NFL Draft Breakdown: AFC Winners & Losers - Fantasy Football Podcast

Always been injured dating back to high school. Basically every year of his career he's injured. But he's electric. Like when he's out there, he is so fun to watch. Mike, you brought his name up pre-draft as someone to watch. The Steelers are a really good landing spot for running back in general because of the health of James Connor. So I'm excited to see what McFarland does here, but I didn't get too hyped. You know, it wasn't. He's a complimentary back. I think that that's the biggest thing. You didn't have them, you know.

draft a replacement for James Connor in this situation. The Cleveland Browns, okay. I mean, they got Baker some help on the offensive line. You know, you talked a little bit about the Broncos, Mike, the fact that they're putting themselves in a position to see, look, it's Drew Locke's fault. Look, there's no way that this is not a make or break year for Baker Mayfield. If you have reinforced that offensive line, you have the weapons that you have on that team.

Hooper, an offseason acquisition, Beckham, Landry, apparently Injoku's back. They also drafted Harrison Bryant, another tight end. Yeah, tight end, yeah. And so they ended up with an offensive tackle on the first round to help keep Baker upright. So this is a very make or break year for Baker. When I'm looking at my dynasty rankings, he was one of the biggest challenges because I have to decide when I'm ranking Baker.

Does this guy have a long-term future of the NFL or not? Am I taking him above an Aaron Rogers in a dynasty league right now? And that's a difficult decision. Those guys fell in at the back of the... Green Bay made it easier for you. Well, yeah, moving on. But was there anything else from the Browns that you guys wanted to talk about? No, is Baker is the big winner to me. Yeah, the offensive line. Left tackle in a...

this draft and right tackle in free agency. So it's great. Not enough. We need at least three or four more tackles to keep big care. The Bengals. They ended up with Joe Burrow. We know it. Number one overall. T. Higgins was their wide receiver pick of choice in the second round. So AJ Green, Tyler Boyd, could have been worse for their situation. But, I mean, Higgins feels like a compliment in year one. You got Joe Mixing not being.

challenged by any running back draft picks? What were your takeaways from the Bengals draft? I think that they're going to do their best to have an explosive offense. I mean, if you get AJ Brown back on the field, you add T. Higgins, which is a huge play type of guy to a team that has a great possession receiver in Tyler Boyd and the speed in John Ross. Joe Burrow, to me, looks set up to succeed.

And, you know, obviously Joe Mixon could catch the ball, even though he didn't do that much last year. So I think they want an explosive offense here. And I think Joe Borough will eventually bring that. Will it happen year one? I don't know. But T. Higgins was also, I think that was a really.

Nice pick to pair with Burrow. You know, you had Andy Dalton and A.J. Green come in on the same year, and now you've got Joe Burrow and T. Higgins drafted together many years later. It feels similar. And listening to the Colts draft and watching Chris Ballard talk, you could tell that Michael Pittman, who went right after this to the Colts, it seemed like they were hinting that, you know.

They were sad at all in Higgins? They were sad. As soon as Higgins went, they knew they had to take their other guy that was, you know, big, strong, fast wide receiver. So that honestly gives, I really respect Chris Ballard. And so, you know, if they were eye in him, that gives me even more confidence in Higgins as a prospect. All right. The Houston, Texas, only had five selections in this draft. Well, Arizona Cardinals GM.

Bill O'Brien didn't have, he didn't have, you know, too many picks to work with here. As far as fantasy goes, there was, you know, pretty much nothing. A fifth round wide receiver, they got a tackle in the mid rounds. But, yeah, I would say, I would say biggest winner here is the Cardinals. All right, a team with much more draft capital here, Indianapolis Colts.

Mike, you just talked about it. Their first pick was Michael Pittman Jr. Wide receiver out of USC. He's a big boy. He's a beast. He's going to be a very nice compliment for T.Y. Helton and another foundational piece for this team in its future. They also invested a second round pick on Jonathan Taylor out of Wisconsin. We have a couple of excited gentlemen here. The night of, so round one.

The draft ends. I pose the question to Twitter. You know, like, where could someone go that has the possibility of unseating Clyde Edwards O'Lear as the 101 pick in rookie drafts? And Jonathan Taylor didn't get there for me. I still have Eilera as my number one guy, but Jonathan Taylor, after what seemed like a slam dunk 101, Jonathan Taylor made it a little bit more difficult. It's not necessarily this year.

What's wild about these running backs, and I wonder if Jason feels the same way as I do. Five guys, I love the landing position for five players, but it might not be this year that those five players become really fantasy relevant. And Jonathan Taylor is one of those guys. Remilomack will still be there. He's in a contract year. It would surprise me if...

If Marlon Mack gets completely beat out by Jonathan Taylor and we're looking, it's just Jay Taylor and Nahim Hines as the two main guys. I think it'll be three guys, but long term, this team, this philosophy, this offensive line, and Jonathan Taylor's skill set, it is a perfect, perfect match for me. Yeah, so Jonathan Taylor was my number one as far as a prospect went pre-draft. This offensive line is...

