The Ringer NFL Show - Last-Minute NFL News and Latest Fantasy Draft Trends

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

The guys are in the studio in L.A. to discuss some last-minute news items as Week 1 fast approaches. They then recap The Ringer Fantasy Football Show's live draft and run through some of their key takeaways from the draft as they relate to fantasy trends right now. Finally, they touch on Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s engagement. 2:07 Last-minute NFL news 43:45 Ringer Fantasy Football live draft recap 1:16:50 Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announce engagement Getaway sales event. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Ronak Nair, Kai Grady, and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Hyphen. And I'm joined in person by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck live in Los Angeles. Well, I guess we're alive, but this is going up late. We're alive. Yeah, we're alive in Los Angeles. Everything is live when you're not on your screens. Yeah.

Isn't that cool? Unlike Jelly the Bear or potentially Matthew Stafford. We're living in the moment right now. Okay. So we're going to go. We're going to go through a bunch of news and just all these people who are or signing contracts or whatever is going on and just whether it actually means anything or not.

And then we're going to go through the draft we did, Ringer Fantasy Football Show, YouTube channel. We had a draft with us and all. frankly, all our bosses. Yeah, super fun. And we're going to talk about, well, I talked about my team a lot, but then I didn't let you guys talk about your teams, because my team's interesting.

Your team is boring. But we're going to try to just basically take the lessons from that draft and help you guys apply it because we know everyone's drafting around this time. So we're going to try to apply those lessons and basically last minute draft prep for you guys. Yeah. And then we're going to argue about Taylor Swift and where she's going to get married. Biggest story in the world. Lake Como?

I said that. Very briefly. I'm like a wimp for thinking. Yeah, it's like the biggest is we'll be the most interacted with thing in the world. I don't know why this is controversial. We'll get into it later. You'll hear it. All right.

First, let's take a quick break. I don't know why. I mentioned one time. It was just funny. You were just like freaking out this morning. You were just sending, you're like, we need to like reorganize our entire strategy around the fact that Taylor's got engaged today.

I kind of, yeah. This episode is brought to you by Hyundai. Get into the Hyundai Getaway Sales event and get away with a deal. So right, it almost feels wrong. score a great deal in their adventure-ready SUVs like Kona, Tucson, Santa Fe, and Palisade. They're bold and stylish Alantra, their most advanced sonata yet, and the all-electric, Ionic 5 and Ionic 6. Plus, every Hyundai is backed by America's best warranty and Hyundai complimentary maintenance.

Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for details. Offers end September 2nd, 2025. All right, let's get into some news because a lot of news has happened. we're going to go through stories that you may have missed, but also whether they mean anything and whether they should actually factor into, basically whether this changes rankings, whether you're using our rankings or the rankings,

whether you should tweak it. Whether you're using other rankings. Yeah, there aren't any other rankings. It's just ours. Just ours. Yahoo's the only fantasy platform. We're the only fantasy rankings. It's crazy that works.

So fantasyfewport.3.com. We have printable tiers as well there. So if you go to fantasyf football. 3.com, there's a big old button that says printable PDF rankings. and on that are our rankings and our tiers. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a printer, which would be more valuable.

Printers are hard. It's harder than anything to find a print. You can look at the PDF, though. You can look at it. It is kind of nice. Looking at a PDF just feels nice. Yeah, it does. It's clean.

It's still safe. It's uneditable. I love that. It's nice. I feel safe like a warm blanket. I love that. So, again, fantasyf football. 3.com, we know a lot of you have wanted tiers.

The tiers are there under the printable PDF section and also our rankings there. We have the draft tracker, everything. so whether you want to print stuff out, whether you don't. That's all there. So we're going to go through the news. And again, basically trying to let you know what is priced into rankings. So you see a news.

I'm just a good example. Terry McLaurin signed his contract with Washington. Good for him. He's 30 years old. He probably didn't get as much as he wanted. Getting probably, I don't know, 28 million a year. And that's like good for him. That doesn't change anything for us.

And I'm happy for Terry to be signed there. That's the right move. He's a captain. He's a leader. Like everyone in the community loves him. He's good for the team, obviously. We really, really expected heavily that Terry McLaren would sign close to the season. We don't really believe at all that he would be traded.

So in terms of our rankings, that doesn't mean anything. It means nothing for our purposes. So we're trying to be really... Good for Terry. Yeah, good for him. Good guy. Do you think you would play harder the season after you got paid a bunch of money or in your contract year? Don't answer that. Probably my contract year. So maybe we should move Terry Lower.

I'm only human after all, Craig. So we're going to just go through all the other news. So yeah. And... What did you expect me to say? Just saying, maybe we should. You know, I don't know if I got all that money, I'd probably go on vacation. The day after JJ Watts signed his giant, it's like $100 million at the time. It was like crazy for defensive tackle.

J.J. Watts showed up the next morning to the facility at 358 in the morning because he was like, he was like, I got to go earn this contract. And they wouldn't let him in because no one had ever showed up that early for work. So the computer system, that was the security system, thought he was like breaking in. 358's too early. You're actually going to be worse at, practice six hours later if you're there that or like all the coaches sleep on their couches just so that they send a message that they care but in reality of all the coaches

have like two hours more asleep they probably be better at the jobs insane yeah that's a mark walberg shit well they're making a lot of money correct day is going by well we're sleeping so you think if you get that that contract though then you kind of need to prove that you earned it so that you deserve a lot of these NFL players too are just built diff from a point of view of I have to prove everybody wrong all the haters they're manufacturing things that people said, like the Michael Jordan story where he made up a story about how this rookie was. My favorite Michael Jordan story is the one where the Utah waiter comes up

and says Michael, it's such an honor to meet you you're like the best player ever. And he's like, fuck you. Fuck that. I'm going to beat the shit out of jazz. So anyway, so all right, actual news. Joe Mixed in the Texans running back has, is going to, by the time you're listening to this, we're recording Tuesday, August 26th. It's going to probably be placed

an injured reserve or physically unable to perform. So he's going to be out at least the first four weeks of the year. This is something that we were, we really expected and I think our rankings have reflected that like mixed in his,

we have no idea what's going on this foot, but it's not good. I don't know if he's gonna play this year but we don't know. No one,

it's not a good situation. Very quiet, very vague. No one really knows what's going on. It's one of the weirdest football right now too. I think it's just, he's going almost undrafted at this point. Yeah, and basically

whatever's going on with his rehab, it's like, you know, players get injured and 90% of them you don't really hear about their rehab. This was one of the 10% where it went wrong. And so we don't have to spend

a time in it. Let someone Well, hold on, let me ask you Let's say you're in a league A lot of leagues have an IR spot Do you think with the last pick in the draft You should take Joe Mixing to put it on your IR? Yeah, exactly.

If you haven't, exactly. So that happened. We did the Ringer Fancy Football Show draft yesterday and if you want to watch that on YouTube You can watch the whole thing. It was really fun. Sean Fennessey got Mixed in the last round there, which was a great call

because we have an IR spot in that league. Realistically, I kind of think someone in your league is just not going to know that and hit the button? We should do the IR rankings. Like, would you rather have I yuk? Grab. You'd rather have Iyuk, right, than Mixing?

Ayuk is going to come back. I don't know if he'll be a shell. Yeah, Iyuk, mixing. Who's the best IR pick right now? I think mixing and Iyuk, but realistic. Godwin, maybe. I don't know. I mean, they're all very uncertain in terms of whether I'm saying if you can pick one to put

on your IR, who is it? Right. Probably, I don't know, actually. Ayuk, I guess, would be the top of the list. Mixing, I think, is a good one. Yeah. The three that come to mind are Godwin, I, you can. Is Godwin definitely starting on IR, though?

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. Maybe he's not. Actually, I think you're right. He's not, actually. So, never mind. The short answer, though, is that if everyone in your league actually knows this about Joe Mixon and Joe Mixon falls to the 13th round at that point, yeah, fuck it, take a fly on Joe

Mixon. I kind of just don't think that's going to be drafted at some point in the top 100. And I wouldn't do that. So I would let someone else do it. And if he really falls, like, I'm talking seven or eight rounds lower than whatever platform you're on. Yeah. Then at that point, yeah, sure, if you have an hour spot.

The real question, though, who's the Texans running back going to be throughout the season? And I'm curious you guys think. Nick Chubb, when on the field, when the Texans are playing week one, I think it's going to be Nick Chub as the starting running back because he's the person that they're most confident won't get C.J. Stroud killed on some blitz on the first drive of the year. But also Nick Chub has his own extensive injury history that quite literally is a like Nick Chub basically needed a full knee. Nick Chub was actually going to be one of the best running back prospects of our lifetime.

Then he got a full neat reconstruction at Georgia. So he went as a high second round pick. and now that was a decade ago and now he's coming off the other second knee reconstruction so Nick Chubb has a same knee brutal yeah same knee the one that got bent with the Steelers

like where they didn't even play on the the one where the Steelers fans felt bad for him like that's how bad it was so Chubb the idea that he's going to be the guy through the whole season would be a nice story because we all like Nick Chubb and he's a cool guy but it feels a little head in the sand's a little rude

but the idea that he would make it through a whole year feels unlikely to me you know what it really reminds me of is the J.K. Dobbins, R.J. Harvey combination. Super similar. And where you're, you can make the argument

and it's easy enough to believe that J.K. Dobbin is probably going to get the majority of the work because he's the experienced veteran, all that stuff. But there's a more explosive, higher upside player next to him. In this case,

it's RJ Harvey. But with the Texans, Damien Pierce is the guy that I'm thinking of that probably has more upside than Nick Chubb right now. So I'm actually just taking flyers on, on Damien Pierce right now. You love Damien Pierce out of the draft and then he came in and he had a thousand yards as a rookie right? Yeah.

Kyle Brandt could give him the angry run scepter. He was an awesome tackle breaker. Like I think his advanced stats were all pretty solid. And then they switched, the Texans switched their run scheme to like a wide zone thing. And he just didn't feel like he didn't know how to run that scheme. It's much better in a gap scheme. It's like a different language sometimes for running back. And so his his skill set is definitely, I think, more, you know, set up to be successful in this new offense that they're running.

So I'm just taking a flyer on him. Maybe it won't work out. It's not expensive. You can get him near the last couple rounds. And so I just want to kind of like have him on my bench in case he starts to be the start of there. It's a really nice late round pick. The other one is what do you think about Woody Marks, D.K.? So Woody Marks is running back to USC.

They traded, I believe, a future third. I could be getting this wrong. They traded up a future third to move up in the draft and get Woody Marks. And even though he was the fourth rounder, they gave up a pretty good amount of capital to get him. And he's not good in the preseason. Now it's a rookie. Are they going to play passing downs, blah, blah, blah, part of him. And it's still.

And it's funny that Nick Chubb is a vet who's going to do passing downs because when he was on the Browns, it was like he's actually not going to do passing downs. So it's kind of funny how like life works sometimes. I think at some point all three of these guys are going to be useful. But I do think just Occam's razor is Nick Chub's the starter and Damien Pierce is going to work in with more juice. But he lost more training camp reps early. So Damien Pierce is going to have to ramp up. At some point when Pierce is ready or Chub gets hurt, he would become the starter and Woody Marks will look good. And then at some point if Pierce gets hurt because he already started the year with the hamstring thing, Woody Marks, I think all three of these guys could at various weeks be good.

Right. Which means that almost none of them are going to be good. The difference between the Denver thing in Houston is Denver's offensive lines like quietly at top six offensive line in the league. Houston. Houston completely remade their offensive line in the top season. So to be clear, so Houston's thinking about training Cam Robinson, who's a left tackle, has been on three teams in two years. And they're going to try to start Arentay Ursary, who's the left tackle in Minnesota. He's a rookie, right?

