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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:52]
B
We just finished the first Football Guys mock draft, the 2026 fantasy football season and almost immediately realized that that there's a lot wrong with the way people are drafting this year. Looking at adp, we saw some massive deficiencies while we were doing this draft and today Joey Wright and I are going to go through our teams as well as the other pen teams drafted by our football guy staffers trying to find value pockets, strategies and data that you can use going into 2026. So Joey, first question for you. If we redrafted 30 days from today, what do you think would change the most in this mock draft?
- [01:29]
C
If you're looking at our draft board, the QB value, it was absolutely insane. We had Josh Allen going with the 11th pick of round four, Drake May, who's my QB2 this year, going at the fourth pick of round six, Jaden Daniels in the eighth round and then Jackson Darth in 910. These running back or these quarterback values going to be unheard of come August. I think what we're going to see happen is managers get a little more comfortable of who's going in round six, round seven, even round four, and you're going to see these quarterback values move up considerably. I please give me this value in August, but I know it's not going to stay.
- [02:05]
B
Now you say that and I think that you might be right. But also like I feel like we're in this world right now in fantasy football where there are just so many viable late round quarterbacks that feel like everybody was kind of playing chicken, like nobody wanted to be the first person to take a quarterback. Because yeah, sure it's great to have Josh Allen, but realistically you could end up getting similar production from Drake May, Jackson Dart, Jaden Daniels, maybe late season. Patrick Mahomes, maybe Caleb Williams takes a step forward, Justin Herbert. Like there's so much good value out there. So I think this is partially a testament to playing with a lot of people who are too smart for their own good. You know, a bunch of football guys, analysts that all know the late round value to be had. But also like when I'm looking at rankings like I could look at my QB24 is Daniel Jones, QB25 is Cam Ward, QB26 Fernando Mendoza, QB27 Bryce Young. Those are all guys realistically that like if variance just move slightly in their direction could give you top five production this year.
- [03:02]
C
Dave, you're preaching to the choir here. I mean you know me, I like I am the guy that just takes quarterback last in every league. Look at last year, QB20 and QB24 Matthew Stafford and Trevor Lawrence in ADP and look where they finish this. QB3 and QB and QB4. So happens every year and it's never going to stop happening. Waiting on quarterback is never a bad strategy and I feel like it's even
- [03:24]
B
better now than it has been in years past. So to kind of put an actionable spin on this opening question that we had. What will change 30 days from now? I think you're right that like as we get closer to the season we'll see QB value move up. But if and when that happens, when QBs start moving up the board, that just tells me there's going to be better value on running backs, wide receivers, tight ends and you just still want to continue waiting for your quarterback. If you're watching on YouTube, say this every single episode. But please, we see a lot of people watching the show are not subscribed to the channel. So please subscribe, leave a comment that's a great way to help the show grow as well. We reply to every single comment that we get here on YouTube and of course give us a thumbs up a like that helps this grow as well. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts again, I say this every single episode, but please leave us a review. We 1 we really like the feedback, let us know what we're doing well, where we can improve. And 2 it also helps the show grow, which is at the end of the day, the number one goal here is to get this show out to as many people as possible. But Joey, let's go ahead back into the mock draft now and we're going to kind of break this up section by section. Looking at the early rounds, middle rounds and then late rounds and starting with these Middle rounds here we saw five drafters double tap running backs to start and two even tripled up using their first three picks exclusively on running backs. So what are your thoughts on this robust running back strategy? We saw it kind of falling out of popularity over the last few years and it certainly seems like it's back now.
- [04:49]
C
It's not a strategy I normally like to go with unless there's tremendous value. I think it's just leaning too hard in one direction and for me, a direction that isn't as stable. And it also feels really dependent on those drafters and hitting those late round wide receiver Darth rows, which last year we had eight wide receivers finishes, top 24 wide receivers that were drafted as the wide receiver 30 or later. So these dart throws, they happen, they hit. You just need to be good at making sure you do land them. But I think the reason that it's gaining a popularity is we're seeing teams really move away from having a bell cow back and more towards timeshares. I think there's maybe 16 running backs taken in this draft that I think you would say have the bell, the bell cow to lead back upside for their teams and the rest of the, the 16 other backfields. I mean at best a 60, 40 timeshare. So these 16 running backs that pretty much went off the board in order, I think what you'll see from them is okay, these guys have their roles on their team solidified. Let me get two of those guys because after that it's really unsure.
