Reviewing Our First Mock Draft of the Year! Any Big Surprises? (01/08 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Summary

Fantasy Football Today: Reviewing Our First Mock Draft of the Year! Any Big Surprises?

Episode Release Date: January 8, 2025

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1. Introduction

In the inaugural episode of the 2025 season, Fantasy Football Today kicks off with host Adam Aizer and analysts Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, and Heath Cummings diving deep into their first mock drafts of the year. The episode sets the stage for what listeners can expect throughout the season, including strategic discussions, player rankings, and league management tips.

2. Offseason Activities

Before delving into fantasy football specifics, the hosts share personal updates about their offseason activities:

• Dave wrapped up his marathon viewing of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, highlighting the intense commitment it required:

  "I finally switched to Metro and got what I was looking for... It's gonna go the distance." ([02:03])

• Jamie rewatched The Sopranos, finding solace in revisiting familiar storylines:

  "I started re watching the Sopranos again and I got through the first four seasons so I started with season five again. It's just so amazing." ([02:45])

3. NFL News and Player Updates

The analysts provide updates on key NFL players and teams, focusing on injury statuses and potential fantasy implications:

• Jalen Hurts remains in concussion protocol, with uncertainty around Zay Flowers due to a knee injury.
• Christian Watson of the Packers tore his ACL, raising concerns about his availability and impact on the Packers' passing game:

  "Christian Watson tore his ACL. That's just awful." ([04:09])

4. Mock Draft Review

The core of the episode revolves around the hosts reviewing their first mock drafts of the year. They assess the best and worst picks, discussing strategies like hero RB and zero RB approaches.

a. Best Picks

• Romeo Dobbs was highlighted as a value pick in the 10th round:

  "I took Dobbs in the 10th round. And I responded, yeah, I like the value there." ([05:47])

• Tyreek Hill’s potential trade situation was debated, emphasizing his value if he remains with the Dolphins:

  "Tyreek Hill in the draft that we did yesterday went round two. The eighth pick of round two ahead of Drake London." ([09:13])

b. Worst Picks

• Sam LaPorta was considered a risky fourth-round pick due to dependency on touchdowns:

  "He could still be an absolute monster. That might be my worst pick. That one could be bad." ([29:23])

• Drake London received criticism for being a late-round take despite a standout Week 18 performance:

  "Whoever made this pick is one of the dumbest, ugliest men walking the face of the earth." ([36:05])

c. Notable Strategies

• Hero RB Approach: Both Jamie and Dave adopted a strategy focusing on securing top-tier running backs early in the draft.

  "I went with a variation of hero RB taking one running back with my first four picks." ([22:39])

• Wide Receiver Depth: Adam emphasized the depth and similarity of wide receivers, suggesting prioritizing consistent performers:

  "They really trended toward a run based system and that's impacted all of the receiving options." ([05:00])

5. Specific Team and Player Discussions

The hosts delve into specific team changes and player performances that could influence fantasy outcomes:

• Packers' Passing Game: Concerns about the Packers’ reliance on a run-heavy system and the impact of Watson’s injury on other receivers.

  "They really trended toward a run based system and that's impacted all of the receiving options." ([05:00])

• Seahawks' Offensive Line: The dismissal of Offensive Coordinator Ryan Grubb sparks discussions on Geno Smith’s future and the offensive strategy adjustments.

  "He didn't exactly request the trade, but let's see. Tyreek Kill in the draft that we did yesterday went round two." ([09:13])

6. Fantasy Cops Segment

A listener named Adam from Phoenix shares an issue regarding unpaid league dues:

• Issue: After winning three of four leagues, Adam discovers that this year's league had no dues collected, leaving him without a payout.

  "I was surprised and disappointed to hear from the commissioner shortly after winning that this year did not have dues..." ([61:14])

• Analysis: The hosts debate the fairness of retroactively removing dues without prior discussion, emphasizing the importance of clear communication within leagues.

  "If nothing was ever discussed and for years it's been the same buy in, how could the commissioner all of a sudden say, oh, yeah, we're doing it for free?" ([62:25])

7. Dynasty Questions

The episode also addresses listener questions related to dynasty leagues:

• Trade Decision: Kelly asks whether to trade Marvin Harrison Jr. and future picks for a strategy to rebuild around Jamar Chase.

  "Getting basically three first round picks... I think that's fair." ([66:09])

• Player Value: Discussion on Tyrone Tracy's value with the Giants retaining Brian Daboll:

  "He’s not at an age range where I'm worried. I still think if they get that offensive line right, he's going to be a star." ([67:08])

8. Conclusion

Wrapping up the episode, the hosts plan to publish a detailed mock draft article and tease upcoming segments, including a fantasy review of the movie Point Break. They encourage listeners to engage with ongoing content and stay tuned for future insights to dominate their fantasy leagues.

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Notable Quotes:

• "It's time to dominate your fantasy league." — Adam ([01:08])
• "He dives and he scores." — Jamie ([00:50])
• "I’ll start with the Jennings one." — Jamie ([07:00])
• "Did he get traded without a deal?" — Dave ([06:00])
• "You should not have to pay dues next year." — Jamie ([63:56])

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Key Takeaways:

• Early-round running back selections remain crucial, with strategies varying between filling RB slots versus securing wide receiver depth.
• Player injuries and team dynamics continue to play a significant role in draft strategies and weekly lineup decisions.
• Clear communication about league rules and dues is essential to maintain trust and fairness among league members.
• The depth and parity at wide receiver positions suggest that late-round strategies might hinge on consistent performers rather than breakout candidates.

Tune in to Fantasy Football Today for comprehensive coverage, expert analysis, and actionable insights to help you secure that coveted fantasy championship this season!

Transcript

[Adam]

Welcome to Nadia Yada Island.

[Dave]

Next on Nadia Yada Island.

[Jamie]

I knew I deserved so much more, so I left.

[Dave]

I finally switched to Metro and got what I was looking for. Get one line for only $25 a month with Autopay. Just bring your phone to Metro and experience all the data you want on the largest 5G network. That's nada. Yada yada. Only at Metro by T Mobile. First month is $30. Bring your number and ID offer. Not available if with T Mobile or with Metro in the past 180 days. NFL wild card weekend begins on CBS.

[Adam]

Saturday at 4:30 Eastern. Justin Herbert leads the Chargers into Houston to face CJ Stroud and the Texans.

[Dave]

Down the sideline leaping.

[Adam]

Then Sunday at 1 Eastern, the Broncos and rookie QB Bo Nicks meet Josh Allen and the Bills.

[Jamie]

He dives and he scores.

[Adam]

NFL wild card weekend Saturday and Sunday on CBS and streaming on Paramount. Plus, this is Fantasy football Today from CBS Sports.

[Jamie]

What a play.

[Dave]

Can you believe this?

[Jamie]

No, I can't.

[Adam]

It's time to dominate your fantasy league.

[Dave]

Off to the races and he stays on his feet. This is gonna go the distance.

[Adam]

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie and Heath.

[Dave]

And we welcome you to fantasy football today, another off season edition. Tomorrow we're gonna really get into the weekend games. Tell you who to play in dfs, all those fun things are we do a playoff challenge kind of office league. Jamie?

[Jamie]

Yeah, I'll set it up today since I don't do enough for you guys, so.

[Dave]

Sure we don't have to. I don't care. Just curious.

[Jamie]

Yeah, we'll do it.

[Dave]

All right. Welcome everybody. This is fantasy football Today presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas. All right, we have a lot of news to get to, including weekend news and hirings and fire. Well, why do I keep saying that? There's no hirings right now, just firings. Jamie, how's the off season treating you?

[Jamie]

I'll let you know when it starts. Writing a lot of stuff, so.

[Dave]

Okay.

[Jamie]

It, it's. It's good not to have the. The same in season commitments that are very, very enjoyable but also very taxing.

[Dave]

Yeah, I'm just gonna get right to it. I. I finished Lord of the Rings finally. So yesterday was all of them. Yeah, well, I started on the day after Thanksgiving, so it took me a month and a half to watch three movies and one of them I watched on a plane. So basically, you know, they had that blocked out that. But yeah, very good, very fun. I recommend it for you. You should you should get in on it. It's quite popular for a reason. But yeah, the third one was awesome. Super fun movie and now you're gonna glad I watched it.

[Jamie]

Continue with all the other spin offs.

[Dave]

I don't think so. I was watching the trailer for the Hobbit and I was like, you know What? I think 11 hours of this was enough. I think I'm good now.

[Jamie]

I did. I so right before the season started I started re watching the Sopranos again and I got through the first four seasons so I started with season five again. It's just so amazing.

