$15 Million DraftKings Best Ball Livestream (Ep. 1659)

Summary

FantasyPros Fantasy Football Podcast

Episode: $15 Million DraftKings Best Ball Livestream (Ep. 1659)

Release Date: August 20, 2025

Host: Tom
Co-Host: Andrew Erickson

---

Episode Overview

This episode features a special livestream as hosts Tom and Andrew Erickson tackle the massive $15 million DraftKings Best Ball headline contest. Throughout a live draft, they discuss evolving player values, recent NFL news, pure best ball strategy, and field listener questions, offering actionable advice for both newcomers and hardcore fantasy footballers. The conversation is rapid-fire, insightful, and full of in-draft decision-making with a focus on value, roster construction, and high-upside plays.

---

Main DraftKings Best Ball Discussion

What is Best Ball? (01:17)

• Tom outlines Best Ball's appeal: draft once, no in-season management, your best-performing players are scored automatically.
• "Set it and forget it...no trades, waivers or sitting lineups." (Tom, 01:17)

---

Early Draft Strategy & First Round Insights

Picking from the 11 Spot (02:22)

• Andrew prefers early picks but highlights value at the back end: "Round one is really deep, and you’re getting round one talent in the beginning of round two."
• Both hosts excited about leveraging shifting ADPs and news.

Puka Nacua – Buy, Sell, or Hold? (03:03)

• Tom expresses concern about Nacua due to Matthew Stafford’s injury status.
• Andrew remains confident:

  "He's just too talented of a guy, first-round talent to fall out of round one entirely...The fact that Puka Nacua has schemed up touches, he's a third-year wide receiver where we see breakouts all the time." (Andrew, 03:31)

• Comparison to running back injury risk mirrors Nacua’s QB uncertainty.

Touchdown Regression & WR Tiers (04:34)

• Tom discusses Nacua’s lack of TDs compared to elite WRs: "If he can unlock that side to his game…we draft him as a top 4 wide receiver." (Tom, 04:34)
• Ongoing debate between taking Saquon Barkley vs. Bijan Robinson at the top.

The “Where the Puck’s Going” Analogy (05:42)

• Andrew references Sigmund Bloom’s advice:

  "You want to be where the puck’s going...Who’s going to have the Saquon Barkley year this year? Probably not Saquon again." (Andrew, 05:42)

---

Early Rounds: Player Selections & Building for Uniqueness

Rounds 1-2: Building Around Puka Nacua & Drake London (06:18)

• Puka falls to pick 11, the hosts happily select him.
• Tom: “Just taking Puka ... pairing him with Drake London…we’ve already got a different build that a lot of people couldn’t get earlier in the contest.” (Tom, 07:00)
• Andrew shares his "positive TD regression" research and why both Nacua and London stand out as hidden touchdown upside candidates.

Rounds 3-4: Punting Running Back, Value Grabs (11:08)

• Andrew targets Ken Walker and Omarion Hampton, noting strong value due to falling ADPs.
• Tom highlights that fantasy news, like injuries to Najee Harris, influences surges in player value mid-draft.

---

Rapid Fire: Hot Topics & Audience Questions

Marvin Harrison Jr. Outlook (55:02)

• Andrew:

  “His floor probably is not being talked about enough where this is a clear cut number one wide receiver…The concern is can he get to the next level with Kyler Murray?” (Andrew, 55:26)

Is Handcuffing RBs Bad in Best Ball? (36:20)

• Tom: “It’s not really bad. You kind of lock into only maximizing one player, but in Best Ball…they could ping pong.”
• Andrew: “I like the Walker/Charbonnet combo—I'll sacrifice a roster spot to ensure I get Seahawks RB1.”

Prioritizing Early QB or TE? (16:26)

• Andrew leans elite QB in redraft, elite TE in Best Ball (if true difference-makers available).
• Tom: “Elite tight ends have been on a pretty crappy run…slightly lean elite QB because I prefer two rather than three at that position in my builds.”

---

Draft Room Highlights & Debate

Drafting for Unique Lineups (06:57, 18:29)

• Hosts emphasize pairing less common player combos for contest leverage.
• On Ricky Pearsall:

  “Every now and again, it’s good to take somebody that you quite often don’t take as much.” (Tom, 18:29)

Handling ADP Hype & FOMO (48:20)

• Andrew warns against refusing to draft rising players due to missed "early value":

  “Every year we see this, there’s still people refusing to draft Chase Brown because they weren’t in on him...meanwhile those of us who are willing to reset...get the exposure.” (Andrew, 48:35)

---

Deep Rounds & Roster Construction

QB/Skill Player Stacks

• Leveraging team correlations for Week 17 upside: “You need to approach week 17 as more of an individual DFS style lineup...bet on a smaller range of outcomes." (Tom, 26:21)

Late Round Picks & Upside Swings

• Heavy focus on rookie & second-year RBs/WRs (e.g., Braylon Allen, Trey Benson, Jalen Coker).
• “This is where we see these guys pop and really take that next leap in terms of making a jump.” (Andrew, 64:26)

---

Notable Quotes & Advice

• “Set it and forget it. If you’ve not done Best Ball before, there’s no weekly roster management…this is perfect for casual and serious players alike.” (Tom, 01:17)
• “We’re buying into…guys who are positive touchdown regression candidates.” (Andrew, 07:21)
• “Football season is right around the corner and there is no better way to lock in your fantasy dominance early than with Best Ball…” (Tom, 08:12)
• “If you’re going to fade Saquon, then you gotta take Will Shipley. That’s the way I see it. Gotta make correlated bets.” (Andrew, 51:09)

---

Audience Q&A (Selected Responses & Timestamps)

• How to approach superflex with missing mid-round picks:

  "Prioritize locking in a quarterback in the first round...try and get an elite quarterback, then see how the board falls." (Tom, 22:58)

• Purdy/Kittle/Pearsall triple stack?

  "Yes. I love that. That's a great way to approach it." (Andrew, 31:13)

• How do you feel about Devante Adams?

  Tom likes him (29:02), Andrew is less bullish now than preseason, especially if already drafting Puka Nacua.

• Who’s the better Texans RB flier—Nick Chubb or Woody Marks?

  Tom: “I want Woody Marks because of his pass catching upside…” (59:15)

---

Final Draft Results & Reflections

• Notable selections:

  • Value picks: Puka Nacua, Omari Hampton, Michael Penix
  • Late upside: Jalen Noel, Jalen Coker, Ray-Ray McCloud, AD Mitchell
  • Rookie/second-year focus: heavy bets on rushing upside and positive regression.

• Andrew’s assessment:

  “We went really aggressive with receiver to start...then left it alone till the last four picks. The double stacks are excellent…types of players we put our bets on—rookie and second-year RBs, second-year QBs—this is when they leap.” (Andrew, 65:51)

• Tom on value:

  “When you are willing to take those scoops and just build something slightly different, it results in a nice team.” (Tom, 65:51)

---

Fun & Memorable Moments

• Andrew dropping analytics live (“I posted on X earlier today…” 07:21)
• The contagious excitement about weekly Twitch Q&A with the FantasyPros crew (21:14)
• Ongoing inside jokes about "Andrew Erickson Branded" receivers and going "back to the well"

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:17 – Best Ball explanation & format
• 02:22 – Early round strategy & draft position
• 03:03 – Puka/Nacua deep dive
• 05:42 – RB tiers and chasing upside
• 07:21 – TD regression candidates, data from X (Twitter)
• 16:26 – Early QB/TE Q&A
• 22:58 – Superflex draft without mid-round picks
• 26:21 – Week 17 DFS style roster construction
• 29:02 – Devante Adams vs. other WRs
• 36:20 – Handcuffing RBs in Best Ball
• 48:20 – Handling ADP risers and value FOMO
• 55:02 – Marvin Harrison Jr. rookie outlook
• 59:15 – Texans RB controversy: Chubb or Woody Marks?
• 65:51 – Reflection on value, roster construction

---

Summary

A high-caliber, dynamic best ball draft and strategy session—chock-full of sharp takes, actionable advice, and the latest news—making it a must-listen (or read) for drafters serious about beating the odds in giant-field DraftKings tournaments. Tom and Andrew’s chemistry and depth of analysis shine as they navigate each round and audience question, providing a roadmap for finding the critical edge in today’s ever-shifting fantasy football landscape.

Transcript

[Noah de Barrasso]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Ever go to McNachos on game day and realize the cheese is missing or the chips or both? It happens all the time. But check it. Walmart Express Delivery gets what's needed in as fast as one hour. One hour, people. And it's not just food. It's phone chargers, pet supplies, toilet paper. Try it now and get free delivery on a first order with promo code Express. Walmart Express delivery in as fast as 1 hour. Promotion valid for First Express delivery order $50 min Subject to availability restrictions apply.

