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Dynasty Fantasy Football 1-QB Startup Mock Draft | 2025 Strategy & Tips (06-13 Dynasty Fantasy Football Podcast)
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- [00:00]
Heath Cummings
Foreignasy football today, Dynasty. I am your host Heath Cummings joined today by Jamie Eisenberg. We have a 1 QB 10 team full PPR startup mock draft and it is already going one round completed. First off, Jamie really stepping up being here this morning. So thank you very much for being here Jamie.
- [00:28]
Jamie Eisenberg
My pleasure. It's always fun to talk with you. Talk some Dynasty, do a draft. I mean this is right up my alley. So I'm excited.
- [00:35]
Heath Cummings
So of course we get one chat right away. One QB question, question, question. I I understand that everybody just wants to see mock drafts for the exact leagues that they play in, but there's a lot of people playing in 10 team leagues. There's a lot of people playing in one QB leagues. We want to help all of you out with your teams and there will still be some very interesting discussions because we started the draft a little before we started the show. I'm just going to go ahead and read off the first round of this muck and get your reaction. Jamie. So it goes. Jamar Chase, Malik neighbors, Justin Jefferson, Bijan Robinson, Ashton Genty, Jameer Gibbs, CD Lamb, Brock Bowers, a Munro St. Brown and Brian Thomas Jr. I have the first pick. I took Chase. Jamie has the 12th pick. He took Brian Thomas Jr. That works out really well for us because we get a long period of time in the middle where neither one of us is picking, which is very, very good. I think the ob first thing you see here, Jamie Malik neighbors over Justin Jefferson in Dynasty. How do you feel about that?
- [01:33]
Jamie Eisenberg
I mean look, if you're banking on neighbors quarterback situation getting solved and hopefully solved quickly, whether that's Jackson Dart or somebody else, depending on how this plays out with this regime, if they win, they stay in, you know, in charge. If they lose, maybe they hit the reset button again. Jefferson, you know what you're getting Neighbors. There's still a little bit of a wild card and obviously Jefferson has his quarterback situation to sort of get settled as well with JJ McCarthy but I personally would go Jefferson, we know who took that pick. It's a guy that may like that team a little bit in Adam Mazer with Malik neighbors but that's how far you know, neighbors ceiling you know can go to. So I don't hate it but I would have taken Jefferson.
- [02:14]
Heath Cummings
I don't really know that it would take all that long of Malik neighbors giving us like wide receiver one overall production before he'd just be the wide receiver one in Dynasty because he is four or five years younger than Jason Jefferson. He did just put up an incredible rookie season with Daniel Jones, Drew Locke, Tommy DeVito and somebody else throwing in passes. And Russell Wilson, at least from the training camp highlights, has looked pretty good so far. Always dangerous to trust those Jamie, you started with a pair of wide receivers, Brian Thomas Jr and Pukinakua in this format. Would you rather start with wide receivers than running backs?
- [02:54]
Jamie Eisenberg
I always will lean wide receivers and dynasty. You know, just because the longevity and especially when you're getting two guys like this, like you can make a case that they're still top five caliber players. Obviously Puka has threatened to retire at 30, but we got a long time until that happens and still should have great production from from his offense and his quarterback. I don't think Matthew Stafford's going to retire after this year, but I also trust Sean McVeigh and the Rams. They obviously had a plan in place to go from Jared Goff to Stafford. I'm sure they'll figure it out. They'll be aggressive in trade, they'll be aggressive in whatever they do with their draft process. So I think Puga will still play at a high level for many years to come. And Brian Thomas, you know, if we're talking about Malik Neighbors as the second overall pick, Brian Thomas is, you know, was just as good last year in his rookie campaign and maybe did some things a little bit better locked in with his quarterback. I like the situation with Liam Cohen. Clearly the running mate is a little bit, you know, tough to to trust potentially if Travis Hunter is a primary wide receiver, spends a lot of time there and you know, you've said this that maybe he's even better than Brian Thomas, which we'll have to see if that plays itself out. But I was perfectly happy and thrilled to get these two receivers at the the 1011 spot.
- [03:57]
Heath Cummings
But one of the common themes of these live mock draft shows is when is Heath going to lose the threat. And that happened about 20 minutes before the show today. So keeping track of my rankings during this mock, not something I'm going to do a lot more vibe drafting than normal. I start off with Jamar chase, Marvin Harrison Jr. And A.J. brown with my first three picks. No problem with that at all. In round two we saw Pukinakua, Drake London, Nico Collins, then Saquon Barkley. The guy who took Barkley also took CD Lamb. So maybe a contender for the win now team at the start of the draft, Devon HN goes after Barkley, then Trey McBride, Lad McConkey, Bucky Irving, Omarion Hampton and Marvin Harrison Jr. Probably maybe a couple more running backs with seven in the first two rounds that we're used than we're used to seeing a couple guys that I have ranked ahead of Hampton, Jamie, Jonathan Taylor and Kyron Williams. Williams definitely not as popular in the dynasty circles, despite the fact that he's been the third best running back per game since the start of 2023. Do you think that's just continued doubt about Williams talent or does it have something to do with Jarquist Hunter?
