Fantasy Football Today - Live Auction!!! Let the Bidding Begin (08/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2020

We're joined by three awesome guests - Yahoo's Liz Loza, NFL Network's Marcas Grant and Rotoballer/Sportsline's Scott Engel - as we take part in a 12-team auction! We've got different bidding strategi...es (studs and duds vs. a more balanced approach), constant player analysis and much more. Enjoy! Hey! We are giving away a 75 inch and 55 inch TV! The contest is completely free to enter. To win, go to CBSSports.com/giveaway 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:59 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.
Starting point is 00:01:16 Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. All right, welcome everybody. It is a Tuesday afternoon, a rainy, windy Tuesday afternoon in much of the East Coast here, and I'm just hoping my power stays on long enough to complete an auction. It's going to take a long time. I'm Adam Azer with like seven other people on Twitch right now, and you're listening
Starting point is 00:01:41 to the podcast as well on Wednesday, but this is Tuesday afternoon. I'm going to introduce you to everybody, but we're about to do an auction. Dave, you are the commissioner, the ringleader here. Thank you for putting this together, man. This is exciting. My pleasure. Got a few of my buddies from the industry to join us. Marcus Grant from NFL Media, Liz Loza from Yahoo Sports, Scott Engel, the king from Sportsline and Rotoballer and plenty of other places. Scott's been around for a long time. Really excited to pick their brains as we roll along in this 12-team,
Starting point is 00:02:17 half-point PPR, $100 budget salary cap draft. Sure. Excitement. And by the way, it's nice and sunny on the East Coast down here, Adam. Don't know what you're talking about. I'm looking right outside right now. Sun's out, blue clouds. Life's great in Florida. Yeah, I know. It's wild up here. Never used my patio furniture, but had to bring it in anyway. So it's been a wild day. I'm just hoping, hoping that we can get through this. Let's say hello to everybody. All right. First of all, Ben Gretsch, Heath Cummings. Hi, guys.
Starting point is 00:02:42 Hey. You want us both to talk at the same time? You know, I figured you guys would figure it out. You know when to go. I have one question. Yeah. Who carried the patio furniture off the patio and into the house? My son, my two-year-old son. He helped me out. I knew it wasn't you.
Starting point is 00:02:56 Let's say hello to Liz Lowe's of Yahoo Sports. Hey, Liz. Hello. Thank you for having me. It's sunny in Los Angeles. Surprise. All right. Everybody's bragging. Marcus Grant of NFL Network, welcome to the show. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for doing this with us. I appreciate the invite. Liz, it depends what part of Los Angeles, because a little bit here closer to the water, it's still kind of overcast right now. Is there still traffic in Los Angeles amid the pandemic?
Starting point is 00:03:22 Surprisingly, yes, there is. Nothing stops. or not. That never stops. And Scott Engel. Yeah, what's up, Scott? How we doing, man? Hey, good to see you, Adam. Good to see everybody here and be all with all you guys.
Starting point is 00:03:37 Drafting live, ready to rock here from Queens, New York. Dave, what's going on? Are we ready to go? I'm ready when you guys are ready. Let's do this thing. We are starting it now and I get to nominate the first player and I can't think of a better player that I would like to nominate
Starting point is 00:03:51 than this fine young rookie from the Indianapolis Colts, Jonathan Taylor. Let's go. Put your money where your mouth is, Ben Gretch. Let's see what's happening. Usually, the most expensive players
Starting point is 00:04:08 get nominated pretty early, so you can set a market. I don't know what Jonathan Taylor's going to go for. $100 budget here. Quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, tight end, a flex, and then we've got five bench spots plus a kicker and a DST. Ben Gretsch bids eight
Starting point is 00:04:23 on Jonathan Taylor. Dave, you said half PPR, right? I did. Looks like eight might win. Going once, going twice. All right, Ben, you're on the board. You got your guy for $8 down at the table. Man, that was a steal. I'm just kidding. You know, he really
Starting point is 00:04:40 isn't that far off from where I think he's worth. Yeah. I have him at 11 and I'm high on him, obviously. You did well last year, Ben. Remember, everybody, I know a lot of you are accustomed to $200 auctions. We're doing 100. But you got Aaron Jones for $9 last year. You got Chris Godwin for $11.
Starting point is 00:04:57 But, yeah, you had Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. You didn't spend huge on anyone last year. That's what kind of stands out to me about your team. Your most expensive player was David Johnson for $22, but you won on the strength of Aaron Jones. Did you win? I know you had one of the top two seeds. I think I lost.
Starting point is 00:05:15 I don't think I won that league. Okay, but you did well, and you didn't spend big. There are a lot of different approaches to this. Let's see if I just got to check in with the auction here. Oh, Christian McCaffrey. Oh, hello.
Starting point is 00:05:29 We have a bid going on right now. Christian McCaffrey just went for $31. That's a good price on the gather. I think that is too. I would have been if I hadn't been talking. He went that low. Yeah. Liz,
Starting point is 00:05:38 what is your strategy in an auction? Do you have one? Oh, I am just trying to pay attention right now. There's a lot going on. I don't really want to say my strategy is the first person to be asked this question because that would not be particularly strategic. I will say doing this sober helps. Doing it not in Vegas helps. And maybe being quiet at the beginning gives you an advantage.
Starting point is 00:06:03 So you want to save your money a little bit? Is that what you're saying? I mean, maybe we got Saquon Barkley, Jamie, Jamie just got Christian McCaffrey. Now he's going for Saquon Barkley. Barkley is now more expensive than McCaffrey.
Starting point is 00:06:15 He's up to 33 Scott angle. Oh, is outbid by Jamie 34. Scott, are you going 35? No, George Scott. I go,
Starting point is 00:06:22 I was going 36. Wow. I love the fact that it took us three players to make absolutely no sense at all. So good job team. All right, Scott. So you saw McCaffrey go for 31 and then you just got Barkley for 36. How are you feeling about that? I'm feeling good. I actually feel that if Saquon Barkley stays healthy over a full season, that he can outscore everybody. You know, this is a savvy room of experts, and you always have to treat it like a high-stakes sort of draft
Starting point is 00:06:54 and be aggressive and go after what you want. I don't care what McCaffrey went for. I want Saquon Barkley because against a savvy room like this, he could be a league winner. He had five games last year, I believe, of rushing or total from scrimmage where he runs over 50 yards
Starting point is 00:07:11 and I think McCaffrey just had three, something like that. He's got more upside. Okay, Lamar Jackson now. We got a... I didn't mean to nominate him. He was at the top of my queue, but I ran out of time. $7.
Starting point is 00:07:27 Remember, Mahomes went for $12 last year. Dave's up to nine on Lamar Jackson. That's interesting because Dave's kind of like the weight on quarterback guy, I thought. Dave, for $9, you could, oh, swoop it in. Look at that. And here, this is why I went nine because I figured someone would go double digits, and there were two someones that went double digits on Lamar Jackson.
Starting point is 00:07:48 And now there's three. Scott's in there as well. Scott up to 12. Get him for 12. I think 12 is a good price for Lamar Jackson. I think that's a good salary for him. Scott Angle, you have dinner plans tonight, man? You've got two of the first four players.
Starting point is 00:08:02 Lamar Jackson. Actually, when you go into an auction, you write down who you want to target. To me, Lamar Jackson's a backhand for the first-round pick. People say wait on quarterbacks, and he might regress. What's he going to regress to? 900 rushing yards and 28 touchdown passes, running back numbers, the quarterback. He is the only quarterback I will not wait for.
Starting point is 00:08:22 All right. Hey, Heath. You're not freaked out by the fact that quarterbacks tend to not repeat as number one guys year over year? No, because nobody has that kind of rushing floor with decent passing numbers. If he regresses from 1,200 yards, what's he going to get, 950? Nobody in the history of fantasy football has had those kind of rushing numbers with respectable passing production. Okay.
Starting point is 00:08:49 I think what I'm worried about with Lamar is a, he gets figured out and that it makes it a little bit tougher for him to put up even 950 yards. And I think he could finish top three. No problem. It's just making him the number one guy. When someone like Mahomes is out there, I think it might be easier for Mahomes to beat his ceiling than Lamar Jackson to beat his regressed numbers from 2019,
Starting point is 00:09:17 if that makes sense. Well, Mahomes has never rushed for 400 yards. I know, but he's thrown for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns. I'd rather take the rushing upside. It's more fantasy points. Let me throw this one to one of our guests, Marcus. Marcus, Jamie Eisenberg just got Ezekiel Elliott for $32. He has
Starting point is 00:09:35 Christian McCaffrey for $31 and Ezekiel Elliott for $32. That's 63% of his budget on two players. Again, we start one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers, flex, tight end, kicker defense, five bench spots, whatever. So he's going to have a lot of $1 players, $2, whatever. But what do you think about that strategy of two of the elites and trying to just figure out the rest? I don't think it's terrible.
Starting point is 00:09:57 I think especially when you're talking about spending that on running backs versus wide receivers in a year that we all agree that wide receiver has a lot of depth. So you talk about spending a dollar or two somewhere else on your roster. Look, you spend heavy on those running backs, those elite running backs. You feel confident that you got that spot locked up and you can go and find wide receivers or pass catchers, even tight ends at a much more reasonable value somewhere later in the draft. So I don't think it's a terrible way to go about this. I'm just going to read you guys a team from last year. Ben Schrager's. I don't know how he did.
Starting point is 00:10:30 I think injuries did him in a little bit, but I think this team could have been great. Drew Brees for $1. This was last year. Zeke for $31. Kamara for $32. Kenny Galladay for $7. Josh Gordon for $7.
Starting point is 00:10:43 But he also had Michael Gallup for $1, Delaney Walker for two, so he played the waiver wire there. But he had Breeze, Zeke, Kamara, Galladay, and Michael Gallup, and he did that with 63% of his budget. Same exact thing we saw from Jamie, but he did it with Zeke and Kamara. I don't know, Ben, if you're there to chime in. It didn't turn out great because of Breeze's injury and Kamara's inconsistency, but I loved
Starting point is 00:11:07 the way to attack the draft. If Jamie hadn't done it with McCaffrey, I would have. I just didn't want to go over 30 with him. Okay. Yeah, I think the strategy can work. Jamie's trying to get three, though. I see what he's doing. He's trying to get three players for 90% of his budget, and I don't know if that's going to work. Dalvin Cook, am I really going to get Dalvin Cook for $26? That's wonderful. That is wonderful. That might be the best one so far.
Starting point is 00:11:32 That's $10 less than Barkley. Wow. Ben Gretsch, tell me how great I just did. Oh, no, you didn't do great. Chris thought we were starting at $315, so he just showed up. I don't know where he would have got that idea. All right.
Starting point is 00:11:49 Clyde Edwards-Ziller went for $24. So you got Saquon for $36, McCaffrey for $31, Zeke for $32, Cook for $26, Clyde Edwards-Ziller for $24. Heath, any early analysis that you'd like to give? Christian McCaffrey was stolen. I think that's the main thing. We just all fell
Starting point is 00:12:14 asleep. But other than that, I think it's been pretty normal. All right, Austin Eckler now up to $19 to Dave. I'm just going to say that I want to have three top 20 players since nobody wants to spill the beans. I'm just going to say that I want to have three top 20 players since nobody seems to be, nobody wants to spill the beans.
