Fantasy Football Today - How to Draft From Each Spot; Jonathan Taylor Reaction (08/22 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Follow our draft HERE: https://twitter.com/FFToday/status/1693977852339716552?s=20 Donate to St. Jude as part of our Draft-A-Thon! Bid on guest spots on our show, Zoom calls with our analysts and more! https://tinyurl.com/fftdonate Are you wondering how to most effectively build your Fantasy team? We'll take you through a recent draft of ours and tell you what we learned about picking from each spot in a 12-team league. It's a 3-WR league, but many of the lessons will translate to 2-WR leagues. First, an observation about Round 2 running backs (3:00) and then our thoughts on Jonathan Taylor (11:10) and the rest of the news including Terry McLaurin's injury ... Recapping Ravens-Commanders (24:35) with a big night for the Commanders offense. We liked what we saw from their RBs. Then we'll get into the pick-by-pick strategies with an overall thought on average draft position (27:05) and the value of having either a Top 8 quarterback or a Top 7 tight end (30:00). Let's take a look at Teams 1-3 (33:45) and how to draft if you have a Top 3 pick. These three squads drafted very differently with one of them drafting a QB and a TE at the 2/3 turn. ADP would suggest that if you draft 1-3, you should like your RBs and WRs at the 4/5 turn ... Moving on to Team 4 (43:05) which was the Travis Kelce team. What could your squad look like if you take Kelce in Round 1? Then Teams 5-7 (48:15) all started RB/WR but things changed after that. Which build was the best one? Team 8 (56:10) went with 3 WRs out of the gate. Did we like this team? And finally, Teams 9-12 (1:01:15) were all looking at great RBs in Round 2 and had to decide between the stud RB and the stud WR. Also, what's the best way to approach QB if you are drafting 9-12? ... Email us at [e-mail] 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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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, so you've been sitting there for weeks. You've known your draft position. You're picking fourth, you're picking eighth, whatever it is, and you're saying, how do I build my team? What is the best build, best way to construct my roster? Well, today we're going to look at a 12-team draft, and we're going to look at every pick or every team

and how each team went about building that roster, seeing what worked and what did not work. So that should be very helpful. Also, Jonathan Taylor being given permission to seek a trade. Obviously, we're going to talk about that. The Ravens lost 24 straight preseason wins. That is over, thanks to a late field goal by the commanders. And they celebrate, and they win.

And it was triumphant. But Terry McLaurin hurt his toe. We'll talk about all of that. Got some exciting stuff to get to on today's show. If you're listening at home, not watching, because obviously if you're watching on YouTube, you're going to be able to see all the results. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today.

See all the results of the draft that we're going to be talking about. If you're listening, I put a link in the episode description. Also, please check out the time codes, because we're not going to get to the pick-by-pick until a little bit later. Check out the time codes because we're not going to get to the pick-by-pick until a little bit later. Check out the time codes. They are approximate. They're not perfect because of the commercials,

but they help. And sorry, I will get to Dave and Jamie in a moment, but I wanted to tell you two more things. If you're on YouTube, the last five minutes, we're going to end the show, and then the last five minutes, we're going to answer your questions, but only if you donate to St. Jude.

There is a donate button on this page. If you donate to St. Jude, whatever you want to donate, let's say $5 minimum. We will answer your question later. Let's raise as much money as we can. And there's a live stream tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. If you donate $25, actually, I forgot the number. I'll tell you on the live stream. But there's a number. If you donate it, you can make a pick for me. You can pick my team, basically. So we're going to raise a lot of money for St. But there's a number. If you donate it, you can make a pick for me. You can pick my team, basically. So we're going to raise a lot of money for St. Jude today. All right. Good morning, Dave.

Hello. What's going on, man? I feel a little weird. Someone on the show told me to fix my hair before we started. And I felt like that was an awkward thing for that person to say. I know. You have had the same hair every day for the last 15 years that I've known you.

But for some reason today, the guy that never can get his hair right, told me to fix my hair. So yeah, I hope I look good for you, Adam. You look great. Jamie,

your hair looks perfect. Hello. Wow. Okay. We got to look good. So I was thinking as I was looking at all these teams from the pick by pick and one thing really jumped out. And, you know, planning your first two picks,

maybe you shouldn't really set your strategy in stone or anything, but you want to plan ahead. By the early portion of round two in most 12-team leagues, Tony Pollard, Nick Chubb, and Derrick Henry will be off the board. And at that point, the next running backs might be Jonathan Taylor and Josh Jacobs, but they might really be better off in round three. So unless you have a late pick in round one, RB, RB, or even a running back in round two might be off the table for you if you're just not comfortable with Jacobs or Taylor or Ramondre Stevenson or Gibbs or ETN in round two or whoever

it is you know so what I'm saying is if you have maybe one of the first seven or eight picks perhaps you should just plan on not taking a running back in round two I want to know how you guys feel about that because that's what I'm noticing here with the draft that we're looking at, right? Once Pollard, Chubb, and Henry are off the board, all right, now it's a little bit riskier to take a running back in round two. So I wonder, does that mean you should take

B. John Robinson over Cooper Cup in round one because this solidifies your RB1? Jamie, what are your thoughts on this, you know, this basically Taylor and Jacobs killing the running back depth in round two? There's definitely a fall off. You know, I think there's six guys you can make a case that should be top 15 overall picks. You know, if you want to put Henry in there, so the seven.

It's tough to plan on, you plan on those running backs in round two. So you have to really, I think, commit yourself to, okay, am I comfortable with a Bijan Jalen Waddle start potentially or maybe Garrett Wilson falls, maybe Devontae Adams falls, depending on how you're looking at it. Or do I want to take the Tyree Kill Cooper cup route and then double up receiver or go quarterback? You know, so that's the question I think you have to ask yourself. But, you know, we may get to a point where Josh Jacobs shows up and Jonathan Taylor gets traded to hopefully a good situation. And now those running backs are going to be good by the time we're drafting. You remember, most of the drafts are going to happen, you know happen leading up to Labor Day weekend and even the few days afterwards. I'm going to guess we get some clarity on that on those two situations.

If you're drafting now, it's a little bit tougher, but if you're drafting when most people do, you should have those answers on Jacobs and Taylor to know that that's probably a route you want to go in round one. Isn't the answer key to just look at what running backs might be there in round three? Yeah, let's talk about that. I think a lot of the names that you're talking about

have a shot to get there. I think it's a little more of a long shot for Jacobs. And Taylor's probably going to become a round two pick now that people will feel like he can get traded. But not if he gets traded to a situation that he's going to be still in the committee. What team would acquire him and then pay him and then put him in the committee? Well, that's the thing. Is a team going to

pay him? Because he could still get traded and they'll say to him, we'll work this out when we work it out. He has no control over that. He doesn't have a no-trade clause. Yeah, that's true. But then a team might not give up a day two pick or a couple of picks. No team is trading him

with the idea of letting him walk out the door. Of course not. There's still the idea of are they going to give him the contract that he is seeking to make him happy? Or is it going to be an Austin Eckler pat on the back extension and say, okay, we'll figure this out, but let's get this done and maybe go win a Super Bowl. Okay.

