Hey everybody, It's Tuesday, February eighteenth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. We're not quite ready for hand size season yet. To me your man MG Marcus Grand joined by Michael F. Florio. Lakwan Jones at this moment is still on an airplane. He is on
his way to New Orleans. He's going to be there for an HBCU showcase, the HBCU Legacy Bowl coming up this weekend, so he will be enjoying lots of good food and lots of fun in New Orleans while Floria, you and I are just grinding here doing mock drafts and stuff.
Look, I'll give let's give LQ credit. He was like, I Land, I want to run to the hotel, like can I Like, it wouldn't work out schedule wise, but he wanted to be here right now.
That is true. That is true. All credit to Tilakwan because he was going to try and hustle up and set up from the hotel and do the show. Is just timing wise with the rest of us, it was gonna be difficult. We expect though. He will be back for Thursday show so we can ask him questions about some of his mock draft stuff. Then the one headlines we get to by the way, we are doing a show. We did a mock draft yesterday. We're gonna talk about
the mock draft. We got some some other running back rankings things, and then maybe some fun in fravolity at the end, depending on how long we are babbling about the other stuff here. But yeah, we did a mock draft the first of what several this year, I would assume, right.
Yeah, I mean I like doing them, like we were talking about doing them maybe like once a month or something like that, just to kind of keep compare. And it's really cool because, like you, you posted this on Blue you skeeded it.
I guess, uh yeah, I Patrick CLAYBN has convinced me that we're just we're just calling him tweets regardless.
Okay, so you tweeted it on Blue Sky, oh right, and it filled within like twenty minutes. So it's a lot of people who live in breath fantasy like we do, which which is really cool.
Yeah. Absolutely, we actually got some really cool folks in here. Nate poll Vote joined us. Kevin Tompkins. I think you could read him with some of his stuff over at at Fantasy pros. Nate Yankie from Pro Football Focus was in with us Pete Davidson him at Rotobond. There's a whole lot of folks who jumped in, so we are grateful for them for feeling this thing up. And I think we just had some civilians out there as well who just said jumped in.
Do you think Pete gets it as much as I do? Like tweets thinking he's someone else, Yeah, except that his are probably more fun than yours, oh easily.
I mean he probably got a lot of tweets about the SNL fiftieth anniversary or something like that. Yours. You just get angry angry.
People whenever like a supermodel or like a singer breaks up with their significant other. They probably slide into Pete's DMS like yeah, I mean I would think so right.
So yeah, it's probably a different, different level, for sure than than what you get when when people make you mad, you make whatever when the other florio tweets things, writes things, and people get upset about it. So yeah, I want to go through this mock draft. It was a twelve team PPR Snake draft. I will also try to post the actual board, so folks can check that out too, because I know, just sort of listening to this thing is gonna be a little bit difficult to follow. So
we'll post the board. You can take a look at that. You can make your own determinations of who you thought had a good draft or not a good draft. So I mean, like your overall impressions, your feelings on the team that you came away with. You chose the twelfth spot in the order, so talk to me about why you chose that and how you felt like it turned out.
I took twelve because it's a little bit easier because you could just double pick and you're good to go. I also like being on the turn. It makes you, at least with me, it forces me to kind of get my guys a little bit more. Whereas if Sam, I'm in the middle of a draft, I'll be like, maybe I could wait and get this guy around later. You don't have that option when you're at twelve, so it kind of forces you to go get the guys that you like. And to me, the most interesting part
of this mock was rookies. And obviously ADP isn't fully up to like par yet we with the So the rookies are still a little bit pushed down on ADP, but you wouldn't know that by looking at this board because everyone was pulling rookies up very high. I kind of went in being like, I'm gonna draft a lot of rookies. I don't think I drafted a single one, because I should have expected this with who we were drafting for such a sharp room that they went appropriate.
There was no discount on any of the top rookies.
No, there was, And like I was sort of with you, was like, I'm gonna draft some rookies, and they kept going, and they kept going. Eventually I did draft one late. I just I chose the second spot, you know. I wanted to see who would go first and sort of make my decision. Accordingly, I'm just curious as to how things are gonna shake out. And I was with you, I was trying to get rookies. It never really happened.
Then finally late I just I felt left out. So I drafted a rookie in the late rounds of this thing, just to kind of see how, you know, how it would feel a little bit. Did you have a particular strategy, were you you know, I always feel like you never really know until you kind of get into it a round or two. But did you go into it, you know, planning to do certain things?
I kind of felt like you, like, especially with this being my first real mock for twenty twenty five and it being February, and like I said, ADPs still kind of skewed off of what it was last year. These early drafts are always very interesting, and I kind of went into like, I'm gonna find all the guys who's ADP are suppressed and I'm gonna take them, and we're in such a sharp room that everyone had that same thought.
My plan was to I wanted to leave the first couple of rounds with running backs because at least one like I know, me and like Lakwan talk about a lot like we want wide receivers early on. But the more we were talking, especially Marcus when we did our rankings last week and we talked about running back, I was like, there's such a like I think there's a bigger fall off at running back after the top like five than at any other position outside of maybe quarterback.
But that's a very different position. So I left the first two rounds. I made sure to grab Devan hen who was my highest ranked running back, and then through four rounds I ended up doubling down and taking Isaiah Pacheco,
who I loved last year as well. So after four rounds, I had two running backs, and that was something I wanted to emphasize, Like, I was confident I could find receivers I would feel good about in the middle portions of the draft, not so much with running backs, which is why after I had those two guys, I took one more running back until my last pick, the very
last pick of the draft. So wanted to emphasize it early and then kind of because I also feel like right now, Marcus, obviously things will change by August, but out of all the positions, running backs are the one that could change the most because it's so volume dependent. Yeah.
