Fantasy Football Today - How to Draft from Each Spot (08/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

FOLLOW THIS DRAFT RIGHT HERE: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRhAn29GfPOMi4AtLfLVkI8YKbKFVResUgbmE959pMhhnRdgHDNLtQpaorR4cMwcP7ErErPGYDTiupT/pubhtml Need a strategy for your spot in the draft? We'll take you through the first 4 rounds of a 12-team PPR draft. Each of our analysts was assigned three different spots in this draft and we'll reveal how each of these 12 teams were crafted. How long can you wait for a RB? What happens if you take a RB with each of your first three picks? Why was Team 3 so controversial!? We have news and notes to start the show (2:51) and then we go round-by-round (13:00) before we review our full teams later in the episode (48:00). '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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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 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. How to draft from each spot in your 12-team league. We've got a pick-by-pick series breaking this down on the website, cbssports.com slash fantasy. Very informative stuff. Check it out.

But right now, we'll give it to you on the podcast. So we've got the whole gang here. I'm Adam Azer, joined by Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, and Ben Gretsch. And the four of them did a draft where they each had three picks. And they each constructed a team from three different draft spots. And we'll talk about the strategies that they used. I want to remind you, we have a mailbag coming up tomorrow.

So get your questions in via Apple Podcasts and via email, fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Jamie, I know this is something that we've been rolling out on the website, this pick-by-pick series. Pretty useful. What can you on the website, this pick-by-pick series. Pretty useful. What can you tell the people about this series? Well, it's something we've done for years. It's really, I think, a good exercise in what you would do if you get that draft slot. A lot of times we get the question,

what do I do if I have pick five? What do I do if I have pick 10? And this is just an outline you can follow. Obviously, everybody's going to have a different take If I have picked five, what do I do if I have picked 10? And this is just a, an outline you can follow. Obviously everybody's going to have a different take if they had that own draft spot to manage themselves. But, you know, it's just, I think a blueprint of here's some players that could be available. Here are some options that you could, you know, consider. And I, I, I enjoy reading it from everybody's perspective. You know,

I think, you know think Ben, Dave, and Heath give a great outline of the picks that they are in charge of. So it's a really good exercise once you get that draft spot when you find out what your draft order is. So Jamie had picks 1, 5, and 9. Heath had picks 2, 6, and 10. Dave had 3, 7, and 11. And Ben had 4, 8, and ten. Dave had three, seven, and eleven. And Ben had four, eight, and twelve.

And guys, we're all here today. That's cool. I like it. Five-man show. Because nobody wanted me to be part of this pick-by-pick series, so I'm just moderating. Anyway, we got a lot of news and notes to get to as well. Is that you asking to be part of

the next pick-by-pick series? You want to have a couple of teams? Do to get to as well. Is that you asking to be part of the next Pick by Pick series? You want to have a couple of teams? Do you know how to write? I don't know how to write. What not to do from pick number two. Do I know how to write? My writing is really pretty awful. You should let me write just so you can make fun of me because I know how much

everybody likes to make fun of me. Let me write an article. You contribute to our magazine for a similar process that we go through where I ask you guys each a question about your team, and I have to do the most editing with that. No, that can't be true. All right, listen, DeAndre Hopkins back at practice. That's good.

But update on a couple of backfields here. Joe Mixon on HQ. We talked to someone today that said Joe Mixon's passing game role, his role in the passing game not necessarily going to increase, that Giovanni Bernard's going to still have that role, right? I get that right? Yes. Yes.

Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Inquirer said 30 to 40 passes is what he would expect for Mixon. He said just the way that Zach Taylor likes to use his running backs, that he's going to use Giovanni Bernard still in that role. So if you are not expecting Mixon to take that big leap, then this is something that you're going to buy into.

But Tyler also said that he's going to get a lot of work on the ground and they're going to lean on him as their workhorse guy. So, you know, he's, he's a back end of the first round pick. From Zach Stevens, a tweet from him at Broncos beat writer Fangio on Melvin Gordon and Philip Lindsay quote, I anticipate both playing enough where we really don't have to designate a starter.

Heath, your reaction to that. There's been a lot of buzz this week about improvements that Philip Lindsay has made as a pass catcher. And I think the way we've all kind of approached this is they might split on the ground, but Melvin Gordon's going to catch 50 or 60 passes, so it won't matter as much. If they're just splitting, it's bad news for Melvin Gordon in round three, and it's amazing news for Philip Lindsay in round 10.

Those two ADPs probably need to be closer than they are. Does anybody buy that? Because I thought pass protection was really the big issue for, for Phillip Lindsay. Phillip Lindsay was terrible in pass protection, but according to pro football focus, Melvin Gordon was only nominally better. Royce Freeman was actually the best of the three in terms of pass

protection. But he, Lindsay would have to make incredible strides in the passing game in order to take some of that role away from Melvin Gordon. Melvin's good as a pass catcher. I guess my question would be because we're kind of just taking the idea that Ronald Jones has made these huge, huge leaps on third down. Is it more likely that Ronald Jones has than Philip Lindsay has? Yes. Why?

Because, well, we've seen Ronald Jones have a fairly efficient year as a pass catcher. He just had one last year. Caught a high amount of his catches, had a nice receiving average, and he continued to work on it during the offseason. We know that Lindsey did, too, but before this offseason, Lindsey wasn't as prolific as a pass catcher i think he had six drops something like that so he wasn't nearly as efficient as ronald jones was one thing i would note on lindsey he is a bad pass protector but they threw him a lot of passes per route that he ran so like he would play on passing downs only

when he was going to get out into a route and they were throwing him some like wide receiver. They were splitting him out and throwing him some like wide receiver screens late last year. But yeah, I've mentioned before the yards per outrun stat, how there's a way you can break that out to targets per route run. Lindsay, very strong targets per route run for a running back.

So it might not be that he plays a ton on passing downs, but when he's out there, they might actually be designing more plays for him than a lot of other backs in the league and there was also it could be he's playing on on non-passing situations where he doesn't have to face a blitz or he doesn't have to face a situation where he is just asked asked to pass block you know so if he's out in a route then he can show off potentially what his ability is there was a report that Melvin Gordon was struggling to like get used to the altitude

in Denver. And I noticed something else. Sirius XM goes to training camp every year. They didn't go to training camp this year because, you know, COVID. But they, every time they talked about,

you know, all the great additions and then the team, they never mentioned Melvin and they always talked about Lindsey. And that kind of resonated with me. I wonder if there's something up there that maybe Lindsey's going to certainly have a bigger role than we all anticipated. Nick Chubb doing well as he recovers from a concussion. Cliff Kingsbury said this about Chase Edmonds.

We all feel like he's a starting running back in this league. All right. Some Chase Edmonds. We all feel like he's a starting running back in this league. All right. Some Chase Edmonds buzz. A lot of Bryce Love buzz, as Ron Rivera praised Bryce Love. Jamie, is Bryce Love going to be one of the biggest draft risers before it's all said and done?

I think so, and I think he should. You know, I mean, you're looking at a 35-year-old starter ahead of him that is clearly not the future. So at some point, I think they've got to give Love an opportunity to, uh, you know, show his chops and the other guy in Antonio Gibson is, you know, going to be on passing down situations more times than not,

or used as a pass catcher more times than not. So love is, uh, you know, has the ability to be a featured back. We saw it in college, you know, before his knee injury. And I think, you know, um, we had this conversation on HQ earlier on on Thursday there's like a handful of guys that once you get toward round eight through ten that excuse me uh love I think Damian Harris is going to be a draft riser as well uh Boston Scott Miles Sanders healthy or not Chase Edmonds Alexander Madison um I don't know Tony Pollard qualifies just yet but maybe he's in that group also but just uh and I may be missing a guyard qualifies just yet, but maybe he's in that group also.

But just, and I may be missing a guy or two, but just those guys, and maybe it's the Justin Jackson, Josh Kelly winner. Those guys are going to be the premier stash candidates that you can draft. And in some cases, it's injury related. Edmonds sort of toes the line. Madison, we know. But Scott, Ben's talked about what his role should be. I agree. in some cases it's injury related Edmonds sort of toes the line Madison we know uh but Scott Ben's talked about you know what his role should be I agree um Harris uh clearly there's an opening right now for him to be special um Love is in that same category that if these guys get featured roles my gosh they could be special and Adam I it's it's it's training camp and we're not going to get preseason games so we're all like working off some rust. So I,

I, I say this with love and just to try to help you as you move into the season, you, you don't have to say Bryce love buzz. You could just say a lot of Bryce love. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. Heath, that's kind of your game. So I will defer to you on those types of puns,

but I'll work on that. Tyreek Hill heard his hamstring. He tweaked his ham? No. No, it didn't work. Didn't work. But he hurt his hamstring. We'll keep an eye on that. Tyreek Hill. Dez Bryant is working

out for the Ravens today. Any scenario where you guys would be drafting Dez Bryant if the Ravens signed him? No. 14-team league? the Ravens signed him? No. 14-team league? 16-team league? Possibly like a 20-round draft, possibly. Sure.

