Fantasy Football Today - Preseason Winners/Losers and a Mock Draft Review (08/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 16, 2021

Bid on our Draft-A-Thon items right now to benefit St. Jude! http://cbssports.com/ebay Follow our draft here: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/fantasy-football-mock-draft-august-ppr-mock-takes-an-odd-turn-to-the-nfc-east/ Football! Yes, we are reacting to football, and it's very exciting. Let's start with some preseason winners (1:40) as Jamey was impressed by a few rookie WRs, but does Amon-ra St. Brown have enough of a role to be successful? The rookie QBs flashed in their debuts and Phillip Lindsay (8:15) might be a Top 100 pick now. Meanwhile, our list of preseason losers (9:30) is headlined by Myles Gaskin. How far down the rankings is he moving? We also tell you why Adam Trautman was a loser and we discuss other rookie RBs (some good, some bad) as well ... We'll update you on the latest NFL news and notes (18:45). Curtis Samuel is off the PUP list and looks like a draft bargain right now ... It's Mock Draft Monday (22:00) and we'll review our 12-team, 3-WR PPR draft. One drafter's entire team is from the NFC East! And it's good! Jamey made it a point to draft WRs early. Adam laments his lack of upside. Chris is very happy with his team even though his QB situation is a little weak. Find out why Chris doesn't think that's an issue. And we also discuss the Round 6/7 RBs (45:30) and rank Michael Carter, Chase Edmonds, Javonte Williams and Kareem Hunt ... Your emails at [e-mail] 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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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Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. It is Mock Draft Monday, and it is also the first time we're really reacting to football, or at least a lot of football, in, man, months and months and months since December or January. Welcome to the show. Adam Azer here, Jamie Isenberg, Chris Towers for Fantasy Football Today. Yeah, on Friday we did talk about the Thursday night games, but we had basically a full slate over the weekend and we will discuss it from

Miles Gaskin to Phillip Lindsay to the Baltimore Ravens who have won 18 preseason games in a row. And my biggest takeaway, guys, the Denver Broncos starters are a lot better than the Minnesota Vikings backup. So it was a great day for the Denver Broncos.

Did the Vikings have a single backup or starter in the game? Not that I'm aware of. They did not. But the Broncos really did look good. I get thumbs up. Thumbs up. All right. We got winners and losers.

Did you hear Mike Zimmer after the game? No, I didn't. When K.J. Hamler scored or talking about K.J. Hamler's score, he goes, we watched that little guy in practice for two days. They know he's fast. That little guy. Oh, man. Yeah, it was not a great show.

But what do you expect when you don't play any of your starters? You know, all of the quarterbacks, the rookie quarterbacks, really interesting. They did some very good things, some very bad things. But let's get into it. Let's go biggest preseason week one winner, Jamie. I'm going to give you three, and it's three rookie wide receivers. I was really impressed with Terrace Marshall, Rondell Moore, and Amon Ross St. Brown.

Love what all three of them did, and excited to see more from those three guys moving forward. Uh-oh. Chris has Amon Ross St. Brown as a loser. How? Yeah, and that's mostly just because of the usage. He only played 11 of the 22 snaps that Jared Goff was on the field for, and they used him exclusively as a third receiver. So he wasn't on the field for any of their two wide receiver

or one wide receiver sets. So my thought looking at it is just on a team that's going to run the ball on a team that's not going to probably play an 11 personnel much he's he may not be on the field all that much if that's the usage moving forward obviously first preseason game the caveat goes with everything we're talking about but based on what we saw yesterday i'm a little worried about playing time for him at least. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you watched him, but he looked great.

He looked good, yeah. And I don't necessarily think for – well, you say they want to run the ball. I don't think they're going to have the luxury of running the ball a lot given what their team is probably going to look like. Also, when they go to their two tight end package, you're going to see a lot of probably TJ Hawkinson's put out wide and still St. Brown playing in the slot. And I think you're going

to see, based on Jared Goff's track record, he's going to lean on that kid quite a bit. So I had also a big catch taken away on a penalty. I was excited to watch him play. Yeah, so good start for him. Rondell Moore, I thought a good start for him. I think both of you make valid points here.

We'll see about the personnel and the playing time. And if any of the wide receivers can distinguish themselves, you know, because Tyrell Williams also did some good stuff and not a lot to go off of. We're not freaking out.

We're not overreacting to much here. I am curious about Miles Gaskin. I'm sure we'll talk about him when we get to the losers. Rondell Moore, you know,

it was gimmicky the way they used him, but they used them. Well, that's what I like about him, is that I think they're going to manufacture a lot of plays for him in that way because he's so good with the ball in his hands. You know, I guess freshman year at Purdue, it was something like 71% of his yards came after the catch. You know, he's real small, but he's extremely dense.

He's hard to bring down. I've been referring to him as the skeleton key that can open up a lot of what the Cardinals want to do on offense. Because Cliff Kingsbury loves to do a lot of short, designed passes to his wide receivers to get the ball in their hands in space with blockers and Rondell Moore can be exceptional in that role the only concern for me would be that you know because AJ Green and DeAndre Hopkins didn't play I don't know if he's the number three or the number four right now but they play more for wide receiver sets than any team so he'll still be on the field. Yeah, and Marquez Callaway, I don't know if Chris, you were going to bring him up, but

I got to bring him up as a winner. First drive of the game with Taysom Hill, he had three catches, and for me, there's no question I'm drafting him over Traquan Smith, who was not playing, but I still think Callaway, I'm going to ride

the momentum here. Would you guys take Callaway over Terrace Marshall, Rondell Moore, Amonra St. Brown, maybe even Elijah Moore at this point, who's on the shelf, hopefully just temporarily. Is Callaway that big of a riser that he should go ahead of many of

the rookie wide receivers? No. He'll be in that group for me. I think I'd still rather have the mores than him, but I think he's right there. The problem for Callaway is, is that those other guys are coming back, you know, at whatever point Michael Thomas comes back and whatever point Traquan Smith comes back. So he's been the star of training camp by default, but, uh, it's good to see him playing that he is. And I agree with you. You should take him over Trey Kwan Smith now, but by the end of camp, if Trey Kwan's back this week

and he starts to put on good performance and puts up some numbers in the preseason, I think Smith's going to go ahead of Cowley. All right, Chris, who are your winners? Yeah, I'll throw out, I think, just the fact that all of the rookie quarterbacks at least looked good. None of them fell on their face. It doesn't mean anything.