Starting point is 00:12:28 I'm just saying, I'm going to try to get three top 20 players and go from there. That probably means a dollar probably means six combined dollars on quarterback and tight end. And the rest, I tend to be the opposite of that. And I like the way Liz put it, where you want to be careful early.
Starting point is 00:12:42 I bought the very first player, but I got Taylor for $8. That was part of why I didn't immediately react to the McCaffrey thing, is I bought Taylor right away and I was like, am I going to get two players for close to half my budget really quick into the draft? So I would classify myself as the opposite, Adam, if you want some more strategy talk.
Starting point is 00:13:00 Well, it doesn't matter when it happens. The auction is an opportunity to get more studs than you can get in a snake draft, right? Scott Engel, you've been doing these for so long,
Starting point is 00:13:18 different sports. Are you a studs and duds kind of guy or a more balanced roster? I think I'm a studs and duds guy because values can always fall roster? I think I'm a Duds and Duds guy because values can always fall to you later. I remember doing it. My career started at CBS Sportsline.
Starting point is 00:13:33 First eight years of my career. Great to be back here. I remember, I think Dave and I were in an auction where Torrey Holt went for like a dollar. Yeah, it happened. Michael Gallup went for a dollar last year. Patrick Mahomes at 12 to Heath. I think what Scott said, though, about wanting to target, like going into a draft with certain players on your list,
Starting point is 00:13:56 like target players, also is helpful. So it's like a balance of not, like hoping those players don't get selected immediately. Heath, why don't you tell people sort of like the dollar bid strategy? Because if you want someone really badly and it's your turn to nominate and you nominate for a dollar, it's easy to lose that player to someone who's going to nominate two and then you have to go to three. Talk about just that whole process of getting someone for a dollar. I don't really like to plan on getting anyone for a dollar because of that reason. Because the difference between a dollar and $2 in an auction, especially in a $200 auction,
Starting point is 00:14:34 is just almost nothing. And so what I prefer to do is be at a point when we start to get to the $1 players where I can choose two or three of those guys and go get them for two. But the other thing I'll say is if there's somebody you really want for $1, don't nominate them for $1, nominate them for two. Right.
Starting point is 00:14:53 No one's paying three for them. Right. Would anybody do that with the Steelers DST? Or any DST? Not this year. I don't think there's one. I mean, there are specific situations where you get late in a draft
Starting point is 00:15:06 if nobody's really nominated a defense yet, and you have a little bit of flexible budget where I can see doing that, but I don't typically do it either. Derrick Henry for 20. All right, Austin Eckler for 23, Derrick Henry for 20, Mahomes for 12. Those are the last three. Dave, is that your first player or second? That's my first player.
Starting point is 00:15:23 I went into this not expecting to get Derek Henry. I actually had a game plan to try and get certain running backs from the same team. Wanted to go for the tandem look there with running backs, but I'm not going to pass up Derek Henry even in a half PPR for 20. I think that that's a great,
Starting point is 00:15:40 great price. I'm really thrilled with it. It was a steal, and if it was not against my plans, then I would have... But this is the way that auctions work sometimes, is that Heath was bidding up and then got other players, and he didn't want to spend to get the
Starting point is 00:15:55 guy that he wanted, which is Henry, and he saw that it was a good price, but he couldn't pull the trigger because he knew that it was going to be problems for spending later on. And I love it because it worked out in my favor. Loza, did you get... Yeah. I was getting a bidding war there with Liz for Alvin Kamara.
Starting point is 00:16:12 She ends up with Kamara for 32. Good job, Liz. You're on the board. Is that your first? Yeah, that was my first. I think you were a little distracted hosting. I took advantage of it. You know, I spent 20...
Starting point is 00:16:24 That was the thing. I spent 26 on Cook and I didn't quite want to go that much on two players, even though like I said, it can work. Alright, here's Kenyon Drake. Here's Kenyon Drake. Marcus with the $15 bid.
Starting point is 00:16:37 Marcus, how do you feel about Drake this year? I love Kenyon Drake this year. Just seeing the way they used him at the end of last year, the way he produced, and knowing that there's really nobody else there that's going to be a serious threat to getting any of those snaps, I'm a big fan of Kenyon Drake.
Starting point is 00:16:53 Okay, so we just saw Derrick Henry go for 20 and Eckler go for 23. You figured Drake would be in that mix. He's at 21 right now, going once. Oh, Marcus gets a little bidding war here again. So now this is a bidding war between Marcus and Adam, right? Yeah, I'm going to let him have it. You're going to let him get him for 22? And so Marcus gets a little bit. So now this is a bidding war between Marcus and Adam, right? Yeah. I'm going to let him have it.
Starting point is 00:17:07 You're going to let him get him for 22. You're going to have to win a player at some point. I have to have him cook, buddy. Buddy, come on now. All right. Kenyon Drake for 22. So all this makes sense so far. Anybody want to talk about nomination strategies?
Starting point is 00:17:20 Dave, what do you do? What's your nomination strategy? Normally, I like to nominate players that I don't want early on and jonathan taylor is an example of that taylor i love the talent i don't love where he landed and i knew that he was going to go for more um than i thought he should and i was hoping that there would be some sort of bidding war between ben gretch and somebody else who was hot to trot with him. Yeah, I would imagine that he went for more than eight, and he didn't go for eight,
Starting point is 00:17:52 but it's somebody who I didn't want on my team, so I nominated him early. And then later on in the draft, I'm going to start obviously nominating players who I do want because then I can get them for a dollar because I'm nominating them for a dollar. I don't have to pay more than a dollar for them. All right. We've got Dak Prescott going here. Remember, we had Jackson and Mahomes. I think both go them for a dollar. I don't have to pay more than a dollar for them. All right. We've got Dak Prescott going here.
Starting point is 00:18:05 Remember, we had Jackson and Mahomes. I think both go for around $12. I think $12 exactly. So Dak Prescott, let's see what he goes for. Frank Stample with a $6 bid on Dak. And it looks like he might get him for that. Yep. Whenever any of these quarterbacks in the group of four,
Starting point is 00:18:22 the four directly after Mahomes and Jackson, whatever the value is with that first one, I think it's going to end up setting the tone for the next three. So the fact that Dak Prescott went for six, I would imagine that Russ will go for six. Kyler Murray will go for six. Deshaun Watson should go for six.
Starting point is 00:18:39 I bet they all go for that exact same price. All right, here's an interesting guy, Blake Jarwin being nominated now. Jamie nominated him for $1, and this is exactly what Heath was saying. If you really want someone, don't nominate him for $1. Nominate him for $2
Starting point is 00:18:53 because Ben Gretsch just got Jarwin for $2. Jamie wasn't willing to go for $3. But Ben, I know Jamie's made the case that Jarwin could get to 80 targets, and if you get 80 targets, you're going to be a top 12 guy. But does he have a lot of upside, or is his upside like tight end 10?
Starting point is 00:19:10 I think his upside's fine. Very concentrated offense. Ran a ton of 11 personnel last year. We saw how that meant four different players in their passing game, three receivers in Witten, all had at least 83 targets. As far as tight end is concerned,
Starting point is 00:19:25 I don't think you need much more than that to get around the tight end 10, to hit the tight end five range. I mean, I think there's potentially 100 target upside if this is such a concentrated offense, again, that they're running a ton of 11 personnel and those main three receivers and him are running all the routes.
Starting point is 00:19:43 But that would be an upside scenario, in my opinion. Michael Thomas now, $28 to George Maselli. Sold, Michael Thomas. All right, I want to get our guests. I want to get Liz and Scott and Marcus, your opinion here. We'll go in that order. Who is your number three quarterback this year, Liz? It's probably Dak, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:20:06 Dak or Russell Wilson, depending on how I'm feeling. But I think Jackson and Mahomes are one and two. And I really like Dak. I really like not just the contract situation, but I think the commitment with Jason Garrett no longer in the city. I think the commitment to the pass is really obvious. And the addition of CeeDee Lamb certainly doesn't hurt. Ben, you didn't think you were going to get Miles Sanders for a dollar, did you? I just auto-nominated again. I got to pay attention to the nominations. Scott, who's your number
Starting point is 00:20:34 three quarterback this year? For me, I'm going to agree with Liz that it's Dak Prescott because now he's got the three-receiver set that he really likes. Good passing numbers, but also some nice rushing touchdown production. But Kyla Murray's very close for me because,
Starting point is 00:20:56 like I said, with Lamar Jackson, I like quarterbacks with a lot of rushing upside, and Kyla Murray's going to have the most rushing yardage for a quarterback outside of Lamar Jackson. All right. And Marcus, your number three quarterback? Well, I guess we're making it a clean sweep and I'm going with Dak there too. I would consider Russ, except for the fact that it just seems like the Seahawks seem reluctant to just put the game in his hands at any point.
Starting point is 00:21:17 Pete Carroll, I think the name Pete Carroll is Latin for establish the run. If they would just give the ball over Russ, I think you could feel better about him. I do like Kyler. I will admit to kind of shoveling coal on that hype train and having it rule out of control. So right now for me,
Starting point is 00:21:33 it's, it's, it's back with just those wide receivers and the fact that even without the big deal, they still have committed to him being the focal point of what they do in their offense. Heath, man,
Starting point is 00:21:42 you're going, you're going for the chiefs, huh? You got my homes, 19 bucks in their offense. Heath, man, you're going for the Chiefs, huh? You got Mahomes, 19 bucks on Kelsey, sold! I committed a cardinal sin, Adam. What? I bid up a player. I had a feeling
Starting point is 00:21:53 that Kelsey should go for more than 15, so I bid 16. But that's wrong. You're not supposed to do that. I have been burned by it so many times in my life marcus it's been like five years since i've done this and i just did it and then not only did he get bid up he got bid up like three times so i was a little surprised that uh that he went for as much
Starting point is 00:22:15 as he did i think it was a little bit of an overpay yeah i think i was the last one to bid him up and i had him at 19 and i thought that was actually a little bit light on my pricing so he had him at 17 i figured i had to go at least to 18. And then he got him at 19. I just kind of decided that there's no longer going to be. I had this dream scenario at the beginning of the offseason with the Chiefs. Obviously, we expect to be the best offense in the NFL. Their fantasy playoff schedule is just frankly kind of absurd.
Starting point is 00:22:43 And there's not going to be an opportunity now with Damian Williams opting out to fully draft the chief stack, but in an auction you can fully have the chief stack. I was just listening to Heath and Dave just got Kittle for 13 bucks. Yeah. Six bucks less than Kelsey. Yeah. Pretty good.
Starting point is 00:23:02 I'm psyched. That is a deal. Yeah. Heath, how do you feel right now? You feel like you made a big mistake? Yeah, George Kittle's not going to help me when Patrick Mahomes throws 15 touchdowns in the fantasy playoffs. Travis Kelsey will.
Starting point is 00:23:15 Yeah, but you got to make the fantasy playoffs. If you've got Mahomes, Clyde, Kelsey, and Tyree Kill, you're going to make the fantasy playoffs. You don't have them all yet. Sure. Do you have Clyde? Yeah. Oh, my Kill, you're going to make the fantasy playoffs. You don't have them all yet, sure. Do you have Clyde? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:28 Oh, my goodness. How about that? How much money have you spent? Who's Tyree Kill, though? Oh, we got to get Tyree Kill nominated. Joe Mixon. Currently for $11. That's going to have to change.
