First MOCK DRAFT of 2023! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 5/25

Mike, you are on the clock. Now, you and Jason went two wide outs, two running backs. Correct. And Jason said one of the reasons at the turn he doesn't like to go one position only is because of flexibility, starting right here in the third round. Now, you've gone to wide receivers. Does that eliminate them from contention for your roster? No, at this point, I'm just experimenting. I want to see what this build ends up with. Because if I were, if it was like really on the clock, I probably end up taking Jacobs. instead of Garrett Wilson, but I want to ride this out and see where we go. And part of riding that out is, there is still some good running backs, like Romandre is still there. I have him as a top 10 guy. You have the mystery of Dalvin Cook. Like, if Dalvin Cook is a Minnesota Viking in week one, and you're able to draft him in the third of the fourth round, like that's, that's theft, because he's still going to be good for that team.

But I'm going to go over to the tight end position, and I'm going to take Mark Andrews. Oh, I love it. I genuinely love it. I mean, I've talked about the value that I think he represents in the third versus Travis Kelsey. I would rather have Tyreek Hill and Mark Andrews rather than Travis Kelsey and Debo Samuel, who's the next highest rated ADP wide receiver here. That was the only name I always stared out. longer than a couple seconds when Tony Pollard was on the clock. I figured I was getting Andrews or Pollard. So after Mark Andrews joins Mike's team, we've got Kenneth Walker and Romandre Stevenson off the board. Jason, you only saw, what is that? Well, you had quite a few wide receivers go off the board after your pick. You've waited a while. Yeah, this was fine. I mean, I never thought that Omina Ross St. Brown would get all the way back to me or T. Higgins or Jalen Waddle. When I was taking the two running backs,

two wide receivers that I hoped would get back to me, three that I would be okay with. That was Devantus Smith, Keenan Allen, and Chris O'Lave in that order. I'm going to take DeVantes Smith. I think he's obviously a part of a great offense. He's a phenomenal wide receiver, and he has the built-in, you know, the Waddle Higgins and Devante Smith, wide receiver two. They have the built-in world where an injury can thrust them into superstardom. And they're capable of... being ones on rosters. It's not like Josh Palmer gets an opportunity and can't fill those shoes. DeVinza Smith can do it. Plus, I feel like you're paying homage to him winning you a title last year. Yes, sir. Thank you for reminding me. It feels really good. Champ is here. And Keenan Allen made it back around to me. So starting with Barclay and Bejohn, having Devante Smith at Keenan Allen in the third and fourth. I'm really happy with how that team starts.

Yeah, Mike, Jason may or may not have inquired of our sprinkler situation in the building and whether or not pyrotechnics for his attendance to our draft would be appropriate for celebrating. We've got to be prepared, you know. This is the first time I've never wanted to attend our own. That is exciting. Plans are being made, fellas. I am happy to hear that. I have started my own plans as well. And. pyro-technics did cross my mind. Oh, my goodness. You can't be serious. I went with on the side of that seems like a burn everything down to the ground hazard. Yeah, yeah, I'd probably. But maybe we'll figure that out. All right. So after Keenan, so Mike, or sorry, Jason has Sequin, Bejohn, Devanta, Smith, and Keenan Allen. I would say when I read those four names, the word solid comes to mind in terms of kind of production. You know.

Good start. Amardi Cooper, Dalvin Cook off the board. A little upset Dalvin went just because I wanted you to stare him down in the fourth round. Mike, you are back on the clock. Still no running backs. Yeah, still no running backs. And they are starting to get mighty thin when it comes to at least a starting level caliber running back. I'm pretty upset here with Team 11 because I was going to go stack. If Lamar Jackson had come down to me. I was going to let that ride and have Mark Andrews and Lamar Jackson and see where we went from there. The wide receiver position, guys that I would be looking at, if I'm going to go there, would be, you know, Olave, maybe DeAndre Hopkins, which his future is still very up in the air, still very shaky. He's not at OTAs for Arizona. Yeah, that makes sense. And we got a recent quote that was basically like, no, nothing I said means I want to stay there.

And I don't know. I would like all my options open, please, no matter who's listening to me. It's been a very strange offseason here with the Andre Hopkins feeling like he's saying he's going to be here, saying he doesn't want to be traded, but telling other teams where he wants to go and now saying, no, I don't necessarily want to be in Arizona. I don't know. So that's a very difficult decision. But let's keep the good times rolling. I'm going to go with Crystal Lave. I'm going to get another second year wide receiver on my team who's statistically speaking was right behind Garrett Wilson. I think that the Derek Carr addition to the New Orleans Saints is a massive improvement over Andy Dalton. We do always want to be careful with these new quarterbacks coming in, not overvaluing them, but I mean over the past four or five years, Derek Carr has supported a top.

