Fantasy Football Today - 08/30: Weekend Draft Prep; Favorable ADP on Other Sites (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 30, 2019

We start with our Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard thoughts after Jerry Jones' latest comments (2:30). We also tell you the guys we frequently draft with late picks (11:55), a mid-round pick who will be a Top 24 pick next season (17:00), if DeMaryius Thomas is worth drafting, if we're underestimating Rashaad Penny (18:45) and if Zero-RB really works (20:00) ... A few preseason takeaways (27:05) and then Ben Gretch tells you the players that are going too early or too late on other websites (29:30). This will help you get ready for your drafts if you for some crazy reason don't draft on CBS! ... Weekend draft tips (41:30), reviewing yesterday's 12-team, 3-WR PPR draft (46:00) and wondering if you should take O.J. Howard over David Montgomery, if you should lock up a backfield or get exposure to multiple backfields and when to take Melvin Gordon. Then we answer a bunch of your tweets (56:40) about Todd Gurley, Mark Ingram and many more! ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. What's up? Happy Friday!

I hope you are ready for a fun weekend of drafting or just evaluating your fantasy team, which you've already drafted. Welcome to Fantasy Football today on August 30th. I'm Adam Azer. I'm with Jamie Eisenberg and Ben Gretsch today. And once again, I start the show in an amazing mood. Yesterday, it was because I was happy about my podcast league team.

And there was one other reason that I don't remember right now. But, you know, Jamie, why do you think I'm in a great mood today? Why am I just fired up? I'm going to guess you're fired up because you drafted a lot of Tony Pollard. No, I am fired up. I just made a trade offer for Tony Pollard, by the way. But I am fired up because I drafted Saquon Barkley first overall. And I got Todd Gurley 24th overall.

You can't let Todd Gurley fall that far, people, and I am super excited about it. Plus, I get to talk to my friend Ben Gretsch, and within the first two to three minutes of this podcast, I will be ripping Will Brinson, which is always really fun. Ben, what's going on? Welcome back. Hey, how's it going? I don't think you should be that excited about Todd Gurley at 24. That just seems like a reasonable spot to take him. The league is over. It's over. I have Barkley and Gurley.

It's just over, and I'm very happy about that. All right, so we got today big news. Obviously, what Jerry Jones said about Ezekiel Elliott, why we get to rip Will Brinson, five quick questions for you, some preseason week four takeaways. There wasn't much, but there was a Demarius Thomas sighting, a lot of him.

In fact, Ben wrote a story about average draft positions on other websites. If you're drafting on other websites this weekend, who's going too high, who's going too low? I would like to take a look at our Fantasy Football Today draft that we did yesterday and not just brag about the first two picks that I made, Barkley and Gurley, but also just

some takeaways that could help you. And then if we have time, we'll go over some average draft position just overall and see round by round how much we can get to. But Ben, Jerry Jones says he's operating as if Ezekiel Elliott will miss regular season games, but not all of them. So when would you take Ezekiel Elliott?

And if you're going to say round one, please specify when in round one you would take him. I mean, I'm not really comfortable taking him. If I had a choice at the back end of round one, I might. It would be hard to pass him up at the 1-2 turn. I'm not putting any stock in what Jerry Jones has said. Jerry Jones has lied to us plenty of times before. But I am putting stock in the fact that the season starts very soon. And he hasn't reported yet.

There's legitimate reason for concern uh i haven't been in a position where i've had to make that decision in a lot of leagues and i they're just other guys i'd rather take in the first round typically but okay you're sitting there with the 12th pick and he falls to would you take ezekiel elliott probably yeah i mean i think at that point it's pretty tough to pass him up and then you probably just reach on uh tony pollard and he'll be back i mean i i definitely think ezekiel it's gonna play in 2019 and i don't think he's gonna miss half the season either i i kind of think this jerry jones thing is trying to get him back trying to you know he just keeps talking about him he got some bad flack last time he talked about him zeke and his agent weren't happy about him making the Zeke who comment now it seems like he's trying to show to me the way that I read it he's trying to show that he's taking this seriously I mean we'll see what

happens it's a it's a the I think the hardest question I've gotten this offseason especially because Le'Veon Bell missed the entire last year is what to do with Zeke and what to do with Melvin Gordon we don't really know what's going to happen, but I still expect him to be back. Two top five picks when the draft process started, at least in a lot of leagues. Jamie, when would you take Ezekiel Elliott? I probably would take him as early as eight overall in a non-PPR league and 10 overall in PPR. Okay. So obviously the big three running backs, Hopkins, Adams, that's five.

Who else are we looking at that go ahead of Ezekiel Elliott right now for you? In non-PPR, I would take James Conner and Nick Chubb ahead of him. In PPR, I would take Julio Jones and Juju Smith-Schuster ahead of him. And Conner and Chubb? And Conner and Chubb.

Okay, and so Willubb. Okay. And so, Will Brinson. Okay, Will. First of all, you were late to the draft yesterday. No surprise. Will is walking in likely late, Brinson. But you took Ezekiel Elliott fifth overall. And then in round eight, you could have taken Tony Pollard. You took Vance McDonald over Tony Pollard.

Vance McDonald's not going to win you your fantasy league. And then Tony Pollard went with the very next pick, I believe, to Dave Richard. So that's why I'm making fun of you today. You've got to be willing to reach a little. Will not only made that mistake, but he took some chances, not only taking Ezekiel Elliott at five overall, he also drafted Marlon Mack and T.Y. Hilton. So not that those guys are bad players,

but you're taking a lot of risk with guys that are in some questionable situations now comparatively to where they were. So he took T.Y. Hilton in the fourth round and Marlon Mac in the fifth round. I'm perfectly fine with Mac in the fifth round, but T.Y. in the fourth round is a little bit too soon for me. Three receiver PPR. I think Will goes on vacation a lot, I hear. Maybe he's just been away since last Friday or something.

He just didn't. His phone's been off. He's probably really excited about those picks. I'm sorry, Ben. What were you saying? I was just going to agree with Jamie. There's no way I'd be taking two Colts in the top five rounds right now. I would not want two Colts as my top five players.

I will say, you said Vance McDonald's not going to win anyone in their league. I don't think Tony Pollard is going to win an Ezekiel Elliott owner their league. I think if you're investing in Ezekiel Elliott in the first round, yes, you probably want to snag Tony Pollard, but there's something to be said for making a bet that

Zeke will report. So I can kind of understand, Will, if he was intentionally skipping on Pollard. If you're picking Zeke 5, you're expecting him to report, or else he wouldn't be taking Zeke five is essentially what I'm getting at. Yeah, I think one thing also take into account. Will was picking fifth.

Now, Will's done enough drafts with us, Dave in particular, to know that Dave probably does not. And Will listens to our podcast that Dave's not a Vance McDonald fan. I'm going to pull up the draft while I'm saying this to see if anybody else had tight ends in the eighth round. Well, maybe he could have gotten advanced McDonald on the way back. But Jamie, the point is, the point is,

you know, if you are the Zeke owner, just like Ben had said, you have to go a little earlier on Tony Pollard and you cannot expect him to last until the ninth round in a 12 team league. No, but that's my, that's my point is that you take him knowing that you can maybe get Vance McDonald on the way back.

