The Herd with Colin Cowherd - FantasyPros - Must-Have Fantasy Football Draft Targets | Expert Picks For EVERY ROUND! (Ep. 1663)

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Join Ryan Wormeli, Andrew Erickson, and Tom Strachan as they highlight their favorite picks and top targets in each round of your 2025 fantasy football drafts! Timestamps: (May be off due to ads) Intro - 0:00:00 Round 1 - 0:00:34 Nico Collins - 0:00:50 Ja’Marr Chase - 0:03:21 Round 2 - 0:06:01 Drake London - 0:06:07 Brock Bowers - 0:09:10 Round 3 - 0:13:50 Omarion Hampton - 0:13:59 Jayden Daniels - 0:16:45 DraftKings BestBall - 0:21:28 Round 4 - 0:23:11 Kenneth Walker - 0:23:19 Davante Adams - 0:26:52 Round 5 - 0:28:42 Tetaroia McMillan - 0:28:45 Xavier Worthy - 0:31:38 Round 6 - 0:33:14 Jaylen Waddle - 0:33:23 Calvin Ridley - 0:35:37 Draft Battle - 0:37:10 Round 7 - 0:38:13 Ricky Pearsall - 0:38:19 Jaylen Warren - 0:41:32 Round 8 - 0:44:01 Jordan Mason - 0:44:47 Emeka Egbuka - 0:46:16 Round 9 - 0:50:55 Tucker Kraft - 0:50:58 Justin Fields - 0:52:20 Chubbies - 0:53:51 Round 10 - 0:55:48 Drake Maye - 0:55:51 Zach Charbonnet - 0:58:15 Rounds 11-15 Rapid Fire - 0:59:06 Signed A.J. Brown Helmet Giveaway - 1:02:39 Absolute Must-Have Player In Each Draft - 1:03:00 FantasyPros Draft Assistant - 1:05:05 Outro - 1:05:35 Helpful Links: 👑 DraftKings Best Ball – Join in on the chance to win your share of $15M in prizes through DraftKings Best Ball Contest! No weekly roster management, set and forget lineups, season-long excitement and a chance at a cut of $15M in prizes! Entry Fee is only $20 and you get a bonus ticket when you sign up at:  Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 8778-HOPENY or text HOPENY at 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Eighteen plus in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. One per customer. Enter the Best Ball $15M headliner contest by 9/4/25 to get one bonus entry. Twenty dollar entry fee required. Reward expires in thirty days. See terms at draftkings.com/nfl-best-ball. Sponsored by DK. Draft Assistant - Get live support during your fantasy football draft with the Draft Assistant. Connect the Draft Assistant to your draft and get real-time suggestions based on expert rankings, team needs, and positional scarcity. Get the most value out of every pick in your fantasy football draft with the Draft Assistant. Learn more at fantasypros.com/assistant or download our Fantasy Football Draft Wizard app on Google Play or App Store. Draft Simulator - Master your draft strategy by testing it out in minutes using our Draft Simulator. The Draft Simulator allows you to practice quick and fun, realistic mock drafts based on your league settings in minutes. Sync your league for FREE and try it today at fantasypros.com/mock. Draft Battle - Stay in the game all season long with Draft Battle! You can enter snake draft contests every week all season long! Use promo code fantasypros or visit draftbattle.com and receive $5 in bonus cash towards your first contest! Chubbies - Want to level up your gameday wardrobe? Chubbies has bold designs for all of their officially licensed NFL gear! Use code FantasyPros at chubbiesshorts.com for $10 off your order.  Follow us on Twitch - The team here at FantasyPros is taking questions all week, every week on Twitch. We've got exclusive live content there every single weekday. Follow us on Twitch at twitch.tv/fantasypros and never miss a stream! Discord – Join our FantasyPros Discord Community! Chat with other fans and get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed. Come get your questions answered and BE ON THE SHOW at fantasypros.com/chat Leave a Review – If you enjoy our show and find our insight to be valuable, we’d love to hear from you! Your reviews fuel our passion and help us tailor content specifically for YOU. Head to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts and leave an honest review. Let’s make this show the ultimate destination for fantasy football enthusiasts like us. Thank you for watching and for showing your support – https://fantasypros.com/review/ BettingPros Podcast – For advice on the best picks and props across both the NFL and college football each and every week, check out the BettingPros Podcast at bettingpros.com/podcast, our BettingPros YouTube channel at youtube.com/bettingpros, or wherever you listen to podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy Pro's football podcast. I'm Ryan warmly. joined by Andrew Erickson and by Tom Stracken. Guys, we are talking must have expert picks for every round. This is a jam-packed episode. We are going through our top target through rounds one through 10. We are also doing a more rapid fire version, rounds 11 through 15. We're going to hit on kind of like our favorite guy overall. A lot of names to get through. So we're going to do no like preamble how you do it no pleasantries at the top we all know each other we're diving right in here round one i do want to remind everybody though that all of our 2025 consensus

rankings and tiers can be found at fantasy pros dot com slash rankings round number one like i said we're going all the way through round 15 ericsson who is your top must have expert pick target in round one well assuming that you're not picking inside the top five because i feel pretty strong about that. I went for a player that goes outside the top five that with a pick one, six through 12, you can get this guy, I think, almost every time. Nico Collins, wide receiver of the Houston Texans. If you look at the betting markets, Jamar Chase, surprising no one, is the favorite to leave the NFL in receiving yards. Right next to him, according to the betting pros, odds that we have listed, second shortest odds to leave the NFL in receiving yards, it's one,

Mr. Nico Collins. So I think that his C-O-Colns. So I think that his C-O-Mexam, as the clear-cut alpha in this Texans passing offense is immense. Last two years with C.J. Stroud, he's top five in receiving yards per game. By receiver six last year in terms of points per game, I think that he's going to see a boatload of targets. He's been super efficient. So I think that when in doubt, if you're kind of nervous about maybe some of the running backs at the back end of round one, you just want to lock and load with an alpha stud wide receiver who's going to put up 1,500 yards a season. If he stays healthy, Nico Collins is the guy for me.

Nico is my wider receiver for this year. The reason that I basically have, I have no neighbors, I have no Aminra, I have no Puka. I have like no Derek Henry, Ash and Genti this year is because every time I'm on the board in the second half of the first, Nico is there. And I'm like, if you take out that elite group of six guys, the three receivers, three running backs that I think we all agree are tier one overall. Like, Nico is my seventh pick. And he's usually available a couple spots later. Some leagues, maybe not, but he usually is. and I disagree with everything you said

The only thing I'm worried about is Did they do enough to fix the offensive line And will that kind of hamstring the passing offense? But it's been bad the last two years I agree Yes, that's the thing We've seen that he can produce with it being bad But just for going the Bengals route

You don't care about your offensive line And you just pass the ball in a moment of all Yeah And I like if they are doing I like Jaden Higgins, I like Jalennell But like they will be throwing to Nico Collins And they're still rookies And no part of me is worried about like, oh, Stroud took a step back in a year or two.

Like, I think that was offensive line related. I still think he's really good. Certainly good enough to support a guy who, like, all the experts who know what they're talking about with receivers, like Matt Harmon is like, Nico Collins is like the fourth best receiver in football. Like, like, he is really, really good. He's paired with a great young quarterback. I think they've done at least just enough to make the opposite line better. And even if they didn't, I don't think it matters. Like, I love Nico this year.

And I'm so happy to get him late in the first every single time. Tom, you went in a different direction where you didn't limit it to, like, oh, who can most people get that's available? For your pick, you got to have the number one pick. Look, right, this is the favorite picks in each round. So, like, if I have to choose the favorite pick, then it's Jamar Chase. And look, getting the 101 is a treat. I've done almost 300 drafts this offseason. And the amount of times I've got the 101 has been disappointingly small.

