Fantasy Football Today - Drafting Upside vs. Drafting Floor ... Which is Better? (07/21 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: July 21, 2020Nominate us on PodcastAwards for the Sports category https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ We talk about drafting upside often, but sometimes the floor plays make more sense. Do we have an overall... floor vs. upside strategy in drafts (1:30)? Today we put those strategies to the test by comparing floor and upside picks at various spots in the draft. Also we've got a news item about T.Y. Hilton (6:00) ... Let the draft begin (10:00)! Dave has the third pick. Jamey picks fifth. Ben picks ninth and Adam has pick #12. We're drafting six rounds and filling out a starting lineup. During each round we'll say who the floor pick is who the upside pick is as we gradually build rosters. And while we draft we debate: Is Travis Kelce a floor pick or an upside pick? What about Patrick Mahomes? Which strategy lends itself to waiting on RB? ... We reveal our final rosters and pick which teams we prefer (51:00)! Ben somehow puts together a ridiculously awesome upside team with the ninth pick in the draft ... Your emails at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com '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
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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
On his way to the end zone.
I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play.
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
What a play.
Off to the races.
Touchdown.
Oh, he's done it again.
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben.
Big question on draft day.
Upside or floor?
We're both.
How do you structure your team?
Welcome to Fantasy Football today on this Tuesday.
We're recording this fairly early, actually, on Monday,
12.30 p.m. Eastern.
So there might be some news that we missed that we don't get to
and we will get to on Wednesday's show.
I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard and Jamie Eisenberg,
and it's the second show of the week.
It's Ben Gretsch time. What's up, Ben?
Not much. How are we doing?
I'm good.
I'm doing well. I just had
leftover chicken
quesadilla from my favorite Mexican
restaurant. It was, oh,
home run. I'm in a good mood, Dave.
You said you were late because of baby stuff,
but really. No, that was like 45 minutes ago I had the lunch.
The baby stuff, yeah, that was bad.
But the food was great.
I was telling Ben that you could use baby stuff as an excuse for anything.
Like you don't want to hang out with your friends?
You know, I'd be there, but baby stuff.
And then you, you know, go surf the internet for two hours at home.
I would love to hang out with my friends.
Man, it's been way too long.
Way too long.
Jamie's here as well.
Hey, Jamie.
What's going on?
All right.
Do you have a floor versus upside strategy?
Do you just let it play out?
Jamie, is there such a thing for you?
I will always look for upside whenever it's presented to me.
I think that's the way you win in fantasy.
So I think you always want to shoot for the player
that's going to hopefully outperform where their draft value is.
But I understand there are certain points in the draft
where you're going to take the safer play.
But for me, it's always the upside play.
Floor is baked into value value and upside is baked into
want you know you really want a guy he's got huge potential you take him when there's a player there
that goes oh you know he's safe he's safe you you go with that type of player and that's usually a
guy that's a floor play someone who's safe ben what do you think yeah i mean i think the the
neat way to put a bow on it
would be that I'm always kind of shooting for upside with my picks.
I think we've talked about that before.
I tend to be pretty aggressive in that sense.
And I agree with Jamie.
I mean, that's how you win leagues.
We can talk about projected touches, projected volume,
what we expect guys' roles to be.
They never work out that way.
I actually wrote a piece that will be up on CBS this week
reviewing my projections last year and how off I was on several teams because of things that we,
none of us could have expected, you know, huge, huge changes in, in team expectation.
So, you know, we can, we can think that we're sure about a lot of things in draft season,
but the reality is every NFL season is very, very unpredictable. And the things that win
are the Lamar Jackson type upside last year.
Are the individual players who are league winners
tend to be the biggest differentiator?
So I'm typically always searching for those.
It doesn't mean I'll never take a floor pick,
but something close to that.
But does it matter what round you're in?
I mean, is it...
Like, for example, could you say,
well, I'm going to take a lot of upside,
but those are going to be mostly my late round picks?
Yeah, I mean, I think you can think of it that way.
I don't think of it that way, but I'm just throwing that out.
No, I know.
I tend to draft structured teams in an upside way, too.
Like, you guys know that I won't take a lot of running back depth
early in drafts, and I think that's a much more upside strategy
because running backs are... that I won't take a lot of running back depth early in drafts. And I think that's a much more upside strategy because, you know,
running backs are, you know, especially at the top,
you're trying to lock in safe workloads.
You know, I would argue they're not always as safe.
There's a lot of injuries and there's a lot of uncertainty with running backs,
especially outside the first three rounds when we get to that running back
dead zone.
But I think early in the draft, draft yeah you can talk about safety but
most of the top 25 top 30 40 picks have floor and upside i mean i think we can all kind of agree on
that and so it's not really so much of a discussion at that point for me um once you get into like the
third or fourth round i'm pretty much shooting for upside in those mid rounds i want players in
that range that could be first round picks the next year.
And then especially later, yeah, I'm still just shooting for upside.
All right.
Anything else or should we get into today's exercise?
Let's do it.
All right. The only exercise I'm doing all day.
We are going to draft six spots or six players from four different spots in a draft.
And we're going to have the upside pick versus the floor pick.
And then we're going to put together these teams
and see which ones we like better.
That's coming up in just a little bit.
So I gave Dave the third pick, Jamie the fifth pick,
because the sixth pick is so easy.
Ben the ninth pick, and I took the twelfth pick.
And we're just going to try to make different teams,
upside versus floor.
Got to promote a few things.
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One news item.
Indianapolis Colts coordinator
Nick Sirianni, offensive coordinator,
expects a big season from
T.Y. Hilton. Big T.Y. Hilton talk
today. Dave, you buying it?
Big season.
You know, it just keeps on reinforcing
that if they're going to force feed him,
then he's probably going to see a workload
real similar to what Keenan Allen's seen.
And he's probably a little bit faster
than Keenan Allen, I would say.
Yeah, so there might be a safe floor with T.Y. Hilton where he's getting,
if he stays healthy, a neighborhood of 130 targets.
He can turn that into 1,100 yards pretty easily, six, seven touchdowns.
And then the ceiling could be much higher.
Again, Rivers at quarterback, better than what he had last year.
Probably not quite as good as what he had two years ago, though.
Is T.Y. Hilton a floor or an upside player?
Upside.
Upside.
I think there's legitimate concern that he's going to be 31 during the season.
Speed receivers tend to not age as gracefully,
but everything Dave just said, I think think is the upside case for sure.
Okay.
The downside is what?
Injury.
Yeah, it's basically...
I don't think anybody sees him as slowing down
and not being as fast.
I mean, I guess training camp.
Okay.
The downside could be
maybe he doesn't have as much upside
as some of the players going around him.
Do you think...
I don't think T.Y. Hilton could be a top five
wide receiver, basically.
He's never
been a super high catch guy.
He's never been a super high touchdown guy.
Are there players going after
T.Y. Hilton that could just be
superstars?
Maybe A.J. Green could get back
to that. Maybe D.K. Metcalf or Terry McLaurin
or something like that were going around
Hilton.
Yes.
I mean, there's more upside with McLaurin,
but
the thing with T.Y. Hilton is you're hoping
that he's back to what he was doing with Andrew Luck,
and I don't know if that's realistic
because they're going to run the ball
probably more so than they did then
because their offensive line and their run game
should be better with the backs that they have.
Obviously, Phillip Rivers is not Andrew Luck.
So, you know, you're asking him to step into that situation
and be what Luck was pre-retirement, pre-calf injury.
So it's just not fair.
But I think Hilton with a capable quarterback
and no disrespect to Jacoby Brissett,
but Rivers should be a little bit better
in terms of throwing the ball, that that's what you're hoping for Hilton to a capable quarterback, and no disrespect to Jacoby Brissett, but Rivers should be a little bit better in terms of throwing the ball,
that that's what you're hoping for Hilton to do.
One more thing.
The schedule.
We've talked about this for Indianapolis.
It's really good early on.
It's Jacksonville.
Vikings, we don't know about their secondary.
The Jets at Chicago, at Cleveland, Cincinnati,
and then a bye, and then at Detroit.
Maybe a couple of those teams will scare you a little bit,
but you can start T.Y. Hilton right through the first half of the season
and not have to worry about matchups.
A guy I would name in particular, though, that's going later
that has more upside is Will Fuller.
We've talked about him a lot, and I don't know that the difference is very stark.
I think that they are both downfield players.
They both could be their number one option.
Everyone's really aware of Will Fuller's injury risk
and maybe less aware that T.Y. Hilton
is also a potential nagging injury risk,
especially when you throw Agin into the equation.