Starting point is 00:23:39 Let's bid Joe Mixon up a little bit. Here we go. All right, let's see. Anybody not have a player? Ben Schrager doesn't have a player. Chris Towers doesn't have a player. He was 15 minutes late to the draft. I understand right. Let's see. Anybody not have a player? Ben Schrager doesn't have a player. Chris Towers doesn't have a player. He was 15 minutes late to the draft. I understand that.
Starting point is 00:23:49 That's it. Let's go, Schraggy. 19 for Mixon is pretty good. Now it's starting to get a little interesting. He's up to 20. Did we mention Miles Sanders for 26? He was right before the tight ends went. Mixon for 22 right now.
Starting point is 00:24:05 You really have to be locked in on your auction. This is one thing that's different than a snake draft. When you're doing your draft with your buddies and you know it's your turn, you make your turn and then you could probably chill out for a little while if you need to use the restroom or get a cold beverage, something like that. You can't really do that in an auction. Otherwise, you're going to get somebody to slip right under your nose at a really good value. That's going to happen still in this auction.
Starting point is 00:24:26 There's going to be somebody that goes for way less than they should. Well, it's happened three times already. It's happened three times already. George Kitt. Okay. Well, it'll happen some more. There might even be a better steal than Kittle or Henry or whoever else I get on my team.
Starting point is 00:24:40 Yeah, live tweeting this draft is not easy. Henry wasn't even a steal. You got him $6 more than I have him valued at. You have him at $14? Yeah. In what format? That's just not right. I just don't want him.
Starting point is 00:24:55 Only three points for rushing touchdowns? You just don't like him. That's okay. I know, I know. I have a question. Aaron Jones on the clock Dave's got him on the block for 16 nice not bad this was one of the one of the backfields
Starting point is 00:25:14 I wanted to lock up and this is different than a draft an auction I think I can get Jones and and lock them up for like under 20 I'm thrilled with that AJ I mean AJ Dillon should be a $2 player now at most Jones and lock them up for like under 20. I'm thrilled with that. AJ. I mean,
Starting point is 00:25:28 AJ Dillon should be a $2 player now at most. That's what I'm going to have to nominate him for. Right. Okay. So Aaron Jones for 16 Davis, Dave's building a nice little team there. Do you, what was I?
Starting point is 00:25:40 All right, let's take a look at Dave's team. Derek Henry and Aaron Jones and George Kittle, $20 for Henry, 16 for Jones Jones, $13 for Kittle. Most expensive player so far, $36 for Saquon Barkley. So how about this? Saquon Barkley for $36 or Derek Henry and Aaron Jones for $36? Scott, who would you rather have? I'd rather have Saquon Barkley because there are a lot of running backs
Starting point is 00:26:04 that I feel there's running back money going off the board. I'm not afraid to talk strategy here. There's some other guys that I'll be comfortable with as my second running back. I'd rather have one outstanding superstar and somebody I really like as a good number two. Fair enough. Josh Jacobs here. You expect him to go in about the $25 range. He's at at 24 right now
Starting point is 00:26:25 this is where miles sanders austin eckler kenyan drake right in this range so this makes sense be interesting to see how much dave if kelsey went for 19 kid went for 13 how much do you think mark andrews will go for i'm hoping he goes for 13 to make the kiddle price really sweet but i honestly i i wouldn't be surprised if he goes for 10 or 11. I think that's probably going to be right in the range. And that's another thing like in our auctions, and this may not happen in yours, but in ours, there are going to be good tight ends and quarterbacks
Starting point is 00:26:54 going for a dollar or two at the end of this auction. It always happens. By the way, real quick note, programming schedule for Twitch. Tuesday, mock drafts. Thursdays, AMA with an expert. It's Dave night, Thursday night.
Starting point is 00:27:11 So ask Dave anything, Thursday night, 7 p.m. Eastern. That's going to get rowdy. Oh, yeah. Devante Adams now being bid on. We've had a lot more running backs than wide receivers. So here is Adams. $17 bid. I think we should just stop there, guys. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:27:30 Didn't work. Sorry. $21 to Adam Azer. I'm not getting him for under $20 at least. $23 to Adam Azer. Let's see. All right, Chris. Screw you, Chris.
Starting point is 00:27:40 Michael Thomas went for $28. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. We're really at the point where Devontae Adams should run out of steam. Michael Thomas went for 28. Yeah, this is going to be interesting. We're really at the point where Devante Adams should run out of steam. We're getting close to what? I mean, I think in half PPR, you could make an argument for Adams over Thomas. Sure, you can make the argument for it, but I don't think anybody's going to bid more in an auction. And that's what just happened.
Starting point is 00:28:01 26 bucks. Thomas went for 28 right right so which would you rather have adams for 26 or thomas for 28 and a half ppr this is where you can make the argument for adams yeah i kind of wanted him but oh well it's interesting i like receivers typically you guys know that um this format we only can start two. It's half PPR. You probably want to be flexing a running back. It makes sense that we're so heavy on the running back values. I probably am light on several of my running back values,
Starting point is 00:28:33 and I'm not sure I really like that position that I put myself in. Tyreek Hill, Heath, here we go. $20 bid. Yeah, I already told you guys what I was going to do, so no one's going to allow that to happen now. I wasn't listening, though, so I would have allowed it. I think you should make it happen anyway, Heath. Heath, I think you should do nothing, and then when the clock's at one,
Starting point is 00:28:53 you just drop a huge bid on Tyreek Hill, and then he's yours. No, I'm pretty happy with Mahomes, Clyde, and Kelsey. All right, Chris Towers. Chris Towers, back-to-back,ontae Adams and Tyreek Hill for $26. So let's just compare. I mean, I'm not doing this to talk about me. I do enough of that. But I have two players for $26, and Chris has two players for $26.
Starting point is 00:29:18 Half PPR, I have Dalvin Cook and Miles Sanders. He has Devontae Adams and Tyreek Hill. Who wins? How are you even debating? Come on. Just give me a little credit. I would rather have both. I think I'd rather have both Adams and Tyreek over Sanders, but I would rather have Dalvin over the two receivers.
Starting point is 00:29:38 If Dalvin, I think you win that if you handcuff Alexander Madison later. I will. If Cook gets hurt, and we all know the risk there, you take out half of the equation there comparing. Yeah. No, I definitely will.
Starting point is 00:29:53 Here's Chris Carson. Ben Gretsch with a $5 bid. Frankie with $6 bid here. All right. Chris Carson. I'm going to predict $15 for him. I'm going to take the under. I don't think he gets quite to $15.
Starting point is 00:30:09 That would be more than Mahomes and Jackson, so you're probably right. $12 to Scott Angle. Let's see. Five seconds. Four seconds. Anyone going higher than that? That's the only one I'm going to pick if there ever was one. Adam, one of the things you said earlier that I thought was interesting was that an auction is the only format where you can get multiple studs. But I also think it's true that if there are areas of the draft that you really like,
Starting point is 00:30:32 and I know for me that's like the fourth and the third and the fourth round, there are just so many young receivers. That's where Jonathan Taylor goes. Mark Andrews you're going to find there. I still really like him. That it's really challenging to get a lot of those guys in the same league. So I think the same can be said outside of just the studs, that you could say that an auction is a format where you can get several players, far more top 50 or top 80 players than you can in a normal draft,
Starting point is 00:30:56 as long as you don't buy any studs. And I think your team last year is a perfect example of, you really spent a lot of $9 to $12 bids on my homes, Aaron Jones, Amari Cooper, Brandon cooks, Chris Godwin. You had a very balanced roster in that respect.
Starting point is 00:31:13 And you had like, you can get away with a bad $6 OJ Howard, you know, it's going to have, Oh, you also had Derek Henry for $5. So well, I traded preseason and I still got the one seed,
Starting point is 00:31:24 but yeah, I think George got me on that he offered me a trade And I took it But yeah you had a good balanced roster last year That works the best team last year One of the other team that Got a buy anyway Andrew Ballmer I'm not sure who won I wasn't in this league but
Starting point is 00:31:38 He had Russell Wilson for a dollar Chris Carson for 14 Mark Ingram for 6 Devante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins for $24 and $25. Jared Cook for $6. He had Austin Eckler for $10. Remember Melvin Gordon was holding out.
Starting point is 00:31:54 We didn't know how long. A $10 Eckler, $1 Wilson, $6 and $14. How about his three running backs were Ingram, Carson and Eckler, and they were a combined $30. And McCaffrey went for 31 today, Barkley for 36, Zeke for 32. So there are different ways to do it, different ways to do it for sure. Mark Andrews went for 13, same as Kittle to Ben Gretsch.
Starting point is 00:32:19 I love it. And I bet Ben doesn't mind one bit because he believes in Mark Andrews and sees him as a value, or maybe not necessarily a value at $13, but certainly somebody who can finish as a top three fantasy tight end has upside to be even better than that. And if you really have conviction on a player, yeah, you should be willing to bid whatever it takes to get him. And right on cue, here's AJ Brown. I would say, interestingly on that that it wasn't that i necessarily was bidding whatever it takes i think the the lesson there for me is just because somebody was a value don't get anchored to it like kittle was a clear value i fell asleep on that um i'm not gonna i'm not going to put myself in a position where i can't then get the next best tight end in my opinion because kittle was underpriced and i I still had Andrews as a $14 player. I got him for $13. I'm okay with that.
Starting point is 00:33:10 I think Jamie just did something very smart. He put a $1 nomination on the Steelers. I think he probably figured, hey, if anybody wants him for two, go for it. If not, I'll take the number one DST for a dollar. And he got him. Dave just got AJ Brown for $13. Marcus, I want to get you in here. You've been just kind of biding your time, but as we've seen three tight ends off the board, Kelsey, Kittle, and Andrews, what's your overall tight end strategy this year? It has been one of two things.
Starting point is 00:33:39 Either you take the swings early and you get one of those top three guys, or I tend to just sit back and wait and get those guys, of those top three guys, or I tend to just sit back and wait and, you know, get those guys, those later round upside guys, you know, however you feel about Gasicki or Fant or, you know, Johnnie Smith, guys like that. I feel like when I have gone and this applies mostly for, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:57 like snake drafts and that sort of thing. But when I get those guys in the middle, when I'm taking those shots at the Hunter Henry's, you know, those guys just kind of in the middle of the draft, those shots at the Hunter Henry's, those guys just kind of in the middle of the draft. I just haven't liked the roster construction. I felt much better about those rosters where I've either paid up early or I've waited till the end. And so I think now that we've got the big three off the board here, I think it's a situation where I'm just probably going to sit back and try to find that guy later that I think comes at a good value.
Starting point is 00:34:21 You don't put Zach Ertz in that group with the other three? No. Here's the thing. I don't fear Dallas Goddard specifically. I feel like Dallas Goddard's not going to do enough to make it worth me having him on my roster, but he will do just enough to mess up things for Zach Ertz. He will be kind of that monkey wrench in the works that will make you disappointed that you have Zach Ertz.