So, of course, I want to talk about Jamar Chase, because there's good reason why he is the consensus. Like last year he had almost 200 yards more than anyone else. He tied with Justin Jefferson at 18 end zone targets. He just became a red zone monster. That's something that Andrew was talking about last year, about how when you lead the league in red zone targets, it becomes much easier to have the chance to become the wide receiver one overall. And last year was the first year where it felt like T. Higgins wasn't hampering Jemar

Chase's upside whatsoever. Chase actually averaged more points with T. Higgins out there, 24.7 PPR points compared to when Higgins was missing at 21.3. And yes, it is quite rare for 101 players to repeat, but I just don't doubt him at all. Because last year, the Bengals passed defense ranked 28th in DVOA, and you can make the argument that it looks so much worse this year.

So yeah, I think this one, it's definitely a layer, but I don't get enough chances to talk about Jamar Chase because it's just been assumed since, like, March, that he is the consent of Spawn-O-1, and we don't need to talk about it. Jamar Chase deserves to be talked about. I love Bejan Robinson. I think he's a really, really, really strong second overall pick.

But to me, even as much as I love a guy like that at number two, I don't think there's any question. Every time somebody asks me, who should I take 101? Like, I don't care what the scoring format. I don't care anything. Jamar Chase, because unlike Saquan Barkley, there's not this built-in fear of taking this injury-related step back at this position like we have with Berkeley.

And those were the two guys who had these. historic seasons last year, barring a fluky, not predictable, fluky injury for Chase or Burrow, I don't understand what the case is against Chase being the number one player in fantasy again this year. I really don't. Like, it's such a, it's like maybe the most perfect position, this situation, I should say, that a fantasy wide receiver has ever been in like marrying talent, the quarterback, the defense, just all of it. Like, I, Chase is such an easy 101 for me.

Having said that, I really like picking late in the first round because I love, Love, love, love, doubling up on receiver. My favorite two receivers to double up on, it's rare that I can pull this off. But it is doable are Nico Collins and Drake London, which leads us to... That's exactly who I was going to say that leads us right into Erickson's pick here in round two. Erickson, you are laying out my perfect draft here. It's Wormsford perfect draft. It's Erickson's perfect draft.

We're holding here. Yeah, Drake London, that's the guy for me in round two. And I would take him in round one if you forced me to. if Nico Collins just got taken, I would easily take Drake London in the first round. Again, talking about the red zone targets and how that's a signal for wide receiver one overall seasons that are coming. Well, Drake London, since he's entered the NFL, is number one in wide receiver red zone target rate.

Last year, he was top five in red zone targets. And the thing is, he's putting up the yardage. It's been there. So he's one of three receivers over the last two seasons to have at least 2,000 receiving yards, but he only has 11 touchdowns. So could he put up a Terry McClure? chlorine like touchdown total attached to Michael Pennix, who I think is a wide receiver elevator. We saw him do it at the college level where guys like Jalen Polk, Roma Dunzei, Janik McMillan,

were getting drafted inside the top three rounds of the real NFL draft because Michael Pinnock's helped boost their numbers. So again, the right tackle injury is concerning for the Falcons losing Caleb McGarry, especially when he is the blind side protector for Michael Pennix. Like the Falcons really couldn't afford to lose a right tackle more like other teams because Michael Penning's is a left-handed quarterback. But besides that, I mean, everything else is wheels up for Drake London to be a top five wide receiver. If not, put his hat in the ring for wide receiver one overall if tomorrow chase is unable

to repeat. Nico Collins is my wide receiver four. Drake Leonard is my wide receiver five. And you can come out of drafts getting both of them. It's my favorite start that you could possibly have for every, I mean, I have really nothing to add, Erickson, every, all the reasons you laid out Michael Pennox, just the talent, everything we've seen. I can't understand why he is currently the 16th overall player in our expert consensus rankings.

His ADP is the same as it was last year. I don't get it. And I was fading and watching. I remember doing it. Again, like, he's the reason. I love Brian Thomas Jr. this year, right? Like, I want to take swings on Christian McCaffrey.

I love Derek Henry. I don't understand what people are more excited about. We just saw this fit in Baltimore. He didn't slow down at all. I love Ashton Genti as a rookie running back. But I want to come away with Nico and London because they are just that one. better. Tom, you said that you kind of knew that's the name I was going to throw out there. Do you agree with that as London is just like this ideal early second round target?

Yeah, absolutely in late. Unlike Erickson, I was in on the Drake London height last year. So this year, I assume that he'd be into round one for all the reasons we saw down the back end last year. The fact that Michael Pennecks with an offseason cater to him can take another step forward. And it's been surprising that there's still this little bit of hesitation. and I think it links back to what Erickson said about the touchdowns. The biggest surprise for me has been the fact that we're heading into year four for Drake London and the Falcons haven't locked him up with the contract already because that's only going to get more expensive than this time next year that you could be looking at like a market second contract.

If I don't take London, if I don't have like this early second round pick where I'm getting one of those London, Gentie, Henry, Thomas, like whichever of those guys is falling there, my next favorite pick in round two is actually the guy that you're going with. here, Tom. Let's go. Again, like, this is one which might seem a bit of a layer, but round two is so stacked this year. There were several players that I really like, there's several players that I think are going to outplay their ADP significantly, but Brock Bowers, and I thought Brock Bowers was going to be firmly part of round one when drafts opened, like kind of like we saw with Travis Kelsey, because the 153 targets he got last year, that's only been bettered once.

Zach Ertz had 156 targets. I mean, only Evan Ingram and Zachert have beaten the 112 tight-end receptions that Brock Bowers got in his rookie year. And now we're talking about just huge upgrades across the board. You've got Chip Kelly who likes to run fast-paced offense. The Raiders last year they ranked fourth in pass attempts, but in completion rate over-expected, Minchu ranked 27th, Aidan O'Connell ranked 39th out of 46 quarterbacks with 100 plus attempts. So he was getting attempts they were targeting him, they weren't that value, much like Malik Navors, but Gino, in completions over-expected,

ranked 4th last year. So the value in the targets this year is going to be so much better. Yards per attempt, Gino ranked 13th last year, and the two Raiders quarterbacks were back-to-back at 33rd and 34th. Even if Bowers doesn't hit this kind of like 112, 120 receptions, there's room for him to grow with more touchdowns because he only started scoring touchdowns later on in the season.

I just think the offence is going to be more efficient, able to stay on the field much more often and we are looking at a true superstar for the next seven or eight years. He is 18th in overall ECR. I have him 15th overall and I'm much closer to moving him higher than I am moving him lower. I have a

very clear top 15. I'm happy if I get any two guys in that group. Powers is in that group for me. I a generationally good tight end prospect coming out of college who had a record setting rookie season. We have never seen any evidence that he is not going to be an elite tight end. I don't

know why we would talk ourselves out of that continuing. And the reason I don't like taking tight on early historically is because I'm worried about them repeating and being correct. Like Sam Leporta, maybe more of a fluky rookie season, just relative to prospect pedigree. He was really good. I don't want to diminish what Leporta did. Bowers, I have full faith. He is going to repeat, if not maybe even add on to what he did last year in year two with a quarterback upgrade. So I have anybody who's like Tight end second round is that okay Yes I would take him and run

If those other 14 guys that I really like You that top group are off the board Early second I love him Yeah and Leport always looked That little bit more fragile didn't it Because he scored nine touchdowns as a rookie Nobody else that year had scored more than six So it was easy to write in with Bowers

I just don't know what argument you can make For regressing him Yeah Erickson we'll go a little quicker On some of the later rounds But I do want to get your opinion on Bowers here As like that second round tight end guy Well, I think that the reason we sometimes get concerned about taking Titans this high is because they're usually coming off like the Leporta seasons where they score a lot of touchdowns. I mean, go back to the Jimmy Graham Grankowski years where they're scoring 15, 16, 17 touchdowns.

