Fantasy Football Today - 2020 Awards, PPR Mock Draft, Dynasty 1.01? (01/12 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: January 12, 2021We start with discussing our favorite picks from the 2021 PPR mock draft (0:58), including Benny Snell in round 10 … News and notes (3:24) with Doug Pederson fired plus Najee Harris and Devonta Smit...h dominating the National Championship. Who should be the number 1 pick in dynasty this year? … Our 2020 Fantasy awards (10:32) - thanks for voting! Fantasy MVP, biggest bust, worst Waiver Wire pickup and more with a spin towards 2021 … Our PPR mock draft results (35:20) running through the first two rounds, where quarterbacks were drafted and how early the experts took tight ends. Full PPR mock results here: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/fantasy-football-january-ppr-mock-draft-features-surprising-picks-starting-early-in-round-1/ 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @CTowersCBS, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Want winning picks each morning in under 10 minutes? Subscribe to 'The Early Edge: A Daily SportsLine Betting Podcast' on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever else you listen to podcasts. 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
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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
On his way to the end zone.
I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
What a play.
Off to the races.
Touchdown.
Oh, he's done it again.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben.
Welcome everybody to Fantasy Football Today.
It's our award show podcast.
We've got a busy show for you today.
Not only are we going to unveil our 2020 awards,
we're also going to take a look at our first PPR mock draft for 2021
and maybe get into a little bit of who should be the 101 pick
in Dynasty Leagues following the end of the college football season
with Alabama routing Ben Trager's favorite team, the Ohio State Buckeyes. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Chris Towers.
That's Dave Richard. And guys, let's get right into it. So we're going to unveil our 2020 award
winners. You guys voted for it on Facebook. We appreciate that. We'll get into that in a little
bit. But like I said, we're also going to get into our 2021 first mock draft. So Dave, what was your
favorite pick? You had the number four selection. What was your favorite pick in the draft?
My favorite pick in the draft was probably Kyler Murray in round six.
And Josh Allen went one spot ahead of him.
But I thought that that was excellent value for what I would imagine to be an elite tier quarterback.
Chris, you had the number 11 selection.
What was your favorite pick?
I'll probably go in a similar vein and say Aaron Rodgers in round seven.
I know things are going to be different in the drafts that we do together.
But by the time we get to the summer, I'm not thinking any of those guys are going to be drafted any higher.
We don't tend to be more aggressive with quarterback as things go on.
No, that's true.
The guys will probably get shuffled around quite a bit.
But yeah, getting Aaron Rodgers there, getting the quarterbacks there, that's obviously a big thing.
My favorite pick was probably getting Benny Snell in round 10.
We'll find out what the Steelers are going to do with their running back
position.
But if you get a starting running back for an NFL team,
and we know the Steelers is not going to be probably a great offensive team
based on how things have finished for them and some of the things that may
change,
but I shouldn't say not a great offense,
great running team.
But,
you know,
Benny Snell has an opportunity there, as we've seen when he got when he got work during the
season, he was fairly successful. So as a fifth running back on my roster, I'll take that. But
we'll find out what happens with James Connor, who is a free agent. All right, we got some,
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All right, we got some news and notes.
And unfortunately for the Buffalo Bills,
Zach Moss is going to miss the remainder of the postseason,
but they signed Devontae Freeman to their practice squad.
We'll see if he has anything left to offer.
Obviously, he was not part of our waiver wire worst pick nominations,
but probably should have been on there after we thought he could replace
Saquon Barkley.
But obviously now no Zach Moss, so Devin Singletary will be very popular for DFS this
weekend on FanDuel and DraftKings as Buffalo takes on the Baltimore Ravens. Big news on Monday was
the Eagles fired Doug Peterson. So Dave, we talked about this a little bit on the Fantasy Football
Today in Five podcast. Give me your thoughts on Miles Sanders and just what the potential
ramifications could be of a new coach coming into a place.
Doug Peterson.
If the new coach wants a feature back, he's got one in Miles Sanders.
Peterson tried to make Sanders his feature back last year.
And for a lot of the season, he got it.
Eight of 12 games with at least 15 touches.
But we could also see the next coach be more of a committee guy.
And that means Miles Sanders will lose some playing time
and probably never get higher than 15 touches per game.
So we need to see what will happen there.
It doesn't make Miles Sanders a locked-in early-to-mid second-round pick right now.
We've got to see what happens.
Just knowing that there's some uncertainty, Chris,
would now be a good time to buy low on Miles Sanders in the Dynasty League?
Yeah, I think so, because what we saw this season was, you know,
he was still a very good big play guy in the Philadelphia offense,
in the running game.
The passing game was where he really struggled, had a ton of drops,
couldn't really get on the same page with Carson Wentz.
But, you know, even when we saw Jalen Hurts come in, he ran the ball better.
So I still think he can be a very effective fantasy option.
And, you know, we'll see who they bring in.
Hopefully they can get on the same page in the passing game
because I think that's where the upside comes in for him.
All right, speaking of the passing game, Chris,
what do you think about Jalen Hurts now,
knowing that this move kind of feels like they're siding with Carson Wentz
as opposed to Doug Peterson?
So we were, I think, moderately excited about what Jalen Hurts could be.
We spent some time talking about this on yesterday's show. Jalen Hurts, I had him ranked as a top 12
quarterback. Your thoughts on now the quarterback situation in Philadelphia with a new coach coming
in? Yeah, I think you probably assume. And my hope has always been that Jalen Hurts would be
the starter and Carson Wentz would go somewhere else. But the salary cap ramifications always
made it at least somewhat likely that they would go back to Carson Wentz just because it was always going to be really hard to get out from him.
They had a ton of dead money to him, whether it was if they released him, which always seemed unlikely, or if they traded him.
So I think the financial considerations might play a big role in that as well.
And then, Dave, similar question about Miles Sanders.
But let's spin it forward to some of the wide receivers. You're very high on Jalen Rager last year. Didn't have
a great rookie season. Injuries clearly played a big part in that, but same thing. Are you looking
to buy low on maybe Jalen Rager, maybe trying to get Dallas Goddard if he's a little bit cheaper
now? Do you look to do kind of the same thing with the pass catchers in Philadelphia? There's
uncertainty with them all. So sure. Now's a good time to check in and see what it'll take to get those guys on your squad and dynasty. I still think Rager's got a world
of potential, still one of the faster receivers in the league. Just didn't show out as much as
I thought he would in his rookie season. If it's Hurts under center, that's great because we saw
Hurts take a lot of deep shots. That was one of his go-tos whenever pressure was on and he either
didn't feel like running or didn't think he could run. And we saw Wentz in prior seasons throw downfield a little
bit more aggressively. It's really going to come down to offensive scheme and how aggressive the
new play caller will be. I would imagine Rager will fit in and potentially be the best receiver
in Philadelphia for the next several seasons. Yeah. There's some talk about the Eagles,
maybe trying to be aggressive, go get Lincoln Riley. That would be good for Jalen Hurts.
For some of those guys.
What did you say, Dave? I'm sorry.
I said that would be really good for Jalen Hurts if they get Lincoln Riley.
Oh, for sure.
Would be absolutely fantastic for him to get his play caller from college.
Speaking of college, we had the national championship game on Monday night,
the Alabama Crimson Tide.