[Dave]

Never seen it on the list. All right, let's, let's get to the news and notes. So Jalen Hurts is in the concussion protocol still. It's going to be either Kenny Pickett or Tanner McKee if Hertz can't play. But they're optimistic about Hertz playing Zay Flowers probably not gonna play and he's questionable with that knee injury. They play Saturday. The Eagles play Sunday. The only Monday game is Minnesota at the Rams, but Zay Flowers is questionable. Justice Hill is making progress toward a return. David Montgomery is expected to play next week. They're not playing this week. They have a buy. David Montgomery looks like he'll be back the week after that. And Terry and Arnold cornerback who got hurt in Week 18 for the Lions. He's day to day so he should be good. Mike Tomlin said he's open to using Justin Fields more this week at Baltimore. That game 8:00 on Saturday. And Christian Watson, let's talk about this. Christian Watson tore his ACL. That's just awful. A week 18 torn ACL. So obviously, you know, not going to expect him necessarily for week one. But, but just all the injuries that this guy's had. And what do you think the impact is for the packers passing game if.

[Jamie]

They don't add someone? I believe Romeo Dobbs and Watson were going into Year four and Reed is now going into Year three. Wicks is going Year three. Bull, Melton and Heath are guys that they like. Not Heath Cummings, but they probably like Heath. Look, Don Tavian Wicks has seen a spike in production typically when Watson has gone down. So he is somebody to put at the end of your draft depending on what the recovery is. He's, he's somebody that obviously gets a little bit of a bump in Dynasty and I think they all kind of do. But as we've seen with this team, they really trended toward a run based system and that's impacted all of the receiving options to the point where maybe just one guy being out helps the other guys with the minimal amount of attempts. If this is the norm for the packers moving forward.

[Dave]

Yeah. So we did a mock draft yesterday. That's what we're going to talk about today. And we will look at the best picks, the worst picks, and just kind of lay out the lay of the land on our first mock draft for 2025 with no rookies, by the way, no Austin, Ashton Genti or anything like that.

[Jamie]

But just speaking of the packers, you picked Romeo Dobbs, congratulated yourself in the draft. Yeah, it was a very awkward moment. And I believe Dan Schneier, who was not aware of what you were doing, started basically just talking to himself.

[Dave]

Yeah, it was a. The chat was kind of dead at that point. So I just like, let's. Let's mix things up. So I took Dobbs in the 10th round. Jaden Reed went in the sixth round, 12 team, three receiver, PPR league. I took Dobbs in the 10th round. And then I said, nice pick, Adam. And then I responded, yeah, I like the value there, something like that. But, you know, just trying to sneak something.

[Jamie]

But then Dan just kind of like, I think he's going to retire. And I was like, I don't know what's happening.

[Dave]

Dan's like, I'm going to try something. He said, wait, no, I think he's going to retire. Completely ignored my Romeo Dobbs joke. And then he drafted Rashad Bateman. Okay. Anyway, that's the Packers. The Chargers are signing Ezekiel Elliott to the practice squad. But more importantly, Josh Palmer missed practice. He may not play this week. Quentin Johnston, J.K. dobbins and Gus Edwards were limited in practice. You know, there were two performances in week 18, Jamie, that we didn't talk about that really jumped out. And one was Quentin Johnston just having this huge game. Let me just get the stats up. Quinton Johnston had 13 catches, 186 yards on 14 targets at the Raiders. And you know, you did have the Josh Palmer injury contributing, but that was huge. And then this one, like, isn't really going to matter. But I knew Juwan Jennings got ejected in the first half and then I looked at the stats and I saw he had 10 targets and I thought, did I miss? Did he not get ejected? Did he come back into the over? No. Hit 10 targets before getting ejected? It didn't really matter. But unbelievable, seven catches for 52 yards on 10 targets, less than a half.

[Jamie]

I'll start with the Jennings one. I said this going into the week they noted this on the broadcast when they lost to the Lions. Both Jennings and Joshua Dobbs played together at Tennessee, so there was two years where they overlapped. In college, he was kind of the go to guy on the final drive for Dobbs when he took over for Brock Purdy. And he also was 77 yards away from his first thousand yard season. So he didn't get it because he fell short with the ejection. But it felt like, okay, my college buddy's gonna help me get my first ever thousand yard season. So I'm sure that was part of it. In terms of Quentin Johnston, my God, this is, this is a big thing to keep an eye on because if he has another couple of strong performances in the playoffs, I would hope that instead of maybe spending a lot of money on T. Higgins, they devote that capital draft wise or, or, or you know, salary to maybe another tight end. And then you have, you know, your, your three receivers and Quentin Johnson being this type of player, if they bring in another guy, an elite level guy, I think lad McConkey is still fine, but I think Quentin Johnson gets crushed, you know.

[Dave]

So yeah, Johnson's had a pretty bad year. That's the thing. I don't want to make too much of week 18. He's, he.

[Jamie]

But this shows you what he can do.

[Dave]

I guess so. But like, where was this the first two seasons of his career? Basically, you know, obviously his best game, he drops balls, his catch rate, like his rates are bad. I don't know, I feel like, I feel like, you know, they would probably be happy to replace him as the number two guy.

[Jamie]

Good.

[Dave]

Number three for them, I would think. But you're right. I mean, I haven't been a dynasty league. I'm obviously intrigued. I hope this leads to something. I hope they play more than one game and we'll see. All right. And then. Yeah. All right, well, we'll get back to that some other time. We did not really talk about Tyreek Hill. So let's talk about Tyree Kill. And he met with Mike McDaniel for about an hour. Apparently they talked about you can't quit on the team. He didn't exactly request the trade, but let's see. Tyree Kill in the draft that we did yesterday went round two. The eighth pick of round two ahead of Drake London. Yeah. What do you think? Where should he have gone?

[Jamie]

Probably round three and obviously if you're concerned, round four. But that once we get the rookies in and free agency and all that stuff, it'll be interesting to See what happens if he's still on the Dolphins, you know, and that led to, you know, some discussion about when Jalen Waddle went round six. You know, oh, my God, I wish, you know, I had taken Waddle earlier. You know, a couple people commented on that, and Dave is the one who drafted him. He said, oh, this is the last time we'll see Jalen Waddle in round six. Obviously, if Tyree Kill is gone, Jalen Waddle's value increases exponentially. If Jalen Waddle, if Tyler Tyree Kill stays, then it's. Jalen Waddle will be an interesting draft pick because of where he finished in 2024. I think in terms of Tyree Kill, my guess would be is if the Dolphins do their due diligence, they're going to try and trade them if they can. If somebody's a taker, then, you know, to see what they can get for him. If not, he's such a big part of what this offense is. And if they're running back everything, which they are, because they're bringing back Chris Greer, they're Bringing back Mike McDaniel, they're most likely bringing back Tua. If he's healthy, then why would you, you know, rock the boat to that extent again unless he really wants out and you can get trade capital for it? So this is a story, I think, that's not done being told his, his message after the game. I don't know if you heard the entire thing or you just read the.

[Dave]

I saw the whole interview. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Yeah. So it was, it was a lot of rambling and then it just kind of was like, I'm out. And, you know, he's. He's known to troll on social media, you know, and does a really good job of it. And he's funny. The very next day, you know, he just opened a clothing store in Miami and he was like, hey, come on by, you know, and he's been at his store, you know, so I don't know what's going on there, to be honest. Yeah, I'd be. I'd be surprised if he's. If he's gone without a trade.

[Dave]

Yeah. Could have just been frustration, boiling point. And John O. Smith went in the 10th round of the draft. We did.

[Jamie]

That was a great pick.

[Dave]

So that was Dave. All right, more news. Michael Pittman played with a fractured back. And before we get to the firings, Cleveland linebacker Jeremiah. Jeremiah Wusu Caramoa had the neck injury that ended his season. Well, it could be a long term concern. They're Hoping that he'll be able to play in 2025. And Christian McCaffrey is nearly fully recovered from his knee injury. His Achilles is okay now, I guess, and he expects to be ready for OTAs. So what really stood out to you we had with, in terms of, you know, firings. We had Antonio Pierce of the Raiders. He's got fired, but they kept their GM Tom Telesco. Seattle fired off. What's that for now? For now. Okay. Seattle fired offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. They are sort of giving a vote of confidence to Geno Smith. I didn't realize Geno Smith has to be on the roster by, I don't know, March 18th or something like that to get those $6 million in incentives that he earned in week 18. But I think they're going to keep him. And you had The Colts and 49ers firing their defensive coordinators, but offensively it was really Ryan Grubb and I guess, you know, we'll get a new coaching staff in Las Vegas. Since the last time we spoke, I don't think I'm missing anything.