And then they don't repeat because then scores many touchdowns. But, and again, we haven't talked about him, but Tray McBride and Brock Bowers, like, they didn't score touchdowns last year. Like, what if they actually do score touchdowns while also seeing the same amount of volume? So that's where you get concerned about if I don't take one of these. top tier tight ends, and they end up scoring eight, nine, ten touchdowns with Brock Bowers. Now getting a quarterback upgrade with Gino Smith. I think that's under discuss, too. I know Tom mentioned it here a little bit, but Gino Smith is a massive upgrade over Aden O'Connell

as the quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders. They're scoring more points, playing in more high-paced games. They play in a dome. Man, Brock Bowers, yes, he plays tight end, but he's really more of a slot receiver. Like, just look at his routes run last year. He's running from the slot. So not a traditional inline tight end. And although the preseason usage hasn't necessarily been great,

they also haven't been running a lot of 12 personnel, which I think is going to be similar that they're going to be playing more of. And that means Brock Bowers is competing for targets with Michael Mayer, Jacoby Myers, who is very good, but I still think not an alpha player and Dante Thornton, who is a fourth round pick that didn't command a target share at Tennessee. So I think that Brock Bowers is going to be fine.

And if he scores the touchdowns, well, that's when you see him being a round one pick next season. Elite prospect who had an elite rookie season, who upgraded his quarterback and his play caller and the offensive situation around him, but without overly upgrading the pass catchers around him. Like, what could be more perfect than this? So, yeah, I'm all in on Bowers in that elite group of players. Let's go to round three, Erickson.

This is the first one where I do start to look a little bit of a different direction than you. But I get it. Everybody is very much on the hype with the guy you're about to say here. Yeah, well, I'll admit. I'll be the first to admit. Round three, this is the last round that I picked. when I was doing my picks because I think that there are so many different directions you can go in.

So I went with Omerian Hampton running back for the Los Angeles Chargers because I just want to make a bet on a first round rookie running back with elite draft pedigree where he should see as many opportunities as Ashen Genti potentially with Najee Harris, just a non-factor in this offense. I don't know what Najee Harris's going to be. I don't know when he's coming back. And that's why I was first hesitant about really buying into Omerin Hampton. But the more time Najee has missed under a new coaching staff, the more optimistic I am about, well, Maryne Hampton is going to be the guy here. So I just think that when you zoom out, first round rookie running backs tend to be really productive from the get-go because

they see immediate opportunities. And Mary Hampton was an immediate producer at the call's level. He can catch passes out of the back. Well, he's a four-down skill set. That's what Harbaugh talked about. This guy can play on every single down. And I'm just not convinced that Kamani Vidal is going to force his way onto the field. Like after what they saw last year from J.K. Dobbins, who started out good, but then sputtered out. Gus Edwards, I think that, they're going to see on Marion Hampton shot out of a cannon and be, yeah, I think we're going to continue to use this guy as our bell cow. So for me, it's Amerian Hampton. But I'll admit, I thought about Tray McBride here. I think that the elite quarterbacks in this round are also

just the safest picks that you can make. You want to go Lamar, Josh Allen, and not try to take a risk on a running back or receiver. I think that's totally fine as well. So this was a round that I struggled with. But based on my build here, where I went wide receiver, wide receiver, I wanted to get a rookie running back. So I went with Hampton. There also are a lot of running backs in this round three in round four. And you have a guy in round four that I really like, too, that I would maybe even consider in round three. There's a lot of running backs in what I am just buying into. Like, I don't care about what history says about running backs in this range. I like a lot of the guys here. Hampton, like, I hope you're right. Because I love the player. Like, he was so good at North Carolina. I have him on like a campus to Canton League team. So I've been watching him closely for a while, a great player. And the idea of the fit is so strong. But just because Greg Rowan likes to run the ball, does it mean. me he likes to have a bell cow historically he does not give too many carries to any one individual running back and i don't know if hampton will be the guy to break that streak now the fact that naji is dealing with the eye stuff helps omerian hampton in that regard but the offensive line takes a hit

without slater i'm not sure what kind of belcow usage there's going to be Greg roman offensive typically don't throw to the running back a lot so i don't know how many passes he's going to catch so there's just enough for me to say like in the third round that's too aggressive for my blood i like the player. I like the idea of the fit. And I would be really thrilled to be proven wrong, but I'm just looking elsewhere in this round, Erickson. Now, Tom, you do pick one of these elite quarterbacks here instead of looking at running back or receiver. Yeah, I mean, it would have been very easy for me to pick our guy Lamar, but like, I thought I'm a little insulted you didn't, honestly, given that you and I are on the show together. We do have a habit of staying away from

Ravens when we're both on the show. But I went with Jane Daniels and it's more because I think that there's still some meat left on the bone there, I think that he can still ascend to another level. Like, there's only three quarterbacks who across the course of their career average over 50 rushing yards per game. It is Lamar, Justin Fields, and Jane Daniels. Now, obviously, Jane Daniels has done that on a much smaller sample size than Lamar and even Justin Fields. But last year, he led the league in yards per attempt on throws outside the pocket, which was something I wasn't expecting to see from him. It just showed a level of calmness that I didn't necessarily expect to see because look I got things wrong last year on Jane Daniels not to the point

where I wasn't drafting him but I was out there cutting up all these videos of him getting absolutely sandwiched by linebackers and taking these monstrous big hits and I just thought this guy is not going to survive and then you see him in the NFL under pressure and just looking so incredibly calm and so good with it that I think that he really well he proved me wrong and you prove a lot of doubt was wrong and now you're throwing Debo Samuel yes there was was that moment where it was like, oh, look at Fat Debo, who can't run very fast and everybody had a great time for a couple of weeks on the internet. But now he seems good. Like, we saw only a snippet of him in preseason, but he looked like he had some burst to him. And Jane Daniels,

this kind of goes back to the Brock Bowers point about touchdowns. He didn't get there last year on touchdowns. It was only six Russian touchdowns, which isn't an unsustainable amount there, like the numbers that Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts get every year, where you're talking double digits. It's easy to make arguments year on year that those numbers might regress even though they don't. But Jane Daniels did it with just rushing the ball at reasonable rates,

six Russian touchdowns, and passing the ball really damn well. And now he gets to Debo, Samuel as an upgrade. I would really like to see Terry McLaren out there soon. But it's just so hard to ignore that only Lamar Jackson had more top 12 weekly finish than Jane Daniels 12 last year. I...

So for me, if I'm taking a tier one quarterback and I agree that Daniels belongs in tier one. I'm not trying to make the point that people should be fading him in general. I would just rather reach a little earlier and get the guys who have done it multiple years in Allen and Lamar or I would rather wait a half round or around and take Jalen Hertz because they didn't get rid of the tush push, right? Like he's still going to be his usual self. Like we've only seen it once for Daniels and the other guys are so strong around him in this tier. Like I would take him well ahead of like Joe Burrow for example. But of that elite four, he is the one I

I'm targeting least because I would rather wait and get hurts or I'd rather reach and say like Allen and Lamar are just a different kind of animal when it comes to fantasy production and just get one of them. Erickson, I'm curious when you approach an elite quarterback build is Daniels somebody that you're getting. I think that I kind of agree with what you said where I kind of just pay a little bit more to get Lamar, Josh Allen or wait to get hurts a little bit because he seems to always kind of fall into that round four territory.

and it's just about this Terracorne thing, right? Like, the guy's still not there, and he was their number one wide receiver. So how, I mean, look, we've been proven wrong, but before this, guys have lost their number one receivers, Patrick Bohm's lost Terry Kill, and threw for 5,000 yards the next year. Josh Allen lost all of his receivers last year.

Didn't matter. He won the MVP. So maybe we're reading too much into the McLaren thing, but I would feel much better about taking my elite quarterback in round three if his number one wide receiver was actually on the field and not getting ramped up for week one. So that's my only hesitance on Jane Daniels. They'll saw it out.

They'll figure it out. They've got to get it done before the season. It's just not, they can't treat Terry McLaren like that. By the way, I want to highlight something. So Marion Hanton, if you look at the rankings that I mentioned at the top of the show, is more of like a mid-fourth round pick. The reason Erickson hasn't been around three is because he's basing his off of real-time ADP, which is his really awesome feature that Fantasy Pros added literally earlier this week.