Starting point is 00:34:44 I think that's where Goddard kind of becomes that stumbling block for me. All right, let me get Liz, Marcus, Scott, I want to open the floor up here. So once round two ends, a lot of running backs are off the board, and you get into this stretch of running backs. Maybe it's Melvin Gordon, Todd Gurley, who just went for like $12 or $13 in this auction. Chris Carson, Le'Veon Bell. You know the crew.
Starting point is 00:35:18 Are there any ones in that group that you particularly like that you think, all right, this guy is the best, you know, one of the best of the bunch? Anyone? Sorry, I can... Liz, do you want to jump in there i i am i don't know if he is in the tier that you're talking about or maybe a little bit below her but i think he should be in that same tier and that's james connor i do think that james connor is an incredible value this year i'm not worried about big ben if you look at the first four weeks of his opening schedule i'm not worried about him shaking off the rest. I think he's going to unlock all of the fantasy potential,
Starting point is 00:35:48 or at least a lot of it that the Steelers have. And if Connor can stay healthy, then I think he can absolutely produce, especially given like all these hashtag burnt takes are really depressing his ADP. And I am happy to lean into that. I would say that group to me, Melvin Gordon, I have him ranked number 12 overall at running back. I feel he's very underrated. This is a guy that just two years ago people were taking as a first-round pick.
Starting point is 00:36:16 I believe that Shermer likes to lean on one running back. I think Phillip Lindsey is just a handcuff. I think Royce Freeman is probably going to be sitting with his phone on the bench. I think Gordon is going to get a lot of work this year and rebound. He was one of the ones I waited with. So I took Chris Carson as my second running back. So if I'm going to spend on Barkley, I'm going to lay back for Gordon or Chris Carson. Okay.
Starting point is 00:36:42 And Marcus, I'll let you get in on that. And then we'll talk about who Liz... Oh, Liz did not get Nick Chubb. Sorry, you got Stamfold. He got him for $26. Marcus, who's like a round three or later running back you like? You know, look,
Starting point is 00:36:56 and Dave and I talked about this on my podcast a little bit earlier today. I'm not completely out on Todd Gurley, and I think what I'm sort of holding on to is the fact that I'm hoping the Falcons use him as more of a pass catcher than the Rams did previously. completely out on Todd Gurley. And I think what I'm sort of holding on to is the fact that I'm hoping the Falcons use him as more of a pass catcher than the Rams did previously. I mean, that was a big part of it.
Starting point is 00:37:12 All right. I am waiting to see what happened there with my connection. Hey, you just totally cut off Marcus. That was rude. I was like, did I freeze and something happened? I lost everybody and the audio dropped. All right. So I think I might be dealing with the effects of the storm right now.
Starting point is 00:37:33 We shall see. But Marcus, Todd Gurley, I apologize. Go ahead. Yeah. No, no. I was just saying, I think he's going to catch the ball more in Atlanta than he did last year in Los Angeles. He caught it a lot his first couple of years with the Rams. Last year, for whatever reason, he just wasn't a part of that. And I'm confused as to why. But I think if Atlanta can get that back in his repertoire, I think some of that value that he lost in the last year or two starts to come back.
Starting point is 00:37:59 All right. Dave just got Russell Wilson for $5. Here's Cooper Cup. We saw Adam Thielen go for $10. So here's Cup at $11 right now. I got to ask Dave about his A.J. Brown buy because I didn't go over top of him. But I had a feeling that was one of his bids where he was just trying to bid me up and thought I would definitely come over top.
Starting point is 00:38:23 And I want to know what he's thinking about buying A Brown for 13. I'm thinking I got to steal at 13. I think he's worth significantly more than that. And I just got Cup for 11. I think both those guys I got at great prices, $24 combined to have Cup and AJ Brown on my fantasy roster. Are you kidding me? Those guys could be outstanding. Very happy with both of them. But Heath, I feel like Thielen goes for 10, Brown for 13, Cup for 11. Somebody in that range is going to go for like six bucks. Tyler Lockett might end up being like six bucks. I would think so, but we haven't really had a lot of overpays, especially at wide receiver.
Starting point is 00:39:03 And I think it's partially because we do so many of our drafts, our three wide receiver leagues, and this is a two wide receiver league, and it really, really depresses the value of wide receivers. There is going to be a surplus of wide receivers in this league. All right, here's Juju Smith-Schuster up to $13, which is what A.J. Brown went for. Now he's $14. We still have Julio Jones, Hopkins, Galluju Smith-Schuster, up to $13, which is what A.J. Brown went for. Now he's $14.
Starting point is 00:39:26 We still have Julio Jones, Hopkins, Galladay, Lockett, Robert Woods, Chris Godwin still available, has not been nominated yet. $14 for Juju. That's more than what Kittle went for. I'm not going any higher than that. Chris Towers gets him. Dave has a pretty full lineup, starting lineup. Dave has Wilson, Aaron Jones, and Derrick Henry,
Starting point is 00:39:49 A.J. Brown, Cooper Cupp, and George Kittle. And how much money do you have left? I still have 20% of my budget left, 22 left. And he's going to trade all of it. I probably will if given the chance, but I am elated to have this core for a fancy squad you could not put together this team in a snake draft if you wanted to unless it was maybe like an eight team league to get this type of talent in a 12 team league i'm
Starting point is 00:40:18 over the moon with where i'm at you're kind of crushing it right now. Yeah, I'm feeling good. The problem is now I really have to follow. I have to really have some discipline. And I don't have any. I don't have any when it comes to eating and I don't have any when it comes to the auctions because when you've got a lot of players already and you're down to 20% of your budget, you got to wait because the bargains are coming.
Starting point is 00:40:41 You want to have that money ready to go for those bargains. So I'm going to have to let some really good players go. But Dave, I think what you did was also very smart. Because if you do wait, then you get pigeonholed to being like, well, now I got to buy Nick Chubb because that's the only running back too that I think is viable or adjust your strategy. So there is a balance. Even if you do want to wait, you don't want to be
Starting point is 00:41:05 stuck in a position where you're overpaying for somebody because a bunch of people have waited. I'm in that position that Liz just described, where I'm like, I have not bought enough. I have not made enough bids yet. Yeah, but you got a lot of players you still like. Now, Dave, did you make a mistake there with AJ Dillon? Should you have bid $2? Yeah. And you know what? This is one where user error. He was at the top of my queue. I meant to nominate him for $2, and I nominated him for $1, and I paid the price by having to go an extra dollar because Chris bid him up for $2.
Starting point is 00:41:33 And I don't know if Chris was just doing that to make me spend another buck, but it worked. But I had to lock up Aaron Jones with Dillon. Happy to do it, but not that happy to lose out on a dollar there. So now I'm under 20% of the budget. I'm breaking all my own rules. Look at this controversial bid. Liz, $2 for Justin
Starting point is 00:41:54 Tucker? I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how. I didn't press anything. He's just getting bid on, so I guess I'm getting the opposite. If you need to do that, we can back it out. I don't know how I automatically bid on stuff, but I know when I pressed it, I didn't press
Starting point is 00:42:09 that one. I don't know how it happens. We're getting rid of that. It looks like... I'm happy with the Josh Allen. I meant to do Josh Allen, but I don't know how this one just happened. Kicker remorse. That's what this is. how much did
Starting point is 00:42:25 you get josh allen for two bucks wow two bucks for josh allen right my goodness makes me feel stupid for spending five on russ can you can you tell me though how it autumn like why i would automatically uh why that would happen oh was i at the top of the thing? And I wasn't paying attention. I think Jamie nominated Tucker for a buck and you went on autopilot. And it's the CBS sports software saying this person's on autopilot, but this is a good bargain. We must let her get Justin Tucker for two. And the software isn't good when it comes to kickers for whatever reason. By the way, Dave does the voice of our software, as you can tell.
Starting point is 00:43:07 That's what the software sounds like? Yeah. You tell me. All right. DJ Moore. So Jamie has now gotten Justin Tucker and the Steelers DST for $1 nominations. I should maybe think about that next time I'm up to nominate. DJ Moore.
Starting point is 00:43:20 Ben Gretsch has him for $16. Remember, AJ Brown went for $13. Looks like Ben's got DJ Moore. How muchretsch has him for $16. Remember, AJ Brown went for $13. Looks like Ben's got DJ Moore. How much did Juju go for? Juju went for $14. So how do you feel about this price? I do have more rank considerably higher than both. I have more fifth overall at wide receiver.
Starting point is 00:43:36 Juju, 10th. Brown, 12th. But I have to say, you're making a good contrast of three players that I like that I don't necessarily like the various prices in the one that I got. You know what? Just get your guy, right? There's so much. Well, when you're doing an auction, there's so many bids that so many bids that, oh, really? He went
Starting point is 00:43:54 for that? You can't be like that. You can't have remorse all the time. It's just you can't control everything. All right, here's Le'Veon Bell. It's so interesting that he's got DJ Moore at number five overall. Where do you have him, Scott? I have him in my top 15. I mean, the guy last year nearly reached 1,200 yards and 90 receptions
Starting point is 00:44:14 with Kyle Allen mostly, a quarterback, and now he gets Bridgewater. But he's not a wide receiver one to me. I'd love to hear what Ben's take on it. Yeah, you noted it. It should be a quarterback upgrade. I think Bridgewater is a perfect fit for him with his lower average depth to target and accuracy at those lower depths, which like the NFL next-gen stats show. But there's also the – he had a calf injury in week 16.
Starting point is 00:44:46 He only played six snaps. So I think when people look at his points per game, he gets a little bit underrated. In his 14 games, he was on pace for basically 150 target, 100 catch season in year two as a 22-year-old. I mean, it was very comparable to Michael Thomas' year two. And he was a great prospect. I think it's just a guy that's,
Starting point is 00:45:05 that's ascending and yeah, very comparable to Michael Thomas's at two years younger and with the worst quarterback Thomas was playing with Drew Brees. So I think that's the type of upside he has. And I'm just kind of, it's more of a long-term optimistic view. Yeah. I think people may be downgraded because he only scored four touchdowns and
Starting point is 00:45:23 I think there's definitely positive pressure. Yep. Touchdowns for sure. Well, who had me with the worst bit of the day or the worst by anyway, for you had to do it, right? Yeah,
Starting point is 00:45:35 I did for it. I know how you feel. I just had to do it with AJ Dillon. Yeah. That sentence sounded funny. We both had to overspend to get our backup running backs. I would rather have Alexander Madison for four than
Starting point is 00:45:47 A.J. Dillon for three for sure. Madison's the guy, I think, and he's good. I don't know enough about A.J. Dillon yet and Jamal Williams is still there. Well, look, I knew I had to spend $4 on Madison. It's basically Liz's fault.
Starting point is 00:46:03 I thought I could get away with two. She went three. So I had to go four. You have to do what you got to do with Dal on Madison. It's basically Liz's fault. I thought I could get away with two. She went three, so I had to go four. But you have to do what you got to do with Dalvin Cook. That's just one of the risks of having Dalvin Cook. All right. Heath, any thoughts so far? What's going on in the auction in your mind? A lot of defenses and kickers going for a dollar.
Starting point is 00:46:23 You guys are really cleaning up on those. So good job. Why not? It's got Harrison Bucker. I had to make up for my Alexander Madison. I got a little bargain somewhere. Any kicker for a dollar is not a bargain. That's just the fact that they're making us play with kickers. So you have to spend one of your dollars on that.
