Fantasy Football - Mock Draft Show! + High Risk Picks - Podcast for 6/5

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Okay. Okay. Acceptable. It's better. Flying blind here. Closer, warmer. Welcome in. We got a podcast for you. Andy Mike and Jason, the fantasy footballers. Thursday episode, Thursday, June. The fifth. And we've got a mock draft episode today. We've got some news to catch you up on. It'll be a fun show. Jason says he feels like he's been just stuck in a permanent mock draft because you did a mock draft for the dynasty show as well. A startup. Yeah, I've been doing mock drafts just because, you know, you do mock drafts. That's what you're supposed to do. But we, yeah, the dynasty show that just came out yesterday was a dynasty startup. We only do that once a year.

And so that one is a mamma jammy. You know, you're going, we don't do like the whole 30 rounds like 20, 30 hour draft. Right, like a full dynasty. But we go way deeper. And, um, and obviously from the perspective of dynasty startup. So if you want to check that out, you can check out the dynasty pod as well. We had our, our first mock draft of the entire season on this show, uh, not too long ago, but it was before the UDK released and before we had filmed. all of our player profile videos and kind of had some more deep dive analysis on players. And I know when we did that mock draft, we felt maybe a little shaky in the middle rounds about where our convictions were very strong about players and or shakier than we normally are. So I'll be curious when we get into that middle round range today, how we feel about certain players. Yeah, in the beginning of each off season, you know, you've got to find out by the time draft season comes.

we all as as and you know us and you guys alongside will know like the different strategies which rounds are stronger and weaker in what positions when to take you know your your tight end if you miss out on the big ones or how long to wait on running backs if you're going zero you know all the different strategies and so the more we do these the better and better we will get you can check out the recently released and ready for action ultimate draft kit at ultimate draft kit.com getting updated all the time jam packed with information to help you win at the draft available on the web on android on apple so you can grab the app as well you can watch the show including today's mock draft over on youtube youtube.com slash the fantasy footballer see the draft board see all the different teams we're doing

a 10-team mock draft today, but it's a three-wide receiver mock, and we're going to have all live drafters again. So members of the fantasy footballers staff will be drafting some other rosters, and we'll each have a team in the draft, got randomly assigned spots. So that's today. Very excited about that. Let's jump right into the news. News and notes from around the league. A follow-up to our Stefan Diggs speculation discussion. from the last show. Ian Rappaport came out and said the Patriots have no plans to release Stefan Diggs. They have high hopes for him. Well, that's good after paying the man as much money. I don't think they had plans to release the guy that they signed for maximum dollars. Yeah, does he release himself, you know? Deva wide receivers have been known to do that. Adam Schaefter reports the Steelers are renewing conversations with dolphins.

tight-in Johnny Smith on a trade. Donald Parham, one of their other tight-in suffered a torn Achilles during teams OTAs. This has been a real snip, snap, snip, snap. It's like every other day the Steelers are trying to get a trade. And every other day, no, they're done. They're not looking at. And every other day in Miami is, we're talking to John who. Yeah, we want him, but we, you know, it's a contractual, you know, negotiation going on. Right now in the public. What is your guys' hope? What do you want? Because obviously him leaving might mean good things for Tyreek and Waddle. Him staying means good things for another relevant tight end. What do we need more? Do we need Waddle and Tyreek to be relevant? Or do we need another relevant tight in? Because I don't think he leaves and becomes relevant. Johnny Smith has had a long enough career. There's just no, especially in Pittsburgh, going there where you're competing with Pat Friar Meath. With Pat Friar Mead like that's.

You're going to be better for Pittsburgh than you will be for fantasy at that point. But my concern with Miami is if Jonu leaves, then they still do the same crap, but is somebody not as good as Jonu? Okay. That's the fear and the horror. Maybe they just do 200 targets to A-chan. That would be fantastic. That would be fantastic. Okay. Well, we'll see. We'll keep following along. Kyle Pitts dealing with the strain muscle in his foot. It's held him out of OTAs. They're being cautious with him. That's what they said. He's been in every meeting and been in every other thing they've done other than being on the field. Oh, by the way, Gabe the babe, Gabe Davis, working out with the Steelers. Oh, that just seems so perfect. That is truly perfection for the Pittsburgh Steelers to sign Gabe Davis.