So I felt in some way, maybe a little bit opposite of you in the sense that I didn't love the receivers that were available when it got to even like late round two. I mean, they're good players, but I didn't feel comfortable taking them in that spot. So I felt good getting you know, a big wide receiver early. I came back and got a big running back early we'll start talking about some of these guys individually in a bit. But it was sort of like after a while,
like I don't love any of the receivers available. They all come with big question marks attached to them. And then sort of in the mid rounds I hit a few receivers that I think could potentially either make a
leap or maybe have a bounce back year. Then later I kind of took some, I guess, for lack of a better screw, kind of more zero RB type guys or guys that have upside potentially, and then you know, the end of the draft is always sort of those upside kind of dart throw guys that you think could really maybe turn into something, but you're sort of, you know, on the fence about them a little bit. So this sort of dive into it. Justin Jefferson is the one dot one your feelings on that I.
Wouldn't do it. I can get the thinking like he's Justin Jefferson. He probably is the best real life wide receiver walking the planet right now. He's been so productive regardless of who the quarterback has been. Last year we were doing this with Sam Darnold, where we were like, might not live up to expectations, and he was fine. He produced with Nick Mullens for a stretch the year before.
But when you were picking first, you were splitting hairs, and Justin Jefferson's quarterback is a much bigger question than the guy that you got it too, in Jamar Chase, who is, as Joe Burrow, one of the four best quarterbacks in the NFL, is guy since college, all of that, so I know we've talked about it already on the show before. For me, one dot oh one is Jamar Chase, and you just keep it moving. But you got a gift. You got him at two. I get the thicking with Jefferson.
I just would never be the one to do.
That, which made me feel great that I was able to like cause I see Jefferson go off the board in one and I couldn't click Jamar Chase's name fast enough, Like I was all in on Jamar Chase at the one dot two. That was an easy one for me. I assumed he was going to go one. I still believe in most drafts that he's going to go number one, but I was glad to get the very slight discounted too.
If he went one. Would you have taken Jefferson at two?
Probably? Yeah, So Jefferson was coming off the board the first two picks. I was probably gonna go Jefferson there, but it got us number three with Bijon Robinson. Kevin Tompkins takes Bijon Robinson at the number three overall spot. Maybe the big headline though in the first round, and we're gonna have to ask him about this. On Thursday, Lakwan was at the number four spot. He has been talking up Poka Nakua all off season and he had a chance to take Pooka and he takes aman Ross Saint Brown.
Instead, which literally last week we did our rankings, both me and Lakuan had Hookah as wide receiver.
Two. He takes a Monro instead, So again he is en route to New Orleans. When we talked to him on Thursday, this is going to be the first question we ask is well, probably the second questions. I'll proably ask him what's the best thing he ate? But the second question was like, why did you take Amanrau over Puka at the number four spot? He didn't text us where he was like I want to see where he goes.
But I was sitting there at twelve, Like, yo, if he got by Laqwan, there's an actual hands he makes it to me. Now he went ninth overall, But yeah, I think that's a great value for Puca right there.
Yeah, no, absolutely, So I'm on Rago's four. Sa Quon Barkley goes five, Ceed Lamb at six, Jamiir Gibbs is seven. AJ Brown at eight. Now, AJ Brown is one that I'm not I'm not sure about. I mean, it's not a talent issue, it's just that last year the passing volume was diminished significantly in Philadelphia, and it feels like that is a risk at eight for me.
I am in AJ Brown Stan. I love him, and I'm I don't know if I was the highest of the three of us when we ranked him, but even so, I had the three wide receivers that went after him ahead of AJ Brown, So I like him a lot more like if he was there for me at twelve rather than the guy I took, which was Nico Collins. I probably like if you flip those two, I probably still take Aj at twelve, but I I like him a lot more as like a late first early second round pick than I do middle of the first.
So there he goes. He goes at one dot eight. You mentioned Puka is at nine, Malik Neighbors goes number ten overall, bres Hall at eleven, and then you finished out round one with Nico Collins. For running backs in the first round, is that a surprise to you a bit?
Not the first three, because I think Bijon, Saquon and Gibbs are going to firmly be like first even like probably middle first round picks. Earlier, I was not only to see a fourth one go, but who the fourth one was in Breze Hall. Like I I think Brits Hall is more of a second round pick in drafts next year than a first.
Breese Hall is one that's curious to me because I think he's a borderline first round guy. Again, it's based on ability, and it's based on a belief that whatever happens with the Jets, whoever their quarterback is going to be, however, this offense is going to be set up that they are going to feature one of the more talented backs in the league. And I that is sort of my argument for him in the first round. My argument for him out of the first round is it's the Jets.
It's chaos. You just don't really know what's going to happen because there's so many unanswered questions in this offense. Again, I get it, it's mid February, but there's just so many unanswered questions that it's hard to plant the flag. Like you want your first round pick to be a guy that you know with certainty is going to produce, and there's just a lot of questions around around Breeze Hall at this point into the second a little bit more running back heavy. We had six running backs off
the board. You started it with von Hian. You mentioned he was your He's not your highest ranked overall, right, he was just the highest ranked running back still available.
You have him as my so the big the top three, and then I have Hn after that. Okay, so you take to start the round. We did get our first rookie in the second round, Ashton Genty. Nate Yankee takes him from at the two dot eight spot, so we actually started Nate starts with Saquon Barkley and Ashton Johnty, which again in February, I'm not gonna lie to you, that looks pretty awesome. Yeah, and I feel like this
is probably like the lowest portion of that. Like, I don't see Jens falling much further than this unless he goes to like an awful landing spot. But I think there's only room for growth. Because we were talking about it last week, Like, if he goes to a team where they just hand him the keys in year one and let him run wild, he is going to be, in my opinion, a late first or early second round pick.