And so it's reading the board, not necessarily looking at, okay, to Ben's point, Vance McDonald could be a league winner. So just in terms of how the draft unfolded, I don't know who had tight... Dave Harry had a tight end, so he picked after him. He had George Kittle. Yeah, Will's right in the middle of the round, though.

So, I mean, there's like a bunch of... But what I'm saying is he had an opportunity to see, does anybody have a tight end? And just in terms of Vance McDonald, Vance McDonald and Delaney Walker went after his pick, or with his pick, and then after his pick. There may have been a chance for one of those guys to fall back to him where he took Justin Jackson in round nine.

Yeah, it was a bad pick. Yeah, actually, three of the four people behind him already had tight ends, it looks like. And it's really interesting. In the next round, he takes Justin Jackson, who's a player that almost all of his value is dependent on Melvin Gordon not reporting. I'm kind of with Jamie here. I mean, if you would have won Tony Pollard, Vance McDonald, I think that would be a better setup than Vance McDonald and Justin Jackson. Yeah, and we just published our pick-by- pick by pick series and to ben's point about him passing on ezekiel elliott this was before the jerry jones news or jerry jones comment last night ben took

david johnson at fourth in the ppr i believe was um fourth overall in the ppr i took elliott at at five and this was a few days ago um i did not get Tony Pollard in that one. And then in our non-PPR one, I just wanted to do the same thing, so I took Zeke in the four spot. And I did it just with the intention of seeing how it would play out still, and I made it more of a priority to get Tony Pollard. So it's just a matter, I think, of do you feel like I felt more comfortable about the team with Tony Pollard compared to the team

without it. Speaking of Pollard, I've been getting a lot of questions. Hey, I have Pollard. The Zeke owner wants him. Should I trade Pollard for Latavius Murray or something? My answer is always yes. You should trade Pollard if you don't own Zeke for someone that was drafted ahead of him.

I did that in our podcast. I don't know if you talked about it. I didn't, actually. But there's obviously a scenario where Tony Pollard is an RB1 for a few weeks. I don't think it's going to be for a lot more than that. Maybe we're wrong. But you have the opportunity now to cash in on Tony Pollard.

What did you trade him for, Jamie? In our 14-team PPR league, I traded Tony Pollard and Marquise Goodwin for Emmanuel Sanders and Peyton Barber. So it was really Sanders. You know, Barber gives me a replacement option whenever I need, you know, a few points as a backup running back. But it was more about Emmanuel Sanders. And so I think over the course of the season, Emmanuel Sanders will be better. Now, if we have what tends to happen from time to time with holdout running backs, if there's an injury that comes because they aren't in game shape,

I'm going to regret giving up Tony Pollard. And like you said, Adam, there could be a couple-week scenario where he is the number one running back. I think you're starting him week one against the Giants without hesitation if there's no Ezekiel Elliott. All right. Okay, Ben, final note here. We'll get to some more news later,

but Kareem Hunt is going to have sports hernia surgery. Of course, he has an eight-game suspension, but does this matter at all for Kareem Hunt and or Nick Chubb? I mean, yeah, it makes it a little bit more likely that Kareem Hunt's not ready to go when he gets back. He's not going to be with the team during a suspension. So I'm not drafting Kareem Hunt. I honestly don't see the upside there. And this is just a little bit more of a reason to avoid a guy

who's going to miss half the season. All right, a few things to promote. CBS Sports HQ, Fantasy Football Today. You love this podcast. Well, you'll also love the video show. You can watch it noon Eastern, Monday through Friday, and then, of course, we have two hours before kickoff on Sunday to get you ready.

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Tell your friends. And so you guys keep sending me rate my team emails. Not really going to read a lot of them, but we will have a Facebook thread of rating my team. You can post your team there and have our listeners and our fantasy friends rate your team. Eye on Fantasy Football is our Saturday night radio show. I'm going to need you to call in this week, people, because I might be doing the show solo.

I might be because we have a hurricane bearing down on South Florida. I'm in New York, but Dave, Jamie, and Heath are getting out of town in South Florida. Stay safe, everybody. And, yeah, I don't know if any of them are going to be able to join me. But either way, going to be answering all of your questions. You can call us up. It's 10 to midnight on CBS Sports Radio, Sirius Channel 206. And it's awesome.

Five quick questions for you. Who are some late round guys that you just keep on drafting, Ben? Yeah, I mean, this is a question that definitely dependent on current adp trends if you asked me this a couple weeks ago it would have been guys like darwin thompson and matt brita who i was drafting constantly now ronald jones is falling back i'm taking him a lot we don't need to discuss him again but uh he's still a guy that i think has upside uh jaylen richard is a guy that I think has upside uh Jalen Richard is a guy that I am seeing go way way late in your guys's draft that we were just discussing he went multiple rounds after Daria Goom Bawale who is an interesting uh name to watch based on his preseason the fact he's clearly going to make

the team might have a passing down role but Jalen Richard went even after him Jalen Richard has been what Daria Goom Bawale hopes to be all offseason. He's going to be on the field as their backup. They cut Doug Martin, which was his biggest competition for backup duties there. I mean, DeAndre Washington looks okay, but Jalen Rashard's a good back. I mean, he was very productive last year in the passing game. Josh Jacobs is likely going to be the lead back, but I still think Jalen Rashard should be drafted a lot more frequently than he is and a lot earlier

than he is. He's a great late round running back target. For me, it's typically running backs. There's not a lot of receivers that I'm taking late, but one name is Traquan Smith that I think is just completely undervalued as well. Has a chance to be the number two for the Saints. All right. Darwin Thompson, Matt Breida, they are now more mid-round picks. But Ronald Jones, Jalen Rashard, Traquan Smith for Ben. Jamie, how about you? Late-round guys, you keep drafting? It's funny because it's almost like the opposite of what Ben was talking about.

I take Daria Gumbawale just with the thought of that he could be their best running back in Tampa Bay by the end of the season. It's kind of Heath's theory of Bruce Anderson. And Heath has said on our video show a couple of times, can he just go back and delete Bruce Anderson's name and put Dario Gumbawale in there? Because, I mean, look, Peyton Barber is what he is. And Ronald Jones may never live up to what the expectations might be. I hope he does.

But it's hard to trust that. And so take a flyer on a guy who could, you know, eventually emerge as, I don't want to say the Philip, of 2019, but he might be. Um, I take Marquis Goodwin a lot just with the thought of this inconsistent receiving core for the 49ers. And maybe the connection that we saw at the end of the 2017 season between Jimmy Garoppolo and Goodwin lives up to, uh, the expectations of, of, you know, what we thought it was going to be last year before Goodwin struggled and obviously Garoppolo got hurt. I take TJ Hawkinson late.