12 option at a position. I don't think he can sustain a bunch of people, but I think it's, my bet's going to be on Olave. Yeah, I'm a little upset that you went Olave, not because I was necessarily expecting to get him, but because it knocked D.K. Mecca off the board with the next pick, who I did, I did hope he would sneak to me with the fourth round selection. You've gone three wide outs in a tight end, and you've, you've stripped a few of those whiteouts off the board. Swift went next. That puts me in a position here with Cup, Jacobs, and Tony Pollard. And I can't say that I have a name jumping off the board at wide receiver right now. I see a number of names that I'm fine with coming back around to me. I also have Justin Herbert rank pretty high, but I really don't want to take him here with other names I have on the board. I'm deciding between Miles Sanders and Jamir Gibbs here. And I'm going to go with the player I have ranked higher Miles Sanders.

in Carolina. Very robust. Yeah, got Jacobs, Pollard, and Sanders in three rounds in a row. Team three. Are you disappointed? Let me read what went off the board. Justin Fields went next. Then DJ Moore, Hawkinson, Mike Williams, Michael Pittman, and Jamir Gibbs. Yeah. You wanted Gibbs there in the fifth round? I thought I thought I'd get a little gibby-giby surprise. Nope. I did not. Yeah. This is Mike's doing his own little zero RB here. Yeah. Hoping that some of these guys fall and they're not falling. No, they're not. So I've got a long wait after this pick. I did mention my number five ranked quarterback last round. I'll take him here because I feel like there's a tear drop after Justin Herbert. And I'll take him in the fifth round. I don't want to mess around with the later Aaron Rogersy decisions of this draft. I'm going to leave that to Mike and Jason. But I went Herbert.

And I'm going to wait a long time for our wide receiver, but Dobbins, sorry Mike, Giovante Williams off the board, you're back on the clock with your fifth round pick. Dobbins was going to be a difficult decision. I figured he was going to be your pick. Maybe. It's hard to have, for me, it's hard to have Mark Andrews. And then Dobbins be my running back one and kind of limit my weekly upside there. uh jimier gibbs was my hope and my dream my backup option though was i mean it's it doesn't feel the best when you draft him i know who it is but try to remember how good he was last year because he was an absolute tank and a beast to close out this season james connor please be good i knew i knew is jane god oh man and that's the kind of fifth round

Talk to yourself that you have when you go wide receiver, wide receiver, tight and wide receiver. Yeah, I really thought about just taking Hopkins there. And, but then you got somebody in a, I mean, you're on the bench. You got a bench wide receiver in your first five picks. Um, Yeah, yeah, I guess. That's the hard part about that. And I, I would have been, I guess I was thinking our league, we play two flex. I would have been in the same boat if I had taken Miles Sanders and Jemir Gibbs was sitting there in the next round. Jason, you're back on the clock after Connor was McLaren and Hopkins. Yeah, so the positional players, you know, usually here. I'm in the fifth round.

I've got two running backs, I've got two wide receivers. I'm usually looking to continue to stack up running backs and wide receivers. That's the way that I usually want to play. Draft a later quarterback and a later tight end if I'm not able to get Mark Andrews. But the running backs and wide receivers that are available right here. There's not a big tier drop to me between them and who might be there the next round. There's Jerry Judy. There's Mike Evans, Drake London, all guys who have, you know, Chris Godwin, really good options, but they're not lock solid guarantees that they're great at running back. I am lower on Damien Pierce than I think a lot of people are. There's questions about Camara and Acres. So I'm actually going to do something. I don't think I've done.

this entire off season. And in the fifth round, I'm going to draft a player that I know I am higher on than both of you. I believe he's going to be great. And I think it starts this year. So I'm going to take Trevor Lawrence and get the quarterback that I think has the ability to jump up into next year's discussion of top options. Eight quarterbacks off the board here in the fifth round. Acres next, London, Pierce, and Watson. Jason, with the quick turn here, another decision to be made. Another decision to be made, and it was kind of made for myself by saying, I believe in Trevor Lawrence. I believe in Trevor Lawrence. That pick is not a good pick if Calvin Ridley doesn't help him level up.