[Tom]

Less than 3 weeks until we are starting to talk about certain lineups. Andrew, we are getting so close now. We are going to be Drafting tonight on DraftKings. NFL best ball $15 million headline contest. And we'll jump in in just a second. But Andrew, you starting to get excited?

[Andrew Erickson]

Starting to get excited. We've been draf all summer long. Finally everyone's getting into the madness. We got the casuals going against the people that are the die hards. It's a wild wild west and things are updating. ADPs are moving rapidly with all the news. This guy's getting traded. This guy's moving up the depth chart. This guy's on ir. What a time to be alive. Tom.

[Tom]

Straight into my veins. Put it in. We're going to jump straight into this contest because I don't know how long it's going to take to fill. Who knows where we'll end up picking in the draft and we want to make sure we've got enough time to get to everyone's questions. But look, if you haven't already, now is the perfect time to start drafting on DraftKings. This contest, the NFL best ball $15 million headline contest. Huge prizes up top. It's only $20 entry. Set it and forget it. If you've not done Best Ball before, there's no weekly roster management. You draft your team once your best performing players are automatically scored each week. No need for trades, waivers or sitting lineups. Myself and Andrew are trying to draft as many teams as possible. I know people out there who are drafted into the thousands, people drafted into the hundreds. Whatever you're after, this is perfect for casual and serious players alike. Whether you've got a home league draft coming up in a few weeks, it's a great time to just get used to what the ADP is like. Try some different builds. Andrew, we filled quite quickly. I know yesterday DraftKings had 17,000 entries in this contest alone. So they're definitely filling up quite quickly. And we've pulled the 11 pick. How are you feeling about that?

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm feeling good. This is the area of the draft that I again, I usually want to pick somewhere in the top four. Like I feel good about the top four guys where I have them ranked in a particular order. But besides that, my favorite spot to draft is in the back end. Because we've talked about this in a lot of shows. Whether it's best ball or redraft, that round one is really deep and you're getting round one talent in the beginning of round two. So picking here at the 11th pick, we get the second pick. In the second round we're going to get two really strong guys. And I'm interested to see with what's been happening with recent news, who's available to us, who's falling, who's rising, especially when it comes to even round one.

[Tom]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Pukinaku is the key one within round one that I think we've got to keep an eye for. Did you find yourself adjusting your rankings to drop them down slightly? Because over the weekend it looked like the Matthew Stafford situation was quite bleak. And then today when we're expecting Sean McVay to make an announcement around that, all of a sudden Matthew Stafford's out there and practicing and obviously not practicing as complete as you might wish, but it seems like he's out there and doing okay.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I haven't really moved Puka down. I think I've been tempted but I just haven't seen. I just have not been able to pull the trigger. I just think that he's such a talented receiver and if it's not Stafford in there for a couple games, you have Jimmy Garoppolo, like they feel pretty good about their backup and then just kind of rewatching some of the preseason action, the Rams like third string offense ripped up, I think the starting Chargers defense. So it's just an infrastructure offensively where yes, obviously you want Stafford out there for 17 games, but chances are he's probably not gonna play all 17. The fact that Puka Nuku has schemed up touches, he's a third year wide receiver where we see breakouts all the time. He's fourth in receiving yards per game since his rookie year. He's just too talented of a guy, first round talent to fall out of round one entirely. I get that there's concerns, but I do think that they have an opportunity or he has an opportunity, especially if he falls. I mean look at all the running backs that go around him. It's like McCaffrey, Barkley, those guys have plenty of risks, too, especially when it comes from the injury front. But it's those players actually missing time versus Puka, where we're concerned about the quarterback a little bit more.

[Tom]

Yeah, like, when it comes to Puka, I struggle to elevate him to the same tier as Jamar Chase, Ceedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson. That's because of touchdowns. He's only got nine receiving touchdowns through two years. And you know, that kind of works out to like 0.3 per game when guys like Chase and Jefferson. Well, chase is like 0.7 over the last two years, and then Jefferson and Ceedee Lam are both about 0.55. So if he can unlock that side to his game, then, yeah, you can make the argument that in a year's time, we draft him as a top four wide receiver with no worries whatsoever. But this draft starts in a fairly, fairly normal sort of order. Jamar Chase, Saquon Barkley, Ceedee Lamb, Bijan Robinson, Barkley and Robinson continued sort of flip flop back and forth. And I don't think I've heard anybody who really feels too strong about either way. I know we've talked about, like, the touch, the workload for Saquon Barkley. We've talked about Will Shipley developing a bigger role. But, like, when people want Saquon Barkley ahead of Bijan Robinson, it. It's hard to be like, oh, my God, I can't believe you're doing that.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I, I don't think that it's one of those types of things. But I don't know. I think it was a. It was a simile or an allegory that Sigmund Bloom made on a podcast a couple weeks ago where he talked about, you don't want to be where the puck has been shot or you want to be where the puck's going. Right? So it's like, who is going to have the Saquon Barkley year this year? Probably not Saquon again, just because that's really hard to do. And, you know, that's why I still prefer Bijan. But again, I'm not going to, you know, insult anyone that's like, oh, well, I really like Barkley because again, like, after week one, he's probably going to do pretty well. I feel like the Thursday night game with as a Barkley fader is not going to be fun.

[Tom]

Okay, so Puka Nakua does fall to us. Derrick Henry, Brian Thomas, Sachin Genty, Devon Achan Drake, London all over Top of adp. I'd be comfortable taking Puka here.

[Andrew Erickson]

All right, let's do it.

[Tom]

I think that it's worth remembering that this contest, it's already had nearly 600,000 entries. So just taking Puka at this end of the board and pairing him with somebody like Drake London who hasn't really fallen that far past this area, you know, that area in the second round, or even Devonur Chan who's been at this end of the board for quite a long time, I'd be very comfortable with that. Andrew, do you think that's the play if we can.

[Andrew Erickson]

Going with Drake London?

[Tom]

Yeah. Or just looking for a kind of combination that hasn't been drafted throughout this draft.

[Andrew Erickson]

Oh my. Josh Allen. That's probably, that's probably not. That probably hasn't been drafted. Yeah, I don't care either Genti or Drake London.

[Tom]

Brian Thomas or Drake Brian Thomas or Drake London or Genty. I'd rather go Brian Thomas or Drake London.

[Andrew Erickson]

Let's go with Drake London. I'm never going to say no to Drake. If anything, we're. Yeah, we're buying into. So I looked up. So this was something I posted on X earlier today and it was a trend that I was looking back last year at. And I looked at receivers that have accumulated 2,000 receiving yards without scoring any touchdowns over the last two seasons. So entering 2024, the two receivers that were kind of in that category that look like prime positive touchdown regression candidates were Chris Olave who obviously did not do anything, do anything last year. The other guy was Terry McLaurin who scored a boatload of touchdowns. So the three guys in that category this year are the aforementioned. Like you said, Puka Nikua just nine touchdowns over his last two seasons. I mean, DeMarcus Robinson scored seven touchdowns last year, which is crazy.

[Tom]

Scored seven touchdowns. Like, yeah, it's like there's plenty of. Yeah, there's plenty of guys less talented. You end up finding a way in the end zone. We just, well, I mean, you know, you're talking about a guy who's bought like 260 plus targets over the last two years. It's mind boggling. But it hasn't resulted in more touchdowns. But yeah, I like this point in the contest. As we said, there's over 570,000, 580,000 people entered this contest and the idea of gaining leverage on them now we've got Puka Naku, we've got Drake London. So we've already got a different build that a lot of people couldn't get earlier. In the contest and now we can look at different values and react to some of preseason news and again, keep building on that. We don't even need to necessarily reach. But I mean, that's what's so good about this. And you know, look, football season, it is right around the corner and there is no better way to lock in your fancy dominance early than with best ball on DraftKings. Draft once. Ride your roster all season long. Right now, DraftKings is giving all customers a can't miss offer. Draft 1 get one enter a lineup in this contest, the $15 million best ball contest for just $20 and you'll score another best ball ticket to play three for a share of $15 million, giving you a second shot to win big. It's easy. Just draft your team once, no weekly management required, and let your top scorers automatically start each week. Across the whole season, every breakout start, every clutch play, every touchdown will count towards your quest for a share of $15 million. Look, me and Andrew, we've already locked in Drake, London and that and that great pick of Puka Nkua. We are absolutely going to be looking to build around that and build the best roster. But you can be downloading the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app now to draft your $20 best ball lineup to play for a share of $15 million. Get a second ticket to play three for a share of $15 million. Two chances to win big without ever setting your lineup again. I mean, that is music to my ears. Draft one get one only on DraftKing. The crown is yours. Gambling problem call 1-800- Gamble 877-8-Hopeny or text Hopeny at 467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-78-9777 or visit ccpg.org 18/ plus in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. One per customer. End of a best ball $15 million headline contest by night 425 to get one bonus entry $20 entry fee required. Reward expires in 30 days. See terms at DraftKings. Do-BestBall-Ball sponsored by DK now let's get back to this draft and talk about where things have gone there. So we're into the third round since we last picked. A bunch of running backs went off the board and then lamar Jackson, Trey McBride of the kind of onesies. So we've got a really interesting situation there. We've got a bunch of questions in the chat and we are going to come back to those as we Kind of get around this turn. But Andrew, what are you thinking? Two picks in that you'd like to achieve when it comes back to us?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think I want to take Ken Walker with one of these. These picks here and either the 311 or 412. So I have added him to the queue. I've also added Jechroy, Krosky, Merritt to the queue just so that we're ahead of the game. Just so he's in there if we.

