Head-to-Head Mock Draft! + Kupp Concerns - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/1

Once I lost so badly in my fantasy football league that I had to eat an entire kind of dog food covered in wasabi. It was unpleasant. But now I found the fantasy footballer's element draft kit. The days of dog food are gone as I dig into their breakouts, values, tiered rankings, and much more. If you want to join me in the winner's circle where you don't have to paint your butt cheeks like an elephant's face, head over to www.Ollumadraftkid.com and prepare for your fantasy draft. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome to the podcast. Which podcast?

That's the fantasy footballers podcast. If you're nasty, I'm your host today. Mike the fantasy hitman right. Andy is out, but that doesn't matter because I'm here with my best friend. Two best friends. Jason Moore. But we're going at it today. We are. I mean, you got right to the, well, I just, right to it. We're talking about being best friends. Yeah. But we're also going to be mortal enemies. It is a mono e mono mock draft today. We also have some big news that I don't want to talk about it. I really, really, really don't want to talk about it. No, I know because the implications are massive and people don't know what to do. So we will do our best to break down how we are looking at the Cooper Cup situation and how we're going to handle it. The ultimate draft kit is still being updated. If you're doing your huge drafts this weekend, which we are. Our League of Record draft is this Monday. Mm-hmm.

Check that out, ultimate draft kit.com. It will be updated through the weekend. Just making sure that, you know, we got our Cooper Cups test as close as we can possibly get them. And this weekend also starts the drafts of the Meglabel, the largest fantasy football tournament in the world. I saw someone tweet out and I thought this was actually pretty cool from a just a tradition standpoint. So our drafts for the Megalibol, the biggest, greatest tournament. of fantasy football of all time. Those always go right up to the day before kickoff. So you can have it be like the last fantasy football draft of the year. You do all your home league drafts and then your final big hurrah is the Megalibol draft. And of course, we will have the UDK updated throughout all the way up till kickoff. If you're doing a draft the day of kickoff, because I know some people wait till kickoff day and, you know, they don't want to have any injuries or surprises.

That thing will be fresh for you. We are also joined by J. Gris, the cardboard bear extraordinaire, aka J. Riz. Oh, is he J. Riz? Yeah, I know, aka. Oh, okay. Also. He's still J. Gris, but his Riz is off the charts, as the kids would say. I don't know if they would actually put it that way. I don't think so, Mike. I don't believe. I'm holding on, man. I'm just grasping at youth. Jason, I'm doing my best. Please follow the show on socials, on X. We are at the FFBallers. And if you want to watch the show, YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. I forgot our personal handles, Jason, but at X, or on X at Jason FFL. The X is, it's screwing me up. I see what's going on with Andy. It throws everything off and it's so stupid because even if you go to.

X.com. It puts you over to Twitter. It's still Twitter, but follow Jason at Jason FFL. I am at FF Hitman. Andy is at Andy Holloway. Quick reminder, Monday is a holiday. So the fantasy footballers will also be holiday as well as doing our draft. Yeah, that is the holiday. We are taking Monday off not for, what is this, Labor Day? Correct. Yeah, we're not celebrating Labor Day. We're celebrating League of Record Draft Day. Sure. But y'all can celebrate Labor Day still. Yeah, no show. Enjoy your barbecues and your pool time. Quick question of the day comes in from Jimbo in Colorado. Longtime listener, first time emailer. What do you all think about the Herbert, Echler, Keenan Allen mega stack? Is the pie going to be big enough for them all to be studs or be productive? It is an interesting question. I like that it's framed.

you know, around a megastack, and we've been talking about the Megalabole. Sometimes when you go that heavy on a team, it needs to be in a big tournament. Because probability says that it won't always work out, right? Like Keenan and Eckler. It's a big bet on one team. Right, exactly. But if, you know, my bowl prediction at the live show was 50 total touchdowns from Herber and he finishes as the quarterback won. If that's true, everybody on the Chargers is going to have a great season when we've had the other seasons of giant 50 touchdown. So it's a matter of if you believe, but you're making a really heavy bet. And I know, Mike, you've got some specifics on this stack example. Yeah, so we pulled up some data because it was the biggest question is Echler, Keenan Allen, where like can they both coexist?

