Fantasy Football Today - Day 3 Reaction; Breida Trade Talk; Veteran Winners and Losers (04/25 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: April 25, 2020

While Rounds 4-7 aren't usually great for Fantasy, you do get the occasional Stefon Diggs or Tyreek Hill. So, who are our favorite Day 3 picks (4:00)? We're looking at Anthony McFarland Jr. in Pittsburgh, some TEs and more ... Matt Breida or Jordan Howard (12:50)? Or neither!? We discuss the trade and the impact it will have for the SF RBs (21:50) ... Getting into the veteran winners and losers (26:00). How are we feeling about Aaron Rodgers right now? How about Davante Adams? The sophomore WRs could be in line for big seasons as well. And finally we touch on some more Day 3 draft picks that caught our eye (35:40) ... Email us at [e-mail] and tweet us with #AskFFT Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @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 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. What do Stefan Diggs, Aaron Jones, Tyreek Hill, and Jay Ajayi have in common?

All were day three picks. All round five picks, actually. So there is hope. Who will be the Aaron Jones of this draft class? Which means in three years we can argue about how good he is when his team drafts another running back in round two. Anyway, welcome to Fantasy Football today. We're going to recap day three with our fantasy takes,

give you the veteran winners and losers. You know, where does Austin Eckler fall? Where does James Conner fall? We'll talk about the Matt Breida trade, of course. I'm Adam Azer. I got Dave Richard, Heath Cummings, and Ben Gretsch here. So it's actually not done, guys. We're recording this in the middle of round seven.

But how was, Ben Gretsch, how was your NFL draft experience this year? Busy, but fun. I enjoyed it. I mean, it's always nice to get all this extra information. We got a lot to parse now. Some interesting landing spots for sure. And we really, Dave,

we did a lot on CBS Sports, you know, under the guidance of Chris Towers and others. A lot of great content. Why don't you tell the listeners what they can look forward to if they go to our website? Well, not only do we

do a live blog where we were constantly updating it with thoughts and draft analysis and fantasy takes and all that good stuff, but we really... This was the deepest we've ever gone on the NFL Draft this whole year, starting right after the Super Bowl,

writing player profiles, and then recapping each major pick. You're going to get answers for any fantasy question you've got on CBSSports.com. Just got to find the article that you're looking for. I believe everything's sorted by position, so you can go to the

wide receiver profile piece. You want to find out what we think of Henry Ruggs, you can click on it, and you're going to learn everything that you need to know about him. It's great. We've got a big Dynasty week coming up. We've got a massive Dynasty week coming up. We'll have new Dynasty rankings for all positions. We'll have a new top 150 on Monday morning.

I'll have my top 40 rookies by Dynasty value. I've already put all the rookies into the dynasty rankings i'm just moving them around now i'm trying to figure out where they all fit i tell you what this is a very very exciting class for dynasty yes i i put it in the live blog i'm not sure how exciting the class is going to be for redraft just because of some of the landing spots we got because of the questionable offseason that we'll be dealing with. I only have one player ranked as an actual starter right now in 2020 redraft from this class, but the dynasty opportunities are immense. All right, well, let's get into it. I know I've been promoting our content and whatnot. Let me

just promote a few more things. Tuesday night, we're doing another Twitch event. I don't know what they're called on Twitch. We're Twitching on Tuesday night. I'll give you the links and everything when we get it. 7 to 8 p.m. Eastern. It was really fun last week. We're going to do it again for an hour on Twitch. So you can follow us there.

And again, we'll tweet it. We'll give you the ways to find it. We have five episodes next week. It's rankings week. So we'll have an episode every day with rankings at each position and overall thoughts. Send in your rookie ranking questions via Apple Podcast Review. We're going to answer them during a mailbag on Friday. And I was watching CBS Sports HQ all day today.

I found some really great nuggets. Like I heard a plug of a recent article on CBSSports.com that the Falcons might be able to have a starting lineup on offense with nothing but first round picks. A first round pick at every position, apparently. So HQ's been crushing it. Great coverage of the draft and for your post-draft needs, for your fantasy needs fantasy football today video edition uh check out cbs sports hq just download the hq app so who are the day three guys you are most excited about let me start with heath who who are you most excited about if there are a few players on day three this is going to sound like a weird answer for me because of how much i like austin eckler but i think the first skill position player taken on day three is definitely in the best position for 2020 it's

joshua kelly the running back out of ucla um i i would expect by some point in the season and maybe by week one that he dispatches of justin jackson and at the very least earns a flex worthy role behind eckler because i think someone's going to get 12 to 15 touches it's not named austin eckler and kelly unlike jackson has a little bit of upside and could maybe push that to 16 or 17 maybe he could make austin eckler just a second round pick but he's the most interesting and then i was like these guys aren't going to be good in 2020, but there were a couple of tight ends taken in the fourth round that I think are really interesting. Harrison Bryant was my favorite coming into the draft.