- [05:09]
Jamie Eisenberg
I think both, you know, plus his contract situation. You know, if he leaves the Rams, how much are you going to trust him? You know, going to a different team if he's, you know, going to get paid maybe to, you know, be a feature back on an offense that isn't going to be as productive and, and, you know, utilize his skill set to the same degree Again, it's more trust in, in the Rams, I think, than. Than maybe trusting the player, you know, given the draft pedigree as well. But look, these one. We see this, you know, every. Every several years, there's a player or a group of players that people just don't buy into for whatever reason. They continue to produce and produce and produce. And he's just, you know, seemingly one of those guys. So I don't have a problem with him in this range. He's definitely somebody that I'm going to consider right now that I'm on the clock. But yeah, he's, he's. He's got the potential to still be a stud. I don't have any problems with him.
- [05:53]
Heath Cummings
We had the first quarterback go off the board with the 11th pick of round three. That was Lamar Jackson. Jamie's now on the clock for two picks. We'll kind of look at some other trends in the draft. Brock Bowers went eighth overall. Trey McBride went sixth in the second round. So two tight ends in the first 18 picks. I think I have McBride 17th, so I entirely agree with that. Thought it was interesting. I took Harrison, which started a run of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 straight wide receivers. So I kind of mentioned like seven running backs in the first 23 picks. Probably a little more than we would expect, but that we made up for that in a hurry. Round three goes A.J. brown, T. Higgins, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Garrett Wilson, rashi rice, Ted McMillan, Travis Hunter, Breeze Hall, Lamar Jackson. And then Jamie takes Jonathan Taylor and also pairs him up with Josh Jacobs. I've talked about it before, Jamie, that I said the 11th pick. It should have been the ninth pick in round three because this is a 10 team draft. We always push in one quarterback push quarterbacks down lower than where they get drafted in a lot of home league drafts. But I kind of push them back up a little bit in Dynasty just because you might have this guy if you get one of the especially Jaden Daniels might be a QB one for the next 10 years. Are you did you consider a quarterback at that 3, 4 turn or are you just happy to wait?
- [07:25]
Jamie Eisenberg
I'm still happy to wait but yes certainly considered it for sure and I know I'm not going to get one of the top three guys coming back. We'll see how it goes with the the next two guys of @ least for me, you know Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts but again would be surprised. I I think especially in 10 team leagues, you know you want difference makers and those guys are are huge difference makers so you can make up for other positions. You can make up for other spots a little bit easier in in a shallower draft like this. So yes something that you should definitely consider and I think where these guys are going as we're seeing if you're following on YouTube with Jackson, Allen and Daniel's going you know, end around three middle of round four.
- [08:04]
Heath Cummings
So I talked about that big run of wide receivers and then you get Breeze hall and then you get Jonathan Taylor. You took Josh Jacobs, somebody else took Christian McCaffrey. Kyron Williams finally goes with the sixth pick of round four and then Ken Walker. So we're seeing a few more of the running backs come off of the board here. I thought Rice going in round three, worthy going about 10 picks later, eight picks later in round four. I've got those guys back to back in my Dynasty rankings. Do you have any strong preference between them?
- [08:38]
Jamie Eisenberg
The healthier Rice looks which seemingly is is a great sign. You know you're talking about a one year difference between these guys. So I don't know how much I don't know what the age difference is but in terms of experience right. It shouldn't really matter. And so I think if you're I still put Rice ahead of Worthy. You know, you've heard me say this several times. It wouldn't surprise me if Worthy is a version of Tyreeko. You know, I don't think anybody can say he's going to be as good as Tyree Kill. But I think knowing how Andy Reid is so creative and and what Mahomes can do, like they can put him in the backfield. They could, you know, throw the ball down to him down the Field, you know, he can do all those type of things and he showed flashes of that. And so if he's going to be that type of player, then he should be better than Rice. But Rice was just so consistent to start last year. He was so good to finish his rookie season. I think that, you know, this could be Evans and Godwin. It could be, you know, two standout talents that just continue to produce and, you know, just depending on, on the year, the, the week, you know, one's better than the other.
- [09:42]
Heath Cummings
I will say that when we got to the middle of round four, I thought, great. I started with three straight wide receivers. Now I'm going to get two running backs I really like. And then here comes the running back run. Almost no wide receivers in round four. Jamie started the round with Josh Jacobs, then Christian McCaffrey, then Xavier Worthy, Josh Allen, and Jaden Daniels went back to back right after that. And then it was Kyron Williams, Ken Walker, Chase Brown, Travion Henderson. I had three of those guys in my queue, and Ken Walker was up next. So those were the four guys I wanted. I settled for Quinton Judkins, who I don't have too far behind Henderson or Hampton in Dynasty rankings. And then I took my quarterback in, Joe burrow. So through five rounds, I have Joe Burrow, Judkins, Chase Harrison and A.J. brown. Feel like we're still kind of open for whether we're contending or rebuilding, but I'll tell you, I've got Burrow and Chase as a stack in one Dynasty league. That's not Unlock, and that is a fun combination to have. Jamie.
