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Kristen Bell
Hi, I'm Kristen Bell, and if you know my husband Dax, then you also know he loves shopping for a car. Selling a car, not so much.
Jamie
We're really doing this, huh?
Kristen Bell
Thankfully, Carvana makes it easy. Answer a few questions, put in your van or license, and done. We sold ours in minutes this morning and they'll come pick it up and pay us this afternoon.
Jamie
Bye bye, Truckee.
Kristen Bell
Of course, we kept the favorite.
Jamie
Hello, other Truckee.
Kristen Bell
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Jamie
This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play. Can you believe this?
Dan
No, I can't.
Dave
It's time to dominate your fantasy league.
Jamie
This is gonna go the distance.
Dave
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath. It's mailbag time. It's also bedtime. It's 10:41. I'm t. I'm tired. Tonight. 10:41pm My eyes are so heavy, I can't even read what's on the white magnets on Dan's white fridge. I'm just never gonna be able to.
Dan
So the white magnets. Here's what I'm trying to do. Oh, I see. You're playing a joke on me. You can see them better now, right? I put some sharpie over them.
Dave
Yes.
Dan
Can you see them?
Jamie
You colored your magnets? I.
Dave
Yes.
Dan
The whole point of these, Okay. I idiotically bought these golf ball magnets. Not really realizing at the time I thought they were an off white color. They ended up being a pure white. And so the whole point of them was to put the Giants record up as it goes throughout the season. Oh, as you can see back there.
Jamie
I hope Jamie's exhausted.
Dave
Jamie. Jamie's already cracking up. All right.
Dan
Podcast number three for me today on FFT as well. So this could be an off the rail show.
Dave
This is fantasy football Today presented by bet, the sports book born in Vegas. Today we're going to give you auction tips to. To win your league. How do you. How do you win your auction?
Jamie
It's a zero. You could see it.
Dave
We're also going to tell you about another way to get in the podcast league and read your draft a thon questions your emails at fantasy football. Com. Your Apple podcast questions, your fantasy cops.
Dan
Oh, we got a cops back. We.
Dave
Yeah, it's been a little While. And your YouTube comments as well. All right, Jamie, come on, man. It's not that funny. Come on, come on. You gotta, you gotta up your. You gotta make him up his game. All right, here we go. So no news and notes because it's. It's Thursday night. Jackson dart injury and all that. We're gonna cover all that on the Friday morning show, which if you're listening, you've already heard that, but. So this is one injury.
Jamie
One injury.
Dave
One injury with the Steelers.
Jamie
Jalen Wright.
Dave
Oh, oh, Jalen. Yes, Jalen.
Dan
What happened with Jalen Wright? Oh, Jalen Rock. Yes.
Jamie
Can't you read that story that they wrote?
Dan
You know, for some reason you confused me because you said the Steelers, then you said Jalen, and I just, my mind went to Jalen Moore. It's at that time of the, like, what happened to Jaylen Moore?
Dave
All right, well, again, we'll cover it on Friday show and it'll. Then it'll be weird and repetitive.
Dan
Gordon, at the end of your drafts.
Dave
That'S what you need to know. Okay, thank you. All right, auction tips to win your league. So, Dan, go ahead, fire away. First of all, if you've never done an auction, they're the best. They're super fun. You get a fake budget, usually $100 or $200, and then someone nominates a player and everyone can bid on that player. This is not a snake draft where you're not able to draft certain guys because they're not available. Everyone is available for you. You have your budget. So we love them. They're super fun. They do take a long time. But if you never tried one, we encourage you to do it. We're going to tell you how to win right now. Dan, give me your first tip.
Dan
The number one most important thing you can do in preparation for your auction drafts is to map out the values of your draft. Now, this is something that you're going to need to do in year two of your auction drafts. You can use default values for year one. They'll be close, they'll be decent. But once you get into a second and third, fourth year of your auction drafts, and it will like that, the minute your league goes to auction, it won't ever go back. It's a 10 times fun more format and maybe I'm underselling it more like a thousand times more fun. These numbers are all fun for Fugazi anyway. But point being, use the values from last draft so your top running back values go down the list. 50, 48, 49. Then match that with ADP of this current draft and then go down the list of your rankings, your tiers, whoever you are using. Jamie has updated tiers on our site. You can use those and match the the dollar amounts to the ADP of those players going for this year. After you do that for every single player at every single position, you will have an idea of how to build your auction team out. You have a 200 budget. You now see the range oh tier four receivers. I like a lot of tier four receivers. I can get them for 11, 12 and now you can pencil that into your wide receiver three and your flex one. You start to map out your draft like that, understanding where the value is. So you want Brian Thomas on this team. You want to Armand Ross St. Brown as well. You want to go strong 1, 2. At receiver you're spending 35, 38. You know that based on last year's prices in the auction and the ADP of these players, it may be a few dollars off here or there. And when that price starts to go up, you bow out and you go to the next guy and that's here. But you really need to have an idea in my opinion of how to map out your your auction from a value standpoint. If you just go in willy nilly with your budget and just say I'm just gonna draft players Willie, you'll end up. A lot of times I see people do that, end up either one with leftover money at the end, which is the worst possible thing you can do in an auction or two, they don't buy any players early, they're just waiting and waiting for value and they end up getting a ton of guys in tiers 4, 5, 6 and their team has a ton of depth, but it doesn't have the star power up top to ever compete in the league in spite of the depth. So you really need to understand the auction and understand where the values ride at all these positions and then map it out. Like let's say you know that I can get tier one or tier two running backs in the 35 to 40 range. You pencil it in into your roster, you've spent that 20 of your budget there and you can do that for each position.
Jamie
I think just a couple things it's great advice, you know, knowing the history of your league. It's, it's the same with snake drafts too. You know, you're going to know when players, when fantasy mayor's gonna jump in. But clearly this is a great way to map out your auction if you're doing it for the first time. You can do mock auctions. You know, there are, we have it on our site. Almost every site I think at this point offers it. So practice it and you'll get somewhat of a same understanding from a player value standpoint. You won't get the player value of your league because there's no history of doing it yet. Especially if it's a first time salary cap league or a, you know, same group of people switching to it. But that's, you know, great advice that Dan is giving you. Sort of, you know, attach some sort of salary history or salary range to those guys aside from what you're just reading on a rank list. Because our rank lists have salary cap values, but it may not be the same in your league. The one thing though that I, I do think you have to decide beforehand on top of what you're saying is do you want to get high end talent and spend a portion of your budget that way. And so Dan is going to reference our auction that our salary cap draft that we did yesterday. I think, you know, from the most recent thing, I think I'm the only one that was in there. Right. You both did not participate.
Dan
I did not, unfortunately. I was, I was recording an episode.
Jamie
So I did something different for me which sort of falls in line with what I'm saying. I decided usually, you know, Adam, I, I kind of adhere to what Dan was saying. Like I like to have a lot of depth, but I don't typically take a lot of high end talent. So I really usually don't end up with a first round pick. I decided I wanted to see what would it be like if I did the, did it the other way. And I ended up with two first round picks. So I have both CD Lamb and Ashton Genti and I got those two players purposely. I wanted one of my top five receivers and one of my top seven running backs. So I was going to be aggressive. But I think part of it is you also have to play the nomination process too.
Dan
Yes.
Jamie
Because it doesn't go first nomination, Jamar Chase, second nomination, Bijan Robinson doesn't go like what a rank list looks like. So you almost want to let people spend money early. And then this goes back to what Dan was Talking about with the tears. What part of the tier do you want to jump in on that particular position group and you may not have to do it right away. So to, I think you know, just, just to harp on what Dan said, like put a portion in your head of what money you want to spend on a certain tier. It's so important. So if you want to come away with I want two running backs and then I want five receivers in the blob.
Dan
Right.
Jamie
Then that's what you then commit to it. I want to get two high end receivers and three running backs from that rounds three through six range and I'm good with it. Maybe there's a value that jumps out that changes things but like you have to sort of commit to things before the draft. Not players.
Dan
Yes.
Jamie
But almost where, where you want to spend your money. It's so important to have an idea about that going into it and not just going blindly.
Dan
Yeah, exactly. I completely agree.
Jamie
Yep.
Dave
10 team leagues. You can spend more on the studs deeper the league you might want to try to be more balanced. I did a 12 team auction last year which had shallow rosters. Actually I think we had two flex so not that shallow. But I spent big on three players and it didn't work out. I don't think I'm going to do that.
Dan
Spending big on high variance route. Yeah.