[Jamie]

No. A lot of interviews, obviously, you know, guys, you know, making the rounds, but the Pierce one was kind of expected. You know, I, I think a lot of people sort of looked at that one and said, okay, you know, interim head coaches don't usually have long tenures. And so, you know, the, the, the word coming out of Las Vegas was, you know, one of the guys that campaigned for him was Devonte Adams to keep the job. And so Adam's not being on the roster. Not a lot of veterans guy that. Just veterans there to speak up for Antonio Pierce, apparently. And Tom Brady coming in is gonna, you know, change some things as well. So that's why I say Telesco may not be the long term GM in as well.

[Dave]

And what do you think about the Seahawks offense with a new offensive coordinator? It's not like they had a bad offense. They were 18th in points per game, 14th in yards per play. Probably could have been a little bit better in the red zone. I have some, some fun stuff. So Geno Smith averaged the same amount of yards per attempt as Joe Burrow. That's wild. Burrow, though, threw 71, 74 more passes than Geno Smith. And then in the red zone, Geno smith overall was fourth in pass attempts, but he was 20th in red zone pass attempts. And like 18th and green zone pass, 17th and green zone pass attempts. So he just didn't throw where it mattered. And then like, just, just for a fun Joe Burrow stat. Joe Burrow had 71 pass attempts inside the 10 yard line. 71. No other player had more than 49. That's how you get a high touchdown rate. And so he had 71. And remember these guys like both top four and pass attempts overall, but Joe Burrow, 71 past attempts in the green zone. Geno Smith, 26. But yeah. Anyway, your thoughts on like JSN, DK, Metcalf, the run game things. They want to get the run game established a little bit more. What do you think?

[Jamie]

We got to see who it is. You know, I mean, clearly Ryan Grubb was great for jsn and we saw the breakout season that he had in year two. Now going into year three, could he be even better? My guess is Tyler Lockett is done. If, you know, you don't consider him done already. But, you know, who do they add as a third receiver? He's going to be 33 years old. Does the new offensive coordinator like the tight end as more of a weapon? You know, because I still think Noah Fant can do something in this league. You know, he just hasn't gotten the opportunities. But I mean, look, the offensive line, when they started to get healthy is when you started to see those big games from Zach Charbonnet. That was kind of when Ken Walker got hurt. And then they, you know, they fixed the center position after Connor Williams, I believe he retired, you know, so fixing the offensive line is going to be huge. Bringing back Gino and that decision is obviously gonna be huge. If they, you know, hit the reset button on that, then that changes some things. But I'm still going to be, you know, excited to draft jsn and Metcalf, I think will end up being a good value pick, which I thought he was in our draft as well.

[Dave]

So Smith and Jigba went in the third round. Yeah. And no third pick of the fourth round.

[Jamie]

Yes. I'm sorry. So I'll just, just when we get to it, I had the last pick of round one. I started with three receivers essentially, and I thought about taking JSN as a fourth, which we play Flex. So I was, you know, considering going. Not necessarily 0 RB, but for the most part that route.

[Dave]

Oh, but you did take Ken Walker ahead of jsn.

[Jamie]

Yeah, so I took a hero RB approach as opposed to zero rb.

[Dave]

Okay. And Metcalf, I took in the sixth round, ninth pick of the sixth round. He went in between. Like, I actually liked my Metcalf pick. It was Jaden Reed. Jaden Reed, DJ Moore, Debo Samuel, DK Metcalf, Romo Dunes.

[Jamie]

Yeah, it's great value.

[Dave]

Yeah. All right.

[Jamie]

Because you wonder how hurt he was at the end of the season.

[Dave]

Yeah. And even if he wasn't, I just feel like he'll be better. You know, I kind of feel like he's like a Devonte Smith kind of player. At worst, he's a 2, 3. At worst, probably like a wide receiver, 20 or so. Okay, let's. We're gonna take a break. I do have a question from the chat from Dan. What is your hot take on the best Lord of the Rings movie? So I'm gonna say the third one was the worst. The third one had the amazing battle. Amazing, but just very long. They were all long, but this one just felt a little long. So good movie. Really good. But the worst. I'm gonna. I'm say 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Dave, give me a thumbs up if you're ready to come on. I don't think Dave is ready to come on. Oh, he's ready. Okay. Hey, Dave.

[Adam]

What's up, guys? How would you rank the Lord of the Rings? My son is starting to watch those movies now.

[Dave]

How would you rank them?

[Adam]

I don't remember the order of how much I love them from movie to movie. I just know that I really like the whole series except for the very end. It felt like they put seven endings on.

[Dave]

Right? They just kept. Yeah, it was.

[Adam]

Yeah, I just kept going on and on and on.

[Dave]

Yeah, but. But good. All right, so My answer is 1, 2, 3. My other answer is sign up for BetMGM. If you haven't done that yet, use the bonus code fantasy and you're going to get up to a 1500 dollars first bet offer. On your first wager with BetMGM, just download the BetMGM app and sign up using the using that bonus code Fantasy. Deposit at least $10. Place your first wager on any game and you're going to 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. More from Dave after this on fft.

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[Jamie]

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[Dave]

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[Adam]

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[Dave]

Okay. And welcome back. So, yeah, Saturday's a big day on cbs. We got both games. Well, I thought we did. Anyway, it's now I'm seeing. That one's on Prime.

[Adam]

No one's on Prime.

[Dave]

Okay, well, we have the Chargers Texans game. We also have the Denver Buffalo game, so that's cool. Chargers, Texans on Saturday, Steelers, Ravens on Saturday night. Denver, Buffalo, Green Bay, Philadelphia, Washington, Tampa Bay on Sunday, and Minnesota at the Rams on Monday night. All right, Dave, welcome to the show.

[Adam]

Hi.

[Dave]

Let's talk about the mock draft that we did yesterday. And so it was 12 teams, three receivers and a flex, full PPR, no DSTs, no kickers, and we rent. We went how many rounds? 14 rounds. So I had the fourth pick. He said the first pick. I had the fourth pick. Dave. 10th. Jamie. 12th. What were your overall impressions, Jamie, of the draft in terms of, I don't know, position scarcity or strategies you might want to employ? How does the draft board look to you on when we did this on January 7, 2025?

[Jamie]

I mean, so much is going to change. Clearly, the first round was interesting. We'll get into that. Obviously how where a couple of those running backs went in. Run one, the, the way that the quarterbacks were drafted, I think is still telling of, you know, people either going in early or waiting on, you know, the position. And, and some of the values that we saw at the back end of the draft of where guys like Kyler Murray and Sam Darnold and Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, Sam, you know, those, those kind of guys went really, it's, it's, you know, very similar to how the drafts went in in August, to be honest. You know, it was like the heavy, heavy emphasis on receivers early, you know, kind of picking your spots of the running backs. And then when I think people sort of, you know, started getting a little bit running back needy right around round seven and eight, you know, you saw people, I think, getting some good, you know, value picks, depending on how some of these guys, you know, bounce back after disappointing season.

[Dave]

And how did you feel about the draft, Dave? What stood out to You, I think.

[Adam]

That if, first of all, I don't think this is going to be anywhere close to indicative of how drafts are going to become August, because I mean, hell, free agency hasn't happened yet. The draft hasn't happened yet. But let's just say that I think there is going to be just an enormous, larger than ever glut of wide receivers that we are going to view as anywhere from like middle of the pack number twos to low end number threes. And you know, like Heath always like talks about how close players are in his projections and they're like a tenth of a point away from each other. Like that's how it's going to be. Like we're gonna really split some hairs trying to figure out which receivers we really like better than other receivers. Once you get to like receiver 18, 20, they all kind of look the same. And, and I felt like that was even the case now in this draft before any rookies were involved. And, and so what that, when, when I saw that before the draft, that made me really want to prioritize getting as many of the big time wide receivers as I could and then just kind of like load up on running backs. And I guess you could say I did a variation of hero RB taking one running back with, with my first four picks, two running backs with my first like six, seven picks. I don't remember exactly what it was. And then just loading up with a bunch of other running backs down the stretch and not really even giving a damn about wide receiver much and just hoping that with all these running backs that I pick up, I'm holding it like, I don't know what I'm holding like a giant jar of peanut butter, but I'm hoping that there's at least a couple of good running backs in that jar of peanut butter that I drafted.

[Dave]

Well, you say he didn't give a damn about wide receiver you met in the later parts of the draft because.

[Adam]

Right, right. Because if I'm going to spend, if I'm going to spend early draft capital on wide rece, I don't really intend on benching those guys and I'll cross my fingers that they stay healthy. Easy for me to say. One of my guys was Puka Naku. I think I took Puka in round one.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

So he, he certainly did not last the season. He got hurt in week one and all that stuff. So yeah, that's obviously part of the risk of being like chasing wide receivers early on and then not really trying to back it up with Quality depth along the way. But this is a three receiver, one flex league, as are all the leagues that Jamie prefers for us to mock. And so getting four good wide receivers with my first, I don't know how many picks it was. Five picks, something like that. Yeah, I, I think I can withstand one injury and still find another wide receiver either in the draft late or off free agency to help me fill that spot.