- [05:56]
B
Yeah, and I think that's a very sharp take to like there, there is a tear fall off. And for me, I see a few guys that maybe could have been mixed in a little bit higher. But like after I see Javante Williams go off the board at 312, we did see a little bit of a break then in drafting running backs. That's because everybody after that we got Travis Etienne, who, yeah, he's got the contract. But they talked about splitting touches with Alvin Kamara this year we see Treveon Henderson who we just talked about, Ramadre Stevenson, he's not going anywhere in New England after RJ Harvey splitting touches with J.K. dobbins, David Montgomery, I think that's one of the sharper, better value picks here by our Bob Harris who sniped me on that one. But I, I do feel like once you get past Javante Williams, then you're looking at all of these guys in split backfields similarly. You know, the, the NFL has changed. We're seeing the ball get Spread around a lot more. We're seeing fewer three wide receiver formations. We're seeing a lot more tight ends on the field. So where it used to be that I think you could kind of seek these wide receiver twos, wide receiver threes on their team that could still be viable in fantasy, those are becoming much rarer. You're not really seeing a floor with any of those late round receivers. So I think it does kind of push people into wanting to just like get their studs early kind of lock in those positions. And you saw there were a handful of teams that kind of did the. The running back, wide receiver maybe mixed in a tight end. But it did seem like a lot of people went into the draft saying I want my running backs early or I want my wide receivers early. And I wonder if that's going to see or be how we see people starting to draft now forward because it doesn't seem like that production is spread evenly among the positions anymore. So we only saw two teams start. Wide receiver, wide receiver and Joey. It felt like, you know, if we were drafting three years ago, so many people wanted to just start wide receivers early, like lock in those alpha wide receivers. But gone are the days of Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones and you know these guys that are just like breaking fantasy football. So do you think that this early round wide receiver heavy approach is no longer viable?
- [07:53]
C
I think it's still viable. You just need to get good value. I think it's probably just as risky as robust rb. Look at. I want to look at Drew and Bob's teams because I think that's a really good example of going wide receiver, wide receiver.
- [08:05]
B
And Drew's case, he went wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver. He went three straight there.
- [08:10]
C
Exactly. Drew taking CD Lamb and Drake London, like you can't really argue. Those are probably the two best players at that time to come up the board. And Bob even better with chasing neighbors. I like that as a start and then you can build from that. I do look at Drew's team and I wonder though where he took Rasheed Rice, which I think's a great pick of Rasheed Rice is going to be on the field. If he was hoping that or sorry, with Drake London, I should say if he was hoping Chase Brown or Martin Hampton Devon, a chain would have fallen to him because I think had that have happened, Drew would have had slam dunk. My favorite team in this draft.
- [08:48]
B
And I think Drake London is a great pick there. But you do wonder a little bit.
- [08:51]
C
Yeah.
- [08:52]
B
James Cook, Ken Walker, Devon H. And Amarian Hampton, Chase Brown, all going off the board. Five straight running backs before his pick. You don't really want to pay up for a running back after that sort of run, but I think that's a tremendous value on Drake London. Like, that is going later than his ADP from last year, where we saw when he was healthy, he was just like a lock for 100 yards and a touchdown almost every single week. So Drake London, we'll talk about that one a little bit later. But definitely one of my favorite picks in the draft there. Now, we've talked about the running backs and the wide receivers going in the early round. Something that shocked me a little bit, Joey, is that we only saw two tight ends drafted in the first three rounds. So now, you know, after the dust has settled, looking at how the board ultimately shook out, how do you feel about those values on Trey McBride and Brock Bowers? Do you think that they went where they should have?
- [09:37]
C
So once we hit the 206, I was just kind of waiting for them to come off the board because I'm like, man, the value on them right now is really good. And Jake Bryant, who was drafted out of the five spot, he got Trey McBride first, and then Brock Bowers right after him at the 303. And I think, Dave, if I had to get the better value, give me the guy that goes second because I got him 1, 2 in my rankings, and you got him, what, eight picks after McBride. So the value there's a little bit better for you. But what I like is that you guys were both able to get really solid wide receiver 2 and wide receiver threes in the next few rounds. Jake got George Pickens and Mecca Abuca, and then you were able to get Zay Flowers and DJ Moore. And these were as your wide receiver two and wide receiver three, not wide receiver ones. You got wide receiver one, talent at the wide receiver two and three position. I love that you were able to pair that with your tight ends. And that's when you're drafting early with tight ends. If you can pull that off, it makes the value even better.
- [10:32]
B
So the last thing I'll say about these early rounds, or I shouldn't say say, the last thing I'll ask about these early rounds is, is that we saw in round three, the running backs dried up a little bit. It seemed like round one, round two, everyone was really going after the running backs. Round three is when we saw this shift. Over half of the picks in round three were wide receivers. And we kind of talked about it, like, after Javante Williams. It feels like things dried up a little bit. Do you think everybody kind of shifting to wide receivers in round three is people just saying like the dead zone is here and I want to try to avoid that?
- [11:02]
C
Yeah. After Breece hall and Javante Williams, I think there is a tear fall off for me like where everybody that was taken after that you start seeing question marks with Travis ETN or hn. Sorry. That's going to be really tough to get through this season. Travis Han, you know, okay. It's his first year in New Orleans. How's he going to do? Probably good. But Trayvon Henderson, he's in a timeshare to a degree. RJ Harvey was JK Dobbins actually the should he be the lead back in Denver? Lots of questions with these. Dave Montgomery. I'll get into Dave Montgomery in a little bit, but question I think that's
- [11:35]
B
one the market just hasn't picked up on yet. I think David Montgomery should be probably in that Javante tier. I was kind of surprised to see him slip the way he did, but that's just, you know, I think ADP hasn't caught up yet. So he was kind of buried in sleeper adp. But in my opinion, I mean we've seen these veterans just come to Houston and immediately return RB1 value. So I'm excited about Montgomery there.
