Fantasy Football Today - Post-Draft 0.5-PPR Mock With Scott Fish, Will Brinson & Ben Gretch! (05/10 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

The FFT Crew's joined by an elite group of football minds, Will Brinson, Scott Fish, and Ben Gretch, for a half-point PPR mock draft! First, the gang breaks down Justin Jefferson as number 1 overall (2:00). Next, we discuss where they're looking to draft quarterbacks this season (7:37). Then, they get into player debates, like Jahmyr Gibbs (13:12), DK Metcalf (20:42), Calvin Ridley, Mike Williams (28:40), and more. Finally, they wrap up the podcast with team grades! (58:00) Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's a no-win game. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Well, here we go. Welcome to the Fantasy Football Today podcast. Thank you for watching us on YouTube. Make sure you hit the like button. And as you can see here by all these exciting faces, we have a very packed show here for you. We're doing a half PPR mock draft. We're doing it live as we speak. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. There you see joining us here, Dave Richard. Heath Cummings will be with us as well. I'm sure he's having his wonderful internet connections as he always does. But we have some special guests.

Ben Gretsch is with us. Scott Fish is with us. Eventually, I hope Will Brinson will be with us. And again, we're going over our live half PPR mock draft. We are already into round two, some interesting picks as well. And no, Jamar Chase was not the first pick overall, if you remember from our PPR draft. So guys, how excited are you to be doing a live draft right now? Dave, you fired up. You got Bijan Robinson in round one. I've decided to experiment, Jamie. This is going to be an experimental mock for me. I am not using my rankings. I'm going off of more like, here are the players that I really like.

And so I don't think I'm reaching when I take Bijan in middle eight round one. What am I, eighth overall? Don't feel like that's a reach at all and want to see how the team comes out with going Bijan first. I'm sure I'll love it. Ben Gretsch, it's been a while since we talked to you. Excited to hear your thoughts on the NFL draft, the fantasy draft as well. I know you said you've done some drafts already this offseason since I'm sure the NFL draft has taken place, but probably knowing you before the NFL draft as well.

So what do you think about this format? Half PPR? Was there a player you were targeting in the first round? Well, I was considering Bijan at six. I mean, I think he's, he's going to rise for the, we get into the summer. I don't think it's going to be weird to see him at six in August. I did take Tyreek Hill in the first round. I, I was come on and wind up with a pretty zero RB build with you guys. So I started with two receivers here. I'll probably wind up with a few more before I hit the running back position. Scott, you had the last pick in the first round.

I know you were hoping Justin Jefferson might fall just on the off chance. That was the case. He was the number one overall pick. No surprise, Thomas Schaefer, a resident Vikings fan that we have here, taking Jefferson number one. But you went receiver, receiver with your first two picks, Stephon Diggs, C.D. Lamb. Was that something you were planning?

No, I'd hope Bijan would get there. I was in a draft last week where he went four. I would take Bijan top five, so I'm right with Ben on this one, that I would take him in that range, probably right after Jefferson, McCaffrey, Chase. But they were just the two best available on my board. I feel like I considered Pollard a little bit, but that's the only running back I considered. Your draft selection caused me to go a different route than I was planning.

I actually ended up running back, running back with Jonathan Taylor at 11 and then Tony Pollard at 14 there. So we'll see how that goes for me in a three receiver league. So, you know, we typically do three receiver leagues. We have a flex. It's a one quarterback format that we're doing here. And I know Thomas just popped up the first round on the YouTube site. I will read the first round for you. So catch you up on where we are right now.

So usually we're a little bit behind actually for rare occasion. We're actually a little bit ahead of the show. So first pick was Justin Jefferson,fferson followed by christian mccaffrey jamar chase austin eckler travis kelsey at five tyree killed a ben at six uh saquon barkley bijan robinson to david eight josh jacobs cooper cup jonathan taylor and stefan digg so dave anything stand out to you with the first round of maybe somebody that went too soon somebody that fell a little bit? What do you think about the first 12 players that were off the board? No, not really.

It looks like a typical first round. The order might be a little different by the time we get to September or late August, whenever everybody's drafting. But I think you'll see some combination. Each of us have a different player at the top of our PPR rankings. But those three players are going to be the first three off the board. I think we've entered the time where people are getting nervous about Cooper Cup, and he's sliding toward the back end of round one. That could end up being an absolute boon for people if he stays healthy, if Stafford is okay. I had heard earlier,

maybe it was late last week, I heard that Stafford wasn't healthy yet. That was a surprise to hear. I heard it on Sirius Radio. If that's the case, obviously you can't take up even close to round one. So we'll see. But most of all, the makeup of round one, the players that went, no surprises in my opinion. Heath, thanks for popping back in. Hopefully the internet connection is strong, the best internet in South Florida.

You got your number one overall player in PPR at number three in Jamar Chase. So I was telling Scott and Ben off the air how you have Jamar Chase number one overall in PPR. Is it the same in half PPR as well? Yes, half PPR, non-PPR, full PPR, all the PPRs, Chase. And again, I said this when we talked about it on the show when I did it the first time. I think it's a coin flip between Chase and Jefferson. So I wouldn't blame anybody for taking Jefferson, but I've got Chase just a touch ahead of Jefferson in all formats. Ben, what do you think about that? Should Chase go ahead of Justin Jefferson now that Jefferson has a little bit of competition for targets, potentially with Jordan Addison being their first-round pick in the NFL draft?

I think it's tight. I don't think it's a clear either way. I'd probably lean Jefferson. I mean, the potential for just a monster receiving line is, I think, probably larger there. We saw an incredible season last year. I think, yeah, Addison adds some target competition. So does Hawkinson coming in mid-season and what he did down the stretch, obviously. But I still think Chase with Higgins is sort of dealing with, you know, a better secondary weapon to potentially limit his ability to, like, get to that astronomical, you know, target, you know, share range. So probably would still lean Jefferson.

But, I mean, they're just pretty clearly the two most elite at the position. They're so, so good. All their metrics, all their metrics all their per round numbers anything you can look at is just incredible so far in their career so you can't really go wrong betting on talent like like those two scott you feel the same way or is just doesn't jefferson the clear cut number one for you uh i have jefferson one uh but i feel i feel a lot closer to ben than i do heath i I do feel like it's close to a kind of flip, but I do think Jefferson just,

I think the consistency's there a little bit more. I think that he's going to get even more volume with Adam Thielen gone from those red zone targets that he used to suck up in Minnesota. Addison's a nice addition. Hawkinson was doing great at the end, but Hawkinson really just took away Thielen and the third receiver. Yeah, just a lot more competition for Chase than Jefferson, so I have Jefferson ahead. I hate this round, by the way.

I wanted Gibbs and Etienne to fall to me, and man, my draft is in shambles now. Yeah, I was hoping one of Hertz or Allen would fall to me. I still took a quarterback at 35 with Lamar Jackson, just trying a little something different here at this as well. So we'll see how things go there. When's the last time you took a quarterback in round three, James? Well, I wasn't going to take a running back because I took two, and I know Scott just took two receivers. So we'll see if he takes one of the guys that I want at that position.

So it was just kind of a little pivot play for me. But let me recap round one one more time for everybody listening at home. Then we'll get into round two. So Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, Jamar Chase, Austin Eckler, Travis Kelsey, Tyreek Hill, Saquon Barkley, B. John Robinson, Josh Jacobs, Cooper Cup, Jonathan Taylor and Stefan Diggs. For me, Josh Jacobs at nine is a little bit too soon. But again, if that's the running back that you're going to target, I prefer Taylor and Tony Pollard, but we'll see how Josh Jacobs does coming off an amazing 2021 campaign. So we go

into round two, and we are, like I said, we're flying. So we're already almost at the end of round three. So round two, sorry, that didn't come up the way that I wanted it to. Round two, here we go. Scott kicked it off with C.D. Lamb, followed by Tony Pollard to me davante

adams uh aj brown garrett wilson to dave jaylen waddle amara st brown to ben derrick henry bruce hall nick chubb t higgins and ramondre stevenson heath uh you know the difference obviously between ppr half ppr non-ppr uh the running back value gets a little bit different and so we still see a lot of the same names going in round two. Do you lean more toward running back or more receiver in this format, knowing that, again, you're still getting some value for reception? Yeah, I had a real hard time between Chubb and Higgins and even Devontae Smith, who was able to get in round three. And I was happy that that happened. I just decided in a half PPR league, I wasn't quite as comfortable with the full zero RB strategy. And I had a feeling,

I actually thought I'd be taking Andrews in round three. I was surprised to see him go a couple of picks before me. So I wanted to get that anchor running back and like the way things are set up right now, Nick Chubb might actually have rear high end catches this year, unless, unless they get Kareem Hunt resigned. Scott,

how do you feel about the, the quarterback value this season? I think we're going to see these guys get pushed up a little bit. Usually analyst drafts, they fall. We might see more guys going round one this year. For our draft, they go in round three. And who's the number one quarterback for you? We've had some debate.