It is brand new. ADP is like a bit of a lagging indicator in terms of like there's a lot of noise built in from earlier drafts on the season. So guys like Amerian Hampton who have a lot of helium, guys like Bill Kroski-Marrett, who might come up later. Those guys, their ADP that you might look at on a pre-existing sheet is not going to be reflective of where they're actually going in drafts. Omerian Hampton in real-time ADP is RB13 right smack in the middle of the third round.

So I wanted to highlight that difference between the rankings. and where these guys are actually going in drafts. I also want to highlight Draft Kings. Get in the game. Bestball is live at Draft Kings. $15 million is on the line with real stakes and real excitement. Bestball is the biggest fantasy contest at Draft Kings. We're talking a $15 million guaranteed prize pool with two millionaires being crowned for first and second place.

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Enter the Best Ball 15 million headliner contest by 9-425 to get one bonus entry. $20 entry fee required. Reward expires in 30 days. See terms at draft kings.com slash NFL dash best dash ball. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new?

Huge news. We created our own podcast. called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there.

But this one's extra special. So how did we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember. going down?

Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman

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Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves.

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Let's go to round four here. Erickson. I know I didn't agree with you in round three. We're back to our round one and two, love, because this is my favorite pick in round four you could possibly make. Well, I did open round three saying that it was the toughest round for me to pick a player. So I,

Homer and Hampton is probably not my most confident pick. But here I feel much more confident, and it's Kenneth Walker as my pick in round four. I just think the upside case for him in this Clint Kubiak offense is a top five fantasy running back. We saw last year, Alvin Camara, was number one and expected fantasy points per game in this Clint Kubiak offensive scheme. And I know that Zach Charbonnet has looked pretty good. I still think that he is going to be just the backup to Ken Walker.

I think that he will have opportunities if Walker misses time to smash as that backup in full Dalvin Cook, Alexander Madison fashion. I think that's what this is. And Kubiak was with Minnesota during that Dalvin Cook, Alex's his time. Alexander, Madison during those heydays. And they had one guy that was the bell cow. And then when he missed time, they had someone else be the bell cow. So that's what I think it's going to be like with Ken Walker.

And he's been out. He's following the script of what McDonnell has talked about in terms of they're resting him, making sure that he's maintenance and he's ready to go for week one for the season. Because once he's ready and out there playing, I think that he's going to be their bell cow. He showed last year the past catching chops that we were waiting to see if he still had. Bet on guys that are explosive, that catch passes and favorable offensive. schemes, and that is Ken Walker 2A.T. So he showed no signs last year besides the injury. The guy's a miss tackle, broken tackle machine. That's all he does. So if he stays healthy,

he's going to be a top five fantasy running back. I'm very convinced of that. And we're making bets about Christian McCaffrey. What if he stays healthy? Devon H.N., what if he stays healthy. Well, Ken Walker is available in round four. I think he has a ton of upside. So that's who I'm circling as my running back. One of the guys I'm drafting. Yeah, Tom. I'm curious what you think about Walker because like if you guaranteed me health I'd say like erics I'm like yeah this dude's top six running back in fantasy for sure but that he's not going in the top six that the health risk which to me is the only risk I am not overly concerned about Charbonnet the health is the only risk and that is baked it he's RB 15 in real-time ADP and he's closer to moving down he's very close to

RB 16 and 17 there's a gap between RB 14 and RB 15 like he is not in that range I I don't agree with that. Like, I'm very happy to take him there. If he gets to the fourth round, I am taking him 100% of the time because the upside is a guy that produces like a first round pick. Yeah, I think the kind of a knock on him has always been that we haven't really seen as much of the receiving role, but I don't think it's because he can't do it. I just think it's like Zach Chabney is probably a little bit better, so why not split that workload? And as Erickson kind of touched on briefly, like all offseason, everything the Seahawks have done have made as convinced that this is going to be a ground and pound

offense. They've got rid of DK Metcalf, moved on from Tyler Lockett. They moved on from Gino and taking a cheaper option in Sam, well, sorry, a younger option in Sam Darnold. But I would say not necessarily as good a passer of the ball. And it all just feels like they're doing this as a big reaction to Ryan Grub, who was the offensive coordinator last year. There seemed to be a few occasions where Mike McDonald seemed annoyed that they hadn't run the ball more in games particularly against the Giants was one that stands out that reports suggested he was

particularly annoyed about so i'm very much in on kenneth walker i like both v seahawk seahawks running backs at cars i'd take either of them i promise that i want to disagree with erics and more i'm looking ahead at some of his picks i'm like man he really did lay out like my perfect draft which is uh kind of discouraging and i should say scary to me um tom who's your picking round four It's Devante Adams, wide receiver 18 overall, and I would have taken him in round three, to be honest. I feel really good about him. I just think that he is the perfect kind of piece to not only unlock Pook and Akua, unlock Matthew Stafford again, but unlock this round's offense. Last year it felt like they had to rely on the ground game, perhaps a little bit more than they like.

And what Devonte Adams brings is the fact that he can get open, whereas Cooper Cup just couldn't get open last year. Devonty Adams ranked 58th in the SPN's open score metric compared to Cup, who ranked 108th out of 116 qualifying wide receivers last year. Adams, like, it was obviously a slow start to the season, but once he got out of Vegas, he averaged 2.2 yards per route run, 76.6 yards per game, even with like the ghost of Aaron Rogers. And I think the Rams need somebody like Devonty Adams,

who has been a red zone threat for years, because Pook and Akua, on 266 targets across, last two years, there's nine receiving touchdowns, which is just, that's inefficient. And I'm not putting all of the blame on Pook and Akua, but you need somebody who can be a reliable Red Zone weapon. And I think Devante Adams can be that. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he hit double-digit touchdowns this year. You're not worried about Stafford's back, I guess?

I mean, if you're saying that you would even take Devante as high as round three. Yeah, I mean, the fact that he's out there now, I mean, we've got a good couple of weeks. Matthew Stafford is one of those guys who's been banged up. for his whole career, hasn't he? It just felt like the whole time he was in Detroit, he was constantly dealing with stuff. It's not the first time that we've done this kind of thing with Matthew Stafford and when the game start being played,

unless it's really drastic, then I'm okay taking that risk, and I think that it's a significant upside swing. He has an argument as, like, the toughest player in football. He plays through a lot, for sure. Round five, Erickson, make me happy again. Tentaroa McMillan, wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. I just think that he's being drafted closer to his floor than his ceiling, which, I mean, he could be a fantasy wide receiver one this year.

That would not surprise me to all just based on what we've seen from Dave Canales's offense over the last two seasons. The wide receiver won in his offense just absolutely eats. We've seen it with Adam Thielen, be really productive, even with Bryce Young struggling at times over the last two seasons. So I must love this opportunity for Tetraud McMillan that went out, drafted him inside the top 10. And you just look at the average production of a wide receiver drafted in the top 10 over the last five. four seasons. 80 catches, over 1,000 yards, just shy of six and a half touchdowns. That's fantasy wide receiver 2 production. So that's where you're getting Tetraud McMillan, but then you get all this potential upside based on the talent, the fit. If Bryce Young takes

a step forward in year three as a quarterback, and the Carolina Panthers, again, the defense is still bad. Like, yes, it can't be worse than it was last year, but I don't think the Panthers are in a situation. Well, oh yeah, we'll just run the ball in the second half. It'll be great. I just think that it's all kind of set up for Tetraud Mcmillan, who I just think has been undervalued, underspoken, under-talked about in this draft class because he's not Travis Hunter, because he wasn't taking second overall because he doesn't play defense. But hey, it's not going to matter because against the Jaguars, he's going to get the face Travis Hunter, who's going to be playing defense, and he's going to catch a touchdown. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I, anybody who's been listening to show this summer has heard my spiel about Tederoa McMillan a lot. So apologies if you've heard this before. But this time of year, we get a lot of listeners that weren't listening early in the summer. So I'm going to do it Again, I think he's not as good a player is Malik neighbors, but I think the best comp is Malik neighbors in terms of where he was going last year and where he'll be going a year from now. This is the cheapest that Tedroa McMillan will be available in fantasy drafts in his entire career, at least for the next eight to 10 years. Like I feel really strongly that, you know, again, top 10 receivers tend to be really good,

especially in the current era. He is the clear number one in this offense. He's in a offense designed by a play caller who can take advantage of a clear number one. And the other thing is Bryce Young doesn't need to take a step forward compared to what he was in the second half of last year. He just needs to be what he was in the second half of last year. And that is more than good enough to support an elite talent, which I think Teteroa McMillan is. I think a year from now, this guy's like an early second round pick at worst. Like, I genuinely believe that.