The Cleveland Browns took him, and yes, they have too many tight ends right now, but rookie tight ends are never good anyway. So we're just talking about the long-term future. He's on a team that's going to run a ton of two tight end sets. I think Minnesota ran the most or second most last year when Kevin Stefanski was in charge. And it's hard to imagine that David Njoku is long for that team. And then Albert, oh, I can't say his last name, from Missouri, played two seasons with Drew Locke,

got drafted by the team that has Drew Locke as their quarterback. Again, probably a second tight end to Noah Fant, but this guy ran like a 4.49 at 270 pounds or something. He's an incredible athlete. 99th percentile speed score for him. Yes, and I mentioned this before. His name means evil cannot bring us down. And he got drafted on his birthday. Yeah. I was disappointed that he went to Denver

because he does seem like a pretty fun prospect, for sure, with some serious upside. Unless, what if he outplays Fant? Oh, yeah. This is the same franchise that let Philip Lindsay run with it after they drafted Royce Freeman, they will let the best players play. I think that's really unlikely, but it is more likely with Albert O than it would have

been with any other Titan they could have drafted, just because of his connection with Drew Locke and his athleticism and upside. Who else stood out to you guys in day three? Well, I'm going right to Anthony McFarlane going to the Steelers. I was excited about him going into the draft. And, you know, I think I mentioned on the podcast, and I definitely told Ben Gretsch that he would be a great fit for the Steelers. And lo and behold, he goes to the Steelers. And he's a good outside runner.

He can hit the edge really well. He's got good hands. He's actually not a bad pass blocker. And he's the type, like this, you don't want to talk about Heath sounding funny. This is going to sound funny. But when I watched him play, I saw shades of Alvin Kamara. I saw shades of Dalvin Cook, shades of Daryl Henderson. Like he, he can make some plays. He's going to be someone that's going to get a chance to, to help out in Pittsburgh. And maybe even when things go wrong for James Conner, whether it's an injury or just bad play, this is an alternative for them. I'm absolutely going to draft him.

I think I'm going to end up drafting him in a lot of leagues, whether I get Conner or not. But if I do draft Conner, I'm going to target him in the double-digit rounds just to lock up two pieces of the Pittsburgh run game, which we've seen be very, very good for fantasy. Yeah, and McFarlane's interesting because he had a really good year in 2018. 2019 wasn't as good, but he hurt his ankle. He had a high ankle sprain. I think it was the third game of the season. So, you know, you look at—I mentioned four names at the top of the show. I mentioned Stephon Diggs, Aaron Jones, Ty look at, I mentioned four names at the top of the show. I mentioned

Stefan Diggs, Aaron Jones, Tyree Kill, Jay Ajayi. Tyree Kill fell in the draft because of character concerns. Jay Ajayi fell in the draft because of injury concerns. A guy like Keenan Allen fell. Aaron Jones did too. Did he? Okay. A guy like Keenan Allen fell to the third round, but because of injury concerns. Those are the types of players I like to look for. And this is not exactly like a long-term injury concern situation with McFarlane, but it's certainly possible that he just didn't have

as good of a senior season, or maybe it was a junior season, I'm shy, I don't know. And he needs a good offensive line to truly be great as an inside runner, and he's got that in Pittsburgh. I think McFarlane also had a like a significant broken leg injury in high school yeah he missed his senior year of high

school and his freshman year of college because of that broken leg so like he might have some injury concern long term but that's fine i mean for a guy that went in round four that you don't have to make a serious investment in i i like i I mean, I'm sorry that he had a serious injury, but I like that it wasn't necessarily talent that caused him to fall, if that makes sense. You know, something to look at. So McFarlane goes to the Steelers in round four. And Traggie B giving us a note before the show, their running back coach for the Steelers, Eddie Faulkner,

he dodged the question about a running back by committee this year. He said they're going to see when they start to get rolling. Ben Gretsch, who are you excited about from day three? I got a bunch, but I'll make them really quick. Jake Eason, we talked about him along the show, obviously, from my alma mater. I think it was a great fit for him. He's a five-star recruit out of high school, 6'6", huge arm, accurate in the pocket, not as good under pressure last year but um that could develop

with a little bit more playing time he didn't play a whole bunch landing with the colts is perfect for him because he's not mobile they have a great offensive line philip rivers isn't mobile he's he's behind rivers now rivers on a one-year contract eason feasibly could be their long-term answer at quarterback if he develops it's a good spot for him to do that. The Bills landed – I'm going to name a bunch of receivers, and they're all kind of the same deal. The age-adjusted production that I talk about, guys that were productive early. Bills landed two of my favorite sleepers, Gabriel Davis and Isaiah Hodgins. Quez Watkins is another one, a deep-speed guy, landed with the Eagles.