Should it be Mahomes still? Is Josh Allen going to bounce back after the injury, elbow injury that he suffered last year? And then clearly Jalen Hurts, what he did. So who's number one quarterback for you and when should they go in a draft? Yeah, it's still my homes for me, but it's, it's probably closer to around three about where he went. Honestly, that, that two, three corner is a wonderful point for my homes. We've just seen, uh, we've just seen a lot of the playoff teams and especially championship teams in the last couple of years have those hurts. Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen types. In one quarterback, you can stream a little bit more than the super flexes.

But I'm absolutely after watching what's happened with those trends in the last couple of years, going with a quarterback in that rounds three through five range. I have trouble doing it in round two, though. Ben, what about you? Same question. When should quarterbacks be going off the board and who are you targeting first? I would probably target Allen first, but I think it's a really tight top tier. The question of when they should be going off is, I think, an incredibly interesting one for this offseason.

We have seen, obviously, a different type of ceiling at the position with more quarterback rushing over the last couple of seasons and it's it's created a lot more uh differential between like the top quarterbacks and what they can get to in terms of you know fantasy scoring with the rushing plus the receiving and so um i just had to make a pick there but um that uh yeah i mean that creates you know the potential that maybe we're back to a a world where early quarterbacks can can thrive because there's it's tough to make a case for a lot of the late round quarterbacks to be able to compete with the point scoring potential of a jalen hertz or a josh allen lamar jackson the types of rushing lines those guys

have shown plus obviously i mean patrick mahomes the type of passing lines that he can he can put up um it's just it's truly astronomical what you know those guys can do relative to what late round quarterbacks can do at the same time as they start to get pushed up into this third round range like I I find myself wanting to wait more than ever because those principles of late round quarterback do still make sense you can still sort of guarantee some point production later, right, in a way that you can at other positions. So anyway, I'll probably find myself waiting a little bit more. And so the reality of like where I think they should go is probably still, you know,

later third, fourth round as opposed to, you know, in some drafts, you start to see them in the second. So I think it's a really interesting discussion point for this. Yeah, no, for sure. I'm typically more inclined to wait. I wanted to see how this build was going to look for me taking Lamar Jackson. And, again, he should not go right after Mahomes, Allen, and Hurts. Those three, I think, are a different tier than the next three,

which I think are going to be Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields, and Joe Burrow. But I also think that the guys that you can wait for, the value that we'll probably end up seeing is Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert. You know, now maybe Anthony Richardson, if you buy into that. And, you know, we've had a lot of discussion about that. We'll certainly bring that back up once we get to those guys coming off the board. So, again, round two starts with C.D. Lamb, Tony Pollard, Devontae Adams, A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson. Dave, did you consider taking Jalen Waddell, Amara St. Brown, over Garrett Wilson?

Why Wilson at 17 over those other two guys? The strategy in this mock, and let's just readdress it, it is a mock draft and we're all kind of tinkering, is that I wanted to take players that I wanted more so than what my rankings tell me, and right now I do have St. Brown one spot ahead of Garrett Wilson. I just love the marriage of Wilson with Rodgers. I think the Jets are going to throw plenty this year. And I love the talent with Garrett Wilson. You love the stat and I love the stat in games where he didn't have Zach Wilson throwing to him 17.2 PPR points per game for Garrett Wilson.

And I just think he's got the chops to be even better in his second season, especially with a better quarterback. So it felt like it was the move that I wanted to make it. It felt more fun. And that's kind of the strategy that I'm going with in this draft. And we'll see if I like my team when I'm done. And even before the final numbers, he was over 20 points, 21.1 points per game was numbers before the end of the season. I think the final two games pushed him down to 17, but he was doing fantastic with, again, anyone other than Zach Wilson. So, again, after Garrett Wilson in round two, it was Jalen Waddell, Amara St. Brown, Derek Henry, Brees Hall, Nick Chubb, T. Higgins, and Ramondre Stevenson. I'll give you round three, and we'll start to talk about some of the guys there.

So, again, we're flying through this draft. So if you're watching on YouTube, you can see the draft board. But here we go with round three. So the first pick was Mark Andrews. Then the quarterback run starts with Patrick Mahomes, Devontae Smith, Chris Olave, Travis Etienne. Ben takes Jameer Gibbs. We'll come back to that.

Najee Harris, Calvin Ridley to Dave, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson to me, and then TJ Hawkinson, another interesting pick there to Scott. So Ben, Jameer Gibbs, obviously somebody that's going to be very polarizing to some degree. You know, the second running back taken in the NFL draft, being paired with David Montgomery now in Detroit. What do you think about Gibbs, and how do you think this backfield is going to look for the Lions? Yeah, it's an interesting one for sure. It is interesting to see them obviously use the 12th overall pick and that type of draft capital after the contract to Montgomery.

And at that point, obviously still having DeAndre Swift on the roster who they have since obviously traded. You have to love the fit, I think. Gibbs, if you look at his numbers, you know, particularly look at like some of the per route run stuff, yards per route run, his ability as a receiver in college at both colleges that he played at was incredible. I mean, truly astronomical stuff. And then he comes to a team that DeAndre Swift had massive receiving target shares out of this backfield the last couple of years. They will throw to the backs. Jared Goff, not obviously a mobile quarterback. You get the mobile guys that aren't going to necessarily check down as much

because they're going to look to scramble. Goff's sort of the exact opposite of that. I think it's just a perfect fit for his skill set i the split is a little concerning half ppr a little concerning yes but i mean gibbs is a an electric talent the ball in his hands i think he's going to immediately have a really important role in their offense kind of tough for me with almond ross st brown in the second round as well because you kind of want both these guys to catch a lot of balls basically especially in half ppr you're hoping for you know eight catch games or something so you can get those bonus points but um i mean i think the lions are a fun offense

to be on too they're playing indoors they're favored to win the nfc north right now i mean they're a team that's on the up and up and we'll see if ben johnson keeps it going i think it's a it's it's it's a it's a fun pick you know and hopefully he does take control of that backfield ahead of david montgar i mean the touchdown is probably going to be what sways it for, you know, those two guys because as we saw with what Jamal Williams did last year. So very, very interesting to see how they will work together. So, Scott, I know you're on the clock right now, so I don't want to put you on the spot, so I'll let you make your pick.

But I do want to get back to the selection of TJ Hawkinson there at the end of the third round. So, Heath, I'll come to you just in terms of the tight end value. You know, we know the first two guys when they're going to come off the board of Kelsey in round one. He went the fifth pick here. Mark Andrews, the first pick or the second pick of round three, first pick of round three.

When should the next guy come off the board? For me, it's probably round five. I've actually got Hawkinson and Kittle and Pitts and Goddard all pretty close to each other in that round four, round five range. I think there's a bigger difference between Andrews and Hawkinson than Hawkinson in that next tier of tight ends. And I just don't know. Like we saw Hawkinson. It was like two monster games with Minnesota.

The rest of the time it looked a lot like TJ Hawkinson, which is a good starting tight end, but I don't know that he's going to be a difference maker. Perfect. All right, Scott, you made your two picks, so you can come back and now defend the TJ Hawkinson pick at the end of round three. Is that a homer pick as a Vikings guy, or is that something legit? You think he's going to be that close to Andrews and Kelsey in terms of production? It might be a little bit of a homer pick. He was a top three tight end. Once he came to Minnesota, I don't think he got a lot of competition. He got,

he did get Addison, but he's going to be the number two target in that offense. He might be our number one red zone guy. There might be a little bit of Homerism there. Honestly, I, I hate that cook and Hawkinson were my top running back and top tight end on my board at that corner i i thought i felt like maybe i should have just taken a different

one for one of them um but no hawkinson i have as my tight end uh three and two were gone didn't know when the other would come didn't like the didn't like my running back options too much at that point to take two of them and felt i could get guys like Pacheco, Pierce, guys that haven't been taken yet. Do you mention players not taken yet sometimes during these? I don't know. It depends. Our YouTube audience can see the board.

