MOCK DRAFT + Gordon Reinstated, Preseason Hype

I was engaging in trade discussions throughout the weekend that circled around me giving up Vance McDonald, getting back O.J. Howard in a big dynasty trade. But I was obviously including a lot more. Right. And I questioned the whole time, you know, like I want to buy O.J. Howard before the breakout. But do I want to sell Vance before the breakout? The age thing is really what convinced me to do it as well. But.

Yeah, it was encouraging to see that. The snap counts for first-team offense are interesting. Right. You know Conner's the guy in Pittsburgh. In Seattle, there were 17 snaps with Russell Wilson on the field. Chris Carson took 14 of them. Carson's going to be ridiculous. Rashad Penny took three. Chris Carson was targeted. Chris Carson is going to be a beast. I think Chris Carson had like 50% of the opportunities of those plays. When I made my Dante Pettus pivot, you know, there's a certain amount of love of a father.

bestows upon his three my guys. Most of the love that I took from Pettus I just gave to Carson. He's got like a double heaping of love from me. It's well deserved. We have to address something that took place in Detroit. Sure, yes. There were three basically starter drives with Carryon Johnson and the running backs in Detroit. Carryon Johnson came off the field on all three drives for third down.

The first two, C.J. Anderson took the third down, the third time it was Ty Johnson, who some in Detroit, if you listen, believe is a very capable theoretic replacement. Where are you with what took place, Jason? Yeah, I mean, I was watching it. I tweeted it out because I know everyone's looking, you know, this direction for all the carrying on Johnson takes. I mean, it will be a backfield that is split up.

You've never said anything to the contrary. I hoped that maybe Daryl Bevel would some reason just make it a workhorse. But, you know, the past catching is the real question mark here. I do still expect Caryon Johnson to have a very large role in the passing game. He's great at it. He was clearly still the starter on each drive. He was clearly and statistically the best running back there.

But the thing I didn't like was seeing Carry on Johnson into the second quarter. That was like, look, if you want to rest these guys, if you're, you know, if your coach, Mr. I want to share the work, get these starters out of the game. But, I mean, I still have Carryon Johnson right now as a top 12 running back. And that is on the back of a very, very shared workload. I don't think I've even got him down for 210 carries. So I don't think he's a workhorse back. He's just so efficient.

he's going to end up being a top 12 running. To me, it validated a little bit of the concerns about pass protection. They've been around camp. And then he wasn't on the field on third down where C.J. Anderson, you know, maybe they're leaning on him for pass protection. He's definitely the best runner on the team. We'll see. If he doesn't catch the ball as much as we hope, he's going to have to score. One of those two things has to happen. Antonio Brown, not in Raiders camp over frustration with the helmet once again.

proving the NFL right that the helmet was an issue well this is just Antonio Brown at this point in time this is not the same player from six years ago that was you know by all accounts everyone around humble hardworking out there do it now

The wind blows a certain direction and you have questions and you can see the frustration on Mike Mayock, John Gruden. Basically, they say, hey, is he all in or is he all out? Drew Rosenhouse this morning comes out. He'll be back in camp soon. He hasn't really left camp. He just didn't come to practice. I mean, that's the news. So bizarre. Look, Antonio Brown, after the trade happened and with the contract extension, he should have just told Gruden, look, I'm not coming to training camp.

I don't want to be there. I'll be there week one. Just go with that. And let's move away from this nonsense. But now, as a fantasy owner, when do you take him? Do you take him? Oh, man. It's not like there weren't question marks. And more importantly, this is the headline we haven't talked about. Are you taking Tyrell Williams sooner than you had thought? He's looked great in camp. He's looked great in the preseason. If Antonio Brown.

flies off into the sunset and a hot air balloon. Tyrell is the number one receiver on the Raiders. Yeah, he certainly could be. If Antonio Brown does grab that hot air balloon, it makes Darren Wallerich far more interesting. If he didn't see his couple snaps in preseason, he's looked great. He should have had a touchdown when he was wide open, but the backup quarterback threw it to the moon.

out of the end zone. My whiskers were tingling watching Darren Waller is running. I would agree that's the guy I want to take a shot on because while Tyrell Williams could be more relevant on a target basis than Darren Waller, he's a wide receiver where there's a million wide receivers out there in the draft. At tight end, if Darren Waller has relevance, it's going to be much more valuable than Tyrell Williams relevance. Shout out to Tyrell and best ball. Sure.

