Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Live Mock Draft, Interview with Brian Tesch

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary Episode: Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Live Mock Draft, Interview with Brian Tesh
Release Date: June 11, 2015

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Introduction and Host Banter

The episode kicks off with the familiar banter among the hosts—Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright. They engage in lighthearted conversation about a listener's tweet connecting double-stuffed Oreos to the podcast, setting an engaging and entertaining tone for the show.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [00:31]: "We're the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the show."

Listener Reviews and Updates

Jason Moore shares a positive listener review from Craig, praising the podcast for its early offseason football insights and entertaining content.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [05:52]: "These guys really provide me with great football knowledge so early in the offseason. And cupcakes full of shenanigans that keep me entertained. Keep up the good works, Craig."

News and Notes

The hosts delve into current NFL updates relevant to fantasy football:

1. Detroit Lions – Joy Bell’s Injury:

   • Andy Holloway [06:00]: "The Lions aren't sure if Joy Bell will be back into shape by training camp. It's got Achilles injuries."
   • Mike Wright [07:20]: Expresses concern over Bell’s ability to bounce back.

2. Washington Redskins – Niles Paul vs. Jordan Reed:

   • Andy Holloway [08:37]: Discusses Niles Paul’s performance in OTAs and contrasts it with Jordan Reed's struggles.
   • Jason Moore [09:40]: "I just don't think Abdullah is going to get a gigantic carry... I'm not excited about that backfield at the moment."

3. Oakland Raiders – Latavius Murray’s Potential:

   • Andy Holloway [10:32]: Explores Latavius Murray's prospects under new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.
   • Brian Tesh [10:47]: Highlights the balance between Murray and other backs like Trent Richardson and Roy Helou.

4. Philadelphia Eagles – Sam Bradford’s Status:

   • Andy Holloway [12:31]: Reports on Sam Bradford’s limited participation in team drills.
   • Jason Moore [14:27]: Re-evaluates quarterback rankings, expressing skepticism about Bradford’s immediate impact.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [04:08]: "If I was in a fantasy league playing this year and Dynasty League, I would actually prefer DeAndre Hopkins because I... think he was going to put up much better numbers this year."

Interview with Brian Tesh

Brian Tesh, NFC West correspondent for FantasyPros.com, joins the show to provide expert analysis on the Seattle Seahawks and broader fantasy football strategies.

Key Discussion Points:

1. Seahawks’ Offensive Line and Marshawn Lynch:

   • Brian Tesh [21:31]: "I think Marshawn Lynch is probably the safest pick outside of the top four running backs."
   • Jason Moore [22:52]: Emphasizes the consistency and volume Lynch provides despite offensive line changes.

2. Jimmy Graham’s Trade to Seahawks:

   • Brian Tesh [25:59]: Predicts Graham will set the Seahawks' tight end receiving yards record, estimating 8-12 touchdowns.
   • Andy Holloway [27:14]: "I guarantee Jimmy Graham will set the Seahawks tight end receiving yards record this year."

3. Russell Wilson’s Fantasy Value:

   • Brian Tesh [27:55]: Advises caution with Wilson's projected elite status, citing limited passing attempts and reliance on rushing yards from the previous season.
   • Mike Wright [29:32]: Highlights the risks associated with Wilson’s potential value.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Tesh [16:57]: "In fantasy football, like if you go in thinking, I'm not going to draft a running back within rounds five and six... you're a terrible player."
• Brian Tesh [25:59]: "Jimmy Graham will set the Seahawks tight end receiving yards record this year."

Live Mock Draft

The core segment of the episode features a live mock draft conducted by the hosts from the sixth overall pick. Utilizing fantasydraftwizard.com, they discuss their strategies, available players, and make selections while providing insightful commentary.

Mock Draft Highlights:

1. First Round Picks:

   • Andy Holloway [31:47]: "We're sitting here, sixth pick... Le'Veon Bell, Jamal Charles, Rob Gronkowski, Adrian Peterson, Eddie Lacy are the first five picks."
   • Team Selection: Marshawn Lynch ([33:13]) – Andy’s Pick
     • Andy Holloway [33:14]: "Marshawn Lynch is now a member of our team."

2. Second Round:

   • Jeremy Hill ([34:04]): Consensus pick after Greg Jennings and Aaron Rodgers are taken.
   • Team Selection: Jeremy Hill ([34:48]) – Consensus

3. Third to Fifth Rounds:

   • DeAndre Hopkins ([37:16]) and Vincent Jackson ([47:44]): Key wide receiver additions.
   • Travis Kelce ([45:04]): Securing a top tight end enhances team depth.

4. Strategic Decisions:

   • Jason Moore [34:32]: Prefers DeAndre Hopkins over Jordan Matthews for reliability.
   • Mike Wright [38:21]: Chooses Latavius Murray over Jonathan Stewart, emphasizing potential over immediate returns.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason Moore [45:15]: "Travis Kelce is a value in the fourth that's worth picking."
• Andy Holloway [37:39]: "Hopkins is off the board."

Final Team Roster:

• Running Backs: Marshawn Lynch, Jeremy Hill, Latavius Murray
• Wide Receivers: DeAndre Hopkins, Vincent Jackson
• Tight End: Travis Kelce
• Quarterback: Eli Manning
• Bench: LeGarrett Blunt, Rashad Perryman, Chris Ivory, Michael Floyd

Fantasy Strategies and Tips

Throughout the mock draft, the hosts share valuable strategies:

• Value-Based Drafting: Prioritizing players who offer the best value at their draft positions.
• Avoiding Early Position Fillers: Emphasizing the importance of not drafting kickers or defenses too early.
• Balancing Roster Positions: Ensuring a mix of reliable starters and high-upside backups, particularly at running back and wide receiver.
• Waiting on Quarterbacks: Advocating for selecting quarterbacks in later rounds to maximize value.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [54:10]: "Don't draft two tight ends late. There's no reason to double up because you can pick them up on waivers."

Conclusion and Wrap-Up

The hosts conclude the mock draft, reflecting on their team composition and reaffirming their draft choices. They tease an upcoming bonus episode focused on listener questions, encouraging audience engagement.

Notable Quote:

• Jason Moore [63:37]: "He's going to be a difference maker."

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Key Takeaways:

• Marshawn Lynch remains a top-tier running back option despite offensive line uncertainties.
• DeAndre Hopkins and Vincent Jackson provide strong wide receiver choices, emphasizing reliability and upside.
• Travis Kelce secures the tight end position with high weekly point differentiation.
• Latavius Murray offers flex position potential, balancing run-heavy strategies.
• Eli Manning is selected as a late-round quarterback with proven performance metrics.

This episode offers a comprehensive blend of current NFL insights, expert analysis from Brian Tesh, and practical drafting strategies through the live mock draft, making it an invaluable resource for fantasy football enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

Foreign.

[Jason Moore]

To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

It is Thursday. It is June 11, and we are the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the show. I'm Andy Holloway. I'm joined, as always, by Mike the Fantasy Hitman.

[Mike Wright]

Are you gonna say my last name?

[Andy Holloway]

Right, right.

[Mike Wright]

Hey. Hey, everybody.

[Andy Holloway]

I. The music just seemed a little louder in my ears and it kept going, so I wasn't.

[Mike Wright]

It is pretty rockin'yeah.

[Jason Moore]

It was awesome.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't introduce double stuff. Jason Moore is here.

[Jason Moore]

Good day.

[Mike Wright]

Good day.

[Andy Holloway]

I had to bring that name up again because I saw a tweet this afternoon of a gentleman who said he was enjoying some double stuffed Oreos and couldn't stop thinking about the podcast.

[Jason Moore]

There you go, right there.

[Andy Holloway]

Association complete.

[Jason Moore]

Oreo. Oreo, if you are out there.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, Mr. Nabisco.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, Mr. Nabisco, please contact us.

[Andy Holloway]

We have a goal of being sponsored by any and all food products that exist in the world. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. We are glad you're with us. We have a very jam packed, awesome show for you today. We'll be joined by Brian Tesh, NFC west correspondent for fantasypros.com. hey. He also writes a bunch of articles for them. Great guy. He's gonna answer some questions about the Seahawks. Is that right, Mike?

[Mike Wright]

That is correct.

[Andy Holloway]

You got a chance to sit down with him. And what else do we got going on? We're gonna do a live mock draft.

[Jason Moore]

Mock draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Batman. Is Batman here?

[Mike Wright]

Swear to me.