- [11:56]
C
I'm a little worried with Montgomery with the workload coming into his eighth year. Woody Marks, they kind of had similar numbers last year. I do think Montgomery is going to be get the first touches there, but I, I'll be shocked if he gets like, you know, if they're just like, okay, now this backfield's yours. Dave Montgomery. I I would be surprised if that happens.
- [12:15]
B
So let's keep this conversation going because I want to continue talking about the running back dead zone. But let's kind of transition now into the middle rounds. When we're looking at rounds four through six, I looked at all of the picks here and there was a heavy preference towards wide receivers. We got 18 wide receivers, 10 running backs, four tight ends, four quarterb again. Joey, is this what you kind of see these rounds four through six as the dead zone and people trying to avoid it? Because when I look at a lot of these running backs in this range, every single one of them has giant question marks.
- [12:43]
C
Yeah, I mean it's just like question marks all over the board. If you look through four through six, you know, even Cam Scatterby, who I got at the third pick in round six, he's coming off an injury, we don't know how quick he's going to come back on the field. That's somebody that probably, had he not been injured, played a full season, we'd have a little bit higher. So that's a question mark for him. DeAndre Swift, Raj Stevenson, like, yeah, just a lot of question marks there. But we kind of talked about the Dave Montgomery thing and, like, that's the one that kind of sticks out with me, where I feel like that might be the most dead zone pick of all. I kind of love that you disagree with me on that and you think he should be higher.
- [13:20]
B
Yeah. And a lot of it just comes down to, like, what I saw from Joe Mixon in this offense just two years ago before he had that foot injury. I see a very similar play style between David Montgomery and Joe Mixon. Somebody who is just like aggressive at breaking tackles, hits the hole hard, and the offensive line isn't great, but so much what David Montgomery does. You know, this guy played behind a terrible offensive line his entire tenure in Chicago, so he knows how to make lemonade out of lemons. So it's just we've seen that this offense wants to lean on a bell cow when they have it, and I don't think they had that guy last year, which is why we saw a mix of Nick Chubb and Woody Marks and Daria Gumbawale. But I think them going out and trading for David Montgomery speaks a lot to the plans that they have for him. But, you know, I think one of the. One of my biggest takeaways as we were doing this, we're doing this pre NFL draft, and I wish I'd put a little bit more thought into this before we started drafting because I did my typical, you know, I want to get my wide receivers, I want to get an elite tight end, and of course, I've got that anchor with Jameer Gibbs. But as I start taking these middle round running backs, that's when I realized all of these guys that are on the board right now are just, you know, like the guys who we expect to get nuked in the NFL draft. You know, it's so easily every single guy here. Like, I feel good about Bashaw Tutin, you know, as good as you can, but I also really like Chris Rodriguez, and I could see Chris Rodriguez potentially being the lead guy here, making it very tough for Tootin to score points. Jalen Warren, I like him. I've talked about how I like him more than Rico Dowdle for the past blocking and the efficiency metrics but if Pittsburgh went out and drafted a running back, would it surprise me one bit? Brian Robinson, you know, that is just a hope and a prayer when you're taking Brian Robinson that they don't bring in anybody else. And then of course Bijan Robinson, you'd want him to miss some time so Brian Robinson could pay off. But all of these guys, Chuba Hubbard, Tyler LG or Blake Corum, J.K. dobbins, all feel like guys who could get potentially replaced in the draft. But what we did see also in these rounds, Joey quarterbacks and tight ends finally started getting drafted a little bit. We saw Loveland Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Tyler Warren, Tucker, Kraft Fannin and Drake May. So looking at all of those four running back or four tight ends, four quarterbacks, which was your favorite value and which was your least favorite value?
- [15:35]
C
My favorite value is easy's my QB. Two is Drake May at 604. That's insane, folks. Like even if he was the second quarterback taken, it would have still been the 506 where Lamar Jackson went and I'd have been great with Drake May there. And this I am the guy that likes to wait on quarterback or just get it at good value. I think that value on Drake May is incredible. He went. Let's see. My least favorite though, and this is kind of where I'm nitpicking and it's not the players, it's what happened and Phil's team where he took Loveland and Burrow back to back. Now I almost took Colson Loveland with my fourth round pick. What I'm not crazy about, and this is where I'm nitpicking, is he went early on tight end and quarterback both because what it did to his team is his wide receiver too. Chris Godwin, Parker Washington or Jalen Coker. He's kind of just hoping one of those guys hits. It's just a little risky for me with that strategy. But I like the value on Burrow as well. So it's not even a value situation with these two. It's just taking those two positions back to back so early. He does have two elite players at the position, but I think his wide receivers suffer because of it.