He'd be like, hey, sure, you be our wide receiver too. I am a little sad. Obviously, they have a hole here. They got rid of George. They traded him to the Cowboys. And so I am a little sad at all the news of them looking at needing a wide receiver, whether they trade for a different one or now they're bringing in Gabe the Babe. Because, you know, Roman Wilson, my hope was that, hey, we can let George go because we have a number two now that we've got Metcalf. You know, they're there. They're with Roman Wilson. odds are that it doesn't hit, but that was kind of my dark horse hope for that team. And it seems like that's not what the team's actions are telling us they believe. Well, Gabe Davis will go a long way to making sure Roman Wilson's a thing. Yeah, so that you can root for that. I wouldn't be concerned. I think their depth chart is just, it's just so thin in general that you have to add somebody. When Robert Woods is a fundamental part. So you've got Robert Woods, who is 60 years old. Correct.

You've got Roman Wilson who's played like zero snaps. Also correct. You've got Scottie Miller who's just a, he's just a transient. Sure. And not going to be a big part of your office. And then you've got like a gadgetry speeds during Calvin Austin. And then you got D.K. You've got to sign somebody. Seems like it. If it's not, if it's not Gabe, it's going to be Keenan or it's going to be Hamari Cooper or it's going to be somebody else. Oh, I'm seeing that they do have one other very important wide receiver. B. B. B. B. B. B. Scaronic. Good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know. I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm not sure if anyone listening knows who that is. Whose that is or even remembers that bit. I'm happy it's back. J.K. Dobbins headed to Denver to have dinner.

A Denver dinner. Right. There's nothing to do with the Broncos. He just loves the restaurants and coaches. Oh, okay. All right. Visiting the Broncos facility. Ugh. They already recently, Sean Payton coming out and talking about autogastomay, not having enough touches last year, talking about the fact he's the kind of back that requires a lot of touches to get going because he, he's just like a rhythm running back. Yeah. And then you've got RJ Harvey, who is everybody, everybody's enamored. I don't know if everybody's enamored with R.J. Harvey as much as they are. The idea of R.J. Harvey. Oh, yeah. It's 100. It's Sean Payton. It's second round draft capital. I'm interested to see where his redraft ADP kind of settles at because the excitement was, like we're coming off the excitement of dynasty. Like he became an option seemingly not out of nowhere, but jumping into the first round of rookie drafts. Like that.

Well, right now he's the running back 17 in bestball drafts, which to be to be honest, I don't hate that. I think that's fair because when you look at Sean Payton's teams historically, he's going to have a committee. He's not going to have one guy there be 350 opportunities. But the one that you generally speaking want is the one involved in the passing game. And I do expect that to be RJ Harvey. If they brought in. Not estimate. Right. Well, that's definitely not estimate. But my point is I think that if. J.K. Dobbins were to come in, I think it's more impactful on estimate than it is on RJ Harvey. We won't be happy with RJ Harvey if he's just a passing down back. We won't. Not if he's just a passing down. Yeah. Because if you have estimate Dobbins, McLaughlin, Harvey, Badee. I imagine. I think Dobbins would, like, there's Biday or McLaughlin would not be on the team. Man, when you guys say Badee,

It still feels like you're doing a bit. It feels like you're... You mean because his last name's Beatty? Yeah. For like half the year. It's spelled and looks that way and it, you know, but then... It's now pronounced bidet. It's been changed. We've been here. I know. Devon A-chain. Oh, yeah. He was off the... A-chain was better, by the way. See, you, I know. We're accustomed to A-Chane now. But we're going to get it right. Badee. Which has its own benefit. Which is, honestly, it's better. And another one that changed. to being right, which goes great with bidet, is booty. Oh, yeah. You know what it was boot? Yeah, we brought booty back. But now we got booty and bidet and it's legit. We got to get them on the same team. It's legit. That's actually how you see those names. I'm really tempted to bring up Papa Josh's bidet issues. Oh, man. I'll argue. Oh, but we can mute your microphone. Don't bring it up.

Okay. I mean, I did tweet about it. There's, there's a process to using a bidet and not everyone knows how. That's the gist. But the nice thing is, Papa Josh, I believe we fixed a problem for you. No, he's still on his own. No, no. No, I'm unraveling the whole thing. I'm just, it's the off season. A bidet is meant to be used to clean yourself after you use the restroom. Number two. Yeah, you're going to wash the poop off your butt so you don't have to smear it around. Yeah. And. Everybody knows this in the world except for one person. Papa Josh, who insists upon a pre-wash wipe. Yeah, you got to, you know, I got to wipe this off before I wash it. And do you guys, uh, do you like, do you rinse your dishes before you put him in the dishwash? Mute his microphone. No, you're not actually, you're actually, you're actually not vacuum before you mop your floor. No. Wait, both of those are no. Wait, you vacuum before you mop. That's carpet, bro. You mott carpet? No, he's stock and tile. You mott sweep.

