Fantasy Football Today - Building the Perfect Team (07/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: July 27, 2023Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Vote for Fantasy Football Today... for "Best Male-Hosted Podcast" and "Best Sports Podcast" on PodcastAwards.com We recently completed a 12-team, 0.5 PPR mock draft and we'll review our team builds and see what worked best. First, we noticed that the teams that drafted Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Jalen Hurts waited until Round 10 or later to draft a tight end. We explore that decision and if it's OK to take an elite QB and an elite TE. Then we've got some news and notes (8:15) on Dalvin Cook, J.K. Dobbins, Antonio Gibson and more ... Getting into our team builds, we start with Jamey's team (17:05). Jamey had the first overall pick and started with three wide receivers. How did he do at every other position? Then we look at Heath's team (22:55) which had the ninth overall pick. Heath drafted nothing but RBs and WRs with his first seven picks. How did waiting on QB and TE work out for him? ... Adam's team (38:55), drafting with pick 11, features a Top 5 QB and a Top 7 TE. Adam may have made a mistake in Rounds 5 and 6. And finally we look at the Travis Kelce build (45:45), talk about Jerick McKinnon (49:30) and finish with a few more news items ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection 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/ 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.
What a play!
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It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going dominate your fantasy league.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
We have got some news updates for you on this Thursday edition of Fantasy Football Today.
Dalvin Cook visiting the Jets.
Some interesting comments on J.K. Dobbins from his head coach, Jim Harbaugh.
But we're talking about building teams. It's a team building exercise today here on FFT. We had a 12-team half
PPR mock draft that we did earlier this week. We're going to take a look at our builds. We're
going to take a look at some other builds and things like that. Here's the first thing I want
to talk to you about looking at this draft, guys. The three managers who took one of the elite
quarterbacks, Mahomes, Hurts, Allen,
none of them drafted a tight end until round 10 or later.
And those tight ends were Evan Ingram, Greg Dulcich, and Dalton Schultz.
Heath, what do you think about that?
You know, trying to build the rest of your roster
because you spent a very early pick on Mahomes, Hurts, or Allen
and waiting and waiting and waiting for a tight end.
Yeah, I think we've had this discussion before
about whether it makes sense to take an elite tight end
and an elite quarterback.
I'm okay doing it, especially in full PPR.
But it does make it more difficult,
especially at wide receiver, I think.
The way drafts are going right now, there's going to be running backs available in
round seven, round eight, round nine, but the wide receivers really get
rough. But let me ask you a question, though, Adam, because
are we talking about one of the top two tight ends, or
are we talking about that next group of tight ends as well?
Are you talking about taking Hertz and Darren Waller, or are you talking about that next group of tight ends as well well you know look i have you talking about
taking hertz and darren waller are you talking about taking hertz and and andrews like what's
i'm just saying they didn't do either of that they waited and they took you know they left that top
seven group and and waited till around 10 or later to take their tight end so look we have a team that
has lamar jackson and mark andrews that's an interesting team. I have Burrow and Kittle. That team got the highest rated draft grade
from our automated recap.
I think it's a good team.
You know what?
Why don't we talk about that team?
Let's see.
How do you guys feel about this build?
Jack Capitordo.
Take a look.
Where is he?
He's team seven.
Is it seven or eight?
Eight.
Team eight.
He had Barkley, Devante Adams, Mark Andrews, Lamar Jackson.
So his first four picks were one of each position.
Barkley, Devontae, Mark Andrews, Lamar Jackson.
His starting lineup is going to be Lamar, Barkley, and James Conner.
Adams, Deontay Johnson, and Mike Evans.
Maybe that makes you a little queasy.
Mark Andrews.
And then his flex is what?
Traylon Burks?
I don't know.
I don't know.
What do you think?
Do you like that team?
I mean, I feel like Deontay and Evans might make people a little hesitant here.
And then just Traylon Burks at flex.
Thoughts? Well, this is what you...
I mean, he could use Pacheco at flex.
That's not a bad half PPR flex.
I think this is what happens
if you take a quarterback and a tight end
in the first five rounds
when you're starting three receivers.
So, you know, Jack obviously prioritized
a second running back ahead of a second receiver
by taking James Conner over a second receiver.
Now, I think Deontay Johnson's a great second receiver because I do think he's
going to have some bounce back appeal.
Obviously he's better in full PPR where his catches matter the most and the,
you know, amount of targets he'll see.
He has to find the end zone at least once to be better.
But he did exactly what you were talking about.
He took one of the top five quarterbacks,
wherever you want to put the cutoff for Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews, and has the benefit of the stack, if you want to
look at that in redraft, but also the top tier tight end and top tier quarterback.
Yeah, I think this is what I just said. He does not have a wide receiver too, really,
is what I would say, especially in half PPR. He's got a good wide receiver one. He's got a great RB one. I was not enjoying Jack's draft because
he sniped me in round one and in round three. I was pretty excited about Barkley. I was
pretty excited about Andrews. Didn't get either one of them. But if Baker Mayfield is as bad
as he was last year and Kyle Trask is as bad as we think he is,
then he might not even have...
It looks right now like he has a wide receiver one
and two wide receiver threes.
You would have drafted, by the way, Heath,
you would have drafted Barkley over Cooper Cup
because you took Cup with the next pick.
Yeah, I think so.
Okay.
So, yeah, look, it's maybe...
Actually, let me ask you this before I get into that.
Would you rather have...
What combo would you rather have?
And it's easy to say this after the draft plays out.
You don't know you're going to be able to do this,
but Calvin Ridley and Darren Waller
or Deontay Johnson and Mark Andrews?
I would rather have Andrews and Deontay Johnson.
Okay.
That's basically what it ended up being.
And when he took Andrews,
he was one pick after Ridley went.
And when he took Johnson,
it was one pick,
I think before Waller went.
This was,
um,
the,
about the earliest we've seen Waller go in our drafts,
right?
Is he tied in five?
I don't ask Jamie.
Jamie wrote the article.
Um,
I really wasn't looking and I haven't been keeping track of our drafts
specifically where Waller has gone,
but I would say it's definitely the lowest I've seen Kittle go.
Cause I know Adam specifically drafted Kittle.
It was what,
like round eight.
Yeah,
baby.
It was a great thing like that around eight.
Yep.
And you're right.
He said it was round.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Waller was tight end five.
Go ahead,
Jamie.
Yeah, no, it's a, this is, you know, now that I remember making a comment. Yeah, sorry. Waller was tight end five. Go ahead, Jamie. Yeah, no.
Now that I'm looking at it, the way the tight ends were drafted was a little bit –
it was very different.
We saw Andrews typically goes early round three.
He fell to basically the end of round three.
We saw Kyle Pitts go ahead of TJ Hawkinson.
And then Waller, I guess you could say a little bit early in round six,
but I think that's fine.
But it felt like it was just amazing value for Kittle
where you got him in the beginning of round eight.
All right, so if we were going to put a little summary on it,
your thoughts with maybe taking a tight end and a quarterback
in the first five rounds?