Starting point is 00:46:40 You know, Heath, your chief strategy. I don't know how you did it. Nominate Harrison Bucker for a dollar. I don't know. I don't want that. I'm not going to profit when they for a dollar. I don't know. I don't want that. I'm not going to profit when they kick field goals. I'm not here for chiefs field goals. They're not going to kick any field goals this year.
Starting point is 00:46:52 They're going to score nine touchdowns a game. That's three field goals. All right, Marcus, you're bidding here on Keenan Allen. Liz bidding on Keenan Allen. All right. Who's confident in Keenan Allen this year? $8 right now. I mean, I'm not crazy confident,
Starting point is 00:47:06 but I mean, at the number right now, I'll take that swing at him. All right. Now it's up to 10. 9-9 for Marcus, 10 for Liz. Keenan Allen fight. We've been waiting for this, Dave. I know.
Starting point is 00:47:19 And I'm so happy to see it because he's going to go for a buck less than Cooper Cup and three bucks less than AJ Brown. And he should go for significantly less than that. Again, another one of those things where it probably sounds funny for people who have watched football the last couple of years to hear.
Starting point is 00:47:36 Yeah. Keenan Allen's going to be going for as almost as much as AJ Brown and Cooper cup. Keenan Allen's been better than those guys for the most part. People are really weighing in the quarterback change, but the interesting dynamic of it, though, from an auction perspective is I threw him out for $1, and I think he went almost down the clock to $2 because nobody really wanted to get in on him.
Starting point is 00:47:59 And then people have the idea like Marcus, well, if I could just get him for $3 or $4, I'll take it. And then all of a sudden, the bids started jumping up. Yeah. Well, Liz, you ended up with Keenan Allen for $10, and now DeAndre Hopkins being bid on, he's up to $19. How do you feel about Keenan Allen this year? I think Keenan Allen, to me, while I was mocking,
Starting point is 00:48:19 I kept wondering why I was reticent to draft him. And so I went in and I did the research because I was like, well, we're all worried about the quarterback change and the continuity issues. But at the end of the day, for me, the tiebreaker is always talent. And I do think that he is versatile enough to work with either quarterback. Listen, Hunter Henry is probably going to lead the Chargers and targets. I said it. I'm not afraid of it.
Starting point is 00:48:47 But cooler heads prevail. And for $10, I will take that sort of talent level and versatility and opportunity anytime. DeAndre Hopkins just went for $20. So that's pretty good, I think. Trying to get some... DJ Moore for $16. Julio Jones went for 26. I think it's right about what might be expected. Given what Thomas, Adams, Julio, and Tyreek Hill went for.
Starting point is 00:49:18 Maybe a little less. Maybe a little better than expected. All right. Leonard Fournette currently $9. Looks like Shraggy B is getting Leonard Fournette. We are 46 players in. So we're basically like at the end of round four. A lot of the managers here have spent a lot of money.
Starting point is 00:49:37 Do you feel like now is bargain time? I feel like the middle of the auction is bargain time. Once you get to the midpoint, yes. What's the midpoint? How many spots are we? I don't think we're at bargain time yet. Well, Tom Brady's went for a dollar. Tom Brady for a dollar.
Starting point is 00:49:51 Yeah. That was a bargain. It seems like a pretty good bargain. I think we're just about there. By the way, Kenny Gallaty and Matthew Stafford off the reserve COVID-19 list. So that is good.
Starting point is 00:50:00 Lions made a big statement about how Stafford had a false positive and he's been testing negative otherwise the whole time. So it sounds like he was never ill. I said Kenny Galladay, didn't I? I meant Gardner Minshew. Sorry. Gardner Minshew and Matthew Stafford. Right. Here's Zach Ertz.
Starting point is 00:50:20 All right. I'm predicting $8 for Zach Ertz. He's up to $3. Chris Towers got Brady for a dollar and didn't even want him. He was just trying to get him off the board. $4 for Ertz. $5 for Ertz. This seems like a slow burn.
Starting point is 00:50:37 This is how you do radio, folks. Mm-hmm. Well, $7 for Ertz. I'm going to just do the countdown on the clock. Five, 10, $8 for Ertz. I'm going to just do the countdown on the clock. Five, ten, $8 for Ertz. Eight, seven, six, five. I want to know if he gets to ten. This is interesting.
Starting point is 00:50:54 Because there just seems to be a stigma about him not being good. People think he just stinks now. I don't think that's it. I agree exactly with what Marcus said earlier in the show. It's just that if Dallas Goddard gets the same share of the tight end targets that he did last year, and they actually have multiple receivers of NFL quality on the team, then his targets are not going – Ertz has never been a guy that's going to be like Kittle or Kelsey
Starting point is 00:51:21 on a per-target basis. He needs to have that eight to nine targets a game. I don't think he'll have it unless all the receivers get hurt again. Wasn't that the argument heading into last year as well. And then the receiving core fell apart and we already have Elshon, Jeffrey, Deshaun Jackson being a complete question mark. Marquis Goodwin opting out of the season. Like,
Starting point is 00:51:39 are we that confident that jaws is going to be the guy who siphons away all of the looks? No, not necessarily. But with Alshon, Deshawn, J-Jaw, Rager, those guys, right now they have four of them that might play. If two of them do, then I think that's a problem for us because they're all better than Greg Ward. I don't know. I think Wentz and Ertz are just Bert and Ernie
Starting point is 00:52:08 wearing green. That could be right too. I see Ertz. I think he's a value every time I see him going in round five, going for under 10 in an auction. I think it's a great, great, great find. Did Schrager just get Chris Godwin for 20?
Starting point is 00:52:24 Yes. That's what Hopkins went for. Yeah. Liz, was that a you like that or you don't like that? I'm just surprised by it. It wasn't a like or... I mean, I think I would like Chris Godwin.
Starting point is 00:52:40 I think knowing that that's where he went, what you got, what Nuke went for is interesting. Does anyone else like Godwin more than Hopkins in this format? I do. I do. This is half PPR. All right.
Starting point is 00:52:57 Chris Godwin for $20, Matt Ryan for $2. To you. To me. I like Matt Ryan. I'm excited about Matt Ryan. I think that's a great purchase. And I really, I'm going to tell you right now,
Starting point is 00:53:06 I really want to get Calvin Ridley. So you can use that to your advantage if you'd like. He's at the top of my queue, dude. He's at the top of my queue, Dave. I want to get Calvin Ridley too. I think I'm less confident at getting Calvin Ridley now.
Starting point is 00:53:20 Yeah, that could happen. All right, let's see what we got. We got Melvin Gordon for 10. And you have to pay attention to tiers, right? And who's still available in certain tiers? James Conner. So let's say you don't really love Melvin Gordon, but you're running out of running back options.
Starting point is 00:53:37 Chris Towers just got him for 10. Still have James Conner, David Johnson, David Montgomery, Mark Ingram, Devin Singletary, Kareem Hunt, Raheem Mostert, Ronald Jones. By the way, Dave, I don't think I ever let you. You didn't talk about Ronald Jones. Are you just not bothered by the Sean McCoy? No, not much.
Starting point is 00:53:55 He's 32. He's at the end of his career. He could be there because Keyshawn Vaughn is on the COVID list and there could be something serious going on there. He could be there to push Daria Gumbawale. He could be there to be an insurance policy in case Rojo isn't good. It could be all three of those things. But after what I've learned about Ronald Jones this offseason, I'm confident to take him. I'd love to get him as a number three running back, but I think he could finish as a top 24 running back pretty easily.
Starting point is 00:54:24 Okay, let's put a team under the microscope here. I've not successfully nominated a single player. I've auto-nominated every single player. You just got Kyler Murray for three. That was one. That was where I was caught slipping and missed that one because I told it was going to be a bit on time. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:54:40 I think we've hit that point that you were talking about where the bargains are showing up. There's still a lot of available salary here. Yeah. Yeah, so it's a lot of the third-round wide receivers. Calvin Ridley, Kenny Galladay, Mike Evans, Robert Woods, all these Seahawks guys, Terry McLaurin, third to fourth, fifth-round wide receivers,
Starting point is 00:55:00 plus James Conner still on the board. Greg Zerlein. $2 for Zerlein. George really wanted him. Greg got Breeze for $2 and Zerlein. Zerlein and Breeze, they usually go around the same point in drafts. The world. Let's look at Ben Gretsch's team.
Starting point is 00:55:20 Ben has Kyler Murray for $3, Jonathan Taylor for $8, DJ Moore for $16, Mark Andrews for $13, Blake Jarwin for two. How much money do you have left? 58. I think the most. Tied with Marcus, it looks like, and Liz is right there at 56.
Starting point is 00:55:37 So there's still a few of us that have plenty to spend and not a lot to spend on. Wait, why do you have two tight ends? We're going to have to nominate some players for you guys to bid on here. Gretch, why do you have two tight ends? We're going to have to nominate some players for you guys to bid on here. Gretch, why do you have two tight ends? I mean, I thought Jarwin for two was a pretty easy move, and I got in on him quick, thinking I wanted to be the one to be on the two number, and I got him early.
Starting point is 00:55:56 But then once I was there, I was like, I could still take another elite tight end. I'm not going to just settle for that. And I let myself do that. The Calvin Ridley bidding has begun. Gretch for fourth. He's for 15. He's got a...
Starting point is 00:56:13 Let's do it. 16 to Azar. The same as DJ Moore. Godwin went for 20. Hopkins went for 20. Calvin Ridley to Azar for 16. All right.
Starting point is 00:56:31 Don't hate it. Thanks, Dave. Thanks for the vote. I'm sure you will see some receiver bargains come a little later on that you'll be upset about. I think that's more than a fair price for Ridley on your team. You really haven't bid on anybody for a long time. I think that's smart. You're sticking to that strategy you said where you got that core and you're just
Starting point is 00:56:49 letting this auction play out now. Yeah, that might change here in a second. Scott Engel nominating Tyler Lockett. All right, let's look at Heath's team here. Heath goes $5 on Lockett. Heath, you have Mahomes, Le'Veon Bell, Clyde Edwards-Ziller, and Travis Kelsey.
Starting point is 00:57:11 You do not have a wide receiver yet, although you seem intent on getting Tyler Lockett. Well, maybe not. $10 to Gretch. $11 to Heath. Heath, $12 a gretch? Uh... I always wanted to know what Heath sounded like when he does a salary
Starting point is 00:57:32 cap. Now we know. Yeah, that's a good buy, but... I mean, Cooper Cup went for 11. I have Cup higher. Okay. Tyler Lockett for 12. Wait, does that mean that you just did something bad there? You have Cup higher.
Starting point is 00:57:47 I've had, yeah, several of those. Heath, what do you think? You don't have a wide receiver yet, but you have Kelsey, Edwards, Elair, Mahomes, and Bell, and what, $36 left? What are you thinking here? Yeah, I mean, I feel fine about it. I don't think I'm winning the draft or anything,
Starting point is 00:58:10 but I don't believe it's going to be very difficult to find wide receivers in this league at the end of the draft. I think there will be good wide receivers going for less than $5 at some point. And so I'm not particularly worried about that. Yeah. Like Michael Gallup's going to go for like three bucks.