I just think he's really, really good. And the offense, the situation is so good. And the defense is bad. Like, they're going to need to throw a lot. So he is one of my favorite picks you could possibly make. I don't understand why he's available in round five. I don't understand why his real-time ADP is wide receiver 26. Like, not even inside the top 24.

For me, he's inside the top 20, probably inside the top 18, honestly. Like, I want to be aggressive. I want to be over my skis on Teta Row and McMillan because I think he will work out for it. He is somebody that I want to come away with in every single draft, especially if his capital state, you know, his, you know, cost stays where it is right now. And now, Tom, I know I keep talking of Erickson's picks. I do really like your pick here as well. Well, I mean, I've got a point out Erickson beat me to the show. Joshi and there's definitely a lot of crossover and players I would have chose, including

Tetaroa. But yeah, Xavier Worthy, I just think that it's all setting up to be another good season for Xavier Worthy. Now, Rashi Rice is going to serve a suspension at some point. That is TBC, but it seems hard to imagine it's going to be less than, what, five games at a bare minimum. And by that point, you're talking, it's been a good run of games where Xavier Worthy has been able to integrate himself into the offense.

We know down the stretch last year that he really came along. the average 15.6 ppr points from week 11, which was good for wide receiver 19 across that time. The one area where you can put sort of like pull holes in the process last year was that he only had three receptions on passes of 20 plus yards last year. They really try to get that going. He was targeted on 17 of them and ranked 61st among wide receivers with 10 deep targets in catchable target rate. So Mahomes wasn't able to get in the ball deep downfield. My Homes have talked extensively about being better in the deep game this year. So if a couple of those, two, three, turn into touchdowns,

it's very easy to see Xavier worthy paying off like that. It's easy to see him having a really good run of games where Rashi Rice is out and he becomes a volume hog. And I think at this cost, we still seem to be getting a discount based on the fact that we don't know how many games Rashi Rice is suspended for. So I'd be very comfortable taking him here and I'd be comfortable pushing him even a couple of picks higher among wide receivers. Eric, I want to go to round six And this is maybe the name That I have heard you say on the show That since we have started doing shows together

Most often, I think It's Jay and the Waddle Round 6, Jay and La Waddle Every single time John Smith is gone Terry Kill may not be on this roster By the time week four, week five rolls around And Devon A Chan has already banged up

Like this is all they got left Is Janel Waddle as the focal point of this office They have no choice but to feature Jalen Waddle, unlike last year, where they just totally forgot about him. So Waddle to me, yes, I know that last year and even the year before that, just not exactly what we wanted to get from him. But I just can't forget the first two years that he did in the NFL, where he was, I believe, top 10 and then top 13. Three 1,000-yard seasons start his career. He's shown that he can win in multiple ways, whether it be a ton of volume as a rookie or high-end efficiency, years two and three. So I'm just not willing to write off Jane La Waddle as this guy is not a talented player.

He's 26 years old. I think that if we're expecting Tyree Kill, which I do, to take a step back or if the dolphins decided to move on from him, because clearly the chemistry with Tua is not there. There's no chemistry issues with Jay and Waddle and Tua. These guys have been playing together since Alabama. So that's what I'm banking on. If this defense is horrible, they have a major question marks in their secondary. They're playing in shootouts.

I think Waddle is going to be the main benefactor. and I think that his cost and value is just going to increase as the season goes on. So, Jay and Lwattle for me, maybe this is my last year backing Jane Llewado. I was going to say, like, at a certain point, you know, you need to dig your heels. But I'm going to go down with the ship because I've done this before where I've hopped off the bandwagon too early. I was too early on a player. Coralyn Sutton comes to mind after he's had a couple really great seasons after I went too aggressive on him earlier in my fantasy analyst career. So I'm trying to learn from that.

And yeah, I'm not backing off Jalen Wallet yet. Waddle is a sneaky Kyle Pitts All-Star, like how many times do you go back to this well? And keep getting, you know, burned by it. Well, see, I do like the pick. Like round six, I think it's a very good pick to me. This is actually probably the single round where I like to, outside of the early rounds where you like everybody. I think this is the round where your guys' picks. Like, I don't know that I could pick between them.

I really like both of them. I think they're both very, very strong and pretty, like, dead. Even in my eyes in terms of where they should be ranked. So Tom, you have Calvin Ridley here, and why do you like him? Yeah, I mean, much like Erickson, Calvin Ridley's been my guy all offseason. I think he's just been undervalued compared to where he should be. There's only seven teams who have the wide receiver one drafted later than Calvin Ridley right now, and I don't think that reflects how good of a player Calvin Ridley is.

Last year, Will Levis absolutely killed his fantasy value. Among wide receivers were 50 plus targets last year. Calvin Ridley ranked 78th, Incatchable Target rate. That was out of 85 players. Like, the ball was just, it was coming his way, but it wasn't particularly useful. But when he did have the ball, he ranked 15th for mistackles forced, eighth in yards per reception. Camp reports have been positive about Cam Ward all summer. It looks like the offensive line's going to be better.

And Ridley, he's been over 1,000 yards in each of his last three healthy seasons, including last year with Will Levis. I just can't imagine that he's not more productive this year when his main source of competition is Elykeye Omanor, Tyler Locker, and Chigosi-McConquo. Yeah, like he's still He's wider receiver 30 in real time ADP By the way Waddle is Widerstiver 29 In real time ADP so they're back to back

At the position But I'm just like he should be in the 20s Like I'd rather have him than Zayflowers I'd rather have him than Jameson Williams I might rather have him than Cortland Sutton I'd rather have him than DK Metcalf I just like I don't It should not be in the 30s

His ADP amongst receivers People are afraid of the week one matchup They know the sharp plays Don't draft him Trade for him after week one And yeah, he will be a value this season, assuming health. Like, I'm extremely confident on that. Weekly draft fantasy football is here.

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pierceau talk us through it yeah san francisco 49ers i think he's going to be the number one wide receiver on this team at least out of the gates look showed out at the end of last year week 17 and 18 and this 49ers team just needs wide receiver bodies out there everybody is banged up ran Nyuk is not going to return until at least week six. When Joe Juan Jennings is dealing with a calf and contract injury dispute. Debo Samuel is no longer on the roster, now on the commanders. So Ricky Pearson, again, we see a lot of receivers take a step going from year one to year two. And I can't get it out of my mind where in 2023, the talk of 49ers training camp was Brian

Nyuk. Oh my God, Brian Nyuk. He's going to break out. He's going to smash. And that's exactly what he did. He was an absolute monster. And this year, the talk of training camp out for the 49ers has been. Bricky Pearsall. So the fact that he's actually had a full offseason where he's not recovering from

a gunshot wound. He's not a rookie anymore. He's more familiar with Brock Purdy. Actually getting reps with his quarterback. I think that matters so much. And why I like buying into Pearsall here in round seven is I don't have any concerns about his quarterback. I know Brock Purdy can support offensive receivers in this Kyle Shanahan scheme. I have no issues with that. So getting someone that's attached to Brock Purdy in round seven as a former first round pick from just one season ago. I think Ricky Pearsall is just one of the easiest clicks that you can make. We, Erickson, we did the segment on Fantasy Fest, which if anybody missed, they should go and check out it's still available on YouTube.