But let me give you some names. Buffalo, for example, has no cap space. So if they acquire him. Well, they could always create it. If they really wanted Jonathan Taylor, they could go and create it if they wanted to. Sure. But you know what I'm getting at. It's not necessarily a slam dunk that he's going to a situation that's going to make him better than Jacobs,

better than Stevenson, better than Etienne. I mean, you would think on paper, yes. But still, there's going to be a situation where he could be still losing some some carries where it's not as ideal as it was a year ago with Indianapolis. And of course, there's still a possibility that he goes through the perfect situation where he ends up getting a ton of work and you can project him out to 275 touches and maybe even 40 catches and a boatload of touchdowns. And now Taylor would be worth a first round pick. It could go any direction. And it's, it's better than the direction we were going in, which is Jonathan Taylor might

not play a full season for the Colts. And that, that made him around three pick to me. I moved them up on the news that they're going to let them shop around, but here are the names that I think could be there. And tell me if I'm cuckoo with any of these names making it to early round three. Mixon, ETN, Gibbs, Stevenson, Aaron Jones. Well, time out. I'll just tell you.

You're not cuckoo at all because they're all going to be available at some point in round three. I mean, looking at all the ADP, they won't be. Mixon's the one that might change. Yeah. Most, if not all of them them will be available in round three. And some of them, and again, the names were Mixon, Etienne, Gibbs, and Stevenson. Is that what you said? Those four running backs?

Yeah, I mean, long shot that Jacobs will be there. Maybe Taylor will be there. Right. That's four to six running backs that could be available. All the way through the end of round three, I looked at like four or five different ADP, three or four different ADP sources. Yeah, those guys will all be there in round three. I looked at like four or five different ADP, three or four different ADP sources. Yeah, those guys will all be there in round three. They're round three picks.

I will say that round three running backs have been really bad value in recent years. Not all of them. But round three is just not a certainty really with any position. But that's usually been the running backs 13 through 18. And that's not this year. You're right. Now we're looking at running backs 13 through 18. And that's not this year. You're right.

Now we're looking at running backs 10 through 15. Right, right, right. You're absolutely right. So, yeah, so I think there's a scenario in round, as we talk about team building here, where those seven running backs that you mentioned, Jamie, you know, in any order, McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, Pollard, Barkley, Chubb, Henry are off the board

and 11 wide receivers are off the board ending with say Jalen Waddle. And the next three wide receivers is that group of Olave, Higgins, Devante Smith. So that's 18 players plus Travis Kelsey, plus in most drafts, Patrick Mahomes, that's 20 players. Now you're at the back end of round two. You don't have the elite wide receivers. You don't have the elite running backs. You don't have Kelsey. You likely don't have Mahomes. We'll get back into team building later and see what these teams actually did. But what do you do with your rounds two and three picks if you had an early pick in round one, Jamie? Well, I mean, look, I know what I did in this draft. So I had Jamar Chase, and I went with Josh Jacobs, who was there, which I think still is fine to take him at the end of round two.

Same thing with Mixon, same thing with Taylor. They're all in that range. And I just kind of played the board a little bit to see because all three quarterbacks are still available. So I wasn't going to take Josh Allen or – yeah, I decided I wasn't going to take one of the quarterbacks because I don't think there's that much difference. So I knew I had the opportunity to get one of the three. Oh, yeah. I should say that in this particular draft, Mahomes was still available.

But yeah, go ahead. All three quarterbacks were still available. Yeah. So Mahomes went and I took Josh Allen. I think the worst case scenario, honestly, is if you take Chase in the first round. Because the two guys that you could be staring at are his teammates. And that's okay. I mean, look, it's a great place to be with the Bengals because they're awesome.

But I had to pass on both T. Higgins and Joe Mixon. I understand passing on Higgins. Why did you pass on Mixon as the chase manager? Because I didn't want to take all Bengals. And I said this when we did the draft. Like, he took Pollard and Lamb. I was like, I just don't want to do that. Yeah. And plus, well, first off, let me

back up a second. I committed to Jacobs. So I wasn't going to go Jacobs-Mixon. Okay, okay. Alright, we'll get back to that a little bit later, but just kind of an interesting thing just understanding the drop off at running back because they're going to be a lot of drafts i could see a draft now where nick chubb or derrick henry or tony pollard goes early in round two and you may not you may not see another running back until round three uh you just might not so it's a little unusual i don't think we're used to seeing

that okay taylor will get taylor will get drafted now in the second round. Yeah, let's talk more about Jonathan Taylor here. Let's get into the news and notes. We'll get into McLaurin's toe as well. And Jonathan Taylor, Dave, you said you moved him into round two, just having the opportunity to seek a trade. Certainly not a certainty that he will be traded. What's your

read on this situation? The very first thought I had was when was the last time a player was given the opportunity to seek a trade and then wasn't traded? And the answer is Austin Eckler. It just happened. But Eckler got like a new contract. He got a few extra bucks and, uh, and he seems happy with it. So that's possible. It's still very possible that Jonathan Taylor stays in Indianapolis, but the fact that he's able to seek a trade that tells me that the ankle injury really isn't that big of a deal. We don't have to sweat that anymore. And there's potential for him to end up in a significantly better situation than, than where he is now, which is on a team with a rookie quarterback who's a better runner than thrower at this point in his career and could take work away from Taylor.

And that makes him a little less desirable than he normally would be. So the fact that he could be on a different team puts him right back in round two for me. I would consider him before taking any of the quarterbacks. Mahomes, Hurts, or Allen. Jamie? I would just like to see him get left in Philly. That would be the best. That would be amazing.

I don't know, guys. I don't like the fact that we're so close to the start of the season now, and he might change teams. I don't know if he's really injured. Dave, you said you're not really considering it a huge deal. Not anymore. Not if they're letting him seek a trade.

But it's not, I mean, obviously it's not a great situation for Taylor. No, no. Like I said, I think he's going to get drafted in round two. I'm still leaving him in round three. I think there's just, you're still talking about, there's going to be a ramp up period here. So, you know, we're probably not looking at the best of Jonathan Taylor. So maybe like week three, maybe week four. And to your point, Adam, a doctor has to keep him on the pop list. This isn't just, Hey, I'm on the pop list.

Thanks. You know, like Christian Wilkins, for example, is a good, good, good comparison. He's waiting for a contract. He's a hold in, right? He's not, he's not on the pop list, you know? So a doctor has to, has to medically put him there. So there's still something wrong with his ankle to some degree. It could be minor. I'm with Dave. I think it's always been about his contract, but there still has to be a reason why he's on the pop list. So who knows what the two absences were where he left Indianapolis. One was reportedly to deal with his ankle. One was reportedly for a personal situation. Again, we don't know what's going on, but I still

think you have to be a little bit... And I know there are different players in different situations. Alvin Kamara is missing three weeks and we're drafting him in round five. Jonathan Taylor may not be Jonathan Taylor until that point in the season as well, and we're talking about drafting him in round two. Well,

where's the most likely destination for him? Is it still Indianapolis? The most likely? I mean, if they're asking for a first-round pick, they're not getting that. And as Dave brought up, a team that's going to trade for him to give up significant capital

is not doing so for a one-year rental, unless it's, again, the Eagles or the Bills, teams that are just looking at, okay, we use him for this season and then we win a Super Bowl or at least have a chance to, and then he can be discarded. So I think you look at those type of teams, and I put Kansas City in that mix too. I saw Baltimore as a team that looked at it. I actually did a Zoom call for one of our St. Jude things with a great viewer of ours, Sam. And Sam said, he's a Colts fan.