Yeah. So there's just a lot of question marks with this Texans offensive line, just their offense in general. I mean, to be clear, I think the last time The only plug-in-play left tackles That went in the second round I could think of In the last 20 years was basically Bernard Raymond Or the rime of the cult's left tackle And then Matt Light from the Patriots

And I'm like trying to think of another one. Pretty rare. So anyway, we'll see. But so overall, in terms of takeaways here, Nick Chubb is probably a solid pick If you're like late running back, you just kind of want I don't know. I honestly don't even know about that

Because we'll talk about later The ringer draft that we did. But once you get into those bottom four or five rounds, you need to start shooting for the stars and not playing for like high floor. Nick Chub might be like a competency. Complex level, startable player

for like a month and a half. That's not what you're looking for in around 60. The odds the Texans give Nick Chub 22 carries a game just feels low because they feel like they know that he probably can't sustain that level of work. I think that's a great point, Craig, though, because if you look at at the end of your draft, if you go look at the waiver

wire in your league, odds are there's probably like 15 to 20 guys that fit that category where like he could give me a solid floor. There are Tyler Algiers. I can plug him into the flex. I guess those guys are even more valuable backups. And like, you know, that can come in if the starter gets hurt.

Just to prove a point here. Sorry, about platforms. We talk about this all the time about what platform you're on really matters. Where Yahoo! Fantasy, ESPN. Guess where Damien Pierce, and again, we think Pierce is probably going to be the best bet. Just because he's had a thousand yards. Most backup running backs aren't 25 and had a thousand yards already. So we're just Hawkins' Razor is one of the only other one.

Exactly. Where do you think Damian Pierce is ranked overall players? I just went to the mock draft in a league I'm drafting later today and I'm in the draft room a mock draft room where do you think Pierce is right? And you must be on Yahoo because there's no other fantasy sites

Exactly right I don't know he's probably like 180th No a non-Yahu site That's why Yahoo's the only site He is ranked 2000th 2007 That has to be an error That's my point

You can get Damien Pierce On non-yano platforms Draftable players You can yes I'm saying Like it's kind So my point is Like sometimes you have to scroll down and you just have to search for a guy's name.

So Pierce is a guy that, if you're on a certain platform, like check where these guys are in the room and just find it. And don't do the thing where you actually type a guy's name into the chat instead of the search bar. And then you're like, oh, no, I just sent everyone the list of one looking for. Pierce is an upside pick. Chubb is a floor pick. And when you're that late in drafts,

like, for example, looking at our rankings now, somebody like Jerome Ford on the Browns, Jerome Ford to me is kind of a floor play. And when you're in rounds 15, 16, you can take somebody else like a Ray Davis who if something were to happen to James Cook there is a chance

Ray Davis becomes like a top 10 running back in the league. It's a good offense. Changes your entire year and could potentially be one of the reasons why you win. Jerome Ford is unlikely to do that. J.K. Dobbins is unlikely to do that. So even though sometimes we have those guys ranked a little bit higher, you really have to kind of think about

the upside at the end of your life. I do, long story short, Damien Pierce is your last pick is awesome. I mean, Joe House took him in the eighth round yesterday. That was probably a little rich for my blood. And then if you don't get him, Woody Marks. Like that's a totally fine. Those are the last guys like getting a piece of this Texas back to again, maybe they suck, but it probably makes more sense than investing in Nick Chubb.

So other stuff going on here, Joanne Jennings could hit injured reserve. Can you explain what's going on with this, DK from Jennings on the 49? Yeah, this is kind of an interesting little wrinkle because Jennings is going high enough where these types of things are going to obviously matter a lot in fantasy. And if he goes on the IR, Ricky Pearsall, it's just absolutely wheels up for him. So right now it's sounding like, if you haven't heard, Jennings both has a calf injury and is holding in. He might not actually have a real cat.

One might be contingent on the other. Yeah, like the calf injury might just be really minor, and he's just using that as an excuse to hold in. He wants a new contract. And honestly, I don't blame him. His contract, he's not getting paid very much this year. It's a lot of escalators on performance. And so right now it sounds like,

according to Tim Calcami from the San Francisco standard, the 49ers are sort of hanging the idea of putting him on IR over his head as a piece of leverage to get him to come back, or, I don't know, signing a new contract. Because he has playing time incentives in a contract. So I was like, why would they do that? And they looked up the contract, the contract for Joanne Jennings. Shout out to Over the Cap with all this contract stuff.

Joanne Jennings, well, not, they do a great job. You're laughing it over the cap? No, no, no. Over the cap's a great site. Let's just start shouting out every website we use. They deserve it. It's a good policy, right? That was nice, yeah, no.

By the way, we're on Google dogs right now. Shout out Google. If John Jennings plays half of the 49ers. snaps this season, it gets a million and a half dollars. So think about, you put on the IR for four. You miss four games already. So now you get hurt for like two games. You ain't playing half the snaps now.

I want you to prognosticate for me. What do you think is more likely? He has a calf injury or he's trying to negotiate for an extension or he gets put on IR because the negotiation doesn't go well. I think the most likely is he's just going to have to capitulate and come back. The Niners are the- No extension he'll play with one. The Niners are...

But now he's behind. Because he's missing much time in training camp. And he might have a calf injury. Yeah. You know, calves. That's the thing. So the 49ers are kind of savages with the way they negotiate. Like, they don't really give a fuck.

And they're the ones most comfortable taking down to the deadline, but unlike Dallas, where Jerry Jones just wants to get, like, media attention from it. The Niners... Clicks. Yeah, clicks. He's like a Click farmer. Clicks on the blogs. On that note, I want to put it on the...

the record right now that Michael Parsons is going to sign this contract at 11 a.m. on Thursday, September 5th, or whatever the day the Eagles Cowboys game is. 11 a.m. that day, they're going to get the Michael Parsons deal done for like $43 million a year. Okay. Putting that out right now. 43 million a year. Yeah, maybe 43 to 42 to 45 million a year. Because is Watt first right now at 41? I don't know. Is that right? Hit up over the cat. T.J. is that 41, right? So Miles went to 40. So Watt went to 41. So, Mike is going to get like 42, 43. And they're going to get it done. And it's going to be a, a big commercial for the Eagles Cowboys game that Thursday.

So, by the way, this whole thing, this whole thing with Michael Parsons is interesting from a point of view. Jerry Jones has tried to go behind Michael Parsons' agents back and negotiate. He's like one of the biggest three agents in the NFL, which is, I believe is, I don't know if the term illegal is accurate, but like you're not supposed to do that. 100%. No, it's not. You're not allowed to negotiate without an agent present.

Like you, I mean, it's, it's not a great way to work with the largest. I mean, literally, like, we always joke what you wrote. knows. But Dave Limeligetta, he's the one who managed to get Deshawn Watson amid all that, literally an NBA Supermax contract. So it's a whole crazy thing all around. But the point being, the Dallas does it because they want clicks. The Niners do it because they're actually just like, they really are comfortable going up to the day of the game. And so I do think that's, I think reading the tea leaves here, Jennings is probably healthy enough to play or else Kyle Shanahan probably wouldn't be so weird about this. Yeah, weird he can't play.

Wait, can you read the quote, DK? Read Shannon's quote about joining. Shanahan was asked if Jennings could play out or if he could miss week one and Shanahan said I mean if it doesn't heal yes but I expect him back I think you should be back from it but you never know with calves I'm not a doctor so like I said calves take time you never know with calves which does sound like you never know with care are you speaking from experience yeah thanks Kyle yeah the whole fucking bilateral Achilles tendonitis you never know it does sound is this the most obvious like 49 or calf injury avoid avoid red flag well no because it's funny either way where it's like I feel like if Joanne Jennings has actually

hurt and there's a calf injury. I'm like, okay, there's just a calf epidemic in San Francisco or whatever. But I will say if you're Joanne Jennings' agent and you're like, yeah, he's a calf injury. Can you imagine Kyle Shannon hearing that? Be like, motherfucker. So I do think that's the correct point, though, D.K., which is, eh, you're milking it, trying to get the contract, you're going to play. It does the

lack of playing for a month actually just boost Ricky Peresol more? And like, maybe is this a stay away or a value? That's the question. I think Ricky Parasol, to me, is still the guy wants San Francisco. Definitely that. I agree with that. Pierce all is the guy you want. However, but Kittle as well. When Jennings starts falling in drafts, if you're drafting this weekend, Jennings starts following because there's a little-

The medical sign next to his name. Yeah, you read the little blurb. It says he's got a calf injury. DK, do you think if he starts falling around or two, he becomes a value? Yeah. Or is it a stay away for you. No, I think he becomes a value. This is the guy you have to mention in the draft room. You're like, wow, Jennings says a calf. Put it in a group text so the one guy who's not there sees a two. So that everyone's like, oh, nine are with a calf issue.

And then like, you let him drop the rounds and then you get him. I mean, when he's healthy and playing. in this offense with the turnover that they've had at a receiver he could be the top 24 totally yeah he could be top 10 if he didn't want to go overboard but yeah like he could be very usable

he was one of the most productive receivers in the league like I think he was seventh and first downs per route run like he was the guy that pretty turned to on third second long stuff like that and if you look at some of the guys that are around him in our rankings right now it's Jerry Judy who is going to be playing with God knows what

quarterback all year you know in a terrible offense. Browns, yeah, Brown, you want a Cleveland Brown or San Francisco 49? You got Michael Pittman right there. You got, and again, playing with Daniel Jones, who knows if this offense is going to be any good? He's got a back injury. Yeah. Or he had a back injury. I agree. If Juanne starts to fall, I think he becomes a solid value. I think he's a good value. I think it's already baked in, honestly, and I think he's probably okay. Speaking of, well, there's, so yeah, take you on, I think we're just still in on all the Niders. We're in on him, but just like,

let everyone know in your draft. He's a cat injury. Yeah, be like another 49er with a calf injury, I'm good, and then take him. And then take them. Craig would do that. Here's someone who's not okay. We need a Matthew Stafford update. He's the new Jelly of the Bear. He's Matthew Stafford.

We don't know if he's alive. Yeah, well, he is. We had proof of life, much like the Jelly Saga. They did a live stream from practice and had a trainer playing catch with him with a little ball. No, he's back. He was in a trench coat, though, and it looked like two children standing on top of them. It was Jimmy Garoppel and Stets and Betts and Betts. He said on the top of the show.

No, Stafford is back at practice. Now, when you say back at practice, he's not... He's back at practice. No, I don't think he's like full... He's not full participant where he's going all out. He's like running around doing drills and whatnot. Is he running?

But the biggest red flag was when McVeigh was talking about how he's been walking a lot. He's going to... We might have him run. We might even have him walk. Yeah, he's been walking. Here's a thing. That's been exciting. Hobbling about.

We always do. Trundling. We always have talked. about the week one test. We always talked about the week one test. How will you feel? The other thing we haven't talked about is the left tackle, Allerick Jackson has like this blood clot issue, which is very serious.

I mean, I'm not a doctor, but playing football on blood thinners is, like, I mean, that's complicated. So Allerick Jackson's ability to be their left tackle is also something that's kind of been buried under this. So it's not just the Stafford is a back issue. If Allerick Jackson, if they have a backup left tackle in week one

and you turn on Red Zone and Chris Hans is like, oh man, look at Matthew Stafford get walloped on this one. He didn't see that coming. And then you're going to be like, oh, my God, I can't believe I took Tvanti Adams. Like, that's kind of where I'm at. I'm being, I'm getting a little afraid of capitulating. I'm like, do you actually want to sign up for this Stafford being? What are the odds that in December Matthew Stafford's playing?