You know, I don't know if he's ever going to really rise to, you know, where people are drafting him to be a consistent number one fantasy tight end or at least, you know, over the next couple of days. But I think once you get past, I'll say it again, you know, once you get over the Jared Cook bridge and I'm sorry, the Jared Cook-Delaney-Walker bridge, there's Vance McDonald, and then it's kind of like, okay, maybe Austin Hooper, maybe... Still Jordan Reed for me. I like Jordan Reed.

Jordan Reed's fine. He seems to be okay with the concussion. That's a good name to take a chance on as well. But I liked what I saw from Hawkinson in that third preseason game, and I think he could be serviceable to start the season, especially with that matchup against the Cardinals. Okay. So Jamie mentions Marquis Goodwin, TJ Hawkinson, Daria Gumbawala. I just

want to point out on Daria Gumbawala, he did not have a good preseason at all. He played in all four games. He averaged 2.6 yards per carry. He had seven or more carries in all four games, and he averaged 3.4 yards per carry. He had seven or more carries in all four games, and he averaged 3.4 yards per carry or worse in all four preseason games. So I don't, I mean, like, that doesn't really matter.

It's 38 carries, but he didn't really do anything with it. Yeah, I mean, I think we've seen that with all the Tampa Bay backs. They're having a hard time behind that offensive line. It's going to be a struggle. I mean, it's a struggle for any of them. The reason I would still go after Jones is i think he has the upside talent wise to to overcome that situation but i do agree agum agum buala is a guy worth drafting late i just think richard's definitely a better one a couple other names that are preseason risers that are basically

free anywhere because too many people don't monitor that information along with a guy like a Goomba wallet. Dontrell Hilliard has not gone, uh, gotten enough run, uh, as a late round pick since the Duke Johnson trade, he's going to back up Nick Chubb and probably be the passing downs back. Uh, Darrell Williams.

I think they're going to cut Carlos Hyde. He's now the Kansas city third running back. He's a guy you can snag. Ty Montgomery is almost certainly going to be the jet second running back. It might even be in a little bit of a timeshare with Le'Veon Bell. These are all guys that preseason has told us should have gone up draft boards and not all of them are actually moving up. So pretty decent late-round targets as well.

Yeah, throw Malcolm Brown in there too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I got Malcolm Brown in that Barkley-Girley league yesterday. For me, DK Metcalf and now Dante Pettis. I mean, between Goodwin and Pettis, I don't know who. I think I would take Pettis first. I think he has more upside.

Oh, you should. You should. But he's really falling into the double-digit rounds now. Okay, so these are supposed to be five quick questions, guys. So let's do the other four quickly. Give me a mid-round pick that gets drafted. Give me a mid-round pick that gets drafted. Give me a mid-round pick that next year gets drafted as a top 24 pick. DJ Moore.

Easy. That's an easy question. DJ Moore, okay. There's only one answer. It's DJ Moore. No, I mean, there's never, like, there has not been a Panthers wide receiver that's warranted a top 24 pick since Steve Smith, maybe.

Right? Unless I'm missing something. So I don't know that I agree with that. I don't think he's a Panthers receiver as talented as Steve Smith since DJ Moore showed up. Yeah. In fact, he drew Steve Smith comparisons on draft day. Okay. DJ Moore is Ben's answer.

How about you, Jamie? Darwin Thompson. Oh. Yeah. All right. And I'll take Calvin Ridley. I think he's got a chance to juju it this year. Or a chance to be really disappointing with

touchdown regression. He's risky, but I like him. And boy, Calvin Ridley, a spoiler alert, his ADP on Yahoo is 69th overall. I couldn't believe I was helping my brother with a Yahoo draft last night, and Ridley went like almost 80th overall. I looked at his ADP this morning, 69th overall for Calvin Ridley. If you start with Julio Jones, I wouldn't mind taking Calvin Ridley with him in round six or seven.

And I'd like me, I love Ridley there anyway. He's just as low on ESPN. Really? I'm looking at my sheets just as low on ESPN, but he's about 60th on CBS and at the FFPC, and he's like 54th at the NFC, which are a little bit more competitive money leagues typically. All right, Calvin Ridley. Quick question number three. Are we drafting Demarius Thomas now after seven catches, 87 yards, and two touchdowns in the preseason game yesterday against the Giants?

Demarius Thomas. No. Nope. Quick question number four. Are we underestimating Rashad Penny with all this Chris Carson love? I just wonder if when the season starts we go, Oh, yeah, Rashad Penny's pretty good. This is why we liked him so much going into the preseason.

I don't think we're underestimating him. Chris Carson, there has been a lot of hype. Penny's still going in a reasonable range in the draft. He has plenty of upside, and I still think he's a good target. I'm taking more of him than Chris Carson personally. I typically do that with backfields that are a little bit unsettled. Take the second, the cheaper option. So I think his value is correct.

I don't think we're necessarily undervaluing him, but he's still worth targeting for sure. I think when you start to stack him up to the other guys that are in similar situations, Ben mentioned one, or two, I guess, Matt Breida and Darwin Thompson, Latavius Murray as well. I think those guys are going to have the opportunity for not similar workload in some cases. I don't think that Darwin Thompson is getting more touches than Rashad Penny right away.

But I think Matt Breida and Latavius Murray potentially will. And there's probably a little bit more success ahead for those two guys right away, barring an injury. So how are you ranking? Is Penny last in that group for you, Jamie? I think I have Penny ahead of Thompson, but I have Brita and Latavius ahead of him. Okay, last question. I don't know how quick it will be, but here we go.

Can I push back on this whole zero RB thing? And I feel kind of bad doing it now since we've been touting it for a couple weeks, and I still think it's very viable, but here's my question, right? Let's say you have a late pick in the first round. It's a PPR league. You start your league with two top seven wide receivers,

and you're just thrilled about it. Juju Smith-Schuster, Mike Thomas, whatever. I think it occurred to me last night as I was doing this in a draft, in the third round my running back was Chris Carson. It was almost Leonard Fournette in the Yahoo League. Leonard Fournette has a pretty low Yahoo ADP. Ben's going to talk about that. But, you know, so I don't have necessarily a total stud,

a guy who could be McCaffrey, who could be Barkley from last year. So my question is, like, how do you win in fantasy if you don't have that guy? It just sort of occurred to me, like, man, I know Dalvin Cook's risky, but Dalvin Cook could be one of the five best players in fantasy this year. Todd Gurley, I know he's risky, but he could be the best player in fantasy this year. If you don't take a running back there in round two, how do you win fantasy if you don't have one of those just total stud running backs

who just has a major impact every week? I mean, you don't have to have a stud running back to win, first of all. Second of all, you don't have to have a stud running back to win, first of all. Second of all, you're definitely right. When you're in a start two wide receiver league with a flex, as opposed to a start three with a flex, where you can start up to four wide receivers, it's definitely different. And that does increase the value of the elite running backs. But you don't have to have an elite running back to win in fantasy football. If you have points or points if you have a elite wide receivers in both of your receiver spots in your flex spot presumably a very good tight end if you're doing