You don't sweep your kitchen before you mop. If there were big old. Ah. All right. Let's get to the march. All right. This will turn into a 60 minute argument. No, that's true. Did I mention Rashi Rice full participant in practice? You did not. You did not. Who, baby. Yeah. And watching him run the routes just similar to what you saw with Diggs. There was no knee brace on. He's looking, you know, not limited at all. He was not working with the rehab players. He was working. with the main team. So that's great for this time of year. All right. Into the mock draft we go. The fantasy footballers mock draft. Well, like I said at the top, we've got a 10 team half PPR mock draft today, one quarterback, two running back, three wide. So a three wide receiver draft, one tight end, one flex, four bench. And it looks like we drew the, I'm at the four spot mic at the eight, Jason at the 10.

So I think you were in the second to last pick last time. Which was the 10, right? Or something like that. Yeah. So you didn't like that. So we'll give you back-to-back picks in this draft. Yeah. And a reminder, all the tiered rankings with the ability to plug in your custom scoring. All the cheat sheets, everything is available. Ultimate draft kit.com if you want to use that for your draft. Today's mock draft will jump in. Papa Josh is the number one pick. He went Jamar Chase. Jefferson went next to Jake. And Kyle, the Borgogan, went C.D. Lamb at 103, putting me on the clock and in a, I guess what some might consider a conundrum in a three wide league. But, you know, to me, there's just such a limited amount of difference making running backs that I'm not really put in a tough spot here. I believe in the last draft I was sitting at two and I went Saquan on that one. I have Bijan and Saquan neck and neck. So for the sake of.

going a different direction. I will take Bijan with the fourth pick in the draft first, running back off the board in a three wide. And so you're not going to be unhappy there. Yeah. When we left last season, it was a foregone conclusion that Saquan should be the number one running back drafted. But the deeper you dig into it, Bejohn should be the number one running back drafted because I think their ceilings are near each other with Bejohn's PPR work. But I feel like the safety of Bijon, he doesn't have the same risks based on age and last year's utilization that Sequin does carry some of those yellow flags in. This is a man who saw the Madden cover as well. That is also true. Don't worry about it. The last four running backs on that Madden cover. I believe it's every running back ever. They've been, yeah, they're not good. So I'll go Bijan at the 104, which leaves Saquan for the 105. Matthew Betts taking him.

Julia goes Almanrae St. Brown at 106, which, you know, that would have been, that would have been in consideration for me if I was going to go a wide receiver there. Jemir Gibbs off the board at 107 to Al Borland. And then Mike, you're on the clock here at 108, three wide, 10 team mock. So, yeah, I'm in an interesting spot here. So there will be, I'll get my player, then four more players. will go before my second pick. So running backs in the last mock. I'm in on Christian McCaffrey as you can take him literally whenever for me. And Ashton Gentie. I mean, yeah, A. Chan and Henry, I mean, there's Brooks and Jason are drafting after you here. And so wide receiver wise, Puka, Malik, Nico, Brian Thomas, Drake, London. Those are the top guys in ADP. Puka would be.

It's the next highest on your board. Puka would be the next highest in my rankings. Yeah, I'm just going to go. I'll go Puka. I'm going to try it out. Puka off the board? Oh, who poop emoji in my Puka? What is happening? Probably, baby Jake. Is that you again, baby Jake? I think Puka was the player that I was hoping and actually assuming would fall to me at the 10th spot. He is usually not respected. He's usually not as respected in drafts as I think he deserves to be. But, you know, I'm still happy where I am. So Puka goes off the board, Mike, your first pick wide receiver, Malik neighbors to Brooksie at the 109 and Jason on the clock with back-to-back picks. Back-to-back picks. And a three-wide is very tempting to take Nico Collins and Brian Thomas Jr. I love both those guys. They're very, very highly ranked. At the turn, however, I usually prefer to split up the positions. It gives me more flexibility later in the draft. You know, if I go wide receiver, wide receiver,

I've got to wait 20 picks until I get my first running back. So I'm going to split them here. Tight in, tight in. You darn right. Go high T, man. Yeah, McBride and Bowers. That's high T.E. I'm going to take Nico Collins at the wide receiver position. And I'm going to reach for the rookie here, which this is exactly where he's going to go come draft season. So I might as well take him now despite ADP. Ashen Gentie at the 201 here. I would be really happy if I were you with that combo. I was curious, like, was Brian Thomas? Yeah, I mean, in the mix with Nico? Because I know you love Brian Thomas and I was just wondering how hard that decision was. I love both those guys. It's a coin flip. They're in the same tier to me when I just went based on where my rankings are right now and specifically half PPR since that's what this is. Okay. So Collins and Genti to Jason. First two picks.

