12ish Rookies You Should Care About

excited this time. Next week, it'll be you and Scott Fish breaking down the first round of the NFL Draft. It'll be maybe some of these guys that we're going to talk about now are going to be involved. Several of the receivers, and I think one running back is going to make it into the bottom of the first round. We'll talk about that who we think that might be um and we'll probably have some different opinions on that

a little bit. And today we're gonna focus on rookies and specifically Matt running backs and wide receivers because honestly, the quarterbacks and the Titans are hugely down here for tight ends quarterbacks. I don't think either position is gonna be very impactful at least this season from a fantasy standpoint.

And this is Fantasy Football Weekly. Yeah, you know, Malik Willis would be the one different possible guy that you could talk about um, although I think everybody knows a lot about them, just because the mobility will yield fantasy points for him even if he can't pass um. But I still I think there's a chance he ends up on a team that doesn't start him right away. That could be. And I know Kenny Pickett is kind of the guy that Vegas thinks is going to be the

other quarterback, maybe the first quarterback selected. But I look at a lot of rankings out there by guys who are much smarter on the draft prep than I am, and sometimes they have Kenny Pickett ranked is the fourth best quarterback. And so it's kind of all over the place on this quarterback thing this year. So I'm gonna be I'll probably be wrong, but I'm just gonna put this out here now. I don't think a quarterback will go in the first fifteen picks first half of the draft.

I think sixteen is the first spot I think a quarterback might go. I will bet you a big bore lunch. That a quarterback because because a team could trade up. Now if we okay, here's okay, how about this, Let's let's take a trade out of it, and I'll take that deal. If you take a trade out trade, let's just say a trade. A trade means we push on this and otherwise I don't think. I don't think any team drafting in its natural position before sixteen will take

a quarterback, so they just don't grade it. If like Atlanta from eight trades up to go get Mali Willis or something like to exactly, yes, I don't want to push on that because they were in the top fifteen. Anyway, well, I think that I would pay that bet. Okay, I paid bet because they were in the top fifteen and they stayed in the top fifteen. Honestly, either way, we both win because we get to enjoy big barbecue. There

is that, um both. I think for both dynasty and redraft fantasy players, I think you're you're focused on running backs and wide receivers in this draft. So that's what we're going to focus on here. And just for the sake of keeping this podcast reasonably short and assumable, we're going to limit our focus to the top six runners and top six receivers, which does not mean that we

think these are the only guys who can make a difference. UM. I just don't want to go turn this into a one hour podcast and then um after you know, so, then when the draft gets here next week, we'll talk about the first round. The week after that, we'll talk about all the other players that went in the draft, and and the other thing we're gonna do today, Matt, that I'm really excited about. We'll tell you the one ideal and realistic landing spot for a for each of

these twelve players. Were going to talk where we hope they'll land at act, exactly before we get to that, You've got a super cool draft game at Shock Fantasy that people can play. I do. Indeed, it's thirty two questions. It's for the first round of the Drafty how many teams are gonna how many how many teams there? How many picks are there in the first round? Kind of makes sense, but uh, you know, you you go to Shock Fantasy, and if you're a member, it's free for

all Shock Fantasy members. If you're not, it's ten bucks for you to uh, to purchase just the the NFL Draft prop bet game, but if you want to, you know, join Shock Fantasy Draft twenty two Draft twenty two as a promo code that'll get you a full year for twenty two bucks. But in this game you can print it off. And if you're having a draft party, I assume you're bringing this to the Vikings draft party and you're gonna play with the whole everybody there at the

stadium on stage US Bank Stadium. Excuse me, I'm I'm I'm working on my fantasy NFL draft. Absolutely, but we got you know, how many how much time will be remaining on the clock when the pick is in for selection number one? You know, will the Giants make a pick at both number five and number seven? Lots of different questions like that, things that you can't totally predict, but you know a fair amount of fun and levity.