- [16:41]
B
Yeah, and especially in a league where, you know, the, the settings that we had here were three wide receivers and two flex and half ppr. That's why I took more of a wide receiver heavy approach here. But you know, Loveland and Burrow, I think like they're both good values. But I, I do think that like if you're paying up for both a quarterback and a tight end. It does kind of paint you into a corner a little bit. Burrow was my least favorite value pick here, just because the. The lack of the rushing upside, like, you really need the passing variance for him to play out. And I feel like, you know, you can get a guy like Matthew Stafford ten rounds later, and you're kind of making the same bet there that you are with Burrow. But I think my favorite value here, funny enough, was Colston Loveland. You know, him going almost a full round after Brock Bowers. And we've talked about it. Like, Colson Loveland, what he did his rookie season over the second half of the year, led the league in yards per route run, was the tight end two in scoring over the second half of the season, as. And now with DJ Moore out of the picture, there are big plans for Colson Loveland. So that's a guy that I am trying to get. Like, I don't like paying up for McBride in round two, but Browers in round three, Loveland in round four. Those are the values that I really like in drafts this year. We also saw something interesting here. Rookies finally started to get drafted a little bit. And we saw a run of rookies here, funny enough, with Mike Kashuba and Jeff Bell, the guys who helped me out on the football guys rookie guide, footballguys.com rookieguide. Be sure to download that if you have not already. But they just went on a straight run here around the turn. We saw Carnel tate go at 5:11, Jordan Tyson at 5:12, and then Makai Lemon at 6:01. So, Joey, do you think that we got that order correct? Because the rookie guy, the rankings, personal preferences, I mean, it's so tough. But I think seeing those guys clustered together on a draft board makes sense.
- [18:26]
C
Yeah. Shout out to me, who had to sit there and listen to these two guys talk about rookies, the whole draft, the two dynasty guys, you know, football guys. No, I do think they. They went in the right order. And I'm not concerned that Tyson went before Lemon because Jeff had that, you know, five, six turn. And I do this thing where I've got the pick on the turn, and I'm like, well, I'm take the better players second. So I can say, oh, well, I got Makai Lemon in the sixth round.
- [18:48]
B
In the sixth round, right?
- [18:49]
C
Yeah, it's just fun little bragging rights that you can do there in a draft, especially when you're drafting, like with. With Mike and Jeff and they're in each other's heads with Dynasty stuff all the time. So I think that's why Jeff took Lemon second ahead of behind Tyson. But, yeah, I think they got him in the right order. But three weeks from now, we've got the NFL draft and it could be flipped on its head completely with landing spots. So bring this question back to me in three weeks, we'll see where we're at. But for now, I think they do got it in the right order.
- [19:18]
B
We're back with Joey Wright, and we have talked about the early and middle rounds of this mock draft, and now we're going to dig into some of the late round picks, overall takeaways, and then discussing our individual teams just a little bit. Joey, so much of these late rounds and this was just kind of how we set up the mock draft, right? Like only 10 rounds. I made a fatal mistake here and I will just address it. You know, I didn't think about the fact that everybody would be picking to fill out their roster. So when I was on the clock in round nine, I took Quentin Johnson and I was looking, I said, well, I'll get one of Justin Herbert, Jackson, Dark Caleb Williams, Dak Prescott. One of those four will make it back around to me. But as everybody else was filling out the roster, they didn't make it back around to me and I was forced to go with Brock Purdy. Had this been a deeper draft, you know, 15 rounds, we probably would have seen some of those quarterbacks come back around. But just a mistake on my part. We did see a lot of these picks were just people filling in their quarterback and tight end spots, so we can kind of gloss over that. But the running back and wide receiver picks, which one made you raise your eyebrows the most? This could be good or bad.
- [20:18]
C
Jason Wood. Congratulations. Romeo Dobbs at the 9. Oh 1. 45th wide receiver off the board. That's just insane value. He's our consensus at football guys. Wide receiver 33. And this is just ADP not catching up on sleeper. And Jason, just being a sharp drafter and this is a tip to everyone out there drafting, like, be a sharp drafter. Know where players are normally going, where they should be going, and you know, get your guys too. He's a wide receiver. One now for the Patriots should see an uptick in usage in 2026. I think in closer to August. This pick has made 2, 3 rounds earlier.
- [20:57]
B
I. I think you're very much so right. And I do wonder how much of that suppression in cost is just the fear that they bring back Stefan Diggs or that they trade for A.J. brown, as we've kind of heard the rumbling so far. So I think that was a good value pick. The one that shocked me, Joey, and like I was the guy saying not to draft Brian Thomas Jr. Last year at his cost, but my goodness, when I was sitting there in round eight getting ready to make my pick and Brian Thomas Jr. Was still on the board, he got sniped two picks before me. But that to me. Do you feel like we may have overcorrected a little bit? I mean, he was kind of in the wrong situation early in the year and then he dealt with injuries later in the year. But this guy who came off of a very good rookie season, a first round pick. I know there's concerns about Jacoby Myers being there and how Travis Hunter is going to get involved, but two things jumped out to me. One, Parker Washington was drafted before him, and two, he fell to the second half of round eight. I can't help but feel like maybe we overcorrected on Brian Thomas Jr. Just a bit.