And it's not Jimmy Garoppolo. I'm feeling a little bit like this is like, oh, we're like, oh, maybe there's value where Stafford's final. And I'm like, why don't we just opt out of this situation a little bit? I agree. I've kind of been on it. Here's the way I look at it. Guys like Puka and Devonte Adams.

I know. I think, so if you look, we have our tiers. You can download the PDF. We have our tiers. Tier two of the wide receivers. It's Justin Jefferson, Nico Collins, and Monrae St. Brown. Malik neighbors, Pooka, Nukuha,

Drake London, Brian Thomas, and A.J. Brown. To me, if you're in the middle of that tier and Puka's there, I would just take somebody else in that tier. Yeah. The idea with this tier is like these are all guys we think can finish as like the number one overall guy in fantasy. So if Pooka's there, but so is Drake London. So is Malik neighbor.

So in Brian Thomas Jr., I would probably not take Puka. To me, he falls to the bottom of that tier now. Yeah. It's like if he's there and he's fallen, you can take him. But he's no longer like a guy that you should reach for in that tier. Is he should, do we move Puka down or is it Devonty who gets moved down? Because again, like to me Puka is the injury parlay.

Like you need him to stay healthy and Stafford to stay healthy. Here's like I feel a little bit bad because I feel like I'm talking about both sides of my mouth. Because even a couple weeks ago, I feel like I was saying like Stafford is like a warrior. He's had this issue for years. Do you think he's plus or minus odds to play 17 games? Oh, I think at this point, like, put it this way. When I was saying a couple weeks ago, now that we're a week out, I thought it'd be like he'd back at practice and we were going to calm down.

By now, I thought, no, but like, you know, like, I don't know, man. I'm a little. I'm kind of, I think. Stafford's back. He's back practice. I think the obvious thing is you're more nervous about Puka. Yeah. And you're more nervous about Devante Adams.

But I think Stafford's going to play. It just feels like that's the direction this is going. Jordan Rodriguez was on Heat the Call podcast the other day. Oh, I think he's going to play week one. My concern is... Yeah, it's just... Is he really gonna make it? I just think he's so tough.

He's like the toughest fricking quarterback in the NFL. I know. He's 37 years old with a back injury. Yeah, but he's had back injury for the last few years. He's been a back injury since he was 30. Yeah, so I don't know.

I'm just like going the other way. I'm not letting it affect me too much. I'm a little bit more nervous about Puka for sure. I still worry about Devante Adams where, again, maybe this means nothing. But Jimi Garap... Devonte Adams left the Raiders via trade very publicly because of Jimmy Garapolo.

What was the quote on the next? Netflix show is the nephew. I'm going to lose my life. I'm going to lose my fucking life. Because Jimmy's hospital balls. And then when on, again, one on the ringer, Marin Fader wrote a stir for the ringer where he was just like, yeah, that was a bad situation. And he basically was like, without saying it was basically I couldn't play with that guy. Devonte Adams. He's going to play that. I don't know. He's one of those guys that for some reason, whenever his name pops up in drafts, I always, I always, you're just kind of a stay away right now. I guess here's the thing. If we're, coming back around, if you were, this moment is the inception meme.

where it's like Matthew McCona banging on the thing, watching the old version, like, no, don't do it? Do you think that he's yelling about, you should trust Matthew Stafford will make it believe in him? Or do you think he's like, don't go with the back injury? Why do you believe it's going to be?

Like, I think it's, I don't know. This is the same exact conversation that we have about Christian McCaffrey. You're not trying to get seventh place. You're trying to win. Matt Stafford is a kingmaker. He is one of the best quarterbacks for fantasy ever. Of this generation.

Not for fantasy as your startup. but for what he does to receivers. Yeah, right. That's what I mean. That's what I'm talking about with Puka and DeVarthe. The upside is so high. Counter. Let him explain the history of that because it's worth reminding.

Calvin Johnson set the single season. Yeah, go all the way back. Calvin Johnson obviously was the big one. But then, I mean, literally the most receiving cards in the history of the NFL. Yeah. And he helped make guys like Kenny Goliday. Golden Tate had over 100 catches with him. He is so good at force feeding the ball.

And obviously, Cooper Cup won the Triple Crown. Puka Nakua, absolutely electric rookie season. and I think you just have to be willing to accept there is more risk with this guy. There is more risk with Puka right now. But the upside is so just scintillate. It's going to be like the type of guy that can win you your league.

You just have to accept that it might not happen because of injuries. But like honestly, there's a lot of guys in this area that I'm kind of worried about injury-wise. Like Malik Neighbors has a back. He has a back injury. It's a foot injury.

Drake London has Michael Panics as his quarterback. Yeah, that's a great. It is all about just. how much risk you're willing to take on. And I totally understand if you want to avoid him. And I have kind of generally avoided Puka in drafts recently. But at the same time... You're not taking your own advice.

What I'm saying is... What I'm saying is if you... Like, it just depends on how much risk you're willing to take on. And ultimately, the goal is obviously, if you have... If you're in a league where a punishment is really loud and embarrassing, then maybe don't take Pukkah to go on. Let me counter.

Dek's point is worth reminding that when Stafford plays, he is literally probably the best guy ever at funneling to his best players. later than we've ever seen. Okay, then take Devon A. Yeah. Let me counter. I did take Devon A. Chan. Yeah.

Because for the health, the calf injury. The Kristen McCaffrey point I want to push back on because to me, Kristen McCaffrey is so valuable because there is no other running back going after him that can do what he can do. Like, he is the last guy you can get who can basically be Sequin. Right. And he's actually, I guess, the only other guy other than Sequon. I mean, if McCaffrey and Seek-Won both played 17 games, we knew that for a fact. we would pick McCaffrey over sick

I still think Puka, if Puka and Stafford and Devonte, if it all works and they all play 17 games, I still think there are, like, I think Malik neighbors, I think Trey Lundon, I think Amano St. Brown. Like, to me, there are a lot of other receivers who can have, like, the peak Puka season. McCaffrey's like, no one can have the McAfree season. Sure, that's fair. That's fair.

I mean, and, but I meant just more like the conversation from a injury risk point of view in terms of like how much risk are you willing to take on. If this guy's a zero, how much is it going to bother you? Unfortunately, you're both right, and I don't feel like I even landed with where I still feel about this, which is the truth is I still feel a little, I guess I think Puka is the right spot. We have Puka 13th overall still, which is kind of behind neighbors and stuff, which is, again. It feels a tick high. You can tell.

Would you take Puka or Drake London? Drake London. I would take Brock Bowers. But I feel like Pook is still going to get schemed up, though. I know, but to me, it's the injury parlay. You were out on Puka last year, too, though. And he played, what, 12 games? For what it's worth.

You are so right that when you're in season and every time Puka Nukuha just crashes into somebody because he has no clue. He played 11 games last year, I don't know. Yeah. But this year, it'll be different. No, I mean, look, if it works out, it'll be awesome, and he's great, and I totally get it.

I kind of just feel like... To me, in the first two rounds, I get a little bit cautious, and I want to kind of play it safe. So would you rather have Pukukukukua 13th, or we have Devante Adams ranked 38th? because the guys after Devante are like Marvin Harrison

Terry McLaur and Garrett Wilson and I read that Devonte DJ and that's the thing is I still am okay with the upside because also he's frankly loud enough that he's like I'll get the ball if he doesn't get the ball he's going to go for it awesome like I know and that's why yeah I'm still okay with him there all right so we're not moving after all that

we're not going to move the ramps we're keeping Puka 13th and we're going to keep Devante 38th of roll we're not going to move I just think Puka moves to the bottom of the same tier he's in we've already moved him down a little we it's for accounted for like if Stafford was totally fine we probably have Puka like probably, I mean, four or five spots are. Yeah.

Take them more. I think people can make up their own minds after this. All right. We're going to keep rolling here, but first. Football is almost back and so is everything we love about it. The game day rituals, the rivalries, the bad calls, the glory plays, and the bets that make every game matter just a little more. And Fandall's getting you ready for kickoff with an offer.

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Fandall has you covered. The NFL season is almost here. The only question is, are you ready to play? Visit fandle.com slash ringer fantasy to download the Fandle app today and get started. A couple of things that happened. You mentioned Devon H.N. has his calf issue. And I got to tell you, that's enough for me. I'm like, man, he's, Devon HN's another parlay.

Again, we keep saying this. H.N. went to a place. he's averaging 20, 21 points per game. He's the only other guy who is McCaffrey and Sequin. Sequin, Bijan Gibbs. He would be the fifth guy in that group. He's above Derek Henry, actually. But he's in the Bucca Range where he is the double injury parley.

You need Tua and A. Chan to stay healthy. When Tua was out last year, Aachen was on part of Alexander Madison as a start to like eight points per year. Post-injury Nick Chubb. Like that's where he was. So you're already betting on Tua. So now A-Chan himself is a catfish. He's already a smaller guy.

They were already talking about maybe they need to take short yardage away from him and give it to like Jalen Wright. or Ali Gordon, the younger guys they have, or larger. And I'm like the combo of, okay, if he loses any goal line work, because the H& as a receiver, when he's healthy, is probably going to lead all backs or Camara with, Camara and ACHON are going to be one two and targets and catches and yards and receiving touchdowns among running backs.

But if he loses the goal line stuff and he has a calf issue and I'm like, why am I taking this guy with my second round pick? I'm like, let someone else take the parlay. And if Tua stays healthy all season and ACHN stays healthy all season, good. Like, that's an awesome pick. But it's a parlay. And I don't think the second round is a good time for a parlay with someone that

literally has a calf at you right now. I don't want to be dealing with that in August. Yeah, look, I just find myself passing on Devon A-Cham. I don't know why, but I do. The calf injury, just his size, Tua, the injury parlay, oftentimes when I'm in the second round

and he pops up. And Mike McGaill said no setbacks. Well, we've already moved him down a little bit. He used to be a lot closer to kind of the Ashton Gentry range in our ranking, and now he's a little bit down closer to the next guys like the Jonathan Taylor's and the Chase Brown. He's so good and he's such a fun player to watch, but also he's fun.

because, again, he is, like, probably the single fastest player in the NFL. And one, if he has any physical stuff that changes that, that's not ideal. But two, I just, if you, after what we just went through with McCaffrey last year, why would we take a guy that had a calf issue pop up, like eight days, nine days out from the season? Like, if you could just not deal with that with a commensurate talent, like, at this point, I think I'd rather have Chase Brown than Bengals over age. Fantasy is enough stress. Like, just starting your season already with your best player having an injury tag is so brutal.

I'm hoping he plays week one is just the worst vibes. And even if he does, anything that pops up again with the calf at any point, you're like, oh, man, maybe I should. You know what I mean? It's just, I just would rather not deal with it, especially when there's such other good players. And again, his upsides, you could argue very easily A-Chane's upsides the highest of any player. This is, yeah, where I keep coming back to. It's like, yes, I agree with everything you guys are saying in terms of it's going to be stressful. It's going to be hard.

But, like, his upside is insane. And he might catch more passes in this offense this year. John Smith has gone. We don't know what's going on with Tyree. Craig's very high on him, but I think he's still a question mark. I just think he's a good bet at where he's going. And Tua doesn't run at all, which means he's, it's honestly the only guy, even Mahomes is going to scramble for stuff even though they don't do quarterback stinks with Mahomes anymore.