[Dave]

Well, Jamie and I definitely went hero RB. Jamie took his first running back at 37th overall, first pick of round four and not another running back until round eight. I took a running back in the third round, Chase Brown. So that would be 28th overall and not another running back until round seven. One of the things that really jumped out to me, well, first of all, little surprised that There were only 10 running backs taken in the first two rounds because, you know, a few years ago that was usually like 14, 15 I think. And then the last couple years it's been more like 11. So we took 10 in the first round, but then we had a run of three running backs in the first four picks of round three. So that's 14 running backs in the first 28 picks. And it was a really good year for running backs. So I'm not surprised. Now tight ends, I think that's something that jumped out to me is that I, I feel like I should have taken Bowers or McBride in the second round. I took Drake London instead and Bowers was the next pick and I thought that probably would have been a better pick. Kind of feels to me guys like you can get a big, big edge on the competition with Bowers or McBride. I kind, I feel like when I did my top 25 J. Madison with top 25, I feel like they were kind of early round two guys for me and I didn't take them even late in round two, so probably should have done that. But you know, you don't have to always draft based on your rankings. Your thoughts on, on tight end Jamie.

[Jamie]

I thought it was great value for both those guys like you said. And, and I was kind of thrilled to get George Kittle in, in round six. And I think Dave's pick of Johnny SMITH in round 10, you know, those are the kind of the, the four that stood out to me just based on where they were selected. Mark Andrews, also around seven is pretty good too, you know, so when you're getting one of these, you know, and clearly we got to see what happens with Kelsey, so he's also not bad value in round seven. You're taking a Chance on what he still could be. Yeah, it's, it's, it's. As we've seen, whenever you get one of these guys that could be difference makers, it really sets your team apart. And so you start to look at, you know, in round two, like, Mike Evans went too soon for me. Derek Henry a little bit too soon. Tyree Kill way too soon. I would have taken Bowers over all those guys.

[Dave]

All right, so Bowers went with the 10th pick of round two and Trey McBride went with the last pick of round two. So.

[Adam]

Hey, Adam, what do you think you were saying about laporta and Kelsey and the other tight ends that were quick to go off the board? Like, I, I wish we had last year's first PPR mock.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Around. Because I wonder if you said the exact same thing about those tight ends.

[Dave]

So I was out on laporta, but totally in on Kelsey until right before the draft. I kind of changed my mind on Kelsey originally. I think this time of year I had Kelsey as maybe a first or a sec early.

[Jamie]

Oh, you had an early August as a first round pick.

[Dave]

Yeah. Or maybe early second. But I'll take your word for it. I thankfully changed my mind on that. But I feel more confident in Bowers and McBride than I did about LaPorta. A year. You know, this time you go like, they just had better years. Laporta was very touchdown dependent. Not, not entirely, but they, you know this. I love the catches, the yards. I don't have it off top of my head, but I feel like Bowers, many, many more catches than laporta obviously set a rookie record.

[Adam]

Yeah, right.

[Dave]

More yards, less Reliant. Yes.

[Jamie]

He has the, he has the tight end record, I believe, already for. Or no, he didn't. Did he catch Ertz in yards? He's pretty close. And he was certainly the most receiving yards for a rookie tight end ever. And he set the record for most receptions from any rookie.

[Dave]

Yeah, they had 111, 112 catches, Bowers and McBride last year, Laporta had 86 for 889 yards. So I feel better about that. Do you guys feel better compared to last year about McBride and Bowers than you do about LaPorta and McBride is.

[Jamie]

Kind of the same player that he was to close last season. I mean, you know, you go from week six on, when they got rid of Zach Ertz, like he was just an absolute monster. The thing that didn't change was the touchdowns. He had three touchdowns in the 2023 campaign. He had three total touchdowns in 2024, one of those was rushing. So that's the, the biggest thing that he has to overcome. But, yes, he's going to be a PPR monster. He's going to be in the conversation for most receptions at the position. The uncertainty with Bowers is what do they do at receiver? Because they're going to have to add somebody else, and then what's the quarterback and who's the coach, you know, So I don't think anybody taking that job is going to say we're not going to feature him. But there is a potential change coming. And obviously Bowers really took off when Devonte Adams was released or traded. Excuse me. And you saw what the potential is. You know, our colleague Pete Briscoe's been doing this a long time. He said he's the best receiving tight end in the NFL right now. You know, and that's pretty telling that he's got that much upside. And we kind of knew that he had that potential going into the draft. He fulfilled it leaps and by leaps and bounds, you know, so there's a lot to love about his upside, but there could be, you know, they, let's say they, they sign T. Higgins and they go out and they don't fix the quarterback position to the expectations that we have for it, you know, so crappy quarterback with another guy, commanding targets. Then he might get overdrafted a little bit. Still going to be a top five tight end, but, you know, it might get overdrafted a little bit. I, I just think the, the, the upside is worth taking a chance on in round two. And, and I shouldn't have glossed over your pick of Sam Laporte and Ralph4, because he could still be an absolute monster. As we saw, you know, he closed the season looking like that guy that we saw as a rookie.

[Dave]

Yeah, I took him at the tenth pick of round four. The ninth pick of round four. Pardon me. And, yeah, I like the pad and love the pick, but. Good enough. I. He's the guy, like, he's not going to have the catches of the yards, but he is going to score touchdowns and be a solid tight end. That might be my worst pick. That one could be bad.

[Jamie]

I kind of went through just, you know, in writing the recap for this, you know, some of the values that I liked, I only got through the first six rounds, but the values that I like and the values I didn't like in laporta was borderline on the. Don't really love it.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

Comparatively to what you, what you started your team with.

[Dave]

All right, so we can, why don't we just go through the first few rounds and see what it looked like here? First round was Chase Barkley, Bijan Jefferson, Jameer Gibbs, Amon Ross, St. Brown. That's your top six. Remember, this is three receivers, full ppr. Chase Barkley, Bijan Jefferson, Gibbs, Amon Ross, St. Brown. Is Gibbs overdrafted there considering he is so much worse? Still very good. But so not even like should not be a top five pick based on his points per game with David Montgomery.

[Adam]

He either should be picked number one overall because David Montgomery is no longer on the Lions and everything's going to fall in Jameer Gibbs breadbasket or he should be picked a few spots later because Montgomery will be back in Detroit and they'll be splitting like they did each of the past two seasons. He's still awesome. You should still pencil him in for, I don't know, 17, 18 PPR points per game. I think he was averaging around 18 with Montgomery until Montgomery got hurt. And so if that's the case, he's no question the first round pick and probably worth starting to eyeball once you get to sixth overall, which is one spot ahead of where he actually went in this draft. There's just some other players, especially in a full PPR format and especially with three receivers, guys that have 20 PPR point per game potential that I'd take ahead of them. It's puka, it's neighbors. Those are the types of guys. And then this is what I'm talking about with splitting hairs trying to figure out, you know, these guys are all great. I'd love to have them all on my team. Well, how do you kind of set an order on those guys? That's one of the things I'm going to look for is who's got the best chance to consistently deliver 20 plus PPR points per game. And I think the receivers just by nature compared to a running back who's still going to lose some work to another guy, just make more sense going ahead of Gibbs.

[Jamie]

It's probably just, you know, how you want to start your team because he's the next running back that should come off the board.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

And so if you're going to go running back with your first pick, this is the spot where you're going to start to see him. So it's, you know, he's, he's a top seven overall pick. For me, he would be seventh, but he's the, he's the third running back.

[Dave]

All right, so then after that top six of Chase, Barkley, Bijon, Jefferson, Gibbs, St. Brown. It's McCaffrey seven, Achan eight, Lamb, Nikua, Bucky Irving sneaking into the first round. And then Jamie had the 12th pick, by the way. Dave took Nakua 10, then Bucky Irving. Then Jamie had the 12th pick. He went with Malik Neighbors and Nico Collins. So he goes wide receiver. Wide receiver. Mike Evans is the next pick. And then Brian Thomas Jr. So what do we think about Team 11 there?

