some quotes this week from the Chiefs about Hill and how there would be times where he was featured like a number one wide receiver,

but his role was not going to be necessarily consistent on a game-to-game or even quarter-to-quarter basis. It depends on what they want to do. So I still think Kelty's the only consistent part of the passing game, but he'll have some monsters and some duds. Okay. How about Robbie Anderson? Yeah, Robbie Anderson, Jamie.

Three catches for 71 yards, caught a deep ball from Josh McCown. All three targets he caught. Is Robbie Anderson now in the 12-team discussion? Oh, absolutely. Sure. He was the minute Quincy Nemo one time. Yeah, he should be. I would rather have Robbie Anderson than your boy Galladay.

I would too. You would, huh? For sure. Just targets. I wonder who the – I feel like Galladay has a better chance for touchdowns. Yeah, but again, Bolden scored eight and was like 47th. Yeah, but I expect Galladay to have a better year than Bolden. You expect him to score more than eight touchdowns?

No, I'm sorry. I expect him to have more catches and yards than Bolden. I don't know. But Anderson could also be about seven or eight touchdowns and have more catches and yards than Bolden. I don't know. But Anderson could also be about seven or eight touchdowns and have more catches and yards as the featured guy there. All right. Interesting. I'm thinking Anderson gets 120 targets or very close to it.

Yeah. That's kind of been the magic number. How about this Twitter poll from Jonathan Bauer? Better nickname for Kenny Galladay. Kenny G? Smooth Jazz? Smooth Jazz? Golvatron, or Kenny Goataday. G-O-A-T, capitalized A-D-A-Y.

That's better than Galladay-N. I like Galladay-N. I think it's Babytron is what they're calling him. Ooh, Babytron. I like that. I'm just glad we're not setting the bar too high. I voted for Kenny G. I think that's a funny team name. And Jamie took Cooper Cup in the flex draft,

and I think you should name your team C-Cup. What do you think about that? Yeah, grade the team name. I'll get it. Yeah, I'll give it a double D. Thank you. Thank you very much. Wow.

Jameis Winston was on fire coming out targeting Mike Evans. Evans had seven targets, four catches, and 58 yards. And if Sammy Watkins getting targeted a lot means anything, Mike Evans will be traded very soon. All right. Flex draft. Then we'll read some emails. So I thought we'd have more time to talk about it, but this was an industry, quote-unquote, experts draft. Let's see who they liked and disliked maybe more than what we are used to seeing. One of the things that stood out to me, the rookie running backs. So Fournette was the first one, 18th overall.

And the format here, two running backs, three receivers, but standard scoring, excuse me. Four points per passing touchdown, so quarterbacks fell. One tight end. No kicker. Heath would have liked that. Two flexes, though. Two flexes.

Three receivers, two flexes, two running backs, and a tight end. All right, so Leonard Fournette, 18th overall, middle of round two. Dalvin Cook, 23rd overall, second running back off the board, end of round two. Jake Seeley took him. Jake Seeley likes Dalvin Cook. He typically takes Joe Mixon in that range, and he said he must have them back-to-back. I don't know what his rankings are. Jake works for the Fantasy Network and Roto Experts.

But he typically takes Joe Mixon in the analyst drafts that I've been in with him. And he said he just has too much exposure to Mixon, so he wanted to switch it up. So he must have those guys relatively close. I would still rather take Mixon, but I wouldn't take either one in the high. Yeah, it's an interesting spot at running back. It's like Gurley goes 19th. Fournette goes 18th. Gurley goes 19th.

And at that point, we have nine running backs off the board. And then we're looking at a lot of potential but a lot of question marks. And I don't want to get too far into this because this will be a big topic tomorrow. But Dalvin Cook, Lamar Miller, Isaiah Crowell, Joe Mixon are the next four running backs off the board in that order. Cook, Miller, Crowell, and Mixon. And I struggle with any of them 23rd overall. But I see, like, if Dalvin Cook's really going to be, obviously McKinnon and guy from the Raiders,

thank you, are banged up. So we don't know. You know what I'm trying to say. I'm sick. I don't feel well. It's a tough spot. It's a tough spot. So between Cook, Miller, Mixon, and Crowell, who's your favorite? Miller.

