NFL Draft Predictions + GRONK Returns! - Fantasy Football Podcast

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Run your game. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Every football fan is different. Some won't wash their lucky mustard-stained jersey until the season's over. Some insist they can't sit down on third downs and some pick their favorite team because, I don't know, just like football fandom, nobody's life is exactly the same. And that's why State Farm gets to know you, not as a policy number, but as an actual person.

so they can help personalize a coverage plan that's just for you. Whether it's game day or just another Tuesday, State Farm has you covered. The Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. It's football time. I am so high. Welcome in the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway.

Back with you. Judge Giamatti, Al Borland, manning the controls. Football. Back with you. It's very exciting. It is wonderful, spectacular. Thursday, April 23rd, also known as Draft Day. Draft Day. Yeah. Draft Day. Draft Day in the NFL. Something we all need. No, not more than health. No, not more than water or food. But it's close. Third place isn't bad.

It's close. And if we've seen anything over the last week with this Bulls documentary breaking records, we are all searching for some sports and some communal watching opportunities. And there is nothing better than the NFL draft. And for fantasy football players, the chips are going to fall.

tonight and through the weekend and we're going to have an opportunity to dive into projections and rankings and you know figure out where our real rookie rankings are and i can see on jason's face uh as he stands apparently in the draft room itself i can't tell i i've been in the draft room but he is buzzing you are buzzing i am truly buzzing i can't wait you know this these these times

have me antsy, have me, you know, I used to love just staying at home and, and do another. Now I want something to do. I want fun adventures. Well, you know what? There's a fun adventure tonight. And the best part is we get to have so many answers to all these questions, so much insight. I mean, it's, it's like, you know, you talk about the documentary that people watch, sports documentaries. They're, they're so fun. But now imagine that you are personally invested in a myriad of different ways, whether it's just things you've said. And not just.

analysts, but fans, just people, I like this guy, I don't like this guy. I hope he goes here. You know, it's exciting. We are writing the documentary. We're not watching it. We are living it. It's called Lightly. Is this being filmed right now? Well, are we on camera? According to Jason, everything he does is being filmed. Oh, yeah, you believe you're in the Truman Show. I forgot about that. Yeah, I mean, you know, you guys.

know the truth because you're in on it. Yeah. Everyone around you is building the lie. All right. We have a jam-pack show today. We're going to talk about the big Rob Gunkowski news. We got Byersel on the show today. We've got our predictions for the landing spots of the big rookies, the big offensive weapons in this NFL draft. We're going to get into some mailbag. Before we do all of that, I want to remind you with the NFL draft weekend.

Here we have a special prize pack in association with the ultimate draft kit. So if you pre-order the ultimate draft kit, which is the award-winning year-over-year, best tool you could possibly have to help you get an advantage in your upcoming fantasy football drafts, if you pre-order it by Sunday, you're also entered to win a listener league spot in our annual listener league, which is these are very coveted spots.

I will be laughing. I was laughing because it sounded like you were saying you can win a listener league spot to be in our listener league. That's true though. It's not a lie, yeah. Allow myself to introduce myself. We're also giving away a video draft review. So we'll hop on to Zoom with a lucky winner and break down their team after they draft and help them out. And we're giving away a sign Julian Edelman jersey, assigned Devante Adams mini helmet.

Don't forget, we're giving away a listener league spot for the listener league. That is true. And honestly, it's the, then you're pre-order. June 1st, when this thing launches, bingo bingo, you're in immediately. You don't have to worry about it. And rookie rankings, dynasty rankings, you will get access to those things.

very, very, very soon. Yeah, we'll put those up shortly following the NFL draft. Once that's concluded, we'll compile our stuff, get it up as quick as we can. And yeah, so, I mean, look, everyone's going to get the ultimate draft kit. Do it now. Get yourself some good news with that listener league opportunity to be a listener league spot in the listener league league. Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. Ultimate draft kit. Ultimate draftkit.com.

UltimateDraftKid.com. We're also doing an NFL round one reaction live stream. That's tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, wherever you want. We'll be live for a while. With you. We want you to be there. So mark your calendars and get on and ask questions. We'll answer them. Yeah, not just us talking to each other. That's boring. We do that enough. We do that enough. Quick question of the day on today's show.

Yesterday, we were just, I think probably all walking around our house, just doing very little, you know, probably hanging out with the kids and... Breaking news. Oh, well, Ian Rappaport came out. He says, Rob Gronkowski is, quote, interested in playing football again. Silly little rumor. Yeah, too.

I've had this guy on my dynasty roster for a year and a half just sitting there because I thought maybe someday, but the WWE came along and he lost all that weight. There's no way. He's coming back. It's just a fun rumor. What would happen? What does that look like? What if Grant came back? It's a little bit of news. It's not going to happen. Breaking news. The Buccaneers have acquired Titan Rob Gruncowski. Wow. That was quick.