All good.
I would say if it's the top two guys easy,
because you know what you're getting at the tight end spot,
I would not love it.
Even if it's my homes,
Alan or hurts with the other guys.
I,
I'd extend it to being okay with Hawkinson in round five.
Like if you took one of the QBs in round three and then Hawkinson around
five,
I'd be okay with that.
All right.
We,
we will get back into that in a little bit.
Uh, you've got four more days to help us win on podcast awards. Go nominate us. Get us to the
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then it might take you about two minutes,
but you'll be done quickly.
We have a lot of other podcasts that you might want to listen to soccer
podcasts.
I mean,
we've got,
um,
great soccer shows and obviously the women with,
uh,
I don't know,
was it a disappointing draw last night?
They had a little stretch there and then like the 80th ish minute where
they were at like three or four corner kicks in a row.
I thought they were going to get that.
It was exciting there.
It was.
I only saw the last 15, 20 minutes, but they put a lot of pressure on.
You saw that one beautiful pass, I think by Morgan,
and then the teammate, I don't know her name,
she kicked the ball just wide of the net.
It was actually a beautiful play.
Anyway.
Yeah, the one where the Netherlands player saved it. But they were just
playing back the entire time
after the score
was tied. They were playing for a draw.
Were they Netherlands? Yeah, that's
what it felt like. Yeah. Well, it was
a fun game. And why don't you listen to people
who actually know the roster.
Go listen to one of our soccer podcasts.
And we have
combat podcasts, college football. We've got everything. Go to cbssports of our soccer podcasts. And we have combat podcasts, college football.
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Go to cbssports.com slash podcasts.
All right, the big news.
Dalvin Cook is visiting the Jets today.
I don't really know.
You want to talk about this?
You want to wait until he leaves the Jets?
I thought he was visiting the Jets Sunday.
He's visiting New York.
He's visiting New York today.
Oh, he's hanging out with me today.
I forgot. I believe he's visiting New York today. Oh, he's hanging out with me today. I forgot.
I believe he's on Good Morning Football.
Ian Rappaport tweeted on tomorrow's show.
And then I think he's visiting the team on Sunday.
He tweeted, very interesting tweet,
off to the airport like dot, dot, dot.
And it was his long touchdown run against the Dolphins from last year.
So very interesting that he picked that highlight to show,
maybe show the Dolphins what they're going to lose out on.
That's what I wondered.
It's rare that we hear about a free agent visit three days before he's going to meet with the team.
This feels almost like one of those don't make me turn this car around thing,
like Dalvin saying to the Dolphins, I'm going to go sign with the J go sign with the jets i'm gonna go sign with the jets because then we got a report
from zach rosenblatt don't be surprised if the jets signed dalvin cook before he leaves okay well
that usually is what happens they don't like to let players get out of the building if they have
the opportunity to keep them there because of that scenario but i also think that is he may have
the jets may have said come come or however this worked out.
I'm going to be in New York for a media visit.
And then they scheduled the visit.
You know, I mean, we don't know how this, the itinerary was planned.
You know, he may have dinner plans.
Yeah, I think Broadway.
I think he's going to a show.
Might see a Broadway show.
Might want to go see the top of the Empire State Building.
All these things.
Speaking of which, I think Adam,
I'm going to be in New York next week.
I think Adam's blowing me off.
I am blowing you off.
I'm sorry.
I wouldn't really say that.
I would say my whole family's going to be up here visiting,
so I just can't get to this.
We're having a barbecue.
You're more than welcome to come.
Why don't you come out to Westchester
and barbecue with the family?
Yeah, that's not going to happen.
Why?
You could take an hour out of your day to come, come meet me for a little bit.
It's more like a four, four hours out of my day.
Let's talk about JK Dobbins here. He's on the pup list.
He might not be injured though.
We know he's disappointed in his contract and Jim Harbaugh was basically
saying it's the JK thing. So Heath, your take on the Dobbins situation.
It's kind of like what i said yesterday
about jonathan taylor like i wonder if that was one of the things on the running back zoom call
is should we uh not play hurt as much as we do and i wonder if a couple of these guys are just
not wanting to practice because they're not happy with their contract but they're still in the
building because again both of these guys have new offenses that they need to be on the same page as
the rest of the team on so it seems I wonder if it's a compromise.
Like, I'll be there.
Don't make me practice.
The only thing about that, though, and I think you're right in the premise.
I believe if they're on the PUP list or the NFI list, a doctor actually has to put them there.
Now, both these guys are coming off of injury situations.
So it's easy to say, my ankle's still bothering me.
I don't think I'm ready to practice. And the doctor says, you're right. We're not going to rush it. The team says
that makes, makes total sense. But usually what we see in this situation, at least the past couple
of years has been the hold in. So they report, but I'm not going to practice. So I'll be here.
I'll be a good soldier. I'll be in meetings, all those things. Um, and then they just don't go on
the field. So that's 100%, I think,
what it is with both these guys, because it just feels as if they're wanting to make some
sort of a statement without making a statement, but still making a statement.
I will make a statement. Running backs might be underpaid, but J.K. Dobbins
is not one that has a lot of leverage. He has proven very, very little. I mean, we like him,
but I think he's not coming from the same position
that Jonathan Taylor is coming from.
Also, the difference between these guys and Josh Jacobs
is they're under contract,
so if they didn't show up, if they were holding out,
they'd be getting fined every day and losing money.
Jacobs isn't losing any money.
Zacherts is on the pup list,
but he did not rule out a week one return.
Kyler Murray's timetable is still unclear.
Heath, give me 10 seconds on the Cardinals' tight ends.
Trey McBride could be a league winner in the last round of drafts
if Zach Ertz doesn't play this year.
I'm afraid Zach Ertz is going to try to play,
and they're both going to kind of be mid.
Okay.
Antonio Gibson says he expects to play a third down back role,
similar to JD McKissick's role.
McKissick actually had 24 catches
in his first five games.
He scored 7.8 to 13.3 PPR fantasy points
in each game.
That is a guy you're starting in PPR leagues
as a flex, probably.
Washington went one and four in those games.
Then Washington went three and oh
in the next three games, and McKissick had 10 targets and three catches.
But that's something we already knew though.
I would like for him to be a little bit more than that.
I mean,
I'd like for him to maybe get seven,
eight carries and get that role.
I think he will.
You think he will?
Yeah.
Yes.
I don't know.
Seven,
eight,
but I would say,
you know,
at least five per game.
Rashad Penny worked with the first team for the Eagles.
And Cole Komet, hmm.
Four years, $50 million, $32.8 million guaranteed.
Here's what Matt Eberflus had to say, their head coach.
Our offense is something that really enhances the tight ends.
We'll see it more this year with the screens and the mismatches
and the singles on the backside.
He's developing just like we want him to, and we're excited where he is now.
That's Iberflues on Cole Komet.
Jamie, do we have a sleeper tight end here in Cole Komet?
We certainly might.