this type of a draft i know my pick by pick uh a roster that i think you guys talked about on the show a couple of days ago according to some of the listeners in the listener league draft with me they mentioned that adam was not a big fan of my zero rb team in that league i got travis kelsey in that league i got tyreek hill chris godwin jarvis landry and curtis samuel so four very good receivers i also got patrick mahomes and had this mahomes hill kelsey stack i think of that like a dfs lineup where you're paying up for an expensive stack and you have cheap running backs now what running backs did i get i still got matt brita i still got caitlin bellage i still got ito smith three guys that will all have week one roles. And then I got some upside guys, Rashad Penny, Justice Hill. Okay, that doesn't look good if you're

anchoring to ADP in August. But one of the big things I've written about a lot this year is having a longer view of things. And every NFL season is very chaotic. Running back injuries happen. Players take over. It happens every year. We are way too confident right now in what's going to happen in these backfields. And we do it every year. It's natural. It's what we know now when we're drafting. But every single year in the long-term trends, and I wrote an article about this called the running back dead zone shows elite running backs tend to come from the first two rounds and so i do think you can take one in the first couple of rounds but from rounds about three to seven you're not getting

a better hit rate than you are even behind that so it's fine to take these later running backs if you go wide receiver wide receiver in the first couple of rounds like you mentioned doing last night having said that i don't mind taking an elite running back in the first or the second it's really when you get into the third and fourth and fifth that if you're going to go wider see what receiver you should just commit to zero running back and then essentially make sure that you're getting a ton of points out of every other spot on your roster and then just get by with the matt burritos and and edo smith is a guy who i think is just another one that's undervalued right now. A lot of hype around Brian Hill.

There's some talk now that he might not make the 53. Man, we're going to obviously find that out soon. But Ido Smith scored three touchdowns in the preseason, had three receptions for 45 yards in their second preseason game, caught another pass in their third preseason game. Yeah, I understand. But I think it's that round two pick that I'm talking about, passing up a guy. I just want to ask a question in regard to that theory.

If you're taking those backs that don't have a locked-in week one role, you said that they're going to have a role in week one. The question becomes is when you don't have at least one guy that you can rely on, at what point do you start to get rid of those guys? And then you may regret that because you may have dropped the wrong one. And I think that's something that people necessarily fear is like Nick Chubb, for example, last year. People got away from him early in the season. And then, oh, bleep, look what he became.

And so it's like you're going to keep shuffling through a couple of it probably you know i mean just the nature of it when you draft a team like that okay um ogumboale comes out of nowhere richard comes out of nowhere you know has a big week one performance and you say oh i need to go get that guy and i drop edo smith or i drop you know you're not gonna drop penny or brita or you know i don't remember all the names that you had there but you know you get rid of one of those guys it's i think that's the frustrating thing for people early on and that's i think where people try to get maybe a little bit away from that. The biggest word I would use to describe zero running back is it's an uncomfortable draft strategy. Your draft roster is not going to look good, but it is a strategy that you can win with if you hit on some of these running backs.

You can actually dominate if you hit on the running backs and get a big name guy like a james connor from last year because you're so good at other positions sure i'd still like to give it a shot i think you can do it this year um particularly like with austin eckler could be the guy who ends up winning your zero rb league or at least getting you you know through the first 10 weeks or so uh okay oh there's there's a lot of guys yeah no there are a lot of guys but but that's a guy that could be really, really good. Ben didn't draft any of them in his draft, but there's a lot of guys. All right, we got to take our first break here

on Fantasy Football today. We'll come back. We'll talk a little bit about preseason week four, and we'll do some ADP takeaways from other websites. And yeah, much more draft talk as we help you prepare for a big weekend. We'll be right back. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM,

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Preseason week four takeaways. Well, I watched the Dave Chappelle Netflix stand-up. It was funny. That's my takeaway.

If you're not easily offended, I recommend it. If you are easily offended, it's the worst thing you could ever watch. Don't ever watch it. That was my Thursday night. I watched a little bit of football this morning on NFL Game Pass. But I didn't think there was anything major yesterday. Did you guys?

No. I mean, it was good to see Albert Wilson out there. It was good to see Josh Gordon out there. It was good to see Demaryius Thomas out there. There was a little bit of a scare for Julian Edelman that he landed on his hand. People got a little bit panicked. Well, you know, hopefully there's nothing to be concerned about there. I think it was, you know, kind of curious to see some of the teams that rested certain players.

Like, for example, the Dolphins resting Preston Williams. That's an undrafted rookie free agent. Showing that he's not playing in the fourth preseason game gives you the clear indication that he's made the final roster. And then conversely, Carlos Hyde starting for the chiefs. Um, they might as well just send them a one way ticket to Houston right now to see if that's going to make that happen. Yeah.

And, Benny Snell for the Steelers. Like we have a question later in the show. I don't know if we'll get to it, but who's the handcuff for James Connor. Snell has had a really bad preseason. He's averaged 1.9 yards per carry on 28 carries. Again, I don't know that it matters, but it doesn't not matter.

So if Connor gets hurt, who steps in and gets the bulk of the carries? I would take Samuels as a handcuff regardless because he has the passing work. He's the guy that can give you—it's not just about who's most likely, but how big the return would be for your fantasy roster. Jalen Samuels is the guy that could be a dominant upside player because he's got the receiving work as well. Benny Snell's like an RB2 at best if he gets the lead down work. He's not a two-way player. I don't think Mike Tomlin's into uncertainties.

And he knows what Jalen Samuels can do for him if he needs him, as we saw last year. And then I would like to see Kenneth Dixon get a shot somewhere if the Ravens don't keep him around. But he had a nice game yesterday, and he's had, you know, a decent career. So we'll see about that. And let's just get Daniel Jones in there. The guy's incredible.

I mean, come on. All right, Ben. Ben, your ADP takeaways from other websites. I think everybody read the story. We don't have time to go through all of the story, but it's a really good read and very, very helpful. But I think the more interesting stuff to me, Ben, is the guys who are going too low on other websites.

So I mentioned Calvin Ridley. I teased Leonard Fournette on Yahoo. He's going, he's a top 30 pick at the other four sites that you talk about. But on Yahoo, he's like 36. It's a big difference. So you could get him late in the third round, which I almost did last night in a Yahoo League. Anyway, yeah. So who are some guys you want to highlight why don't we start with yahoo and espn talk about those leagues and guys that are too low there yeah and i gotta find my my article to be honest with you i don't even have it pulled up right now i got you i got you all right so so on so on espn here are the guys you highlighted as going too late. Their ADP is too low on ESPN. David Montgomery, who's almost 70th overall on ESPN.

Sixth round for David Montgomery. Damian Williams, 46th overall. I mean, that might be higher, but he's still low on ESPN. Damian Williams. Jalen Samuels going too late, 164th overall. 40 picks later than any of the other websites you looked at. Justice Hill,

149th. That's late for Justice Hill. Kalen Balazs really late on ESPN. 161st. And Jameis Winston. Top 120 pick at the other four sites, but in ESPN, Jameis Winston 155 overall.