So I don't think those guys have very different profiles,
to be entirely honest.
All right.
Unfortunately, this fake little draft we're doing here,
we call it a mock draft in the industry,
did not have enough rounds for Ben to select Will Fuller.
And I don't see Jonathan Taylor on your team either.
That's interesting.
Okay.
I got him. He's on mine.
Okay, good, good, good.
Let's get to it.
Dave has the third pick.
Jamie the fifth, Ben the ninth, and I have 12th and 13th.
So, Dave, at the third pick, who's the floor play?
Who's the upside play?
The floor play is Ezekiel Elliott.
I just think that you know what you're getting with him.
Certainly a candidate for close to 2,000 total yards,
if not over 2,000 total yards.
And plenty of touchdowns.
And since this is PPR, he can get you around 50 catches.
The upside play is Alvin Kamara,
who last year did not come through for fantasy managers.
He got hurt, but he still had a ton of catches.
He's had 81 catches.
Mark it right to the number.
Each of his first few years in the NFL also has potential,
maybe not 2,000 yards, but 1,700, 1,800-yard potential.
Maybe in a good year, he could get to 2,000.
But the touchdowns,
that's what he's got great potential for well over 15. He's done that before he could do it again.
Jamie, you have the fifth pick. Who's the floor play. Who's the upside play.
Uh, the floor play is Michael Thomas. I think we're pretty confident. He's going to be the
number one receiver going in. Hopefully he's the number one receiver going out. That doesn't
necessarily happen, but you know, if he's anywhere close be the number one receiver going in. Hopefully he's the number one receiver going out. That doesn't necessarily happen, but if he's anywhere close to 180-plus targets again,
then he's going to be a monster.
But if he's 150 targets, you kind of know what you're getting.
He should still be a number one wide receiver, even in a down year.
But he's the safe play.
The upside play is Dalvin Cook, who could be the number one running back,
as we saw last year, was awesome.
Hopefully there's no holdout.
Hopefully there's no injury.
If you get 16 games of peak Dalvin Cook, you're going to be thrilled with
taking him at the fifth spot.
I know some of you out there are saying
Michael Thomas is in the upside.
Yeah, of course. It's not a perfect exercise.
I should clarify a few things.
It's PPR. We are drafting
one quarterback, one tight end,
two running backs, and two wide receivers.
Obviously not in that order. Any order
we want. We're using NFC average draft position
from July 1st through July 20th.
Straying a little bit from ADP at times, I guess,
to take the guys that we want.
But yeah, those are the parameters here.
So Ben, you have the ninth pick.
Who's the floor play?
Who's the upside play?
The floor play there, I went the same way as Jamie,
where I think the wide receiver is the floor.
I took Devontae Adams.
I think we're just going to see a ton of targets there,
and you've got to feel pretty confident in it.
I think it's interesting that as I did this experiment,
and you'll see my floor from this draft spot
didn't involve any running backs in the first few rounds.
So I think that's kind of an interesting thing because I think typically running
backs early is more of a safer strategy. My upside play was Miles Sanders.
It was a running back. You know, we've talked about him a lot this off season.
I think, you know, a couple of months ago,
we were talking about making the comparison between Christian McCaffrey's first
full off season going into a second year and how Carolina didn't really prioritize replacing Jonathan Stewart.
And then late in May, they added CJ Anderson.
And people really read into that.
I thought the fantasy football world as a consensus,
he started being kind of like a ninth round pick.
People thought he'd fall right into this Jonathan Stewart role,
but the team had kind of let us know they weren't prioritizing another
running back.
They took him way later in the free agency period and for a cheap contract.
The same deal has happened with Miles Sanders,
and people are still expecting the Eagles to add someone, and maybe they will.
Doug Peterson had a quote not too long ago that he felt like that window
had maybe closed on them because they had to go sign Jason Peters back.
It was Peters, right?
Yeah.
Yep.
Because of the offensive line injury.
And so they don't have a ton of cap room.
They might bring in somebody, but you know,
Carlos Hyde's now signed Devonta Freeman's agent has,
has parted ways with him because he didn't accept some offer that Seattle
was reported to be like three or 4 million.
I don't think the Eagles are going to give us three or 4 million.
So at this point, I don't think he really fits to land in million. I don't think the Eagles are going to give them three or 4 million. So at this point,
I don't think he really fits to land in Philadelphia.
I don't know who does fit.
Maybe it's Lamar Miller,
but they still haven't signed anyone.
And people are acting like Miles Sanders is not going to be an ever down
back.
I mean,
he certainly has that upside.
And if he has that,
that role,
that's the upside pick here for sure.
All right.
And you know what?
People brought up that he got off to a slow start last year.
Jamie, you reminded me.
Miles Sanders had a training camp injury.
He hurt his foot in training camp last year, right?
Yeah.
So I just wrote about Miles Sanders.
It's on the site on CBSSports.com.
How come you didn't let me proofread it or edit it, you know?
Because I wanted it to be accurate.
I went back.
This was from an interview we did with him on Fantasy Football Today
on CBS Sports HQ during the Super Bowl.
And we asked him about his role and, you know,
picking up things with the passing game in particular.
And he said that he didn't pick things up until training camp.
And I think it's kind of relevant, or at least what he said is kind of relevant
to what I think the rookies are dealing with with the lack of an
offseason he said he had no offseason work essentially i didn't go back and check this
to see i didn't i didn't write about this in particular but i didn't go back and check this
uh he said he had no offseason work and really everything that he did was from training camp on
and so think about where all these guys are coming in right now all these rookies had no work prior
to training camp whenever training camp will eventually open.
So the hope would be is that the guys that were drafting
in the first five rounds, you know the names,
we've talked about them a lot,
Edward Solaire, Taylor, John Taylor, DeAndre Swift, Cam Akers,
you know, maybe Keyshawn Vaughn, maybe,
who am I blanking on?
J.K. Dobbins.
Those guys, but more so those other four.
You hope it's not Miles Sanders where it takes until week 11
until you're starting them and starting them with confidence,
but that could be the scenario that we're dealing with
is that it may take some time given the veterans
that are in place in front of them
and the fact that they didn't start picking things up
until training camp.
Okay, and he did have a foot injury at some point
during training camp as well,
so maybe that contributed to the slow start.
All right, so anyway, so far, Ezekiel Elliott is the...
We're not talking about Miles Sanders.
We should do it more.
Yeah, Ezekiel Elliott's a foreplay for Dave.
Michael Thomas for Jamie.
Devontae Adams for Ben.
At picks 3, 5, and 9, the upside plays are Camara,
Dalvin Cook, and Miles Sanders.
And for me, at picks 12 and 13, I went one running back, one wide receiver in this scenario.
My floor plays are Julio Jones and Josh Jacobs.
And my upside plays...
Oh, actually, I did not go one wide receiver with the upside plays.
My floor plays are Julio and Jacobs.
And my upside plays are Eckler and Drake.
That just would be a really exciting and scary way,
very scary way to start a draft with Eckler and Drake,
in my opinion, but a ton of upside.
So Julio and Josh Jacobs are my floor plays.
Eckler and Drake are my upside plays.
All right, so let's go to round two.
And Ben?
I will say,
I will say this, um,
some,
some of Ben brought up because I think it's relevant that he said it went
wide receivers with his foreplay.
This is a little bit of an imperfect exercise because I'm sure most of us
would not be trying to fill out our lineups by sixth round.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh,
it was a little bit,
there's some forced players here when we get after the first couple picks.
But yeah, I did the same thing with pick five.
I started the floor plays as non-running backs as well.
Okay.
By the way, does anybody have any gripes with round one?
No.
Okay.
So round two, I started with either Jacobs for the floor
or Drake for the floor or
Drake for the upside
or Eckler whatever
Ben your floor
team has Devante Adams
and who's your second pick
yeah
so this gets right back to what Jamie said
I took Patrick Mahomes here I think
knowing that I had to take a quarterback in the top six rounds
now I gotta pick a new player
knowing I had to take a quarterback in the top six. I got to pick a new player.
Knowing I had to take a quarterback in the first six rounds,
Patrick Mahomes in the second round is a very clear floor pick.
I don't think you have to pick a new player.
Jamie.
He's my floor play too.
Yeah, that's okay.
Isn't that okay?
I mean, because I think people.
Lamar Jackson based on ADP goes one pick in front of him.
So I'll just take him.
All right.
That's fine.