He's like, the Bears make a lot of sense. They have cap space. They have draft capital. And there's the Iberflues connection. You know, I was like, oh, that does make some sense. You know, if they wanted to give, you know, Justin Fields a little bit more protection. So there's a lot of teams, I think, you know, that we probably would not expect. Like, you rule out Arizona.

They're not giving up, you know, draft capital for a running back you know teams like that you can get get off the the the table um the jets you know i don't think they're doing that you know teams teams that nature but but i i think miami's obviously got to be in the mix i think philly's got to be in the mix i still think buffalo kansas city baltimore would not surprise me either you know they decide to uh minnesota How do you feel about Minnesota? And Minnesota. That was when, when I was talking about competition, I wonder what they would do if they brought in Taylor and how much they would use still somebody like Madison, especially around the season.

I think that's going to be the big key is what happens early in the season. And don't forget, remember the Broncos had said, if Josh Jacobs was available, they would consider it. That was more if he was the franchise tag versus send it. That was more if the franchise tag was rescinded. I believe that was the story. Again, a team with aspirations to be better maybe than we think they are, but they'd probably be themselves a Super Bowl contender knowing that they could upgrade that running back room as well.

So what about Deion Jackson or Evan Hull? Do you guys want to draft a Colts running back at this point? Not particularly. I still think Zach Moss by the end of the season, will be the one that leads him in carries. Yeah, maybe. Or they could sign Kareem Hunt. And that was the other part of it.

Kareem Hunt was already rumored to be looking there. Didn't he meet with him? I believe when the Saints scenario arose, he was going there. He left there to go to England? Yeah. You want a dark horse team? Yeah, yeah. the Saints scenario arose, he was going there. I don't know if he actually went. You want a dark horse team? Yeah, yeah. Carolina. Frank Reich's there. He was there

when they drafted Jonathan Taylor. It's going to be a similar offense. Yeah, but they just paid Miles Sanders. They did, and they could potentially trade him to Indy as part of the deal where he would be reunited with Shane Steichen and be right back in a similar offense. Steichen clearly liked him.

I went back and read quotes and all that stuff. Of course, a coach is going to say glowing things, but you saw what Sanders did last year in Philadelphia. He would get plenty of opportunities there. I think it's going to take a bonehead franchise to acquire Jonathan Taylor and then pay him, what does he want, like $12 million a year? That would make him a top five running back on the salary scale. Carolina might be one of those bonehead franchises.

And to be fair, they've got a quarterback who's on a rookie deal. So might be able to balance the cap for a few years with Bryce Young's deal being what it is and Jonathan Taylor going there. I think it's actually a decent fit where it's like Sanders and a second round pick in 2025 for Jonathan Taylor. And then the Panthers back up the brink struck for Taylor. It's just so funny because, you know, when a running back gets paid, people say, God, this team is so stupid for paying a running back. And then when a running back becomes a free agent, we say, this team is pathetic for not paying this

running back. It happens all the time. It's just like, well, come on. We have to figure out what side we want to be on in this. And I will say, Philadelphia would be... Philadelphia or Cincinnati are like the dream spots, but Philadelphia... I don't see either franchise doing it. Philadelphia or Cincinnati are the dream spots.

But Philadelphia, I don't see either franchise doing it. You think Cincy's a dream spot? They're not going to cut Mixon. Yeah, Mixon will go. And Taylor moves in and gets his workload. But Cincinnati doesn't make trades like this. I don't think they would do it. And they've got their own contracts to extend in the very near future. I donilly, I don't see Philly giving $12 million to Jonathan Taylor.

Do you? I want to talk about McLaurin here if we could move on. Terry McLaurin. It's fun to talk about with Taylor. No, it certainly is. I think we covered it pretty well there. I bet his hair looks good today. McLaurin hurt his toe.

X-rays were negative. Might have a sprained toe. They start with... Could be turf toe. Yeah, that's no good. They start with the Cardinals in week one, then some tough matchups at Denver, Buffalo, at Philadelphia,

although Buffalo defense didn't look so good a couple of days ago. All right, are you guys moving Terry McLaurin down in your rankings right now? We don't know too much at this point. Yeah, I'd rather draft Dotson. They're really close for me. Yeah, I could see myself moving McLaurin down at least one, three, four,

three or four spots among my receivers. Behind who? He would go behind Drake London. He would go behind Kirk, Michael Williams, Ayuk, potentially Jordan Addison as well, maybe probably Jordan Addison as well. And, man, Dotson. They both looked really good last night.

Dotson can move up too. We'll talk about that game in a moment. Washington play their starters on offense for the first half against the Ravens backups backups, and they're good, thankfully. They've only looked good this preseason against backups. When they took on the Browns' starters without Miles Garrett, they were a mess. So they had a week to fix it, and they did look much improved.

The offensive line looked mostly better against Baltimore's backups. Devon Achain, week-to-week with a shoulder injury. We don't know much about Joe Burrow right now, but Zach Taylor, the head coach, said Joe Burrow looks great walking around. So the reports have been good, but he's not out there doing much. It'll be fine. Miles Sanders

returned to practice. Eagles, I did not hear this, guys. I did not listen. I don't know if you had a chance to, but Eagles beat reporter Bo Wolfe was on the Athletic Football Podcast, and I guess he said that he thinks the Eagles want it to be DeAndre Swift's backfield, but he also predicted that Kenneth Gainwell will end up playing the most just because he's been dependable. I don't know if that was an injury forecast for Swift, but I don't know. Well, wouldn't it make sense for the Eagles

to want to try and keep Swift healthy all season so he can contribute every week? I don't know. Tell me a round where you take all three of their running backs, 12-team league. I am at round eight for Swift. I have sunk

Penny. I'm really not that interested. Late round nine, early round 10. Gain well round 10. Okay. Isaiah Pacheco could play in this week's preseason game. Nice. Dolphins offensive lineman Robert Jones

is out four to six weeks with a sprained MCL. He was competing for a starting spot. They are hopeful that Teron Armstead, their left tackle, will be back for week one. And Baltimore's 24-game preseason win streak was snapped last night. We'll talk about that game in just a moment.

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Any thoughts on Washington 29, Baltimore 28? Again, this was the Washington first-team offense against the Baltimore backups, and very good numbers. Sam Howell, 19 of 25, 188 yards and two touchdowns. Interesting that the running backs were so involved, but 25 pass attempts in one half is a crazy amount. But four catches for Robinson, three for Gibson. They split carries almost evenly. Dotson had a crazy amount. But four catches for Robinson, three for Gibson. They split carries almost evenly. Dotson had a huge game.

Jamie, any takeaways from the Washington offense, basically? And then, of course, Zay Flowers with a touchdown on one drive. No, I think it's encouraging for Robinson. The fact that he's involved in the passing game, in any involvement in the passing game, is big for him. So he's going to end up, I think, being one of the better value picks on draft day. You know, you're getting him somewhere around round six, round seven, depending on the format. And that's, I think, a pretty good spot to be in.