- [10:43]
Jamie Eisenberg
Absolutely. You know, and again, 10 team leagues, you could be a little bit more creative with stuff like that to maximize your points, because everybody's going to have a stacked roster. So that difference is going to be huge for you when those guys are on. And as we've seen, they're on more times than not. It was interesting to see Mahomes go ahead of Hertz. And so if Mahomes can rebound to any level of what he showed earlier in his career as a fantasy quarterback, obviously he's been a great NFL quarterback, then this pick will look like a genius. But Jalen Hurts for the last two seasons has been a much better fantasy quarterback than Mahomes, and we'll see if that trajectory continues or reverse his trend.
- [11:17]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I've. I've got just a really solid tier of Daniels, Allen, Jackson in some order, and then there's a gap, and then there's a really clear tier of Burrow Mahomes and Hertz and I don't know within those two tiers that I really have a strong preference of which one I get. I just, I, I value all three of those the same. This time I ended up taking the first one in the tier, but I wouldn't have gotten any of those guys quite clearly coming back in the next round and I already had three wide receivers. Let's take our first break and then when we come back we'll recap round five. I wanted to tell you guys in this draft we've got Adam Aer, we've got RJ White, we've got Matt Donnelly from the Dynasty Vipers, we've got the, the Fantasy football mad scientist and Jamie at the end of the draft. And then we've got four people from social media who I tell you what, I've been really pleased with doing that so far this year and adding some, some of you guys into the drafts. Everyone's done. I don't think we've had any auto picks. One of the, I won't say which one, but one of the industry experts said they did click wrong. I think it was Lamar Jackson pick but that that one worked out okay because Alan and Daniels went four picks later. So I don't think you're probably feeling too bad about that now. We had a trio of wide receivers go in the middle of round five. DK Metcalf, Devonte Smith and Roma Dunn. Jamie's getting ready to make his two picks. So I will just say I, I made a small adjustment to my 2025 projections last night because Luther Burden has missed so much time this summer. He's wasn't able to participate in most of OTAs dealing with some sort of, of. Of soft tissue injury. And then we've also had the questions about what the. There's some sort of weird connection it seems like between Ben Johnson and DJ Moore and DJ Moore not being comfortable or knowing what his role is. And I just felt like, you know, I was probably a little high on Burden for this year. I was probably a little low on a Dunes A for this year. Jamie. I prefer a Dunes A to both Metcalf and Smith. In Dynasty he went third of the group. Do you have any sort of feel on how these three Bears pass catchers are going to work together this year?
- [13:42]
Jamie Eisenberg
Not yet, to be honest. You know, and that's kind of the, the, the working goal, right, is to find out who's going to be lined up where, how Caleb Williams going to favor these guys. Obviously Caleb Williams struggled to connect with Odunze last year. How much of that was the offense? How much of that was his role? How much of that was his, you know, just being a rookie and so he definitely has the opportunity to take a step forward in his sophomore campaign. I think it's fair to say that he's got more upside clearly in the next three years than Metcalf and Smith based on what those guys you know, are headed toward. You know, Smith could still be a very solid receiver. He just has not proven to be an alpha in his offense because he plays with another alpha. Whereas Odunze may, you know, outlast DJ Moore and and still be better than Luther Burden. But I think the thing for the Bears offense is like you have DJ Moore who's an established player and has worked with other quarterbacks and other coordinators. So I would expect him to get on the same page with Ben Johnson and certainly continue, continue to work well with, with Caleb Williams. Whereas can those other guys all step forward and be a go to option for this quarterback and for this coach. So to me more is still the best Bears receiver and then it's kind of figuring out who's next factoring in, you know, Loveland as well who can clearly be a significant piece of this. And as we've seen with elite tight ends that have this pedigree can be number one or number two on their team.
- [15:01]
Heath Cummings
And target again this is a one QB 10 team non tight end premium startup mock so it's for Dynasty leagues. Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen hurts the first three picks of round five. Then DK Metcalf, Devonte Smith and Roma Dunze. We got the old guy, Derek Henry goes at 5.7, then James Cook, Sam Laporta and George Kittle to round out the round. So Henry a more of an age concern than Kittle. But you did take an older guy here and something I just thought of so I'll bounce it off of you. You talk about how in 10 team leagues you want to take the big shots. You're okay maybe taking a quarterback or a tight end earlier because you, you just got to have elite guys. I also wonder if it's more okay to take the older guys a little earlier in a 10 team league because it's so much easier to find replacements if they do fall off the cliff.
- [15:53]
Jamie Eisenberg
So I kind of have taken the approach usually most of your drafts because you're the only one I do startup Dynasty mocks with. You know, with your drafts I usually tend to go More of the younger players and try and build something for the future. This is the first one, if I'm not mistaken, that I've done a 10 team draft with you. And so what I'm kind of doing is if you, if you can see a pattern developing here, I'm taking receivers that are skewing younger that I think are going to be very productive, you know, so obviously my first two picks, I think you could say young and, and obviously great. Now I took a little bit more mid tier to older running backs, you know, certainly from a, you know, perspective of they're not going to have a lot of life, shelf life, you know, past maybe the next two or three years and a tight end that's in the same boat. So I, I want to have my core that I think can still be competitive for many years, but also the opportunity to compete now. So that's kind of my mindset for this. And I know you never want to kind of have that split view when you're building a team, but I think in a 10 team league you can probably get away with it a little bit more. So if I was looking more toward the future, just to give you an idea what my thought process was, I actually was going to consider Derek Henry. It was either going to be Henry or Kittle and then a Buka. But my mindset was if I was building younger that would have been probably Loveland or Warren there instead of Kittle and then just kind of continue with getting some young receivers that have some upside but at the same time, you know, trying to get some guys that.