He was their second player of that archetype. They took John Hightower a little bit earlier on day three. I think Watkins is better, but you have to obviously look at the fact that the Eagles took Hightower first. But Eagles now flush with deep speed because they also traded for Marquise Goodwin. I'm sure we'll go into that. But neither Deshaun Jackson or Goodwin is um somebody that we can rely on for health so walk-ins potential to get there uh antonio gandy golden very productive small school guy out of liberty he landed with washington he's a guy

who could start feasibly across from terry mcclurin right away and then quintez i believe it's quintez cephas um probably going to get relegated to slot duties but he was pretty good at wisconsin and the lions grabbed him and i think he could be the long-term slot answer there another guy uh that he'll be behind another guy that's not very healthy in danny amandola so i think he could take over there for the lines as far as 2020 goes does it feel feel like Antonio Gandy-Golden out of Liberty going to the Redskins in round four has the clearest path to playing time of all the day three wide receivers?

Yeah, I would agree with that. I think because the Eagles took more than one. The Eagles are going to have a very interesting wide receiver competition. We don't know the health status of Alshon Jeffrey or Sean Jackson. You don't really ever know by the time we actually get to week one what the health status

of Marquise Goodwin will be. They've got Jalen Rager, obviously, and they had multiple draft picks. I think it's going to be fun to watch the training camp battle in Philadelphia. They were one of like five teams that just added so much speed at receiver in this draft. Like it's an arms race now in the NFL.

They all want to be what Kansas City was just going to try and outscore people with speed, speed, speed. Quez Watkins, I want to ask this real quick, Ben. Did he remind you of John Brown when John Brown came out from Pittsburgh? Yeah. Are they kind of the same guy it's a good it's a good comp and um was really productive played at southern miss um so you know you have competition concerns and and strength of uh opponents and all that but he was an early declare which i've mentioned before something i look at and was very productive as a sophomore and a junior. But yeah, Dave's right.

I mean, very fast runs in the four threes. Smaller guy. Good comp. So who do you guys like better, Matt Breida or Jordan Howard? Breida. Breida. Howard. Come on, Heath.

What? Get on board. Can't we just have a unanimous decision what fun would that be that'd be terrible radio uh no I I think it's really really close closer in PPR um I think what I said in the blog was Matt Breida is probably going to have more highlight plays Matt Breida is probably going to average better yards per carry I would just assume that Jordan Howard's going to start week one. And unless Jordan Howard gets hurt, he's going to lead the team in carries and lead the

team in touchdowns and lead the team in yards. Chan Gailey is the new offensive coordinator for the dolphins and his track record. I mean, he's been around for a long time. This is his second stint calling plays from Miami, but when he was with the jets, he had multiple running backs. It was either Bilal Powell with Matt Forte or Chris Ivory. When he was with the bills, he was with Fred Jackson and the guy near and dear to Adam's heart, CJ Spiller. And it wasn't very often where one of them would have a lot of work in one game. They would usually combine. And I'm thinking that's what the dolphins plan is here. Plus half these dolphins coaches came from new England and you know that they deval Dolphins plan is here. Plus, half these Dolphins coaches came from New England.

And you know that they devalue running backs in New England. They're going to mix and match. It wouldn't surprise me if by the end of week three, they were almost even in snaps. And I think Breida is more explosive. I think he's the better pass catcher. So I'm going to take him. The thing about the New England situation is they didn't really have a guy who got a lot of carries and a lot of catches, but they did frequently have a guy who got a lot of just carries, right? I mean, Sonny Michel got a lot of carries.

LeGarrette Blount got a lot of carries. Steven Ridley got a lot of carries. So I feel like I have to try to talk about this every year with New England running backs. It's not really a situation where a guy's leading the team with 12 carries a game. They'll go workhorse. They just won't give that guy any work in the passing game. Well, I think it's a combination of that and the fact that you don't ever know on a week-to-week basis who's going to score the touchdowns. Carries in and of themselves, if you're not getting catches and you're not guaranteed red zone work like carries in and of themselves. If you're not getting catches and you're not guaranteed red zone work,

um, carries in and of themselves are not that exciting. Well, I mean, I guess that's true, but I feel like there have been times when we felt pretty confident about who was going to get the touchdowns, but there was a,

there was the blunt thing for sure. And Sony Michelle has had two different stretches where he was the guy and we were confident, but over the course of two seasons he's got a high of 247 carries and a high of seven touchdowns yeah well okay well back to this though um how does this dolphins running back situation compare to like these new rookie situations let's take the bucks uh let's take the Rams. Are the Dolphins not even a consideration when you're talking about drafting a guy like Cam Akers? I'll even throw in the Lions and the Colts. How does your favorite Dolphins running back stack up with some of these round two, three rookie running backs. I'll say that a Miami running back will be the last team's running back drafted in fantasy.

