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

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast - 2015: Live PPR Mock Draft, Brian Tesh Interview, Mailbag Summary

Release Date: June 30, 2015

In this episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright delve into the intricacies of fantasy football for the 2015 season. The episode is expertly segmented into three primary sections: an in-depth interview with fantasy analyst Brian Tesh, a live Points Per Reception (PPR) mock draft, and a lively mailbag session addressing listener inquiries.

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I. Introduction

The episode begins with the trio engaging in their trademark humorous banter, setting a lighthearted yet informative tone for the discussion ahead. They introduce their lineup for the day, highlighting the presence of their favorite co-hosts and the excitement surrounding the live mock draft.

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II. Interview with Brian Tesh

A. Todd Gurley's Recovery and Fantasy Outlook

Andy Holloway initiates the conversation by addressing Todd Gurley's recovery from an ACL injury, posing a crucial question about Gurley's potential impact if he fully recovers and plays all 16 games.

Andy Holloway [07:38]: "So the question I have for you guys is if he's back, if he plays 16, what is your general feeling about him?"

Brian Tesh offers a tempered perspective, emphasizing the high draft position Gurley commands and the associated risks:

Brian Tesh [09:02]: "I think they’re looking at him as a franchise back. And so I think they’re going to bring him back slowly."

Tesh contends that Gurley's elite status in college and his probable high draft expense may not translate to immediate fantasy value, suggesting that drafting Gurley might require an early-round investment that doesn't align with his projected productivity.

B. Marshawn Lynch and Christine Michael's Roles

The discussion shifts to Marshawn Lynch, where Tesh compares Lynch's potential career trajectory to that of Curtis Martin, indicating a possible decline after a few more impactful seasons.

Brian Tesh [20:14]: "He is worth a hold. And I think the next team that gets him is they're gonna get a great bargain."

Tesh also touches upon Christine Michael, highlighting his athleticism while expressing concerns about his durability and role consistency within the Seahawks' offense.

C. Sleeper Picks and Busts

Tesh provides insights into potential sleeper picks, particularly focusing on running backs like Chris Polk and Kadeem Carey, while cautioning against overhyped players like Matt Forte due to his declining performance metrics.

Brian Tesh [29:13]: "There are so many. The bells are going off, everything is going wrong. People are jumping ship."

He underscores the importance of balancing opportunity with talent, suggesting that late-round picks with high upside can be valuable additions to a fantasy roster.

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III. Live PPR Mock Draft

The hosts transition seamlessly into the live mock draft segment, utilizing fantasydraftwizard.com to conduct a 12-team PPR draft from the second and third spots. The session is dynamic, with real-time strategy adjustments and spirited debates over draft picks.

A. First Round Surprises

• Jason Moore opts for Matt Forte, an unexpected move that leaves his co-hosts momentarily baffled but strategically sound given Forte's consistent performance.

  Jason Moore [32:07]: "I think number one goes Matt Forte."

• Mike Wright counters with Eddie Lacy, valuing his steady workload and offensive role.

  Mike Wright [32:29]: "That sweats off my chest."

• Andy Holloway selects DeAndre Hopkins, highlighting his potential as a high-scoring PPR receiver.

  Andy Holloway [40:20]: "I'm going extremely."

B. Strategic Mid-Round Selections

As the draft progresses, the hosts discuss the merits of various running backs and wide receivers, debating the value of players like C.J. Spiller, Jonathan Stewart, and Latavius Murray. Notable exchanges include heated discussions over Amir Abdullah’s PPR potential versus Latavius Murray’s reliability.

Jason Moore [53:05]: "I love Amir Abdullah in a PPR league over Latavius Murray over..."

The mock draft captures the essence of fantasy strategy, balancing draft positions with player potential and team needs.

C. Quarterback Investment

A pivotal moment occurs when Andy Holloway decides to draft quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the third round, deviating from the usual late-round strategy for QBs. This bold move sparks a discussion on the impact of securing a top-tier quarterback early in the draft.

Andy Holloway [38:24]: "I think we need to take four set here."

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IV. Mailbag Session

The episode culminates with a vibrant mailbag segment, where the hosts tackle listener questions, offering personalized advice grounded in their extensive fantasy football expertise.

A. Transitioning to FAB Systems

A listener named Uncle Juice inquires about transitioning to Free Agent Budget (FAB) systems, seeking strategies for budgeting transactions versus big bids.

Jason Moore [73:07]: "Save money for the end of the year."

Mike Wright emphasizes the importance of early investment in valuable players while preserving budget for critical playoff acquisitions.

Mike Wright [73:52]: "Remember you can bid zero. Some people don't."

B. The Role of Luck in Fantasy Football

Another pertinent question probes the extent to which luck influences fantasy football outcomes.

Andy Holloway [68:35]: "When you win, it is 0% luck, and when you lose, it is 100% bad luck."

The hosts agree that while skill and strategy play significant roles, unpredictability—such as player injuries and unexpected performance spikes—introduces a variable of luck that fantasy managers must navigate.

Mike Wright [68:54]: "It's just there, but we try to eliminate as much luck as possible by preparing for various scenarios."

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V. Conclusion

Wrapping up the episode, the hosts reflect on their mock draft results, the insights gleaned from Brian Tesh's interview, and the valuable questions from their listeners. They encourage continued engagement through their website and social media platforms, reaffirming their commitment to aiding listeners in crafting winning fantasy teams.

Jason Moore [71:02]: "If you have to hang your hat on one of those two, I would definitely hang my hat with Fantasy Pros over Yahoo. For sure."

The episode concludes on a high note, blending expert analysis with interactive segments that underscore the collaborative spirit of the Fantasy Footballers community.

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essence of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast episode from June 30, 2015, providing listeners—and those who missed the episode—with a thorough understanding of the key discussions, strategic decisions, and expert insights shared by the hosts and their guest.

Transcript

[Mike Wright]

Foreign.

[Jason Moore]

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

[Mike Wright]

Oh, he's singing along today.

[Jason Moore]

The music's so good.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to the show. This is the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. This is Andy Holloway. I am joined as always by Mike the fantasy hitman. Right.

[Brian Tesh]

Holla.

[Andy Holloway]

And my favorite person in the world, Jason Moore.

[Jason Moore]

Hola.

[Andy Holloway]

You feel built up now. Do you feel happy?

[Jason Moore]

I feel like I'm the. Your favorite person in the world.

[Andy Holloway]

I should have introduced you first. That would have been.

[Jason Moore]

That's alright.

[Andy Holloway]

A better way to do that.

[Mike Wright]

You feel clean like your shirt says.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Nice and clean.

[Mike Wright]

Why does your shirt say clean?

[Jason Moore]

This was a shirt that represents my cleanliness as a human being.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I thought it was like maybe it's a special shirt that reminds you.

[Jason Moore]

When it's dirty, when it's laundry day.

[Andy Holloway]

Like it has.

[Mike Wright]

It's like those settings. Do you remember those. The heat thermic shirts from the. When we were kids and you would wear it and you'd go out and in the sun and it would change colors. You really don't remember that?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't remember very much about my childhood.

[Mike Wright]

What do you do?

[Andy Holloway]

Jason doesn't remember.

[Jason Moore]

I remember nothing from my youth.

[Andy Holloway]

I remember those slap braces.

[Brian Tesh]

I was just.

[Mike Wright]

That's what I remember.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

If there was. If. If there are people in the world who were manufactured by DNA and then to be, I don't know, something else and their memories were made up, I think I could be one of those people.

[Mike Wright]

Like Blade Runner.

[Jason Moore]

I do not remember the first half of my life at all.

[Andy Holloway]

I remember wearing biker shorts to school. I remember that was.

[Jason Moore]

I remember beat up a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Welcome to the show. We actually have a great show for you today. Despite that's clean all of that time.

[Mike Wright]

Keeping it clean.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we have. We got Brian Test, one of our favorite people with us again.

[Mike Wright]

Finish that up.

[Andy Holloway]

Fantasy correspondent. We did an interview with him a few weeks back. We talked a lot of Seahawks. Today we're talking sleepers and busts and lots of good stuff with him. And we have our second live mock draft of the off season. We got so much feedback from that first one that was positive, not negative. And we came back, we said, let's do a PPR mock draft. Let's do it live.

[Jason Moore]

We're doing it live.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah. So we're doing that. Stay tuned for that after the interview with Brian Tesh. Quick question for you guys today. What player, what fantasy player will not be on any of your teams this season?

[Jason Moore]

And so we're saying other than Joyk Bell. Got it.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no Joy Cop my team.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, obviously I will go with Kelvin Benjamin. I think that for where he's being drafted you've got. You know when a guy has a great rookie year, goodness gracious, don't you want him in that next year? And I think there's a lot of guys that look at that and they think that but no thanks. I think he's got nowhere to go right now but down. He was the only target in town last year and so even though I'm high on Cam, I'm low on Kelvin Benjamin for where his ADP is.

[Mike Wright]

My low hanging fruit for this one besides joyk is Lashawn McCoy. I've spoken that. I just. I don't like him for where he's being drafted. I don't. I still have him finishing at barely as an RB one but where you have to take him in early in the first round and so it's just not going to happen for me. So that was, that was kind of the easy one and I was thinking more about it. Joseph Randall is probably not going to be on any of my teams. The hype train is going to spiral. Yeah, it's going to spiral out of control.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't. And I don't know about that.

[Jason Moore]

It's funny because both of yours are actually. Andy, I mean you've been touting.

[Andy Holloway]

I drafted two MFL 10s this week and LaShawn McCoy's on both of those teams and I got him in the second round in both.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So for me I.

[Mike Wright]

Why was he available?