- [17:08]
Heath Cummings
Can compete Now I just had to make my pick in round six. I'm, I'm, it's almost like RJ's using my rankings or something because he just, he just keeps taking the guys that I wanted to take. So I'm going to take a couple more receivers here at the six seven turn. Taking Jameson Williams at the end of round six, Matthew golden at the beginning of round seven. Jamie, there's been a lot of talk and I don't know if we've talked about it enough, but from Dan Campbell about the leap that he expects Jameson Williams to take this year and how much more involved Jameson Williams is going to be. Do you. When he came into the league like we knew we had the injury concern and then we had the suspension, but the, the idea of him, his first year in the league was always, man, this guy has elite, elite upside. That's why he was taken so high. We don't know, he might, might Take a little while. But there's, there's top six upside at wide receiver maybe. Do you think he still has that upside, especially in this offense now?
- [18:13]
Jamie Eisenberg
I think he's going to have to develop his route tree, you know, to make that happen because he can't just be a downfield threat and get to that level of production with the minimal amount of targets that, that he's shown so far. But I mean, you see what he does when the ball is in his hands. And you know, we saw it last year on a couple of end arounds and jet sweeps and you know, clearly the, the big play potential has always been there for him. It's just a matter of can he be the type of receiver that's going to command those targets. And so if that happens, I doubt it will be in this current iteration of the Lions offense if everybody's healthy. But yes, the potential is there, I think for him to be a top 12 guy, you know, maybe top 15 guy. And the, the sky's the limit for him. I mean, you know, and, and this, you know, going back to Odunze, for example, you know, injury for Jameson Williams coming into his rookie season, the suspension, with the gambling scenario in his second season, you know, he really is still scratching the surface of what he can do and, you know, understanding what it means to be wide, play a wide receiver, play wide receiver in the NFL. You know, you've heard me talk about this a lot. I'm, I'm doing another version of 30 receivers. The, the, the best of the best. The game has changed, you know, with seven on sevens and what these guys do in high school and college. But they, they said for years you gotta learn your quarterback, you got to learn your offense, you got to learn defense. You know, there's a lot that goes into playing that position and maybe we're just starting to see it from him. So yes, I, I think there could be a leap. I just don't know how high of a leap given the town around him. When you have Saint Brown and LaPorta and those running backs.
- [19:42]
Heath Cummings
Jamie's getting ready to pick again at the end of round seven. So I'll read through what happened in round six. And Mecca Bu was the first pick of round six. That was Jamie, then Alvin Camara, Zay Flowers, Terry McLaurin, RJ Harvey, DJ Moore, Chris Olave, Jordan Addison. Yes, that's who I was going to take. Rj Tyler Warren, and then I took Jameson Williams. So just two running backs in that round, one of them being Camara, the Other one being the guy people are hoping will be Camara, RJ Harvey, whose value he may have gone a little bit earlier if it hadn't been for the Dobbins signing. Jamie takes Caleb Johnson to end round seven though. And this is a good time to, to remind you guys as he figures out his first pick in round eight. I have Caleb Johnson still ahead of RJ Harvey. I had Caleb Johnson ahead of RJ Harvey before the Dobbins signing. Certainly had Caleb Johnson ahead of Harvey before the NFL draft. Jamie, when you look at those two guys, this is a full PPR league, so that may favor Harvey just a little bit. But it feels to me like Johnson's more safe to be an RB2 for the next three or four years, whereas Harvey may has more have more upside. But I could see him just flaming out easier.
- [21:01]
Jamie Eisenberg
I think that's fair. You know, anytime again you have an older prospect and now he's coming in and you know, we don't know the competition. I think it was Adam yesterday. By the way, I hope you watched his rant.
- [21:13]
Heath Cummings
I did not. What, what did Adam rant about?
- [21:15]
Jamie Eisenberg
Well, it involves you because you're the Tank Dell manager and I think you might have precipitated the, the whole thing. So I'll get to that in a sec. But anyway, so Adam was, was saying that what if Dobbins, or maybe it was on the show with us. But, but what if Dobbins is good enough that the Broncos decide to extend his contract and then he's there for, you know, more than just one season. But then we have an RJ Harvey problem where I think the, the Steelers kind of know what Jalen Warren is and we'll kind of keep him in that pass catching secondary role and Caleb Johnson could easily be the featured guy and maybe we get back to what Mike Tomlin has done, which is, you know, lean on one guy a lot, certainly from a carry perspective. So yes, I think the floor is definitely safer for Caleb Johnson. The ceiling might be higher for RJ Harvey. If I had the choice here, I would have taken Harvey because like you said, it is ppr. But in any event, you must watch the rant. The reason I bring up J.K. dobbins because Adam. Well, so what started, you know, you have, you have Tank Dell and Adam decided that he was going to force desean Watson, Tank Dell and maybe whoever else he thinks is going to be out for the season onto IR without them officially being on ir.
