Mock Draft! Top 12 Picks for 2025 - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/20

at six looking at these like top six players that's nice and then people ask us where do you want to pick where do you want to pick in the first round and the answer is generally figure out who the elite elite players are and then towards the back of that is where i like to be because then i just get a slightly better second round player and so far we got six players who i love this is my line these six yes and now it changes okay now it changes um for the way I have it ranked, maybe not in Jason's book. He's that pick seven. Yeah, my line is coming up, but I've got a player that's still inside of it. It's actually my fifth overall player, and my wide receiver three is still on the board. Puka Nakua is that dude. He missed the first, you know, a significant portion of the season. He is my third wide receiver right now, too. And that.

really hurts him in overall rankings and is obviously where he finished on the season and so jefferson or lamb who's behind him for me no for oh no i'm sorry i missed cd puka's at four okay sorry thank you i have jefferson behind puka um so he so for me jefferson's not anti jefferson it's pro puka uh puka nukua you know he missed the beginning of the season but if you look at when he came back and started playing his normal snaps which was week 10 when he started getting up, oh, you know, over 70% of the snaps. Eight games played half the season. He was averaging 18.1 fantasy points per game, which would have been way number, the second best wide receiver, you know, Jamar Chase was up at 20, but on a point per game. What span was this? Week 10 on. Basically, once he was at his normal snap percentage. Gotcha. As soon as he was playing healthy games, the rest of the season, he was 18.1.

This last year, you know, Justin Jefferson was 16.1 and Jamar Chase was at 20. So that's how good puka was. Now you, I mean, obviously things could change. We don't know even if Matthew Stafford will be there. This is assuming Stafford is there. And we know Cooper Cups not going to be there. So, I mean, he's going to be. The underdog fantasy guys refer to Matthew Stafford as a kingmaker, which I love. Because if you look back, The unbelievable seasons from Calvin Johns, obviously he was a king in and of himself, but then the unbelievable fantasy breaking seasons for Cooper Cup. That was Stafford. And now, you even had Kenny Galladay seasons where it was like he got that man paid because he is willing to say, I'm going to go to this guy most of the time. And if that guy can stay healthy, which is obviously a question mark for puka, he's going to be so.

outlandishly good for fantasy football. Puka already has been, so I love Puka. What if it's Darnold? If it's Darnold, I'll definitely move him down. I mean, I would take Justin Jefferson over, ironically, since that was his quarterback last year. But yeah, this is under the assumption that he has Matthew Stafford. Pick eight, give me Malik neighbors. I'm going to take Malik neighbors at pick eight. He's going to be a high percentage chance to lead the league in targets. Yeah. He is of the chase mold and ability, explosive plays, big plays, touchdowns, target volume. I'm going to kind of suppress some of the externals, knowing that those are going to be variables in play right now and, you know, much like the Stafford situation for Puka, I think Malik neighbors, if he was a top.

two wide receiver next year. That's not going to shock to me. Ironically, and I mean, he is just offseason rumor nonsense. But, you know, one of the one of the destinations for Stafford is like, maybe he'll find his way to the New York Giants. And if he did, oh my gosh, Malik neighbors would be so, it would be like, it would probably go for me. It would probably go Jamar Chase Malik neighbors than CD Lamb. There's a lot of discussion around just the, um, the fact that that that general manager and head coach in New York. This is like you've got to win now. Like this is where like the best thing for the organization is probably to draft a quarterback and mold that quarterback and create your future. But you don't get that opportunity when you were on the hot seat sometimes to wait. And they've had two or three waiting years in a row. So if they went out and found a veteran, look, if Aaron Rogers went to New York, if it's Matthew Stafford, if it's Sam Darnold, if it's if it's any sort of competency.