US fantasy guys love rookies, so not only is this a pick that makes you look smart now, a month from now, we might be like, wow, that was a great value.
Yeah. I mean that's the thing, right, Depending on what he goes, it's not inconceivable that he slides into the first round. I mean I've seen mock drafts with John c getting drafted fairly early in the in the first round. I mean, I've seen mox with the Raiders taking him at six. You know, I don't know if that really happens, but that's where we are sort of in mock draft season, like real NFL draft mock season at this point. There was a run on wide receivers early in the second round.
Bryan Thomas Junior, followed by Drake London, followed by Marvin Harrison that I was just saying, hey, how are we feeling about Marvin Harris because year one was a major disappointment.
Yeah, I it was a It was a disappointment because of the expectations that we put on him and if he this is where he's going to go in drafts, we're not lowering those expectations at all. I don't like him going there. Like I would have took Tyreek over him. I would have took Eric Wilson over him. This might sound crazy we're getting into round three here, but like I would take Lad McConkey over him JSN. So at least as of now, things could change again, we're still
in early February or mid February. But as of right now, that to me is my least favorite pick in the second round. I was gonna say though, last week Lakwan was like, I'm the low guy on Kyrien Williams. He took him in the second round, he passed.
So he passed on Puka, he takes Kyron. I'm I don't know if he was hacked or what was going on with Lakwan.
The Cooper Cup. Later on, like dude, there's a lot of rams going on with this, uh, this draft of his.
There's a whole Yeah, there's a whole lot happening with Lawan's team. Yeah. I am sad he's not here because he has some things he has to answer for. Uh for sure, I'm Christian McCaffrey at two six. I don't hate it. I just I think I'm hesitant to draft McCaffrey at all this year.
I get it, if you're gonna take him, I think the second round is where you have to. And ye, there's obviously like he could be the RB one again, Like there's an obvious upside there. But I also feel like he's riskier now than because in past years when he missed time, I was always like, it's fine, like draft him, Like especially that one year where he it was like a shoulder injury and a hamstring injury. I'm like, those two things aren't connected at all. It was just
bad luck. But he's older now, there's more wear and tear on the tires and the Achilles thing that that I hear Achilles, and I immediately am like I don't want to touch that at all. And and you as a forty nine Ers fan know how how big of a story it was and how hard it was to trust him last year. So if you're out on him, that only makes me want to be even more so out on him.
Well, it's well, it was hard to trust McCaffrey. It's even harder to trust the forty nine er organization when it comes to information about you know, their injury. And I get it, like it's not advantageous to just blab to the world like what a guy's situation is. But the fact that the organization kind of kept stringing this along during the season only to basically, you know, we
didn't get much right. It was forever before he got on the field, and it didn't last very long before he aggravated the injury, and we just didn't see him again for the rest of the year. So I, you know, I just have a little bit of nervousness. You know, maybe if he falls a little farther, we can talk about it. First sight end off the board, brock Bouers at the two ten spots, You feel okay with that?
Yeah, I, And I didn't even have to what I saw the next tight end go off the board. I didn't even need to look at who it was that selected him.
That's right, because Buyers goes two ten. I come around the second pick of the third round and I took Trey McBride. Yeah, I just I don't want to be the person streaming tight end. I can't. You know, I've planted my flag that McBride's going to finish the year as the tight end one. So this was sort of me reaffirming that belief by making him the same and tied in off the board, taking him with the second pick in the third round. First quarterback off the board happens
in the third round. You know, I know you're okay with Josh Allen being the first quarterback off the board? Are you okay with him at three seven?
I'm okay with him there, But I'm never going to be the person doing it because likely you know, I love Alan, that's my guy. But like, what's the difference between him and al and Lamar? Like a lot of people are gonna have Lamars QB one coming into next year, and Lamar went what was it?
Nine spots later?
Nine spots later, and then you get Jaden Daniels over a round later. You, I thought, came away with the best quarterback value, Marcus, because you got Jalen Hurts in the fifth round, and I keep saying I think there's like a clear cut top five, but I want the fifth one. And it does appear that Hurts is going to be the fifth one off the board. And you get him over two rounds after Josh Allen and over a round later or close to a round later than like Lamar and those other guys. I think that's just
a great value. Yeah.
I felt good about it again because it was it was right at the cutoff where look, if I didn't get Hurts, then I was definitely gonna wait on a quarterback. But the fact that he was still there second pick of the fifth round, I said, Okay, I can pull the trigger on this, and I can feel okay, and I can continue sort of roster buildings. So by the fifth round I've got I got two wide receivers and
Jamar Chase in the first. I took Brandon Ayuk in the fourth at the end of the fourth round just because I feel like he's going to rebound, and especially if the Niners, if they do trade Deebo Samuel, I healthy, Brandon Ayuk still gets plenty of targets there in that offense. So I got my two receivers. I took Josh Jacobs in the second, I took Trade McBride in the third, and I got Jalen Hurts in the fifth. So I feel really good about those first five picks.
I almost took Brandon Ayuk in my fourth round pick, and then you got him at the end of the fourth, So full rounds between us.
And that's where. But it's right about that spot where I felt a little bit yeah about the receivers that were out there, Like I took Ayuk at four to eleven to pick right before him was Xavier Worthy earlier in that round, DK metcalf went. But some of the receivers that went right after Iu, Chris olave Goo's early fifth Jamison Williams early fifth, rookie Teed McMillan out of the University of Arizona was early in the fifth round.
Jalen waddles, A, Flowers, Rashi Rice good players, just I didn't feel comfortable with them in that spot.