But really, you look at David Montgomery in the sixth round, Damian Williams. I don't really know if he's going to go in the fourth round. I don't know how far back the ADP goes, but it's really low. So yeah, those are the ones that really jumped out to me on ESPN. Yeah, the biggest thing I noticed from ESPNn actually like a kind of a bigger takeaway was a lot of running backs that they're just really down on and i think they use uh like like specific set of projections or or something i mean i'm not sure what where their default rankings come from specifically but uh it seems like they're just certain guys that they're a little

bit down on relative to the consensus, what everybody else is seeing out there. So it's definitely worthwhile to check out the article. And I mentioned several players that they're low on at ESPN. Montgomery and Damon Williams are two in earlier rounds, Samuels, Hill, and Balazs. But there was several more. There was a few that were lower on every site relative to like NFC and FFPC, which are some

paid leagues, you know, a little, I think a little bit more competitive ADP. Like, for example, in those leagues, you'll see quarterbacks go later. That's something we always preach in the public league ADP. You'll see all the quarterbacks have higher adps um so like mentioning winston here he's lower relative to to that he's a lot lower uh than he is on the other sites and definitely a quarterback that i think is worth targeting but some guys that are lower on every site miles sanders daryl henderson um tony pollard i think was lower on every single site late rounds uh royce freeman Freeman and Chase Edmonds are guys.

All of these are a lot. Almost all of them are young running backs that haven't really done anything yet. They have a lot of upside to potentially break out if the situation breaks right. And like we just noted, those ones that are specifically on ESPN, Justice Hill, Jalen Samuels, these are guys that I just love to target in the late rounds. So definitely, definitely names to look for if you do a zero running back or even if you don't as depth running backs this year. The depth running back, I mean, this is really a bigger discussion here because you are hammering home the depth running back argument. I mean, these guys are more

valuable to you, I think, than they are to me. And Jamie, I'd like to know where you stand on them. But I like depth running backs. I take Jamal Williams a lot. But I don't know if Justice Hill has that much value. I mean, if Mark Ingram gets hurt, I don't know that Justice Hill gets a bigger role. It could be Gus Edwards. It could be Kenneth Dixon if they keep him. I'm not super psyched. I'm not as excited to draft these guys. I don't know. I feel like a lot of them suck them suck and that's why they go late and they won't be very good. Like Kalen Balazs is not good. Kalen Balazs, like Mark Walton might be better than Kalen Balazs. And if Kenyon Drake gets hurt, then Kalen Balazs is going to be terrible. They're a terrible team with a terrible offensive line. So if Kenyon Drake doesn't get hurt and Balazs isn't involved

in the passing game, why do I even want to draft Kalen Balazs? I don't know. I have a very different opinion on these guys, I guess. So I'll let Ben talk as well. I don't want to just have the final word. But, Jamie, let me get you in on this argument. I think it's case specific. You know, one name you said was Justice Hill.

There is uncertainty because we don't know what will happen if Mark Ingram were to get hurt. But you're also buying into a team that's going to be so run dominant. And if you just talk about talent, I can't imagine the Ravens looking at Justice Hill and saying he's not more talented than Gus Edwards, assuming Kenneth Dixon's off the roster. So I could see Justice Hill getting some touches in tandem with him. I think that he's one of those guys you have to be patient with, but your argument about Balazs is correct. You know, I mean, I saw it firsthand when I went to the third preseason game between the Jaguars and the Dolphins, he did not look good, and that was a game where Laramie Tunsell did not play. So you're talking about them not having their best offensive lineman, and as

we know, there's the trade circulating, or trade rumors circulating about Tunsell being gone. So it's case by case. Ben brought up some guys before, the Edo Smiths of the world. We've seen Devontae Freeman go down. So in a situation like that, you're talking opportunity, and can he take advantage of the opportunity? So it's just

a matter of how you value those guys. You keep saying Jamal Williams. We've seen him get a significant amount of touches when Aaron Jones hasn't been there. Will he still do that with Dexter Williams if that's someone that they like? And that's something, again, going back to what I asked Ben. How long are you willing to ride it out with some

of these guys before you get rid of them? And then when you do, do you regret it? I don't know if there's anything to add there go ahead i i i mean i have a couple comments number one one of the underrated advantages to doing like a zero running back or being thin at running back in the early part is you're giving yourself more opportunities to hit a breakout and the breakouts at running back do come elite breakouts last year it was james connor the year before it was alvin camara we've seen it uh when davante freeman initially broke out we saw it when melvin gordon initially broke out both those guys were in their

second season and i i mentioned the running back dead zone piece when i did that research the breakout rates in the later rounds they're not great they the guys that do breakout, they're almost always young running backs, which is why I think it's really interesting to highlight these young running backs that I just did that are lower ADP on ESPN. Guys like Kalen Balazs, yes, he's young, but he's not a guy that I necessarily would think of in that class. He's more of a bridge back for me, somebody I know is going to have an early season role. Ido Smith, Jamal Williams, those guys are a couple years into their careers it's guys that we don't necessarily know just as Hill

yeah maybe he won't have a role maybe he's as good as Alvin Kamara because Alvin Kamara was going in the same range when he was a rookie and no one thought he was Alvin Kamara nobody necessarily thought James Conner had the upside he did last season uh You know, Nick Chubb was a seventh round pick last year, ended up being a monster. There's a lot of guys that when we don't know, when there's the unknown, have inherent upside there because we haven't seen them play at the NFL level yet. And when you do as your running back, you expose yourself to six or seven running backs in that range where you just increase your likelihood of this massive hit. Just like in the NFL draft, forward-thinking teams love to trade back and stockpile picks. It's quantity over, you know, if I knew who was going to break out, I'd draft him in the second round. But I want quantity. I gotcha. I gotcha. All right. So let's go to some other guys who

have low ADPs on other websites like Yahoo. Leonard Fournette, we keep talking about that. Tyler Lockett, though, on Yahoo, his ADP is 62nd overall. He is an early sixth-round pick. For us, he's a mid-fourth-round pick in a 12-team league. So Tyler Lockett, great value. And Darius Geis, Ben, when are you comfortable taking Darius Geis? As you mentioned, he's a top 80 pick at FFPC and NFC. He's 83rd at ESPN. He's 90th or 89th at CBS on Yahoo. Darius Geis is not a top 100 pick. His ADP is 103rd overall.

