Fantasy Football Today - FFT Dynasty: Mock Draft Reaction! One-Quarterback Startup Dynasty League! (07/11 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Fantasy Football Today Dynasty will be available on the Audacy app and Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts starting Tuesday, July 18! The FFT Crew conducts a one-quarterback dynasty startup mock draft! SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's a no-win game. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. I am your host, Heath Cummings. Joined today by my good friend dave richard we've got a one quarterback dynasty startup mock draft for you most of the fantasy crew is here in the mock at least we've got people from the industry i'm excited about this dave but but before we do anything else we've got bottles to pop. Yes. Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. This will be the last week that this is in the regular Fantasy Football Today feed because starting next week, FFT Dynasty will have its own audio home. And we'd really appreciate it if you could subscribe and follow the new feed,

which you can find the link for in the episode description or by searching Fantasy Football Today dynasty on your favorite podcast platform. And if you like the content we've been putting out a five-star rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify would help us get off to a great start. So again, if you listen to FFT dynasty next week, it will be in a new spot. You can actually click up in the top right-hand corner or not click. You don't click. What do you do with the QR code, Dave? You take a picture of it, I guess. Well, you can actually click up in the top right-hand corner or not click. You don't click.

What do you do with the QR code, Dave? You take a picture of it, I guess. Well, you scan it. We're so old, but you know, it is dynasty. And so we've been, we've been doing this for a long time in all seriousness, Dave, I'm so glad that you're here with me to do this unveiling because it was a kick in the rear from you about four months ago that kind of got this whole ball rolling. So thank you for that. Well, you know, dynasty content has become a very popular thing on the interwebs and I have watched you like take the ball and run with it when it comes to dynasty fantasy football you did the dynasty trade chart I was extremely proud to see you kind of make a trade chart of your own and I've used your dynasty trade chart it's very very helpful and then you've gone on to help so many people and you know that that warms my heart when when

people help other people especially in fantasy um so the next logical step was to put this into a podcast and it's not just a podcast it's a live stream on youtube it's a whole thing it's a whole community we love that you're listening whether it's your first time or your 10th time i don't even know if there's been 10 episodes but maybe you've listened to some episodes twice. Who the hell knows? But Dynasty Fantasy Football is a lot of fun. It's just another level of commitment that we have to our crazy game. And we're doing a mock draft today, and now I wish I had my first round pick back. I was going to thank you first, and then second, I was going to face producer Thomas Schaefer, Schaefer T,

for all of his help in getting this off the ground. But then he sniped Patrick Mahomes from me in round one of this mock draft. So I'm not thanking him anymore. I'm going to go to third on the list. I'm thanking you guys who are watching, who are currently smashing the like button. Listen, if it wasn't for all the positive feedback we got on the first few episodes, this wouldn't be happening. We don't get to do, we don't talk about this, this wouldn't be happening. We don't

get to do, we don't talk about this enough. I don't think we don't get to do this job or shows like this if it's not for people who enjoy watching and listening to us. So thank you very much. Please go find fantasy football today, dynasty, wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe five stars would be fantastic. A positive review would be even better. I've got to make another pick, Dave. What are you regretting already about your pick before we get to the first round of this one quarterback startup mock? You would think that I'd be able to roll out of bed and make a good first round pick in a dynasty draft. I took Stephon Diggs, but I didn't even think about taking Mahomes. There wasn't a running back that I was dying to have who was on the board.

There was Saquon. There was Jonathan Taylor. Bijan was gone. So I was a little bit underwhelmed with what was left. So I took the receiver that I thought was best who could give me like four or five years, and A.J. Brown was there. I could have taken him. Who else has gone since that pick?

Obviously, Amon Ross St. Brown, Jalen Waddell, Garrett Wilson. You know how I feel about Garrett Wilson as a talent. I feel like I could have done a better job being better prepared for that first round pick. That being said, Stephon Diggs ain't bad. So happy to have him on my dynasty team for the rest of my life. I will tell you one thing for sure. I am going to absolutely flub up this mock draft because I am. We did this two weeks ago with Jamie and everybody laughed at Heath trying to commission a mock draft while also hosting a podcast. It's hilarious. There's going to be all kinds of flub ups.

The first one may have been my first round pick, Jonathan Taylor. Let's just talk about the start to the draft. So we get R.J. Starts with Justin Jefferson, then Jamar Chase at the second pick. Bijan Robinson at the third pick. CeeDee Lamb at the fourth pick. I think those will be the first four players taken in almost all one quarterback drafts. Not a whole lot of intrigue there. Jay takes Tyreek Hill with the fifth pick. You took Stephon Diggs, Dave. Then AJ Brown, Christian McCaffrey. Thomas sniped me with Patrick fifth pick. You took Stephon Diggs, Dave, then A.J. Brown, Christian McCaffrey,

Thomas sniped me with Patrick Mahomes, Jonathan Taylor, Travis Kelsey, and Amunra St. Brown round out the first round. Did I make a mistake with Jonathan Taylor at the tenth pick, Dave? Sort of, just because we don't know if

Jonathan Taylor is going to be the Taylor that we saw two years ago or the Taylor that we saw one year ago. We also know now that he's in an offense for the long haul with Anthony Richardson under center, and that's going to be somebody who will take some of his rushing numbers away from him. I still believe in the talent. I still think he's a really good player. I just think his situation has changed considerably, and I don't know if he's going to be able to put together very many more 2,000 total yard seasons. It would be funny if Jacob Gibbs took Jameer Gibbs. It would

be even more funny if we gave Jacob Gibbs, Jameer Gibbs, because he wasn't here on time, but no, it was Jamar Chase that went with that second pick. And I think like where it gets really interesting. I love Schaefer taking Josh Jacobs. I think Schaefer's going to follow my rankings better than I follow my own rankings in this mock draft most likely. But he took him in round two to pair with Patrick Mahomes. Oddly enough, Dave, those were my first two picks in the Scott Fish Bowl. Have you made any Scott Fish Bowl picks yet? I have made four Scott Fish Bowl picks.

