Fantasy Football Today - Justify It! The Reasons Behind Our Picks From Our Latest Mock Draft (02/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Looking back at last week's 3-WR, 0.5 PPR mock draft, the guys have to justify their selections! We know who they picked, but why did they make those picks? We present them with alternatives and see if there were better strategies available. We start with Heath (5:00) justifying his selections of players coming off disappointing seasons, Breece Hall over Tyreek Hill in Round 3 and Alvin Kamara instead of a WR in Round 4 (11:15) ... Jamey (16:25) is justifying De'Von Achane over Kyren Williams and Derrick Henry. Will Achane get more carries next season? Jamey also passed on Josh Allen at the 3/4 turn for a couple of wide receivers (20:30) and that leads us to a long quarterback discussion. Finally, Jamey talks about picking Mark Andrews 61st overall ... Dave has to Justify It (26:15)! Amon-Ra St. Brown ahead of a number of running backs, Allen over George Kittle in Round 4 and his picks and strategies in Round 6-8 ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Shop our store: shop.cbssports.com/fantasy  SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday 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." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. 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

I've got this condition where I don't feel pain. You're a superhero. This is how intense Nova Kane sounds. Oh, wow. Imagine how it looks. Is there more? Yeah, big time. Nova Kane, only in theaters March 14th. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

Off to the races and he stays at his feet. This is gonna go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. Justify it! Gonna make Dave, Jamie and Heath justify their picks in last week's half PPR mock draft. Heath took a lot of guys coming off disappointing seasons. Jamie and Heath justify their picks in last week's half PPR mock draft. Heath took a lot of guys coming off disappointing seasons. Jamie passed on quarterback at the three, four turn.

Not a huge surprise, but he's still gonna have to justify it. Dave took Amon Ross Saint Brown in the first round, which isn't bad, not at all, but I'm gonna give you a reason why you might've made a mistake. You're gonna have to justify it today, fellas. We welcome you to Fantasy Football today.

And yeah, that's all I got. I don't know. Yeah. There we go. What are you going to have to justify? Nothing. I'm out. I'm not in this. You could look at my team and make me justify if you'd like, but I'm going to sit this out and pick on you. That's the best part of this. It's okay. We make you justify the goofy things you say pretty much every single show. So you're getting one show off. I don't mind it. What would I have to just a Lava in round four. I like Chris a Lava in round four. What's wrong with that? I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Yeah. The next guy was Cortland. Sudden. I'd rather have a Lava Aaron Jones around. Yeah, that's fine. You bring it on. But actually, I'll tell you the truth. Thought you guys drafted really well. So this was very difficult. So congratulations to you guys for drafting really well. All right, so it's February. It's almost March, Dave. Does that make you feel any better? No. Reagency is coming up soon. I want to draft well in August. This is the time to tinker and kind of play around with how to build out a roster. But I mean, we still don't know where the free agents are going. We don't know what teams the rookies are going to be on. So great.

I'm drafting great now. That's super. No one cares because no one's drafting right now in their serious leagues. All right. Well, thanks so much for watching Fantasy Football today. No need to talk for the next six months, I guess. Saints GM Mickey Loomis expressed confidence in Derek Carr as the starting quarterback. The 49ers left tackle Trent Williams is going to play in 2025 and 49ers still want to trade Debo Samuel. The Rams are allowing guard Jonah Jackson to seek a trade, which is pretty interesting. He was a pretty big free agent signing for them last year. Had an injury riddled season. Now they're allowing him to seek a trade, which is pretty interesting. He was a pretty big free agent signing for them last year. Had an injury riddled season. Now they're allowing him to seek a trade. The Patriots are allowing defensive tackle Devon Godchow to seek a trade.

And luckily we don't have a lot of news to get to so we can get right to justify it. All right, we're going to start with Heath's team. Heath had the fourth pick in the draft. You didn't see the McCaffrey news? No. Off-season workouts. pick in the draft. You didn't see the McCaffrey news? No. Oh, they exacted. Yeah. Go ahead. Off-season workouts.

Yeah. I don't know what's... Yeah, that's relevant, I guess. Well, I mean, didn't we spend some time recently saying that we haven't heard anything positive or negative one way or the other, so we got some positive stuff. And they also said that, if I'm not mistaken, that they think that there's a chance maybe Brandon and Ayut can take part in camp. Yeah.

And the thing about McCaffrey that I was thinking about when I read the update on him was I keep downgrading all these players, like all these players, specifically Godwin and Rishi Rice were coming off major injuries to their knees. And you can forget about the tendonitis. He also had surgery on his PCL, Christian McCaffrey. Am I overlooking that? Maybe. I might have to rethink that. I think if you're going to have a policy, you got to stick to the policy, right? Yeah, it's just, I'm not going to knock every player who has surgery. I think PCL surgery, I don't know the severity. I don't know. It didn't seem like his injury was anywhere

near Godwin's. I don't know how compared to Rasheer Rice's. So that's where I'm at. I have to I have to, you know, go ask all the doctors on Twitter and see what they have to say about it. But it definitely made me reconsider. Anyway, Heath, you had the fourth pick, which was a shame because I was picking thirds. Obviously, I was going to take a lot of great players from you because I'm so good. You took here, first thing you have to justify, four of your first six picks are coming off disappointing seasons. C.D. Lamb in round one,

Breece Hall in round three, Devante Adams in round five, I believe, yes, and Travis Etienne in round six. Justify four of your first six picks kind of being disappointing last year. So I think I would first off debate the fact that Devontae Adams had a disappointing season. I think he finished the year as wide receiver 11 on a per game basis and was awesome in the second half. He did better than what I expected him to do. Um, second, I would say that all of these guys, except for CD Lamb had their price negatively impacted because of the disappointing season last year.