I mean, I told you, the three games with Daniel Jones, Malik Neighbors, as a brand new baby in the NFL, was on pace for 255 targets. That's not a real, like... I wonder why he got hurt. And 1,800 yards and 17 touchdowns. Like, that is, like, if you just swapped him for Jamar Chase on the Cincinnati Bengals, he's going to put up Chase numbers. There's not a skill set problem there. It's just a peripheral problem, and I'm going to trust the talent. I kept watching those Giants games. And while they were fun to watch Malik neighbors get those targets, I don't know how many times out loud I said, you're going to get him killed. You're going to murder this man. He cannot take that many hits across the field. So yeah, hopefully there's a little bit more efficiency and the target volume stays there. But he's, I agree with you. If you flipped him and Jamar Chase, he'd.

put up similar numbers to chase chase bison sequin c d jefferson gibbs puka and malik neighbors at eight i think that we're getting into a category where there's a lot more debate around these picks mike is at nine who you got and in spite of me giving the warning of eating the first round this like you can really hurt your team if i'm in this range as of right now with the news that i have uh as of this recording i would take christian mcalfrey I would be willing to do it. I would take on the risk of, and what's wild about McCaffrey is last year, when we finally got to see him after the, what of the double Achilles tendonitis coming out of the buy week, you were like, that dude, that is not good. That is not good Christian McCaffrey. And yet the first game back against the Tampa Bay Bucks.

put up nearly 14 fantasy points and a half scoring format, nearly 13 the next week, has the really bad game against Green Bay, and then in Buffalo, in a quarter of the game, had 7.7 points in 25% of the snaps and is one shoestring tackle away from a breakaway touchdown that instead turned into his season-ending injury. He will be the focal points of... the San Francisco 49ers. You don't have Debo taking away. Look, carries from Debo, the short area stuff from Debo, I think that those targets go right to Christian McCaffrey. So it's a massive risk because those, the burns from last year are third degree that some people may never, ever recover from, and I don't blame you. But at this point of the first, I'm running back that could finish overall number one. I'm going to go with it.

Not just finish number one, but lap the field at number one. Yeah, I mean, I get it. He's done it before. He's done it off of injuries before. He's obviously older. You have the kind of older season ACL injury from Adrian Peterson where if you've got that outlier human being, where he comes back and he's amazing and you're like, wow, I didn't know when you're older and you have an ACL, you could be fine. CMC is. 28. He's the same age of Saquo and Barclay. And we're sitting here probably talking about Derek Henry in the first round. So who's 31. So there is. I have Derek Henry ahead of Christian McCaffrey in my ring. He's when I was putting this together. Is that you're taking here? No. I have a different running back ahead of. I've got two more running backs ahead of Derek Henry personally. Who I'm taking here is Kyron Williams. Karen Williams is still under contract. He's, I'm not doubting the.

you know, I'm not letting any narrative get in other than he is their true workhorse back. He'll catch a ton of passes. He'll get the touchdowns. He's integral to the offense. This is two years in a row where he has been a top fantasy option. And so thankfully, this is not a mock where we're drafting teams because I would not love to have Puka and Kairn on the same team necessarily as a roster construction. But. He belongs here to me. I see Karen Williams as a first round fantasy. That's what, I mean, that is, you know, four points fewer than Henry per game. So that would be a projection of Henry declining. Yeah. I mean, it's a combination of the age, the system, the Cinderella offensive output from the Ravens. And Derek Henry, I don't want to get caught holding the bag. I don't think it's going to.

But if there is a young stud running back like Kyran still available, I'm going to take him ahead. You want me to blow your mind here, Jay? Please. Kyron Williams currently in early bestball drafts is going at the back of the third round as the running back 14 behind James Cook. I would need to start playing. Some basketball leagues and draft Kairn everywhere. I mean, over exposed. That's amazing. He is a, he's much more Bijon than, than he is Gibbs and Saquan, right? He, he, his long run on the season, I'm seeing 30. Oh, yeah. That's not his skill set. So, so from a, I'm just saying from a basketball perspective, I get it. Your, your performances are not as, like you need him to score inside the red zone, which he does at, at regularity. He is also.