Alden Smith having a good camp for the Cowboys. Pass rusher that they brought in before he dealt with some issues. He was one of the premier pass rushers in the NFL. They've got a hell of a pass rush building there. Yeah, potentially. They've got him, Everson Griffin, DeMarcus Lawrence.

They're coming along nicely. I wish Gerald McCoy had stayed healthy. Yeah, right. That's the thing. You wish he was healthy. They need a big body in between those guys. They have Don Terry Poe, but they certainly could have used Gerald McCoy. KJ Hamler, rookie wide receiver for the Broncos.

He's out a couple weeks with a hamstring injury. And just two more news items here. McCall Hardman is expected to remain as the primary kick and punt returner, according to The Athletic. Ben, does that bother you at all as someone who's very high on McCall Hardman? Do you think that takes him off the field for the snaps that we want him on the field for?

It doesn't bother me. I mean, it might take him off a little bit, but the idea with him was always this hope that um he'll at least get somewhere in the range of like 60 to 70 percent of the snaps i don't think he is probably somebody that's going to play every single snap offensively um there were some games where he was playing well below 50 and he really only played above 50 when tyree kill was injured so this injury for Tyree Kill now potentially opens up a huge role for Hardman. But if Hill's fine, you're just hoping that Hardman's out there enough. And there's plenty of guys that do the kick and punt returning

and still play over 50% of offensive snaps. So he can still get the bump that we're hoping for. Jalen Rager's also being used in that same role for the Eagles. At least they're trying him out like that. Preston Williams is doing that for the Dolphins. So, you know, you're starting to see some guys that, you know, clearly they're good with the ball in their hands, you know, so that's why I think you want them in that particular role.

But Hardman, you know, it's funny. We talked about this with the Tyreek Hill injury, and Sammy Watkins missing time apparently with, it was a hamstring or quad or something. I forget what it was, but he's missed several practices according to Adam Teicher that if this happens where Tyree kills out for an extended period of time,

Ben's going to win a lot of leagues because of all the Miko Hardman shares that he has. Also looks like Jeff Legwald of ESPN said that Melvin Gordon hurt his ribs during practice. Man, we're getting a lot of injuries. Jeez. This is rough.

I hope this is not a trend. Yeah. As I told Jamie earlier today, at least we're not hearing this player's been put on the reserve COVID list. That player's been put on the reserve COVID list. We still have a positivity rate well below 1% in the NFL. So hats off to the league for what they're doing. And Heath wrote a big story about this next news item.

You can see it all over the web. Robbie Gold, Niners kicker, he said that kicking in stadiums with no fans is going to be different because the fans usually knock down the wind. So I'll just let you read the analysis. Just draft kickers who kick indoors. That's the only kicker analysis I've ever done.

Well, the air conditioning there, the fans typically knock down, but all right, we'll see. We'll see what happens. So we got the mailbag tomorrow. Leave your questions in the Apple podcast reviews. They'll be answered on the show. Also email us fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.

The Stitcher app. I told you about that yesterday as well. Check it out. It's a great place to get any podcast you want, but sports right now, they're featuring a lot of sports podcasts, including Fantasy Baseball today and Pick 6. You can build playlists on Stitcher. You can download it for free in the app store. And as we do this draft, how to draft from each spot, please check the link in the episode description. I put a link in there so you can follow along with the picks as they were made.

Let's get started right now. Remember, click that link in the episode description and check out the picks as they go. Round one. Everybody, you want to just announce your pick? We'll just go round one. Just say your pick. Jamie, you get the first pick. Then Heath and Dave

and Ben and so on. Jamie, you're on the clock. Robbie Gold, 1.1. But there's no fans, Jamie. The wind is going to screw things up. Christian McCaffrey. Christian McCaffrey. With the second pick in the August PPR pick-by- pick draft, I select Saquon

Barkley. Peek. And I took Kamara. This is going to take historically peak and i took camara james it's gonna take forever if we do this that's it just around one jamie keep going dalvin cook at five michael thomas out of new orleans saints lied oh you're not gonna say his last name. Everybody knows there's only one Clyde on the planet. We did this before the Miles Sanders injury news.

I took Miles Sanders eight. I probably would take Devontae Adams eight if we were doing this today. I took Devontae Adams in nine before the Devontae Adams injury, and I probably would still take Devontae Adams in nine. I took Austin Eckler at 10, and I would have taken him at seven. Joe Mixon, 11. And I took Kenyon Drake at 12. Okay.

So, again, round one, your top five were typical. Heath took Michael Thomas, six. Then Clyde, Miles, Devante, Austin, Joe Mixon, and Kenyon Drake. That was your top 12. All right, so let's go back now. Ben, I was very disappointed that none of you started running back, running back, by the way, with a late pick. I have to yell at you for that, but so be it.

Ben, you're on the clock with the 13th pick, and you just took Kenyon Drake, and I didn't say the format here. This is full PPR, two running backs, three wide receivers, and a flex. One quarterback, tight end, DST, whatever. No DST. Alright, fine. Who cares?

So, 15 rounds. We assume that people know what to do with kickers and DSTs if they draft them. Ben, you had Kenyon Drake. What did you do in round two with the 13th pick? What was your strategy? Yeah, so you made an interesting comment about going running back, running back at the end.

And I think you can do that because wide receiver is deep, but especially in this format where there's three receivers in a flex, I want to flex a wide receiver. And if I do that, my number one isn't coming till the three, four turn and my number one and number two, and probably I'm not going to get, um, as deep into the receivers as I want it to. So for me, I actually would disagree. I don't want to go running back, running back. I don't like the compounded risk of two running backs early.

I want to get right into the receivers and then build that out deep into my flex spot as quickly as possible. So I have really explosive receivers all the way through those four slots. So I went Drake, Tyree kill, obviously now Tyree kill. We don't know about a status that was more news today. So I'm really hitting on all cylinders here with Miles Sanders and Tyree kill in this draft. Well, those are two different teams though. Just two different teams. Kenyon, Drake and Tyree kill is team 12 team 11. Dave, you took two different teams, though. Two different teams. Kenyon Drake and Tyreek Hill is Team 12. Team 11, Dave, you took Joe Mixon around one. Why didn't you go running back, running back? Because I knew that I'd be able to get

one of Drake, Hill, and Julio, and I think those guys are just amazing football talents. Want to have them on my fantasy team. I was kind of secretly hoping that Ben would go receiver receiver and that Drake would make it back to me. And then I would have started with two RBs, but Julio just fell. Easy

pick in early round two, not overthinking it. Okay. So you go with Mixon and Julio, and I guess it's worth noting that after round one, Kenyon Drake goes with the 12th pick. The running backs that were still available that are going to go in this range are Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Nick Chubb, Aaron Jones, James Conner went in round two. None of those guys have a certainty for a lot of

catches. Maybe that is why most of those guys are flat out not going to catch a lot of passes. Like, like it's not really, not that they don't have a certainty other than like the names you said, I guess Jones and Connor at the end of the round have a hope for 40 or 50

catches, but the rest of them, there's really not even a hope for that. Right. Okay. Um, all right. So that,

so team 12 is Drake and Tyree kill team. 11 is mixing and Julio Jones, Heath, Austin Eckler in round one. And what'd you do in round two? I, well, you know, I said when I took Eckler, we're taking him into seven. I was lying. He's my number eight overall player,

but my number nine players, Travis Kelsey, and he was still there. So I took him. And one of the reasons that I like getting Kelsey here is I'm not going to take Mark Andrews in the third round. And I really don't like taking Mark Andrews that early in the fourth round. There's still generally some really good wide receivers left or you're taking one of those veteran running backs. And so I'm probably not taking Andrews. I'm definitely not getting Kittle.

This is really the only shot that I'm going to get at having a great tight end. That's interesting. And yeah, just to flash forward to round four, Heath with this team of Eckler, Kelsey, he took Robert Woods. And I know if you had to choose between Robert Woods and Mark Andrews, you're taking Woods, right?

In full PPR for sure, yeah. All right, Jamie, with the ninth pick, you took Devontae Adams. And in round two, you took? Josh Jacobs. I was thrilled to have him there at that spot. I think, you know, he's clearly crazy about catching 60 passes, so when he catches 75,

I'm going to be thrilled about getting him in round two. But I do think his receptions go up. I think he's a borderline first-round pick for me, so I was like he said about getting Travis Kelsey, I was very happy to get Josh Jacobs to that spot. So again, three-receiver league with a flex

and full PPR, And you took Devante Adams in round one, Jamie, with the ninth pick. Did you give any thought to taking a wide receiver? If Kelsey had fallen, would you have taken Kelsey there? Why did you go with the running back? I, like I said, I think Jacobs has top 10 upside. I think he's going to challenge for the rushing lead. I think he's going to be more involved in the passing game. So if he gets north of 40 catches and does what I expect him to do on the ground, then I think this is, uh,

you know, qualifies as a steal. So, all right, sorry, let me, let me rephrase. Let me rephrase.