[Tom]

End up portal picking.

[Andrew Erickson]

I know, I know, I know it's a very risky. This is risky business, people. But I'm just throwing him in the queue just so we remember to maybe pull him up a little bit. You know, we'll see how things go. But I think for this pick, I do like Ken Walker. O' Marion Hampton is. Is available. I would be fine taking him as well. I like the running backs and we punted running back earlier on, so it would be Hampton. I. I'm still Hampton over Henderson. I don't. I don't know if you're.

[Tom]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

There still.

[Tom]

Yeah, I'm. I'm with you. Amarian Hampton over Henderson. Is. Is Hampton not the better pick here? Like, because we'd get him six picks past adp, whereas Kenneth Walker, we could maybe push around the corner.

[Andrew Erickson]

Oh, yeah. Agreed. Yeah.

[Tom]

Let's go.

[Andrew Erickson]

Hampton here.

[Tom]

Okay, cool. I've got Matthew Berry coming on my channel this week to talk about his ride or die for the season being Omarion Hampton. And since he declared in that he was the RB20 and now he's RB13. So, I mean, maybe he knew about Najee Harris's eye. But this turn is interesting for the team behind us. With Derrick Henry, Josh Allen, Marvin Harrison going, that team feels like a bit of a wild card. They take Trevion Henderson. Are you still purely on Ken Walker here?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, either Ken Walker or Tetracmillen. I know he just pulled up with a hamstring, so it does concern me a little bit, but.

[Tom]

Oh, really?

[Andrew Erickson]

I like. I mean, I like. I like Ken Walker.

[Tom]

Let's go, Ken Walker. I'm fine with that. Like, part of me has been thinking maybe you should be hedging slightly against the Ken Walker stuff based on how Zach Charbonnet's looked in camp, how things have been working out with Ken Walker not practicing. But look, we've like Ken Walker all year and to get that combination that we've got to start, I think it is worth doing in the chat. We've got a question from the big D3300 is a Mecha Regas ADP getting crazy. I mean, it's kind of getting there. Like Andrew, where's he at on DraftKings right now as the team goes? Nico Collins, Brock Bowers, Jayn Daniels and Jalen hurts to start the draft. I think, though, you can make the argument that Egbuka's ADP isn't as high as it's going to get. So here is that 61.6 really high.

[Andrew Erickson]

So.

[Tom]

But you. We know that Godwin's quite likely to start the season on putt and miss those first four games when that happens, like, and we've already been counting in that to his adp, but people are going to push him further up. So I'm okay taking him at this point, but when the inevitable next push comes, I think that's when I probably would stop. Do you, do you think that right now it's too high or would you be willing to keep going for a little bit longer?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think it's a little too high. I think that sometimes we're now, have you considered valuing.

[Tom]

Have you considered that he had one catch for a touchdown though, this week? 100% touchdown rate.

[Andrew Erickson]

It was a pretty nice touchdown after Jalen McMillan got injured and left the game and none of the other guys are playing and Kane Ott dropped a bunch of passes. Teddy Bridgewater.

[Tom]

That's not how we do preseason. We're supposed to just take the bits that we want and ignore that part. No, I, I think I can agree with you.

[Andrew Erickson]

I guess the thing for me is, yes, it's nice that it seems like he has a more of a Runway to start the year, but that's really more for like redraft that we're concerned about that like the money weeks are 15, 16, 17. Like, we all know that and we all know that, you know, rookies tend to hit that hot streak at the end of the season. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, him starting out the year is necessarily a bad thing, but, you know, well, Chris Godwin could probably play a potential bigger role at the second half of the season if he's coming back. You know, Janet McMillan, if he's banged up, maybe he comes back as well. So I guess for me, like, I, I'm having trouble kind of grasping the idea that now Egbuca, who I think was definitely going outside the top 100, is now significantly a better pick with what his impact will be week 15, 16 and 17, when the bet on that probably hasn't changed that much like it's the same thing and I think that he was probably undervalued definitely going outside the top 100 picks but now I think that it's probably getting to a point where it's too much and now does the value become with Chris Godwin like what about him like as a guy that could have a hot stretch down the line weeks 15, 16, 17 if Egbuka misses time or something along that along those lines that happen. So that's my only kind of pushback with it. I think a redraft he's definitely worth chasing up the board.

[Tom]

Yeah and Godwin's kind of falling to that point now like the wide receiver dead zone so you can get him at times where you've been locked out of wide receiver a little bit. So I do understand your point. Muscle Hamster Appreciate you starting a combo over here on Twitch the chat so much fun over here on Twitch. If you are listening to us or watching us on YouTube on repeat make sure you come and check us out. Slatah first time chat excellent name. Very much appreciate you being here and we will start getting to it. We'll get to one more question and we'll take Slater two he's as a first time chair do you think an early QB or tight end is more important example Kittle or Daniels?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think that in redraft formats I think it's probably the elite quarterback I think that I probably prefer a little bit more I think at best ball I think that elite tight end is probably a little bit more if you can get that difference making player I think that's probably I don't know I guess I don't really have a too strong of an opinion on it. It does I think depend on the format. What about Tom, what do you think about early quarterback tight end?

[Tom]

Yeah I mean elite tight ends been on a pretty crappy run for the last two years. Like they haven't really worked out and we've seen these breakouts from guys like Sam Laporte, Trey McBride even Brock Bowers last year who you were Getting around round 10 has been noteworthy. Let's so I think I am in on elite titans and I do think they can be real difference makers but elite quarterback I think I slightly lean towards it because if I've got an elite quarterback I'm a little more comfortable having two rather than three at the position whereas even when I get elite tight end in 20 round formats I find it difficult to walk away with just two. Whereas elite quarterback I'm more Comfortable making that bet. We're back on the clock. Eg Bucca, of course, in the queue. Of course. Jalen Waddle's there as well. Ricky Pearsall, James Connor, Travis Hunter, Deebo Samuel, Andrew is. Is now Jacori Cross. Get merit.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, no, it is not. It is. It is Jalen Waddle time and I'm moving him up in the queue just in case we get some type of lag or something. It's Jalen Waddle for me. And look, he may be the last man standing in this Dolphins offense. I mean, Johnny's gone, Tyreek's gonna get traded probably, and Devon Hn is hurt. So Jalen Waddle is going to get all the targets. Maybe. I don't know if he's gonna survive the season because he's constantly banged up as well. But yeah, I mean, to the point of where I was talking about how Agbuka feels like a little bit overvalued. Like, I'm taking these other guys like right in this range over him probably every time. Like, I still feel confident with Waddle and I'm hoping that this next guy I want to so book is the top guy on the board. I'm still taking Ricky Piersoll. Is that. Do you co sign on that over?

[Tom]

Yeah, I'd be. I'd be fine with Pearsall. I mean, I would. I've slightly into Igbuka, but Pearsall is somebody I've probably not drafted enough of. So let's do that because I think that the Niners defense is going to be very poor this year, particularly in the secondary, which could lead to pass heavier scripts. So very much in on doing that. And every now and again, it's just good to take somebody that you quite often don't take as much. I'm Kobo in the chat saying I feel like Genti and CMC draft spot on. This should be flipped. I mean, they were for the vast chunk of this offseason, Gen Z was going ahead of cmc and it's only really been in the last few weeks where CMC has been flipped back ahead. Like now we've kind of had this weird couple of weeks for Genti where the first preseason game was bad and then he comes out in a second preseason game and immediately trucks one of the Niners defenders and then everybody's back in. Like it has been a roller coaster. But like, how confident are you in Genti to actually get enough volume that we could see him be a top two running back, top three running back.