They get their sixth title for Nick Saban, go undefeated.
Best season ever for an SEC team.
They went 11-0 in the SEC, which is obviously difficult to do.
So they beat Ohio State 52-24.
And we know they have a trio of stars.
The Heisman Trophy winner, Devontae Smith, hurts his hand in the game,
but he has 15 targets, 12 catches, 215 yards, and three touchdowns.
Just an absolute monster.
Najee Harris, 22 carries, 79 yards, two touchdowns.
He also had eight targets, seven catches, 79 yards, two touchdowns. He also had eight targets,
seven catches, 79 yards and touchdown. And Mac Jones, just an unbelievable performance for him,
36 of 45 passing, 464 yards and five touchdowns. Justin Fields, he's going to be either the second
or third quarterback in the NFL draft. Not the best game for him, 17 of 33, 194 and a touchdown.
And unfortunately, Sermon got hurt in that game. They're starting running back.
Hopefully he'll be okay soon and be ready for the NFL draft.
Chris Alave was the leading receiver for Ohio State.
Eight catches for 69 yards.
And what was a questionable touchdown taken away from him.
Looked like he had the ball, but maybe didn't secure it enough
with the toe drag there in the back of the end zone.
So we know a lot of you are thinking about your dynasty leagues,
your dynasty draft, your rookie only draft.
So a fun time for us to start talking about this.
So coming off this game, this unbelievable run from Alabama,
did anything change for you guys in terms of who's the one-on-one pick in
dynasty leagues?
A lot of people looking at Devante Smith and the way that he performed,
Najee Harris and the way that he performed,
but you have guys that didn't play in this game, like Travis Etienne,
Jamar Chase, you know, the wide receiver from LSU.
So Dave, if you're picking
right now, you have the first pick in your rookie only draft. Who are you taking? If it's right now,
I think it's Etienne, but I'm not exactly sure that I'm going to stick with that because Najee
Harris is really good too. And obviously Devante Smith and Jamar Chase look like guys that can lead
your fantasy squad for a decade. This is going to be a very difficult choice, but it certainly makes those first four picks very,
very appealing in dynasty.
Put me down for ATN for now.
All right.
So ATN for you from Clemson,
Chris,
what about you?
If you have the first pick in your rookie only draft,
I think I would go with either Smith or chase just because I,
I feel like the running backs,
it matters a bit more where they land.
Whereas I think, you know,
Chase and Smith,
they just seem like the kind of guys
who can be, you know,
dominant in pretty much any situation.
So I think I would lean towards
the wide receivers right now.
But if the running backs land somewhere,
you know, Miami or Jacksonville
or somewhere where they could really get,
you know, that 15 to 18
touch per game workload right away,
then I think you probably go back to the running backs.
Yeah. It always comes down to also what you need. You know, I mean,
there are teams, obviously they're stacked at wide receiver.
They'll go running back and vice versa.
And then clearly when we're talking about two quarterback or super flex
leagues, Trevor Lawrence is going to be the first overall pick in those
leagues, even with him going to Jacksonville.
And you may see Justin Fields or Zach Wilson go ahead of some of these guys
that we just talked about.
But if you're just talking about a one quarterback league,
it could be Etienne, could be Harris, could be Devontae Smith,
or it could be Jamar Chase.
Those guys just seem like the four guys that are going to be
the first players selected.
And we'll see how the NFL draft impacts what they've done in college.
But just great ends to their college careers,
certainly for Devontae Smith. just an unbelievable performance against Ohio State.
He's ridiculous.
So congratulations to whichever NFL team is going to get him because he looks like a solid
good solid guy in the locker room as well.
All right.
So we had our awards.
We nominated them last week or I think it's two weeks ago, sometime in the last two weeks.
And you guys got a chance to vote on them on our Facebook group.
You can check it out on our Fantasy Football Today Facebook group.
We appreciate all the votes, over 12,000 votes.
So thank you for taking part in making this happen.
And let's start right now with the Fantasy MVP.
So I don't think it was a big surprise, the winner.
I'll give the nominations.
So we had David Montgomery, Darren Waller, Aaron Rodgers,
and then the MVP for the 2020 campaign,
James Robinson, Jacksonville rookie running back.
So he finished number seven with his production.
240 carries, 1,070 yards, seven touchdowns,
49 catches, 344 yards, and three touchdowns
in only 14 games.
So just a standout performance for a guy
that we told you before the season
had a chance to take over the lead role. I don't think anybody expected him to be this good, but he took advantage of
the opportunity of the Jaguars moving on from Leonard Fournette and was an absolute star.
But now we got to spin it forward. And so congratulations to James Robinson for being
the 2020 MVP. But Chris, what do you think about him in 2021? It all comes down to what,
you know, Jacksonville is going to have a new coaching staff. They're going to have a new front office.
So it all comes down to whether they view him, you know,
as an undrafted free agent, as someone that they can rely on in 2021.
I think they probably should.
You know, I think he looked good enough as a rookie.
Obviously, the fantasy production tailed off a little bit
at the end of the season.
But I think, you know, overall, he was still playing well.
And that's obviously without taking into consideration
the fact that this was a pretty awful offense all around.
He was kind of the lone bright spot there
while they were playing, you know,
QB musical chairs with their, frankly, two worst quarterbacks.
They didn't want to actually put their best guy in there
in Gardner Minshew.
So I don't know.
It's going to depend on what they look at him as for 2021,
but I still have him as a borderline first round pick as of now.
It depends on if they bring in someone in the first three rounds
to give him some competition,
then maybe you start looking to move him down.
But if they don't make a pick until the third day of the draft to bring someone in,
I think James Robinson's probably going to have to be a top 12 running back for fantasy,
and I'll be excited to draft him.
And he was a second-round pick.
We'll get to that in a little bit when we look at our PPR rankings.
Dave, he got 50% of the votes, Aaron Rodgers 25%, Darren Waller 21%, and Montgomery 4%.
Anything to add on Robinson, or did Chris cover most of it?
Chris covered most of it.
He had at least 16 touches in every single game.
He had one, two, three, four games with 20-plus carries.
I think you look at what Jacksonville's needs are, one thing they don't need is a lead running
back, and it's going to be up to that coaching staff, like Chris said, whether or not they
want to make him the workhorse guy, but I think he can enter training camp as at least a top, the depth chart at running back. And no surprise for us.
And for you guys who voted, uh, James Robinson, also the fantasy rookie of the year, he got 59.2%
of the votes edging out Justin Jefferson, 25.6%, Justin Herbert, 13.4, 13.4%. And Jonathan Taylor
only 0.2%. Surprising that Taylor did not get more consideration,
but Robinson running away with the MVP,
running away with the Rookie of the Year award as well.
So great season for James Robinson.
Let's go now to the biggest bust from 2020.
And again, thank you guys for voting.
So we unveiled this on Fantasy Football Today in five.
It was Ezekiel Elliott getting 74% of the votes.
Clyde Edwards-Alaire, number two, 19.8%.
Todd Gurley, 0.3%.
And Le'Veon Bell, 0.2%.
So, Dave, when you look at Zeke and what he was able to do with Dak Prescott,
with the healthy offensive line versus what he did when everything fell apart around him,
is he going to be a bounce
back candidate in 2021? Somebody that you go right back to as a first round pick?