- [21:54]
C
You know, I. I'm going to be one of the guilty ones here. Like we probably did overcorrect, but I took Jacoby Myers when I could have taken Brian Thomas Jr. So I made that decision. I was on the clock. And it's funny, all three of those Jaguars wide receivers went within a round of each other, right? Jacoby Myers went to 7:10, Parker Washington at the 806, and Brian Thompson, 808. Like we probably have overcorrected, but one person and of the three of us is going to get great value and the other ones is going to kind of be left, you know, sitting in the corner on this with the value because I. The building, the ball is going to be spread around. But for Trevor Lawrence not to start leaning on a wide receiver at this point would surprise me.
- [22:32]
B
And I think that's the perfect takeaway here, is that the uncertainty leads to ambiguity in drafts where everybody just kind of gets pushed down. The reality is of these three guys, Kobe Myers, Parker Washington and Brian Thomas Jr. Who are all drafted very similar to each other, one of these guys is probably going to return value where it's like, wow, that should have been a third round pick and another one or two of these guys is probably going to be worthless and then there's probably going to be that boomer bus guy somewhere in there. But I think the uncertainty has opened up a huge value opportunity here. And I don't know who that guy Is, but, you know, I'm probably, you know, I have Jacoby Myers ranked highest of the bunch, but considering that he's going first of the bunch as well, like, I, I do see some value here with Brian Thomas Jr. One other guy I want to mention, Joey, is Marvin Harrison Jr. I mean, we are very quickly just throwing in the towel on talented prospects when we don't see what we want from them immediately. I know it seems like the very same story, right? Like a new offense mid season, injuries for Marvin Harrison Jr. And now we're just punishing him. A guy who was a second or third round pick last year is now falling all the way into the middle of round seven. Like, I understand the fears with both of these guys, Brian Thomas Jr. And Marvin Harrison Jr. But you also have to see the upside.
- [23:46]
C
Oh, completely. And the Marvin Harrison Jr. When he was on the field last year, he was very competent. So the fact that he went in the seventh round, that is tremendous value. I want to kind of speak to why I took Myers before and I know we're going to talk about our teams later, but we're on the Myers, the Jacksonville wide receivers. I really like my three wide receivers that I took before then. So I went the safe route. I feel like Jacobe Myers is the safest wide receiver you can take for the Jaguars. Had I not liked my wide receiver three or my wide receiver two or not been in on them, I probably would have gone Brian Thomas Jr. To have more upside. But I wanted the safe guys my wide receiver for at that point.
- [24:22]
B
I like that. Now let's talk about just some overall takeaways here. What is the biggest disadvantage to drafting a fantasy football team before the NFL draft and how did that kind of impact your strategy, Joey?
- [24:34]
C
I mean, there's the obvious, like where the rookie's going to land disadvantage. Like we saw these three wide receivers go with Mike and Jeff there with Carnell Tate and Makai Lemon, and the landing spots are going to determine what's the better value there. But I think the biggest disadvantage with this lies in the drafted players who roles aren't solidified and the rookies that come in after them. You look at somebody like, you know, Chuba Hubbard, if the Panthers and we've heard that Jonathan Brooks is coming back, but if the Panthers say, you know what, we just want to make sure we're set at running back and they draft a running back or Rashad White in Washington, like there's a lot of question marks out there. And I think you see those players either Fall down the board or they'll start to rise up after the draft. I'll use one of the players I drafted as an example. Devonte Adams. Like, oh, would you say.
- [25:22]
B
I thought you were gonna say Chase Brown, because we were talking about Chase Brown on the show last week, and we were talking about, like, what happens if they draft Jeremiah Love? And, like, right now, I think if the depth chart stands as is, like, that's a great value on Chase Brown. But, like, this could be one of those that we're looking at after the NFL draft. Jeremiah Love in Cincinnati, and we're saying, what was Joey thinking with Chase Brown in the top of round two?
- [25:43]
C
100%. Another one. Devonte Adams.
- [25:46]
B
Yeah.
- [25:46]
C
If the Rams decide we're going to take one of these high wide receivers, boy, I hope they trade Adams because three mouths to feed in that Rams offense. We've seen them do really well with two, and then they got all those tight ends. That devonte Adams pick would start looking really, really bad.
- [26:01]
B
So I've got two questions now for you. We're going to do favorite and least favorite teams. Joey, what is your favorite team of all of these? All dozen teams that were drafted, which one do you look at the draft board and say, that's. That's nice. I. I wish I had drafted that team?