Right. Cause we already talked about Ben, Dave and Heath, their second round picks, but all of them took running backs in round one. So I know, you know, you took,

I did not consider going right wide receiver, wide receiver. The only way I would have done that is if Tyreek or Julio fell. What about Kelsey? What if he had been there? I would have considered Kelsey, but I like Jacobs better. All right. There we go.

Miles Sanders to Ben in round one with the eighth pick in round two. What did you do? I went with DJ Moore. And in our write-ups on the site, one of the cool things that we do is our favorite pick, the pick we might regret, and the pick that can make or break our team. I picked this as the pick I might regret, which is interesting because I love DJ more. Everyone knows that I have him as my wide receiver five. I have pretty much all off season and I took him here at wide receiver five, but

I did strongly consider Derek Henry, which is kind of blasphemous for me. I considered George Kittle as well for a lot of the reasons that he said. And, but really honestly, more to the point of, you know, why I might regret it. I pass on Chris Godwin. I pass on DeAndre Hopkins. If Moore's not what I think he is,

I'm going to regret this pick pretty obviously. So I'm taking him pretty much at his ceiling where I have him ranked above ADP. It's an aggressive pick for sure. So Miles Sanders, DJ Moore, and then this team, the eighth pick, spoiler alert, in round four, you took Mark Andrews, right in the middle of round four, basically. So who is the wide receiver that went after Mark Andrews

that you would have taken? Thielen, Cooper, McLaurin, Metcalf, Hilton, Chark. Who would your favorite wide receiver have been there? Probably Cooper, even though I don't take him a lot. He is the highest ranked of those. Okay, so would you rather have Cooper and Kittle or Andrews and Moore? See, I think I'd rather have Andrews and Moore. But it is interesting.

You noted Woods for Heath at the 4-0-2 or 4-0-3. Woods is in a tier up for me from Cooper. So maybe if Woods could have slipped or one of these other receivers that had gone at the turn, I took A.J. Brown on my other team. So if A.J. Brown falls back to me, maybe I take A.J. Brown and Kittle over Moore and Andrews. I think there are scenarios

where I would have rather have taken Kittle there. Gotcha. All right, Tate. Finally, we get a team that goes with two running backs with its first two picks. That's the Team 7, which is Dave's team. Clyde Edwards-Elair in round one. And in round two? Derrick Henry.

So, you know, he's the best available running back that was left. And I'm going to be sensitive to when I'm up pretty much every pick, what's the running back situation going to look like when I'm up again next? And I knew that if I didn't take a running back here, if I had gone with Kittle or DeAndre Hopkins or Chris Godwin, my best case scenario is that somebody like Melvin Gordon is there for me in round three. And I figure that Derrick Henry, as long as he stays on the field and that's an if but if he stays on the field i think he's got a chance to put up modestly good numbers for ppr

if by some miracle the titans wake up and say wow we should like use this amazing bruiser of a back in different ways so that we're not this lame one-dimensional offense that occasionally throws to A.J. Brown, that would be amazing. And that would enhance his value. And that would make him a steal in the middle of round two. But we've talked about this. We haven't really seen it from the Titans yet. So there's no reason to buy into Derrick Henry all of a sudden being a 50 catch running back. But between him and Edwards-Elair, I think I've got all the upside at running back in this draft. Okay. And you would not have even gotten Melvin Gordon in round three. He did not make it back to your third pick.

That would have sucked. Heath, team six, you took Michael Thomas in round one. Why did you not take a running back in round two? Because Dave took Derrick Henry. Like really that's, that's, that's the main reason I, I,

if it's had been a couple of weeks ago, I probably might've taken Nick Chubb and it wasn't necessarily the concussion that kept me from taking Nick Chubb. It's the, the building buzz in Cleveland that Kareem Hunt's going to have an even bigger role than I was anticipating. And so I just don't feel... Like, the problem with Chubb is

I never really thought he had any chance of catching 40 passes, which we talk about that with Jacobs and Henry. Now I don't know that he has a chance at 300 carries either. If he doesn't get either one of those, then he's not worth a mid-second round pick or he's just barely worth a mid-second round pick.

So I took George Kittle. All right, you take Kittle. So now, in retrospect, McCaffrey, Barkley, Zeke, Kamara, Cook, Edwards, Ziller, Eckler, Mixon, Drake. I'm losing count, guys.

That's nine, right? And then Jacobs, 10, and then Henry, 11. And then you took Kittle in retrospect with this team team six since you did not get a top 11 running back which appears you want in this format um do you think if you could do it again you would have taken a running back in round one instead of michael thomas no chance i don't think that the running backs from that, like the difference between Michael Thomas and the running backs after Dalvin Cook for me is,

is way too big to consider that risky, right? Is that how you look at me? It's not even that they're too risky. It's that I don't think it's fair to expect any of those running backs. We expect Michael Thomas is going to regress, but he scored probably 40 to 50 more fantasy points than I think it would be fair to expect from any of the running backs left.

I think I miscounted. I think it was actually 12 running backs that were off the board. Not, I don't, I, he is definitely safer than those running backs. I don't think I can craft an argument that in full PPR, any of the running backs left have a bigger ceiling than Michael Thomas.

So it really comes down to how you feel about your first round pick when you're in the middle of round one. And if you like playing it safe, there's nothing wrong with taking Michael Thomas. But it's not playing it safe. And if he's going to Savanta Adams. Well, sure it is. He outscored every running back. He doesn't have the same upside as some of the other running backs. He outscored every running back besides

Richard McCaffrey last year. He did. That's true. But does that mean he's going to do it again? It doesn't necessarily mean he's going to do it again, but it also doesn't mean that these guys that have never done it are going to do it this year. Fair point. But I would say the ceiling is still higher, even in full PPR for the running backs, particularly because they can catch the ball and that's on top of running and they could score two different ways. Thomas isn't rushing Bernie touchdowns that can't help them. And it's the position scarcity I think is real and people don't want to miss out on that. So really, to me, it comes down to if you want to play it safe,

take Thomas and that's cool. If you want to take a chance and listen, it could go very badly for Clyde Edwards-Hilaire or Miles Sanders or for Dalvin Cook. But if you go with those guys, I think their ceiling is a little bit better than Michael Thomas. And I pulled back on Thomas. I don't remember how many points he scored last year, but I've pulled back 15% on what he scored last year. And I still have him projected to score more fantasy points than any of the running backs that are left by a pretty good margin.

Yeah. He gets 150 catches. No. What I was going to say is that if he gets 150 targets, which is what he got two and three years ago, and he has the same efficiency, he still would have been

the number one wide receiver last year. I don't know where he would have ranked among running backs. But look, he wasn't the second pick. He was the sixth pick. Obviously, everybody agrees those, or almost everybody agrees those top five running backs

have more upside than Thomas. Let's move on. Let's move on. Jamie, so Nick Chubb was there for you in round two. That's who you took with the Dalvin Cook team. Team five, Dalvin Cook round one, Nick Chubb round two. So there's another team that's running back, running back. Yeah, same thing. You know, I just, the best player on the board,

I think he's got a chance to compete for the rushing title. He's going to lose in the passing game, as we saw with Kareem Hunt. But we had Nathan Zagura, who is a former friend of the show, former colleague of ours. He is the senior media broadcaster for the Browns. And the one thing he said, which I think we talk about a lot is there's going to be enough opportunities for these running backs to both play in both areas. And, you know, he's going to still be involved in the passing game. He may not be as involved as he was before Kareem Hunt was while Kareem Hunt

was suspended. But I think we're maybe overlooking a little bit just what how much he's going to maybe come off the field and passing situation. So I still think he's going to have in that 35, 40 catch range potentially. And so I'm still encouraged by Chubb. That's a lot. I don't think he's a first-round pick in PPR. That's a big jump because he had, what, 11 in eight games with Hunt last year?

Yep. But they basically just didn't use him in that role. Yeah. Okay. But the problem is now the Browns are just, I think they're going to end up just using both guys in every role. Right. And you're just not going to know when it's going to be Chubb

and when it's going to be Hunt. I don't think there's one thing that either back can do supremely better than the other. Chubb might be a better overall talent, and certainly he's faster, but I don't think he's leaving Kareem Hunt in the dust. I think the Browns

really love what they have in Kareem Hunt, and they're going to use them both a lot. Okay, the next pick is Ben Gretches. He had the fourth pick. He took Alvin Kamara, and your second round pick was? Chris Gobb. Chris Gobb.

Okay, yeah. Not much explanation needed there. The best running backs available were Aaron Jones and James Conner. Kittle and Kelsey were off the board, so Chris Gobb went. Dave, you had Ezekiel Elliott again, and then in round two with the third pick, well, pick three was Ezekiel Elliott again and then in round two with the third pick

well, pick three was Ezekiel Elliott and in round two you took I took DeAndre Hopkins because he was the last elite tier receiver on the board, at least in my opinion, elite tier receiver and I love a lot of the running backs that were left. I assume one of them would make it back to me in round three so I figured, you know, take the best receiver now and get a running back in round three.