And in 2022, they actually had a negative correlation, meaning they weren't both having great games at the exact same time, which makes sense because they get their targets kind of in the same place of the field. Last year, in games where Keenan Allen was out, Austin Echler's target share was, of course, raised, but his target share in those games were higher than in games where Keenan was active, but Mike Williams missed. I think the true megastack is actually, if you want to go all in on the Chargers, it's Mike Williams and Austin Echler because they just score at different levels of the field. So if you're going to go with a megastack, that is how I would do it. Yeah, it doesn't mean that Keenan and Eckler can't have good games. And I will say this, I won't believe it until we see it because of the age and the knowledge of what Keenan Allen has always been.

But in camp so far, all the reports and videos that I've seen, it's a lot of Keenan Allen downfield. Seems weird. Seems really weird to do at this age. But obviously new offensive coordinator. So expectations might shift around. Yeah, they could. It'd be surprising if all of a sudden you got, you know, Quentin Johnston running the short stuff and Keenan getting downfield seems. And just a reminder, Keenan Allen, when he was a young man, he was a down the field. He was a winner. They're like his rookie year and then they changed how they used him. So I guess it's possible because I've seen the quotes too. Keenan Allen saying, hey, they're using me on the outside more. That's great. Let's see what happens. But still, I don't think that I would go in on both Keenan and Echler. But love getting the Justin Herbert stack. Jason, I hope you have your notes ready because it is time for the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance.

The preseason nightmares have come to fruition. Rams head coach, Sean McVeigh, said Cooper Cup suffered a setback and is considered day to day with the hamstring injury. McVeigh saying it's tricky. We don't know if he's going to be there for a week one. So here's what we know. Let's go through the timeline. You know, Cooper Cup in training camp had the, what they called a minor hamstring injury. They shut him down. It was. Well, you got to keep an eye on this. Let's hear all the news. But then he did return to practice in the timeline that made sense of you got to move forward that if Cooper Cup is now back on the field and practicing, he's going to be good to go. Setback is in the back of your mind. It happened. Now what do you do with Cooper Cup? Because the risk is massive. Reinjury for a hamstring is typically 15 to 20%.

But Cooper Cup is also an older gentleman. We've already hit that. We hit the, he cashed in on the re-injury already. Yes, and Cooper Cup's strain was mild, and that was already a four-week injury. So we're talking, I mean, this is all speculation because we don't have access to all the information, but it would not shock me if Cooper Cup is out four to six games. And at that point, like, what do you possibly do in your draft where, because you can. If he's out, you'll be able to put him on your IR, but you are burning a really high draft capital pick, even if you're like, oh, I stole him in the second round. That's a really long time. And he's still at high risk for re-agravating it once he actually gets on the field. So how are you approaching Cooper Cup in your draft now? Yeah. When the news first came out, the heart wanted what the heart wanted. You heard mild.

minor setback. He'll be fine. It's not like Cooper Cup and is a model of health. Right. Or a young man. Yeah. NFL wise. So, you know, I, I bumped him down a little bit when this came out. I was like, oh, no, shucks. But then I started thinking clearly. Okay. I wondered. It's not. It's a first for you. Right. Right. It was wild. I was like, what is this? Clarity of thought? Information. The sentences are full. I'm not stammering. The truth is with a 30-year-old player with injury history coming off of an injury at the end of last season that kind of carried through caused a hamstring issue, is reagravated. We do have history of reaggravations in the beginning of a season, and you're usually missing a month.

I hate to say that, but you're usually missing a month. So I think right now, when you're drafting him, you have to be very, very cautious. This sucks. For me, this is a player. I've got a lot of exposure to. He's 16.7% of my underdog teams because, you know, some, some leagues would, he'd fall to the eight, the nine, and I'd scoop him up every time. And now, I think you're looking at a second round pick. I think that's the value. You still take him in the second. Because I want to play the name game with you. Yeah, let's. And we'll just, we're going to stay in the same position. I'm not going to delve into which running backs right now. But let's go through the list. So we'll go, Devante Adams. You went right to where I don't like. I think you got to go to.