Like Rashad White and James Cook and guys like that who might have legit starter roles in offenses, I felt like I could get one or two of those later um to back up cook assuming the shoulder surgery is fine and he does not get traded post june 1 um he he should be a fine option this year and in what should be a decently high scoring offense and i i felt i took three of them there that can you know rotate around but the hockinson one he was just my third rated. He was my number three tight end at that point. And I knew that I was going to be 24 picks away from another pick. Makes sense. And we talk about this a lot when you're on an end. If you want to get a

guy, you're going to make sure you got to try and reach for him a little bit. So you got a feeling on Hawkinson and make no mistake, he was certainly fantastic. A little bit skewed towards some of those big games, but if that's the player you want to get, sometimes you've got to go get him. All right, we're going to take a quick break right now. When we come back and get into rounds four, well, yeah, round four and beyond. But we're flying here. So it's fun to see a draft actually moving and not being stalled by a few certain individuals. So we'll take a break right now here on Fantasy Football Today.

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Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and TJ Hawkinson. Dave, I'm going to come back. I want to talk about Ridley in round three, but Christian Kirk has since come off the board, so we'll sort of just marry that conversation together when we get there just to move the draft along a little bit. Let's get to round four here, and here are the players that were selected in the fourth round. Dalvin Cook to Scott, DeAndre Hopkins to me, Ken Walker III to Will Brinson, DJ Moore, Aaron Jones to Dave, Debo Samuel, DK Metcalf to Ben, Keenan Allen, Justin Fields, Miles Sanders, Christian Watson, and Joe Burrow ends the round.

So, Ben, I want to ask you about the Seattle guys in this round here because clearly the Seahawks got some competition. So we'll start with Ken Walker and now the pairing of Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet, and then you take D.K. Metcalf, knowing that Jackson Smith and the Jigba is now part of this receiving core. So is this Seattle offense going to change? Are we going to see a multiple-headed backfield? Are we going to see three receivers thrive with geno smith how do you think this

all works after what they did in the nfl draft the backfield stuff's a little bit tougher for me to understand i think ken walker's really talented i was excited about charbonnet's profile i think he probably plays the passing down role early in his career kind of the travis homer role right who is now in chicago uh but how the the early down stuff splits with those two is a hard one for me. As far as the receiving stuff, I'm a little more optimistic, I think, than most about how JSN will fit. Since Metcalf's been drafted, all four years, both Metcalf and Tyler Lockett have had 100 targets.

No other Siak has had more than 63. Now, there's multiple ways to look at that. You can say it's not a good fit for JSN. I would say they've never had a really talented third option, and this offense has been pretty concentrated. I thinksn now fits into the shane waldron offense he comes from the rams and kind of can be the new sort of cooper cup in this offense he's got that slot plus profile uh and i think we'll see more of a three-headed concentration with their passing game this year than the last couple years has been very two-headed concentrated but without

the ancillary pieces doing a lot um and i think the pass rate can probably rise a little bit when you see them take a first round receiver you have to be a little bit hopeful about that although of course it took a second round running back as well but um i think there's room and oftentimes when you have like a concentrated three-man passing game it feels like there's not enough to go around but there's also tons of latent upside there if somebody were to miss some time it's one of the kind of cheat codes for me to try to target those types of offenses talked about the bangles for a long time if you know either chase or higgins misses time the other one's probably an absolute superstar for that stretch uh it was a common you

know common thread with the cowboys when amari was still there and then gallop and lamb it's like all three of those guys get pushed down in projections. But if anyone were to miss time, it just vaults the other two to a really, you know, high ceiling. And I think that's where JSN is going to be at. If either Lockett or Metcalf misses time, he's going to be as part of that two-headed monster that we've seen in the passing game the last several years. And Lockett did get a little bit banged up last year. So we'll see, you know, as he's getting into his early 30s, maybe that's something that,

you know, comes to fruition. Dave, just since they both went in this round, this feels like an Adam question, but if you wanted to get a piece of the Seattle offense, would you skew toward the backfield or would you skew toward the receiving core, knowing that this is a three-receiver league? So would you rather have a piece of Metcalf, which would be in this range, obviously Lockett or Smith and Jigba, or take the chance on Ken Walker at this spot? I'm taking the chance on Walker, and it's because I think –

Ben mentioned the target volume and how much the third receiver has gotten in Seattle since DK has gotten there. I think that number goes up. I think you've got to project JSN to have more than 63 targets, and it makes me nervous to say, all right, well, it's still going to be the same type of targets for Lockett and DK Metcalf. I think he's there to take pressure off the offense as far as short area passing goes. I think he's going to work the middle of the field. I think he's got a chance to have a bunch of nice

catch and run plays. Just worried about the absolute volume for JSN in that offense. Whereas Walker, I think, is still going to be the primary rushing downs guy. I did find an area that is concerning that will make people not want to take Walker, and that is inside the five-yard line. He was 2 of 10 last year. His vision was terrible. His blocking wasn't good either. But Charbonnet was pretty good in short yardage at UCLA, and I wonder if he gets an opportunity sooner than later to take some of that off of Walker,

which would then make Walker. What's the term that you call him, Ben? You invented it. You made it popular. What's it called? Was it a dead zone back that you're talking about? No, I'm thinking about the trap back. Oh, the trap back.

Correct. Yes. Where they're not working inside the 20s and they're not catching passes. Yes. And if that's Kenneth Walker, then this is not the time to get him. But I don't think that's necessarily in the cards just yet. It's just something that makes me a little bit nervous about him. This is the right time to take him.

I would rather have him than DK. Heath, you take Miles Sanders at 46 overall. And I know you're probably a little bit higher on him than falling to the spot in round four. So for anybody that's listening for the first time, give us your thoughts on what Sanders is going to do as a new running back there in Carolina. Yeah, I've got him at the 2-3 turn instead of the 4-5 turn, so I was thrilled to get him there. I think that he is going to be pretty close to a workhorse back in this Carolina offense. They went out, made him the highest paid running back in the free agent class. He's got his former running back coach there in Deuce Staley.

He's got the rare rookie quarterback who threw to his running backs a lot in college. So I think he'll probably see an increase in his target volume from what he's seen the past couple of years. I think there's a good chance Miles Sanders, if he stays healthy, finishes the year as a top 12 running back. It's very interesting to see. Scott, how do you think that backfield will look for the Panthers with Sanders leading the way? Yeah, I think they're going to give him every opportunity, but I do think that there's still going to be somewhat of a split. I have

a little bit of concern that that offense is going to generate a ton of points, but we've seen recently, even when McCaffrey left the the combos or foreman or whatever could could put up uh put up points there sanders showed in his first year he could catch 50 passes uh if if they go to anything like that with him uh he could be a decent ad a decent play in the spot he's going yeah i i think round four is the right spot for him i don't know if i take him at the two, three turn, Heath, but I know you're very optimistic being paired with, you know,

a coach that he knows in Deuce Daly as well. So we'll see what happens there. Again, let's recap round four before we move on. So it starts with Dalvin Cook, DeAndre Hopkins, Ken Walker, DJ Moore, Aaron Jones, Deebo Samuel, DK Metcalf, Keenan Allen, Justin Fields, Miles Sanders, Christian Watson, and Joe Burrow. You like football? Well, there's always different kinds of football,

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And you can try it for free at ParamountPlus.com slash live sports. All right, so we had our first auto pick, I think, in a while. Will Brinson, I think he's trying to get on the show. So that could be what's the cause for Will's delay. So I'm going to suspend this real quick, and we can catch up on round five here as we move into the next round. So round five, here we go. Will is saying he's ready, so I'll let him pick. So here we go with round five.