But I still think Gibson's the better one in PPR just because I think he will be much more involved in the passing game by the end of the season. And I think Sam Howell is a great number two quarterback. You know, good option in a 2QB league. He's ahead of that group that we talked about yesterday of Love and Pickett and Purdy. I think once you start to see his legs and what he's able to do in that regard, as long as Terry McLaurin is healthy, clearly, but he's got, I think,

more upside than all those guys. Yeah, Robinson, if you look at the way they use the running backs, not just this week, but last week as well, it's not like Robinson's on first and second down and then Gibson comes in on third down. They're both playing on different downs and they're both catching passes. So you said I think six or seven for Robinson. Maybe that'll be the case after this performance.

But his ADP is more like late round eight, maybe into round nine for Brian Robinson. Which running back do you guys take first for the commanders? Gibson and PPR, Robinson and Haffanon. I'll take Robinson in all formats. Okay. Would you take Samaj P. Ryan or a commander's running back? P. Ryan. Okay.

Would you take Kenneth Gainwell or a commander's running back? Commander's running back. Both commander's running backs. That's right. And another nice performance for Dotson. And then Zay Flowers, did this I mean, obviously he was playing with backups and against mostly backups for Washington. They didn't really play their starters on defense.

Sure, but when you make plays like he's making, and he made two of them in the game, the one that scored the touchdown is the better one, obviously. It's going to get attention from fantasy managers, so you'll see him get reached for a little bit. I like him in round eight. I would take him in that range as a quality bench receiver.

Don't really want to start him, unless it's like three receivers and a flex, something like that. Oh, man, I feel like... Oh, I'm sorry. He's my favorite Ravens receiver. Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah, I'll like... Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I... He's my favorite Ravens receiver. Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. Let's go to our pick-by-pick series.

All right. All right, so this is... Well, this is not our pick-by-pick series. This is a review of a mock draft. You're right. Well, it's our pick-by-pick series on this podcast. And by series, I mean the next 30 minutes of your life. So very short. It's a

miniseries. It's an after school special. This is a really tough thing to do for me in terms of giving this advice and structuring the show. And the biggest reason why is our drafts are very different than average draft position. So that's the first thing I need to point out. In ADP, quarterbacks and, to a degree, tight ends go earlier than the way we draft. And not just the way we draft, but anytime we invite listeners or viewers into our drafts,

it seems like the way they draft as well. Anyone who's been influenced by FFT. So that's why when you see, if you're looking at this draft, whether you click the link in the episode description or you're watching at youtube.com slash fantasy football today, by the way, if you go there and you can't find this stream, hit the live tab. If you're looking at this draft, the wide receivers that you see in round four, a lot of those guys are going to go in round five. They just, in a normal draft, in a 12-team league, based on average draft position. The running backs that you see going in round five, many of them are going to go in round six or seven. You know, that's one of the things I noticed about ADP.

Guys like Kamara, James Conner, Cam Akers, J.K. Dobbins, Rashad White, Alexander Madison, their ADPs are all after pick 60. They're all round six or later. Some of them you could get maybe Cam Akers round seven or eight. Madison goes a lot later in ADP than he does in our draft. So that's why this is so difficult because I'm sitting here. We're going to sit here and tell you,

well, this is when you should get your RB2 or whatever. You might be able to wait an extra round. This run of wide receivers that takes us basically to about 23 or 24 wide receivers in the rankings, it ends in round four in our drafts. It's probably going to end in round five in your drafts. So that's kind of the disclaimer I have to give when we do this. I don't know if you guys, we could leave it at that, or if you want to add on to that comment. This challenge, basically, between balancing what you're going to see in our rankings, in our drafts,

and what you're going to see in ADP across multiple websites. Yeah, that's fine. No, you're correct. Okay. I don't know if there's anything else to really say. One thing I noticed about this draft, there were only two teams out of 12. By the way, this was a three-receiver.

I'm going to try to also try to balance between how to draft in three-receiver and two-receiver leagues with both of them having a flex. This is a three-receiver PPR league. There were only two teams that didn't have either a top eight quarterback.

So that would be from Mahomes to Lawrence or a top seven tight end from Kelsey to whether it's Kittle, Goddard, Waller, whatever the last tight end would be. So that was team eight, Jacob Gibbs. He has Deshaun Watson and Greg Dulcich. And team 12, OJ Weber has Anthony Richardson and Aaron Rodgers and Evan Ingram. So that's a question for you guys. Dave, you can start. Do you feel it's important to have either one or the other, if not both, a top eight quarterback, a top seven tight end? If you can make it happen without reaching, then of course you'd love to do it. The rule that I've followed is you don't want to have a top tight end and a top quarterback within your first five picks. And I've found that this year it's definitely the case because I'm missing out on good talent. If I take a top tight end early, I find myself waiting for quarterback later. If I take a top quarterback early, I don't want to take a tight end until

really late. When we're talking about the top seven or top eight at each of those positions, then you can probably get one of those guys and maybe even both of those positions filled in rounds six and seven. And I love that. I love the idea of starting your draft with, you know, some combination of running backs and wide receivers with your first five picks. You take the best available quarterback in round six. Hopefully that's somebody like, honestly, hopefully that's Burrow and that people are letting Burrow slide. Cause they're just not sure about the calf. They see that injury tag next to his name. They get skittish. Don't be that way. I think Burrow is still going to be amazing Or it's Trevor Lawrence, which is just good value on him. And then you take the

best of the remaining three of Waller, Kittle, Goddard in round seven. When it works out that way, it's great. And if it doesn't work out that way and you get one and not the other, you know that you can still find somebody later in your draft. You can do it in the double-digit rounds to find a starter at either of those positions. Let me just push back on the don't draft a wide receiver, or I'm sorry, don't draft a quarterback and a tight end with your first five picks. If you knew that ADP was going to hold and you could look at Connor, Madison, Dobbins, Rashad White,

who else, Kamara maybe, in round six, then would that change your mind? Maybe a little, yeah. Okay. Maybe, though, because now if I'm taking, let's say that happens and I'm still taking a quarterback and a tight end, that means the way that I draft, it'll be one running back and two wide receivers. And a lot of the mocks we do,

it's three wide receivers and a flex. I don't like that. I'd rather spend one of those other two picks on a wide receiver. Okay. Jamie, did you want to add anything to this discussion about having a top seven tight end and a top eight quarterback or at least one of those two things? Well, I'm not going to pass up if I get Travis Kelsey in round one and let's say one of Hertz or Allen most likely are there in round three. So that's just silly if you're going to play the board. But yeah, I think if it comes to any other tight end, then yes, I would rather wait. The team that took Kelsey in this draft could have taken Jalen Hurts in round three, took Joe Mixon instead, and then got Trevor Lawrence in round seven. The team with the first pick took Patrick Mahomes and Mark Andrews at the 2-3 turn.

So why don't we start with that? And I thought maybe we'd lump it by picks of, you know, by thirds. So the first three picks, the next three picks, the only problem was, well, I'll explain later, because teams five through seven all started the same way with running back in round one, wide receiver in round two. I wanted to compare them. But let's start with the first three picks here. And Jefferson and Chase seem pretty damn likely to be top three picks.