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm I'm pretty confident that he's going to see that workload and I thought that the preseason, the second game was positive for Ashengenti. He played every single snap with the starters except for the one where he had to go to the medical camp medical tent because of the aforementioned. He slammed into a San Francisco 49ers defender and they had to take him out of the game. For Raheem Mostert, who guys made of glass, 33 year old backup running back, that is who Ash Jetty's backup is Raheem Mostert and he barely gets drafted. So for me I think that in the best ball content I think that McCaffrey over Genti in Redraft is more of a defendable take. But when we're talking about who's going to be again going back to the money weeks, Tom, you know, 15, 16, 17, who's going to be there? 29 year old Christian McCaffrey who has missed I think an average of over six games the last four seasons or Ashton Genti, a nearly perfect prospect, 21 years old, ready to take on all the workload. I just think there's a much more likely chance that Genti is actually there during those money weeks when it actually matters the most. And I don't think that's necessarily considered enough with some of these first round picks. Now it doesn't necessarily mean that on a per game basis I think McCaffrey could still definitely outscore Genti, which is why I think that in Redraft you could definitely take McCaffrey over Genti. But I, I'm buying into the upside and floor that combination that Jetty has, like if he could leave the NFL and touches that's going to give him a substantially high floor and then his talent profile could is going to what takes him to the next level. And just based on everything that we've read, everything that we scouted, all the work that we put into, it's like, yeah, like let's push him down to the second round. It's like, wait, we did all this work and now we're just going to push him down? Like you know, we're just going to fade him. Like come on.

[Tom]

Yeah, yeah. It just, it's just overthinking things. And look, we're gonna get to some questions in a second so if you're in watching us live on Twitch, do drop them in the comments and we're gonna start taking more of them because we are here on Twitch every single day of the week of a minute, the team here. Fantasy Pro is taking questions all week, myself and Ericsson every Monday, 4pm Eastern until the games get underway Tuesday at 7pm Eastern. Bogman and the well should be doing a PPR mock draft. Seth and Debro answering your questions on Wednesdays at 2pm Eastern and then we also have Q&A's first days and Fridays at 5pm Eastern. So get over here to Twitch. Give us a follow. Get your questions in the chat because we will absolutely cook Right, let's take some of these questions before it comes back to me. B. Wallace in the chat saying hey boys, redraft league half PPR super flex two wide receiver two running back flex tight end quarterback, drafting from the fifth spot but don't have a third or fourth round pick. What's to play with round one and two in this situation? Thanks boys. Love the videos. Well, you're very welcome. I think you've probably got to prioritize locking in a quarterback there because I mean if you're going from round two to round five, the golf could be really difficult. And even though quarterback scoring is very replaceable, I did a video on my channel Fantasy Sanctuary this week talking about Super Flex strategy and why it's not worth overreaching for your second quarterbacks. But I'd try and prioritize getting an elite quarterback in the first round and then seeing how the board falls to you. But don't go pulling up guys like Sam, Donald and Gino for the sake of it. But yeah, I think you've definitely got to lock in at least one or it's going to be very difficult for you. Andrew, would you double tap quarterback in that situation or would you just be locking in one and then try to play play adp?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think I'd only double tap quarterback if I could really lock in two elite guys. But other, other than that I think it'd just be one because the last thing you want to do is get caught in a quarterback run and then you're just like totally screwed where if you don't take any then they just say like rounds three and four, it's super aggressive towards quarterbacks and you're left without anything like that could be really tough to overcome. So but we're all back on the board on the clock.

[Tom]

Okay, so Tyler Warren, TJ Hawkinson are the kind of top guys there. I don't mind Jordan Addison even at this point. What are you thinking Andrew?

[Andrew Erickson]

Either that or a tight end. If you want to do Addison, I'm cool with that. I definitely have contrasted much of him just because it's. We took Addison.

[Tom]

Well what do you think to taking Addison and then seeing if Hawkinson comes back around to us and just building out Vikings stack.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, because we do need. We're going late round quarterback here so I think that's interesting. And if we don't get Hawkinson, Tyler Warren is there sitting for us. I know that you're a Tyler Warren guy. I know you're rookie tight end guy.

[Tom]

So rookie tight ends through and through. I mean we've talked about it plenty. Tyler Warren probably is going to be the most reliable goal line threat outside of Jonathan Taylor for the Colts. All the camp reports around him have been so positive. Colson Loveland as well. Great. But yeah, Hawkinson does make it back to us. So let's lock that one in, take a quick look at our roster and then get some of these questions that are coming in in the chat. We started off with Puka Nakua, then we went with Drake London, Omarion Hampton, Kenneth Walker, Jalen Waddle, Ricky Pearsall, then Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson. Andrew, how are you feeling about this roster?

[Andrew Erickson]

So I like the receivers that we have. I mean these are all just Andrew Erickson branded wide receivers in terms of yes, if you're following my rankings these are the guys you're probably going to get on your team. So it probably Addison's probably the one guy that I probably haven't drafted enough. But I think for me with Addison, I'm kind of glad that you brought his name up here is he's probably one of the better, best ball options that you can draft. He's starting to fall now because of his. It's kind of like the opposite of Ikbuka, right where he's going up all the boards when the bet at the end of the year hasn't really changed and Addison is now falling because he suspended for the first three weeks. But for the purposes of this contest that doesn't matter. Like, like we're going to be fine without Addison to start the year. Like that's not a big deal. And if anything when McCarthy is hitting his stride as the Vikings quarterback, it's going to be towards the end of the season after he's had he's played a handful of games under his belt and bringing in Hawkinson, you know we're benefiting from those Addison absence because we have Hawkinson on our roster because he's going to be the one that sees a larger target share in those games to open the year. So yeah. And now that we have two Vikings guys. It's really easy to lock and load JJ McCarthy. We just have to make sure that we're aware of where the Jefferson drafter is picking. So yeah, the Jefferson drafter is Winter Camo and they don't have a quarterback. So that's something that we just have to keep in mind because they are obviously in they'll be in the running for for McCarthy as well. But besides that, we know the guy behind us has Josh Allen, so probably not taking a quarterback necessarily super aggressively. But yeah, so far. So far. Fun build.

[Tom]

We could always balance it with some week 17 correlation. I know in the fantasy pro's Discord in the Best Ball channel last week there was a few people asking about if we could expand on the week 17 conversation a little. So if we had to, I mean we could always take Jared Goff and then try and find something cheap like an Isaac Tesla to build out a bit more Lions correlation and hope that if we got to week 17 where all the money is in this contest, you know you're talking millions of dollars up top. You're talking you five figures for making sort of top hundred and that's what we're after. But to get there we're taking on over a thousand other people in week 17. So you need to approach week 17 as more of an individual DFS style lineup. You need those little stacks and correlations. You need to bet on smaller range of outcomes and say this game, the Vikings against the lions in week 17 is the one which is going to go nuclear and I'm just going to have a bunch of those players and they're all going to just skyrocket me up the board. So there are different ways to approach it and there's lots of good stuff out there about that. We have a question from Panda of Lust. How are we feeling about devonte Adams? Like devonte Adams has been one of my favorite kind of third round picks throughout this year. Andrew, have you been there with me or have you found him a harder click at this point? Coming off an interesting season with the Jess.

[Andrew Erickson]

So I think I liked him a little bit more to start the year. I didn't really feel like he had shown a any type of of downfall. Now I think that the numbers from last year, especially with the jets, that's probably not going to be repeated just because it was really, really juiced up. You get the Aaron Rodgers bump because of just how he hyper targeted his best friend. I don't think it'll be the case with the Rams And Pukinakua there I think as the 1A I. I do think that Adam still obviously has a lot to offer but I do think that given the concerns a little bit more about Stafford. I know we talked about it with Puka, Nakua not as concerned but now if we're banking on Stafford, he has to support two guys at the same time. Adams is an older receiver so eventually he will start to depreciate in some way. And I guess I found like that tier of receiver isn't one that I've absolutely loved and because it's like there's a lot of receivers in that range where it's like Smith and Jigba, Garrett Wilson, so number one receivers but on teams that I'm not necessarily thrilled about their passing attacks in general. So it's an area of the draft that I think I've. I've been looking at some of the rookie running backs like a Marion Hampton and even like Ken Walker in that range. So totally not, definitely not out on Devonte but especially if I draft Puka in the first round, I don't feel the need to then double down and draft Devonte in the third round after already taking Puka.

[Tom]

I think my argument is kind of what I went back to about like Puka. The one thing that he's had missing is the touchdowns and I think that Devonnie Adams is really going to bring them. So yeah, I'm very much in on him. We are back on the clock again. Obviously no quarterback yet. We've got plenty of wide receivers. Nice setup with running back. We've got Drake Mania to the top of the board. We've got Rashid Shahid, Zach Charbonnet which kind of handcuff ourselves on Walker. I'm a little less interested in that. Anybody else taking your fancy?

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean I think we can take JJ McCarthy probably on the turn just we'll pull him up just so we don't risk losing him to the just Jefferson drafter. But one second. I'm just kidding. We already took McCarthy so.

[Tom]

Well, that's fine. We'll lock it in. Make sure that it's completely fine. Very well. Who are we gonna take with our next pick? Is there. I mean Colston Loveland stands out to me slightly. Obviously we could double tap quarterback and have Drake May. Drake May. Did he just go oh no, he's still there. They don't have the same buy weeks and I think I'm kind of okay with Drake May as standalone. Anybody else standing out? I mean a running back wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I mean that Charbonnet's off the board so that wasn't going to be an option. I know that you didn't want to do that anyway, so I think, yeah, I think it's either Loveland or May. And I mean Drake. May is. I mean we got to go with the Drake stack again. Going back to Andrew Erickson drafts, they usually have Drake London and Drake May on them. So there you go.