Brooks comes back with another wide out. A.J. Brown going at the 202. Mike, you're back on the clock. You're going to have a long wait after this pick. Yeah, and I know it's three wide, but for me, I think Christian McCaffrey is, if you want to take, if you have the courage to take him 101, it doesn't bother me. So to have him drop to my second pick, I feel like I just, it would be against my personal morality of 2025. Then I'll take him. Yeah, I, speaking of McCaffrey, like, because I mean, strong responses when, I mean, you've got them really high. Yep. We've had the discussions. I came in the other day. And I literally, I just told Jay, I was just sitting in the office with him. I really, I don't think it's going to work out for Christian McCaffrey this year. Okay. And I think about 10 minutes later, I get a DM from Jason. And there's no context, no commentary. I could probably pull it up. And it was just, uh, it was just a moment.

one story and this was it. It was the run, it was from 32 beat riders. This run was evidenced that McCaffrey who missed the bulk of 2024 with Achilles and knee injuries is back at full strength and looking more like his 2023 self and seems to be symbolic of the extra pep in the 49ers running game this spring. And it was like, I did have the moment of like, well, I could be wrong. That's the thing is. But it is a gamble. It is absolutely gamble. It's one of the biggest decisions of the draft. But it's, to me, if he's healthy, he's a lock to be a top three running back with the chance that you could just be far and away the number one guy again. But yeah, Gambo, I get it. Yeah, so, you know, I guess that hopes and dreams of Brian Thomas dropping. He didn't. Or Drake London, he didn't. Or Ladd-McConkie. He didn't. So here you are facing the fun of a three-wide. I took Bijon in the first. I don't have a wide receiver on the roster.

it is um i would have loved brian thomas would have loved drake london in this situation i'm staring at brock bowers name in the second round a choice that would have been made easier had i gone a wide receiver in the first round i think uh but i do have a quick turn and so bowers is in consideration here um you know two years ago's wide receiver one still available yeah it's funny of the wide receivers available you you're entering you're entering a territory you want them that, you know, Jason, we've talked about the upside downside of Jason, upside downside of Tyree Kill, T. Higgins. We know what comes along with T. Higgins. Garrett Wilson, the offense. Do you have success? These are the guys on the board. The one guy standing out that's higher than all of them on my board right now is Marvin Harrison. So then I have to make the decision, do I believe that Marvin Harrison, because of the three wide format, half PPR, year two, do I believe that that's going to be more valuable to my team than Brock Bowers?

or do I go Brock Bowers. I don't, I've got three guys I have to wait through. I'm going to lose another three wide receivers off the board. So I'm going to just pull the trigger on Harrison here, which is again, I think it's probably earlier than ADP, but it's my opportunity to get the guy that I think is going to take a big step forward in this format. So do you see the, uh, Trey McBride quote? About the offense. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did see that. Got a little tingley because he was like. Marvin Harrison tingley. This was just Cardinals offense because Trey McBride said, hey, you know, we're working on some stuff right now that is not as just plain fundamentals. We're working in more motion and you're like, oh, oh my God, a modern NFL office. Imagine the world. What's funny, though, is it's true petting. Like it isn't a new.

system and a new coordinator. It's just like, what, did you just want a year to, I guess just play pretend? Hopefully he saw the stats of Kyler's like, hey, Kyler's stats when there's motion or play action. Shocking stuff, guys, they're way better. I will bet that's true for all quarterbacks in the league. It is. And I'm not saying you have to do it on every play, but just do it a lot. Who cares? It's, I mean, it's a strong point. It's a strong point. I, um, I did see, uh, would you like to get your offense lined up, show the defense how you're lined up and do nothing, let them prepare? Or would you like to, would you want more information about what the defense is doing? So silly. I draft the Jameson Williams. Oh my. You're going after your dudes. I will say this. So, so, yeah, true transparency here. It was going to, it was going to be between him or like.

taking the shot on like george kiddle because after i took harrison and went henry irving bowers higgins mcclorent mcbride i know i was kind of taking mcbride off the table for me at least if i don't necessarily want the double cardinal exposure in the first three rounds jamison williams is the next on my board um right behind him would have been devante adams uh so i'll just go with the guy that i had highest on the board rashi rice goes next at 305 and so You know, we've seen two tight ends off the board at this point. Derek Henry drop into 208. I think that's interesting in this format, a guy who was number two overall last year. Bucky Irving goes 209. What do you think of the pricing of Bucky? It's too high for you? It's too high for me personally. I think that he's being drafted near his ceiling. I've got him as my running back 11. That's great. He's running back one. But I don't think he has that kind of top three upside. And I hope I'm wrong because he was so explosive as a rookie.