There's even one will anybody jump in the Bellaggio fountain like from the players standpoint after after they get drafted, it's possible. Cannonball, Let's let's go. I hope they cannonball. I hope the cannonball is way better than the jack knife. And it's not even close the cannonball, you get the waves, you get the full three degree splash. I mean that jack knife is I believe, vastly overrated because most people

don't have the skill to pull it off. And the advantage of it is you can get the directional spray on the jack knight. If I needed to go straight or you know, some direction, you can do that with a well executed jack knife. But most people can't do it. You know, after cove it, I gained a few pounds here and there, you know, like everybody did. But when we were on spring break with my kids, I was doing cannonballs in the pool and they thought it was

absolutely awesome. You know, you get a little more weight, you get that. So there's that absolutely Also we should mention we have a Fantasy Football Weekly Twitter community. Now, yeah, and how do people find that? Well, I I just tweeted it not too long ago. So if you go to at Explosive Output on Twitter, it's going to be at the top of my page. I think you retweeted it as well. So you can just find Fantasy Football

Weekly community. You can join it. You can ask us questions each other, questions each other questions, questions find a league. Maybe maybe you got a league mate that you know left your league and you need somebody else. You're gonna find some quality candidates right there, and maybe maybe even start dabbling into guillotine leagues. Absolutely, let's talk about the running backs there. We'll talk to that what we believe at the top six, and we're gonna start with controversy. Right,

you made the list that I was like, what the hell? Yep, I put my favorite running back at the top of the list. Although really it's a one A and one B scenario, but for me, I have the slight edge to Kenneth Walker, not Breecee Hall. So we'll talk Walker first. But this is not again it's one A and one B, and I'm not trying to be really like, we're not going to talk about these guys necessarily, although I think they are roughly in order, but that's not what we're

here to do. We're here to talk describe the player and where they could be a good fit. So let's talk Kenneth Walker from Michigan State. First. I think I think I did not expect him to run a four three eight at at the combines fast. That's really fast, and what I love about Kenneth Walker is you know, four three eight, we're talking about track star fast, but it doesn't run like a track star. So many times

you get track star running backs. They are north south runners and they are upright runners, and you know what either of those that's right. Um, he is far more flexible. He doesn't have to run north south. In fact, his lateral running is maybe the best part of Kenneth Walker's game. So they do these stretch plays at Michigan State where he's going laterally. Going laterally, sees his whole cuts instantly, the great vision. Then he finds lanes and he is gone.

His long speed is ridiculous. If you don't catch him by the second level, forget it. He's just not running everybody so fast. But and unlike most track stars turned running backs, he's got the big enough frame to be durable absorbed tacklers, and Michigan State used him in every way inside guy, outside guy. Um, there's almost every he can do almost everything you want a runner to do.

A couple of things I don't love. First, just nineteen catches in three years, so he's not does not look like he's going to be much of a factor through the air um and that's about it. That Other than that, I mean, there's nothing not to like about Kenneth Walker does everything well. So ideal landing spot for somebody who grades out by most people. As top of the second round, I'm gonna go a couple of picks early and put him on the Kansas City Chiefs. What a freaking nightmare

he would be in the backfield with Patrick Mahomes. Now here's why we all know Clyde Edwards A Layer is still there, but we also know that he's not anybody that can power this running game at all. It's a lost pick, and it's a lost cause. I was super optimistic three years ago and it's over. It's over for Clyde Edwards A Layer. The Chiefs lost some explosiveness with Tyreek Hill. Now they get it back in a different position, but they get back a game changing, big play, explosive

player in Breece Hall. And of the first round, well, you mean Kenneth Walker. Sorry, thank you, Kenneth Walker. We don't have the full uton bar here, but the eye was wrong. Fonzie was was right there for the picking. For yes, let's talk about Bruce Hall. Since you yea let's transition. Most people think Breese Hall will be the first, the first running back taking Yeah. I I went to

the tape. Uh started watching some of the highlights. He didn't look incredibly fast and highlights, which was kind of strange to me. But he's a super long strider and he outruns so many defenders that I was like, wait a minute, my eyes are deceiving me. He must be incredibly fast. And then he ran a four three nine at the combine, So yes, it's just an optical illusion.

He's very fast. But the reason he doesn't look fast is he runs super upright and the strides are just so long and all these short, little water bug leg defensive backs are chasing them around and you know, taking three steps to his one. So but he kind of reminds me a little bit of Adrian Peterson and his rushing style. Not saying Bruce Hall is going to be in nearly the body, but tough to tackle, kind of slippery, but not a lot of cuts in his game unlike Peterson.