Two is the least rushing threat at the goal line there is. And like Ben Gratchett's on Substock talks about this where it's like, honestly, the Miami running backs as a share are going to have the most goal line touches of any team. So if A-chan does keep the goal line work and A-Chin's a leading receiver, and he's the biggest home run threat in the NFL with Seekwan. It's like, that is the upside is like, oh, what is this? What is he's 25 touchdowns this year? Like, he could be the first guy forever.

The flip side is, what if his calf issue? You just need that whittle cap to hold up. I know. I totally understand the argument and the concern over it. But again, it's just like McCaffrey, he has a very rare ability to effectively be two positions in your starting lineup. Like, he could be an RB1 and like a wide receiver three for you in one roster spot because he's catching so many passes. He's such a big part of their passing game. They used those like swing passes and screens as like an extension of the run game.

The run game wasn't very good last year. So they used that. And that's fantasy gold for him because he's catching so many passes obviously in half PBR and PBR. I don't know. To me it's just again, it's an upside question. I took a risk on him in our in our Yahoo League. And obviously it's a little nerve-wracking. But I'm very excited about the potential upside.

If you're listening and you have your draft coming up or you've already done this and you drafted. If you started your draft, McCaffrey, Puka A-chan, let us know. Yeah. Just the Cahones. I'm flying too close to the sun. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to judge you if you take him.

Like, he's awesome. You ain't first to your last? I kind of respect it. I like it. I'm, yeah, it just depends on, number one. Depends on how many leagues are you in? You have 30. I think you'd feel really differently if you had won.

If you have one league, I can understand maybe not taking age. Do you think the idea of a fantasy punishment, the concept of a fantasy punishment, kind of prohibits people from truly taking risks because they just don't want to get last. Yeah, of course it does. That's the whole point. Well, I'm saying, maybe we should get rid of fantasy punishment. Some people actually fucking go for it.

No, it's a horrific. No, it's a horrific. Maybe people should just stop being cowards. No, the point of the punishment now. But if the punishment is so egregious, and you're like, you know what, I'm just going to take James Connor. Like, I'll just get fifth. I just don't want to. Most people who play fantasy, to be honest,

play not to get last. They don't want to get first. Yeah, there's a lot of that. So many people who just like show up to work leagues. are just like, I just don't want to get last. Like, who do I have to take to not get last? Right. Do you think all the NFL teams

are playing to win the Super Bowl this year? It's not just a fantasy football thing. Yeah, but if you get last place in the NFL, you get the first pick in the draft, you don't have to take the SATs. No, they get fired. Someone else gets to make the first pick of the draft. I'm just saying.

I don't know. I think there is a little bit of like, I just don't want to get last, which makes it a little lame. Yeah, fair. The flip side is people just checking out because their team's not going to make the playoffs and then they don't set their line up anymore.

That would happen regardless, though. not if you have a punishment. Well, yeah. The moment you're eliminated, someone's like, I'm not checking this. And that's anything going on with their life. That's why you've punishments. Yeah. I don't know.

I understand what you. I guess she can make the argument both ways. You feel very, you're angry about that. While we're talking about A. Chan. Hypothetical. While we're talking about A.com, we should mention handcuff because obviously the injury risk is real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I think going into the offseason considered ostensibly the backup, he's had a pretty horrific preseason in terms of his performance. he just has not looked good. And Ollie Gordon, the rookie, has really shine. I think he was a sixth round rookie. Yeah. He's looked incredible. And I am legitimately excited about what Ollie Gordon could do this year.

Ollie Gordon is a weird player who had a better 2023 in college than 2024. He's a big back, very physical, big play. Huge. Six one, two, 25. Yeah. And honestly, like, I'm one of those sickos who watches the preseason. He's looked incredible. He's breaking tackles.

He's really decisive, getting upfield. He is everything that. the dolphins need at running back right now outside of A-chan and Jalen Wright has not looked good picking what like what Rush Lane to go in. He's just not been decisive. He's not been super explosive even though that

was kind of... Which is concerning because he had the extra year in the NFL. I think Ollie Gordon has the chance to be one of the better late round picks. I think he is a great last round flyer. I took him in my home league in like the 16th round or whatever. He was like two bucks. So on certain platforms this is important. I don't know if we talk about this

enough. But if you're drafting early, so today's August 26. If you draft with like a week out from the season, you don't have to have a kicker. Cut your kicker. You don't necessarily draft a kicker. Cut your kicker. If your defense sucks, cut your defense. And just hold a couple extra running backs because if there's a five or 10% chance or whatever, even if it's low, like an A chance has a setback with his calf or there's some announce we get McCaffrey situation before the season begins. And you just have Olly Gordon on your lineup. That's more, the 10% chance that happens is so much more valuable than whatever

kicker you have. And so that's just, if you want, that's something you can do. Also, he might not, even if A-chan is playing, Ollie Gordon might have value. I mean, think about a couple years ago. He might just be a goal-line back to start. He might be flexible where actually he gets goal-line work and you can like hope he gets a touchdown. And then if A-H-N gets hurt, he's like, you know, wheels up.

So, okay. Other stuff, so Spencer Rattler starting for the Saints. Do you care either way who's starting for the Saints in terms of like drafting Chris Alive, Rashid Jihito, Alvin, Kameh. Doesn't matter to you? I think watching the preseason, Rattler was more decisive. He was getting the ball out when he hit his back foot more consistently. He's obviously more experienced. And I just think he's going to give them a little bit higher floor than what Tyler Shuck could have. Maybe Shuck provides a higher ceiling later.

But are you moving anybody up? I'm not moving anybody up, but I'm more willing. And especially watching kind of the ways that they were using Rashid Shaheed and Crystal Lave in the preseason, like they're running more out of the slot, more quick hitters. I think, you know, I'm not saying I'm excited about them, but I'm more willing to take them where they're going at their ADP. I think Rashid where he's going in terms of he's a huge, huge value late in drafts. I really like Rashid in particular.

And I think Spencer Rattler winning the job gives me more confidence than I would have had if Shuck was in there. So, I mean, ultimately, this is a good thing. This is the South Park Poop Sandwich versus Turr salad right now. Yeah, you're a saint for believing in this. That was kind. I don't know.

Seven wins this year. You think the Rattler wins seven games? Yeah, sure. I'll give you two to one. Are you saying that because I keep saying that. You don't believe. I just believe against. me.

Not just you. Everyone is like saying... They're saying it like it's a fact that the Saints are one of the worst teams in the NFL and I'm just like, I bet they'll be like... I mean, I think it's a fact that they have the second worst quarterback situation in the NFL. Maybe even...

You could even say the first. Their schedule... Wait, who are you putting in that group? The Browns. The Browns. I think Daniel Jones and Flacco are better... I mean, Rattler, I mean, I guess he could be better, but like...

He's the third worst quarterback at best. also say the schedule for them. Just you wait. You're going to get ready. All I'm saying is middling. Defensive coordinators to start the Saints season. The Saints will be mid. Terrible. Terrible. Complementary. Division. Come on.

Defensive coordinators for the Saints to start the season. Jonathan Gannon, who won the Super Bowl with Eagles for the Cardinals. Robert Salon, the Niners. Mike McDonald and the Seahawks. Sean McDermin of the Bills. Giants with maybe a great defensive line. Vrable with the Patriots. Dennis Allen, who's a good defense quarterback of the Bears. Todd Bulls with the Bucks.

Like, I mean, that's, anyway, I just, I'm not in other sense. Okay. Other stuff here, so Naji Harris is probably to start the year on the non-football injury list, you know, because they have the non-football injury. And so basically, I think the question is this, is D.K. Is Amerian Hampton for the charges ranked too low, or sorry, too high, yeah, too low everywhere, where it's like, that's a guy who probably should have been a second round pick going in the fourth? Or is Omerian-hampton properly ranked? And there's just another charges running back that should probably be rostered.

Or is everything fine? because I'm kind of wondering if a Marion Hampton is just going to be like immediately great. I think he's probably, we're going to look back and be like, why is he so low? I kind of feel that way too. Kind of flying under the radar

for how exciting he was coming out of college. Perfect storm, I think, between Gentie soaking up the oxygen of the amazingness of the season. So Marion Hampton. Tramion, Henderson popping off. Henderson popping.

Rishon Slater getting hurt. So everyone, like, when they're about to say, how great the Chargers line is for Hampton, then now their best player. That isn't Herbert is there. Perfect storm. I kind of think they're still just going to run

the shit out of the ball and Hampton's going to score a lot of points. So I think he's a great player. Everyone's worried about the timeshare and that's like a legitimate thing that will happen. But like almost every backfield in the NFL has a time. If you're able, if you, I think I generally speaking. There's like two that have not a time, not no time share. I want to running back, running back start this year if you can do it. But if you end up with like, man, you get like, you know, Nico Collins and Puka

or Nico Collins and neighbors and you're like, I want to running back down. You get Hampton. Like that's crazy. Like that can be a league winning formula. When Hampton, Hampton is I think one of those players that will end up going higher in real drafts than where his ADP is because people are excited about it. And then when you see him go off the board, you're like, damn it. I know.

I should have been the one to take that risk. I could have been that mistake. You could have been that mistake. Last one, Tadier Spirits, the Titans running back to injured reserve. We kind of knew he was already hurt. We have Pollard rank kind of high. We just think Polly Pallors. Another good, if you do start, you know, Nico Collins, Malik neighbors, Jalen Hertz,

George Kettle or whatever end up happening. A wonderful zero R.B type guy who can quietly be pretty productive this year. I like, I think Pollard is in the Pacheco range of just. just a boring player that not that long ago. We were like Tony Pollard, it's amazing. And there's Titans offensive line. I like Pollard quite a bit. So we like them where we have them.

It does the top 60 players. So, okay. We're going to get to, so we did our Ringer Fantasy Football show where we did a Ringer Fantasy Football League draft with three of us, Bill Simmons, we had Sean Fantasy, we had Mallory Rubin,

we had Van Laith, and we had all these people. And if you want to watch that, it's on YouTube. It was a lot of fun. Super fun. And we want to break down. We did a booger

DRAF, as Bill calls it. Yeah, the burger eater draft. Snake. Snake. There's a super flex snake draft. Bill drafted five quarterbacks. It was a blast. It's worth watching just to watch the draft.

It is really fun. Bill draft five quarterbacks. And it's on YouTube. Subscribe to Ring your Fantasy Football YouTube channel, please. And it's on there if you want to watch it. But we're not going to sit here and just tell you about our league because we don't know who cares about our team. But we do want to tell you about a bunch of things just going through that where

we're like lessons, things that are now top of mind, having just done that draft in person of either players and actual things that crystallized for us or just strategy. what happens to me? Basically, what are our takeaways from that that we think can help you guys if you're listening? So, but first, we do a little draft recap. Because now it is time for a draft recap, a new segment presented by Yahoo Fantasy.

Yahu Fantasy is the best place to play fantasy football this season. The season kicks off September 4th, so now is the time to play Yahoo Fantasy Football. Want more ways to play. Try the new Yahoo Fantasy Guantene Leagues where the lowest scoring team gets eliminated weekly. Want to play instantly with friends. Try the new draft with Friends mode.

Prefer the classics. play in a private league or join a public league, no matter how you play. One thing's true, Yahoo Fantasy, is the best place to play. So we want to just start with where everyone starts when your draft ends, which is the grade you get.

Look, it's all people care about it. You can think your team looks good. You can study all summer. And then you get D pluses like me and DK. Draft grades roll in and you start to question everything in your life. DK and I get D pluses. I don't think I got anything wrong.