You can go rewatch, you know, pick and choose whichever segments you want out of the several hours we were streaming. We did a segment with Andy Barron's and he picked Pearsall as his favorite wide receiver breakout. I think he said he had him, correct me if I'm misremembering, inside his top 24 receivers. Isn't that what he said? Yeah. He had him very aggressive.

Yeah. I think that he was in the conversation of do I want DJ more or do I want Ricky Pierce, so that's where he was at with Pierceall. But I mean, if he is the 49ers wide receiver one, goes out week one, sees 10 targets. He's going to be ranked way closer to the top 20. It's like Calvin Ridley where it's like the ADP is just wrong. Like he's just flat out wrong. He's wide receiver 35 in real time ADP going in the 80s.

And it's jumped up a lot. He's moved up 14 spots in the overall ADP inside the last week. But that's not high enough. No, it's not. Last year was so abbreviated for him because of the gunshot and all that went into it. And obviously the nineers just weren't particularly great last year. But in the nine games he played, he had 28 receptions for 376 yards. If he'd held that pace across the entire season, he'd have pushed Marvin Harrison for

the fourth most receiving yards among rookies. He was on track for a good season. It just didn't work out. And I think that, yes, you can point holes slightly insane. maybe he didn't earn targets it as higher level as we might have liked across some of the games early on. But look, I'm not going to pull holes in anything to do with Ricky Pearson. He was a former round one pick for the Niners,

and they've been pretty good at drafting wide receivers. Who's your guy in this, John? And would you have considered Pearsall here if he wasn't already taken by Erickson? Yeah, I mean, it's probably not an easy one for me, but I like both Pearsall and Joanne Jennings. So if I can leave drafts with either of those, I tend to be happy, but I don't have a massive lean to one or the other. My guy is Jailen Warren, R.B. 29 in real-time ADP and somebody that spent a lot of time talking about last year.

And I've been surprised at how many people rumble of Jailan Warren Express last year and have completely jumped off. And it's slowly starting to take hold again now. But, look, Naji Harris average 319 carries per year in his time in Pittsburgh. Last year, he had 250. Now Jalen Warren's never had more than 150 but he said this off-season that he focused on training differently to be ready for more carries.

We know that Caleb Johnson is doing awful impasse protection so it seems like there's a chance for Jail and Warren to really not necessarily become a bell cow or the RB1 consistently for the entire season. But if he's able to average more touches per game then we know that he can be explosive, we know he can be fantasy relevant,

He's averaged 51 receptions per year in his three years in the NFL, now Breece Hall just at 57 with Aaron Rogers last year. Aaron Jones in Rogers' last healthy season in Green Bay had 59. So I think he's going to be bolstered by receptions. And I just think when you're talking about a player this late in the draft, it's very easy to buy into what Jalen Warren brings. Erickson, what do you think about Warren in round seven? I think it's fair value there. I think that he's a bet on early season production while Caleb Johnson gets up to speed. but I'm just, I'm in love with the Caleb Johnson fit in Arthur Smith's offense.

So I'm not as concerned about the pass protection in the long term because they didn't draft him to go out there on pass pro and catch pass out of the backfield. They drafted him so he could be the hammer in the second half to win games 10 to 7 or 17 to 10 in the AFC North. Like that's why they drafted Caleb Johnson. So I agree that Jalen Warren probably goes too late based on the value keen offer, especially in full PPR where he's going to catch passes from Aaron Rogers. And when I draft Caleb Johnson, I'm looking at Jalen Warren too because I can acknowledge I may not be able to start Caleb Johnson out of the gates.

And I might have to rely on Warren until Caleb Johnson gets caught up to speed. But I still think that the upside play for the rest of the season is Caleb Johnson. But I do see Warren as a value where he goes. It's interesting to me that there are only two spots apart in real-time ADP at the position, but they're 14 spots, just 14 and a half spots apart in terms of the overall real-time ADP. So even though they're very close amongst RB rankings, people are taking Caleb. Caleb Johnson, you know, a round-ish, a round plus earlier than Jalen Warren, despite, you know, the level of uncertainty there. Let's go to round eight.

This is another round where I love both for picks, by the way. I want more disagreeing here, but you guys made good picks, and it's bothering me. Sorry, did you want me to come on here and make, these are all the, my best picks that are actually terrible. I wanted your hottest takes that were terrible. I just, yeah. Spoiler for next week. Yeah, next week is going to be the worst picks of every round. Yeah.

Stay tuned. Yeah, it's the first take episode where we just make stupid arguments for the sake of the thing to be. That's me and Erickson on Monday where we talk about our highest exposed basketball players. Oh, yeah, that'll be, that'll be a fun. What do we regret before the season even started? Here by exposures. So for me, round eight, and I think, too, just to be transparent, I think with round eight,

I think this is where you can start to reach a little bit and just get your guys. It's kind of, this is where the beginning of my guys list kind of starts. And that's going to be with Jordan Mason running back for the Minnesota Vikings. I think that I've been on the Mason train. I think ever since he landed in Minnesota, I just always assume like, yeah, he's going to have a big role in this offense. He's going to be the early down grinder.

He's going to see red zone opportunities. And I think the Vikings showed what they did in the offseason by improving the interior offensive line. They want to play a little bit more bully ball with a younger, more inexperienced quarterback. Let JJ McCarthy get accustomed to the offense, let him come back from the injury a little bit slowly. Don't have him.

They'll put everything on his shoulders right away and have to drop back to throw 45 times for game. You have two talented running backs there. I don't think Aaron Jones is dust by any means, but in terms of offering a lot of value from a touchdown perspective, especially in half PPR, Jordan Mason's going to have some big weeks behind this Vikings offensive line. So for me, he's an auto pick.

Every time I'm drafting, I'm always looking for late-round running backs, and Jordan Mason is usually the first guy that I'm looking for. I really, like I said, I like this one a lot. He feels like he's obviously way more than a handcuff. you think of as like a backup, like there's a world where he's just flat out more productive than Aaron Jones. And in a world where Aaron Jones gets hurt or anything, he becomes like a weekly top 10 running back. So I really, really like this pick. Strongly favorite of it.

Nothing to add here, Tom. You can add to it if you want or you can go to your player. Yeah, I mean, force mistackles at the sixth highest rate among running backs last year. And he was also really good on Zone Concept runs, something at which the Vikings do a lot of. So it's an easy pick for me. And another easy pick for me in this range was a meka-reg booker. somebody, like, I'd be willing to pull ahead of this. I half expected I refreshed the real-time ADP just before we came on,

and he'd only move from wide-receiver 37 to wide-receiver 36. I will be pulling Emeka Reg Buka much higher than that, so if you're in my home league, please do not listen to this. But, like, it's just a reminder and not sweat landing spot. Year after year, we get to the draft, and people are like, oh, I loved that player, but now I can't draft him because I don't feel good about this. But now we're short of a good, clean run for a mechereg-Bucca at a start the season.

Jailan-Mittlinson, Sadly, heading to IR due to a sprained neck, could be out as long as like week 10 or so, some reporters saying, Chris Godwin, that injury is nasty that he had last year, dislocated and fractured ankle. They're not putting him on IR to start the season, but he's unlikely to practice even till week two.

And now we're talking about an incredibly talented wide receiver who has the potential to go in and be the slot receiver from day one playing on a team which we know can pass to Ballwell with Baker Mayfield. Like this one just seems really easy, and I would definitely be willing to put him, like I moved him up to my wide receiver 30 yesterday, so I'd take him six spots ahead of this. Yeah, you know, Egbuka's really interesting.

Erickson, I'm curious where you have him ranked because I feel like being in the mid-30s, there are so many just talented receivers in football that it's hard for me to say, like these are the names that he should be moving ahead of specifically, but I just feel like he should be moving up like 10 spots. Like it would not shock me in the slightest, given what's going on in that receiver room.

if he's a top 24 receiver this year. I'm not going to rank him that way because I don't know who I would move down because, again, there's a lot of good options. But I just really think that is in his range of outcomes. And it's a great point by Tom about not sweating, you know, the landing spots and everything. This is a player we all really liked. He got middle to first round draft capital, like even setting aside landing spot. That's a great news for somebody like him.