Miller. Crowell. Crow's your favorite? Miller. Miller. Crowell. Crowell's right behind Miller. I'm sorry. Yeah, still Miller. Okay. So Cook, 23rd overall. Joe Mixon, 32nd overall. 12th running back off the board. And then I put in the notes Christina McCaffrey. Pretty sure that's a typo. Christian McCaffrey,

38th overall. Standard scoring league. Beginning of round four. the 18th running back off the board. All right. That's, I guess, not too surprising. Sammy Watkins went 50th overall in a three-receiver league, standard scoring, 25th wide receiver, 50th overall pick, second pick of round five. And this was a standard, not a PPR. Yeah. I think I'm going to have a lot of Sammy Watkins if that's the new price.

But this is where I would expect him to fall. Yeah. Because I think he's got the quarterback downgrade. It's not exactly a new offense that he has to learn. He's going from the – so Bill's changed offensive coordinators. They put in a West Coast offense. The Rams run a West Coast offense. So assuming that Sammy knew what he was doing when he was in Buffalo

and to look like it based on the preseason game, he just has to get the terminology for what the coaches are calling in L.A. I don't know if I can count on him to hit his ceiling with Jared Goff and for him to stay healthy for six years. But his ceiling is top eight wide receiver. His ceiling, I think, is even higher than that. Right. So drafting him here, you're getting him receiver 25. That means if he returns value as a good number wide receiver. His ceiling, I think, is even higher than that. Right. So drafting him here, you're getting him receiver 25. That means if he returns value, he's a good number two receiver. Is it a bad draft pick?

No, I don't think so. Are you going to be happy with him? Maybe. I think this is right about where he should go. Sammy Watkins, okay, 25th wide receiver, early fifth round. Dave likes it. Heath says that's great value. Eric Ebron was the eighth

tight end off the board. Andy Singleton of Fantrax just liked him, and he said, you know what? I'm going to go off the board here. I'm going to take a risk. I don't know what exactly he said. We were sitting across from each other. Very nice guy. Andy took Eric Ebron as the eighth tight end, one spot ahead of Kyle Rudolph, four spots, four picks ahead of Derrick Henry, then Martellus Bennett. So we had this tight end run with four of them picked within five or six picks. But Ebron goes earlier than ADP, earlier than I expected. So, yeah, eighth pick, middle of round – eighth tight end, middle of round eight for Eric Ebron. Too soon.

I don't hate the idea behind it. I just think that Eric Ebron is going to be there in the ninth round. So just use your pick next round. Again, analysts like Eric Ebron more than public likes Eric Ebron. Yeah, that's true. So these type of players get skewed a little bit. With his next pick, Andy took Jacquez Rogers. I thought he – okay Okay I was wrong about something

I was going to say Where did Doug Martin go? According to your notes Same round He did He did Okay so here's what happened So

In my fantasy league Where we were drafting on These suspended players Were not in the database So Doug Martin was taken Taken 89th overall But he is taken as

Dexter McCluster So Dexter McCluster Went 89th overall He was then dropped For Doug Martin was taken 89th overall, but he is taken as Dexter McCluster. So Dexter McCluster went 89th overall. He was then dropped for Doug Martin. So it was Doug Martin 89th, Jacquez Rogers 90th. And it was not the same team that took them back-to-back. But they went 89th and 90th overall, the two Buccaneers backs. What do you guys think? Too early for Rogers for me.

Yep, too soon. Okay. But is it too late for Martin? Yeah, good spot for Martin, right? Too late. Yep, too soon. Okay. But is it too late for Martin? Yeah, good spot for Martin, right? Too late for Martin, too soon for Rodgers. Okay. All right, so then we'll finish up by comparing our squads. Me with the fourth pick, Jamie with the tenth pick, right?