I think the signing of Robert Tunyon is a little bit of an issue for what could happen for Cole Komet.
He's such a good blocker that I think
we're going to see him, you know, this is as much as why he got paid as, as, as well as his, you
know, receiving potential, but yeah, look, you're going to see a better Justin Fields. You're going
to see a better offense. And so as a result of that, everybody will benefit. DJ Moore will open
the field for all of these guys and allow Cole Komet to make some plays. So yes, he's in the
sleeper category. Uh, should you draft him as your number one tight end?
Probably not.
If you are inclined to take two,
this is a perfect number two tight end to take a shot on.
And so I think, you know, just to go back to what Heath said,
I think Trey McBride, for example,
is somebody that will get you off to a potentially decent start.
Whether that continues for the full season,
we'll see because Zach Gertz's health will determine that.
But if at some point Cole Komet gets in one of those hot stretches,
you know,
you get that pocket of,
of strong performance,
then you can pivot to him.
So I don't know.
He's going to get drafted in many leagues,
but this is somebody definitely want to keep an eye on.
Okay.
We're going to take a break.
I wanted to talk about Jarek McKinnon.
I have just some interesting stuff I want to talk about with him.
And we can certainly compare them to Antonio Gibson.
Cause I kind of poo pooed Jarek McKinnon.
I think on yesterday's show.
I think I was a little bit premature.
But the Chiefs offense is so fascinating to me.
We'll talk about that later in the show.
We do have to talk about team building right now
and how we went about building our rosters in our half PPR 12 team league.
And we will do that after this break.
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All right.
I don't even remember.
Was the draft Monday or Tuesday, Jamie, at this point?
It was Tuesday.
And get ready for an onslaught of mock drafts coming up.
Yes.
Starting next week.
And live streams.
We're going to start doing YouTube-only content,
likely on Tuesday nights.
I think we're starting next Tuesday.
I will keep you posted.
We're looking at about 7 p.m. Eastern
for these Tuesday night mock drafts. I think that will ultimately next Tuesday. I will keep you posted. We're looking at about 7 p.m. Eastern for these Tuesday night mock drafts.
I think that will ultimately be up to Jamie.
And we'll have guests on from the industry.
Might even have some of you on
as a donation to St. Jude.
We're going to do all different types of formats,
non-PPR, super flex.
So there will be something for you
in your specific league to go to YouTube,
youtube.com slash fantasy football today and take a look at one of our mock drafts,
which we'll be doing every week. So I'm very excited to start that. And I'm very excited to
talk about this draft that we did earlier this week. And I already forgot Jamie's answer. I
think he said it was Monday. It doesn't really matter. Here we go. It was Tuesday. Okay, damn it.
It was a 12-team league, half PPR.
You start one quarterback and one tight end,
two running backs, three wide receivers, and a flex.
Jamie had the first pick.
Heath had the ninth pick.
I had the 11th pick.
We will talk about our three builds,
but also other teams in the league.
So, Jamie, very interesting strategy.
Did this work?
You went with three wide receivers with your first three picks at number one, number 24, and number 25.
And those were Justin Jefferson, Devante Smith, and Tee Higgins. And if you're asking,
which running backs did Jamie pass up? Well, let's see. Derrick Henry, Tony Pollard,
Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, they were all off the board. Ramondre Stevenson went at 211, and the next running backs off the board were Mixon, ETN,
Aaron Jones, Brees Hall. So my first question for you, Jefferson, Devante Smith, T. Higgins,
and I'll spoil it, your next two picks were Damian Pierce and J.K. Dobbins.
If Ramondre Stevenson had been on the board instead of being selected at two
11,
would you still have gone with three receivers or would you have taken
Stevenson?
I would have taken Stevenson in a heartbeat.
And I wasn't considering the other running backs.
He was the last one for me.
Cause I liked the receivers better.
The tough call honestly was the two receivers versus the quarterback.
And I wanted to see how it would play out with,
you know,
two guys in particular ended up getting one of them at the quarterback. And I wanted to see how it would play out with, you know, two guys in
particular, I ended up getting one of them, um, at the quarterback position because it was going
to be Justin Herbert or Trevor Lawrence to see if I can do that. Because since you already said,
I took the running backs. I also took those running backs over Justin Fields. And so this
was just a, uh, a conscious decision to pass on the quarterbacks to see at what point, if at all,
I could maybe get Herbert or Lawrence and it worked out with getting Lawrence.
But that was my tough decision at the 2-3 turn
was taking those two receivers
or taking Allen or Hertz.
That's the order I have them.
And both were still on the board at that point.
And in retrospect, do you think you did the right thing?
You ended up with Lawrence with the last pick of round six
instead of one of the big,
or instead of, Mahomes was on the board, right, but Allen or Hurts, it's a two, three turn. You think that
worked out for you? I mean, I'm happy with it. There's obviously a clear separation of the
quarterback talent, but I think in terms of the receivers in a three receiver league,
good luck facing me every week when I have Jefferson, Smith, and Higgins, if they're
playing like they're capable of.
Okay.
So obviously the first,
you know, people probably think,
all right,
he took three receivers with his first three picks.
He didn't take a running back until 48th and 49th overall.
How did he do at running back?
Here are Jamie's running backs again in a 12 team league,
Damian Pierce and Alexander Madison went one pick ahead.
I don't know if that was that like a dammit.
No,
Dobbins and Pierce.
I had ranked ahead of Madison,
so it worked out well for me.
And this is half PPR.
So Pierce Dobbins,
James Cook,
Khalil Herbert,
Elijah Mitchell,
and Zamir White.
Talk about lottery ticket there.
Pierce Dobbins,
James Cook,
Khalil Herbert,
Elijah Mitchell,
and Zamir White.
And he has Trevor Lawrence and Pat Fryer,
Muth at quarterback and tight end.
And again,
Jefferson,
Devante Smith, T Higgins, plus Beckham, Mooney and Zay Jones.
So he's how did he do at running back with Pierce Dobbins, James Cook, Khalil Herbert,
Elijah Mitchell's Amir White.
Good enough to justify the first three picks all being receivers.
Yeah, I think like you want a lot of shots. If you're not going to have a surefire RB one, you want a lot of shots of guys who could be Damian Pierce showed us for like
10 weeks that he could be last year.
JK Dobbins has the pedigree that he could be if he's 100% healthy and they
don't split the carries up like they have in the past.
And then James Cook and Khalil Herbert both have opportunities to be the clear
RB one on their own team.
So,
and then Mitchell and Zemir white to,
like you said,
lottery tickets. If the guy in front of then Mitchell and Zemir White, too, like you said, lottery tickets
if the guy in front of them is not available.
You know, Jamie, I wonder, one thing that maybe would have bothered you,
maybe, you took Trevor Lawrence, he was quarterback eight,
and you took him, let's see, at the 72nd overall pick, is that right?
The very end of round six.