Brice Hall used to be a first round pick. Now I'm drafting him in round three. Travis ETN was a round three, round four guy. Now I'm drafting him in round six. Um, the one I think that I do have to justify is CD Lamb, because I took him fourth overall, and he was disappointing last year, I'm mostly just expecting that Dak Prescott is going to come back, play quarterback for 17 games next year, CD Lamb is going to be CD Lamb in and in the

conversation for wide receiver one overall. What about the fact that he it wasn't like you look at CD Lamb season, you go, Oh, he was great with Dak Prescott. And then he struggled with Mac Jones. That wasn't like you look at CD lamb season you go oh he was great with Dak Prescott and then he struggled with Mac Jones that wasn't really the case he struggled with both of them I would say he was much more consistent actually with Mac Jones yeah I I don't know I'm the Mac Jones thing is throwing me off I I think. Ah, sorry. Sorry. Cooper, Cooper Rush. Wait a second. Was Mac Jones on the Cowboys last year?

My bad. Cooper Rush. You really azerstatted that one. Yeah, I don't know. I think he is awesome. And the small sample size that we saw, maybe he was inconsistent with Deck Prescott. I don't really care about. Does anybody think that CD-LAM's not a top three or four wide receiver? He is fourth for me. He's not for me. He's just outside of it. I'm looking back at what I did a month and a half ago. I had him fifth, Chase Jefferson, Puka, Nico, Lam. Like keep played with a backup quarterback for most of the season rights and had 101 catches for 1194 yards and six touchdowns in 15 games

With the contract situation, mm-hmm I've got him with almost 19 PPR points per game with DAC seven games And what do you got it with Mac Jones slash Cooper rush? with with Cooper Jones 16.4 that includes the game Dak got a herd in that's eight games What's what and plus he was playing hurt to at the end of season. What what's? What's worse me getting first names wrong? Are you putting different players on different teams? Me putting different players on teams, I would definitely say, yeah.

With Dak Prescott, it was kind of weird. He had only two games all year with more than three games, 16.1 PPR fantasy points. He had a 19 point game against the Saints, 23 points against the Giants, and then he had about 40 points against the 49ers. But there were just a lot of duds there with with lamb. Okay. All right. So you're cool with that. You get the little discount.

I do think we should qualify duds. Like he did not have a game in single digits in terms of fantasy points. He did. He did. Yeah. Which one? Baltimore. He must've fumbled 8.7 PPR fantasy. So he lost a fumble. I mean, look, you, you, that guy was being drafted super high and he averaged 19 points per game and had three outstanding games

and three mediocre games and a terrible game. He had a 13.6, 8.7, 11 points. Yeah. 13.6, 8.7, 11.4, 16.1, 16.2, 8.4 was probably with, with.1, 16.2, 8.4 was probably with Mac Rush. Yeah. I mean, duds, no, but for a first round pick, those are kind of duds. Those are pretty bad.

But again, he had backup quarterback, bad shoulder. I mean. No, I'm talking about with the Dak. I'm talking about with Matt, with Matt. Yeah, I didn't. I wasn't aware that there were legitimate concerns about CDLAM. As long as Dak Prescott's healthy and CDLAM's healthy,

I think we all expect him to be incredible. Yeah, he'll be third for me if Stafford is traded out of Los Angeles. I'll put him out of Pucca. All right, let's justify it. So if you're gonna go with the discount player coming off a disappointing season, you took Breece Hall in round three over Tyree Kill.

Justify it. By the way, my justify it is not a disagreement, just so everybody knows. Like I said, I think these guys drafted really well, but that was a decision that you made that I wanted to get your take on. You took Breeze Hall over Tyree Kill, justify it. Yeah, I, listen, Breeze Hall averaged

just a little bit more per game last year than Tyreek Hill did. They were both disappointing. I mean, and I will say then Tyreek Hill did with two of 14.8 to 14.6 fantasy points per game. Hill is a young running back entering his prime. Tyreek turns 31 this weekend. Okay, there.

And finally justify it. Round four there. And finally, justify it. Round four, he picked Alvin Camara. Rizal, by the way, his numbers pre-DeVante were pretty impressive. His numbers when he was getting a lot of work were pretty impressive. Well, you look at the second half, he was dealing with the knee injury. The first half, the first seven games before Devonti joined the team, his receptions were way up, his production was way up. And then just you get whatever happened, you know, changing offense, changing coach, you know, he's battling injuries,

offensive line starts falling apart, he falls apart, like he's easy, easy bounce back cannon. Yes. Yeah, kind of weird. They never gave him more than what 18 carries was a season high for Breeze Hall. Little surprising, especially weeks, week 18 of the 2023 season. He had something like 35 carries and never had more than 18 this past year. All right, one more justify it for Heath. You pick Camara in round four. at that point you had Lamb, McBride and Breeze Hall. This was a three wide receiver league. So did you have any regrets with your first four picks only having one wide receiver? Your receivers ended up being Lamb, Devontae Adams, Joanne Jennings, Jacoby Myers and Adam

Thielen. So it's not so much to justify it, but a reflection of picking Camara in round four. Any regrets? No, because I don't think there's, it's really rare to find a player at any position with the kind of upside that Camara has in round four. Like I understand the risks. He's an older running back. We're scared of him, but we also know that if he is healthy and himself, he's probably a top five running back. And if I can find a top five running back upside in round four, I'm all the way in.