[Tom]

Cool. Look, if you want to hear me and Andrew talk about more of our favorite players, I know we will be on the main YouTube channel this week with Worm talking about our favorite players in each round. That is going to be a fun one. Me and Andrew will have to try and not agree on every single player, but it'll be interesting. Who gets to the show sheet for Tucker Craft first? Drake Rake. Appreciate you following us over here on Twitch. Dom. Veto in the comments saying thoughts on the Purdy Kittle and Pearsall triple stack? I got no problem with that. Andrew, you down with the triple stack for Rock Purdy?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes, Yes. I love that. That's. That's a great way to approach it.

[Tom]

Yeah, absolutely. So look, you know how me and Andrew feel about a lot of these players. Obviously you can get our rankings over at Fantasy Pros, but you can also get the draft kit over there, the Best Ball Draft kit. Go to fantasypros.com bestball and you get not only our ran stacks, rookie breakdowns, ADP rises. My favorite thing in there, which is the roster construction strategies which I spent hours pouring over when I put those articles together. And I really believe they're incredibly helpful for people getting into Best Ball. Our Best Ball Draft kit is everything you need to draft smart and win big in Best Ball this season.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Okay, Real talk. Ever have one of those need it right now moments? Like the dog just chewed through a leash again. A kid's school project needs glitter glue tonight and somehow the toilet paper is gone. Yeah, that moment has happened to everyone. That's where Walmart Express delivery comes in. Clutch. Get all that pet stuff, school stuff, household stuff, all the stuff in as fast as one hour. One hour. That means chargers, diapers, candles, light bulbs, laundry detergent, real life rescue items. And it's all from Walmart. Just hop on the app, order what's needed and boom, it's at the door before a toddler melts down or before halftime is even over. Yes, game day food can be delivered in an hour too. Try it now and get free delivery on a first Order with promo code Express. That's free delivery on a first. Order with promo code Express. Walmart Express. Delivery in as fast as one hour. Promotion valid for the first express delivery. Order $50 men subject to availability restrictions apply.

[Noah de Barrasso]

I'm Noah. I'm 13, and as you might have seen from the news, I got a podcast and I explain those fake headlines like your uncle would, like your cousin would, if he actually did the research. Honestly, adults don't ask the right questions. Now you know with Noah de Barrasso is a show about influence. Who's got it, how they use it, and what it means. For the rest of you, it's not the news. It's what the news should be if someone Gen Z or Gen Alpha made it. When I'm watching everything.

[Andrew Erickson]

Sheesh.

[Noah de Barrasso]

Majority of the youth 18 through 24 say they trust Republicans more than Democrats to fund the economy.

[Andrew Erickson]

You kidding me?

[Noah de Barrasso]

Politics is wild and I'm definitely not here to tame it, but I'm here to make sense of it. Just what's happening, why it matters, and what it means for us. Bring your brain. Listen to now youw Know with Noah de Barrasta on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Sarah Spain]

Get fired up, y'.

[Tom]

All.

[Sarah Spain]

Season 2 of Good Game with Sarah Spain is underway. We just welcomed one of my favorite people and an incomparable soccer icon, Megan Rapinoe to the show and we had a blast. We talked about her recent 40th birthday celebrations, Co hosting a podcast with her fiance sue, bird watching, former teammates retire and more. Never a dull moment with Pino. Take a listen. What do you miss the most about being a pro athlete? The final. The final and the locker room. I really, really like you. Just you can't replicate. You can't get back. Showing up to the locker room every morning just to talk. We've got more incredible guests like the legendary Candace Parker and college superstar AZ Foote. I mean, seriously, y', all, the guest list is absolutely stacked for season two. And you know we're always going to keep you up to speed on all the news and happenings around the women's sports world as well. So make sure you listen to Good Game with Sarah Spain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.

[Tom]

Okay, so we are rolling through this draft at a nice pace, particularly considering our last draft last week, Andrew, where we were on FFPC with 60 second picks. This feels keeps the Blood pumping a little bit more. Coltrane in the chat saying, I'm confused, is feeling retiring or what? My actual question is, how bad is handcuffing in Best Ball? I took Bucky and White and I've heard that that's bad in basketball. Well, it's not really bad. It's just like it's the same old argument of you kind of lock it into. You can only maximize one player within that backfield, like going nuclear at one time and maybe you'll have weeks kind of like Tevin Coleman, Devonta Freeman years back where they're both relevant at the same time. But I don't mind it in Best Ball now as much as like in Redraft. It's not a move I do. But in Best Ball you can make arguments that the players are going to ping pong between weeks where they have relevancy, particularly when they have set roles. Now I'm a little skeptical on Bucky this year. I think that he's great. I just think he's going a little bit ahead of where I'd feel comfortable taking him. For him to pay off, he needs to get the pass catcher matching role. And to do that, he's probably going to take it away from Rashad White. So I struggle with that one a little. Andrew, would you be willing to take those two on the same roster?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think if you'd asked me this like two months ago, I would have said yes. But now I'm less certain about Rashad White. I know that he's dealing with a groin injury and that's concerning to me. They still continue to talk up Sean Tucker, which I don't know, they did this last year too and he didn't really play that much. But, but I, I mean Bucky has looked really good and I know that I've heard from their camp that they're talking about him more as a bell cow and I mean he was a bell cow in that preseason game. Like he played every single snap except for one. And he looked again going back to the touchdown catches, he had a pretty nice touchdown catch too. I know Ibuka made a nice touchdown grab, but so did Bucky Irving. So I think that it's probably not the route I would do. The one that I like the most. I know this one that you push back against, but I, I like the Walker Charbonnet combination. I just like lock and low. Like I'll sacrifice a roster spot to ensure I get Seahawks RB1. Like I don't, I don't hate doing that. So but we can agree to scream. But we're on the, we're on the clock here.

[Tom]

Yeah. So I'd be good with Ramandre Stevenson. I'd be good with Jaden Blue or Braylon Allen if you like those guys. Or we could take. I mean, we've already got two quarterbacks and Michael Pennix kind of ruled out. Trey Benson, I'd also be fine with. I'll let you pick from those guys, Andrew.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah. Let's grab Braylon Allen, who, I mean, I mean he's, he has a potential to be a massive riser if Breeze hall does get dealt. Like that's totally possible. Somebody said that. What if Breece hall is in a trade to the Commanders? What if they trade Ryan Robinson to the jets and they throw back an extra pick to bring Brie Salt to the Commander? I feel like he would fit better in that offense. Like with Jaden Daniels, Cliff Kingsbury scheming things up. I feel like that would look, look, that would be, that would be cool.

[Tom]

Yeah. Trey Benson definitely works for me here too. Yeah, I just think from the reports we've seen around the Brian Robinson situation, they're looking for someone more explosive. So I'm all on board with that. Was, is there anyone else in this range that you would have made the sort of push for if I hadn't have pushed for running backs for any wide receivers or tight ends you were looking at?

[Andrew Erickson]

No, honestly, I felt good about the running backs that we went with. So going with Braylon Allen, Trey Benson, they are two second year running backs where I think you could see them having leaps. I know that there's been so Braylon Allen, the hype for him has been pretty obvious, you know, kind of at the expense of Breeze Hall, Braille Allen seems like he's going to take on a larger role. And I was even looking back at some of my writing I did last year where, I mean, a couple weeks into last season it looked like Braylon Allen like could have taken over that fact. Yeah, like that was probably aggressive, but at the time we all thought, especially someone that invested so much in Breece hall, that. But man, this guy is pushing someone that I thought should be the number one pick in fantasy last year or the number one running back in fantasy and this 20 year old running back is pushing him for playing time. Now it obviously didn't sustain and it kind of fell off and you saw Isaiah Davis get more involved. But when I just think about this jets offense and they really want to be a power running team, then to me it just seems like Braylon Allen is like the better fit in that, that offense and that they're trying to use Breeze hall and they're talking about using him in the passing game. But it goes back to Justin Fields is just not a quarterback that tends to throw to running backs because he's a mobile quarterback. So I know that his checkdown rates have been pretty high at certain points during his career where he's used the running back. But I, I just, I don't know, I'm, I'm just skeptical of, of how hall is going to be deployed in this offense. And I, I mean the trade rumors haven't gone completely away.