Starting point is 00:58:30 James Conner, $11. To Liz. That's I know. Oh, Heath with 12. When you hear the sigh, it means it's Heath's guy. Come on, Liz. Take him down. There it is. 13.
Starting point is 00:58:46 And I was tempted. I was tempted to put in a bid to try and jack up the price. Come on, Heath. Don't let the visitor win. Oh, all right. Liz Loza. It's a good deal. Congratulations, Liz.
Starting point is 00:58:59 13. Thank you. I was spitzing on that one. Wow. All right. Let's see how Liz's team is looking right now. It's a Sean Watson nominated. Josh Allen for $2. Kamara for $32.
Starting point is 00:59:12 James Conner for $13. And Keenan Allen for $10. How do you feel? Oh, I don't love Keenan Allen. I would like this team to have a little bit more upside. I like Allen and Kamara. I got to dig into the sleepers a little bit here. Okay.
Starting point is 00:59:30 The one I'm really pissed off about is Kyler Murray for three, Gretch. That one bothers me. Shouldn't have let that happen. I was happy about that. That was my favorite one so far. Like Deshaun went for four and Russ went went for five so i mean it was maybe a dollar or two light but that's the all those guys have just been really good values after i knew i had some extra budget to spend i had kind of decided murray's my my qb3 um there was a lot
Starting point is 00:59:59 of consensus earlier on deck so i'll i'll kind of swim the other way on that but um i had kind of decided i would get one of those quarterbacks on that but um i had kind of decided i would get one of those quarterbacks in that range that i could bump up my my quarterback spending and probably would need to because a lot of running backs had gone and i was was not going to wind up overpaying for one of the last running backs that you know was really viable i think this team is going to be thin at running back regardless just based on the way that i do things david johnson just went for $11. That's $1 less than Tyler Lockett, $2 less than James Conner, $11 for David Johnson.
Starting point is 01:00:33 Marcus, do you have any faith in David Johnson this year? I felt a lot better. There's no rational reason why I'm feeling less great about him, but I really had talked myself into feeling okay about him early this offseason. I went back and watched some of those early games last year and felt like those first five or six games maybe aren't as bad as we remembered them, but I still think Deshaun Watson is not going to be a guy who's going to look to his running backs to throw the football. He's going to try to chuck it downfield. So I started to feel less great about David Johnson and more excited about guys like Will Fuller and Brandon Cooks as we've gotten through this offseason.
Starting point is 01:01:09 And who do you like better, Fuller or Cooks? Fuller. Just because we've seen that connection with Fuller and Deshaun Watson before. So as long as he's healthy, I'm all in. How about Mike Evans? I almost got him for 10. Mike Evans up to 16.
Starting point is 01:01:25 This still feels like this might go down as the steal of the draft here. Why? Oh. That's an overreaction. I don't know. I think Evans going for 16 is a pretty good deal. I think Gretch crushed it. I know you're humble, but who do you like better,
Starting point is 01:01:40 George Kittle or Mike Evans? Kittle. You got him for $3 less, so just take your W. The second best. Second best steal of the draft. Who do you like better, Mike Evansittle or Mike Evans? Kittle. You got him for $3 less. So just take your W. The second best steal of the draft. Who do you like better, Mike Evans or Calvin Ridley? And DJ Moore? They all went for 16. I think it's got to be Evans there.
Starting point is 01:01:57 Are you sure I have Evans right ahead of him? Scott, rank those three. Evans, Moore, Ridley. I go Evans, Moore, Ridley and just the that you said. But I wouldn't be surprised if Moore outscored Ridley.
Starting point is 01:02:14 Marcus. Julio's still there. I think if it was full PPR, Evans would probably be third best, but it's really close. Yeah, Marcus, how do you like those three? I would probably go Evans, Ridley more. I do have a little bit of fear about Evans and whether or not he's going to get hurt in the red zone
Starting point is 01:02:31 now that Gronk's there. But on the whole, I like Evans the most out of those three. All right, we got an Alan Robinson bidding war going. Scott Engel's going to get him for $14. Alan Robinson. Where do you rank Allen Robinson, Scott, with the three we just talked about? I have him low-end wide
Starting point is 01:02:51 receiver one. I think I'm very happy with that. I have him ahead of Mike Evans. The guy's a terrific route runner and just such a technician and high football IQ. No matter who plays quarterback, he seems like he's going to put up really good numbers.
Starting point is 01:03:09 So I think I had a really nice bargain there. Carson Wentz for $1 to Jamie. I think Jamie is trying to go the studs and duds route. Let's take a look at his team in a second. $1 Wentz, $32 Zeke, $31 McCaffrey, $26 Julio Jones, Justin Tucker, and the Steelers for $1.
Starting point is 01:03:32 And he can't have that much money left. What does Jamie have left? $8. All $1 bids. All $1 bids. All right. So $1 bids plus Zeke, McCaffrey, and Julio Jones. That'll be an interesting team. Carson Wentz as his quarterback.
Starting point is 01:03:48 Devin Singletary now. I think McCaffrey probably was a steal of the draft. I mean, Dave's got some really great values that I don't mean to undermine. But McCaffrey should not have gone for it. Just the fact that he wasn't the most expensive guy. Yeah, he shouldn't have
Starting point is 01:04:03 gone for 31. We all kind of collectively slept on that. That was so dirty, Heath. Yeah, you can have him. Heath and I are going back and forth on Devin Singletary. He's up to eight. I can't go nine. Oh, Ben Gretsch for nine on Singletary.
Starting point is 01:04:22 This is pretty aggressive. At some point, I got to take a running back. This is not too far from James Conner, right? $9. Yeah, I've got Singletary and Jonathan Taylor back-to-back. Nine and eight for those two guys. I think they're both fine buys.
Starting point is 01:04:41 Okay. I have Singletary two spots behind Connor as well. So, I think that makes sense. All right. Let's see. We got Robbie Gold.
Starting point is 01:04:54 Okay. Yeah, these are, yeah, kickers. This is a dollar. People getting their kickers. So, I'm going to nominate somebody that I don't want
Starting point is 01:05:01 that hopefully someone will spend up on. But there aren't that many expensive players left on the board. Tariq Cohen. I'll take him for a dollar, if that's about it. How high are you going to go, Heath? Just tell us now.
Starting point is 01:05:20 Well, it depends on how high everyone else bids. Ben Gretch, $3. Liz, half PPR league. How do you feel about players like Tariq Cohen, who are primarily just pass catchers? It is hard for me. I appreciate Tariq Cohen.
Starting point is 01:05:36 I'm a Bears fan, but it is hard for me to be as high on him as the consensus because I am higher on Anthony Miller than most. And I think that you're going to see a regression in the number of targets Tariq draws if Anthony Miller can stay healthy. Interesting. All right. Tariq Cohen goes for $3 to Ben Gretsch. And now here's AJ Green. Anybody on this call think AJ Green's going to have a stud year? Man, I wish. I wish I could say that I thought he'd have a stud year, but I think we're all kind of thrown off by how he just hasn't been able to stay perfectly healthy.
Starting point is 01:06:15 And we know what his upside is. We know that he could finish as a top 12 wide receiver, but you think about the age, the injuries, the rookie quarterback who didn't have a typical offseason, even though he's just a wonder as a prospect. I bid five on him right after it closed. Oh, I don't think he's going to have a great year. I think he's going to be a great value.
Starting point is 01:06:38 Yeah, at four, I think that's an amazing value. That's great. Last year, at a $200 salary, I got him for like 10. And I just, at some point, it was, I was just throwing bad money at the good. I held on to him and I'm like, he's going to come back. I'm like, well, he was at least a value. I'm in my feelings right now about AJ Green.
Starting point is 01:06:57 Well, AJ Green went for $4. I've got a $4 bid on Marquise Brown. Now $5. He's going to go for more. Yeah, well, that's annoying because I like him quite a bit, Marquise Brown. Now $5. He's going to go for more. That's annoying because I like him quite a bit, Marquise Brown. AJ Green's got injury problems.
Starting point is 01:07:12 I don't usually see Marquise Brown being drafted ahead of AJ Green. As opposed to Marquise Brown? I was trying to make a joke. I was sorry. I was into the draft. $6 to me. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, thanks. That was into the draft. $6 to me. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Thanks.
Starting point is 01:07:26 That was a good bargain. Heath, if you are drafting AJ Green, I know we talk about understudies for running backs. Are you automatically then interested in acquiring TD Higgins? You know, I haven't been. And I've done that thing with Gallup and CeeDee Lamb, but that is a really good point and something that I will probably, like, that's, I think that's, like, the only thing I don't know is,
Starting point is 01:07:54 is it him or Ross? And the Bengals, the signals they sent this offseason is it's definitely Higgins. But I think that makes a lot of sense. Higgins claims he's developed his game after aj green like said he has been following aj green since he was at georgia and you know trying to follow in his footsteps so it was interesting that he ended up going to the bengals and higgins and burrow were working out together leading up to the draft and now they're on the same team dj hushmanzada was working out higgins before the combine and said he was a
Starting point is 01:08:26 green replicant as well for whatever it's worth. Well, that's a, that's a good comp. I think, I think Ross still plays probably a different role in the offense. He's going to be that downfield speedster. And then Higgins is more like, you know, the direct backup to green, which to Liz's point, I think makes some sense. I mean, if Green's injured or isn't playing,
Starting point is 01:08:49 then Higgins could wind up playing that alpha role. Marcus, you just got Mark Ingram for $8. What's your interest level now in J.K. Dobbins? I mean, for a buck, sure. I feel like 2021 is more the year of J.K. Dobbins. I just don't know how much he pushes Ingram this year. I felt that way even before this weird offseason and the COVID and all that stuff. I just felt like Dobbins was still a year away. I think now, especially because of the lack of time, he's definitely a year away. How are we feeling in general about rookies? I'll start with you, Marcus. Um,
Starting point is 01:09:27 I mean, I think I'm just generally a little bit more down on them. I would say though, I guess if there's a position running back is probably the one where I think the learning curve is probably the shortest. Um, you know, especially if you're just kind of in a specialized role where they're asking
Starting point is 01:09:41 you to catch the ball or run the ball or what have you, uh, you're not doing so much patch protection, but I i think on the whole it's just hard to get excited about them because they haven't had that look the one thing you ask every rookie about what's the difference between the nfl and college and they will tell you the speed and they won't have had any time at all to kind of make that speed adjustment so it's going to be a slow go for a lot of them all right we got uh got Marty Cooper up to $10 here. Yeah, we might have to
Starting point is 01:10:08 pause this because we got an auto bidder that's relentlessly driving up the price of a Marty Cooper. We should maybe redo a Marty Cooper. We can do that. All right. Yeah, he just said in the chat, wait, I've never bid on a Marty Cooper. Well, you just said in the chat, wait, I've never been on Amari Cooper.
Starting point is 01:10:26 Well, you also didn't nominate anyone. That's why. All right, so we'll do Amari Cooper. Let's take a look at some of the recent bids. Cam Newton for $1. Ingram for $8. Kicker. Marquise Brown for $6.
Starting point is 01:10:39 AJ Green for $4. Tariq Cohen for $3. Devin Singletary for $9. Carson Wentz for $1. Alan Robinson for $14. Mike Evansz for one. Alan Robinson for 14. Mike Evans for 16. David Johnson for 11. And now we have a real bid on Amari Cooper. $5. $6 to Heath.