Well above average hands. Uh. The knock on him is he's not a good route runner. Yeah, just more of kind of a safety valve. So while he's good at catching passes. They might not be schemed catch a lot the we see Bruce Hall catch a lot of behind the line of scrimmage, at the line of scrimmage wheel routes. It's not like he's a downfield receiving no, not like that. But his cousin, his former NFL running back Roger Craig, did not know that. Okay, that's kind of fun. So

he's got a little bit. I wish I wish he had the knees. The knees. Remember, Roger Craig had the most super upright runner as well, but he had the huge knee lift he had. You know, I've never seen a running lifted his knees as high as Roger Craig did in his running gate. I don't remember that very vividly. I was, you know, when Roger Craig was writing about

him in Fantasy Football Week. That's right. Ideal landing spot for Breese Hall for me would be Houston at the fifth pick of round two, or maybe Seattle, who has picked forty and forty one for both teams. He's instantly the best offensive weapon on the team. Yeah. Uh, maybe DK metcalf in Seattle. But you know, Bruce Hall would would really take over. And I think that he has a chance to be one of the rare bell cow backs in this UH in this thing, so certainly a

work horse back in college's for sure. I think he'll be the first running back drafted. I also think he'll be the first player drafted in standard rookie drafts this year. It depends a lot in the landing spot, but yeah, that's possible, and I think it's probable that Breese Hall will be the first player taken in most UH in most rookie drafts. For fantasy players, let's go to Isaiah Spiller from Texas A and M. I like a lot of what I saw, but I've got some concerns here.

He's got he's a patient runner. He's got a surprising amount of nim boldness for a guy who's well built. Uh. He is deceptively strong. When you see him, you don't look at him and go, well, that guy's Romandre Stevenson, who's just gonna bull bowl people over. But man does he finish hard. Dragging tacklers, creates a lot of yards. Very aggressive. Um, he's got pretty good hands. They threw to him a lot in wheel routes super productive and the thing I liked best about Isaiah Spiller simply never

left yards on the table. Does every run You look at it, you look at how that run develops, and you say to yourself, could anybody else have gotten more yards? You're like, well, probably not. There's just the guy was The guy just earns every yard and he he maximizes every carry. I love that. Super durable too for a guy who doled out a lot of punishment. Isaiah Spiller never missed a game. We always like that as well. Um, what worries me about Spiller? He ran a four six

three forty yard dash. Um, his blocking needs some help. Doesn't have a lot of open field moves, you know the second level. He's just gonna punish guys and try to break tackles. But he's not an elusive runner. I like that. We like parse these things out on a guy's forty yards. He's running forty yards and we're like, uh, this two tenths of a second is? I mean? I never seen you know, the guys who were talking about their four three eight and a guy who's four six three.

It's the second that's the way this game works. Um, I also have used to as the ideal landings challenge. You on one though, Okay, I think he should go to Buffalo. He can take the same number C. J. Spiller had, and a whole bunch of people already have his jerseys in the in the in the stands, and and we're good to go there. Plus Buffalo I think would be a really really good landing spot for one

of these running backs. Well, and you he's so he is so different from the runners that they've got, now that you know, he could he could walk into that. He could walk into a unique role there, but it would almost certainly be a part time role because you're Steven Singletary. Singletaries earned the right to get ten to twelve touches every game. Josh Allen is going to run the ball times a game, and that means is gonna get cut Zack Moss Market Cup. That's another I was

wrong moment right there. Let's go to our next running back, James Cook. Yeah, so I looked him up and according to Wikipedia, James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer and captain in the British Royal Navy. Super famous pirate hunter. Yeah, also died of a stab wound while attempting to kidnap the ruling chief of the island of Hawaii. A great kidnapped the indigenous population and I dive from a stab wound. Wow. The Georgia running back he's very different. He's the brother

of Dalvin Cook. Uh. Very quick, looks like a very capable pass catcher and route runner. Uh. My worries on watching the film is he was tackled at the second level just a lot. His line opened up a lot of huge holes for him because he was in Georgia and had a great line in front of him, But he was often tackled like eight to ten yards downfield and not a lot of big, huge, forty to fifty

yard runs in the highlight package for him. So it makes me worry a little bit about his vision and makes me think he needs to go to a spot that has a good established offensive line. And when I read some of the pro scout opinions, they share some of those sentiments. Sentiments. He's a little undersized for the NFL, inconsistent open field moves, his second level level vision is spotty. So my ideal landing spot for him is the Cincinnati Bengals. Um,

they've already got some pass catching ability on roster. They do. They got Joe Mixon in front of him, of course, but I think it's a big improvement over Soma, J p. Ryan or Chris Evans if Mixing were to miss time, and Mixing generally does miss a few games here and there, but they had a huge upgrade to the offensive line. He's not going to be forced into being like the guy, and I think that frees him up to be like the best version of himself in the NFL. Alright, that's