Yes. All right, I'll let you guys decide who has a better team. Well, mine has such a huge asterisk on it, though. I know. Well, that's how you're going to have to judge it when you have Ezekiel Elliott, you know? Yep. All right, so here's my team. I had the fourth pick, and I went receiver,

receiver, receiver. And I will say before you read it, I do love your team. I thought you did a great job. Oh, thank you. I am not that familiar with your team, but I know you made some really good picks getting both of the Raiders guys, getting the Chiefs guys. You did a really nice job. So I waited and waited at quarterback.

I have Carson Palmer and Eli Manning. Running back, you're definitely questionable. But listen, I basically, well, I didn't go zero RB, but my first three picks were receivers. So can you give yourself enough at running back if you take three receivers and a tight end with four of your first five picks? So again, Carson Palmer and Eli, my running backs are Mike Gillisley, Amir Abdullah, Paul Perkins,

Darren McFadden. I also have Samaje Pirine, Dion Lewis, and Theo Riddick. I have Lewis to kind of back up Gillisley, Riddick to kind of back up Abdullah. I don't know if that makes sense in standard. But the four running if that makes sense in standard. But the four running backs that are startable, and I only have to start two, I can start four, are Gillis Lee, Abdullah, Perkins, and McFadden. My wide receivers, Julio Jones, T.Y. Hilton, DeAndre Hopkins, plus Corey Davis and J.J. Nelson. I have Jimmy Graham and the Rams DST, which was probably my favorite pick, if you remember.

Just real quick recap. Palmer, Gilleslie, Abdullah, Perkins, McFadden, Julio, Hilton, Hopkins, Jimmy Graham, and the Rams. Keep in mind, though, it's four points for passing touchdowns. Right. Solid B. Thank you. Jamie's team, Mariota, four points for passing touchdowns.

Got him pretty late. Do you remember where? I can look that up. Mariota was in the 12th round. Wow. Mariota, Ezekiel Elliott, and Devontae Freeman, his first two picks. On the bench,

Spencer Ware, Kareem Hunt. Not necessarily on the bench, just other running backs. Spencer Ware, Kareem Hunt. Two Raiders backups, Washington and Richard. D'Angelo Henderson. And that's it. Wide receivers are Terrell Pryor, Michael Crabtree, Willie Sneed,

Cameron Meredith, Corey Coleman, Cooper Cup. I love the alliteration. And that's it. Hunter Henry, the tight end, the Steelers DST, they have the Browns in week one. So let me recap. Mariota, Devontae Freeman, Ezekiel Elliott. Three receivers would be

Crabtree, Pryor, and Cam Meredith. And then options for flex would be Spencer Ware, Kareem Hunt, Corey Coleman, Willie Sneed. Sorry, I keep forgetting about Sneed. Willie Sneed. Hunter Henry at tight end, Steelers DST.

I've known Jamie for years. I think this might be one of the worst teams he's ever put together. And I think I've learned that I don't like the idea of taking Ezekiel Elliott in early round two. I'm assuming it was early round two.

It was the 15th pick. And you have players I like. But I think the depth is scary. If Zeke plays 12 games. I don't know if he's going to. I will say, Adam, if he does, then I think you can get by those first couple of weeks and then you're going to start...

Oh, I'm going to win this league if he plays 14 or more games. I don't know if you're going to win the league. I think you'll make the playoffs in this league. I believe Adam's team is going to win more regular season games has a higher chance of making the playoffs scores more fantasy points per week jamie's team is more likely to win the championship i agree if he gets there if i get there yeah i don't know if i agree i i told the the people sitting around me i took ezekiel elliiel Elliott for content purposes. I took it from a let's have fun and gamble standpoint.

Obviously, what Ezekiel Elliott's being suspended for should not be made light of. in terms of the fantasy situation, to see how many games he will. Because, again, we don't know. Most people that are drafting said this on Friday. Most people that are drafting Ezekiel Elliott are going to be doing so at the end of August, beginning of September.

They're going to know most likely what his scenario is. I also did it not knowing how the rest of my team would play out. If I got another guy, McFadden, or somebody that I could play for the first few games, I love this team. Maybe you should have prioritized McFadden a little more. I don't know if McFadden would save it. No, it wasn't McFadden. It was, if you want me to look at the draft real quick, I'll tell you.

