Fantasy Football Today - Mock Draft REVIEW and Training Camp Mailbag! (07/24 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 24, 2026

It's mock draft review time as the FFT crew breaks down their favorite picks, biggest mistakes, best values, and toughest decisions from Adam and Jamey's team's. We open with the latest news on Malik Nabers potential to play week 1 (2:50), before diving into the mock draft, including the surprise of Puka Nacua going 1st overall. Checking out Jamey's team (13:20), we debate how starting RB-RB changes your approach in a 3-WR league, and whether taking Lamar Jackson in Round 5 is worth passing on other positions. Next, we review Adam's draft (34:46), examining the challenge of finding reliable running backs in Round 3 and wide receivers in Rounds 3-4. To wrap things up, the mailbag (48:15) tackles De'Von Achane's outlook in a struggling Miami offense, Matthew Stafford's pass catchers, and several dynasty keeper dilemmas. Have a question? Email us at [e-mail] Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Off to the races. And he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and he. It's quasi-mailbag time. We've got half a mailbag and half a mock draft review for you here on fantasy football today on Friday, July 24th. Adam Azer with Jamie Eisenberg. Happy birthday to Dave Richard.

He is not on today's show. It is his 50th birthday today. So if you see him around town or on the internet, wish him a happy birthday. This is the accurate. You can do it officially. This is the actual day. Wow, it's the actual day. Hello, Dan.

Welcome back. Dan. Dan is full of energy today, and I am not sure I'm excited about that. Oh, yeah. This is on the attack. It's an attack code. I had some good news and some bad news. The bad news, we'll start with the bad news first.

I slipped the disc in my back. Yeah, a disc. That's how you say it. Okay, I went back and listened to the tape. It seems to be healing up pretty fine, though. The good news, though, as I didn't say. As I was laying down trying to stretch out and get myself back to normal last night, I watched an amazing sports movie Jerry McGuire.

It was unbelievable. I hadn't seen it in like 10 years. I love the scene at the end on the football field in the sports movie Jerry McGuire. So it's been an okay back and forth these past couple hours. He did. Yeah, he did very prepared attacks from the end today. All right, we do have an email about that later. Our email address is fantasy football at CBSI.com.

That's the letter I, fantasy football at CBSI.com. Let's get to our news and notes because a big report here on Malik Neighbors, very relevant after the conversation we have with Joe P. Sapia yesterday. Malik Neighbors expected to avoid the Pupplist and could play in week one. And this is great news. And if you look, I feel like Jamie, I feel like I'm about to be the Malik Neighbors guy. He tore his ACL, but he also tore his meniscus. That's the complicating factor here.

And it seemed like he had somewhat of a slow recovery, had a cleanup operation. but Dr. Jesse Morris actually had a post about this. If you go and you look at stud wide receivers who tour their ACLs, the history is pretty good. Jordy Nelson tore his ACL in 2015. He was wide receiver 2 the next year. Keenan Allen tore his ACL in 2016. He was wide receiver 3 the next year.

Chris Godwin tore his ACL and MCL in week 15 of 2021. The next year he was wide receiver 18 overall, 17th per game. and he, according to Dr. Morris, he heard his hamstring in week one. He missed weeks two and three, and then he was very good late in the season. Corlin Sutton was bad for like three years after he tore his ACL and MCL in 2020. I don't know if that was an injury thing or an offense thing or what. You got Odell Beckham, it's hard to say because he tore his ACL. He wasn't really the same player when he tore the ACL, but he struggled a little.

Well, he fractured his ankle, Beckham, in week five of 2017. In 2018, he was wide receiver 9 per game. He was still very good. And then Cooper Cup in his second season, he tore his ACL in week 10, and he was wide receiver 4 the next year, wide receiver 7 per game. It's actually really encouraging stuff, Jamie.

So now you get this report about Malik neighbors, and what do you think about him at this moment? Still not drafting him close to what his current ADP is, at least on Fantasy Pros, where he's wide receiver 14. So I'm completely out there. I'll draft him in round 4 if he's still there. That's the earliest top pull the trigger. I just think when you look at some of the receivers that are going in this range,

they have for this season only for the current situation that Malik Neighbors is in, because he's not going to be at his peak. He's still going to have whatever recovery time. And this doesn't, the report, unless I'm missing something, while he might avoid the Pup list, he also could still miss time early in the season. So they're just wanting to make sure that he's able to practice as long as he's able to hold up. So I think just looking at it where he's at and what the Giants offense it seemingly wants to be,

I don't think we're going to get the best of Malik neighbors from a production standpoint. So Jordy Nelson, too, whatever other finishes we had for some of these guys, I just don't see that for Malik neighbors right now. Could he be a top 10 caliber wide receiver by the end of the season for the, let's say, final six games, final five games, whatever the case may be, league winner at that point, absolutely. But I think if that's really where you want, want to get Malik neighbors, you trade for him middle of the season or early in the season when he's struggling to produce because I still think there's going to be that ramp up period that

we still need to see from him. So this is very encouraging, great news. Obviously, if you've drafted already or have Malik Neighbors and Dynasty, don't trade him for Michael Wilson in draft picks. But if you have Malik Neighbors on your roster, you're excited about this. I just still think he's a round four pick at the earliest. Okay, Dan, just real quick, when are you taking Neighbors? I probably have him considerably higher than Jamie. I had a feeling just from following the beats that this was going to happen. And there was a lot of speculation. It was going to be pop and all this stuff.

No real information behind it. So I'm excited, but I was expecting this. And I had him ranked always at where I have him now, which is why he were 15? I will definitely be taking him ahead of Jamie. And that seems like it's right in line with where the consensus is taking him, which may be overdrafting him. But if you really look at it, I saw Matt Harmon chart talking about this earlier. maybe this week or a couple days ago, his charting, like in his first year and four,

whatever it was, three games before the injury, is on the level from a reception, perception, charting standpoint of the best of the best receivers. We're not talking about like a pretty good receiver who's coming back from an ACL. We're talking about if he's back and if he's fine, like these guys who just went over, which definitely encouraged me, Jordy Nelson, among others,

then he's going to be a wide receiver one in fantasy and potentially the best, one of the best receivers in fantasy. So I'll take that discount and I'm okay baking in the downside. But you are missing out on some good players, obviously. I'm taking him in a range of guys like Jalen Wada, who people love, and Devante Smith, who people love, and Buka, Christian Watson,

Garrett Wilson, who some people, I guess, love. So you're passing up on probably like 14 points per PPR points per game, something in that range, if he does just bottom out completely. Though it sounds like not many have done that based on your research. Yeah, we'll get to that wide receiver. in the sort of three, four turn-ish area and what they've produced. I actually looked at wide receivers

between 30 and 50 in ADP over the last three seasons. And just my personal opinion, I feel like I feel this way every year. There are about 30 players that I feel really good about most years and that it seems like midway through the third round is when things start to get a little bit more complicated.