He's somebody that everybody's really confident is just a capable, going to be a very good NFL receiver for a long time. he gets a gunslinger and Baker like this is an offense that is thrown the ball I mean it's a new play car so we'll see but there's just a lot to really like here and what I'm really curious about Erickson the real time ADP is where it is right now I'm curious what it's going to look like after this weekend

because this is our second to last weekend of drafts we have even more news about Jalen McMillan and Chris Godwin so it started to move a bit already it's jumped up about nine spots in the last week I think this weekend this might jump up even more maybe not amongst the receiver ranking but the overall ranking, I think it will.

I think he's going to move up both categories. I think that he's, you know, someone that someone was asking me about. And I think that was a decision me and Tom had to make was Pearsall versus Egbuka on the Draft King's best ball draft that we did a couple days ago. And now this was before we got more information about McMillan and Chris Godwin. And they're not going to be there. And definitely for the first month, we know McMillan's going to miss at least half of the season. So at the time, it was already kind of close.

but now is Egbuka now going ahead of Pearsall in round seven? I mean, if you want, if I saw him go ahead of Jaylon Waddle, am I like surprised by that? I don't think so. I mean, right now they're both number two wide receivers for week one on their respective teams. I think that the Pearsall comparison is the best because they're both going to have to fend off guys coming back from injuries at a later point down the year. So where Egbuka was at first the bet on, okay, he's going to be more productive in the second half of the season. Evans, God, when these guys are old, they get banged up. and now it's okay, well, he needs to hit right away

or else we're now more concerned about when Chris Gobind's coming back and Egbuka still has it fired yet like we thought he would now are we getting concerned about him? And the same thing with Pearsall. Like Pearsall has to fire right away because I don't think it's necessarily going to get easier for him if Jennings is back now.

Oh, and now Brian Nyuk is back in line if they're trying to get him back and going. So it's kind of weird because it's kind of flipped on its head a little bit in terms of we like rookie receivers to produce in the second half of seasons, but Egbuka now has the path to produce right away and is he ready for it? But, I mean, with all the training camp reports, his profile,

it seems like he's going to probably hit the ground running. The name's immediately ahead of him besides Pearsall, who is the one spot ahead of him in real-time ADP, Roma Duns-A, Chris Alave, Rishi, Rice, Travis Hunter. I would take a Gbuka over all four of those guys right now. That's what I mean. It seems like a pretty clean sweep. Yeah.

I might even, again, we always talk about me fading Zay flowers on the show. I might take, I would probably take a bucko over flowers, honestly. I just think the ceiling's higher. And I think they both have similar floors, honestly. Like I just think like Buccas is really good. And you don't have to take him that early. Although again, I want to see what the real ADP does. And everybody should be checking that out after this weekend.

If you have a draft the following weekend to kind of see what it looks like updated. But I think he's a screaming value right now. Let's go to round nine. Erickson, who do you have for us? My favorite late round tight end, Tucker Kraft. I think that he could be a top five titan when we're drafting next year. He's a yards up to the castor, monster. And a lot of the package receivers are banged up.

I think that he could step up and be the alpha in this Packers passing game. And I think that Tucker Kraft, I think Jordan Love overall is just being underrated as a quarterback that can fuel fantasy success. I mean, two years ago in 2003, in his first year as a starter, he threw for over 30 touchdowns and 4,200 passing yards. If he's healthy, look out for Tucker Kraft. Look out for this Packer's passing offense. Seriously. There are only two tight ends within a 35 pick range in real-time ADP in this range that Kraft is in. Kraft and Tyler Warren. If I don't get one of the elite tight ends this year, which is kind of my preference,

and then maybe I take, like, I do think Andrews is a little undervalued. But if I'm not getting one of those guys, I'm really sure about when one of Kraft or Warren goes, I'm taking the other. Like, I think they are both really excellent picks. Tucker Craft's the only reason I don't have more Tyler Warren. Yeah. Because I just always jacked up Tucker Crafts apart in real-time ADP. Warren's moved up a lot to kind of catch up there.

But again, like Injoku is way ahead of Kraft in real-time 80s. Ferdson is way behind Warren. These two are kind of back to back in their own little little pocket. If one of them goes, I'm just immediately taking the other. If I don't have an elite tight end already. So I really like that one. Tom, I know that you really like crap. We're going to get to why you like him later.

Who is your picking round nine? Yeah, it's Justin Fields. And look, I'm not sure he's ever cracked the mental side of the game in the same way that guys who took the league like Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen Jalen Hurts have as they've developed. But then he's not had the stability that they've had, This is for a different team now. Last year it felt like he was really done dirty by the Steelers.

Like they were playing to an OK standard, but it just seemed Mike Tomlin. Being Mike Tomlin, we know how incredibly headstrong he can be when he's made up his mind. He had it in his head. He wanted Russell Wilson be the starter. So Russell Wilson was the starter. Now, in those six games that Fields played,

he averaged 38 Russian yards per game. He averages 50.2 across his career. Since the Detroit Lions byweek in 2002, they've allowed a player to reach 100 plus rushing yards against them just six times in 46 games and three of those six games were Justin Fields. And Aaron Glenn was the defensive coordinator for all of those games. Now, obviously, their camp reports haven't been great, their stuff in the preseason hasn't been great.

But we don't really need Justin Fields to be great like that because in 2022 he completed 12.8 passes per game for the Bears and he was still QB5 in points per game. So yeah, I think that at this point, If you're looking for a massive upside swing at quarterback, Justin Fields, it's hard to go past him. I know everybody on YouTube has been admiring my Ravens shirt. This whole episode, I know Tom has been admiring it as well. So you should be jealous.

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Round 10, Erickson, who do you have? The only reason I'm not higher on Justin Fields is because I want Drake May. That's who I want as my quarterback. In round 10, I think that he is the elite combination of what you're looking for a late round quarterback. He offers the rushing upside, 30 rushing yards per game last season. And I think that he has a higher ceiling as a passer than Justin Fields does. Again, what we saw last year, he threw one touchdown pass in every single game that he fully completed last season. And he was in a garbage situation. Now, it's not great in terms of relative to other NFL teams,

but compared to the 2024 New England Patriots, oh, it's night and day difference for Drake May. So throwing the ball to Efton Chisholm, Stefan Diggs. How can you not be obsessed with Drake May as the best late round court that you can draft? And I think that gives me so much confidence in Drake May is week one, week two, Raiders, dolphins. Two matchups that I feel confident he can win in. So you're feeling good about not just drafting Drake May late, but also plugging him into your week one lineup. I believe we agreed it's Efton Hizum, not Chisholm. So please get that right.

Show some respect to our breakout favorite of the summer. Yeah, Drake makes QB15. that's like crept up a bit throughout the off season. He is my favorite late round QB. Yeah, we've talked a ton about him, Eric. Tom, where does May rank for you amongst the late round QB options? Because there is a lot of depth here. You already mentioned Fields in the previous round.

Caleb Williams, C.J. Stroud, Jordan Love, J.J. McCarthy, Trevor Lawrence, Michael Pennix Jr., Bryce Young, all, I think, really reasonable values who are all going after May. So there's a lot of good names here. But May is my favorite. Like, if I had to pick one guy outside the top 10 to finish at. as QB1 overall this season. I'm not saying I would bet on it, but he would be my pick. Yeah, there's two paths to consistently be in a top end quarterback like in fantasy.

It's either passing for 2.7 touchdowns and average in like 240 passing yards or more. Or it's rushing for about 35 rushing yards per game. Like consistently, you go back over years and you look at the majority of the players who make up the weekly high scorer or the guys at the end of the season. and they come down to one of those factors by a rate of about 60%. And Drake Mate is going to give us the Russian yards. He's got significant upgrades as pass catcher this year. And yeah, it's very hard for me not to click Drake, mate, if I don't have a quarterback by the time I get to him.