We had – oh, I got to back out of this pick. Sorry. Will's got to take himself on autopilot. We're going to make fun of Will when he comes on because it's apparently his first time he's drafting. So there you go, Will. All right, round five, here we go. J.K. Dobbins to start round five.

I think that's a great pick. Jerry Judy, Drake London, Amari Cooper, Chris Godwin, George Kittle, Terry McLaurin, Kyle Pitts, Christian Kirk, Mike Williams, Joe Mixon to me, and then Isaiah Pacheco to Scott. So let's start with the topic I brought up earlier. So, Dave, you took Calvin Ridley in round three, Christian Kirk goes in round five. And I want to get Ben and Scott's take on this as well. How do we think this Jacksonville passing receiving core is going to look? Who's the best option and value here? Is it better to go Ridley in round three or Kirk in round five? So, Dave, why did you take Ridley in round three?

I'm excited about Ridley as far as him coming back and playing like he did when we saw him in Atlanta. 14 PPR points per game in 2021, 18.5 PPR points per game in 2020. And Scott Fish is upset with another pick that just won the draft. And I love it when he's on our mock draft because he always gets really angry about mock picks. I love it. I had Marquise Brown, Jahan Dotson, and the guy I'm about to pick in my queue, and you just took two of them in a row. If it makes you feel any better, Scott, I don't care about these mock drafts. So you're like, you care too much.

There's Will Brinson. For those of you listening, he just joined us. And obviously when Will and I were texting this morning, and I said 11 o'clock, I don't know, maybe four or five times, he thought it was 12 o'clock. You said we're doing the mock draft and then the show, which I assume that we're doing the draft followed by the show. Well, I also sent you multiple emails and said here's the –

Well, now, if you want to dive into the issues that I have with the Paramount migration in my email not coming through, that's a whole different ball of wax, buddy. I don't want you to get fired, so why don't you keep those questions up? It's fine. So we'll actually – we'll get back to the really. We'll actually, since Scott brought it up, we'll make the decision for me because I took DeAndre Hopkins, and as

of right now, he's on the Cardinals. My next highest rank receiver was Marquise Brown. I'm like, do I really want to tie myself to Colt McCoy throwing to DeAndre Hopkins and Marquise Brown? The answer was no, so I was going to just pivot to my next rank guy, which was Dotson, but Will made the decision easy for me. Scott, you end up taking Trailing Breaks. Let's get back to Jacksonville.

So, Dave, you like Ridley over Kirk. Oh, crap. Scott, you're still on the clock, so I'll let you pick. So, Ben, which Jacksonville receiver do you prefer? And, again, we're probably going to see Ridley go ahead of Kirk. So factor in cost when you're drafting these guys. Yeah, I mean, I think it's really similar to the point I was making about Seattle I was actually thinking about the Jacksonville passing game from last year when I was thinking about it in that it was this

concentrated passing game that went deeper than just like the top couple names it was really three and a half I mean Marvin Jones was sort of the half but you had Kirk Zay Jones Evan Ingram as the three main cogs the passing game was much better last year. Trevor Lawrence taking a step forward. But you had this concentration where any of them could spike sort of at any given week. We saw a huge game from Evan Ingram down the stretch. Saw a huge game from Zay Jones. There were a couple big games from Zay Jones.

And then obviously Kirk kind of the most consistent throughout. I think you're going to see something similar there where all those guys are running 95% route rates. Not every team is is that extreme with their their main receivers but Ridley, Kirk, Zay, Evan Ingram I think are all going to be out there on basically every passing game based on the way that they ran things last year in Jacksonville or every pass and play and I mean you're going to have some you know some guys pop off certain weeks there's going to be a little bit of inconsistency I think they're all pretty solid I mean at cost I might like know, the really cheap ones.

Zay Jones and Evan Ingram is sort of some late round options. I do still like, you know, getting the plays of Ridley and Kirk at those prices as well. Scott, what do you think of Ridley's return? Are we going to see what Dave was talking about? The guy that left us when he was, you know, at his peak in Atlanta? Are we going to see, you know, a guy that took a year plus off football with a new quarterback with a crowded receiving core maybe struggle a little bit and get overdrafted? Yes, yes.

And then add in the fact that he was playing on a broken foot and that guy in Atlanta was pretty dang good with a foot injury. I think he's going to probably be slow to start. It seems like he's working his butt off to try to get back in shape for it but uh the speed of the game will come back to him pretty quickly and i think he's going to be i think he's going to be almost what he was in atlanta he took over for he took he basically took the one role over there pretty the well when he early on he was the two pretty easily, but he became such a fantasy stud. I think he's going to probably share with Kirk,

but I think that offense is going to be good enough that he'll be pretty close to what he was. I made the comparison to what I hope would be what it looks like to Tampa Bay, where I think Kirk plays more of the Godwin role, leads the team in targets and receptions, Ridley plays more of the Evans role, big plays down the field, leads them in yards, leads them in touchdowns, both obviously great. I think just Trevor Lawrence is going to have a huge step forward

and be that next breakout quarterback that we saw some flashes of last year. Their schedule is very favorable. Division stinks. They're going to potentially lead the NFL, or not lead be not leading but be among the league leaders in point scored i just like the situation for the uh the london jaguars there and how that's obviously taken out uh by the way it's going to be so potent that it's going to be able to support both kirk and ridley as you know top 24 receivers i also think too like you've got those two divisional matchups where you now have these rookie quarterbacks and C.J.

Stroud and Anthony Richardson. And I know that we don't think these offenses will necessarily be high flying per se. But if they're losing because the defenses aren't very good, they're going to let them throw. And you got to make a rise. Defense should be much better in Houston. But Gus Bradley in Indianapolis, quite the Dave seventh round, quite the gamble on Jameson Williams there. We're in round eight, Will. Well, it was just a gambling joke.

Let's catch up back to round five because I want to ask Will about one of his picks. So, J.K. Dobbins, Jerry Judy, Drake London, Amari Cooper, Chris Godwin, George Kittle, Terry McLaurin, Kyle Pitts, Christian Kirk, Mike Williams to Will, Joe Mixon to me, and then Isaiah Pacheco to Scott. So Will, Mike Williams obviously got company with Quentin Johnson joining the Chargers. Again, another receiving core that added a pretty significant piece. So Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Johnston, how do you see this all working? Yeah, that was kind of the final. Actually, I thought, I think, was Joe Mixon accidentally taken? Or was he accidentally drafted? And then then in the you know simply if somebody gets actually drafted their

name pops up in the chat did i miss that or uh i don't think mixon was drafted because i probably would have taken i thought i saw mixon being drafted i could have just read it wrong you know a tiny little font in the draft room um the big deal uh the you know i i probably would have taken mix in there if i'd been more aware and wasn't doing my real job in addition to this fantasy draft. But Williams is kind of the back end of that. Basically, there was that run of wide receivers there, sort of where I had them tiered, and Williams was the last guy in that tier. So I decided to go with him.

Three wide receiver, PPR. He's not ideal for half-point PPR, but I think the fact that it's not full-point PPR certainly elevates him. This is a guy they gave good money to, although you look at his contract with Keenan Allen's contract and it's not necessarily – they could be redoing that wide receiver quarter of the year. I don't think they're going to be doing that,

but that explains the Johnson pick for sure, the need to replenish what they've got there with with the chargers and herbert um and you know i didn't i just didn't love the idea of passing up williams again the back end of that tier for me to go after pacheco pierce or montgomery mixing maybe a different story um although you know we saw them certainly mix things up a little bit, no pun intended, actually, in Cincinnati. As we talked about, we talked about this a lot with some of our drafts, that if Mixon gets to August and he's still on the team and the lead guy, he's not falling to round five.

You know, that's just not going to be the case. So, you know, again, it just was me taking the best player available that could have very significant value. Scott, I want to ask you about this, and then I'm going to follow up with Heath on just the philosophy. So, Scott, you end up with the turn being Isaiah Pacheco and Damian Pierce, and Pierce probably fell a lot more than I think we were expecting to go. So after starting receiver-receiver with CeeDee Lamb and Stephon Diggs,

to end up with Dalvin Cook, Isaiah Pacheco, and Damian Pierce, and you even had the tight end mixed in there as well. You've got to be pretty thrilled about that running back group. Yeah, and I kind of mentioned it the last time it came to me talking about Hawkinson that that was a little bit of my plan was to wait on those types of guys. My last turn I'm so mad about. I want to talk about it, but we'll get to it.