I felt the same and I'm the one that took Rashi Rice. And the reason I did well because all those other names you said were gone by it came to me, but I also felt like you, like, I don't love any of these guys, so I'm gonna go for the one that I think has the most upside, and that to me was Rashi Rice. But at that point, but I also agree with you one hundred percent with
what you like. I Duke is going to be or should be the number one wide receiver, top target in this forty nine ers offense this year, and we already saw it like last year, was going two rounds earlier than this, so you're getting a discount already and he could be even better.
Yeah, And on top of it, with IUK, the injury happened relatively early in the season. He played seven games, so it's kind of in the earlier part of the season, so it's given him a little longer runway to get healthy, to rehab a little bit, and hopefully now that he's got a contract, we see him at training camp, we see him actually working out with the team, so he's ready to go for week once. That gives me a little bit more more confidence about it, got plenty more
to dive into. That is just a quick overview of the first five rounds or so, we're gonna get into some more favorite picks, maybe questionable picks, just some of the early overall takeaways from what we took out of this first mock draft. Stick around for more of the NFL Fantasy Football Show, diving into our first mock of the off season. Florio mentioned at the top of the show, we are hoping to do maybe one of these a month. They're bouts and great putting it out there on social media.
Having a lot of different folks jump in definitely better than having it be an auto draft only with the three of us, because then that just throws things off. But kind of diving in back to the sixth round here, at this point, it just sort of seemed like, I don't know if there was a real flow to the
draft from this point on. And I get the sense like that has a lot to do with because it's so early and ADPs haven't settled and we haven't gone through free agency yet, that people haven't really figured out where a lot of guys should be slotted right now.
Yeah, I think a lot of people spend like and it's what we have kind of been focusing on, is like the early portion of the draft because the high end guys we kind of know. Some of them still could change via free agency or quarter back or whatever. But for the most part, these are guys that are kind of they're so good that they're locked into their
team and their role. But when you get into the middle and later portions of the draft, yeah, a lot of that comes down to like volume, opportunity, stuff like that, and we don't we don't have any of those answers yet. You also did see older players fall, probably like I was shocked DeVante. I'm not taking Davante Adams most likely, but middle of the seventh round, Like to me, that felt like a like, Okay, he's probably fell further than he should have.
Probably, But I think everybody sort of had the same feeling, right because I looked at DeVante adams name and it's sat at the top of the list for a long time, and I was like, I can't do it. You know, I don't know where he's going to be. I don't know what his situation is. Yeah, he's still one of the better receivers in the NFL, but he is getting older,
you know. I think it's just there were so many question marks, and I think a lot of people just sort of passed to the point whereas you mentioned, then suddenly you're in the middle of the seventh round and it's like what are we doing here? And and then he ends up getting drafted. So yeah, I just it just felt like there was a weird flow to this draft. I don't know about you. I got to the eighth round.
I took Stefan Diggs. At the end of the eighth round, I just looked at the list and I'm like, I don't I don't love any of the options out there anymore. Like it just seemed to all fall apart by like late seventh early eighth round.
For me, I think you did a good job there. Of like, Diggs is a safer option. He doesn't bring like the top five upside that it used to bring, but he's still very very safe. But then you paired him with Hollywood Brown, who brings absolutely no floor but a lot of upside as the potential big play threat for the Chiefs. So that's something when I'm in the later rounds of drafts that I will do. Sometimes I'll be like, all right, I'm gonna get this guy who if I'm in a pinch or whatever, or or if
I still am filling out my roster. I don't mind like my starting lineup. I don't mind starting this guy, but I'm gonna pair him with someone that if he hits, I'm pulling Digs out of my lineup for this guy because the upside is so high. So that's the strategy that I love to do, especially that portion of the draft.
Well, yeah, and that's sort of what I went. Three wide receivers in a row seven, eight nine. It's like Romo Dunes in the seventh, Stefan Diggs in the eighth, and in Hollywood Brown in the ninth. So at that point I felt like I was pretty good at wide receiver. I gotta get back to your draft, though, because like six seven eighties took TJ. Hockinson, which I know you said you were kind of gotta weight on a tight end. Is this about where you plan to make the move when you can.
So I think what I'm kind of figuring out is I'm probably like five six if I could get one of like Kittle Andrews Hockinson, I think I'll pull I'll pull that on, like pull the trigger on that. But if I miss out on those guys, then I'm just I'm saying, whatever, and I'll be one of these teams that took their tight end and like the tenth round er. So but I don't know. I felt like at six, just like you were saying, like, I didn't love I
already had three wide receivers at that point. I didn't love any of the others like George Pickens I was considering. I definitely did not like any of the running backs that were there, not enough to take as my third. So I was like, and quarterback, my plan was to wait. So I was like, all right, I'll take the tight end here that me I don't mean and you were in on TJ. Hockinson, Lakwan is not. But I feel
like a healthy TJ. Hockinson could get me nine hundred yards and like six seven touchdowns and be a top five tight end.
Yeah. No, I'm with you on that. I think. You know, last year, obviously he was coming back from a major injury. We didn't see him until late in the season. It took him a while to sort of get up to speed. But I'm with you, I think a healthy TJ. Hawkinson is still a very productive player.
Do you think I made a mistake taking him over Andrews cause I went. Once I saw Mark Andrews go right after me, I was like, did I did I go wrong?
I don't think so, I don't, and I like Mark Andrews. But you do start to wonder if if the decline is happening a little bit. That was my concern, you know that, just whether or not he's starting to decline a little, partially just because of him, partially because it seems like the Ravens want to incorporate wide receivers more. You know what we saw out of Zay Flowers. You know, I don't. I don't know what Rashad Bateman is going to be at this point, but it does seem like
they want to start incorporating other pass catchers. You know, Isaiah likely had a huge game in Week one. He might be the best tight end two in football, like I think most teams likely as a starter. Probably it probably is for sure. So no, I don't. I don't think you you went wrong by by taking Hawkinson over Andrews at all.