I am saying that is my belief. And when you draft, I think it's important, you know, we're playing to win a championship. You're playing that your draft is correct, that it's right. Right. And so, like, for instance, when Mike grabs Mark Andrews, he's saying Mark Andrews might have 10 touchdowns, right? It's not, maybe it doesn't go J.K. Dobbins way. Both those guys can't score on the same play. So I'm going to stack him up. I'm going to take Calvin Ridley, hope that he becomes a wide receiver one. with Trevor Lawrence and, you know, I'm putting some eggs in the Jacksonville Jaguars basket. Well, then you'd be happy with the little hype train puff piece. I mean, we're already starting to get them. Yes, we are. But about Sports Illustrated is John Shipley coming out and saying, Calvin Ridley, quote, simply moves differently than any other wide receiver on the field. I know it's been a long time. I wonder what kind of, he skips everywhere. I know it's been. That doesn't, that doesn't necessarily mean good.

It's just saying, he's just stating he moves differently. It's like Charles Barkley's golf swing. Yeah. It's a different golf swing. Charles Barkley moves differently on the golf court. Calvin Ridley has been an elite wide receiver in the NFL. He's only 28 years old. Obviously, it's been a little while. And so, I mean, that is a big, say what you will. You believe, but it is a big bet on Jacksonville in the middle of your draft, which is, which is fine. Historically bad. That's not a great sentence to say in most dress. Maybe this year. Yeah, I'm not usually wanting to bet on the Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Cardinals. Like, you know, there's franchises that lose more than they win. Kyle Pitts. I don't know if you guys have heard of him. He's the tight in from Atlanta. Off the board. That's a good pick in the sixth round. I didn't want him there at 609 because I didn't want to think about it. You would have to take it. If I didn't take Trevor Lawrence and I went positional, he was going to be my sixth round pick.

Alvin Camara next. Mike, you are on the clock. Not that you need anything else after adding James Connor to your team. Yeah, we can wrap this thing up. But what are you thinking about? So I have, I still have a top 24 running back in my rankings that is left on the board. Who's that? And I'm going to take him. It's David Montgomery. Yes, Jemir Gibbs is the hotness. Yes, he is going to be utilized a lot. They gave Montgomery the contract to use him. So we're not exactly sure how the split will shake up between Gibbs and Montgomery. But if Montgomery ends up with the like a Jamal Williams light type of a workload and we're looking at the possibility of eight plus touchdowns on the ground, I would be very happy that I got that in the sixth. David Montgomery joining James Connor on your roster. I am crest. I'm crest. I'm crest. That was a close one, everybody. With their running back? Yeah.

I was, I figured you'd take a Montgomery guaranteed I would get one of the next two players that went off the board. Instead, they went back to back. Judy, Mike Evans, they're gone. It is back to me. The, the tier break at wide receiver, players that I'm excited about, if you build that list out, and you guys aren't picking before my next pick. So I'll just talk about my thought process here. I am going to take a stable receiver here at Chris Godwin. Following up Mike Evans? Chris Godwin is much higher in my projections right now than I thought he would be. Yeah, he's higher than Mike Evans in mine. Like I think that Chris Godwin will another year removed from the ACL injury that I, it seemed like it was hobbling his play. And even with bad quarterback play, I mean, Chris Godwin is the one who should take the lowest hit. I know the past attempts are going to come down for Tampa Bay, but.

Crisp Routrunner, good hands. I think that Godwin's going to be just fine. I want you guys to talk me through this next pick briefly because I have Godwin now to go with Cop. I have Jacobs, Pollard and Miles Sanders, and I have Justin Herbert. After Godwin, Ayuk, Goddard was a target for me. It would have been the pick here. Jackson Smith and Jigba, AJ Dillon, Isaiah Pacheco, Deontay Johnson. Here's my situation. I'm going to take a wide receiver here. Yeah, and there's a... unbelievably great one. I don't know if you're saying the same name that I'm saying. I think you're writing it down on the board here. Here's the problem that I have. I'm just going to outlay this for people. Tyler Lockett's sitting there on the board. And that's the name Jason wrote down. That's the name that is the better pick here. However, it's a tough situation in drafts when you know you're going to wait 14 picks. And

At some point I was hoping to add Quentin Johnston later in this draft. I don't think he will come back to me. He might. He might come back to me and you guys can steal him. But that's the tough dilemma for people in fantasy drafts is you've got a player that's lower on ADP. You want to take a gamble for you'd love to get them on your team. I wanted to stack him with Justin Herbert, but he's not the right pick right now. And if you had three wide receivers and he was going to be your fourth, Quentin Johnston, even ahead of ADP,