James Cook from Georgia. I think he goes fourth round my hunch. I think it's late third, early fourth. Probably. Damian Pierce plays for Florida or played for Florida. Um, he is a powerful, thick framed runner with a compact build, a lot of balance and footwork on that frame, ton of burst, good blocker, instinctive runner who sheds tacklers. Really impressed with that part of his game. Uh. Surprisingly agile

for a bigger back as well. And what I loved about what Lorida did with him, you know, so here he is, you know, a bigger back who's uh, you know, super physical. They found ways to get him open fifteen twenty yards down field and they're throwing seam passes and then they're like trying to tackle him. Right, It's crazy. Now, you know, if you just watch his highlights, you're gonna be like, dang, this guy is good. But if you watch a full game, you're gonna see some things. They're

gonna raise some eyebrows. Does not have top end speed rut of four sixty um only one season is the starter, which is weird. And even then, he only at one game in which the coaches gave him fifteen or more touches, which is also weird. So you know, here we are a guy who's going to get drafted in the NFL and Florida didn't manufacture touches for him. And it makes you wonder what the Florida coaches know about Damian Pierce

that we don't know. Maybe the he's just better as a ten to fifteen kind of touch guy, maybe throughout the game could be. So my ideal landing spot for Damian Pierce was Philadelphia as part of a one two punch with Miles Sanders. Sanders will continue to get the start, He'll he'll be more of your outside runner. Another good guy with a path as with past catching ability, they both can and but not a goal line finisher. I mean, Sanders never scored. So here's your goal line finisher. And

Damian Pierce for Philadelphia. I'd love to see that landing spot for him. Our sixth and final running back that will discuss Brian Robinson from Alabama talk about big framed guys who could make an impact. Yeah, dude is huge six to two. Had several big highlight runs for Bama. But I noticed the big highlights came against non SEC teams like Mercer and New Mexico State. But when you SEC highlights where all the defenders are a lot better, he still pops off for some fifteen twenty yards. But

he doesn't have the huge sixty. Uh. He's not very easy to tackle. Uh. It looks like it really hurts to bring him down. Um, there's some punishment there are there guys wincing. Yes, they take their helmets off and you're like, oh, it looked like they just sucked down a lemon after trying to tackle him. Um played five years at Alabama, backed up Damian Harris for a few years and Nagy Harris until last year, where he finally got the nod as the starter. Uh not super quick,

doesn't have overwhelming speed. I think he's going to need a good offensive line in front of him. I thought Philly would be a good landing spot as well, for many of the same reasons. But how about this, how about Minnesota? How about as a backup to Delvin Cook, Brian Robinson might last till the fifth, maybe sixth round. This is kind of an intra sting guy that you could pair with Dalvin Cook and even pair with Alexander Madison and have just a third bruising weapon out on

the field. That just changes the dynamic of that Vikings offense. You don't want to put Dalvin Cook with his brother James Cook on the same team we're gonna have. I mean you would, but it could. You could. But I think I think I'm not as high on Alexander Madison as many people are. UM who, I don't think it's I think there's a commonly held belief that Madison is like of Dalvin Cook. I don't think he's close to them, So I'm more open to this than many would be.

But I think the Vikings may have too many holes to uh. That's why that's why I think it's a it's a fifth, sixth round. It's definitely a Day three kind of pick. And he if he's sitting there and the Vikings are like, hey, you know what this this could really bring a different element to our offense. Let's take a break. We can back. We'll talk about our favorite six wide receivers in this draft and where we would like them to go. Stay tuned. Fantasy Football Weekly

Segment number two. Paul Charchi in Matt Harrison with you Guillantine leagues dot Com. We're getting reaped. Turn the lights on. It's getting close. I'm excited to hear about this fancy new secret sauce. You guys go and I can't wait to talk about it. You can't wait to talk about it, can't you? You haven't even told me it's that's that's how secret. That's right? Um, well, I spilled the beans on it. Can't be trusted. You can't trust you. We've

already talked through six running backs. Let's go through six different wide receivers that we like to make an impact. And this is a it's a pretty deep wide receiver class. I don't know that there's any one player that's like,

oh my god, this guy's a sure firecent lock. But my favorite player in this draft is Garrett Wilson from O s U. I think that the draft nicks think that he's the closest thing to a lock in this pretty universal consensus that he should be the first player taken in this draft, in part because Jamison Williams has got the A C L. I mean, I think without that, Williams would have been the first pick. Could be. So let's talk Garrett Wilson. There's a lot to like here.