Ben, who's your upside play? If you're not going to go with the safe, safe, boring old Patrick Mahomes. Uh, yeah, exactly. My, my upside play is actually Travis Kelsey. I think
we've talked about this. The tight ends go a little bit later, these elite tight ends,
then probably their peer value, because there's a lot of, um, a lot of later round value as well at tight end.
And we've talked about how we say that every year.
I do think there is this year.
I do think it's deep.
But I think Kelsey is the upside play in the sense that if he just has a career season,
he's getting a little on in age, but either him or Kittle,
if they just have just monster seasons,
they're going to pull away from the rest of the tight ends and what the other
people's ceilings look like.
They're going to be so valuable
to your roster that there's a ton
of upside in going tight end early with these guys.
Okay, can I just throw this
out there? I think you
may have switched them around.
I think Kelsey is the floor play
and Mahomes is the upside play.
What do you think about that, Gretch? I think you is the floor play and Mahomes is the upside play. What do you think about that, Gretch?
I think you're wrong.
Dave, Jamie, what do you guys think?
I think they're both in the same category, to be honest with you.
I mean, if they hit, you're getting the top player at that position.
But Mahomes' top player is more league winning than Kelsey's
based on what they've done in their careers.
No.
I disagree because they both had their career season in 2018,
and Mahomes was so much more valuable than Kelsey.
Because Mahomes was, I believe, QB 15 that season,
and Kelsey was already a high-end tight end.
But if you hit on a high-end tight end who has a career season,
that guy can be a league winner still.
That happened with Jimmy Graham several years ago,
and I believe one Gronk year.
I think the only thing that I would disagree with you, Ben,
and agree with Adam is that that season,
Ertz and Kittle were great as well.
They were all set records.
And so the difference between the number one tight end
and the number three tight end was somewhat minimal.
The difference between my homes and everybody else was,
was pretty large.
Yeah.
But I,
I'm just saying when you're,
when you're drafting in the second round with my homes,
you need him to be basically QB one.
He's not going to be there for this year.
Yeah.
He has to be so good.
I don't think he can be like this clear league winner.
He just had like,
and that's why I think he's a floor play.
Like I do think he's probably a lock
if he stays healthy
for top two or top three quarterback season.
Who has more upside?
You need that.
Kelsey or Mahomes?
Who has more upside?
To help fantasy managers, it's Mahomes.
That's what I would say.
I would say it the exact same way
and answer it differently.
I would say in fantasy, it's Kelsey.
It's Kelsey.
Okay, I say Mahomes.
Dave says Mahomes.
Yep.
And the two wrong guys say Kelsey. So, Jamie,
Jamie picking fifth overall.
The floor play is Michael Thomas.
Who are you pairing him with?
Well, now it will be Lamar Jackson
over Patrick Mahomes.
Boo-hoo.
I got to take the guy who threw for 3,000 and ran 1200 yards last year and was the mvp of the nfl
um but yeah i i think it's the same argument you know the quarterback there um has to deliver big
but you know you're you're banking on uh something close to what he did a year ago and then i did the
exact same thing ben did with the upside play it took george kittle uh you know just looking at
a similar type of way to build your team.
If we're
locked into what we're doing here,
getting the second best tight
end who could be the best tight end
is smart to do.
Jamie's trying to take
different players, but according to ADP,
Kelsey would be available with
his pick. Ben took all my guys.
Yeah, Ben took his guys.
I'll wait until round three, though.
Dave took one of my guys.
Dave with a third pick.
The floor pick was Ezekiel Elliott.
The upside was Kamara.
What do you got in round two?
The floor pick for me was Kittle
because I figure nice, safe tight end
should be able to give good numbers.
Jamie, you had Kittle as your upside guy, right?
Kittle was my upside guy, yeah.
Like I said, I think what Ben said applies here too you know the quarterback and the tight
end are kind of the upside on the floor right and then i and i look at kittle as more of like a safe
foreplay you know what you're getting with him he's got potential to be great for your team
and he shouldn't crush you unless he gets hurt so i i see these tight ends as floor plays more so
than upside plays and so since you took Kittle for your upside team,
he's available in the floor draft that we're doing.
Oh, nice.
Keep my floor tight end.
Mike Zbyszek is the name that we've talked about a lot.
It's Clyde Edwards-Hilaire.
The location where he wound up, his skill set,
and how he fits into Kansas City's offense.
I think there is upside of 1,500 yards and double-digit touchdowns.
I think the downside is very risky as well,
but all I've got to do is just go back to Kareem Hunt's rookie year,
point at it, and say,
this is what Clyde Edwards-Alaire has the potential to do.
Okay, so we'll do round three.
After round three, we'll look at everybody's teams
and see which ones we like better, floor versus upside.
Dave, you're back on the clock.
On your floor team, you have Zeke and Kittle.
Who's next?
On the floor team, it's Mike Evans,
who's only given us 1,000 yards every year of his six-year career
and should be able to be at least that good yardage-wise
with seven or eight touchdowns on the season.
Don't know about him getting 100 catches or anything like that
or blowing up for 1,500 yards,
but I think he's a good, safe wide receiver
that you can get in early round
three.
Upside with Camara and Clyde Edwards-Elair.
Kenny Galladay,
who is,
did come through for big touchdowns and good yardage,
not great yardage last year.
I think there's room for more if he gets more target share in Detroit.
All right,
this is fun.
Let's keep going.
Jamie with the fifth pick on the floor team,
Michael Thomas and Lamar Jackson. And? St sticking with receiver. I'm going to take Alan Robinson
should dominate targets for Chicago was very good last year. I think he has a chance to be a top 10
PPR wide receiver once again. So to get him as my second wide receiver, not looking at running
backs yet. So it was an easy choice to take, take him who I have as a top 10 receiver this year. And then here we go, Ben. Round three.
Oh, yeah.
JTT, Jonathan Taylor.
Taking him as the second running back on this roster
to pair with Dalvin Cook.
I mean, that's just scream safety right there.
Dalvin Cook and Jonathan Taylor.
Nothing going to go wrong with that.
Yeah.
All right.
Dalvin Cook, Jonathan Taylor, and George Kittle.
That's the upside team for Jamie.
Ben, with the ninth pick, took Devontae Adams and Patrick Mahomes on the floor team.
Who are you putting with Adams and Mahomes?
I added DJ Moore, and I almost put him on both my upside and floor teams
because I don't understand his ADP.
And we talked about how most of us all take him in the second round or are willing to.
I think his floor is incredibly high with the targets and what we saw last year willing to uh i think his floor is incredibly high with
the with the targets and what we saw last year but i also think his upside is very high so okay i i
put him on the floor team though who's on the upside team with miles sanders and kelsey yeah i
went with juju on the upside team um you know even if jamie hadn't already taken taylor here he was a
little bit ahead of his adp was a little ahead of my spot which is why i didn't take him a little
more than two picks ahead of my spot i felt like that was stretching a little bit ahead of his ADP was a little ahead of my spot, which is why I didn't take him a little more than two picks ahead of my spot.
I felt like that was stretching a little bit.
So I went to,
I went to Juju who I do think has a little bit more upside than more,
you know,
if you want to compare them directly,
I,
the Pittsburgh passing offense,
I think has more upside overall.
So Juju is kind of a little bit more of an upside play.
Just kind of overall.
I think he,
he could be a monster just like we were hoping
last year before everything kind of just got derailed i think these two guys could challenge
for the lead in receptions i've said that before i wouldn't be surprised if they're you know pushing
michael thomas to be the leader in catches and for those who are wondering where aj brown is he's
my upside round four his adp's his adp's far enough back ju Juju and Moore, you're saying, Jamie, could challenge? Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
All right, I had the 12th pick,
and my floor team was Julio Jones and Josh Jacobs.
Remember, this is PPR.
This was really difficult for me
because if you look at the NFC average draft position,
there's this run in round three of running backs
of Jonathan Taylor, Leonard Fournette, James Conner, Le'Veon Bell.
They're all off the board.
Melvin Gordon's off the board.
Todd Gurley's off the board.
The guys that I expect to be there when I draft with CBS people are gone.
So the only running back that I realistically would take here was Chris
Carson.
And I think that's a fine floor play.
Floor play?
No.
Floor play.
I knew I was going to say it eventually.
Chris Carson would be the pick, along with Cooper Cup,
who, according to average draft position, is available there
because you see all these running backs are getting pushed up,
wide receivers getting pushed down.
So floor team, I guess I'll do three just to compare with you guys.
It's Julio, Josh Jacobs, and Chris Carson.