It doesn't mean that they're going to be stars, but you'd rather see them perform well than struggle. And all of them performed varying levels of well. I think Justin Fields was obviously the most impressive of them. Playing against backups can do that, but he looked really good in both phases of the game, his running and his passing. Trey Lance had the big 80-yard touchdown to Trent Shurfield.

That was a really nice play. He also had an interception dropped. He was 5 for 14. So it wasn't, you know, an incredible performance, but I think you can move forward with all the rookie quarterbacks thinking that, you know, at the very least from what we've seen so far, they all look passable.

I'll also throw out Josh Palmer, who seems to be locked into the number three wide receiver role for the Chargers. They used him kind of like Keenan Allen in this one. Just a lot of really short throws, but he was targeted a ton. And then Brian Edwards and Henry Rugguggs they didn't play on saturday and i think that's a that makes them winners because it sure seems like they've locked up uh starting jobs in that offense already so it was you know john brown and zay jones out there in the first preseason game rather than the two young guys so yeah both of them should be late-round sleepers.

Really strange what's happened to John Brown. He's been a productive player when he's healthy, but right now he is not on the first team with the Raiders. Jamie, would you draft Brian Edwards? I think at this point you've got to draft Ruggs ahead of Brown, right? But would you draft Edwards ahead of Brown too? Yeah, you have to. I think by the start of the season you'll see brown playing a little bit more and and you know i think the thing about him playing over brian edwards is

he's new to the team brian edwards has been with the team for over a year so that probably factors into a little bit of how the personnel was used over the weekend uh but obviously you've got to you know go with what the the training the training camp reports have been, where John Brown's the fourth receiver and Edwards is playing on the outside over him. So we'll see how it all shakes out. But right now, Edwards is the riser and Brown is the follower. Phillip Lindsay is obviously a winner. He had the first five carries of the game for the Houston Texans. You can't draft David Johnson now at that point, where he's going.

What's that? You can't draft David Johnson anywhere close to where he's been going. Which right now on CBS is about 100th overall, and it's dropping. But can you draft Philip Lindsay as a top 100 pick? I'd rather have Lindsay than Johnson at this point. Yeah, I think it's around 100 would probably be the the high point for where I'd go because David Johnson was the third down back here and so I think you have to assume that Philip Lindsay is going to be the lead back but Mark Ingram didn't play in this one and you know say what

you want about Mark Ingram but him and Lindsay were listed as co-starters on the first depth chart. And, you know, clearly at least Lindsey being listed above David Johnson was legitimate. So I think it's probably a situation where he's going to still end up splitting work. I'm not particularly excited about it, either of them. Okay, Jamie, let's go to the losers. Who were your biggest preseason week one losers? I mean, you mentioned it, Myles Gaskin. That was just, I don't get it.

And Malcolm Brown looked the part of Malcolm Brown. Eight carries for nine yards. So get him the hell out of there and let Myles Gaskin go back to being the guy. Gaskin spoke, I think it was last week, sometime in the last two weeks, about how the offense is different from a year ago. And clearly it's different for him because when he was healthy last year, especially, you know, week three on, he was the guy for the Dolphins. And, you know, I certainly had high expectations for him. And that was the most discouraging thing for me to see Brown, you know, out snap him 13 to seven with the first team offense.

And Gaskin can be more of a third down back. He played into, you know, the second quarter with the backups, whereas Brown was off the field. So Malcolm Brown has to be a late-round target at this point. Gaskin is not worth drafting today at his ADP, which is, I think, round 53rd overall on CBS. So it was very discouraging to see that in the first preseason game for Miami. So, yeah, how much of a reaction are we going to have to this? So so are you going to say maybe take Michael Carter or Javante Williams or Chase Edmonds, someone in that group ahead of Myles Gaskin now? Yeah. I mean, the drafting today, I think you have to.

You know, it's just if he's not going to be the starter and going to be a third down back and they're going to use both guys, I mean, the attractiveness of Myles Gaskin, what made him so attractive was the fact that he was so used. You know, his usage last year was just ridiculous. And if, you know, bringing in Malcolm Brown was an indication that they were going to use him to this level to make him the starter, to use him, you know uh almost double the snaps with the first team um you can't i i still think gaskin's a better player this isn't take malcolm brown over miles gaskin this isn't sink miles gaskin to you know to the levels of david johnson

because i want to see more but drafting right now you know where i was looking at gaskin in some cases in the fourth round you know and and there's no way you can do that now yeah i i thought Gaskin in some cases in the fourth round, you know, and there's no way you can do that now. Yeah. I thought Gaskin had the potential to be, you know, a top 15 back. If he had the same role as he did last season, uh, played 65% of the snaps in each of his games, you know, that this is, it's certainly frustrating to see Malcolm Brown, you know, kind of essentially doing what he did, at least in the first preseason game, doing what he did to Cam Akers' value early on last season, where whether we think he's good or not, clearly he seems to have the trust of the coaching staff. And that is definitely a concern for me at this point.

I don't know that I want to go there yet, guys. I tried so hard to find something written about it. I didn't see much covered. I tried so hard to find something written about it, and it wasn't, I didn't see much covered. I just found this right now in the sunset. None of the Dolphins beat writers talk about the running back. Well, Cameron Wolf works

for the NFL Network, used to be the Dolphins beat writer for ESPN. He was asked about this over the weekend because I'm sure, like a lot of people who have either done their drafts

or in dynasty leagues or are looking at this, I don't know if it was a fantasy question per se, but he was asked, what's the deal with Malcolm Brown and Myles Gaskin? He replied, Myles Gaskin is still their guy. So I don't think, again, you don't panic

and necessarily sink Myles Gaskin. And I don't want to convey that, but you mentioned a group of running backs, Adam, that I think he is now in the mix with of Carter and Williams and Edmonds, the guys who are going behind him. I think you just got to drop into that range. Okay, yeah. Now this is what I was going to read from the mix with of Carter and Williams and Edmonds, the guys who are going behind him. I think you just got to drop into that range. Okay.

Yeah. Now this is what I was going to read from the sunset. Know is it tailback rotation was puzzling. Malcolm Brown started Saturday's game and struggled for most of the day, gaining eight yards on nine carries. He also failed to punch it in on some goal line runs in the first quarter, which resulted in a field goal. Miles Gaskin and Sivan Ahmed,

who have spent most of training camp as the Dolphins' top two backs, work sporadically in the first half. Ahmed is also a part of this equation. It's not clear that he wouldn't... Next week or week two preseason, Gaskin could start, but Ahmed could be in the rotation too. Right. It sort of

should go without saying here that none of this is... None of what we saw this weekend should dramatically change your opinion on anyone. Right it it puts yaskin in the four five range now to the six seven range and i dropped into rb 28 so just a few spots um just because i was assuming he was going to have similar roles last year and i think the other part of this and i'll go back to what i said about john brown malcolm brown's the new guy. So let's see what Malcolm Brown can do in live action, and that might be something the Dolphins are exploring. And I'll also add one of the running backs that you compared him to.