In this draft, it was Jefferson, McCaffrey, Chase. Jamie, you did have the third pick here. But, yeah, this kind of continues our discussion from earlier draft it was jefferson mccaffrey chase jamie you did have the third pick here but yeah i mean this kind of continues our discussion from earlier because jacobs and taylor did go in this range some drafts i've been doing lately i've seen them both fall into early third round here but um you know is there a best way to build a team these three teams one two and three built their teams very differently. Zach at Team 1 started Jefferson,

Mahomes, Mark Andrews. Mazin took McCaffrey, Taylor, and Higgins. That was the only team in this draft that started RBRB from spot 2. McCaffrey, Taylor, Higgins. Jamie took Chase, Jacobs, Josh Allen.

Really different startsins. Jamie took Chase, Jacobs, Josh Allen. So, like, really different starts here. Jamie, any thoughts on the best way to begin your draft if you have a top three pick? Well, I think in the case of how this draft unfolded, first off, this was the earliest I think we've seen Olave go. So, that

kind of changed some things. And for me, like, for example, if Olave was there, I probably, I shouldn't say, I would have considered it again. I like Higgins better than Olave. I think Higgins should be drafted ahead of Olave, but I drafted Chase. So I wasn't going to go chase Higgins. So that was kind of how things unfolded for me personally. Again, knowing that all three quarterbacks were still available when it got to my pick, I knew I had the opportunity to get one of them. So I wasn't going to take one in round two because I don't think there's that much difference between,

in this order, Mahomes, Allen, and Hertz. So that's kind of how I played that. So it was just a matter of, okay, I think if Jacobs does report on time, he's got the chance to still be a first-round caliber player. And so it was just too good of a value to pass up at that point. I wasn't taking Taylor at that spot. And so for me it was, okay, I I'll know I got a quarterback in round three, if that's how I'm going to commit to it.

And I'm going to take the best available player, which at that point was Josh Jacobs. If you start your team running back, or sorry, wide receiver, man, it's tough. Because you're at that stage where you don't know if Jalen Waddell might fall to you. Let's say you're in the second round. Is the second round, and as you mentioned,

this was the earliest we've seen Olave go. He went just before your pick, which was 21st. So he went 21st. You had the 22nd pick. But Devontae Smith also went 18th. Early, yes. Yeah, so those guys went super early there were 13 wide receivers off the board by the time we got to jamie's pick 21st 22nd i mean you know you know why they did why because people are afraid of taking jacobs or taylor right right so um yeah it's also it's also this is one of the later drafts we've seen the quarterbacks go.

Right, Mahomes. At least the first quarter. Right, only one quarterback in round two. Yep. I guess my question is, as I stumble to it, round three and four, if you're picking one through three in a 12-team league, round three or four,

do you expect running back or wide receiver to be stronger for you, to be better in round three and four or no preference or not preference, but no, no opinion on that? No, I think I don't know if it's saying that running back will be stronger in round three and round four. And remember, those are very different picks because round three, you're talking about early round three and round four. You're talking about late round four. So you're going to be waiting a while after that round three pick. I think there will be names there.

I'm not saying that these are going to be the best names in the world and you're going to be fired up about Alexander Madison or James Connor. If you you might even be fortunate enough to get Damian Pierce. They're all kind of the same type of running back. But there will be running backs there who you can take. I don't know if I love the wide receivers that'll be there in late round four compared to what'll be there in early round three. I almost feel like if you've got one of those early picks and you take Jefferson, maybe you're planning on zero RB or at least. But actually, this is so this is why I have to jump in, because this is the difference between our leagues and ADP, because in ADP, you are looking at Jerry Judy, DJ Moore, DeAndre Hopkins, all being available to you late in round four and into round five.

So you can't assume that all of them will be there, but you could assume that one of them will probably be there. Christian Watson is another guy. These guys are, some of them are round three picks in our drafts. That's good, right. If those guys,

if I knew those guys would be there in late round four, that would change the calculus. Yeah, so just kind of kind of pay attention and that that's also based on i don't know what adp you're looking at but that's you know we're seeing burrow go a little too soon for our taste we're seeing lamar jackson go a little bit too soon for our taste you know certainly on our adp but that's what happens all those guys are going well depends you know i i again our adp is a little skewed because it's

all the drafts lumped together you know so superf to qb all those things so it's hard to know which which ones are actually going in one quarterback leagues but i think even the majority of adps you're seeing those guys in in round three and round four as opposed to rounds two and round three and so that's why i think some of those receivers are getting pushed down those quarterbacks can you or lamar jackson for. Can you run down the running backs that are in that late round four ADP? Sure. Damian Pierce.

Right. Let's see. RB. Sorry. Damian Pierce. Ken Walker. Miles Sanders. J.K. Dobbins.

Now we're really into late round five at this point. I was in. Right. You know. All right. I think I've late round five at this point. I was in. Right. You know, all right. I think I've wasted enough time here. So here's the thing. If you're picking early, if you're in slot one, slot two, slot three, and you liked the names of the wide receivers that were there in late round four,

then you should plan on taking a wide receiver in round four. That opens the door to you taking a running back in round three if you didn't take one in round one or two. And if Allen or Hurts falls to you in round three, you should feel pretty good based on ADP about taking them there and who you can get at running back and wide receiver in rounds four and five. That's also a good call. Okay. So I just want to take a look at Zach's team. It's team one. And he took, he took a quarterback and a tight end with two of his first three picks. Exactly. So he went Jefferson and at 24 and 25, he took my homes and Andrews. My homes is likely off the board in almost every draft at 24. Um, but let's say that was Josh Allen and Mark Andrews or Jalen Hurts

and Mark Andrews, whatever it may be. So then he goes Najee Harris. He did this before this awful preseason came for him, but still 48th overall. Najee Harris, Alexander Madison. Now, he could have had Miles Sanders. He could have had Ken Walker, Brees Hall, Alvin Kamara, David Montgomery. So take your pick of two of those, right? Najee Harris, Alexander Madison, whichever two it could be. He's definitely a little weak at wide receiver after Jefferson

Mike Williams, George Pickens, Traylon Burks Alan Lazar, John Mechie really late so this is a lineup from the one spot of Mahomes Najee and Madison Jefferson, Mike Williams, George Pickens Mark Andrews and then probably Dalvin Cook at Flex. He also has Dalton Kincaid. But I think what we said at the time was we didn't hate the strategy.

We just didn't love some of the picks. Correct. Because, I mean, again, you're talking about number one receiver, number one overall player, number one quarterback by the time scoring is done, probably number one overall player if he holds, and then number two tight end. So for most weeks, he's winning three positions, which is a pretty good place to start with. And so again, we're down on Najee. We've got some questions on Madison. But like you said, the theory is there of getting two running backs that could still be starters and top 15 caliber guys. So again, I don't hate that.

And then, again, we're nitpicking the positions here, but because he went with those three picks to start his team, he was going to be weak somewhere, especially the way that the board played out. So he took, in his opinion, the two best running backs at the time and then the two best receivers at the time. And so if Williams and Pickens, let's just say they're top 30 receivers, so if everything, we're playing glass half full here, but you know, Jefferson

does what he does. Mahomes does what he does. Andrews does what he does. Two top 15 running backs and then two top 30 receivers. He's going to be in most games and probably winning a lot of them. All right. So the big takeaway from picks one through three is that at the four or five turn, you should still like what you're seeing at wide receiver and running back. It should give you a little bit more confidence to take a quarterback or a tight end, maybe in round three. That tight end, of course, would have to be Mark Andrews.