The upside team is Eckler, Kenyon Drake Drake. And I'm sorry, but I have
to take Juju Smith-Schuster.
He's the ultimate upside pick, I think.
So we're both going to have him on our upside
teams. Okay, let's
compare. Who do you like
better? Dave's floor team
or upside? His floor is
Zeke, Kittle, and Evans.
His upside
is Kamara, Edwards,
and Galladay.
PPR, what do you think?
We're only looking at his first three picks.
So far. We'll do it again.
I like his floor team better, honestly.
I think that makes some sense
in the first three rounds.
I do too, Dave.
Jamie, unanimous? Yeah. and I think that makes some sense in the first three rounds. Yeah, I do too, Dave. I think I like it better too.
Jamie, unanimous?
Yeah.
Okay.
Jamie's floor team, Michael Thomas, Lamar Jackson, and Allen Robinson versus Dalvin Cook, George Kittle, and Jonathan Taylor.
The upside.
Floor team.
Floor?
I vote for you.
I'm going to take the upside too because it has Taylor.
Jamie? I love for him. I'm going to take the upside team because of us, Taylor. I love the floor team.
He's locked in a quarterback in his top two receiver spots.
Now he's got a green light to go crazy on running backs.
I've been changing to the upside team.
I like the upside team.
Cook, Kittle, and Taylor better.
I actually like the floor team better because I think if you start Michael Thomas,
and I'm going to do this in our
when we're recording this,
when this is airing, Tuesday?
Tuesday night is the draft recording.
We're airing it Wednesday.
We're airing this Wednesday?
No, we're airing this Tuesday.
Okay, so the draft,
I'm picking fourth.
I'm going to take Michael Thomas.
I'm going to do a zero RB draft
from that spot
to see how it plays out.
Or a modified zero RB draft.
If I have one of the first three picks, I'm going to take Michael
Thomas just to... That's fine.
No, I would never.
All right, Ben with the
ninth pick.
Ben, ninth pick.
The floor team. Devante Adams,
Patrick Mahomes, and DJ Moore.
The upside team is the best team we've seen so far.
Miles Sanders, Travis Kelsey, and Juju Smith-Schuster.
League winner!
Love it.
Nope, I like the floor team better.
You like the floor team better?
You hate Juju.
I do.
Dave, is there a wide receiver that we could replace Juju Smith-Schuster with?
If we made that Cooper Cup.
Yeah, that would probably do it.
That would be a really good start.
Okay, Sanders, Kelsey, and Cup.
Right.
Okay, cool.
We all like the upside team better.
And then for me,
the floor team is Julio, Jacobs, and Carson.
The upside team is Eckler, Drake, and Juju.
Definitely the upside team for me.
Yes. Yeah, I think I definitely the upside team for me yes yeah i think i think i like the upside team that's tough man yeah i do too i mean i would never want to have jacobs and carson as my
two running backs in ppr but it really was all i was left with okay which should be a lesson to
you out there you know i wouldn't go receiver, receiver.
Well, you do it how you want.
Just be aware of what you're looking at in round three and four.
Okay, so round four for me was Cooper Cup for the floor and Calvin Ridley for the upside.
And Ben, you've got on your floor team,
Devante Adams, Mahomes, and DJ Moore.
I thought we had to stay within three picks of ADP.
Yeah, what did I not do?
Where do you have Ridley at?
He's
40th.
42 on NFC. I am 42.
No, we didn't have to stay
within three picks.
39.99. Yeah, so listen.
His ADP is 40,
but he's the 42nd player in ADP,
if that makes sense.
You're cheating.
No, I'm not.
What I said was you can only go three picks earlier in ADP.
You can go as late as you want.
If a guy's going after where you're drafting,
you can take him.
That's no big deal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right, so Ben on the clock in round four.
The floor team has Adams, Mahomes and more and why had carson here but you you i don't know if you stole him with your floor pick um keep
him but he fit i thought he made sense if if you stole him i guess i can go to the next running
back which is dave montgomery he's another floor guy that i don't really see a lot of upside with
or even devin singletary after that.
Those guys are all, you know,
floor,
floor running backs that I don't love taking in this range,
but my floor team doesn't have any running backs yet.
And we have this six round thing where I can't take any more receivers.
Normally I would just keep taking receivers.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
I ruined the whole thing.
Who's your upside play with Sanders,
Kelsey and Smith Schuster.
And that's AJ Brown.
Yeah, I mentioned that.
What a team. I want to pick ninth and draft for upside. This is such a team.
This is a fun team. Jamie,
Michael Thomas, Lamar Jackson, Allen
Robinson on the floor team.
Still no running backs.
I'm going to go Mark Andrews here for the floor.
Very safe. Very productive.
If you're going to go zero RB, this is the perfect strategy to do
to get top-tier quarterback, top-tier tight end.
You stack them as well, which isn't bad.
Isn't bad.
And then two top flight wide receivers.
So that's an easy selection there.
And then the upside play was Calvin Ridley.
I'm going to keep him because he's cheap.
Keep him.
I just want to say, and I love this about zero RB or like,
this is the whole strategy of not necessarily going heavy on our bees early.
Jamie has taken four good floor picks guys that we can project really well
because it's easier to project targets than it is necessarily rushing for
opportunity or I guess running back opportunity,
especially when you start thinking about what touches are more valuable and the
touchdowns and all those things. He's,
he's locked in a ton of targets at his two receiver spots in his tight end
spot. He's locked in Lamar Jackson, who we all love, obviously. I mean,
it's just a price issue.
And now if he does wind up hitting on a late round running back, like,
let's say, you know,
he takes like a Ronald Jones or somebody later and that guy ends up blowing up.
Oh, I did. Yeah. This, this lineup is going to, it's say, you know, he takes like a Ronald Jones or somebody later and that guy ends up blowing up. Oh, I did. Yeah. This this lineup is going to it's a floor team.
He's taking floor picks. But this team has so much upside.
If he hits on some running backs that he feels good about, this is going to be a monster team.
So that's Michael Jackson, Robinson and Andrews. Right.
Not not to skip ahead, but I'm skip ahead. Since I was forced to take a running back in round five,
I took Mark Ingram.
I would never take Mark Ingram
because I feel like that's a reach in PPR in round five
when Terry McLaurin is still on the board.
So I would have taken Terry McLaurin in round five
and just keep adding to this, building on my strength,
which would be getting another potential top 20,
maybe top 15 wide receiver.
Another thing I thought of, Ben, when you said a lot of tight end,
a lot of targets for his team in Michael Thomas, Alan Robinson, and Mark Andrews.
I don't know that Mark Andrews is going to have a lot of targets,
but if he doesn't, it's probably because Lamar Jackson is running a ton.
And since Jamie has both Jackson and Andrews,
the losses that he might get in Andrews would be offset
by all of the rushing yards that he's getting from Lamar Jackson.
Could he have a floor of 35 PPR fantasy points
between those two every single week?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Probably close to it.
I mean, unless the Ravens get blown out in one game.
He'll be 5-5 on his own.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Unless the Ravens just got absolutely destroyed
one game for some reason yeah right i mean where you go weak with zero rb is when you draft players
who don't have consistency and we we think that everybody that jamie's picked will be consistent
to the point where they're good net high floor that's what you want high floor high floor guys
who are consistent that's really the key because then you're accumulating points every week for your fantasy team,
and whatever you get from the running backs just helps boost that number up.
And if that number is real low because you're not committing to running backs,
maybe you're only getting 13 points per week in PPR from your running backs.
Well, you've got consistent players that are setting your score up nice and high.
So if you're going to do zero RB, you really do have to go after four players
who can give you that nice, consistent basis.
All right, Dave, your floor team with the third overall pick,
Zeke, Kittle, and Evans.
Who'd you put on that team?
I added Robert Woods, who 130 targets consecutive years,
catches a lot of passes.
I think he's a safe number two receiver in PPR.
Upside.
Upside is DK Metcalf.
And I just see him as a potential beast in the NFL.
There are some people who believe that he's better than Tyler Lockett.
And I think his ceiling could be insane.
I think he does have top 12 receiver potential.
Things break his way and he improves as much as we hope he can in his second year.
Okay, so Dave's done with four picks.
We're going to go right back to him in the fifth round.
Zeke, Kittle, Evans, Robert Woods, and...
Mark Ingram was who I have here,
and I don't know if I'm allowed to draft him again or not.
I think so.
I skipped ahead.
So you're ahead of me.