Tom, who is your pick in round 10? It's Zach Charbonnet. So, you know, I kept my bit my tongue earlier whilst Andrew was singing Kenneth Walker's praise. But like, Charbonnet at cost at RB 35, four games last year where he touched ball 15 or more times in three of those he finished. as a top eight running back, that included scores of 18 points, 25 and 38 points. Like, he is a really good player and it's just one of those situations like Taylor Algea, where you just get stuck behind perhaps just a slightly better running back or a much

better running back in case of Al Jair. But he ranked 12th and yards per target among running backs at the fourth highest catch rate as well. And I think that's something that Sam Donald's going to love. Like Sam Donald gave Aaron Jones 59 targets last year. And I think he's going to be checking down to Charbonnet plenty. We know the contingent upside with Charbonnet is about as high as any running back in the league. We're into our rounds 11 to 15.

This is going to be more rapid fire. And I think because we're running long, what I actually want to do is have you guys do these guys as a group for each of your picks here. The exception is because I think we do need to talk about Erickson's first pick here, just given what has been going on in the last week in terms of the helium this guy has in the space. I'll pull up his real-time ADP to see what it is right now. But Erickson, who is your pick in round 11? and then we'll speed through all the others. Bill Kroski Merritt, running back for the Washington Commanders.

So maybe you've heard of them. I don't know. Maybe you've seen a highlight here, there, some tweets about him. He's RB 41 in real-time ADP. That has jumped up in the last week, 27 spots. So there's still more to go. I don't think he's going to end there, but it's obviously moved up a ton already.

Yeah, I just think that the play on him, I think the upside case for him is pretty clear. He could take over that Brian Robinson role, but maybe get a little bit more and be the more explosive version, which is why the commanders think that Brian Robinson is expendable. And right now he's still on the commanders. But all indications are if he's not traded, he's getting cut from this team. So somebody in this commander's backfield showed out enough during training camp

in all indications where it was Bill that was doing it, that made the team look and see Brian Robinson and say, we don't need this guy on the team. And Brian Robinson, again, we talked about him throughout the offseason. He's an average running back. He's not terrible, but he's an average running back. and they saw something in Bill where this guy can be more than average. And I want to buy into that upside.

Again, there's obviously risk involved, but as long as you're not drafting him in round five or getting out of control, I think that round eight is probably the most aggressive I would push him up because that's kind of where Brian Robinson was going. And if he is in that role, then I think he can pay off that round eight ADP while working in tandem with an Austin Eccler. So I think it's a matter of just trying to play the ADP game with Jacoroi Croski-Marit, try to get him on your roster,

find out where he is going using the real-time ADP. This is why this app was made, like why this tool exists so that you can have an edge and understand where Kroski Merritt is being valued to your specific platform, trying to figure out, okay, when can I pull the trigger on him and don't feel like I'm overextending.

So I don't know if round eight is too rich for you guys. I feel like that's probably where I push him up the most. I was going to ask Tom, what's the right round? Yeah, well, so like I said, I had Matthew Berry on with me yesterday, and being a commander's fan, the first thing I had to ask him was about Bill. and he said that the feel he gets from sources he knows with the team

and we all know that Matthew Berry knows a lot of people around the league is that they really love Chris Rodriguez as well and that they're going to really be okay if this is a three-headed committee so I think that Chris Rodriguez later in drafts in deeper leagues is definitely worth it but I'd absolutely be fine taking Crosske-Mera in this kind of range and I have taken them in a bunch of drafts over the last few days in this kind of like round 11 to 12 range. All right, Erickson, speed through your rounds 12 through 15 that you're interested in.

Yeah, so round 12 is Bachel 2, running back for the Jaguars. Round 13 is Braylin Allen running back for the New York Jets. Round 14, Marvin Mims, wide receiver for the Denver Broncos with a full-time role. No, Devon Bailey's season is over. Marvin Mims is about to take over the world. And round 15, my bet on a fifth year wide receiver breakout, the annual tradition like no other. Josh Palmer, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. Tom, run through your rounds 11 through 15.

Yes, we go Colston Loveland, Austin Eclay, Tyler, Tyler LGA, Cam Ward, and have I missed one? One Dale Robinson. This month, if you want a chance to win a signed A.J. Brown Eagles, salute to service helmet for free, courtesy of our friends at pristineauction.com. All you to do is subscribe to the Fantasy Pro's YouTube channel right now. Drop a comment below on any video, and that is it. We will be announcing a winner right here on the channel.

so make sure to turn on those notifications so you can know when new videos are up and to claim your prize. Guys, last question here, if you could leave with one player from every single draft at cost, you know, to where they're going,

who would it be? Tom, I'll let you go first because Erickson stole this guy from you in the main part of the show. Yeah, and it's a good job that we've drafted him. A whole boatload

on our best ball drafts every Monday 4 p.m. Eastern on Twitch. Tucker Kraft, like, just such a good player. And I can't understand why he's going outside the top 12 tight ends. He was elite in yards after the catch last year. He had 9.38.

No other tight end had more than 7. He also got there in touchdowns with 7. The only guys who had more touchdowns than him with George Kittle who had 8 and Mark Andrews had 10. He's shown us everything we need to see. And I think if the Packers lean more pass heavy, which feels like something they want to do now they've added Matthew Golden

their first round one wide receiver in 20 plus years, then Tucker Craft is absolutely going to benefit as well. Erickson, obviously, you like Kraft a lot because you picked them there, but who is your number one player you want to leave every draft with? So can I still one from Tom? Can I just pick Jamar Chase? It looks like he didn't mind. No, no, no, no, no.

Because you only get Jamar Chase, he had the 101, one out of 12 chance. So for me, it's obvious Drake May. Just draft Drake May, guys. Fantasy football doesn't have to be hard. Just draft trick May. I know we're talking about this from a snake draft perspective and you're making a joke about Chase. Would it be somebody like Chase if this was a salary cab draft where you can choose to spend your,

I mean, it's a lot of money to spend of your draft budget, but would it be somebody like Chase, like I just want to get the best player in fantasy, or would it still be like, I'd rather get like a $2. Drake May or something. I think I'd still just want tomorrow Chase. I just think that he has the situation where, yes,

we don't see a lot of wide receiver ones repeat. But, I mean, his situation is, a lot of that's because there's always things that are changing, right? Like quarterback injuries and officer coordinator changes and head coaches, but there's nothing different about the Bengals than last year, except their defense might be worse. Like, that's the thing. Their defense might be worse.

So, yeah, just continue to draft Jamar Chase and just be happy. Yeah, there you go. When you're on the clock, these decisions come fast. Draft assistant connects directly to your draft and provides both real-time pick suggestions and estimations on which players might get taken before your next pick. Draft assistant fully integrates your custom cheat sheets and suggest picks based on your rankings, team build, ADP, and other factors. Dominate your draft in real.

time without the guestwork with draft assistant at Fantasypros.com slash assistant or on the Fantasy Football DraftWizard app try it for free during your draft by claiming your three-day trial of Fantasy Pros premium at Fantasypros.com slash premium. Guys, we got through a whole lot of names. I didn't count them all, but it was a bunch of them

on that episode. Thanks everybody for tuning in. No, it would have been like 30. Yeah, it was 30. Nobody, because we copied names 31. We also definitely named, we threw out other names in the process of discussing it, like who we would take these guys are like Zay Flowers wasn't picked, but we mentioned him a couple of times.

So it was a lot of. You have two Ravens fans. Of course we're going to talk about Zay Flowers and some pass it down. It was a lot of names. Shout to this. Shout to this Chubbies. We talk about Zay Flowers, even though no one's targeting them. Including us.

All right. We'll go ahead and get out of here on that for Tom and Erickson. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We'll see again next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pro's Fantasy Football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts at Fantasypros.com slash review or on Spotify. Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube

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