Yeah, I mean, I'm comfortable taking him kind of all in that range. It depends which other running backs are gone. I mean, that's kind of a, not a great answer, but I, I'm definitely concerned about the situation with Washington. Even if he is the lead back, it's not going to be a good team. He's not going to get a lot of scoring opportunities. So the uncertainty with the depth chart, plus the fact that the upside, if he is the lead back might not be amazing in that offense. Both those things have me a little bit, not as excited about them. Are there any other players you want to highlight from your story? I mean, again, I think the biggest takeaway I had, especially when I looked at which players were lowest on all at all the public leagues relative to places like NFC and FFPC, it was

young guys at receiver. It was Curtis Samuel and DJore are both younger across the public league spectrum compared to those leagues i mentioned all of those running backs uh courtland sutton's another one that i think is worth highlighting this guy was a really good prospect wasn't terrible last year to be honest i mean he had a really good yards per target number for only catching 50 of his targets and the reason he had such a low catch rate was a high average depth of target a lot of downfield passes and a ton of uncatchable passes he didn't really have a great connection with case keenum if he can develop a little bit of a downfield connection with joe flacco i think he has the potential to

break out uh but the biggest takeaway man was public leagues overvalue veterans people they know and they undervalue youth and upside and just because they don't know these names as well probably are a lot of people so if you're in a casual league, I would recommend taking a lot of guys that are younger. It's not going to be comfortable. You're not going to know what their roles are in week one, but you might hit on this year's Nick Chubb or this year's James Conner from last year

or Alvin Kamara from the year before. That's where the breakouts tend to come from is the younger class. Okay. And I'll just add, if you're looking at those young guys and they're going to be running backs in a lot of cases, try to target a good offense. I think that's, you know, like even if Kalen Balazs were on the Saints or something like that, I might be more excited about him

just to plug into a good system, good offense. But you don't want to necessarily be pinning your hopes on young guys on bad offenses. So I think when you look at Alvin Kamara, when you look at James Conner, I mean, Nick Chubb after Baker Mayfield takes over and Freddie Kitchens takes over, you're talking about good offenses here. So I think that's an important part of it too. All right, we'll take another break here.

Some advice, some weekend advice for you if you are drafting and much more on Fantasy Football Today coming right up. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you

and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations, or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada, insurance designed for life. Okay, we each have two pieces of advice for fantasy drafters this weekend. I'll just get mine out of the way, and then I'll throw it to Ben and Jamie. Advice piece number one from me.

If you're in a three-wide receiver league, I think that there are about 24 wide receivers that have top 10 upside. And I don't think it's a bad idea to do what you have to do to get three of those top 24. Josh Gordon is kind of a cutoff for me. I really like getting Josh Gordon. After that, you're looking at certainly good players, usable players. Robbie Anderson, Alan Robinson, Curtis Samuel, D.D. Westbrook, T.Y. Hilton, Mike Williams.

I like all those guys. I don't think they have top 10 upside personally. So I like getting three of the top 24 if you want to go wide receiver heavy. And my other piece of advice, don't be afraid to do the friendship strategy. Lock up two guys on one team. It could be a situation like Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. If Williams goes later, sometimes he does. Could be Kenny Galladay and Marvin Jones.

Just to see who the best one there is. I think there's a 25% chance that Jones is the best guy there. But Geronimo Allison and MVS. Will Fuller and Kiki Cutie. Something like that. Dante Pettis and Marquise Goodwin. Tie up two roster spots as long as one of them is really late and just see

who emerges and try to get one must-start player out of them. Ben, give me two pieces of advice for drafting this weekend. Well, first of all, it sounds like you're a zero running back truth or saying to draft three of the top 24 wide receivers. See, I think one running back. You're taking one running back in three of those. I could definitely go zero RB. I could. you're taking one running back in three of those i could i could definitely go zero rb i could but but i but again i don't think it's a bad idea to go running back in round or late round one early round two and get a guy like a dalvin cook who maybe you feel like you're drafting a little early

but he has potential to be a top five overall player but yes so we're not too dissimilar in our strategies in that way because it's fine to take a running back early my biggest piece of advice would be not don't take too many running backs in the round three to round seven range adam right at the end of the last segment made a great point about how good the offense is when you're targeting those late round running backs the biggest reason i like to avoid that range is we start to get into the lead backs on the worst offenses in the nfl uh it's not a it's not a great range to be drafting running backs, and there's so many upside wide receivers in there this year. Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd, DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel,

you know, Didi Westbrook is a little bit later, Mike Williams, Will Fuller, I love this year. I want to get as many of those guys as I can. So that's my first piece of advice. Second piece would be don't just like grab players to be your backups at every position so that your bench is like a sorted mixed bag of positions. Think about what your league settings are. For me, it typically means if it's a shallower league, I don't need a backup quarterback or possibly even a backup tight end if I get one of the top six and I'm never going to sit that guy.

And I want to use those bench spots on more of those flyer running backs. And to Jamie's point, yes, it's sometimes hard to know who to drop, but I want to get more running backs on my bench comparatively. All right, Jamie, give me a couple pieces of advice. I think the first one is if you're comfortable with your first, I'll say four selections, because I think this is where their average job position is. And you really like the way that you started your draft be aggressive with either Melvin Gordon or AJ Green in that round five range

because those two guys can significantly win your fantasy league if they play enough games Green we know is going to show up at some point because of the ankle injury but if you get Melvin Gordon he could be very similar to Nick Chubb in terms of when he plays I think you're going to get maybe eight games out of Melvin Gordon.

Just looking at how this could play out, he could play 16 games and that could just be an awesome situation for you. But when you get to, I think it's round five is where I would feel the most comfortable with both those guys at this point. Be aggressive with, you know, guys that I would consider to be league winners, probably some other guys you could throw in there,

but I'm just looking at, you know, some of the guys who have missed time and are falling in drafts. And the other one would be, Ben kind of touched on this with the tight ends. You don't have to necessarily pull the trigger on one of the three guys at the top of Kelsey, Ertz, and Kittle. But when you get into that round four or five range, you might want to consider Ingram, Howard, or Henry, because I think one, if not all three, can push two of those guys out of the top three. And so it's going to be interesting to see how those three guys go, how they perform, how they stay healthy in terms of Ingram and Howard,

and Henry also obviously coming off the ACL. But I think those three guys can be significant difference makers. And it's kind of, for me at least, it's been a comforting thing knowing I have one of those tight ends, not necessarily having to take a second or third round pick on one of the other guys, but still getting three or four good players and then getting one of those top tier guys. That's a great transition into our next discussion, which will be about our Fantasy Football Today draft that we did yesterday

and the tight end I took and the decision that I somewhat regret, but I'd love to get Jamie and Ben's take on it. All right, that's it for the video portion of Fantasy Football Today. Thank you so much for watching. And if you want to see some clips, go to youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. And for you audio listeners, we'll be back in like literally half a second.

Be right back. So transitioning to my tight end pick. All right, so, you know, strategy-wise here, Fantasy Football Today draft, PPR, three receivers, and a flex. First pick, I start with Barkley, then I get Gurley, then I took Keenan Allen,

and then I took O.J. Howard and Josh Gordon. So my team now has two running backs in Gurley and Barkley, Keenan Allen and Josh Gordon at wide receiver, and O.J. Howard at tight end. I had a little, like. I had regret almost immediately. Jamie, I thought maybe I should have taken David Montgomery over O.J. Howard.