There was no other quarterback that went until
the middle of round eight. So at that point, Mahomes, Hurts, Allen, Burrow, Jackson, Fields,
and Herbert were all off the board. You get Lawrence at QB seven. If somebody had taken him,
would you, you know, then you would have been in the Tua, Watson, Richardson group.
Would that have bothered you?
I mean, how much differently would you have felt about your team if you didn't have Trevor Lawrence?
It would not have bothered me if I knew I was going to get Anthony Richardson at the end of round nine, let's just say, or the 8-9 turn.
So, no, I would not have been.
Sorry. Oh, yeah, 8-9 turn. My bad. I'm sorry.
I mean, it's basically just a choice between Richardson and Goddard or Lawrence and Fryermuth,
right?
Uh, yes. So what I probably would have done would have taken Goddard and James Cook and
passed on Lawrence there. And then if you would have told me that I was definitely guaranteed
to get Anthony Richardson instead of Fryermuth, then yes if you would have told me that I was definitely guaranteed to get Anthony Richardson
instead of Fryer-Moose, then yes, I would have played that
out that way.
And you feel the same way if it wasn't Richardson
if it had been Watson or Tua?
No, I would be perfectly fine with that.
Alright, so Jamie goes
with three wide receivers. But I wouldn't have had a shot at Tua
because Tua went. Right, I'm just
saying, let's say that Tua pick had been Richardson or something,
and then Tua had fallen to you.
But all right, Jamie starts with three receivers at the number one pick,
Jefferson, then Devontae Smith-Tee Higgins.
He ends up with Damian Pierce, J.K. Dobbins as his starting running backs,
Trevor Lawrence at quarterback, Pat Fryermuth at tight end,
and then at flex, either James Cook or Khalil Herbert,
with Beckham, Mitchell, Mooney,
Zamir White, and Zay Jones on the bench.
Okay, Heath, you had the ninth pick.
And do you want to just tell us maybe,
let's look at the first eight picks.
Jefferson, Chase, McCaffrey, Eckler,
Bijan, Kelsey, Tyreek Hill, Saquon Barkley.
Three receiver, half PPR league.
What's your thought process here with the ninth overall pick?
I mean, in full PPR, I'm pretty stoked to get Cooper Cup at number nine,
but in half PPR, I would have preferred Barkley.
Took Cooper Cup there.
Took Jonathan Taylor.
Now, I think I probably, going back,
had Josh Jacobs ranked ahead of Cooper Cup,
and this is the second time this has happened in mock drafts in the last three weeks where I've thought, well, nobody else is going to take Josh Jacobs before I take him in early round two, so I'll just take somebody else in late round one.
And then somebody else took Josh Jacobs right before I picked in round two.
So I may have to stop saying that nobody else is going to take him before I get to pick again.
I mean, if you're playing without colleagues, you might be right about that.
Well, this was the first time, maybe
also, that how often do we see on our drafts
Josh Jacobs go ahead of Jonathan Taylor?
How often do we see A.J. Brown go ahead
of Stefan Diggs? That was the same guy
who, you know,
I don't think he, I don't love
it. I mean, A.J. Brown and Josh Jacobs
with his first two picks and I was
picking after I mean I was thrilled so I got digs instead of AJ Brown but hey I mean AJ Brown's
great um if you're thinking I know it's not set in stone but you're thinking okay I have the ninth
pick and this is obviously what I was thinking with the 11th pick probably going to end up with
a running back and a wide receiver here uh does the order matter
to you the order doesn't matter um again it just comes down to like which guy you want
and i i think like knowing that i could have either jacobs or taylor one of those guys was
going to fall to me at nine which is the way it turned out then i definitely want to take a wide
receiver first because i wouldn't want to because i would have taken jaco to fall to me at nine, which is the way it turned out, then I definitely want to take a wide receiver first
because I would have taken Jacobs or Taylor at nine
and Kup wasn't going to be there in the second round.
Right.
Yeah, I mean, you look at round two in a half PPR league
and picks 14, 15, and 16 are Chubb, Jacobs, and Jonathan Taylor,
and you still have Pollard and Henry.
That's a strong round of running backs.
All right, so let's talk about...
It's what we're going to see, though.
That's the thing.
We're going to see a lot of these guys in round two,
especially if Jacobs' holdout continues.
So, you know, you asked,
do you have a preference,
wide receiver or running back?
I think you're going to take the wide receiver,
or you should.
You said wide receiver?
In the first round, yeah because i mean look it is if
everybody's healthy is there that much difference between taylor and and jacobs is there that much
difference what we're going to see between barkley and pollard right essentially but i mean you know
there's a lot to love about those guys but i think you know if you're saying i don't know how much of
a huge difference there is but but to me there's a pretty
decent gap of
Stephon Diggs and Amara St.
Brown. I wouldn't go with
him, though. I'd go with Devontae Adams
or Garrett Wilson.
Go back to the tiers.
You wanted to make the point of Stephon Diggs being in tier
one, right? Agree with you on Diggs. What about
A.J. Brown and C.D. Lamb, though?
I mean, because to me, I'm thinking I would have taken the running backs
over A.J. Brown and C.D. Lamb.
I would have taken Taylor Jacobs.
That's fine.
That's fine, but you're getting to the end of it.
I mean, look, we're not going to see all receivers go in the first round,
but if you are talking about the questions, I think,
are a little bit more with the running backs than they are with the receivers.
Yeah.
I know we're focusing a lot on this A.J. Brown, a pick 10 thing,
but he took Josh Jacobs with the third pick of round two,
so does it matter?
Like, if he'd taken Jacobs in round one and A.J. Brown in round two,
it would look more normal.
Well, Jacobs is just an interesting test case
because he's going to really start to slide.
I am not not nervous about the Jacobs
situation. You think that he might sit
out? I saw what Jamie retweeted.
He retweeted Rick Spielman, who
now works for us, former GM of the Vikings.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Jamie, but Rick was basically saying
he's not convinced that the Raiders
really
want... What was he saying?
That they really want Jacobs there. He said Josh McDaniels.
He doesn't think Josh McDaniels wants
Josh Jacobs. And I
think because of his history with the Patriots of
using, you know, running backs by committee.
I think that the, you know, if you start to connect
the dots, clearly the Giants wanted
to make Saquon Barkley happy in some way, shape
or form, or at least get him into the building
by giving him the $900,000
worth of incentives. The Raiders
story is that they didn't even come close
to trying to even offer something that would make Jacobs happy.
And there was the previous story about, you know,
Saquon turning down $13 million a year, you know, this offseason
because he thought he was going to get more.
So it just seems as if that Jacobs is going to make somewhat of a stand.
To what degree, we don't know.
I don't think he's going to go to the Le'Veon Bell route.
But, you know, at some point he's going to, you know, I think show up,
but the more he's away. And again, we're, we're nitpicking here because like I said,
is there that much difference in terms of where the ceiling lies for Taylor versus Jacobs versus
Pollard versus Barkley? If they're all healthy and all playing 17 games, I, you know, it's going
to be probably decimal points, you know, if everybody's doing what they're capable of doing.