Thank you, because I I that was the one pick that when I made it, I was like, you ever had that? I'm sure you have happened on time. But like when you make a pick and then you immediately start second guessing, like, ah, did I leave the better player on the board, Like.
Usually it's the it's the oh crap, I forgot that dude was there? Ye what am I doing this sort of thing? So no, I understand it, But I think you were fine at that one. Just sort of scanning the rest of this year. Any thought, like, so you get Kyler Murray over Jordan Love. The thoughts on that Baker Mayfield comes off the board fairly late in the ninth round, I mean, after Love, after Nicks. That surprised me. I think a little bit.
I'm cool with Murray going ahead of Love because he can run. But I I and look, I was the Patrick Mahomes guy when we did our rankings last week. I was the only one that had him in the top six. But I think after the top five quarterbacks there should be a multiple round gap between that cause, like to me, the top five guys are the clear
cut five best fantasy quarterbacks in the game. So like to me, taking Mahomes four picks after you took Jalen Hurts felt like throwing all the value away, right, being like I don't want to miss out on a quarterback, I'm chasing it and even getting like Kyler Murray in the sixth round, Like, I don't think that's a big enough gap for me to want to take a quarterback. There. There were a lot of quarterbacks that went like bo
Knicks winning round eight, Baker, and nine. I didn't take my quarterbacks till round eleven and twelve, and I took Kleb and Drake May, but like Herbert and Goff went
later than that. Purdy dak So to me, I understand firmly taking a top five quarterback, but if you miss out on those top five, I think you should immediately pivot to Like, all right, I'm gonna wait a few rounds now, because as much as I love like Mahomes is my QB six, if I'm not getting any discount and I'm paying a similar price to the top five, now, I need him to be as good as those guys,
and I don't feel comfortable that he will be. So yeah, that Mahomes is probably my least favorite pick in this draft, but all of the quarterbacks that win right after the top five, I feel like I'd rather just wait a couple rounds to get someone that's pretty similar.
So Kyler goes with the last pick in the sixth round. We go over a round until the next quarterback, which is Jordan Love at eight dot two. Bo Nicks later that round at eight dot nine Baker Mayfield at nine to three. Then after Baker we go again. We go almost a full round.
C J.
Stroud goes at at in the tenth round. I mean, I guess I don't hate it because the person who took Stroud also took Josh Allen, So I guess this is where we are where CJ. Stroud is a QB two.
Now huh, he's a QB two. But if I have Josh Allen, like at that point where CJ. Stroud was, there was still so many good quarterbacks that I would have just waited. But I do think it's something that we spoke about last week. But like quarterback, I don't want to say it's deeper than ever because we say that every year. But there's a lot of good options that I feel good about that you don't need to
take as like a top twelve. Like I understand, not everyone is gonna want to go with Caleb and Drake may as their guys because there's a lot of projection there and a lot of hope that they take the next step. But I also would argue there's a lot of upside there with both of them. So I could have paired one of those two upside guys with a Dak or a Golf or a Herbert or a Purdy,
someone safe. And with this draft really affirmed to me, Marcus is if I don't get a top five quarterback, I'm waiting, and I'm just taking two of these guys that I believe are all in this huge tier of second quarterbacks which is ten plus deep. That to me, they're all like I know, Lakwan loves bon Nicks, I don't think there's a huge difference between bo Nicks and Drake May and I got a four round discount on them.
Like there's a lot of quarterbacks like that, where like I'd rather have Caleb over Stroud straight up got him around and a half later. I think there's not a huge difference between someone like Jordan Love and Brock Purdy, but you got a four round discount on them. So it just kind of made me realize that waiting is probably the way I'm going with quarterback this year.
So I would say this because I saw your Caleb Drake May and back to back rounds. In fact, with back to back picks Caleb to in the eleventh round Drake May to start the twelf. That feels like a February Yes, like it feels like a thing that you do in February to say like, hey, this is like, this is what I like. These are guys. I like that. Maybe you get to August and you're starting to draft a little bit for real, You're.
Like, yeah, maybe not, I'll pair one with like a safer guy. I also think both of those two guys, though, are going their ADPs are going to go up in my vimion, like I think the Patriots bringing receivers or whatever, and I think everyone just realizes, like Caleb is still good and he's Ben Johnson now, and like, yeah, that's all we really need.
Yeah, right after you took Drake May Scheud where Sanders goes off the board, you mentioned at the top a lot of rookies and I'm looking pff night who he took one, two, three, four in the chart five six rookies. He drafted six rookies in this one started with John c in the second he took Omarion Hampton in the sixth, a Meccabuka, a wide receiver from Ohio State in the eighth. Let's see who he took. Uh, Let's see Caleb Johnson that was in the ninth round. I took Matt Matthew
Golden wide receiver from Texas in the eleventh. And then with Cam Loveland is it Colston Loveland, I should say, tied in from Michigan that was in the twelfth round. So he was all and he pushed all the chips in the rookies.
I will fully admit come next month, I will probably be more aggressive with the rookies because I'm still in the early process of getting ready for the NFL Draft. I know some guys that I like, but I'm not at the point where I'm like flag planting for them or anything yet. If we run this back in a month, I probably will feel a little bit different. But I
understand his thinking because rookies are the ultimate lottery ticket. Like, yeah, every year, at the end of the year, I go look through like the top scorers and figure out who stands out, and like it's almost always rookies that are the ones that are Like I did not expect this person to be here.