Of course, you had Jackson Smith and Jigba in that range last year, but, you know, it just, just sort of seems to be that way in fantasy for me anyway. All right, let's get through the rest of the news and notes. Jacoby Brissette. He's got this contract dispute, but he did practice in their first day of training camp. That's great. This is a report that I wish I had seen before I drafted Chuba Hubbard yesterday.

Jonathan Brooks took some first team reps for the Panthers and reportedly has no limitations, according to Cameron Wolf of NFL Network. You needed to see that before you had a different evaluation of Chuba Hubbard? No, I didn't expect no limitations in training camp for, Oh. I mean, that's what we've heard for a while now. I don't know. I've heard like brought along slowly speculation that Chuba Hubbard would start the year as the lead guy and then they would work.

Oh, I mean, he's in. I don't think anything's changed. I don't know. Getting first team. It's just more encouraging for John of the Brooks, but I think anything changed. Well, Chuba Hubbard fell a little bit anyway yesterday. Let's see. Well, nobody wants him, which is understandable.

I mean, you know, he, it's, it's. It's like, again, you know, I hate to keep saying the Spider-Man meme, but it's like him and Tony Powell, everybody just like, I don't want him, I don't want him, I don't want him, I don't want him. And then it's like, how do I not take him at this point? I took him 82nd overall. Yeah, that's fine. Okay.

And let's see what else. Oh, this is interesting with this report from Cameron Wolf, also that Tetereolle McMillan's going to play more in the slot. I think Jamie may have mentioned that yesterday, but I looked at his numbers. He averaged two yards per route run in the slot on 110 routes. not a lot of routes, but he only had a 15% slot rate, McMillan, but good numbers when he was in the slot. Bad news, though, for the Panthers is that Nick Scorton,

second-year edge rusher, tore his ACL and is out for the season. Very good player for them. Liam Cohen said Travis Hunter is going to play both offense and defense this season. Baltimore head coach Jesse Minter says he wants to get Zay Flowers the ball in as many ways as possible. Minter said, quote, the more that guy touches the ball, the better will be, end quote. Fernando Mendoza signed his rookie contract,

which means Ty Simpson of the Rams is the only unsigned first round pick. We had Josh Weinfuss of ESPN talking about the Cardinals, is saying that Marvin Harrison Jr. is Arizona's number one wide receiver. He wrote, in theory. And he said that Michael Wilson is going to compete for that role. Also Arizona news, two players on the Pup list, Paris Johnson, offensive lineman, and Edge Rush or Josh Swet. They're both expected to come off the Pup list pretty soon.

and Tennessee offensive tackle J.C. Latham is on the Pup list. Big thing to promote right now is draftathon. It is starting pretty soon. In the coming weeks, we're going to be putting up a lot of things for you to purchase, for you to bid on. You can buy spots in mock drafts. You can play in fantasy leagues with us. Really exciting stuff. We have an ambitious goal this year to raise $200,000 for St. Jude. The FFT Open will get us halfway there if we can sell out our FFT open spots. but just stay tuned. We'll tell you how to pay, how to donate.

Everything goes to St. Jude. Be a part of this really awesome event that we do every year. Last year we raised something like $186,000 for St. Jude. We want to beat that this year. Which is the record. It was the record, but we're going to set a new one, Dan Schneier. You're right. All right.

Let's take a look at the draft from yesterday. Twelve teams, three wide receivers, full PPR. If you're looking here, you see blue is receivers, green, running backs, purple, the tight ends, and red. the quarterbacks. Jamie had the, what, the sixth pick, seventh pick? I had the 10th pick. Dan had more important things to do. No, that's not true. I was recording beyond the box score with Dave Richard on his pre-birthday episode that went two hours long and we enjoyed every minute of it. So, yeah, that actually was more important, to be honest. Yeah, but Dave was in the draft.

I don't know how that works, but good for Dave. Dave missed two picks. that I had to help with. Wow, what a beast. On his birthday, recording with us. And it was about his picks, the players he thought were most overdrafted. Wow. Great job, Dave. No, it wasn't his birthday.

Well, it was the pre-birthday. It was hours before his birthday. Last day of 49 for Dave. Yeah, how about that? All right. And he did four hours of programming. Good for him. Yeah, I know.

What a beast. I'm not going to really go through every pick or anything. If you want mock draft review, Dave recorded an episode with Bob Harris Jake Sealy last week. You can look at that. I'll just tell you in this draft, Pooka Nakuwa went first overall, which was quite surprising.

Stories on site, if you want to read about it. Yeah, there you go. Stories on the website. Puga Nakuwa went one overall, and if you do that, what are you looking at? Puga Nakua, Jeremiah Love, Brock Bowers in rounds two and three. Cam Scadaboo and Terry McLaren at the four or five turn.

So Jake started his team. Puka, Jeremiah Love, Brock Bowers, Cam Scadaboo, Terry McLorin. Could you imagine if it was Henry instead of love? one pick away. Yeah. Or even if, you know, there's no issues, Josh Jacobs, is that a love? Right.

Josh Jacobs went four picks after that. But in a three-receiver league, you didn't take a second receiver until the four-five turn. That was-old. Oh, let's not talk about second receivers. What's that? Let's not talk about second receivers. Okay, yeah. Let's talk about Jamie's team.

So Jamie picked seventh, and you went running back, running back. And, you know, I asked you for some takeaways. And your first takeaway was, did running back, running back work when you started Jonathan Taylor? Seventh and then Ken Walker in the second round. So I did that purposely just to see how I was going to play out and was thrilled with the first three picks. And then I had a choice to make in round four, which was, so the first three picks were

Jonathan Taylor, Ken Walker, and then a Mecca, Abuka. So again, perfectly happy with how that worked out. Get to round four and I have a decision to make. So Breece Hall was the highest ranked player that I have in my rankings. But obviously going running back, running back in a three receiver league, probably should have taken a second wide receiver there. If there's one thing that I would have changed, I'm fine with the way that it worked out,

but if there's one thing that I would have changed, would have been to obviously go away from what I have it ranked and taking a wide receiver there. So I could have had either Luther Burden, Malik Neighbors, DJ Moore, Terry McClorn, Devante Adams, Mike Evans, any of those guys. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to take Breece Hall,

and I'm going to see which of those receivers, if any of them fall back to me in round five. And then they all went. And so I'm like, okay, I'll pivot here, I'll take Lamar Jackson, who was falling too far. At that point, he was still the second quarterback available, second quarterback my ranking. So you know how our analyst drafts go. It's quarterbacks fall way too far.

So that pushes a lot of – that doesn't give the opportunity to take a lot of players that are probably still going to be available. Again, could have taken Christian Watson or Romo Dunzee, my next two highest ranked receivers right there. But wanted to see how this would all play out. So kind of made the conscious decision. And as I explained in the story, I know Dan likes to say this a lot, is extremely accurate. All points in your lineup count the same. It's not that the flex is the ugly stepchild,

and we just throw that position away and forget, okay, we don't need to have a quality flex there. My running back core is better than anybody's in this league by far, when you have if they all stay healthy and perform like their cable reform. So Taylor, Walker, Breece Hall. My flex is going to be one of the better flexes in the league. But my second receiver and maybe my third receiver, which a lot of people's third receivers don't always stack up as well.