Again, first preseason game, small sample size, but it is what we have to work with. Michael Carter was the 1B for the the jets with Tevin Coleman out. It was Ty Johnson who led the team and snaps with Zach Wilson on the field. He, they basically split first and second down and then Ty Johnson, I believe got all of the third down snaps with Zach Wilson on the field. So it's a one game. It's Michael Carter's first game ever. Who knows what that actually means, but it's disappointing,

especially because Michael Carter's gotten a lot of praise for his work in the passing game and training camp. I kind of thought he was the third down back at the very least. So, you know, that that's one that I'm certainly going to be watching a lot more closely in the next couple of weeks. Any other big losers?

Adam Troutman was not exciting. Three of his nine. He was out there. Yeah. He was out there for nine pass plays and blocked on three of them. That's frustrating. Yeah. And James Robinson and Travis ETienne, you know, when they added Travis Etienne, Urban Meyer had all those quotes about, you know, we view Carlos Hyde and James Robinson

as our first and second down backs. And then we've sort of written off that. And, you know, Carlos Hyde has been irrelevant. He did get a handful of snaps with the first-team offense. And I don't think Carlos Hyde's going to be fantasy relevant, but if he's going to have even a small role in this offense, it's going to make things even tougher for Robinson and Etienne to stand out. And listen, I think if you draft any rookie running back other than Najee Harris,

you might have to just be patient. And it's yeah, it's going to it's going to take some time for guys to take over. But if Michael Carter's competition is Ty Johnson, I'm going to bet on Michael Carter. And honestly, if Miles Gaston's competition is Malcolm Brown, I'm probably going to bet on Miles Gaston. But I but I'm. I do come away. I think we all probably come away from the Dolphins game feeling like, obviously, you guys have dropped him in your rank. It's feeling less secure about Myles Gaskin's role. Eat Myles Gaskin's role, even if he does end up being the starter. It may not be in a way that we were anticipating. And guys, I just have to talk about Javante Williams because going back to winners, I thought he looked so good.

Now, you could also call him a loser because he was splitting time with Royce Freeman, but if you saw the touchdown run that was called back, what did he do? He broke a tackle. He is such an incredible, at the college level, collegiate level, I think Jacob Gibbs said he broke like 57% of attempted tackles. So Javante Williams, the Vikings basically just put up no fight. They had all their backups in there. The Broncos ran all over them. But I'm so excited about Javante Williams.

Maybe I'm overreacting. But I was excited. You know I've been excited about it since the draft pick. Right away, I had him ahead of Melvin Gordon. And he didn't hurt his case. Melvin Gordon didn't play, but he didn't hurt his chances in week one. Just wanted to thumbs up there. He looked good.

You don't know what Mike Boone's status is either. He got hurt last week. He's out four to five weeks. I believe he does that. I'm saying once he's healthy, what his role is going to be. They basically use Royce Freeman in Mike Boone's role, I would guess. We'll see if we have time for a few more preseason reactions.

Make sure you watch Fantasy Football Today, our video show. It's at 1 p.m. Eastern today on Monday. But typically it's noon Eastern every Monday through Friday, noon Eastern Fantasy Football Today. And once the season starts, Sunday morning as well. It's a big month for us. We're supporting St. Jude. We're raising a lot of money, and we want you to be part of it.

Draft prepping for charity month. We're going to have various eBay au're supporting St. Jude. We're raising a lot of money and we want you to be part of it. Draft prepping for charity month. We're going to have various eBay auctions supporting St. Jude and culminating in our draft-a-thon event on September 1st. And you've heard about our pre-draft calls already, but now we've added a beer with Heath over Zoom. So if you want that, or if you want a spot in the 2021 Fantasy Football Today Podcast League and a custom-designed fantasy team logo, go to cbssports.com slash eBay. I love the logo idea, by the way. That's awesome. cbssports.com slash eBay to donate and bid.

That is cbssports.com slash eBay. You guys want to hear something funny? Yeah. Let's hear Ben Schrager talk. Ben? CBS Sports. Oh. Yeah.

Listen to that. Dude's coming down with something. Hope you're feeling, he's feeling fine. So we'll make fun of his weird voice. But Ben is. Don't need to say Jude. Yeah, I'll say that in the weird voice. There you go.

Don't need to say Jude, everyone. Says Ben. News and notes. Curtis Samuels off the pup list. All right. Let's take a look at Curtis Samuels ADP and CBS. I'm going to start using CBS ADP a little bit more. Wow.

About 130th. That feels like a bargain. Curtis Samuel. Absolutely. Good to see him back out there we'll see how much

you know the lost time has hurt in his rapport with Ryan Fitzpatrick but I'd be very surprised if he's not the second best receiver

on the Washington football team would you rather have LaVisca Chenault or Curtis Samuel I would rather have Samuel I'd rather have Chenault.

I hope it wasn't a microcosm of what we saw with the Jaguars, but on the first drive, Chenault had a few targets. On the next drive, Marvin Jones had the targets, and DJ Chark, of course, didn't play. Okay, Dak Prescott's shoulder is healing well, according to Adam Schefter. Devontae Smith is now day-to-day. Hopefully we see him back soon, Devontae Smith.

Green Bay backup quarterback Jordan Love could miss some time with a shoulder injury. Doesn't seem too serious. He might miss a week or so. Pittsburgh acquired perhaps their starting middle linebacker, Joe Sjobert from Jacksonville. Very great. Yeah, for a six-round pick.

Houston wide receiver Anthony Miller has a slight dislocation of his shoulder. There goes that passing game. Yeah. Tavon Austin stole a catch from Tim Tebow. That wasn't very nice. And as I mentioned... The blocking, by the way.

Oh, the blocking, yeah. Yeah, no comment. Nah, if you see the video of Tim Tebow blocking, it's just he's not... It was not a good moment. Yeah. Baltimore has won 18 straight preseason games. That is one short of an NFL record. How about that?

Okay. I don't know if there's any more. How many years? Five? Five, I guess. This would be five. Unless you're not counting last year, obviously. I just have some general notes.