[Jason Moore]

No, I'm just super excited for mock. I love doing mock drafts. I like mock draft shows. I think that we can learn the most ourselves and listeners.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna run through a live mock draft on fantasydraftwizard.com. we're gonna draft from the sixth spot.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

In the draft. And we're gonna do it live.

[Mike Wright]

We're doing it live, I think. So we're. We're gonna kind of talk through the picks of who's available. So we're gonna talk some strategy that each individual person would do and then we're going to take turns. Correct. Is that what we're doing? We're taking turns with the pick.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll just give a definitive. Well, just somebody have the final word. If we don't have a consensus, we'll let some final pick. But it'll give you an idea of what we're thinking about when we're going through a mock draft or a draft right now, middle of June. Some of these options that we have out there it should be fun. I got a quick question for you today. It's a little different than some of the other ones. Who's the better dynasty wide receiver? Between these guys, I had a hard time. DeAndre Hopkins or Mike Evans?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Who's the better dynasty wide receiver?

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to go with Evans. I think Evans has only scratched at his potential. And last year it was the deep ball constantly with a bunch of touchdowns. I think bringing Jameis Winston in is great for him. Maybe not the greatest this year because Winston's going to be trying to learn the position in the NFL arena. I still think Evans is going to have a great year, but once they really get a chemistry built up because Winston has a great deep ball and that's going to be fantastic for Evans.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, for me, I think I would agree that Evans is the better because of the quarterback. You don't know the quarterback future in Houston and currently it looks pretty ugly.

[Mike Wright]

But you call him Brian Hoyer ugly.

[Jason Moore]

Not. Not to his face. But at the same time, I think that if I, you know, if I was in a fantasy league playing this year and Dynasty League, where the opportunity to have one of those two players comes, I would actually prefer DeAndre Hopkins because I, you know, I prefer to go for championships. I think he was going to put up much better numbers this year. He's still going to be valuable. And then, you know, if we're talking longevity of time from now till the end of his career, I'm probably going to trade either guy before.

[Andy Holloway]

What about PPR dynasty? Does it change at all? Because I'm wondering if Evans ever becomes a volume guy.

[Jason Moore]

No, I know I don't.

[Mike Wright]

That's. That's what I was alluding to.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Will that actually pick up if it's ppr, I might have to lean Hopkins.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I was just curious. We have a lot of Dynasty players. Wanted to throw a question out there related to Dynasty wide receivers, one of the more valuable positions, obviously. And so, yeah, good answers on those. If you want to follow the fantasy footballers on Twitter, you can do so at the FFballers. If you want to follow Mike, it's FF Hitman.

[Mike Wright]

Join me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. On Twitter. Yes, Mike is by far the most active on Twitter.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, I know what I can.

[Andy Holloway]

He is extremely active on our main page at the FF Ballers, answering questions as well as on his own page. You can follow jason@jason ffl and you can follow me at Andy Holloway if you're interested. And we have a website, the fancy footballers.com youm got to go on there because we have four new articles that just went up this week by one of our guest writers and he's answering some questions about the NFC west, which is pretty timely because we have Brian Teshon talking NFC west today as well. And so go check those out on thefantasyfootballers.com and let's go ahead and read a review from our listeners.

[Jason Moore]

Reviewasaurus Rex this one comes in from.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you just knock over about half the things we have on the table?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Let me just say right now for all the listeners, I'm very happy that we are not doing video at this moment.

[Mike Wright]

That was graceful.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, very.

[Mike Wright]

Gotta get the title. That's key.

[Jason Moore]

Better than the birth of my Kids. Is the title better than the Birth of His Kids? That's amazing. Just kidding. My four kids take the cake. But nonetheless, these guys really provide me with great football knowledge so early in the offseason. And cupcakes full of shenanigans that keep me entertained. Keep up the good works, Craig.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that how you pronounce it? Craig. Craig. Anyway, thank you for the review. Five star review on itunes.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, is that a cue?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a cue.

[Jason Moore]

My eyes.

[Andy Holloway]

Man, you're having issues. Are you able to eat food now, by the way? Oh, yeah, he's back on the three by three diet.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I had a lot of chili dogs.

[Mike Wright]

Straight to chili dogs. Straight to chili dogs.

[Jason Moore]

I throw up one day. Once I'm back, I'm chili doggin.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's get into the news and notes.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. This is one I hate to say but I'm, you know, obligated. I'm obligated to read it. The Lions aren't sure if Joy Bell will be back into shape by training camp. It's got Achilles injuries. Oh no. Is that the Abdullah Express? I've got to admit, I don't like the sound of a overweight and oh no. Uncomfortable 4.0. What did he average?

[Mike Wright]

3.9.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Yeah, I might have to fade Joyk a little bit with the Abdullah coming.

[Jason Moore]

In and Sounds like Trent Richardson 2.0 here.

[Andy Holloway]

Hold on now. I'm not fading on him completely, but I will probably get him at a good value now. So are you concerned? Obviously you are.

[Mike Wright]

I am very concerned.

[Andy Holloway]

Just one of those things I want to see on a bounce back year. No, you want him to bounce back.

[Mike Wright]

No, Aiden. I was already very high on Abdullah and I was high on him to take the job from about the halfway point through the year. But if he's going to get all the reps in training camp and OTAs.

[Andy Holloway]

He'S not going to get all the reps. Well, but.

[Mike Wright]

You know what I mean. But he's going to run with the ones instead of have to earn his way in. He's just going to be thrust into that.

[Andy Holloway]

Definitely good for him.

[Mike Wright]

And they've already. And there was another note talking up Abdullah as a player today from OTAs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I don't want to focus on joke balance anymore. It's making. It's making me depressed.

[Jason Moore]

The problem with Abdullah, to me, because I'm not all the way on the express. I just don't think he's going to get a gigantic carry, you know, a gigantic share of the load even in the second half. I'm. I'm off Joy. I'm not high on him right now. I just don't really get excited about that backfield at the moment.

[Andy Holloway]

Moving on to Washington, a guy we've been talking about in Little Drips over the last few weeks, Niles Paul is looking exceptionally good in OTAs, which contrasts with how Jordan Reed is looking all the time.

[Mike Wright]

How's Jordan Reed look these days?

[Andy Holloway]

Not so hot.

[Jason Moore]

I haven't been to the hospital recently.

[Mike Wright]

He's looking good.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I haven't seen him.

[Mike Wright]

He's great in the seated position.

[Andy Holloway]

You gotta visit him. You gotta.

[Jason Moore]

I'll make a. I'll make a. Let me write that down.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Redskins reporter John Keim reports. Niles Paw has been a different player. He's a guy who definitely flashed last year. We know that RG3 has. Has enough, you know, an ability to go to the tight end a lot when plays break down. Niles Paul has a lot of talent, so if he's in that starting role, you could just add him to the pile of possible.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. In weeks one through four, when Paul was really had the position because Reed got hurt immediately, he averaged 78 yards a game and five catches. That's pretty good for a replacement level tight end.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And a lot of targets his way. Did you have something you're going to add, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

No, I just was in love with him last year and I wish he was the starter last year and this.

[Andy Holloway]

Year out of Oakland. Much better for me. News than the Joy Bell news Raiders camp is more of a question than it is really news. But A source told ESPN's Adam Kaplan that Latavius Murray has a chance to have a Hugh huge year in. New offensive coordinator Bill Musgraves system. So let's talk Murray a little bit. We talked about Yelden and Murray because we, you know we were going through your rankings last time. I've, I've been on the Latavius Murray bandwagon since the offseason began really since the end of last year. Just from what I saw on tape I know it was limited. We got a new offense now. We have Trent Richardson that was signed with all that extra money that they had to spend. We have Roy Helou in the backfield in Oakland. Does this change your opinion about Latavius Murray at all?

[Mike Wright]

I really wanted to talk about this because we got a really impassioned letter from a Raiders fan which was fantastic. We love, we love passion from the listeners and he just felt like we were dogging his team a little bit too much. But I had to remind him that we, we do talk up Raiders.

[Andy Holloway]

I talk Raiders especially I'm pro Raiders.