I got to say, Heath, man. Team two. Just tell me before we even get it. How do you feel about team two? Really super weird. I think it's the only team this year that I've started with three running backs. And so it was uncomfortable,

but at the same time, and I, and we talked about this on yesterday's show, I think, and, and there was a running back taken right after I took, I took James Connor and Chris Carson at the two, three turn.

And there was a second pick, but right. There were two, but yes, right. Um, and I think Aaron Jones is right in that group, but I think there's a big drop-off at running back after that.

Ben thinks that drop-off happens after Nick Chubb. I think it happens a couple of acts later. And so I took the plunge. And it totally ruined me. I was incensed. And this is a mock. I thought for sure that Heath would have taken at least one receiver with one of those picks in rounds two or three.

Well, why did you settle for Melvin Gordon? If you don't love him? I, I, at the time I did like him. Hold on. We got to look at there.

I still kind of do. Well, no, I mean the report that came out about Philip Lindsay and all that, that makes me a little squeamish about it, but he would have been the running back. I would have taken anyway. Like if we were doing it today, I'm not going to take Levy on. They're all that, that makes me a little squeamish about it, but he would have been the running back I would have taken anyway. If we were doing it today, I'm not going to take Le'Veon.

But why do you have to take a running back, though? That's the question. Because I don't really love the running backs that are going to be left for me in round four. This goes back to what I was saying when I think we were talking about where I was at with Team 7 with Edwards, Hilaire, and Henry. Sure, but not to skip ahead, but you took DK Metcalf in round four and then forced three of your next four picks for running backs.

Those three guys are combined better than what Melvin Gordon's going to give you. Yeah, but I can't start them all combined. No, but you can start one of them and you get a better receiver there. I guess you're right. I could have. Well, yeah. All right, so it got interesting. So pick two, Saquon Barkley. Heath took James Connor. And then Jamie with pick one had Christian McCaffrey. And what did you do with the 2-3

turn? I was surprised to see Aaron Jones there. Again, clearly, I think we all have the same sentiment that he's going to regress. But to what level is really the question here. And like Heath said, there's a drop off. I think it's Aaron Jones is where the question here. And like Keith said, you know, there's a drop off. I think it's Aaron Jones is where the drop starts. So, you know, you've heard me say he's the bridge running back. But to get him at the end of round two,

I thought was good value. I had planned on going receiver, receiver. But when Jones was there, it was just an easy player to take. OK, and then you took Juju. So yeah, another easy selection. McCaffrey, Jones, Juju.

And then Heath goes Barkley james connor and then in round three chris carson so team two starts with three running backs and i'm glad you did this heath because i know very very clearly i will never start a three wide receiver ppr league with a flex with three running backs can i can i chime in here real quick because there's something about this that i absolutely love and this is from. I would never do this to start a draft. But my favorite thing about this, and it's brilliant, is that Heath took one more running back, exactly one more running back the rest of the draft. If you're starting your draft, running back, running back, running back, and you're committing that much draft capital to that position, you need those guys to stay healthy.

You need them to be good. And you're probably going to be great if they are. But then don't commit a bunch of bench spots to running backs. Go out there and make sure you have receiver depth. Make sure you have a potential difference maker tight end, which he took two to make sure he can cover that. He got a couple of good quarterbacks. I love that he finished this draft with four running backs total.

The only thing I would disagree with, this draft with four running backs total. I don't think I would disagree with, I wouldn't have taken Minshew. I would have taken, I don't know where Benny Snell went or somebody just in case, like just take one more guy just to kind of cover yourself a little bit like a fifth running back to me makes more sense than a second quarterback on this roster. That's a good point. Running back

is the insurance policy for one of it doesn't have to be the insurance policy, but I was looking late, but it would be nice. I was just looking in the Minshew range. Like I took McFarlane one pick before him, I think, or one pick after him. Like, you know, you don't have to take a handcuff, but you know, somebody that if it helps your roster a little bit more,

like you could use that running back depth more so than the quarterback depth. And I did on every team in this draft because I've talked about it. I took two quarterbacks and two tight ends because it's a 15 round draft with no kicker, no defense. And I think that's deep enough where this season you need to do that.

Okay. But, but you're right. It would be, I would have a little more security if I'd done that. And my, like to what, to Ben's point,

my thought is if Carson and Connor stay healthy, it's going to be a really good team. If Carson and Connor get hurt, it doesn't matter how many backup running backs I have. My team's going to suck. really good team. If Carson and Connor get hurt, it doesn't matter how many backup running backs I have. My team's going to suck. Your wide receivers. I don't think that that's the case at all. Hold on.

His wide receivers is like, look, if we're sitting here looking at the team, we know what it is. His team is Barkley's team to Barkley, Connor, Carson, T Y Hilton,

Keenan, Allen, Julian Edelman, Preston Williams might be your flex. Evan. No, Carson's his flex. Carson. Ohon Williams might be your flex. Evan Ingram. No, Carson's his flex. Carson. Oh, right.

I'm sorry. Right. Sorry. My bad. Barkley, Connor, Carson, Hilton, Keenan Allen, Edelman, Evan Ingram. He's playing Williams in the six games that Hilton will miss and the seven games that Edelman will miss. That's a lot of injuries.

You still need receiver depth, though. Yeah, of course. It's a good thing he went and got that. Yeah. Okay. All right. So that's team two. Team three.

So Dave, Ezekiel Elliott, DeAndre Hopkins, and then you took Melvin Gordon in round three and you took him over Kenny Galladay. How could you take Melvin Gordon over Kenny Galladay? Wanted that running back. Had to have that second running back. Ben's going to tell you to take better players. Well, is this really what you're going to do?

I mean, is Melvin Gordon good enough to go position scarcity over better player in terms of taking Gordon over Gallaudet? I think he could be. It's just a matter of it happening that way in Denver. I mean, you lose sight of the fact that Melvin Gordon was regularly getting double-digit touchdowns, regularly was getting well over 1,000 total yards. I think he's got the potential to do that, and if

Phillip Lindsey, if this report had never come out, we wouldn't be second-guessing Melvin Gordon here much at all. I think we'd agree that he is a very good No. 2 fantasy running back, and I think he still is, even if Phillip Lindsey is going to take 10 to 12 kids. Well, I look, I know that there's not going to be a running back that I love for me in

round four. I'm picking early in round three. If I take Kenny Galladay, what do you mean? Why? What's there not to understand? Who would I have taken there? Jamie, look at the draft results.

No, fine. So let's say I took Galladay. Who are the running backs that are left in late round four? You rotate between Singletary or Mostert. I think the idea would be that Metcalf would be your number three receiver. Galladay would be your number two.

Well, obviously, that's what it would be if I'd gone that route. Or you could have taken Singletary in round four and your boy Ronald Jones in round five and had a running back two between the two of those. Yes, you could have gone Zeke, Hopkins, Galladay, Singletary, Ronald Jones.

Ben looks like he wants to reach the screen and choke Dave right now. Haven't you been listening to anything I've said for two years? No, I mean, why is it so important, I guess, for you to have that good RB2 in this format? Full PPR, three receivers and a flex. I'm not saying it shouldn't be,

but tell me why is that so important? Instead of just saying, okay, I got Zeke, he's my RB1, and I'm going to take four or five other running backs and hope one of them is my RB2. I feel like I can find a receiver worthy of a draft spot anywhere in the draft. And I think that I can find a wide receiver who might not give me the week-to-week numbers of Kenny Galladay, but still good PPR weekly numbers later on in the draft. There are a lot of wide receivers that are pretty good in PPR. Are they elite level like Kenny Galladay?

No. Okay. I'm probably going to give up some points there, but I can't say the same for running back. And you guys can tell me to take Devin Singletary and Ronald Jones. And I love that combo. And if I had known then what I know now, I probably would have done that.

But I draft with too many people now that like Ronald Jones. So I can't guarantee myself that I'm going to get them every single time. Just in the way you built this team, though, you only have four wide receivers. Yeah, that's typically how I roll. I don't like to carry a lot of wide receivers, even in a league like this, Jamie, with three wide receivers and a flex, because I can find somebody that can get me 10 to 12 PPR points

off the waiver wire most weeks. And this league's a little bit different because we went 15 rounds and we didn't draft any kickers or defenses. So I think if we actually played this league out, yeah, the talent pool on the waiver wire, it's going to be ugly. But in a normal league where you are drafting a defense and kickers and there's going to be somebody there. And I'm confident that I can find receivers every week just to fill in those spots.