Dave
Yeah. Spending big on two players. I'm much more, much more interested in spending big on three. I thought I could kind of get away with the studs and duds approach. It didn't work out in a 12 team league. Jamie, can you tell us the rest of your team? You had lamb and genti and I'm guessing you did $100 budget. Now Dan talked about $200 budget. That might be a little bit more standard. If you see our rankings on the website cbasports.com fantasy football you will, as Jamie mentioned, you will see the dollar amounts next but those are based on $100 budgets. So double it if you're in a $200 budget. Unless it's like a $1 player that might still just be a $1 player. You know, while you look up that team name. I'm just going to throw out a few other things here. Jamie does this really, really well. There's a kicker you like, there's a DST you like. Throw them out as your first nomination. It kind of goes, it goes in order. You know everybody. There's 12 people in a league each get a turn to nominate and then you know goes over and over, but throw out the kicker and see if anybody's willing to bid $2. And because probably shouldn't, maybe on Aubrey for me, but probably not. And you know, and it's just let them have it. If they, if they over if they bid more than you're willing. But you might get the guy the kicker you want, you might get the DST you want for a dollar really early. Ready?
Dan
It's a win win. It really is the one, the one rare, easy win win in your draft. Either you get that defensive kicker, defensive kicker that's good for $1, the minimum price, or you force someone to spend $2 on that position, which is always a bad move.
Jamie
And I will say this, this because a lot of people are doing this. So Dave, the way he set it up, there were no kicker defense, right? So what I did with this similar strategy, I wanted to see how low can I go with a certain quarterback. So I put Drake May up for bid very early for $2 and I got him for $2. If somebody took him for three, which is more than I have him, I have him as a two dollar player. If somebody were taking for three, great. I made somebody spend a dollar then I think more than I think he's worth. So I got him for $2 late. So that was just something. Okay, now my quarterback's out of the way. I, I ended up getting kyler Murray for $2 as well. So for $4 I have Kyler Murray and Drake May. I love that. You know, I probably could have gotten one of those for maybe a dollar if I waited even a little longer. But three, four dollars for two quarterbacks. If you're going with the late strategy, clearly you're not going to do that with the early quarterbacks. So if you like to draft late quarterbacks, put the other quarterbacks up early. Lamar, Jackson, Josh. Let people spend 10, 15 on those guys. And now you're killing somebody else's budget. A big strategy for me is make people waste money.
Dave
Not waste money. Not, not waste money, but make them spend.
Jamie
Okay, spend.
Dave
I mean that's, we're not saying they're doing the wrong thing.
Jamie
I'll rephrase it. Put players that you don't want up for bid as much as possible to make them waste money you will not spend.
Dave
Yes, exactly. And that was one of Dan's tips to nominate players on your avoid list and positions and tiers you've already spent in. So basically nominate players that you're not going to spend money on. Let somebody out. Let just Let money come off the board.
Dan
That there are ways to do.
Jamie
Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
Dave
No, that's okay. So Jamie, you have your team.
Jamie
Yep.
Dave
Okay, so 12 team people. Give me, give me every. Everything we need to know.
Jamie
Quarterbacks are Drake May and Kyler Murray. Running backs and Genti and Omarion Hampton. Receivers are CD Lamb and Tyree Kill. It is a two receiver, two flex league tight end is Tucker Kraft. Right now my two flexes would be Crystal Lave and Jalen Warren. On the bench I have Zach Charbonnet, Trey Benson and Naji Harris and Darnell Mooney and Luther Burden.
Dave
Oh, that's a really interesting team because like you, you don't have an elite quarterback, you don't have an elite tight end. Although I think Kyler and Drake may have this, have that potential, but on paper you don't have that. Right. But man, you've got really good high end talent. You got CD Lamb, Ashton Genty, Tyreek Hill and Omarion Hampton. So you have, you know, in my opinion, four top 30 players, certainly four top 36 players. Like having an extra pick in the first three your benches, your, your flexes are not great. Olave and Jalen Warren. But you taking Charbonnet, putting him on your bench, that's great.
Jamie
I would argue that they're fine in a 12 team league.
Dave
They're not not great, but fine. Yeah, absolutely. So do you like this team?
Jamie
I, I mean for, for the way that the, the, the league is structured. Absolutely. You know, so it's, it's funny because I read Dan's. So Dan did the recap of Dave's information and Dan just took a, you know, broad view of, of the, the league and giving you auction strategies in his evaluation of which is interesting because he didn't take part in it and he had Tyreek as one of the better values, which I agree, but I took him somewhat early and I hated it as I'm watching it unfold now. Again, the, the bigger picture view of getting four players in the first, you know, four of the top 36, 30 players, whatever the case may be. You have to love that if you value Tyree Kill there, which I do. But when I saw that, that 11 could have potentially turned into. And I don't know how it went this way, but like Ricky Pearsall and Mecca Buka for example, or maybe that's later that 11 becomes 14 and I get those two players versus the, the one. And now I have another player in a flex, you know, so for, for me, the way I do most of my auctions or salary caps. Like, I like to do that a little bit more. But the, the, the top two running backs, top two wide receivers, I feel like I can compete with anybody if those guys help.
Dave
Is it funny for you?
Dan
It's like I'm in an Inception or something with Jamie talking on the left. You see it outside the left box. Then Jamie was in the right box.
Jamie
On the actual article.
Dan
But that is a good point, Jamie, but. And I think that's something you can't really predict because a lot of the times those players like a buga. I don't know, when he came off in this auction, I was hoping that I would get a nomination order because that helps me kind of understand the auction better. But depending on where he came off in the board, there' of times people are sitting on that one player. So you think like, oh, you're looking at your tiers and your rankings and you're like, I have this money saved. Buk is still on the board. This is awesome. Nobody. And then you get to that bid and bang. Everyone just bang, bang, bang. It's a bidding war and you've now either paid a bad price for him or you've had to bow out of that bid with no real backup plan. So to me it's really.
Jamie
Abuka went for six.
Dan
I meant just when he was nominated. Yeah. And it's hard to say based on that. This is also, remember a hundred dollar auction. So this would have been $212. Something in that RA. But the spending and the nominating is really important to me because it's very nuanced. I believe that when a tier one player is nominated early, as in the first nomination, the second nomination, 80, this is a raw number that's guessing in my mind. But 80 of the time I feel like, and I've done hundreds of auctions, that's going to be one of the best values in the draft. Neighbors comes off the board first he goes for 40 and then you see Nico 45 and you know, player BTJ 44. But, but when those tier 5, 6 type players, Igbuka maybe is one of them or like a godwin or something like that, come off the board and are nominated early, those tend to be the most overpriced, worst values of the draft because people still aren't used to what they should be spending on that tier. And there's a lot of money still left for everyone. So I always see those early bids when it's this fuzzy player, like an art. If somebody puts rj Harvey in earlier, something like that end up being some of the worst values. Because what people don't realize about auctions is no matter how you plan it, and even if you go in planning to budget yourself out and save money, everybody spends, everybody spends their budget earlier than they want to. Most people do. And there is going to come a point, an inflection point in that auction where the money just falls off a cliff. And there are so many values to be had. So a lot of times when those early tier 5, six players are nominated, they end up being bad value. Because when you finally get down to their tier, the three or four other guys, nobody has more than three or four bucks to spend on those guys.
Jamie
Yeah.
Dave
And that's why if I like RJ Harvey, for example, and I want RJ Harvey, I'm not nominating him with my first nomination. I want some money off the board before I do that. All right, so just, we're going to. Let me just tell you this. Got a great offer for you. It's bet mgm. All right, now's the time you want to place a bet on a game. This is what you should do. Download the BetMGM app, use the bonus code Fantasy. You're gonna get up to a fifteen hundred dollar first bet offer on your first wager. With BetMGM, you just deposit at least ten dollars and place your first wager on any game with the bonus code Fantasy, you're gonna receive up to fifteen hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure that you use the bonus code Fantasy when you sign up. When we come back, you want to be in the podcast leagues. I'm going to tell you how. I already told you on Friday show, which we're recording, you know, on Friday, but if you're listening, that will be yesterday. If you're watching, that'll be tomorrow.
Jamie
Whatever.
Dave
We'll be right back. I'll tell you all about the podcast leagues after this.
Kristen Bell
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Dave
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Kristen Bell
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Dave
See mint mobile.com all right, welcome back, everybody. So if you go to tinyurl.com 2025fft tinyurl.com 2025fft click on view auction house. We've got two more podcast league spots available. They expire. The bidding expires on Sunday. The draft is Monday night. Okay. I think that's the 25th, whatever it is, Monday night, 8pm Eastern.
Dan
14 of the match that same week.
Dave
No, this is the podcast league. That's the FFT league. This is the podcast league which has been going on since I think 2012.
Dan
Maybe the one I'm not invited to for some reason.
Dave
Exactly. So we've got two spots available. Picking seventh or picking third. You can bid on those right now. And also if you want to be in the Leftovers league, I think I've got about seven or eight spots available there. Just send an email to fantasy football cbsi.com put leftovers league in the subject line and I'll pick some people at random. I'm actually going on vacation this weekend, so not gonna have. I'm going to. I'm going to the Hamptons for the first time in my life. Going to West Hampton for two nights.