I don't care about the positions that much. Also it's generally speaking, and I don't know if it'll be this way this year, but that round four through six range, there's a lot of flatness when it comes to the wide receivers. I, I may have taken Devonte Adams if I hadn't taken Camara there. Okay. Yeah. The receivers who went in between his pick of Camara and round four and Devonte Adams around five were Olavi, Cortland Sutton and Zay Flowers.

Uh, I don't think you can really find a running back that did anything like Camara last year. I mean, you could say David Montgomery. He was two running backs. Yeah, I mean, your pick makes sense. I think I probably would have taken Camara. When I've taken Camara is my third running back. I think I would have if you had not taken him the pick before. And for those of you who can't see the draft,

you can go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today and watch any of our videos. If you have trouble finding them, click on the live tab and you'll see a list, but just go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Also, I will try to put a link to the draft results in the episode description if you're just listening. We're gonna be right back with Jamie's team.

Justify it for Jamie, taking Devon Achan over Derrick Henry and Kyron Williams, among others and more after this on FFT. Okay. Jamie wearing a hat on Thursday. Usually hats are on Wednesday. Justify it. Off season get a lot of hats.

Okay, what kind of hat is that what we got there a bee let's see if you can guess it's got to be Little League no it's not Little League okay it's a it's a bee it's a fancy bee it's not a brewery you wouldn't be repping a brewery looks like a Brooklyn Nets hat is it a Brooklyn Nets hat is not but that is the most common guess. Yeah, I have no idea. What is it? Dave, do you want to guess?

Let me see the side of it because there's something on it. There's nothing on it. All black with just this. No, no, no. It looks like there's something on it. A little red over on the left side. On your left ear. Oh, sorry.

It's a little, it is baseball, little league. Okay. Boca Raton Something oh Yeah, it's a good idea the bandits, but no it is the Baltimore Orioles City Select Those are our jerseys for Pretty cool for that. Yeah, but it does the the entire uniform Looks like the Brooklynettes. Oh, that's interesting.

I was going to say I thought it was just the grade you were giving my team. No, no, no. That would be the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland. Not Detroit. At least we're not at least about the Tigers. All right. Justify it, Jamie.

What's your team name? What'd you say Dave? Fresno. Fresno. Frankfurt. Or just the White Sox, just terrible. Or just the White Sox. Thank you very much.

All right, Jamie, you picked Devon Achan over Kyren Williams and Derek Henry with the 12th overall pick. Kyren Williams averaged one more fantasy point per game than Achan and half PPR in 2024. Henry averaged four more fantasy points per game than Achan and half PPR. Justify it. You know, I like to look at obviously Achan's numbers with Tua and what he was able to accomplish

you know, during the majority of the season, you know, despite the fact Tua missed six games. You clearly have to factor that in with two at this point, just knowing that 2023 was fantastic, they stayed healthy, but 2024 went back to concussion problems and then the hip injury, two things that have plagued them from college to the pros.

But I think if you're looking for upside, obviously, I'm gonna factor in age. I think A-chan's trajectory is going in the right direction. I'm a little concerned about Derrick Henry. And I do think that A-chan just, you know, based on comparing two players has more upside than Kyron Williams as well. So to me, A-chan's a first round pick. I was thrilled to get him at 12 and I would take him over those other two guys. Anyone disagree? I currently have Kyron over A-chan. I would take A HN over Henry, but if Matthew Stafford leaves, then HN would definitely be over Kyron, unless, I mean, they go get Sam Darnold.

I don't know. It sounds like Aaron Rodgers is in their future. Yeah. I know. They're getting older at quarterback somehow in LA, but I guess it makes sense financially for them. I don't know if that's what's going to happen or not. I think the whole thing's kind of weird. Look, Derek Henry definitely gets a push up the board in leagues where you don't get the full point per catch and A-chan should get a push down the board because you just don't

know how many, what his numbers will be like If you don't get that boost from the catches last year, he averaged this is a Chan 15.4 half PPR points per game. Derek Henry was at 19.2. He averaged 0.6 fantasy points per game less in half PPR compared to full PPR. So if you, if you're, if you're just going against Derek Henry and you don't want to have them on your team, I get it. He's 31 years old. He's coming off the season with 367 carries. Then it makes sense to not take them in late round one. A-chan being the guy that you take over Kyron Williams, as of now, I don't know if I love that either, but I think it's