I don't know if you guys want to just fire through some more preseason stuff. Probably not, because it's preseason week one. Bad starts for the Giants and the Jaguars offensive lines. The starters, bad. Not much to glean from the Bucs' backfield rotation. All three of them played. I think that's what you take away from it. Yeah, but it was just so limited. I really

was not impressed with Trey Sermon. He fumbled. He didn't make any big plays, any good plays, really. He made up his hand on the fumble, too. He had two catches. But he's... You know, his best path to playing is probably most...

To starting is probablyt getting hurt, or at least having a big role. He'll be the second guy, you know, and again, it's one of those things where I think he's going to need more volume to be successful, and I don't know if he's going to get that with Mostert healthy. Right. Okay, let's talk about our mock draft.

12-team PPR mock draft, and interesting picks include Nick Chubb going eighth overall I don't think any of us are doing that in full PPR that was head of Kelsey Devante Adams Tyreek Hill Dan Schneier had a really interesting team he picked 12th he went Barkley and Taylor with his first two picks so that's a lot of fun, but obviously very risky. And I will say that this draft made me realize one thing, guys, I want an early pick a top five pick so badly. I am not enjoying picking late,

but Hey, we'll make it work. You know, we'll make it work. You did something that I think is, is worth discussing. And I know you, when we,

when I brought it up to you, um, just cause you mentioned where you're picking is something that I think is worth discussing. And I know you, when I brought it up to you, just because you mentioned where you're picking, is something that I think we should reiterate to people that might be drafting for the first time. Pay attention to the people around you.

Yeah, I made a rookie mistake. I was doing a podcast while drafting. But yes, go ahead, Jamie. You can tell the mistake. You started your team with Najee Harris and Stephon Diggs, correct? No, Tyreek Hill in round one, Najee Harris in round two. Tyreek Hill with Najee Harris and Stefan Diggs correct no Tyree kill in round one Najee Harris and Najee Harris excuse me so and you just mentioned what Dan did after you he picked two running backs so you got to your round three pick and you took

Chris Carson and then ended up with Amari Cooper now I don't know if Cooper was the receiver you were targeting Cooper Cup went ahead of Amari Cooper uh maybe you wanted Patrick Mahomes who also went after your selection but when you made your pick I said to you why are you taking Chris Carson and you said you know how much I love him and I said well that that would assume that you were you were assuming that Dan would have taken him but he took two running backs to start his team so it's a risky game obviously to play because you never know what the person is going to do. But sometimes you just need to read their or check their roster. And especially, you know, you know how Dan drafts. I doubt he's going to go through running back. So, you know, when you pick near the end, 10, 11, maybe nine, you know, see what's happening behind

you. Certainly at the front end of the draft, if you're picking, you know, in the top four, if you're two, three or four, know what's happening when it uh certainly at the front end of the draft if you're picking you know in the top four if you're two three or four know what's happening when it comes back on that end um because you can kind of play the board a little bit differently and you might have gotten chris carson in round four as opposed to round three and maybe gotten one of the two players that dan selected in my homes or cup yeah i i would have taken my homes if i had been paying attention but i promise i have a legit excuse this time. I was doing a fantasy football today. Right, right. And again, when you tell it to me, I understand it, but I think it's just worth pointing out

for people that are drafting for the first time. Look at the person behind you if you're on an end. Absolutely. And always the roster grid is a really useful tool, especially kind of later in the draft. You're going, oh man, I need a tight end, but I don't know if I should take one here. You click the roster grid, you see 10 other teams have tight ends,

so it's only you and one other person who needs a tight end, and that might help you wait an extra round or two. Know your league, though. If there's annually two or three guys take two quarterbacks early, take two tight ends, just keep that in mind also. Okay, so I don't know, Jamie, if you had any major takeaways from this draft? Well, I think the

most interesting part of this draft was what Jack Capitordo did because that was fascinating how it played out, and I thought his team was okay. It's not a strategy I would certainly recommend, but he drafted all players from the NFC East. This is so funny.

I can't believe he pulled off a pretty solid squad. And Heath and I were trying to figure this out. Like, which divisions could you do this with, like, realistically? And which ones, like, would you totally avoid? Like, the AFC East is one you would probably avoid because unless you go Stefan Diggs and Josh Allen with your first two picks, it probably doesn't work. And those aren't exactly two players you want to take with your first two picks.

You know, you can certainly play it out however you want to. You you know like the nfc north would be fun because you can have three players in the first round dalvin cook aaron jones davante adams obviously the afc west if you go chiefs heavy to start your team you know so there are different ways to do it but you can't do that as you see the team here if you're watching on youtube yeah uh he ended up with all players from the nfc east his quarterback is dac pres. His running backs are Ezekiel Elliott and Antonio Gibson. He has Devontae Smith, Kenny Galladay, and Terry McLaurin as his receivers. Dallas Goddard is his tight end. Miles Sanders is his flex.

The Washington football team is his DST. He's got Jalen Hurts, J.D. McKissick, Devontae Booker, Kadarius Toney, Curtis Samuel, and Tony Pollard on his bench. And that's his team. And so you may look at it and say, well, the quarterback is great. He's top five. The two running backs, the three running backs.

Let me slow it down just in case people miss it. Here's his team, his starters. Dak Prescott, Zeke and Gibson, McLaurin, Galladay, Devontae Smith, Miles Sanders at Flex, Dallas Goddard at tight end, Washington football team as his DST. And honestly,

every pick made sense, right? He, it's not like he reached for anybody. He reached in, in a couple of instances, but not for his starters, you know?

And, and like he took, you know, like the, the, the thing that's the weak point of this team is, is number two and number three receiver right now. But a month from now

or the start of the season if Galladay and and Devante Smith are healthy that's a legitimate number two receiver and a legitimate number three receiver when you factor in that he took a quarterback early and so you know you look at the the roster build he started with so the way that unfolded for him he started with the two running backs he went Zeke and Gibson he was picking fifth fifth i believe and he took mcclure in around three and then when it got to him around four he was debating between adam thielen mike evans and mile sanders and he ended up taking sanders not to do this but he took sanders he's like oh look what i just did and then then he that's when he played it out so he took dak in round five and dak was right in the quarterback run i think i started it with josh allen and then it went Allen, Lamar, Kyler,