Devante Adams. Okay. Suck. This is awful. The second year superstars Chris Olive and Garrett Wilson. I would take both of them over Cooper Cup easily. Man, man, this is so, so hard. If I'm sitting there right now today and I'm drafting, I would take those guys as well. There is a chance that Cooper Cup ends up, you know, missing three or four weeks, kind of like Keenan did at the beginning of last year. comes back, reagravates it again, misses more, you don't have him half the season. I am confident that when he gets back on the field, he's going to be, you know, probably the number one wide receiver. If not, he'll be top three. So there is a reward that is worth the risk. But when you've got young superstars like Wilson and Olave, Amon Ross St. Brown, A.J. Brown. I think Devontas Smith, that's where I probably go Cooper Cup.

Okay, so in that line of, so like T. Higgins is right around there as well. Right, exactly. With Garrett Wilson and Chris Oliva, they have the potential to be, I mean, they should be the ones for their team and take that step forward that Devanta Smith and T. Higgins, they can't really be the one. They still be good, great for fantasy, but they can't be the ones for their team. They can't be a top five wide receiver this year. Okay, and any Rams? that we are now going to boost up for that first month? Yeah, I mean, the ball's got to go somewhere. Obviously, we've been talking up Van Jefferson as a really good, just super late round value, probably your last pick in most drafts lately. He's a decent player. He's going to be better this year further removed from the injury. You got Puka, the rookie, who I've got lots of shares of. I know Tutu Atwell has gotten some...

Yeah, I know that's, I'm the same way. I've seen a lot of buzz of like, hey, two, two's getting the market share. He's been great at camp. I'm like, yeah, but. Yeah, you know, we're not going to go there. We've seen it. But what about. What about Tyler Higby? Yeah, I mean, Higby has been my number one super late round target, especially if it's full PPR leagues, because he should have well over 100 targets this season. Bengals' offensive coordinator, he noted that on Thursday he thinks that Joe Burrow is in a good place. He returned to some practice yesterday, so we're looking good for Joe Burrow, but the Cooper Cup setback is just a reminder of what can go wrong with a preseason injury. I also think this is something that it just makes sense. It's human nature.

I believe that Joe Burrow will run less with this injury. He's not going to, you know, he's going to be in there. And instead of just trying to take off and get 30 yards on a broken play, more mixing dump-offs. Yeah, I think he's going to already got. Yeah, I believe he'll be just a little bit more hesitant to test that calf. Adam Schaefter reporting that Mike Evans will stop contract extension talk with the bucks on September 9th, also known as they are already over. That's what it seems like. We still have a week. Yeah, it just, I hope he gets it done. I mean, when you're when you're with a franchise, Mike Evans is like the quintessential Tampa Bay Buccaneer. Sure. And I really hope he gets to stay there and gets a long-term contract. That would be awesome. Just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. And if it doesn't happen, then this is probably his last season as a buccaneer.

and if it is his last season and they're not going to bring him back next year because they can't come to terms on a contract, he's a real prime mid-season trade, trade-away type of player, you know, get some value for him and have him go to a contender, something like that, you know, TBD. Yeah, that is interesting. Saints, more injury news, head coach Dennis Allen said that rookie running back, Kendrae Miller. Yo-hoo! Now he has a hamstring injury after dealing with multiple knee injuries over the off-season. What a roller coaster with this dude. Yes. We haven't gotten to the season yet. Football hasn't started, and he's had 17 injuries and 16 recoveries so far. I mean, every time you think, like...

I'm guessing his hamstring is fine now. That's, that's the half full of the cup is he has recovered from all of them. He is just, he is the best recoverer. Yeah. Or, or hear me out, maybe he's coming back too soon. Maybe take a couple extra days this time and, uh, make sure those legs are all right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. The fantasy footballers mock draft. It is mock draft time. Today's final mock draft of the preseason. We are doing a 10-team half PPR. Me versus Jason standard. We got one quarterback, two running back, two wide receiver, one tight end, one flex, and four bench, keeping the bench a little more shallow because we're on a podcast recording it. We did our randomization of drawings. We did it the old school way. Number out of a hat. Yeah.

And haven't done that in a while. Jason got number seven. I got number four. So the draft is on. Number one, Justin Jefferson, Christian McCaffrey, Austin Echler. That means I am now up. I could go Bijan Robinson, but I'm just going to take Jamar Chase. I'm going to make it easy. And team five, the robot controlling team five, been unaware of the Cooper Cup injury. They have not yet. figured out what to do. The AI is not that fast. Hey, look, the nice thing is in your home leagues, you're going to have people that still draft Cooper Cup where his ADP is because the truth is that the, you know, what the coaches are saying is it's mild, it's nothing, it's not a big deal. And so people are going to see him at ADP and be like, all right, I got him. Do you point it out to someone after they make the draft?