really close between the two of them. I just, I've I've bought into Kyron Williams all the way as being a reliable fantasy running back. And I guess if I'm splitting hairs between him and A-chan in half PPR, I think I'd favor Kyron Williams, assuming the Rams have a decent quarterback. Yeah. Jamie makes a good point about the two games. I've got a Chan at nearly 20 points per game in half PPR with two. That's basically tied with Jameer Gibbs. Only Barkley being better. That's amazing. The argument I would make for Kyren over a Chan. I think the argument for Henry is easy. It's either you care about the age or you don't, right? But for Kyren, Devon HN had 203 carries in 17 games. Kyren Williams had 316. Kyren Williams has had five games with 25 or more carries in his career. Devon HN has one game with more than 18 carries compared to 16 games with more than 18 carries over his career for Kyren. So that's it. I mean, obviously the catches HN is going to crush Kyren probably,

but he's going to beat him. I don't know if he's going to crush him again, but the carries are going to be all Kyren Williams. 203 carries in 17 games is pretty low. So that would be my only argument. Like six rushing touchdowns for HN, 14 for Kyron last year. 16 total touchdowns for Kyron Williams 12 for a Chan. It's also we did do this draft right after Raheem most was released. And if it's no backfield staying as they are right now. I like the competition a little bit better for what Devon a chance facing I think is gonna get more work.

Not not that Kyron get more work than where he's been because of most are not being there. Okay. All right. At the 3-4 turn, you selected Rashi Rice and DJ Moore. We had Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson on the board and you decided to go. At that point, you had Aitchin and Malik Neighbors and then you went Rashi Rice, DJ Moore. This is a three receiver league FYI half PPR but it's also six point for passing touchdown. You took rice and more over Alan and Jackson justify it. It's just not the way I draft. You know, I think we'll see those quarterbacks go, you know, sooner and based on ADP and probably how most drafts will unfold for our audience that's listening. Not too much more because I think people are starting to understand you don't have to take quarterbacks early, but in any event, I just don't draft that way. So especially when we're starting three receivers, I think DJ Moore

is going to get a boost with the offense change in Chicago and Ben Johnson calling plays, hopefully as a slot receiver for the Bears. I'm still, as of today in the camp, that Rice will be the best receiver for the Chiefs ahead of Xavier Worthy so I think I've taken him in every offseason draft we've done so far and it's been a wide range of spots for him so this is this is a you know could end up being great value for Rice if he's back at a hundred percent and playing the way that he did in the first two games of the season first three games of the season before suffering the knee injury. So, um, I like this build better than taking a quarterback early.

All right. And again, I encourage you to look at Jamie's team. Uh, he, he always waits on quarterback golf and Knicks, but yeah, just, I'd have a hard time passing up Alan and Jackson there when Josh Allen's been a top three quarterback per game, five straight seasons. I mean, just look at the career of DJ Moore. You never know what you're gonna get from this guy and Rice coming off an injury. It just seems like,

how could I pass up Josh Allen 36 overall? Would anybody have taken Allen there? Yeah. Yeah? I mean, I don't think I can pass on those two in round four. Like you can, round three, okay. And this is the right at the turn. So I get it.

But I think if either of those guys are there in round four, I'm going to have to take them. I agree. So if you were at, Dave, if you had been on the clock and you had HN and neighbors and you had Richie. One of my two picks probably would have been Josh Allen. I did take Josh Allen in round four. Yeah. Four picks later. Three picks, three picks after Jamie took DJ Moria. All right, Jamie, you drafted Mark Andrews 61st overall. He was the fifth tight end off the board.

Bowers and McBride in round two, Kittle in round four, Laporta in round five. And with the first pick of round six, you took Mark Andrews. That gave you A-chan, Neighbors, Rashi Rice, DJ Moore, Jamison Williams, 60th overall, Mark Andrews, 61st overall. He finished as tight end seven per game in half PPR last year, and he did that with 11 touchdowns.

So justify this pick, 61st overall for Mark Andrews. Again, just looking at position scarcity and sort of the drop off for me where tight end starts to happen. So I would prefer to have that position locked up more so than quarterback. I do think that we saw him come on after a slow start, obviously still buying into what his role is with the Ravens and buying what Mar Jackson will continue to do. So we'll see how this receiving core ends up looking for the Ravens.

We'll see if Isaiah likely has a bigger role. But I just trust Mark Andrews. He's been as pretty much consistent as you can find at the position for the last five years. And the fact that he's coming off a season where he led the position in touchdowns, I think he's guaranteed for 8 plus as long as he stays healthy. So in this format, I'm fine with him in this spot. What did you guys think about that? Because I was a little surprised just to think the guys caught 11 touchdowns last year and was only tied in seven per game.

It's actually in half PPR. It was actually outscored per game by David Njoku. Where did Njoku go? Here, probably pretty late. Where am I missing? Oh, he went in this. Oh, he went at the end. There we go, all the way in the end. End of round six.

So just beginning of round six, Mark Andrews, end of round six, David Njoku. But does Andrews have, what do you guys think his ceiling is? Oh, I don't think the ceiling is the problem with taking him in round five. Um, I think the ceiling is probably still a top three tight end. Uh, the, the, the risk is the floor. The risk is that he has a season that looks a lot like last season, even if you

want to discount the first couple of weeks, um, that look for four weeks, maybe that looks like week five through week 18, where I think he was on pace for 795 yards, 64 catches and score six touchdowns. And then he's a replacement level tight end. What happens if he doesn't score 11 touchdowns in his last 12 games? Uh, Jamie doesn't take him in around. Um, okay. Yeah. I would take Najoku.