All right, let's go to team four here because I want to lump teams five through seven together. And team four is interesting as a standalone team because team four drafted Travis Kelsey. Kelsey in round one. So how did this team do? Well, it managed to get that top eight quarterback by taking the eighth one and Trevor Lawrence in round seven. So that gives you a Kelsey in round one, Lawrence in round seven,

and then you load up at running back and wide receiver in rounds two through six. And, you know, Olave went pretty early. So there is that. But he took Olave in round two. Mixon in round three. Drake London in round four. And that was an interesting pick because that was at the end of a really long run of wide receivers. I'll talk about that in a second. Ken Walker in round five.

Tyler Lockett in round six. Lawrence in round seven. So that gives him, after seven rounds, Lawrence at quarterback, Mixon and Walker at running back, Olave, London, and Lockett at wide receiver, Kelsey at tight end, and then the flex will be Antonio Gibson or Sky Moore, maybe Jalen Warren, who he took later. I know it's a lot to listen to.

So it's Lawrence, Mixon, Walker Olave, London Lockett, Kelsey, and let's say Antonio Gibson or Sky Moore at Flex. How did this team do, Dave? And one thing that really bit this team was beginning, where is this crazy wide receiver run that begins with Calvin Ridley. It was something like 10 wide receivers and 14 picks. And so Ridley, Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, Jerry Judy, Cooper, Watson, Hopkins, Debo, Metcalf, all off the board.

And then this team had to take Drake London in round four. Maybe they shouldn't. Maybe they should have taken Aaron Jones instead. But this is cool. I mean, this is Kelsey and Lawrence, and then just filling out running back and wide receiver in between five rounds. Where, where did they get Lawrence?

Six, seven. So awesome value on Trevor Lawrence to go with Travis Kelsey. And normally what we say, and we did say this with Andrews, if you're going to have a stud tight end, you're going to be weak somewhere else. Where's he weak here? Because a lot of a, yeah, maybe he reached a little bit in round two. Maybe this is part of the reason why there was that crazy wide receiver run that you were talking about was because some wide receivers went earlier

than expected in round two. But Olave, London, Lockett, and Sky Moore with Bateman on the bench, I don't think that that's such a bad receiving core. It's not dominant, but it's good. It might come down to Mixon and Walker. If those guys exceed expectations, especially Walker, this team's

awesome. If they meet expectations, this team's a playoff team. If they fall below expectations, I'm not sure how good they'll be. I don't mind this team at all. It's not my favorite, but it's good. I think it's a question, though. You do have this wide receiver run. Jamie dealt with it, too. Jamie think it's a question, though, right? You do have this wide receiver run.

Jamie dealt with it, too. Because Jamie had the third pick, right? So he was picking after Matthew took Drake London. And you get this run of wide receivers. I think it was 10 and 14 picks, as I said. And then after that, you get one wide receiver in the next 13 picks, I think. So Jamie said, I'm not reaching for wide receiver. I'm going to take Aaron Jones in round four. After that, Deontay Johnson went off the board.

After that, we have a full round before we get another wide receiver. So did this team make a mistake by taking London over Aaron Jones? I mean, I would say yes. Tell me the type of receiver that they would have gotten later. Ayuk, maybe in round five, he would have had to reach for Ayuk. Yeah, that's not that bad. I would have rather had Jones and Ayuk.

Okay. All right, let's take a break here. I'd love to spend more time on each team, but the lesson here, if you take Travis Kelsey fourth overall, if you make Trevor Lawrence the focal point of your strategy, Lawrence and Kelsey, maybe you have to take Lawrence Kelsey fourth overall. You know, if you make Trevor Lawrence the focal point of your strategy, Lawrence and Kelsey,

maybe you have to take Lawrence in round six. If you have to take him earlier than that, then it might not be worth it, but that's fine. Just load up on running back and receiver in between. Let's take a break. When we come back, comparing teams five through seven, which includes my team, we all started the same way. Let's see how they finished.

We'll be right back. All right, building your team from the middle of your draft here. We look at teams five through seven. I had the fifth pick, Dan Schneier, the sixth pick, and one of our listeners, Joel Cox, had the seventh pick. And we went Eckler, Bijan, Barkley. So at this point, only two receivers were off the board, Jefferson and Chase. And we decided to take Eckler, Bijan, and Barkley ahead of Tyreek Hill, Cooper Cupp, Stefan Diggs. Remember, McCaffrey was off the board and Kelsey was off the board. So these three teams all started running back, wide receiver in rounds one and two. And then round three was different.

But round four was also a wide receiver in this three receiver format. So you went running back, receiver, something, receiver. The difference was I took Travis Etienne in round three, Dan took Jalen Hurts, and Joel took Lamar Jackson. And if we focus on rounds three and five, I took Etienne and Fields, Schneier took Hertz and Hall, and Joel took Lamar Jackson and TJ Hawkinson. So you've got very different teams. Well, not very different,

but you've got different teams there. And I wonder, if you start running back receiver, as all three of these teams did, Jamie, what is the best way to proceed after that, after going running back receiver as all three of these teams did, Jamie, uh, what, what is the best way to proceed after that, after going running back receiver? I think you're just playing the board. I mean, you know,

it's just a matter of, you know, what's the best player available to you. Like, and you had a very tough decision in round three of ETN versus Jalen Hertz, you know, and it was,

you know, I think most people would probably take Hurts just because of the value of what he brings and the potential. But, you know, I wonder for your situation, you kind of got a gift, I think, knowing how this draft unfolded to get Metcalf in round four. But if you had taken Hurts there,

let's just say you take Hurts and still get Metcalf, and instead of taking Fields, you're taking a guy that you like in Ken Walker. Well, he went to pick before me, but I, I did, I do like Hertz better than ETN. I took ETN to kind of try something different,

or maybe I, maybe I was drafting and hosting and missed Hertz. I don't know, but, um, I like the combination of fields and ETN, my combination better than Dan's, which is Hurts and Hall. I like that.

Is that because of Hall? Yes. Okay. What I'm getting at, though, is, you know, let's just say you don't take Etienne, and that pushes the running backs down a little bit. Put Walker there. I like Fields and Etienne better than Hurts and Ken Walker.

I'm surprised by that. I like Fields a lot. better than Hertz and Ken Walker. I'm surprised by that. I like Fields a lot. I haven't really talked about that a lot, but I do like Fields quite a bit. No, I'm not saying you don't, but I know you like Walker, and I'm going to guess there's probably, speak for yourself, but is there a bigger gap between Hertz and Fields

or ETN and Walker? There's a bigger gap between ETN and Walker. Okay. For me. Because I'm saying, usually the way you talk about Walker is you're very high on him, so. I do like him a lot. I love him in round five

because at that point, you know, well, in our drafts anyway, most of the wide receivers available, I don't love. So I go to Walker, but there are, like, there are a lot of wide receivers in ADP

that I like better than Walker, like Jerry Judy and DJ Moore going in that range. But who do you like better? Which combo do you like better, Fields and ETN or Hurts and Ken Walker? I like Hurts and Walker better. Dave?