I think it was dead on. What's funny is Sean Fantasy, who showed up to the draft being like, I know the least here. I don't know what's going on. Didn't know who Josh Downs was. We made him take the Jets guys. Got an A plus. He drafted a duplicate player.

Somebody had already been drafted. So we basically forced him into taking Brees Hall and Garrett Wilson. So he didn't have to take a punishment in like the eighth round. So he said, okay, took the Jets. Literally got an A plus. Has the highest grade of any drafter. Dead last. Tate and Vann.

D's. The Tate one feels right. Tate took Drake. It was a super flex league. So like two quarterbacks each week. I don't understand how I got a D plus of this. I like my team. Dude, same. Same. It's so funny. The way it makes me think is like, you know when you're on the clock in like the Yahoo, whatever, like the draft format thing? Whatever you're doing draft on Yahoo. What's the word I'm looking for?

The draft widget? Yeah, whatever. Widget. Sure, yeah. Anyway, when you're in there and you see. room, the draft room. Right, the draft room. When you see like a pick, and you want to make a, you want to make a pick, but he's like maybe, you have to scroll a little bit. The scroll really.

And you get peer pressured out of doing that, even though you believe in your heart that that's the right guy to pick, you like can't do it for whatever reason. You get peer pressured out. That's like how I feel now. I'm like, I love my team after the draft. Now I see this draft grade and I'm questioning everything. Also, Bill Simmons, where did I go wrong? Bill Simmons took five quarterbacks.

You can only start two. He took two defenses and he got a B. He got tied for the third highest grade. Bill is the same number of backup running backs and receivers as backup defenses. There was a moment in the draft when I believe we were 14 rounds in, and Bill had spent 50% of his picks on quarterbacks and defenses. There was a straight, dude, there was a straight place. He went at what point Bill's draft board.

He will win. He will win. He will win. He went quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, running back receiver, quarterback, defense, defense. The grades are the best. It's the first thing everybody looks at. That's the biggest feedback we got. Also, people are always like, wait, what?

I used your rankings. you get a D? And it's like because the whole point of using other rankings is sometimes is because, yeah, it's like they're going to grade you based on how their ranks. Yeah, exactly. We got a D, I got a D based on how Yahoo's rankings and my place based on Yahoo's projections. Sean got an A because no one wanted Garrett Wilson or Breeze Hall. Right. Because we're like, yeah, we know we're the ranked, but we don't want the Jets at a principal. Yes. And then so Sean gets the A plus. And Bill probably got a B because all the, I mean, quarterbacks are projected for a lot of points.

And they were like, Jesus, this guy's got five of them. It's actually probably it. Yeah. It's actually is the beginning and end of it. So all those by weeks, Bill can just slot in any quarterback. he wants so he'll be fine. This is probably why he got a B. But anyway. So the season is almost here. So draft now at yahoofantasy.com slash the ringer. Yeah, we want to keep digging into this draft. This was so fun. The ad is over, but like we're actually going to keep talking about this. Oh, it was great. This is about two and a half hour, super flex. And we're going to try, anytime we veer a little too much into like just talking about our own teams, we'll try to

veer back out. And we're just going to try to like take these experiences and be like helping people. I do want to, I actually just want to start with quickly again, because it's not that interesting to talk about it. I think all three of us pretty happy with our teams. There was like voting during the live stream people seemed to have liked our three teams. I know Mallory kept getting mad at me because I was saying I was waffling between Craig and Hafez's team as my favorite other team. It's never going to go exactly the way you want. But for the most part I think

if I go down, I'm going down with the ship that I wanted to sail on, which is like Christian Nick. I ended up taking Jalen Hertz in the, because it's super flexly league and two quarterbacks. The quarterbacks are way more valuable because it's the difference between 10 quarterbacks starting. and 20 each week, which is just the difference between the worst starter being Dak Prescott

or the worst starter being like, you know, on a buy week, you know, like Daniel Jones might have to play four people after injuries and buys each week. So Jalen Hertz where I'm just like,

you know, at the end of the day, I think everyone's really discounting the fact that the NFL tried and failed to pass a rule that Jalen Hertz can't score so easily. And I just, I don't know. And Christian McCaffrey,

where I'm like, you know what I'm putting my money where my mouth is? I'm like, this is the best fantasy football player since Lidaniaanian Tomlinson. And if he's like,

hurt. I get it. But if he does, every week he's not hurt, we are probably going to have him ranked as a like first or second. Yeah. It's like, he's probably going to have him ranked above Sequin, honestly. And I'm like, all right. And then I just, and then Jonathan Taylor and then came back around and I was like, oh, I'll go Chase Brown. And I got Jonathan Taylor is my third running back. So I kind of was like, yeah, sure. And then it's a bunch of receivers. So I was happy with how it went, but it was a lesson. I don't think I ever thought, oh, I'm a quarterback in the three running backs. But I think it was just, Jonathan Taylor, we barely talked about him. But it was just a lesson in, I don't know what I was planning here. But, but

And it wasn't this, but yeah, Jonathan Taylor's my third running back sounds cool. You just kept scooping up value. Yeah. That's all it is. Exactly. It's just don't let a plan. It's telling the line between scooping up value because you don't want to just grab guys

you don't like because they're cheap. Sure. Right. Which happens. He liked all the players. It was like me with Breece Hall last year. I was like, well, he's here. I guess I'll take him and then it sucked.

I think the only player that you were really struggling with when you picked him was Tyree. I took Tyree Kill because that was kind of like. I would have taken him had he gotten to me. That was kind of, That was where your influence on me, I was kind of like, you know what, this could be a disaster. But like, you're getting him the fifth round or whatever. I know.

And it's a Superflex league, so it's a discount. It's not really a fifth rounder. But I was kind of like, you know, what if, I basically was like, what if Craig's right and I get him? I'm like, I'm probably going to win this league. Honestly, that was my thought process. D.K., who's your most DK player and your least DK player? My most DK player is Devani-Chann. Yeah.

You dog. So just for the record, I had, the favorite players. And your starting rat one this year, which is really a bold move. No, I'm not doing that. You have Ken Walker from the Seahawks. You have the Seahawks. You have Isaiah Pacheco, which you really love. Jaden Daniels from Washington.

These are going to be the narratives of this season. I'm so excited for all of us to both fall in love and potentially fall out of love with these guys. I have a high variance too. We did for the most part stick with players that we've talked about. Right. Yeah. And so I guess I do think there are a few lessons from this draft. If I don't want to hear about my team?

I just think, oh, fine. All right, fine. Fuck it. Craig, tell us. Okay, so most Craig player, I took Drake London and Calvin Ridley. my two guys. I feel great about that. You're forgetting Ladd-Mahonki? I took Ladd-Mahonki as well,

so my receivers are kind of lit. And then I stole, I didn't steal, but I took Travis Hunter. He was just like kind of sitting there in like the eighth or ninth round. I grabbed him almost for the same reason that you grabbed Tyreek Hill. I was like, Hyvitz has convinced me over the last six months even though he just hopped off

the ship a week ago. But I'm like, if Travis Hunter is just like better than Brian Thomas or something, it'd be hilarious to go up against. And then I took dart as my late round dart throw late in the draft. So anyway. But yes, okay, I think it's always very interesting. I honestly think you should be in a couple fantasy leagues. Like your most important fantasy leagues should be last because it's interesting to see the trends and things.

And this was my second out of three drafts, this ringer one we did. And I thought it was very telling. I've now had two drafts in a row where the same types of players have fallen. Yes. And I think I want to go through kind of the most notable players who fell. And it's basically you can bucket it into the boring guys, the injured guys, and the dolphins and the jets. And like, we could just start with the dolphins and the jets. Breece Hall specifically, Garrett Wilson and Jalen Waddle. Nobody has worse vibes right now than Breece Hall.

Breece Hall basically went 15 spots later than we had him ranked. Garrett Wilson went 14 spots later than we had him ranked and Waddle 20. Yeah. Yeah. You had to like, people were just having to talk you into drafting Waddle. I had the option. They were just sitting there. two rounds where it was like, Waddle? Is it

is it Sal this time? And finally Sal took Waddle. I had the option to take Waddle pretty late. And I remember thinking, this is like, I don't want to go against everything. I was like, I've said so much, I have Tyree Kill and I'm like, on one hand, what if Waddle's just better than Tyree kill straight and I make up for the pick? What if on one hand, Tyree gets hurt and Waddle's a great? What if they're

both incredible? What do they funnel this? And then I was like, so you're telling me though, I'm won to a concussion away from this team just being like D-O-A. Just collapsed. And I was kind of like I don't, I know that maybe Waddle would have been a plus CV pick. And I was like, oh, just stack the dolphins and assume he's healthy.

That probably would have been smarter, to be honest. Like, a smarter people than me probably would have been like, yeah, of course I want Tyrick and Wadd on the same team. You want high variance. That's a good value. Yeah. It's also hard not to get caught up in the wave.

It's of whatever's the trendy guy falling. And we talk about it. If it's like James Connor, it's a little bit easier to take him because we trust James Connor. We like James Connor. Seeing like Waddle and Brees and Garrett fall, even though they were probably good picks,

I still was like, I don't know. I let the emotions get in. And I remember, it happens on every draft. There are a lot of smart guys that, like, establish the runs a great site, and they're all smart. They're good at poker.

They like, see, they could be on emotion about a decision. And I'm like, you know what? They probably would have taken Jill and Waddle. I thought about it. I'm like, you know what? I can't sleep at night. If I'm going to lose this ringer fantasy league.

You've been telling people to not take Waddle for the last three months. If I end up with Tyreek and Waddle and two, it gets a concussion in September and then, like, retires. I'm going to be like, how am I going to sleep at night? Like, how am I going to live with myself till next year's drafts? And I was like, yeah, I'm not going down this way.

And like, you know, sometimes you do have to do that. Like, yeah, but take the team you want. Like, still take value when it comes to you. Like, still, Jonathan Taylor falls late. And you're like, yeah, I'll take him the third round. I think of a year. But I was like, yeah, you got a man must have a code. You have to draw your own line in the sand.

And I don't know where it is. Like Garrett Wilson following 15 spots was not quite low enough for me. If it was 25 spots, I probably would have done it. But you have to kind of create your own line of. do you think i had this thought today and it's like obviously maybe not the most likely thing to happen but every anytime everyone agrees that a team is going to be absolute dog shit it's the opposite what that happens or at least you should you just build your whole team at jets and dolphins the jets are the everyone thinks the jets are going to suck and it's because and it's largely because well number

one their history as an organization right but two is playoff you're out right but number two is like there's been a handful of really horrific cutups of Justin Fields throwing passes at training camp and whatever the practice, the joint practices that they've been doing. And it's just like, so you can't get that out of my mind. And I know that a lot of people are on the same page in that. And it's like, this offense is going to be absolute disaster. But anytime everyone agrees on something that, he's right about setting off alarm bells in my head where maybe this is actually a no, you're right about that, DK, because what if it's like Brise Hall just looks great? Because their offensive line is great. What if Bruce Hall catches 75 passes? And I was going to say also just what, he's getting

going to be really valuable. Yeah. So Justin Fields. I dropped to Justin Fields in this league because my thinking was if the Jets are good, I'll get Fields and if the Jets are bad, Fields will probably still be okay because I just don't think he's going to get bench. I have Fields. I have Fields.

I have Jillen Hertz and Justin Fields. And I was like, that feels all right. Fields is fine. But yeah, but you're right. What if Breeze Hall just owns the, I mean, Braylin Allen went like two or three rounds in the Mallory Rubin took Braylin Allen within three rounds at Breez Hall. And I'm like, that's like assuming a time share that doesn't actually exist yet.