My second and third receivers are going to be questionable. So that was kind of the big takeaway was, did I need to take a third running back in the first four rounds after starting running back, running back, and I probably would not do it again. So, but that's the issue here. The issue is the round four pick, not starting running back, running back.

Not starting running back, running back. I mean, look, anytime you have a strategy that unfolds for you, So you're going to have an idea of what you want to do prior to the draft when you know a draft spot. But once the draft unfold, so again, I like Ken Walker a lot. He is a top 15 overall player for me. If I was just following my rankings when I got to Ken Walker, Hampton was the next highest player on my board as well. So I was going running back, running back. I was taking it running back in round two no matter what because I like those two players better than anybody that went after them.

So then it was just a matter of how rounds three plus were going to work out. And it was just a question of, okay, I was going to take a receiver in round three. Kiron Williams was in consideration because I have him ranked a little bit higher than where he went also. But again, starting to look at strategy versus rankings. And then I kind of went back to rankings in round four. Okay. We're going to take a quick break and talk more about this. And does it hurt your team too much if you're chasing a position?

We'll discuss when we come back on fantasy football today. So, Jamie, what did you think about kind of feeling the need to get that wide receiver and how it was affecting your draft? Well, I mean, clearly I need to get talented players there. So once we got through Lamar Jackson, it was a question of when do I get a tight end? And then what receivers am I sort of chasing that have upside? And so had the decision in round six of Leporta, Kraft, pits, all on the board in the order that I haven't ranked, be Leporter CraftFit. So I could have taken any one of those guys.

And again, okay, now I'm taking a better tight end that I end up with, but again, sacrificing what I have to, you know, sort of build at my, the rest of my receiving core. But I just started just to say, okay, I know this tier of tight ends are probably going to go. Am I comfortable enough with that final tier of my starters, which are Kittal Kelsey likely? And so that's kind of how I played it out.

So I'll let LaPorteur go. I'll let Pits go. I'll let Kraft go. And I took Alec Pierce, who again, as we said earlier this week, I think if there was no issues with his injury or surgery, his ADP is probably a little bit higher. I think it's kind of stayed stagnant because of people being concerned. Because clearly the path to success is there,

we just have to see him follow that path. Quentin Johnston, I would draft probably. So if I played this out differently, I would have taken Johnson, let's say, as a flex, if we were just looking at it that way in round seven. Round eight was like, okay, I'm getting to the point in my running back rankings where I should probably take a fourth guy just in case the top three guys have any questions. And I still think Stevenson in this range is fine, round eight, based on what we saw last year, took the tight end in round nine. And then you see, this is where it's in my chasing receiver too much. So just trying to throw darts at the board of guys, I think, that's still have upside in this range. and I was really thrilled with this group of receivers.

So even if I wasn't chasing these guys, chasing the position, I probably would have taken two or three of these guys as opposed to four. Which guys? Of the receivers that I drafted. So it's Jalen Koker, Denzel Boston, Antonio Williams, and Jack Besh. So those were four of my last five picks. So after getting the fourth running back, getting my tight end, and I will always tell everybody,

when you get to one of the isolated positions, look and see what else is happening in your league. So this impacted Adam because when we got to after likely and kill or off the board, Kelsey to me was the last top 12 tight end in my rankings. And I checked to see who else has them. Adam, or else did not have a tight end. Adam was the lone fantasy manager without a tight end. So I knew we were playing the game of who's going to blink first and take that player. And I know he likes Kelsey, so I wasn't going to let him get the opportunity to take Kelsey.

Yeah. Do you find, you know, you have some of those drafts where. everything just falls into place. Your first four picks, like, damn, love these picks. I got all my guys, players went before them that I wasn't expecting. It just fell in the place. Maybe this wasn't that draft for you because you ended up with Breece Hall in round four. I know you were happy with your first three picks of Taylor, Walker, and Abuka.

For me, my first four picks were McCaffrey, A.J. Brown. I was thrilled about that at the 10th with the 10th pick. And then Zay Flowers, Garrett Wilson. And I was not thrilled with that. I hated my rounds three and four picks. Why? I'll explain in a bit. But my question for you is when you're not feeling great about your first four picks, assuming there are some combination of four running backs and receivers, do you tend to wait on quarterback and or tight end more in that scenario and kind of hammer running back and receiver more just to build out those positions if you're not satisfied with your first four picks?

So before I answer that, I'll just take a step back for a second. the reason I love doing mock drafts and I do a lot of them and I probably get criticized the most when you read these drafts because I like to do different things in these drafts. And when we evaluate these things, you're like, oh, your team sucks or this pick sucks for that pick sucks. A lot of it is done on purpose because I like to see the exercise and I like to put myself in the shoes of people that are like, oh, there's Lamar Jackson sitting there. I think anybody that knows the way that I give advice and talk about quarterback, I'm generally. going to wait. You look at most of my drafts that we play out. It is waiting on quarterback,

but I have to do my job and say, okay, how can you pass on Lamar Jackson sitting there? So what I encourage everybody to do, and I explain this in the story, I don't know if I explained it accurately, Dan could say, because you read it. Please do as many mock drafts you can. You know, it just gives you the opportunity to try as many things as you want. You know, so to your point, Adam, taking tight end early, taking tight and late, taking quarterback early, taking quarterback, like going three receivers with your, you know, second, third, fourth picks after taking Christian McCaffrey in round one, taking Breast Hall in round four, try it. And if it sucks and you hate it, it's your team, right? So when you get to your actual draft day or you have to make these same mistakes or these same trials and tribulations.

So I think sometimes when you get into these things and how they unfold, you have to sort of make decisions on those isolated positions. So yes, do you want to wait on a tight end because you feel like you have to build out your receiving court or you have to stack running backs or. or there's just somebody staring you in the face that you can't pass up. So for you, it was probably Drake May. For me, it was Lamar Jackson. Those guys are just incredible. And so to go back to the point about the flex position,

those elite players can help you overcome deficiencies at other spots. So if Lamar Jackson's the 30 point per game guy, now you don't want to expect that, but we know he's done it. But let's just say he's 26 points per game. And clearly in the conversation to be QB1, I don't necessarily have to win at receiver because my quarterback is so dominant

and the way that I started this team, my three running backs are going to be awesome. So again, if everything falls in place, we know the draft is not the end-all-be-all, if you think that you're making a mistake, but clearly if you come out of your draft knowing, okay, I dominated these positions, right? I feel like I dominated quarterback.

I feel like a dominated running back. I feel like I have what could be a top 10 wide receiver and then I'll just throw darts at other spots and hope either the waiver wire or trades or just somebody coming out of nowhere that I drafted later like a Jalen Koker or an Antonio Williams, like that overcomes maybe Alex Pierce or Quentin Johnson's sucking.

So hopefully that's not the case. But again, you sort of have to go in with that mindset. Right. Dan, I'll throw it to you in a second. But for me, if I'm not loving the way my draft is going, yeah, I think I go to this version of, all right, well, I'm going to try to wait on quarterback and tight end and build out my running backs and wide receivers a little bit more.