You have the chance to be, James. I mean, we know that he's got a huge salary cap
problem himself. Well, it's not a problem to him. He's going to get paid either way. The Cowboys
have a salary cap problem, whether or not they want to pay Ezekiel Elliott. Really, their choice
is they're already locked into paying him his 2021 salary. Do they want to guarantee his 2022 salary? They've got to decide that between now and just
after the start of the league new year in mid-March. But he was very productive with Dak Prescott,
over 21 PPR fantasy points per game in each of five starts with Dak Prescott. And I checked on
the offensive line. If you like the offensive line of Tyron Smith,
Connor Williams,
Tyler B.
Adish,
Zach Martin,
Lyle Collins,
they're all there to,
to be,
they've got six months to get ready for the start of the season for the
Dallas Cowboys.
And maybe they add more to it.
Maybe it's depth.
Maybe they replaced B.
Adish at center,
but there's,
there's definitely a chance that that offensive line will be back fully
stocked
to begin the season and that Ezekiel Elliott will still be there. Cowboys figuring that they can
squeeze at least another couple of seasons out of them. Dak, theoretically, should be ready to go.
And if that's all there, then there's really not a lot to hate about Ezekiel Elliott. You just have
to hope that that workload that we're used to seeing from him prior to him falling off a cliff this year, that that comes back.
And there's no guarantee of that because I'm sure they liked what they got out of Tony Pollard and Pollard will get five to 10 touches per week.
But I think there's room for a bounce back.
I just I'm certainly not reaching for Ezekiel Elliott.
I'm not going to be confident saying he's going to be right back to a top five fantasy running back. He's going to be someone that I'd feel most comfortable taking late round one, preferably in round two.
But we'll see what happens.
And Chris, you took him in our mock draft at number 11 overall as the ninth running back off the board.
But I know you're a little bit more aggressive on him based on how you have him ranked so far for 2021.
Yeah, no, I agree with Dave.
I definitely would not just put him right back at the in the top five running backs. I have him number six. So, uh, no,
I pretty much am just looking at Ezekiel Elliott, uh, his, you know, what happened after Dak Prescott
got hurt and basically saying, I don't care, you know, before Zach, Dak Prescott got hurt,
we were talking about, you know, after five or six games, is Ezekiel Elliott the number one pick or is Alvin Kamara if we were redrafting?
And so I don't see much reason to hold what happened to him with Andy Dalton against him.
Now, obviously, that could change if for some reason the Cowboys don't bring back Dak Prescott
or, you know, if Dak Prescott isn't ready to go for the start of the 2021 season.
But I'm working under the assumption that both of those things will
be true working in his favor.
And I just like Tony Pollard will get more work.
I have Ezekiel Elliott projected for, I believe his lowest share of the team's carries for
his career for 2021.
And he still came out as the number six running back for me.
I think that's going to be a great offense as long as Dak Prescott's
healthy. And I don't, I just don't see any reason to think Tony Pollard is going to be coming for
more than a, you know, a complimentary role. You know, he, he probably won't have too much
more work than he had this year. And Ezekiel Elliott already, you know, I think he had his fewest carries
or touches per game this season.
So I'm not that worried about it.
I think the one thing that's a big indication of that
is he had that dominant performance Pollard did in week 15,
and they went right back to Zeke when he said he was healthy in week 16.
And then to Dave, your point about the salary cap ramifications,
I think Jerry Jones is stubborn enough to think that this division is still wide open. He has a group that could win
the division, especially with the way the defense started to play toward the end of the season.
If he gets the band back together, everybody healthy, he probably feels that they could win
it. And he's stubborn enough to try and do it with the group that he had in place prior to all
the injuries happening. So I'd be very surprised that they moved on from Zeke. I could see this
group back together, trying to make another run. And they're probably going to be considered one of
the, maybe the favorite in the division, depending on what Washington does with their quarterback
situation. Just knowing that the talent that they have at their disposal, Philly now in rebuild
mode, Giants still trying to get their act together. And who knows again, what Washington
does with their quarterback. So I'd be very surprised if they moved on from these guys,
depending on what the salary cap means for Dak Prescott. All right, let's recap the award so far. Fantasy MVP, James Robinson,
Rookie of the Year, James Robinson, Biggest Bust of the Year, Ezekiel Elliott. And again,
thank you for voting on our Facebook group. Let's go now to the next award, which could have been
James Robinson again, except we are taking a little bit of a different route because I know
a lot of sites, a lot of people that are listening to us that don't play on CBS or may not have
listened to our podcast right before the start of the season.
We told you to draft James Robinson and kudos to you. You listened. So James Robinson does not
qualify for us as the best waiver wire pickup because he was rostered in more than 60% of
leagues on CBS at the start of the season. And certainly when he became something after his week
one performance against the Colts. So our best waiver wire pickup for the CBS Fantasy Football Today podcast is Justin
Jefferson getting 49.8% of the vote. He edges out Justin Herbert at 34.4%, Mike Davis at 10.8%,
Myles Gaskin at 4.3%, and Taysom Hill at 0.6%. So obviously a lot of these guys helped you win in some capacity during the
season with Mike Davis and Justin Herbert. Toward the end of the season with what Miles Gaskin did
for you in the fantasy championship, Taysom Hill was maybe a tight end for you. Obviously a
quarterback for the Saints and a quarterback for you on CBS. But Justin Jefferson, when he became
a thing for the Vikings, became a thing for your fantasy rosters. And as we know, had the best
rookie season ever for a wide receiver.
So, Chris, when you look at Justin Jefferson again,
what he did as a rookie, but also spinning forward to 2021,
how good can he be?
It's hard to put a ceiling on a player who had a rookie season this good.
I mean, you compare what he did to like A.J. Brown,
who was an incredible rookie in 2019. He was basically just as efficient as A.J. Brown, who was an incredible rookie in 2019.
He was basically just as efficient as A.J. Brown on a per-target basis,
except he got, what, 40 more targets?
It's harder to do that on that kind of volume.
Justin Jefferson emerged as the Vikings' number one wide receiver.
He led the team in targets overall,
but basically from his week three breakout on,
I think he was like at least a target, maybe a target and a half more per game than Adam Thielen.
So I don't know, elite college production.
And then he comes into the NFL and puts together the greatest statistical rookie season we've ever seen.
So it's I think you probably draft him as a number one wide receiver next season.
And I don't think the question is, is he a number one wide receiver or is he someone you take in the
top 30 picks? It's, you know, are you taking him over AJ Brown? Are you taking him over DK
Metcalf? I think that's the conversation that he's already in. Yeah. The big surprise in our
mock draft, he went in the third round with the one,
two, three, four, five. So the fifth pick in the third round, he went ahead of Keenan Allen.
That's probably one that some people may shake their heads at just knowing what Keenan Allen did
last year as well. You know, I think maybe the sour taste of how the season ended for Keenan
Allen. But he went behind some guys that you can maybe say he should go ahead of Allen Robinson,
just because we don't know where he's going to play in 2021.
Mike Evans, knowing that there's a lot of target share to consider
with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, depending on what they do with Chris Godwin
and Antonio Brown, who will be free agents.
Like you said, Chris, he went behind A.J. Brown.