Jamie
Look at you.
Dan
I never been to the Hamptons. Are you playing any tennis out there?
Dave
I don't think so.
Dan
Not enough. You don't have a team, anybody to play with?
Dave
No, no. Just going with my family. So a couple days at the beach and I don't think I'm gonna be, have, have time to really go through your entries, but you want to be in it. You can write something, you can sing something, whatever the heck you want. I'd appreciate whatever you want to be creative. Leftovers League in the subject line. The email address is fantasy football cbsi.com that is the letter I. That is a 10 team super flex league. Heath and I share a team and the other nine teams are listeners.
Jamie
All right.
Dave
Also our draftathon show is next Wednesday from 5 to 8pm so we are super excited about that. I've already lined up a bunch of guests. It's going to be a lot of fun. 5 to 8pm Eastern next Wednesday. Draft a thon show.
Jamie
Rock and roll.
Dan
Okay.
Dave
All right. So so far, map out the values of your draft. You know, Dan kind of explained that if you want to go back and listen but have an idea of what you want to spend on a specific tier of players before you go in, nominate players that you don't want, get that money off the board. Jamie gave you his team with kind of, I don't want to want to call it studs and duds, but a little top heavy with two first round picks and two, I guess we'll call them third round picks. And Tyree Kill and Omari and Hampton. So Lamb, Genty Hampton, Tyree Kill built out a very good team that way in a 12 team league with two flexes. The shallower the league, maybe the more aggressive you want to be with studs and duds. I personally think that in auctions I'm more likely to take Jamie's approach spending $4 out of 100. So 4% of my budget on Kyler Murray and Drake May or some combination like that. Quarterback is not a position I value as much because if I spend very little on them, I can get good quarterback for 1 or $2 or 1, 2% of my budget. This frees me up to take two first round studs just like Jamie did. So that's my personal philosophy. I also think, Dan, you touched on it. I think the best values in drafts are like the rounds. Five through eight picks. They're not sexy. This is going to be the Jameson Williams and the Jerry Judy's and the Jalen waddles and the RJ Harveys and the DeAndre Swifts of the world. They usually don't get nominated early in the draft for whatever reason. They just always seem to be great values to me.
Jamie
In auctions, Swift went for like five bucks. Pollard went for like six bucks. Exactly, went for like six.
Dan
Money always falls off at some point in an auction and you want to be there to capitalize on it. But I don't say all those names like an RJ Harvey type. Adam, I would imagine he just gets overbid and you don't end up spending like right. I was like Travion Henderson. You can't really get these in auctions, these guys, because that's the whole point of an auction. You can get who you want. If you love Henderson or you love Harvey, you just get in a bidding war. And you don't want to be the one winning that bidding war. Because auctions to me are all about value maximizing Value with every single dollar you spend.
Dave
Okay, well, I was just giving an example of that.
Jamie
Real quick on what Dan said. Like if you don't love the buzzworthy guys, avoid them because they're going to be expensive. Unless. Unless they're later in like, like a book of for six is a little surprising. I thought he went for more.
Dave
All right, Dan, go ahead and give me two more tips and we'll start getting into the emails.
Dan
Yep. So another tip is, and you touched on this a little bit at the quarterback position. I actually think there's two ways to play quarterback. One way is the way you describe and under that way. What I really want people to focus on, and this is very important for an auction draft is if you're in a one quarterback league, wait till 11 quarterbacks come off the board before you buy your quarterback. You may say, oh, I want KYLER Murray at 2 bucks or 3 bucks or Drake, may I guarantee you that if you just wait till teams have filled their starting quarterbacks in one QB league, you're getting that guy for a dollar or two dollars. No, that point wants to spend money because it'll be mid draft and no one wants to spend that extra money on a backup quarterback. Same goes for Super Flex. If you're in a 10 team league, understand that 20 are off the board and you can capitalize on that value for those quarterbacks. If you agree with me that there's not much of a drop off between, you know, that final, you know, ADP Quarterback one and ADP Quarterback two for the Super Flex. That's one way. The other way though is like looking at the auction you guys did. Jamie, you and Dave.
Jamie
I don't know man.
Dan
Like I sometimes think in these it is actually incredibly valuable to buy the tier one elite quarterbacks, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, because they're going so cheap. No one wants to spend. Everyone's in the same boat here. It feels like we're all I don't want to spend on a quarterback. Right?
Dave
Yeah, but that's not, that's not going to be typical. I think of your, your, you know, your Average Joe fantasy league. Right?
Dan
I don't know though. I don't know. I think more and more leagues that play auction at least are kind of feeling. I mean the default way to feel is why would I not just wait at quarterback and get it for two bucks?
Jamie
Can I just, can I just combine those two? Because I think, I think they work. Because again, it's not. You're not nominating Jackson, then Allen, then Daniels Then Burrow, it's, I nominated Drake May maybe as the first quarterback, and then it was Dak Prescott, and then it was Right Daniels and Joe Burrow. So to your point, Dan, like, if you see that the quarterbacks are starting to go, but it may be the first five, I think you got to separate those. So if you want an elite quarterback, you're probably going to have to spend one of the top five guys. Probably gonna spend. But if you don't have much difference between Mahomes and Baker and Nicks and Dak and Love and Purdy and all these guys, you can then just let exactly what Dan said, like, let everybody else start to spend $4, $5, $3, and you may get the guy you really want for a buck.
Dan
Right.
Dave
Question, Jamie. So let's say we think that Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson should be going in a draft around the same time as Tyree Kill. How much did you pay for Tyree Kill? Out of a hundred dollars?
Dan
It's the same price. He paid 11, and those guys went for 10 or 11. But do you think that Josh. I would have Josh Allen over Tyreek Hill?
Dave
I think they're about the same.
Dan
Okay, that, that, that may be fair, but you also have, on the flip side, running backs. Kenneth. Like, I'm looking at the auction results right now just to get an idea of if I agree, if I still kind of believe in this because, like, talking about Alvin Camara for 12 bucks, Breece hall for 13 bucks, Chuba Hover, Trevon Henderson, like James Connor, this is $10. Am I gonna feel better about C.J. stroud at 1 or Kyler Murray at 2 and then missing out on those running backs?
Jamie
I don't know. I think, I think this is where the, the skill of being in, in a salary cap draft is of when do you put yourself in on that player and at what price point do you take yourself out on that player? Because what ends up happening is I don't have a running back that I feel comfortable with. So now I'm overspending for Breece hall because he's probably the 30th running back on the. But I'm not saying him, but Camara or whoever the case may be. And so now you're forced to spend more because you feel like you're getting left out if he's the last guy in your tier. And so I think the difference with the quarterbacks is typically you're going to see the top five guys get bid up early. So at what point do you want to commit to spending on those particular players. And that's what you have to sort of go into with in the beginning. Like, if you say, I'm gonna go 10% on my number one quarterback, so $20 and 200 budget, $10 and, you know, and so maybe it's a dollar over a dollar less. Then you did your job right? I got. I got Joe Burrow for 10 bucks. I'm cool with that. So Dak may go for a dollar, and Dak may be close to. Or Mayfield may go for $2, and he may end up being close to, you know, Joe Burrow as the season plays stuff out. But I know I committed that I'm fine with it. And I know I'm not going to get Tyree Kill now. I'm gonna have to settle for potentially Calvin Ridley, which he may be fine with, and that's okay. But you just have to understand what you're. What you're going for prior to the draft. Because you said something at the start of this. Whenever these drafts start, everybody's amped up. Everybody's ample. It's not like a snake draft where you're waiting for your pick. You have the ability. You see, man, I really want a Mecca Buka. And then there's somebody that just goes, you know what? Let's just start it right from the beginning. Let's. Let's light the fire right now. I'm gonna put the most buzzworthy player up for a bit. Trayvon Henderson and Mecca Buka, Marion Hampton. I was surprised I got $4, to be honest.
Dan
Yeah, it's an insane value.
Jamie
I'm gonna put the most buzzworthy player up right away and let everybody spend their money and. And drive up the cost. And to be honest, like, that's what I would do.
Dave
Okay?
Jamie
Keep throwing those buzzworthy players out there and let people spend their money. So to the quarterbacks, you know, people get excited about those top five guys, and if you put them up early, you're probably going to get them off the board for more money than you're willing to spend. Unless, of course, you're one of those. Those managers.
Dave
All right, there's the other angle, though, right? Is that let's say Josh Allen goes for 11% of the budget, right? I mean, this is the only position, really, where the guy who's going for $1, you know, has. Has a potential to be not as good as Josh Allen, but really, really good. And you're talking about someone who's going, like, for 11 times as much as that player. Whereas if Tyreek Hill is going for 11. Well, who's a $1 wide receiver? It's gonna be, it's not gonna be someone I think who like Drake may or you know, or you know.
Jamie
Right. That's, that's, it's, it, it's the same in a snake.