And a seventh round pick from the Patriots in exchange for a fourth round pick. So that happened quickly. That's, that's crazy. It seemed like, wow, would the Patriots actually work that deal in? Oh, breaking news. I'm sorry. Ronk is in Tampa filming videos with Tom Brady about it already.

uh incredible work and i did lose him in the dynasty league that's the other breaking news how okay how does this happen you are the patriots you have a player that doesn't play for your team like he's doing nothing to help you and then you turn him essentially into a fourth round pick in this year's draft like why is why are these things happening for new england i don't agree with your sense of uh

You're always saying don't help the Patriots. I mean, yes. There is, there's a majority opinion, Mike, out there that the Patriots got fleece in that transaction. No, that's not majority. I know. They didn't have a player. They turned, no. Okay. Maybe not majority, but the primary headline on ESPN yesterday afternoon was about the Patriots potentially getting fleece in that acquisition. I see it from both sides. It's great for the Buccaneers. It's great for the Patriots. And.

Now you have to ask the fantasy question of what does he have left? Our dynasty league, we have an offseason fab budget. If you're not familiar with that, if you're a new listener, that's a free agent acquisition budget. And it gives you the opportunity to bid on free agents so that people cannot just sign them willy-nilly. I saw a lot of people say they were just the quickest to the waiver wire, right? Sure. And snagged him. But if you have a fab budget league, you go and you make a bid in the next morning, the waivers run.

We had several people bid their full $100 off-season budget on Grunkowski. Al Borland ended up with the privilege of having... The proud new owner. Of Rob Grancowski, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer. But people want to know what's the real story here. Is Rob Grancowski going to be a viable fantasy tight end? Is this transaction better for Tom Brady than it is for somebody who does have Rob Grancowski? The last three seasons Grancowski had in New England, 25 receptions,

69 receptions, 47 receptions, three touchdowns, eight touchdowns, three touchdowns. Coming back after a long hiatus, down about 15 pounds. A little deflated. A little deflated goes to a... Well, Tom Brady likes things deflated, so... Perfect. That's why he brought him back. Yeah. But Bruce Ariens, we spent the last year and a half talking down tight ends in Tampa. Here comes a great blocking tight-in in Rob Grankowski. So...

Where do you guys sit with Gronk and the implications? People want to know if their Godwin shares are safe. People want to know if Brady is now upgraded. Yeah, I'm not too worried about Godwin and Mike Evans taking a massive hit. You know, obviously O.J. Howard takes a massive hit, but there were enough targets going to tie in last year to where if those were to be funneled more towards Gronk. I don't think it's going to destroy the other pass catchers.

When you look at Gronk, the real question that we're trying to answer is whether or not he is healthy, NFL ready. You know, he wasn't healthy the last couple years. Now he's older. It is my opinion that he should come in at full strength, full Gronkian strength, because we've seen a couple times where guys have taken, you know, a year or, you know, a year and a half or two years off and they've come back. And they've looked.

fresh. They've looked good, you know, whether that was like Ricky Williams or, you know, and so I think Gronk will come back healthy. But this still is the issue that we've talked about for years of Bruce Ariens. This isn't, this isn't the old Patriot system. I don't think Brady's just going to come in and completely say, okay, Bruce Ariens now, offensive minded head coach, you sit over there. I'm running the show. In which case, a healthy Gronk, you brought it up, Andy. That's so good for the running game.

He's a very good blocker. And I think it's great for Brady. Gronk should be a tight-in one. But, I mean, we've talked about that before. Yeah, that's what I want to say is he's a tight-in one. I can't imagine when the projections come out that he's not a tight-in one. But is he a top five tight-in? That's the far bigger question because tight-in one, you know who was a tight-in one last year? Jason Witten.

Exactly. Was he really? Yes. He was number 12. Mike Kosicki, snuck in there at the end. Being at the back of the tight end won final rankings is not a huge deal. Tall task. These guys, these aren't guys who have helped you on a weekly basis. And I can't, I can't fathom that Gronk will be coming back and be.

a top five guy. I'm of the narrative. He helps Brady. He helps the Buccaneers. The Super Bowl favorite thing. That's getting out of hand. Super Bowl favorite. Have you not seen what's happening to the lines of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? No. It's absolutely outrageous, man. People are going all in. I will, if you follow the logic train when we talked about Godwin and we talked about Evans and James Winston leaving and the pass attempts, right? This team was,

throwing the ball so much. They were down. Winston had to come back in games. These are things that we're not projecting onto Tom Brady necessarily. One of the big storylines, I remember Jason saying it, is what you lack in volume you might make up in efficiency with players like Godwin and Evans. That would be my only concern if the, if Gronk steals six, seven touchdowns from Brady and Brady throws 29, 30 touchdowns, there should be enough to go around, but at the same time,