All right, a couple quick things. We've got to get through it. We've got a big mock draft show today. Keenan Allen is dealing with an ankle injury. Do you have concern based on injury history? Keenan Allen being banged up. This is coming up over and over again. It's highly unfortunate, and he's expected to be rested for the duration now of the preseason. He should be ready week one. Talk about a different offense with no Melvin, Gordon, Keenan Allen, and week one if that was to take place. Yes.

Um, D.K. Metcalfe. Yes. Not Nicky wide receiver. Not Nickyell Harry. Yeah. D.K. Metcalfe needs knee surgery. Which is, this is ridiculous of the, the timeline that they have given him for a surgery. I don't, it doesn't matter what it is. A knee scope, a cleanup procedure. They went into his knee with medical tools and they did things. Like, it's, he's not going to be ready.

Yeah, we're already into, you know, week two, heading into week three of the preseason. I don't think he's going to be ready if they're doing a surgery on his knee by week one, even if it's just a cleanup little scope. It certainly, you know, it obviously hurts his early season outlook. I mean, we always say, John Brown. I was going to bring up the name, Geron Brown, who he kind of bawled out there over in the preseason week two. He's the veteran.

I don't see the Seahawks passing game as one where, you know, look, David Moore and Geron Brown and all these other ancillary pieces, maybe someone will step up on a game-to-game basis. But to me, I almost made Tyler Lockett one of my guys because I really, really believe Tyler Lockett is going to be a very good fantasy-wide receiver this season. I just don't understand how he couldn't. And now with DK Metcalfe out of the way, I think he's going to be hyper-targeted.

All right, that was today's news and notes. Brought to you, as always, by the Sleeper app. Before we get into the mock draft, which we're just about to do, 12-team mock draft, 6th spot. I'll give you the details. We want to thank today's sponsors, and I've never wanted to thank today's sponsor more than I do right now. Oh, my goodness. Because I can't comprehend that I get to talk about this. Get ready, people, to return to an era lost to legend and my... As a run! My past! I'm coming!

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I just resubscribed. Excellent. Live on the show. Excellent work, my friend. Reserve that name. See in a few years. All right. We are, we're doing our final mock draft of the preseason. It's going to be a good one. Twelve team half PPR. We're drafting together. United, we stand. And we get to draft from the six spot guys. And honestly, to me, the five and the six spot.

with everything that has happened has become extremely difficult. Earlier on in the preseason, this thing was easy. It was Melvin Gordon, no problem. David Johnson is the backup to that. No problem. Here we are. Melvin Gordon, the talks have not progressed. And I know we're only two weeks, so they have a chance to impress me. But I've moved David Johnson down a little bit.

I haven't abandoned him out of my top 10 or anything like that, but I have moved him down. I now have James Connor above David Johnson. There are. I think that's fair. You can make that, you can make that decision, that determination. I think that any, my only thought on that is that if you believed ever, if you ever believe in the offense that Cliff Kingsbury is bringing, you shouldn't have a reason to change that belief. It's not, it's not the offense. It's watching David Johnson play.

On all the handoffs, David Johnson has not looked explosive. Watch David Johnson take a handoff last week. Watch Joe Mixen take a handoff. There is a very big difference in the explosiveness right now. I don't know what's going on. I don't know if we're just, we misremember who David Johnson was from those three years ago. Maybe those three years of time have taken the toll and zapped DJ of a little bit of that.

I moved him down. Having settled this, I've got DJ down at number six now. But James Connor, ADP-wise, is a bit of a reach right here. Obviously, you wouldn't get him in the second round if you don't take him here. But I'm just saying that this decision here has become far more difficult than it was three or four weeks ago. Yeah, if we don't like David Johnson and there was a clear other guy, James Connor to you, maybe Lev Bell, maybe Dalvin Cook, maybe.

Nick Chubb or Todd Gurley. Gurley, yeah. They're all in this nebulous realm. So does that mean if you're sitting on the clock at six like we are? You look to someone who is a sure thing that has no question mark. Someone like Devante Adams at wide receiver. Well, I haven't got to go through who's been drafted yet. Alvin Camero 101. Christian McCaffrey with the second pick, then Barclay. DeAndre Hopkins off the board at four ahead of Zeke. Zeke at five.

And here we are at six. So as you said, Devante Adams on the board, David Johnson, Lev Bell, Nick Chubb, Julio Jones. See, I like Chubb more than Connor. That's fine. But right now, jumping off the page, I mean, if you're hesitant about David Johnson here, if you don't want him to be the backbone of your team on this August 19th Monday, where would you like to go with the pick?