- [26:17]
C
I was really, really torn between Mung and Drew Davenport, and I think it really does lie in that if he would have gotten. If Drew Davenport would have gotten Amarian Hampton, Devon Hn, or Chase Brown instead of Drake London and then filled his team out from there, I think he would have my favorite team. But it's Hmong getting Ashton Genty in the first round, and then a nice little trio of wide receivers. Justin Jefferson, lad McConkey, Roma Dunesay. And listen, Mung is very determined and dependent on the Chargers offense. Just taking another step next year. We think Keenan Allen's going to be moving on. He's got a lot of Chargers. He's got Gadson, Justin Herbert, and he's got lad McConkey, who I do think is going to kind of return to form from we saw in 2024 monster. And he's got Blake Corum, too. Just a lot of really good pieces there. I like Monk's team a lot.
- [27:09]
B
So a little fun fact, Mung was one of the first guys I ever podcasted with. Like, when I started getting into this, you know, I'd been doing some writing. Mung invited me on his podcast years ago, and we just always seem to align on player takes. Like you know, there's a lot of people that you'll agree with, like a and then you'll still find those disagreements. Like over the six years that Mung and I have been friends and making content together, we very rarely find disagreements. So I'm with you as well. I love the team that he drafted here and there's certainly some risk, but Mung knows that risk is what wins championships and that's why Justin Jefferson in round two, my goodness, that could end up looking absolutely insane. I don't know if you saw the quote yesterday where Kevin o' Connell kind of named Kyler Murray the starter. Said like we're going to want Kyler Murray just getting the ball to Justin Jefferson when he's got one on one coverage. So that could end up being a huge payoff there where you're getting a top three receiver in the middle of round two. Lad McConkey could take that step forward. And of course, you know I drafted Quentin Johnston very late in this draft, But I think McConkey is the bet you want to make in this wide receiver room. I just talked about Blake Corum being one of my favorite picks in drafts and that's who I was really, really hoping for to come back to me before I had to take Brian Robinson. But I think he drafted a very, very good team as well. I'd have been happy to walk away with that one. Now for the not so fun question, Joey, which team do you look at and say, you know, maybe things didn't go their way?
- [28:27]
C
Listen, I think all the teams are pretty well balanced. I don't think anybody had a bad draft. I'm just going to say the team that I would not want to manage or I shouldn't say I would have the hardest time managing. And this is not because Adam Hutchinson is my co host on Sunday Morning Live in season and stolen Miko Buka for me last year in an industry draft has nothing to do with that. I think he got great value on Josh Allen. His receivers are just kind of a glob of wide receiver threes for me and I'm just worried about that. I think skipping over Pollard and maybe taking Marvin Harrison Jr there or DK Metcalf would have really improved his team a lot. He's got three really great running backs and I want to kind of shout out his Jonathan Taylor at the 102 spot. When you are in a draft, if you're a fan of a team and you've got a high caliber, you know, an elite player, he took Jonathan Taylor and he's a Colts fan and I endorse that pick because fantasy, you know, you need to have fun, you know, and he could win with Jonathan Taylor. Who's to say he's not the RB2 this season or the RB1 even? So I don't hate the Taylor pick. You know, when it happened, a lot of people, Taylor was the RB1 before
- [29:29]
B
Daniel Jones got hurt. And if Daniel Jones is back at the start of week one, it's not. I mean, I, I wouldn't do it and I'm not ranking it that way. But yeah, I think that there is something to be said for just like getting your guys like Jonathan Taylor's not making it back to you at 211. So if you want him, just take him at 102.
- [29:42]
C
Yeah, I, so I, I liked that picture. I didn't love it, but. So that'd be the team that I would have the hardest time managing. And so, and I'm not in on Fannin like as much as everyone else is. I kind of like where he went though in this draft. So it's not, I'm not even hating on the value that much. But Jameson Williams is a wide receiver.
- [29:59]
B
1. Can I give you the bullish case for Harold Fannin? Why? Why I am in on a Harold Fannon one. I do think that they're, you know, kind of in a position where they could end up drafting Chris Brazell or David Boston with their first round pick, but if they don't, we have seen Todd Monken, like he was the offensive coordinator when we saw that massive shift two years ago in Baltimore where they started 12 and 13 personnel with Isaiah Likely and Mark Andrews. But that kind of even comes back from his days in Georgia where he had Brock Bowers and Oscar Delp and was running these heavy jumbo sets with multiple tight ends. So he does seem like the type of coach who wants to make tight ends a featured part of the offense. And we saw that Harold Fannin is far and away the best receiver there. So I do still like Harold Fanning quite a bit. I, I like that value at 6:11. I think getting him after Tucker Kraft coming off of the ACL is a great value. So yeah, I'm not crazy about Adam's team, but I do like the the fan in pick and I'll keep up for him a little bit. Now Joey want to close the show talking about our teams because that's what everybody wants to hear about, right? They just want to hear us talking about our fake teams that we drafted in a fake draft. Do you want to go first or do you want me to?