Yeah, I think, and I get it right. It's and again this is this is February too. Like you can sort of take these big swings and you can make these declarations. I do think some of these guys as more people start to kind of study them as we go through the combine, because you know, the combine always gives guys a bump in certain places. I think we will start to see some of these ADPs for some of these rookies go up. I took cam Ward in the thirteenth. I just didn't want to be left out.
I wanted to have a rookie, you know, So I pair him with Jalen Hurts. I do. I'm curious. I think it'll be interesting.
Do you do you have a preference yet between Sanders and Ward.
I think I prefer cam Ward over Sar Sanders. You know, I watched Sudur at Colorado. I watched it more last year than this year. I did catch a couple of games this year. I don't think his ceiling.
Is quite as high as Wards is, so just like you, I think he I think he has the safer floor, like I think you can you kind of know what you're getting out of him.
He's pro ready. But Ward's tools to me are are so elite one that I think, like you said, the upside is higher. But I also think for fantasy, he is going He's gonna run a little bit more. He's got a stronger arm, some more big play capability. When I watched Sanders, I was like, he runs, he can run, but he doesn't. It's a lot like Kalob. I feel like like he doesn't want to run. If anything, he wants to use his legs to create for his arm.
Yeah, and that was certainly that first year at Colorado. That was one of my frustrations watching Shoulders that I felt like he probably should have run more, especially because that first year the offensive line was so bad that he was consistently under pressure that I felt like, hey man, every now and then, you just got to take off, you know, do something so at least freeze the linebackers. If they know that you can take off, then they
got to really think about it a whole lot. But that was never the case that I felt he held the ball too long. I think it improved a little bit last year, but I think I think that's an element of his game that I would like to see get used a little more.
I think people are gonna see him and be like, he could be like Jaden Daniels. But I don't think he's ever gonna run like that.
No, I don't. I just don't think that's his game. It's just yeah, that's just not who he is as a as a quarterback. So I you know, I think if that's what you're hoping for, I think you're going to be very disappointed. All right, So you asked me about about taking Hawkinson, I got to ask you about a thing I did in the kind of later rounds. I went three three rounds of a round. I went Blake Kormanton Rico Dowdell at eleven, Kamani Vidal at twelve.
I already had Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones. These sort of felt like, hey man, these guys potentially could pop off. I don't know about Dwell so much, but I do think Korum maybe gets a bigger role. I think Vadal potentially gets a bigger role. Understanding that there may be guys ahead of them, but I just sort of, you know, they're not quite the lottery ticket of a rookie, but you know there may be a scratcher or something.
No. I think you crushed it with this portion of the draft because uh Korum, like you said, could one, he's one injury away from becoming in like an RB one, because if Kiren goes down, all of that workload is going to play koram Videll. We saw the flashes at times last year, but Gus Edwards is dust at this point, I think. And as much as JK. Dobbins was awesome, there's a long injury history there. Even last year he
missed time with injuries. So if they don't bring anyone in, he's an injury away from being a weekly RB two, I would say. And then Rico free agent, depends where he goes. But I mean, you got a running back who just put up a thousand yards in round eleven like that. That's never a bad pick.
Yeah, I mean I sort of I sort of enjoyed, you know that little run I had of three straight running backs. It was like I said, it's not quite zero RB, but sort of zero RB.
I didn't one of my picks that I didn't understand at all. Why did de Hunter Swift make it to the last pick in the ninth round.
I don't know other than other than I you know, I've seen some things that he could end up being kind of a cap casualty. I guess, Okay, I don't know if I don't even know if that's the case. I'm I might just be making that up. I'm not even sure. So I'm trying to I try to figure out why it is that that you got him at nine to twelve. I don't know.
At no point in this draft was I'm like, I need DeAndre Swift. But I'm sitting there in the ninth round, I have two running backs, and I'm like, he's All the other guys on the board here are backup, like they're like, yeah, legitimately, like zach Sharbonint went ahead of him, a bunch of rookies win ahead of him, but like I got him. And then in the next round, like that's when like Korum and and Spears and Javonte were going. So I was like, I I'm not a huge DeAndre
Swift fan, but this just feels like good value. And this won't be the case come August if he's the bear starting running back.
By the way, speaking of good values, You're getting Ricky Piersall in the tenth feels really nice.
I won't lie. I wanted to take Travis Hunter there, but I was like, Pierceall feels like just because he could be the leadst this.
Top slot guy this year. Yeah again, I mean with you know, Debo asking for a trade and the Niners looking as though they were going to accommodate that request. The thought process when Piersall was drafted is that he was going to be the eventual replacement for either Brandon Ayuk or Deebo Samuel, whichever one of them didn't get signed to a contract. They obviously bring Ayuk back. Now it looks like Debo's going to be heading out. It
really does feel like it's opened the door for Ricky Piersol. Now, mind you, Piersall had that huge game late in the season. The Niners lost to the Lions, but Piersall eight catches for one hundred and forty one yards at a touchdown. He had another really good game kind of in mid November where he had four for seventy three in a touchdown. So you know, we have seen Ricky Pearsall go out and be productive. And now with the opportunity to have more snaps, more.
Targets, not be coming off of a gunshot injury.
That part too, it does feel like that's an ADP that's to go up. I think people are going to start to catch on and like, oh yeah, I thought.
Him, and I will admit like I loved getting Jalen McMillan in round eight, but that felt like a the ADP was very suppressed. This won't be the case in the summer.
You know. It's also some of that too, like as you as we're doing mocks on different platforms and the draft list is what it is, because that has a lot to do with ADPs. I think early on, because you know, sometimes you do try to scroll, sometimes you miss names, or the way things are set up, you know some guys are higher on the list and so you just end up drafting them. I think as ADPs start to come into form, and as different platforms sort of change their rankings, lists and their draft list, I
think you'll start to see some of these change. But man, Piercell on the tenth it feels great, Like I.