It was probably in the neighborhood where I took Meredith. If I didn't take Meredith. So if I just took those three receivers, forget about Flex. Let's say I took Rob Kelly. Give me the receivers again. It's Pryor, Sneed, Crabtree, Meredith, Coleman, Cup. So what I'm used to seeing from your teams is lots of star power and flash. And maybe the reason why I said what I said is because it just doesn't seem like it's one of your...

Well, I have, potentially, two top 12 running backs. Oh, I think there's no question about that. Potentially two top five guys in that position. Yes, yes. In a standard league. Yep. I have, based on my rankings,

three receivers in my top 24. Okay. With Snead, Pryor, and Crabtree. Pryor is somebody that could be boom or bust. Snead, boom or bust. Crabtree is kind of steady, Eddie. Meredith could be... He could finish as a top 24. Hey, we didn't talk about Trubisky.

He looked better than any rookie quarterback. I'll tell you. Here's something different. If I didn't take... I'm just looking at the draft board. If I didn't take Meredith, so seventh round. If I did just exactly what I did with that one pick differently. Didn't take Meredith, took Rob Kelly.

So I took Rob Kelly, Kareem Hunt back-to-back. So now I have... Remember, all I have to do is start two of those guys. Adam said the same thing about his team. His receivers are clearly better than mine. All I have to do is start Devontae Freeman and Chiefs running back. Manage through

six weeks, seven weeks. If you had had Rob Kelly there too, I think that would have bridged your depth at running back a lot better than what you ended up doing. Yes. But then you would have had to start Kelly as one of those two flexes.

Whereas, well, it's not PPR. I don't know if that's... Maybe I like Meredith a little bit better in that flex. If – let's just say – let's say what he said. My hang-up is there. The time that your hang-up is what? The depth at running back, I think, and just the lack of star power receiver, which is something you obviously have to give up if you take people out. I'll tell you two things.

One, and I'll say this, this is something that people should do if you're doing a live draft, that you're not looking at a draft board online because we were not looking at a draft board online. I crossed out Giovanni Bernard in the 12th round, and he was not picked. I was going through, and I just crossed off guys. Not that Gio is a make-or-break guy on my team. I would not have taken both Raiders running backs because I think I took— You probably would have taken Gio and somebody else. I would have taken Gio and probably Richard or Washington.

Okay. I like that you took D'Angelo Henderson. Yeah. I mean, look. I like him a lot. It's taking a flyer on somebody that could be good. All I know is if I'm – and this is something, again – I'm sorry, just to back up a couple things.

I said I was doing this for fun, for content. We are playing this league for money, and tweeted me this and I think it's very fair counterpoint to this. Would I have taken Ezekiel Elliott in the second round if I was playing in one or two fantasy leagues compared to the 20 that I play in because of what I do for a living? The answer is probably no. Because I

would play a little bit more safe. Like what you said about if you're on the turn after taking Johnson or Bell, that's a spot you gamble on. It's crazy that it's that little of a difference. Where he's going to settle. The other part of it is, if I'm six games, so he's out until week eight, right, because of the bye week. If I'm four and four by then, middle of the pack, which is what I probably would anticipate, to what he said, I'm going to have a great chance to win this league if Elliott is Elliott.

Because I'll have Chiefs backfield. Cowboys backfield. Freeman. But you don't have an elite. You have one elite player for eight weeks. You have one elite player for eight weeks, potentially. That's assuming Terrell Pryor thinks. Seven weeks.

Pryor could end up taking that step. Just comparing our teams. Your quarterback situation, Palmer's schedule is great. Palmer could be great. It's four points for passing touchdowns, minus two for interceptions. You could have a real bad quarterback situation there in this format. Yeah, Palmer and Eli. You definitely have me at quarterback.

But my first three picks were receivers. I have Julio, Hilton, and Hopkins. Right. Again, we're playing out scenarios. What if Luck's out six weeks? Yeah, then that sucks. And what if Hopkins is the same guy that showed up last year? Yeah. All right.