Ooh, I have two. Let me hear about your team real quick okay so i'm picking from the 10th spot and remember now we're veering away from dynasty for a second if you want to try and play this into the dynasty realm we can uh i had the 10th pick mcafree was there a huge quarterback run to start my drive it was all quarterbacks and travis kelsey through the first nine picks of our scott fishbowl draft So I tried to zag one other zig in Fishbowl, and I took Christian McCaffrey with the thought being, all right, I'll get a quarterback that I really like coming back to me in round two.

And I also remember that the third-round reversal was why I took such a late first-round pick in the first place. So this would be a good opportunity for me to quarterback in round two and in round three with the third-round reversal. So round two comes up up and there isn't a quarterback that i'm in love with that sir deshawn's there dax there anthony richardson's there and i just thought to myself you know what all these guys that took a quarterback in round one how many of them are going to take a quarterback in round two and i didn't think that there would

be a lot of them mark andrews was there so i channeled my inner heath yep i made a big heath sigh and i took mark andrews that was a premium scott fishbowl sorry scott fishbowl league and so i started with mcafree and mark andrews figuring that those are two um high point producers that i could roll with round three i'm up now i'm going to take a quarterback at this point the best one that was left was one that i was sort of mildly considering in round two and that was tua tunga by loa happy to take him in round three there and then when i was up in round four um t higgins was on the board chris olabe was on the board jameer gibbs was on the board kenneth walker was on the board i did something that i think you're going to cringe at but because

you can start two quarterbacks i took what i thought was the best quarterback left on the board i took matthew stafford okay and i just want to lock up two quarterbacks, I took what I thought was the best quarterback left on the board. I took Matthew Stafford. And I just want to lock up two quarterbacks to have a chance to have some bonkers weeks. One might have a bad week. One might have a bonkers week. Maybe they'll both have a bonkers week. But I figured that that's the path that I needed to take. And so my team, as of now, if you can figure it out, if you've been listening for the last 60 seconds,

quarterbacks are Tua and Stafford. No injury concerns there, right? Along with Christian McCaffrey and Mark Andrews at tight end. Nice, nice. I've got Mahomes, Josh Jacobs, Devontae Adams, and Daniel Jones in my QB2. So Mahomes and DJ, and then Jacobs and Adams. Where were you picking in the draft? The first pick.

Okay. The first pick. Makes sense. Yeah. So we are now through round two. Let's go back through round one just real quick because I know a lot of people who are watching on YouTube can see those results, but also a lot more people are going to be listening on the podcast. This will actually come out in the podcast feed on Saturday, Dave. Justin Jefferson went first, then Jamar Chase, B. John Robinson, C.D. Lamb, Tyree Kill, Stefan Diggs, A.J. Brown, Christian McCaffrey,

Patrick Mahomes, I took Jonathan Taylor, Zach Brooke took Travis Kelsey. We'll talk about that more as well because I hope that that shapes his team to be a win-now team. That's the only way that makes any sense. And then Munro St. Brown, at the end of round one, we make the turn. Jalen Waddell, Garrett Wilson for Zach Brooke. How do you feel about if you take Travis Kelsey that early, Dave, pairing him with Garrett Wilson? I like it. That's a good way to start any fantasy team, both in redraft and dynasty. I don't know if it's so great for dynasty with Kelsey in round one, but if that's just how you want to go about it and you want to have that tight end advantage I mean there's there's no better guy to do that with than Travis Kelsey

yeah I mean it's it's a huge advantage and I think Wilson's okay because we all expect him to be a top 10 wide receiver but at some point if you're taking Kelsey that early you need to prioritize winning this year because your first round pick might be done contributing as an elite player as soon as next year. And so I do think, and I would start looking for guys like Derrick Henry or Saquon Barkley or guys who are more win-now players than what you traditionally see drafted in round three of a dynasty league the rest of round two davante smith the third pick from me josh jacobs to thomas schaefer chris olave goes fifth jalen hurts the second quarterback off the board goes sixth breeze hall to you dave goes seventh i was i was looking at breeze i right now have taylor over breeze hall but it's very close t hee Higgins, Christian Watson, Jameer Gibbs,

Drake London, and Josh Allen to finish out the round. That's three quarterbacks in the first two rounds of a one quarterback dynasty startup. Now that's the way I've got it ranked. I think Mahomes is worth a first round pick. I was irritated that Thomas took him one spot ahead of me. I think Hertz and Allen are both worth a second-round pick, especially in this format, arguably in redraft two, but definitely in dynasty. Do we have a little gap here, Dave? I guess first off, do you agree there should be three quarterbacks

in the first two rounds, and then we've got Burrow, Fields, and Lamar coming up in some order? Should there be a big gap, or are those all round three guys? They're all round three guys, and honestly, I wouldn't hate on Joe Burrow going in that same group because the math is a little bit different in Dynasty when it comes to quarterbacks. You and I can attest to this. We are both in a Dynasty league where we have an elite quarterback.