[Adam]

He was so distraught after the draft. This is one of our CBS Sports hq. A producer Jamie and a production staff. Production staff member. Austin, he was, he was really like down about it. When I ran into him later that day, he was like, I took two bucks. I really shouldn't have done that, should I? And. And I said, it can work out. And there were plenty of games where Bucky broke out and Mike Evans had some big games too. But I passed on Kyron Williams after taking Puka in round one specifically because I didn't want to have two guys on the same team with my first two picks. I even like the clock sticking down in the draft room. And I just, I went to just double check how often did those two guys, Nakua and Karen Williams, each get over 15 PPR points in the same. It was four games out of like 11 that they played together. It might have been a little bit less, fewer than 11, but I, I stayed away from it and I didn't want to double up on, on the Rams knowing that that's kind of a. It's going to be rare when both of those guys go off. And so that's why I didn't do what Austin did by taking Mike Evans. He should not have taken Evans A. Because Evans early round two, it's just too soon for him. But it also guy on the same team as Bucky Irving. I would have rather had almost any other. Literally any other wide receiver except maybe Tyree Kill for now in that spot. So Brian Thomas Jr. A.J. brown, Drake, London. Yeah, they should all be ahead of Mike Evans.

[Dave]

All right, so. So after Mike Evans was Brian Thomas Jr. I'm gonna say the pick and you tell me if these were good picks in round two. Brian Thomas Jr. Amazing, phenomenal pick.

[Adam]

Whoever made that pick is like one of the smartest, most handsome men on the planet.

[Dave]

Very handsome. That's Dave's pick.

[Jamie]

I was, I was really torn because to have neighbors Collins and Thomas all staring me in, in the face in the, in the draft room. I was like, oh, I'm gonna, I'm Gonna make the wrong choice here, but I went with the two I had the highest rank.

[Dave]

Derrick Henry, fourth pick of round two.

[Jamie]

It's fine.

[Adam]

Yeah, it's fine.

[Dave]

It's funny, I don't think any of us want to do it right. Like we're all just.

[Adam]

He might have been the. Like, if Austin had taken BTJ instead of Evans, I might have taken Henry there. I might.

[Jamie]

What he should have done was taken one of those receivers instead of Irving.

[Adam]

No, because then you would have taken Irving.

[Jamie]

I would not take Interview.

[Adam]

Okay. I, I wonder if he took Irving because he figured, well, a receiver that I really like is going to fall back to me.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Jamie]

I mean, again, there's nothing wrong with it. I just wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have taken irving in the first round.

[Dave]

Okay. After Henry, A.J. brown, solid pick.

[Adam]

Yep.

[Dave]

James Cook, fine.

[Adam]

If I'm gonna be totally critical, I kind of think he should go a little bit later in round two. But if you really like James Cook, this is totally fine. To take him in the middle of round two.

[Dave]

Jonathan Taylor, fine.

[Adam]

Same thing as Cook. Should be late round two, maybe even early round three. Just doesn't catch passes.

[Dave]

Tyreek Hill too soon.

[Adam]

I. If, if he ends up in a situation where he's happy and the quarterback is going to target him 10 times per game, then this is too late. I don't know if that's going to happen.

[Jamie]

Yeah, I don't know if he's leaving Miami right now.

[Adam]

Yeah, I don't know if he's leaving Miami either. But Miami could always try and retailer their offense to appease Tyree Kill, which probably will work out for them if they do.

[Dave]

Drake London, horrible pick.

[Adam]

Whoever made this pick is one of the dumbest, ugliest men walking the face of the earth.

[Jamie]

You and Dan were fighting over this and it's funny because Dave, you said you wouldn't even take him in the first three rounds.

[Adam]

Yeah, I'm. I'm walking that one back.

[Dave]

Okay, well, look, I don't want to make too much of Week 18. Week 18 was amazing for Drake London. He caught two touchdowns, but he faced the Panthers and he did it without Darnell Mooney. But I just feel like London was something like wide receiver, 15 per game. And I just feel like his connection with Penix will be better than his connection with Cousins. Seems like they've started something there. So I went with London. I originally didn't even have him as a top 12 wide receiver. And then I took drafted him. I said, jamie, I got to rewrite my top 12 wide receivers.

[Adam]

Right.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

Like you and I were on this line of thinking of, well, maybe Drake London's good but not great. And you know something, especially in full ppr, maybe he can be pretty great.

[Dave]

I still feel that way. I don't think he's, you know, I don't think he's gonna ever be Chase Jefferson Tyreeks, like, I don't know he's gonna be CD Lamb, but just target volume, end zone targets. I think I could definitely be a second round guy. All right, Brock Bowers we like Trey McBride we like as the last pick of round two, right in between those Breeze Hall.

[Jamie]

It's fine.

[Adam]

Yep. This is the range where I'm thinking for Cook and Jonathan Taylor anyway. And Breeze absolutely belongs in this range, if not ahead of those guys.

[Dave]

Before we go to break and talk about some other picks, I just wanted to say the one one pick that really stands out in this draft is A.J. brown with the fifth pick of round two. I. How much has really changed for A.J. brown? Why shouldn't he still be around one pick?

[Jamie]

Oh, he's definitely in the conversation. You know, when we talked about the, the top 12 overall, you know, I, for me, it's that group of wide receivers after Puka and Saint Brown where, you know, it's, it's neighbors and Nico and Thomas and A.J. brown and C.D. lamb. And A.J. brown's right there. So I would have taken him over Evans, I would take him over Derrick Henry, I would take him over Bucky Irving, for example. So if you, if you have the belief that he's, you know, safer than the second year guys now, the neighbors and Thomas, then you have to stake him. If you feel like he's safer than CD Lamb, he should absolutely be in that range. So yeah, he's, he's, he's definitely a first round caliber player, but I would probably put him early second round, 7.5.

[Adam]

Targets per game this year.

[Dave]

Yeah.

[Adam]

When you compare that to other wide receivers that are taken ahead of him and even behind him, that seems a little light. It seems a little low. And so what I would say what's changed is that other receivers have evolved into high volume pass catchers and those guys are going to be favored over AJ Brown, who's awesome, but eight targets per game, max.

[Dave]

Yeah. Now that is what happened. I mean, Jalen hurts just stopped throwing after their buy. Remember I talked about it all the time and it certainly hurt AJ Brown and how much.

[Jamie]

We know he battled the knee injury early in the season. Then got a little bit dinged up again throughout the middle of the year. You know, was he 100% healthy?

[Dave]

Okay, let's take a break and we'll go through a couple more rounds and go through our teams. And by the way, I should have mentioned this earlier. If you want to see see the draft as soon as the story is published, I'll put a link in the episode description. But also you can go to YouTube.com fantasy football today and just watch this live stream. And throughout our discussion we have the draft board up YouTube.com fantasy football today. Oh please vote sportspodcastgroup.com we have less than a week left. Please sportspodcastgroup.com click vote now. Best Fantasy Betting and gaming category Voter Fantasy Football today. Tell your friends we'll be right back on fft now streaming on Paramount plus what's your job?

[Adam]

When people go missing, I get hired to help find them. Catch up now on Tracker. I'm here to help the CBS original series that critics are calling a breakout hit. Nothing good comes without risks.

[Jamie]

I will drink to that.

[Adam]

Justin Hartley stars.

[Jamie]

Hold on, did you say Arrow Run? That's a new one.

[Adam]

Coulter in the CBS Original Tracker. Catch up on the latest episodes now on Paramount.

[Jamie]

Paramount brings you an exclusive all access window into the life of America's biggest.

[Dave]

Soccer star with its brand new docuseries.

[Jamie]

Pulisic go behind the scenes both on.

[Dave]

And off the pitch as American captain.

[Jamie]

Christian Pulisic navigates his stellar season abroad with AC Milan, leads the U.S. men's national team internationally and prepares for the 2026 World cup on home soil. Catch the the all new Paramount plus original docu series Pulisic presented by Michelob Ultra. Featuring soccer legends Clint Dempsey, Weston McKinney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Jurgen Klopp and more. Streaming now on Paramount plus sign up at ParamountPlus.com today.

[Dave]

Okay, let's go to round three. Same, same drill here. Rounds three and four. You just tell me are these good picks? Kyron Williams excellent.

[Adam]

Great pick.

[Jamie]

Lamar Jackson means range of quarterbacks are going to go. I think so. Yes.

[Adam]

It's fine around 3. Pick on Lamar Jackson is totally reasonable.

[Dave]

Josh Jacobs steel. Yep, that's who I was hoping to get but he did not get to me one pick later.

[Jamie]

I took Chase Brown like it a lot right now.

[Dave]

Yeah, he's got first round potential to see what the situation is. He obviously played that that well. Jaden Daniels as QB2.

[Adam]

If you're going to take Lamar in round three, this is pretty much the same range that Jayden Daniels is going to go in.

[Jamie]

Should not be the second quarterback drafted and was too soon.

[Adam]

I agree with that as well.

[Dave]

Now, was he too soon as in where he went in the draft or too soon because he was QB2? Right.