Look,
it's gross when you're forced to take a running back at this spot.
And I looked at the quarterback so I could get in round six and just
knowing the ADP and knowing that I'll get my guy in round six,
I'll just wait till around six to round out this team with a quarterback.
So Ingram was the best available running back.
I don't love him. Obviously round five is too early to take him this team with a quarterback. So Ingram was the best available running back. I don't love him. Obviously, round five
is too early to take him in a full PPR.
And I do think that
for this exercise, you know, just
using ADP, I feel like it's okay
if our teams have the same players. It's
just the philosophy of how to structure a team.
No, you cheated.
Well, of course I cheated. It would be a more fun
exercise if we weren't allowed to do that.
You A's are statted this draft.
Upside, Dave, with Kamara, Clyde Edwards-Ziller,
Galladay, and Metcalf.
The way that Ben felt about DJ Moore
is how I feel about Dak Prescott.
I think that he's got a nice, safe floor,
and I think he's got a limitless ceiling.
And I kind of wanted to take him for my spot
on both the teams here,
but I only did it for the upside team.
Okay.
Stack press Scott,
Jamie,
Michael Thomas,
Lamar Jackson,
Alan Robinson,
Mark Andrews,
and who else on the floor team?
So Dave took Mark Ingram.
This is a little bit of a weird floor guy because we haven't seen him with
his team for 16 games,
but I'm going to put Kareem hunt here because I do think that he gave us an
example of what his floor could be in a limited role last year with the
Browns.
And now with Stefanski there with the opportunity to hopefully get a few more
carries on top of what he should be able to do in the passing game.
I think that he could have a significant floor and also a significant
ceiling. So I will take him here.
He's not as safe as probably Mark Ingram because you don't know what you're
going to get, but Ingram also, you know, you can argue the floor is maybe not the same
just given the fact of what Dobbins' addition means
to what Ingram's workload could be.
So they're kind of similar,
but I'm going to put Kareem Hunter as the foreplay.
Mark Ingram caught five touchdowns last year.
Between Ingram and Hunt,
who do you think is more likely to catch five touchdowns this year?
I mean, the fact that Mark Ingram caught five touchdowns
on 26 receptions is ridiculous.
It is.
And Dave, it's Hunt. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fact that Mark Ingram caught five touchdowns on 26 receptions is ridiculous. It is. I think.
And Dave, it's hot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's one of the weirder stats from fantasy last year.
It really is.
All right, Jamie.
Cook, Kittle.
One of the things they did right last year.
Cook, Kittle, Taylor, Jonathan Taylor and Calvin Ridley.
And?
The fact that Tyler Lockett's ADP here is what it is, is kind of insane.
So I think the fact, again, they have to take a second receiver makes a lot of
sense. He's got top 15 upside.
So to pair him with Calvin Ridley and what those two guys could do,
if things go right for them,
the only downside for Tyler Lockett would be is the unknown.
It's Antonio Brown. If he does sign with Seattle,
I don't really view Josh Gordon as that much of a threat,
but Brown would be a threat. So if that happens, then the
upside comes down significantly, but
I think in the current scenario of what we're dealing
with, with no additions to the Seattle
passing game so far,
Lockett, this spot is a steal.
This is a very,
very good team.
Cook, Kittle, Taylor,
Jonathan Taylor, Calvin Ridley, and Tyler Lockett.
I was just reading Brady Henderson of ESPN.com over the weekend.
Maybe the line that John Schneider has repeated most often in his decade-long run as Seattle Seahawks general manager is that the organization wants, quote, to be in every deal, end quote.
It's his way of saying that they'll look into every potential acquisition.
He goes on to say that that's why they're being linked to so many people.
He does not think Antonio Brown is going to be on the Seahawks.
This article here.
Josh Gordon, more of a possibility if he gets cleared.
He just doesn't really, like this article, poured a little bit of cold water on it.
Well, they know what they're getting in Gordon.
He's already been part of the organization.
He stayed in Seattle throughout his suspensions, you know, so suspension,
excuse me, the latest suspension. So, you know, he's,
he's probably around the guys probably in contact with, with, you know,
maybe his receiver coach who knows whatever, you know,
communication they may be allowed to have,
but it just makes more sense for what they know.
Now Brown obviously has been working out with Russell Wilson.
So a little bit of a different scenario there.
But, I mean, if I'm Seattle, I want Antonio Brown.
Yeah.
Much more so than...
He brought up that, one, it might be too expensive,
and two, they dealt with Frank Clark when they drafted him
and his off-the-field issues,
and this writer speculates the Seahawks
wouldn't really want to go down that road again.
So I just want to bring that up.
All right, let's move on to Ben.
Is there a chance that AB ends up suspended?
Of course.
I believe so.
Everything that I've read seems to suggest
that he could still face a suspension,
not will face a suspension,
but it's going to be disciplinary.
It's not going to be like season-long suspension.
Okay, let's go to Ben's pick in the fifth round.
Floor team is Devontae Adams, Patrick Mahomes, DJ Moore, and Chris Carson.
Yeah, so I haven't taken a tight end on this team yet.
I think Zach Gertz makes a lot of sense here.
It's really interesting to me that his ADP is pick 56 right now on, um,
on NFC.
So it's right around where I picked here at five Oh nine.
Uh,
I guess that's right at five or I guess 57 is five Oh nine.
He's the 57th ranked player in ADP.
Um,
that's kind of late.
Now we,
we debated Mark Andrews and Zach hurts a lot this off season and Andrews is
going a full round higher at this
point.
I guess not on average, but if you
rank him, he's pretty clearly
ahead of Ertz, and I think
Ertz is still definitely
ahead of the rest of the tight ends in terms
of our security and comfort
in his targets.
I think the target ceiling
probably won't be as high as we've seen in recent
years, but he's going to be a
really good tight end.
Still going to see a ton of targets. I love his
value in round five. I think the one
thing to consider if you're debating these two guys,
we talked about this a little bit last week, Adam, is
Andrews has type
one diabetes. Yeah, I was just about to bring that
up, and I know he said he's going to play,
but the thought that, look, five players on the ravens get it or something like that i
i'm nervous about him just being and i would completely understand it him just saying look
i can't i can't risk it and for that reason if you're gonna play it safe and you're debating
those two guys given the current circumstances of what we're dealing with he might fall behind
urts just given that scenario.
It's just a possibility.
Andrews has a higher ceiling.
I mean, if his targets go up, he's going to be better.
Or, I mean, one other thing, if he gets it,
he could have a slower process back from it.
You know what I mean?
Like, we don't know.
Right, right.
Okay, your upside team is Miles Sanders, Travis Kelsey,
Juju Smith-Schuster, A.J. Brown,
and who else is on this beautiful, beautiful team?
So I had to take a QB at some point.
Kyler Murray's sitting here, and, you know,
there's not much more upside at quarterback than a running quarterback like this who ran for 1,000 yards in his final season, ran for 500 in his rookie season,
his final college season, ran for 500 in his rookie season.
Has, you know, he's not going to be Lamar Jackson,
but he's the only thing that's, that's close to Lamar Jackson.
I think has, you know, has that type of potential rushing upside,
not 1200 yards.
But if I had to guess somebody other than Lamar Jackson,
who could run for 800 yards at the quarterback position this year,
I would no doubt take Kyler Murray.
I think he'd shown that going all the way back to high school,
he's had that dual threat ability.
And I know people worry about his size and all those things,
but he has that athleticism.
And then you add in DeAndre Hopkins
and you add in the potential for some extra plays
from giving them their pace
compared to their play volume last year,
which we've talked a lot about.
They played fast and they didn't actually run that many plays.
They might add some plays this year.
They throw some more passes.
He scrambles a bunch more.
This guy definitely has a lead upside.
He's also my quarterback on my upside
team. I already did a Twitter
poll. I already tweeted out my rosters here.
I can't make any changes.
My last two picks, rounds five
and six, the floor team is
Julio Jones, Josh Jacobs,
Chris Carson, and Cooper Cup.
My floor quarterback is
Dak Prescott. My upside quarterback is Kyler Murray. My floor quarterback is Dak Prescott.
My upside quarterback is Kyler Murray.
My floor tight end is Darren Wall.
This was tough to get a tight end in this range.
My floor tight end was Darren Waller.
And my upside tight end was Evan Ingram.
So my rosters are in the books.
I'll go through those when we finish round six.
But again, to recap my picks,
floor quarterback,
Dak Prescott,
floor tight end,
Darren Waller.
Upside plays were Kyler Murray and Evan Ingram.