He went behind Michael Thomas.
You can obviously debate how that goes.
But Dave, for a rookie in Jefferson who had 88 catches, 1,400 yards,
and seven touchdowns on 125 targets.
They have a new play caller coming in.
Gary Kubiak is no longer with the Minnesota Vikings.
We know Adam Dillon's still there.
Dalvin Cook, obviously a big part of the offense.
Can Jefferson do that again?
I'm worried about the defense being better for Minnesota,
and that takes some opportunities away from him.
The first thing I did when I started to look into Justin Jefferson,
and I've really just scratched the surface with it, was looked at Kirk Cousins' pass attempts because I figured, well,
Minnesota threw a lot last season. We know that Thielen had a lot of touchdowns. He had a good
year. Justin Jefferson clearly had a great year. He only threw 516 times. Now, that's a lot more
than Cousins threw in 2019. 444 pass attempts in 2019, but in 2025- 16, that's not a lot of pass attempts. When you
think about other quarterbacks around the league, some guys usually get to around 550, 575. So
there's certainly some efficiency metrics that come into play with Jefferson. And that's the
type of thing that I think can continue to carry him as he moves forward in his career.
He was second in the NFL among receivers in yards per route run, 2.66.
Deep passing, he was top 10 in that metric on pro football focus. Top 30 in PFFs, yards after catch per reception metric.
So he's doing a lot of really good things with the football when he gets it.
It's a matter of if that target volume can keep up game after game,
if that Vikings defense is better and they remain Zimmer style conservative
with their offense, I'm a little worried about that target chair staying up. But even if he's
getting six to seven targets per game, maybe even five to six targets per game, I think there's room
for him to be very efficient on those numbers. If you're drafting him as a number two receiver,
I think you'll be just fine. 16th among wide receivers in terms of targets.
High-end number two receiver, excuse me.
I'm sorry?
High-end number two receiver.
Yeah, I think most people are going to draft him as a number one guy
just based on what the hype and expectation is
and certainly what he did from his college career
to his start of his NFL career.
And I think if you're looking at it from the standpoint of,
just to kind of tie in the conversation we had about the 101 pick in Dynasty
or what your rookie draft can look like,
if you're just looking at the college production of what Jerry, Judy, and Henry Ruggs did compared
to their NFL production, and maybe looking at Devontae Smith, but also looking at what
Justin Jefferson did in his college career to his NFL career, and then maybe looking
at Jamar Chase, maybe Jamar Chase from a pedigree standpoint can come into the NFL and be a
little bit more ready to go, just knowing what the LSU program has produced, maybe compared
to the Alabama program.
But again, it was Justin Jefferson playing with a much better quarterback in college with Joe Burrow. go just knowing what the LSU program has produced maybe compared to the Alabama program but again
it was uh Justin Jefferson playing with a much better quarterback in college with Joe Burrow
all right again to wrap up the awards or to catch you up on the award so far it is uh fantasy MVP
and fantasy rookie of the year James Robinson Robinson could also have been the best waiver
wire pickup based on your comments but as we told you Justin Jefferson qualifies for us Robinson
does not uh the bust of the year so far E Ezekiel Elliott. Now we get to the worst waiver wire pickup.
And the winner of that award is Benny Snell. So Snell, we know, was awesome in week one.
James Conner got banged up in that game against the Giants. And we all thought maybe Benny Snell
was going to be the starting running back for the Steelers for a couple of weeks or maybe for the
season. There's some talk about, you know, James Conner was struggling in that game and we know what last year was for him,
but Snell did not take off from that point forward.
He only had three games with 20 plus rushing yards all year.
It was, he was a backup, you know,
and it just wasn't a fortunate situation.
So Snell, the worst waiver wire pickup,
he edges out Jameis Winston,
who we thought had a chance to maybe take over
for Drew Brees when Brees suffered the rib injury
against the 49ers.
Naheem Hines also strong week one performance, but that didn't carry over to the rest of the season.
And then the last player in this category was Duke Johnson.
We thought in week 10 when David Johnson suffered the concussion that Duke Johnson would take over and have a strong stretch of games.
That was clearly not the case.
He had a couple of good performances, just not great performances when David Johnson was on IR for those three games.
So Benny Snell, we kind of touched on this a little bit earlier that he has a chance to be
good in 2021 if the Steelers move on from James Conner. But Dave, if that's the case,
how high will you draft Benny Snell if in fact we find out come week one,
he's a starting running back for Pittsburgh? I think I would probably put him as a top 60 pick,
someone I wouldn't be very excited about because I'm not certain that he can I think I would probably put him as a top 60 pick someone.
I wouldn't be very excited about because I'm not certain that he can be
that breakout running back.
He would be given a good opportunity and he gave you at least nine non
PPR fantasy points in the three games this year when he had at least 15
carries.
He could be good.
I don't think he could do.
I don't think he can be James Robinson and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be
that much better on a week to week
basis. And somebody like,
like what JK Dobbins gave us late this year where he was scoring every week.
And I almost feel like he he'd be good for around,
he'd be a good number two running back, but not one that I'd target.
So right around that eight to seven to nine non PPR point range is where I
put Snell. Wouldn't be very excited to draft him at this point.
Chris, anything else to add?
Or you think the Steelers may add another running back to the mix of Connor
leaves?
They obviously drafted Anthony McFarlane last year.
He did not work out very well,
but we could see those two guys in a big spot if Connor is gone.
Yeah.
I think given the way Mike Tomlin has operated, if it's, you know,
if Jenny James Connor does leave and Benny Snell is the lead back, you would, if it's, you know, if James Conner does leave and
Benny Snell is the lead back, you
would assume he would get, you know,
the majority of the snaps. You know, it's probably not
going to be in the 90% range we used to see
Le'Veon Bell in or, you know,
when James Conner was running well, but
the two starts,
you know, that he had started three games,
Benny Snell did. He was 71%,
46%, and 78% snap share. And he did have 11 targets in those three games, Benny Snell did. He was 71%, 46%, and 78% snap share.
And he did have 11 targets in those three games.
And that, to me, is going to be the key.
If they view him as someone who can stay on the field for all three downs
and they involve him in the passing game,
then there's going to be second-round upside.
It just depends on how the offense as a whole plays
and whether they bring anyone else in.
I would be surprised if they made a big investment at running back, though,
just because they do have Snell McFarland and Jalen Samuels.
We'll see if they bring him back as well.
That week one game when everybody got excited about him against the Giants,
19 carries, 113 yards, only one target, got you 11 PPR points, but remember, he didn't start the game.
Connor played the majority of the first quarter in that one.
And then the three games that you're referencing, Chris,
Week 12 against Baltimore, he had 16 carries for 60 yards,
three catches for 33 yards.
That's probably something that you can expect.
That was the type of, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 to 20,
25 total touches, depending on how the game goes.
That's what he gave you against Cincinnati in Week 15.
18 carries, 84 yards and a touchdown, three catches for 23 yards on four targets.
So that's probably the upside of what Benny Snell can give you.
And then the other start that you referenced was that game against Washington,
which they lost.
Eight carries, five yards, three targets, two catches, five yards.
That's the miserable side of what Benny Snell can give you.
So hopefully that's not the case if, in fact, he is a starter.