I have Burrow. You have Patrick Mahomes. It's nice to just have that stability as far as a player who's going to put up a lot of points week in and week out, and you don't have to worry about it for the longevity of their careers. And so getting these quarterbacks while they're young, knowing that they're going to be good for a long time, all the sense in the world to go and get them on your dynasty team and to spend the early round capital on them.

It's so different compared to a redraft league where you're only going to get one year out of them. Why would you take one in the first round? Is it worth it? I don't think it is to take a Mahomes or a Josh Allen in the first round in a redraft. But in Dynasty to lock those guys up for their careers makes all the sense in the world. I would do that in a heartbeat. Yeah, and I should have done that, Heath, honestly.

That's what my first- round pick should have been well and i was really trying to decide because lamar jackson has been taken in round three i'm out now up with the 10th pick in round three fields and burrow are both left i'm going to go ahead and take justin fields because i don't feel confident that but there's two teams picking before I pick again. Neither one of them have a quarterback. I think the top two players left are quarterbacks. So I'm going to go ahead and take Fields here. I'll start my first three players, Justin Fields, Jonathan Taylor, and Devontae Smith. Still feel like I have not fully determined, am I winning now or am I playing for the future? I think I still have both windows open with that three. Sure, and you can always change to win now mode

in a dynasty draft because there's always going to be maybe like three to five managers who are going to focus on the future and they're going to take players that are, you know, have that youth to them, obviously. They're going to play for a long time. They're focused on that. I don't like to necessarily focus on that.

I don't mind taking a young player early on. Of course, you're going to want to do that compared to taking like a guy in their 30s. But once we get to like rounds three, four, five, if there are veterans with amazing profiles to help in 2023, I'm taking them. And if that means I'm in win-now mode, then so be it. Someone's got to win the first year of a Dynasty League. And there's no guarantee that the Dynasty League will even be around three, five years from now. So you should lean toward playing win-now,

unless you're certain that this is going to be a for-the-long-all type deal. I do like the lean towards win-now as opposed to the play for two or three years from now. Let's take a short break and then I've got a short correction, then we'll get to round three. Metro links and cross links are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe.

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Don't overthink how you hydrate. Life's full of choices. Smart Water is a simple one. We are back. I said that this was going to be in the Fantasy Football Today feed on Saturday. It'll actually be in the Fantasy Football Today feed on Wednesday, but this is the last week it will be in the Fantasy Football Today feed. That's because we've got a new podcast, Fantasy Football Today Dynasty now has its own feed wherever you get your podcasts. Please go there right now. Search for Fantasy Football

Today Dynasty or just use the QR code in the top of the screen or look in the show notes, click the link. Regardless of how you get there, please go subscribe, please go rate, please go review. Thank you for helping to make this possible. Dave, let's take a look at round three. Although, before we do, I just want to say good job, Zach Brooke, taking Nick Chubb at the end of round three. That pairs pretty well with Travis Kelsey in terms of building a win-now club right now.

He's going for it now. That will definitely qualify. We'll see if the rest of his picks indicate that. Looking at the round three results. So it starts off with Saquon Barkley, then Kyle Pitts, and Cooper Cupp. Great job by Adam Azer. Cooper Cupp in round three, even in Dynasty,

an absolute steal. After Cupp, it goes Pollard, Mark Andrews, then Austin Eckler. Dave, you took Eckler. I guess you may be looking to win now as well. DK Metcalf. Too good of a value in round three. Hopefully, he can get a couple good years. Lamar Jackson, Devontae Adams, and then Justin Fields, Nick Chubb, and Joe Burrow to wrap up round three. Again, that's Barkley, Pitts, and Kupp. Pollard, Andrews, and Eckler. Metcalf, Jackson, and Adams. Fields, Chubb, and Burrow for the round three, Dave.

You said too good a value to pass up on Austin Eckler. Where do you think that he should go in a startup? Because you didn't take him in round two, so I guess somewhere in that 2-3 turn. Yep. And then is that going to mold your future picks? Well, I've already got a nice young running back in Brees Hall who slid in round two. I'm assuming because of the ACL, people are a little nervous

about what he'll be moving forward. I'm happy to take him in round two of a dynasty league where if he comes back from the ACL just fine, I've got the rest of his career of him putting up huge numbers. Thrilled with that pick. And so that's really like the first guy that I took with longevity in mind took him over a bunch of other running backs that are probably better than him for this coming year that's a dynasty pick and I love that one and I felt like that was too good of a value Eckler was a screaming value in the

middle of round three he should be a late round two pick in dynasty because he's going to help you win now in a major way. And you know how these running backs are that don't get a lot of wear and tear on them. They can still maybe give you an extra year of help once their expiration date has come, or perceived expiration date as the case may be.