Okay, Ben,
you've got
Devontae Adams,
Mahomes, DJ Moore,
Chris Carson, and Zach Ertz
on the floor team.
Who else?
And so,
I had to get another running back.
There's not a lot of great floor running backs here.
I took Ronald Jones here.
I don't know that he's necessarily a floor pick,
but he's somebody that I feel pretty confident will be involved with Tampa Bay.
I know a lot of people like Keyshawn Vaughn's
pass-catching potential,
but Jones was a better runner last year
than people recognize, I think,
and we've talked about that. And he's going to have a role.
He's not going to just go away. He's going to at least get carries.
The downside to him is that he doesn't really get much receiving work.
They don't trust his pass blocking and he's just a, you know,
a trap back, as I like to say,
where he's just getting a lot of between the twenties carries,
but I think he would still be an efficient runner in that scenario.
This is a team that we expect to be better and then thus have more rush
attempts overall.
So I think he's a fine floor option at running back.
If you need an RB two to start,
do you think he's a better floor play than Damian Williams?
Well, it's funny. I took,
so I took Damian Williams as my upside running back and I almost picked
Williams for both. And I almost considered picking Jones for both,
but I think Williams clearly has more upside than jones if he actually just pushed
clyde edwards-solaire away but you know for whatever reason because of edwards-solaire
not getting enough offseason and williams is the number one pretty clearly and he's playing 50 60
70 percent of the snaps then yeah like i think damian williams has way more upside than ron
jones at that point but i think you're right i think you can make the case that williams has more of a floor too
just because he's gonna have a receiving role i think the the thing that pushed me over the edge
was like well what if clyde edwards or edward saler does that to williams what if clyde edwards
saler is what we're hoping as a second round pick and he just plays a lot then williams is
his floor is probably actually a little bit lower, you know? So that's where his ADP comes in.
Yeah, I just think, like, in a normal offseason,
Edwards-Hilaire would probably push him off the field sooner rather than later.
In the current offseason, it's going to be, I think,
a little bit more challenging for him to do it.
I think you'd still draft him.
For me now, it's the third round for Edwards-Hilaire.
Like, I'm going to take him in the beginning of the third
just because the run on running backs we're going to see.
But again, you know, when the draft happened happened you know how high i was on him i just i just don't feel the same way given the lack of work and how much i think
continuity is going to be important to these teams once damian williams misses time because he always
misses time then i think that's where edward saler will shine through but until that happens i think
it's going to be a little bit more challenging for Edward Tiller to be justified in the second round
and Williams in the sixth round makes a ton of sense.
Yeah. Jamie, you're up next.
Your floor team, finish it off.
Michael Thomas, Lamar Jackson, Alan Robinson,
Mark Andrews, and Kareem Hunt.
Well, since Ben stole
Ronald Jones from me, I was going to take him in round six.
I'll put Damien Williams on the floor team for exactly what I
just said. And then for the upside team,
a lot of what Ben said about Kyler Murray, I feel about Deshaun Watson, and I'll put Damian Williams on the floor team for exactly what I just said. And then for the upside team, a lot of what Ben said about Kyler Murray,
I feel about Deshaun Watson. And I'll say this again.
I think this is his cam 2015 season.
And if Will Fuller and Brandon cooks play close to 16 games,
let's say 13 plus games, Deshaun Watson will be the MVP of the NFL.
So I think Watson is to me,
the third best quarterback behind myomes and Jackson coming in.
He needs those guys, which is the hugest if to stay healthy.
But if those guys stay healthy, I think he's going to have just a,
a chance for, he was on pace for almost 700 rushing yards as a rookie.
I think he could be what Ben said, you know,
around 800 rushing yards for the season because of the way the offense will
operate. And I think he's going to lead quarterbacks in rushing touchdowns.
And so I think Watson's going to have a monster season.
So I'm thrilled to get him in round six.
All right,
Dave Richard round six,
you have on your floor team,
Zeke Kittle,
Evans,
Woods,
and Ingram.
So I need a quarterback.
Sure do.
Russell Wilson name still hasn't been called.
Can't believe it.
And he's a floor player because he's given you 30 touchdowns plus over
4,000 yards.
I think three straight seasons, something close to that right on there.
That's his average anyway, over the last three years.
And he's been a dynamic fantasy quarterback.
He'll run a little bit too,
not as much as some of the other guys that are ceiling plays, but I think,
I think he's a shoe in
to be a top five fantasy quarterback can i bring something up with russell also because he tweeted
this yesterday uh with or sunday excuse me with the um we want to play stuff that his wife is
pregnant and again if you're nitpicking russell versus kyler versus dac versus watson do you take
that into account that if he doesn't feel comfortable,
he can sit well,
but we'll know by August, if he's going to sit like the NFL set a deadline of August 1st,
if a player doesn't plan on playing,
they have to opt out by August 1st and they can't come back.
So if,
if he takes that approach,
we'll know very,
very soon.
Yeah.
But I,
I mean,
I would imagine there's gotta be ways around that.
If he decides he's not going to quote-unquote play, but still play,
maybe after the baby's born, I don't know when the due date is.
Yeah, I was wondering that too.
Right, like maybe he plays a couple of weeks and he's just not comfortable.
Oh, I would imagine he's not going to play, and then he plays.
I don't think it's going to be play, sit, play.
By the way, making these players decide by August 1st is it's terrible.
Yes.
I disgusting.
Right.
You know,
I think it's totally wrong.
Dave,
let them go through some of training camp first and then decide if they
decide on,
on Saturday that they don't want to play.
I'm fine with that.
Like this is their lives are in jeopardy here.
The owners get to do whatever the hell they want.
The,
the, the,
the risk also comes in.
It's not just playing.
It's,
you know,
being around your teammates and being in huddle and all those things.
And you know,
exactly.
But like at some point if they decide,
okay,
I'm just not comfortable doing this.
You have to give these players the option to do whatever the hell they want.
Figure it out financially,
what that means.
But you do not say you have a deadline to make a decision.
And I,
and I imagine throughout the year,
if the players decide, look, I can't do this anymore,
there are contingency plans for that.
I don't buy that there's a hard deadline
that they're in or out. They have to be
flexible in a situation like this.
Sure. All right. Camara.
NFL isn't good with flexible.
Edward Ziller,
Galladay, Medcalf,
Dak, and on the upside team. I got to take a tight end. I'm taking my guy, Tyler Higby. He's my Edward Ziller Galladay Medcalf Dak and
on the upside team
I gotta take a tight end
I'm taking my guy
Tyler Higby
he's my
fifth ranked tight end
we saw what his potential was
with massive
fantasy points
and PPR
in his final five games
holy moly
that's his ceiling
and if he hits that
you're cruising
to the playoffs
with Higby at tight end
our teams are done.
This is exactly how fantasy drafts work.
Your first six picks are a quarterback, a tight end,
two running backs, and two wide receivers every time.
So this was perfect.
There are a few people I know who do that.
That's fine.
They get their starters first and then their backups.
So I think it was kind of interesting.
I just figured that we would all be like,
oh, I like the upside team,
but that's just not how it played out.
Let's see what changes after three picks.
Okay, so here's Dave's team.
Floor, picking third overall PPR.
Zeke, well, I'll go by position here.
Wilson, Zeke and Ingram,
Evans and Woods,
and George Kittle.
The upside team
Dak
Camara and Edward Ziller
Galladay and Metcalf
and Higby
oh I
I mean I have a clear favorite
I like the floor team more
same
me too
four nothing floor
all right
play it
play it safe and that's with mark ingram at running
back i think if this were a real draft i would have taken a receiver there and then uh or maybe
maybe maybe ronald jones at this point i'm getting excited about him but well i'm following the rules
of the game gotcha took ingram i probably would have taken a receiver and then i'm not sure if
i would have taken russ in the sixth round'm not sure if I would have taken Russ in the sixth round.
Might have gone to running back there.
Did you do a Twitter poll by any chance?
In my life, yes.
What did it say?
What was it about?
In my life, the Twitter poll.
I've done a bunch of Twitter polls.
No, did you do a team comparison Twitter poll?
No.
I've been podcasting with you for the last 45 minutes.
You suggested that like five minutes
before the podcast started.
30 minutes before.
All right, here's JV's team.
The floor team picking fifth.
Lamar Jackson, Damian Williams,
Kareem Hunt, Michael Thomas,
Allen Robinson, and Mark Andrews.
Lamar Jackson, Damian Williams,
Kareem Hunt, Michael Thomas,
Allen Robinson, and Mark Andrews.