[Mike Wright]

Over here and this is where I will admit I am now. I wasn't really considering fully the Bill Musgrave system where in Minnesota. He was there when Peterson had his 2,000 yard year. He was there when Harvin was a superstar wide receiver one so maybe I need to give a little bit more credit however what I will say for Murray vs. Yelden when I was saying I know that I'm very confident in Yelden teams while fantasy players are we're done with Trent Richardson. NFL teams are not and we saw that with the Colts all year until the very last game they were still kept giving them the ball. The Raiders are going to give Trent Richardson the ball if Murray's not just going to take everything and Roy Hulu is a fantastic third down back. So that's, that's where A little more clarification on the Yelden versus Murray.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. But I see Murray as getting more. If you're going Yelden versus Murray again I feel like there's more murkiness for Yelden who's a rookie and there's still a lot of backs there with one.

[Andy Holloway]

Thing you said on the last show was that you thought Yelden's definitely getting the goal line and I do not think that's the case at all. I think it's all going to be.

[Mike Wright]

Who'S going to be Gerhardt.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

He was awful on the goal line last year. Just awful.

[Andy Holloway]

Get ready for it.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I don't think it's a done deal so murky for either situation. But this news coming out, this news makes me happier about Latavius Murray because I Think he's got the talent? My whole question has been will the Raiders actually just use him as they. As they kind of say they're going to or are they like you say, Mike, are they going to split it up and. And have him and Trent splitting the only. The first and second down role?

[Mike Wright]

That's exactly.

[Jason Moore]

But I don't think it's going to happen. I'm starting to believe more they do.

[Andy Holloway]

It for like a game. I mean, if you ask me, the reason the Colts were so committed to Richardson was the investment they had to keep.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

They traded for putting him out on the field because they didn't want to look idiotic. And now you bring in Richardson and you're not going to play a guy who runs into the back of his arm.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, they're going to play.

[Andy Holloway]

I do. We should do an over under bet on carries for Turner Richardson because I'm going to win that. So we'll have to think about that. Think about that. All right, last bit of news here out of Philly. It's something that's been actually seems like it comes out like this every few days. Actually. This isn't the only report of this, but Jason Lockin for is describing Sam Bradford as still hobbled and noted that he did very little work in team drills. He really hasn't been active in any form in camp.

[Mike Wright]

His ACL recovery. Well, we're all getting very spoiled by some of these guys miraculous recoveries from ACLs where we've kind of jumped to the conclusion that it's. It's not a big deal anymore. It's still a big deal for your knee to lose that ligament.

[Andy Holloway]

Just ask Geno Atkins.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, exactly right. Like there's still guys who the recovery doesn't go exactly like Peterson or Charles. So. And I'm really high on Bradford, assuming he's back to.

[Andy Holloway]

You're high on the hypothetical Bradford.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly. And so I'm monitoring this situation very carefully and really hope that he's healing up.

[Jason Moore]

So I did. I redid my quarterback rankings and this was before that news and I finished those up and Bradford was my number two shock to me of where I.

[Andy Holloway]

Had him finishing lower or higher.

[Jason Moore]

Literally. I was on the Bradford train intellectually and when I started him out looking at, you know, him and the Eagles of the years past and what they're planning to do, he was 17th. So I'm not necessarily on the Bradford train right now. And this.

[Andy Holloway]

You're not moving him up with the news that he still hobbled in camp.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I just really, my heart goes out to those guys and I bump them up.

[Andy Holloway]

One of the, one of the quarterbacks that we do want to talk about is Russell Wilson out of Seattle. And so we want to bring in Brian Tesh fantasypros.com right now and chat a little Seattle Seahawks with him.

[Mike Wright]

Fantasy footballers are now joined by the incomparable Brian Tesh who is a correspondent. He's a correspondent for fantasy pros. He heads up the NFC west division as well as writing up some fantastic articles, especially on sleepers getting super deep. But so welcome to the show. Brian, why don't you say hello to Footballer nation.

[Brian Tesh]

Hello, Footballer Nation. I, at least in fantasy pros land, I am Mike's boss. But I don't want you to think of me as Mike's boss. I want you to think of me.

[Mike Wright]

As a friend, kind of because you're my boss for the Cardinals, but then I was the boss for the NFC south people.

[Brian Tesh]

That is true. Well, that's anything if you guys, if you. I will say this, that if you do want to get your foot in the door as a fantasy football writer, starting out as a fantasy pros correspondent is probably the best way to do it because you're not shouting into the void. You've got this huge platform that they just turned over to us, a bunch of Yahoos. And yeah, if you want to get your, your foot in there and start making a name for yourself as a.

[Mike Wright]

Correspondent, that's a company man, right there.

[Brian Tesh]

It is. No, that's the cuz when back in the. I am a company man because I was. That's the, that was the site. That was my go to site that. I mean when I first started playing fantasy football, I mean I'd read, I'd read like the Yahoo Expert. It's, I'd read the guys on ESPN and I'd kind of just ballpark it from there with my own observations. But fantasy pros, I mean it really does it, it just puts everybody together. You get the consensus rating, you get a really good lay of the land. And it's not, it's not so much a, like hey, you need to get player X. It's hey, this is, this is what the, the landscape looks like. Make your own decision. Which I, I like a lot.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, we, we are big proponents of fantasy pros. We use them a lot. So let's get to know Brian real quick because we like to do this before we get into the meat. Brian, what is your favorite food?

[Brian Tesh]

So are we, are we talking, are we talking Value or we talking upside here?

[Mike Wright]

We'll go with upside.

[Brian Tesh]

We're gonna go. Well, I mean, you can't see here. I. Fun fact Mike Wright and Fantasy Football Nation. The best sushi you can ever have is in Omaha, Nebraska.

[Mike Wright]

So I would never.

[Brian Tesh]

I mean, neither would I. I mean, raised on the west coast, been all up down the west coast, been to Las Vegas, been all that. And yeah, best sushi I've ever had Omaha, Nebraska. But it is. That's the, the highest upside food, the sushi.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, what's your favorite movie?

[Brian Tesh]

Favorite movie. Oh, man, let's see here. If I ever had to be like stuck on an island, I'd probably either I bring the. The double disc shank Redemption and I'd sneak in Zoolander.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, sneak it in.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. All right. And who was your favorite football player of all time?

[Brian Tesh]

Oh, man. As it was the. Because the Seahawks, I mean they were, they were in the desert there for, for a couple years and then Matt Hasselbluck came in. He was, it was garbage. And everybody wanted to bench him for, for Trent Dilfer and he turned it around and that was in the, the Seahawks had a great little run there at the beginning of the aughts. So I will, I will always. I love the Seahawks now, but I will always go back to Matt Hasselbeck bringing the team out of the lean years of the late nights, early aughts.

[Mike Wright]

I like it. That's not bad at all. So when you are drafting, do you favor a particular drafting style which, like the new, the new hotness, which is the 0 RB. Do you tend to see yourself usually going value based running back heavy. What do you usually think about for your strategy?

[Brian Tesh]

Well, it was. It's the, it's the classic, the I'll save you the terrible Mike Tyson impersonation, but it is. Everybody's, everybody's got a plan till they get punched in the face. And after the first couple rounds, you really have to roll with the punches. In fantasy football, like if you go in thinking, I'm not going to draft a running back within rounds five and six and there's Arian Foster slipping to the bottom of round two and you're taking a wide out, you're a terrible player and I want to play in a league with you that the. I tend to be value based, but due to the leagues that I play in, most of my hometown leagues are pretty standard fare. But I like to have a running back in the flex simply because a. You're hoarding a very valuable resource that's rare. And B, you get that upside of, hey, even if the running back has a bad day, you get like six to eight points instead of taking a battle from, from a wide out. So I, I tend to be value based, but I skew kind of on the slider towards the traditional running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Heavy.

[Mike Wright]

That's, that's good information. So let's get into it. You're the, we talked a little bit about it or you did. You mentioned you're a Seattle guy. So we're going to focus a little bit on the Seahawks for the fantasy side of things. So you saw firsthand that lynch still a beast. We saw last year, however, when Max Unger was not in the lineup, he wasn't as beastly. And as we know, Max Unger is gone. He's not even an option. What is, what is Seattle doing to replace Max Unger and does this affect lynch going into this season?