I would take like with the talks that Kelsey's giving me back, I would take Kelsey. Um, I think there'll probably be six or seven tight ends. I'll take before Andrews, but the ceiling is still elite. Okay. All right. Thank you for justifying it, Jamie. I appreciate you.

You're welcome. All right. Let's get to Dave. Yeah. Did you thank me for justifying it? You went to commercial. I don't remember being thanked for justifying it. I did. I said it during the commercial. My bike was muted. I actually't remember being thanked for justifying it. I did.

I said it during the commercial. My bike was muted. I actually gave you a really long thank you. It was two minutes long during the commercial break, but no one heard it. But I'll text it to you. All right, Dave, you are up. You drafted Amon Ras-Saint-Brown, ninth overall, ahead of running backs such as Jonathan Taylor, Devon Achan, Kyiron Williams, Derek Henry,

etc. All those guys were gone by your second pick in round two, which was Josh Jacobs. Why did you take St. Brown? Justified taking St. Brown in half PPR, he scored 15.1 fantasy points per game last year. That was down from 17.1 the year before. And again, not disagreeing, but he was the let's see 123 he was the sixth wide receiver off the board after chase Jefferson lamb Nico and Nakua justify St. Brown ninth overall. I decided to start the draft with a wide receiver because I knew that one of those running backs that you just named would make it back to me in round two. And if it didn't, then one of neighbors or Brian Thomas Jr. would make it back to me in round two.

And I would have been elated if I had gotten one of them and started this draft going receiver, receiver. I opted for the safe route with St. Brown, just figuring we know what his role is in Detroit. We know that the Lions offense probably like the biggest change the Lions offense will have this off season is in play caller. And I don't even know if that's necessarily a good thing, that they are changing from, they had to change from Ben Johnson because he left for Chicago. But I don't know if I love

who they replaced him with. So that makes me a little bit nervous. I think I probably should have gone the upside route and taken neighbors who I'm very bullish on. I expect his quarterback to be better than what he had last year. It's negligible the difference between neighbors and St. Brown on a per game average in half PPR. Brian Thomas probably for that big stretch that he had with Cooper Rush, I mean, Mack Jones at the end of the season. Brian Thomas, you're doing was probably better as far as half PPR goes.

I probably should have taken one of those younger wide receivers and just waited for a running back or maybe even ARSB coming back to me in round two. At this stage and in drafting, when I don't have that one running back that I've got to go with ahead of the pack of the others and I'm just settling for who's ever left from that gang of Who is it who went in that space like Derek Henry was in there? Jacobs Kyron Jonathan Taylor a Chan was in there. Yeah, just settling for one of those guys who's ever left That's ranked the highest at running back

That's who I'll take in round two after I take the receiver who I want in round one for this draft that receiver was st Brown so I receiver who I want in round one for this draft that receiver was St. Brown. So I want to talk a little bit about Amon Ross St. Brown here and this is the season that he had. Let's go to the chat real quick from Joey. Joey said a couple of interesting things. But Joey said, I was offered Brian Thomas straight up for Amon Ross St. Brown in a dynasty league. I hate one to one trades tough decision there. What would you guys do? I would be like Joey and just be like, I hate this offer.

Why are you doing this? I think I have them back to back in dynasty, but yeah, I'd take Thomas. I would, I would take the few years that you may get with Thomas. It's three years and I don't have a problem saying no to this trade because I think we, we all view St. Brown as a steady, safe type of player who is he ascending? Is he just elite? Yeah, he is.

Could Brian Thomas Jr. Be better? Yes. But Brian Thomas Jr. Could also fall apart. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. I think there's a little more volatility. I'll say if you've got a team that's competitive now, stick with the safer play with St. Brown.

More importantly, Heath, you can address this. Joey said, Heath once made me buy him a pack of gum from the Aria gift shop and never paid me back. We have bigger problems. This is clearly a lie. Joey's no one's ever had to make Joey do something nice. He probably bought the gum because my breath stunk and just gave it to me as a gift. I don't remember it at all, but not true. Um, I, I do want to say, like, I do think there's at least a little bit of question mark about the Lions offense and St.

Brown and whether he's a top six wide receiver or a top 12 wide receiver without Ben Johnson there. Well, also, I just wanted to point out with St. Brown, he heard his yards in his last three years. 1,161, 1,515, 1,263. The first two years were 16 games last year was 17 games. You know, what is he? How did he get to 1500 yards? The catches weren't all that different. You know, how did he get to 1500 yards in 2023? He might be more like a 1250 yard guy, whereas Chase

just had a 1700 yard season. Jefferson could be even better than that. C.D. Lamb, I don't know what he had two years ago, but it was better than St. Brown. I just want to point that out about Amon Ross St. Brown. He could be, he could get back to his 2023 form, but I don't know that I would think that he's a 1500 yard guy. He might be more like 1300 best case scenario.