Starting point is 01:10:55 Heath looking for his second wide receiver, right? You have one? Well, I'm still looking for my number one and my number two, but I have a wide receiver. Oh, you have A.J. Green, right? All right. Ben Gretsch for nine. Heath Cummings for 10. For Amari Cooper.
Starting point is 01:11:09 I think you're going to win them. Unless we have an auto bid, but I think you're clear. Amari Cooper. I'd love to see George come in for 11 now. All right, Heath. You happy about that? I am very happy about that. I don't think there's much that separates. If you want to be really high on A.J. Brown,
Starting point is 01:11:32 Cooper Cup, Calvin Ridley, Adam Thiel in that group, I don't think there's much that separates them from Amari Cooper. Here's another one I messed up. You guys know I love Gusecki. Jamie sent out Jarwin early on for $1, and I went to $2 right away. I have Gusecki a whole tier ahead of Jarwin, and now Jamie gets Gusecki for $1. Just get three tight ends, man.
Starting point is 01:11:58 Yeah, I could have. Jarvis Landry here, Heath bidding $1. You're going to get him, Heath, for $3. Chris goes to $2. Heath will go to going to get him, Heath, for $3. Chris goes to two. Heath will go to three now. Go ahead. Hit three, Heath. Hit three.
Starting point is 01:12:11 Come on. I kind of have to. I will draft all. You're not going to have to go to five. North receivers, nobody wants. I think that's pretty good, right, guys? Three bucks for Landry? Sure. You know he's pretty good, right guys? $3 for Landry? Sure.
Starting point is 01:12:26 You know he's going to outperform that value. You just might not see it from him until October. And this is what's funny about an auction. How much did Michael Thomas go for? Like $28? Yep. It's a world where Michael Thomas
Starting point is 01:12:41 is like nine times more expensive than Jarvis Landry. A lot of value with the guys who go in the mid rounds. Here's Ronald Jones. Ben Gretsch, five bucks. We're all just bidding up Ronald Jones for Dave, right? Yeah. We're just trying to dig into Dave's pockets a little bit right now.
Starting point is 01:13:01 Go ahead. Oh, yeah, because I've got deep pockets at this point. 13 is my max pitch. I would spend $2 on Ronald Jones. No, you're not a fan, Scott. Not at all. I've heard that talk before about how he's gotten better. To me, they draft
Starting point is 01:13:18 Vaughn. They pick up McCoy for insurance. Two messages that you're not the guy. We can't trust you. Look at the numbers. He only rushed for 80 yards twice last year. He only caught three passes in the game once. He is not from the current regime.
Starting point is 01:13:34 To me, Rojo is no-jo. That was a fantastic Bruce Arians impersonation. Might have been. Not as good as Frank Kelly in Nova City. Okayia All right, Marlon Mack Is up now I don't know, spending a third-run pick on a running back
Starting point is 01:13:53 And adding a 32-year-old doesn't exactly scream You're out We don't trust you We drafted the guy for the future And we'd rather have a 32-year-old Than trust you with the backfield. Tom Brady is the quarterback, right?
Starting point is 01:14:09 Tom Brady is going to decide who is in the backfield. Rojo's not catching balls and can't convert at the end zone and is playing like T.J. Yeldon. Tom Brady is not going to let him stay back. T.J. Yeldon. Oh, I love it. Look, T.J. Yeldon's only sin is that he would just randomly fall down without people touching him. I mean, beyond that, it was fine. TJ Yeldon's only sin is that he would just randomly fall down without people touching him.
Starting point is 01:14:25 I mean, beyond that, it was fine. Jones is there, too. He averages like 2.8 yards per carry inside the red zone. All right, so Ronald Jones went for $9. It sounds like no one likes it. I got Ronald Jones for $9. I think it's pretty close to what you should expect to spend up for him on. Okay, so I didn't take... I don't think it's a steal.
Starting point is 01:14:46 I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal.
Starting point is 01:14:47 I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal.
Starting point is 01:14:47 I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I don't think it's a steal. I wind up with Taylor, Jones, and Singletary all for nine or eight, and then Tariq Cohen as a fourth option. I think that's okay, since that is a clear weakness of my team. What do you guys think? What are they running back?
Starting point is 01:14:59 Say them again. Taylor, Ronald Jones, Singletary, and Tariq Cohen. Well, who are your wide receivers? So you're starting Singary, and Tariq Cohen. Who are your wide receivers? Singletary and Tariq Cohen week one. Wow. That's just really rude about Jonathan Taylor and Ronald Jones. Well, you have Kyler Murray, DJ Moore, Tyler Lockett,
Starting point is 01:15:18 and Mark Andrews. And Mike Evans. Oh, you have Mike Evans? Yeah. Oh, right. I think you'll probably play Evans instead of Jara when it flex if I break down your roster. Just a guess.
Starting point is 01:15:30 How about Kenny Galladay? Up to $20 for Galladay. This is something. Hopkins territory. Liz with the high bid right now on Galladay. Congratulations, Liz Loza. I was real curious to see what he would end up going for.
Starting point is 01:15:46 And I think this is right around fair value for Galladay. But how is it fair? He's going to have to... Look, I love him, but he's $4 more than... What did Godwin go for? No, he's $4 more than Ridley, DJ Moore. And who was the other $16? He went for the same price as Godwin and Hopkins.
Starting point is 01:16:09 Right. And in this format, I think I might – I definitely want him over Hopkins. It's pretty defensible. I had him at $18 coming in. You have a little extra budget. It wasn't a value, but it was fine. It wasn't an overpay or anything. But you have a little extra budget, and he's the best player left on the board.
Starting point is 01:16:27 I think you have to be willing to go up a couple months. Well, why don't we ask Liz? Ben Gretsch is like my new favorite. Why don't I know you? You and I are vibing. Yeah, Ben's the best. He led the NFL in touchdown catches last year. He produced with the Blauhards. is the best. He led the NFL in touchdown catches last year. Half the year playing for the backup
Starting point is 01:16:45 quarterback. He produced with the Blauhards under center. Come on. He was 25th in targets and he led the NFL in receiving touchdowns. Robert Woods now at $10 to Marcus. Hopefully he's healthy.
Starting point is 01:17:01 Not Woods. Hopefully there's no big deal with this COVID list that he's on. Hopefully he's healthy. Not Woods. Golladay. Bobby Tree. Hopefully there's no big deal with this COVID list that he's on. Hopefully he's just chilling. Marcus going $12 on Robert Woods. We are sort of running out of a tier of wide receiver, I'd say. Adam, we have an opt-out. Oh, who? Cardinals tackle Marcus Gilbert.
Starting point is 01:17:24 He just signed with them. Adam Scheffer just reported that he's opting out. What's an easy way to get $150,000? Free $150,000. Sign with an NFL team and then opt out. It's not free. It's just an advance. Coming out next year.
Starting point is 01:17:40 No, no, no, no, no. It's an advance, but if he doesn't play next year, if his career is over, he keeps the money. It's not like the NFL is going to knock on his door and say, hey, you got to pay us back.
Starting point is 01:17:52 Are we sure about that? That's what I've been led to believe. Yeah, it's going to be hard for them. Very hard for them to recoup the money. It'd be a little petty, I think, as well. But Carlos Hyde for $1.
Starting point is 01:18:04 Scott Engel getting the backup to Chris Carson. Marcus, I wanted to ask you about Robert Wood's $12. You seemed intent on getting him. Yeah. I mean, I really love Robert Wood this year. I wasn't that thrilled because he went, I think, he's $1 more than Cooper Cupp did, I think it was. So that part didn't excite me.
Starting point is 01:18:22 But I love the fact that he really was the glue in that offense last year I think at some point and the fact that they kind of used him as a runner too so there's like some sneaky hidden yards in there with Robert Woods in terms of when they use him on those jet sweeps and those sorts of things so I feel like he's being underrated
Starting point is 01:18:40 a little bit this year. Did you also feel like in terms of tiers that we didn't have that many wide receivers of, you know, with a lead upside and you had to get him. Yeah. I mean, I felt that,
Starting point is 01:18:52 that, that too, but as I'm looking through these wide receivers, there's still some really good values out there. Like, you know, and I, I think we all kind of saw that coming right with this format and with the
Starting point is 01:19:02 way wide receiver is. Some people are going to get some really good wide receivers for not a whole lot of cash i thought scott angle with a six dollar bid on uh cam acres getting hit cam acres for six that's pretty you must really like them i do and you know to get them at my flex when you were talking to marcus about the rookies before though you know the rookies they no have no mini camp, no rookie camp, no preseason games. That holds them back a little.
Starting point is 01:19:29 But to me, Cam Akers, clear path to be in the starting there after maybe two, three weeks tops. You know, this team, with their first pick in the NFL draft with all the other needs, they took Akers. And this guy can create his own running room behind that offensive line. I'm thrilled to get him in the flex. Raheem Mostert now, $6
Starting point is 01:19:51 and sold to Marcus. All right. Some running backs coming off the board. Akers for $6, Mostert for $6. Still have David Montgomery. Let's see. Who are some of the best ones? DeAndre Swift, Kareem Hunt, Jordan Howard, J.K. Dobbins, Antonio Gibson. Dave has a $2 bid on Gibson.
Starting point is 01:20:14 Congratulations. Yeah. I'm pumped. I would have paid three. So now I can just pretend that I got him for three and A.J. Dillon for two, and life will just continue on. Well done. All right.
Starting point is 01:20:30 We, uh, let's get making some progress hour and 20 minutes in. This is going pretty well, Dave. Yeah. We've had 83 players nominated. Um,
Starting point is 01:20:41 yeah, you know, we're probably right past the halfway point overall we're probably almost done with the podcast version of this as well but we'll wait for a few more elites to go off the board darren waller two dollars three dollars right now yeah so dave what's your max bid? 12. Mine's 11. Heath, what do you got?
Starting point is 01:21:09 13. Yeah. Gretch? Six bucks max bid, but Gretch is sitting out for a while. I got aggressive there in the middle range, but I feel comfortable with that third to fifth round, those targets that I was trying to load up on. I think I got several of them, and I'm comfortable with what I wound up with. It's a deeper team
Starting point is 01:21:28 than a star-studded one, but I'm okay with it. Kyler Murray is insane. Waller for three. This is Will Fuller. I'll put three on Will Fuller. No, he's four. This auto-bids again, Dave. Somebody needs to talk to
Starting point is 01:21:43 George. Well, I don't think so. I do. Yeah, he definitely was and still is. Not anymore. All right. This is Ben's team. Kyler Murray, Jonathan Taylor, and Devin Singletary.
Starting point is 01:22:01 DJ Moore, Mike Evans, and Tyler Lockett. Mark Andrews at tight end. That's pretty good, man. With Tariq Cohen and Ronald Jones on the bench. That's really good, Ben Gretsch. Good job, man. Proud of you. Thanks, man. You're welcome.