Scrolled pretty far on Running Back and I did not see Bucky Irving's name, and he ended up going in the fourth round. I don't think he goes in the fourth round at all, Like I didn't. He's a second maybe probably third round pick in my opinion next year. But that felt like one to me that was like, Oh, if his name was higher on the list, he probably doesn't.
Fall that far. Yeah. Some other picks that that caught in my eye. Tight end was interesting. Tyler Warren, who I think is going to be a stud tight end out of Penn State. He goes. He goes in the eighth round, one pick ahead of Travis Kelsey. Kelsey's going to be an interesting case because I guess, first we need to know if he's actually playing football next year.
I said they gave him some March fourteenth, and people who are like, oh, he's waiting to see if m will be the show is worth retiring for or not.
So Yeah, Kelsey goes at the eight that six. He's going to be one that I think is very much in flux depending on what his future plans are going to be. I don't know any other any other ones maybe like the later rounds that jumped out to you good, bad or otherwise.
Well, one I knew in the tenth round like once tight end started going, I was like, I don't even need to look at who's taking Johnny Smith. I know that's Lakwan. I thought, to me, was interesting to see a couple of big like Amari Cooper in the eleventh round. I know he's a free agent, but still, this is a guy who's been a top four round pick for
years now, and then like Tank Dell. I understand injuries, but him going in round twelve kind of Marvin Mims in the thirteenth, like no one pulls him up after the end of year that he had. So yeah, to me, it was more that some of these veterans, and I felt like there was there was value on Year two players, Like you got Ben Snatt, who everyone loved at this time last year, you got him in the fifteenth round.
Because we're fantasy analysts. Fantasy people were like goldfish, Like you put a new shiny toy in front of us, and we're like, forget about all these guys we loved last year. So I always think that Year two players who didn't quite live up to expectation in year one could be could be a value. And this kind of showed that.
Yeah, I mean I liked Sinnet. I did not think last year was going to be his year. Zach Ertz was still there, and granted Ertz obviously getting older, what have you, but I just didn't think there was going to be a real opening for him there last year. This year could be a little bit different. I think we see him get on the field a little bit.
One of the things I just I just noticed this Pete Davidson talking about waiting on a quarterback, and then in back to back rounds thirteen fourteen, he gets Justin Herbert and Jared Goff. I mean to wait that long and still get those two quarterbacks, That's that's a steal as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah, which to me shows again like how deep that position is. M I was surprised too. Anthony Richardson went ahead of like Brock perty, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff. We talked about Richardson last week that he brings all the same upsides, so I think it's like a great pick, But I did not think that he would go ahead of some of those safer quarterbacks.
Yeah, interesting too, because he had Nate poll Vote took Richard's and at the end of the twelve paired him with Kyler Murray, which I don't know. I feel like I feel like there's a ceiling on Kyler, like he's hit his ceiling and Richardson we need him to get up off the floor. So I you know, I would want I would want to have one of those guys be a little more consistent and explosive, just for my taste personally.
It is kind of crazy though, because last year those guys were going like QB five and six.
Yeah, not now, not now. I do love Lawan planting his flag with Jalen Milroe. He has basically stated him how much he loves Milroe. He takes him in the fourteenth round that point, So that is kind of the quick overview of it. You know, we're gonna go pick by pick because that's kind of a little bit much. But we will post this on social media so you guys can take a look at that. You know how
this thing turned out. You can obviously certainly leave your comments and your thoughts, tell us who you felt like I had a good draft, who did not, what have you. It's February. It's gonna change a whole lot. It'd be interesting. It'll be interesting like in in July to come back and look at this one and be like, man, what were we thinking we should keep.
A screenshot of everyone that we do? And then like so yeah, like come July, we could just look at all like six or whatever it will be and be like, wow, look at we were idiots here right, like what we did here? So like I always find that stuff fun.
And it told me like remember when you got Ricky pearsall on the tenth, Now he's going in the seventh. You know, stop.
Those kind of things by August.
Yeah, those kind of things for sure.
Terry McLaurin in around end of round three though, I I I was so sad I didn't get him. I loved that pick.
Yeah, but one pick ahead of you just you just missed him. And but then you got DJ Moore, which I don't think is a terrible actually paired him up with Did you mean to pair him with Caleb? Was that the plan or they just sort of happened? No, that just kind of happened. Yeah, all right, I don't hate it at all, not at all. Ten quick break, come back. We will talk some Olympic sprinters maybe something like that. Stick around for more of the NFL Fantasy
Football show. Wrap it up the show and as always appreciate you hanging out with us. Saw this you know coming across the webs. Recently, Tyreek Hill, who we all know is very fast and who enjoys challenging other people, has challenged Olympic gold medalists medalists. Easy for me to say, Noah Lyles to a race in twenty twenty five. Now we don't have a date, we don't have a length of the race. Apparently Tyreek would prefer it being closer to forty yards. Lyles understandably wants it to be one
hundred meters. That is one of his specialties. Simple question, can Tyreek Hill beat an Olympic sprinter in a race? No?
I think he can, so I just have to google. One yard is almost equivalent to one meter, so.
It's pretty close. Yeah.
Look, Tyreek is incredibly fast. I think he's too bulky though, Like he's got a lot of muscle. Noah Lyles looks cut up up, but he's definitely a skinnier dude. Also, this is what Noah Lyles does every single day of his life. Like Tyreek is fast with pads on and like to cut in all of that, but just straight sprint speed. I don't know. I'm gonna go with the guy who's done it and won at a world champion level before.