[Jason Moore]

I love Lashawn McCoy as an RB2. Are you.

[Andy Holloway]

Are you trying to go with the consensus of the world because you're fine doing that. I don't mind that at all.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going with the winning.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll think for myself. Thank you very much. That's fine for me. I'm gonna go with. I can't decide between these two so I'll just say them both. Tom Brady's not gonna be on any of my teams. Just with our philosophy on drafting quarterbacks later. I'm not going to draft one that is suspended, especially because he will go off the board as well. And then I'll probably say Odell Beckham Jr. You know, the more I've run through mocks, the more I've done these MFL10s, he just goes too high for me. There are other wide receivers that I like a lot more and you can see those on the website. The fantasy footballers.com My wide receiver rankings went up this week. Mike's have been up there and Jason's gonna have his up there very soon.

[Mike Wright]

I just, I'm excited to see revision as well.

[Andy Holloway]

So yeah, Odell Beckham Jr. Is probably just not gonna end up on any of those rosters. He's a. He's a great player. When I projected him out, he had great stats, but just not higher than some of those other guys. So anything else going on before we read a review?

[Mike Wright]

Nope.

[Andy Holloway]

No. Alright, let's do it.

[Jason Moore]

Review Asaurus Rex. This review of Source Rex comes in from Nikki C. From New York C. These gentlemen and scholars spit straight fantasy knowledge to the dome piece on a weekly basis. Love the off season dedication. I mean, I sent a question in and the man bun himself hits me back with love two days later. Love the mix of jovial banter and hard fantasy facts every episode. Keep it going gents. And then my favorite part, he gives us three quality hashtags in a review.

[Mike Wright]

Are you sure this isn't a lady?

[Jason Moore]

It could be Nikki. I guess you're right. Could be a lady. I apologize.

[Andy Holloway]

She. She gave us three quality hashtags.

[Mike Wright]

I've seen this fan.

[Jason Moore]

This fan said Foot Clan. Yes. Hashtag Man Bun Lovin. That's for you mate. And hashtag forte Taking dumps.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's probably for me too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think so. I. I wouldn't be too disappointed if your name just migrated from the fancy Hitman Bun. That wouldn't bother me too much.

[Mike Wright]

The I will will say this. The response to the Foot Clan was extremely positive. And that is, that is in full effect.

[Andy Holloway]

People we have flying around Twitter now.

[Mike Wright]

We, we have joined the and we're making it happen.

[Jason Moore]

If you're a fan of this podcast, welcome to the Foot Clan.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, you're a part of it.

[Andy Holloway]

If you want to get a hold of us on Twitter, you can do so Heffballers. You can follow Mike Fhitman, you can follow JasonFFL and you can follow me at Andy Holloway. Visit our website thefantasyfootballers.com we're updating that each and every week. We actually had four articles go up on the NFC East. West was last week, so this week was NFC East. Hey, I got there. Yeah, some good takes on Eli Manning. Actually, you'll want to check those out on the website. You can visit us on Facebook. Facebook.com TheFantasyFootballers if you do visit our website, you can also click the submit a question button in the upper right corner and you can submit a question for the show. If you don't want to send us an email, you can call us 302-464-TFFB. We do our best to get through each and every question that we get, and they're coming in hot and heavy soon.

[Jason Moore]

Going to be impossible, but.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, yeah, for now we can. We are barely staying on top of it, but we do our best, people.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's get to some news and notes.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, this first bit of news coming out is simply an update on Todd Gurley. He's recovering from an ACL injury and he will meet with Dr. James Andrews for a recheck soon. I don't think we've talked enough about Gurley at all in this offseason because of the kind of status questions about will he be on the pup? Will he not be on the pup, but will he be injured? Will they hold him back? What, Tre Mason, blah, blah, blah. So I don't think we've committed enough to talk to him. So the question I have for you guys is if he's back, if he plays 16, what is your general feeling about him? I mean, do you have one?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, my feeling isn't that great with him. And I'm speaking strictly here in redraft leagues, I think he's a stud, really like him in general. But for this year, he is a perfect candidate for somebody that probably won't be on my teams. Right. Because he's got such a golden name, you know, being Todd Gurley, being such a star college back coming in, that he's going to be drafted accordingly. And I just don't think that the Rams took him for just this year. They're looking at him as a. As a, you know, a franchise back. And so I think they're going to bring him back slowly. And even if he's healthy, he's going to be like that and you're going to have to spend a high pick to get him. And if you're spending a high pick to get someone that, to help you in the second half of the year, then sometimes that doesn't work out too well for you.

[Mike Wright]

So, you know, it's all about when he's declared healthy for me, because if, if he misses any training camp, I'm, I'm completely hands off. We're talking about a rookie running back going into the NFL. He has tons of things to learn, pass protections, which, like just the playbook in general and getting out there and actually running plays and Getting reps, getting used to everything, getting used to the, the next level speed. And if you have, you have Nick Foles back there who it's going to be really important to have a strong pass protection for him because he can't move. So if Gurley's not getting training camp reps, then I think he's going to be working extremely slow.

[Andy Holloway]

Devil's advocate for, for you. Last year, running backs, one of those positions that in general, when you talk to people, smallest learning curve coming into the NFL, guys can step onto the field. They know how to run and follow a block. Last year, Odell Beckham Jr. He missed the beginning of the season last year. Trey Mason had 12 games that he played for St. Louis. He put up almost 800 yards, four touchdowns on a couple hundred carries. Is there a chance that Gurley wins people fantasy leagues this year?

[Jason Moore]

No. And here's why. It's the ADP with Odell Beckham Jr. Because he was injured, there were people getting him off the waiver wire. They didn't have to draft him. They didn't have to give up a fifth round pick, you know, for Odell Beckham. And so that to me is the big difference personally. Now I think for sure he can win people.

[Andy Holloway]

He wins the second round in mfl.

[Mike Wright]

Todd Gurley.

[Andy Holloway]

Todd Gurley did. Yeah. In one of my leagues. He went in the second round.

[Mike Wright]

There's $10 out of.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Burned.

[Jason Moore]

Todd Gurley right Now is the 22nd drafted, you know, running back. So he's being drafted as an RB2. And that value just isn't there now. Will Todd Gurley. Could Todd Gurley win some leagues when someone trades for him a month into the league?

[Mike Wright]

I was just going to say that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, sure, I'll go after him.

[Andy Holloway]

You know, what's the difference between the investment on him and a guy like. All right, I can't even ask this question with a straight face. I was going to say that. You know, Lev Bell's missing three games. Three games. He doesn't even get to ease in to the playbook. He's just off the field for three games.

[Mike Wright]

He's ready to go.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, I figured I'd just bring it up. Let's move over to New Orleans. The. Well, I guess this news is more about passing teams that pass to the running back the most. The Saints were number one last year in targets to the running back. That bodes well for CJ Spiller. This year the Lions were actually number two. They were neck and neck. So what does that mean? That Means that I'm going to get a express train, so I'm just going to stifle you on that.

[Mike Wright]

We gotta start with the Saints, man.

[Andy Holloway]

So is this news or is this just. You just threw this in here to rub it in?

[Mike Wright]

No, no, no. It. I threw the second part in to rub it in.

[Andy Holloway]

I can promise you theoretic will see the field.

[Mike Wright]

I can promise you.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I will make you a theoretic, Abdullah. Bet right now.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, What? Name it. Name your stakes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, this is interesting because I might hop on Mike's side on this. I don't think theoretic does hardly a darn thing.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, so let's figure this out.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so you're talking about a guy who did.

[Andy Holloway]

I just want to see what he did last year.

[Mike Wright]

He did not see the field. He didn't see the field until Reggie Bush was hurt. And even then, they still barely gave him playing time.

[Andy Holloway]

How many receptions do you think he had?

[Jason Moore]

40.

[Mike Wright]

Something.

[Andy Holloway]

34. Yeah, 34 receptions.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Because of the game log, though.

[Mike Wright]

You're talking about the team that threw to the running back, the second most in the NFL, and he eventually got that job because Reggie Bush was hurt.

[Andy Holloway]

I will think about this. It might be a snap count thing. We'll see.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I just think he's gonna see the field. You guys are. You guys.

[Mike Wright]

He's gonna see it, but he's gonna be on the side looking at Abdullah running.

[Jason Moore]

Great view, though.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so that one wasn't news.

[Mike Wright]

That was.

[Andy Holloway]

That was just Abdullah hype you threw in there.

[Mike Wright]

And Spiller. And Spiller.

[Andy Holloway]

Spiller, yes.

[Mike Wright]

You glossed over why I put it in.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Okay, so let's move on to the Panthers. Jason just talked about the fact Kelvin Benjamin was not going to be on many of his teams. ESPN Panthers reporter David Newton expects David Funches to have a big role in this offense. Does he have a chance to be anything, or is he just a Kelvin.

[Mike Wright]

Benjamin, you know, who thinks he has a chance? That's Devin Funches. We got to read this quote. This is Devin Funches talking.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh. In the third version, we never got quote.

[Mike Wright]

We never got to see the full Devon Funches at Michigan because I did play one season at wide receiver and I was battling through injury already in the third person. Devin Funches.

[Jason Moore]

A little early to be doing third.

[Andy Holloway]

Person, and arguably at 236 pounds, I think we saw the full Devon Funches. I mean, just putting that out there.

[Jason Moore]

He's a big boy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So you see, I mean, he's not Getting drafted until late.