So why would you take Jacobs over those guys right now?
If you are concerned.
If you're not concerned, then you take Jacobs.
But if you are concerned, you take Taylor, you take Pollard,
you take Barkley, you take Henry, you take Chubb, all these guys.
Okay, so I guess we can move on then.
Just in here, I'm looking at the comments in the YouTube chat,
and they're just butchering the spelling of Thomas Schaefer's last name.
I feel bad for Schaefer T.
There's no C in there.
But I do actually encourage all of you to watch this episode,
if you can, on YouTube, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday,
because you can look at the draft board.
It will probably be very helpful for you.
So back to Heath's build.
Cooper Cupp and Jonathan Taylor in the first two rounds.
Aaron Jones and DJ Moore in rounds three and four.
So you, Heath, waited on quarterback and tight end.
You did not take any of them until round eight
for Richardson in round eight.
No, sorry, Njoku in round eight.
Richardson in round nine. Dak Prescott in round eight. No, sorry, Njoku in round eight. Richardson in round nine.
Dak Prescott in round 11.
So your first seven picks are running backs and wide receivers.
And how do you feel about that build?
Kind of not in the elite tier at either quarterback or tight end,
at least the elite tier as we see it before the season starts.
Right, yeah.
I think I probably lean towards preferring at
being in the lead tier at those two but I don't know that picking at the end of
round three gives you that opportunity like I didn't get a chance to draft my
homes Allen or Hertz and I think there should be a little more distance between
those guys and burrow and Lamar and Fields.
So I'm not going to take them at the end of round three or at the start of round four.
Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey are going to be gone before I pick at all.
Andrew's gone before I pick in round three.
I just think the way the structure of this is working out,
I don't know that picking at the end of the draft,
you get a lot of choice at those guys
unless you want to really draft them
ahead of where they're normally going to go.
See, that's the thing, though.
I think based on what you just said there,
where they're normally going to go,
I think we're going to see Mahomes
and maybe one of the other two quarterbacks
go beginning of round two.
Not in our draft, but in the draft.
Yeah, I was going to say,
I don't know where a guy like Joe Burrow is going to go.
I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if he or Lamar Jackson
are late second-round picks in some drafts.
You and I have a different philosophy here.
I think this is interesting.
You drafted ninth. I drafted 11th.
I did take Burrow in round three, 3-11.
And it turns out Justin Herbert
would not have made it back to me.
He went one pick before me.
Maybe if I didn't take Burrow, maybe he would have.
You see, obviously, and I think we've talked
about this, especially during the Tears
episodes, like it's
the big three, Mahomes, Hertz, Allen.
Then it's the next three,
Burrow, Fields, Jackson, in some order.
I've got Burrow, I think,
sixth of that group, but they're all really close for most of us. You obviously don't think they're
very close at all because otherwise there'd be no reason to take Joe Burrow when there's no way
that Jacob's taking more than one quarterback and you could just take Fields or Lawrence with your
next pick. Yeah. So when I took Burrow, there was no player that I felt I really needed to get.
Now, if this had been a full PPR league, I would have taken Jameer Gibbs there.
In a half PPR league, I think that might be a little bit rich at 311.
So I wanted to secure the quarterback.
In a six-point-per-passing touchdown league, there's just something so safe, so secure about Joe Burrow.
And I do think that he has potential to be pretty close to Mahomes, Allen, and Hurts
because he was pretty close to them in the games last year
where he had a healthy Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins.
If you were ranking them, would you rank Burrow closer to that big three than the other two?
In a six-point-per-passing touchdown league, I would.
You think he has more upside than Lamar and Fields?
No, I think he has less downside.
Okay.
And I think when you get to this point in the draft,
what I always try to remind myself is that
if you look at your team when you draft it
and you look at your team in week whatever,
if you win the championship, it's so different, right?
So I think there's a lot of bust potential
with some of the picks in this range. So I just
said, you know what, I'm just going to take Joe Burrow,
get a guy that is super safe
and has
big upside. I think he could score more than
28 points per game. I don't think he can get to 30, 31.
I don't think he can have that kind of season.
But 28, I think, is realistic and a six point for
passing touchdown league. So I wanted that
quarterback. I think it would have
been interesting if I didn't take him,
if I had gotten Justin Herbert
in round six,
or round five, rather,
two rounds later,
which I almost,
and he went to pick before my fifth round pick,
then I would have felt silly about it.
But I decided it was worth it
to take Burrow there.
But you,
you,
who'd you,
oh, right,
so you waited on quarterback
and you got Richardson.
Back to your team.
Sorry, Heath. Cup, Taylor, Aaron Jones, DJ Moore,
then Christian Kirk. Now you've got your three receivers, you've got
your two running backs, and then you draft Jahan Dotson as a flex
and Samaje Pirine in your next round as a bench player.
Or maybe he's your flex and Dotson is your bench player, whatever it is.
What did you pass up flex and Dotson is your bench player, whatever it is. Uh, so what did you pass up there? Um, with Dotson and P Ryan, and do you have any regrets? So Dotson was Trevor Lawrence
and I'm not taking him that early that the tight end that would have been next for me was Dallas
Goddard. And I'm not taking him that early. Um, that maybe I like those running backs P. Ryan, Cam Akers,
Rashad White. I don't have a big difference
between James Cook. I don't have a big difference between
those guys in my projections or my rankings.
So I
don't, as far as
quarterback goes, I
don't feel like I missed out.
Because I feel like Anthony Richardson has as much upside
as the elite guys and Dak Prescott has as much floor as anybody. Okay. And when you look at your first five picks, Cup, Taylor, Aaron
Jones, DJ Moore, Christian Kirk, do you feel better about your wide receivers or your running backs
at that point? And just one last time, I'll read them. He's got Taylor and Aaron Jones at running
back. He's got Cooper Cup, DJ Moore, and Christian Kirk. And your sixth pick was Dotson instead of a guy like Rashad White or Cam Akers or Camara,
who was off the board in round six. So did you feel better about running back or wide receiver
after your first five rounds? I felt better about running back than wide receiver. That's why my
next pick was a wide receiver as opposed to a running back. But I feel pretty good about both
of those. And that's why I hate that pick at the end of round three.
You talked about it too when you took Burrow there.
Maybe I should just start taking quarterbacks there.
Because generally, that's where my rankings diverge the most
from what everybody else is doing.
I think my top three players in my queue when I picked Aaron Jones
might have been Aaron Jones, DJ Moore, and Christian Kirk.
No, I agree.
I don't like – I mean, I like the late pick from the, in the first two
rounds, right? I mean, I think if you have a late pick, you're, you're probably going to love your
first two picks, but you're not getting, unless you're willing to take my homes, Alan or hurts,
you're not getting them. So, I mean, it is pretty interesting. I Heath, when you look at round two
here, you took Aaron Jones, you would have taken Mark Andrews. He went one pick before you.
Where is the end of the players that you're just super stoked to have?