But, yes, I'm very happy to get three of those. I have a couple other later running backs that i'm i'm i can add to that you know backfield for myself but man that last turn do you want do you want hollywood brown i'm not giving to you for like i don't know straight up heath when you see that uh that that philosophy um play out the way that it did that that's got to be a pretty good basis for picking at the end and getting just great running back value like that. I thought the Pierce pick, when I took Miles Sanders in round four, Pierce was my next best player available.

I thought Pierce fell at least a round further than he should have, and that really kind of saved the strategy. But looking at it now, if the choice is you can have Aaron Jones and Dallas Goddard, who would have taken there, or you can have Damian Pierce and TJ Hawkinson. I mean, I think that's, that's kind of what it comes down to is, is Pierce as close to Aaron Jones as Goddard is to Hawkinson. I'd probably say Goddard and Hawkinson are closer, but, um, but if Pierce is what he was last year, then this worked out perfectly. I could have also taken guys like Rashad white and, uh,

in that spot as well. There, there were a lot of options right in that spot, even if I didn't get Pierce, I was really debating between Williams and Pierce there too. And it was sort of, I was trying to like on the fly figure out what Scott and Jamie might do, but with three wide receivers and, you know, three wide receiver slots plus a flex and only two,

I think what two round or Wade, it was hard to figure out if you guys were definitely going to go running back there and I gambled and lost on Pierce. Yeah. And you know, when we get to our teams, passing on receivers early is going to end up something that might cost me, for example, because my first three picks were two running backs and a quarterback, and then ended up ending up with a third running back

there in the first five rounds. So my receiving core may suffer as a result of this big run on receivers that we saw early, which is no surprise, you know, given the people that we are drafting with. All right, so again, I'll recap round six. Damian Pierce, Dallas Goddard to me, David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift, Cam Akers, Darren Waller, Justin Herbert to Ben Rashad white, Kadarius, Tony, James Connor, Damian Harris, little surprise there. And then Alvin Kamara falling in this draft. So, um, again, we will see where he sort of ends up, uh,

once the, uh, the legal stuff is settled. And if in fact he is going to be suspended. So, Ben, I'll ask you about this. Kadarius Toney, how do we see this Chiefs receiving core shaping up this year and the talk that he could be the number one guy? I think you're just talking about guys that have a wide range of outcomes, right? Anyone in the Chiefs offense, particularly in the passing game, obviously there's ceiling there with Patrick Mahomes. But, I mean, every time Kerry Stoney gets on the field, we get like three snaps, and then he's back off the field.

The floor is obviously low as well. The floor for Sky Moore after last season is very low. But, you know, maybe he could be a year two breakout. MVS never really shown true ceiling. I thought he was kind of overdrafted last year on sort of a solid contract. Has a decent year, but kind of showed that same limitation in terms of the real upside. So not a guy that I love there. I mean, it's a passing game.

I think probably the rookie Rasheed Rice is maybe just because from an unknown perspective is the one that has the most, that excites me the most at cost. But, yeah, just talking about really wide ranges of outcomes as far as I see it. I think it's a really hard one to parse. Let's get to round seven here, and it starts with Traylon Burks, Jahan Dodson, Marquise Brown. We've talked about that a little bit. Brandon Ayuk. I'm going to read it back.

I'm reading it the wrong way. Sorry. Let me start at the beginning of the round mike evans kicks off round seven followed by zay flowers giovante williams george pickens deontay johnson uh michael pitman tyler lockett trevor lawrence brandon iuk marquise brown johan dotson and trailing burks uh dave uh the order of the um steelers receivers so george pickens ahead of Deontay Johnson. I think it's easier in PPR to justify it that Deontay Johnson should lead them in receptions.

But when you see this here in half PPR, who should be the first Pittsburgh receiver off the board? I'm good with either way because I think that Deontay Johnson can still maintain a high target share in this offense. I am a huge George Pickens fan. I think that he is an exciting talent. And I think that he could end up leading them. It's almost like what we were saying about another team earlier, maybe Tampa Bay and maybe what you guys think is going to happen in Jacksonville, where one receiver leads the team in targets and catches, another one leads in yards and touchdowns just because they've got different types of roles in the offense. And I think that

there is room for Pickens to be better. I'm probably just going to settle on – here's how I'm going to settle on this one. Johnson's going to be my favorite in full PPR. That just makes the most sense. Whichever one I can get a little bit later, even if it's five picks later or a half round later, something like that, between Pickens and Johnson, that's the one that I'll prefer there. Heath, what do you think about Javante Williams falling all the way to round seven?

This might be the lowest that he's gone so far in any of these drafts, and just the setup for this Broncos running back group, knowing that he's coming off this ACL tear. Yeah, I kind of view him right now like I should have been viewing J.K. Dobbins last year, in that you may not get anything from Javante Williams early in the season.

It may take until the end of the season before he looks really good. But I feel like round seven is late enough. In fact, I believe he was my fourth running back, and I didn't really want to take four running backs in the first seven rounds. But there's nobody that I could see that had the upside that he did, especially late in the season. So I just went ahead and went with it. Maybe by the time James Conner breaks down, Javante Williams is okay.

Or maybe just get both of them being okay and hopefully get a great season there. Will, what are your thoughts on the Ravens receiving core? So, Mayflowers, I believe, was the first one drafted. I think Beckham has since gone in the draft. So, how do you see those two working

together and factoring Rashad Bateman as well? By the way, on the Chiefs thing, I was just looking up really quick because I thought in the back of my head this is the case, but I believe only two rookie wide receivers under Andy Reid since dating back to 99 with the Eagles,

and it's Deshaun Jackson and Jeremy Macklin, have had more than 750 receiving yards in their rookie season. I tried to do the Chiefs really quick. That didn't sound right for Tyree Kill, but I think it's possible he didn't top that. I don't think he did. I think his touchdowns were good.

Which I'm just saying, like, if you think about Sky Moore in particular, and then, what's his name, Rice, right? Rasheed Rice. You know, just thinking about how the Chiefs will operate with Andy Reid. Like, we sort of thought that with Mikko Hardman, that, all right, second year, maybe this is where he comes on strong and sort of develops.

But my point is I do think there is a single year sort of learn the offense, learn the nuances, gain Andy Reid's trust where Sky Moore could be. I like the upside of him. And so the Ravens, man, I mean, I don't see how this is going to be less friendly for Lamar Jackson and these receivers with Todd Munkin running things than it was with Greg Roman. I mean, Roman is – you know, even you look at the success he had in San Francisco and just the – but the very, like,

very singularly approach towards using the quarterback's legs to sort of set up the offense and how that's going to work. And then you watch what Georgia did, and I'm not suggesting it's going to be identical. We've seen Moken in other spots in the NFL, Tampa Bay, of course. But, I mean, I think there's deep play potential. Brady Quinn called Zay Flowers the next Antonio Brown in terms of on the field, obviously,

which is an insane compliment. When you think about what Antonio Brown did, Antonio Brown was a hall of famer on the field. If you didn't do all that crazy bleep off the field, he's probably in the hall of fame. If he like five years from now, if you're retiring, uh,

he's, I mean, if the voters say it doesn't matter what they do off the field, but I don't believe that with Antonio Brown, um, see Terrell Owens. So I think you're going to see a lot of Zay Flowers used horizontally and vertically in a way that you can kind of allow him to be a rookie,

get the ball in his hands in space. We've seen it, Kadarius Toney specifically. Guys where you just, Jalen Waddell, get the ball to them in short yards and let them use their skill set. And then also stretch it vertically. Yeah. I don't know that I trust Odell Beckham to come in and just be, you know, like whatever, whatever we're supposed to believe he's going to be based on the coverage of

Odell Beckham the last 18 months. Cause like, you know, clearly he's overhyped in terms of how he's been handled in the media. We've seen some stuff on like, you know on Instagram or whatever where he's looked explosive, and he was very good for the Rams the last time we saw him. For me, it's kind of like Zay Flowers, I think, provides maybe the most upside. But Bateman, I mean, in this offense, could be a much, much better player. I just think Munkin's going to unlock a lot more in the passing game than people sort of expect

from the Ravens wide receivers. Obviously, Andrews is a stud. Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to make Lamar Jackson, if he continues to run at the same level, a very, very highly productive fantasy option. That's for sure. Would you have rather had I drafted Josh Allen, I think

one pick before you took Lamar and Hurts went right before that. Do you have it ordered differently, Jamie? I have it ordered the way that it went. Mahomes, you took... I think it went Hurts, Allen, Lamar, and back to back to back. Mahomes, Allen, Hurts. Like I said, you weren't on this.