[Mike Wright]

I think he is all over that then.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I think he is relevant and here's why. We've talked before about some of the core ingredients to successful fantasy players. One of the biggest three is opportunity. And what I love about this is the opportunity is going to be there for him where we don't necessarily know the role for others. They're not just using him as a stretch the field guide. There was, you know, reports of them using him in the Z and the X. And so the talent is maybe a question mark. Right. He's got some physical gifts, but his talent as a wide receiver, that's to be determined, which is why he's not being drafted high. But we know that the opportunity is going to be there. So I like the fact that late you can get a guy with opportunity and some physical gifts. Hey, maybe the talent's not there and he doesn't break out. I'm not projecting Devin Funches to do great things. He's definitely worth a late round pick.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, the NFL suspended free agent running back Ahmad Bradshaw one game for violating the league substance abuse policy. Bradshaw averaged 4.7 yards a carry last year in his time with Indianapolis, so he's also medically cleared from his injury. So Ahmad Bradshaw will likely land someplace. Any theories, any thoughts?

[Mike Wright]

Well, it would to me it's not.

[Andy Holloway]

Going to be first injury in camp.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, maybe camp. I think it will be after his suspension is served. Can you serve the suspension if you're not on a team?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

Question.

[Jason Moore]

I don't know.

[Andy Holloway]

I would think. No, I. I would think you have to be on a roster to serve a suspension. Yeah, but he did have. He had really good numbers last year. He was key in the passing game for luck and he's only. How old do you think he is?

[Jason Moore]

27.

[Mike Wright]

Bradshaw's one of those guys that you think he's 42, but he's younger, so I'm going to go with 26.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. March 19, 1986.

[Jason Moore]

So do the math for me.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I was giving it to you for. He's 29. 29 years old.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Yeah, we were both guessing, trying to be early, but yeah, he's a little. Little up there.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. But he also didn't see the field a lot during the Brandon Jacobs days, so. All right, let's go ahead and talk about fancy draft wizard dot com. We bring it up every show. We're actually doing today's live PPR mock draft using fantasydraftwizard.com because it's super quick. You can pick your spot. Today we are drafting where? Second the two spot dose in the PPR mock draft 12 team mock draft. Today we're going to be drafting. You can kind of select who you draft against. You can go against adp. So if you don't know what that means, that's average draft position. And you can choose a few different websites to draft against for their average draft position. You can also draft against the experts and the consensus rankings. So what fantasy pros does is they, they have the preseason rankings of over 100 experts and then you draft against the consensus rankings. So that's what we're going to do today is we're going to draft against the expert rankings on fantasy draft.

[Jason Moore]

Got that? You got that?

[Andy Holloway]

Fantasydraftwizard.com so go ahead and visit that site if you want to run through one of your own. Let's go ahead and get. What are we doing now?

[Mike Wright]

We're going to the interview first. So we had, I interviewed Brian Tesh a couple weeks ago and it went so well that I actually went way over my budgeted time and I thought this was just too good of information, too good of stuff to, to pass on. And if you missed the first half, it was really in depth on Seattle because that's Brian's team and he covers them for, for fantasy pros as a correspondent. So there was tons of great information. So we're going to cut into the interview live where I believe we start off with lynch and then we work into the rest of the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

You talking to me.

[Mike Wright]

Speaking of paying lynch his contract, we know he got some more money, but it, the way it's structured, it seems like for the, the people who are talking about it that it's kind of a one year contract where they, they can ditch him. So do you think this is the, the swan song of Marshawn lynch who's already talked about retirement and for the dynasty guys? Who are you putting your shares in? You going turban or Michael or one of the rooks with that?

[Brian Tesh]

I really think that I can't say that he's going to be done because I think he really enjoys playing football, but he's got a back issue that is gonna, it might get ugly. He hasn't missed a game I believe since he came to Seattle. But I mean he's been dealing with some stuff that I could see him playing another two, three years and playing kind of being almost with a Curtis Martin esque end of career arc where he Puts together some useful seasons, but then. And he's, he's done by 33, which, which for running backs is 98. And the. If you're, if you're in Dynasty, I. The reason they drafted Christine Michael was, I mean they thought lynch was going to follow a normal age curve and just be done, but he's not, he's got, he's got some, some mileage left in the tank most likely. So they, they hit a little bit early on on Mikel. But it's the wonderful, interesting possible revisionist history that the, the Green Bay packers would have taken Christine Mikel at 63 and the Seahawks have taken Eddie Lacey at 64. Or would Christine Michael be the third ranked running back in fantasy right now? He. He does, he has that kind of upside. Like he is like top 1% athleticism kind of guy. Like, he's. If you watch a Seahawk preseason game and you have the, the luck to see Robert Turban take a carry and then Christine Michael take a carry right after it, you just wonder like, whoa, my television set's messed up. This is. They're going at 2 completely. Until they're, they're playing a different game. It is. He's. I, he's a stronghold because, I mean you probably paid a lot to get him because he was pretty hyped these last two years and this year he's, I mean, he's faded into the background a little bit. But I kind of, I joked with the guy, was it on Twitter about he's kind of Loch Ness monster. He's just, he, he resurfaces and everyone's like, whoa, what is this thing? And then he just goes down to the depths.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, we all get fuzzy pictures.

[Brian Tesh]

Exactly. Like, we don't, we don't know. Just. He's like, there, there are urban legends about Christine Michael out there just ruining people's camping trips. But he is, he's, he's worth a hold. And I think the, the next team that gets him is they're gonna, they're gonna get a great bargain. But I, I actually, I mean, Robert Turban, great story and everything, but I mean he's kind of a garden variety back. You can, you can find a bunch of backs like Robert Turban out there. But yeah, if I'm in the dynasty, if I played if for the dynasty guys out there, Christine Michael, I, you, you gotta hold. You just gotta hold and hope.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so that. Enough of Seattle. We've, we've heard enough of your home.

[Brian Tesh]

You don't. You don't want to know. You don't want to. So let's move to goalie or whatever the guys name it. Most athletic center in the NFL. Come on, man.

[Mike Wright]

Move to a broader look at the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

So who.

[Mike Wright]

Who is your top running back this year? And I will partner that with. Do you have any issue taking Le'Veon Bell with a top pick even if the suspension stays at three games?

[Brian Tesh]

Well, the first, I. I actually think that. I don't think he's going to finish as the number one back, but I. Eddie Lacy is the most likely to end up exceeding his draft position that are ending up as within the top four, within the top third of RB1s. So if I. If I have a number one pick which I in one of the. The leagues in the Scottish Fishbowl360 got invited to play. Pretty. Pretty stupid.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, congratulations.

[Brian Tesh]

So thinking about taking Eddie Lacy number one.

[Mike Wright]

I think you should do it.

[Brian Tesh]

So safe like he's on the field every three downs. He's in a top three offense. He's good. There's no challengers that every other running back has. Like you can really pick nits at everybody else but Eddie Lacy. They're just the fewest nits to pick. So I would take Eddie Lacy as the number one running back off the board in 2014.

[Mike Wright]

And who's your favorite wide receiver right now?

[Brian Tesh]

Probably Des. Oh, that's interesting. I would. I like Antonio Brown. I really do. But I mean the. The floor with DEZ is. Is almost higher than Browns because I mean, he's a. He's a big guy. He's a red zone dominator. The Cowboys are going to pass a bunch this year. There's nobody else. I mean, Jason Whitten is older than my dad.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, hold it, hold it. Now, Jason, when I like him a.

[Brian Tesh]

Lot this year, I like him, but I mean, he's kind of fading. I mean he can still be in the top 12 tight ends, but not. I'm not a fan of Terrence Williams either really that much. Not a fan of Cole Beasley. Kind of like Devin street. But I like him as a sleeper. I don't like him coming up and being the second wide receiver for the Cowboys. But there's. There's going to be so much market share with dez and he has that. He just. He's just a freaky deaky athlete that I, I would take him. Wide receiver 1. I have no problem taking Antonio Brown as the first. As if he falls to me. Great. I'm perfectly happy with that, but I would take Des as my first wide receiver off the board.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

You ran an article series on fantasy pros back in February and you were talking about the top 100 sleepers which. First of all, you're a ridiculous person for writing this article.

[Brian Tesh]

Yes, it was, it was just you. There was a lot of, lot of, lot of crazy up tempo music, but it was coffee.

[Mike Wright]

It was a great read. And clearly things have changed a lot now because the draft has happened, free agency has happened. So do you have any favorite sleepers that you're still thinking about for 2015 for those guys?

[Brian Tesh]

The thing was the reason I wrote it was because everybody like come draft season it's all just like, oh, Monte Ball, he's a sleeper. And then you, he's picked, he's gone at pick 11. Just like, like, oh wow. Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't know about Monte Ball. Oh rats. Because like the, the criteria I used were they had to be owned in 2% or less of Yahoo leagues. And a lot of these guys, I mean they were just interesting. I wouldn't say a lot of them were good, but they're really interesting. I kind of, I have a, I have a bad feeling I might have, I might have tanked the, any shares of Josh Hill I would get because he's, he's like the 13th tight end off the board now. He was the, the biggest gainer that of once, once Jimmy Graham was gone. I mean that's a, that's a huge target vacuum that, that needed to be filled. And I like Josh Hill a lot, but I also, I mean you gotta, you gotta pump the brakes. You can't think he's gonna be Jimmy Graham right off the bat. And I mean they've got Ben Watson still who if they're going to go run heavy, they're going to go a lot of too tight end and he's going to siphon some carries for the, for the guys that were still left. The ones that I like the best are the dark horse cowboy running backs, the Lake Seastrunk and Ryan Williams. Seastrunk actually just got signed by the Cowboys and Ryan Williams, Ryan Williams has the, has the most guaranteed money coming to him of any cowboy running back. So if you're, if you're following the money in Dallas that, I mean Ryan Williams is going to get a shot at least. I mean you're going to see he had a, he was drafted in the second round, kind of got really, really injured, worryingly so. But I mean if he's if he's still, I mean half the back that he was, he can put up numbers in Dallas and see strong. He was another guy. He's, he's built as a running back, doesn't catch passes, doesn't pass block. That's the big knock. But I mean he gains. He was, he was just dynamite in, in college. Bounced around some practice squads and I'm really excited to see what those guys can do. I mean I like the, the Cowboy backs, I mean just because the fact they're in Dallas. But Seastrunk and Williams are guys that you can get at as the very last pick in your draft and are players that I like a lot. Let's see here. Because a lot of them, I mean there are a bunch of sleeper tight ends that I like. Rob Haussler again, target void in Cleveland. They're going to be a little, they're not going to be as bad as people think they are. I mean there's really not many people, not much to throw you there. So he might, he can finally emerge from that, that quasi sleeper status. Virgil Green, another player I like probably better than, than Owen Daniels might not be.