But I probably wouldn't have taken Walker there. I'm just being you. Yeah. I like Hurts better. I would have taken Hurts in round three. What about the Lamar Jackson, TJ Hawkinson build? So that team has Barkley, Devante Smith, Lamar Jackson, DeAndre

Hopkins, TJ Hawkinson. So this team ended up with Cam Akers in round seven, as is RB2. That's a starting lineup of Jackson, Barkley, and Akers. Devante Smith, which is super early, before Jalen Waddell or Devante Adams, so keep that in mind. That could have been a different receiver. Devante Smith, which is super early, before Jalen Waddell or Devontae Adams.

So keep that in mind. That could have been a different receiver. Devontae Smith, DeAndre Hopkins, Christian Kirk in a three-receiver league. And then TJ Hawkinson. Flex might be a little weak, maybe. AJ Dillon, Charbonnet, Brian Robinson actually looking like a decent flex.

I like this. I don't love the Devontae Smith pick. I would have taken Waddell. I'm sure you guys would have too, or Devontae Adams ahead of Smith. But I like this team. I don't love the Devontae Smith pick. I would have taken Waddell. I'm sure you guys would have too, or Devontae Adams ahead of Smith. But I like this build a lot, and that is a tight end and a receiver in rounds three and five.

So, Dave, you said you don't want to do that, but I like the way this team turned out. Yeah, I like it too. We're talking about a hero RB type of build. Would we like it as much if he didn't get acres? No, that was a very fortuitous pick, but he could have had Pacheco or Herbert or Swift.

They were all still there. I don't, I don't like the Lamar pick though. In round three. Nah, that felt a little early. It's true. But I guess my point is,

let's say that was Mark Andrews or something like that. You know, my point is you don't have to go with a running back or receiver there. Cause he did pretty well at receiver and running back, given the fact that he didn't take a second running back until round seven. That's my take. Do you agree with that? Well,

he couldn't have had Andrews. Right. But let's say, yes, right. Based on ADP, he could potentially have Andrews. Yeah,

but I'm not worried about ADP because this whole draft would be flipped upside down if it was ADP. So if he goes Barkley, receiver, and that's Ridley, love that team. And then where do you get your quarterback? Where you take Kirk, maybe. Yeah, and could he have gotten Trevor Lawrence there? Yeah.

All right, so then the last thing was, let's say Jalen Hurts had fallen one more pick. Then I still think you've got a pretty good build if you go Barkley, Adams, Hurts. But that's the difference between a gift and a reach. As much as I like Lamar Jackson, there should be a little bit more of a gap between where those top three guys go

and the next three guys. All right, last point here, because I'm trying to make a point about building your team with a quarterback in round three and TJ Hawkinson in round five. You know, let's say that had been my team, right? Let's say I go Eckler, Adams, Jalen Hurts, Metcalf, Hawkinson, and then I take James Cook and Gabe Davis. I still think that team looks pretty good. I roll out Jalen Hurts at quarterback,

Eckler and James Cook at running back. Not bad. Devontae Adams, DK Metcalf, Gabe Davis at wide receiver. I love that. Then I took Njoku at tight end. But isn't that what Dan did, essentially? No, because... And you're talking about a tight end

that you're not taking with a top 60 pick. Because Dan just got the tight end one round later. No, he got the tight end two rounds later, but... Two rounds later, but... That's Kittle. If we're all wrong on Kittle... Okay, fine. So you like Waller a lot in round five.

I guess I'm saying if you want to take Hawkinson or Pitts or Waller in round five, the depth in round six and seven at running back and receiver seems okay, where you can have a quarterback and a wide and a tight end in your first five picks. And yes, in theory, it does work. But again, you know, we're seeing we're not going to see hurts for the most part in middle of round three.

That just hasn't been happening. What's the ADP? Okay. Depends where you look. On our side, he's round one. Yeah. So on our side, he's round one. So on our side, he's round one. Most sites, he's usually at the end of round two,

beginning of round three. I've got Fantasy Pro's full PPR open right now. He's at 22, so late round two. You shouldn't prepare to have Allen or Hertz fall to you in the middle of round three. And if they are, take them. I don't know how the hell we're going to do this.

I'm so late on this. Okay, let's see. Team 8 is one I wanted to look at individually, and then we'll do teams 9 through 12. Teams 9 through 12 are in that, okay, I think I could get a pretty good running back in round 2. That's where Pollard and Henry and Chubb are going team eight is Jacob Gibbs he is the only team see I don't I don't agree but all right you

go ahead you can say he crushed it he is one of the one of the two teams that does not have a top seven quarterback top eight quarterback or top seven tight end he you love this bill I mean Jamie loves receiver receiver receiver so he started So he started Tyreek Hill, Garrett Wilson, Calvin Ridley, then Damian Pierce, then David Montgomery, then Rashad White, Deshaun Watson's his quarterback, Greg Dulcich is his tight end. Go ahead. Why do you think Jacob crushed it? I mean, you're talking about potentially three top 15 receivers

in a league where we start three, and most people are begging for a second receiver. A lot of people are begging for a second receiver. And he's got three guys like that. I don't love Montgomery as a second running back, but Damian Pierce is fine as your number one guy there. And so who could else, who else could he have had?

Which direction are we going there? He could have had Kamara. He could have had Rashad White, James Conner. Yeah. And we got White. If it's James Conner, I like that a lot better.

What if it's Aaron Jones? Well, that's, he was long gone. No, and we got White. If it's James Conner, I like that a lot better. What if it's Aaron Jones? Well, he was long gone. No, he wasn't. When he took Pierce? No, when he took Montgomery in round five. Okay. Yeah, I mean, look.

Deshaun Watson is what it is. I'm surprised he didn't take Richardson because he's a Richardson guy. So, you know, I don't love Watson, the combination of Watson and Watson and Dulcich, but I mean, I know how I approached tight end. I took Dalton Schultz, but there are guys I like better that are still on waivers. Dave, do you like a three receiver,

Tyreek, Gilgar, Wilson, Calvin, Ridley start? When it's those three wide receivers, you've got to love it. The difference is that everywhere else on his roster, you look at it and you go, well, yeah, it might work. It might not work. And so what I, what I feel like when you do something like this is you've got to be ready to do some work on making your team better and everybody should anyway, but you know that you can't necessarily count on Pierce and Montgomery

to for sure be starters. And you can throw a white in there as your flex every single week of the season. You'd feel better if there were other running backs there, but Pierce is still pretty good. Watson. I like your streaming tight end. Bench depth is fine. If not pretty, pretty good for running back.

This build is fine. It's, it's totally, but, but I wouldn't do this in a half PPR league where you only have to start two wide receivers. This is like a special for full PPR and three wide receivers. To me, there's a huge difference

between using this build for this format versus other formats. If you want Jamie to like your team, draft three receivers, sorry, he loves it. Jamie, would you have preferred after Tyree kill and Garrett Wilson, would you have preferred the combination of Jameer Gibbs and Deandre Hopkins or Calvin Ridley and Damian Pierce?