So it's just, I feel like catches touchdowns. We might. We might have kind of a grip on that yard. Sometimes get a little bit lost in the discussion for me anyway, but he's not the same guy as some of the other players being trying. You're also seeing sending players around him. I mean, Jameson Williams coming off, you know, his best season same reporter the last two years. Obviously been a factor run game has been amazing, you're also seeing sending players around him. I mean, Jameson Williams coming off, you know, his best season, same

lap or to the last two years, obviously been a factor run game has been amazing. You know, so there's a lot of things he has to contend with target per out run rate. Last three seasons for St. Brown, 30.3%, 28.5%, 25.7% this past year. It is, it is a bit of a drop off. Uh, okay. He's a great player, but some things to consider with him. Let's take a quick break here got two more justifiates for Dave and then I

will thank him for justifying it and we'll be right back on it. All right, welcome back, Dave in round four. At this point, you had Amanra St. Brown, Josh Jacobs and T Higgins. And then you took Josh Allen. So now you have St. Brown, Josh Jacobs, and T Higgins. And then you took Josh Allen. So now you have St. Brown, Higgins, Jacobs, Josh Allen. Very good start to your team. The next pick was George Kittle. Thinking about how deep quarterback is compared to tight end, taking Josh Allen over George Kittle and Kittle was tight end one per game in this format last year. Justify it. format last year, justify it.

I'm always going to take a quarterback at a value that I feel like is a steal. And you kind of convinced me Adam earlier this off season that Josh Allen should be the QB one based on consistency and just what his upside is. And I don't know if he necessarily hits his upside every single year, but he definitely does a great job for fantasy managers season in and season out. You're getting north of 25, 26 fantasy points per game and six point per passing touchdown leagues.

And I don't mind being the guy that takes the first quarterback off the board when it's Josh Allen and it's with my fourth pick. It just so happened in this draft, he's the second quarterback off the board when it's Josh Allen and it's with my fourth pick. It just so happened in this draft, he's the second quarterback off the board and was absolutely delighted. It felt like it was a good value. And yeah, when you go and you look at this mock draft, you'll see, oh, there were, you know, Joe Burrow in round five, that's a decent value. Jamie takes quarterbacks late. Those are always going to be excellent values. Not only do I feel like Josh Allen was one of the best values in this draft, he, that pick kind of set off other managers taking other quarterbacks, and I didn't want to miss

out on that. And so yeah, George Kittle is great, and I expect him to have another good year, at least another good start to the year next year in San Francisco. But he's not going to get me 26 points per game. And there are a few other quarterbacks who might, none of them would have made it back to me when I was up in round five. So it's kind of a combination of looking for great value, taking the best available player and being able to do that without having to spend one of my first three picks. I also think that like as good as Kittle was last year and Allen had a down year last year, Allen was four and a half points better than QB 12, Kittle was five and a half points better than tight end 12. Like even in a down year, Allen's edge was on the on replacement value

was almost equal to Kittle's. Was it a down year? I mean, we got to look at Alan, right? The last two seasons for Josh Allen, his points per game, 20 in six-point passing touchdown lead, let's say between 26 and 27 the last two years. That's a lot lower than the three before that. 28.9, 27.6, 28.7. Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson just had 30 points per game this past season.

Are we seeing some signs of, I don't wanna say, I do not wanna use the word decline. He's still obviously playing at an incredible level, but statistical decline for Allen. And by the way, the fantasy points per game I'm using are for 16 games, I'm not counting zero points in week 18 because that does count. If you look at a website and say his points per game, he does get docked for not scoring

any points in one snap in week 18. I'm excluding that. But are there concerns? He didn't have as prolific of a year, two years in a row without 30 touchdown passes. The three years before that, 35 to 37 touchdown passes. I think you're seeing the growth in him and the growth in the offense. So he's not having to do as much because James Cook had a pretty solid season. We know what the receiving core looks like, so he's not getting a lot of help in terms of playmakers making different making type of things down the field for him. So that's sort of, I think, grinding on some of his stats a little bit as well. But when they're ever, when they're having success and he's not having to be Superman, and that was the case for their team for a good portion of the season, like that's just going to negatively hurt him in a small regard. So I think if you know, you're concerned about Josh Allen, you're just concerned.

Is he QB one? You're not concerned about a fall off can I mention one other thing of course yeah he had five games last year north of 30 32 PPR points including a 57.9 banger in week 14 we all remember that game it was crazy it I don't expect him to do that every single week, but it's hard to find players at any position that can offer you that type of game wrecking upside where he's going to win you your week, but Josh Allen kind of provides that upside almost every single week here, he's a great value. He deserves to be QB one.

And he will be for me and getting my QB one in round four feels like a, it feels like a no brainer. Yeah, no, I wasn't disputing Alan in round four. I was just saying him over a kid all when like that for me is the, the, that's the issue I have is like looking at Dave's roster, like you could have found a quarterback somewhere along the way. That's clearly not Josh Allen. Your tight end is no great.

Yeah, I know. I botched that. I, I would say like, there's not concern about Josh Allen being less good than he was right. The concern was my concern coming into the beginning of last year. And it's that he threw less than he has since he became good. And he ran less than he has. And that's just an offensive philosophy thing.

We saw that a little bit at the end of last year when they made the offensive coordinator change. And it seems like Sean McDermott has been pretty, been pretty public about how much more he likes what they're doing offensively now than what they used to do. So like they are intentionally taking work off of Josh Allen's plate. about how much more he likes what they're doing offensively now than what they used to do. So like they are intentionally taking work off of Josh Allen's plate. He's going to have fewer pass attempts and fewer rush attempts than we're used to.

