Ballers Mock Draft + Forgiving Fantasy Failures

And we're back on the clock, Mike. So let's get some of your perspective on what you want to do here. Now, Devante Adams, aforementioned, did not go. But I'd like to take a running back here before we have to wait another, what, 14 picks? Right. We have a long way to go. In my opinion, we have an elite player at both positions now. So it's nice to be firmly balanced. And looking at the way that my running back tiers do shake out,

Jerich McKinnon would be my next pick. I'm okay with the Joe Mixen pick, but I've... I would... I really hoped McCaffrey or Howard came back to us. That's what I would. You would rather have Howard over McKinnon? Yeah, I think with Levy on Bell, I would. I think I'd rather just lock down a guarantee there versus the kind of the roll the dice with McKinnon. I love McKinnon. Don't get me wrong. I just, for a balance.

I would say that the, I know he's going in the third round, but the industry at large is very opposed to Jordan Howard early. They don't want him. So just getting your thoughts on it. So you're leaning McKinnon here. Any thought to Gronk at 303? That was the only name I was going to bring up because he's not gone yet. In a 10-team league, at the end of the day, everyone has good rosters.

These are the leagues where I do look for the difference maker. You know, a grunk and Aaron Rogers, they separate yourself at a position. Especially in eight and ten team leagues, which is what you're bringing up. We always get asked that question. How do you approach it differently when you're in a smaller league and it has to do with the fact your rosters? They all look a lot better in ten team leagues than they do in 12 and 14 team leagues.

Right. So how do you differentiate? Exactly. We've already got the best running back in football. I love Jerich McKinnon here. I would be thrilled with McKinnon, but it's between McKinnon and Gron for me. Those are the only two options at wide receiver. We'll get Mike to pick. We'll get Mike to pick. Eileen, Jerich McKinnon, just because I want to see how that plays out. We had Andy take Gronk in our last mock draft. So I just, I want to see what our team shapes up to be. Gronk ended up dropping.

All the way to 309, by the way. And Kelsey went directly after him because that's a pretty far drop for Grom. Yes. And so after McKinnon went mixing, Adams, Baldwin, Thielen, Henry at 308, Gronkowski, Kelsey to finish round three. And then we come into round four with Josh Gordon, Tyreek Hill, Alex Collins, and our first quarterback off the board, Aaron Rogers at 404. Do you get...

If you were sitting there at 404, do you think about Aaron Rogers, Jason? At 404, I still think that there are a lot of really good, talented running backs and wide receivers. And that's, you know, when we talk about tier base, it's not so much what round. Is it round four? It's basically, are there any players left that I think are super good running backs and wide receivers? I'm happy to have playing every week. If there are, I'm not taking a quarterback. But if I'm kind of going, I don't, you know,

Aaron Rogers has dropped to a place where I'm picking, you know, I'm looking at, okay, do I take Aaron Rogers or Lamar Miller, Mark Ingram? I'm going to take Aaron Rogers. T.Y. Hilton, Amari Cooper, Stefan Diggs, three wide receivers right after Aaron Rogers. We saw eight wide receivers go off the board since we picked Jerich McKinnon. I do want to remind our listeners that if you want to come alongside this show as an independent podcast,

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Jerich McKinnon and our fourth pick and an opportunity here to make a decision. Do we want to in a half-point league turn to the wide receiver position? I see names that I like. I see names like Larry Fitzgerald, who I think is great. I see options. Ju-Jew Smith, Schuster. I see Schuster, yeah, Ajai, Penny, Geis. The running backs have thinned out. I will say that.

I don't like this tier break at the running back position at all. Yeah. I mean, you're choosing, at this point, you're drafting a rookie if you want somebody that has upside. So Penny, Sonny Michelle, but otherwise I'm not excited about what I see there, whereas I be- Well, you were just talking about J-Jai. Don't hang on J-HI. Put your buddy where your mouth is.

I didn't mention his name right then, so I didn't ignore him because I figured you guys wouldn't be on board. I'd be fine with, with JJE, but I'd rather have Larry Fitzgerald. Yeah, I would much rather have Larry Fitzgerald, Judeo Smith-Schuster. We should bring up the fact Zach Hertz is still on the board. You go, man, if you were considering Gronk last round, he is the end of a tier, but the quality of having that, gronk separates you.

Zackertz gives you a quality tight end, and that's not worth subtracting one of these running backs for riders. To me, the pick would be Penny because what you said, the running backs are so thinned out. If we lose Larry, we can get Juju. If we lose Juju, we can get Larry. Now, we might lose both those guys, but I feel like there's a little bit more depth there. Yeah, we don't have to wait for picks. I actually agree. I think Rashad Penny is the better pick here. And just some interesting notes on Rashad Penny. Rich Rebar, at Lord Reeves.

incredible follow on Twitter if you're not from Rotor World. I heard him talking about Rashad Penny and the touchdowns of the passing touchdowns for Jimmy Graham, you know, where do we go? And I completely agree with him that they go to Rashad Penny. But just to illustrate that more, do you happen to recall how many rushing touchdowns Seattle running backs had last year? I want to say four. Three?