I said I normally would not have taken Lamar Jackson so close to those three. I think there is a teardrop after those guys. But just doing something different. Plus, I was trying to host and manage this and looking for you so i just took the first player i saw i was busy drafting josh allen yes um scott i want to come back to you because while we wrap up round seven yeah um this was the spot where you sort of had the your your queue emptied uh so it went marquise brown johan dots and took Traylon Burks so talk about how that worked out for you in getting Burks to that spot Burks is the one I did want

I wanted Marquise Brown, Jahan Dotson or Traylon Burks, Burks has just almost no competition for targets down there in Tennessee so I wanted him there what I really want to talk about is the second pick where I took Gabe Davis I have Addison ranked higher than him, but I took Gabe Davis.

Just didn't want another Viking on my team, but I'm really, really pissed that I let Anthony Richardson go there. I have routinely taken Richardson in the eighth or ninth. And my theory on it in one quarterback leagues is if he hits, he can be, you know, with Shane Steichen, with what, what was done in, in, uh, Philadelphia with, uh, how that offense might run and how Steichen might use them. He could be, I have him ranked in my top 12. He could be a top 12 quarterback with that rushing upside. If they, they get the pass game, you know, working with him, if the accuracy

I've, you know, it seems he's more, more uh inexperienced than than truly just not not accurate um uh i i think he could be a top 12 quarterback and with that rushing upside i would take him in a one quarterback league in the eighth or ninth round because if he doesn't hit or he doesn't start right away like there are the look at the quarterback still available right now you got rogers you got cousins you got geno smith you got kyler murray you got you got tons of options you can get late to stream i'm good with lazar sorry okay yeah no i i agree we in the first draft that we did um jacob gibbs is not in this draft with us. He took him, I believe it was round six, and he took him ahead of Herbert and Trevor Lawrence.

So, you know, again, you're talking about upside. Like you said, one quarterback league. I know, Heath, you feel a little bit different about super flex and two quarterback leagues with Richardson. But to get him in that spot I think is somewhat valuable. Yeah, I'm mad that I took Davis once I saw Richardson go five picks later. Richardson should have been the pick there. All right, so let me wrap up round seven. We'll get through round eight, then we'll go through our teams.

I don't want to keep you guys too long. So round seven, just to recap it, we had – I'll read it the right way this time. Mike Evans, Zay Flowers, Javante Williams, George Pickens, Deontay Johnson, Michael Pittman, Tyler Lockett, Trevor Lawrence. Great pick by Dave. Just great value. Brandon Ayuk, Marquise Brown, Jahan Dotson, Traylon Burks. Let me get to round eight here.

I think I'm on the clock. Round eight. I'll read it the right way. Gabe Davis, Jordan Addison, Evan Ingram, Pat Fryermuth, Jamison Williams, A.J. Dillon, James Cook, Anthony Richardson goes in this spot. Devon A-chain, David Njoku, Chigokonko, Michael Thomas. So, Dave, you got Jameson Williams. Will made the joke.

He was surprised that you bet on him. What do you think about getting Jameson Williams? I don't know where he is on your roster yet because I haven't looked. He's on the bench. Okay, so that's got to make you even more happy. Well, no. He's on the bench because I can't looked. He's on the bench. That's got to make you even more happy. Well, no. He's on the bench because I can't use him for the first... You didn't draft him to be a starter

for you. No, no, no. I definitely have a need at wide receiver. My wide receiver three right now is Isaiah Hodgins. Really, I'm just going to collect wide receivers for the rest of this draft. If we were playing out this mock draft for real, I would just use the receivers that I get late combined with what's on the

waiver wire to try and find my wide receiver three until Jamison Williams comes back. When he does come back, he's not coming off of a torn ACL. He's not a rookie anymore. He's had a little bit of experience. He'll be in training camp with the Alliance a week for the practice before he gets to that point i think he's got a chance to be outstanding in that detroit offense downfield

threat huge play receiver can also work in the short area and to get a guy of that much upside in round eight and maybe people watching will find them in rounds nine or ten because there isn't as much excitement about him. I think that's just smart drafting. You're just taking a chance on somebody that can be just an absolute weak winner for you four or five times over the course of the remainder of the season when he comes back. Did you think about parlaying him with Marvin Jones here?

I thought about doing like teaser, but no. I should have said you're teasing me. I do think – I love Jameson Williams. I think he's a stud. I just sort of wonder if it's like one where based on what you go early at wide receiver, that changes whether or not you want him, right? Sure. But there were receivers that i wanted to draft

gambling wide receivers i guess i guess so you know they're waiting for quentin you forgot to mention that jameson williams averages 41 yards per catch that's that's really good um then i want to ask you about james cook because you know clearly we get a lot of questions about the bills backfield and damien harris actually went ahead of james cook in this draft so uh how do you see those two guys and even factoring latavius murray all working together yeah i mean it's a tough backfield to to figure out certainly damien harris not a huge contract but also just a you know pretty clear skill set that as a you know want to limit josh allen's rushing and the hits he's taking and

the goal line stuff is just so so important obviously um you got to think that's damon harris's role at the same time cook was a very productive back in year one they let the other guy you know this part of the backfield go in Devin Singletary, who they've liked and had around and used more than I think people wanted him used or, you know, some people were kind of detractors. I've always thought he was underrated Singletary that is, but cook, you know, explosive last year looks good, has some fumbling issues early, doesn't get a ton of playing time early,

but it looks good the rest of the way. And I mean, I think he's going to be a part of whatever their backfield, however it takes shape, right? And so, you know, this is sort of a zero RB modified. I mean, obviously I get Gibbs in the third round, but, you know, Cook's a guy that I think will play and will get some yardage, and I can play at the RB2 spot, and I'm hoping that my lineup's really good everywhere else, basically. Heath, you take David Njoku in this spot here and he goes one spot ahead of

Chego Kanko. So I know you're typically a tight end early guy. This is not something we're used to seeing you doing. So what do you think about Njoku now that there's a very crowded receiving core in Cleveland with the addition of Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman? And then did you factor in maybe Okonkwo or some of the guys that went after him, Dalton Kincaid, Greg Dolcich? How are you viewing Njoku compared to those guys? I've got a pretty big gap. I've got Njoku up there with Friermuth and actually ahead of Evan Ingram.

I've got a pretty big gap after them, though. You know how I feel about tight end buckets and wide receiver buckets. I don't think Elijah Moore and Tillman are going to affect Njoku's targets very much. This offense has had a role for the tight end in the passing game for as long as Kevin Stefanski's been in Cleveland. And I do think that the bucket for everyone gets bigger because they've really signaled they're going to go more pass heavy with Deshaun Watson having a full off season and being their quarterback. So I expect Njoku's targets to either be the same or better than they were last year and he will be a top eight tight end love love love okonkwo but there's a gap for me between those guys i probably wouldn't take him

for another round or two all right so again the tight ends in this round evan ingram goes to will uh fryer moves right after him then we get nojoku and okonkwo to wrap up the round so i'll give you round eight and then we're going to go through our teams again if you're following on our youtube page uh please hit the like button but you can see we're much far ahead of the uh the first eight rounds and we will have a full recap of this um draft on cbssports.com all right so here is round eight it goes gabe davis jordan addison to me evan ingram pat fryer move jameson williams to dave uh aj dylan james cook anthony richardson devon a chain me, Evan Ingram, Pat Frymuth, Jameson Williams to Dave, AJ Dillon, James Cook, Anthony Richardson, Devon Achain, David Njoku,

Chigokonko, and Michael Thomas to Thomas Schaefer. All right, take a quick break here. When we come back, I'm going to give you a recap of our teams so far. We will go a little bit ahead of where the draft is just to show you where we're at, but we're going to take a quick break here on Fantasy Football today. All right, and we're back. I just want to catch up

with Heath on the draft. Do you want me to back up to your pick? Is that what it is? Yes, yes. While I was talking about David Njoku, I drafted another tight end, Taysom Hill. I was not looking to do that. Okay, so as you see, we are more concerned about our jobs than we are about the mock draft.