Dan
Those, those elite quarterbacks have proven to be the easiest wins. At least according to Ryan Heath's data. They've proven to be the easiest way to locate a league winner over the last two or three seasons. They're scoring a lot more it seems on paper. Like, oh, I can get Drake May for two bucks. It seems great. The drop off isn't there, but I don't know, ultimately like those guys are elite quarterbacks. They're going to score at elite rates. Tyree Kill is not a guarantee to score any kind of elite rate.
Jamie
We see one, that's fine. Almost on average we see one elite quarterback emerge from nowhere.
Dan
Right.
Jamie
In some cases, like last year, we saw three essentially. We saw Daniels. Yeah. We saw Goff and they all were pick 100 or later.
Dan
Yeah.
Dave
And Burrow was wildly. No, he wasn't 100.
Jamie
His ADP was lower than what his production was. By a lot.
Dave
By a lot. But, but also I, I gotta point this out. Like, Josh Allen is not scoring as many points as he used to. He is not scoring as many points as he did in the Stefan Diggs era when he had, when he was throwing a lot.
Jamie
I mean you want on a one year sample size.
Dan
He's right.
Dave
No two year sample size. Sorry. Because he's not throwing. When Diggs was good, that three year stretch when Diggs was like all Pro. You're talking about 28 or more points per game last year. I mean it's a little skewed because it's very skewed as he played one snap in week 18. But even without that, he's not, he's not like he. They don't run enough plays. They're way too run heavy now. They don't throw as much. He's not throwing 35 touchdowns anymore. His passing yards per game. He's still great, but like Laura Jackson was that guy last year. It wasn't really Josh Allen. Josh Allen wasn't as good as he usually was.
Jamie
So, so two questions. I guess the, the thing would be if you're taking Alan or spending that much money on Alan, you're kind of understanding that his floor is probably better than a lot of players. Oh yeah. So that's part of it.
Dave
He's my qb. One all that said.
Jamie
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm surprised he's your QB1 the next question. I'm surprised he's your QB1 over Lamar.
Dave
Because Lamar has had four between his two. MVP. No, he didn't win MVP last year, which was a joke between his first MVP season and last year, his two 30 point seasons. When you azer stat it to benefit him and take out his injured games, he's usually around 24 fantasy points. 24 to 25. And that is great. But Josh Allen is better than that every single year. Josh Allen's usually 27 or more. Lamar Jackson has just had way too much variance. So his highs are higher than Josh Allen's. Allen is more consistent. That's why he's my QB1.
Jamie
Gotcha.
Dave
All right, so those are some auction tips for you. And can we just say real quick, does everybody agree that it's beneficial to have money late? Late?
Dan
Yes. You wanna, I mean you wanna have money late, but just make sure that you have everything mapped out because there are times where you have money late and there's no players left to spend on. So you have to understand like where the prices are going because if you get that, you end up with money after your auction.
Dave
I never feel that way. I never feel like there to spend. I mean in a deep league maybe, but in a 12 team league there.
Dan
Are so many times I see at the end of auctions players who should not be spent on getting spent 4, 5, 6 extra dollars on because there's no more.
Jamie
There was. I remember one of our auctions last year. I don't know if it was our mock or the one we played out. I spent my last $8 because.
Dan
Yes. Yeah, I wrote the one I wrote about last year. Yeah. I was redoing that there was somebody.
Jamie
Who actually left 11 of their singletary.
Dan
I think it was.
Jamie
There was somebody actually left 11 in their budget. So didn't spend 11 yesterday which.
Dan
Oh, yesterday. Oh wow. Because usable did that.
Jamie
But it's funny you say that Adam, because when it came down to the end of it, Dave had $4 and I had $3 and I knew we were both eyeing the same player and it was Coleman. And so we, we had, we were the, the two with the most money left. Four and three dollars. And so I put Keon Coleman up for, for three just to see if they was not paying attention. And of course he spent his last $4 on him.
Dan
That does remind me of a quick tip. And I know, Adam, we have to move on. So I'll say if you want to talk more auction and get more tips, just reach out to me and we'll do it. But one more quick tip. At the end time of your draft, be aware of every single player's max bid. If you have a max bid of 3 and or 4 and someone else has a max bid of 4, it is so vitally important for you to know that because you need to hit four before they hit four because no one can go to five and the first person to four gets that player. So understand teams max bid at the end of a draft so you can get to that max bid first. If it's $1, $2, you both have four. Don't bid three, bid four because that's you're going to win the player at that price. Okay.
Dave
All right. Questions from Draft A Thon Questions from the emails, fantasy football, cbsi.com Apple podcasts. We only had two draft a Thon questions and one of them was who are the top five finishers in last year's FFT Open? And I was looking for that information and I don't know. So Todd, I am sorry, terrible answer to your question. Yeah, it wasn't me, I'll tell you that much. I forget who of the, you know, the CBS crew, the managers made it to the championship round, but I did not. Okay. Yeah, I drafted a way too much Travis ETN last year. Definitely did in the FFT Open. The second question is from Billy Bob. Billy Bob is from a town in West Texas and he says, I wanted to see if you had looked into the coaching styles. Tight end, sorry, statistics for tight ends in relation to the coaching styles for certain head coaches. Specifically I'm interested in Brock Bowers under Chip Kelly and Evan Ingram under Sean Payton. And he wants to know, you know, and he came up, he had all the info on Zach Ertz and Jimmy Graham and all that. Yeah, I mean, Chip Kelly does have a history of throwing at the tight end. He also has a history of using multiple tight ends. Sean Payton had Jimmy Graham, he had Jeremy Shockey before that. But then he had Jimmy Graham who led the team in targets for four straight seasons from 2011, 2014. Then he had Ben Watson who had 109 targets in 2015. And that was pretty much it. So I'll just, I'll just start this off and say my personal philosophy is there are some things like Sean Payton, for example, throwing to running backs that I think you can take to the bank. The rest of it to me is Personnel driven. I don't think you can look at what Jimmy Graham did and say that Sean Payton is like a tight end guy. I think he, I do think he wants to be. He's always seemed to want an upgrade there and he could never really get it. But if you don't have the right. What'd you say?
Jamie
Kobe Fleener?
Dave
Yeah, Kobe Fleener had 82 targets in 16 games in 2016. That's not bad. But like he couldn't, we couldn't do it with Adam Troutman, you know that stuff like that. So you got to have the right player. I think he wants to use the tight end and I think he will use him. But Jamie, where are you on on this kind of specifically with tight ends? Any coaches that come to mind.
Jamie
I always look for. So Arthur Smith, for example, pro incon. He started as a tight end coach before he was the offense coordinator in Tennessee. And then he goes and gets Kyle Pitts and then he decides he wants to turn John Smith into the better tight end on the Falcons for some reason. So it works out both ways sometimes. Like I'm check. There was one other guy that was an offensive coordinator that was a tight ends coach previously where it was great. I'll look for it. I'll have that on Friday. I think exactly what you said though applies for both situations. Sean Payton and the Broncos went out and got Evan Ingram. He wants a playmaking tight end.
Dave
Yeah.
Jamie
Chip Kelly and Pete Carroll don't walk into the Las Vegas Raiders and say we're going to make Brock Bauer something that he's not. They're going to find ways to maximize his potential. Now this could come at a fault where they're using him too much as a wide receiver because his receiving skills are so good and taking away some mismatches which has kind of been the fault with Kyle Pitts in some cases, like trying to put him out wide and make him beat up corners as opposed to, you know, outrunning linebackers and safeties. So we'll see if that sort of plays about. I don't think so, but it could good.
Dave
Do you worry that they're going to use Michael Mayer the way they used to use like Garrett Selleck in for Chip Kelly used to do that of.
Jamie
Course, because they, they, they're. Whenever these teams have the ability to find a blocking tight end, they're going to run 12 personnel. They're going to use these guys to, you know, be essentially an offensive lineman. It's, it's why Washington for the Steelers should just Become a tackle at this point already if you can block at that position and still catch the ball. George Kittle is the best example of this by far. But if, if you can seal an edge, if you can know pancake a guy like these guys are valuable assets and then still be threats when they can, you know, do a chip block and then get into the end zone and catch a touchdown too. So yes, there's going to be a little bit of a problem for those type of players. But I still think again, you don't take a generational talent of Brock Bowers and not use him to maximize his potential. You don't bring in Evan Ingram to not maximize his potential where that will it play itself out. I think you said it best, Adam. He got Jimmy Graham and all of a sudden he's a Titans coach. Coach. Well, why wasn't he a tight ends coach with Adam Trotman?
Dave
Yeah, exactly. He tried with Shocky. I do think Sean Payton, I think he's a valuable player in his offense. What do they call it? The joker role? The guy that can be.
Jamie
That doesn't necessarily have to be a Titan.