Mark Andrews. And all the guys who went before them, are you super stoked to have Higgins,
Olave, Mixon, Hertz, Allen, ETN, Calvin Ridley? Ridley's probably the one that doesn't fit in that group for me,
but he's getting closer.
But I've got Ridley closer to a round four pick,
but all the rest of those guys I feel really good about drafting in round three.
I think I'm probably on more of an island with Mehron on Travis Etienne.
He took him in round three.
I like Etienne in round three.
A lot of people don't.
But no, the rest of those guys I feel really good.
So I guess there's six or
seven in the third round that I really like.
Okay. All right, Jamie, your thoughts
on Heath's team. It's Anthony Richardson at quarterback,
David Njoku at tight end,
with Dak Prescott
as a very important backup here.
Aaron Jones, Jonathan Taylor,
Cooper Cupp, Christian Kirk, DJ Moore,
Jahan Dotson at flex,
also Samaje, P. Ryan an option.
And on his bench are the players
that hopefully will get signed soon,
Zeke and Fournette,
and Jalen Warren and Rashad Bateman.
Your thoughts on Heath's team at the nine spot?
Yeah, no, I love the starting group.
You know, the Flex is going to be interesting
depending on the Denver situation
because Samaj P. Ryan could still be a home run
depending on what happens to Javante Williams there.
And I know he's probably a little bit higher on Dotson than most,
but he's got as much upside,
I think is a lot of the second year wide receivers and the same with Bateman,
if he's healthy, you know, so his receivers are great.
I think he did exactly what you should do when you draft Anthony Richardson,
especially if you know your league. And so, you know,
the way that he, I think played this out and I'm just looking at it, like Jacob ended
up with Gino Smith and Daniel Jones. So I think he could read that maybe he wasn't going to jump
in on Dak Prescott at some point. And we know like some of our other managers in this league
tend to wait on quarterback as well. So you're going to end up with those two guys. That's the
perfect safety, you know, valve for, for Anthony Richardson's flaw. So yeah, it's a, it's a great
group. I don't love his bench, but I,
I think especially his running backs,
but I think as long as,
you know,
Jones and Taylor are,
are healthy,
that's a great,
great duo.
Okay.
We're going to take a break.
Talk about my team.
Talk about the team that took out Travis Kelsey,
how'd that one go?
Um,
and we'll be right back.
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I had the 11th pick in this 12-te team half PPR mock draft where you start three wide receivers
and a flex. And I did get a top five quarterback and a top seven tight end. You know, the seven
tight ends are Kelsey in tier one for most people, Mark Andrews in tier two. And then I think for a
lot of us, five tight ends in tier three, in some order, Hawkinson, Pitts, Waller, Goddard, Kittle.
I got the last one. I got George Kittle. I was lucky to get him in round eight. So having a top
five quarterback and a top seven tight end, I was happy about that. My first two picks were Stefan
Diggs and Nick Chubb. I then went with Joe Burrow. And then, you know, really tough pick for me in
round four was DeAndre Hopkins. But, you know, I like all of my picks except rounds four through six.
I don't know how I did, and I will ask you guys how you feel.
So Diggs, Chubb, Burrow, very happy with that start.
Kittle in round eight was great.
I'm happy with Gabe Davis at pretty much the very end of round seven.
I'll talk about my bench later.
But DeAndre Hopkins in round four, then pick 5'11 DeAndre
Swift and pick 6.2 Javante Williams. Those guys might make or break my team. Maybe I only need
one of them to be great, but Hopkins, DeAndre Swift, Javante Williams. Nervous about all of
them, Jamie. What would you say if I did anything right or wrong there with Hopkins, Swift, and Javante?
No, I don't think you did anything wrong.
I think Javante Williams round six is perfect.
You know, that's one thing.
So the story that I wrote was kind of just, you know, this is our first draft after camp started.
So here's where some of the buzzworthy guys went.
And I probably should have included Hopkins in there, but I just was looking more at the running backs.
But I think, you know, I'm just looking at the receivers
that were drafted around Hopkins.
Like, I like Jerry Judy better.
I like Christian Watson better.
And I would probably take Debo Samuel over him just to the guys
who went after him.
You know, Hopkins, DJ Moore, you can certainly, you know,
split hairs on those guys for me.
But you have a feeling that DeAndre Hopkins is still going to be,
I don't know, elite.
I don't want to put those words in your mouth.
But, you know, at close to that, or still perform at a very high level.
So you probably like him clearly even better than these guys.
I don't know what you would have done in full PPR, just based on his role.
Hopkins.
I mean, look.
Yeah, Hopkins.
Yeah, you like him.
So again, you weren't going to get him with your next pick, so I get it.
So that's fine for me.
And then in round five, you took Swift.
Look, he's going to be very polarizing.
If he plays the full season behind that offensive line
and in this role better than Rashad Penny,
then we're probably drafting him way too low.
But there's risk attached to it because Penny's there.
Other guys are there.
His injury, you know, history.
So like you said, you just need one of those two guys to really
hit to be successful and it's not a bad idea based on knowing that you're at the end of the round
take a shot on two of them and see how it goes let me get your take on this so so jamie you know
every i feel like every day we talk about the mid-round running backs being good and and we
like them and there was a stretch of miles sanders in round four kind of
middle of round four naji harris actually fell in the middle of round four um then sanders then
madison and then jamie goes damian pierce jk dobbins at the four or five turn and then we get
ken walker and now when we started this process months ago i was calling james connor my favorite
sleeper maybe my favorite pick in the draft because nobody really wanted him. And he was falling to round seven or so. Well, James Conner certainly would have been my pick if he had been available to me in round five, but he went with pick 5.8. After that Connor pick, I no longer really feel great about any of the running backs at their value.
I almost felt like I was reaching.
You had Swift, Montgomery, Gervonta.
This is late round five into round six.
Swift, Montgomery, Gervonta, Rashad White, Cam Akers, Kamara.
Those are the running backs at the very end of round five and into round six.
Heath, I don't know how you felt about that,
but as soon as Connor came off the board,
it was a little bit of a deflating feel for me.
Well, you know I love David Montgomery,
so I would have just taken Montgomery where you took Swift.
I thought of that three-pick stretch, I like Hopkins' value.
I love Javante's value.
I just didn't like the Swift pick.
But I also thought how much different would your team look?
And I know George Kittle in round eight seems like a great value,
but I'd rather have Hawkinson or Pitts.
And then there's 17 running backs that go after that group you're talking,
after Connor goes, that are all kind of in the same range.
And so I just wonder if you'd taken the tight end there
and then just taken a running back,
a different running back a little bit later.
You definitely could have got Gabe Davis up around later.
Okay.
Just because, but like if I was just switching one guy,
like the other guy that I still feel pretty good
about his role is David Montgomery.
I like Montgomery at his ADP,
but this is earlier than his ADP.
I mean, this was the first pick of round six.
I thought he was round six.
This is the very first pick.
I didn't think.
Let me check.
Maybe he's even later.
I'm with Heath.