[Brian Tesh]

I, it's, it's not, it's not all doom and gloom because it wasn't so much Unger. I mean it's the classic that if Max Unger goes down, the line in Vegas isn't going to move. But the Seahawks actually in 2014, they started nine different guys along the offensive line that it was Unger going down. James Carpenter missed time. Russell Okung, I mean he missed two games, but he played hurt the whole year. The two guys that were healthy were JR Sweezy, who was a seventh round pick last year, and Justin Brit, who is a rookie right tackle. And so I mean they were just, they were shuffling guys in and I mean his, his yards per carry didn't dip a ton. It was like he went from 5 to 4.4, which is good. But I looked into something. They were playing better run defenses. They drafted, they're throwing, they're kind of just throwing bodies at the problem right now because they, they, they brought in three guys in the draft in the middle rounds. They brought back this Lemuel Jean pair who is, who's been, he has, he's been on and off the practice squash. That was, it was extremely, extremely professional there. Yeah, you're getting, yeah, you get on the fancy footballers. You get in. You're getting Seahawk practice squad offensive line knowledge.

[Mike Wright]

No, this is, this is meaty stuff.

[Brian Tesh]

Yeah. So. Oh, ooh, some meaty.

[Mike Wright]

So you still have lynch top five.

[Brian Tesh]

I would, I actually, I probably would take, I would even think about him top three. Okay. Just that. I will. We'll get to it later. I'm not a big fan of some of the backs that are, are being, are being drafted in the top five running backs because he is the, the floor is so freaking high for Marshawn that even if he does dip down in yards per carry, he's still on the field three downs. The offense isn't going to just turn into this, this spread style offense overnight. That, that even if he falls off, he's going to get the volume to still be an RB one, that he's probably the safest pick outside of the, the Charles, Antonio Brown, Gronk, Eddie Lacy, kind of top four. That if you're, if you're sitting there in the middle of round one. I mean I'm either going Gronk or Marshawn Lynch.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so let's, let's move to the, the new hotness of Seattle. The player that everyone wants to talk about coming in, great pass catcher. As we saw. Chris Matthews is of course the guy I'm talking about who was.

[Brian Tesh]

Oh no, my notes were all on Cooper Helford. Mike can't do this segment.

[Mike Wright]

Oh no, the playoff hero. And he caught the onside kick. He was a monster in the Super Bowl. He was one of the key reasons they were, they were in the game. And we haven't really heard anything about him because there was a trade with a guy we're going to talk about in a second. But is it ridiculous to see the Chris Matthews momentum propelling him to be a top option in that offense or is he just, is he done now?

[Brian Tesh]

He's not done that. He's kind of in that, that nebulous non fantasy relevant but still he's in that like Malcolm Floyd zone where it's like he's going to be, he's going to be pretty good. But I mean you don't want him starting every week that the, the Seahawks, the way that they view receivers under Pete Carroll, it's, it's so weird that you, you're a special teamer first and then you're a wideout that everybody on the roster is. I mean Doug Baldwin made the team as a returner. Ricardo Lockett, I mean his main duty is playing special teams. Jermaine Curse was a gunner. Paul Richardson, the guy they drafted in the second round last year, they drafted him as a returner. Tyler Lockett and they, the first thing they said about him, oh, he's gonna upgrade our punt return game. Which was, which was really pretty horrible last year. And then, well, Chris Matthews, the, he can't. He, he came on, he was hurt all last year. He was recovering from turf Toe. But the, the thing that you should be encouraged with him is he can play special teams that he can at least earn his keep up into the receiver rotation. And I think personally he's a better option than Jermaine Kearse, who I think is, is pretty replacement level as a wide receiver too. But Matthews's upside is like 40 catches, 600 yards and 60Ds, which is like it's nice for DFS that if you want a guy that you're going to punt, if you really want some high end options that week, Chris Matthews, you can do a lot worse than putting him in. But there is, there's just an equal chance that he gets cut too. Because I mean it's, there's the, they have a fairly, there's, there's not a lot of separation between the options in Seattle. The only guys are really guaranteed to have rules next year are Lockett and Baldwin. So all the rest is into the wind. I would take Matthews as a, as an upside pick, but I mean don't, don't expect too much from him.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so let's get to the guy that, who I was actually alluding to, the people that are. The guy that players really want to talk about is Jimmy Graham. He got traded up to Seattle. Now most of the community still, they have Graham easily as the number two tight end. But he's going from an offense that always ranked near the top for passing volume to a team that was at the very bottom of pass attempts for the past two years. So what are your thoughts on Graham? Do you have him still being that number two guy easily or is he maybe gonna slip?

[Brian Tesh]

It's not so much easily because I mean it's the. But a fun fact for the listeners here.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Mike, we love fun facts.

[Brian Tesh]

Who's the last Seattle Seahawk Pro bowl tight end?

[Mike Wright]

You got me. I'm stumped.

[Brian Tesh]

Trick question because was never. Oh Seattle Seahawks have never produced a Pro Bowl. The actual franchise record for tight end receiving yards Learned last night. One John Carlson with 627. So I guarantee that Jimmy Graham will set the Seahawks tight end receiving yards record this year. I will guarantee at least that. So big, big news. But I really. He's kind of in that nebulous 2 through 5 tier now that even if he, the volume is going to be cut, it's not, it's, it's just unarguable. There's, there's no way he's going to be posting. He's not going to be the number one tight End in fantasy football unless Robert Gronkowski gets hurt. Like, that's, that's just, it's just a given. But the, the fact that, I mean, he had 23 red zone targets last year. Seahawk tight ends. And they gave 16 targets to the combination of Luke Wilson, Tony Miyake and eight targets to one Cooper Helfit, who went 2 for 8 in the red zone. He only caught two of his eight red zone targets. Jermaine Curse had eight red zone targets, only caught one. And Doug Baldwin, all of 5 foot 10, 180 pounds, soaking wet, had 12 red zone targets. That the Seahawks noted that, hey, we, we don't have anybody who can, I mean they're, they're in the red zone a good bit that I, I don't think Jimmy Graham is going to, is going to dip a ton because I think his touchdowns are going to save him that those, those red zone targets are going to be there for Jimmy. I think he could get anywhere between 8 to 12 TD still.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Are you buying in to Russell Wilson becoming an elite fantasy quarterback?

[Brian Tesh]

Not this year, no. The, the thing with Russ last year was he was just a screaming value because he was like quarterback 13 or 14 off the board last year and you could even get him. I mean, I remember I recommended him as a hedge for Tony Romo and RG3. And across the board I kind of hedged my bets with those later QBs with Russell Wilson. And the thing is that Scaddle, the reason he had to scramble so much is because nobody got open that even if Jimmy Graham is there and you're passing to Jimmy Graham, that's fewer points. You can't count on a quarterback getting another seven being the 25th range running back. If you just would have taken his rushing yards, you can't count on that again. And he didn't fumble. He didn't lose a single fumble last year.

[Mike Wright]

That.

[Brian Tesh]

There was a lot of fluky stuff that happened with Russ and I, I don't like him at all as the, the third quarterback, fourth quarterback off the board. I think that you, you can do a lot better. And you're really, you're throwing a lot of, you're taking a lot of risk for minimal reward at that draft position. Maybe, maybe in a couple years. Because that's the, the whole thing is that you, it's the, the chicken or the egg that they're going to have to pay Russ and then they won't be able to pay. Their defense won't be able to pay Marshawn and the Seahawks will resemble a more traditional offense of the. The new. The new age. They'll open up a little bit, and then maybe you could see him but in Dynasty formats. I like him a lot, but in Redraft, I. I'm wholly avoiding him this year.

[Mike Wright]

That is very interesting as we're. I think most of us are pretty high on him. I believe I have him four. As I like his running up.

[Brian Tesh]

There's no upshot that you're. You're gonna get. Like, he has to absolutely be in, like, the near hundredth percentile of his. Of his possible season outcomes to deliver value. The passing attempts aren't really going to be there. He's not going to run most likely as much. And I mean, that's where the. The bulk of his value last year came from. I mean, I like him, but I mean, everything in fantasy football is about value. And I. I just don't see it. I don't see any way that he exceeds.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, that's good stuff.

[Brian Tesh]

The place where he's being drafted.

[Mike Wright]

We want to thank Brian Tesh and we actually liked him so much and he had so, so many interesting things to say that his interview is going to be in two parts, and that was clearly the end of part one. The next part will be focused more on the NFL, and I hope. We're hoping to get to that next week, I believe.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that sounds good. He has a lot of good insight about sleepers in specifics. A lot of. He wrote an article. How many, what, 100 sleepers.

[Jason Moore]

So that was unbelievable.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a lot of work. That's not the kind of work.

[Mike Wright]

And I'm not. We didn't get to his Twitter handle because that's at the end of the second part. But you can follow him herealtesch. T E S C H if you want to check out his stuff. He's really funny, interacts a lot on Twitter.