Oh, absolutely. This is the human competitive element. 100. If you, if someone is drafting, it doesn't even matter where they grab them. Maybe it's a good value. Maybe they get them at the back of the second. You just still, you still got to bring up that injury. You got to be like, hey, you know. Risky. Oh, man. Okay. So you don't want a player the first month, huh? Unless you draft them. If you draft them at a value. Yeah, then you just talk about what a smoke and value. This guy's going to be the number one soon as he's on the field.

There's no way that you can go wrong. All right. So I am on the clock here. And it's really it's between two players. It's Bejohn Robinson and Tyreek Hill. Yeah, because Kelsey went six. Yeah. Kelsey was off the board before me. And those are the two, you know, those positions are what I'm looking at. And that's the player at each position that is best. Bejohn, I love him. He's my MVP. But he's not to me to the place where Tyree Kill is. Tyree Kill could be the wide receiver one. It is far more guaranteed of success. And so I will start my 10-teamer with a wide receiver. Just quick sidebar because this is a 10-teamer, which the importance of a powerful onesie position such as Travis Kelsey. He does move up. Where in the first round are you comfortable taking Kelsey if you only have a 10-team league?

For me, it's a matter of which players are still there. I would take Chubb, Bijon, Barclay, Hill, Chase. So he's going to be at the very, very end of the first. All right. So Jason took Tyree Kill. We got Sequin Barclay, Bejohn Robinson, Nick Chubb to finish out the first round. The turn comes back in with Stefan Diggs, Cidley Lamb, and Derek Henry. Jason's back on the clock. Tyree Kill was his first round pick. Where are you going? So there's Tony Pollard and... Josh Jacobs that I love. I went wide receiver in the first round. If this was my draft, I would probably be scared enough to go into the running back position. But I do think there are good running backs that hit the third round in a 10 team league. And AJ Brown is sitting here. So I'm going to start with Tyree Kill and AJ Brown. Start with the double up wide receivers as a test to see if this 10 team league at the seventh spot goes well, kind of waiting on that running back.

You took AJ Brown, then went Ammon Ross St. Brown, Patrick Mahomes. Interesting pick in the middle of the second and an 10 teamer for sure. I am on the clock. I open with Jamar Chase. It's a pretty easy pick for me to take Tony Pollard right there. Devante Adams, Josh Allen, Garrett Wilson, round out the second rounder, Josh Jacobs, Mandrews, and Jalen Waddle. So it has returned to me. My, my guy has returned to me. And it does make that a pretty easy situation of. I love T. Higgins. I love Devonsa Smith. We did our, Jason, we did our listener league draft recently. As mentioned on this show, the ultimate loser, biggest loser, Brian Ketcheron, is my co-coe in that league. Can't believe it. And I whispered to him because I didn't do this as my bold prediction. I think there's a chance that Smith outscores AJ Brown this year. Really? I'm just going to whisper that. I think that they're, like, I don't, it's not outrageous to think that.

It's not outrageous to think that Devonsa Smith might be the number one target earner. I do think, though, that the type of targets that they both get, there's just so many deep touchdown shots to AJ Brown. It will come down to touchdowns. Like if Smith can increase there. I'm just saying, I think there's a chance. So Chris Olave, Christian Alave, that's an easy pick for me. T. Higgins, Najee Harris. Jason's back on the clock. He started wide receiver, wide receiver. I started wide receiver, wide receiver. Jalen Hertz being here is very tempting. He's been a second round pick in most leagues. Obviously, this is a 10 team. I can get the stack. In a 10 team, you really need those powerful onesie positions. I'm more inclined to take a Kelsey or to take a Mahomes, Alan Hertz. Hertz is my guy. He was last year's my guy. I haven't really had him a lot. I've got AJ Brown on the roster. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to say I'm going another round without a running back.