And he catches a ton of passes. So having Eckler and Hall as my running backs to start up my Dynasty team along with Stephon Diggs, and then I took Justin Herbert in round four. I've got a great core for my squad that's going to last me a while. We saw Pitts and Andrews going there in round three, round and a half behind Travis Kelsey. Dave, it was not that long ago that Pitts was the clear consensus

number one tight end in dynasty. It wasn't that long ago that he was a clear first round pick in dynasty do you are do you even agree here with gibbs taking pits over mark andrews and what's the range of outcomes in his value this year like he gets off to a slow start he could his dynasty value could crash and burn now, right? Absolutely. The question would then become, how patient are the Falcons going to be with him? If he has a half season or three quarters of a season where he's on the field, he's running a lot of routes,

he's just not getting a lot of numbers. Do the Falcons move on from him, and does he get the same type of opportunity with another team? Does he have the profile to do that? I would guess that that's a maybe that's not a certainty and so there's risk with taking him in round three because he could fizzle out and be more of a role player by 2024 and that's kind of scary to think about but there's also upside there we saw last year there were a number of instances where he's wide open and he's

just missed the quarterback is inaccurate that was mariota who was throwing him for the majority last year or the quarterback doesn't see him open so he's got the skills to earn targets he's got the potential at least he showed this on film where he can be a dynamic playmaker in the national football he just needs a quarterback that can get him the football is desmond ritter that guy? That's where I take a big, deep breath. Another Heath Sy, two on the same Dynasty podcast, but I think that there is potential there for Kyle Pitts to be very, very good this year. I'm trying to stay bullish on him. I think he's worth that third-round pick. I'd like it to be in the middle of round three, but Jacob doesn't have that luxury.

He's betting on the profile of Kyle Pitts, and if he hits, it's a great pick. Kyle Pitts and if he hits. You mentioned Desmond Ritter. Jacob actually just a little bit dependent on Kyle Ritter, at least in year one. He's got Drake London and Kyle Pitts, but I agree with the commenter. Jamar Chase, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, that is a nice young trio to start your dynasty team with. If things go great this year, wonderful. If not, look at all that youth. Let's take a look at round four. Dallas Goddard,

the first pick from Bobby Lamarco. Thank you for joining us, Bobby. Javante Williams. I took Traylon Burks, then Derrick Henry, and that seems really weird to see Traylon Burks and Derrick Henry going back to back. Jackson Smith and Jigba goes to Zach. Then Jerry Judy. Justin Herbert goes to Dave. Terry McLaurin. Ramondre Stevenson. Trevor Lawrence.

Brandon Ayuk. And Calvin Ridley. That rounds out round four. Again, Goddard. Javante Williams. Burks. Henry. Smith and Jigba.

Judy. Justin Herbert. McLaurin, Ramondre, Trevor Lawrence to Adam Azer, no surprise there, Ayuk and Ridley. Dave, I'm going to give you a moment here to talk about my love for Traylon Burks. I don't think round four is just about where his dynasty ADP is, but how strange does it look first for Burks and Henry to go back to back? And then why didn't Zach Brooks, why didn't Zach Brooks take Derek Henry? I wonder if Zach is trying to start to think about the future a little bit more. And after starting his draft with a bunch of guys, I can help him win now. Now he wants to skew a little bit younger and hope that Javante Williams

gets his act together and ends up being a really good running back in Denver. So he's not going to continue on his, his brand for this draft. And, uh, he, he let Derek Henry get past him. Does it look weird to have Traylon Burks and Derek Henry back to back? Uh, even in a dynasty draft, I'd say, yeah, uh, I still think that Derek Henry is worthy of an early round pick in dynasty. We, we think we keep saying every year, well, to watch out he's 29 years old and he's got a huge workload and he could break down but you know what the titans are i think the titans are going to run derrick henry until the wheels literally crumble and at that point maybe trailing burks becomes a much bigger guy in the Tennessee offense. At that point, maybe they start to throw the ball a little bit more than 50% of the time or

whatever their rate is. I think that this is about the range for both of these guys, but Henry maybe toward the end of his range. I still think he's around three pick and dynasty and Berks is going to be somewhere in that round four or five range, just because young wide receiver, great athletic profile certainly has potential to be a big stat producer, but not in the best offense for it. Not in the best offense for it, although we were talking about him yesterday

on Fantasy Football Today, and I mentioned A.J. Brown saw eight targets per game in this offense, even when they were one of the least pass-happy offenses in the NFL. And when Nick Westbrook and Kyle Phillips, they are number two and number three wide receiver, that's the opportunity to be an alpha, but I've given this case plenty. We should talk about somebody. I don't talk about enough. My fourth round pick John Dotson. Oh, wait, I talk about him all the way. All the time, all the time as well. We need some new material on Jahan. Hey, answer me this. Have you done any work on the commander's quarterbacks? Well, we've done a little bit on Sam Howell. It's interesting with him because mostly what you hear extrapolated on Sam Howell is the fact that he ran for double-digit touchdowns his final year at North Carolina, and he ran for 35 yards. His first game was a starter.

But I think people forget how good of a prospect Sam Howell was before that final year of college. He was viewed as someone who was probably going to be a first-round pick, and then he just had a terrible final year in college. Jacoby Brissett was a lot better than people expected for him to be last year, but Jacoby Brissett cannot prop up two fantasy-relevant wide receivers, I don't believe. You might have a hard time propping up one. Yeah, he was pretty good for Amari Cooper and David Njoku last year, right?

Yes, but one of those is a tight end, not a wide receiver. And one of the reasons why David Njoku was my favorite sleeper tight end last year was because Bursette has this tendency to lean on his tight end. And so that actually came to fruition in Cleveland in 2022. And now it makes me wonder who the tight end is going to be in Washington in 2023, assuming that Bursette gets some time under center. I don't expect that to happen, but I have a pretty big hope for Eric Bien-Ami. I think people underrate what he did in Kansas City and what he's going to do in Washington. One thing that always happens in Kansas City's offense, and people give Andy Reid all the credit for this, and he's one of the best coaches of all time, he should get a lot of credit for this, and he's one of the best coaches of all time, he should get a lot of credit for it. But a lot of times, Patrick Mahomes doesn't grade as well in some of the completion percentage over expectation or other advanced