But yeah, what if Bruce Hall, what if Justin Fields and they just run a ton of RPO's and what opens up the field way more for Brice Hall. And we're like, yeah, he's just actually running rag. I mean, he was hurt last year. Like, there's totally where where Bruce Hall becomes a value. I think the question is just based on your platform, does Breece Hall go 35th overall at the end of the third round, or depending on how teams you have?

Or is he going to fall to, like, 60th? At some point, he does become a value. Like yesterday, because I do think our draft, if you're doing it in person with stickers on a board, people fall more because no one's staring, everyone's staring at the same little thing with the players sitting there with the number of the hall time. I think people fall less in those scenarios.

Yeah, I agree with that. Unless you have the little. questionable next to you. That makes you fall. But if you're online, Bruce, no one really falls more than two rounds. It would be just great if Sean won this fantasy league because we forced him to take Garrett Wilson.

D.K. is right. That's super possible. It absolutely is. Sean was agonizing over those two picks for like the next hour. He was like, should I just take my punishment here or take these jets? And I also think that I might... We're like, Sean, you don't have to select the punishment right now. We'll give you a player instead of a punishment.

Can you also just take Garrett Wilson and Breezoll? And he was like, ah. Wait, let's also explain the punishment thing again. So, so Scott E. Mildonan with the best idea ever. We did it for this Ring of Fantasy League. Yeah, basically, we couldn't decide on one punishment. So we came up with like 12. And what we did is we allowed them to be drafted like players.

So basically you add a round to the draft. And at any point in the draft, you can lock in your own punishment by selecting it as if it's a player. So if it's the 10th round, there's one punishment where you have to wear a headband on a work zoom for the week. And you want to take that. And you can't address why. And you want to take that in the 11th round instead of a punishment. player just to lock in that punishment in case you get last place, you can do it. And so I think it addresses an issue a lot of fantasy leagues have, which is you have a punishment

you want to enforce, but then some people won't do it or like people will only agree to something that's frankly so lame. Some people in the league are upset that it's like that's nothing. But then some people you kind of it bespoke. It's like a bespoke. Yeah, it's a bespoke punishment. It's a bespoke punishment. Pick you, PYOPP, pick your own punishment. Yeah. Bespoke. And so I think it really does fix that problem because you are in writing to do it at the beginning of the season. Yeah.

And if you don't want to... You chose it. And if you want to reach four rounds, you want to really get something you don't want to do. So, like, for example, the joke we had was if you picked a player who had already been picked, you had to pick a punishment instead. Me, hosting the stream, had a lot of stuff going on. I got people. We had a lot of things go our way.

There was a lot of great moves. Like, in this draft, we had Bill randomly got the first overall pick. Great. Classic. Hyphitz, of course, is the first person to accidentally pick a player who's already been selected. Well, Sean did it, and then we gave him the Jets out. Which is also great that he gets the two jets. High Fitz then has to take the first punishment because he screws up the pick.

There's a lot of classic. So I tried to get Zayflowers and was like, oh, no, he'd been picked. So I was like, oh, let me get you on Jennings. I was like, he went three rounds ago. I'm like, wow, that's early. So I just did it. I was like, I just only scanned. The reason I did that, I only scanned the first, the two, three rounds above me.

I didn't go four rounds. I was like, well, clearly he wouldn't have that high. You're not marking off as you. I'm trying, but like, I'm, you know, there's a lot of, I'm also, you know, I was hosting the things. I was like, you know, I was like, just making sure I'd miss him. And then, uh, what we learned is that, but I had to pick a punishment in the eighth round. What we learned is eventually you to say, has Joanne Jennings been taken and that absolves you of any. So I have to eat an anchovy pizza if I come and last.

A triple anchovy pizza. Whatever, man, it's food. Like, that's not, I don't know. The cheese is worse for me than the fish. Anyway, are we actually endorsing the jets right now? It's, D.K's probably right. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm just saying...

If they fall a lot, you're not endorsing them, but I'm saying every time in the history of the earth, everyone agreed on something, that doesn't happen. That is definitely true. 100% always correct. Bringing up Braylin Allen, though, that segues into the other thing. The other guys who fell were boring players or the kind of like the incumbent starting running backs who are starting in front of really sexy rookies. Yes.

So it was basically like the boring players. Michael Pittman went 50 spots later. I took him in the last round. Austin Hector didn't get drafted. Rashad White, the RB 21 last year, didn't get drafted. J.K. Dobbins went in the 17th round, 30 spots higher than we had him. Ramandre Stevenson went 40 spots later than we had him. We all forgot about Jake Dombins.

Aaron Jones went 20 spots later than we had him. So there was a lot of that where it's just boring old guys. You can argue that is what we're talking about earlier, where it's like, the ceiling for these guys is just not that high. Like, cool, you got J.K. Dobbins, 40 spots later. than he would have gone, but it's like, you maybe are getting a month to a month and a half of a startable player. I don't think these guys will fall as much on platforms where they're constantly reminding that they're there instead of having to keep track of it on paper. But your overall point holds true. It is absolutely true that this profile of player, again, boring veterans fall, like unambiguously.

And I think we should add James Connor into this list, too. James Connor. He didn't really fall. He went right where we had him. I guess. Because I think people are kind of. But I did, but I just did a draft the other day with my friends. It's like my oldest league.

He felt two full rounds. He always falls. Like he went like two full rounds later than the platform had him. And I just like, I don't know. I feel like we've been talking about this forever. And I do think ultimately the formula that wins is the right mix of boring veterans that are just like a weird, unsexy value. And to your point, mixed with the crazy high upside people. Yeah.

So I mean, now the guys who went early, man, all the exciting rookies and even like the sophomores of like Ricky Pearsall types, the value of those guys has been like the edge is diminished. Completely stripped. I agree. There is a show. taking place where like I love Matthew Golden I've been talking about Matthew Golden and Ricky Parasel. Amecabuka. I mean, Sal took Amecabuca as the 63rd player.

Yeah, let me let me... Those guys all went off the board. Let me run through it. Bill took Trayvon Henderson, no shocker there. He went 25 spots earlier than we had him. R.J. Harvey went 10 spots higher. Emeka Bucca went 23 spots higher. But this isn't Superflex, so it's actually higher. No, no, this is according to our Superflus rankings. Tyler Warren went 40 spots higher than our rankings from Sal.

Pearsall went 15 spots higher. Travis Hunter went only eight spots higher. and then Matthew Golden, like you said, 12 spots higher. So literally every exciting rookie is going like a round or two earlier than where we have them right. I do wonder if the edge is, if a year from now we're kind of like, yeah, the edge has kind of been figured out. So now they're going to just go at cost. And also just something about, I don't know, we're not to make this whole thing about social media. But I do think there's something about like the way news happens and algorithmically.

Like I do think it almost went from like this rookie videos almost went from like things that would happen in the corners of football the internet to like it's actually not like the main tech. of preseason is a Meccaabooka looking good at practice? It's just not hidden anymore now in a way. And so, yeah, I mean, I mean, Sal taking a Meccaabuka, what's, you said? 23 spots. Seventh round. And then Tyler Warren in the eighth round. 40 spots.

He took Tyler Warren as tight in five. I mean, I can't really imagine taking Tyler Warren in the seventh round because at that point, it goes from, I hope he's really good to like, well, he better be great quickly. It literally went, it went Bowers, McBride, Kittle, LaPorta, and then. He was the fifth tight end at the board. At that point, we go from, we think he could be. like a top three tight end to like he better be top five. I would say arguably that's the right spot for him.

Well, because we talked about like if there were any player, I guess, going in the later ish rounds at Tidendend who could finish as like the Tidend 4 or 5. It was worn. But the whole argument is that a rookie has been good at tight end five times ever and three of them were the last five years. But that's still like five times ever. You know, and so the point being though, there is a lack of an edge. I'm still excited about person and all these guys.

But yeah, just. And to be clear, I was. mad when those guys got taken because I was like I wanted to take those guys and I was probably going to take them pretty soon. I wanted some juice my team was a lot of like Cortland Sutton I took Aaron Jones I was doing a lot of like safe laborers. You were just vacuuming up boring picks

and just like you kept getting sniped on cool players yeah well and then that's why Travis Hunter was there and I'm like I need one injection of youth I'm just fucking little Botox just around the forehead yeah right it's like a little bump and the wrinkles out like I need Corlin Sutton and Travis Hunter together now that looks okay there you look your age yeah

that's totally so other things I wanted to ask you about was just I do think having done more drafts now I do think over and over again the draft that I usually and again sometimes you win your league with the draft you're unhappy with however I do increasingly think the simplest way to win your draft with your just friends if you know two receiver league and again the biggest difference in fantasy rankings is not your scoring half ppr ppr it's like borderline irrelevant the biggest difference is whether you start two receivers or three receivers each week and in the leagues you start two receivers I do increasingly think that that if you leave with a running back in the first round,

you're able to get Bijant or Gibbs, or if you believe in me, McCaffrey, if you don't, whatever, if you believe in Derek Henry, you don't care but his age, Derek Henry, like, but getting a running back early or two running backs early. Like, if you were able to get, like, Jemir Gibbs fourth or Bejohn fourth,

and then you come back around if Chase Brown is still there, or even like a Bucky Irving, and you get a couple running backs, come back around. If you're able to get a quarterback or a tight end, like if Trade McBride still there with the third pick or like a quarterback, Josh Allen, whatever,

and then you just, hammer receivers. It really just kind of, to me, just comes down to whether you're able to get the right constellation of receivers later. Or if you go receiver heavy, you kind of end up having to go, do I want to Chuba Hubbard here? Do I want to say, a pecheco here? Do I want Antonio Pollard here?

And so I really do think it comes down to. You just got to get on base with your first two or three hits. And then like that, those middle rounds, I mean, the four, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, like that's where it's all. I really do think that's kind of where it's one. That's where the men are separated from the boys. Yeah. But it's interesting because you recommend that strategy.

However, in this Ringer League, we're starting three wide receivers. There is also a flex and there's a super flex. So in theory, you could start five wide receivers. Hyfitz, you started quarterback, running back, running back, running back. I did because, so, I mean, the thought process with Hertz was just like, I think the difference is with Herds. With Superflex, it's, I mean, you kind of. Yeah, Superflex.

Jalen Hertz is there and I'm like, he's right. You want one of the big four if you can get them. Injuries always happen. And so Jailen Hertz might get injured. And again, you don't ever know the future. It's obviously unpredictable. However, I don't think there's ever been a. generally speaking, an easier situation to try, like, the confidence interval is higher on Jalen

Hertz than any quarterback I can ever think of where it's just like, they literally have this unstoppable play. The league's trying to ban. It's just like, it's a one of one situation. I'm like, yeah, like, give me that. That's the, if I lose that bet, whatever. Like, this push, push stops working sure. He isn't a less than 13 rushing touchdowns in four years. I'll take that. Come back around, Christian McCaffrey. I'm like, is the highest rate. Like, literally if he plays 17 games, I think he's going to be the number one player. Take that. Come back around. Chase Brown's there. And I'm like, man, like, I kind of like the idea of going running back, running back. Taylor's still there. I didn't

anticipate that. And I'm like, okay, at this point, if I get five of my next six picks are receivers, at that point, now I'm going to make it up. So I was like, Tyree Kill is a chance to make it up. And he could be just as good as your Pooka and a coo. I'm like, this is, so I'm going to dominate you guys at running back. My quarterback's going to beat you all their quarterbacks. But now I'm going to try to make it up a receiver.