But like Jamie said, if there's a value that's just staring at you in the face and you cannot pass it up. For Jamie, it was Lamar Jackson around five. For me, it was Drake May. in round six, then you just have to do it. And, okay, if you're running backs and receivers aren't as strong as you want,

that's okay because you might have a league winner at quarterback. Let me ask Dan this, right? So, Dan, you're the same build that I started, right? So you go two running backs, receiver, running back. You get to round five.

I don't know where you feel about Christian Watson, but let's just put whatever receiver there who you think could have a breakout season. But Christian Watson's breakout season, maybe 15 points per game, 16 points per game. And then you're staring at Lamar Jackson, who clearly has fallen farther than he has fallen in most drafts based on ADP.

And you know what that guy's capable of. Like that's the decision you make. Win quarterback or maybe win second wide receiver. Where do you go? I've actually, it's interesting, throughout my history, I've almost always passed on the quarterback. And I still almost always do pass on the quarterback.

But last year I did try a couple leagues, specifically the league we did together. I don't know if you were in this Adam. Actually, I know you weren't in this Adam. Every year you pass on this league, like a dunce, even though you should be playing in this league. It's the most important league we do, the auction league. And I know you're in it, Jamie.

But in that auction league, it's really easy to get a really start quarterback for like a stupid cheap price. Like nobody's bidding. It's a one QB league. It's $100 budget. So I've been trying that out. And there is a lot of value on a week to week basis to having these stud quarterbacks on your team

and not going the route of, trying to find the Trevor Lawrence or whatever it may be and taking two shots at that. With that said, what I've learned, because I've now done this for a couple years in a row in that league, and then one of our other leagues that took Jaden Daniels earlier or whoever it was, what I've found is when you take the stud quarterbacks early, you have a better chance of being competitive within the year, like a top six type team, but you don't have the best chance of being the best team in the league. That's how I've experienced it, at least.

To get that chance of being the best team in the league, in my mind, you have to take as many dart throws as possible at running back and receiver because flex is such an important position. You talked about it earlier. To me, I always stress the importance of it because of what you said. Like what you did here, I love because I think Breece Hall could outscore most people's flexes by a wider margin than what your wide receiver to or whatever it may be.

So for me, I just do honestly feel like I believe in passing on the quarterback. And last year I tried taking tight ends early to Bowers, McBride. That killed me as well. The leagues I ended up doing. well in were the ones where I passed on tight end as well. These are just tough positions. In one tight end and one quarterback leagues with 10 or 12 teams,

it's really tough positions to get an edge on when you draft early, in my opinion, at least. Especially three receiver leagues with a flex. Right. The more you position you have to start, the worst it is to drafting these players. And I just want to mention, so wicked good in the chat.

What if I don't like any of the options for Jamie's draft? Sorry, just an honest assessment. Do you have more selections just from? Yes, one billion percent. And that's the point of this. this is like you don't have to agree with anything that we do. We're giving you a sample size of what we would do with those specific players. And that's just my point.

Do mock drafts. Please do mock draft. We have a great mock draft product. Other sites have great mock draft products. Like go out and practice these drafts because, again, you may not like something that we do. We're about to do something we do every year. Probably I think next week, correct me it from wrong again, our pick by pick series where we do, you know, multiple, we do a six, we do a 12 team league with six people drafting two. two teams. So we give you two different ideas. We give you different ideas of what you could do at those

draft spots. And I think it's one of the best things we've done. We've done it for almost 20 years at this point. It's just giving, you know, this is the evaluation and we give you this player. We could have taken, not taken, favorite pick, worst pick. It's a great exercise. But it's just something, again, like you don't have to like the players per se, wicked. You might want to like the positions, though, right? Or the strategy. And that's really the point behind it is like, do you want to go running back, running back? Whatever two running backs you want could have been McCaffrey and Hampton. Could have been Cook and Hedric Henry. And then how those receivers build out, you know, if that's the way you want to go or quarterback, whatever. So it's a lot of just, you know, strategy behind it, not necessarily players. Okay, guys. So let's, I'll just talk about my team and takeaways real quick with my squad. And I started, I had the 10th pick, Christian McCaffrey and AJ Brown. Oh, wait, you know what? Before I get that, like, Jamie did not take Lamar Jackson over Brees Hall. I just want to point that out. He took Brees Hall around earlier.

I think if anyone takes Christian Watson over Lamar Jackson, I think that's insanity. I don't. Absolutely insane. I don't. Unless you feel like you can get Joe Burrow or Drake May the next round or you love Jaden Daniels or something like that. What do you mean? But that would have happened, though. No, you wouldn't have got.

Oh, you could have taken Daniels, but you couldn't have gotten. I don't know about that. I don't know how that's insane. I mean, last year, if you correctly predicted, and a lot of people did, we were some of them. I know most of us on this show were some of them that Drake May was the breakout quarterback

and fantasy last year. Go listen to Beyond the box score. I'm not just speaking this up. You could always make this case, but if you're just comparing Lamar Jackson and Christian Watson. Yeah, but Adam, if it's positional, it's a difference in scoring between the position.

At any point, Lamar Jackson is going to look like the best pick on the board. The same can be said about every quarterback and every stand of the draft. I wouldn't say that you should draft Lamar Jackson over even Mike Evans or Devante Adams.

It's crazy. It can easily make a case that Watson will outscore either of those two. You don't know. If you're playing it out, though, Adam, only two quarterbacks were taken after I took Lamar Jackson. So I could have had one of those guys that they still just went like that. I mean, maybe or maybe someone else would have said, oh, wow, I... No, no, I agree. But if we're just playing that game.

That game doesn't really apply. We don't know. You know, it's possible that you could have gotten. I'm just saying that Lamar Jackson has two seasons of super incredible elite production. Christian Watson has zero. And also any argument you make about taking a quarterback later, it's absolutely true, but there's also plenty of quarterbacks that we've taken late to break out that haven't worked out. And there's plenty of wide receivers that do break out late.

Like Brian Thomas Jr. Lab McConkey two years ago and like Michael Wilson last year was a league winner. You know what I mean? It's just my take. There is, again, the path to how these guys get there. Christian Watson and Alec Pierce could be very similar. They could, but they're not going to be. Lamar Jackson.

Exactly. And they're not going to be... No, that's why, again, that's why I made the decision that I did. It was looking at it as Watson O'Donzei. I don't remember if you put the board up. Who was in consideration there? Those were the two. Jameson Williams, I think, went in that range also.

Yeah, Marvin Harrison, Brian Thomas, you know, again, looking at it all played out. Like, I like Watson. I don't want to say significantly better than those guys, but better. But, and it had burned me before previously. because again, when I took Bruce Hall, it was like, okay, which of those receivers, Burden, neighbors, Moore, McLaurin, Adams, Evans could still be there for me. Looking at the way the board was, okay, Josh Allen's the only quarterback off the board. Probably somebody's going to take it a one. Nobody did.