[Andy Holloway]

Awesome. Yeah. We're gonna move on now to our featured segment here. Our live mock draft brought to you by fantasydraftwizard.com youm can go on there and literally in two seconds, you can draft completely free, pick any spot you want, standard ppr, set up your league the way you draft and just run through a mock draft. So we're going to do it live on the show today, fantasydraftwizard.com and we're going to see what team we end up with, see if we can agree on anything. You think that's going to happen maybe once or twice.

[Jason Moore]

The fantasy footballers Mock draft.

[Andy Holloway]

And with the first pick, we take Jeremy Macklin.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Good. Okay. Consensus.

[Andy Holloway]

We're all in. Okay. Round one. We, as I said before, we are drafting out of the sixth spot. So we're gonna kick it off right now. And the first five picks are off the board. I'm gonna read them to you real quick. Le'Veon Bell, Jamal Charles. Rob Gronkowski goes number three overall. Gonna see that happen in leagues for.

[Mike Wright]

Sure is better than ppr, I guess.

[Andy Holloway]

You mean for Rob.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, for him to go that high. I'm still not doing it, though.

[Andy Holloway]

Adrian Peterson goes number four and Eddie Lacy goes number five. So we're sitting here, sixth pick on the board. Who is in consideration for you gentlemen?

[Mike Wright]

I'm going running back here. Absolutely. So in consideration for me would. Hill is absolutely in consideration, but he usually comes back in the second because of where he is in adp. But guys who I would want right here, Hill, Murray, lynch and Foster. Those are the guys who I'm looking at.

[Jason Moore]

I think personally, I'm pretty much between lynch and Foster. You know, I would go with lynch without batting an eye. I still worry about Max Unger and I know you're huge on Arian Foster, Andy. So if you are Lynch, I think that that would be our way.

[Andy Holloway]

I am lynch. And I think some of the insights that we got from Brian in that interview as well shine a light on just the consistency of Lynch. And I didn't bail on him last year, I'm not bailing on him this year, regardless of an O line that was dancing around. So are we good on Marshawn?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, lock it in.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's take him. All right, so Marshawn lynch is now a member of our team. He is the first guy off the board for us. And let's go ahead and roll into the second round here. We've got Foster went after lynch and then some of the wide receivers going off the board. Brown and Beckham. Any surprises that you guys see here in the first end of the first and the early second round.

[Jason Moore]

Lot of wide receivers going, especially for a standard league. I feel like I would expect more running backs going before this next pick, which might drop a very good running.

[Andy Holloway]

Back to us into our lap. Yeah. So we're sitting here with the Overall pick, number 19, Calvin Johnson went right before us and Aaron Rodgers right before that. So a couple of early quarterbacks, which is something that we weren't going to do. So let's look here. Jeremy Hill is still on the board.

[Jason Moore]

So what are our Best options here. We've got one running back.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

So let's take a look at our best couple options for wide receiver and running back and see what we want to do.

[Mike Wright]

That's perfect.

[Andy Holloway]

So at wide receiver, the probably the best available here are AJ Green, Jordy Nelson, Alshon Jeffrey. At running back is CJ Anderson, Jeremy Hill, and that's probably the two big names that are still on the board at that position. We're not considering quarterback here, Mike. You don't want your top quarterback. I thought you were.

[Mike Wright]

He's gone. Aaron Rodgers is gone.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's true. I know. So I'm. I'm leaning Hill. Hill is the Jeremy Hill direction.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Oh, that's. Look at that. That's consensus rbrb, especially in a. In a standard league. Jeremy.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. So Marshawn lynch and Jeremy Hill are our first two picks. We're coming around to the third round at the 30th pick, pick of the third round. Some of the guys that went right after us, C.J. anderson, which you can expect. Is that about where you guys think CJ is going to go is in the second round, or do you think he's going to climb up based on camp?

[Mike Wright]

It's all about the camp.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Or down.

[Mike Wright]

Camp news is good. Then he's going to go in the first round.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you think about Randall Cobb or Ty Hilton? They went just about back to back here at the turn into the third. Which guy do you guys like better?

[Mike Wright]

I prefer Cobb, but Hilton is not at all far behind.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Just minuscule.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I prefer Cobb. I think it's actually. I mean, at that point with all those good wide receivers, everybody's a little bit minuscule. But I like Cobb considerably more than Ty Hilton because I don't see as many questions. There's a lot of questions with all the new blood in the Colts with the Ty Hilton. So who we got now? Now we've got. So our team is made up now of two running backs. And so.

[Andy Holloway]

And we should have said this before, but it is a one quarterback, two running back, two wide receiver, one tight end, one flex league that we are drafting right now. And so we have filled those first two running back spots. Are we thinking wide receiver here?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I would. I would likely go wide receiver. Who are the best available running backs right now?

[Andy Holloway]

Mark Ingram is still on the board, as is Carlos Hyde. Frank Gore is still on the board.

[Jason Moore]

That's my boy.

[Andy Holloway]

Andre Ellington, Jonathan Stewart. At the wide receiver position, we are a lot thinner. A lot of wide receivers have Already gone. So we've got DeAndre Hopkins, Kelvin Benjamin, Brandon Cooks, Jordan Matthews, and Jimmy Graham and Kelsey are still on the board as well. So here at 30, do you think about Graham?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Neither of you do. Okay.

[Mike Wright]

No. And I will say so if I'm going to go wide receiver for ranking wise, I want Jordan Matthews out of that list. And ADP wise, I don't think I would take him. I might risk it to see if he drops back into the fourth.

[Andy Holloway]

You're not going to talk me into Jordan Matthews.

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't figure I would.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. This is just to see our brains. Right. And I think that your thinking here is right on par because you might have him ranked higher, but there's a chance you could get him and someone else.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly. So if I'm going to take a wide receiver here, I'm going to take Hopkins. If I take a running back, because I'm not considering any other position, I think it's Gore. I think that's why I would go with. Let me double check.

[Andy Holloway]

I actually think I'd like to take Gore here myself. I'd like to fill up that flex position and have depth at the running back position. I know passing on Hopkins, people listening to us right now are probably saying, well, why aren't you filling up your wide receiver with, you know, you got a top tier guy. Hopkins to me jumps out as probably the far and away better than anybody else on the board. You said Jordan Matthews, but I'm not on board with him as a one.

[Mike Wright]

Jordan. Jordan Matthews. And that's. That's really a. A gut and speculation call of. I think that Matthews is going to fill that role where I believe, I believe in Chip Kelly for fantasy. He's produced career seasons for DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Macklin. I see no possible way that Jordan Matthews isn't great.

[Jason Moore]

So. So at this point, I think what we would need to do, right, look at how many wide receivers are left that we think could be a wide receiver, one that we would be happy with. And say if we take Frank Gore here, would we be okay next round as this has our first wide receiver? You know, maybe Andre Johnson comes back to us. I know you and I love him.

[Andy Holloway]

You also got guys in consideration like desean Jackson, Brandon Cooks, Brandon Marshall, Sammy Watkins, Amari Cooper, Vincent Jackson. So there are still names. Martavis Bryant is still on the board.

[Jason Moore]

I like all those guys and I would be disgusted with any one of those as my wide receiver number one.

[Andy Holloway]

So maybe we go Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

That's tough that's tough.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, Gore will not make it back. No.

[Jason Moore]

No way. No way will go make it back. So I would say at this point, since we don't have it, let's just each of us say what our pick would be and we'll go with the majority.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going Frank Gore.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to go Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

I go Hopkins.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Hopkins is off the board.

[Mike Wright]

Gore is now officially my guy just stole.

[Andy Holloway]

Just so you know, Frank. Frank Gore went four picks later after Ingram, Graham Miller, Lamar Miller, that is. I'd much rather have Frank Gore. And so we're rolling back around to the fourth round. Our team is Marshawn Lynch, Jeremy Hill, and DeAndre Hopkins. So we're sitting here in the fourth round and Peyton Manning's on the board.

[Jason Moore]

Peyton Manning and Travis Kelsey, two positional opportunities. What say you guys?

[Andy Holloway]

I just want to see kind of where your brains are at with that consideration. I guess. You just asked me that question. So my brain says I'm probably filling in another wide receiver position myself.

[Mike Wright]

I'm. Who are the best available running backs right now?

[Andy Holloway]

Jonathan Stewart is available in the fourth round, as well as TJ Eldon and Latavius Murray.