Drop Ramandre, please drop. I will take Jalen Hertz. Okay, you're taking the quarterback. Travis E.T.N. Jonathan Taylor and Ramondre Stevenson round out the third. We'll tell you what happened and we'll be right back. We're back. We're back. We're back. I was really hoping Remandre Stevens dropped to me, but I had a backup plan. Okay. Joe Mixon. Joe Mixon also did not drop to me. Oh, no. But thankfully, you had a backup to the backup? Had a backup to the backup. And honestly, it's a, it's a 1A1B situation. Andy and I have had these conversations a lot between these two players, both costing the same price, who's better, Joe Mixon or Jemir Gibbs. It's really tough because Joe Mixen is going to be the volume king, just as good, if not better offense.

touchdown opportunities that you don't expect Jemir Gibbs to get, but Jemir Gibbs more explosive, you know, a PPR machine in his own right. So I will take Jemir Gibbs here as my first running back off the board. I've got Tyree Kill, A.J. Brown, Jalen Hertz, and Jemir Gibbs. All right. The next team takes Devontas Smith. Instead of that conversation. I think that is a smoking value. And then Brees Hall was selected right in front of me. So my team. Would you have taken them? Breece Hall? Possibly. Possibly. I'm starting to get more open to the idea. I mean, like, the reports are the reports, but they've just, they've been very strong. Like, there was one, like, Breece Hall still hasn't even been knocked down by the defense. He's already hitting massive top speed on the radar gun. So I think that there should be some optimism. Slow start still. I love him so much. But he is.

He's so good. He's just so good. That's the issue. So at the running back position for me, if I want him, want to be Aaron Jones, Kenneth Walker, Damian Pierce, J.K. Dobbins. Those are kind of the top ADP guys if I'm going to play the game. And of course, my sweet, sweet Alexander Madison is still there. At the wide receiver position, we're looking at Debo, Calvin Ridley, Keenan Allen. Oh, man. It's a tough choice here. for me between Calvin Ridley and Keenan Allen. Calvin Ridley, the two-year layoff should be the number one immediately. And then Keenan Allen, I think, would you call Keenan Allen the number one? Like how do you look at the Chargers offense? Sure. I definitely think Keenan Allen is the number one. When they were both on the field last year, Keenan Allen was outscoring them in fantasy points and targets. I mean, Keenan Allen is the absolute one for that office. It's not to say just like Devonza Smith.

could finish the year out scoring. Mike Williams, you know, if he gets double-digit touchdown, sure, he probably outproduces Keenan Allen. But I want the consistency and I want the number one target in the offense. And then I have to also, I love Darren Waller trying to target him here. I think he comes back. Oh, did we, we didn't mention it in the news, but George Kittle is. is dealing with a groin injury. Did we talk about it yesterday? I can't recall. There's too many shows. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about it a lot. He has been pretty much hampered for weeks now. So I am, I'm going to, let's go. I'm going to take Keenan Allen right here, followed up by Debo Samuel, Damien Pierce. Oh, and then Joe Burrow goes at the end of the fourth. You're hoping to stack him up with Chase? It just, it was in consideration for me for my next pick, but Joe Burrow.

Then we start round five. Calvin Relief, D. Hop, Amari Cooper. I'm back on the clock. Three wide receiver, one running back. Let's see. Let me peek in on the wide receivers. DJ Moore, Terry McLaurin, Drake London. I think it's a little bit too early for Drake London and a 10 teamer, as well as Christian Watson, who both have massive, massive upside at the running back position. We're still doing all right. Aaron Jones, Kenneth Walker, Dobbins. And I... Because it is a 10-teamer, I just do not want to miss out on Darren Waller. So I'm going to go ahead and take him here. I don't think he would have made it back. No, I don't think he would have either. He's kind of in that in-between range from where you were drafting to your next pick. And if you want your guy, you've got to get your guy. So ADP-wise, a bit of a reach, but I'm very comfortable making that pick there.

George Kittle went to Team 5. Team 5 needs to keep up with the injury news. That's what we are learning. I mean, sometimes you really rely on that one team that doesn't though. Like team, I think in the algorithm, Team 5 is like. You know 10% of the news. It's the super casual team. Right. That's the super cash. Team 6 takes DJ Moore. Jason's back on the clock. Tyree Kill, A.J. Brown, J.J. Brown and J.M. Gibbs. So with Tyree Kill and A.J. Brown in tow, I feel pretty confident. They're only Gibbs. So I'm looking at the running back position. And this is honestly pretty difficult. There are different archetypes of like four different players I like.