That's a great question. Ridley and Pierce. Dave, same thing. Gibbs and Hopkins or Debo or Metcalf or Calvin Ridley and Damian Pierce? Ridley and Pierce. Really? Yeah.

I'm surprised because I would have, okay. All right. You don't like that. Who do you like? I think I like the Gibbs Hopkins side better. See, I wonder how you guys feel about Pierce. Like, you know, he's coming off a nice performance in the preseason where he played, he played every snap, but he didn't play

every snap with CJ Stroud. He played every snap until they took him out of the game and they brought in Evan Singletary. First two series, including everything in goal to go. So I don't know what that split's going to be like. And also, I think they might once again have a terrible offense. Their line has not looked good. And Stroud, people were saying he got better. I think he was doing that against backups. So, I'm worried about their offense.

So, seeing him as a top 40-ish pick, I think it was like 42 in this, right after Ramondre Stevenson, it feels like there should be more distance between Ramondre Stevenson and Damian Pierce. Do you think? I think,

I think that Dave's point, if it's Aaron Jones, we feel better about it. Yes. Yeah, I would. Yeah. Uh,

do you, do you think this offense will be better than where Houston was last year? Probably, but I still think they're going to have a bad offense. They don't have a lot of talent on their offense. Okay. Well, I mean,

Pierce averaged almost 14 PPR points per game from week two on, including a game he barely had work in in week 12. And this is a situation where if what we saw, at least in the last preseason game, holds, if he's playing on more

passing down scenarios, forget about if he's getting the ball, but he's getting those opportunities, that should lead to him getting the ball. But if he's getting the ball, but just get those opportunities. You know, that should lead to him getting the ball. But if he's getting those opportunities, you're going to be pretty happy about Damian Pierce. It seemed like their game plan was... I can't see this offense being worse than it was a year ago. No way. And they'll get better as the season goes on.

It seemed like their game plan was Pierce for two series, Singletary for one. And if that holds into the season, you'll love Damian Pierce. All right, we have a hard out in five minutes minutes and we also have to stick around for five minutes to answer questions to anyone who donates. So I apologize for rushing the end of this, but teams nine through 12, Dave, as I mentioned, now you start to get into that. Well, I think I can get Pollard or Chubb or Henry. Now this was a pretty running back,

uh, heavy draft. McCaffrey, Eckler, Bijan, and Barkley were all off the board at this point. They went ahead of Tyreek Hill. They went ahead of Cooper Cup. So maybe if you're drafting 9 through 12, or 10 through 12. No, 9 through 12. 9 through 12, sorry. You could be looking at maybe Bijan falls, maybe Barkley falls, something like that. You could be going RBRB.

Is this the best time to go rbrb i will say i did that in the fft open with barkley and pollard from the 10 spot do you like rbrb i don't hate it it's absolutely a way to go and based on adp when you're up in rounds three and four you're going to see some wide receivers there that you'll be happy to start so it really comes down to how you feel about the running backs that are there if you're over the moon about. So it really comes down to how you feel about the running backs that are there. If you're over the moon about Nick Chubb and Tony Pollard, you can try for that for sure. What I look at when I'm in late round one, and I did that in this draft, how many great receivers are left? How many great receivers went in front of me?

Who might be there at wide receiver when I pick again in early round two? Compare that to the running backs. This was an easy decision for me. All that was left at wide receiver when I pick again in early round two, compare that to the running backs. This was an easy decision for me. All that was left at wide receiver was Diggs and Lamb. I was sure that Lamb would get picked before I would go again. St. Brown was also there. Those guys are all in that same range. Brown, A.J. Brown too. But I had a feeling that one of Pollard, Henry, Chubb would make it back to me in round two. So I took Diggs, highest rated receiver on the board. But how did you decide to take Henry in round two after taking Diggs instead of Garrett Wilson or Devontae Adams?

Because I wanted to get a hero RB. I definitely wanted to have at least one running back on my team through my first two picks. But if I told you that you could get, based on ADP, one of these five players, Mixon, ETN, Gibbs, Ramondre, I guess it's four players.

Yeah, because I don't think you're getting Jacobs. They just don't have the same upside as that tier of Pollard, Henry, and Chubb. I know that, but also you're downgrading it wide receiver. So let's say you get... But did I? Well, hold on. Let's say you took DJ Moore in round three.

You could have taken Jameer Gibbs there. Would you rather have had Jameer Gibbs and Garrett Wilson or Derek Henry and DJ Moore? Henry and Moore. Jamie, how do you feel about that? Making the decision between RB in round two, whether that's Chubb or Henry or Pollard, and then a wide receiver in round three,

or taking like a Jameer Gibbs in late round three and one of those Devontae Adams or Garrett Wilson, maybe your mom or St. Brown or A.J. Brown falls to you in round two? Yeah, I would have, I mean, for me, Chubb and Henry, there's a little bit of a distance i would take a job there and find with it uh... but if it was was henry or wide receiver ongoing receiver and

jimmy rips and actually knowing that their those receivers are still there in early rafa whether we're chubb and uh... versus receiver in that i think i had to me there's the it's chubb there's the time to be the first of it okay so i was in. So I would have taken Chubb, no problem. If the choices, like I said, were Henry versus the receivers, I'm taking the receivers.

How do you think teams 9 through 12 should think about drafting quarterback? Because you're probably not... If any of us are drafting nine through 12, we're not getting one of the top three guys, most likely. Unless you do it in round two. Yeah, which we're not going to do.

So how would you guys draft quarterback? I think RJ did it perfectly, getting Justin Herbert. Again, I think Joel took Lamar Jackson too soon, so who knows where he falls. That was team seven. But RJ had Justin Herbert in Again, I think Joel took Lamar Jackson too soon, so who knows where he falls. That was team seven. But RJ had Justin Herbert in round five. This is interesting because teams 10, 11, and 12,

Dave Richard, Dave Kluge, and OJ, they all basically waited. I mean, Dave has Tua and Prescott. Dave Kluge took Daniel Jones and Kyler Murray with his last two picks. And OJ took Anthony Richardson and Aaron Rodgers. So are you more likely from this spot to be waiting at quarterback? Sure.

I think, again, play the ball. RJ's team is probably my favorite. Yeah, RJ did a good job. I was wrong about our hard out. We have that tomorrow. So I will go a little bit longer. Good with this team. We were supposed to be doing something at 1030, so we probably have to go.

We were? We were. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that. You're not invited. 15 minutes late to that. I will let you guys go. I'll just say that in the FFT Open, which is a two-receiver league,

I had the 10th pick. I went Barkley, Then I went Pollard. Then I went Calvin Ridley. And then I took Joe Burrow in a two receiver, six point for passing touchdown league. And I'm very happy with the way things turned out there.

So I'm not really downgrading Burrow at all. Quarterbacks, I think, were going a little bit early. I think it's certainly possible. You just have to accept from that spot, nine through 12, unless you're taking Mahomes early in the second round

or getting a steal with Allen or Hertz late in the third round, you're probably not going to get one of those top three quarterbacks, but that is fine. Sorry to keep you guys late. I had no idea I was doing that.

Let's end our audio version right now, and we'll stick around for YouTube. For those of you listening, appreciate it. Check us out live stream tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern youtube.com.