[Mike Wright]

Jonathan Stewart would be my pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, that was quick. Yeah. You know what? I do like the. I like three or four running backs on the board right now more than I do the wide receivers. So I think we can get value at wide receiver. Bryant is still on the board. Vincent Jackson, Amari Cooper, all those guys I'd be pretty okay with as my two. And so, Eileen, it's a matter of Murray versus Stewart for me. And I'm gonna say Latavius Murray. So I'm gonna let Jason decide between them.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

If he's in the right.

[Mike Wright]

Really? Latavius Murray over Jonathan Stewart?

[Andy Holloway]

That's correct.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Maybe you heard of Jonathan Stewart getting injured before.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I've absolutely heard of that, but I've also heard of him being a monster.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. When he's in. So from. From my vantage point, I agree with your logic, Andy. On the wide receivers. The wide receivers, there are plenty. And at this point, they're all pretty much interchangeable. As a number two since we picked up the wide receiver one, I really want that running back when I look.

[Andy Holloway]

So you get to decide who he draft?

[Jason Moore]

Well, unless I pick a different guy. Huh. What if I pull it? I'm really not.

[Andy Holloway]

Pull it. What about Joseph Randall?

[Mike Wright]

Not here.

[Jason Moore]

You know, ADP wise right now, if this was a draft in August, I would probably consider it because I think Joseph Randall has as much value, but I don't think you need to take him here. I'll bet he comes back to us next round.

[Mike Wright]

But in August. No. Shawn Marino will already be on the team and be the lead back.

[Andy Holloway]

Or not.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Who is it? Jason?

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to go with Latavius Murray. Sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

I love it. Latavius Murray is. Now. What did I see? I'm gonna put you in a Latavius Murray. And I did.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Just like you are the proud new.

[Jason Moore]

Owner of Octavius Murray.

[Mike Wright]

And now Jonathan Stewart versus Murray. Put it on the board immediately. Oh, Jonathan Stewart immediately.

[Jason Moore]

Waterbed.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. I am officially making no more Latavius Murray bets. Because even if I such a lie, even if I believe in Latavius Murray, I cannot risk, like, being soaked head to toe for a year on one player.

[Jason Moore]

We're gonna go down to Wet N Wild just to have a party. If Latavius Murray has a bad.

[Andy Holloway]

It will turn into a mandatory drowning. I will not be legally allowed. I mean, the amount of water we'll.

[Mike Wright]

Call on the CIA.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Just waterboard you.

[Andy Holloway]

I want to. I want to point out a couple picks that we've seen go off the board here after Latavius Murray. Actually, right before him was Todd Gurley. He went in the middle of the fight. What do you guys think about that?

[Jason Moore]

I think it's too early. I think he's going to miss the beginning of the season. Yeah. Even with the upside, because you're missing the beginning and the upside is still a giant question mark.

[Andy Holloway]

So Joseph Randall ended up going to. After Murray. By the way, that was about the right spot. I think Jonathan Stewart went after him. Mike. I guess somebody finally took him. We got Drew Brees off the board. So Drew and Peyton both went in that round.

[Jason Moore]

And just to answer the hypothetical question that was out there, I was not considering for second Peyton.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Neither was like, not. I don't think any of those guys. Their value on Peyton and Drew Brees right now. I don't. I wouldn't take them like two rounds after where they're going right now. They're just not buying in.

[Andy Holloway]

There have been times when we've talked about Peyton and we've talked about staring down that decision in the fourth round. And so that's why I wanted to bring. At least bring him into the.

[Mike Wright]

It's a very valid discussion. And to me, it's a fifth round where maybe I start getting the. Getting the pangs in. Sixth round. That's where I get the shakes. Because I don't know, is that the.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what it moves on from? You get hangs, then you get shakes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I was in a draft.

[Mike Wright]

The breeze.

[Jason Moore]

The breeze shakes yesterday where in the third round I could get Aaron Rodgers and I was like, oh, man, flip. I took him. I was so happy.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely I would do it.

[Jason Moore]

So who's on the board?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, right now we are at the 54th pick of the draft. So this would be the sixth pick of the fifth round. Jimmy Graham went as the eighth pick of the third round. Okay. We are now staring down Travis Kelsey still on the board in the middle of the fifth round. So he's a consideration for me at the tight end position based on how we have him projected as. As possibly that tight end number two, tight end number three range. Other options. A wide receiver for us would be Julian Edelman. You've got Keenan Allen, Brandon Marshall, Amari Cooper, some names on there that have potential to be wide receiver ones. Wide receiver twos to me.

[Jason Moore]

And we only have one wide receiver, right?

[Andy Holloway]

We have one wide receiver. Yeah. Our team right now is Marshawn Lynch, Jeremy Hill, Deandre Hopkins and Latavius Murray.

[Mike Wright]

So, man, the team was doing so well.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not going to talk. I'm not going to talk you into Amari Cooper because the Double Raiders is not exactly the high power offense. All due respect to our Raiders fans out there, we're not gonna double up on there. Legarette Blunt is still available at the. Well, I guess we're not going. There's no chance we're going running back now because we have three, so we could. A limited chance. That's what I was going to say. Martavis Bryant is still on the board. Jeremy Macklin's on the board. Brandon Marshall for me. I'm just gonna throw my vote out there and let you guys debate it. For me, I actually take Brandon Marshall.

[Jason Moore]

For me, I take Travis Kelsey. I don't do a backflip over any of these wide receivers. I think Travis Kelsey is a value in the fourth that's worth picking. In the fifth, I would pick him. And I think he's a point differentiator. So he's going to set us apart at a position game in, game out. Whereas the wide receivers, you know, we can find him.

[Mike Wright]

I absolutely agree. If Kelsey is there in the fifth, I am taking him.

[Jason Moore]

Phone.

[Andy Holloway]

Travis Kelce is a member of our squad. We didn't name our squad. Are we the Double stuffs All future.

[Jason Moore]

Well, then all tie Breaks go to me if this is the double.

[Mike Wright]

What have you done?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I made a mistake. All right, so our team now we have Travis Kelsey. We are currently a quarterback and a wide receiver away from a starting roster, but that does not necessarily matter. A lot of teams draft to fill their starters first. You want.

[Jason Moore]

Don't do that.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't want to do that.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Why don't you explain why, Jason?

[Jason Moore]

Well, because if you draft to fill your roster, what's. Well, if you draft to fill your whole roster, you're going to be drafting a kicker and a defense way too early. But a lot of times people will see that they don't have a starting tight end yet or starting quarterback yet, and that's the reason why they pick a mediocre talent that doesn't separate them at all points wise in those positions. Whereas on the board at the same time, we're real difference makers as the season goes on. At the, the running back and wide receiver position, where you have collectively normally at least five different guys playing in those spots, sometimes six. So that, that's what I would say.

[Andy Holloway]

Now to give you a little. I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Jason Moore]

I was just going to get back to the draft because I see a guy on there that, you know, from way in the off season, I've been very high on and given our roster makeup, I'm a little excited about.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. One thing I wanted to touch on really quickly is that we went with Travis Kelce and one of the things we saw in this draft right after is that a little bit of a tight run, tight end run happened. And so you like to be at the front end of those if they're taking place. Because after Kelsey, we also saw Greg Olson come off the board. We also saw Martellus Bennett come off the board at the tight end position. And so I'm pretty happy that we ended up with Kelsey on the team. So now we are sitting here in the sixth round to give you some names right around where we're picking. Golden Tate went off the board, Cam Newton, Amari Cooper, Julian Edelman, and then Bennett went right before us. So are we. Is the name that you're saying, Vincent Jackson?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Now, I don't know who else is on the board right now. I can't really see, but I would definitely say that Vincent Jackson is a.

[Andy Holloway]

Guy to me, that Matt Ryan is.

[Jason Moore]

On the board when I. Ooh, that's, that's not bad value to me in the six because I've got him. As I said, I Just did my quarterback rankings and those are done. And he was exactly where you have Mike at numero three.

[Mike Wright]

Trace.

[Jason Moore]

Trace.

[Mike Wright]

Nice. Very nice.

[Jason Moore]

So getting the third best quarterback is possibly consideration for me here. However, we only have one wide receiver. I think Vincent Jackson is such a bounce back candidate with, you know, the rookie is always going to go to the veteran on a quarterback level. So I just love going Vincent Jackson.

[Mike Wright]

Who are the best available wide receivers? Because I'm, I'm taking a wide receiver here.

[Andy Holloway]

I consider Ryan, but Jeremy Macklin is available.