I understand the scarcity of tight end, but, you know, I don't know. I think I may have messed that up. What do you think? Who would you have taken in that situation? And it wasn't just Montgomery. The running backs on the board were Montgomery, Sonny Michel, Marlon Mack, and Duke Johnson.

I did not want Mack for sure. But, yeah, did I screw up going with O.J. Howard there? So you had Barkley, Gurley. Keenan Allen and Josh Gordon. And Josh Gordon. So two running backs. Well, you took Howard before Gordon. So you had two running backs.

Back-to-back picks. Okay, so two receivers in a three-receiver league. I mean, look, it comes down to, you know, Ben was just talking about this. Points are points, and it matters. It doesn't necessarily matter. We get those points as long as you're getting them. And so if Howard is producing on the level of what Montgomery does, on the level of what maybe a third receiver would have given you,

I don't know if you were considered a receiver at that point. DJ Moore was available. No, I wasn't because we had reached that top 24 cutoff and Gordon was still that guy. No, I was taking him in round two. Yeah, yeah. No, I understand if he does, but do you think I made a mistake?

Do you think I made a mistake with Howard there? I don't. I don't think that any of the running backs or receivers stand out that much more than OJ Howard, so I think he made the right call. Okay, cool. The only thing I would say is, if you were considering a third running back there, it's because you're concerned

about Gurley. Okay, so I didn't take a third running back there, and then I ended up with Phillip Lindsay as my third running back. That's a great situation. Okay, alright, good. Yeah, and then when you're drafting on the turn, I think 49th overall is early for OJ Howard,

but it was now or never. I wasn't getting him two rounds later, and Evan Ingram was already off the board, and Hunter Henry went like six picks later. All right, so I just want to mention one other thing about this. If you're wondering when do I take Melvin Gordon, I think Jack Capitordo crushed it with Melvin Gordon and Austin Eckler, 60 and 61 overall.

He had the 12th pick of round five and the first pick of round six. And personally, I just loved that. Ben, I want to get your opinion on something here. Backfields, right? Do you like... So in my particular situation, Philip Lindsay, do you like taking Royce Freeman later, or should fantasy owners in general try to lock up backfields or have exposure to different backfields? For example, I had Philip Lindsay, and then I drafted Royce Freeman. I could have taken LaShawn McCoy.

Another example would be George Maselli. He had Chris Carson late in round three, and then he took Darwin Thompson four picks ahead of Rashad Penny. And he knew he wasn't going to get Penny if he didn't take him there, so he could have locked up the Seahawks backfield. Instead, he went with Darwin Thompson. What's a better approach there? To spread your exposure to different backfields or to lock up one situation? In my opinion, it's always to spread it. Because in a situation where you think you lock it up, there's not always necessarily a ton or as much upside as you hope, particularly with running backs, because they can split work. It does depend on the offense a little bit. There are specific offenses that I think it's fine

to try to lock up the whole offense, like the Chiefs. If you went for multiple players on the Chiefs offense, that's fine with me completely. But like Denver, that's an offense that I'm, you're hoping that either Phillip Lindsay or Royce Freeman is the lead back because last year they also incorporated Devante Booker, their trade for Theo Riddick, who's now injured,

but will be back at some point this year, indicates they still want to use a third back in the passing game. You're really hoping one of Freeman or Lindsay ends up being the star. So you're either going to get nothing out of both if they split it or not enough out of both, I should say, or that's the concern. Or you're locking in a miss, you know, as well as a hit. One of those works out. And in my opinion, like you want to target strategies that help you win your league.

Be first out of 12 teams. This is a strategy that would help you be more in the middle of the pack. Getting players from multiple offenses potentially gives you two starters from two different offenses, two lead backs

from two different offenses. And for one of those picks to be great doesn't necessarily mean another one of your picks failed. Jamie, what do you think? Because I wasn't going to do it. I wanted somewhat to lock up the backfield just in case, but I really don't like Royce Freeman. But LeSean McCoy didn't excite me that much. I actually was considering Ronald Jones because I like him kind of like Ben does.

There weren't great running backs there, but I do. I mean, I see a situation for a guy to be the lead running back on a good offense. That's the thing. LeSean McCoy is going to be the lead running back, but it's not going to be on a good offense. So, yeah, I don't know, Jamie. Like, let's take the Chris Carson. If you're the Chris Carson owner, do you take Rashad Penny or do you take Darwin Thompson? I mean, I can give you a... I did that because I took Tevin Coleman in round four and Matt Parita in round seven. And who'd you pass up when you took Parita?

I passed up... Geis, Darwin Thompson, Rashad Penny. And that's an offense run by Kyle Shanahan that has... Kyle Shanahan's whole history is littered with running back fantasy production. Last year, they were 4-12, and they were 5th in running back total yards as a team.

So that's absolutely an offense you can do that in. You can start both those guys, potentially, in certain matchups. Yep. Okay. Jamie, what were some of your takeaways from this draft? I mean, we kind of touched on one, you know, with Will taking the

approach of some questionable situations. I agree with you. I thought that Jack did a great job of taking both Melvin Gordon and Austin Eckler, but I think that might have been his first two running backs. Oh, let's see.

He had the 12th pick. Beckham, Kelsey, Godwin, Lockett, and then, yeah, the Chargers guys. So who were his other running backs? Darius Geis, Ronald Jones. What? You like this team, Ben? Is this your favorite team? Adrian Peterson?

It's not a bad team. It's not. It's not bad. Yeah. If I went zero running back, I would not, to Jamie's point, I would not take Melvin Gordon and Austin Eckler as my first two running backs. I think you have to take a stand with an Eckler and then go somewhere else so you can get production out of both those guys,

especially early in the season. I mean, he's going to have to start Darius Geist week one. That's pretty sketchy. Yeah, could have he could have had austin eckler and james white yeah in a ppr league yeah that's the move i would have made personally okay okay interesting so melvin gordon maybe not not bad melvin gordon 60th overall but as part of a zero rb not necessarily this kind of goes to ben's's point of what Jack did with his bench. He took Ben Roethlisberger as a second quarterback and David Njoku as a second tight end.

Now, he could play Njoku as a flex if he wants to. We can put the tight end in the flex spot. But what Jack should have done is just thrown darts at the wall just to see what was going to happen at the running back position. Yep. Okay.

Anything else, guys? Anything jump out? We're going to let Jamie go in a second, and then Ben and I are going to read some tweets real quick to finish the show. Can I say, like... David Johnson went in the second round. You guys are really down on David Johnson. He went 205 here.

In the site ADP comparison I saw, at CBS, David Johnson's ADP is, I believe... I'm going to pull it up real quick. I think it's 10... I'm going to tell you right real quick. I think it's 10. I'm going to tell you right now. It's 11.48. So he's right at the 1-2 turn.