Every other team will have at least one running back pick before you take a Dolphins runner. I don't reject that offhand. No, I, there's a couple that I struggle with. The Rams being one of them. And Tampa Bay being the other one that I just mentioned. Sure, but I'd rather have one of those guys. I might even have both of those guys

before one of the Dolphins guys. I just don't want the hassle. Yeah, I don't think we know how big of a hassle it's going to be. I mean, they traded a fifth round pick for Matt Breida. We don't. We're prognosticating that it's going to be close to a 50-50 split.

Right. Right. Okay. How about the Redskins? Shaggy B dropping a Redskins note. Yeah, the Redskins might be worse than the Dolphins. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Redskins are last.

I'm not certain. Well, I don't know. I don't know because Geis is okay. I think I'll take him over Howard or Brita. Yeah. They've got like 17 running backs. But Heath, I feel like you like Jordan Howard. Howard or Brita. Yeah. They've got like 17 running backs, but out of love, that is going to be good. But it was so,

but Heath, like you, I feel like you like Jordan Howard, uh, enough, but I think there's enough evidence. Jordan Howard is one of the least explosive running backs, uh,

in football, basically if there are guys that get a big workload, each of the last two seasons, well, last year he had one carry of more of 20 or more yards 2017 and 18 he had like four or five but in both of those years there was only one running back who had more carries than Jordan Howard and fewer uh fewer carries of 20 plus yards so he's just a plotter basically Breida on the other hand feels like he's got something to him and he hasn't just

been like a six carry eight carry guy he's had plenty of games with double digit carries so do you think brita has a lot more upside than howard and do you think the dolphins will eventually come to the realization that like every other team that's had jordan howard jordan howard is not our answer at running back we have to give it to the other guy yeah i think you're underrating jordan howard just a little bit but no he would not be good in the matt brita change of pace role matt brita is awesome at that role um but you referenced all the times he's had double digit carries how many of those games has he finished brita yes more than you think because because he no i don't i don't really think so. I do think, and Dave talked about it with James Conner.

We've talked about it maybe with Geis. Teams recognize that players are continually getting hurt, carry on Johnson, and don't want to try to give them a feature role. Now, maybe the Dolphins will, but I don't think it's very likely that the dolphins decide you know what look at matt brita's career he needs 20 touches a game and then i don't think it's very likely if he gets that that he holds up to it i don't think it is either i i think this is a total philosophical question and and it's it's not even the trap back high value touch back thing that i love to talk about because brita as heath knows and brought up year, was one of the bigger trap backs last year. He was not getting any receptions,

and we don't really expect the Dolphins to throw to their backs a ton. Howard's obviously that type of back too. But I think the philosophical side of it is do you want safety and security or do you want explosiveness? And with Howard, I agree with Heath. He's probably going to lead the team in carries. He's probably going to be stable. He's an underrated at early down back.

He's probably going to rush for 700 yards. But Brita is the upside play. Brita is the guy that, you know, Howard can average 60, 70 rushing yards a game, maybe catch one ball a game, maybe probably be the better touchdown score too. And he'll probably be the safer bet to score more fancy points in a projection, for example, and be the RB3. But the guy who has RB2 upside is Brita. He's the guy that can rush for 60 yards on a play. He's not going to do that all the time, but he's a 4-4 speed burner who's a huge huge play you know a big play guy and if he gets 10 to 12 carries a game and is you know a really good fit for their system he's the kind of guy

that can be a really useful piece and i will just say like in defense because i said adam that i thought you were underrating jordan howard and he has had a couple of plotter seasons for sure his rookie year he averaged better than five yards per carry he was great and last he was last year last year he was outstanding. He outplayed Miles Sanders the first couple weeks of the year, and they just decided, we're going to give Jordan Howard a workhorse role, and Miles Sanders is going to have to fend for his own.

And wouldn't have had his breakout if Howard hadn't gotten hurt. I don't think he was outstanding. Like I said, one carry of 20 or more yards. He was just there. He was just the guy behind a really good offensive line. You know, I think they made a mistake, and I think their offense got a lot better when Jordan Howard got hurt.

I don't even think it's a mistake. Teams don't play their running backs right away. Would you say Adrian Peterson beat out Alvin Kamara with the Saints years ago? I mean, they just don't play their rookies right away heavily, and then they work them in. Yeah, you don't have to tell me that. Well, I think it's like the Alvin Kamara thing is a little bit different.