- [31:05]
C
You go first. I've been going first on everything. I want to hear you talk for a little bit.
- [31:08]
B
I'll just kind of run through pick my pick and explain my thought process on each of these picks. So the first one, no brainer at 103. I was fully expecting to take Pukinakua, but when Adam kind of threw that wrench in there going with jt, taking Jameer Gibbs, who I have ranked as my number one player in fantasy, was thrilled to get him. And then after taking Jameer Gibbs, I said I've kind of got my anchor there. And there weren't any. Like had Jeremiah Love falling to me, had Chase Brown and Maureen Hampton A Chan Ken Walker followed me, I probably would have taken them. But with them off the board I was frothing at the idea of getting Malik neighbors, but still happy to settle for Nico Collins there as well. Brock bowers at the 303, that is probably my favorite pick here. Like I think Brock Bauer should be a middle second round pick. Getting him in the third was thrilled with that. And then of course I had to load up on some wide receivers because I didn't get that first round wide receiver. So Zay Flowers, that's kind of your safer wide receiver one, but you know a guy that you can get a consistent floor from. And then DJ Moore also not to pat myself on the back too hard, was thrilled with that value pick. And this was one in Sleeper where I had to reach about 40 spots for him in Sleeper ADP. I don't think they've really picked up yet, but this is closer to where I have him ranked. Happy to get DJ Moore there in round five. This was where I wasn't crazy and this is where I realized maybe I should have gone a little bit heavier on running backs early. Bayshell Tutin, Jaylen Warren, Brian Robinson. If there's one position that I'm okay punting on, it is RB2 because I'm confident in my ability to find an RB2 whether it's on waivers or late in the draft. But I realized doing that before the NFL draft is very difficult because we don't know what these running back rooms are going to look like. So I talked about it earlier in the show. Jalen Warren could easily get replaced in the draft. Bashaw Tutin well, I think that he's a good player and there's exciting efficiency and athleticism metrics. Chris Rodriguez there makes it a very ambiguous Situation, not crazy about that bet. And then Brian Robinson, I mean there's, there's nothing projectable there. Like that is purely a handcuff. If Brian or Bijan were to go down and then my last two picks, I wish I'd flip flop the order here because this is where I see I probably could have, you know, not, not thinking that everyone was going filling their teams out. I think what you got in round nine, Jackson Dart. That's what I should have done with my 9th round pick because I look at my team with Brock Purdy at quarterback. If I had Jackson Dart there instead, who is my QB5 in rankings and then whoever as that bench player that I would have taken in round 10, I'd have liked it a lot better. So had I made that one little change, Jackson Dart in round nine and then whoever in round ten, I would have said that my team is the favorite on this board. But I think I made a fatal mistake kicking quarterback all the way to 10th round.
- [33:42]
C
Yeah. I want to just say if you would have gotten Malik Neighbors instead of Nico Collins, I would have just. And then Brock Bowers right after that, I would have closed my laptop and just gone to bed. Yeah, I would have. Yeah, that would have been like an unbelievable start. I like your team and I'm going to push back on Brian Robinson and it's a player that I'm not like super high on. But we've seen how valuable Tyler Algier was. You know, Bijan's got to come off the field a little bit. I don't think in the eighth round. That's terrible. So I'll push back there and, and
- [34:08]
B
I think what you're hoping for with Brian Robinson Jr. Is like, you're desperate. It's by weeks. You don't have anybody to start. You put Brian Robinson in and it's like cool. He had 13 yards at a touchdown. Like that is better than anything I was getting off the waiver wire.
- [34:21]
C
I mean it is, it is. And the Jackson Dart, my. And I'll get to it. But my words were when he made it back to me, like, I cannot believe he made it back to me. Because I thought for sure when I went Manungai, oh, Dave's gonna take Jason Dart there or he's not even gonna make it back. Maybe I'll get Trevor Lawrence, who I love, love. But no. So I'll, I'll break down my team real quick.
- [34:38]
B
That was just. And real quickly, just to explain it, like, truthfully, I was making dinner during these last couple of picks and just wasn't really thinking through it fully because, like, in my mind, when I see that there are four quarterbacks on the board, I think that, you know, because all of those guys, I look at them pretty close. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Jackson Dart, Caleb Williams, and even Dak Prescott. So five quarterbacks on the board that I have pretty tight in rankings. I say, you know, I'm happy to take whichever of these falls, but with there not being extra rounds, nobody felt because everybody wanted to fill out. And that's why I was kind of stuck with Purdy.