Dave
It doesn't have to. But there's speculation is that Evan Ingram is going to be that guy. So yeah, I mean he's a. I'm surprised I haven't drafted him because I liked him a lot more. But now I think I, I don't know why for whatever reason I haven't drafted Evan Ingram. All right, we're gonna take a break and we're gonna read your emails. Got a great question about Josh Jacobs to start and taking both Puka and Devonte Adams and things like that. We'll be right back on fft. Talk about stepping up.
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Dave
All right, question here from Austin. Subject line, what'd you say?
Dan
Nah, I just did a quick Austin, what's up?
Dave
Hey, man, my man. By the way, I was at dinner tonight. Bernie Williams was at the restaurant.
Dan
What?
Jamie
Who was?
Dave
Bernie Williams?
Jamie
Wow. Did you say hello to him?
Dave
No, I didn't. I was telling a story and he walked right by our table and I'm telling the story. I'm like, yeah, so anyway, I was playing tennis against this loser and, oh, that's Bernie Williams right there. And then I just continued the story.
Dan
Like the type of guy who'd be too scared to say anything anyway.
Dave
Yeah, I wouldn't do that. So. So.
Dan
But I don't do it either because I don't want to bother them. So it's not being scared for you.
Dave
It'S being polite for me, it's being scared. I get it.
Jamie
Yeah.
Dan
Yeah. 100. I think the listeners would agree with.
Dave
I don't get the lack of appeal for Josh Jacobs. Dave and Jamie said the 12 turn is too early. Well, I took Jacobs at the 12 turn. Christian McCaffrey and Josh Jacobs. I passed on HN. So many red flags are popping up there. I just feel like Jacobs pass checks all the boxes and people aren't pumped for this guy. He's the third down back, the goal line back and catches passes. I will step in and say he's not exactly the third down back here. At least he wasn't last year. They didn't really have a designated third down back.
Jamie
Right.
Dave
So anyway, Austin says that we and basically everyone except for CBS adp, by the way, is too low on Josh Jacobs. Dan, your thoughts?
Dan
I think he's right. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean I would take him at the 12 turn. There are plenty of players I prefer over him there, but I have him over hn. I have him over a few players that maybe, consensus wise, he'd be ranked below. Now, the reason why I think he's not being picked at the 12 turn is because 1, it does sort of feel like he ran hot last year in the sense of.
Jamie
Of.
Dan
Jordan Love was injured playing hurt and that passing game fell apart, so they leaned on the run game this year. Should Jordan Love regain the form that he had two years ago, especially in that second half of the 2023 season with added weapons on the field, Matthew golden among them. Will the running game take a step back? It's possible. I mean, I still think he's going to score a lot of touchdowns. I still think Marshawn Lloyd is like not a good. I never liked his tape and I'm not a fan of his, so I don't really know. I mean, Emmanuel Wilson, they have some depth, I guess behind that. That and he's injured again. Lloyd, so there's no real competition. It's just a combination in my mind of one, did he run too hot last year and will they be more pass heavy? And two, he's not an explosive runner. At least it hasn't been recently. So you're not getting those James Cook long touchdowns or the Jonathan Taylor long touchdowns.
Jamie
I think it's the fact that he's not considered a sexy pick. Yeah. And you know, you, you said why he's not getting picked there. Dan, our ADP suggests best that he is, which is surprising, you know, so I just, I just did that story of, you know, why, what, what's the best case for all the first round picks? And so he's in that story because he's the 12th pick in our average draft position. So you mentioned you have him overachie. I'm. If, if hn's not practicing at some point this weekend, I'm sorry, if he's not back at practice after the preseason game this weekend in a day or two, then I'm gonna move Jacobs ahead of him. And it might make more sense if you're just playing it safe to take Jacobs out of him. He is as steady a running back as you will find. He had the one bad season in Las Vegas or Oakland. They may have still been. I don't remember when they made the move with the Raiders where he held out and was not the same guy. He is a candidate for 50 catches. He is a candidate for. He's averaged 40, 45 catches in his last four seasons. So he's Canada. 50 catches, which would be a high end. But 30, 35 to 50 catches will be somewhere in that range, you know, depending. Which could help if Jordan Love is healthy. I don't think Jordan Love being healthy is such a hindrance to him because the offense will move and operate better. And so there might be even more touchdown potential for him, if you could believe that. But he's just safe. Like. Yeah. And we had this conversation briefly about our IDP league where Jake Seeley took Kyron Williams at the 12:13, the 1, 2 turn. If you believe in Josh Jacobs, you're not getting him.
Dan
True.
Jamie
You have to take him there. So if you are like, I want the safety of him versus Taylor versus Chase, Brown versus Irving versus Kyron and don't love those receivers there, which now we're seeing basically past neighbors, is Puka with a quarterback with a back injury. Brian Thomas, the wild card of, you know, Travis Hunter. I would take nico over him 10 out of 10, but you might be able to take both those guys. But in any event, you get the point. He's just safe. And, and, and when I say safe, safe. Top five safe. Like he. He's got that upside. Yeah.
Dave
Six per game last year and 37 catches last year in 17 games. But, oh, 36 catches. Pardon me. He left one game after week 18, played 31% of snaps. But if they throw more, he's going to catch the ball more. So he'll have fewer carries, but he'll have more catches. And he did catch a touchdown last year for the first time in his career. All right, that's Josh Jacobs. Next question is from Charles. If I take Puka in round two, how much would that affect your taking Devonte Adams in round four? He doesn't always last. He's more like a round three guy for us. Devonte Adams, how many wide.
Jamie
He's not for everybody else.
Dave
You think he's around for. Is that his adp?
Jamie
He falls around for you? I. I just did a draft on. On sleeper for Michael Fabiano, Sports Illustrated. I got Adams at the four or five turn.
Dave
Four or five. Okay, okay. Because of the Stafford stuff.
Jamie
Well, I was picking. I was picking one, so he came back. Okay.
Dave
All right. Well, anyway, if you. So it's a quick question, Jamie. If you draft Puka, are you taking Adams off your board?
Jamie
No, I, I wouldn't. I. I mean, it would have to be like, I hate everybody else on the board. I like you. You tell me. I get Jamar chase round one, and T. Higgins falls to round four. I'm doing that 10 out of 10, you tell me. I take Puka in round two and Devonta Adams is there, and I'm. It's him and Mike Evans and Tyree Kill. I'm pivoting to one of the other older receivers. Right. All right.
Dave
This is from Josh Dear. Bo, Justin, Marcus and Joey.
Jamie
Say it again.
Dave
Bo, Justin, Marcus and Joey. And Bo and Marcus are not backfield mates.
Jamie
They're not?
Dave
No. That would have thrown me off.
Jamie
Is it pop culture or sports?
Dave
It's sports.
Jamie
Bo. Marcus. Justin who?
Dave
Joey. Three of them are in the NFL now.
Jamie
Oh, quarterbacks from the Oregon.
Dave
Yeah, yeah. Bo Nicks, Justin Herbert, Marcus Mariota, Joey Harrington.
Jamie
Yep.
Dave
I need to know what to do about Travis Hunter. I'm in a 12 team, half PPR league. He is eligible to start at both wide receiver and cornerback. How high does that push his draft value in a league where we only start one idp?
Jamie
Round two?
Dan
Yeah, I could make the case for round one.
Dave
I don't think I do that. I do think the injury risk is pretty.
Dan
It's pretty unicorn play. Well, yeah.
Dave
And he's already hurt if he's gonna play both ways. But yeah, I mean, if you can start him at cornerback, man, what I'm saying, like. All right, so like after Drake, London or where did.
Dan
Yeah, where'd he go in the idp? I didn't get a chance to read. To read fully through the IDP mock.
Jamie
And see we can't use them there. Okay. In that. In that league.
Dave
Yeah. Plus we start like 10idps in that league. This is just one. All right, question from Mark.
Jamie
How many rookies get it right? 9.
Dave
9. 10 bench spots from Mark. How many rookies on a roster is too many? In my mock drafts, three receivers and a flex 12 team PPR. I like to go Nico and Drake, London, and then I might make my next five picks rookies. Hampton, Henderson, Tetaroa, McMillan, Harvey Abuka in rounds three through seven, and then maybe take either Warren or Loveland as a late tight end. Dan, is that too many rookies?
Dan
You're asking the wrong guy. And end up drafting way too many rookies. I had this conversation with Jake today on beyond the Box Score. Like, I think in general, because we spend so much time studying the tape of these college players, we feel like we give ourselves an edge on these college papers looking players, looking at the data and the tape, and that will be a blind spot in my analysis. And I told him it's probably a blind spot in both of our analysis because we're over. Let's think a better way to say it's. I'm oversaturated with data on those players versus other players that have just been in the NFL. And I haven't watched as much of their recent tape for that reason. So I think there is a point where we do overdo it. I personally am off Trayvon Henderson. I won't be drafting him at all. I've seen where he's going in auctions and where he's going in snakes, and it's just not a price point. I think it's close to his ceiling. And if that happens for Harvey, he'll be the same thing. I'll get off that. I feel like with Tedo McMillan, that's starting to be the case like he was for a while in our draft. Six, seven round adp. Now he's shooting up the five. Saw him go off the fourth round of a draft we did. So once they get to that point, I think where I start to see their ceiling come into play, I'm off of those players.