[Mike Wright]

That's not a consideration for me.

[Andy Holloway]

I know he's not. Jarvis Landry's available, but this is not a ppr.

[Jason Moore]

Here's a good question because I, I had this question today and I. And I really had to like go through and, and I want your guys.

[Mike Wright]

To search the soul.

[Jason Moore]

I had to search the soul, search the stats. And I actually am soliciting your advice now. I'm a caller. Hey guys, I love your show. I think that it's such a great. Just. I love double stuff. He's so funny. But here's my question. My question is who is better, Vincent Jackson or Roddy White from the old man. Keeping it going still.

[Andy Holloway]

Give me Vincent Jackson all day, every day.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. That's easy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I believe. Yeah, I've got a Vincent Jackson.

[Jason Moore]

Cool. That's where I went to. But when I, when I went to the numbers, I was close.

[Mike Wright]

I understand that. I understand that Is.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's one thing why, here's one reason why I think passing on Matt Ryan and going with Vincent Jackson might be a good decision here is because beyond those first few quarterbacks, you do have people that are rating them far different. We have Ryan very high. But you might have somebody that is rating Brady or Romo or Stafford or Tannehill or Ryan. Those are all guys that could go ahead of Ryan. Matt Ryan in, in this next round and we could end up with Matt Ryan in the seventh.

[Jason Moore]

And not only that, but there are guys like, like Ryan Tannehill who aren't. Even though, even though I've got Matt Ryan finishing third. Ryan Tannehill, I don't have finishing too far behind him. It was like sixth and we can get him like in five more rounds.

[Andy Holloway]

And Mike is nodding approval on. Waiting on the quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, absolutely. Wait on the quarterback. I'm just trying to. Is Marty McBride available?

[Andy Holloway]

Martavis Bryant is gone.

[Mike Wright]

Okay then, yeah, then I lock it in on Vincent Jackson.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Jackson is the pick.

[Jason Moore]

So recap our roster here.

[Andy Holloway]

Andy lynch and Hill at the running back position. Remember standard league, Deandre Hopkins and Vincent Jackson at our wide receiver positions. And we have Travis Kelsey at tight end and Latavius Murray is currently our flex. So now we roll back around. Matt Ryan did go off the board as well as Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady. And so we saw several quarterbacks come off the board, which pretty much I think for all of us would confirm. Wait, keep waiting. Romo Stafford, Tannehill are available. Are all sitting there. So I think we're waiting at this point. So let's go ahead and look at how we fill out our depth. Probably make some of these decisions a little bit quicker here as we get towards the back half of the draft. Legarett Blunt is still sitting there in the seventh round.

[Mike Wright]

Boys, pretty good value.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you take LeGarrett blunt over Chris Ivory?

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Amir Abdullah?

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so those guys are still on the board at the wide receiver position. If we're looking at another wide receiver, Roddy White, Michael Floyd, Kevin White, Mike Wallace, Torrey Smith, Charles Johnson, those guys are there. I think Blunt really jumps out as a value to me here.

[Jason Moore]

The only other guy that I would consider personally is Kevin White because I think the potential upside there we don't have necessarily the best wide receivers and Kevin White, you know, I don't like drafting a lot of wide receivers. So I'm going to take maybe two more wide receivers the rest of the draft. And I want one of those two guys to be someone that could have the potential to have a blow up great fantasy season. And so that's why I'm. Because I don't think he'll make it back to us in that pick.

[Andy Holloway]

But I do think still on the board. Nelson Aguilar still on the board. These are guys that.

[Mike Wright]

Did you say bald man? Perryman.

[Jason Moore]

Bald bald man Perryman, yeah. All right. So are we going legare Blunt? I don't really love Patriots backfield, but no, we're.

[Mike Wright]

We are in the round where Amex. I'm going to start grabbing the guys that I want even though that their ADP may not be close. I don't care. I will start reaching in the seventh.

[Andy Holloway]

And you're Amir Abdullah, Is that what you're saying?

[Mike Wright]

Surprisingly in standard I'm on Jason's guy. Tevin Coleman is higher for me in my rankings.

[Andy Holloway]

Wait a standardly, is Tevin Coleman still there? Tevin Coleman's gone.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Brian Tesh]

Oh, is he?

[Jason Moore]

Okay, I would have been Tevin Coleman all day here in the seventh for sure.

[Mike Wright]

I just assumed he was there then. Then for me, it's Abdullah.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me tell right before us, by the way, four out of five tight ends. Zach Ertz, Jordan Cameron, Julius Thomas and Owen Daniels.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Off the board. So are we going. Did you say Blunt or Abdullah? Abdullah and Jason.

[Jason Moore]

So we're going blunt. It's standard league. I don't think Abdullah's got as much value in standard, definitely.

[Andy Holloway]

And he might come back around. So let's roll into the eighth round. A lot of depth coming off the board. Trey Mason. Abdullah is gone. Ryan Matthews is gone. And Josh Hill. Bunch more tight ends off the board. Matt Stafford off the board. And a couple defenses. Gee whiz. But you always see that you, you know, not always, but sometimes when I.

[Jason Moore]

See it, occasionally when I do draft wizard fancy draftwizard.com I'll do it and I'll think, oh, that's just ridiculous. Like, what just happened? And then every time that I go into a real draft, I'm like, oh, this wouldn't happen a real draft. I go into a real draft and every year it's like, wow, there are those guys. It's like, what in the world are you doing? And it's fantastic.

[Mike Wright]

So I've had, and I've had a few people send in their, the screenshots of their team and they say, you know, what are your opinions on it? And more than a few times I've actually had to remind people, don't take a kicker or defense before your very last picks. There's absolutely no reason to. They're replaceable, they're interchangeable, they're matchup dependent.

[Jason Moore]

And you know, the other one, the other rule of thumb here that I would tell, because I've seen this in a lot of screenshots, don't draft two tight ends late. There's no reason to do the double up on the tight ends because whoever you didn't draft when you drafted the two late tight ends, they're going to be on the waivers and you can pick them up whenever you want and drop your other guy. You don't need to take that roster spot for an extra tight end. I don't, I don't.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, generally I agree with you. But I saw a team where he took Ertz and then he took Jason Whitten very late. And I thought, you know, generally I agree, no two tight ends. But that situation actually made sense to me that go for the upside averts. If it doesn't pay off, you got reliable win.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that, that one.

[Mike Wright]

But let's get back to the.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we're in the eighth round now let me shoot you some upside wide receivers, and you guys help me make a decision here. Michael Floyd, Rashad Perryman, Alan Robinson. We've got Nelson Aguilar still on the board. Marcus Colston, he's not upside, but I threw him in there, too. Any of those guys leap off the board as guys you'd want to take a chance on right now? Devonte Parker, Pierre Garcon.

[Mike Wright]

I will. I will say this for me, It's Bald man Perryman right here. But if I had Jordan Matthews. If we took Jordan Matthews where I.

[Andy Holloway]

Was talking about, you'd grab Aguilar, who breaks out.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

In Philadelphia.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. To make sure I have that guy.

[Jason Moore]

I actually like Roddy White, who looks like he's still available. He's not quite as high upside unless, you know, there's an injury to Julio, which has happened before. But the fact that we were talking about him a little bit a couple rounds ago, and I think we're going to take probably two more wide receivers. Most. You think we grab two more wide receivers here? Likely roll with four total.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's what I would do.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, what's your vote, Jay?

[Jason Moore]

My vote would be Roddy White.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, my vote here is Rashad Perryman.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, I want a tiebreaker.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that your way of saying Bashad Perryman? Yeah, you should say that first.

[Mike Wright]

All right, my pick is Burchard Perryman, or it would have been Aguilar.

[Andy Holloway]

I believe you said old man Perryman.

[Mike Wright]

Bald man, Bald man.

[Andy Holloway]

His wife, mom will be so happy.

[Mike Wright]

And I really hope that he never listens.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, I did. I listened to that, and I felt really bad. I really did.

[Jason Moore]

Good.

[Mike Wright]

You guys should be ashamed.

[Jason Moore]

You have a very good heart.

[Andy Holloway]

And we are very. Mike has Rashad Perryman all the way up at 19, and we just got him.

[Mike Wright]

He's going to move down a little bit.