Yeah. I think you're looking at it a little bit wrong too, Adam. I think what you're saying is true. Like there's going to be a Michael Wilson for every Trevor Lawrence that there is. But the reality is it's much easier to identify the Trevor Lawrence than it is the Michael Wilson because going into the year, Trevor Lawrence is playing 100% of the snaps. I get it. Michael Wilson, we don't know the role for these guys in the late, the late round wide receiver hits that end up making it. But, but Dan, even your Drake May example,

Drake May averaged 24 fantasy points per game last year. That's great, great season. Lamar Jackson could average 30. So it's not the same. You're not finding the same value late, you know? You're just saying Lamar Jackson is an outlier. Yes. Okay. Yes. That's fine. I mean, I don't see it that way, but that's fine. That's just an evaluation thing. So I feel like, you're using your own evaluations here. You don't agree with the Christian Watson evaluation and you don't. And you're overskies on the, not saying it's a bad thing, on the Lamar thing. I do like Christian Watson quite a bit.

I just don't see how he could go ahead of Lamar Jackson. No, I think you're both coming at it the right way. You're talking about one of these special players at a position that if he hits, he's going to be amazing in Lamar Jackson. And Dan is right. It's easier to target the later round quarterbacks because you can identify the ones that have the chance to get there. The later on wide receivers have so many different variables.

that could change how those outcomes. Agreed. It's a good point. And someone asked, can Lamar Jackson average 30 points per game this year? Well, he scored 33 or more fantasy points in each of his first three games. Then he had a bad game against Kansas City. By the way, this is all six points for pass and touchdown leagues. And then he came back against the Dolphins and scored 33.6 points. He scored more than 33 fantasy points in four of his first five games.

One of those games after missing a month. And then he really struggled because he could not run. He kept hurting his lower body. he had multiple injuries. So yes, I believe he can. Now, I'm never going to say he's going to average 30. That's an insane season. But I believe that I actually think Lamar Jackson has the most upside at the position.

I would take Allen ahead of him. But I think Jackson has the most upside of the position personally. All right. So just quick thought on my team here and really not my team, but just this conundrum. I really want an early pick this year, an early round one pick. I get nervous at the end of round three. and I took Zay Flowers. I love your start.

Good, I'm glad. McCaffrey, A.J. Brown, Zay Flowers, Gareth, Garrett Wilson. You know what's funny? Zay Flowers and A.J. Brown averaged the same amount of fantasy points per game last year. I love that I took Brown in round two. I'm slightly nervous that I took Flowers in round three. And then I took Garrett Wilson in round four.

And I'm just, I haven't quite nailed down who I love in that range. Assuming Kairn Williams is off the board, which he was. I don't think there's a running back. I love there. Look at Giovante Williams, Travis A. Chan, Brees Hall.

Like them? Don't love them there. Wide receivers that I would love at the end of round three beginning of round four. I don't think OLAVE is going to make it there. If Devante Smith or T. Higgins

or Emeka Abuka had made it there, those are automatic picks to me. None of them made it there. But they are on ADP. Exactly. ADP tells me I could probably get Devante Smith, T. Higgins,

or a meca, So that's the other thing. Like Josh Allen hadn't come off the board yet. If you have a league that's drafted in three quarterbacks in the first 30 picks or something, then this could be better. But I don't know, man. I just see a lot of risk with Flowers and Wilson, with McConkey, with Tetero, McMillan, Jalen, Waddle, Luther Burden.

I had a tough time, Jamie, deciding which wide receiver to go there. I didn't have a ton of conviction in those picks of Flowers and Wilson in rounds three and four. What's your advice for people picking late in the? the round. Well, I guess just to tie in one of the early stories, would you take a neighbor's there now? Not where I took flowers, but yes. No, not flowers. Yes, I would have taken neighbors. So I think that's the, that's the perfect strategy. And I think Wilson qualifies as well. Any of the receivers really in this range qualify. Like, if you're going for this build,

especially seeing how quarterbacks are playing it out, like what I probably would have done instead of what you did. And really, it's kind of a similar conversation to the quarterback, you know, taking Lamar Jackson was I don't I don't know if Tutin is the right route to go there as opposed to maybe that would have, you know, just to guarantee yourself the quarterback if you would have taken him, you know, there because you didn't know if you're going to get Mayor Burrow because two of the other guys could have taken him. Yeah, well, so Tudin just for people not watching. Tutin was my fifth round pick.

I went McCaffrey, then three receivers, A.J. Browns, A. Flowers, Garrett Wilson. Didn't have a running back. And it's getting pretty lean at running back. Bucky Irving and the Andre Swift were off the board. So I took Bejel Tootin. The next running backs were Travion, Pollard, Judarian Price, Jalen Warren. Again, I didn't love the Tootin pick. And then I took Drake May. Yeah, what I'm getting at is like, it's kind of similar to what I did where it was like,

oh, there's a bunch of receivers that are good, but not necessarily guaranteed production. Like you're taking some swings, which are good swings, but we'll just see how it plays out. Like I would have probably just taken the quarterback there and then see which of Tutton, Henderson, Pollard, you know, whatever those guys fall back to me just to guarantee myself the quarterback. It worked out in your favor. And again, you had only two other managers to worry about there, but still both of those guys take quarterbacks. Then you're going into that next tier,

which is maybe Jalen Hertz, maybe Jain. You know, like if you like those guys great, I do. But, you know, I think just the guaranteed production, that's probably the route I would have gone. But I think just in the way that you started this build, you're a big A.J. Brown guy. I think that was a great picking round two. To me, Flowers is almost a steal at the end of round three,

especially we're not drafting with Heath. But you're getting, I think, a good player at that spot. That's where he should go. So Garrett Wilson and that group of wide receivers, I think you had the right build there. Would you have taken Loveland if he was still available? Because he went right one pickable. Yeah, I think I would have taken Loveland ahead of Wilson,

but not in round three. Loveland and round three is a little bit. So he still had gone flowers there or a receiver there. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out. You would have felt more comfortable if it was Kyron still on the board? Yeah. I'm just trying to figure out which receivers I love there. And I love Higgins, Abuka, and DeBonte Smith there.

They were all gone. So if those guys are available, it's not an issue. When we get to Zay Flowers, McMillan, McComackie, Garrett Wilson, Jalen Waddle, Luther Burden, Malik Neighbors, it's going to be tough. And honestly, I think my issue is like, I kind of want to go off the board and draft Mike Evans or Devante Adams there. But that's so far ahead of their ADP. Over who, Garrett Wilson?

Over, yeah, over Garrett Wilson, over McKearland. Yeah, I have him ranked over. I have both of them ranked over Garrett Wilson. It would take both of them over Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson's been a top 12 receiver in the first six games of the year, two straight years. and what happened two years ago, they traded for Devante Adams. So it happened last year, he got hurt,

played one game and had like no fantasy points, killed his average. So I don't want to totally discredit him. But Jamie, who are the wide receivers? If Abuka, Devante Smith, Higgins, and Olave are off the board, who are the wide receivers you love there? Love would be McConkey,

Burden. Flowers. Oh, I'm sorry, flowers still yellow? Yeah, flowers would be the, I put flowers. in the previous group. So Smith, Fagan, Zabuka, flowers to me are all kind of in the same category. Then that's where, like, the first real blob comes into play.