Jamie
Last year you could have won your league. So don't go into with this mindset but you could have won your league with an all rookie lineup.
Dan
But you could have also lost, right. If you missed like if you took Marvin Harrison Jr.
Jamie
I'm not saying, I'm not saying specific players. You would have had to nail these exact players. You would have to have Jaden Daniels at quarterback, Bucky Irving and Tyrone Tracy at running back. Yeah, lad McConkey, Brian Thomas and Malik Neighbors at receiver, Rock Bowers at tight end. You want to say Harrison's the flex. It could be.
Dan
No, I mean you wouldn't, you could.
Jamie
You could have, you know, found. But I forget who the other guy is. But because of the tight end quarterback, you, you have to nail those positions to be perfect as a all rookie team. I do think that there is a chance to clearly be a little bit too rookie heavy. But again like there's so many options here. Like I want to have on my bench one of, if not all of them, Jaden Blue, Bacal Tootin and Ollie Gordon. Now like I want to be invested in those guys. I want to be invested if I can in, in Luther Burden as a, as a bench receiver. I obviously want to be in on a mecca Buka as, as a potential third receiver. You know, I want to be an on Ted McMillan at the right price. I want to be in on Travis Hunter. The right price. I certainly want to be in on Triple H at the right price. You know, so can you have too many rookies? Sure. I mean I just gave you a, a salary cap draft where my starting running backs are Genti and Hampton. Like you know it. It's clearly the two best running backs but you know, they're, they're unproven. And you know again, going back to that story that I referenced, what did we see from the last two high profile rookies that were the first ones taken in fantasy leagues? Bajan Robinson and Marvin Harrison failed.
Dave
Right.
Jamie
They're awful. They're not awful. They were, they were bad in their rookie seasons by comparison to what their profiles were.
Dave
Do you want me to go through the round? Two rookies in the last five years, the guys who were drafted in round two in the NFL draft draft where they finished. So we had five of them in 2020. We had DeAndre Swift, Jonathan Taylor, Cam Akers, J.K. dobbins and A.J. dillon. Swift was drafted. Swift crushed his ADP. Taylor crushed his ADP. Remember Taylor was Marlon Mack got hurt in week one. Taylor took the job and ran with it. Cam Acres was horrible compared to his ADP. J.K. dobbins basically was even. And A.J. dillon barely played, played nine games. He wasn't drafted early. He was drafted as RB54. None of these guys were drafted as top 20 running backs by the way. The earliest was Taylor at RB21. So I'd say you have very mixed results like kind of 2, 2 and 1. Javante Williams. Javante Williams, that's the guy I couldn't think of. I knew there were, there were a couple of players that couldn't shake the veteran in their backfield and Javante was one of them. Them he played one game without. Was it Gordon?
Jamie
33 PPR points.
Dave
He crushed it. But he was really kind of disappointing. He was drafted as RB25 and he did finish his RB17. He finished his RB26 per game. So he basically met his ADP. But it was really frustrating. We were waiting and waiting and waiting and it never happened. And Melvin Gordon was another guy when he was a rookie that didn't get the work that we were hoping. But you know, so, so that's like. Javante is a cautionary tale. Breece hall was, was okay. He heard his tours acl, but he was, he was incredible. Ken Walker was drafted as RB16 and he finished his RB18 and he finished his RB17 per game. That was a guy that had to wait for Rashad Penny to of course get hurt. But before Penny got hurt, Ken Walker was useless. Before David Montgomery got hurt. Jameer Gibbs was a bust.
Jamie
No.
Dan
Yes, he was. He was a bus.
Dave
Everything 100.
Dan
He was a bus to begin third.
Dave
Round pick and everything changed and he's not even on this list because he was a first round pick in the NFL draft. I'm just looking at second round picks. James Cook, RB27 and ADP did not even finish as a top 50 running back per game. Never really got his chance. Zach Charbonnet. We didn't really think he wasn't being drafted. We knew it was a bad situation. Second round pick, you know, Jonathan Brooks, you know, different situation. And then this year it's Judkins, Travion Henderson, RJ Harvey. There are a lot of cautionary tales this Year feels different, situations feel better. For some of these guys, sure.
Dan
The same was the.
Dave
Yeah, and this rookie draft class is awesome. So I don't think that's too many rookies. Personally, I think you picked the right ones and they're not all gonna hit. But listen, you're not gonna hit on all six of your first six picks regardless of who you pick, veterans or rookies. So I'm cool with it, man.
Dan
Look, I'm pro rookies too, especially back end of your bench. That's where I really think you can over inflate them.
Dave
All right, next question. Oh man, I got like six documents open here. Let's see if I. Oh, oh, this is a fun one from Will my league, me and my league mate have a side bet on whose top four receivers in dynasty will score the most points. So team A and team B, who do you like better? Team A has Drake, London. I'm on ross, St. Brown, Tea McMillan and George Pickens. Pretty good. London, St. Brown. He said McMillan. I'm assuming that's Teteroa and Pickens. Team two is Puka, Brian Thomas Jr lad, McConkey and Golden.
Dan
I like them both. I give the slight edge to A.
Jamie
No, I get the slightest to be B man.
Dave
B's got Puka, BTJ and McConkey.
Dan
So I for the first two, I'm just giving it a wash. It was London and who?
Dave
Saint Brown.
Dan
Yeah, London and Saint Brown, Puka and. And who's the first?
Dave
Honestly, like that is not a wash to me, really.
Dan
London and St. Brown vs. London and St. Brown.
Dave
Assuming Stafford stays healthy. I mean I, I definitely prefer like I have Puka and Brian Thomas Jr. Ahead of both London and St. Brown if there's health, but okay, it's fine.
Dan
And then I think that you gain a lot. I mean I'm super high on picking, so that's probably why I like that team more. It was Pickens and who?
Jamie
McConkey?
Dave
No, no, no, McMillan.
Dan
Yeah, very high on McMillan too. I just feel like you're getting the. McConkie's not going to be outscored those two by as much as they're going to outscore golden by.
Jamie
All right, I guess it depends on how you value Golden. Like I, I don't think golden should outperform Ted. Yeah, but it would not shock me if he does.
Dan
That's fair.
Dave
All right, last. Sorry to Vinnie, I didn't get to your question, but just answer me.
Jamie
Read it.
Dave
This is from now it's gonna. This is a 5 minute answer. Answer this is from someone with no name. Yeah, I got to get these episodes a little shorter here. And I don't want to hear anything about Tennessee. I didn't mention any of that stuff today. Remember we asked, like, who's a wide receiver? A highly touted wide receiver like Marvin Harrison Jr. That had a pretty disappointing rookie season. I couldn't think of anyone. Sammy watkins, Calvin Johnson, 48 catches, 756 yards, four touchdowns. Played nearly a full season and then he became Megatron after that. And I Wish I had ADP data from 2008. I think his rookie year was 2007. I'd love to know what happened there. All right, fine. Jamie, you want to answer this question in 30 seconds? This one's from Vinnie. What do you. Okay, so why are we ranking Jonathan Taylor as a top 12 running back in PPR? If you look at his numbers from weeks one through 15, he scored six total touchdowns and rushed for 911 yards. And he missed three games.
Dan
Games.
Dave
Final three games. He rushed for 520 yards and six touchdowns. Joe Flacco started two of them. It's actually a good point we don't bring up enough. He was having a pretty disappointing season until they gave him 30 carries a game down the stretch, which obviously we can't expect. So how confident are you in Jonathan.
Jamie
Taylor and why his numbers in the passing game are much better with Joe Flacco. I expect that to be the case with Daniel Jones. I still think he's going to dominate touches despite the addition of DJ Giddens. A little bit concerned about the offensive line because they're going through some changes, but. But I think they have an opportunity here to be a much better ball control offense and keep the ball a lot longer with Daniel Jones than they would have with Richardson, who has just a lot of wild, you know, highs and lows of, you know, not sustaining drives, most importantly. So Taylor's gonna get every opportunity to carry the ball and may lead the NFL and carries, you know, so if you're in leagues with point per carry, first down, all those things, like, there's an opportunity here for, for Jonathan Taylor to potentially crush his adp could be a. A top five overall pick. So I love him in round two.
Dave
And how do you rank that five tier? Five running back, tier of Jacobs, Taylor, Bucky, Chase Brown, Kyron.