[Tom]

Yeah, it's interesting because it's kind of like a glut of running backs like Etienne or you know, maybe even Tam Bigsby versus Breece hall. And this is the effect that we're seeing from such a positive year for running backs in the draft. Like it does shake up the landscape significantly and that was something I remember Fitz talking about in the run up to the draft, that this was really going to be incredibly impactful. Don Vito asking what is the actual chance of B Rob getting traded and who do you think he goes to? Dallas, question mark. Yeah, I think Dallas is as good a shout as anyone because I don't think Brian Robinson is going to cost a lot to acquire like Brian Robinson is in the last year of his rookie deal and he's been fine like you know, last year, plenty of games as a top 24 running back but very rarely breaking into the kind of top end where it really makes a difference. So I think that you can plug him in as part of a two man committee quite happily and I would have more faith in him than Javante Williams or Miles Sanders obviously and a little more faith in him than an unknown rookie in Jaden Blue who was drafted very late. Is there any other kind of standout teams for you apart from the jets and Dallas? Andrew?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, so there's actually a couple connections. So I would say the jets like if they decide to do like a running back swap with Breece hall with them with like picks or something. So I don't think that's completely off the table and if you. There's actually a couple coaching connections. So the jets current past game coordinator Scott Turner, he was with Washington when they drafted Brian Robinson. So that's one coaching connection that you can make with the Jets. And then two others are the Tennessee Titans, Taji Spears is injured. The current Titans running backs coach was in Washington for the last couple seasons. And the Houston Texans, they need running backs potentially if this Joe Mixon thing just gets totally off the rails. And Nick Casario and d' Amico Ryan just have this affinity for Alabama guys. Like if you just look at their drafts, like historically speaking they draft a lot of guys from Alabama. So that would be a another team. That could be interesting. There was actually one more team that I, I posted on X. There was another coaching team that had some former personnel from Washington that also needed a running back. But the team is escaping me right now. There was other one other team. But yeah, like that stuff matters sometimes where running backs have certain connections with, with certain coaches and that's where they feel comfortable. Now it's a trade. So he doesn't necessarily always get to say, but if teams like to go right by or do right by their players, they usually get at least some input to it. So. But yeah, those are a couple teams.

[Tom]

We've got Drake Rug in the chat. One year of Alave for one year of Kelsey or Kincaid for four. So I'm guessing this is some kind of keeper based question. Like the vibes haven't been good around Olave. There's a lot of smart people in the industry who still are in on Olave. I find it a little bit of a struggle with that offense for this year. If you're only getting one year out of him. I think I'd rather take Kincaid for four. Kinkaid is somebody I've not really been in on in the past, but reports around training campus suggest he looks excellent and I think that I would just be taking the long term value. Andrew, would you handle that differently?

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I, I would go with Kincaid. Like that would be my route. I'm not the biggest on Olave as well. I think that he's been really efficient but the thing is he's been really efficient but he isn't scoring fantasy points. Like that's like the thing of I'm like waiting for him to put up some of these spike weeks and he just, it just really hasn't transpired. So I'll take King K to younger player. Not all Titans fire and fire as rookies. So I'll take Concade.

[Tom]

Yeah, I mean look, everybody said he'd be a cheat code because he'd be like a wide receiver out there. They just didn't say which wide receiver he'd be like. But yeah, I'm, I'm good with taking the upside swing on Kincaid for now. So we are coming back around the key question Andrew is what round are you expecting to want to take? JCM or Bill? Oh, and do we scoop up this falling value?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah.

[Tom]

And then when things come back around. Yeah, I mean, like, I'm willing to push. Like, let's. If you feel like you want to take merit now. Oh, has Merrick. Yeah, if you want to take merit, I'm completely fine with that. And then we could take panics.

[Andrew Erickson]

Let's just take panics now. Take panics now. Well, I just think, you know, value stacking with Drake London. I like that. Just.

[Tom]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Buying into that upside. And we went later on quarterback anyway, so that was the last pick in.

[Tom]

The 14th round, 155. So, yeah, so, like we got over 20 spots of ADP value on panics. Like that. Yeah. Like, again, it's just. It's finding those different combinations to Corey Krusky.

[Andrew Erickson]

Merit.

[Tom]

But that's okay. We've got the unique aspect to it. Yeah. Yeah. And we haven't reached on anyone at this point, have we? So. All right, there's definitely. Let's get your boy, Bill. Like, how much higher do you think that there's a chance that this is gonna turn into a situation where he really climbs? And this is this year's James Robinson or so a player that we heard all the kind of hype about in training camp. Isaiah Pacheco. And then people stay locked to their priors and then they don't get any exposure that player, and then they're kicking themselves for it all year. Or do you think that there's a chance that he just ends up being pretty vanilla and not really paying off on a cost, which is fairly reasonable. I mean, you look at the running backs in this range. Austin Eckler, Rashad White, Najee Harris, Nick Chubb, Ray Davis Lever are some valuable running backs here.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I think that the. If the commanders, like, do some type of trade where I think that no one's. Or there's not enough conversation about the downside where, yes, they move away from Brian Robinson, but no one's talking about, well, what if they trade for a different running back? Right? Like, that's still in play. It's just, oh, they get rid of Brian Robinson and then Crosky Merit is the guy. Maybe that's not exactly the case. That's going to happen here. But I think you made a good point where I don't think that these players rise enough where, you know, going back to the. I don't know if you brought this up as a point, but like, the Kyron Williams year right where it was us, we were okay. He's clearly the RB2. Like, he shouldn't be going in the 18th round anymore. And yes, he went up a little bit, but, you know, retrospective, you should have took that guy in, what, round seven, like round eight, like, so much higher. And so it didn't matter if you had had reached on him, quote, unquote, to take him in round 14 around 13. I mean, if Grosky Merritt hits and is a starting running back at any point for the Commanders, he's a smash at round 14, round 13, round 12. I mean, we just took. I mean, we took Trey Benson, like, he could be just. He could be a handcuff the entire season, and we took him in round 12. So I think that it's definitely more of a boom bust pick where, yes, we try to avoid zeros and best ball and cross key merit, I think could definitely be a total zero. But, you know, the drumbeat has been. I mean, we've been talking about it all off season. Like, this drum beat has been so strong for him since the beginning of OTAs. And it's not one of these things where you can poke a ton of holes in his prospect. I mean, I liked him as a prospect, like, so I'm like, cool, kind of buying into the steam because I thought that he was a good player and good prospect, and he just got screwed over by the ncaa, like, not letting him play. And that's why he fell to round seven, not because he's not talented.

[Tom]

Yeah. And, you know, coming out of the draft, one of my first takeaways was, I can't believe the Commanders didn't do more to shore up the running back room when last year things were decidedly average with Brian Robinson and Austin Eckler. And then you kind of get to this point and it's like, well, if they really felt that strongly about Bill, then you can understand it. You can understand that they were content just taking him. So, yeah, I've got a lot of time for following players up draft boards when it really seems like the hype's there and the hype is there in such a way that we're seeing pretty much confirmed reports of Brian Robinson could be out the door to the point where he's not playing in their preseason game on Monday because both the player and the team have agreed that it's for the best. So every now and again, you've just got to throw caution into the wind and be willing to take some chances. And this one, where I think we should be.

[Andrew Erickson]

Do you think that there are people that are hesitant because they feel like they didn't get through the good value and they're like, oh, I missed out on it. So I just don't want to get. I don't want to pay up now. I think there's an aspect of that too, where you just don't want to pay the new price. The sticker shock.

[Tom]

Every year we see this, there's still people refusing to draft Chase Brown because they weren't in on him when he was at the Valley. The same with Bucky Irving, the same with Kyron Williams. And it's so transparent at times that you can see these are the people who missed out on getting the super value. So instead they hang on to the prize about a player's negative side and just lock onto that and they'll constantly keep telling themselves that player is a bad player. I'm not going to draft that player. Meanwhile, those, those of us who are willing to sort of reset and take things differently. We get the exposure of the players who do well. And I'm constantly okay with that. We play a year, year game. Unless you're playing dynasty. We play particularly in baseball things very year a year, small slates. And we have to adjust and we have to be willing to be humble and say, I don't necessarily know if I know everything here. Shout to Melanor, who just followed the channel over here on Twitch. It's very much appreciated. We are, what, one, two picks away. Hunter Henry just went off the board. Who was in our queue? Chigaconquo. Will Shipley sat there as well. Then Xavier Leguer, DeAndre Hopkins, Woody Marks. Another interesting one. Andrew, where are we kind of at in our build? Do you feel like we need to go tight end here?

[Andrew Erickson]

I. I don't mind going tight end. I do like Chiga conqueror a decent amount. I was kind of bummed out that we lost out on Hunter Henry because I wanted the Patriots stack with Drake May. Although Drake May we get. If we have him naked, it's not a big deal because he's running quarterback. But I know the person behind us only has one other tight end and I. I do think Chig has like some solid upside. I mean, he's looks like he doesn't every down, so.

[Tom]

Yeah. Okay, so we'll be coming back around in a minute. How many wide receivers and running backs have we got at the moment? Because we're set at quarterback and tight end, we can push our third one a bit further.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, so we've Got three, three. Five, five two, Bill.