So we will allow Heath to back up his pick and make his selection. And he takes her cousin, Zoo, who might maybe be a better quarterback than taste milk all right so he since you've already picked and you are the first one in the uh in the draft in terms of where you selected you had the third pick so let's pull up your team here and see what uh what you did i'll let you read your team yourself so start with quarterback and go down then we could uh we could well we'll grade

everybody's teams here okay yeah i've got the uh the quarterback combo of tua and kurt cousins ifousins. If Tua plays 17 games this year, I think he might be a top 5 or 6 quarterback. I've said it before. I've got him ranked ahead of Trevor Lawrence. I think he has more upside than Trevor Lawrence does in their particular offenses with their weapons. I was really happy to get him in the double digit rounds. I've got four starting backs. One's Javante Williams Williams get healthy and Nick Chubb, Miles Sanders, James Connor, and Javante Williams. I've got three wide receivers,

young wide receivers I feel good about in Chase, Devante Smith, and Drake London. I wish I felt better about my number four and five wide receivers. I'm a little bit thinner at wide receiver than I would like to be. And then I've got Nick Joku at tight end. All right. So let's see who wants to grade this one i'll give it to scott scott grade heath's team there knowing that he's got your favorite quarterback of all time kirk cousins i i don't know that he's uh even close to my favorite but as far as being viking fan for quarterbacks go he's he's probably top five um yeah this isn't a build i i probably would have done uh he's got a lot of guys on there that i think have a lot of potential that i i generally don't find myself uh drafting i don't

find myself drafting a lot of the devonta smiths or the nick chubbs and stuff ezekiel elliott's juju smith schuster's giovante william. We're not sure how early he's going to play. But his starting core is good. And between those two quarterbacks, he's going to be set there for the entire season. If Njoku hits, which he very well could, it's a really solid starting lineup. Do I have to give it a letter grade? Yeah, that's usually how grades work. All right.

So on the show I do, they don't allow pluses or minuses. Charge is very anti-pluses or minuses. I hate that. Do you allow that? Yes, you can do pluses or minuses. All right. Then I'm going B minus on this one. B minus, okay.

It's just not my traditional build, but there's a lot of potential with it and a good, safe, solid. I will just say, like, Scott Fish being the nicest guy in the fantasy industry, if he says B- he thinks it's an F. You're the worst draft you've ever seen. He asked specifically to put the minus on the B because he wasn't going

to C. He also could have just gone B, but was like, no, no, no, no. I need to throw this minus on there and really ruin this game. It's really just the no, no. I need to throw this minus on there and really ruin this game. It's really just the depth at you. I don't love the bench on it. I think you nailed it, Heath.

If he gives you a B-1, it's an F. It's an F in sky. Which team was it? Was it mine? I have no idea. I wasn't really listening. I was too busy. No, that was Heath's team.

All right, we're going to go to Ben next. So, Ben, you had the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 pick. Again, Heath had the third pick. Ben, you had the sixth pick. So so give us a rundown of your team yeah i took uh tyree kill first so i'm trying to pull it up because we over on youtube don't don't have it pulled up right now but uh tyree kill first uh amon raw saint brown jameer gibbs talked a little bit about that earlier um yeah i mean i like i actually usually go a little bit heavier receiver than this but tyree kill amon raw dk metcalf in the fourth pitman in the seventh and jackson smith and jay but who i

think just is going too late here in the ninth um don't really necessarily love pairing him and metcalf together i was kind of talking about how some of their upside might be if one of the other you know misses some time or somebody in the in the seattle passing game misses some time but um also don't mind taking them both together it's almost like a wide receiver handcuff in some way but um got the got i think decent enough receiver depth even though i don't love it um gibbs is the the running back one james cook zach charbonnet antonio gibbs and kendra miller or he most are just a bunch of dudes that i think should have roles um and can make sense as the RB2 week to

week not necessarily you know every week starters Gibson's a guy that I really like at this point I just think with it you know Biennium there with his athletic profile just being better than Brian Robinson's really and Robinson not having a great rookie year that there might be some some chance that Gibson can get back in favor and kind of be the main back there um there's some options there for the rb2 spot the the sort of the pride of the team i guess would be going with some you know high end tight end and quarterback ceiling with kittle and herbert both in the fifth and sixth round that you get kind of a lack of depth at receiver and running back when you hit both those onesie positions early at the same time you know it makes up for not having a strong RB2, for example,

if you can get strong quarterback and tight end production in given weeks. I think there's enough depth at receiver, and if Gibbs is a star at RB1, that's a lineup that can still put up a lot of points, I think. Dave, give it a grade. I'm really worried about those running backs, and I have come around on Gibbs. I would have liked him to be a little bit stronger at running back and and maybe not so reliant on the young guys but i understand how ben thinks and i think he's going to be just fine a quarterback i know people are nervous about justin herbert i think he'll be good i'm giving him a b plus and i would assume that over the course of the year

ben won't have to do much with his wide receivers he'll cultivate the waiver wire and find himself a running back or two that he can use with Gibbs. Hopefully Gibbs stays healthy and he can contend for a playoff spot. All right, Dave, you're up. Okay. Did somebody get taken for me? Delightful.

Who took Jason Hill now? Whatever Murray is threw me out of the draft room. I don't know. What is Murray? You got Hunter Renfro. You all right with that?'s fine all right dave you're up now you had the uh did dave get graded i think i was at eight two four six eight i'm eight and i took bijan and i've got bijan ranked behind jonathan taylor and i'll tell you what after studying bijan a little bit more and seeing how the draft unfolded i think i I'm going to move Bijan ahead of Jonathan Taylor.

And I think it also makes sense with Richardson in Indianapolis. You've really got to bank on Taylor maximizing his efficiency and scoring a ton of touchdowns to outperform Bijan Robinson. Of course, you've got to assume that Bijan goes on and has an efficient year himself, but I like his chances to do so. He's one of my favorite talents at running back that we've seen in the last five years. Went with wide receiver after that, Garrett Wilson, Calvin Ridley,

and those are going to be my two studs at wide receiver. I really punted on the position otherwise, particularly given this is a three-receiver league and half PPR. It's something that I do regret and wish that I had done a better job with. Aaron Jones I couldn't resist in round four. Kyle Pitts is probably where I could have taken a wide receiver, but I like the value on Pitts, and Pitts was schemed open on last year, and Marcus Mariota just could not find him. I think Ritter will be a little bit more accurate than Marcus Mariota was, and I think it'll pay off. I think Pitts has a chance to be the top

target getter, yards getter, and touchdown getter in Atlanta. Makes for a weird combo with Bijan, but I'll just deal with it. Cam Akers was unpassable in round six. We know how he finished last year. Jamie, you mentioned the value on Trevor Lawrence. I talked about Jamison Williams as a high upside sleeper in round eight. Couldn't pass on two more running backs after that. Khalil Herbert, I think, is going to be the starter in Chicago. I think Alexander Madison might end up being the starter in Minnesota.

So I'm kind of betting on the come with that. Last four picks, all wide receivers. One of these guys will be my wide receiver three for the first six weeks of the season. Hodgins, Mechie, Zay Jones, and DJ Chark in Carolina. Will, give it a grade. I'm giving Dave a grade? Yes.

I mean, I have to look him in the eyes and tell him it's a C minus. Like, do I really have to do that? It's a mock draft. It's all good. Yeah. I mean, like, I think that the, I mean, I have, I think Ridley is, I mean, Ridley's obviously a very special talent. It is pretty crowded in Jacksonville.

You know, I think they believe their defense will improve. I think we could see more volume for Lawrence and, and certainly Ridley can end up being the number one there. But, you know, I mean, with all the freaking New York Packers that are being brought into to the jets, I just worry a little bit about the target volume. You're going to see for those, those top two guys. And then, you know, when your third guy is, is Jamison Williams, um, again, the, the, you know, the, the, the fact that these are all the suspended wide receivers aside, I think the wide receiver group there is definitely shaky. And then you have the Bichon monster.