So we could be talking about Benny Snell on the positive side next year.
Unfortunately, for 2020, he is the worst waiver wire pickup.
So I don't think you want to take that trophy home, Benny Snell.
The one-week wonder of the year was Tyler Lockett.
He got 53.6% of the votes, edging out Joe Mixon, who got 28.8%.
Tony Pollard, 13.7%. And Odell Beckham 3.9% and
Lockett we're talking about his 53 PPR points against the Arizona Cardinals in week seven I
said it many times throughout the season if I were the Seahawks coaches I would have said you're
playing the Cardinals every week because he was awesome in the two games against the Cardinals he
had some good games across the board his week week 16 performance, which was a little bit of a surprise, was solid as well.
He actually finished as a top 12 wide receiver.
So it's a little strange to say he's a one-hit wonder, but we know it was a lot of big games
and a lot of disappointing ones.
The other guys in this category that were just looking at their games, Joe Mixon had
42.1 PPR points against the Jaguars in week four.
Tony Pollard with his 31.2 points against the
49ers in week 15 and Beckham with his 38.4 points against the Cowboys in week four. Obviously,
Beckham did not finish the season dealing with that torn ACL. Joe Mixon also had a injury played
campaign. So maybe those guys could have had some other better games along the way, but injuries
robbed them of doing that. Tyler Lockett, however, with those 53 points,
left you wanting more every time we started him,
and he disappointed more times than not.
He had five games under 10 PPR points in the second half of the season.
So, Chris, I wish Heath was here for this because he loves Tyler Lockett.
He had him ranked in his top 24 every week with the upside play.
We know if Ben Gretch was still with us,
this is the type of receiver that he would gravitate toward because he wins
you weeks when he has these type of games.
But there was a lot of times where he left you disappointed.
Are you going to approach title lock it next year?
I can't view him as a number one wide receiver.
I think I have him in the low end.
Number two wide receiver range.
I want to say like, you know, maybe 21, 22.
I don't know.
It was weird.
He's been historically really, really efficient
playing with Russell Wilson,
and that just wasn't the case, you know,
for the season as a whole.
Eight yards per target was his lowest since 2017,
his second lowest of his career,
but also especially, you know,
after that week seven game against Arizona, he had that, you know, after that week seven game against Arizona,
he had that, you know, 15 catches, 200 yards from that point on, he had 55 catches on 74
targets for 512 yards, 6.9 yards per target.
I, I sort of want to write it off as a fluke and just say that, you know, the track record
is so good that he should get back to being at least maybe a nine yards
per target guy.
But this was discouraging
and he's pretty clearly the number
two option in this offense
and offense that after
that hot start really
played a lot more conservatively and
not a good
playoff game in the wild card
round. So I'm not particularly excited about Tyler Lockett for 2021.
Dave, more of a number two or number three fantasy receiver?
Probably.
That's a great question.
I think if you get him as your number three, you're a lot happier.
I think that's really just the best way to put it.
There aren't going to be a lot of fantasy managers that target him as a number two guy expecting a bounce
back season oh i know one you may know one but he's in the minority and let's throw this log
on to the tyler lockett bonfire pete carroll says he wants to continue to run the football next year
at his season-ending press conference and wasn't talking about well maybe we need to
let russell wilson rip it a little bit more.
He wants to be better at running the football because that's what he thinks he needs to
do to win football games.
So I understand his perspective.
That's his job, but it stinks for fantasy.
And could that mean that there's fewer targets to go around for both DK and Tyler Lockett
next year?
We know that Russ was right around 31, 32 pass times per game in the back half of the 2020 season. I would be nervous to trust him as
a number two receiver. You can talk all you want about, well, his upside every single week is
great, but 2020 was a year where his downside came out way more often than not. And it hurt
your fantasy team. So if, if, if a guy like Tyler Lockett is your
number three receiver, that means you've got two other receivers that you can rely on for just raw
fantasy points week in and week out. And then when Lockett does blow up, you're a happy camper,
but I can't take him as a number two. I know in our drafts, he went right around round five
and both. And I feel like that's a little too soon. I think he's going to be around six pick
at the absolute earliest for me. Last pick of round four's a little too soon. I think he's going to be around six pick at the absolute earliest for me.
Last pick of round four to Heath Cummings.
He drafted him ahead of DJ Moore,
but he had the back-to-back pick.
So,
you know,
I think you probably see DJ Moore go ahead of him.
Some of the receivers who went after Tyler Lockett,
which we can debate,
obviously there's a lot of time to do that,
but Will Fuller,
we don't know he's going to play.
He's going to miss the first week of the season because of his suspension.
That was to Dave in round five.
C.D. Lamb and Chase Claypool went right after him.
Again, we'll see what happens with those respective receiving cores.
Claypool can get a huge bump if Jujus Mischuster leaves.
Cooper Cup, that's another one I think that a lot of people
would probably still take over Tyler Lockett as well.
Brandon Ayuk, Cortland Sutton, those were my picks
and Chris's picks in round five.
So two wide receivers.
Also, you could debate maybe better options than what Tyler Lockett brings from a consistency basis.
But again, the opportunity to win you a couple weeks, as we saw with Tyler Lockett.
Maybe that's going to be exciting for some people carrying over to 2021.
But for 2020, he was our one-week wonder.
Just to quickly wrap up the awards.
And again, congratulations to everybody.
Thank you so much for voting.
Over 12,000 votes on our Facebook group.
Fantasy MVP and Rookie of the Year go to James Robinson.
He could have been the best waiver wire pickup as well.
But again, doesn't qualify for our nominations here.
That goes to Justin Jefferson as the best waiver wire pickup.
The biggest bust, Ezekiel Elliott.
The worst waiver wire pickup, Benny Snell.
And the one-week wonder for 2020 was Tyler Lockett.
We're going to take a quick break here on Fantasy Football today.
When we come back, we're going to get into our first mock draft of 2021.
How many running backs went in the first round?
We'll tell you that next on FFT.
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So we did our first 2021 PPR Mock Draft, 12 teams, members of our site. You know all the names for the most part. You can check out the full results on cbssports.com. The story will be up
probably by the end of the day on Tuesday. Here are the first two rounds that we'll talk about.
And we'll start with the first round here, which was no surprise with us, very heavy on running back. So starting
at the top, Christian McCaffrey, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Derek Henry to David, number four,
Nick Chubb, five, Devante Adams, the only wide receiver in the first round goes at number six,
Saquon Barkley, number seven, Jonathan Taylor, number eight, Travis Kelsey,
the second non-running back taken in the first round goes at number nine.
I took Austin Eckler at number 10.
Chris took Ezekiel Elliott at 11.
And then what is a huge surprise?
Clyde Edwards Hilaire still goes at number 12.
I don't know if the fantasy manager, I'm not going to name him.
You can check out his name on the site.
We don't want to embarrass anybody, but I don't know if he was thinking it was still
the 2020 draft as opposed
to the 2021 PPR mock draft.
So Dave,
let's talk about Derek Henry at four,
because I think a lot of people are going to look at that and say maybe
great pick because of what he does running the ball,
but it is a three receiver PPR league and you took Henry over Devante Adams.
Tell us why.
Because I wanted to lock up a running back early.