It took Miles Sanders until like week 10. Alvin Kamara was like week 3. They traded Peterson. Yeah, it's different. So another good shaggy bee drop in knowledge here. Brita has two career games over 50% snap share, 43 career games. It's not a great situation. And maybe we've spent too much time on it because we have a whole new crop of NFL players to talk about.

Also, Trent Williams, San Francisco getting their left tackle. Joe Staley is retiring. So we'll just get Trent Williams for a fifth round pick in 2021 and a third round pick. Excuse me, a fifth round pick this year and a third round pick in 2021. And the Eagles getting Marquise Goodwin. And, you know, actually, let me ask you about the Niners. So they do get Trent Williams. They also lose Matt Breida. Dave, that's a good thing, right? I know Breida wasn't really that involved. He had something like 14 carries in his final four games. In the playoffs, he was barely involved. He had an eight-carry game. It was all pretty much garbage time, and he fumbled, which he does.

But after the injury, Breida wasn't very involved. Before the injury, he was very involved for the 49ers. But what do you think this means for Mostert and Coleman? They're going from five running backs to four. I think Mostert and Coleman are still going to be the top two guys, but they're going to find a role for McKinnon. And there could be weeks where they find a role for Jeff Wilson. And it's going to be fairly frustrating. You should know what you're getting into when you draft any 49ers running back. Mostert was great last year. Maybe he picks it

up this year and takes off. Maybe he gives you incredible value because people aren't excited to take him. You'll be able to find him past 60th overall on draft day. And he might end up being a decent number two running back for your team. And we talked about pairing him with Tevin Coleman. And then you've got the Niners backfield locked up. That's well, not blocked up, but a big piece of it on your roster. Maybe that ends up working out for you, but I have a hard time seeing any one member of the 49ers backfield being a consistent fantasy contributor week in and week out. Yeah, they're going to rotate. But I think I think most certain Coleman stealing a decent number of touches than

jerk McKinnon, who we just don't know if he's ever even going to be healthy enough to play again. Jeff Wilson is very clearly a depth back. They treated him like it last year. They deactivated him when, um, when they got healthy,

you know, he had a little bit of a run where he had a few touchdowns early in the season and then they, they stopped using him. Um, I, yeah, I mean, I think those two guys are mostly going to be the the season, and then they stopped using him. Yeah, I mean, I think those two guys are mostly going to be the main two. Yes, they will rotate, guys.

They do. I don't disagree with Dave. We'll probably see all four backs play throughout the year, but things got a lot better for those two. Okay, and then Marquise Goodwin going to Philadelphia from San Francisco. Heath, just better for Wentz, not really significant for Goodwin? I don't even know that it will be significant for Wentz. We're going to have to see Marquise Goodwin. Like the thing that I was interested in

was this whole Joe Staley, Trent Williams thing. Like, I don't know. I saw some people acting like this was a big deal. They got Trent Williams. I don't know what the odds are that Trent Williams plays more games and or is better than Joe Staley would have been this year. Well, it doesn't really matter because Staley's done and Trent Williams is there.

Right. But do we feel like they've upgraded on the offensive line or they just were able to replace Staley? I think this is way better than having Joe Staley play and get hurt and not come back or retire and then get replaced with some jabroni. Right. I just don't know if it's going to happen to what i mean williams has played 16 games like twice in his career and 2013 is the last time yeah but staley missed the bulk of this of the regular season last year you know he came back late in the year but he missed i think three through nine and then also weeks 11 through 13 so he missed one two three four five six seven ten games from week three up to week 14 he played one in the middle of there um so they didn't have him last year and they were still a really

productive running team like that's where i think it's an upgrade because staley wasn't really healthy look if you have to replace your left tackle getting trent williams is pretty good he's been regarded as as the best basically or at least one of the best left tackles in football so you know i'll leave it up to you guys i mean are there more prospects that you want to talk about or do you want to get into sort of the veteran nfl players who are winners and losers i mean i think that's interesting with with austler, with maybe James Conner, although we did touch on both of those situations, but not really what we think for Conner.

You know, I don't want to steal your chance to talk about some of these rookies. So, Dave, what do you think we should do right now, co-host? Oh, I think we should. I think we're going to have plenty of time to talk about the veterans all next week. The draft just happened. Everybody's got rookies on the mind. And when we talk about the rookies,

maybe we can drop, you know, a couple of words on the veterans. Okay. Do this at least for me. Let's just do like a couple of minutes on NFL winners and losers now that the draft is pretty much over. Don't really hear what you want to do. Just pretty much over. Just a little bit.

Just a little bit. Not a 10-minute segment. Just a two-minute segment. Is Aaron Rodgers the biggest loser of the draft? Hold on, hold on, hold on. Adam, do you want me to curse on the air? I don't. Delete.