Jamie
Love all of them in round two. For me, Jacobs is one because I think his high end potential is just as good as anybody. But the floor is the safest. I have Chase Brown, second, Bucky third Taylor fourth, but they're back to back to back. I think if the two second year or the, the two second year starters hit and Chase Brown and Bucky Irving, they're going to be better than maybe three or four guys in front of them. There's that much upside. So I take the upside play of Chase Brown, the upside play of Bucky, but perfectly happy to take Taylor there. And then Kyron's not a distant fifth but he's slightly behind those guys. So I like the other four a little bit better.
Dave
Oh yeah, Fantasy cops. This one is from Mike from Long island, dear. Cadillac Legarett and Warrick.
Dan
Bucks running backs.
Jamie
I'm gonna put out in there. Come on.
Dave
Yeah, come on now. I'm in a 14 team high stakes fantasy football league that drafts in person. Last year was my first year in the league and I brought my computer along with printed rankings reports to help guide me through the draft. I subscribe to a well known fantasy football service that plugs into the draft and suggests players to select based on who's available, team needs, etc. The draft is done offline. We add names to a draft board, but players are added to team rosters in Yahoo by the commissioner in real time, which was recognized by the program to provide future recommendations. Some of the league members thought this gave me an unfair advantage. They voted and they passed a ban on the draft assist technology. What do you consider draft assist technology and what's your take overall on this?
Dan
Interesting.
Jamie
I would say if it's a tough one because like you're spending your own money to give yourself an edge, but obviously everybody else is not doing this and the idea of doing in person is to make this a fun, enjoyable experience. Not watch you sitting over there on your computer going through a program.
Dave
Do you know the. I'm honestly very, I've heard of these.
Jamie
A lot and it's funny because like I have a friend that just likes to bust my balls all the time and he's like, like this guy has his program that he always wants to play in a league with you because he thinks his program's gonna beat you. I'm like, cool, do it. Let's fine it. I'm sorry, I know I said a bad word, but I, I think if you're gonna do it in person, like do what everybody else is doing. Have fun.
Dave
I got no problem with it though. I, I can't imagine.
Jamie
But it's like if everybody's going there to be in person, it's to not sit there and stare at A screen like, yeah, this is supposed to be fun. I get it. There's, there's, there's monetary stuff involved. You want to win, you're competitive. I'm as competitive anybody ever meet.
Dave
But you wouldn't bet. You wouldn't ban this.
Jamie
I would not. I would not ban it.
Dave
No.
Jamie
I think that's, that's ridiculous. I, I would say, though, like, it's like maybe he should just, you know, do all your homework and your research beforehand and.
Dan
Yeah.
Jamie
Bring the papers with you. Don't rely on something to give yourself that much of an edge. Like, it's not. If these are your friends, like, you want to beat them because you know better, not because you had to add something to it.
Dan
It's interesting. My friends always make fun of me in my home league because I just show up to my draft with my printed tears and that's it. And I just trust my own rankings. We do this all year for research. These guys have like programs and everything going on. And it's just, it depends what how you want to play the draft and how confident you are in your own takes. Because, you know, if he's using a program like he is there. I don't, I don't know if I necessarily see anything wrong with that. It's essentially just use. It's like using your tears. Jamie. It's not that much different than that. If he was just going to go straight by your team, but it's giving.
Jamie
Him real, real time.
Dave
Yeah.
Jamie
Scenarios that are going to help. Listen, everybody.
Dan
I see what you're saying based on how the draft is going. Okay.
Jamie
Everybody plays this for different reasons. Again, no comments. And you're like, you know, if money's on the line, I'm playing to win. What Johnny just, you know, posted. I get that. You know, like, you want your money to make something, you know, and that's why you're doing this. It's. It's fine. I don't have a problem. I don't think it should be banned. But just personally, like, it'd be, it'd be like if somebody said, hey, Adam, come to my draft with me and draft for me.
Dave
Yeah, I know. I honestly would love to go up some computer. I think it'd be fun.
Dan
Little you against the computer.
Jamie
You probably do it more than you know.
Dave
I may. I don't think so. I don't think people, anybody I draft with, with.
Dan
Not in my league. Yeah.
Dave
Anyway, that's fantasy cops, fantasy football. CBSI.com and put fantasy cops in the subject line. What Was that joke I talked over?
Dan
Dave calls you all that call Jamie all the time for advice.
Dave
My brother does.
Jamie
Well, we do know that you cheat in one league.
Dave
Who, me?
Jamie
Burger? No, Adam cheats in one league.
Dave
What league?
Jamie
Big burger. You're basically a computer for somebody that you know very well.
Dave
Oh, my wife. Listen, man, if I were cheating in that league and we haven't won it one time, then I'm doing a really bad job. All right, some Apple podcast questions here. This is from.
Jamie
What Johnny just wrote. He cracks me up, man.
Dave
What did he write with this? Yeah, taking my friends money is the funnest part of fantasy. I take pictures of me spending all the winnings and post it to the league chat. That's good. You're fun. I. You're probably a fun guy to play fantasy with, Johnny. All right, so the question is from cab fan. A few buddies and I are checking out a Guillotine league for the first time. Was curious if you guys were going to do a pod or a long segment dedicated to it. No, I don't think so, but.
Jamie
But I'm doing my first one tomorrow night, as a matter of fact.
Dave
All right, so give me 30 seconds.
Dan
I did really like your take, though, on Rasheed Rice, Jamie, a couple episodes ago.
Dave
You know what, for what it's worth, Dave actually admitted in the YouTube comments that he was wrong about his with his Rasheed Rice take, so he just missed that. But just give me 30 seconds on how to draft a Guillotine league.
Jamie
You want to sort of live in the middle for the first four or five weeks of the season. You want to take players that have a very safe floor with. With the chance to have upside, not necessarily huge downside. So I was just talking to a friend of mine that's in this league with me doing the draft tomorrow, and the comparison I gave him was I would rather have Cortland Sutton than George Pickens. I think Cortland Sutton is going to be as steady as they come with plenty of upside versus maybe the volatility of what George Pickens, the spike weeks versus some of the down weeks. I don't know if that's the best comparison. Jameson Williams maybe similar type of player. So the biggest thing really is if you survive the first couple of weeks, how you manage your budget, because everybody, once they lose, all of their players go into waivers, go on to waivers. So Saquon Barkley, the Saquon Barkley manager, the Christian McCaffrey manager, the Ashton Genti manager, they may lose in the first week because of a bad matchup or just bad performance across the board with their team. And now you are faced with in week two a first round pick available to you with a thousand dollar budget, $100 in the case. Maybe you may get that player and they may still have money to spend later on. But I would like to try and save as much money to the end. I've been in this now I think I've done like five years worth of Guillotine leagues four or five years been in the final four twice and both times I've lost because I've gone up against somebody with more money and so my all star team was not as good.
Dan
Yeah.
Jamie
To that all star team and it's just the way it works. So. So if you can be if you could have the the you know most money, the biggest pot at the end of the season you're going to be in great shape. So don't unless you have to fill a need like just you don't have to win every week. There's no unless there's a bonus for it or price for it like stay in the middle.
Dave
Okay, next Apple podcast question but you.
Jamie
Obviously want players are going to get you off to a good start. Jerome Ford, for example, one of my big targets for Guillotine leagues because of how week one bangles. No quinch on Judkins. He could be fantastic to just give you at least one week and he's going to be cheap.
Dave
Next question is from Alec. I have the number one overall pick in our draft. It's a keeper league. It's a 10 team league and after all the keepers the three best players available are going to be AJ Brown, Josh Jacobs and Trey McBride. Who do you suggest taking? It's a 10 team sleepers.
Jamie
How is Ashton Genti not available?
Dave
He's got there was a rookie draft because he is RJ Harvey. So he has Jefferson neighbors Chase Brown, Josh Allen, RJ Harvey and Braylon Allen. He has great core.
Jamie
Is it three players available again?
Dave
AJ Brown, Josh Jacobs and Trey McBride.
Dan
PBR League? Yeah, it is full.
Dave
I don't know.
Dan
Okay. I mean if it's pbr I'll go AJ Brown. If it's not ppr. No, I'm going AJ Brown regardless for.
Jamie
Me what is his roster again? I'm sorry.
Dave
He's got Jefferson neighbors, Chase Brown, Josh Allen, Braylon Allen, R.J. harvey.
Dan
McCarty has two injured receivers I and they're going to hopefully I'm going Josh.
Dave
Jacobs and the question that he had basically was should I focus on the onesie position and Trey McBride in a 10 team league. But I'm not going. You know this is about six picks difference between Jacobs and Trey McBride. I know I want to get the onesie positions in the 10 team league. I'm not willing to go that much, you know, six picks or so. I'm not willing to go that much off the board to get the onesie position. Personally.
Jamie
Yeah, I would take Jacobs.
Dave
All right, that was a good question. 10 team PPR keeper league. I'm keeping a chan in the ninth. I'm picking eighth overall. Which two players would you start your team with between Nico, AJ Brown neighbors London, Brian Thomas Jr. McCaffrey, Henry Genti.