Well, I think I see. I think this is the reason though Tyreek understands a shorter race benefits him just because he is shorter than Lyles, he has shorter legs. I think he gets up to top speed quicker. But over the course of a longer race, when Lyles finally gets going, I think he eats up that space. I
think he eats up that ground. Right, and you're talking about one hundred meters is about one hundred and ten yards, So it's like you're starting, so you start on one goal line and you go through the back of the other end zone basically is what it is.
That's insane. I did not realize it was that far.
Yeah, it's about one hundred and ten yards. So I think I think a longer race benefits Lyles. I think in the end, I think they'll probably meet in the middle somewhere like I don't know, sixty meters or something like that. Yeah, sixty seventy meters something like that is probably where they they sort of split.
The difference they do you remember a couple of years ago when the Pro Bowl did like a track race and Tyreek participated, but he didn't really run, Like, right, Tyreek, if you're if we're setting this up, you need to be going one hundred percent.
Well, I think for this he will, right, because this is a chance for him to, yeah, sort of claim supremacy for NFL players, because I know that's the whole thing. It's you know, Noah Lyles likes to take shots at other sports. Tyreek Hill definitely wants to stand up for NFL players in a race. Yeah, so this is there, This is the opportunity.
I understand Lyle's argument with like the whole you're not a world champion thing with other shits, but with football it is null and void because please find another team outside of the thirty two NFL teams that could beat the in a game right now, Like you can't, You're.
Not You're not gonna do it. I mean they are. They are the world champions by default because you know, it's our sport and no one else really plays I mean like no one else really plays it at a high level anywhere else in the world. It's not like basketball, where you know there are a lot of really good basketball players in other countries and good teams in other countries.
I mean, we've seen that the gap between the USA and the other countries, at least in men's basketball, and in women's I guess too, But certainly in men's basketball that gap has closed pretty significantly over the last few years.
And in baseball, I don't know if we're if we're the we have the most volume America does, but I don't know if we have the best anymore. Like Otani is easily the best player in baseball.
Well, and I the World Baseball Classic. I feel like it's legitimately up for grabs every couple of years, you know, like, yeah, the US is competitive, but Japan is very good. Uh, you know, Puerto Rico has its own team, they're very good. You know, Mexico, you can go. You can start picking naming countries that are all really talented.
Dominican Republic always is stacked.
Yeah, the Dominican I mean, all these other countries have legitimate shots to win in baseball. You know, it's part of the reason, and that part of the reasoning was out of the Olympics for a while because we stopped winning it easily.
I really don't want to send like pauls the season in the summer, but I'm always like I would sign up for that because that's when players are actually ready to compete. Whereas World Baseball Classic, they're also kind of using it to get ready for the season.
It's a little bit of spring training extra, is what that is. Yeah. Now I would be down with taking a two week break for the Olympics. I think it would be a great way to showcase the sport. I know that the commissioner's not really for it. I know Shohey made a case that they should do it. I think it would be cool when everybody's like warmed up,
ear ready to go. But then again, also if you're the Pirates and Paul Schemes blows out his arm playing in the Olympics, yeah you're not going to be thrilled about it.
And the Dodgers pretty much our team Japan right.
Now, so pretty much. Yeah, that is true, very very true for sure. So any other players you would like to see in a race, maybe not evenst like an Olympic sprinter or anything.
I think the obvious answer Xavier Worthy after what he did in the forty last year. I would still to this day, like we've had Chris Johnson on this show before, I to this day would love to see what what Like, I think he could outrun most NFL players today, even being as far removed from the game as he is. What I really want to see is let's have some big guys run right, like, yeah, one hundred meter for people who weigh over like three fifty or.
Something like that. I think that's the thing that certainly non football fans I don't think understand is that, yeah, these guys are not you know, they're not as fast as Xavier Worthy. These guys are really fast. I mean they are shockingly fast for their size. The fact that even these linemen are running forty yards in under six seconds, Like, I don't know that a lot of people comprehend really how fast that is at that size. So I'd be down for that.
I think the combine has broken people's brains because, like you'll see a running back run like a four to six and it's like, oh, well, careers over for him. And the difference between four six and four to four is like a microscopic second, Like it's these guys are all extremely fast and athletic and good at what they do. And a offensive lineman could run forty yards faster than most humans can like that, that just shows you how.
Good of an athlete they are. Yeah, one hundred percent. So I'd be down for that. And also I also want to just see, like, you know, I don't know, Matthew Stafford versus Patrick Mahomes or something like that.
Old quarterback like Joe Flackover's Matt Stafford.
Yeah that's why because for years I always wanted like a Peyton Manning Tom Brady foot race, Like that's what I wanted for a long time. Maybe we could still make that happen, Like I don't know, but you know I want something like that. Yeah, yeah, you don't get the Manning brother Let the Manning brothers race each other. I'd be down for that.
If Lakwan was here right now, he'd probably be saying, like I could beat Tyreek and Noah Lyles in the hundred meter.
I mean, what animals, You gotta fight a kangaroo like he wants to fight a kangaroo Like I wouldn't. I wouldn't put a whole lot of oh Hue, we love you, man, but you're not fighting a kangaroo. You're not beating Tyreek Hill in a race. For next show, I have to remember this.
I'm gonna ask him in our text chain what he thinks he can run the forty in, just to see what numbers he puts out there.
Yeah. Yeah, I'm very curious about that too. So yeah, so stick around for a Thursday show. We can get the more tales of more sales of Lakwan Jones greatness. That'd be amazing. In the meantime, that'll do it for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Stay happy, saved Elfie, do good and live well. Enjoy Today is everybody who will talk to you in on Thursday. Wow.
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