Whoa! Wow. Wow. Let's continue with the podcast. Aaron Rodgers, you were saying. Is he the biggest loser? He's exactly in the same place that he was before the draft. That makes him a loser. I don't know why.

He hasn't been elite as a passer for the last five years. Heath, come on on you know why statistically because we keep saying he needs a number two wide receiver he'll get a number two wide receiver they'll bring someone in they brought in devin funchess we thought oh for sure they're gonna draft someone they drafted a quarterback and a running back they lost they lost brian bulaga too like he is a loser they did They did nothing to help him in the draft. So why didn't you ask the question? You've already answered the question.

Because you're not giving me the answer I want. I don't agree with you. How do you not agree with me? How is Aaron Rodgers not a loser? He was a borderline starting quarterback before the draft. He's a borderline starting quarterback now. Right. We wanted him to be better than that.

This is a super interesting debate about how we define winners and losers. For some players, you have an expectation something's going to happen in the draft. We all had really heavy expectations that Aaron Rodgers would have another receiver after the draft, probably a first round receiver. I mean, we were all saying, you know, Justin Jefferson would be a great fit there. Jalen Rager would be a great fit there. So if you're already kind of expecting that from that perspective, I get Adam's point that he's a loser but i also get his point nothing really changed don't get his point don't get his point dave who's the number one overall biggest winner the number one overall biggest winner among veterans yeah i mean technically we could say

davante adams for reasons similar to why a Aaron Rodgers is a loser because there's no competition. I can't resist him anymore as the number two receiver. I ranked him and I ranked Aaron Rodgers, assuming that there would be an additional receiver added to this passing game so that they could be more explosive offensively. And they did the exact opposite. And it's goofy, but it should mean that there's a chance that Devonta Adams leads the NFL in targets this year. And he's not a huge yards per catch guy, which is interesting. But he's a huge touchdowns guy. He might be the only touchdowns guy in Green Bay.

Right. I mean, it is big for him, but he had a 29% target share two straight years. That's high, and I don't think that's going to fall. I wonder if you guys disagree with this. Green Bay and Denver were two teams that I actually changed my expected pass and run rate for those teams during the draft. I don't blame you for Green Bay at all because it sounds like that's what they want to do. They want to play 1940 They're not behaving like a pass catcher. They want to play 1940s-style football.

And the Broncos, all they did was add pass catchers. And that's different, right? Because we thought the Broncos wanted to be a little more conservative with Vic Fangio at the helm, and he didn't want to take a lot of chances. And maybe they went to the drawing board this offseason and said, okay, that cost us in some games. And now Pat Shermer's there, and Pat Shermermer said hey look i can i can give you at least a a good balanced offense you don't have to be so conservative and and man is melvin gordon a winner if you ask me because the how can how can safety stack the box against him my theory is that uh john elway heard everyone making fun of his history with drafting quarterbacks

and decided he was going to give Drew Locke so many weapons that he couldn't fail. I'm just waiting for Elway to un-retire so he can fail. If he does still fail, it's definitely on him. This is not a situation where we can say that the quarterback didn't have a good situation. Except for one thing, the offensive line. I know they did address it in the draft, but it was – we did this whole mock draft series on CBS Sports HQ every Monday, and when I was the Broncos, I went to somebody in Denver who I know

and someone who's close with the team, and I said, all right, what are the Broncos going to do in the draft? And he said, they have to go offensive line. No, they didn't, obviously. They took Jerry Judy. I don't blame them for it, but that could be a liability. That could be the Achilles heel to this team it has been for i maybe up to five years they they always are injured on the offensive line everything they do on the offensive line seems to backfire

the broncos took lloyd cushionberry the third uh out of lsu in the third round don't expect they took a guy in the sixth round. Don't expect a third-round offensive lineman to have a big impact. It's a somewhat slow-developing position, as I've outlined. In terms of the Packers, you just look. Matt LaFleur has been a head coach

or an offensive coordinator for three years. And in all three of those seasons, his teams have run the ball a lot. I mean, in 2017, you can say this was Sean McVay, but in 2017, LaFleur was the coordinator for the Rams. They were 24th in pass attempts, 9th in rush attempts. 2018, he was with the Titans, 31st in pass attempts, 9th in rush attempts.

So that's 9th, two years in a row for LaFleur's teams. Last year, they were pretty balanced in Green Bay, 16th in pass attempts, 13th in rush attempts. But we also got a report out of The Athletic that the Packers are going to be more of a run-heavy team this year. So it certainly makes sense. I'm sorry, that was out of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The Athletic reported that the Redskins are going to try to have

two running backs on the field more often this season. That's interesting. That's good because they've got seven of them. Yeah, they've got nine. That's what the draft does, right? The draft tells you the direction the teams are going in. We talked about the Packers. We talked about the Broncos.