[Jamie]

It was gonna be because he was QB2 and I would probably see him. I'd prefer to see him in round four.

[Adam]

Right. Like Josh Allen should absolutely go ahead of Jane Daniels and this is where, you know, so what you could say that Josh Allen should have gone here and Jaden Daniels could have gone anywhere from like one to ten picks later. He wouldn't bat an eyelash.

[Dave]

All right, so that's Jaden Daniels going with the fifth pick of round three. Josh Allen went about a round later. Garrett Wilson, a little too soon.

[Jamie]

But this is where he should start to compete.

[Adam]

I agree. Especially if wholesale changes across the jets impact both Rogers and Devonte Adams. Well, G Dub is back to being the number one white out there. Another guy with double digit targets per game.

[Dave]

Okay, how about Terry McLaurin next?

[Adam]

So solid, if not a tad too soon. Here's gonna be tough for him to replicate last year.

[Dave]

Here's an interesting one. Chuba Hubbard.

[Adam]

Yeah, I felt like this was too soon.

[Jamie]

I think it's. It's certainly the right spot in terms of the running backs who went ahead of him. Like he's behind that group of Kyron and Jacobs and Brown. I like him better than Kamara and Dobbins and Walker. So I have no problem with this.

[Adam]

I think, I think he's gonna be close to that group. But I wonder if he'll be the guy that we keep pushing down as other running backs start to stand out.

[Jamie]

T. Higgins, as of now, excellent value.

[Adam]

Agreed.

[Dave]

Alvin Camara, what a pick.

[Adam]

Phenomenal.

[Dave]

Handsome.

[Jamie]

Too soon.

[Adam]

Whoever made that Alvin Camara pick, like just a charitable human being, modest as well. And yes, probably a little bit too soon. I took him, obviously. And I just, I didn't want to miss out on having one quality running back. I'm looking at the draft board. Austin took one running back with his first two picks. Jamie took zero. So I thought for sure that Jamie would take a running back with one of his next two picks. So I just took the guy that I thought was best available and I thought that that was Camaro who had a good year in PPR without scoring a lot of touchdowns.

[Dave]

It's very funny. This is the part of the draft last year where we were saying you got these three running backs, Camara, Ken Walker and Joe Mixon. And they're still one year later or four months later. They're still available at this point in the draft. This is what, 36? Five.

[Jamie]

Okamara's ADP was around five.

[Dave]

Yeah. So he's 34th. Yeah. But Camara, I think, was moving up a little bit, but all of them were there. Camara is the first to go, so he goes 3.10. J.K. dobbins is the next pick. I didn't like this one.

[Jamie]

It's very polarizing. I mean, look, if he comes back as the lead guy, clearly you saw the upside, but it feels like they're going to add somebody else. He's also free agent, so we'll see what they do.

[Dave]

And Rashid Rice to Jamie. That's an interesting one. Rashi Rice.

[Jamie]

Oh, I was just, you know, I liked it. Please let him fall. Please let him fall. Please let him fall. Like, he's around two pick to me.

[Adam]

Definitely thought about taking him instead of Camara. If there were a lot of running backs that I liked when. When I was up in round three, Rice would have been my pick.

[Jamie]

Yeah, see, that's the. The strategy I like to avoid. Like, I'm taking the best player. You still have to. They're still starters.

[Dave]

All right, so it was an LCL injury and a hamstring injury. I don't know. I just. I think about Tony Pollard two years ago. I think about Tank Dell this year. These are serious injuries, these guys. I think about Chris Godwin. I don't know how. How this injury compares, but I do get concerned about.

[Adam]

Godwin just dislocated his ankle. That wasn't.

[Dave]

No, no, I'm sorry. The. The torn ACL from Godwin a few years ago.

[Adam]

Oh, in 21. Yeah, sure, right.

[Dave]

Like, none of these guys are like, oh, yeah, get these injured guy. And they all disappointed, but those are the only three that come to mind. But obviously, that's what we got to think about with Rashid.

[Adam]

I mean, Jamie, you tell us, how much were you thinking about that injury when you took Rice?

[Jamie]

I mean, it. It baked into where he's falling. I mean, if he was healthy, this is a guy that averaged 21 PPR points per game in his first three games that he was healthy and was coming off an amazing rookie season. So if he's healthy, and I'm sure the Chiefs are hoping that he's healthy, I mean, you know, they clearly have developed Xavier Worthy with what he's done the last three weeks, and we'll see what they do with the rest of their receiving core whether you know, bringing back Marquis Brown or Hopkins or clearly Travis Kelsey. And we see a complete difference in this offense. I mean, the Mahomes looks like Mahomes again because they got speed and you know, Ray Rice, Rashi Rice is a big part of that, you know, so having him back, I still think he's got the most upside of that receiving core. And I was thrilled to make him my number three receiver on this team.

[Adam]

How far behind, if at all, is he from Nico Collins? If he's totally back, no restrictions, looks like the same old guy.

[Jamie]

So I would say if we find out that he's 100% training camp, no issues looking at the draft board. So he's behind neighbors, he's behind Nico Collins, he's behind Brian Thomas Jr. He's behind A.J. brown, and there's Rashi Rice.

[Dave]

I think my only issue is if he's 100% back to full health, full go in training camp, it doesn't actually mean he's a hundred percent. That. That's the trick that's been played on us where these guys, they are fully healthy, but they're not who they were.

[Jamie]

Okay, so it's certainly a fair question to ask. Is he going to be back to the form that he had before he got hurt? But I think just in terms of the guys that you brought up, Godwin was an acl, so a little bit different.

[Dave]

I have info on his injury if you wanted here. I'm just reading now. So no structural damage to the acl. It was actually an LCL surgery. It doesn't seem as bad, but go ahead.

[Jamie]

Well, in terms of, you know, just comparing it. So Godwin is. Is probably comparable if you're talking about just injury risk. Tank Dell is a different type of player and Tony Pollard's a different position. So the. The comment that you just put up is probably a little bit more concerning, I think, than the injury recovery, which is. Could he still get suspended? Well, he hasn't had the court case yet, as far as I know, so I don't think the NFL, if they were going to suspend him, will not. Will probably wait until there is some legal ramifications as opposed to just conduct detrimental to Bleak.

[Dave]

Okay. All right. So that's for sure. Rice, last pick of round three. We'll go quickly on round four here. Ken Walker to Jamie.

[Jamie]

I was thrilled to have it. Yeah.

[Adam]

Yeah. I felt like it was a little too soon.

[Dave]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Adam]

Probably the way that Jamie feels about Camara is how I feel about Walker.

[Dave]

Yeah. Like, why didn't you guys take mixing? Because that, like, I had just forgotten about. I missed mixing. This happens in these drafts, so we don't have updated rankings or anything. We're using last year's draft rankings. So I don't know why I miss mixing in my fourth round pick, but I definitely would have taken him ahead of J.K. dobbins and Ken Walker.

[Jamie]

Yeah, again, I'm just, you know, I guess the ageist in me is still going to be there, but, you know, he'll be 29 now and certainly did not finish this, even playing the way that he was earlier in the year. And how much of that is a byproduct of, you know, father time catching up to him and the concerns that we had early in the year. How much of it was the offense just falling apart? Do they add somebody else? Yeah, I'm. I'm most likely out on mixing.

[Adam]

So if you were looking at a younger running back, what made you go with Walker over somebody like Pacheco? And it could be just as simple as the receptions. I don't know. But I. I think those two will get drafted near each other. I wonder if. If the off season is kind to Tyrone Tracy. How far apart will he be from them? Definitely behind them, Tracy, but kind of curious why you didn't want to go in that direction instead of going with Walker.

[Jamie]

Walker, when healthy, was a superstar, you know, and at the beginning of the season, he was an absolute monster. And I think when the offensive line started to fall apart, which is probably why Ryan Grubb is not, you know, still employed, I still think he has that potential. So I like the situation for him. I'm still, you know, counting on him to be the featured guy there, you know, despite what Charbonnet did at the end of the season, the minute that Walker came back, it was his job and he was the feature guy. So I still think he has the upside that I. That I liked for him going into last year as a breakout candidate and a top 10 running back, a top 12 running back, nothing to me really has. Has changed dramatically for him. He's not at an age range where I'm worried. I still think if they get that offensive line right, he's going to be a star.

[Adam]

I'm worried that Charbonnet has shown enough now to where they could split them even more than they have previously. And I mean, everything's up in the air now because they're going to replace offensive coordinators again. Second year in a row that they're doing it. We don't know how the new OC is going to feel about these guys, but I almost wonder if they're going to be a little nervous about putting too much on Ken Walker's plate after he got off to a great start and then struggled. Maybe because of workload, maybe because of other things. Could be the offensive line, but Charbonnet definitely showed out when given the opportunity.