Great super fast by the way, very very fast guy gets open down field all the time, can get separation downfield, and after the catch Sionara dude is gone. So I love all that about it. But he's got a surprisingly broad skill set that makes him more than John Ross. You know, like, run straight, run fast, uh, A lot of body control. He had to adapt to a lot of inaccurate throws at Ohio State. UM love the ball skills.

Love his ability to go up, adjust to the ball in air, come down with it, explosive release off the line, and you'll see him create cushion for himself within ten yards. All the time he played the slot A lot. He played outside a lot, so we think he can go both outside and the slot be effective from both places. Goes over the middle willingly, and they ran him over

the middle a lot for a thinner guy. I liked to see that they were willing to and he was willing to catch the ball over the middle and take the requisite hits that come with that. UM loved his slant game. He can be very shifty and elusive after the catch and if you get if you give him the wrong angle, then again the speed takes over and he's he's out running everybody at the end zone. Big plays coming for Garrett Wilson with whatever team ends up

with him. He's slender, he's not very physical. He's not gonna beat people. He's not gonna win contested catches that way to win some contested catches just through body control in his hands. But he's not gonna outpower Anybody's not gonna box out defend or he's not that guy. UM. When I when I watched him Garrett Wilson, I see somebody whose routes look very good in him getting separation on routes. But a lot of a lot of draft experts feel that he's got always to go on his

route running. Um, so okay, maybe I'll grant you that out of all the players we've put on any of the teams, I feel most confident about putting Garrett Wilson on Atlanta at eight than I am about anybody else. We're going to talk about her half talked about. Sure, they're, you know, the closest one to the top there. I think I think the one caveat could be maybe the Jets just go have fallen in love with him, and they've been very much rumored to be in on getting

a wide receiver their intend. So they'd have to get past Atlanta. Unless you think, don't do it. Yeah I don't, but yes, yea that that would be kind of the only thing I could see that could put a hitch in that gidea up. I think Atlanta is pretty commonly mocked for Garrett Wilson. Yeah, I think he would thrive well there. He'd open up the middle of the field for Kyle Pitts and Mariote just got a strand of farm to get him the ball downfield where Garrett Wilson

can be really special. Alright, let's go to a wide receiver We've already touched on Jamison Williams coming off the late season a c L, which has dampened, you know, and put a lot of variability into where people project him. I've seen some mockx have him as high as eight for Atlanta, and I've seen sometime I'm out of the first round. I think just really depends on how quickly you need Jamison Williams to be able to be available.

So he didn't run the forty at the Combine or Pro Day due to a torn a c L in the National Championship game in January. But he's definitely the fastest player I've seen on tape at the running back or the wide receiver position. And I watched a lot of film on him, so many huge long touchdown catches. The theme with all of them, he's super fast, and on all those instances he's just wide open, just absolutely

wide open. Now, we spent two years at Ohio State, transferred to Alabama after he was stuck behind Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson on the depth chart. A couple of good wide receivers in front of him. There, good route runner, really tough to cover, will instantly open up any offense. Uh, the Knox not super big from a build standpoint. He's six one, but he's only a hundred and seventy nine pounds. That's spreading. That's spreading, not a lot of weight over

a fairly big body. Yeah. I don't see him as a guy who dominates the middle of the field. Um, but he's a field stretcher. And my ideal landing spot for him is the Los Angeles Chargers that picks seventeen. Oh man, if the Chargers like Williams on one side, who's very different, obviously asked him from almost everybody, keenan

Allen and running pinarily out of the slot. So so you want to you want to put you think the ideal landing spot is where he's the third receiver in absolutely look what Jamaar chased last year in Cincinnati, and maybe the Chargers learned from Cincinnati. You got a young, strong armed quarterback, and you got a couple of wide receivers that can absolutely stretch the field, and air Bear could absolutely just bomb these things to Jamison Williams downfield.

I think it would be so fun to see the air Corriel Chargers come back and they're just skying the ball out, NonStop down the field. I think it would be absolutely a blast. Hadn't thought of that as a landing spot for Jamison Williams. But with the knee, if he's not right until Halloween, Okay, we got fine receivers. Yeah, so you know that is they have the luxury of waiting Keenan Allen's in the final quarter of his career probably, so yeah, maybe it makes It makes a little more

sense to me than it did it first. Plus he might drop to seventeen there, so I think I think that there's a decent chance I've got I think Williams kind of in the middle of the first round there. I well, I've got him going to Green Bay, but only it's it's kind of it's it's kind of a it's kind of a pipe dream. But I've got him. I've got him going to Green Bay later in the draft. Maybe you've got somebody else go into Green Bay. I