- [22:26]
Heath Cummings
Right.
- [22:26]
Jamie Eisenberg
To which I said, well, if you're going to do that. You have to do that for everybody who's coming off of an injury because how are you deciding Dr. Azer who is out for the entire season or who is not? Because somebody asked what about Brandon Ayuk? I don't know when he's coming back. I have Chris Godwin. I don't know when he's coming back. You know, there's a lot of different, you know, areas where these guys who are on IR last year may still be on our. So I said it when I thought was a respectful manner. Adam took it as I was trying to one up him, he said and put him in his place as the commissioner. And then he just went absolutely nuts about how being a commissioner is, is not the easiest job and he's going to be a much tougher commissioner now moving forward because he felt that he got bullied into being doing the rookie draft now because he drafted RJ Harvey and right afterwards JK Dobbin signs and Nick Chubb signs with the Texans. And it changed the, maybe the way some of those picks were, but it was an epic, epic Adam rant that.
- [23:24]
Heath Cummings
Was, is well closer to the beginning or the end of the show.
- [23:27]
Jamie Eisenberg
Oh, the beginning, very beginning. Again, I'll, I'll back up one, one step further. He was having a bad day yesterday.
- [23:35]
Heath Cummings
Okay.
- [23:35]
Jamie Eisenberg
And so that sort of put him in a mood and he said he didn't want to talk about the, the whole thing with the Dynasty League. And I said, Adam, of course we're talking about this. I mean this is, this is what.
- [23:44]
Heath Cummings
You bullied him into talking about it on the podcast. Also.
- [23:47]
Jamie Eisenberg
I, I, I just said to him before when he started the show, something I'm like, I can't wait for, for the fantasy cops because we have one to talk about. He's all right, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Fine, just get it out. Go, go.
- [24:00]
Heath Cummings
In fact, he's so upset about you talking about this on the show that he's now about 10 seconds away from auto picking. So he's probably listening right now and just fuming trying to get logged into his YouTube account so he can comment in the chat. I don't think I ran through round seven. So I started off with Matthew golden, then Ricky Pearsall, Colston Loveland, George Pickens, Devonte Adams, Jalen Waddle, TJ Hawkinson, Chuba Hubbard, Tyree Kill and Caleb Johnson, Jamie Tyree kill in round seven. Now it's a 10 team, so that's not quite as bad. But how do you pass on the upside at that point and there's almost.
- [24:35]
Jamie Eisenberg
No risk for sure. And again, you know, going back to the, the spot rights of Kittle Labuka, I did consider, you know, flipping that and taking like I said, Loveland or Warren and instead of a Buka taking Tyree Kill. So younger tight end, older receiver. I like the fact of what Aaron St. Denis is doing with building a team that's going to compete now. I mean, you know, you're looking at Camara McCaffrey, Tyree Kill, Joe Mixon. If all those guys hits, all those guys hit like that's a league winner in this format right now.
- [25:05]
Heath Cummings
I, we, we've been, we haven't talked about doing a baked burger focused episode of FFT Dynasty. Looking at the draft from a couple of years ago and what went right, what went wrong and what went wrong for me was that I attempted the path that Aaron, Aaron is taking right now and then everybody got hurt in year one and I'm still trying to recover from it. So it can definitely work. And I know when people are playing with people they don't know, sometimes they want to do that just in case the, the league goes away after that. But let's, let's just go ahead and catch up here and take a look at round eight. A couple picks I really liked. Cortland Sutton you took with the first pick like that. Then Joe Mixon, Jerry Judy, of course I like that. Luther Burden, Brandon Iuk in round eight. Man, I don't feel good about Brandon Iuk right now. David Montgomery, DeAndre Swift, Isaiah Pacheco, Jaden Reed and James Connor. Those three running backs I took Connor, Montgomery, Swift and Pacheco. I think figuring those three out in the right order can make can really help you out if you go past catcher heavy early in your startup mock because you're probably only going to get a chance to draft one of them. They're going to go in a similar range. I prefer DeAndre Swift, which will surprise nobody. Which of those three would you rather have in a dynasty league and why?
- [26:22]
Jamie Eisenberg
Montgomery, Swift and Pacheco. So not putting Connor in there.
- [26:25]
Heath Cummings
Also not putting Connor in there.