Yeah, that's that's on brand for me. I know that the running backs, it's deeper this year than it has been in several years, but it's still going to run out by the time you get to round three-ish,
maybe round four is the safer time to say that running backs will start to get ugly,
and receivers won't be as ugly. So I knew that I would find receivers that I liked later on in the
draft. So taking a running back, that was my priority in round one. So I knew that I would find receivers that I liked later on in the draft.
So taking a running back, that was my priority in round one.
And I didn't mind Derek Henry at 20.1 PPR points per game in 2020.
And he was better in 2020 as far as PPR points per game than he was in 2019.
And I think he's just a really good fantasy running back.
Don't really have any faults to give him at this point. I know
the workload's been crazy. I know he doesn't catch the ball a lot, but he scores a lot of touchdowns.
He gets a lot of carries to make up for it. Yep. I guess the one thing would be is that, you know,
Henry at 20 points per game, uh, Devonta Ams over 25, you know, so could have got a better player
potentially for what the format is, but, uh, like you said, on brand for you to take a running back.
So Derek Henry was your selection. Chris, see travis kelsey going at number nine is that too early or too late for the best
tight end and a guy who shattered his position as well and we know has been the number one tight
end in ppr for every season since 2016 it's too late for me but i'm gonna kind of be an outlier
on the big three tight ends because i have all three of kelsey Kittle, and Waller in my first round right now.
And so I just think the edge that those three guys
can give you on the rest of the position
is so much greater than anything you can find
in fantasy football right now.
Assuming Kittle, he's had some health concerns,
obviously, the last couple of seasons.
Kelsey's 32.
Obviously, there are reasons to be concerned,
but I think there are reasons to be concerned about every running back
to start with and a lot of the wide receivers who aren't Devonta Adams.
So, yeah, I think that's perfectly fine.
I have Travis Kelsey number six or number seven overall for me.
So I think that's a perfectly fine pick. All right. So you have Travis Kelsey number six or number seven overall for me. So I think that's a perfectly
fine pick. All right. So you like Travis Kelsey there. I think a lot of us would, I had the next
pick after I was going to take Kelsey. If he fell one more spot to me at 10 and obviously I'm sure
if he slipped Chris, you would have taken him at 11. Dave, when you see Clyde over to layer in the
first round, I think we, huh? I laughed. Yeah. I mean, a little bit of surprise. He went ahead
of Tyree kill ahead of George kill ahead of James Robinson. He was the 10th running back taken. So just some running
backs that went in the second round after Edward Solaire were Robinson. I took him at 15th overall
Josh Jacobs, the 20th overall Aaron Jones to Dave at 21 overall. And then you could clearly
understand some of the guys that were still out there listening to the names that we read off.
So Dave, where would you be comfortable taking Edwards Hilaire at this point?
I'm not sure if I would take him even in round two.
We now have a year of information on Edwards Hilaire,
and I'm not sure he did enough in 2020.
And we'll see how the playoffs treat him,
but I'm not sure he did enough to earn that heavy workload role that we were kind of thrusting him into at July of 2019 or 2020, I should say.
I think he could still be a very good fantasy running back.
I think he can take that step.
But the fact is, I'm not sure he's going to get that chance.
Andy Reid can bring in another running back or keep one of the guys that he already has.
Well, Damian Lane could come back. He opted out in 2020. Yeah, I'm not sure
if he will be back because he's 30 years old and I don't know how big of a
role he would even have. I think they can actually cut him and save a little
bit of money. So that's kind of cruel for them to do that, but we'll see.
I think he's still going to be the lead back for
Kansas City, but he was the lead back for
Kansas City in 2020. And he had some great moments and he had some, what the hell is he doing moments,
including the game where he didn't do anything. We were wondering what the hell was going on.
And he didn't have a huge, he wasn't a huge factor in the passing game. And that disappointed me
so much because that, that was half of his game at LSU. He had like 55 catches
in his last year at LSU. And I thought he immediately used to have that role. Nope.
Didn't have it. So I'm, I'm nervous to take them as even a top 20 pick. He's way outside of my top
12 running backs. Yeah. I think he'll end up being around two selection, but to see him go at the end
of round one was a little bit of a surprise, especially given some of the other players on the board.
In round two, the first pick is Tyreek Hill.
George Kittle goes to Chris, as he told you,
going to be very excited about the tight ends.
He's the next pick in round two, 14th overall.
I took James Robinson, 15th overall.
That can end up being a great pick,
or it could be a bust,
depending on what happens with the Jaguars offseason,
as we told you.
DeAndre Hopkins at 16, DK Metcalf, 17.
Darren Waller,
18. So there's the top three tight ends going in the first 18 overall picks. Calvin Ridley,
19, Josh Jacobs at 20, Aaron Jones to David 21, the fond digs a little bit of surprise to him
slip as far as he did knowing what he produced in 2020 goes at number 22, Michael Thomas,
still a second round selection at number 23 and and A.J. Brown at 24.
So just to go over that again, Tyree Kill, George Kittle, James Robinson,
DeAndre Hopkins, D.K. Metcalf, Darren Waller, Calvin Ridley,
Josh Jacobs, Aaron Jones, Stephon Diggs, Michael Thomas, and A.J. Brown.
Chris, you were kind of nodding your head when I brought up
the Stephon Diggs scenario there.
He went after Hopkins, after Metcalf, after Ridley,
ahead of Thomas, ahead of Brown.
Right spot for him or too low?
I have him as the number three wide receiver for fantasy.
And I think there's basically kind of Devonta Adams in his own tier,
Tyreek Hill in kind of his own tier, or sorry, DeAndre Hopkins in his own tier,
and then Diggs, Thomas, and Hill in a third tier.
And then after that, I do think there's a bit of a drop-off.
And the way I have it ranked overall,
those are the only five wide receivers that I have inside my top 30.
It's really running back heavy,
and then those three tight ends in the top 30.
And then after that, I think that's where wide receiver
starts to be the best value on the board,
probably for the next five rounds from round three or so on.
So, yeah, I think Stefan Diggs, you saw, I guess there's some concern
that Buffalo's offense will regress next season.
I think you should probably expect some regression.
And, you know, it was surprising that they have been as pass heavy
as they have been.
And so if Josh Allen takes a step back,
maybe that holds him back a little bit.
But I also just think Stefan Diggs is one of the five best talents
at the wide receiver position in the NFL,
and I have for a long time.
So a little bit of confirmation bias there,
and that I always thought he was capable of this.
And I see no reason why they wouldn't use him as a legitimate number one wide receiver moving forward. I'm in total
agreement with you, Chris. I've been saying it on this show for years that I always felt with
the Vikings, he was going to end up as one of the best talents that his stats would never match what
the type of player that he is. And that was clearly before the trade. The Bills have brought that out
of him. Brian Dayball brought that out of him. Josh Allen brought that out of him.
And you see what the statistical monster he could be.
I think he absolutely should be considered the number three wide receiver.
I considered him at 15th overall.
To see him go after Hopkins, after Metcalf, after Ridley was a big surprise.
And so kudos to Andrew Ballmer, who got him at number 22 overall. You can see the full draft results on CBSSports.com.
We're going to highlight a couple things here.
But make sure you listen to Fantasy Football today on CBSSports.com. We're going to highlight a couple of things here, but make sure you listen to Fantasy Football Today
on your smart speakers.