Dak. And then he just kind of, you know, played it out that way. Galladay next, Devante Smith next, Dallas Cotter next. Curtis Samuel is a very good number four receiver, you know, given that he's healthy. Tony Pollard, the handcuffs to Zeke, you know, it's not horrible. Again, not ideal to do it that way, but it's not horrible the way that the team got put together. Yeah. It's pretty funny. Chris, i don't know if you had any takeaways you drafted 10th so you took davante adams i took tyreek hill shortly thereafter you went with adams in round one and joe mixon in round two would you i was actually wondering just you're and i mine picks uh adams and mixon or harrison hill who would you prefer

jamie i guess since adam and i we know who we'd prefer no that's not necessarily true because i didn't have a chance to pick adams so what's a better start he didn't have a chance to pick harris if he wanted right adams and mixon or i have a reason higher than harris oh okay um i go back and forth on mixon and Harris and PPR, so I probably would take Chris's team because I like Adams better than Hill. Yeah, I would take Chris's too because Adams, to me, just has probably

up to 20 more catches than Tyreek Hill just based on recent history. And maybe five more touchdowns. Maybe not. But yeah, Adams has been on pace for 110 or more catches three straight seasons. And can Andy Reid please do us all a favor? When you take Mahomes out of the game,

take Tyreek Hill out of the game too. And then there was the Barkley-Taylor team right after us. But would you rather, okay, in retrospect, Chris, the running backs off the board when you picked Adams were McCaffrey, Kamara, Cook. Kamara went second in this draft. Henry, Zeke, Jones, Eckler, Chubb. Would you rather have Adams and Mixon

or Barkley or Taylor with your first round pick and Stephon Diggs as your wide receiver? I have Mixon as my number six, no, number seven running back. I'm really, really high on him this year.

I'm not... Have you guys seen Ted Lasso? No. Please don't rub it in. I'm not i don't know have you guys seen ted lasso no please don't rub it in all right i'm not rubbing it in but you know there's there's a recurring bit where he's like you know one of the players what's the what's the happiest animal in the world a goldfish because that's a 10 second memory i feel like that's how people should treat fantasy football and so this like i'm never drafting joe mixon again thing that a lot of people do his situation hopefully looks like it's going to be completely different he was already being used in the passing game more often early last season no giovanni bernard this season um there's a chance he gets 75 targets this season if he gets 75 targets i think he's

going to be a top six wide running back so i just i love the situation for him more than i ever have and uh yeah i'm i'm perfectly happy taking him over jonathan taylor or uh or saquon barkley at this point okay well chris i have a question though because i know you were so at least early in the process uh tight end and all three tight ends in the first round and you didn't do it in your first two picks have you softened on that stance no no it was mostly just that you know adams and um like if i think kelsey was already gone by the time i had picked my yeah he went the pick before me if it was adams versus kelsey that would have been a tough decision they're the the top two non-running backs for me but I do have Mixon higher than the tight ends um you know the tight ends are more in like the RB8 to 10 range for me okay I just want to see Darren Waller last season averaged 17.5 fantasy points per game.

Has Mixon ever done that? This is in full PPR. He averaged 16.9 last year. 17.4 in 2018. So their best years, Waller and Mixon's best years, were basically identical. Okay, Jamie, take me through your team and any, you had the third pick

and you got Dalvin Cook, because like I said, Kamara went with the second overall pick. Take me through your team and any things that you liked or didn't like. So, you know, I think one thing, and I would encourage people, especially as our audience continues to grow

as the season gets closer and your draft day gets closer, do some sort of mock drafting um we have a great mock draft product there are other sites that have great mock draft products uh find a way to try different things and so i've for the most part and i and i i do a lot of different strategies because i do a lot of these drafts but for the most part i find myself too often going running back running back and i made it a conscious effort not to do that this time so a guy that i typically take in the second round was still there which is clyde everett salera but i was taking the best available wide receiver um uh which the guy on my board actually was was justin jefferson but i didn't want to go

vikings vikings to start so i i took my calf was the next available receiver uh so i started running back receiver receiver with dalvin cook dk metcalf and alan next available receiver. So I started running back receiver-receiver with Dalvin Cook, DK Metcalf, and Allen Robinson. Round four was a tough call for me because I think Mike Evans as a third receiver is pretty impressive. But I wanted to take Daryl Henderson in that spot just because I thought I could find a third receiver that's still okay, and the running back cliff was coming.

So the fact that Henderson was still available at 46th overall, I went that route. I took the second quarterback off the board because I thought Josh Allen at 51 was a good value pick. And then the player that I was happiest to draft was Michael Thomas at 75th overall in round seven. So Jerry Judy is the third receiver I took at 70th overall. Michael Thomas was my fourth

receiver, but if he's healthy by week six or seven, if not sooner, uh, that's a pretty impressive receiving core of Metcalf Robinson and Thomas with Judy, a potential flex option. So, um, that's the way I started my team. Um, I don't know how much you want me to continue, but, uh, I have a lot of, you know, running backs to cycle through after that, but I was really happy with how this team came together. Well, you've got a great core for your team. And when you took Josh Allen as the second quarterback off the board, and what did you say, 51st overall?

Yes. You would not have, if you had waited, you probably wouldn't have gotten a top five quarterback. You could have gotten Russell Wilson with your next pick, but you didn't know that at the time. You kicked off a run. So you had an early pick, and you took Josh Allen that at the time. You kicked off a run, so you had an early pick, and you took Josh Allen, and that's when all the quarterbacks go. And just want to clarify something, because I know we did our quarterback preview. I had Lamar

Jackson, too, at that point, with all the injuries to the Ravens receivers. I had those guys so close. I went back to Allen at two, who was my second quarterback when this process started. So the core of Jamie's team is Allen at quarterback, Dalvin Cook, and Daryl Henderson at running back, DK Metcalf, Allen Robinson, and Jerry Judy as his number three receiver. I think tight end and flex are, I don't know how you feel about them.

Irv Smith at tight end, Melvin Gordon at flex. But your flex could be Jerry Judy when Michael Thomas is back. You have Elijah Moore. You have Justin Jackson, who clearly looks like the number two running back. No, not clearly. You don't think so? No, not the way they use Josh Kelly

and Larry Rauncher. I think it's more of a mess than we thought. But Jackson started. Jackson was getting the early work. Yeah, Kelly was getting most of the passing down stuff. So that's the one thing I would add. Right. I think the last time we spoke about this,

it was coming off of Jonathan Jones' report. JJ was with us. Jonathan works for us. JJ was with the Chargers. He said that Jackson has a stranglehold or has the position locked down. I think the Chargers are still evaluating it. So Heath was talking about Justin Jackson belonging in the Jamal Williams,

A.J. Dillon range. I don't think he should be in that range by any stretch. Okay. And anyway, Irv Smith at tight end, Melvin Gordon at flex. But like I said, it doesn't have to be Melvin Gordon. So yeah, you got Alexander Madison, Justin Jackson, Latavius Murray with some upside on the bench there. Yeah, solid team.