[Tom]

Okay. So if anything, we could probably. I mean, we could take a running back or a wide receiver. If take a running back, it's probably going to be our last one for this build, I would imagine. Wide receiver, there's not necessarily anybody really standing out. Do you think we just lock in Will Shipley and then move on from running back position at this point? Unless Demario Douglas is there.

[Andrew Erickson]

Is Demario Douglas here? No, he is. No, wait. Nope, he's gone. Let's just take. Let's take bullship. I. I mean, I think.

[Tom]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Look, if you're. If you're gonna fade Saguan, then you gotta take Will Ship. That's the way I see it. It's just you gotta. You gotta make correlated bets. And I remember writing about this last year where if you really feel like you want to fade, you know, a certain running back, then you need to have. You got to be overexposed to that backup running back or whoever can take advantage of, you know, a player missing time. And. I don't know, do you. Are you buying any of the idea that if Shipley's in the Kenneth Gain well role where maybe he could see some, you know, oak, like just some points in two minute drill, maybe on third downs, catching passes out of the backfield, which again, we don't have to project that. So.

[Tom]

Yeah, last year, Will Shipley was one of my most heavily rostered player across like 400 drafts. And it didn't work out for me and I faded Saquon heavily and it was probably the worst call I made last year. So I've been a little bit cautious about going straight back to the well. But it does seem like the role is really secure this year. Like last year, I thought that he was going to struggle to get past Kenneth. I thought that he could get past Kenneth Gainwell and he didn't. This year there is no Kenneth Gainwell. There's A.J. dillon, who hasn't played football in a year and hasn't looked particularly great in training camp. The Kenneth Gainwell role, it wasn't that valuable. I mean, we're talking about 290 Russian yards, 116 receiving yards and only 16 receptions. So will Shipley does need to be a more dynamic version of him. But I think also there's been a little bit of buzz around that the Eagles could be willing to take some of the workload off Saquon to try and make sure that he's fresh for the games, which really matter further down the line. And for all the reasons we've talked about with Saquon, about how many, like what, 483 combined touches throughout the playoffs and regular season that would make sense to see so can definitely get on board with it. Look, we're going to get some questions in a second, but remember we are here all week on Twitch, myself and Andrew each and every Monday at 4pm Eastern, Tuesdays at 7pm Eastern. We've got BOG member Welsh. They'll be doing a PPR mock draft this week. Then Seth and Debro are answering your questions on Wednesdays, 2pm Eastern and then on Thursdays and Fridays at 5pm Eastern. We've also got Q and A so don't miss a beat. Subscribe over here, support the channel, get access to emotes and enjoy us ad free. It really helps us out. Right, let's get to some of these questions before it comes back around. We've got Axel the G why isn't Eckler being considered as a potential starting running back? I think that just kind of comes down to his age and you know he looked good in receiving game last year. You know 14 target share really came towards the top of a lot of columns when you saw it through receiving work. But he didn't look incredible in the Russian game so it's probably just a case of trap preserving for what he's good at I think.

[Andrew Erickson]

Andrew yeah, Anthony Lynn has talked about how Jacori Crosky, Merritt and Brian Robinson were viewed as his A backs. So essentially guys that are operating on the early downs I would not expect Jakory Crosby merit even if he was taken over as the quote unquote starter it would still be in a tandem with Eckler because they trust Eckler and passing downs. He's a veteran player, he can catch passes out of the backfield. But it's a matter of it's about that touchdown equity where oh man, the State and Daniels offense can really take off because that was the bet on Brian Robinson as an RB2 where you're just hoping that this guy who is an average running back at best. I don't think that Brian Robinson is special but he's serviceable and, and the reason why Cross Kimber has got so much hype is because well, this rookie could be special. Like they're not sure yet but it seems like, I mean everything they've been suggesting to us is that he can be special and they're starting to buy into it and that's why they feel like Brian Robinson is more making he's not as important or crucial to their team that they necessarily need to keep him.

[Tom]

I very much agree with that. Like we've got a couple more picks before us. Ghosty asking, how much do you guys believe Marvin Harrison Jr. This year? Like, it's a tricky one but like I am taking him. I'm probably more comfortable with him in best ball than Redraft, which I know is a little bit of a cop out. Andrew, where are you landing on MHJ now that he's swole, now that he's swollen?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, you know anyone that's like at the gym getting flexing, gotta love it. Love that he's, he's, he's bulking up. I would say with Marvin Harrison Jr. I think that his floor probably is not being talked about enough where this is a clear cut number one wide receiver on his team. He's going to run a boatload of routes and the concern is can he get to the next level with Kyler Murray. And I think that there's a legitimate argument against that where no, like he just like Kyler Murray's not good enough to get Marvin Harrison Jr. To the next level. So I think maybe we're looking realistically that he may finish just close to where he's being drafted. It's like a mid range wide receiver too. But, but I think it's still good to get exposure to him because the talent profile, can he get it? Can he take that major leap because he is Marvin Harrison Jr. So maybe it's not this like face melting pick that we all think he maybe could be or Marvin Harrison Jr. Stands would suggest. But I think that he's fine where he's going. I don't have any like qualms about fading him or he's the worst pick on the board. He's the best pick on the board. I'm just cool with like where he's at his position.

[Tom]

Okay, where are we going with this pick, Andrew? So we probably want some wide receivers.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes, the queue is filled with more receivers. Jalen Noel for me that's, that's what I want.

[Tom]

Yeah, I'm completely fine with Julian. All I know that you very high on him. So let's lock that one in and then when it comes back around. So we've got Ella Kaya Manor, we've got Darius Slayton with Jalen Coker, A.D. mitchell and then Keandre Lambert Smith. So plenty of upside swings and I think that's kind of what we want. Any particular strong lean there? I think I Would kind of lean towards Jalen Coker just because the drumbeat has been so positive for him.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes, Jalen Coker. We're gonna continue to fade Xavier leg. I just, I don't. I mean, where did Leggett already get drafted, right? Didn't he go like significantly ahead of Jalen Coker?

[Tom]

Oh, yeah, yeah, he went to go kind of. Yeah. And that is a little bit of a fall. He won. Yeah, well, because it's harder for people to fall than it is for people to rise in basketball because the fallers, they sit at the top of adp and then the auto drafters and the people psychologically see this value or perceived value of one or two rounds and it's like, oh, well, he was a 14th round pick last week. I should take him here round 15. So yeah, it is much harder and much slower typically for players to fall. But I, I've been slamming in Jalen Coker as much as possible and the vibes around him definitely feel much better than anyone else we've got.

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, you know that because he, because he missed the last preseason game because he was sick. Not like. So like I saw like we see like get out with the starters and we're like, oh, again, like he's a starter again. It's like maybe, or maybe just Coker wasn't. Wasn't healthy enough to play. So I'm, I'm all with you with Coker. That's a great pick.

[Tom]

So a couple of things want to get to in the chat. Firstly, the big D3300 is picking out of a 107. So Andrew, if you could spin over the board when you're done starting, like, let's take a look at what he's got cooking for his roster. Picking out of the 107. So I'll let you read this one off Andrew whilst you go through that. Is that the Christian McCaffrey team?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes. Yep, the CMC team. So yeah, we got Christian McCaffrey, A.J. brown, Garrett Wilson, Devonte Adams, George Pickens, Travis Hunter, Tyrone Tracy, Jalen Warren, Justin Fields, Colston Loveland, Trevor Lawrence, Jaden Blue, Dallas Goddard, Matthew Stafford, Rico Dowdle, Alec Pierce, Justice Hill and Diamond Brown. And then he's got two picks left. Yeah, we're entering round 19 now, so we've got. Everyone's got two picks left.

[Tom]

Nice. I mean, it's a fun team. I've got no, no issues with this one whatsoever. A little bit stacking in there. Classic kind of hero RB build. There's a lot of fun there. Where was the next question? We're going to Don Vito, he says with both Chubb and Marks being cheap, do you like taking shots on the Texan backfield because of how good Mixon was even when he was inefficient? If yes, which do you prefer? Look, I'm leaning towards Woody Marks. I know that Nick Chubb was clear starter. Nathan Yankee for PFF had a great write up talking about how Chub played the clear majority of snaps with the first string, which suggests he could be the first week one starter. I mean, if that happens, fine. I just, I. I'm not drafting for week one. When I'm taking one of those guys, I have to believe that the guys I'm drafting earlier than them are going to be week one starters in my lineup. But I want Woody Marks because of his pass catching upside down and reports around training camp have suggested the Nick Chubb has lacked juice at times. So I'm not going to bet on that. Horse like Nick Chubb has been incredible over years and quite often been undervalued in best ball, but I'm not feeling it this year. Andrew, are you seeing it differently?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think I say a little differently. I think I'm just not as bullish on Woody Marks. Regardless of what kind of the Houston Texans have talked about with him. I just didn't love his profile coming out. Yes, the receiving pops off the screen, but it is a little bit of hey, I played in the Air Raid. So we always like those running backs. We've seen a lot of running back catch a lot of passes in that offense and then not necessarily see it translate to the NFL level. So that concerns me and the fact that I, I don't know if he's ever going to see this massive workload where because Dari Ogunbwale is still involved, I like using him on third downs. Nick Chubb I don't think is ever going to necessarily be bad enough where they decide, well Chubb is just not going to play at all. I think that he's always going to kind of be hanging around like he's an early down running back especially he could be still used in the red zone and then there's still a non zero chance that Joe Mixon does come back at some point. Right. Even if it's like halfway through the season. Yeah, he misses weeks one through eight. But during those money weeks maybe mixing is a factor. Weeks 15, 16 or 17 or something along those lines. So that's my only pushback on, on Woody Marks. So just not in love with love with him necessarily.