stats, because the guys he's throwing to are so wide open. He's just constant, and some of that Patrick Mahomes does, and I don't think gets the credit for it. But I expect, and they've already talked about how they're going to use the screen game a lot in Washington, I expect they are going to do things for Sam Howell, and he's the guy they want to start the season with, that are going to make him not be an above-average NFL quarterback, but maybe a slightly below-average NFL quarterback. And by the way, having Terry McCorn and Jahan Dotson running routes

makes it much easier to scheme things easy for the quarterback. Very true. And there were moments where those two made Carson Wentz look great last year. So I'm not necessarily encouraged. I agree with what you've said about Howell, though. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he was a nice prospect at North Carolina, kind of slid in the NFL draft, landed in Washington, and now he's in position to be their starting quarterback to begin the year. And if he can put it all together, and we'll get reports. We know people with the commanders. They'll tell us what's what. Then there is some hope there for McLaurin and Dotson. But for the purpose of Dynasty Conversations, in the event that Sam Howell

ends up being trash and Jacoby Brissett ends up being Jacoby Brissett, well, then this is a franchise that's looking at a new quarterback in 2024. And you think about Caleb Williams or Marcus May or any of the other quarterbacks that we're not thinking of that end up coming out in the draft and they end up going to Washington, that's going to be a really good looking spot for that rookie QB. Imagine Bryce Young throwing to those two. Imagine CJ Stroud throwing to those two. Imagine Anthony Richardson.

Don't, never mind. Don't do that. We don't want that. We don't want that. But those two, if they get an accurate quarterback in 2024, what's that going to do to the value of McLaurin and Dotson and Dynasty? Speaking of Anthony Richardson, you know, you're right. That's, it's to the moon.

Speaking of Anthony Richardson, he just went in round six. We're going to recap round five in just a second. I mean, that's the way these things work, but Anthony Richardson towards the end of round six to Jamie Eisenberg. First, I love that value two rounds after Lawrence and Herbert in Dynasty in a one quarterback league, because I think he has as much upside as those guys and the floor is not really going to matter that much. But also you look at Jamie's team, Anthony Richardson, Tony Pollard, Ramondre Stevenson at wide receiver. He's got CD lamb, Christian Watson, and Jordan Addison. I'm pretty in love with that start. That's a great start for a dynasty team. And I think he can be competitive with that team in year one, but really it's years two, three, and four that you're thinking, all right,

he could have a juggernaut. So I like to do it. A lot of it's going to come down to Richardson. How quickly can he ascend to being one of the better quarterbacks in fantasy football? How quickly can he be a top 12 guy? We saw Jalen Hurts become a top 12 guy with Shane Steichen in 2022 in Philadelphia when he wasn't throwing the ball that well. And Richardson probably will. If Richardson completes 61% of his throws this year, that's a win. So we'll see how that goes. But it's a good build.

It's almost like he's tight roping the line between win now and build for the future he's got a lot of players that are can help him win now that are young and now richardson i bet his 2023 season will swing on richardson if richardson's really good or if he gets another quarterback who ends up playing well and starts for him instead of richardson this year he'll be in the playoffs for sure. The best thing about fantasy football is that you can have Anthony Richardson and his rushing upside, but you don't have to negatively impact your wide receivers because you can just draft wide receivers from other teams. But I do think this could be a similar situation to what you said with Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson in that you're right. Anthony Richardson is going to have to be good for Jamie's team to be competitive this year, or he's going to draft another older

quarterback as a backup probably here in the next five or six rounds. But his team could be in a position to where if Richardson's not and the first year's rough, and now Jamie's adding one of those elite rookie quarterbacks coming into the league next year with this core, that could be fantastic. Let's take a look at round five because it's really interesting. I've been looking at these first two running backs who were taken to start round five, not just in the context of I want to talk about them in this draft. I've been looking at these guys all offseason, trying to figure out what to do with them. Travis Etienne goes 49th overall.

Damian Pierce goes 50th overall to Jacob Gibbs. Then we've got Debo Samuel, Jordan Addison, Jamison Williams, DJ Moore. Nice, Dave. Chris Godwin, Najee Harris, Kenneth Walker, Jahan Dotson, Amari Cooper, and Quinton Johnston. Nothing wrong with Amari Cooper, and it fits on Zach Brooks' team. He does seem to stand out in this round, which has a lot of younger players in it, but it's ETN, Pierce, and Debo. Addison, Jamison Williams, and DJ Moore. Godwin, Najee Harris, and Kenneth Walker. Dotson, Amari Cooper, and Quinton Johnston. Dave, help me to figure out what we're supposed to do in Dynasty with Travis ETN and Damian Pierce, two running backs who for large chunks of last season showed RB1 upside, not the RB1, but ARB1, and are still young,

but their grip on their jobs seems precarious. And you don't think that for Etienne, because Etienne was such a huge figure for Jacksonville after they traded James Robinson. He was actually starting to become a big figure for Jacksonville before James Robinson was traded away. And then you think about the role he played in their playoff win over the Chargers. And he came into this year, this coming year, he got interviewed at minicamp, and he talked about how he's looking forward to getting some work off of him, that he doesn't have the same kind of wear and tear.

If you give me a minute, I can bring up the quote. But he actually said something along the lines of, I love being able to share the football a little bit more. So I think Jacksonville was really in a spot last season where they didn't feel comfortable with any of their other running backs to take ETN off the field. I think they're trying to change that. They brought in Dearness Johnson on a one-year deal.