Like, to me, that makes a lot of sense. But considering that this is still your third wide receiver, I know. I feel like you've got to take the guarantee. And that's what I did. I'm going to go with Lockett and I'm going to play the game and see what comes around. Mike is just grimacing. He's giving me the bitter beer face. I love your team, Andy. I, you know, my rankings have Lockett very high, Cup very high, Miles Sanders very high. And it's turning out very well for you. You're balanced with the good quarterback. You will not get Quentin Johnston. Well, look, Hollywood was in consideration there too. Christian Kirk went next, then Dak Prescott. Mike, you are on the clock with that bitter face. I mean, I've gambled many times already in this draft and I have not hit on any of them. Tyler Lockett was the instant pick.

if he was on the board for me. So my next pick will be Quentin Johnston, but for this pick, I hate you. I love it. But for this pick, I like Hollywood, I think is a great pick here. I have James Connor. I don't love that. But at this point of like, I think it might be the right pick because we're so early on in the off season. and not knowing for sure if Hopkins is going to be here. It's the Dalvin Cook Alexander Madison situation. If you're drafting right now and you're getting a value on Hollywood Brown and then the very next day the DeAndre Hopkins news comes out that he gets traded. Hollywood Brown was fantastic as the wide receiver won for the Arizona Cardinals. Again, tons of unknowns. It's Kyler going to be there week one. Colt McCoy be there week one. We just we don't know.

upside wise, if things go right for Hollywood Brown, he'll be, he will smash his seventh round ADP. All right. There it is. All right. As we get through the seventh round here and Jason's next two picks, we'll speed things up a little bit. But Jason, why don't you make this pick and then I'll recap rosters after seven rounds? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm, I know what I'm going to do with these next two picks. The player that I want the most is Antonio Gibson. I have two running backs. I think Antonio Gibson without, uh, J.D. McKissick. catching passes is going to have a very, very good season. But he's buried right now in the rankings. This would be a reach ahead of ADP. And my team still needs a tight end. Darren Waller is the last tight end out there that could be the true number one target for his team. So I'm going to take Darren Waller and assume that Antonio Gibson will make it back to me, which he does. Saquan Barkley, Bijon Robinson, and Antonio Gibson are your running backs. Devante Smith, Keenan Allen, and Calvin Ridley.

are your whiteouts. You have Trevor Lawrence and Darren Waller. Mike, you are on the clock. Tyreek, Garrett Wilson, Olave, Hollywood, strong wide receiver room. Mark Andrews, James Connor, and David Montgomery, the rest of your roster. I'm sitting with Cooper Cup, Godwin, and Lockett at Whiteout, Jacobs, Pollard and Sanders with Herbert. You are sitting here in the eighth round, Mike. We have four picks left. Thankfully, Quentin Johnston did go off the board, so I don't have to just... burn a spiteful pick because it's not the right pick for my team at this moment. Which proves that there are times in your draft you have to make the right pick and you don't get the guy that you would love to have had. Because I either take Quentin Johnston around early and devalue my roster because I want to have that stack for the fun of it or I take the right pick. And that's tough. I mean, I think there are situations where you're just going to say you want to have fun, you want to take that player that you want to have.

enjoy, but the gap between those two right now are just too big. All right. I'm in between two players here. I kind of took, at least for my strategy, as of drafting this right now, Hollywood is a little bit of a projection that perhaps DeAndre Hopkins is going to be gone. The next two guys that I'm looking at would be Alexander Madison with the hopes and the dreams that Daven Cook is going to get moved or released from the team. or, and I don't know if I want another one of those players on my team. So I'm going to go with the player who I think has the role right now. Jason just gave me an incredible stat this morning. I think it was a friend of the show. Ian Hartitz tweeted out a yards per carry about players who have reached a certain threshold of carries and just looking at their career yards per carry. Rashad Penny starting running back.

Speak that into existence, starting running back of the Philadelphia Eagles. If he takes that Miles Sanders role, I know that Swift is there, but if Rashad Penny stays on the team and takes that Miles Sanders role, he is going to be a screaming value. All right, my eighth round pick here. I'm going to go with a player that's on my breakout list for the season. I have what I think are very stable options at Whiteout. I want a young, up-and-coming option. I'm going to go Jahan Dodson in Washington. with my eighth round pick, Berks, Cook, Thomas, Tony, Brandon Cooks, and juju go next, almost all whiteouts, which makes me kind of happy that I went that direction. And then coming back around in the ninth round, I'm still dancing a little at the tight-in position. I'm going to wait there, and there are some names of interest. It's tough looking at the...