I certainly do. I do. Okay, uh, And one of the guys has gone up next, Drake London from USC, big bodied guy. He reminds me of Brandon Marshall. Six ft four, long arms, long legs, creates a bunch of space with his big frame, super physical, highly productive in that offense. At USC offense largely went through Drake london elite hands, including all of these highlight one handed catches. He's so you know, the hands are probably the best

in this draft class, UM. And when you watch him on it feels like you're watching him rebounding in basketball. The way he sets up to bring in bring in the ball and the way he uses his body to block out defenders, it's it's not even fair. And of all these wide receivers that we're talking about, he's like the one surefire big totally totally agree with that. UM wins almost all the leaping place the contestant catches. He's got. Drake London's got goal line receiver written all over him.

This and again to go back to Brandon Marshall, you know there was a string of two three, four years or Brandon Marshall is lethal inside the ten yard line. I take a couple of steps, turn around, Here comes the ball and the defender could even do anything about it because it's such a big target and he could he could create so much space for him with his body. But London is more than just a big guy using his body. He's got sharp cuts that creates some cushion

against against opposing defenders. Very good route runner. Um, he's a technician. He breaks a bunch of tackles with his strength, and he generates a shocking amount of yards after catch because of his instinctive running after the catch. And and it's not just that he's like breaking tackles with a big with his big body. He's shockingly nimble with that body. Um. The downsides for Drake London he was asked to run simple routes at USC The route tree is not complicated.

He'll have to learn some more parts of the route. He had this broken ankle suffered last October. Did you do that from trying to make a cut on the route tree? So I don't know this route, so you know there's there's gonna be It is expected he will be ready by the beginning of the season. I'm a broken ankle, but we've seen ankle problems derail Michael Thomas's career, so you know you always have to be careful. Ankles

of the life blood for wide receivers. So yeah, and and London has been one of the guys who has been absolutely skyrocketing up the draft boards. I believe draft Kings uh over under on his pick right now, it is ten and a half. I'd take, I'd take the I guess you want to take the over. He'll go higher, the higher than ten and a half because because I think you have him quite a bit later. But I've got him. They think that he's going to be somewhere

around eleven twelve right in there. So is the teams that need wide receiver after that are are kind of limited. Philadelphia has already put so much into that position, so I don't know that they're Here's why I think that this makes sense. I think that the wide receivers are such a big need for so many teams. Later in the draft. I think a lot of these teams are going to have to move up to get the wide receiver that they like. And I can see on the

notes that your ideal landing spot for him is green Bay. Yes, green Bay might have to move up to get the wide receiver they want if they want to get a guy like Drake London. I have. So now I'll talk about why we brought up green Bay twice here. So my my, this is my this is my like fantasy five dream that will never happen this way, and it's

all fantasy football. Green Bay uses both of their picks on wide receiver, that'd be great, and one of them is Drake London, who is as NFL ready as anybody who can hit the stretch, totally NFL ready and ready to carry an offense as a receiver. And then you can wait on Jamison Williams in the a c L. No need to rush him back. You afford yourself the lug tree with the Packers of being able to wait on Williams till he's right. So that's why I would love to have Green Bay go Drake London to twenty

two and Jamison Williams. And even though after all that it's not realistic, after all these years of Aaron Rodgers having no first round touchdown passes to anybody but Marcedes Lewis, they're gonna draft two wide receivers in the first round and shock over correct. That's my theory. Okay, let's go to our next wide receiver, Chris Chris lave H. I've never seen more of those Buckeye stickers on a helmet.

At one point, they ran out of helmet space and they started putting him on his visor, kind of like the Rickey Bobby fig Newton's sponsorship UM in the highlights, Olave is a little bit of everything. Good route runner, good hands, good overall speed. At four three nine, Uh plays kind of like Antonio Brown where he's not like overly flashy or big, just really precise and good at everything he does. He's the opposite of Antonio Brown in the fact that everyone says he's insanely mature. Okay, big

brother on the team. Super Humble graduated early in the fall of one with a degree in consumer and Family financial services in under four years, so that that's a good sign. If he's got a weakness. He's not super big, only six, probably not a tackle breaker at the next level, and kind of average as a runner in the open field with the ball. But he's gonna get open and he's going to catch the ball and he's gonna go for He's pretty fast, yeah, but he just runs straight

into defenders all the time. He's like, he's like, hey, that guy is wearing a different colored shirt. I'll go hug him. UM. Ideal landing spot for me would be New Orleans at one of their two picks. Either it's sixteen or nineteen. Uh, he could, he'd have a chance to learn under former Buckeye wide receiver great Michael Thomas, and would give the Saints something they haven't had at the wide receiver position in a long time, a second options.