The Redskins are making it clear. Their intentions are clear with what they do in the draft. But to answer the original question, Adam, no, Aaron Rodgers is not the biggest loser in the draft. Marlon Mack is a much bigger loser. Damian Williams is a much bigger loser damian williams is a much bigger loser um yeah and carry on johnson is a much bigger loser yep uh as far as biggest veteran winners though and you were just going over green bay i i mean i have a strong take here that alan lazard is now my favorite late round wide receiver i would probably take him in about like round nine or round eight uh he's gonna still go in round 14 for for a couple months probably because devin

funchess is there and no one really knows if lazard will be good but he really really closed uh 2019 strong aaron rogers really likes him um they seem to have a big rapport and he's one of these guys like all the names i named at the top of the show, these late round production, age-adjusted production type receivers. He was one of those guys two years ago. He went undrafted to Jacksonville. He's now found his way to Green Bay and actually found a role. The hardest thing for guys like that is to find a role, not to produce. And he produced last year.

Three years at Iowa State, he went over 30% dominant rating, which is kind of the benchmark to say breakout year. He did that as a sophomore, and then he did it as a junior and a senior. So he's a guy who definitely has that track record behind him, 6'4", well over 200 pounds, big receiver, has NFL size. He can be their wide receiver too. They didn't add one, but now he is. To me, I'm reading it as a huge vote of confidence in Lazard.

And I guess we can't forget about Lazard or Funches being there and add Sternberger to the mix. All of a sudden, Aaron Rodgers, it's not like he has Devonta Adams and nobody else. He just has a lot of guys that have been kind of meh along with the prospect of sternberger but they're all big and i think that just continues to play into what the packers want to be maybe they do want to run the ball a lot more than a typical team does but at least they've got big targets and they're

different targets play action they're different targets in last year jamie graham's gone he wasn't good so almost addition by addition by subtraction marquis valdez scantling wasn't good. So almost addition by addition by subtraction, Marquis Valdez, Scantling wasn't good. And they benched in mid season last year. So they're going to have a different pass catching core than last year, even though they didn't really add any huge names. Heath's a hot take. I have Alan Lazard now projected for more fantasy points than any rookie wide receiver.

Wow. I can't do it. I can't do that, but I mean, I get it. I i can't do it i can't do that but i mean i get it i just can't and my here's adam's hot take you are going to win your league by drafting at least two up to four sophomore wide receivers because they are our draft winners debo sam Samuel's the only one that has some serious competition being brought in. And they are going to erupt because sophomore wide receivers tend to do that.

Michael Gallup, DJ Moore. That is what I'm targeting. I'm going to go running back, running back, running back with my first three picks. Then I'm going to take Metcalf. Then I'm going to take McLaurin. Then I'm going to take Marquise Brown. I might going to take McLaurin. Then I'm going to take Marquise Brown. I might even be able to take a quarterback,

then Marquise Brown. I'm going to win all of my fantasy leagues. So sophomore wide receivers are big NFL draft winners. Sure. Mic drop. Okay. Final thoughts on any players that were selected today. Dave,

I, sorry, I totally went away from what you wanted. Gardner Richards is the winner. He wasn't taken today, Heath. That's okay. While we were recording, you know Benjamin from Arizona State. He fell far.

Some people thought he would be a day two pick. He went in the seventh round of the Cardinals. But I think that's not a bad landing spot. They obviously got a good look at him at Arizona State. You know, home state guy, and he might be able to compete with Chase Edmonds. Could be the number three running back there could contribute on special

teams. Doesn't have to move far. Yeah, that works too. And a couple other receivers. This, these aren't the ones that I really want to say, just late round guys that I saw at the senior bowl.

And I liked Jawan Jennings going to San Francisco. He's a violent and tall wide receiver, KJ Hill, um, really good footwork. Um, not the best footwork at the senior bowl. I think that was Van Jefferson, but he might've been right behind him. And he played with Justin Herbert all week. And now they're on the same team in LA with the chargers. But if, if we can go earlier on day three, I think there could be something there with DJ Dallas going to Seattle and he can play the Daves being a homer card. But physical grinder type of running backs,

you know that Seattle looks for those guys. If Rashad Penny isn't ready for the first half of the season, I think Dallas could end up being the backup to Chris Carson. Actually, Dave, I think it was Daniel Jeremiah. It was on ESPN. He said that Dallas is the best pass protector of all the running backs in the draft. It wouldn't surprise me one bit. And that's something that would help them.