Is it going to be a dominant spot? No, I'm hoping Melvin Gordon comes through. And I think Melvin Gordon can, if he's given the role that we've thought until today, he would have had in Denver. And in Dave's defense, as the kind of wide receiver guy, I mean, his point is the exact, it's just where we diverge. I don't think these late round receivers are going to be consistent week to week. I'm not confident I can find those guys.

I think it's a little harder to do easier said than done, but if Dave is, then that's fine. It's just a difference of opinion. It's streaming. I'm streaming my number three receiver. If the guys that I drafted don't work out. I will say like an interesting point because it's something Ben talked about yesterday and, and like where that line is. After Dave took Melvin Gordon, we went 10 picks without a running back being selected in this draft. Like Ben would like for that to happen after Nick Chubb.

I would like for that to happen after Chris Carson. This time it happened after Melvin Gordon, but there's that spot where everyone agrees, okay, there's awesome wide receivers left, and we're not going to take any more running backs for a round. And just to keep picking this team apart, you go Zeke, Hopkins, Gordon. Thank God I got two other teams in this thing. Yeah, but three of your next five picks were running backs. You drafted one more wide receiver than you did quarterback.

You drafted three quarterbacks. Well, you guys left Tom Brady for me in round like 13. Of course I'm going to take that. But you know what? You know what would happen if we played this league out? I would end up trading Tom Brady for some mediocre wide receiver. Oh. One of you guys will want Brady.

He's going to be fantastic this year. You guys are nuts with quarterbacks sometimes. Of course, I'm nuts with them too. No, you all. Yeah, everybody. I'm just as guilty as you are, but Brady and Rob Cortina is crazy. I'm just saying, once you

got Zeke and Gordon, then in rounds five, six, and seven, you also took running backs. I feel like maybe if you had just taken one more wide receiver. That's the point Jamie already made. Let's move on from this team of days. Team four is Ben. Camara in round one. Godwin in round two.

It was five, six, and eight, by the way. And Phillip Lindsay was one of those running backs. So kiss my ass, all of you. Dude, your team sucks. This team is awesome. It's a great team. Go ahead. Alvin Kamara in round one for Ben at four.

Chris Godwin. And then in round three. I'd say Galladay there. And that's going to be a theme for me. I think in a lot of leagues, if, unless I take Kelsey or Kittle on the second, but running back receiver, receiver is a start that I'm really,

really comfortable with this year. Okay. Team five is Jamie. It's Dalvin cook and Nick Chubb. So far going wide receiver here, three receivers at a flex. No, I wasn't going to pass on Patrick Mahomes.

So, you know, like Dave said, we go a little bit too crazy with quarterbacks, but round three, I think from a homes is a good spot for him. And I had a fairly good feeling that I would get one of my top 24 receivers in round four, which happened with Terry McLaurin. I did not expect to take Leonard Fournette in round five,

not to jump ahead, but I'm going to. And then very similar to what we just talked about, like Heath, I'm sorry, like what Ben was saying that Heath did, I just started just throwing a lot of capital at wide receiver after that. So I don't love Devontae Parker in round six, but he was, you know, the next guy that I thought has the chance to still be a good enough number two wide receiver. But, you know, then I just started taking guys I like in Johnson Shepard

and Deontay Johnson, Sterling Shepard, and Anthony Miller. All right, But, you know, then I just started taking guys I like in, in Johnson Shepard and Deontay Johnson, Sterling Shepard and Anthony Miller. All right, Heath, you had the six pick Michael Thomas, George Kittle, still no running back here. What'd you do in round three? Well, you know, I took three running backs to other teams, so I didn't want to take any running backs with this team. I took Alan Robinson and this is the point where I would agree

that I took the safe pick. Like I feel pretty confident Alan Robinson is going to be a top 12 wide receiver in PPR this year. I don't have a lot of hope that he's going to be a top five guy. But I really, with this roster, the next round I took Amari Cooper. I think there's a pretty decent chance that I've got three top 13 or 14 wide receivers and the number two tight end. And it probably won't matter who my running backs are if that's the case it won't matter

it won't matter what's that what's that been I said points are points right but you still need to start running back but if that's the case then why isn't Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes the top two picks in the draft because you can get

Tom Brady in round 13. Well, exactly. That's the point. But if you're going to go that route, Heath's running backs are perfect. Yeah, I think you drafted good running backs. So the team six was Michael Thomas, George Kittle, Alan Robinson, Amari Cooper, and then Kareem Hunt, DeAndre Swift, Tariq Cohen, and Kerryon Johnson.

I think you drafted good running backs, I guess. They locked up the Lions backfield. That's a championship. Tariq Cohen and PPR is going to be a borderline starter. Kareem Hunt is a borderline starter, if not better than that, depending on what happens with Nick Chubb. And then he has one of the Lions guys. So he just needs two of them.

All you need is two. Right. Yeah, that's kind of my... Dave, you know, so he just needs two of them. All you need is two. Right. Yeah, that's kind of my, Dave, that was a good comeback, Dave, with the quarterback points or points thing. It's more just running backs and receivers, I would say, that I mean with the points or points thing. But he's going to get some points out of running back. He's going to give up some points to a lot of his opponents because they might only score

him 10 per week sometimes. And other guys might have, you know, running back second score him 20 plus. But if he has three top 10 receivers in the number two tight end, he's making up those points somewhere else. Like it doesn't have to come from running back. You know what I mean? Heath, when you look at this team, right? Michael Thomas, Kittle, Allen Robinson, Amari Cooper, Kareem Hunt, DeAndre Swift, Tariq

Cohen, Kerryon Johnson. Do you need Robinson and Cooper to be good? Can they be bad and you can still have a good team? It depends on what you mean. They could disappoint. They could be low-end number twos instead of high-end number twos,

and I think I could be okay because I think there's enough upside with those running backs. But no, if your third and fourth round pick are just terrible, you've got an uphill battle. Right, but that's not just because you took receivers. That's just how it is for everybody, no matter who you take. If your picks stink, you're in trouble.

I understand that, but I guess when you're not really diversifying your portfolio, but when you've completely forsaken running backs for the first four rounds, I wonder if it sort of gives you less margin for error with those picks because you're going to be weak at running backs for the first four rounds. I wonder if it sort of gives you less margin for error with those picks because you're going to be weak at running backs,

so you need to crush it at wide receiver. I could see that being true, but I think it's more true of the team two where I took three running backs. Where you need those running backs to be good. I think it's more important that James Conner and Chris Carson are good than it is that Allen Robinson and Amari Cooper are. Yeah, well, fair enough.

But you also have Kittle on the team, though. Right. All right, Dave, Team 7 was Clyde Edwards-Elair and Derek Henry. So this is a two running back team. Round 3, what'd you do? Cooper Cup. Safe pick. 90 catches.

A lot of touchdowns. Okay. Ben, Miles Sanders in round 1 with pick eight DJ more in round two. And then Mike Evans, who I think is, you know, I'm not trying to bash any of the receivers ahead of him, but I think Mike Evans is woefully undervalued.

I mean, I almost feel like you could make a case for him over DJ more in the early second round where I took DJ more. I'm just not really convinced that, and I took Godwin in this draft too. I really liked Godwin, but I think they're going to get similar targets. Evans is going to get way more air yards.

He's going to have the downfield targets. His role is more valuable for producing fancy points. Yes. Godwin was way more efficient last year, but Evans has six straight thousand yard seasons. I don't understand why this guy goes late third. Honestly, I guess guys,

instead of telling me about the player you picked, tell me why you picked that position, basically. I already made that point. What do you mean? In my pick four, I told you I like to go running back, wide receiver, wide receiver. So I diversified a little bit. Go with it. This is podcasting.

Jamie with the ninth pick took Devontae Adams, then Josh Jacobs in round two, and then? Similar to the other pick five, where I took Patrick Mahomes. Lamar Jackson's just sitting there. I think it's a good spot to take him.

I like the fact that I already had one of my top receivers and one of my top running backs, so it was easy to take the best player on the board in Lamar Jackson. Okay, Heath with the tenth pick pick Austin Eckler in round one, Travis Kelsey in round two. And who'd you take around three? Yeah,

I took, uh, Calvin Ridley and it wasn't totally an easy choice. It was an easy choice for me to take a wide receiver there. Um, I actually kind of thought that I would get Levy on bell by not taking him, but I wasn't considering taking LevyVeon Bell over Calvin Ridley. I didn't get Le'Veon Bell back.

Spoiler alert. No, you almost did. So that's Eckler, Kelsey, and Ridley at the 10. If you had to pick again, Heath, would you have taken Le'Veon? No. No, I wouldn't take Le'Veon over Ridley, but I do wish that I had got Le'Veon the next round. Okay. All right, Dave, with the 11th pick,

took Joe Mixon in round one and Julio Jones in round two and in round three. I did not want to take Le'Veon Bell either in round three. The receiver that I liked best was Tyler Lockett. So I took him and just figured I would take my chances with whatever would be there in round four. Had to get another receiver there because I didn't love the running backs that were left.