- [26:27]
Jamie Eisenberg
Right. I would probably lean toward, towards Swift as well. You know, just knowing that if you're, if you're thinking about these guys in this range. Pacheco leaves the Chiefs as a seven former seventh round pick. I don't think there's going to be much upside for him to be a featured guy someplace else unless he just absolutely dominates this year and stays or some other team has like let's just say, Sean McVeigh goes, you know what, we're not paying Kyron Williams, but we'll give Pacheco a cheaper deal. And he goes there like, that's the type of scenario I think that would have to keep him at a very high level. Right. Swift? You know, you keep bringing this up and I don't think people realize it. He's been decent everywhere he's been. I think the expectations were he's supposed to be a superstar, and that may happen this year, but that to me is like, you kind of know what you're getting. He was not bad in Detroit. He was not bad in Philadelphia. He was not bad here. He's going to give you a pretty good floor. Montgomery, I think, is, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, I think he's probably the oldest of the three and is so touchdown dependent now. He did some nice things last year. I think he's a very solid running back. I would probably take him second over Pacheco, but I just think you're looking at the floor is great. The ceiling is probably not as high as what those other two guys could do if they're right. Because, I mean, look, Pacheco is on pace for a great season last year. I just worry about Pacheco's future. What happens to him if he does leave the Chiefs and where does he go?
- [27:42]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I've got. I've got. And I will have to adjust my rankings or just be wrong about Pacheco this year if. If things start looking better in camp because I do have Pacheco 10 spots lower. I have Swift at RB23, Montgomery at RB25. And then. And for me, Pacheco is not really in the conversation, but I'm a lot more skeptical that he's going to get that role that he had two years ago in Kansas City.
- [28:08]
Jamie Eisenberg
Yep.
- [28:08]
Heath Cummings
So a little bit of positive talk about Rashard Smith. Apparently he made a couple of nice plays in OTAs. Kareem Hunt's still there. Elijah Mitchell made a couple good plays. So if he can stay healthy, that could be a really, really messy backfield. Jamie's about ready to make his pick in round nine. Let's take our second break and then we'll break down round nine. In round nine, I started things off by taking Tony Pollard. Oh, we're gonna have an Azer discussion. I see Azer took Tyrone Tracy, then Mike Evans, then Mark Andrews, Khalil Shakir, Chris Godwin, Cam Scatterboo, Trey Harris, Aaron Jones and Jaden Higgins. So Tracy goes with the second pick in this round. Scatter Boo goes with the seventh pick in this round. Scatter Boo's two years younger and some people think a better runner. Can you, can you make a case for taking Tracy over Scatter Boo in a dynasty startup draft?
- [29:04]
Jamie Eisenberg
I guess if your mindset is to win now and you think Tracy's gonna have a better 20, 25 than scatter boo. I know Adam, just from our conversations, isn't a big fan of scatter boost skill set. So, you know, maybe he likes what Tracy did last year a little bit more and thinks that he's going to be the lead running back there for the Giants. I think we're looking at a, you know, committee how it gets split up. We'll have to sort of see how that checks out and who's better in what, you know, areas. But in this format, for me, I would have taken Scatter Boo. I think just given the fact that he's got the age advantage there wasn't the, the, the, the pedigree of somebody coming in like Tracy. Like it felt like he outplayed Devin Singletary, which I don't think was a huge surprise and had a very successful rookie campaign. In a down year for rookie running backs. Scatterable clearly is part of a loaded draft class here. But you know, for me, I would have just taken the, I would have played the H card and taken the younger player.
- [29:54]
Heath Cummings
I think it's gonna be really interesting to see what the Giants do this year in terms of offensive philosophy. Adams talked about it quite a bit that Daniel Jones threw more passes per game than you would expect. Most of his time with Brian Dable actually every year, except for the one time they had a decent record and so now he has Russell Wilson. They may just air it out and then I think that what it comes down to is we coming into last year we would have all said if Tracy makes an impact, it's going to be as a pass catcher. He used to be a wide receiver in college. He'll be the third down back and might be really good in the passing game. He was really better as a rusher than he was as a pass catcher last year. And Scatterboo has some receiving chops. So I, I think that might be the most interesting thing. As I'm realizing now, Jamie, we are nine rounds in to this startup mock and I have not drafted a tight end and it's not a problem at all because we're in a 10 team league. Aren't 10 team leagues great?
- [30:50]
Jamie Eisenberg
They are Great. You know, and there's a lot of talent there. You know, it's, it's, you know, easy to sort of wait on position, you know, like, I struggled with taking a quarterback here because Bo Nix and Caleb Williams were both on the board. I like both in this format a lot. So I went with Bo Nicks. It was, it was a tough call that, you know, might regret in a couple years, but, you know, same thing. So I was waiting on quarterback. You're waiting outside end and you're still going to probably get somebody that can easily start for you this year and have a high ceiling and then probably a guy or two if you want, that has some long term appeal as well.
- [31:20]
Heath Cummings
We're gonna roll the dice because when I looked at the tight ends that were available, I think there's enough of them. I don't, I don't think they're all going to be gone when I pick again. So I took Travis ETN at the end of round 10. And let's just bring up this talking point. I'll, I'll go ahead and draft Debo Samuel at all as well. Do you care at all that Debo looked like maybe he put on a few pounds when he was running routes at OTAs?