They just haven't had one. And with Jamis Winston, I think you're gonna need a couple of wide receiver options if he's going to get back to being yolo Jamis Winston and throwing the ball downfield a little bit more. If New Orleans didn't suddenly have a massive need for a left tackle, um, i'd be talking about them taking a wide receiver in the first round. And they still might if they're don't they don't feel like there's a

quarterback requisite. And then receivers absolutely in play. Yeah, you could see them getting like Trevor Penning, uh and and maybe a wide receiver. There. I got Trevor Penning going to them. There we go, and then I've got Malik Willis. I think, yes, I've got Malik Willis. Okay, interesting, all right, let's go to Trailan Burks. This is a guy that has you will see mocked as high as the mid teens and as low as out of the first round. Yeah,

so very diver rgin opinions on him. He reminds me of something like a less thick Deebo Samuel or a more productive Lavishka Channel, one of the two somewhere in there. So he's got the bigger frame, not like Deebo Samuel thickness, but he's got the bigger frame for a wide receiver. Trailing Burks is got good deep speed, but oddly enough, because he is bigger bodied, they burst in. The acceleration

isn't there. But if you give him the long runway and he gets into the second level and that he's got time to get the speed up, he can run away from defenses. Trailing Burks creates separation through his cuts, his footwork, and his deceptive body language. When you watch him run his routes, you'll see him tilt his shoulders and his helmet slightly one direction just to bait the hook on the defender. He buse his hands and go like come over here, hey, I'm that's where I'm gonna go.

And it works. He creates a ton of separation that way. Um, you'll see plays He'll he'll one and eight cornerbacks eighty degrees because his his route is cut will be so sharp that and the players are going the wrong way and suddenly he's got a full turn fully around and start chasing behind Trailing Burke's. He's got good. Um, he's got good ball skills. He had I believe no drops his senior year. Well that's good. That is good. Uh. Lots of big games against elite SEC opponents, which is great.

I mean Arkansas used him as their offense. They have to go inste if you got if you got a guy and you're going against Bama and Georgia and all those guys, yeah, you gotta you got a first round quality wide receiver, and Trailing Burt's you use him a lot. And they used him all over the field, by the way. They lined him up at every position except offensive line,

at various stages, including quarterback and running back. Now at quarterback, he went over for seven as a passer, So we're not going to suggest he's actually going to do anything there. But in a league that is increasingly using guys like Deebo Samuel has a running back, Trailing Burk's might just get some more carries than we would have ever projected. A wide receiver to get a few as recently as a year or two ago. And it's interesting and I'm

not gonna step on your ideal landing spot. But with Deebo Samuel demanding a trade, if San Francisco were to get a first round pick, would they maybe want to take trail on Burke's and just try to replicate what Debo's doing. It'd be tough for them to get there, though, because San Francisco's first pick is sixty one. Yeah, trading Debo for a first round pick obviously, Yeah, I see what you're saying. Yeah that maybe that's maybe it's a possibility. Um. Yeah,

So trailing Burk's. My ideal landy spot for him is pick thirty two. The Detroit Lions are thirty four lines up. Both. I think that's an ideal spot for obviously a wide receiver needy team and somebody that can walk in and be highly productive right away, which the Lions need. Okay, let's go to our final Well cheated because these two guys both could still go in the first round, and I figured if they can go in the first round, we better talk about both of them briefly. Uh, We'll

start with John Dotson from Penn State. Uh. At my other guy's George Pickens from Georgia. Uh. Either of these guys could be surprise picks at the tail end of the first round by the Packers at eight, the Chiefs of twenty nine or thirty Detroit at thirty two. Someone could trade up to grab them. Uh. Dotson's pretty tiny five ten one seventy eight but has four four three speed,

super elusive after the catch. Ten of his twenty one college scores came from forty yards and beyond, essentially the same size and build as Tyreek Hill, although Hill ran a four quite fast four two uh four to nine forty at his pro day. But Dotson's got a good out route, running tree and catching tool. Pretty obvious that I think I'd like to see him try to take

the Tyreek Hill role in Kansas City. And I think with pick thirty, I think that's definitely the UM so I think that that would be kind of a cool spot for him. And then Pickens is kind of the opposite guy. He's six still very lean frame, and NFL teams would definitely want to have him add some bulk. Uh. Not a game breaking speed guy, but his size, his route running and his catching ability would have him fit nicely in the right system. Uh. One of the bigger

wingspans in this draft class. Uh. He missed the first two thirds of the season with an a c L but returned for Georgia's final four games, and I think that he might be the Packers late pick in the in the first round. Yeah, Davante Adams roll in Green Bay's a little bit taller and a little bit faster than Adams. Not quite as bulky as Davante, though some of those cheese Kurds could help him add some weight.