Simply ask Alexa,
play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast,
or hey, Google,
play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast.
It's certainly a great way to listen to us
by making sure you say Alexa or Google
and play the latest episode of Fantasy Football Today podcast.
All right, so we have some trends here that I think are worth pointing out,
certainly at the two top two outlying positions of quarterback and tight end.
So our drafts typically go a little different.
We don't go heavy on quarterbacks.
You're probably going to see Patrick Mahomes somewhere near the end of round
one, beginning of round two, and most of your leagues.
And then the run on quarterbacks will come somewhere in the round,
late round two, round three range of the top tier guys, whether it's Josh Allen, whether it's Kyler Murray, whether it's going to be Dak Prescott again, Lamar Jackson again, but Mahomes
goes in round four. Then we get to round six and it's Josh Allen. Dave takes Kyler Murray there.
And Deshaun Watson goes round seven. We get Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Chris took Aaron Rodgers, as he told you,
Justin Herbert.
I didn't take Joe Burrow until much later.
Let me tell you when I got him.
He was my number one quarterback,
which was round 11.
I'm thrilled about that value.
Hopefully he's going to be healthy,
ready to go for week one.
But Dave, when you look at the quarterback value here,
it's a deep position.
We spent some time talking about this
with Jalen Hurts and Russell Wilson
and kind of the bridge of where the top tier guys end
and then the potential upside guys come into play
with Taysom Hill potentially being the starter,
Jalen Hurts potentially being the starter,
obviously Joe Burrow, those type of guys,
and then the older quarterbacks of Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan
and some of those guys that still have the potential
to be borderline starting fantasy quarterbacks.
Did you feel like round six was a good spot for you to go get Kyler Murray? Or do you think you could have waited another round or two to get
another guy that you like? I could have waited another round to get another guy that I liked,
but he wouldn't have been in that same tier as Kyler Murray. Certainly not with that type of
upside that Kyler Murray should be able to give us in 2021. And I think the name of the game when
it comes to drafting quarterbacks next season is going to be value. You're going to want to find a quarterback where I've said this before, where you look at who's available
and you look at the round you're in and you know you need a quarterback and you do one of those
cartoon eye pop things where you just can't believe the value that's there. And when you see that,
that's when you know to go ahead and take a quarterback and put that guy on your squad.
And if you don't feel that way, maybe you look at the quarterbacks at your left
and your eyes aren't popping out of your head because you know that maybe
they'll pop out of your head next round.
Go ahead and wait one more round.
Value is the name of the game when it comes to drafting a quarterback in 2021.
Yep.
And there were, again, our drafts are going to be a little bit different
than what most of your drafts look like when it comes to quarterbacks.
Even if you do wait on quarterbacks, you're not going to see Mahomes in round four.
He's probably a round two pick or maybe round three pick.
You're not going to see guys like Josh Allen and Kyler Murray in round six.
Those are probably round four, round five selections.
But, you know, we're going to talk about this a lot throughout the course of the offseason about waiting on quarterbacks again.
And you see some of the guys that you got to help you win your leagues this year,
specifically a guy like Aaron Rodgers, who is going to be the NFL MVP, could have been the fantasy MVP as well. All right, Chris, so you
said you're really excited about the three tight ends. You're going to take them in the first round
if they're available for you. Kelsey Kittle and Waller, certainly Kittle and Waller will be
available if you pick at any point in the first round, because you're probably going to be one
of the few people who takes those guys unless it's a tight end premium league in the first round.
But when you get past those three guys, then what's your plan looking at tight end?
You did take Kittle in round two.
Mark Andrews went in round five.
He was the fourth tight end off the board.
Noah Fant went in round six.
And then it was some of the potential high upside guys.
I guess Fant falls in that category as well.
Dallas Goddard, TJ Hawkinson, and Hunter Henry.
Yeah, I think it might be a little early
for Fant, Goddard, Hawkinson, Henry, etc.
I think all of those guys have to take a step forward to justify that cost,
even when you take into account the position scarcity.
I love Noah Fant.
I think the Denver offensive skill players have the potential to, arguably one of the best groups in the NFL.
I just, I'm not sure drew lock is there and I'm not sure he's going to be in
2021 and, you know, Goddard, we'll see what happens with arts, but you know,
if they're changing their offensive philosophy,
are they going to feature the tight ends as much? So, yeah, I,
I think there's going to be a push for that kind of third tier.
I think Andrews is a second tier all on his own,
and it's going to push them up.
And if I don't get one of those top three,
I'd probably rather just wait and take someone,
Logan Thomas a little later, maybe Mike Isiki a little later,
rather than try to pay the premium and say,
okay, I'm going to, I try to
identify which one of the tight ends is going to break out because we always think tight ends going
to be better than it ends up being. And it's this class of tight ends who, you know, I think
tend to let us down the most. Potentially. Yeah. I mean, we'll see, you know, certainly the, the,
what Hawkinson showed you in the start of 2020 was,
was very promising. Then closed the season to the same level,
same way started the season promising only in one touchdown after week two.
So you'd like to see a little bit more from him, but Dave,
I like what you did getting the two tight ends that you got in this draft with
Hawkinson and Mike Gusecki and the values that you got them with Hawkinson in
round nine and then Gusecki in round 13.
I think there's going to be good depth at tight end this year.
It doesn't necessarily mean that there's going to be guys that you can start
week in and week out and feel really good about,
but I'm,
I'm looking to find value at tight end too.
And if I can find a couple of tight ends that I think have some rockstar
upside,
I don't mind having two of them on my team, especially if I've got the quarterback taken care of early on. I did this in a lot of my 2020 drafts where I either took two quarterbacks or two tight ends. I really didn't want to take two tight ends later on. If I got a tight end relatively early, I would take two quarterbacks later on.
And it's just trying to grab onto getting some good value
at the position I take early
and just lottery tickets at the position of the guys
that I take later.
And that's what I did here.
And hopefully one of those two guys in this mock draft
that we're not going to play out and not have a leak in,
hopefully one of those guys will look good
and then I can look back at this draft and say, okay, yeah,
Gusecki is a good pick.
I'm going to,
I'm going to draft a lot of Hawkinson and Gusecki because I think they do
have potential,
especially in PPR to be good weekend and week out starters.
And if I can't get one of the studs that Chris is taking early on,
I don't mind having a good starter that I don't really have to think about
each week.
And really that's, that's kind of what you're looking for if you don't mind having a good starter that I don't really have to think about each week. And really that's,
that's kind of what you're looking for if you don't get a stud.
And the problem with taking a stud is of course you're going to start
George Kittle every week,
but if he goes through a lull where he's not putting up huge points for
you,
you're going to kick yourself for taking him too early.
But we could say that about any position.
Yeah.
I think with these two guys in particular,
you stole them because I don't think we're going to see Hawkinson faults
around nine,
especially if no fan is going in round seven.
Those guys are probably going to go in a similar range,
and probably a lot of people are going to take Hawkinson first.
I would take Hawkinson over Noah Fant.
So I think you stole Hawkinson in round nine,
and I think a lot of people are going to take Gusecki a little bit higher as well,
just knowing what he showed you at times last year.
So I think Chris is right.