I would have taken Montgomery over Swift and over Javante, personally.
Okay.
Montgomery.
I would have taken Rashad White over them, too.
Draft Sharks, he's 7.1.
He's a number.
But who cares about ADP? Well, you know. You're not getting anybody at 7.1. But who cares about ADP?
Well, you're passing up on better players at other positions, maybe.
I'm just saying.
But you took the same position, though.
I know, and I'm just saying I didn't feel great about it.
I felt like I had to, kind of, but I just didn't feel great about those running backs.
I think that's the important distinction to make here,
is if you get to round five and you have one running back, but I just didn't feel great about those running backs. I think that's the important distinction to make here,
is if you get to round five and you have one running back,
you do not have to at all, not even kind of.
You definitely don't have to double tap at the 5-6 with two running backs.
I liked Javante there, though, I would say. I did too, but there's going to be running backs in round seven and eight
that I don't think are that much different than the guys at round 5-6.
Yeah, maybe.
And I also would lean toward,
you're taking two swings, huge swings.
If they hit, they're great.
But the floors for both those guys could be awful
for Swift and Williams.
Okay, that is my team.
Let's see how the Kelsey team looks here.
Just if you take Travis Kelsey in the first round.
Well, you said you'd give your bench.
Why don't you give everybody's bench?
Oh, yeah, my bad.
My bench is...
I guess I could just look at this, right?
My bench is Quentin
Johnston,
Jamal Williams,
which I think is a good pick
if you... Jamal Williams, if you don't love your running
backs. Jerome Ford
to back up Nick Chubb.
Jacoby Myers,
Chig Okonkwo, which was an auto-pick,
and Aaron Rodgers,
which was not an auto-pick, my last pick.
The Kelsey team.
All right, you take Travis Kelsey
in round one. How is that
going to look? That was the
sixth overall
pick. Well, Kelsey,
Derek Henry in round two,
Travis Etienne in round three.
This was Marone Berkson.
All right, so he goes three rounds.
He does not have a wide receiver.
His next four picks are wide receivers.
After Kelsey, Henry, and Etienne, how did Marone do?
Jerry, Judy, Terry McLaurin, Michael Pittman, and Mike Williams.
How do we feel about this?
And then Tua Tungavailoa.
So he goes Kelsey in round one,
Derek Henry, Travis Etienne,
Jerry Judy, Terry McLaurin,
Michael Pittman, Mike Williams,
Tua Tungavailoa.
Jamie, how do you feel about that team?
I don't hate it.
I mean, obviously there's some flaws
when you talk about Pittman and McLaurin.
And what maybe the ceiling is, you know, for those two guys,
Pittman more so because of the, I guess,
both of them with their quarterback situations.
And McLaurin, you know, we had this conversation with Dan
a couple weeks ago in terms of what tier should he be in
and how good is he actually as a fantasy wide
receiver. But if you're going to go tight end, running back, running back in a three receiver
league, you're clearly chasing. And I don't think this is a bad group because he really only has to
play three of them and then just sort of manage his flex. And so I think most weeks you're definitely
going to start some combination of, my opinion judy mcclaren
and and then just decide on pitman and williams and how that's going but in half ppr i think
williams is still going to be fine if he finds the end zone so i don't hate the group i don't
hate his quarterback i don't hate his his starting running backs it's just he spent a lot of capital
on his his backup running backs uh some of it was auto picks. And this is, I think, the way we do our mock drafts
is we don't have all the time 12 fantasy analysts.
We have people that are good at fantasy.
Maroon's one of the best you'll find.
But he's not just, this isn't his job as a fantasy analyst.
And so you get some of the real-life scenarios.
You brought up, you can see in the draft board,
Zach Broek, who drafted the picks that you thought were a little bit different
with J.J. Brown and Josh Jacobs over some other players.
That's what we're going to see in drafts.
People are going to do that.
And that's what I love about our mock drafts.
Somebody, I think, commented on the YouTube page,
did Dave really take three tight ends?
I didn't even notice that until I just saw it.
So people doing different things.
So yeah, Marrone has some auto picks,
but I think his team is fine if you go Kelsey this way.
I don't know how you guys feel,
but right before McLaurin, you get three wide receivers.
So, I mean, Kelsey, Henry, ETN, Judy,
kind of feeling that right there.
Then right before his McLaurin pick, you get Amari Cooper, Chris Godwin, kind of feeling that right there. Then right before his
McLaurin pick, you get Amari Cooper, Chris
Godwin, and Drake London off the board.
I don't know. Would you
guys have been a lot happier
if he had had any of those three? Cooper,
Godwin, London instead of McLaurin?
Of course.
I don't like Godwin
as much as McLaurin, but I would have liked
the guy that went after McLaurin, Christian Kirk, over Trey McLaurin, but I would have liked the guy that went after McLaurin,
Christian Kirk, over Trey McLaurin.
What I would have done, though, if I was Maroon,
is I would have taken Justin Fields.
Like, he got a gift there that he passed.
You know, because it's like, what is going to set his team apart?
You know, and look, he's a Dolphins fan.
Maybe he's going to draft Tua no matter what, and that's fine, if that's how you feel.
But if you say you got
potential top five quarterback,
number one tight end, those two running
backs, and Jerry Judy,
that's the build you're looking for.
Same point when we were talking about
Adam's team. Just because
you get to round five and you only have one wide
receiver doesn't mean that you have to take one. You could just go be
elite somewhere else. Right.
Yep. That's a great point.
Okay.
Can I talk to you about Jarek McKinnon?
If you guys would indulge me. Please.
Please. Well, I was starting to think
about this offense here.
They lost Juju.
They lost, and he was like second
on the team in every receiving category, maybe not touchdowns.
They lost Mikko Hardman,
who caught some touchdowns in eight games
last year. Kadarius Toney is already
hurt. You know, Jarek McKinnon,
if you split his season up before the
bye and after the bye, maybe they were
intentional about getting him more involved. And it
also kind of coincided with when Clyde Edwards
Ziller basically just hit the
bench or got hurt.
But, you know, because Pacheco wasn't doing much
in the passing game. First seven games before the bye,
he was on pace for 41 targets.
He had a 6.8% target share,
this is Jarek McKinnon.
Last 10 games after the bye,
he was on pace for 92 targets.
73 catches, 673 yards,
14 touchdowns,
which is crazy.
Jarek McKinnon had a 24.2% target share
after their bye week,
the last 10 games of the regular season.
Maybe there's something to it there.
I really feel bad about just dismissing it yesterday.
Now, I will say that in his last six games,
playoffs and super,
or last three regular season games
and then three playoff games,
he averaged only 3.2 targets per game.
So that's a big red flag.
But yeah, maybe this is a guy who has that passing downs role. He had the third most
receiving touchdowns in a season for a running back ever last year. But I think I may have
dismissed him a little bit too early. He is not even a top 40 running back in ADP. Heath,
your thoughts on McKinnon? I just don't think we're going to see a huge
role for him. You said
after the bye.