So he has to be even more elite in terms of efficiency to give us that 28, 29, 30 fantasy points per game. I mean, I could tell you just from the last three owners meetings that Sean McDermott has very publicly to your point. He said We don't want him running as much we don't want him running as much We don't want him running as much, you know And I think they recognize like he takes a lot of hits and they don't want him to you know Suffer any injuries that's gonna take him off the field for any significant stretch

So, you know, it's that's what kind of I was getting it You know the the maturation process of what he's gone through is like he's he's playing the position smarter and you know, it's that that's kind of what I was getting at. You know, the maturation process of what he's gone through is like he's he's playing the position smarter. And, you know, like Dave's point, he's got that in his bag. He's got, I don't know, catching a touchdown, you know, but he certainly has the ability to go for 30 plus on any given week. And I think we could say the same thing about a lot of the elite guys.

You know, the one that comes to mind is if Mahomes ever was allowed to go get touchdowns on every drive, he'd go get touchdowns on every drive. That's just not the way that the Chiefs are playing right now, but he certainly has that because he goes and does it in the fourth quarter whenever he needs to. So that's what makes Lamar Jackson special. I think it's going to make Jay Daniel special. It's what Jaylen Hurts with his ability as a runner, as a passer. This is why these guys are Joe Burrow. These guys are top five fantasy quarterbacks for a reason because not only will they do it, they can do it, do it I think whenever they not necessarily want to but if they need to go do it they can do it so go ahead I thought you were no I'm just you know to to to look at Josh Allen like that's not a bad pick I think just in terms

of roster construction like had you taken kill there and in some where along the line you know maybe after the jail and McMillen pick or, you know, around eight or later, you throw a quarterback in there, your roster to me looks a hell of a lot better as good as Josh Allen is, Kittle can still be tight end three. If you want to go that route, you know, and sort of knock them down a couple pegs because of how we view Brock powers and Jamie pride. I think your roster just looks that much better. If you have that position covered and then finding a quarterback along the way,

you know, you take one of the guys off my roster as well. Or I could have taken David Nijoku in round six instead of James Connor. I could have taken, you know, Tucker Kraft is a guy that I've gravitated toward. I could have taken him in round 10. Like obviously taking Nolgri with my last pick is me punting on tight end. And again, that's something that I was experimenting with. This is the time of the year to do that stuff. The pick looks totally dumb. Now it would be a different tight end. If we were doing it might be Evan Ingram and I might punt on him too. But with your literally the last pick at tight end, I'm looking for somebody who I start

in week one, maybe week two, and then I'm playing the waiver wire with that position. Two other things. Number one, if the Bills take Josh Allen's rushing ability out of his bag, you're looking at a team that's fighting to be 500. No, no, no. He's not stopping. Right. They can talk about it all they want. I don't think they're going to stay. Tom McDermott was never making it the case that they don't want him to run. They just want him to run less and smarter how he runs. The other thing I was going to bring up is in this specific draft, Jalen Ertz went ahead at Josh Allen.

Then after I took Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson's gone, Jane Daniels is gone, Patrick Holmes is gone, Joe Burroughs gone. Presumably, if I passed on Josh Allen, maybe Burrough makes it back to me. Maybe there's another manager, Heath, maybe you would have taken Joe Burrow. Joe might have taken Joe Burrow. I don't know if I get one of those first three top six quarterbacks. And then I'm waiting and hoping that I'm the guy that takes Baker

Mayfield. Jordan Love went in round nine. I'm sorry, I want to take a quarterback at a good value and Baker Mayfield would probably be the last one that I would have considered and that might have been my round eight pick and that would have been okay. And Jamie, you probably would have loved it and given it your stamp of approval. I feel a lot better with Josh Allen than I do Baker Mayfield. Not to slight Baker Mayfield, but I think Josh Allen. And I don't think this is anything crazy. I think he's the better fantasy quarterback Adam just while we're on that topic Would you have taken my homes if burro had gone ahead of mo? No, I

Took burro in round five you're saying with my round five pick what I've taken my home My homes went ahead of burro. I'm not I'm not drafting it that way I would rather have burrow But I'm curious if you would have because I know you like to take a quarterback early and Burrow in that spot is a very good pick. What would you have done if it's? I would have considered it just because I don't love, I don't really love round five so much. The next four picks after I took Joe Burrow were Devontae Adams, Jalen Waddle, DK Metcalf and George Pickens. And then Devonte

Smith. Those guys seem fine. And then I'm not saying they're bad picks, but I'm not I'm not doing like cartwheels over those picks. I would have considered my homes. I don't think I would have. I think I probably would have taken Devonte Adams justify it. Yeah, that's no, I think there's a pretty big difference to me between Burrow and Mahomes. There is a big gap for me in six-pointer passes, actually, on these between those two. No, you don't agree, Heath? There was last year.

I mean, I was about saying Joe Burrow is a better player than Patrick Mahomes, but from a fantasy standpoint, I do think there's a big enough gap. Should be like a full round, not four picks or three picks and separating them. Yeah. I just, I think it depends. And we go through this pretty regularly. Like how much does last year influence what you think about someone in fantasy when we have a couple of guys who have a pretty strong three and five year histories.

Yeah. It's two years in a row for Mahomes. Well, we can't talk about two years ago because Joe Burrow was not even a top 12 quarterback. Look, man, you put Patrick Mahomes on the bangles and I'll take him, you know, maybe as QB1. It's just the Chiefs are not operating in a way that's making Mahomes a great fantasy option and not... I'm not necessarily debating that.