They drafted Tank Bigsby. I'm a fan of Tank Bigsby. I could see him being the 1B to ETN's 1A. I don't think it's a situation where ETN is going to lose the starting job, but I do think it's a situation where maybe his workload and his playing time come down from last year a little bit. That's good for the long haul for ETN. That means that he can potentially play a little bit longer, be a little bit healthier, not be at risk of taking on any of those major injuries. That makes him a nice pick in round five in a dynasty draft. Honestly, I don't know if he's going in round five last year at this time. I think people were very excited about ETN.

We should look that one up if we can. Oh, he was going in round two. Right. So, I mean, that's crazy to me. So, hold on. You're telling me that last year, after his rookie year was a total wash because he broke his foot, we're taking him in round two? And now we're taking him in round five after he had a really good first, quote-unquote, season with Jacksonville? People are terrified of Tank Bigsby.

And the difference between the two, I think people are rightly scared. Speaking of guys who have just fallen forever, I'm going to take DeAndre Swift in round eight. I don't know how that's happened. I talk about a guy we were taking in round two a year ago. We were taking him in round one a year ago. People are rightly scared of running backs with coaches who didn't,

or groups who didn't draft them. And so that makes a lot more sense to me with Damian Pierce because we've seen that play out over the last five years in particular with James Robinson, with Michael Carter, with who did it happen to this year, Tyler Algier. Good rookie running backs get replaced when there's not a lot of draft capital invested in them. Etienne was a first round pick.

And maybe more importantly than that, to me at least, he was a first round pick who played with his quarterback in college and was drafted in the same draft class as him. As much as Doug Peterson may not think Travis Etienne is as good as Urban Meyer did, I think it might matter just as much how Trevor Lawrence feels about Travis Etienne is as good as Urban Meyer did. I think it might matter just as much how Trevor Lawrence feels about Travis Etienne. It might, but I still think Etienne is the better dynasty prospect than Pierce. I think the coaching staff in Houston will end up liking Damian Pierce because he's a tough runner. He's a good one-cut runner. He's exactly what they are looking for from a running back in that type of an offense.

But the caveat is this. If Etienne gets off to a slow start, I don't think Jacksonville is going to look at him and say, all right, get him off the field, put Tank Bigsby in. Tank Bigsby is going to be our new guy. Whereas in Houston, after this new staff brought in Devin Singletary, you could see them if Pierce gets off to a slow start saying, all right, let's see what Devin Singletary, you could see them if Pierce gets off to a slow start saying, all right, let's see what Devin Singletary can do. So I think that there's a clear difference between those two guys.

The quote, if you're interested, ETN said himself that a committee approach, quote, keeps the wear and tear off my body. I don't have to go and bang myself up each and every play. I've got someone else to take a couple of hits off of me. I love that. You know what? I have a really hard time anymore with the entire committee discussion at running back because 95% of them are in some sort of committee. Yes. And so what does it mean? What does it mean that he's saying there? I think it means that he wants to be able to play. I'm sure there were some games where when he was done playing,

he felt like he was in six car accidents. And he doesn't want to feel like he's in six car accidents anymore. So now Jacksonville added two guys that can help take some of those car accidents off of him. He'll feel fresher from game to game, and the offense will run a little bit smoother because they've got a couple of different options. This does not mean that Travis Etienne is going to see 12 touches per game necessarily. There will be some where he does, but there will be some games where he's still going to get to 17 touches or something like that, and he'll be really good for a squad.

I'm worried about him having a bunch of touchdowns this year because Bigsby at Auburn was awesome in short yardage goal line situations. And if I think carry that over, hold on a sec. If he can carry that over into the pros, that's a win for him. And apparently he was showing off his hands at minicamp because, you know, running backs can't do a lot at minicamp. There's not contact there. So he was catching passes and he looked natural according to reports so that's another

area that could actually ding etn is if bigsby can play some passing situations i i'm much more concerned with etn not in fact i don't expect etn to get short yardage work i think that's going to be bigsby's role i'm not that concerned about Bigsby taking passing downs away. I do think ETN is talented enough and makes enough big plays that he could score touchdowns. I think DeAndre Swift still had eight or nine touchdowns last year, even though Jamal Williams led the NFL. He could still score touchdowns from a long ways away.

Let's get to round six. And I said that round five had kind of a theme of younger players. There were a couple older guys that stood out. There's no theme to this round five had kind of a theme of younger players. There were a couple older guys that stood out. There's no theme to this round at all. It is all over the place. Cam Akers goes with pick 61. Then Keenan Allen, Zach Brooke understood the assignment. Since we started talking about him not drafting for win now, he has gone Amari Cooper, Keenan Allen, Aaron Jones. He's on. He's winning now.

Yes. Yeah, he is winning now. I took TJ Hawkinson. I was really pleased with the value on Hawkinson in relation to two rounds after Dallas Goddard, four rounds after Mark Andrews and Kyle Pitts. Then Christian Kirk, J.K. Dobbins, Michael Pittman. Dave, you took George Pickens. Miles Sanders. I like that pick a lot.