[Jason Moore]

He's going to slow down with age. All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well. All right. We're sitting here in the ninth round. Our team is Lynch, Hill, Hopkins, Vincent Jackson, Kelsey Latavius, Murray, LeGarrett Blunt, and Rashad Perryman. We got a few more spots to fill. At this point, I do have a hard time resisting thinking about the quarterback position, especially with a lot of guys off the board. There are 11 off the board, however. And so at this point, other teams would be drafting handcuff quarterbacks. And this is one of the advantages of being the last guy to draft a quarterback is you pretty much know only you know you're probably going to be able to wait as long as you want. Right? Is that fair?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Most teams don't draft two quarterbacks unless.

[Andy Holloway]

They know that you're the guy that waits. And then they do Mike last year and just draft them. Handcuff.

[Mike Wright]

There is enough teams that take two in this draft, in this format with the depth of the roster spots. I would ride it out completely and just take Carson Palmer with my second to last or last positional pick. But I know you guys aren't on as high on Palmer as I am, so if we were to take a quarterback right here, I would take Eli.

[Jason Moore]

Really? You take Eli over your man Ryan Tannehill?

[Andy Holloway]

He has Eli at 6, so. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

So I. In my rankings, I've got Tannehill ahead of Eli. And I agree with you in loving that super late guy and just riding it out to the end, but that guy for me is. Is not Carson Palmer. That guy for me is Colin Kaepernick who came in. Guys, you ready for this? I don't know if you saw my tweet. He came in@numero9.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

I'm serious.

[Andy Holloway]

I have no problem with that. I really don't. I. We talked about him last show. More reports out of this week. You know, I read a couple articles. One was a Rotoviz article on biggest free agent winners and Kaepernick was the biggest quarterback free agent winner because of Tory Smith because of losing the. The locker room cancer in. In Michael Crabtree.

[Mike Wright]

Wait, what?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, addition by subtraction, trading out Crabtree for Tori Smith. You're telling me the point I'm making.

[Mike Wright]

Crabtree is like a crabby guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You didn't know?

[Jason Moore]

Is this what's.

[Andy Holloway]

What's wrong?

[Mike Wright]

The wire, it was just buzzing.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, okay. Another reason is Iopati, who came over to Arizona is not a good pass blocking guard. So they thought maybe a little bit more time for him. The change of the offense, the fact Vernon Davis, they say he looks really good in camp, is going to be running downfield again. Just the nature of the transition of the team. We talked about Kaepernick's numbers going up year after year. I'm not surprised he ended up nine on your list because you and I were kind of on the same page with him.

[Mike Wright]

You must have him running for a lot, lot of yards.

[Andy Holloway]

Probably about 600.

[Jason Moore]

Yep. I think it was 604 touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, he.

[Jason Moore]

Which is conservative.

[Andy Holloway]

How many. How many did you have to throw for? About 25.

[Jason Moore]

I think it was 24. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So, I mean, you put those numbers in. In a. In a normal league, and his stats.

[Jason Moore]

Have gone up year after year after year, and he's still younger than you think he is, so I think they're going to open him up a little bit. So I would ride it out and take Colin Kaepernick. I wouldn't feel as confident writing it out and taking Palmer. But.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, and. But. And just in the slight defense of Eli, you're talking about a guy who has almost thrown for 5,000 yards in a season before to join that, the elite club of the 5K.

[Andy Holloway]

You're talking about Manning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't mind taking Eli Manning. I just.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's just we also, you know, we. That elite club of 25 interceptions.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let me give you a couple names. You guys make some quick decisions here, okay? At the run. Here's some. I'm going to give you some available running backs and available wide receivers. Michael Floyd is still available, as is Mike Wallace, Larry Fitzgerald, Tory Smith, Charles Johnson, Allen Robinson. And then if you're looking at the running back, Chris Ivory, Devonte Freeman, still there. Bishop Sankey, Terrence West, Jay Ajayi, Reggie Bush. Those are probably the guys jumping off. Mike, go ahead and make this pick for us.

[Mike Wright]

Read the running backs for me one more time, man. I was looking at wide receivers.

[Andy Holloway]

Chris Ivory, Devonte Freeman, Bishop Sankey, Andre Williams, David Johnson, Terrence West, Reggie Bush, Jai.

[Mike Wright]

I'm.

[Andy Holloway]

I might want to make Jason make the pick. I don't make it right now.

[Mike Wright]

I might want to reach for David Johnson, but I'm not. I will take Chris Ivory.

[Andy Holloway]

Chris Ivory, depth pick here at the running back position. Standard league. He's the legarett Blunt Light sitting on my bench.

[Mike Wright]

And that. That could change with the situation in the jets. With all the running backs they have, we. We aren't quite sure what they're going to do.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, here's a surprise to me. You're sitting in the 10th round and Michael Floyd's on the board. Tory Smith, Larry Fitzgerald.

[Brian Tesh]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's the interesting thing. Arizona has a very prolific offense under Bruce Arians. To this point in the draft, no wide receiver from the Arizona Cardinals has gone off the board. And you're sitting here in the 11, the 10th round overall pick. 115. Is that surprising?

[Jason Moore]

We're Cardinals fans. We are from Arizona and if you could tell me who's going to finish as the number one.

[Andy Holloway]

But somebody is. Where you take the chance on Finding that guy because the number one in Arizona is going to put up good numbers. I mean, Carson should throw 4,000 plus.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. But.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Can't you get.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, but you don't need to take him here because there's still three of them on the board if you.

[Andy Holloway]

Floyd, Larry Fitzgerald, and John Brown.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Any one of them could finish the year. Fantastic.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, it's your pick, Jason. You get to make this next pick for us. Do you look in wide receiver? You looking running back or are you looking quarterback with Eli Manning still on the board in the 10th round?

[Jason Moore]

You know, if Cam was here. Yeah, Eli. Eli still. He's the last guy that I have that I've got ranked pretty high. So I'll go ahead and take eli in the 10th.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if it's making national news, but the. The buzz in Arizona of the OTAs was John Brown.

[Andy Holloway]

I just took Michael Floyd, and that's perfect.

[Mike Wright]

I'm just. I'm letting people know that I don't know if it's getting the national press that John Brown has put on weight, which he has great rookie year, as we know. I like when. When a thinner receiver could. Gets enough so he can not be just thrown like a rag doll. And. And don't be shocked if John Brown ends up as the number one receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that wraps up our draft. We're not going through the kicker. Indeed. Oh, we got one more bench spot to fill. So let's go ahead and do that real quick. Let's finish the last pick of our mock draft. I'll give you our team. You guys can look at some of these names and tell me who you want. Our team right now is Eli Manning, Marshawn lynch, Jeremy Hill, DeAndre Hopkins, Vincent Jackson, Travis Kelsey, Latavius Murray, and then our bench right now, LeGarrett, Blunt, Rashad Perryman, Chris Ivory, and Michael Floyd. Looks like best available. Tori Smith still sitting there on the board. I don't see a lot of wide receiver running backs. I like Terence West. You got Marquis Colston at the wide receiver spot. Give me a name real quick. Percy Harvin, Devonte Parker. You want to take a shot?

[Jason Moore]

That's right.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's perfect.

[Andy Holloway]

Devonte Parker's off the board. That wraps up our fantasy mock draft. What do you guys think? Some final thoughts on the team? I'm okay with it. I'm not super excited about the wide receiver position, to be honest.

[Mike Wright]

Run. Our wide receivers are Hopkins, Vincent Jackson. That's our starters. I think that is absolutely acceptable when you consider lynch and Hill when we have no our flex and our tight end.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

To me, Kelsey is going to be a difference maker. He's going to win the tight end battle week to week. Except for when you're playing against Gronk and Latavius Murray. He's, he's no Jonathan Stewart, but I like him in the, in the flex spot.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, that about wraps it up. If you have a question for us, don't remember, you can email us mail at the fantasy football don't remember. Did I say don't remember?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, sure did.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, remember, you can email us mail at the fantasy footballers.com you can call us 302464, TFFB and we have not forgotten about your questions. In fact.

[Jason Moore]

Whoa.

[Andy Holloway]

We're gonna bring you a little bonus Fantasy Footballers episode this weekend. So look out for that. A pure mailbag episode, a bonus episode with all of your questions answered. So if you send something in, we're working overtime.

[Mike Wright]

We're working hard for the money.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

This guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Hopefully you enjoyed the interview. Thanks to Brian Tesh for joining us and we'll catch you very, very soon.

[Mike Wright]

On the flip side.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, very yo.

[Mike Wright]

Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Don't forget to visit us on the web at www.thefantasyfootballers.com and follow us on Twitter heffballers.