All right. So it's mixing Julio Jones and Tyler Lockett. And then Ben had Kenyon Drake in round one at the 12th pick with Tyree kill. And then what'd you do at the three, four turn? I went AJ Brown and Odell Beckham. This one ended up being my favorite team.

I got a lot of upside receivers and I kept hammering receiver. I've talked before, but I think that they're all maybe a little bit boom or bust, but I think it spreads out some of the variants. I don't think there's going to be a lot of weeks where they all have down weeks. I think there are going to be potential monster weeks. I feel we can look at this team. Maybe we'll go through four picks and then look at the teams and how they shaped up, right? I feel we can look at this team. I mean, maybe we'll go through four picks and then look at the teams

and how they shaped up, right? So pick 12 was Drake. Pick 13 was Tyreek Hill. That's how he started his team. AJ Brown, Odell Beckham are his next two picks. I mean, I really feel like you took very risk-reward play. And I feel like the only safe player on your team

after the first two is Jared Goff, who you took in round 13. But it's a volatile team, isn't it? I mean, a lot of potential outcomes here, right? So it's Goff at quarterback, Drake in round one. You took Cam Akers at the end of round six, was it? Or the beginning of round six. Tyreek Hill, AJ Brown, Odell Beckham, Will Fuller. Four straight picks, rounds two through five. Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown, Odell Beckham, Will Fuller. Four straight picks, rounds two through five. Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown, Odell Beckham, Will Fuller. What did you think of your team?

Hayden Hurst is your tight end. Let's talk about Team 12 here. Yeah, I love it. I mean, Fuller's going to be my flex. And between Hill, Brown, Beckham, Fuller, I know people have noted, like a lot of people have noted they have low floors, particularly low weekly floors. They're not going to be consistent and i was just saying that i think

when you have all of that type of upside in a lineup more likely than not they're not all going to bust in the same week but if they you know if they do i'll lose that week that has to be the strength of this team but drake gives me a legitimate number one hurst and goff i think gave me plenty of stability at quarterback and tight end and then it's just a matter of do i find a weekly starter at running back two out of Akers, Breida, Boston, Scott? I think I can do that with those guys. I think I was fine with the running backs

in the middle rounds. I still got CeeDee Lamb and LaVisca Chenault. If one of these, like if Fuller gets hurt or if Hill's not healthy, I think those are really high upside rookies as well. I agree with you that there's a lot of volatility here, but I like seeking volatility. I think there's a lot of volatility here, but I like seeking volatility. I think there's a lot of upside on this roster. All right. And so just to be clear,

he's loaded at wide receiver. Four of his first five picks are wide receiver. He's got Goff as a late round quarterback and Hayden Hurst in round 10. So what did he do at running back? This is pick 12. Kenyon Drake in round one, cam acres in round six, Matt Brita, Boston Scott in rounds eight and nine. Right. Well, Armstead in round 12 and Lynn Bowden in round 14. The only thing I would have done differently is the CD land pick.

I would have probably gone running back there just because I think you probably got lamb a little bit later, especially again, you know, knowing who you're drafting with. I don't think any of us are going to take lamb in that spot. And if you, you know,

whoever it may be, you know, that came whoever it may be, Antonio Gibson, for example, I know you drafted him in pick eight coming back. Something like that, I think, may have been better for this team. Okay, so that's Team 12, which is very wide receiver heavy, did take a running back in round one, and then four wide receivers. Team 11 is Dave's. That's Joe Mixon in round one, Julio Jones in round two,

Tyler Lockett in round three, and who'd you take in round four? Le'Veon Bell. I hit the draft button. And you know what? In a PPR league, it's not that bad. I was pretty... I wasn't thrilled, but I was okay with it.

I mean, Le'Veon's going to be a guy that a lot of people settle for, and I settled for him to be my RB2. So how did this team turn out? You started your team with a running back in rounds one and four, and wide receivers in rounds two and three, Mixon, Le'Veon Bell, Julio Jones, Tyler Lockett,

and then how did you play out the rest of Team 11? I picked up another running back in round five. I figured that was the way to go because Ben needed a running back, so I took Mark Ingram before he could get him. Not that he would have taken him. He probably wouldn't have, but I wanted to get him anyway. Tyler Boyd in round six, I was thrilled with in a full PPR, such a different type of wide receiver. They're really happy to have him as my number three Higby after that, then James White,

who just, you know, really good running back depth, especially in PPR. Jalen Rager, Tevin Coleman, Damian Harris. I don't know how I got Harris so late, but I did. And then in rounds 12 and 13, Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford. I figured between the two of them, one will start each week. Giovanni Bernard in round 14 to go with Joe Mixon. Randall Cobb. 10 PPR points per week minimum for Randall Cobb this year. He was my last pick.

All right, so Let me just ask you this. Who do you like better? Josh Jacobs or Derek Henry? I think I probably like Jacobs a slightly bit more in full PPR over Henry. I think there's a little bit more of a chance for him.

Okay. All right. Which team, which start do you like better? Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, Tyler Lockett, Robert Woods, or Joe Mixon, Julio Jones, Tyler Lockett, Le'Veon Bell? Julio Jones.

I'm happy with how my team turned out. Okay, so you'd rather have Julio and Bell than Jacobs and Woods. Correct. How about the rest of you guys? This is the decision you're going to have to make with these picks here. Running back, running back or running back wide receiver. What did you say, Jamie?

Jacobs and Woods. Heath, Ben? I would take Julio and Bell. I would 10 times out of 10 take Julio and Woods. You could do that too. Why are youio and Woods. You could do that too. Why are you even asking me? You could do that too.

All right. So if I had done that, let's just say I had done that, then I could have had David Montgomery as my second running back or any of the rookies not named, Edward DeLair or Jonathan Taylor as my second running back. No, no, Dave. You still could have had Mark Ingram. You could have had Mark Ingram and David Montgomery.

Yeah, you would have gone... I could have had both of those guys. That would have been pretty sexy, right? You go Mixon, Julio, Lockett, Woods, Ingram, and then Montgomery, if you want. I'd get 30 catches out of my RB2 and RB3 combined. But you'd have Robert Woods instead of Le'Veon Bell, who's got Frank Gore there and a terrible offense. Isn have Robert Woods instead of Le'Veon Bell who's got like Frank Gore

there and a terrible offense. Isn't Robert Woods just a safer pick? But he's in the best shape of his life. They're saying it. I've never heard that line before. I'm really excited. Who's Robert Woods? I'm not saying anyone's right or wrong. Those are the decisions you're going to have to make. Alright,

Team 10, Heath. Austin Eckler, Travis Kelsey, Calvin Ridley, and then you took Robert Woods. I got that Robert Woods that everybody wants. There it is. And he's your wide receiver, too. He is my wide receiver, too. This was probably, of the three teams, my favorite.

I really like... Are we just going through my team now? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so my wide receiver trio from rounds three through five, Calvin Ridley, Robert Woods, and AJ Green. I took Jameson Crowder in round eight, just in case AJ Green's not AJ Green anymore. But I was so happy.

I know Dave doesn't like David Montgomery. I was so happy to get Davidgomery in round six as my number i really didn't think when i went kelsey ridley woods green that i would have a number two running back as good as david montgomery took to sean watson in round three so i by my view i'm very good at wide receiver i'm elite at quarterback and tight end oh yeah and i have austin eckler and you took to seanun Watson around seven. Is that the first time anyone called David Montgomery good? I called him

good when he was coming out. That Calvair too. He might be good, but I'm sure Heath was very happy. He's going to be very involved. David Montgomery. So the moral of the story here for Team 10, you start Eckler and Kelsey. And even in a three-receiver PPR league, there are enough wide receivers where he went Ridley Woods,

AJ Green, and he was very happy with that. Still ended up getting Deshaun Watson, Jamison Crowder, who could be a PPR must start, and then a bunch of high-end running backs, high upside running backs. Alexander Madison. Yeah, go ahead. I think that's a good point. I had Eckler

and Montgomery. I wanted to draft some running backs that had the possibility to make me sit David Montgomery. And so that's why I went Madison Edmonds and Justin Jackson in rounds nine through 11. Okay. Jamie, you had team nine. That was Devante Adams in round one and Josh Jacobs in round two.

And then Lamar Jackson. And what'd you do in round four? I took Todd Gurley just to be a little bit different. I, if, if we were playing this out, I would have taken Adam Thielen. Um, but I took Gurley in this spot just to, uh, see how much I liked it. And after doing it, I didn't really love it as much. Okay. Good to know. So you just didn't feel good about your wide receivers in this league or what? No, I feel, I feel fine with my wide receivers, but if, if this was an actual draft that I was, um, going to play out, I would have with my wide receivers, but if this was an actual draft that I was

going to play out, I would have taken Adam Thielen over Todd Gurley. So then what regret do you have? Because your next two picks were Cortland Sutton and Marquise Brown. Those are pretty good picks as your wide receivers two and three. And you're a little stronger at running back now

with Josh Jacobs and Todd Gurley. It looks to me like the pick worked because I know how much you like Marquise Brown in round six. Especially as a third receiver. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm just wondering what it was about the Gurley pick that you didn't like. I'm fine with the team.