I don't have anything else to say. That's it. And I like Irv Smith a lot. He's obviously not in the upper echelon of tight ends, but I do think as a late-round guy, especially how this team came together, I was thrilled with him. You took Judy over Sutton? I did uh i don't know let me check you did not but maybe you would have i haven't ranked that way so i would have yes but um sutton was off the board sutton went uh the round before in the same round six picks or so earlier yep okay and yeah and that

you could have taken that was a run on receiver that was a good receiver round round six higgins iuk juju sutton robbie anderson kenny galladay tyler boyd jerry judy beckham and then brandon cooks michael thomas in the next round okay and i think you know we get a lot of questions on when's the right time to take Michael Thomas. I think if you're happy with, you know, certainly if you're in a two receiver league,

you're happy with your two starters. That's easy choice. Uh, but in a three receiver league like this, I'm very happy with Judy as my third receiver. Um, you mentioned Adam, I would like a stronger flex,

but I think if you do go, uh, quarterback early and it's not, unless you're taking four receivers, um, you know, to, to in your first, probably five or six picks,

then you're going to leave yourself some hole. And flex is a potential hole for me. Right now it would be Melvin Gordon, but eventually it could be Michael Thomas and Jerry Judy as that third receiver in the flex spot. And I would love that. It's entirely possible. Melvin Gordon's just a useful flex for the first handful of games.

Yep. All right, Chris, I want to get your thoughts on your team and how it came out. First, though, I want to talk to you about Lightstream, okay? Because if you're like most of us, you carry a balance on your credit cards. And if those cards come with high interest rates, you need Lightstream. Very, very helpful service here.

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So Chris drafting 10th, he took Devante Adams and then Joe Mixon in round two. And how'd your team turn out? Yeah, so my starting quarterback, I may not have one in week one. I've got Cam Newton and Justin Fields. That's a combination that I really like going with at quarterback if I'm going to wait though,

because one, you're getting two Russian quarterbacks, so you have that upside. And if they, though, because one, you're getting two Russian quarterbacks, so you have that upside. And if they're not starting week one, I'm confident in my ability to find a viable streamer. Actually, did Baker Mayfield get drafted in this one? He doesn't usually in our draft, so I think he did not. Damn, dude. Cam Newton and Justin Fields. Hopefully, by the time Cam Newton loses his job, Justin Fields will have gained his.

That's the thought, is that I think Justin Fields has top 12 upside when he becomes the starter. If neither of them starting in week one, Baker Mayfield's got the Chiefs and the Texans to open the season, would be perfectly happy to stream him for those two games. My starting running back to Joe Mixon and Raheem Mostert. My wide receivers are Devonta Adams, Julio Jones, and Robert Woods. I ended up taking TJ Hawkinson for the first time in this draft.

I've got Juju Smith-Schuster as my flex. The benches, Justin Fields, AJ Dillon, Rashad Bateman, Marquise Brown, Rondell Moore, and Mike Williams. So four sleepers that I like running my wide receiver. I'm happy with it. Obviously, because I went with upside plays at wide receiver on my bench and with A.J. Dillon at running back, I don't necessarily have a guy who I feel super confident can step in

if something happens in week one or week two and I have to start one of them. Although, Mike Williams is a flex and a three-wide receiver I think could be okay. But I love my starting lineup. I think my starting lineup is really strong. I took TJ Hawkinson in the fifth round. I haven't drafted him this year. I don't necessarily love the breakout potential for him

just because I think in addition to the increased volume that he's likely to see this season, I think he just needs to play better, and I'm not sure that's a given with the downgrade from Matthew Stafford to Jared Goff. But like Jamie was saying, we do so many drafts, you want to try different things out, see what it looks like. I often draft tight ends early, but I either go early or late usually, so I wanted to grab one of the kind of middle-class tight ends

and see what it looks like. And I'm very happy with this team. Well, you've only got three running backs. Your wide receivers are absolutely loaded. I do wonder maybe if one of the four bench-wide receivers, when you're already starting, four wide receivers, if maybe one of them could have been another running back. But your running backs are Mixon and Mostert

and A.J. Dillon on the bench. So that's, you know, and then you got the quarterback situation with Newton and Fields, but you're right. If there's a good place to be weak, quarterback might be the one. It's the easiest to stream. And Devontae Adams, Julio Jones, Robert Woods, and Juju Smith-Schuster are in your

starting lineup. Yeah, I need another running back for sure. Robert Woods and Juju Smith-Schuster are in your starting lineup. Yeah. And if there was, if I, yeah, I need another running back for sure. You want more than three running backs on your roster, but with Rashad Bateman, you know, potentially not being available to start the season.

If I have to drop him to pick up a, a running back who, who pops in the preseason, I'd be okay with that. Okay. And Chris's team is fun. It has a lot of upside. I drafted a team that doesn't really scream upside,

which is disappointing. I did a Twitter poll to see how people felt about it. They felt exactly how I felt about it. The overwhelming majority said it was kind of fine. You know, it was fine. So I had the 11th pick, and I went with Tyreek Hill and Najee Harris. I was very happy with that.

Chris Carson and Amari Cooper were my next two picks. My team is Brady with Trevor Lawrence on the bench. Najee Harris, Chris Carson. Tyreek Hill, Amari Cooper, and Brandon Ayuk. And Tyler Higbee at tight end. My flex is Chase Edmonds. People hate that Chase Edmonds is my flex. I'm okay with it. I also have James Conner

and I don't really have another reliable running back. Rashad Penny to back up Chris Carson. Darrell Williams as a lottery ticket. My running backs again are Najee Harris, Chris Carson, both Cardinals guys and some backups. And, yeah, it's an okay team.

I think what I wanted to look at, what I wanted to talk about here was this range of running backs that's really, I think, kind of exciting. And in this draft, it was late round five. So Travis Etienne went with the ninth pick of round five, which surprised me, right after Mike Davis. But Mike Davis, Travis Etienne, Chase Edmonds, who I took. Then you have Michael Carter, Kareem Hunt.