Anthony Richardson, we already talked about that. Adam takes DeAndre Hopkins at pick 70. Then Jacob Gibbs takes Alexander Madison at pick 71, followed by Deontay Johnson. That feels like a pretty good value on Deontay Johnson going right after those guys. How are you viewing DeAndre Hopkins as we sit and wait to see if the Chiefs can clear enough salary cap space with the Griff Jones extension to keep him

going to New England? Is there a big difference for you if DeAndre Hopkins lands in Tennessee versus New England versus Kansas City? Yeah. Oh, sure. All three of those offenses are exactly the same. Kansas City is where you want him to go because it just means more zone coverage from a Holmes to slice up. I'm sure he'll get a bunch of targets there. It might not be like the nine or ten per game that we're used to seeing from Hopkins, but he could be in that 7-8 range on a pretty consistent basis. I don't know how defenses defend Kansas City in the red zone as their team stands right now. You throw DeAndre Hopkins in there and it's even crazier. But we haven't heard too much about Kansas City jumping in on the

DeAndre Hopkins sweepstakes. It's been a lot of Tennessee. It's been a lot of New England. And between those two teams, I think I'd prefer New England just because I think that he'd go in and immediately – he'd get a lot of targets either place. But you know what Tennessee – we already talked about it on this very podcast, what Tennessee likes to do. Unless you just have no idea what the Titans are like, you know what the Titans want to do with the football when they've got it. So I'd much rather see Hopkins go to New England

and catch mostly accurate throws from Mac Jones in an offense that both Mac Jones and DeAndre Hopkins are familiar with, even though it's Bill O'Brien's first year back with New England. They've both worked with Bill O'Brien before. Yeah, I'm really struggling with what I was going to do here. And I want to give a shout out to the people that we have in this draft room. And you can see their names there on the board. I'm not going to go through everybody's name, but we are 38 minutes into this podcast and we are finishing up round nine. That is a spectacular job. Like Dave and I are recapping round six, trying to catch up with how good a job these drafters are doing. We're going to take our short break here. I'll try to figure out who I'm going to pick with my round nine pick, and then we'll break down

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Before you break ground, make it a point to request a locate. It's not just the law. It's a step to keep your team and community safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. So we're back, Dave. I've still not done any better job of deciding who I'm going to take. There's really, the pickings are beginning to get thin.

That's no joke on who you took in round six. I'm going to go ahead and take Brian Robinson just because I do think that maybe I'm a little bit too excited about Antonio Gibson and whoever the running back is for Eric Bien-Ami, I would expect they're going to be pretty heavily featured in the passing game. He was a running backs coach before he was an offensive coordinator and there's been a lot of talk about all the screens we're going to see in that offense dave let's get to round seven as i pull up the results here another interesting round some more young players marquise brown james cook and dalton kincaid goes to azar that the deandre hopkins dalton kincaid combination in round six and round seven from azar. We may need him to jump into the chat and give us some explanations for that. Rashad White, Deshaun Watson,

and Kadarius Toney to you, Dave. Pat Fryermuth loved that pick from Casey. Joe Mixon and Mike Williams. Then David Montgomery, I took, followed by Aaron Jones and Zay Flowers. I like Zay Flowers a lot. So Dave, you went in round six with George Pickens. Round seven with Kadarius Toney. I like Zay Flowers a lot. So Dave, you went in round six with George Pickens,

round seven with Kadarius Toney. These are some wide range of outcomes, wide receivers. They are, and I don't intend on starting either of them this year because I've got Stephon Diggs, DJ Moore, and I picked up Tyler Lockett around later. So I know that I could start him this year, and then he's more of a disposable pick. One of those two younger receivers can step in for Lockett once it's clear that Lockett isn't the guy that he once was.

But even he's a value pick. We're not talking about him right now. I've loved what the beat has been on George Pickens this offseason, the fact that Tomlin seems to be staunchly in his corner. I know that he wasn't great statistically last year. The advanced metrics were not kind to George Pickens. I saw him make a ton of plays. I saw him make a bunch of amazing contested catches. He's got some room to grow, but I think he's got the basic traits to be a very, very good wide receiver in the National Football League, not quite the elite tier.

And I got him in a really good bargain spot, in my opinion, getting a second year receiver with that kind of upside in round number six. I love it. And we all know what Kedarious Tony's situation is. Is he injury prone? Oh yeah. But when he plays, he could be dynamic. First year, first full year, including the off season in Kansas City's offense. If they don't add DeAndre Hopkins, that's a good thing for Kadarius Toney's potential. So I took the chance on him in round seven. That's when I would take a chance on him starting in redraft leagues too, just because we know that he's got brilliant upside, and we know what the downside is too. You wouldn't feel so bad if Toney fizzled out

if you spend a round seven pick on him, be it in dynasty or in redraft. So you kind of talked about your receiving core. And I want to talk about your roster construction through nine rounds. And again, we'll talk about a couple of picks that we'll come back to when we do the round by round. But you've got Justin Herbert at quarterback. You've got two running backs through nine rounds. Who drafted this team? Brees Hall and Austin Eckler. Six, five wide receivers with Diggs, DJ Moore, Pickens, Tony, and Tyler Lockett, and then George Kittle at tight end. Is it time to start stockpiling running back depth,

or are you pretty comfortable with Eckler and Brees Hall being your only two running backs? Well, maybe my pick in round 10 kind of showed you where I'm headed. Well, who did you take in round 10? I thought you were looking it's tank bigby who we already talked about so yes this is the time in the draft i did enough to load up on wide receivers i've learned the hard way through my years playing dynasty that it's better to just have a huge group of wide outs and just kind of piecemeal it together with running backs not that i'm piecemealing it together with running backs, you know, based on what I have.