Running back room, I'm going to go with the gamble now. Perfect timing. Ninth round, Alexander Madison. Yeah, that's the right pick. And we'll move it on to Mike's pick. Shultz and Ingram went next. Two more tight ends. All right. So at this point, you're just, now you're picking from your favorite sleepers. A couple of mine already went with Cadarious Tony, Michael Thomas, Brandon Cooks. I'm still not very deep at running back with James Connor David Montgomery and Rashad Penny. Let me look through my list here. It's Brian Robinson. It's not an inspiring pick. But it would fit with your existing running backs to just get the job done. Yeah. I don't want. I need someone who has some upside here. I'll go with this player. We have a split opinion on this running back.

I'm going to take Damien Harris running back for the Buffalo Bills. I think that he is the primary replacement for Devon Singletary. I'm not in love with James Cook. I don't know that he's big enough. Buffalo, I don't think, ever turns into a team where you're like, oh, I got the Buffalo pass catching running back. Oh, Jason, did you just click through a big? Yes, I did not mean to trap this player. Son of a gun. Anyway, so I think that Damien Harris will have the, I think he's the 1A of the running back committee. Josh Allen steals rushing touchdowns, but I think that the scraps will be picked up and give it to Damien Harris. Nothing happened, Jason. Oh, yeah. It magically disappeared. You definitely. This is why we practice because you got to live with these mistakes. Quick trigger finger. You definitely didn't take Zeke there.

Michael with Damien Harris, I do think it's interesting, and I'll say it because it is what it is, but we have a powerful offense in Miami that hasn't had a running back drafted in this draft. Dude. There's not a running back off the board in the ninth round from the Miami backfield, which I think is kind of, you know, I tweeted that there's a handful of these backfields that you just, you don't know whether you want to mess with them, but the ninth round is when you mess with them. Let me tell you something. When Mike was talking and the way he described that we're kind of split on this player and he's going a little lower, my heart fluttered because my pick is A-chain. Like Devon A-chain is who I want more than anything. Now, he is low enough that again, I'm going to play the game like I did with Antonio Gibson. He's going to be my next pick. I'm sure he's going to get back to me. I'm drafting him well ahead of ADP. But Devon A-chain.

I have them very, very high in my initial rankings. Yeah, that's something that we three very much disagree. Oh, we have a, we literally have a $100 bet as to the amount of carries that he will average. Andy is not a believer that he will have enough volume. I believe these two guys both like Jeff Wilson. I think Devon A-chain is going to have a phenomenal year. I'm going to take a couple of rookies here. I'm going to start with Zay Flowers. I have him leading in targets. These are two nebulous situations, the Baltimore Receiving Corps and the Miami Dolphins running back room. They could go a number of different ways, so I'm going to take a shot at both of them to hopefully get it right. All right. So Jamal Williams went next, another value in the 10th round. David and Joku was a tight-in target for me here late in the draft. I think he is undervalued with Sean Watson and Cleveland. Mike, your second and last pick?

So right here, if I were to take a wide receiver, Rashad Bateman is sitting at the top of the ADP list, and I agree with that. Jason went with Zay Flowers. I would have gone with the upside of Rashad Bateman, who we saw be a tremendous field stretcher. The rest of the wide receivers to me is just kind of, I'm not really loving anything there, but I appreciate. Andy reminding me about the Miami Dolphus. I will take Jeff Wilson. Yeah. Jeff Wilson, I think, will lead that backfield and carries without question. It's just a matter of, will that be more productive? Right. Then Devon A chain. Tua and Kirk Cousins go next. My tight-in selection might make it back to me in the 11th round. Might not. Not going to mess with it. Chica Concoe out of Tennessee. It will be my selection in the 10th round.

And coming back around into the 11th, by the way, Kyler goes off the board after Chig, Bateman, Mooney, Herbert, Singletary, Knox. It's worth mentioning Herbert and the Bears backfield. That is an oversight, I think, by maybe not an oversight, but another. That one's hard. It's in another, the same category as Miami. Herbert, Foreman, and company in Chicago. not knowing where that's going to be, bad offensive line situation historically, and then Wilson, A. Chain, Moster, like, Moster's still on the board. Not going to take him here. But, you know, it's just kind of a mess. Yeah, listening to the fantasy footballer's dynasty show that came out yesterday really actually helped me realize I don't want to call a shot on the Chicago Bears backfield. Sometimes a nebulous situation is good, but this is a backfield that if one of these guys becomes the dog.