You had Javante Williams in round seven. And then James Robinson. I mean, these are pretty useful running backs. And I guess what I'm saying is I could have gone, let's just say I stuck with Tyreek Hill and Nashi Harris as my first two picks. Instead of taking Chris Carson in round three, I could have taken Amari Cooper and Cooper Cup,

or I would have taken Amari Cooper and Julio Jones. And then I could have taken two of that next group of running backs. I could have taken Chase Edmonds and Javante Williams. And I think that makes my team less safe, but it does make it, it does give it more upside. That's another option you could go with. You know,

not to be dogmatic about it, but generally speaking, you should prefer an upside build to a safe build because ultimately you're trying to win you know a championship you're not trying to avoid last place and you know i think i would rather have the cooper uh jones combination and you know shoot for the upside there rather than you know try to find like i guess carson does upside, but I don't know how much. I don't know. I don't know how much upside...

Their first 13 plays on Saturday were pass plays, which is interesting. I don't know how much upside Julio Jones has in a low-volume passing offense. The guy that you could have taken was Mahomes. I didn't even say that because I figure 99% of the drafts that our listeners are in, Mahomes won't be there.

But you're right. And I should have taken Mahomes. I would have taken Mahomes. And that would have made my team, I think, better. But like I said, I was doing something at the time. But I want to ask you guys about Chase Edmonds. This was a tough call for me. So Mike Davis and Travis Etienne just went off the board.

I would have taken them. But then you got Edmonds. You got Michael Carter, Kareem Hunt, who I'm not – I don't really like Kareem Hunt, to be honest. If there's a Chubb injury, I love him. But I would not have taken him. But Edmonds, Michael Carter, Kareem Hunt, Javante Williams. But now that you saw Javante Williams play, who you like,

would you have maybe flipped it and taken Iyuk in round five and taken Williams in round six? I would have taken Higgins, who went just before my Iyuk pick. I was hoping Higgins would follow me. Yeah, I mean, I guess I liked what I saw from Chase Edmonds too. I mean, the numbers weren't great, but I really think I really like Edmonds. So I want to know how you guys feel about that group of who you would have taken. If you were going to select two out of Edmonds, Kareem Hunt,

Michael Carter and Javante Williams, give me your two Jamie. Now. Yeah. I think Edmonds is a definite conversation I probably would go Williams as the second guy over Michael Carter and Kareem Hunt yeah I mean I've gone so many times back and forth on Carter and Williams Kareem Hunt is just

I think he needs Nick Chubb to be hurt to be to be great I don't think that's saying much but that's kind of what we saw last year Nick Chubb to be hurt, to be great. I don't think that's saying much, but that's kind of what we saw last year. When Chubb came back from the injury, Kareem Hunt wasn't that good. Kareem Hunt might be the ultimate example of the difference between fantasy points and points per game last season because he was, I believe, 10th in PPR

in total fantasy points at running back. And nobody viewed him as one of the 10 best running backs. He just happened to play 16 games. He was actually a little disappointing when Nick Chubb was out last season, but I think that's mostly a fluke. I think he'll be very good if Chubb is out. And as I pointed out, two of the first three games he played with Nick Chubb, he got a ton of garbage time work.

There was a blowout win and a blowout loss. So I could see a pretty disappointing role for Kareem Hunt. And if you're drafting him because you think the Browns are going to have two viable starting options in fantasy in their backfield, it happened in the first three games of 2020. It didn't really happen when Nick Chubb got back. And I don't expect it to happen again so that's why but you also saw what the upside could be in the four games that chubb was out yeah but that but but that's the thing like if james connor gets hurt

which happens all the time then chase edmonds has a ton of upside there you can see the upside of that melvin gordon gets hurt giovante williams is i think has more upside than all of them uh so right right so they all that's it's a situation for all of them so one thing I would say when you're talking about upside once you already have Tom Brady I get the upside of Trevor Lawrence but unless Brady gets hurt it seems pretty unlikely that you're going to use Trevor Lawrence too often I mean this was uh this was my second to last pick yeah this is no but that's what i'm saying is i'd rather take a flyer late on another running back or a wide receiver at that range just because like maybe you would use lawrence in week three because brady's got the rams but he's got the cowboys

falcons rams patriots dolphins eagles to open the season. I think the Rams are the only ones you'd even consider sending him for. Yeah, I mean, we have this discussion so often. Yeah, it's just a general roster construction thing for me. I'd rather take a chance on an upside wide receiver than an upside quarterback. You're just saying that because I took Lawrence, the pick, before you were going to take him. I might have taken him. Yeah, that's when you took Cam Newton.

So, right, and you took Fields, obviously, I'm guessing before that. The round that's when you took Cam Newton. So, right. And you took Fields, obviously, I'm guessing before that. The round before. Oh, just before, yeah. Okay. All right. Good stuff. And we'll read some emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com after a quick break on Fantasy Football today.

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It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. I want to thank everybody for your emails. I want to thank you all for your Apple Podcast questions. Remember to keep those coming. We'll read those on a mailbag. And we have sleepers, breakouts, and busts this week, by the way.

Also, no more keeper questions in the Apple Podcast questions, please. This is from James in a silly town, a silly named town in New Jersey. Mawa. It's Hohokus, New Jersey. New Jersey does have some fun city names. Guess so.

My league is going from one QB to two QBs this year. It's two quarterbacks, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, and a flex. Could you explain your draft strategy, Jamie,

and how it differs in two QB leagues compared to one? Five point for passing touchdown, half PPR. You want to get those quarterbacks early. That's certainly something

that you should try to do. Don't necessarily sacrifice great players in doing that, but you see the way the quarterback position is looking right now, you should try to do don't necessarily sacrifice great players in doing that. But you know, you, you, you see the way the quarterback position is looking right now and there are very, very good late round options, but those guys are going to go sooner than you think. So, um, what I usually try to do is try to get one quarterback in the first two rounds.

Again, I'm not going to reach. So if there's a huge run on quarterbacks, then I will sacrifice the position a little bit. But, um, I try to get one in the first two rounds and then play the board a little bit. And again, it comes down to who you're drafting with and knowing how they typically focus on that position. But I like to get at least one early, two early if preferable. But it's certainly more of a priority in the position than one quarterback. Give me your top five picks in a two quarterback league that's half PPR.

Mahomes one, McCaffrey two, Cook three, Allen four, Jackson five. Jackson five. I know them. All right. All right. From Rico. This is something I never got to bring up on the tight end preview, Chris,

but if you look at Darren Waller's season, says Rico, he really had two huge games at the end of the year, but was pretty much an average tight end before that. Is that what you want from an early, from a second or early third round pick?