[Dave]

Yeah, I'm kind of over Ken Walker right now. I mean, you ask could they bring someone in in Houston? I mean, they've already got someone in Seattle that like Dave said, maybe earns a bigger role. I, I do think the offensive line is a key there. Right. Like, just we talked about, we talked about the Seahawks a lot on beyond the Box Score and I watched a lot of Seahawks and, and then you just see it in like the PFF grades and the ESPN offensive line metrics. Their offensive line stunk and it did no favors for Ken Walker. But I'm just. This whole strategy of trying to get an 80 yard touchdown on every play, even when you're at the 30, you know, like, it's just, it's driving me crazy. He has so many negative runs or zero yard runs. And I'm sorry, I just, I just don't think the production's been good enough the last two years. All right, so difference of opinion there on Ken Walker lad McConkey in round four.

[Adam]

Loved it.

[Jamie]

So that was the. I mentioned JSN. Those were the two guys I considered in terms of just punting running back altogether. And again, you know, starting spots are starting spots. Whether you're talking about I gotta fill two running by spots or my third receiver or my flex spot, they all count the same. So to me, you know that that's the type of player that if you want to completely punt on running back would have been a, a great option. But both those receivers, and as of.

[Adam]

Now, we have no idea. I mean, maybe we can come up with an idea of what the running back landscape will be on draft day come August. In this draft, man, like it just felt like you were grasping at straws. There was going to come a point where you're grasping at straws at running back. And, and some might say that like as soon as Camaro went off the board, that was the first straw being grasped at.

[Dave]

I didn't feel that way because I still feel like Pacheco was great value and mixed for sure.

[Adam]

And then of course you're like crazy about Joe Mixon, but crazy about him.

[Dave]

He's. He went, he went in the first pick of round five and 49th overall.

[Adam]

Yeah. You're so crazy about him that you pass on him four times. So I, I'm thinking. I'm thinking that once the dance card is full at running back and we have a better idea of who the. The Chuba Hubbards and Rico Dowdles and chase Browns of 2025 will be, that's when I'll be much more in line with. Yeah, just take best player available early on. And McConkey absolutely is one of those guys who should be a top 40. He should honestly probably be closer to a top 4030 pick if things stay the way they are in LA.

[Dave]

All right, so let's go a little faster here. We'll just finish up then we'll talk about our teams and other things where, you know, I want to talk about when do the reaches start happening at running back? Because it still feels pretty good for the most part. Jsn third pick around.

[Adam]

Are we grading picks?

[Dave]

Yeah, no. Just. Is it good in round four?

[Jamie]

Yes.

[Adam]

Awesome. In round four. Whoever took that guy.

[Jamie]

Unless the coordinator comes in and just, you know, changes everything.

[Adam]

Right. But DK Metcalf is a cap casualty candidate. The one guy we know for sure who's going to be around and the guy who stepped up.

[Dave]

We're going faster. All right, here we go. Josh Allen.

[Jamie]

Josh Allen was born say flowers a little too soon.

[Adam]

I agree.

[Dave]

Isaiah Pacheco, good value.

[Adam]

Just right if not too late.

[Dave]

I mean, I don't really see why he should. What's different about Pacheco this year? There's no reason why he couldn't be.

[Adam]

He could be do what the Seahawks might do.

[Dave]

Oh, and with that bum Kareem Hunt. Come on.

[Adam]

No, they get a different bum.

[Dave]

Maybe I could see. I just could see Pacheco ending up in the second round. If the circumstances are right. If he's like the clear cut guy.

[Adam]

I don't think Dream Hunt even got drafted in our mock.

[Dave]

Marvin Harrison Jr.

[Jamie]

It's not a bad flyer as a third receiver for this team and he was. I think it's wide receiver 20 or 21 off the board. There's still too much upside to ignore. Despite the fact that he had a bad rookie season. Like you shouldn't write him off because he didn't have a neighbors or Thomas type year. Like I don't mind it here.

[Dave]

I definitely think you're. It's a good call. It is. Wide receiver 20. I think we're starting to see a change at the position. Like you have Garrett Wilson Terry McClure and T. Higgins. Then you have Rasheed Rice, Lad McConkey, JSN. You know, somewhat question marks, but you know, but then you get to Zay flowers, Marvin Harrison Jr. Our next pick is Jameson Williams. The wide receiver position is changing here as we get to wide receiver 20 just.

[Adam]

You mean we're dropping off a tier?

[Dave]

I think so. Yeah.

[Adam]

I agree.

[Dave]

So, and you're getting to the point where the order could just be anything, right? I mean, it's personal preference.

[Adam]

Yeah, they all kind of look the same once you get to this point.

[Dave]

So I'll just read the names and we'll finish up. Jameson Williams, then Sam LaPorta. Which question will pick by me? Jordan Addison, George Pickens, Jalen Hurts. That's the top 48 right there. All right, let's go through our teams. We'll just go in order. I had the fourth pick, three receivers. So Justin Jefferson and Drake London were my first two picks. Chase Brown. I, I wanted to have a great quarterback and a top tier tight end, not necessarily like tier one. So I went with Laporta in round four and Joe Burrow in round five. I'll just give you my starting lineup. Okay, Burrow at quarterback, laporta at tight end, Chase Brown and Aaron Jones, who is my seventh round pick at running back. Jefferson, London, DK Metcalf. My flex right now is Jalen McMillan.

[Adam]

Why?

[Dave]

Oi if Godwin's back, I don't know if I like the McMillan.

[Adam]

I don't think Godwin will be back.

[Dave]

Okay, well then like it. Jaylen McMillan at Flex. Jerome Ford, also an option at flex. And then Romeo Dobbs. I mean, Romeo Dobbs is just a, he's a flex. He's a three receiver league Flex. I, I drafted Zach Moss and Audric Estimate. I drafted Caleb Williams and Adam thielen. So Burrow, Laporta, Chase Brown, Aaron Jones, Jefferson, Drake London, DK Metcalf, Jaylen McMillan at Flex. I think it's good. I think it's good. And maybe I'd change the laporta pick, but other than that, I like the fact that I have Joe Burrow in round five. That was maybe my favorite pick. All right, Jamie, you are Nope. Dave, you are up with team 10.

[Adam]

Quarterback was Patrick Mahomes, who I got in round seven. You know, I, I, I didn't really mean to pass on Josh Allen. When I took Jackson Smith and Jigba. We had a couple of moments in our draft where Josh Allen was auto picked. And then someone says, no, no, I need More time on the clock. Let me have somebody else. If. If I had known that Josh Allen was available with my pick in early round four, I would have taken him. But I'm kind of happy with Mahomes in round seven. I think he'll. I think he'll have a better year this coming year than what we just saw last year because his receiving core will not only be faster, but healthier. Certainly more experience in the case of. Of Xavier Worthy and who knows with that running game? So I'm. I'm pretty happy with Mahomes as my quarterback. My running backs were Alvin Camara in round three, Tyrone Tracy in round five. You don't care about my bench right now, so I won't get into it. But I've got some decent running backs on the bench. Wide receivers, Puka, btj, jsn and I took Jaylen Waddle. And then I. That was in the wake of Tyreek Hill saying, I want out. I want out. And it was before we had heard from the Dolphins brass about Tyreek Hill. But if Tyreek Hill is traded, Jalen Waddle is not going to be a round four pick. He'll. He'll move up quite a bit because he'll be the guy.

[Dave]

Round six, Round six. You took.

[Adam]

Oh, is that where I got him? Around six. Round four, Round six, who knows the difference?

[Dave]

And then John, but he's my fourth receiver.

[Adam]

And then I took John, who later. So a couple of Dolphins pass catchers, fingers crossed that two is fine. But I. I really like the way this team came out.

[Dave]

I love your team. Because even if Mahomes isn't great, I mean, if he's just fine, so he.

[Adam]

Can be better than he was. This pasture. He barely averaged 20 points per game in six point. He can be better than that, but maybe not Anywhere close to 28 + is what you're hoping for from Lamar or Daniels or Josh Allen, but I mean, I'm getting him four rounds later. I'm. I'm very happy with that.

[Jamie]

His last two games were amazing.

[Dave]

All right, Jamie, you are up.

[Jamie]

Yeah. Kyler is my quarterback. I got him. Round 11. My running backs as of now would be Ken Walker and Travis Etienne, which I thought was pretty good value in round eight, just, you know, with the hope of a new coaching staff getting him back on track. He was a. One of the biggest busts, but still, round eight's pretty good value for him. My receivers are probably the best in the league with neighbors. Collins, Rashi Rice, Chris Godwin would be the flex right now, if not him, it'd be Ricky Piersol who's got so much breakout potential. So love that group. And then to get George Kittle in round six, who points per game was the number one tight end. He may have a little bit of a drop off. I have a very 49ers heavy team, by the way. Could we have a little bit of a drop off? But I still think he'll be among the top five tight ends which he has been the majority of his career. And then, you know, just going hero rb, you got to take some shots. So I have both backup 49ers running backs as of now with Isaac Arundo and Jordan Mason and. And Trey Benson who's going to be backing up a 30 year old James Connor. So I like the upside of those guys very much.