I'm just telling you, if this was a draft that I was going to invest, I think if you're, let me put it this way. I think you're going to see Todd Gurley go ahead of that and Thielen more times than not. So I was trying to sort of reflect that a little bit. But after taking Jacobs and Adams and then taking the Jackson pick in round three, the smarter pick would have been Adam Thielen.

And then you would have been able to get one of the running backs that we were talking about Montgomery Acres Mark Ingram come back for them in round five probably would have been the pick instead of something. Yep. I don't know. I mean, I I like the way it turned out for you though. I'm wondering if this this should maybe I don't know. I like the way it turned out also but I'm just saying like as a player versus

player and upside versus downside dealing has more upside in my opinion than girly does. Okay, fair enough Ben with the eighth pick, Miles Sanders, then DJ Moore, then Mike Evans. Miles Sanders, DJ Moore, Mike Evans. Mark Andrews in the fourth. All right. So, what do you think about this team?

Yeah, the other one that I really liked. I didn't like how four worked out as much, but this one I liked. Getting Andrews is big. I took Ron Jones in the fifth, a little higher for my running back, too, than normal, but I'm really excited about the buzz around Jones. And then Gallup and Kirk are two guys that I really like as my wide receiver three and four. So I kicked the can a little bit on wide receiver here,

but I still got two of my priority receivers before there's that drop off after about 40 receivers that concerns me. So I still got four receivers through those seven rounds that I like. So Matt Ryan in round 10, that's your quarterback. This is teammate. Miles Sanders and Ronald Jones are the running backs. DJ Moore, Mike Evans, Michael Gallup are the wide receivers. Mark Andrews at tight end.

And then right now, Christian Kirk would be the flex. Also, Deebo Samuel is on this team. Antonio Gibson, A.J. Dillon, Keyshawn Vaughn, Curtis Samuel, Carlos Hyde, Rex Burke. Had a ton of running back depth. That's how Ben does it. But pick eight went running back,

wide receiver, wide receiver, tight end, running back. Team seven is Dave's. Clyde Edwards, Z-Layer, and Derek Henry with the first two picks. So we'll see how, if you start in the middle of the draft with two running backs,

how's it going to turn out? Cooper Cup was round three, and then in round four, Dave? Adam Thielen. Thanks, Jamie. You're welcome. All right, Adam Thielen was the pick there, and then Zach Ertz in round five. All right.

That was a close call for me between Ertz and Rojo. I love Rojo, but I figured getting that third running back in a league where I need to get a bunch of guys that can catch tons of passes, I figured Ertz was safer and the value was great in round five. And then you took Dak Prescott in round six, so now you've got a top five quarterback, a top four tight end, Edward Ziller, Derek Henry, Cooper Cup, Adam Thielen. I like this a lot. How did you feel about this team?

I love it. I do think though, that I just, this is just how this draft went and our quarterbacks always go so low. I think Dak might've been the worst quarterback value in, in the entire draft going in round six. Cause I think in, in regular leagues that aren't populated by the five of us, I think that you'll probably see quarterbacks go sooner. And I would have rather probably had Mahomes or Jackson in round three than Dak in six.

I think Dak will probably be close to late round four to around five pick. So I got him one round later than he might normally go, but I still like it. I still think it was good. I just, I wish I had waited another round to get the quarterback. I would rather have Dak in round six

than in the round three quarterbacks. And if you look at our ADP right now, Mahomes and Jackson are going in the middle of round one. Lamar's a round two, three pick. Where's Dak? Our Dak is a round two, three pick. Oh, okay. So he's going even sooner than I thought he'd go. How'd the rest of your team turn out?

We know you've got a lot of high-end talent here. What's the rest of your team? What's their team? I'm pretty happy with it. I got a lot of guys that I target generally in a draft, and that includes Darius Slayton. Brandon Cooks is also on the team. So those are my top four wide receivers, Cup, Thielen, Cooks, and then Darius Slayton. Jordan Howard is my third running back. Went with a running back run myself in the second half of my draft. Got Naheem Hines, Darrington evans adrian peterson and then with my last three picks i just i tried to get some value i didn't really

care about what i needed for my roster but i did end up getting that second tight end it was austin hooper got my second quarterback it was rothlisberger with my last pick geez louise round 15 for rothlisberger that's pretty pretty insane. Robbie Anderson was my second to last pick just to give me a little extra wide receiver depth. We'll see how he does the first couple of weeks. And if he sucks, I cut him. Cool. Heath with the sixth pick.

This was an interesting team. Michael Thomas, George Kittle, Alan Robinson. And we talked about this team a little bit. Amari Cooper. So when you start with your first four picks, none of them are running backs. How'd this team turn out? I love

it, but that's because I love Kareem Hunt in round five, and I've got Swift. I mean, we talked about this earlier. Tariq Cohen is a fine starter, and if you're not starting him as a number two, then he's a good flex in PPR by my expectation. I've got Swift and Kerryon Johnson. I also took Duke

Johnson and Malcolm Brown a little bit later. And you know, the question you asked, do I need Allen Robinson and carry on Johnson. I also took Duke Johnson and Malcolm Brown a little bit later. And you know, the question you asked, do I need Alan Robinson and Amari Cooper to be good for this team to have a chance? One thing that would help me in that scenario is I did take two more receivers in round nine and 10, Jerry, Judy, and a couple of rookies, Judy and Ayuk. And there's one of those guys could just explode onto the scene. The nice thing about those two rookies is that they're ticketed for regular playing time right away. I don't think you have to worry about either one of them having to sit on the bench or only play 30% of the snaps. I think they're going to be on the field a lot to begin the year.

Last question on this team. I don't know if you had this opportunity, but since you had Amari Cooper, would you have taken CeeDee Lamb instead of Jerry Judy? Would that have mattered? I would have been, yeah, I might have. I did not have that opportunity because I think that he went like two rounds before Judy. Let's pick around seven.

Oh, yeah, and you took Judy in round... Nine. Round nine. Okay, fair enough. So that's an opportunity for all of you out there. If you want to kind of zero RB it, Michael Thomas, George Kittle, Alan Robinson, and Amari Cooper. And then Kareem Hunt, DeAndre Swift, Tariq Cohen, Kerryon Johnson were Heath's next four picks.

Jamie, this was not a zero RB team. This was an RBRB team with the fifth pick. Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb, Patrick Mahomes in round three. So in this PPR three receiver league, you go the first three rounds without a wide receiver. How did it turn out? I like it. Again, you can get Patrick Mahomes

in round three, so he's assuming his receiving core is healthy, a difference maker. I like Dalvin Cook a lot obviously at five. I think Nick Chubb was a great value pick in round two. Getting Terry McLaurin in round four was, you know, I don't know, gratifying, but, you know, certainly made me feel a little bit better about this team getting a guy

who I think has top 20 upside who should see a ton of targets coming off a strong rookie campaign. The surprise pick for me was Leonard Fournette in round five, but I think he fell too far. He's going to fall too far in our drafts. So to get him as a flex option, I think is fantastic. And then it was like I said earlier, I was going to throw a lot of capital at wide receiver with my next few picks, which is what I did. Devante Parker, Deontay Johnson, Sterling Shepard, and Anthony Miller. And then I took Paris Campbell in round 13.

Jamie, do you think you have a wide receiver that can't give you an average of 13 PPR points per week? That can't? That can't. I think McLaurin can. The other guys are going to be the question marks, but that's why you try and take some swings, which I think Deontay Johnson's got a huge upside. I think Sterling Shepard could be the best Giants receiver,

as he showed when he was on the field last year. I'm excited about Anthony Miller in his third season. And then Devontae Parker is kind of a wild card for me. But if he's anything close to what he was last year after Preston Williams got hurt, then this is a steal in round six. Right. I actually love this. This is part of the reason why I'm not going gaga for wide receivers early on is because you can find guys,

they're not going to give you 17 or 18 PPR points per week, but there aren't a lot of wide receivers that can do that anyway. I think that this is, this is a way to go, especially if you don't want to feel naked at running back, even in one spot in your lineup. Big contrast from team six, team six was heats. That was the Thomas Kittle Robinson Cooper team. This team did not draft a wide receiver until round four. So this is what your team might look like. Jamie's starting lineup is Mahomes, Dalvin Cook and Nick Chubb with Leonard Fournette at the flex,

Tara McLaurin, Devante Parker, and either Deontay Johnson or Sterling Shepard. And, uh, he's got Chris Herndon or Jared Cook at tight end. So very, very different strategies and Herndon and Cook were his last two picks.