By the way, I would really say he had about five great games at the end of the year, but it is true that he was a little underwhelming before that Jets game where he went off. He had a weird season because very early on, his yards per target

was incredibly low. His average at the target was really low, but I think that's underselling things quite a bit. Before that Jets game, he had games of 28.5, 17.8, 15.8, 17, and 21.8. So he was a little inconsistent. He had three games with fewer than 10, or four games with fewer than 10 PPR points in his first 11. Yeah. But he's still mixed in some really big performances.

Yeah, but here's his pace, though. 93 catches. This is in his first 11 games. Waller last year. His pace was 93 catches, 788 yards, and 7 touchdowns. Nobody's touching that. In the first, in the second round or the third round, probably.

But then, I'm glad you mentioned the uh the i don't know if you said the a dot but you said his yards per target his a dot went way up after that and so it started 7.9 9.0 13.6 17.0 18.2 and those were basically five of his six highest ADOT games beginning with that Jets game. So his role changed. He started going downfield more, and it really paid off. It's something to keep an eye on early in the season from Darren Waller.

If he's struggling in the ADOTs low, that happened last year. So it was a really big shift in those five games, and in those five games. And in those five games, he had four touchdowns and he had 654 yards. In his last five games, Darren Waller was on pace for 2,093 yards. So he has a big shift. So two things I would say is, one, he averaged 14 PPR points per game

with only three touchdowns in 2019. So, you know, obviously that's pretty good. And yeah, the 786 yards or whatever it was through the first 11 games. That's bad. 93 catches and seven touchdowns. Like if he gets 93 catches, he's going to have 1,000-plus yards. He's going to have maybe 1,100 yards. I think that was just a weird start to the season.

Yes, it was 11 games, but you're still talking about relatively small sample sizes. When you're talking about an 11-game sample size, one big play could change that yards per reception a lot. Yards per reception is the kind of thing that does um no but i was talking about a dot i wasn't talking right right no no i i get that um but he's such a good player both down the field and with the ball in his hands that you know i think it's the kind of thing where when a guy's averaging nine yards per reception or i think he was under nine yards per reception one long play could change the way that looks entirely and so I don't put too much stock in that I'm not too concerned about it it's

in my mind and you know I feel like Kittle's a little bit safer in terms of his production just because he's been doing it for longer but what we've seen from Waller the last two seasons, the role he has in that offense, the low yardage early on in the season or for the first 11 games, it really doesn't bother me. Okay, here's Brian from a city smack dab between New York City and Philadelphia. Oh man, I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue.

Scranton, is that in the middle or is that off to the side? It's probably Princeton. I forgot. It's probably Princeton. All right. Yeah. There was a Batman marathon on yesterday, I think. Oh, Chris, did you watch the White Lotus finale?

I have not yet. That'll be our Monday night show. Very excited. I think it might be the weirdest show I've ever seen. It's basically pointless, yet somehow entertaining.

Weird show. Jennifer Colage should win all of the awards for this show. She is who? The lady with her mom's... Oh, she's Stifler's mom. Yeah, her on the boat. That is just like an all-time television scene. It was really funny.

She is incredible. Okay, due to the wide receiver depth this year, I haven't heard you guys talk about zero wide receiver. It seems like everyone agrees that they like wide receivers that are going later in the draft. So why isn't the strategy of drafting being brought up or implemented more? I went through Fantasy Pro's ADP to determine

what a team could look like. So Jamie, this draft, this mock from Brian in Princeton is Aaron Jones, 7th overall, Joe Mixon, 18th, Swift, Dobbins, or Carson, 31st, Lamar Jackson, and TJ Hawkinson. So his first five picks would be Aaron Jones, Joe Mixon, let's say DeAndre Swift, Lamar Jackson, TJ Hawkinson. And then you take Jamar Chase, and then you take Robbie Anderson, and then Will Fuller or something like that. What do you think about that kind of team?

The risk involved with that is obviously you're taking three players at the most volatile position and hoping that they all hit to the level of either what they have in the past, like Aaron Jones, or as Chris talked about, what Joe Mixon can do this year. And then DeAndre Swift, we know he's battling an injury already. So you're just putting a little bit more dynamite on your roster. The problem is if those guys do hit, then you're going to be in great shape if those receivers hit. So it's just a matter of what your risk aversion is

and the potential reward. I don't love it i've done it a few times uh not necessarily going quarterback and tight end with the fourth and fifth round picks you know typically i'd look for receivers there but um it can it can work you're just you know putting a lot of ifs on your team now i think the big thing is like i almost did i pretty much did this in the flex league i didn't take my first wide receiver until round five um i had jackson out you picked the wrong way to do that though uh yeah why does it have to be how it unfolded yeah wide receivers were very very inflated and

two flex spots also makes wide receivers more more valuable um and i ended up just going for a bunch of upside wide receivers, you know, Jamar chase, we'll follow me, Cole Hardman, Rondell Moore, Jalen Rager, Curtis Samuel, Emmanuel Sanders, Paris Campbell. I hope I can get four useful wide receivers out of that or five useful wide receivers. But, um, the, the thing about, you know, historically the way the positions work relative to one another is running backs have more upside, especially in the early rounds that basically and they hit about the same rate in the first three rounds in terms of like getting to 200 points. After that, wide receivers become much more predictable than running backs.

But as with running back, you're still passing up on upside with wide receivers once you get out of the first couple of rounds. And so that's where you run into some issues where you're getting, quote unquote, safe wide receivers after the first five rounds, but they don't necessarily have the huge upside. But wide receivers are inconsistent from week to week. That's just kind of the the way the position works more so than running backs and so you know you could end up being really frustrated with the situation that you have and if you should assume one out of every three starting running backs is probably going to suffer some sort of injury that costs him significant time and then you know even the hit rate on those early round

running backs is like 70% in terms of getting to 200 PPR points. So it's just, it's inviting a lot of risk on your team. It's, it's a viable strategy. Anything's a viable strategy, but if you're going to go three running backs with your first three picks in a two running back league, you probably shouldn't draft more than one or two other running backs. The rest of the draft. Like if you take three running backs with your first three picks and then draft a, a James Robinson in the eighth round,

I think that's probably a mistake. All right. All right, everybody go to CBS sports.com slash eBay. Start bidding. Help us raise some money for St. Jude. We'll talk to you on Tuesday with some sleepers.

We obviously have breakouts and bus coming later this week as well. Thanks to Jamie. Thanks to Chris'll talk to you on Tuesday with some sleepers. We obviously have breakouts and busts coming later this week as well. Thanks to Jamie. Thanks to Chris. Thanks to Ben Schrager and Batman. And we will talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Week.