[Mike Wright]

I was just gonna say, are you gonna take Owen Daniels or are you gonna take Green?

[Brian Tesh]

I take Green as. It's the, it's that awful, that kind of thing. With Travis Kelce last year, Travis Kelce could have been the number two tight end in fantasy. But then they're just. Owen Daniels is probably a better real football player than Virgil Green. But I mean in terms of excitement and fantasy relevance, I would take Virgil far, far over Owen Daniels. I haven't taken either one of them in drafts. Yet another back that I kind of like. I'll leave it with two backs because I mean I could, I could just go on for days.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Geez, Brian.

[Brian Tesh]

Oh, Brian. The worst absolute.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's hear these two.

[Brian Tesh]

Yeah. The two that I kind of like right now, I like Chris Polk a lot. He was. You, you might have. You were a Lashawn McCoy owner. He caused you some gray hairs in the red zone last year. But he was, he was a really well regarded prospect. Had some injuries during the pre draft process, slipped out of the draft entirely and has looked good when he's gotten the ball in Philadelphia. And he, the only thing standing between him and a really interesting gig in Houston is Arian Foster guy who I'd like but I mean he's, he's injury prone that there's, there's just one, one tweak and Chris Polk could end up being an RB2. RB, low end, RB1. And I really like Kadeem Carey. I've taken. I've taken some flack. I love him. I absolutely. Paddington Bear, what are you doing? Dog alert. Dog alert. But yes, this not Kadeem Carey. Kadeem Carey. Not a dog. He is. Yeah, Matt Forte. There's a bunch of warning signs that he's. He's quiet. Paddington. Yeah. Chill. Chill, dog, chill.

[Andy Holloway]

There you go.

[Brian Tesh]

But yeah, there's a bunch of warning sign that he's. He's toast and he's the next guy in line. He was really. He looked really, really good at Arizona. He was. I mean, he had more total yards than Bishop Sankey did, who was higher drafted than he was. And I, I think that Forte craters this year and carries there to. To pick up pieces at least in the second half of the season.

[Mike Wright]

All right, so we will finish with this. We'll talk about some busts. Are there any guys who are. We're talking ADP top two rounds. Are there any guys who you have blacklisted because you see them not returning anywhere near the value?

[Brian Tesh]

As I, I never blacklist anybody. I'd never taken anybody off the board.

[Mike Wright]

All right, well, throw major shade. Throw major shade.

[Brian Tesh]

Shade's going towards Matt Forte. I mean, that's the biggest. There are so many. The bells are going off, everything is going wrong. People are jumping ship. And I mean, it's pretty much split in half at this point. The Forte titanic is going down. He's 30. He has nearly the most touches of any active running back. The, the line wasn't bad in Chicago. I mean, they were pretty middle of the pack in terms of run blocking grades from Pro Football Focus. That. That wasn't the problem here. He also is losing Mark Tressman that, I mean, his receptions are going to go from 70 to 100, back down to the 50 or 60 that he was receiving earlier in his career. And I mean, he's. He's not even averaging 4 yards of carry anymore. And yet people are still happily taking him in the middle of the first round. That, I mean, I can, I can kind of see it. Like, if you really. He's probably going to be a feature back. That there is a good chance that he rebounds towards the lower 4in yards per carry. But I, I'm not taking Matt Forte until he slips into the middle of the second round at least. Which isn't going to happen. Not really going to happen. So, yeah, that's my major guy that I'm throwing Shade towards this year.

[Mike Wright]

Thank you so much, Brian, for joining us. Why don't you tell everyone where they can find you and your hilarious antics.

[Brian Tesh]

Oh, well, thank you, Migul that you can. You can just check for the fantasy pros updates. Do some long form stuff for them. I'm in the pipe at number fire. Check them out. They're another good site and I haven't, I haven't written anything for them yet but I will as I time freeze up during the summer. And yeah, I just plan on doing more articles for them. You can find me on Twitter therealtash or just type in Brian Tesh. Twitter on the Google, whatever you want.

[Mike Wright]

That's T E S C H. Yes.

[Brian Tesh]

Not John. Not John. No Round ball rock there.

[Mike Wright]

All right, thanks, Brian.

[Brian Tesh]

Hey, Tom. Pleasure to have on.

[Andy Holloway]

We want to thank Brian Tesh again for joining us. A lot of good information. You can find him on Twitter herealtesh. That's T E S C H. We're going to go ahead and move on now to our mock draft.

[Jason Moore]

The fantasy footballers mock draft. Mock draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Somebody's excited.

[Jason Moore]

I'm so excited. I love me some mock drafts.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, just to lay out what we're doing here, it is a 12 team PPR mock draft. We're drafting out of the two spot and we're going to go ahead and kick it off right now. Who goes? Number one, guys?

[Jason Moore]

I think number one goes Matt Forte.

[Mike Wright]

That sweat off my chest. All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know if I've seen that since about three months ago.

[Jason Moore]

Never seen that happen.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what it is, is it's the Lev Bell expert adjustment going on right now on some of these rankings. So Matt Forte goes.

[Jason Moore]

We so dodged the bullet, fellas. We get the number one pick. So really the pressure is on us. I think the hardest spot to draft, honestly, is the number one. Because you know, when I've been doing mock drafts, there's guys there and it's like I don't want to pull the trigger on any of these guys. I want to trade back to the three.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I did not. I did not expect to see Matt Forte's name come off the board.

[Mike Wright]

I know exactly who I want. I just, I agree that I don't like to be in the front and have to wait so long for the next pick. But my pick here, not even, not even thinking about it, is Eddie Lacy. Ppr, standard half point ppr, Eddie Lacey, whatever.

[Jason Moore]

I did a mock draft last night in the number one spot and when I had to make that decision, I chose Eddie Lacey in a pbr. Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. For me, I'd rather go with Adrian Peterson, but if you guys are.

[Jason Moore]

We love Adam Peterson, but I think we got a consensus.

[Mike Wright]

Adrian Peterson would have been my choice if Eddie Lacy went number one.

[Andy Holloway]

No thoughts on Lev Bell, the master of ppr?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's. It's just so tough. If we haven't heard on the suspension, if it stays at three games, go there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Because when you're drafting in that. In that one or two spot, you wait so long, so many guys before you're back at the turn. You got to have somebody there. I think it's really tough, and I think some people are making a mistake by. I still love Le'Veon Bell, but I.

[Andy Holloway]

Just think I actually do agree with you at the top of the draft, you need that guy starting from week one because you're waiting so much so long.

[Mike Wright]

I think I'm almost guaranteeing myself, if I take Love Bell that high, that my third round pick, my second and my third are going to be running backs.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's give you a lay of the land here. We drafted Eddie Lacy with the second pick in this PPR mock draft. After Lacy went Lev Bell and Adrian Peterson, as you might expect, Jamal Charles went fifth, Rob Gronkowski went sixth. Antonio Brown, the first wide receiver off the board at seven. Probably a good value there.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's tremendous.

[Jason Moore]

Seven and a ppr. Absolutely. And that started a wide receiver run.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The back half of the first round went Antonio Brown, and again Odell Beckham went ahead of the rest. Odell Beckham went eight, Julio Jones went nine, Demarious Thomas 10, Calvin Johnson at 11, and Dez Bryant rounded out the first round. So a big run on wide receivers there. In the second round, we saw Foster, AJ Green, CJ Anderson, LaShawn McCoy, Jordy Nelson, Marshawn Lynch, Al Shawn, Jeffrey DeMarco Murray, Emmanuel Sanders and Randall Cobb. Any thoughts on what's off the board right now? Any surprises to you?

[Mike Wright]

I think lynch was a surprise to me that he went that late. And DeMarco Murray is upsetting that he almost dropped to us because that would have been an instant click for me if Murray was there.

[Brian Tesh]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

One thing we're talking about here is, you see C.J. anderson went off the board as the third pick of the second round. Now, in a PPR league, he has a lot of potential. If he has that role. He's a guy we haven't talked too much about because of some of our hesitation that he will see enough of the backfield. But if he does, are we pretty excited about him?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, extremely.

[Jason Moore]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wright]

Extremely.

[Jason Moore]

Kub zone blocking with. Yeah, no. If C.J. anderson has the role, he's going to finish as a top 10 back, guaranteed. And I. I actually started him out as having the role, and in my stats, he finished number two. So definitely excited about him. But there are giant question marks. There's no guarantee he gets that role.

[Andy Holloway]

And before we make our next pick, I also want to talk a little bit about Alshon Jeffrey, who went as the seventh pick of the second round here. When I finished my wide receiver rankings this week, Alshon actually ended up as the number three receiver in my PPR rankings.