But if Chris Carson gets banged up or something like that, DJ Dallas could be the next Chris Carson in Seattle. Can we talk about the Patriots just real quick? Do we have to? Who? Nikhil Harry. Like, what in the world? I mean, Nikhil Harry maybe, but his quarterbacks,

Jared Stidham right now. They're going to make him veterans. Remember, Andy Dalton is still a Bengal. Cam Newton is out there. Jameis Winston's out there. Right? I mean, don't you feel like that's the direction they're going to go? They drafted four tight ends, a kicker, and 17 defensive players.

They're preparing for 2021. It seems that way as of now. Bill Belichick's got around the wing tee offensive with 14 games. I don't understand at all what's going on there. My hope is still that they're just accumulating pieces, and they're going to deal pieces and picks for Andy Dalton and A.J. Green. You keep hanging on to that dream. Because why in the world would the Bengals draft T. Higgins unless...

Because they know A.J. Green's out the door next year, unless they push him out the door this year. They should get him out the door now. Who's trading up a... You wanted it to be a number one pick for Green and Dalton. Who's giving up a first-round pick for a receiver that's played one full season in the last four years? First-round pick.

As good as he is and i like giving that up you know i i if it was a second round pick in 2021 yeah maybe they do it but i bet the bengals won i think the bengals want to keep aj green for this year i think if you get joe burrow and then you trade away aj green that's not the it's kind of a downer not the best message to send to him but But it makes sense. By the way, I feel like Higgins is going to get the Chris Godwin treatment for the first couple of years where he's good in limited time, but he's just not getting on the field because there's good receivers ahead of him. And that just kind of sucks.

But we'll get to see him in like 2022, unfortunately. The track record, and there are so many things that I want to talk about that we haven't talked about. We haven't talked about Mark Ingram with J.K. Dobbins there. We haven't really talked about the Bengals passing game. We're going to do all of this next week. The track record for number two wide receivers with rookie quarterbacks is awful.

And I was really just looking at the rookie quarterbacks who were drafted number one overall since Matthew Stafford. That's eight quarterbacks. I mean, it is hard to find one that had a good year. I think T.Y. Hilton had a pretty good year, but he was the number two to Reggie Wayne. But, you know, it's like it doesn't look good for Tyler Boyd. At the same time, could their passing game be worse than last year?

I doubt it. So there's so many angles and so many things to talk about that we haven't really gotten to. The Dolphins, maybe, if there's one team you think that did the best on the offensive line in this draft, the Dolphins didn't have one of those top four offensive tackles, but they did invest a lot in offensive line. So they kind of stand out.

I don't know what kind of immediate impact that will have. Their offensive line was really terrible last year, but do you think when you look at the offensive line, another thing we haven't really talked about, is there a team that you say, all right, we got a much better situation now than we did three days ago? The big four tackles is like the only...

I mean, you can start with that for sure. You know, the Jets continue to address their offensive line and getting Becton was a good move for them Will's going to the Browns it sounds like he's going to get moved to left tackle and they'll keep Conklin at right tackle what the Browns have done with their offensive line since the end of last season it's obvious and it's really good and it's just another team telling you their intentions I think that they're going to try and use two tight ends a lot. I think they're going to run a lot. I think they're going to be a little bit more cautious than they were last year.

But in that same vein, they're also going to be much smarter about how they go about playing football than they were last year. The Giants protecting Saquon and Daniel Jones with the Andrew Thomas pick was big. And the Bucs were smart to move up, even if it did cost them a pick to move up one spot, to get Werfs and improve that offensive line to protect Brady. Yeah, the Giants took like three or four, three offensive linemen, but the Dolphins took three within the first 111 picks. Yeah, but they took two. More importantly, they took two in the first 39 picks.

But again, it's tough to get immediate impact on the offensive line. They have a lot of improvement to do. Good call on the Browns. Arizona's another one. They took Josh Jones early third round. A lot of people were mocking him as a late first tackle. Yep, I thought he would be a late first tackle for sure. I don't know why he slipped,

but it reminds me of Hakeem Butler. Cause a lot of that, not everybody liked Hakeem Butler last year. I know Heath and I did. And when they got him as the top pick on day three last year, we thought, Oh, this is a great value.

And it feels like another great value pick for the Cardinals, but who knows if that's really what they got. Yeah. Well, that's a, that's going to do it for our day three recap. Thank you to Dave for cursing. Appreciate that.

Thank you to Heath. Well, thanks for listening to me when you asked me what direction we should go with the show. I completely dismissed it, but not on purpose. I was just trying to lightly dismiss it, and then I ended up completely dismissing it. To Ben and Heath as well. To Ben Schrager, great work today. Five shows coming up plus a Twitch

event on Tuesday night. Still learning the Twitch lingo. I'll get it by Tuesday night. Make sure you Twitch. Goodbye, everybody. We'll talk to you Monday.