So for me, it would be McConkey, Wilson. I'm just going in order the way they're drafted, but McConkey, Wilson, Waddle, Burden, neighbors, more. All right. I want to just show this research that hopefully makes some sense. So I said 30 to 50 earlier. Go back to the board for a second. All right. I'll remove that.

Hold on. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead, Sam. I want to make one quick point, one takeaway here. Can I, all right, after this we go to a break. Go ahead. I am typically the type of drafter that would love your build, Adam. When I'm in a PPR league with three wide receivers,

I am looking to start with three of my first four picks wide receivers. And then last year happened and running backs were all the rage for good reason. A, they stayed healthy, which may not happen again. But B, they just scored. As I look at the board, looking in the range where you got Tutton and Hubbard and the running backs you got and the receivers you could have got instead. And then the range where you got Brown Flowers and Wilson, the running back you should have got instead.

I have a clear feeling that in these snake drafts I do with you guys, I'm going to be going running back heavy early because I actually think the running backs are the picks in the range of the brown flowers, Wilson versus like, can I get Tutton or Evans? Can I get Hubbard or Josh Downs, Quentin Johnson? And I think at that range of the draft, the running backs are terrible compared to the wide receivers. At the top of the range of draft, I'd rather Ken Walker than A.J. Brown. I'd rather whoever it is, Kyron Williams or Jvante Williams, than Zay Flowers. And also- I didn't have these options.

I did have the option of Ken Walker versus A.J. Brown, but I did not have the option of Kyron Williams versus Zay Flowers. I'm just using examples here. But you also had Giovante instead of Zayfowler. I did not have Mike Evans or Vajal Tutant. Evans was off the board. I'm not, I'm not knocking. But you had, you did have, you did have Gentie Walker, Hampton, Barclay. I didn't want to, yeah, I didn't want to start running back, running back in a three-receiver

league. Nobody does. And I get that. and I never do. I just think this is an interesting year. I think the value is running backs early and the value is receivers later. Maybe.

That's a good point. I mean, again, just to Dan's point, like, if it worked, you know, take haul off the, forget, keep haul there. Like, Mike Evans makes it one more pick and I am, let's play this league out for a billion dollars.

Right. You're saying if you, if Mike Evans had fallen to you in round five, you took Lamar Jackson, one pick after Evans, you would have been very happy about it. that yeah if i would have started taylor walker abuka hall evans that's the thing i think that five is better than the five you're going to get going receiver early but it's a ppr league that's the problem

so i i get both ways and it's hard to go running back heavy in a ppr league but even to your to the way you started talking about your team adam i almost think if you do want to go the way dan is going and even the way that i started just forget about how it sort of took a little bit of a different turn picking at the back end of round one is fantastic. Yeah, I hate it at the back end. Because if you, if you, because McCaffrey, McCaffrey's probably going to go sooner than he went here based on E.B, which will, and James Cook's not going to go this high.

So let's just switch those two players. H.N. is a wild card because he can go, I think, anywhere from 12 to, you know, 15, 8 to 18. But I think if you do want to go running back, running back, you could have some start. some start of Taylor, Cook, McCaffrey, and then round two of A. Chan, Brown, Gentie, Walker, Hampton. And then you're still looking at, I think three very good receivers. Because, again, what ADP is telling us, you'll still be in the range of Smith, Higgins, Abuca.

And then that still puts you in the potential of whoever you like their, neighbors, Evans, all those guys. Like, I think it could be fantastic. So I could have saved 10 minutes a time and just said, Do a mock draft and figure out which wide receivers, if you're picking in rounds three and four, kind of near the turn, which ones do you really like? And if you think you can get two of them, then that should influence your draft strategy. I was going to show all this research about which wide receivers have come out of the 30 to 48 range. It's kind of difficult to see. The ones in red are busts.

The ones in green are hits. There were only five wide receivers, 30 to 48 and ADP on Fantasy Pros in 2023. There were 10 or 11 each of the last two years. more red than green, I think you'll notice. I just want to go back to last year. JSN, an obvious hit. Devante Adams, an obvious hit. What you're looking at, these numbers are

where they finished per game, where they finished overall, where they finished per game, and where their offense ranked. So JSN was wide receiver two overall, wide receiver two per game, and eighth best offense. But I guess what I came away with this

is that there is no profile that over the last three years that would suggest this is the type of player. For example, Lab McConkey versus Garrett Wilson, the Chargers offense is going to be so much better

than the Jets. But Keenan Allen three years ago was wide receiver three per game on the 20th best offense. Malik Neighbors two years ago was wide receiver eight per game on the 31st ranked offense. Garrett Wilson last year,

he technically was wide receiver 15 per game, but again, top 12 in his healthy games. They were 29th in offense. and they sucked when he was on the field. So I'm just saying like there's no, there's no profile of this is the type of player you should target there. Sometimes I do research and I come up with this,

to me, like great conclusion. Sometimes there's no conclusion and that is helpful too because it means you shouldn't just eliminate a player because, oh, he's on a bad offense. All right, let's take a break and read some emails. I only have about 13 minutes left. I'm sorry. So we'll go through the emails quickly.

We'll be back after this on fantasy football today. All right, this email is from, start with Tom in Chicago. All right. He says, dear, Robert, Ben, Lewis, Val, Adam, George, Michael, and Christian. I'll help Dan out. Dear Robert.

Sorry, one more time. Robert, Ben, Lewis, Val, Adam, George. Batman. Yeah. Let's see. Why is, I think this is a comment about Jamie's rankings. Why is Devon A. Chan ranked 11th, Oh, wait, no.

It's not. It's about Jamie. He agrees with Jamie. Why is Devon A. Chan ranked 11th overall on an expected crappy offense with a Russian quarterback when Hampton, Barclay, Henry, and Walker are ranked lower? Why is A.J. Brown ranked wide receiver 11 behind number two options like George Pickens and players on a lesser offense like Collins and London. Is he not expected to score touchdowns? So basically, Tom, Jamie thinks, Jamie, Tom thinks that the industry is too high on A. Chan and too low on A.J. Brown. I mean, I would agree. I think when it comes to A. Chan's scenario, you know, we've had running backs on bad teams perform very well.

Breeze Hall did it with the Jets. I believe his second season. Christian McCaffrey has done it with the Panthers. Like, there's players that can overcome terrible scenarios. But again, numbers are numbers, and they tell us stories. And Tua Tung of Iloa, 25 games with Devon A-chan in the last two years, he averaged 21 and a half PPR points per game. Eight games for A-chan without Tua, he averaged 10.5 ppr points per game. That's glaring to me. So I don't think he's going to be that bad.

And obviously, the backup quarterbacks that replaced Tua in those eight games don't have as much upsides Malik Willis, running quarterbacks tend to open running lanes. but you know what they're facing. They're facing a situation of a lot of stack boxes to stop the run. Most teams will try and stop the run. When you have a receiving court like Miami's, you may see every defender in the box trying to just take away what they do and make them just beat you over the top.