You don't necessarily need to take those guys too much sooner than that.
But once you start to get to that point in your draft where you got your
running back and wide receiver depth or your starters full,
and you're looking for that tight end that you like,
or the guy that has the next upside,
clearly the play caller in Detroit will determine what happens with
Hawkinson.
Maybe what the health of Cortland Sutton means,
or as Chris alluded to the,
you know,
growth of drew lock.
That's going to be a big part of what happens with Noah fan.
But I took one that I'm very excited about, especially where I got him,
which is Irv Smith taking him in round 10.
I think there's a lot of upside for him going into 2021.
And I also took a second tight end that I like with upside in Cole Komet,
especially if Alan Robinson's gone.
So not as good as Dave's, but hopefully those guys have some break.
But it's the same philosophy.
You're taking tight end dark shots late in the draft,
hoping that one of them can be a good starter for your team. And if you get lucky, both of them are
good starters. Maybe one of them can be great. And one other point I'd like to add on it, Chris,
if you had done this last year, taking tight ends in round one, three tight ends in round one,
I would have, I would have found you. I would have grabbed you by your shoulders and I would
have shaken you saying what the hell is wrong with you, man. But I've already talked about it. The running back depth is going to be
really good this year. Receiver depth is going to be off the charts. Quarterback tight end depth.
It's going to be fine. If you really wanted to, this is the season to take one of those stud
tight ends with a priority pick in round one or round two. But the thing about that though, Dave,
is the third tight end could have been Zach Ertz and the second tight end would have been George
Kittle. And that wouldn't have exactly worked and the second tight end would have been George Kittle
and that wouldn't have exactly worked out great. Now
clearly we're hoping Kittle's healthy
because we know what he's capable of when he's healthy, but
I mean, Waller could take a step back.
It wouldn't be a huge shock if that happens, given what he
was in 2020. He scored two
touchdowns or three touchdowns. He scored nine. If he
goes back to three touchdowns, that's not a round one pick.
Sure, but he could still
catch a ton of balls and get
well over 1,000 yards and have that advantage.
Look, I think
I do think you are putting a lot of
expectations on any tight end that you take
with a top 15 pick.
Kelsey has delivered it.
Kelsey has delivered that, so you can feel
really good about Kelsey. Kittle
and Waller, and I've got Waller ahead of Kittle.
I think you are kind of
putting some lofty expectations on them, hoping that
they come through. But I'm
just saying, if you really like
those guys and you wanted to carry that advantage
over the
nine teams
in your league that don't have Kelsey, Kittle, or Waller,
then go for it. This is
the year to do it because there's
so many good players
in fantasy right now.
Yeah, for me, it just comes down to,
like you said,
I think there is better running back depth
this year than normal.
And that's another one of those things
that we probably try to talk ourselves into every year.
But this year, when I look through
really down to like 22, 24 in my rankings,
it's mostly young guys, mostly guys with three down skills.
So it's, it's not necessarily, you know, in years past, it's,
it's a lot of like this year, Todd Gurley and Le'Veon Bell,
well, they're going to get the work and that's going to make, no,
these are guys who we actually think have
the ability to make plays,
the ability to be
difference makers in the passing game for the most part.
And so I think that's what differentiates
the running back position this year. And so
I'm more willing
to take tight end running
back, running back. I think that's my ideal strategy
and then hammer wide receiver.
And it just comes down to the edge that those elite tight ends can give back. I think that's my ideal strategy and then hammer wide receiver. And it just comes down to the edge
that those elite tight ends can give you.
You know, I am baking in regression
for Travis Kelsey.
I'm baking in regression for Darren Waller.
And I still have Darren Waller
as my number three tight end
projected to score 36% more points
than my number five tight end.
And so that the gap between those guys is so
big. That's what it comes down
to. It's not necessarily. I think
Darren Waller will score other guys in the first
round. It's
will I not have to worry about Ted end? And
will he give me the edge
that nobody else in that
first round range can't. And that's
what it. Oh, sorry, Chris. No, good.
I thought you were done uh
it's not just that how confident are you in finding talent in round two and beyond
yeah at other positions and if you are in a if you're an aggressive fantasy manager who plays
the waiver wire man of course you're going to believe that you can find good players later on
well it also comes down to where you pick and ch picked 11. So he knew that there was a chance of getting one of Kittle or Waller,
unless the manager picking at 12 was going to take both those guys.
So he took Ezekiel Elliott first.
Let me just read your teams first and then we'll wrap this up.
So Chris took Ezekiel Elliott and George Kittle with his first two picks.
His quarterback is Aaron Rogers.
His running backs are Ezekiel Elliott and David Montgomery.
His wide receivers are Brandon Cooks, Terry McLaurin, and Cortland Sutton.
So you did exactly what you said.
You hammered wide receiver, got three good guys there.
George Kittle is your tight end.
Antonio Brown is your flex.
On your bench, your running backs are Marlon Mack, Leonard Fournette,
Darrington Evans.
So could use an upgrade there potentially as the season would unfold.
And your receivers are Mike Williams, Darnell Mooney, and Cole Beasley.
So your receiving core did come together nicely.
Maybe depth at running back could be an issue,
but clearly good starting options there with Zeke and with David.
Dave, you started your team with Derrick Henry.
You took Aaron Jones in round two, got Kyler Murray as your quarterback.
So Murray's your quarterback, Henry and Jones, your two wide,
your two running backs, your wide receivers are Allen Robinson,
T Higgins, and Will Fuller.
So great group there as well.
TJ Hawkinson is your tight end.
Damien Harris is your flex on your bench.
You got Daryl Henderson, Joshua Kelly, Rashad Penny, which could be an amazing value.
You got him in round 10, could be the starting running back for Seattle.
If they move on from Chris Carson, Tony Pollard, your second tight end, Mike Gusecki, and then
KJ Hamler.
So wide receiver depth could be an issue for you, but obviously some very good running
back depth there, along with a second tight end who, as we talked about, very good duo
of Hawkinson and Gusecki.
For me, my quarterback is Joe Burrow.
My running backs are Austin Eckler and James Robinson.
Those are my first two picks.
Then I went wide receiver.
I'm sorry, I took three running backs in my first three picks.
I took J.K. Dobbins, so that's my flex.
So Eckler, Robinson, and Dobbins, I love that trio.
Then my wide receiver core is Kenny Galladay, Brandon Ayuk,
Jerry Judy are my starters as of now, but I also have Robbie Anderson,
Jacoby Myers, and Michael Pittman on the bench.
I like my receiving core as a whole.
My tight ends are Irv Smith and Cole Komet, like I said.
And I also have Melvin Gordon and Benny Snell.
So I have very good running back depth along with my starters
and flex with Eckler, Robinson, Dobbins, Gordon, and then Snell.
So we'll see how that group all plays out throughout the course of the season.
So again, you can check out the full mock draft on CBSSports.com.
I know we went a little bit long here for what Shaggy B was hoping for.
So I'm going to wrap this up.
So great job, Dave.
Great job, Chris.
We'll be back later in the week to give you a preview of the divisional round with some DFS plays on FanDuel and DraftKings.
We'll get into our half PBR mock draft next week
so you can get the results of that draft as well.
So thanks everybody for listening.
Gotta go, bye.