[Mike Wright]

That's fine with me.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I think I've got him seven or eight, but I really, really like his opportunity and his talent.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, for me, it was a matter of. Obviously, Marshall's gone, so I think the touchdowns are going to be there for him. And then he's stepping into that role of Demaryius Thomas in the Adam Gaze offense. So I think the quantity of passes in a PPR league, he's just a surefire top 10 guys.

[Mike Wright]

It's like Antonio Brown, Demaryius Thomas, where they just get these cheap catches on screens at least a couple times a game, and they usually bust off a good amount of yards, but you get a free catch right there.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, guys, tell me what you're thinking about here with our second pick.

[Jason Moore]

Well, we really. I mean, I guess. I guess I'm kind of thinking about both of these picks because they're so close together. Right, Exactly. So I'm thinking about the next two picks. We've got a lot of running backs on the board. I still like, obviously, Jeremy Hill still there.

[Andy Holloway]

Justin Porcet is available.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, those. Those guys. I love. Grabbing two of those guys would give us, you know, a beastly running back. I'm not thrilled with the wide receivers left on the board right now to take a number one, which, you know, what's the. What's the thought process here? When you go and you say, okay, I don't love the number ones on the board here, so do you then bypass and have a worse number one or take a lesser talent because of that? What do you guys say?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I think There's a number one on the board right now.

[Mike Wright]

There is a number one left for me, and his name is DeAndre Hopkins.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, me too. I'm just saying.

[Andy Holloway]

So the question then is, who do we believe is going to come back around to us, and who's the most likely to get drafted right here.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to say I think we need to take four set here.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, really? I was the opposite. I think we need to take Hopkins and four set will make it back.

[Jason Moore]

I'm. Exactly. Because if four set doesn't make it back, who does? There's three running backs on the board right now that I love. I love Jeremy Hill, I love Justin Forsett, and I love Frank Gore. And there's one wide receiver on the board that I love, which is DeAndre Hopkins.

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty good reason to draft him first.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And we, we didn't even check who's the. The team behind us, who was. Who was in the one pick. So he had forte. So he already took a running back.

[Andy Holloway]

So he's likely to take wide receiver as well. And he's got two picks there though now.

[Jason Moore]

One other name to throw out here, I guess. Well, let's see what. Let's see what two picks he gets.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so DeAndre Hopkins is our selection and he's coming off the board here. Jimmy Graham went right after Hopkins and Jeremy Hill followed that up as the first pick of the third round. So Justin for set is available to us. Any second thoughts on 4set?

[Jason Moore]

There's only one second thought.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it Frank Gore?

[Jason Moore]

It is not Frank. Go. I'm going to throw a curveball here.

[Andy Holloway]

C.J. spiller.

[Jason Moore]

Nope. If I'm drafting, I draft Justin for set here. That's what I do. But I do think it's worth pointing out at this point. See for your early question on this episode of who is not going to be on my team? I was going to name about 10 quarterbacks because I don't like any of the middle tier guys. I think when you take a middle quarterback, it's not that great. But as your third pick, to be able to get Aaron Rodgers, who I see as a point differentiator, a guy that's going to take you and give you a gap ahead of everyone else in the third round. I don't think I've actually done a mock where I've seen him in the third right now. So that's where my only hesitation. Would I rather have Aaron Rodgers or Justin for set? We normally don't look at quarterbacks, but in that value I would.

[Mike Wright]

Your point is extremely interesting for, for me, because that wasn't even an option in my head. It was Justin, four sets, my number five PPR guy. I was completely locked into that pick. But what I would do is I would take four set here. But what I'M offering to you guys is do we run this experiment of us taking Aaron Rodgers and see what our team turns into or do we just go with who we would usually take.

[Andy Holloway]

Four set for you is your number five PPR running back.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Is that correct? That is correct for me and PPR. He is my number 8.

[Jason Moore]

Hard to pass in the third round on a RB1, but I do agree when you do mocks, one of the best things you can do is test what happens when you grab a tight end in this spot. What does that do to your team? So I'm fine either way. It's clearly those two. Andy, you make the call.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's, let's give it a shot. Let's go with Rodgers. We haven't done the top end quarterback very often. Let's give that a shot and see what our team looks like. I think that'll give good, good perspective to our listeners.

[Jason Moore]

I never saw us going this way.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I didn't. So we've got two packers on the team. Eddie Lacy, Aaron Rodgers and DeAndre Hopkins.

[Brian Tesh]

Oh, Zeus.

[Andy Holloway]

And so obviously a big wait for our next pick. I'm not going to go through every single one of these names. Anybody that you guys see in the third round, boy, something that jumps out.

[Mike Wright]

Geo Bernard in the third round, that is.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me give you some names. I'm kind of disappointed here. The last pick right before we pick now here in the fourth round was Frank Gore and somehow he dropped all the way to the 10th pick of the fourth round. We got to think about that.

[Jason Moore]

If we could have grabbed Frank Gore, then Aaron Rodgers would have been just such a great value to me.

[Mike Wright]

The interesting, the interesting pick in the third round to me is Brandon Cooks. Where I don't know if anyone happened to be following the our Twitter feed today, but I was having a lively discussion with what's.

[Andy Holloway]

I believe Josh dialogue.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, no, it was, it was all completely legit where we're just making points of. He was. He liked Brandon Cooks and I liked Jordan Matthews looking up some interesting things because people just assume that Brandon Cooks is a PPR machine because that's what he was the first half of the season. Then if you look at his game log, I believe it is October 19th. That game, everything completely changes. His targets go way down and his yards per catch goes through the roof. I'm talking a 7, 8 yard difference in, in his catches where they clearly changed his role. And I was expressing that's why I'm hesitant on Brandon Cooks right now. He's going very early in drafts. And I feel like they might be just put. They might be putting him in the Kenny Stills role, which to while that has value, tremendous value in fantasy, it doesn't have high end ppr, PPR and early in drafts value. So I just thought it was an interesting discussion.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. When I went through my wide receiver rankings this week, Cooks did not end up as high as maybe I thought in the beginning of the season.

[Jason Moore]

Well, let me throw this out there then because it pertains to this next pick. If that happens. The obvious question, if we say, okay, Cooks is going into that Kenny Stills role, he's not going to be a PPR machine, but his yards per catch is going to go up. Well, Jimmy Graham's gone where Kenny Stills is gone. Where are those targets going? And I think personally that the answer is in the backfield. I think it's those targets are going to go to C.J. spiller.

[Andy Holloway]

And I think Marcus Colson is getting underdrafted.

[Jason Moore]

Totally, completely agree. I think Mark, I mean, he's like the Anquan Bolden. You know, he's just old, tried and true and not sexy at all. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So two of my favorite guys went off the board directly before our pick right here. Andre Johnson and Frank Gore from Indianapolis. I have Andre Johnson as the PPR monster this year. Actually have met 11 in my PPR ranking. So sitting here at the, in the fourth round, second pick of the fourth round, CJ Spillers on the board. Brandon Marshall is on the board. Jonathan Stewart's on the board.

[Mike Wright]

Say the, the pick to me is, is between Lamar Miller, Jonathan Stewart or C.J. spiller or Ingram. Is Ingram still on the board?

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, Ingram is gone. So those three guys where I have Miller a good bit higher. But the gambler in me says that I would be willing to take C.J. spiller.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, for me, it's definitely C.J. spiller. Jason, do you have any thoughts on that? I just to give you my rankings, I have CJ Spiller at 15 and Lamar Miller at 25.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I have Spiller catching at least 75 passes this year, which is crazy with his open field production, I think he's going to do very well.

[Andy Holloway]

So is that the pick?

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Lock it in.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's do it. C.J. spiller's off the board and we're coming right back to pick here in the fifth round.

[Jason Moore]

So Carlos Hyde, Jarvis Landry off the board between us.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. And so Brandon Marshall still sitting there on the board. I like Brandon Marshall a lot this year. I Think he's being underdrafted because of hesitancy with that offense. But he is going to be the number one guy there and he just catches everything thrown his way. He catches touchdowns. I have him as my 14th PPR wide receiver sitting here in the fifth round. But I am open to discussion here. Alfred Morris is still on the board as well.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm not in love with Alfred Morris.

[Andy Holloway]

Is Jonathan Stewart well in love with him? And having him available in the fifth round is two different things.

[Jason Moore]

And considering he would be our third running back, I mean, you can, you can definitely live with that.

[Andy Holloway]

Other options at the wide receiver position, Amari Cooper, desean Jackson, Jeremy Macklin, Allen Robinson.

[Mike Wright]

That was. That's the guy who I want to target. Yeah, he's my next highest PPR guy. But.

[Andy Holloway]

But you realize he'll probably drop.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he won't drop much further though. It would not shock me in this, in the run after us if he's gone. And I think, I think right here, my pick is Jonathan Stewart.

[Jason Moore]

We have to take a realistic look at our position. Right. We know from this pick to the next pick, a ton of guys are going.

[Andy Holloway]

So what position has the most flexibility then?

[Jason Moore]

Wide receiver has the most flexibility. I think that the groups are, you know, to me, I put Brandon Marshall close to some of those other guys and I don't see a huge drop off. So I think that, that, that leads me to think running back is a little bit better. Now if you are right and Brandon Marshall is, you know, a high end wide receiver too, then you know, I'm making a mistake. I am one of those you referenced. Scared off by the offense. I still think he's going to have a decent year, kind of like he had when he went to Miami. But he's just.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me, let me say a couple other names for you, Jason. Todd Gurley is sitting here.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Just making sure you guys aren't going to jump on Amir Abdullah.

[Jason Moore]

You know already who I would.