The upside team. Deshaun Watson, Dalvin Cook, Jonathan Taylor,
Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett, and George Kittle.
I like the upside team.
I do too.
The running backs kind of scare me on the floor team.
As the strategy was great, I just don't love, and the philosophy is as as as the strategy was great i just don't love and the philosophy
is the same as what i said if one of those two running backs ends up being great that team's
going to go to the playoffs but i just i feel a lot more comfortable with that upside team because
i already feel good about one of those running backs and like i said if i if i was doing this
without being restricted by positions obviously all of our teams would, but I would have taken a receiver in round five.
And then maybe cream hunt is my first running back in round six.
The two running backs that Dave is alluding to are Damian Williams and
cream hunt compared to Dallas.
If one of those guys hits,
that team is amazing.
I really liked that team too.
I just,
I think I just feel more comfortable with the structure of drafting some running backs early
and then you still get Ridley and Lockett
and it was a tight end on that upside team.
Ridley, Lockett, Kittle.
I mean, that right there is just what settles it for me.
I will say this.
My two teams combined are better than all of yours.
It's two good teams.
It's fair.
All right.
I'm voting upside.
Dave, you voted for the upside?
I did.
Jamie, you said?
Both.
Okay.
Ben?
I voted upside, but I do like them both.
They're good teams.
All right.
Ben with the ninth pick.
The floor team is Mahomes, Carson, and Ronald Jones,
Devante Adams, DJ Moore, and Zach Ertz.
The upside team is Kyler Murray,
Miles Sanders, Damian Williams,
Juju, AJ Brown, and Travis Kelsey.
I'm taking the upside team too,
but it's easy to overlook
how much better Mahomes could be than Murray.
That could make all the difference.
If they're even close,
the upside team is going to run away with it.
I vote upside.
Ben, Jamie?
Upside.
I like them both.
I drafted them.
I'm going to steal Jamie's shtick there.
I like both these teams.
All right.
My pick, 12th overall.
Floor team is Dak,
Josh Jacobs, and Chris Carson,
Julio Jones and Cooper Cup, and Darren Waller.
The upside team is Kyler Murray, Eckler and Drake,
Juju and Ridley, and Evan Ingram.
What do you guys think?
Upside, it might not be close.
Okay, keep going.
I do think it's close.
But I want... Yeah yeah i want upside too so i thought that the upside i was the only one who did a twitter poll smart i thought the
upside team was going to run away with it eckler drake kyler juju ridley and ingram it's losing 55 to 45 people like team b with dac jacobs carson julio cup and waller
but did you see results i did not put see results people love running backs like jacobs and carson
when they're evaluating teams because they have these locked in touches but we know they're
probably not going to have huge receiving roles.
I think, look, I have Eckler and Drake on the other team, so I'm
thinking that Julio Jones must
have swayed people, and maybe
I would take Kyler Murray
over Dak Prescott. I don't think a lot of people
would, but maybe Dak Prescott
being on Team B swayed a lot of voters too.
There's
lots of ways that this could go.
I think Jacobs and Carson are somewhat similar
if you look at what they could do.
I'm a little bit bullish on Jacobs
just because I do think that he has a chance
to challenge for the league in rushing.
We saw that last year.
If he had played 16 games, he would have been third.
The touchdowns, I think, can get to 10. He he had 7 and 13 games so if he's 10 plus touchdowns and
then he gets to what carson did as a receiver last year which was 37 catches um is that really
a stretch for a guy that had 20 and 27 targets i don't know if that's a stretch um our projects
i know what you have been projected for ben i know you're a little bit down on Jacobs, but his projected receptions for sports line are 27.
I'm at 25. So, yeah.
So, I mean, not not a big leap by any stretch, but I mean, you know, factoring in the rookies and the offseason is is Lynn Bowden going to be a huge factor in the passing game?
Is it going to be Devante Booker who's coming over from another team or is this going to be Jalen Rashard going back to what he did two years ago,
which is probably the most realistic part of it.
But still, if Jacobs, you know, I wrote about Sanders,
I wrote about Jacobs also.
Jacobs told us when we talked to him in January that he felt like the coaches
probably didn't trust him in pass protection and playing on passing downs in
camp.
And he felt like that, you know,
maybe improved as the year went on a little bit,
but they also had DeAndre Washington who played a lot in those roles also.
So I'm not expecting Jacobs to take a huge leap.
I don't think Carson takes a huge leap either.
I think, you know, if you're getting 37 catch him again,
you should be thrilled about that.
The difference for me is that Carson,
I think loses a little bit with Hyde being there.
He's going to be in an,
it's like the same thing with Frank Gore and Le'Veon Bell.
Carlos Hyde is not better than Chris Carson.
This is not a conversation about that.
Carlos Hyde is just going to ruin Chris Carson enough is not a conversation about that. Carlos Hyde is just going
to ruin Chris Carson
enough that it makes it
frustrating to be
a Chris Carson owner.
That's how I view it
for him.
So that's my frustration
with Carson.
Okay.
Eckler or Drake
with your first two picks
is...
I don't know
if I can think of
more potential outcomes
from your first two picks.
It's just...
But PPR, you should feel good about it, though.
Okay, but at the same time, I got my buddy, Ben Gretsch,
that tells me that running quarterbacks don't throw to their running backs that much.
And I think both of those guys could under-deliver.
I still think they get to 50,
but I think they could be
a little disappointing in catches,
a little lower than people expect.
Well, I think for Eckler,
the hope is that the offset
and the catches coming down
is that the rushing production comes up
because of what we saw
in those first four games.
Ben, are you...
Ben is...
Does anybody know Heimlich?
I just got some saliva
down the windpipe.
I mean, just like little kid stuff there.
And just coughing my butt off over here on mute.
Hey, Jamie, I want to read some emails here.
You want to give a quick thought on the Eckler-Drake thing?
Again, I just think that the hope would be for Eckler is the carries come up enough
that it offsets whatever he loses in the passing.
He's not going to be a disaster in the passing game.
And Heath has brought this up a lot, that what Tyrod did in Buffalo, he threw to his backs a little bit too. Oh, he loses in the passing. He's not going to be a disaster in the passing game. Heath has brought this up a lot,
that what Tyrod did in Buffalo,
he did his backs a little bit too.
Oh, he did, for sure.
So, yeah.
Okay.
FantasyFootball at CBSi.com.
This is from Khan.
Dear Sam, Coach Norman Woody.
Cheers.
Cheers.
So I have the first pick in a two... Would you like to get away?
Yeah.
Listen to the lyrics to the actual song. It's a very strange song. I have the first pick in a two... Would you like to get away? Yeah. Listen to the lyrics to the actual song.
It's a very strange song.
I have the first pick in a two-quarterback league
that is.75 PPR.
I should take McCaffrey, right?
I'm tempted to take Mahomes.
I would take McCaffrey.
Yeah, I'd take McCaffrey.
From Anthony.
I think Cheers might be the best.
I'm going to take a glass of water right now.
What did you say, Dave? I think Cheers might be the best. What did you say, Dave?
I think Cheers might be the best sitcom of all time.
It's either them or The Simpsons for me.
Seinfeld.
I mean, as much as I love The Simpsons,
it's got to be Seinfeld, right?
Seinfeld's amazing.
Yeah.
I belly laugh every episode of Cheers.
Simpsons is my favorite,
but I think Seinfeld's probably better.
Every episode that The Simpsons airs at this point
just ruins their legacy
a little bit more. I haven't
watched them in 15 years.
Every time I see a newer,
it's just unwatchable.
From Anthony. Hey, Luke,
Han, Chewie, Lando, and Leia.
Star Trek.
Star Trek, yes. Live long and prosper.ando, and Leia. Oh, Star Trek. Star Trek, yes.
Live long and prosper.
Okay, half PBR.
Adam, since you hate both, which do you like more?
I don't hate both.
I don't hate either.
That's a lie.
No, it's not.
I have no interest in watching Star Trek,
but I wouldn't say I hate it.
And Star Wars is a great movie.
I didn't realize it until three years ago.
But. Because you refused to watch it no i saw it as a kid i didn't like it so i was like it's so boring but
it's actually quite good when you finally watch hamilton you'll think the same thing
probably yeah hamilton's fantastic yeah i just finally saw it and it was great
i have not what i expected i have the eighth pick half PPR. I was playing a loop in my house.
I was thinking of going Miles Sanders,
but at 13, if Devante Adams and Tyree Kill are gone,
is it crazy to take DJ Moore over Julio and Hopkins?