[Tom]

Now, Andrew, we're one pick away, and I can't help but notice that you don't have Ray Ray McLeod in our queue. Despite us having Michael Pennix and despite the fact that he saw plenty of the field last year, we know we're going to play three wide receiver sets.

[Andrew Erickson]

God, your argument, Logic.

[Tom]

I'll let you take whoever you like on this pick and then when Ray Ray comes back around, we lock him in for round 20.

[Andrew Erickson]

All right, we'll just take Ray right now because I do want to take. Do we want to. Should we take another tight end? Like we need to have that. We only have two tight ends, but between Hawkinson and who's the other Titan, we have hockey. Oh, a chick.

[Tom]

Okay, so what's left at the tight end position at the minute?

[Andrew Erickson]

So I was looking. So I wanted to get Harold Fanon, but he got drafted and now it's like, I. I don't know if there's really any tight ends here that are worth taking. Yeah, it's. It's pretty. It's pretty slim pickings, I think.

[Tom]

Let's just roll with another wide receiver or. Unless you want to use that pick for a running back. If there's a running back that you feel like there's value on, then I don't mind getting up to kind of. This will be our seventh. I mean, Sean Tucker, DJ Giddens, they're both guys that I like. Marshall Lloyd is a guy I like too much of his off season and I will not be doing that again, honestly.

[Andrew Erickson]

I think so. So Darius Slayton is probably just like the safe. He's a good projection guy. He's going to run a decent amount of routes. But dude, if you ask anyone that's been to Colts training camp, they'll tell you that the best receiver on the team is adhd. And I. Mitchell, like, that guy, gets so much hype for being this elite separator, which could basically turn into absolutely nothing. Right? We have no idea. This is actually going to turn into fantasy points.

[Tom]

And the Colts beat Reports are still leaning slightly at Daniel Jones, despite what Twitter seems to think. So if you want to take AD Mitchell. I'm good with AD Mitchell. I've taken a decent amount of AD Mitchell this season. So that is our draft.

[Andrew Erickson]

Let's bet on talent. Bet on talent.

[Tom]

Yeah. He was always slightly flawed as a prospect, so you knew they might take some time for him to develop. But we finish up with. Is this a 368-36-92 build Puka Nakua Drake London Marion Hampton Kenneth Walker Jalen Waddle Ricky Pearsall Jordan Addison TJ Hawkinson JJ McCarthy Drake May Braylon Allen Trey Benson Michael Pennix about 20 pick value bill in the was that the 15th theme round and then 14 rounds Chigaconquo will Shipley Jalen Noel Jalen coker Ray Ray McLeod and then of course our 20th pick of A.D. mitchell. I really like this team. I think you know the double stack on McCarthy is fun. The value that we've got on Penix and then building out that Atlanta stack as well is fun. Is there anything that you would like to have done differently with this one Andrew?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I. I don't think there's anything too drastic. I think that we played the board correctly where we went really aggressive with receiver to start basically hitting receiver with our first five picks or excuse me 1, 2, 3. Four of four of our first six picks were all wide receivers. So we went really heavy at the position and then we left it alone till the last four picks in the draft. So I think that kind of using our draft capital accordingly knowing that we invested so much early on we don't need to invest in it anymore until the end just to hit it with some quantity numbers just to kind of backfill the position because you just need more receivers because you have to have at least three hit your starting lineup every week. But. But we didn't have to over invest in it. I like the late round quarterbacks. I think jet I think the thing I like about this team is the types of players that we put our bets on. We drafted a lot of we drafted rookie running backs and second year running backs guys that this is where we see these guys pop and really take that next leap in terms of making a jump. Our three quarterbacks, all second year quarterbacks like again looking at players that could take that significant leap. This is what year it happens usually either as rookies or that second season where we see guys take massive steps forward. The double stacks I think are excellent as well. So yeah, yeah this team is fun.

[Tom]

This team was all about value to me. I mean like we got Pukinakua falling then of course we got Omari and Hampton falling seven spots past adp. We've got a massive fall on Michael Pennix and I think when you are willing to take those scoops and just build something slightly different it results in a nice team. Ross debating really apprec you subscribing to the channel that is very cool of you. And then Whiskey Schlitz was in this draft as well. Andrew was Whiskey Schlitz for team. To our Left at the 110 there.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes.

[Tom]

Malik Neighbors, Brian Thomas.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, they got the LSU stack Neighbors and Thomas.

[Tom]

And then they got Mike Evans stacked with Baker Mayfield, double stacked with Egg Buka. They took Tyler Warren. Plenty of guys we like in that one. That is a very fun start to that. And then Michael Pittman, Tank Bigsby, Luther Burden picking up a little steam. Demario Douglas. That's where our Demario Douglas pick went.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes. Okay. That's where he went. Okay. Curse you, Whiskey Schlitz.

[Tom]

And then Jackson Darts stacked with neighbors. That's lots of fun. Really fun. And Whiskey Schlitz, appreciate you hanging out and drafting with us tonight. Now, let's just take a quick look. I know Axel De Gee was asking if we could take a look at his team that he dropped into Discord. So I'm going to read it out this team for you. This is Caleb Williams, Jameer Gibbs, Chase Brown, Drake London, Mike Evans, Evan Ingram, Trevion Henderson, Tedoroa McMillan. And then on the bench, Tony Pollard, Ricky Pearsall, Jaden Higgins, Zac Charbonnet, Keenan Allen, Dylan Sampson, Baishal Tooten, Tyler Algier. Axel, you know what you're doing here. You know how good this roster is. You didn't need our advice. There's nothing about this team that you need us to come and tell you how good it is. You, sir, are much like roster baiting. Just roster baiting. And you know exactly how good that is. And you know that me and Andrew are gonna like plenty of that one. Look, this has been a absolute fun draft. Remember, you can get a bonus ticket to the NFL best ball 15 million dollar headline contest. You've just got to enter one lineup in that contest. It only costs $20 and you'll receive a bonus ticket upon entering. So as soon as you're done drafting, you can go back and use that bonus ticket to have another entry. Truly appreciate everybody hanging out with us, myself and Andrew and producer Seth, who's absolutely killed it tonight. We'll be back next week for a very fun episode where we will be looking at some more of your rosters. So if you got rosters, drop them in the Discord in the Bestball channel and myself and Andrew will stack them up away. Ready to talk about next week for myself, Andrew and Seth. We'll see you next time.

[Andrew Erickson]

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy football podcast.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

If you love the show, the best.

[Andrew Erickson]

Best free way to support us is.

[Noah de Barrasso]

By leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail] review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and Tik.

[Andrew Erickson]

Tok at Fantasy Pros and subscribe to.

[Noah de Barrasso]

Our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.

[Tom]

Ever.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Go to make nachos on game day and realize the cheese is missing? Or the chips? Or both? It happens all the time. But check it Walmart Express Delivery gets what's needed in as fast as one hour. One hour people. And it's not just food. It's phone chargers, pet supplies, toilet paper, paper. Try it now and get free delivery on a first order with promo code Express. Walmart Express delivery in as fast as 1 hour. Promotion valid for First Express delivery order $50 min Subject to availability restrictions apply. I'm Jake Hofer and this is back 40, a limited series show on Wire to Hunt, part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network. Each episode I'll be asking eight whitetail hunting pros and a focused, thought provoking question about hunting and land management.

[Andrew Erickson]

How do I hunt the best part of the farm with less than ideal access?

[Tom]

Should you? That's what the real question is. Stand without good access is not a good stand.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Listen to Back 40 on iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Dan, he's Ty. Hello and we're the Solid Verbal College Football Podcast.

[Tom]

Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you.

[Andrew Erickson]

Won'T hear anywhere else, and all the.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Emotional support you need as a college football fan. Join us all season long as we ride the rollercoaster of this ridiculous sport.

[Tom]

Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football.

[Andrew Erickson]

Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts.

[Walmart Express Delivery Advertiser]

Or wherever you get your podcasts. We don't just love college football, Ty, we live it.

[Noah de Barrasso]

This is an iHeart podcast.