- [31:47]
Jamie Eisenberg
I don't because I, I think, look, he's always going to be on the, I don't want to say heavier side, but the bigger side for his position. You know, it's kind of the nature of his game. He, he still has another month and a half to get in, you know, prime football shape. You would like to obviously see him go to a new team and, and probably be a little bit slimmer, but again, I just don't think that's who he is. And he's not a burner. You know, you're not draft, you're not, you're not acquiring this guy as, as a, you know, Washington football team. For him to be your speed threat, you know, that's just not who he is. So it, it again frustrating to see that maybe not in, in quite optimal shape, but you got to know who he is and type of football player that he is. You know, you just hope that if he is carrying a little bit of extra weight that it's not going to lead to the injuries or the things that have sort of taken him off the field at times the last couple seasons.
- [32:36]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, I think it's, it's a couple things. One, he's, he's a veteran. He's done this. I, I would guess that most NFL players have A little fluctuation in their weight between when they're playing and when they don't. He's got three months. I, I didn't see so much weight that he couldn't be in shape when the season starts. 2. Like Debo's girth is a big part of the reason that he's been so good after the catch and so good at forcing missed tackles. And so I, I don't. Doesn't bother me that much. Let's take a look at round 10. Jamie started it off with Bo Nix, then Josh Downs and Caleb Williams, Zach Charbonnet, Trey Benson. I like that pick a lot. Jalen Warren, Juwan Jennings, Brian Robinson, Keon Coleman. And then I took Travis etn. I didn't notice. I'm sure somebody's going to take Facial Tootin soon if they haven't already. Jamie, have you heard anything or do you have any guesses as to how this. I mean, we don't know how the guys are going to play throughout the year, but we've got Travis ETN and Tank Bigsby, who it seems like fantasy Twitter would just like to cast off to the side. You got Facial Tootin the Day three running back that has a lot of explosiveness but also sometimes has a hard time holding on to the football both this summer and in college. What's your expectation for how that works?
- [34:00]
Jamie Eisenberg
So I'm glad you didn't jinx it because I was planning to take him here. So I just finished the, the. Your. I was letting you finish your, your thought process, but he was, I was like, oh, no. You know, we did this with Christian Kirk, I think, in the. Yeah, in the draft that we did the other day. And, and I think it was Joey Wright for fantasy guys. Football guy. Excuse me, was. No, no, no, don't take him. So our guy, Pete Prisco was just in Jacksonville and what he's heard this is prior to him going there for OTAs, was that they're very high on Tootin. And then he saw it. They're also very high on Allen, the running back. I think they took in round seven as a pass catcher. And it sounds like it's going to be messy, you know, so again, looking at whatever your, your build would be and how you're approaching it, like, what do you want to accomplish with your, your fantasy roster and the startup that you're building? You know, so are you building for the now? Are you building for the future? You know, in this case, he's my fourth running back. I have no problem waiting this out and seeing how this all unfolds and then sort of, you know, playing the okay, if it doesn't work. I took him in round what, 10, 11. If it, if it works, then it's one of the bigger steals that, you know, we'll have in this draft if he's the starter there. But the speed is undeniable, the playmaking is undeniable. I think the, the landing spot is very good just from the standpoint of he went to a coach that just took a day three running back and made him into a superstar in Bucky Irving. So hopefully Liam Cohen could do something similar with, with Tootin. And you know, ETN is most likely gone from Jacksonville after this year and Tank Bigsby, I don't know if he's the type of guy that will be a feature guy.
- [35:37]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, it's funny because you can look at a lot of advanced rushing stats that will tell you that Bucky Irving and Tanks Bigsby were two of of the most effective rushers of the football last year. But it does kind of seem like, like he's definitely not going to be a guy you're going to use on third downs or on passing downs. Bigsby. So I think Messi is the best way to describe it. I still favor ETN as my favorite right now, but it, it feels really nice that to be able to get him at what, pick 110 or pick 100 as opposed to mid round five maybe where we've been used to it in the past.
- [36:17]
Jamie Eisenberg
I think you're, you're running back room is interesting because you have a guy who could be a superstar for several years in Judkins and I'll talk while you make your pick. After that you have guys that may not be on their team next year. You know, Connor at his age at 30, Pollard as we know, you know, if he doesn't get the job done, it wouldn't surprise me if the Titans, you know, overhaul that I don't think again. ETN is back with the Jaguars next season, but I do think he'll catch on someplace else. So I'm curious to see how you'll finish off your, your draft here with, with these guys. I guess we're at the end of the draft. This is, this is the group you're going with?
- [36:52]
Heath Cummings
Yeah, we have one more round. So we just started round 13. Okay. We do have a 14th round and I'll probably use that on some young running back, but that's the. Listen, I basically a good time to kind of recap our teams and I'm gonna do try to see if I can. Not sure where we started getting sound all of a sudden but I've got Jamar chase, Marvin Harrison Jr. A.J. brown, Jameson Williams, Matthew golden and Debo Samuel at wide receiver. Maybe should have taken another younger running back where I took Debo because those top five wide receivers feel pretty outstanding. Joe Burrow is my quarterback. Don't have to think about that again for a decade. David Ajoku and Travis Kelce are now my tight ends. I probably don't have to think about that position at least for a year and the running back position is the one that I may have to work on. But for year one, Connor Pollard, ETN Judkins, I think I'll have two starters. I just may need to focus on running backs in the rookie draft next year. Jamie is coming up on his 13th pick but we're not quite there yet. So you've got Bo Nicks at quarterback. You've taken four running backs, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Caleb Johnson, Bashel Tootin. Maybe we'll have to make a trade. You have five wide receivers in Brian Thomas, Pukinakua, Mecca Buka, six, I'm sorry, Cortland Sutton, Jaden Higgins and Calvin Ridley. And then George Kittle at tight end. So I think you've, you've tried to kind of leave the door open for winning this year while also preparing yourself for the future. Kind of what you said after the.