I get him in every draft that we do together. On no other site is he lower than 8.5. And on FFPC and NFC, he's 6-point-something. He's the sixth player drafted in both formats. Yeah, he scares me. He scares all of us except for Ben. You guys are... I think just a couple things to note with this draft. One, we had Pete Prisco,

who is a great NFL analyst. He does not necessarily... He dabbles in fantasy. He doesn't necessarily compete like we do. And Pete has his bold predictions, and he says Dalvin Cook's going to leave the NFL in rushing. So he took Dalvin Cook in the first round. That's probably a spot where David Johnson's in consideration.

But in a three-receiver league, you can certainly make a case that the receivers are a little bit more of a priority. And for us, you're not going to see this in many drafts. In the second round, we're Le'Veon Bell, James Conner, and David Johnson. I don't think that's going to be the norm. Right. That's fair. But you had two chances. Butie had two chances a little low as a site on david johnson collectively

so that's one one thing that's done to me in this draft for sure and jamie you took michael thomas over tyree kill and odell beckham and uh let me get your thoughts on that because for me michael thomas low yards per catch compared to the other top seven wide receivers other than Devontae Adams. He and Devontae Adams were low in yards per catch. And he caught 80% of his targets. And I can almost guarantee you he's not going to get 150 targets. That's basically the ceiling. Drew Brees has never given somebody 150 targets.

Thomas has been close. And, you know, he's got some touchdown issues. So why did you go with him over Tyreek Hill and Beckham? Because he's going to dwarf them in catches. I think so with Hill, but I don't know about Beckham. You think so with Beckham? Give me 16 games with Beckham. You guarantee that, then I'll take it.

Okay, that's my question. If I gave you 16 games with Beckham and Thomas, who would you take? I would take Beckham. Okay, so is the catches versus Hill and the injury concerns with Beckham? That's why you go with Thomas. Okay. Makes sense. All right, Jamie.

Thank you very much. I hope to hear from you tomorrow on the radio show. Stay safe, my friend. I will let you know. Everybody listening that's on the East Coast, certainly in the Florida area, please be safe. And hopefully your drafts go well this weekend. Yes. Ben, let's read some tweets.

Here we go. You can follow us at Adam Azer, A-I-Z-E-R, at Yards Per Gretch, G-R-E-T-C-H. Excellent Twitter handle. At Dave Richard, singular. At Jamie Isenberg, J-A-M-E-Y. And at Heath Cummings Sr., at Heath Cummings S-R. From Nick, on a scale of 1 to 10,

how comfortable are you starting David Montgomery in week one against the Packers without knowing his role? Six. From FFLove, Fantasy Football Love,

is Cortland Sutton ever going to be good? Yes. From Sam, draft a wide... Okay, well, when is Cortland Sutton going to be good?

This season. Okay. From Sam, draft a wide. Okay. Well, when is Cortland Sutton going to be good? This season. Okay. From Sam. Draft a wide receiver and a tight end on the same team. Good idea or bad idea? Like Keenan Allen and Hunter Henry specifically. Totally team dependent. Same thing as the running backs.

You don't want to load up on bad offenses. We talked about it earlier in the show with the Colts now without Andrew Luck to be taking both Marlon Mack and T.Y. Hilton in the top five rounds is probably not a high upside move. The Chargers I'm okay with. I'd probably want to take Rivers because I'm already investing in that passing game pretty heavily. I'd probably want to take Rivers because if this offense has a really big season, you can just stack them every week. Yeah. I think uh kelsey and hill totally fine i would say based on where alshon jeffrey goes urts and jeffrey seems fine uh kiddle and uh you know round 10 or later for goodwin and pettis that's fine to me the one i would avoid probably

is evan ingram and sterling shepherd um i don't love that but evan ingram and golden tate considering golden tate's basically free you just got to wait four weeks i wouldn't mind that. But Evan Ingram and Golden Tate, considering Golden Tate's basically free, he's got to wait four weeks. I wouldn't mind that so much. Okay, from Texas Bruin. Half PPR, is it okay to draft both Carson and Penny? Yeah, I mean, Seattle's like right on the cusp of whether their offense is good enough or not for running back production.

Last year, they ran so much. They threw the fewest pass attempts of any team in the last five seasons. This year year their defense is a little bit worse i think they're gonna have to throw more than people are kind of realizing i don't know that they're gonna run quite as much it's kind of tough for me to see both of them be good all the time but i one of them's gonna be usable um so it's that. So that's a tough one. I think you kind of have to pick your poison with them. If it were me, I would pick one.

I wouldn't draft both. From Jason, how are you feeling about Mark Ingram? I'm way down on Mark Ingram. Yeah, been not a huge fan. Give me your 10-second summary of why you're not a huge fan of Mark Ingram. Leaves the offense that has scored the most running back touchdowns over the last three seasons and throws the most pass attempts to the running backs over the last decade and goes to an offense that has a rushing quarterback

that isn't going to throw to him a lot, isn't going to give him as much touchdown equity, and has also had their starter usurped each of the last three seasons. That was more than 10 seconds. That's fine. I'm a little higher on him. I'm definitely higher on him. They're going to be a run heavy offense.

He's going to be the best running back there. I share the concerns about the rushing touchdowns because of Lamar Jackson, but I still think he'll get like eight. I think he's a good number two guy from Adam. The earliest you draft Todd Gurley. Probably 24 where you got him. I mean, probably all the way at the end of the second round. There's too many guys I want to take in the second round

to be going after guys that already have red flags. I'd probably take him around 18th, something like that. From Lawrence, what's a better strategy, zero RB or zero wide receiver? Zero RB. We talked about it all show, and it shouldn't be close because wide receiver production at the top,

it's easier to predict targets. Injuries don't create opportunity the way that they do at running back, so it's harder for a late-round wide receiver to suddenly be an elite talent. It's just multi-year positional trends. Wide receivers are easier to predict at the top. They're stabler. Their production is stabler. Um, like it's just multi-year positional trends. Wide receivers are easier to predict at the top. They're stabler. Their production is stabler.

Even when they are like have a down year, it's just a little bit of a down year. It's not lose your job entirely type thing. Running back is a position where you can take a little bit later and get a great value. So this isn't even, this shouldn't like the data shows that this shouldn't even be close to a question. Zero RB is a better strategy than zero wide receiver for sure. And finally, from Joy, who is the wide receiver to have in Pittsburgh after Juju,

Moncrief or Washington? Neither. I think they're going to split up the targets a lot. I will take Vance because he gets the tight end eligibility, and I will take some Jalen Samuels as a pass catcher, you know, in on some, some routes,

but I'm not drafting either of those guys. My take on them is that Juju is going to suffocate the Steelers, other passing weapons. All right. That has been Gretsch and Jamie Eisenberg. Thanks so much for listening. Big weekend of drafting. Make sure you're tuning into CBS sports HQ.

Cause we're all over it all weekend long and Monday night and Tuesday night. So have a wonderful holiday weekend. We'll talk to you. Actually going to have a bonus episode with Chris Harris tomorrow, and then we'll talk to you on Monday with a fresh episode. Thanks a lot, and have a great weekend.