Tyra kills my chance to make it up a puka. Jameson Williams, where I'm like, he's fast as hell. I'm like, if he actually advances as a number one guy, I'm like, he could any week out do your number two receiver. And I was like, I actually went ahead. And I also took, this was a tough one for me. But I... Pivotts didn't even ask about my team.

He's talking about his team for 10 fucking minutes. Yeah, that's a good point. Fuck me. No, keep going. Let's get into rounds 13, 14, 15. My point was the thought process which you use these picks was shooting for Rishi Rice, where I'm like, that's a guy that if he was playing 17 games this season, wasn't against suspension.

I think in fantasy, people want him as a top 30 player. Of course, yeah. But I got him, like, way later. So that's just, the point is, no matter what it is, how, When you're six, seventh, eighth round guys, do these guys have a path to beat the guys at the same position you guys took way earlier? You have a real upside team.

McCaffrey, Tyreek, Rashiris, they can all flame out and you get 11th? Yeah, you're looking for a Brian, last year, Brian Thomas in the 10th round, ended up beating the receiver you took in the second round. So if everyone else just hits par for the course, you win each week. And can you do that, what position you're doing it at?

And it's the easiest dude at receiver in the middle rounds or running back later. And that's the easiest way. Ollie Gordon maybe starts 17 games with the Dolphins, which is crazy. I know. It is funny. Like, I feel like I always like the idea, especially when you can start three or four wide receivers. Starting wide receiver heavy is often the recommended move. But then you do that.

And you're like, man, my number one running back is Chuba Hubbard. That's kind of terrifying. It's kind of fucked up. And again, if my running backs get hurt, I'm screwed. Like that, you know? So what was your throw process? I don't know. No, I'm not saying don't talk about your team.

I'm saying like the actual, I thought that process would be helpful. You're right. It's kind of roster. I wanted to make sure I got one good running back and then get a ton of wide receivers. I wanted to, Superflex. I always wanted to make sure you get the best quarterbacks possible. And then I'm like, if I just got one good running back and he gets healthy, I'm just going to draft a bunch of wide receivers,

Drake Lund and McConkey, Ridley, Sutton, Hunter. And then that was my goal to have as like as many kind of elite wide receivers as possible. The one thing I want to talk about is how do you guys feel about Mallory Rubin having the second pick in the draft? Bill takes Jamar Chase one overall. Now, it's a Superflex league. so you would expect perhaps you take a quarterback here. She takes Josh Allen over Lamar Jackson.

Mallory Rubin is a diehard Ravens fan. How do you feel about that? The diast, hardest Ravens fan. Do we like the emotional hedge pick? Surprising, I know. I feel like she's such a confident fan. No. I feel like she is very...

It's hard to be a Ravens fan. She's also an Orioles fan. No, I know, but I feel like with the Ravens, she's never like glass half empty. I feel like she's always like, the Ravens are awesome. Lamar's going to win the MVP. I trust Lamar.

Like, he's been unlucky in the playoffs. Like, he is the guy. No, I made fun of her to her face for being a coward because I thought it was funny. But behind her back, I will say, I totally understood why you would take Josh there in that moment. Even the Bills and Ravens, again, the Bills eliminated the Ravens last year. But I get it because it's the same reason where I... If you take Lamar, you double the joy, but you double the pain. Yes.

And, like, I think for people who've had a lot of pain, like, honestly, Craig, you kind of don't get it. Because the warriors are like the closest thing. we've had to like Kobe Lakers or the 90s where it's like you have had you,

no matter how bad your other teams were like your main, you're a team. The war is your favorite team right of all your teams you root for. You know,

the athletics won the world series that wouldn't, not that'll ever happen, but that wouldn't give you a fraction of the joy. It would have when I was younger. When you were younger. But the war is your favorite team.

So when you have that, you're able to take a risk on like, you know, a different, like the Steelers. You're like, but like when you don't have that

and like the Ravens, I would argue getting really close and not making it with that Ravens team. They're going to be one of the best teams to ever not make a Super Bowl in the history of the NFL. It's really painful.

I feel like they had a few of those. And so like I'm a Giants fan and I'm like my brother wants giants and doesn't want Eagles or Cowboys. And I'm like, you know what? I look at it more like, I don't care about having Jalen Hertz. I don't care about having to see you lamb.

In part because I'm like, one, it's not competitive. The Giants are like two and 18 against the Eagles in the last 20 games. But also I kind of can't handle neighbors getting hurt if he's on my fantasy team and my real life team. I'm like, well, what did I even do this for?

this is my escapism for my escapism. Why fantasy was invented, Craig. So you don't have to root for your own team. Yeah. I just think it's double the joy, it's double the pain. Imagine how awesome it would be. Also, Lamar's such a good regular season player. It's not like you get dinged in fantasy if he loses in the playoffs.

What if he gets hurt? What if he gets sick? Like he does once every year. But imagine how cool would be to have him last year. They're like a one seed. He's like the best player in fantasy. That would probably be awesome. Yeah, that'd be sick.

But your human brain feels pain four times more than pleasure. So. Okay. everybody was surprised. Let's check you in this in six weeks when DQ was Ken Walker has a foot injury. Or leading the league in yards

and we'll see which one makes me a half year. I didn't take a single stealer, not because of any of the shit high fits. It's just saying I don't like anything. You're going to suck, yeah. It's not going to good. Where's Aaron Rogers on your team? Because Super Flex League.

I have him sitting delicately on the waiver wire waiting for me. The other one I want to go over just the injured players. This is also a real dynamic. And I wasn't kidding earlier when I was like tell people Jennings as a calf injury.

Sean Fennacy asked, is Jaden Reed okay, to see an injury? And I answered the truth, but he was far enough away. I had to say it loudly for everyone to say it. And he was like, Jaden Reed has a foot sprain. Sean's like, I don't like the sound of that. Jaden Reed falls eight more rounds after Sean says that out loud, to the point where I drafted Jaden Reed

with like my last position pick because no one took him. And I was like, at this point, this is kind of an incredible value. And so I kind of just wanted to do temperature. I think guys like Darnel Mooney and the Falcons are like hyper-competent number to receivers that generally week, oh, I want all upside at this spot. People want a Luther burden for the bears, but I'm not going to lie.

If Darnal Mooney or Jaden Reed or Khalil Shakir fall commensually, now, Khalil Shakir, I don't think it will. Darnal Mooney and Reed are guys that they're kind of not giving timelines on. They'll be back for week one. I think Reid, I don't know the situation, but Darnal Mooney, I'm like, I kind of think he's going to play week one. And they're just not saying it. So he's plummeting in ranks. So I'm like, I kind of think Darnal Mooney is going to fall outside the top 12 rounds. And then you should take him.

And then he'll just be like a perfectly service. number two years like number flex player for you these guys aren't that hurt like there's a chance calil Shakir Shakir's a high ankle sprain and it's one of those like how high is like is it like is it's sometimes we don't know the exact diagnosis I thought you were just saying that you should take him no I'm saying darnal mooney because it's a shoulder is should I'm sorry calil Shakir it's a little different because like high ankle oh I thought you just said calil Shakir might not fall and will go higher oh no that's what I'm saying calil Shakir is less likely to fall because the bills are on a record saying he'll be back for week one but to me I'm like I still don't love this high

ankle sprain. High ankle sprain is a bad injury. Mooney probably also be back one, but it's a shoulder and I'm like, all right, I'd rather you have a shoulder injury than a high ankle sprain. Yeah. So I think, anyway, I think... Speaking of injuries, Najee Harris, actually taken off the NFI list, which makes him eligible to play in week one. Is it kind of fucked up that it's called the NFI list? Isn't that kind of... Is that low hanging for it? No, no. That was good. That's high quality stuff. That's good. That's high quality shit.

Thanks. Thanks. Yeah. Making him eligible to play. I mean, has he practiced at all? No. He's running, he's been jogging on the side. He's walking with Stafford around L.A.

He's doing power walks? Walking or maybe, yeah, maybe walking. Are you going to let that affect anything, D.K.? No, no, not really. Okay. Once again, he's another guy that- once again,

every running back group is a committee at that's some level. There's like two guys that get all the carries. It's like Chuba Hubbard and Karen Williams and Sequin. Yeah. And one other guy. McCaffrey, baby. Maybe.

Ashen Gendy, baby. Any other takeaways you think that after leaving from this draft that you think are just actual advice for people. Otherwise, also the obvious ranking of just have paper. If you're able to figure out a printer, the only technology that alluded to every generation is printers. But if you're able to do it, I do think crossing names off and having a different set of rankings than people, whatever ranking site your league is using print from somewhere else and just

copy so that what you're going to be staring at, you know, it says, A good example, I think Derek Henry is like 19th on ESPN and like eighth on sleeper or something crazy. And it's one of those where you just need someone else to tell you you're not crazy sometimes. It's the peer pressure of the draft room. Yeah, and if you're ESPN and you're like, I want Derek Henry now and it's 12th and you're like, wait, he's 19th. But you need someone else to be like, oh, no, in a different side to be higher or the opposite. You're like, I don't want to take this guy. And that really is the purpose list is to feel not crazy.

That is still me to be the number one advice. But otherwise, yeah, I think it's a mix of what is the highest range of outcome for this player? Does he actually really have a chance to make up for all the, like, the Brian Thomas Buck, yearving rule. Does this guy player really have a shot, however low it is, to be up there next year as a top 30 player? Or is this a solid hit on the fairway, but way later than it should have gone

because everyone knows that it's kind of boring, which is a James Connor plummeting or like a darnel Mooney plummeting. And so I think a combination of just putting it on the fairway and then every now and then you go for the green, those two things together eventually. It makes up for every now and then you're losing a ball. Col Strange released Nuga

Chattnuga baby The funniest moment In history of the show How many years did he play? Three, two? It hasn't been that long That was the first year of Solex Is that three years in?

Three years Now let's check his hat's over Also the Falcons starting Right tackle Caleb McGarry Oh yeah He's an ending injured reserve Yeah that's bad Because you know why it's bad

Because he's a tackle And he protects Michael Pennix Well it's his right tackle And Pennix is a left hand So that's actually like The Falcons left tackles now for the season, which is an ideal considering Michael Pennix.

Well, that's why Bill's got five quarterbacks. He has penics. We have to know this one second. I know we're running long. We have to talk this one second. Bill's logic with, which definitely what happened is that he was, he did.

I'm just saying. Good point. Bill. No, bury him. Bill, in his own words, on the live stream, in his own words on the live stream. Craig, we kind of need him. Actually, maybe don't bury him.

just talk himself into a good. Go ahead. Bill's logic on the live stream was he's going to take five quarterbacks because he wants to hoard them from the other teams, which honestly, I don't hate having five quarterbacks in Superflex. Like, I get it. What's funny to me is his logic was when other people's quarterbacks get hurt, they'll have to come to me for a trade or they won't have any. What's hilarious to me is he ended up drafting Tua, Stafford, and Michael Pennix,

who were the three most injury concerned players in the NFL, which if that was your logic, why don't you leave Stafford and Tua to other teams? So when those guys get hurt, they have to come to you for your healthy quarterbacks. Because I feel like...

Because he waited really long time to drive quarterbacks. Probably. It's just funny that if... Like a hilariously long time. He also, he hates the Jaggs this year. But he took Trevor Lawrence. He took three of them.