[Mike Wright]

I would gladly jump on Abdullah, but I have Stuart higher than him.

[Andy Holloway]

So is Jonathan Stewart the guy.

[Mike Wright]

He is for me, I'm split between.

[Andy Holloway]

Him and honestly, Brandon Marshall.

[Jason Moore]

Well, if. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm going to go Jonathan Stewart. And here's why. I sent you guys a message a couple days ago about my absolute new man crush.

[Mike Wright]

New hotness.

[Jason Moore]

New hotness. I have a new hotness that I will definitely be targeting in this draft.

[Andy Holloway]

How do you pronounce his name?

[Jason Moore]

Probably not Cameron Artist Payne.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

[Jason Moore]

Ding.

[Andy Holloway]

There you go.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Cameron Artist Payne, the running back rookie that they took in Carolina. Man, I am starting to fall in love. We need love music. We need, like, a love music. Drop.

[Andy Holloway]

Best I got is sad music.

[Mike Wright]

Put it on. Let's see if it works.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, let's see if it works.

[Andy Holloway]

Talk about him.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. Talk about Jonathan Stewart's knee then.

[Jason Moore]

Jonathan Stewart, he's so promising and he.

[Mike Wright]

Was a good man.

[Jason Moore]

He's so quick to die. And when that happens, somebody. Cameron Artist Payne, you talk about opportunity and skill and talent. Yeah, it doesn't work. I love Cameron Artist Payne. That's a perfect handcuff that you can get late. And even if you don't have. Jonathan Stewart, he's probably one of my favorite running backs targeting right now. So let's move on.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so we grabbed Jonathan Stewart and Brandon Marshall went right after Jonathan Stewart. Whoa. As did Amari Cooper. Alfred Morris went in this round. TJ Eldon went in this round. Jax Gurley.

[Jason Moore]

Quarterback run.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. In the. In the sixth round, somebody got a memo saying you have to draft a quarterback because seven quarterbacks went off the board. So Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Peyton Manning, Cam Newton, Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, and Ben Roethlisberger are all gone in the round.

[Jason Moore]

It is so nice to not be a part of the runs. To not be.

[Mike Wright]

Was that intentional?

[Jason Moore]

No, it's still.

[Mike Wright]

A mic is on.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's really nice to not have the runs, but, yeah, I mean, I just. I hate when all of the positions are flying off and you feel you're put in, oh, no, I gotta draft this guy. It's so nice to start him or be at the very end when it's.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, let's talk a little bit about our decision earlier, because we made the decision for the first time maybe all offseason to draft a quarterback. And I think that's good because we've never said don't. Don't draft Aaron Rodgers ever.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

We've said generally they go higher than what we think the value is. And so here he was sitting in the third round, and now having a quarterback in place, the sixth round almost didn't exist for us.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Because seven of the 10 picks so far are quarterbacks. And so they're irrelevant to our draft board now and what we need at wide receiver and tight end and running back. And so because of that, let me give you some names that are on the board. Latavius Murray's on the board.

[Mike Wright]

He would be on our bench.

[Andy Holloway]

Alan Robinson's on the board. Martavis Bryant is still on the board.

[Jason Moore]

Marty McBee.

[Andy Holloway]

So let's talk about Marty McBee.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Marty McBride in a PPR because he's very high for me in. He's probably. It probably surprised you, Mike, to see where he was.

[Mike Wright]

I thought I was high on Brian. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Where do you think? Have you looked at this?

[Jason Moore]

I don't remember the exact spot but when I saw it I was like, jaw open.

[Andy Holloway]

I have him at 11.

[Jason Moore]

That's, that's, that's insane. That needs to be adjusted.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, we'll see. And part of that was because I had Antonio Brown at 6. Okay. So I have Brown a little bit lower because I think distribution is going to change with him in a full time role on the outside. Bryant and you know, generally guys don't. I mean you've seen this with Calvin Johnson, you've seen this with Andre Johnson, you've seen this with any of these top tiers. They don't continually ascend every single year. So you try to bet on guys that will make an adjustment. But yeah, I have him exceptionally high. He does drop down in a PPR for me. So are you, Mike, are you leaning Allen Robinson? Well, at this stage because I don't think he could still drop.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if you guys heard it, but if you listen, listen close.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh no.

[Mike Wright]

The target monster is available and he's on my team immediately if I have the. Wow.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, so you would take. Cuz you've got. Yeah, you've got Marty Mc. Where do you have Marty McBee? Marty McBride in a PPR.

[Andy Holloway]

I have no problem with Alan Robinson here, but he's our wide receiver too. How do you feel about that, Mike?

[Mike Wright]

I feel fantastic about that.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Jason Moore]

Better than Mark, better than.

[Andy Holloway]

I actually have Bryant higher in a PBR than Alan Robson.

[Jason Moore]

You know, I personally feel like I would rather have Marty McBride than Alan Robinson. I'm really curious your rankings. You've done the stats.

[Mike Wright]

I have Bryant at 21 in PPR.

[Jason Moore]

And you have Alan Robinson at 15.

[Mike Wright]

And I feel.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Latavius murder about it.

[Andy Holloway]

I think the consensus right now is Martavis Bryant.

[Jason Moore]

It is.

[Andy Holloway]

Sorry, sorry buddy. We shot you roll back around for us. He is still on the board because we draft like three picks later. So Matthew Stafford and Brandon lefell went off between our. My Tavis Bryant pick. We're sitting here. You still have only four tight ends off the board. Gronkowski, Graham, Kelsey and Olson. So Martellis, Bennett, Antonio Gates.

[Jason Moore]

Gross.

[Andy Holloway]

No, none of those Guys. Okay, so we're waiting on tight end. Alan Robinson's on the board. Latavius Murray's on the board. So we're. We're drafting our bench.

[Mike Wright]

Now, wait a minute. Did the train leave the station yet?

[Jason Moore]

No, the train.

[Andy Holloway]

So you take. Let me just get this straight. You take Amir Abdullah in a PPR league over Latavius Murray over Tevin Coleman over Joseph Randall over Rashad Jennings. No problem.

[Jason Moore]

Correct.

[Andy Holloway]

You want him here?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I do.

[Jason Moore]

I think in a PPR league, he's.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's where it really sets the difference.

[Jason Moore]

It's definitely worth getting. But the question that I really have is, do you like him more than your target monster, who you were just. Because we can still have Alan Robinson here.

[Mike Wright]

But we're. To me, right here. The. We're full. Like, our positional players are full. We're drafting for the bench now for sure.

[Jason Moore]

But we've got three running backs and two wide receivers, so we've, you know, that flexibility.

[Andy Holloway]

I think it's insane not to draft Latavius Murray here. I think it's insane. It's the seventh round. He's in RB1. We already have a guy in Spiller who we don't know.

[Mike Wright]

RB1 is debatable.

[Andy Holloway]

We don't know what. I'm not talking about. He's the starter for that franchise. And Spiller. We don't know exactly what his role is. We're still projecting.

[Jason Moore]

Jonathan Stewart is known to die.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, exactly. I mean, Latavius Murray is the depth pick here, not Amir Abdullah, a rookie for me. That's crazy.

[Jason Moore]

I love Amir Abdullah in a ppr, but I am in agreement. I would take Latavius Murray or Bernie.

[Mike Wright]

This is happening again.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, it's happening again.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Tavius Murray's off the mark.

[Jason Moore]

Mike, you get the next picture.

[Mike Wright]

Amir Abdullah versus Latavius.

[Andy Holloway]

We'll give the next one. I'm like, by the way, my shirt.

[Mike Wright]

My own shirt would have said ppr.

[Andy Holloway]

My shirt would have said dirty.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that.

[Jason Moore]

You.

[Mike Wright]

You guys did.

[Andy Holloway]

Mer. I have to make another yes versus in ppr. I got no problem with that, dude.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I don't either.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm.

[Jason Moore]

I'm. I'm on the train, and I do. On Latavius Murray over.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

You're talking all year.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what that is? You got a crazy train. That's what you got going on.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, me and Ozzy Osbourne, we're hanging out.

[Jason Moore]

Runaway train.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, We.

[Jason Moore]

We.

[Andy Holloway]

We drafted Latavius Murray.

[Jason Moore]

No, no, no. That's just a thing. A runaway train. I wasn't being musical on you.

[Andy Holloway]

My shirt would have said dirty had I had Amir Abdul on my team there instead of Jurassic Park. Oh, no. That's what's on my shirt right now. All right, so. All right, we're sitting here in the eighth round. We saw a huge tight end run happen in the seventh. Most of the guys I mentioned before are off the board. Also saw Josh Hill go off the board in the seventh round. All running backs almost in the eighth round. Guys like Tevin Coleman, Ryan Matthews, Joseph Randall went in the eighth, which is just not going to happen in most leagues. I don't think the only wide receiver that went off the board in the eighth round is target Alan Robinson.

[Mike Wright]

That's all right.

[Andy Holloway]

Say some.

[Mike Wright]

It wouldn't have mattered if I wanted him anyways because you guys would have taken Latavia's stupid face.

[Andy Holloway]

Alan Robinson was followed by Amir Abdullah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, of course.

[Andy Holloway]

Reggie Bush, I think a really good value at the back of the eighth round. Devonte Freeman went off the board at. How far away did he go from Tevin Coleman? Is Coleman still on the board here?

[Mike Wright]

You know, Reggie Bushman is not.

[Jason Moore]

Reggie Bush is a guy that every time I've been doing a PPR mock, I have not yet taken him. And every time I look at his name on the list, I think, oh, that's a good pick. Like, I need to start really looking for. For. For Reggie Bush because I really like the value he presents in a ppr. You get him late. He is the starting third down back, and I think that he's going to creep on the field more and more over Carlos Hyde. So.