She said a week 10 bye this year or a week 13
bye. It might be after the bye again.
I
can't imagine with a running back his
age that he's going
to have a very big role. Put him
in bubble wrap until December or November.
Jamie, your thoughts on McKinnon? The touchdowns is what scares me. to have a very big role. Just put him in bubble wrap until December or November. Okay.
Jamie, your thoughts on McKinnon?
The touchdowns is what scares me.
He was so great at finding the end zone.
Is that something you want to try and replicate?
A running back receiving touchdowns?
Is running back receiving touchdowns?
And so while this offense is clearly the most creative in the NFL
and maybe the most creative we've ever
seen and the quarterback is going to rely on everyone which is why you know guys like Richie
James should be on your radar and you mentioned Mark Westvald the scantling Adam obviously we're
going to get more more excited about Sky Moore and Racy Rice and those guys because of the
injury now to Kadarius Tony so yes he's going he's going to be involved. But, like, I think the, like, I'm just looking at his game logs here.
Is he going to get six catches regularly?
Well, I mean, he had a pretty good stretch of, you know, five or more.
So that's potentially still there for him.
But is he going to go five for 52 and two and give you, you know,
that stat line consistently?
Obviously not.
No, of course not.
So it's the, what are you looking for?
So is he a great buy at his ADP?
100%.
For sure.
Is he somebody that you want to rely on as a starter?
No.
I am less concerned about the touchdowns
and more about the,
no, concern is not the right word.
I'm certainly skeptical of the touchdowns.
I'm less interested in the touchdowns
and more interested in the 92-target pace
in the last 10 games of the season.
I think that we...
I don't know if we talk about guys
who are better in best ball,
especially best ball,
where you can't have adds or drops,
but I think McKinnon's one of them.
Because I wouldn't be surprised
if he goes a month early in the year
where his involvement's really
or even if he has, like Jamie said,
five catches for 40 yards
and doesn't have a touchdown
and then the next week he has three for 18
and it will be hard to hold on to him
if he goes through a four to six week stretch
like that early in the year.
But if you draft him into best ball league
and you never have to decide when to start him
and you can't drop him,
then I think he's probably going to pay off late.
Cool. Some more news and notes for you before we hit the road got a mailbag show tomorrow by the way so we're going to fire through those apple podcast questions
emails at fantasy football at cbsi.com uh aaron rogers signed a new deal 35 million dollars less
over the next two seasons a nice pay cut for for the Jets there. That was safety Donovan Wilson.
Could be out four to six weeks after straining his
calf. Bryce Young is
Carolina's starting quarterback. They didn't say he's
going to start for sure week one, but he is QB
one. He's going to start week one.
Oh, you know, kind of interesting if we could talk
about the Baked Burger Dynasty League.
Bryce Young went
in our startup
Dynasty League. Bryce Young went 21st overall.
Just after Tua, just before Amandra St. Brown,
Brees Hall, Dak Prescott, Chris Olave, Jameer Gibbs.
Jamie did not like that pick.
Dan Schneier loved that pick.
He was going to take Bryce Young if he had fallen to him.
Two picks later.
No.
You didn't like it, though.
I didn't like Bryce Young? You didn't like that pick. No, it, though. I didn't like Bryce Young?
You didn't like that pick.
No, it's not that I didn't like that pick.
I thought it was just,
this is what I said to you.
This is why I like going quarterback,
quarterback early in this format
because I don't want to reach for Bryce Young.
I think Bryce Young's fine in Dynasty for sure.
Yeah, but you thought it was a reach.
I didn't think it was a reach.
It's just, this is what happens
when the quarterbacks get pushed up and you start to take these quarterbacks. I don't think it's a reach. I didn't think it was a reach. It's just, this is what happened when you, when the quarterbacks get pushed up and you start to take these quarterbacks. I don't think it's a
reach because this is the format super flex and, and, and two QB in, in a startup dynasty league,
this could be a top 10 quarterback. And I think these two young and Stroud,
like we've poo pooed them a lot in one quarterback and or redraft because they're
rookie quarterbacks and because they're not going to run as much.
But I think they're both going to be really, like Jamie said, top 10.
I feel pretty good about them both being really good top 15 quarterbacks for a decade.
And so in a super flex dynasty league, this is the place where they get bumped up the most.
And I would have not taken it before St. Brown for sure.
But amongst the quarterbacks,
I thought Bryce Young went in the right place.
Okay.
All right.
Sorry,
Jamie.
Didn't mean to misquote you there.
Uh,
um,
more news and notes.
Where did I say reach?
I want to say,
I want you to know where I said reach.
Oh,
you want me to get the text messages out?
Yes.
Yes.
All right,
let's do this.
Let's do this here.
Well,
Jamie and I both went QB, QB.
It's really interesting, the quarterback position.
Startup, Dynasty, QB, Superflex League.
There's like a – you think about that next tier of quarterbacks.
They're all kind of older.
They're not just worse performers.
We talk about guys like Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins and Geno Smith.
Daniel Jones would not fit this description.
Aaron Rodgers.
Not only are they performance-wise a tier below,
but they're also not guys you want to necessarily start your dynasty team with
because they are older.
All right.
I do think one of those guys is going to fall to round five,
and then the Bryce Young pick will look a little silly.
By the way,
so smart to go QB QB in that draft.
That's what Jamie said.
I said,
I think so.
It's much different than redraft.
The QB field gets old quickly.
Jamie said,
yup,
100% or you're just reaching for guys like young and Stroud.
Both can be good and better than Richardson,
for example,
but still feels like a reach.
So that's what you say.
Okay.
I said it.
And then I said,
the guy who took Bryce Young
is a Panthers fan.
And you said, LOL, okay.
So, yeah.
All right, Davis Mills and CJ Stroud
are currently competing for a starting job.
Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask
split first-team reps.
A couple of offensive linemen got big contracts.
Gardner Minshew took all the first team reps.
Oh, thank you.
Giants signed
their left tackle Andrew Thomas to a huge deal.
Houston signed their right tackle
Titus Howard to a
three-year extension
with $36.5 million guaranteed.
Zacherts is on the PUP list.
I think I already mentioned that one.
Noah Fant is on the PUP list. I think I already mentioned that one. Noah Fant is on the PUP list.
He should be off pretty quickly.
For IDP leagues, Shaq Leonard,
formerly Darius Leonard of the Colts,
clearly one of the best defensive players in football
when he's healthy,
says he feels the best he's felt in a long time.
He had multiple surgeries on his back,
which was done to alleviate leg pain.
The first surgery did not go well,
but we'd love to see him back out there.
He's an IDP superstar.
All right, that's it for me, guys.
Thank you very much.
And we'll talk to you tomorrow.
So we got the mailbag tomorrow,
and then, yeah, oh, yeah.
Live stream hopefully next week.
I think I've said everything.
I think I'd like to go now.
What do you guys think?
You all good?
Outro of the year.
Best male host.
Talk to you tomorrow.
I'll tell you what's up.
Bye.