- [35:12]
C
Well, Dave, I just want to apologize right now because I lied on the show earlier when you asked me who had my favorite draft. I had my favorite draft. And honestly, if you ever draft in a fantasy draft and you don't walk away from at least half of them saying, like, man, my team is my favorite, you know, because you're taking your guys, you've been mocking these, these picks, you know, who you like. But I mean, these are my people, so I like them. Monter St. Brown at the 110. Fantastic. He's my wide receiver. 4. I'm super happy to get him as the wide receiver. 5. So a little bit of value there. But what I didn't expect to happen was Kenneth Walker go with the 112, because I was hoping that, you know, maybe, you know, they'll take a wide receiver, James Cook, Amari Hampton, or Devon H and or Chase Brown will make it back to me. So I started my draft. Amanda St. Brown, Chase Brown and I, through the moon. I was excited. Then I went Tedro McMillan. And then I was kind of watching what Mike and Jeff were doing, and once I saw that they went three running backs, both I knew, okay, well, so I'm going to be taking pass catchers here because running backs are going to be available to me later in the draft. And that's exactly what happened in the fourth round. I had a decision to make. I was Devonte Adams or Colson Loveland. And had I not gotten Tyler Warren, which is my favorite pick that I made in the draft, draft at the 510, I probably would not like my team as much. But Tyler Warren came to me in the, in the fifth round. I, I, I've kind of mocked it in my head, like, okay, well put Loveland there. What wide receiver would I have gotten? And I like the Adams Warren combo the most. So I'm really happy there. And then because my two teammates that are my draft mates that were going after me both had three Running backs. I knew that I didn't need to take a running back with that fifth round round. So Camp Scottaboo fell to me in the sixth. I was happy there. I like the look of my team so far, so I was pretty comfortable. So I took safety and Jacoby Myers and then Kyle Manungai who I like a lot in Chicago. I think he could take a step up this season as my RB3. Very excited there and then, yeah, I. It was between Manungai and Jackson Dart and then I literally said in the chat to everybody, I can't believe you fell to me. The one and only pick I was sniped on in the draft, Zach Charbonnet. Mike Kashuba. Good job, buddy. He sniped me on the very last pick and I took Jonah Coleman and like, listen, if he ends up on the Minnesota Vikings, that looks like a good pick. But I mean he could end up in a committee and that could just be not a wasted 10th round pick, but a pick that kind of maybe looks like the Caleb Johnson pre draft picks from last year. Like, yeah, we like the talent, but he ends up in, you know, and not a great situation. Overall though, I really like my team. I probably would have waited on quarterback a little longer, but I don't even know like Jackson Dart in the ninth round. Like I said, give it that to me in August and I'll take it 10 times out of 10.
- [37:54]
B
And you talk about Zach sharpening. I think, you know, that is such a good pick and I would have loved to take him. I thought about him in the ninth round as well because I think when you do these anchor hero, rb, whatever you want to call it, like I got Jameer Gibbs, but I don't really have a viable RB2. If you can get a guy like Zach Charbonnet and just plug him into your IR spot, I mean that could end up being the move right there because then you're just streaming RB2, kind of figuring it out throughout the majority of the season and then in the second half of the season getting to plug in RB1 into your RB2 spot. Going to be a guy that I will be drafting on a lot of teams and just didn't work out in this mock draft. But Joey, we did it, did a mock draft, talk through it, talk through round by round, overall takeaways, favorite team, least favorite team, and then diving in on our teams. Any final takeaways on this episode before we log off here?
- [38:41]
C
You know, I really want to see where Juwan Jennings goes. It's Been too long, we haven't seen it happen. Drew Davenport got him in the 10th round. You know, that could be somebody that really moves up the draft boards. Kenyon Sadiq, you know, going that late in the 10th round, if he ends up in a good landing spot, we're going to see that pick move up. I think all the teams look really good. I mean, this is a tough, this is a tough draft room. There's a lot of sharp drafters. So I knew nothing was going to come easy. I'll just say, you know, being in an industry draft, it's very rare that it feels like a home league. But having Kashuba and Bell drafting after me, I kind of knew, knew what was going to happen there. And not to say that I read their picks or anything, but I knew how to draft against them to make a team that I'd be happy with. I think their teams look fantastic, but
- [39:26]
B
yeah, and I really like picking at the edges for that reason. When you're picking in the middle of the draft board, it does feel like you're kind of just like a victim to runs. And you're just like picking whatever you can, you're kind of scrambling or when you're picking at the edges, you can kind of get an idea of who is going to be picking what and you can kind of dictate your next couple of picks around that. If you're picking at the absolute edges, 1 or 12, then you can kind pick of, of dictate runs and you can draft a couple of running backs and get other people scrambling. So just from like a pure strategy standpoint, I like picking at the edges much more than I like picking in the middle. But Joey, we, we, we crack the seal on mock drafts. We're going to be doing a lot more mock drafts this year. We're going to be doing best ball drafts, high stakes drafts. We're going to be doing live streams, pre recorded shows. There's a lot coming your way. So if you haven't subscribed already, be sure to do that on YouTube. If you haven't followed along or subscribed to the podcast, be sure to do that as well. We'll be bringing you non stop mock drafts, live streams, all that fun stuff between now and NFL Kickoff. Thank you so much for tuning in. We will see you soon.