He was also five points per game worse last year than he was the year before, right, when we got the 12 elite games from Kyran. He was like Christian McCaffrey levels that. He was 19.9 down to 15.9. I'm just laying out the different storylines there from a best ball perspective. He's had over 30 touchdowns the last two years. And his snap percentage, I think, is secure. So I'll take, I'll take, I'll take, um, I'll pick 11 in the first round after your Kyran selection, getting towards the end of the round. I'll take the try. You know, it's between him, Henry, Brian Thomas, and Nico. And I'll just take the guy I know on an offense I know. So I will go with almond. I think there's an argument here. Like when I was putting Ammon Ra in my rankings, he would have been my pick as well. There's an argument that he should be, you know, I mean, I was at the point where it's like, Seedy or Aman Ra? You know, Puka or Amman Ra? He is as good.

as anyone at wide receiver. None of us. None of us have said Brock Bowers name. I have Bowers in the second. Yeah, I do too. You can make an argument for, you know, a lot of these players here. Like Bowers versus Alman Ra at the back of the first round, who gives you the better advantage on your team. I could see an argument. Mike, finish us up here. We got Chase, Bijon, Sequin, Cedie, Jefferson, Gibbs, Puka, Neighbors, McCaffrey. Kyran Aminraugh and I know you've got the pressure I gave you like a lot of time everyone's going to say I mean I need to just say the name it's between two players for me it is my highest the just because of how fantasy football works it's gross but I would take A-chan over Derek Henry despite hating or not hating is too strong of her but just being frustrated

with what was going on on the field for the dolphins. And A. Chan just, it felt like he didn't deserve all those points, but that's how the scoring of fantasy football works. You got to lean into it. And then the wide receiver, I mean, my bro love for Nico Collins is unending. It started so hot, but it didn't finish very well. I think there are reasons for. the fall off of Nico of just in the Houston Texans over the second half of the season overall, I would go if I'm on the clock here for real. You are. I'm going to go A-chan here. Okay. I'll go A-chan here. Because there's still a few, like, I know that, well, I guess it's 12, so I get another pick. But like with Nico, Brian Thomas, London, like, there's still some really elite wide receivers here. And running back is.

Not that they aren't great running backs here. They're just a different tier. Makes sense. So there you go. There's your top 12, very, very early first round mock draft. You can feel free to tell us how we were. To mock the mock. To mock the mock. Yeah, I like that. We'll take a break and we'll jump into some mailbag. All right. It's time to answer some Foot Clan questions. Mailbag. If you got a question for the show, you can go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com. Click that submit a question button. You can also dial our voicemail hotline, 302-464 TFFB. We'll start with the voicemail. This is Adam. I'm just curious about God happening with Brandon Iuk, whether it's the return in the first month of the season or what? What's our take on that? I think it's going to be one of the bigger questions for the offseason. Here's what can't be forgotten about Brandon Ayuk. He was awful.

Yeah, the beginning of last year. Before he got hurt. It'd be easy to be like, oh man, once Brandon Ayuk gets back, he will be an elite fantasy option. This is a player who was the wide receiver 14 in 2023 with an efficiency that was out of this world. He had 17.9 yards per catch, which helped him put up 1,300 plus yards and just 75 catches. Last year, if you were playing Brandon Ayyuk, he was one of the worst picks in fantasy football. Wide receiver 66, 41, 47, 57. Finally got up and got a wide receiver 10 week and dropped back down to 58 the next week. So he was. And these aren't just poor wide receiver rankings. These are he's like 28 yards. He's maybe hitting seven points if you're lucky. Played seven games. How many touchdowns did he have? Was it zero? Zero. Oh.

Zero touchdown. When you're not scoring seven points a week, you're not catching touchdowns. No, so I mean, you have a season where he was on pace for like 900 yards. Yeah, and if you have access to the ultimate draft kit, you can look at our injury tracker there that breaks down all the existing injuries. If you're like, how serious was it? How was it not? How many ligaments do we got? This was the ACL, the MCL plus meniscus damage, which slows recovery timeline. So he could be available week one, but he's got to be limited throughout the offseason, could start on the pop, will not be full strength. Personally, when I look at all my rankings, whether it's dynasty startup or redraft, and I compare that for consensus, I'm very low on brand. Like, I don't want, I don't want Brandon Ayyuk. This year, I just don't want to play the game. And maybe it turns into, you know, Chris Godwin this last year was.