He's a stud, but Aaron Jones and Cam Akers, a little bit tenuous. Pitts should be better. I don't know. I just think the wide receiver in a three-wide receiver half receiver half point PPR league it's a little shaky at the top for you so well would you say that he rolled the dice on that wide receiver thank you man I was actually going to use roll the dice that I

completely if the receivers hit jackpot baby yeah I mean like just I mean and feel free to crap on my draft all you want, but, like, I would personally rather, and, you know, this goes back to philosophical approaches to, you know,

fantasy football, you know, zero RB, et cetera, et cetera. But, like, I would rather roll the dice on running backs hitting personally and go into the year knowing that I've got wide receivers who are going to get volume even if,, even if maybe I'm taking a chance on the quarterback a little bit more. All right, Will. You're up. Dave, you're not going to get a chance to grade his draft

because we've got to keep everybody else involved. Oh, I'm going to grade it. The grade's coming. That's an A+. Will, give us a rundown of your team. Yeah, I mean, I actually would have gone Bijan. I wanted Bijan there instead, but I was happy to get Cooper Cup. I think that's a pretty steep discount for a guy who was the best player in fantasy two years ago

and is going to get a bit of a – Sean McVay's got to prove that last year wasn't abnormality. How are they not going to improve what they have on the offensive line or at least adjust the schematic approach? I think Matthew Stafford was hurt the entire season. We all know my affinity for him. Devontae Adams, again, discount. Like, why is he so much cheaper? Is it because he was boom-bust last year?

Is it because he, quote-unquote, downgraded at quarterback? I don't see that. I think I got two potential overall wide receiver one guys in these first two rounds, and it's the old, you know, there's something shinier and newer in front of people that they don't want to invest it in these guys um alan you have still the the red zone upside with the rushing i don't like to go quarterback that early but i think i've sort of come around to the idea of using an earlier pick on a rushing quarterback and then

ken walker really this this zone in this, in four to seven is kind of tough if you go wide receiver, wide receiver quarterback, because you are just gambling on some situational stuff at the running back position. Mike Williams, Marquise Brown, had him a little bit, you know, and sort of teared up. It wasn't who I really wanted to go with.

And then maybe reach a little bit of Evan Ingram. I think Rashad Penny here is, I don't know, man. If he plays 16 games, and that's probably not going to happen, but that dude can lead the league in rushing. And so those are sort of my gambles on Walker, Penny, Montgomery, where if it's so early in the offseason, an injury happens and all of a sudden you've got a guy who's going to go a lot earlier. Same sort of philosophy you described with Kamara. And then probably should have taken some more darts in the back end at running back. and all of a sudden you've got a guy who's going to go a lot earlier. Same sort of philosophy you described with Kamara. And then probably should have taken some more – thrown some more darts in the back end at running back,

but felt like I liked some of these wide receivers, particularly from Lazard with Rodgers upside. Boyd, you know, really undervalued. And, you know, Joe Burrow. And then I think Josh Jones. People don't know, man, Josh Jones is a special player. He then I think Josh Jones, people don't know, man. Josh Jones is a special player. He might not be out there 100% of the snaps,

but when he is, he is going to be getting fed underneath and can really be explosive. Should return at least a couple of points to the house, I think. And Renfro, I mean, look, dude, the guy is like my older brother. How can I not draft him? All right, Ben, give it a grade. Yeah, no, I mean, just mention that uh the running back four to seven we finally got the running back dead zone reference that i was trying to hit earlier when he mentioned four to seven it's kind of a tough spot to be hitting

running back he hits two there i i mean i don't hate the ken walker pick i mentioned earlier i do like the talent i do kind of hate the david montgomery pick to be honest because i'm i'm in on jameer gibbs but i'm with him that that Penny is a really nice pick in the ninth round. I think he really fits that backfield, the ways that the running backs score points with the Eagles. We have the mobile quarterback I was talking earlier. They don't throw to the running backs as much. But you'll get a yards per carry boost typically with the mobile quarterback,

even for the running back. And we've seen Miles Sanders be a really efficient runner there. Penny been a very efficient runner in Seattle. I think as you know working off sort of the the zone read stuff he should be able to run really effectively up the middle and probably a better bet for the goal line work than swift i really like his price and how he fits it's up i mean the running backs are the make or break because cup and adams are incredibly good josh allen's incredibly good he hits a couple you know mid to late round tight end options that i'm fine with at those prices. I agree with him that he should have taken some running back flyers late as opposed to just adding, you know, a lot of guys that are probably just roster

cloggers. When you have cup and Adams already kind of locked into two spots, you have Mike Williams, you have Marquise Brown probably don't need four receivers at the end of this draft, but I mean, it's a good draft. I like a lot of the names in it there's a lot of upside um the the big big you know issue for me is Walker and Montgomery in the dead zone I think you probably could have hit an elite tight end there or got even stronger receiver early uh I'll give it a B that's what and in my defense I I probably would have changed those picks in the back end but I just had those guys in my queue and got lazy and didn't want to make anybody back it up. For sure.

All right. My team's last. I had the 11th pick. I got Lamar Jackson, the quarterback. Jonathan Taylor and Tony Pollard at running back. This is where it gets ugly. DeAndre Hopkins, Jahan Dodson, and Jordan Addison at receiver. Dallas Goddard at tight end.

Joe Mixon at flex. Running backs on the bench, not very many. Devin Singletary and Clyde Edwards-Lyrick, because I loaded up a receiver trying to get some help there with, uh, Nico Collins, Romeo Dobbs, Elijah Moore, and KJ Osborne. So I should probably let Scott do it since he'll give me a favorable grade, but Heath, I'll let you grade this one. No, I mean, I think like you've got Lamar and you've got with Taylor Pollard and Mixon,

like the running backs are insane. Tight end. You are above average with Dallas Goddard. Yes, your wide receivers are pretty terrible. But if you're going to be in that situation, be a lead everywhere else. And I think you might be. So I like this. I am trying to – couldn't hardly see which wide receivers it were.

I like Jordan Addison a lot. I like Dotsison a lot um i like dachshund a lot i think those guys can be number two slash number three wide receivers i'm gonna i'm gonna give it an a minus wow i'm surprised all right i'll take it all right guys thank you guys for taking part in this uh this mock draft uh make sure you check out ben gretch at yards for gretch ben what are you up to these days where everybody can get your work? Yeah. I just got the newsletter over at sub sack, uh,

stealing signals newsletter. You saw it on, on CBS a few years ago, every week during the regular season. And you can find that at Ben Gretsch dot sub sack.com. And follow Scott fish at Scott fish, right? 24. Yeah.

Scott fish 24. And Scott, what's coming up next for you? Fishbowl. Uh, yeah. Fishbowl stuff we got fancy cares eliminators coming this week uh to you know to raise some money but we got fishbowl in july

you can sign up now scottfishbowl.com um first wave of invites should be next week got a bunch of live drafts around the country it's gonna be fun and we all love taking part in the fishbowl thank you for always including us and i'm sure we'll do a fishbowl mock draft on show. So we'll have you back amongst other times that we'll have both of you guys, Ben and Scott, back on the show. Check out the Pick 6 podcast with Will Brinson. Will, when's the next episode drop? Tomorrow? I don't know.

Just wake up. No, I think we – today, there's an episode today with – so, Will, I i mean to my defense we're uh we have it is it is a great show but we also have with the first pick podcast which we use at the nfl and cbs rundown ryan wilson and rick spielman and so draft season szn uh we sort of merge those two there's a lot of uh synchronicity and and other buzzwords that are office friendly. We have three episodes a week right now. Brady Quinn episode came out today, in which Brady compared the United States A-Flowers and Antonio Brown,

which is just wild. You should check that out. And then we have an episode on Friday. We'll have an episode on Friday breaking down the NFL schedule, of course. All right. And we will be back again with the fantasy football today podcast on Thursday. I'm sure Adam will scream at us for going an hour and 10 minutes,

but that is what we do because we try to give you the best content we can. So again, hit the like button on YouTube. Make sure you check out our podcast as well for Heath, for Dave, I'm Jamie and all of our cast of characters. Thank you for watching.

Thank you for listening to fantasy football.