Did you feel like – all right, two more questions. One, did you feel like taking Zeke meant that you couldn't take other players that were either going to – that basically weren't going to – were going to miss time? So you couldn't take Andrew Luck. You couldn't take doug martin i definitely passed on martin that was one i you have to if you can't use either guy for three weeks 100 but what would you have even considered andrew luck did you or did you say okay i've got my one big risk guy i don't need to uh in this format i was not taking luck the guys the guys i was looking for were the running quarterbacks right winston mariotta now winston again not exactly the greatest guy in this format

either because the interceptions so um and also probably what what would have been what could have been something different was avoiding taking both chiefs guys and going another route there to have uh let's say it was Kelly or Terrence West was still on the board. So let's say I would have gone. You could have had Ware and West. No, I could have gone Ware in six, Meredith in seven, West in eight. And now I have essentially four starting running backs.

I'm sorry to keep coming back to this, but I just don't know why you didn't take McFadden with the eight pick. Because I didn't want to waste a round eight pick on a guy that may only play three games. You can't start him any of them. But you maybe can't even start him any of them because you might have to and just take your lumps with it. But no, I don't have to, though. Well, you're not now. You didn't draft him. But even if I did draft him, let's just say, again, I didn't take Hunt and I took McFadden.

I don't know if McFadden's better than Corey Coleman as that sixth flex spot. In the standard league? Yeah, I'd rather have Rob Kelly. Of course. Of course you would. He was there. That makes sense. Right.

So why take McFadden and Rob Kelly? Because he's got Zeke. No, no, no. He's got Zeke. I would have had to take Kelly in round seven where I took Meredith. Kelly went in the beginning of round eight. Okay. But you said you could have had West or McFadden?

I could have gone. If I just took the Kareem Hunt pick out, go back to what I did through the first seven rounds. In round eight, I could have had – these were my choices at running back. Eddie Lacy, Jacquez Rogers, Danny Woodhead, McFadden, West, Jamal Williams, John the Stewart. Now, again, one spot in front of me, round nine, could have had Thomas Rawls. If that fell my way, I would have been happier with that. Oh, of course. And that would have changed my perception of your running back depth.

Okay, last question. Forget about all the different drafts that you're in and all that. Would you have done it again? If you had the chance to do it again in that league, you would have taken Ezekiel where you took him? On August 12th? On August 12th. After he suspended August 11th and we don't know anything?

Yes. Yes. If you time-machined back to that draft, you would do it again. Yes. For this particular draft, yes. Right. Not necessarily for content purposes, just for trying to build the best team. Oh, no, no, no.

Yes. By the way, I drafted Tyler Irvin. Oh, you know what? I'm taking it all back. You got Tyler Irvin. Converted receiver. Yeah. He worked as a slot receiver when Braxton Miller went down.

As Adam explained, they had to replace Doug Martin with somebody else. They had to replace Ezekiel Elliott because he's suspended with somebody else. It was Tyler Irvin. Oh, so you didn't really get Tyler Irvin. No, that was Ezekiel Elliott. Okay, so I think we're out of time. Sorry we did not get to any emails. But Running Back Preview begins tomorrow.

It is a two-parter. Wide Receiver Preview will be Thursday and Friday. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be very helpful, and I think by the end of the week, you'll be extremely ready to draft. On Monday, we'll come back and we'll recap everything from the preseason. We'll talk about it also on the Wide Receiver Previews, too, if there's anything that we really need to discuss. Of course, we'll come back and we'll recap everything from the preseason. We'll talk about it also on the wide receiver previews too

if there's anything that we really need to discuss. Of course, we'll keep you up to date. For Dave and Jamie and Heath, I am Adam. I will do my best to respond to some emails that you send in that we don't have a chance to read on the show. I will not get to all of them, but I will do my best to try to respond to some. I know you guys take the time to listen and to send in your comments. I'll do what I can to get back to you when I can. So thank you for listening, everybody. We'll talk

to you tomorrow with the running backs. Bye. Bye.