amazing and sometimes it bucks the trend but i'm kind of just well he was a couple years removed from his injury i'm just saying it still felt this past year like it was um you know he was an injury worry because it didn't look like he had ever recovered but i'm not going to be playing the brandon i yukes sweepstakes yeah yeah but you were just doing one yeah it was just one so is that not a sweepstake no it's still a sweepstakes Really? Yeah, one sweepstakes is a sweepstakes. Yeah. That feels wrong. You're either winning or you're cleaning your house. So you have one sweepstakes? Yeah, you have one sweepstakes. Not the way you said it, but yes. I mean, that's the only way you can say it. If you join a sweepstakes, you're not joining multiple. And there's always like there's a sweepstakes and you could win the big check. So there's no singular sweepstake. No, no, there's not. I don't believe you. Yeah, there's not. I'm, I mean.

I feel like we've really faded on sweepstakes in general. Like that's not a big thing anymore. Yeah. With the big check. The publisher clearinghouse? Yeah. The big check's not going around. Here's what I'll say about Brandon Ayukas well. The opportunity will be there. Debo Samuel will be gone, right? George Kittle a year older. You got paid. If he was healthy quicker, he should have the opportunity. But we had the who have you fallen in love with, right? Your preseason crush on the Tuesday episode. Ricky Pearsall's in there. I really think, look, this offseason, I doubt he gets shot. Yeah, I'm going to put the odds low. So, you know, to me, Ricky Pearsall has an opportunity to start the year. Yeah. Our AI overlords.

are telling me that while sweepstakes is often used as a singular noun, technically the singular form is sweepstake. I don't care about technically. So like I entered the sweepstake? Yeah. No, no, no. That sounds bad. That's not just because it exists. You said it. People use sweepstakes. Yeah, I didn't say it wrong though. I'm just saying. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with, I still think you said it wrong. Okay. You hear that AI? You're probably, Andy Holloway was disagreeing with you. I bet you're a Cactus guy. Get out of here. I'm from Arizona. You seem like a Cactuses dude. Because Cacti is dumb. You know what else is dumb? Deer and fish. Dears. It's fine. Put an S on there. You're saying because that's not, that's not right? A bunch of deer, right? Yes. But you can't say a bunch of deers. You know, you can't because grammatically it is incorrect. Right. But it should be correct. Look at all those gooses.

That's dumb, but it shouldn't be dumb. No, it should not. Why did we have to do that? So if you ever win a big check, I want you to come out and be like, I won this in a sweepstake. Yeah, I bought a single geese. We had a great thing going in our language. They're like, hey, there's more of them. Slapping ass on there. It's all we needed to do. We got to, I mean, what is it? It's all we needed. Like baguettesie and the skit he's talking about, you know, if you, cow is beef. Right? Uh, pig is pork and chicken is chicken. Yeah. Right? What are we doing? And then talk about a hamburger. Go all the way or none of the way. All right. Instagram question from Connor James. Breece Hall or Chase Brown next year. This one's for Jason. Oh, why are you doing this to me? You won the sweepsteak to answer this question. Oh, fantastic. I'm going to, oh, my Lanta. As of this moment, not knowing how these teams.

end up going. I, Zach Moss is under contract. He will be healthy. I don't think Chase Brown retains his entire workload, even though he was amazing. I hope he does. I think he can handle it. But it doesn't matter what we think. It's a matter of what happens from the team. I'm going to lean on the Breece Hall side. Oh, give me Chase Brown. Chase Brown. Yeah. Assuming they don't draft a running back. Correct. There is a. much higher chance of the Cincinnati Bengals investing in the running back position compared to the Jets. But status quo, it would be Chase Brown. All right. What do we do with Rico Dowdle ahead of the NFL draft? Corey wants to know. Probably more of a dynasty question. Yeah. Move them if you can. But you can't. You know. Like who is who is trading? I'll give you nothing for it. Yeah. Like you guys would.