He took Trevor Lawrence, Brian Thomas and Tank Bigsby. That was just... Yeah. It's actually savvy, though, because now he can't lose. Because if the Jags are great, he'll have to eat his words on the take,

but then his fantasy team will be good. And then if the Jags suck, then he's correct on his tape. Yeah, it's an emotional hedge, yeah. So he might be playing chess. There you go. Okay. Taylor Swift got engaged?

Or is anything else he was going to talk about actual football? No. Taylor Swift got engaged. I mean, this is the biggest story in the world, or at least in America. I get. I mean, yeah, it's a very popular story. It's not really a story,

but it's big news. It's a love story, Craig. I'll have you know. How many, so it's 1.43 Pacific. Howie Fitz is obsessed with like how many likes she got on Instagram. I'm just curious. I'm just curious if it becomes the most like post ever. Who cares? I don't know.

It's just interesting. Is it? No, she's the most famous person in the world. Why is that interesting? I don't know. What do you think the most liked post ever is in Instagram? I don't know. It's messy holding the World Cup.

Okay. But before that, it was that stupid egg. It was dumb. The egg? So what do you, what do you find interesting about Taylor Swift's post being the most liked Instagram posts. I just mentioned it once and then now you guys are like I'm not running around like talking about it. You are you are. I mentioned it one time. He's texted us like a fucking monologue about how quickly do you think this was. I said how quickly do you think this becomes

the most liked post ever. Okay. Why is that interesting? Because I just kind of think it was going to be the most liked post ever. Okay. Yeah. She's very famous and her husband's very famous. Her fiance is very famous. You guys have not. I've decided I'm going to like actually enjoy this. I think it's cool. You know what? I'm not not enjoying it. I just, to me, this is like a very, you know, it's a natural progression of things. I decided I could spend my whole life being like, oh, I don't care about this. I'm like, you know what, I'm going to actually have, this is cute. It's cute. I've decided to be in.

Also, are we going to? I'm not out. I don't, I just send us like, six paragraphs being like, this is incredibly important. And I was like, I don't know if it's important, but it's, oh, good. That was for, oh, please. Like, it's certainly news. You know I'm a phenomenal dancer. Now I know you're lying. Wait, I do want to, there were. There were. Odds released. I don't even know where the hell. Matt Bellany sent me this. There was odds released about wedding venue odds. Can we go through it? Oh, yeah. Okay. Like what city or what actual venue? Like location. Okay. Not like the Ritz. Can I guess? Can I guess? What the favorite is? Yeah. Has to be Nashville.

The favorite is Lake Como Tuscany. Oh. Yeah. You should probably do that. At George Clooney's house. I think the favorite should be Rhode Island. which is where one of her big houses is that's where she like throws parties I don't know how Like in Newport Well wherever that big house is that she owns I don't maybe it's not like secure enough

But I could see Rhode Island as an option This is like the Bezos wedding That like everyone in Venice got all mad about No the Bezos wedding It was all It was like honestly like I don't think she'll want that Yeah they almost sunk Venice for Bezos Like a revolution

I agree I see them doing like Some like rural beautiful Tennessee thing Or something in Rhode Island is my guess I don't Yeah, I don't know. D.K.K. just doesn't, yeah. Bridesmaid favorite? Guess.

Bridesmaids, so, okay. Oh, this is great. It just has one listing. So, Celina Gomez. So, Kylie Kelsey. Oh, so, yeah, Selena Gomez is. Look at you, King. Well, no, that's wrong.

Hold on. Hold on. She's Travis's sister. She's not the favorite. She's, Travis's sister-in-law. I'm telling you, according to whatever website I'm looking at. She's not there. Selina Gomez for sure.

Kylie Kelsey. I'm really proud of D.K. That is actually very impressive. This was my contribution. I am proud of this. conversation. Do you think all three Himes sisters make it? Probably not. She can't pick one of the Himes, right? You gotta take them all.

Yeah, you gotta take three Himes, that's a lot of sisters. Three Himes, no plus ones. I think, yeah. I think, yeah, you have to do all three or all none and that's like suddenly a lot of bridesmaids. Oh, wait, okay, wait, I have more odds for the venue. The favorite is Italy. It's Lake Como slash Tuscany. Second odds are Kansas City. They're not doing that.

Nashville is third. The airport can't support that kind of operation. Well, they just rebuilt it for the draft. Nashville is third Rhode Island is fourth Redding Pennsylvania I think that's where she's from

is fifth Cleveland Ohio I'm not doing that Vegas not doing that Vegas is last Vegas should they get married at the sphere Oh you're just beam into the world They could do something

Very cool in Vegas All right high fits The bridesmaid odds Gomez Kylie Kelsey the hym sisters Kylie Kelsey's not in the top six Well they're wrong Isn't that like

standard practice That if you're like You have a sister Wouldn't she? Am I missing something? But Kylie Kelsey I guess she's the sister-in-law. Not Travis's sister. Oh, yeah, I guess that's true.

It might be two degrees of separation. I guess that's true. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're probably right. But isn't either of Jason's the best man? Wouldn't you want to... No, I see what you're saying.

I don't know. Well, she's a low on the list. I'm going to put money on that. Is Jason going to be the best man for sure? I mean... He better be. There is zero... Zero point zero percent chance that Travis has this life.

Travis's his best bud? Who's his best bud? Jason Kelsey? No, besides Jason. No, he's got like local... local friends from like high school and stuff. Like Pat? Him and Mahomes are actually friends though.

Yeah. I will say that the good... This is a tough decision. Pat versus Jason? A piece came out today. Not that this was a surprise, but it does sound like this is Travis's last year.

Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I will say Jason Kelsey, he basically, Travis did some shit to get kicked off the team. Do you think they'll get married at the halftime show of the Super Bowl? I don't, but that would be crazy.

Honestly, I was trying to get to you guys's level. You laugh, but they're trying to like, I was trying to, you know... If you think there won't be betting odds at that for this year's Super Bowl, like they were going to be like a thousand to one. What if they get married? Do you think Justin Herbert and Madison Beer will get married first? So, yeah, explain Madison Beer to D.K.

So Justin Herbert is now... Is she dating Madison? Is he dating Madison Beer? I don't know. How do you explain Madison Beer? I don't know if that's a real name. Yeah, apparently that's a real name. I mean, she's just like a...

She's an influencer TikTok star who, like, also is a musician, who's like 25. Sounds right. and has a lot of strong following on the internet. And that has now been spotted with Justin Herbert, going to dinner parties in L.A. walking down the street. This confirms that I know nothing about Justin Herbert. This goes against everything we thought we knew. Mina Kimes wrote a great story about him.

He's like, you know, he puts his shopping carts back. And I was like, pretty young man. And now he's like, Dating Medicine beers. I'm like, damn. This shy, kind of understated guy from small town Oregon, like, a whole thing. And I'm like, you're just dating like the most famous, influencer. I just, I don't know.

Just 40 million Instagram followers. Sorry to talk about Instagram followers, but like, yeah, I mean, it's... I don't know anything about Justin Herbert. Liz, my wife told me she's like, all men are the same, Craig. That's what this proves. All men are the same. It's actually a really good take. I was like, this is, I wouldn't have expected this out of Herbert.

She's like, all men are the same, Craig. You might be right. You're like valid. Valid point. The L.A. has gotten to Justin Herbert. She seems like she'd be a great mom. You know, maybe she's wonderful. She probably is wonderful.

She's probably a great hang. He's probably having a good time. Oh, he's having a good time. He wore a leg sleeve to a dinner party, which is kind of sick. Is that what the kids call it nowadays? He literally wore a leg sleeve, like a compression leg sleeve. Like a calf sprain? I don't know. It's news, though.

Maybe we should report on that. But I respect that. Did Justin Bieber discover this person? Yeah, is that what you got? Was that what you found out in the first line of Google when I popped up to? Did she discover Madison? Did he discover Madison? He did he does say that in the first line.

I didn't read the first line. Oh, okay. But it sounded familiar. That's the extent of what I know about. Madison beer. I don't know that. I admit to have seen, having had seen a picture of her before.

I was aware of her. That's what's changed between men of different generations. D.K.K.'s like, I'll admit, I've seen a photo of this woman. Clips. And that feels... Yeah. Well, I haven't seen a clip. I made a ciphered clips. She's super talented. Yeah.

Do you see her play the instrument? I don't know. That thing I don't have a name for? What was that thing called? I don't know. Horizontal? Harpsichord. That's not really. Oh, it's not a harpsicle. I didn't even know it was an instrument. There was a report that, that Anya Taylor Joy is like in talks to star as young

Joni Mitchell, which I hate. It should be Amanda Seifred. She was so good. You know I'm in your corner on this one. She crushed that song on, I think it was Fallon. It was amazing. She said in California by Johnny Mitchell. It was like, unbelievable.

I typed in Amanda and what's the fire? You should say it. No. Say it. I'm not doing it. Anyway, that's for the Patreon. on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's talented. So what's the

what's the instrument that we... I don't know. I don't know what that's called. Amanda Seifreed instrument late tonight show. Should you end the show and we'll just do good by the time we get done, we'll go to Johnny Mitchell. Van for me. Dulcimer. I still don't know what that is. Great instrument. A wooden lap instrument.

I don't really like that. I hope the kid's calling that what it is. It wouldn't lap instrument. All right, let's get that out of here. All right. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, C.T. Thank you, Ron. Thank you, Carlos. Thank you, Kui. Thank you. Everyone for listening.

Emails at Ringinfantasyf Football at Gmail.com. You really can't send actual football questions. Again, our tiers, fantasyfoolt.com is printable PDF page. Our tiers are on that sheet. Yeah, thank you everyone emailing. Thank you everyone, emailing. Thank you, everyone, emailing. Thank you, everyone, emailing. It's also, fantasyf football.orghumple.com.

Thank you everyone to watch. Please go subscribe to YouTube channel. If you want to see the draft we did yesterday with Bill. And you want to see Bill Simmons take five quarterbacks and two defenses and like eight picks. then go and watch the draft on Ringer Fantasy Football Show YouTube page. If you want to see me pull off some high-level drafting. Yeah. Instagram, TikTok, we're still in Los Angeles.

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Nice. I love Heim. I don't actually know anything about that. All their music videos are just them walking. Okay. So they just literally, and they just walk and they have all these different ways to shoot walking. They walk everywhere around Los Angeles all their videos to the point where Roger

Sherman wrote an article for the ringer ranking all their walks like 20. The most Roger article ever. They ranked their walking ability and how athletic they looked. And then I think they were the opening for the entire the majority of the ERIS tour they were the opening up.

And they're very talented. They have very good music. And they were like a pretty big I don't know how mid-major artist. Like they weren't like an A-lister, but they were like a very respected group. They were like a very respected group. They were. weren't like nobody, but they're like good. And they, but I think they became supercharged because they're just like open for like

the biggest tour in the history of mankind for probably like 100 to the 150 or something tours. Yeah, when I saw the air store, they opened. They're good. Along with Gracie Abrams. She also opened. They were like a cool band. Like if you saw Heim at some like indie LA venue, you're like, oh, that's cool.

Yeah, I mean, they've been, their music videos are directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah. Oh, no way. They're like very valley hip LA scene. Switching gears real quick. Craig, you said you wanted to tell me about high fits golfing. I think we hold it for the next episode because I want to spend some time. It's great.

I actually don't have anything bad to say because he's good. But we can talk about next time. That's a good teaser. I like that. Okay. I can't wait to hear. We had a great time. Truthfully, I'm excited to hear about it.

With Tate Fraser. It's really fun. Get shit on so much. I'm caught off guard when there's actually earnest compliments about him on the show. Goodbye, everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas. an affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Halt.com.

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