[Mike Wright]

All right, give me a rundown.

[Andy Holloway]

We're going to hand this pick off to Mike to make up for the Latavius Murray and Martavius Bryant picks from earlier.

[Mike Wright]

This does not make me feel that much better.

[Andy Holloway]

A little bit, though.

[Mike Wright]

A little bit.

[Andy Holloway]

So receivers.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. The wide receivers. Larry Fitzgerald, Mike Wallace, Steve Smith, Kevin White, Nelson Aguilar, Anquan Bolden, Charles Johnson, Tori Smith.

[Mike Wright]

You really could have stopped after the first one. I just wanted you to keep reading. Larry Fitzgerald will be my pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Okay. So we'll draft Larry. What are your thoughts on Larry this year?

[Mike Wright]

The. I don't have these numbers right in front of me, but the numbers of Larry Fitzgerald playing with Carson Palmer in the lineup last year, fantastic. We're talking wide receiver two numbers where that whole team was a symptom of the quarterback virus, where Michael Floyd, Larry Fitzgerald, and even John Brown To a point were severely affected by the quarterback play. And I believe that Fitzgerald has the. His skills are still there. Maybe he's lost a bit in the speed department, but his hands are still as sure as more sure than him than nearly anyone in the NFL. And I think he's going to get a huge amount of targets with Carson Palmer healthy.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Steve Smith and Mike Wallace followed our pick of Larry Fitzgerald. So we're rolling into the ninth round. Julius Thomas is the highest rated tight end available. I don't think you guys. I could convince you to draft him here, especially with guys that we like. Tyler Ifert on the board.

[Mike Wright]

I was just going to suggest waiting on Ifert.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Larry Danell, some other guys are still on the board that we like. So let's talk a little bit about other options we have here. Doug Martin, Chris Ivory, Duke Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

Let's do a quick rundown of our roster.

[Jason Moore]

Say the exact same thing.

[Andy Holloway]

You're right. Let's do that. Aaron Rodgers is our quarterback at running back right now. On the roster, we have Eddie Lacy, C.J. spiller, Jonathan Stewart, and Latavius Murray. At wide receiver, we have what I think people would view as a thinner group, especially in a PPR. So at least in name, DeAndre Hopkins, Martavis Bryant, and Larry Fitzgerald. So I think wide receiver is a point of need right now on our roster.

[Mike Wright]

I can agree.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you think that we paid the price on that a little bit by taking Roger so early? Because we went. We started this draft with two running backs.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, correct.

[Andy Holloway]

So at that point where we would have taken our first wide receiver, we end up with Aaron Rodgers. And so now we have a little bit of a thinner wide receiver core, but we have to just hit on guys.

[Jason Moore]

I don't think that's true. Didn't we take DeAndre Hopkins?

[Mike Wright]

No, we passed. He came back.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Wright]

And we took him in the fourth.

[Andy Holloway]

No, he's right. It was Lacey, Hopkins, Rogers.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So that.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yes.

[Jason Moore]

Yes. Yeah. So I don't. I don't think it was.

[Andy Holloway]

Now we made a choice then of Spiller over.

[Jason Moore]

Right. I don't think that it was taking Rogers that thinned our wide receivers. I think there were just too many valuable running backs and I prefer having that because through the year, even in a ppr and perhaps even especially in a ppr, you're going to be able to find wide receivers that can plug in that after the draft, you might not be happy with your wide receiver core, but you're going to be fine. One, one name that I was curious whether it was out there. Zach Ertz.

[Andy Holloway]

Zach Ertz has been drafted. I will give you some names that I'm kind of surprised are sitting there. You guys can tell me if you like any of them. Marcus Colson in the ninth now versus Cooks in the third. Pierre Garcon's out there. Brashad Perryman still out there.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know if we're in the position where we'd rather take a Bolden or a Colson than we would a Perryman because of the way our roster is constructed. Any other, you know, other names?

[Jason Moore]

What round is this?

[Andy Holloway]

We're in the ninth round and this.

[Mike Wright]

Name may shock some people, but the. I've talked about them all off season. Eric Decker would be in high, high consideration for me right here. I would look between Eric Decker, Bolden and Reuben Randall, I think he's going to see a lot of targets this year.

[Jason Moore]

I actually kind of am feeling the Ruben Randall pick. He's not necessarily.

[Mike Wright]

He might go later, though.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He's not the ADP guy to take here, so we can bet on him coming later. But as far as value of the wide receivers left on the board, I actually think that he has a chance of finishing as high as other guys. Anquan Bolden, to me, again with the Larry Fitzgerald thing, it's a little hard to get yourself to draft, you know, the crew of the old wide receivers, but value wise, I like him.

[Mike Wright]

Quan Bolton has been a beast since he got to San Francisco. A beast.

[Andy Holloway]

Another name that I want to mention here. We haven't talked about him all offseason, but he was a PPR monster two years ago. Was Kendall Wright out of Tennessee. Obviously we have a turnover in that. In the quarterback position, but a guy that's underneath that catches 90 to 100 balls, which he did. Is that a consideration at all for either of you guys?

[Mike Wright]

Not at this point. For me, I would still lean with the veterans of Bolden and yeah, I.

[Andy Holloway]

Don'T feel great about Bolden here. So Kendall Wright, I'd rather Charles Johnson or Garcon here.

[Mike Wright]

Kendall wright had only 57 receptions last year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. What was the year before, though? Pulling it up because he was injured last year.

[Jason Moore]

So it looks like we're going to have a four.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. 94 receptions.

[Jason Moore]

So, yeah, we're going to have a hard time finding a complete consensus.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, this is the tough part of the draft. So, Jason, I'm going to give you the opportunity to make the pick on our behalf.

[Jason Moore]

All right. I am taking the Carolina defense put it in.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Can I undo what I just said?

[Mike Wright]

Too late.

[Jason Moore]

You can undo what I said. All right. If I have to draft somebody right now, I think you do. Yep. I'm going to go for Rashad Perryman. I think that the makeup of the team, the upside potential, I got no.

[Andy Holloway]

Problem with that at all.

[Jason Moore]

So.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so our bench now has Latavius Murray, Larry Fitzgerald and Rashad Perryman.

[Jason Moore]

On it and all the running backs.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, we're running through. Through to the 10th round. Is this the point where we want to jump on a tight end? Because Ifrt still on the board, but there's not many guys up ahead of him. That being said, most have already drafted.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. How many?

[Andy Holloway]

4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 tight ends have come off the board. Actually, 15, 16, 16 tight ends.

[Mike Wright]

I don't mind. I don't mind waiting.

[Andy Holloway]

I push it to the limit, I guess. At this point, we are so efforts left.

[Jason Moore]

Larry Danelle is left.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If we wanted running back depth, we'd have to bet on guys like David Johnson, Jay Ajayi, Terrence west, you know, Monte Ball. There's not a whole lot out there, but I wouldn't mind taking a flyer on David Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

That's who I would take. I would either take Eifert, get that locked up, because he's by far the best guy I have left, but I would go David Johnson and hope that Ifert makes it back.

[Jason Moore]

If that was my pick, I would have gun, Cameron Artist, Payne. Just throwing that out there.

[Mike Wright]

That's way too early.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's too early. It's early now, but I think come.

[Andy Holloway]

Draft, here's a. Kevin White's on the.

[Mike Wright]

Board because he's not really a PPR guy.

[Jason Moore]

And honestly, you know, when I saw Kevin White, the first thought that came to my mind was huge potential. The second thought that came to my mind was Eddie Royal, you know, in a PPR league.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

I think Royals, possibly higher. So.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so we went with David Johnson in the 10th, Tyler Ifert in the beginning of the 11th round, and we've got one spot left on our bench.

[Jason Moore]

It better be Cameron Artist Payne. Is he there?

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. Let's. Let's see who's available.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Who is.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm sure he's there because he's not going to be drafted by anybody. Jason, you realize that he is there. He's definitely there. He's very, very there. Some other guy. So you're telling me right now, hold on a second. You take Cameron Artist Pain over Kevin White, Nelson Aguilar, Charles Johnson. I mean, that's just my friend. It's wild.

[Jason Moore]

If this was a real draft that I was in that I wanted to make sure that I had the best players, I would draft Cameron Artis Payne before leaving my draft. Right now, in every draft I have.

[Mike Wright]

Is Reuben Randall still there?

[Andy Holloway]

Ruben Randall still there?

[Mike Wright]

Is Eric Decker still there?

[Andy Holloway]

Eric Decker is gone.

[Mike Wright]

Reuben Randle would be my pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm sorry, buddy.

[Jason Moore]

No, I like. I like Ruben Randall.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that is it for our PPR mock draft. Let me give you a quick rundown of our. Our team. It was a little different for us. We went with dicey quarterback in the third round, so I think we were a little. Little less comfortable than normal.

[Jason Moore]

Throwing off our normal.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's good because that happens in drafts. Because if you're in your draft and you go in thinking, I'm gonna wait for a quarterback late and Aaron Rodgers is sitting there in the third round, you're gonna have to make the same decision. So Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy, C.J. spiller, DeAndre Hopkins, Martavis Bryant, Tyler Eifert, Jonathan Stewart, Latavius Murray, Larry Fitzgerald, Rashad Perryman, David Johnson, and Reuben Randall. What are your thoughts?

[Mike Wright]

If I took this team and I swapped Latavius Murray for Abdullah, then this team would just be off the charts.