Ben, uh, Ben with team four, Alvin Kamara, Chris Godwin, Kenny Galladay were your first three picks. Let's talk about the rest of your team. Yeah, I took Jonathan Taylor late in the fourth this time around. And early in the draft season, there was times where I was taking him early in the third. And I've mentioned on the show a couple of times, it's not that I've moved Taylor down or stopped any enthusiasm for him in terms of the running backs. It's more just a positional shift that I've had that I had throughout the summer where I really want to target receivers in these middle rounds. And he's the pick.

That's kind of the turning point of this team where then I get digs who I really like in the fifth, I get Landry in the sixth. We don't know how healthy Landry is going to be. I wind up getting Hardman and Harry a little later. Those are two upside receivers I love. And if either of them hits and Hardman already might be on his way, you know, I won't really mind that Landry pick as my flex so much. But kind of the point is taking Taylor there costs me the dominant receivers

all the way through down to my flex that I have on some of my other rosters. And I think you need that if you're not going to be dominant at RB2 so either Taylor has to be a monster uh or I got I have to get you know Hardman or Harry to hit late but I don't hate it but it is a little bit of a different look for me where I'm less comfortable with how deep my receivers are well I mean you can end up playing Zach Moss as your flex. I mean, I know that's not something you would prefer, but if he's the best running back in Buffalo, then that's a steal in round seven. He might be his RB2 to begin the year. I liked the late round running backs that got on the team.

Zach Moss, DeAndre Washington, Benny Snell, and Ido Smith. I like all those guys. Yeah, I want to ask you, because we did another draft after this, a non-PPR draft, which will be on the site on Friday. You're still prioritizing washington over daryl williams even though the chiefs aren't doing the same yeah williams is like a 225 230 pound back i think he and he has the most familiarity with the offense i think he's probably going to have a role and i still like him i mean right when this news first broke

that damian williams will opt it out i said he's probably going to want to be in the best value. Um, but Washington's a guy who was very good in Oakland last year. Can catch passes played with my homes, yada, yada, yada, yada, in college, yada, yada, yada. I think he's the guy that has like upside. If, if Edward Solaire is not really a great guy, he's the guy that could be the pass catcher and kind of the Damian Williams type. So, so more like ceiling in, in his weekly outputs gotcha I um the only question I had about this team and I think you hit on it and the importance of Jonathan Taylor I was surprised with Taylor as your number two that six through eight range where you took Murray Moss Hardman and then DeAndre Washington even did you consider a running back like Tariq Cohen or somebody that

you could definitely start week one. Yeah, I think in hindsight, the Landry pick is probably where I would do that because I ended up with Hardman and Harry. And these upside guys, if either of them hits, they're going to start over Landry. Landry is just going to be a bench guy on this roster. And it's not to say I don't like Landry, but this almost should have been an even more running back early team where I, in round six, before I went with Kyler or not take Kyler in round seven, don't, you know, don't take an early quarterback or early-ish quarterback and get a running back there. One of those spots. Yeah, I agree. I think that a guy like Cullen would have made sense here.

Right. So would you have taken Raheem Mostert over Jarvis Landry? I probably would have went Cullen, but M most are, I think maybe, yeah. I mean, maybe actually, I don't know. Maybe we can make a trade. Oh yeah. That's your team that we talked about. Right. Yeah.

There you go. Right. So Ben, with the fourth pick went Camara, Godwin, Galladay, Jonathan Taylor, Stefan Diggs, and then he went Jarvis Landry as his fourth receiver, but he's thinking maybe you should have taken Tariq Cohen there. Kyler Murray is his quarterback. Blake Jarwin and TJ Hawkinson, tight ends. So late tight ends here, but this was a team

that started running back, wide receiver, wide receiver, running back. And he's thinking maybe since Jonathan Taylor is a little risky at RB2, maybe instead of taking that fourth wide receiver in round six, you grab Tariq Cohen, you grab someone that you're more comfortable starting as your RB2 at least early in the season.

Or just do what I normally do and take another receiver. I mean, I probably would have taken DJ Chark there. And then with Landry becoming Cohen, I probably like that roster more. Instead of Jonathan Taylor, you're saying you're going to take DJ Chark? Yep. Okay. You've got to have Jonathan Taylor, though. Come on.

I mean, if you're doing a 12-team league where you have three of the teams and you don't have Jonathan Taylor, then something went wrong. Dave, with the third pick, Zeke. This, we've dissected this team. This is the very running back heavy team. Zeke, Hopkins, Gordon, Metcalf. He's already trading Mostert.

Singletary Mostert. Wilson, can we skip this team? Like, you hate this team, and you clearly hate the next team we're going to talk about. So I think maybe we should just do a few minutes on which team you hate more. I think I hate...

I think I hate team three more than team four. I really hate team two. You hate team two. How can you hate team two more than team three? I like team two more than team four. I really hate team two. How can you hate team two more than team three? I like team two more than team three.

Team three is the worst. I would trade my team and it's got Zeke and Nuke and guys I love and I would trade it for Heath's team right now. You're giving Dave three running backs to start his team? All right. So Heath's team two was three running backs to start Barkley,

Connor Carson, Hilton, Keenan, Allen, Edelman, Evan Ingram, Preston Williams, Latavious Murray,

Mike Williams, Carson Wentz, yada, yada, yada. Rob Gronkowski is the backup tight end and Gardner Minshew is the backup quarterback. We,

we, we drafted this in a spreadsheet. If this was on cbs sports it would just be red x's all the way down the line yeah i'm there aren't enough running backs on this team actually i think i want to trade back i here's the thing that i think i'm going to defend my team just a little bit even though this is my least favorite team i'm not arguing that i think this is like anywhere close to the best team that anyone drafted. I think it's underrated how much wide receiver upside there is here. T.Y. Hilton, if he plays 16

games with Phillip Rivers, probably a top 15 wide receiver. Julian Edelman and Keenan Allen were top seven wide receivers last year. I've got Preston Williams, Mike Williams, Brian Edwards, Michael Pittman, young guys that can have a breakout at any moment. I don't think it's all that unlikely that the receivers are okay. It's not a bad point. There's so much risk on this team. But Allen and Elliman aren't doing that again.

You know that. I don't think they probably will. But they're my number two and number three. I don't need them to be number seven. If they are number 20 and number 30, and I've got those three running backs at the start, that's good.

Team one is Jamie's, McCaffrey, Aaron Jones, Juju Smith-Schuster, and then DJ Chark was your fourth pick. How did this team turn out? I love it. I'm very excited about the balance that I have here because of the receivers that I got late with the Sean Jackson,

Steven Sims and golden Tato, I think is very undervalued given what he did last year. Josh Allen around nine is perfect. Daryl Henderson has a force running back. If he hits, that's a steal. And then again, Aaron Jones,

we know what he is, but as he likes to say all the time with the number one overall pick, you get a gift with McCaffrey. And so it's just, do you screw it up? And I don't think I screwed it up so that's the the best part about it so he's got josh allen and darren waller at quarterback and tight end that's good i mean that's not dipping into the late tiers that's missing out on the elites but at least on draft day but still plenty of upside there and mid-tier guy or like second tier mcafree and aaron jones at running back juju

charke marvin jones at wide receiver david johnson at flex um i would like to get into this another time but i felt like from talking to you guys you four jamie and david johnson is one that i just never expected i just figured you would hate david Johnson this year. And I feel like you keep drafting him in PPR. In round five, it's not bad because if he does play like the guy, if he produces like the guy that we saw at the beginning of last season, then this is an easy selection

because he should have gone sooner. I wrote about, like, I love this in round five. I wrote about Johnson today like if he's just Carlos Hyde as a rusher and catches 30 passes that's basically Joe Mixon from last year I like him in round five too

but it's got to be at the other end of round five right this was the first pick of round five but fair enough all right any final thoughts guys it's a long show let's go over team three again. Let's do it. You know what? The more I look at it, the more I like it.

I know I sound crazy, but... The more I look at it, I would sign up for that team. Dig in. I do kind of like the Lazard-Perryman combo. Like, if you're going to do this, at least you got some fun. Hey, you got 90 catches between Lazard and Perryman. You got some downfield, guys.

They can have 180 catches between Lazard. I'm going to make Dave feel better. I'm going to say Team 7 is my favorite team. You don't need to make me feel better, Adam. See, here's the last point I'd love to make. If you walk out of your draft and your friends make fun of you because they think your team sucks, but you like your team, it's really all that matters.

It's your team. It's your squad. You got the players that you wanted. You should be happy with it. You don't need to listen to the haters. I'm not listening to these haters. What do they know? I'm happy with the team. I've got running backs for the whole season. Does anybody want to trade a wide receiver to me, please? I'm begging you. I'm not going to be picky. You know, just anything we can do. Give me a call. You got my phone number. You probably do. Dave gives out his phone number like candy. Hit me up. It's like Halloween every day with Dave's phone number. All right, then we're out of here,

but I like Team 7. So check it out. Remember, the spreadsheet is available in the episode link or the episode description. There's a link to it there and you can see the teams. That's it for today's marathon show. Thanks so much for tuning in, everybody. Mailbag tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. These aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized.

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