- [38:29]
Jamie Eisenberg
First five rounds, yeah I, I really accomplished my goal, you know. So I have a quarterback that I think everybody has for Redraft ranked as a top 10 guy. You know, he's my eighth quarterback for the season clearly going into the second year. So there's a lot to like about his upside. My receiving core should be very good for the next, you know, few years with the first three guys that I drafted in Thomas, Nakua and Ibuka and then, and even Higgins and then two veterans that I think are going to be, you know, definitely in play for me throughout the course of the season in Sutton and Ridley. So I'm really thrilled with that receiving core, thrilled with Kittle. I'm hoping to take one of the upside tight ends here. Adam took the guy actually was hoping to get which was Isaiah likely. So that was a great pick by him to pair with Tyler Warren. Although it's a weird pairing though because you may not have a starter per se for, for this season but I think it'll be fine there. And I think the thing that you said about a 10 team league is you know there's going to be opportunities on, on the waiver wire to get guys that, you know, have the chance to play and be impact players right away. So, you know, you should be okay in that regard. But I'm, I'm really thrilled with how this worked out for me and how this build was and, you know, just taking Isaac Arendo to wrap up this round. And now I have the opportunity to take a younger tight end and, you know, see if the guy that's I'm looking for is still available. And he is.
- [39:50]
Heath Cummings
You know, I think to give Adam some credit because. Because he maybe feels like we piled on earlier in the show. His scene, his team makes a lot of sense in terms of how it works together. I think like T. Higgins and Patrick Mahomes might be the only two players under over 25 that he took in the first eight picks. He has neighbors, Higgins, Pierce, all Jaden Reed and Keon Coleman at wide receiver. Very young there. Hampton, Henderson, Tracy Spears and Dobbins at running back. Besides Dobbins very young there, Warren and likely at tight end again, young and Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. So I don't know that there's a real viable path to Adam being a contender in year one, but he set himself very up very well for the next five years with all of that youth. I mean, that, that combination of Hampton, Henderson and neighbors could be. Could be really solid in three years.
- [40:47]
Jamie Eisenberg
So would you have taken Mahomes then if you were him, knowing that those are your first four picks? Not that my home's gonna be bad, obviously. I think we all think that he's still going to be a very capable quarterback, but that just seemed like a weird selection if that's the route that you're going.
- [41:02]
Heath Cummings
No, I, I think like, maybe you wait a little longer and take. I. I would imagine when Adam saw Caleb Williams fall to round 10, maybe he wished he hadn't taken Mahomes so early. I don't know. Between Mahomes and Hertz, like Hertz is a couple years younger, which is generally the way that we evaluate these things. But it seems to me like Mahomes playing style is probably going to age quite a bit better than Jalen Hurts.
- [41:28]
Jamie Eisenberg
Oh, I don't even. It really wasn't about Mahomes vs. Hertz. It was really just about taking the position there because, like, I'm just playing out the. The round. For example, like, if, if he was like, okay, I got two young running backs and look, both can easily hit this year and be top 20 caliber running backs with neighbors and Higgins, like he's in a great spot but I think if he knew he was going to commit to Warren, let's say the next round and so you're obviously skewing younger and maybe not competing this year. Like that's a spot to take a Romo Dunze and a Buka, another, you know, younger running back there that may have set yourself up in a little bit of different spot.
- [42:06]
Heath Cummings
I'm really glad, by the way, that you took Harold Fanon to start this round because I, I really almost took Najoku and Fanon and probably should I.
- [42:14]
Jamie Eisenberg
I didn't want to ask you because I didn't want to bring up his name. But that, that's something I, I, I.
- [42:17]
Heath Cummings
Was wondering if you're considering I, I strongly considered it. It's just that in most of the drafts I do, every time I think about drafting Harold Fannin, if I don't and then wait until my next turn, he's still there. That doesn't work as well when you're picking on the, the, the very edge of the draft and so you have to wait a little bit longer for that next pick to come up. I think I'll just go ahead and finish my draft off with Devin Neal and hopefully he's the guy who takes over for Alvin Camara after this year because as Jamie rightly noted, I may only have one running back after this year. That might be the first time we've done this and that's because it's a 10 team draft. But we completed the draft during the episode. Jamie, thank you so much for showing up here this morning.
- [43:01]
Jamie Eisenberg
My pleasure. Anytime you need me, I'm always happy to help.
- [43:04]
Heath Cummings
Thank you to Harry for making everything work. Sorry for the extra stress this morning. Thank you to everybody who was active in the chat. We will talk to you next Tuesday.
- [43:23]
Jamie Eisenberg
Paramount Podcasts.