Jamie
Wow. The two highest ranked for me would be Nico and McCaffrey and you're starting with HN and that's it.
Dave
Yeah, if there's. If you know, obviously if you can keep player for another year you definitely want to go Genti over McCaffrey. But yeah, Nico I guess DiCaprio, Nico.
Dan
For me they're both top six ranked overall players for me.
Jamie
So yeah, unless there's keeper implications it would be McCaffrey, Nico neighbors, Genti. If there's keepers it would be genti, neighbors, Nico McCaffrey.
Dave
Almost reverse and question from TD Hodge. I plan on taking a quarterback late in my upcoming draft. Which late round quarterback can still win me a championship?
Dan
Drake May is definitely the first one that comes to mind.
Jamie
Yep. Drake May, Jordan Love, Trevor JJ McCarthy.
Dan
Is an interesting one for just going for pure upside.
Jamie
Yep. Dan, you were talking about CJ Stroud so if you believe in him.
Dan
I like Stroud. I think Shroud's more of a small win though. If he's looking for like the breakout when you league I'd be more.
Dave
Yeah, that's how I feel about Jordan Love too. I don't put him small win. Yeah, yeah. I think you got to get a guy who's going to be on an offense that's going to really throw the ball a lot or you're going to really run the ball a lot. Caleb Williams.
Dan
I'm not. I don't. I don't think so Possible though.
Jamie
I think the nice thing about it though is you try to get two of these guys.
Dave
I got three minutes left for YouTube. YouTube. Let's go. Oh, interesting. Look at this. FFT open. I don't know which league this guy's in RB but he said Bowers, Kittle and McBride all went in round two ahead of Josh Jacobs.
Dan
Yeah, yeah.
Dave
That's a two running two receiver leagues with one flex. That's pretty interesting.
Jamie
Mine's done, by the way.
Dave
Oh, yours is done. Cool, man.
Jamie
Bowers, McBride and Kiddo went round three.
Dave
Question from Jonah. I have Tyreek. In a keeper league, you can keep up to five players at the cost of your first five picks. I can keep Tyreek for a fifth. Would you drop him and grab a Booka or golden instead of 14 team half PPR.
Jamie
So if you are trying to win now, I would keep Tyreek if you have the ability to drop him and keep a buka for next year, I would drop Tyreek and take a buka and Right. Factor in the keeper this year.
Dan
Yeah.
Dave
All right. Question from Tony the Shrimp. If you are already have Sutton on your roster. Tony the Shrimp. Not great cereal, by the way.
Dan
What's that?
Dave
Tony the Tiger.
Jamie
That is your worst joke ever.
Dan
Is that a joke?
Jamie
Yeah.
Dan
What happened there?
Dave
You didn't even get it.
Jamie
You don't even.
Dave
You've never even had Frosted Flakes.
Dan
I've had. Every single human being in the history of the world has had Frost.
Jamie
What's in your fridge right now? Go see what's in your fridge.
Dan
We're not doing that what's in the fridge thing again. It's better, though. I have some other stuff. I have some real food this time. I was too embarrassed from the last one. We're not doing that ever again, though.
Dave
But if you already had Sutton on your roster, would you hesitate to draft RJ?
Jamie
I can't believe that's 0 and 0.
Dan
Why? It looks like a 0 back, does it not?
Jamie
You said it.
Dave
Not really. It looks like a starfish.
Dan
All right, I'll figure that out on the. For the next show.
Dave
Okay, if you already have. If you already have Sutton on your roster.
Dan
I didn't have time to fix my magnets. I was too busy listening to Adam for five minutes. Ran.
Dave
Would you hesitate to draft RJ Harvey over someone in a similar range like Tony Pollard? I personally would not.
Jamie
I would take Harvey.
Dave
Yeah, Sorry, Dan. I had you muted. You're back now. Wait. You keep hitting it. I keep hitting.
Dan
No, I'm not hitting anything. You have muted me. I should have muted you during your Tarantino rant.
Dave
That was off the air.
Dan
It still happened.
Dave
Keep Neighbors in the 6th or JS.
Dan
Listen.
Dave
Neighbors in the 6th or JSN in the 10th.
Dan
Neighbors in the 6th.
Jamie
The value is better for JSM, but I would keep neighbors.
Dave
Good joke, Adam. Thank you. It was a good joke.
Dan
That would just be nice. And that was a terrible joke, Adam.
Dave
Could give your thoughts on. I never realized that.
Jamie
Bad guy. All right. All right. Dave's in the snow.
Dave
Yeah. It's so funny. Lou says, can you talk me off the ledge drafting Jaden Daniels and him not being CJ Stroud 2.0?
Jamie
His rushing will runs.
Dan
Yeah.
Jamie
Keep him at a much higher floor.
Dan
Right?
Dave
Yeah. No, I mean, it's a valid question because Anthony Richardson was horrible, too, but. But Daniel's.
Dan
Yeah.
Dave
I don't know. He just feels different. CJ Stroud had a great rookie year. That was really surprising. Not that he was a bus, necessarily, but that he was that bad really fell apart.
Jamie
Not that he was a bust. He was a huge bust. He was a top.
Dave
It wasn't surprising that he was a bus because he doesn't run that much. I liked him, but to the degree of which he was a bust, I think was. Was stunning to me.
Jamie
Can you do me a favor? The question from RB there about Zacchaeus. We don't talk about this now, but I think it's worth talking about going into the weekend. Some of these veteran guys that are going to be problems for potential players like Chris Rodriguez and Zacchaeus and some of these guys that we don't talk enough about.
Dave
Yeah, right. Chris Rodriguez is going to have a role. I'm sure. We'll talk about that on the Friday show, which.
Jamie
That's for me. Yeah.
Dave
Yeah. All right, we gotta go. We gotta go. Thank you all for watching and listening, and I appreciate all your comments and your questions and being a part of the show.
Jamie
Is your roommate a Giants fan?
Dan
He is not.
Jamie
So wait, wait, wait. Is it. This is a shared refrigerator, right?
Dan
Yes.
Jamie
Did you just bully him and say, I'm putting all the magnets up, or did you give it.
Dave
Wisconsin Giants. You got all the magnets on the fridge.
Dan
Don't you understand that last week everyone was giving me crap on the show. No magnets on the fridge. So I had to fast order some magnets to the house.
Jamie
Okay.
Dan
I'm picking the things I'm interested in. Okay. That he can put up whatever he wants in his own time if he cares. He clearly doesn't care about what's going on. I didn't care either until I got bullied into it.
Jamie
What team does he root for?
Dan
I, I, We're. I don't even know who he roots for.
Jamie
This is.
Dave
You guys are buds? All right.
Jamie
Fun.
Dave
All right, we'll talk to y' all sometime soon on Fantasy Football Today.
Jamie
See you later.
Kristen Bell
Paramount Podcasts.
Dan
This episode is brought to you by FX's alien Earth. The Official Podcast each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew in this exclusive companion podcast.
Jamie
They will explore story elements, deep dive.
Dan
Into character motivations, and offer an episode.
Jamie
By episode, behind the scenes breakdown of.
Dan
Each terrifying chapter in this new series.
Jamie
Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts.
Date: August 23, 2025
Hosts: Dave Richard, Jamie Eisenberg, Dan Schneier
This episode dives deep into winning strategies for fantasy football auction drafts, with a special focus on mapping out values, budget allocation, and nomination techniques. The trio also answers listener questions from emails, Apple Podcast reviews, and YouTube comments, addressing draft dilemmas, rookie strategies, keeper league tactics, and "Fantasy Cops" league disputes. The episode’s tone is light, banter-filled, but packed with actionable, data-backed advice ideal for both auction newcomers and experienced managers.
[04:04] Dan:
Notable Quote:
"If you just go in willy nilly with your budget...you'll end up...with leftover money at the end, which is the worst possible thing you can do in an auction." (Dan, 05:26)
[06:21] Jamie:
[07:34] Jamie/09:20] Dave:
[08:13] Jamie/11:59] Jamie:
Notable Quote:
"Put players that you don't want up for bid as much as possible to make them waste money you will not spend." (Jamie, 12:06)
[15:36] Dan:
[13:42] Jamie/21:13] Dave:
[23:35] Dan/25:06] Jamie:
[32:10] Dan/32:23] Dave:
Notable Quote:
"At the end time of your draft, be aware of every single player's max bid." (Dan, 33:31)
[12:36] Jamie:
[41:01] Dave/41:38] Dan:
[47:45] Jamie/48:14] Dan:
[45:45] Jamie:
[68:51] Dan/68:53] Jamie:
[58:06] Jamie/59:47] Dan:
Case: Is using a real-time draft-assist program “cheating” in an in-person draft?
For a deeper breakdown, specific strategies by position/tier, or questions about your own auction league, review the timestamps above or reach out to the hosts on social media and in the next mailbag!