I'm just saying that I think maybe there's two, but I think it's one year out of their careers where Joe Burrow was better. That's fine. I just look at it. I think I have Joe Burrow ahead of my homes. I just don't know why, why we would say it's not close. Like we're, it's a lot of recency bias. It's two years in a row of my homes being the super low a doc guy. And the, you know, the chiefs being a defense first, you know, not a high scoring team. Whereas the Bengals obviously had a terrible defense

and they've got Jamar Chase and they don't resign T Higgins that would change things. But assuming they bring back Chase and Higgins, I just love the setup for Burrow. And I've also seen, I made this point about Burrow last year, there hasn't been that much time where he has been healthy with Jamar Chase healthy with T Higgins healthy. But in that time, he's been a guy who's averaged about this is going into 2024

average about 28 points per game or something like that. I'm sorry, I don't have the numbers right off the top of my head, but I did notice that with him when everyone's been healthy, Joe that Joe Burrow had shown he can be absolutely elite. And then he backed it up with a huge season scoring 27 points per game in 2024. I don't think he gets there again. I think the past attempts will probably go down. He threw 652 times, but I do think he's 24, 25 points per game, something like that. And with potential to be at 28-ish points per game, but I'm not

going to project that. So I just think that the situation, Joe Burrow backed up what I thought he could be last year, and it's two years in a row of Mahomes averaging about 21 points per game, and what's gonna change? He doesn't have Kelsey anymore. Like he has a shell of Kelsey,

and we're hoping he's even worthy. He could have Rashi Rice and Xavier worthy. I don't know that Rice makes him that much better. Like she Rice is like a six yard a dot guy and like he's got to my point is it got to get more explosive plays. Their offense is not explosive right now. They need to change that. That's my issue with my homes.

And again, I only said around difference. I just don't think they should be basically back to back in the draft. I hope that made sense. That was me justifying it. Adam, thank you for justifying it. Dave, I don't know if anybody thanked you, but thank you for justifying it also. Well, Dave has one more to justify here, although I don't really, it's kind of boring. Should we do it? What is it?

You took Jalen McMillan and Cooper Cup in round seven and eight. Looking back, do you wish you had taken a wide receiver around six instead of James Connor? And then maybe taking taking Najee Harris, Deandre Swift or Jalen Warren in round seven. You took Macmillan and Cup in round seven and eight and maybe dip into the wide receiver pool a little bit earlier going round six. What do you think? Yeah, I could have had Godwin and Jalen Warren instead of James Connor and Jalen McMillan. Keep up with the Jalen's everybody. I probably should have done that because I still believe that Chris Godwin can be a good high volume fantasy receiver. He was awesome in half PPR last year before he got hurt. Sounds like he's staying in Tampa, which would obviously crush the value of

Jalen McMillan. I drafted McMillan with the idea that Godwin wasn't going to be back on the team. So that pick now sucks. I probably would have done that, but I also, until further notice, I obviously, I'm still a recovering running back addict and I want to make sure that I cover my bases with running backs in the draft. So I got Jacobs in round two. Love that. Got David Montgomery in round five. That cost me Sam Laporta, but I still wanted a running back that I could at least start as an

RB2 when I was up in round six. Godwin was available. He literally went with the next pick, but I took James Connor at that point because I wanted to make sure I was solid at running back. And just short of that, yeah, I probably could have gone in a different direction. And in half PPR, Jalen Warren isn't as appealing. And James Connor certainly could outscore Jalen Warren. We also don't know for sure that Jalen Warren is going to be a feature guy. We don't know for sure that James Connor is going to get the exact same type of workload that he had last year.

There's two things working against Connor there. So I probably should have taken Godwin. No, I mean, well, first of all, at this point, when we did this draft a week ago, we didn't get this vote of confidence for Chris Godwin from Jason Light of the bucks, right? We had the we had the contract news. What was the contract? What? That they pushed back the void date. Oh, okay.

Did we have that a week ago? Yeah. But they didn't but it certainly wasn't like, oh, we love Chris Goblin. We're definitely we definitely want to bring him back. I don't know if that makes any difference now. That doesn't make it the contract void being pushed back or whatever it is. Being pushed back is far more important. All right.

That means they want to try and keep them. Okay. Well, Dave, thank you so much for that justification. It was really- It was my distinct honor, Adam. And Jamie, thank you. You're welcome. I never felt more welcome to do something.

Yeah, well, you deserve it. And Heath, have a great weekend, man. Oh, can't wait to talk to you again, Adam. And we'll have FFT Dynasty tomorrow. So you won't be there. I won't. Which is gonna be. Thank you for doing that, Heath.

Thank you. And honestly, you'd rather do a solo mailbag than ask me to come on. What's that? I've used to be called a mailbox, not a mailbag, given Heath's issues. Maybe. It'd be a pretty short show. All right, folks, we're out of here. We'll talk to you on FFT Express, FFT Dynasty tomorrow. And by the way, happy seventh anniversary to CBS Sports HQ. It's awesome.

If you're not watching CBS Sports HQ, you're making a mistake. It's a wonderful time to be watching. Fill out your brackets, but watch CBS Sports HQ to get everything you need on the NCAA tournament. For Jamie, Dave and Heath and Thomas, I'm Adam. Talk to you on Monday on 8 p.m.