So I just don't think it's going to be a great situation for A-chan. We know when teams have low expected win totals that correlates to touchdowns, points scored, points against. I don't think they're going to win very many games. They're projected win totals four and a half. The passing numbers are really scary for me, you know, again, to a top two in target rate to running backs over the last two years. Malik Willis last in that category the last two years. It's just a lot of things stacking up against him.

In the case of A.J. Brown, I'll go, you know, I say it's a lot. The six-game stretch, I should have it, you know, fully. But the six-game stretch where he averaged over 19 p.PR points per game. It was like week nine through week 16 missed a game in there. but that still speaks to what he's capable of doing. And I think Drake May, what he got out of Stefan Diggs last year, compared to two players, like it's night and day. So I think AJ Brown's got a chance to compete to be a top five wide receiver

of the season. All right. Next question is from Mike. What do you think, Dan, I'll give us to you, what do you think about pairing Patrick Mahomes with Kyler Marie? I love it. I think that's a great strategy for this year in fantasy football. And it kind of goes to what we were talking about before.

or like Mar Jackson, he's staring at you in round six. It seems amazing. I get it. He can score all these points. But you wait and you keep piling up running backs and receivers. And look at what you might be able to Frankenstein out at quarterback with these two playing the matchups. Obviously, Kyler would have to win the job and keep the job. But I have Kyler ranked obnoxiously and almost irresponsibly high in my rankings after looking into a bunch of things and doing my rankings,

and mostly based on how easy that Viking schedule is going to be. and some of the comments from Kevin O'Connell recently about wanting to get back to being a pastures to offense, which I think is really important. So I love it. And Mahomes, it's more of just like, this is the cheapest you'll have to get him in his career.

I don't, like, I want to be in on Mahomes as here at his ADP for sure, because it's like, what the heck are we doing here? QB 15 is he or whatever in ADP? Was he 15 or 16 or lower even? I thought it was like,

yeah, no, I don't think he's lower than that. I'll tell you in a second. He's pretty low. But the issue for 14, yeah. So it's like crazy.

Like, ever got in my homes at this price. It's unreal. The same time, though, like, one, I don't expect him to run as much, which kind of saved his fantasy value last year, the running, which when you dig into the numbers was what saved it. And then, two, it didn't really add any actual receiving weapons or talent to get me excited about that offense. So it almost feels a little trappy there, but obviously with Murray, it's fine. Question from the chat. Dan, which character in the story is Frankenstein? What does that mean?

Who's Frankenstein? What are you talking about? Who is Frankenstein? Who is Frankenstein? I don't know. He's the guy did an experiment on and he became Frankenstein.

I think I know this? You don't know it. He's the doctor. Oh, the doctor. I don't know Frankenstein. Oh, God. How could I not know Frankenstein lore? Common misconception.

This is from Eric Whedon. Just finished today's episode had some thoughts on the Jerry McGuire debate. Jerry McGuire is a sports movie as much as diehard as a Christmas movie. which is to say not at all. Jerry McGuire is a movie with football as a backdrop,

just like Diehard just happens to take place on Christmas Eve. Not plot driving, so almost definitionally, not sports or Christmas movies, respectively. Now that, okay, I'm not here for that part of the email. This is the part I'm here about. Jamie's bad faith argument of naming the extras who play football players made me think, is the dark night rises a football movie too?

A big scene takes place in a football stadium where Ben Rothesberger plays the quarterback for the Gotham Road. Does Ben Rothers? I know Heinz Ward was in it. I don't know if Ben Rothesberg. Rethersberger is in the, when they're doing the National Anthem. Oh, okay.

Yeah. So, yeah, Dark Night Rise is clearly then a football movie if Heinz Ward and Ben Rathesberger are in it and there's a scene in a football stadium. No, no, not even close. Of course it is. No, you can have things in a movie that still don't represent what the movie is. Adam is 100% of Chris movie when the writer of the movie told us that.

He cares about him. No, that is actually defining you. After that, you should have admitted you were wrong. It was a really, it says a lot about you, Adam, and I really have to reconsider parts of our friendship that you didn't admit you were wrong after the literal person who created the movie said it was a Christmas movie. But beyond that, as we move forward to Jerry McGuire, it's a movie about a sports agent, a sports agent.

Yeah, falling in love. There's no sports in it. A sports agent. Oh, you're so simple. You're so basic, bro. Now, if the only thing in the movie was like him playing cash with the kid, like if that was the only sports part of it and it was a love story like you contend it is, then you're wrong.

But when you look it up, what's the first thing that pops up? You sent us this. I don't know. Don't listen to the stupid Gemini. I don't know anything. What's the first word is it? I don't, I don't know. It's probably Jerry.

Sports. All right. This email is from Weston. Who wrote Jerry McGuire? I'm going to get him on the show. Is it Cameron Crow? We're going to get him on the show. You talk about how in three receiver leagues there's a higher premium on receiver.

Does that change for two receiver, two flex formats? What would the best strategy be in a two receiver two flex format? I still treat it like almost a three receiver league in CPR. You know, so you still want to try and get, in my view, receivers still matter a ton once you get past the high end running back. So I would still treat it as trying to get a receiver in one of those spots, if not both those spots. Again, depending on how you draft, you know, especially after I just took three.

running backs for one to be my flex, but I consider Breesaw a high-end, you know, elite type player. Yeah, I would just lean wide receiver, I guess, would be the answer. Okay, what about if it's half PPR two flex? Then I think just best player available. Okay. From, by the way, I'm not sure. I guess it's always best player available.

I guess just I would lean toward, I wouldn't necessarily say you have to pigeonhole yourself into trying to get one of those specific positions. I don't know if I said who wrote the email about. Jerry McGuire, but it was... Eric! There we go. Now, an email from Charles. Charles says,

Matthew Stafford is historically a target funnel who has generated elite wide receiver production. What is the mean median outcome for Stafford's wide receiver two over his career? This is in relation to Devante Adams. So I looked at just his career with the Rams. In 2021, Cooper Cup was

wide receiver one and Robert Woods was wide receiver 19 per game, but he did have 46 yards and a touchdown rushing. In 2022, that was kind of a mess. Matthew Stafford played nine games. Cooper Cup was great, but no other player did anything. 2023, you had Pooka Nakua, wide receiver six per game, and Cooper Cup, wide receiver 24 per game, and that included a game where he played 27 percent of the snaps and scored two fantasy points. 24, pretty much the same. Puka Nakuwa wide receiver 4 per game and Cooper Cup wide receiver 23 per game and another game where he left fairly early.