In the midst of Rico Dattel's 1,000-yard rushing season, you guys would not have traded for Rico Doudal. And now that he is staring down, like, we have no idea what's going to happen with his career. The best case for Rico is returning to Dallas and being part of a committee with a rookie. Yes. I mean, right now, any lower-tiered rookie. Right now, Rico Duttle is an unrestrictive free agent. I think the amount of guff the Cowboys got this last season over. not addressing their running game. Or is Jerry the Moon Man, the guy who's like, screw you guys. I'll do it again. Don't tell me how to GM. It's one of the best running back classes top to bottom that we've had in a long time. There's so many opportunities for them to address it. So I don't know that Rico has any job next year. Well, I mean, like for any team. I think I have Cam Scataboo at like nine right now. If Cam Scataboo went to Dallas, he erases my interest in Nico.

So the ninth best running back off the board would erase my interest in Rico Rico. Rico. Rico Collins, as I say. Rico is just like we were, oh, Clyde. It's just like that of he should. I think he'll get a backup job. I disagree with that. Rico won't have a job. No, no, no, no. I think he'll get a backup job. I'll just say he won't. He won't have any job that can be fantasy relevant in the league for any team. That's my projection for him. He will be a backup. So maybe an injury. You could be this offseason, Zach Moss. Yeah, I mean, maybe an injury in the season next year. Okay, what if you went to Cincinnati to compliment, to compliment Chase Brown and literally was the Zach Moss of the offseason. Is he fantasy relevant? No. He is a high value insurance running. Right. Yeah. And that's, that's what I think he will be. Yeah. In Dynasty, you're not going to cut those guys. No. You can't cut that guy. No. But.

It's just not going to be someone you start either. One last question here from Connor. What quarterback will be the best value in 2025? I'm looking at the early best ball ADP on Underdog, which is, you know, you're looking for kind of the big performances there. Who do you have like after our initial question to start the show? Is there a name that just is it DAC because he's coming back from injury late on a good offense that you like? Is it Herbert, whom they may add a quarterback? Is it Jordan Love or a wide receiver? Is it Jordan Love because you think they'll add a wide receiver? To me, the two targets would be Jordan Love and Dak. It was a disappointing season for Jordan Love. But the way that the pendulum swung two years ago, it was running backs did not score for the Green Bay Packers. Then this past year, especially over the second half, it was Josh Jacobs gets all the touchdowns. I think that that will regress.

to the mean and maybe even skew a little bit towards the past just because of the way that that offense runs. But so between him, him and Dak, I think you've got some good late round target. Laser. That scared the tarnation. Yeah. Laser is my pick. He's QB8 right now. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's right in that zone where I'm, you know, I'd love to have Baker as the highest. Jason, are you scared? I'm just holding back getting his own laser zone. I held it back. No, you didn't. No, I did hold it back. You called me out. Holding it back would have been not thinking it at all. Okay. I'll have to suppress thoughts. What, what are your guys's quick thoughts here on Patrick Mahomes being still the quarterback six? I love it. I love to see it. Get Rashi Rice back. You got savior worthy.

I'm not going to draft him there. That's more what I mean. Yeah, but right behind him is bone nick. Are you taking Bowenicks over? I would take Bowenicks over. I'm not doing that. My target would actually be. Patrick Mahomes gets to come back with a chip on his shoulder and the opportunity to have some wide receivers healthy. Yeah. I mean, I hope. Mahomes is the number one quarterback this year. It's good for the NFL. I want him to. remember that he can throw the ball down the field. That would be amazing because they play so many games on national television and we want fun football. But my target for fantasy football is Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert started the season doing very little for fantasy football. You know, the first seven weeks of the season, he was averaging 16 fantasy points per game. The last 11, he was up to 20 fantasy points per game. So.

I expect them to add another weapon to this offense, probably both in the receiving and the running game. It's a good franchise. It's a quarterback we know is good. He's going late in drafts. He actually started running a little bit more this year. So I think he's, depending on where he is drafted after they add weapons to the team, that'll be interesting to me. All right. That is going to do it for today's episode of the fantasy footballers. Please click that follow button. If you're listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify. Wherever you listen, click that button, leave us a review. We'd appreciate it. We're going to get into coaching changes. Our 10 Things to Remember episode and more next week. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.