[Jason Moore]

I actually think this is a pretty solid team. It's. I've only got one Pain point, and it's Cameron Artist Pain.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jason Moore]

He is my Pain point and my new love affair. I'm telling you guys, wait as the season. You know what? Let's just wait for after the season when Cameron Artist Pain is the rookie breakout of the year.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that's it for our PPR mock draft. We will post. Do we post the results of these ones? I think we will try to do that. I'll try to post the results so people can see what happened. It'll be on the website.

[Mike Wright]

Pull up our team ranking just so. Oh, we got to draft a kicker and a defense.

[Andy Holloway]

No, we're not doing that right now. So we're gonna answer some questions from the listeners instead.

[Jason Moore]

Mailbag.

[Mike Wright]

Mail bag.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, just a reminder. If you want to ask a question, you can go to the website thefantasyfootballers.com go to the upper right corner. Click on Submit a question. You can also call us.

[Brian Tesh]

Hi, guys. Just recently discovered your podcast. You're now among my top two two podcasts for fantasy football. I'm in a 10 team standard redrafting league and have been practicing on the Yahoo mock live draft. But I'm using the fantasy pros draft.

[Mike Wright]

Assistant when they draft at the end.

[Brian Tesh]

Of a given live draft.

[Mike Wright]

I'm finding that I'm in the lower half of the Yahoo.

[Andy Holloway]

Ratings based on the projected fantasy points.

[Brian Tesh]

But I'm always in the top three of the fantasy prose.

[Andy Holloway]

Ratings.

[Brian Tesh]

Just wondering which one I should hang my hat on. The fantasy prose one which is based on all those experts. Or should I also be concerned that.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm in the lower half of the Yahoo rating?

[Mike Wright]

Thanks a lot, guys.

[Jason Moore]

If you have, if you have to hang your hat on one of those two, I would definitely hang my hat with fantasy pros over. Over Yahoo. For sure. However, I would hang my hat on my gut. I really believe that you, when you start believing rankings too much and saying, oh, these guys say I'm valuable, then you have to, you have to believe in your team. And you know, if you just want a high rated team by a computer, then just draft the guy at the top of the list every time and it'll say you did a good job.

[Mike Wright]

We had a listener, a member of the Foot clan message us, said they did that and it worked out splendidly and they were the top of everything.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Because obviously I completely agree with Jason. Go with your gut. It's. Don't worry so much about the Yahoo ranking saying how you did. It's really hard when you, when you're in this tight of a competition to remove yourself from the crowd thinking the, the group thought all those things. And you, you have to be an individual and believe in yourself and believe in your team.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And it's, it's June 29th to boot. You know, we have, we're not even in camp. We don't know where these guys are. These are, you know, the expert rankings are a shot in the dark to a degree. Right. And that's what one of these questions coming up actually brings up. So I'll have you guys answer this and I'm curious to see what you say. Let's go to another one. Hi, this is Uncle Juice from Uncle Juice.

[Jason Moore]

Very nice.

[Brian Tesh]

The owner of the Charge Oncos who won last year.

[Mike Wright]

Congratulations.

[Andy Holloway]

Anyways, I have the, what I think is the best offseason fantasy football question.

[Brian Tesh]

What percentage do you think luck when.

[Andy Holloway]

It comes to fantasy football? Clearly it can't be 0%. Probably not 100%. Somewhere in between.

[Brian Tesh]

What do you think?

[Andy Holloway]

Thank you. I have a quick answer for this one. The obvious answer is that when you win, it is 0% luck, and when you lose, it is 100% bad luck. Am I right?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I always go to the quote I heard that said, great players make the great fantasy football players make the playoffs, lucky fantasy players win the championship. And there is. Well, it's just kind of funny, but there is some truth to it there. There's still luck involved in. There's complete randomness in what we are playing. But that's why you need to be informed and have your team set up the right way, have your handcuffs. When you're going into the playoffs, be ready for as many scenarios as you can, because that's how. That's how you eliminate as much luck as possible, is prepare for a bunch of scenarios, but you're still not gonna eliminate that, like 30, 35% luck. It's just there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's definitely a minority because there is a lot of skill and a lot of, you know, those players who keep on it, those players who say, listen to podcasts, just any podcast. Doesn't have to be the fancy footballers, but it's the best podcast. Yeah, there it was. It's. It's a minority. There's. There's a lot of skill to the game, but it's. It's like playing poker. You know, you look at professional card players, there's a reason there at the, you know, the championship table year after year. But of course there's some luck involved.

[Andy Holloway]

So, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, not to compare us to the guys that are actually on the field playing, but the same elements exist in professional sports on the field, you know, where you construct a roster a certain way, you make the best possible move you can, and then unexpected things happen. I mean, guys tear their acl, and it surprises the fan community as much as it does the teammates that they have in the locker room. So, yeah, luck is a part of it, absolutely. I mean, but we try to put you in a position on this show, at least to make the best decision you can and then, you know, get as far as you possibly can do better than the guy next to you. So let's go to the next question. Hey, guys, I love the podcast. Just started listening, and it's really above and beyond. You guys are covering already. So my question is, I'm in a.

[Brian Tesh]

League with six teams.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a very close league. It's an absurd league. It's standard scoring, four points per quarterback.

[Brian Tesh]

And it's three flexes, IDP and defense. And it's two receivers, two running Backs a quarterback kicker. So basically the fifth and sixth pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Are already taken in the draft and.

[Jason Moore]

Now it's my turn to choose a pick.

[Andy Holloway]

Which pick do you think is the best take? Between one and four. And maybe if you guys could give a little reason. Thanks.

[Jason Moore]

Love the show. Between one and four?

[Mike Wright]

Well, it's a six team league. He's saying he wants. He's picking a draft position. 1 or 4.

[Andy Holloway]

1. Yeah. Anywhere in that range because the two people have taken the fifth and sixth spot already. So he gets to choose between the 1, 2, 3 and 4. So any thoughts on that? I mean, that's obviously a crazy league. Like he said. I mean, you got three flexes, you've got six people, you have IDP defense. It's not a keeper. Right.

[Mike Wright]

I don't, I don't think I heard that, but I know what I do. I go one or two.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think one in a 16.

[Mike Wright]

When you're in a six teams where you don't have to wait that far to go back. And in six teams you're. You're superstar versus superstar. So I want the ones. I want my team's success riding on me. I want to make the decisions. I don't want to. To have to get a de facto running back. Who's left. I want to pick out of the superstars. So I'm going to go one or two.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I would go two because I like AP and Eddie Lacy and so I would go two.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we got time for a couple more. Jacob from D.C. has sent us an email. He says, hey guys, my league just switched over to a FAB system.

[Jason Moore]

Good.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Instead of reverse order of the standings claim system. So he's talking about waiver wire. Okay. Free agents.

[Jason Moore]

And for those that don't know, that stands for free agent budget.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, FAB system, free agent, auction budget.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Auction or acquisition?

[Jason Moore]

Who knows?

[Andy Holloway]

It's auction. Oh, yeah. I'm 97% sure it's auction because it's. You're bidding against each other. I'm way into the change, but how does this change things? How do you approach folks? How much should you budget out for general transactions versus big dollar bids? Any general information will be helpful. This is a great question. We switched over to FAB in a couple of our leagues a few years ago. I have some thoughts on this. I'll let you guys go first.

[Mike Wright]

Going to FAB is absolutely the way to go. What it does is it gives everyone a fair chance instead of just the people who lose where and what seems to happen year to year is after week one there is a huge waiver sensation and they, they win the league for some teams where you've got Alfred Morris last year, Justin for set and the people who, the only people can get that guy is you happen to lose week one. So congratulations, you've been handed a player that for free that no one else had a chance to get. So the way I like to do fab is that's a lengthy discussion.

[Jason Moore]

I can give you a principle that I think is good for me. Just like one tip. Save money for the end of the year. And that doesn't mean don't spend money early. Okay? So I'm fine spending on guys I want. But make sure you don't bottom out. If the middle of the year you're getting close to, you know, you got like $6 left or $10 left, save it. Start zero bidding. Because when you get to the playoffs you're going to want to be able to spend that dollar against teams F0 for those really important waiver claims. That's my tip is when you're at the second half of the year, save some for the playoffs.

[Mike Wright]

My quick tip is to remember you can bid zero. Some people don't.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, one teeny bit of information is when you're switching to a fab, everybody's going to be very hesitant and so you'll have the opportunity if you bid in the first few weeks to probably get guys at good values. I'm always of the opinion that you pay for the guy that you want on the waiver wire when he's available. You have no guarantee that another guy is going to flash in the pan down the line. And if you can pay for a guy and he's going to contribute to your team. I did this with Julian Edelman a couple years ago. Go pay for him. You know, don't be, don't be afraid to spend. But I think what Jason says, you know, is really smart too, where if you're in a head to head matchup and you're trying to sign a defense and it's you're in the playoffs or you're going towards the playoffs and you don't have any money, it just hurts or.

[Mike Wright]

And also throw bets out on a player, maybe they're the top waiver claim of the week and you don't think you're going to get them. Throw a small bit out. You're going to be surprised how many times that, that everybody has that thought and no one bets on him and then you get a sneaky awesome waiver player for $3. But I think this is a very good topic that we need to flesh out in a couple episodes.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. So that's it for our mailbag section today. We've been trying to get through. Like I said, you know, we can only answer so many on the show each day but keep sending them in. We email reply to them. We're gonna start doing some answers on our YouTube channel as well. We're here for you. We're here for the Foot Clan and we appreciate all you do and listening and contributing on Twitter. You can follow us Heffballers guys, good show. Thanks to Brian Tesh again for listening and we'll get these PPR results.

[Mike Wright]

Free Agen acquisition budget. Oh man, I was gonna waterbed it. 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.