Starting point is 01:22:15 Why can't I nominate? What's going on? Because the site's not telling you that it's your turn to nominate. And then when you don't nominate, you go on autopilot. So what we have to do, this isn't something that people who are going to do their salary cap drafts on CBS Sports are going to do. You just have to put the players in your queue, put the one you want to nominate at the top of the queue, put the amount you want to nominate them for also at the top of the queue, and then just wait. And that player will get nominated. I just, like, whenever it's my turn to nominate, I just nominate a player. Right, but it's not quite clear when it's my turn to nominate, I just nominate a player. Right, but it's not quite
Starting point is 01:22:45 clear when it's your turn to nominate. You're the furthest name to the left at the top of the draft room. Yeah. One time I thought I was that guy and then I ended up nominating for somebody else. I'm not sure if it's reading it right. I was slow on it too because it doesn't tell you. I tried to nominate Lev
Starting point is 01:23:01 Bell and then Liz ended up with Josh Allen. We're just like the players. We're working out our kinks now. Who wants to answer an IDP question from Twitch? What you got? From Reader1. I'm drafting tonight.
Starting point is 01:23:20 I have a defensive player position this draft. When do you try to take one and who? You only start one defensive player? Yeah. So it's not like a real IDP league. You can go after one of the big-time linebackers or strong safeties. I don't know. Honestly, you shouldn't be the one to do it.
Starting point is 01:23:43 Someone will probably beat you to it, but if it's round 10, you could go for it then. The linebacker is so deep that you can really wait on that sort of position. The only safeties you really put in that range are like Buda Baker and Jamal Adams. I put Derwin James in there. Derwin James is another yeah you get Derwin James another but you know I have Adams and Baker just like a tier
Starting point is 01:24:09 above in my sports line ranks but you know linebackers deep you know you just make sure you get guys that not just get the tackles but maybe that could create the turnovers too okay well some recent bids.
Starting point is 01:24:26 Will Fuller and Stefan Diggs went for $7. Heath got Diggs. Marcus got Will Fuller. Jamie got DeAndre Washington for $1. Ben Gretsch got the Bills for $1. And Chris Towers, $2 for Kerryon Johnson. All right. Here's Beckham. This will
Starting point is 01:24:41 be an interesting one. Right. It's happening in the back half of the auction. A lot of people don't have money left. The highest bid that I see, the highest max bid left is 26. Not that he's going anywhere near 26. But I wonder if he flirts with 15. I wonder if he even gets that high. Well, Woods went for 12.
Starting point is 01:25:04 Kopp went for 11. Beckham's at 11 right now. Schrager will pay any costs. He does not care. Instant bid every time someone else bids. Yeah, there's a little bit of an art to your bids, right? Like, wait a few seconds. Throw people off your scent.
Starting point is 01:25:20 No, he will not. He's letting you know. This guy's mine. Up to 15 for Schrager. Schrager, are you willing to go 17? Yeah, I was willing to go up to 18 there. Okay, you got him at 15. Odell needs to be a wide receiver too,
Starting point is 01:25:35 and I would have paid anything. Everybody, let's talk about Ben Schrager's team. Let's see if it's any good. Drew Brees, Josh Jacobs and Leonard Fournette, Chris Gobwin and Odell Beckham, David Johnson. How do we feel about that one?
Starting point is 01:25:52 Marcus, you can weigh in on Trager's team. You don't have to hold back or anything if you hate it. Go nuts. I was pulling it up so I could look at it. Brees, Jacobs and Fournette, Godwin and Beckham and David Johnson at flex. Oh, yeah. Breeze, Jacobs, and Fournette. Guy went in Beckham and David Johnson at flex.
Starting point is 01:26:07 Yeah. I love his receivers. His running backs just aren't going to catch the ball. Here's the thing. I don't know why Josh Jacobs doesn't get targets. I don't know why.
Starting point is 01:26:17 They just don't throw the football, which is sort of mind-boggling to me. And Leonard Fournette, his 70 catches last year, that's not going to happen because LaVisca Chenault and Chris Thompson are going to eat into that. But yeah, I think it's
Starting point is 01:26:31 a risk-reward squad, I think, as I look at it. And I see if everything hits and the squad's great, if something goes sideways, then it may be a frustrating year. All right. David Montgomery just went for eight to Frank Stamfel. A little bit more than Will Fuller and Stefan Diggs just went for. Raheem Moser went for six earlier. So Dave,
Starting point is 01:26:51 Montgomery for eight. What do you think? Don't like it. I feel like it's a little too much, especially when you see some of these other running backs and what they went for, like you mentioned. I think they have more upside than Montgomery. Not a fan of his offensive line. Worried about his snap share. Worried about him being effective. Just doesn't seem like he seems like he would have been a better fit to play in the NFL 10 years ago than now. And I'm nervous about how he's going to do in Chicago.
Starting point is 01:27:21 He's somebody I'm avoiding. The only thing is like there's no there really aren't any workhorses left. You've got maybe Jordan Howard, maybe Sonny Michel, but Montgomery, this is why tiers are important. He was maybe the last guy in a tier. DJ Chark now up to $7. Does anybody disagree with me on Montgomery? I like it at $8.
Starting point is 01:27:49 Okay. But anybody see him as a top 15 fantasy running back? Nothing's changed there. There's no reason to have any optimism. The offense really hasn't changed at all. There are no top 15 running backs that have gone for less than double that. That's true. But maybe somebody was maybe.
Starting point is 01:28:11 See, that's the point. No one is excited about David Montgomery. What did James Conner go for? I don't even remember. James Conner, I believe, went for. I think it was 11. No, I think it was more than that. Liz, what did you. James Conner, I believe, went for $11. I think it was $11. No, I think it was more than that. Liz, what did you get James Conner for?
Starting point is 01:28:28 That one I got Singletary. $13 for Conner. Okay. $9 for Fournette. Love that buy, Scotty. Deontay Johnson for $2. Deontay Johnson for $2. The Steelers, over the years,
Starting point is 01:28:44 they've moved on from so many number one wide receivers in the Roethlisberger era. Hines Ward, Wallace, Plaxico, I could name even more. And Juju is on the last year of the contract. I think Roethlisberger has a big comeback year and they start ramping Deontay Johnson up to be their number one wide receiver next year. So I think that I got an absolute steal at two bucks. I don't want to be doing that. You got to click the big red autopilot button
Starting point is 01:29:11 on the top left. I mean red, yellow. We'll back it up. You better move Hunter Henry up your rankings. You said he was going to leave the Chargers in Tarleton. She already got Keenan Hill. Oh, for a dollar. Okay. Alright, Hunter a dollar. Okay. All right.
Starting point is 01:29:27 Hunter Henry, potentially, going here. We'll see. I just gifted Engel with Johnson. I think we're going to wrap things up. This will be our last bid here for the podcast. It's Hunter Henry. Marcus nominates him for a dollar. And we'll see where these mid-range tight ends go.
Starting point is 01:29:46 You know, Kittle went for 13. Kelsey, I think, went for 18. Andrews went for 13. Don't remember what Ertz went for. Right now, is that a dollar for Hunter Henry? Damn. I'm cool with that. My mouse is over bid $2.
Starting point is 01:30:00 This is me being disciplined and not spending money when I didn't have to. That's crazy. That's a great guy. I know I said I don't love the rosters when I draft Hunter Henry in the mid-round, but if you're going to tell me I can bid a dollar and get him, I'll love that all day. Yeah. All right, here's what we're going to do.
Starting point is 01:30:16 We're going to wrap things up by looking at the teams for our three guests here. We'll start with Scott Engel. He has Lamar Jackson for 12, Chris Chris Carson for $14, Saquon Barkley for $36, Allen Robinson for $14, Deontay Johnson for $2, Cam Akers for $6, plus Carlos
Starting point is 01:30:36 Hyde for $1. How do you feel about your team, Scott? I feel very good. I spent money early. You joke with me that I have dinner plans, but I knew exactly who I wanted. There are certain guys I think it's important in an auction that if you like them more than a lot, two that I think I can get for cheap that I really like better than other fantasy analysts and experts. All right, let's go to Liz's team. $2 for Josh Allen, $13 for Connor, $32 for Kamara,
Starting point is 01:31:19 Keenan Allen and Kenny Galladay, Kenny Galladay for $20 and Keenan Allen for $10, and probably a lot of, uh, money left over or getting a lot of players here. So Josh Allen, Camara and Connor Galladay and Keenan Allen. Pretty good.
Starting point is 01:31:33 What do you think? I love it. I think it's a fine, uh, a fine roster. What I was waiting for. I have right now, like Kareem hunt in my queue,
Starting point is 01:31:44 Michael Gallup in my queue, hoping to get some of those. I think this is a very floor-friendly team. And now I'd want to find a lot of ceiling and upside plays at $1 to $3 bids a piece. And you've got $23, which is among the most. I think it's the second most remaining. I will say I should have been more aggressive at the top. So that
Starting point is 01:32:06 is on me. Lesson learned. Especially if I'm drafting with Dave Richard, my god. And Marcus' team now. Deshaun Watson for $4. Kenyon Drake for $22. Mark Ingram for $8. DeAndre Hopkins for $20.
Starting point is 01:32:22 Robert Woods for $12. $1 Hunter Henry. $6 Raheem Mostert. And $7 Will Fuller, who's on your bench right now. Or yeah, he could be your flex. He or Mostert. Watson, Drake and Ingram. Hopkins and Woods.
Starting point is 01:32:38 Fuller or Mostert or Flex and Hunter Henry at tight end. It's like, damn, I like this team a lot, Marcus. How do you feel? Yeah, I feel okay about it. I do wish, sort of like Liz, I wish I had been a little more aggressive when some of the bigger name running backs were on the board,
Starting point is 01:32:51 but I love my wide receivers. I felt like I had to make sure I got fuller, especially when I landed Deshaun Watson as my quarterback. But on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with what I've put together so far. Cool. Dave, Heath, Ben, any final words? Auction advice?
Starting point is 01:33:07 What worked? I wish I could have kept bidding on Fuller and a couple of other guys, but I spent so much that I couldn't go any higher. And if you know, if you've got your tier set going into your auction draft and you have a general idea of what players should go for, don't be afraid to bid early. Don't be afraid to jump in there.
Starting point is 01:33:30 And who knows? You might end up with Christian McCaffrey for 31. And tell me if this is accurate or not, but really what matters so much... Wow. T.Y. Hilton, yeah. He needs to go for more than $2, $3. Now to Heath.
Starting point is 01:33:42 What matters so much is the depth of the league. The fewer players being auctioned, and there so much is the depth of the league, the fewer players being auctioned, and there's only five bench spots in this league, so it's kind of shallow. I mean, the more you should be spending on studs is the cheap players, the $1, $2 players are going to end up being pretty good players. Fair?
Starting point is 01:33:58 Yep. All right. I think that's what we're going to end up seeing. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into this podcast, and if you watched it on Twitch, that's awesome. You can see it on YouTube, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into this podcast. And if you watch it on Twitch, that's awesome. You can see it on YouTube,
Starting point is 01:34:06 youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Special thanks to three very awesome guests, Liz Loza of Yahoo Sports, Marcus Grant of NFL Network, and Scott Engel of Roto Baller and Sportsline. And of course, for Dave, for Heath,
Starting point is 01:34:19 for Ben and for Ben Schrager and for Jamie Mazowskis helping us out on Twitch. I'm Adam Azer. We'll talk to you on Thursday's podcast with our quarterback preview. See you later, everybody.

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