I have Eckler and Brees Hall. That's a pretty good combo for this year. But as we go year to year, I don't intend to have a huge amount invested in my running backs beyond what I did with Brees Hall in this draft. So we're going to get to round eight in just a second, Dave. But you mentioned that in round 10, you took Tank Bigsby. There were two running backs who were taken right

before you. And I just wonder from a this year perspective, the fact that you've got Austin Eckler and George Kittle, like you, you're not, you're not a win now or tear it down team, but you've got some guys who you need to win pretty quick or they're going to lose value. Had Dalvin Cook or Antonio Gibson made it to you, even if you maybe like Bigsby better in dynasty than you like those guys, would you rather have them as your third running back, especially since Brees Hall maybe won't be Brees Hall at the start of the year? I think I might have considered Dalvin Cook, and he was a name that was toward the top of my list. The only concern I have is that what if Dalvin Cook ends up in a situation where he's not getting a ton of work?

What if he's in a 50-50 split somewhere? That doesn't make me feel good about him. You don't want to get a running back on the end of his career where he's splitting reps and then he's out of the league. And who knows, man? Dalvin Cook might look at the offers that he's got this year and say, you know what? I don't want to get beat up again another season for just a million dollars a year you know a million dollars is a lot to us but dalvin cook thinks he's worth more than that

yeah i'm a little bit i'm a little bit not i'm just not sure what his situation is right and that's what keeps me from saying okay he's an awesome backup running back in fantasy. I might look silly. A week from now, he could be on the Dolphins and set to be the lead guy in Miami, and I'll have wished that I'd taken him where I took Kadarius Stoney in round seven. Yeah, I think with that whole game of running back musical chairs, a couple of guys are definitely going to end up without a seat. We were talking about this yesterday with josh jacobs i have a really hard time believing

that josh jacobs and his agent could look at the fact that dalvin cook can't get what he wants saquon barkley can't get what he wants zeke and fournette are sitting on the sidelines and not getting much interest and think that he's going to hold out i have a hard time believing that dalvin cook and his agent can look at this market and think, well, if I just wait longer, I'll get more. But I do agree. I can look at that individually on a case-by-case basis while also knowing that it's going to happen to one or two of these guys.

Somebody's going to get left out in the cold. There's too many running backs that aren't happy with what they're getting, especially when you look at J.K. Dobbins. I don't think he has any chance at all of getting what he wants but let's take a look at round eight and these first three running backs could there be a more interesting trio alvin camara goes with the first pick of round eight then devin a chain devon a chain then deandre swift so camara a chain and swift dave i could see any of these three guys providing a boom at some point this season. I could see all three of these guys having very little dynasty value after 2023. Right.

And so it's fine that they are going in early. It's really the perfect round for – I think it's the perfect round for Swift. We'll see if it ends up being the perfect round for A think i i think it's the perfect round for swift we'll see if it ends up being the perfect round for a chain and camara because all it'll take are a couple of reports out of dolphins camp down the road from us that a chain is is clearly the best running back for miami and then that's going to propel him into like round five same thing with camara what if he doesn't get suspended what What if nothing happens? Right. Then he needs to go in the Derrick Henry range, like probably a round later. Yeah.

I mean, I think his situation, even if there is no suspension, I think it is different. And I think it is still worse for him just because Jamal Williams is there now. And that's just another body that can work at the goal line. I did some research on them this this past week i i think they were they were a team that struggled to do well inside the 10 i think that's why that that metric is why jamal williams got their attention well that everybody but tasem hill struggled tasem hill didn't struggle at all they didn't play them nearly as much if you if you give me a, I've got the information that made me remember that. Well, I see Tyler Algier goes to Thomas Schaefer,

and I've got four seconds on the clock, and we are in round 11 in this draft. We're going to go about five to ten more minutes. We're going to kind of recap round eight here. I did want to tell everybody, because there's more of you here than there were at the beginning of the show, this will be the last week, not for us to be here on YouTube. We'll stay here, but it'll be the last week that you can find the podcast form of this in the Fantasy Football Today podcast feed. That's because there's a new Fantasy Football Today

Dynasty feed. That's right. Get excited. Please go find find that if you're on YouTube you can just check out the the QR code in the top right hand corner or the notes in the YouTube show description if not you wherever you get podcasts you can just go search fantasy football today dynasty please subscribe please review please give us a five-star, and then please listen next week when our first episode comes out. We would greatly appreciate that. Dave, do you have the data? I don't. I'm sorry. Take that for data.

Okay, let's just go ahead then and finish up round eight. It was Kamara, A-Chain, and Swift. Then Gabe Davis, I like that, Charbonnet, and Isaiah Pacheco. Then you took George Kittle, Dave. We've already talked about that. A.J. Dillon and Sky Moore. Then James Conner, Jonathan Mingo, and Samaj P. Ryan. Dave, when it comes to Conner in comparison to these other guys that we're talking about, we've gotten past the point of thinking Arizona is probably going to add somebody else. He's been like a workhorse of all workhorses when he's been healthy for a win.

Now team, this feels like it might even be a little bit too late for James Connor. It does. And that's good value. So that's a smart pick to go and grab him in late round eight, almost a hundredth overall, a running back that can help you maybe next year too. Yeah. I mean, I think you should not draft him with that hope, but you should definitely

think of it as a possibility. That is going to do it for us on today's edition of Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. Now, we've broken down the first eight rounds of this draft we're going to do 16 rounds and those 16 rounds will all be available and reflected in the article i'll write this up it will be up by tomorrow at cbssports.com in fact if you go to the fantasy football page and you look in the top right hand corner you'll find our dynasty central which is where all of the links to all of our Dynasty content, including this mock draft, will be. Dave, thank you.

Thomas Schaefer, thank you. Thank you all for watching and listening. We'll talk to you next Tuesday.