And last year, wide receiver 1 per game, it was Puka and Adams was wide receiver 9 per game. So based on this, you got four out of five seasons where the number two receiver finished 24th or better per game. And that's basically exactly Adams ADP. Yeah. Kind of interesting, right? Very interesting. Then here's one on Zayflower.

in the same email from Charles. Flowers had 1,200 yards in a season where receivers caught less yards than they have in recent years. It was a really bad year for wide receiver 2s. Do you value Flowers production more or anyone's production more

for that matter if they did it in a year where a few others succeeded? So, you know, I could go either way on that, damn, because, yeah, it is impressive in this environment, especially on one heavy team that Flowers was able to score 14.7 points, per game. However, that made him wide receiver 12 per game. If he does that again and wide receivers bounce back, he's going to be more like wide receiver 24 per game. Right. And then we're over drafting him.

Yeah. Flowers is an interesting one. They just said yesterday, we heard that comment you brought up the top of the show. They want to design more play. They already got him the ball a lot. I don't need more touches. I need more touchdowns from Zay Flowers. And that's the bigger, more critical question. Like, will that ever come? What's the number that you make, would make you feel comfortable taking him in round three, Adam. Eight. Eight, yeah, eight touchdowns, and he's a great pick in round three. What does he top out at, like, five? Yep.

Yeah, eight touchdowns for sure. I look at the way of the season. It's so funny how we think like eight is such a hard number to get to, but it really is for some of these players. And it also goes to show why players like Adams and Evans are great values, because they're probably going to score a lot of touchdown guys, and that really defines the game in a lot of ways. They don't have to do much else.

Adams, I said this yesterday. I think I'm beyond the box where David and, you know what, DeVante, Adams, points per game was last year. Like 17? No. No, no. What wide receiver rank he was in points per game? Nine.

And if you look at every game lock, he barely got targets and barely caught the ball. No, that's not true. Yes, it is. Go look at it. He got 114 targets in 14 games. I'm about to go, no, I'm about, 114 targets is not a lot.

In 14 games, he's on pace for 134 targets, I think. That's a lot of targets. That's not a crazy number to finish wide receiver 9. That's a great number for a second guy, and it's a great number in that offense. I mean, Can I go over something with you as far as yards goes? Oh, yeah.

I know he was pretty, he was ninth overall in points per game with 51, 56, 56, 86, 88, 38, 39, 35, 60, 77. He was 34th in receptions. Right. And yards, he had 789 yards receiving. I mean, listen, any time you can say that that's the one stat we have the most difficult time predicting. Predicting, right, which is why people hate it. Except for a handful of players that you've,

know have the opportunity to be very good at doing that. How many times you're getting heard about Hay. Adams is where does he win or lose this year? Does he win in his catches and yards coming up? Because he's not going to score 14 again. Again, I think you can pencil in 8 and hope for 10, but I don't think we're getting 14. I think you can pencil in 10 and hope for 14. Yeah, that's tough.

Why not? Well, I think, Dan, the argument against what you're saying with Adams is that people would go, well, he had a career low catch rate. He only was on pace for 958 yards. He's 33 years old. He's declining. I didn't really see it that way. I thought he got open very well.

So did Fantasy Point Status Suite. So did ESPN's analytics. And he had the highest percentage of off-target throws in his career, I believe. So I think there's room for a much better catch rate. And then what was that stat I gave? like 86% of wide receivers in the last decade who have caught eight or more touchdowns have finished top 24 per game.

So if he scores eight or more touchdowns, which you just said he's probably going to do. He's almost a lock to be top 24. He's 80P is 24th, right around there. You also have what could be one of the most suffocating defenses in the league. That's true. Not that that takes away from the office.

I think that's a stupid argument on principle because they're still going to want to score points, but they just may not have to. I think that's worse for the yards than the touchdowns upside when you have a great defense. All right, let me ask you a few keeper questions to end today's show.

This is from Charles. Chris Olave in the 5th or Tucker Kraft and the 10th, PPR? Alave for me. Alave. This is from Richard. Which of these four players would you keep?

There's no penalty to keep them. so I think you're just keeping one. It's two points for a reception, one point per carry, and 100 yards for a bonus at 100 yards rushing and or receiving, but it's only one point for 20 rushing yards. So again, there's four running backs here.

Interesting. Two points per reception, one point for carry, bonus at 100 yards rushing and or receiving, and one point for every 20 yards. Are you keeping Bucky Irving, Kyran Williams Travis A-chan or Bejal Tootin? Yeah, I still think it's

Kyron in that format. I hope so. I don't know how many catches or carries he's going to get. That's a problem for that, obviously. I like what Jamie was talking about with their dominant defense of Aaron Adonnell comes back. I like that for Kyron. This is from Tim.

16 team league, two keepers for one year, no first rounders. I have the number two pick. My keepers are Ken Walker in the second and Quinchon Judkins in the sixth. Okay. And my nuts to pass on Bijan and Gibbs with the second pick and take Chase or Puka since I'm keeping Walker and Judkins. No, you're not nuts at all to do that, in my opinion.

I think if you get a list of what the keepers are before the draft, that will determine how many wide receivers are potentially still available for you because you come back to round two. You still can get a really good wide receiver and then you have those three running backs, but see how it plays out. I think a case could be made that Jason Puga could be just as good a pick as any of those guys, specifically Bejohn. James in D.C., three receiver league with a flex.

Keep two. Abuka in the fifth, pickens in the sixth, Javante in the 11th, Tuton in the 11th. Oh. Go Cowboys. You didn't have to read that. I mean, this is, no, that's the answer. It's Pickens in the 6th, Giovante in the 11th, or Abuka in the 5th.

Obviously, we're going to keep Pickens. Jaunte in the 11th. And Tootin in the 11th. I think it's, yeah, it is Pickens and Javonte, value-wise. I would go Abuka and Giovante. And I'm fine with that. I'm sorry. Piggins is after a Bucca.

Yeah, Pickens is later. Oh, no, Pickens is cheaper than a Bucca. Oh, yeah. Pickens and Javonte. Yep. I'm sorry, Dan, I didn't want to say, Go Cowboys. Yeah, well, you did.

James in D.C. also says, shout out to my home league commissioner, who's a longtime listener of the podcast and goes out of his way to make videos and even a league trophy to keep everyone engaged and having fun. Nice. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Well, that's it for today's show. We're going to talk to you on Monday and position previews are starting late next week. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Dan, what are your stupid weekend plans? What is this?

I'm going to a kids party type thing on Saturday, so I'll be one of the only non-dad's there. So that'll be fun. It does just going to show up. No, it's like my friend's kids. I got you. No, it's like all the friends. Anyway, we'll be doing that.

And then Sunday, I don't know. I don't have any plans yet for Sunday. You want to go play some tennis? I'm too injured, man. I got to get healthy. Are you really that injured? I can barely walk today. Wow.

After signs of you in your 6-4, getting four games, some signs of you trending up. Yeah. Are you just doing this as mental warfare? It's like a reverse psychology. No, it really sucks. I'm not going to be able to really train for this. How's your shoulder? Mine?

Yeah, from the softball. Oh, that's fine. Oh, God, I had a shoulder thing. Shoulder's fine. This guy's just injured and sick, 90% of his life. So I can never leave the house. He's the boy in the bubble. All right, we're about to go leave the house now.

We'll talk to you next week. Have a great weekend, everybody. See you.