[Adam]

I never get mad during mock drafts. In fact, I make fun of Scott Fish for getting mad during mock drafts that he's in. I was fuming when Jamie took Jordan Mason. I was really upset. I really wanted in round 12. So I. You know, Adam, this is when you can look at me and say you could have taken him with any of your first 11 picks. I sure should. I should have.

[Dave]

Well, that's our mock draft. There'll be a write up. When do you think the article will be up?

[Jamie]

Story's done. Just gotta publish it.

[Dave]

Okay, cool. So shortly, in the meantime, we got some fantasy cops issues. Well, we got one right now to discuss. You ready for the fantasy cops? Put on your police caps.

[Adam]

It's not even a week into. Well, I guess it is a week into 2025 and we have a fantasy cops issue already.

[Dave]

Well, it's about, it's about payouts, so.

[Adam]

Oh, wow.

[Dave]

I feel like I read this. I feel like I read this. But I emailed him, I was like, did I read this? He said no. So here we go. Adam from the best place to live during these cold winter months, which he says is Phoenix, Arizona. Okay, Adam from Phoenix.

[Jamie]

First off, hopefully everybody's okay in California.

[Dave]

Oh, yeah. Texting with my friend right now is about to evacuate his house.

[Adam]

Oh, gosh.

[Dave]

So yes. Hope everyone is okay. It's horrible. I just capped off my greatest fantasy season in 12 years. I won three of four leagues. T. Higgins in all three. Thanks to your show.

[Adam]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dave]

I was excited to receive my payout after finally winning an old work league in year four. I was surprised and disappointed to hear from the commissioner shortly after winning that this year did not have dues, so there would therefore be a free year and we could go back to dues next year.

[Jamie]

No way.

[Dave]

No one was really active on the message board, but in no way was it a dead league. Everyone set rosters and played it out. Here's the background. The league has been going on for four years with a historic buy in of $30. Typically, dues were collected ahead of time, but in many cases players paid after the season if they forgot. This year, a message went out a week before the season asking everyone if they wanted to do the league again, and all 12 players did. Dues were not discussed, so I assumed they remained the same. Again, no one ever mentioned a free year or any changes at all. In no way is this about the money, but rather the principal. I gladly paid my dues the previous three years and have only finished second at best over that time. What say you fantasy cops? Did it need to be discussed ahead of time or should precedent have been honored? I feel bad asking for a vote at this point. As the winner, I will take Heath's preemptive advice and graciously quit the league, retiring on top either way. But I'd love to hear your thoughts and get some peace of mind.

[Adam]

I never hear Heath say anything about doing it graciously. Yeah, this dude's out of luck. There's no way you can retroactively ask for league dues after the league already happened.

[Jamie]

I don't think he's out of line at all. I mean, if, if, if nothing was ever discussed and for years it's been the same buy in, how could the commissioner all of a sudden say, oh, yeah, by the way, we're doing it for free?

[Adam]

Why didn't the commissioner collect fees at any point or bring up fees at any point?

[Dave]

Because it's only $30. And he said there's a history of people and there's a history of.

[Jamie]

They never, They've never brought it up before.

[Dave]

Well, no, they. No, they have brought it up.

[Adam]

Did the commissioner bring it up at any point in July or August?

[Jamie]

But did he. Did he also bring it up that they're not paying, playing for anything?

[Dave]

No, no, he just never brought it up at all. It had been brought up in the past. People had paid dues. But also, you know, if people had forgotten, they paid after. So he probably just felt like, oh, nobody had paid yet. Whatever, we'll pay. I don't know. I. I think, I think your league should probably give you like 10 bucks per person or something.

[Jamie]

And they should give them, I mean, look, their money. This is such a small buy in. Like, do you really want to ruin the league or the experience of the guy who finally won it for 30 bucks each?

[Dave]

Let's. How about 20? Can we make a. We discount it?

[Adam]

No.

[Jamie]

I mean, if that's what it was, that's what it should be. Unless the guy who's running the league said, by the way, this year we're not playing for anything. Do you guys still want to do it?

[Adam]

He might as well have said that, though, because he didn't talk about the buy in at any point. At any point. Jamie, when you send out information about the leagues starting every year, you mentioned what the buy in is.

[Dave]

What if Jamie didn't. What if he was setting up the FFT league, which I think has a $50 buy in and he didn't mention it this year?

[Adam]

It has no buy in. It's a membership fee. Go ahead.

[Dave]

What if he didn't mention it this year? Would you just assume it's gone or would you just assume that it's 50?

[Adam]

I would probably reach out to him and say, hey, are you sure there isn't a buy in for this league? Or did the buy in change for this league? Someone should have brought it up at some point. You're telling me that no one brought it up, including the winner of the league at any point during the year? It sucks for him. It sucks to win a league and not get anything for it. Unless it's a charitable league, in which case you can feel good about yourself, but it sucks. But I. I think that the commissioner is probably in the right here.

[Dave]

Okay, no, the commissioner, not the commissioner. Messed up.

[Adam]

Commissioner might not be in the right. That might be the wrong thing to say, but the. The commissioner is appropriate in saying that there is no prize.

[Jamie]

Is it? Is it winner take all?

[Dave]

I don't know. But let me just give this final.

[Adam]

It might as well be with $0 for grabs.

[Jamie]

No, but I mean, did the person who finished second also think that he's getting something from this?

[Dave]

That's a good question. All right, let me give one final thought. Adam, from one Adam to another, and you certainly live in a better place than I do in these cold winter months. Play this conversation for your league, because we have Dave, who's saying no payout. Me, who's saying maybe somewhere in between. And Jamie's saying full payout. Play this conversation for your league. See what they think. At the very least, they should take you out for dinner or something like, you've earned.

[Jamie]

You shouldn't have to pay dues next year.

[Dave]

Yeah, there should be Something for you. All right. I have a couple of Dynasty questions here. This is from Kelly. Kelly has Jamar Chase and is looking to rebuild. I'm being offered Marvin Harrison Jr. And the number one pick this year and a 2027 first for Jamar Chase and pick 2.5 this year. Would you do it? It's one QB. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Getting basically three first round picks. Last year's first and two first upcoming for Jamar Chase. I think that's fair.

[Dave]

Yes. Yeah, do it.

[Adam]

I especially like that the first is in 2027. So the team that you're trading with might be done with their championship run by then. So that first round pick could be an early first round pick.

[Dave]

And Anton says, oh, Anton, this is the guy from no country for Old Men is how he signed it. How much do the Giants retaining Brian Dable impact Tyrone Tracy's dynasty value? Is he a high or a low end RB2 in 2025.

[Jamie]

We have to see what they do because if it's him in Singletary again, then I love it for Tracy. If it's, you know, hey, our run game was good but it could be better, then it could be awful for him, you know, so they have to find the quarterback. That's the most important thing. I think fixing the middle of the offensive line has got to be huge too, along with clearly the tackle staying healthy. But there's so much to love about the workload that they gave him in his rookie campaign and what he did on a crappy team.

[Dave]

It's.

[Adam]

There is no financial benefit to the Giants cutting Devin Singletary and Tyrone Tracy's on a rookie deal. I would think that these are the top two running backs in New York next year. Very good for Tracy. It's very good.

[Jamie]

The tables, it's one of the least of their problems. They got a lot of agreed.

[Dave]

They did. That's very well said. All right, thanks everybody. I am going to finish watching the movie Point Break, which I think is pretty bad, but I'll have a full review for you on our next show. Never seen it before. Okay.

[Adam]

But we've got out of Azer's off season movie review.

[Dave]

Oh yeah. This is a lovely the off season. Okay, have a good day. Talk to you tomorrow on FFD.

[Adam]

Paramount Podcasts on January 24th. Academy Award winner Michelle yo takes command.

[Dave]

Gather your people. We're going to need every one of.

[Adam]

Them in Section 31. A new Start Trek original movie on Paramount. Plus Section 31 is just a place.

[Dave]

For people to bend the rules.

[Jamie]

Starfleet is here to make sure no one commits murder.

[Adam]

What a cute idea. This is chaos.

[Dave]

Let's get messy.

[Adam]

Don't miss the worldwide premiere of Star Trek, Section 31, streaming January 24, exclusively on Paramount Plus.