Excellent. Obviously, Marlon Mack, been a thousand-yard rusher was last year, almost the year before. And so, you know, there is competition in the backfield. He doesn't just come in and inherit it. However, listening to Chris Ballard talk, this was really enlightening because they were considering Jonathan Taylor at the second pick of...

the second round at the pitman spot at the pitman he was one of the guys they were deciding between um and i think the t higgins going is what made them take pitman but then they still had a chance and what happened was and this is interesting um eersay uh the the owner he had it on good authority that the jaguars were

At least that's the insinuated team because he said it was in division. And that's the team they traded right up ahead of. We're going to take Jonathan Taylor. And so, you know, he called, he called Chris Ballard and said, hey, this guy, you've been talking about him all off season. Go get him. And so when you hear that this is someone that they were considering taking with their first pick, which was basically a one. And then they trade up to get him still early in the second.

And now some quotes coming out about, you need multiple running backs, but it's really advantageous to have a three-down skill set where you can be on the field all the time. I mean, to me, on this offense that I like, I love Frank Reich, I love the offensive line. I love the talent of Jonathan Taylor. It's a near home run. And I agree with you, Mike, this year. You've got Marlon Mack still involved, but he won't be there next year. Well, you still have Jordan Wilkins on the roster, Naim Hines as well. And we saw this last year with

When Mac went down, Jonathan Williams was in the backfield too. So they kind of mixed and matched behind them. They needed another big guy to come in that can carry the load. It'll be interesting to see what this year looks like with Mac and the rest of the backfield. And then moving forward, you know, Phillips Rivers is not going to be there forever. So it'll be interesting what they do at the quarterback position with this offense. They did draft Jacob East. Eason.

He could be the quarterback of the future. Yeah, he's actually, we'll find out. For a low draft capital quarterback, it's interesting. All right, Jacksonville, let's talk about the Jags first round pick. They did not spend it on a scale position player, no running back, no wide receiver off the board. They did take a wide receiver in the second round, Chanel. Yeah, they grabbed Leviska. And, you know, they did not make a splash at the running back position despite.

trying to give Leonard Fornett away. What's funny is last year Leonard Fornett seemed to be the default offensive weapon. Not necessarily by choice, but they didn't have anybody else, and he just took up the mantle. And for fantasy owners, I don't care if you like, it doesn't matter if the team likes them or not. Then the draft comes and goes, and they have tons of draft picks. Twelve draft picks. And they don't take a running back. Not one.

So you're in this position again where it's like if there's smoke and there's fire to this, we don't like Leonard Fernett, where is the evidence? It don't matter because he's going to be default okay for fantasy again unless they find a free agent running back. That's my concern. Honestly, like the Jags will be a team that I expect. What free agent running back?

Well, they had Hyde a little bit ago. Maybe he comes back. Shady McCoy says he still wants to play a few more years. Lamar Miller's still out there, right? Lamar Miller is coming off of his ACLs. I mean, none of those names to me are going to worry me about the fantasy relevance of Fournet. This to me seems like... Well, if he's cut, his relevance of his way down. Well, yes, I would have completely agree with you there. If he's cut, I will change my opinion of his fantasy outlook.

But as it is now on this roster currently post free agency, currently post the NFL draft, I mean, he is the guy again. It's kind of shocking. And he's in the, you know, they won't care about, you know, saving his legs or just run them into the ground because, you know, you don't necessarily expect him to be there. So I think he'll, you know, unless major things change in free agency, the rest of the way. Devonta Freeman's still out there, right? Yeah. Yep.

They're just, they're a team I'm going to watch. I'll agree with you guys. If we just de facto into Fournette as the guy, all right, fine. I'll be interested again for fantasy purposes. And then Gardner Minshu. Yeah, they didn't take a shot at another quarter. They traded Nick Foles away. They, and it was, that was like a hypothesis of, okay, they're on the board in the top 10. And one of the QBs is there. Do they, do they take that shot? And they said no. And they're.

all in on guarder. They got him another weapon. They got another lineman. Yeah, I would not be excited about the long-term situation for Didi right now with the higher draft capital pick of Chanel and having chart there. So that would be somebody that I would consider to be a dynasty loser, not seeing Deeley take advantage last year. And the team seems to want to get another weapon. Let's talk about the Tennessee Titans. Is this the final team we have, Brooks? It is. Yes, sir. The last AFC team. Winners and losers.

Tennessee. Okay. I mean, Darrington Evans. It's an interesting third round pick. Yeah, he goes into that Deion Lewis role. So, you know, I think that's the replacement, younger, faster. Not Dion. Yeah. It's, it's a decent role. He'll probably have more fantasy relevance than Dionne Lewis did at the, you know, last season. That's not saying a whole lot. But yeah.

They just chose to replace him in the draft. And he's a pretty good complimentary bat. He's a good player. Yeah. Is Corey Davis still alive? Like physically? As far as I know, I haven't heard any rumors. Well, no, Mike. I didn't mean physically. That's not a, we don't joke about things like that, Mike. Yeah.

They took a right tackle in the first round, which is important because they lost Jack Conklin. So, you know, trying to replace that. For the most part, I think what you're going to see for Tennessee going forward is the same exact offense that you had last year. Now, whether or not they'll succeed as much, they certainly probably won't when it comes to just their touchdown rate in the red zone, things like that, that were outlandishly high. But I think you're going to have the same.

desire. So is Corey Davis alive? Well, he's probably going to be similarly used as he was last year, which is... We know what he is now. Yeah, exactly. We know what he is. This is AJ Brown's and Derek Henry's offense. All right, we want to thank Pristine Auction. Great friends of the show, a Calvin Ridley signed jersey yesterday on pristineauction.com. Signed Falcons jersey, $68.86 for a up-and-coming Calvin Ridley jersey. Hundreds of daily auctions from your favorite.