But there's still a couple running backs on the board here that I have higher than him. So Jameson, Rice, Jacobs and A. Chan going off the board in the third round, A Chan to Al Borland. And we'll take a break, come back with Mike's third pick. Pooka, Christian McCaffrey. Mike, you've got those two guys on the roster. You have your third round pick. All right. I'm just going to do a little peek around here. So running backs, we're in the tier of Johnny Taylor, Kyrant. Oh, Chase Brown. Chase Brown is on the board. That's tough. And then wide receiver, JSN, Tyreek, who, hey, know your league. I don't know where Brooksie is on Tyreek, but I'm pretty sure that Jason would not take him with one of his two picks. I'm out. And so the pick here comes down to for me, I guess quarterback, too. No one's taking a quarterback. Chase Brown.

Garrett Wilson, George Kittle would be the main players I'm looking at. And then if I want to take Lamar or Josh Allen, I'm going to go because of the three wide, I'm going to bypass Chase Brown. I'm just going to see how it feels. I'm going to see how it feels. Mike's team looking familiar as always. Garrett Wilson off the board with McCaffrey. Brooks is back on the clock. Jason, you're going to be on the clock here in a moment with two more picks. You went Nico and Gentie. Seeing how the second and third round unraveled so far, any changes you would make to your... There were. There were changes that I wanted to make right up until Brooks just took his last player. I thought I was going to be on the clock with both Jonathan Taylor and Kyron Williams available. I love those running backs. And so I would have been so happy to double tap them.

which made me regret taking Ashton Genti in the second round. I would have rather gotten Brian Thomas Jr. alongside Nico. But then Brooks took Jonathan Taylor and not JSN. So I'm going to take Jackson Smith and Jigba because I've got him. I mean, he's a wide receiver, the wide receiver 10 last year in his sophomore season. I get it. I mean, there's a path here for an elite upside. So I'll take him in the two wide. And then I will grab my guy, Kairn Williams, who I tend to always have if I'm near the back end of drafts right now.

Nico and JSM with Gentie and Kyron Williams, 10 team three wide receiver turn spots looking pretty good. If I'm honest. Oh, man. Brooks. Brooks's team is looking so good. Neighbors, AJ Brown, Jonathan Taylor. Oh my gosh. And now Chase Brown off the board. Oh, Chase Brown is ridiculous. You know, it's a 10 team. And it's, yeah. I know. I'm just saying like, that's got a. That would have felt real good. Both of those spots when you're making, like you said it at the beginning, do you want flexibility in a three-wide receiver draft? You splitting that first round gave you flexibility with your next two picks. So yeah, I like the 109-110 spot right now roster-wise, probably the most. Yeah, they're looking good. Mike Puka, McCaffrey, Wilson, you're on the clock. So Tyreek is there. It sounded like four different people were on the clock there. It was Mike, Puka.

McCaffrey and Wilson are. We are all on the clock. They are part of your team. Pick them. They have to pick him. All right. Oh, that's true. I don't know if I would. And so because we're running backs, you know, top of ADP right now is Breece Hall, James Cook, Ken Bone Walker. But because we are in the 10 teamer, the people ask what are the biggest differences? The bigger difference in a 10 team is everyone's teams are going to be, I mean, look at the 10 spot. Like, teams are stacked. So you've got to find your edges and finding edges edges in a one, the onesie position. I'm going to take George. I like it. Because I think he is like, no, no, no, no. You did George Kittle. Thank you. Okay. I did not take George Pickens. Yes. I took George Kittle. You were thinking about him at the 308. Yeah. I was wondering if you could wait and get him. And you did. Yeah. So good pick. Mike Evans off the board. Next, uh, giving Al Borland a Brian Thomas, Mike Evans combo to go with Gibbs and A-chan.

Talk about a PPR backfield. Gibbs and A-Cham. Alvin Camara off the board at 405. And then Betsy, because he wanted to twist the knife, snags what would have been my next pick in Devante Adams, who almost came all the way back around. And so I'm going to be honest with you, Betsy. He's mocking the Jamo pick. I definitely, as we're doing this live, mint. to put him in my queue and decided on the spot like he is he was the next ranked guy up which is what i said when i took him but i also it's not where i waited it's not just where you have them ranked it's where people will draft him but turns out when i click when i'm hosting a show doing a mock draft and you click plus plus it's draft whereas the little like paper plus with a plus that's cue so i just drafted jameson williamson williams and moved on with it