That'll pack it on for sure. But I also wanted to mention there's two other guys that have an outside shot at being first round picks, and that's sky More and North Dakota State's Christian Watson. I'm not hearing a lot of Watson steam to the first round, but sky More every now and again, you see you'll see at the bottom of the first round. And I loved his

productivity at Western Michigan. Now, either of those two guys lands in like a Green Bay or a Kansas City, and they will be just absolutely shooting up draft boards right away. Pickens and Dotson, Yeah, absolutely. Of those two, who do you think goes first. Is it Dotson with the smaller bill the more the water bug style, or do you think it's Pickens who is the bigger body, long armed, leaping, catching receiver. One of the other Knox

on Pickens was he was a little immature. He got kicked out of a few games for throwing punches at some some some guys in multiple games. Ok Um, So I think that NFL sees that and they'd probably go, yeah, we want a guy is a little bit more mature out there. So I think Dotson is going to be the guy who's gonna go before. But Pickens is a guy who somebody falls in love with the skill set that he might find himself as a late day one pick. Yeah. I I don't think either one is going to go

in the first round, but they'll be close. And there's some wide receiver needy teams at the top of the second round, like Houston with the third pick in the like Houston, who need to pick everything. They do need everything, but they are really desperate at wide receiver. I think that those guys make sense for Houston at pick thirty,

what is it five? I believe yeah, It's so funny watching like all the mocks to Houston because they literally have them taking just about everybody you know, because they need everything. Yeah, but here's the funny thing, okay about that. So Houston at three constantly getting mocked tackle. The one position that they're pretty okay in is tackle. They get a first round pick in the right tackle and then they got the guy. They give up three first round

picks four at the left tackle position. Yeah, I think that they're gonna play defense. They're they're gonna go with a defensive player. Houston might be the first team that would trade down because I think they have so many holes to fill that if there's a team that feels

like they're needy at at one of these guys. If it's Hutchinson going first and your pick of Sauce Gardner or Thibodeau going second, there's a lot of really great players on the on the board there, and if somebody feels needy and they feel the need to move up to pick three to get in front of the Jets, get in front of the Giants two picks, maybe get in front of Carolina, who they might think, oh, they

might be taking our quarterback. I think Houston's like the key spot that I think that they could trade down a mass a couple of extra picks in the second third round and and and really make a splash in this draft. Yeah, I think the cost to move up this year is low, and I don't think because there's no I agree, there's not like these elite separated players

at the top of the draft. Like most years, you've got two, three, four, or five six players that are clearly better than the rest of the draft class, and to move up to get them becomes very expensive. But this year, the difference in the first couple of players to three, four or five players is not all that different than the guys that are going in the middle round. So I don't know that Houston gains a ton by moving down like they would have been a different year. Yeah,

maybe not. And this is this is one of the strangest draft classes of all times. Because of the COVID year, there are more players who are eligible for the draft this year than any other year ever, and it's almost like double I've I've I've heard a lot of guys who do like the big draft guides and stuff saying that instead of ranking six D players like they normally do any year. They're ranking a thousand players this year

because there's so many that came out. So the depth is there in this draft class, but there's not that much high end talent in this draft class. It's gonna be a strange, strange draft, and I think the team's personally, the teams that collect a lot of second and third round picks are gonna come to this draft feeling really good that that could very well be be the case. Thank you, Matt, Yeah, great job. It'll be fascinating to see where these players go. Do you think we'll hit on?

How many of our our ideal landing spots do you think we'll hit on? Let's see, we had we did we had twelve somewhere to the same team. So they can't all twelve workout? Well, I mean they can't all twelve. I'd say four, that'd be I would I'd love it if it were four. Yeah, I'd love that, that would be. We're pretty smart guys. We we know, we know it's absolutely absolutely listen to us, all you g m s out there that I'm sure are tuning into Fantasy Football Weekly.

That's right, Matt, It's what you have to do this week. Thank you, Matt, Thanks for listening, everybody. We appreciate it. Back next week to recap the first round. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H