It's not crazy, to be honest.
I have him one spot behind Jones and ahead of Hopkins,
but I mean, I don't think you have to be honest. I have one spot behind Jones and ahead of Hopkins, but I
mean, I don't think you
have to do it. If he can
get to six plus touchdowns, DJ Moore is going to be
amazing. Yeah, I mean, he could return
value here. You might be able to get more than the third
though. I mean, that's the thing, right?
Yeah. Take one of those receivers and then
target more later.
I don't think he's going to get him because it's close,
but half point PPR, there's no way I don't think he's going to get them because it's close, but half point PPR, there's no way.
I don't think he's going to get them because they're keepers.
So just a guess. There's one keeper.
I'm going to take him over here.
I'll take him over Julio.
Hopkins is more justifiable. Well, in a keeper
league, I
probably have more over Julio.
I don't know. If you can keep them
year after year after year, I get
a confirm on that. It depends on the keeper parameters for sure.
Yeah.
All right.
James says,
Hey, Matt, John, Mark, Lovey, and Dick.
Bears coaches.
Yeah.
Okay.
Quarterbacks.
Oh, he's doing projections.
James is doing his own projections.
Quarterbacks were fine as the outlook hasn't changed a crazy amount.
But with all the running back changes, trades, rookies, etc.,
how do you go about doing projections
when so many teams have made running back moves?
You guess.
I mean, you look at historical trends
and you divvy up the usage
based on how you think that the teams are going to use their
running backs but yeah this is a tough thing about projections every year it's a it's uncertain
there's so much turnover in the nfl um yeah look at coaching tendencies look at uh recent history
and you have to you have to make some educated guesses on how you think teams are going to use
players you know running backs in this case whether you think they're going to be three down backs and get the
receiving work,
or are the teams going to use one guy as kind of an early down guy and
one guy in the passing game you're projecting.
Okay.
This is from Tim from lone tree,
Colorado,
dear Joe,
Harry,
Benny,
and Butch.
No idea?
Google doesn't know either.
Who are some viable double-digit running backs
in a PPR format that could maybe get you
six to eight starts throughout the year in your lineup?
Josh Kelly.
Daryl Henderson for me.
Antonio Gibson is a guy I really like
who you can get laid up.
I'm looking at the NFC ADP for July right now.
Yeah, so double the rounds.
I got to go outside 120.
I'm doing the same thing.
Boston Scott.
I like Boston Scott a lot.
Phillip Lindsay's going to get 112.
That's technically round 10.
I mean, I know I've had some people tweet at me too
when I talk about that Miles Sanders stat I talked about earlier
or like the comparison with McCaffrey. Like, yeah, Boston Scott's there, and he did back. When I talk about that, Miles Sanders stat talked about earlier or like the comparison with
McCaffrey, like, yeah, Boston Scott's there.
And he did back him up late in the year,
but Sanders was still very productive.
I think they can coexist.
And Scott is a really good PPR late round weapon to target.
He got a lot of targets in those five games that he played,
including the post-season and was getting some goal line work.
I mean, the Eagles tend to rotate in there, passing downs back,
even in the, in the green zone. They did it
with Darren Sproles, and they're kind of going to use Scott
similar. So I really like Scott. Scott get those
targets, though, with everybody healthy at receiver.
Yeah, it's a little tougher. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, mine is that 149.
Yep. There's another
one. I think Boston Scott's
goal line work came in week 17
mostly when Sanders got hurt
because three of three of his rushing touchdowns came that game.
Sanders only played a half in that game.
Yeah.
Okay, one more email.
At fantasyfootballatcbsi.com
from Keith Lawrence in Richmond, Virginia.
Dynasty question about J.J. Ortega Whiteside.
He had a very disappointing 2019
that he says was due to injury.
I'm hoping he could be this year's DJ Chark.
Chark had an injury his first year
that sidelined him completely,
so there wasn't any chance for him to be bad.
If he had a nagging injury
instead of the one that sidelined him,
wouldn't that make his first season lousy as well?
JJ Ortega Whiteside says he's healthy
and he does already have a year of experience
in the system with Wentz.
What do we need to see in camp in September
that would make you feel like
JJ could be the star instead of Jalen Rager?
If you need a roster spot,
would you cut him? I don't know who
him is, but
it's an interesting premise here.
It would be our Sega White side. Yeah, you wouldn't cut Rager.
Or somebody else.
He writes his whole thing about
our Sega White side.
You would assume that if everybody's healthy,
their depth chart is Jeffrey Jackson, Rager,
maybe our Thayga Whiteside.
Yeah.
Maybe.
I feel like that's what he's battling for,
is to be the number three receiver
and maybe the possession receiver while Alshon's out,
and then he gets relegated behind Alshon
whenever Alshon comes back. A very good prospect profile for J.Jaw.
So it's definitely somebody that you can be hopeful.
But I do take a little issue with the idea that if Chark had an egging injury,
he wouldn't have been – or if he would have played, he would have been bad.
That's not what happened.
He didn't play.
J.Jaw did play, and he didn't draw targets, and he wasn't getting open. And we don't know how hurt he was. We would have to take like that's not what happened he didn't play he played did play and he didn't draw targets and he wasn't getting open and we don't know how hurt he was we would have to take
his word for it but like davante parker was injured for most of his rookie season when he
came back he was productive odo beckham's not a great example best rookie season ever but had a
hamstring injury early in the year when he came back he was productive there are rookies who have
been banged up came back and been productive now he played at a time when they needed him and they
needed him yeah and absolutely needed him.
And Greg Ward was outplaying him.
He wasn't drawing any targets. He wasn't very good.
And so for me, I actually...
That's not what happened with Shark. Shark didn't play.
And I do actually have to look at the fact
that JJ wasn't very good.
No, he...
DJ Shark did play.
This whole thing is wrong.
He played 11 games and he did nothing.
He didn't play a bunch of snaps.
JJ was playing like full snap shares.
Okay.
But DJ Chark did not miss an entire rookie season due to injury.
He missed five games.
And he had a terrible rookie season.
And then he had a huge second season.
So, I mean, I think the premise is the same.
He didn't write it that way.
But JJ Ortega Whiteside's rookie season
and DJ Chark's are pretty similar in my book.
I mean, they both were extremely unproductive
and underwhelming.
And give you absolutely no reason to draft him.
Is the talent the same?
Is the situation the same?
I mean, that's the thing you got to ask yourself.
So I think if you're rooting for JJ,
you're rooting for Jeffrey to miss time,
which is, it seems very likely at this point, you're rooting for the rookies to be behind
because of the lack of an off season work. And they drafted three receivers. It wasn't just
Rager. They drafted two other guys as well. So they're clearly trying to overhaul their receiving
court to a certain degree. And then Jackson, we know could still face up with that. Well,
they've already said that they suspended him or penalized him in some capacity for his comments.
They haven't necessarily said what that is.
So I don't expect them to miss time,
but he's still 33 or 34 years old now.
And he only played really one game last year.
So if he missed his time also,
you know,
there could be another opportunity here for him,
but he's got to prove it,
you know?
So in the dynasty league,
am I cutting him only if there's somebody out there that I really,
really like,
and that's probably not going to be a case if dynasty roster is as deep as it
probably is. But I think, you know, give him an opportunity, you know,
see what happens early in the season and then you can make a move.
And again,
and I want to correct myself real quick on the shark thing.
Cause you're right, Adam. I just looked at those snap shares.
The snap shares he played when he was,
when he was in the lineup in his rookie season are not too dissimilar from
JJ's last year. So it actually is a pretty fair comp.
And again,
J.J.
Has a good prospect profile.
He was a good producer at Stanford and early,
and it's not another guy we can throw in here is Nikhil Harry.
It's not dissimilar from that.
And I'm very excited about Nikhil Harry.
So yeah,
you guys are right.
The premise is the premise is fine.
And maybe I need to give J.J.
A little bit more,
more credit
for being in a similar upside position as Nikhil Harry.
Second year receivers, baby.
All about year two.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening.
Hope this was fun.
Have a little bit of floor and a little bit of upside
when you draft, that's for sure.
For Dave Richard...
What's that both and just kick everybody's butt?
Yeah, draft two teams and they're both going to be great
you know
just like James
for Dave
for Jamie
for Ben
I'm Adam
we will talk to you
on Twitch
on Tuesday night
and on Wednesday
with another episode
of Fantasy Football
today
a live mock draft
see you then
go win your league