Zero. One. Not a lot. One. Jady McKissick had the only running back rushing touchdown. Meanwhile, Jimmy Graham had seven touchdowns from the four or closer. And they want to run the ball. Those touchdowns I think are going to Rashad Penny. It's funny because I hear that and I'm like, Ed Dixon. No, I'm just saying like the absence of them doesn't give me great encouragement.

if Carson's going to have an opportunity, if Penny's going to have an opportunity, and they got one last year. They got one last year. Are you trying to talk me into him or out of him? No, I'm saying talking into him. They went and they got him because of the absence of talent at the running back position. Yeah, I agree with that. The absence of talent at the offensive line, they're hoping that Mr. Yards after contact can handle that. Interesting. Let's take Rashad Penny. I love it.

Deshawn Watson goes next, Alshon, Jeffrey, Kenyon Drake, and Jaii. This is how you get both your guys. Our risk of, you know, having Larry Fitzgerald and Juju, Alan Robinson, Brandon Cook's available. They're all there. I think it's, I see no reason to take the risk of combining Levion Bell with Juju Smith-Schuster on this roster. Oh, completely agree. And leaning too heavily on Pittsburgh's offense. It's not, it's not something I have a problem with if it represented a tear break.

But I like Larry more than Juju independently, and I like him a lot more than Juju right here when I already have Levy on. Yeah, I don't, yeah, I agree with the second part of what you're saying where it doesn't matter. I'm not saying don't take Juju because they're both Steelers. I don't have a problem. If two great players are on the same team, they're on the same team. But Larry Fitzgerald is so consistent and valuable over 100 receptions the last two years. It needs...

what, 92, 93 receptions to become second all time. That's happening this year. So Larry Fitzgerald being here in a half point PPR in round five. You had talked about Zekertz in the fourth round. Do you have any inklings inside to go with him? I mean, you would be missing out on a high-level wide receiver. Because Robinson's still on the board to Marys Thomas. If you like Cooks, he's still available.

If we were at a point where Larry wasn't on the board, I would consider it. Because it's really about that, you know, where are, where am I in my tier breaks? Do you? Then I might consider, okay, that's the last of the kind of tier two tight ends left. But I don't think we can ignore such a solid, every week contributor in a half point PPR league like Larry. Right now.

on our half point scoring projections on the cheat sheet from the ultimate draft kit. Larry Fitzgerald is the last remaining Tier 3 wide receiver. And there's not a ton of the tier 4s left. Zachards is a tier 2 tight end. I think it's a tough decision for me because I do see guys down the list like, I don't know, Jarvis Landry, who I'm not uncomfortable having as my wide receiver 2.

if I think Ertz represents a difference maker. Now, generally I've been waiting and going after a Trey Burton later in the draft, going with upside of Jordan Reed later in the draft. Even if we got stuck with Jason's favorite player of all time, Jared Cook, it wouldn't even kill me. Jared Cook, I mean, in a 10-10 league, we won't even be needing to take Cook. So I like fits here. And I'm sure Zacherts will go immediately after. Two picks. Yeah, two picks after.

Fitzgerald went, we took him, and then it was Geis, Ertz, Sonny Michelle, Mark Ingram, off the board at 509. Do you expect that to be the location of Mark Ingram? I think he will go right around that 5-6 turn. Alan Robinson at 510 and Brandon Cooks at 6-01. Those scream of upside values to me. Potential. Upside potential that late. I'm sorry, I was thinking about. Alan Robinson and Brandon Cooks going at the end of the 5th, early 6th. I like those guys.

When I look at the board and what's come back around to us, let's play the what-if game. If we had taken Earths, we'd be staring down Marvin Jones as wide receiver too, Jarvis Landry, Michael Crabtree. It's thinning out significantly. Yeah. I feel pretty good about it. Yeah, I like grabbing Larry. There's still plenty of tight ends left that should be valuable contributors. I mean, Greg Olson could very well outscore Zach Ertz.

blindfolded this. So Greg Olson or Evan Ingram. Yeah. You have Larry Fitz, the combo of Larry Fitz and Greg Olson or Zacherts and Jarvis Landry, which it would definitely be Larry and Greg Olson, without a doubt. If you guys are thinking about Olson or Ingram, I suggest we wait on this pick and see if they're there at 703. Now, that being said, the two teams that are between us have not yet drafted a tight end. And so that's four picks.

I'm willing to roll the dice, though. I'm willing. That's, that'd be my vote. Hey, the good news there is, I'd rather draft Marvin Jones right here. If we don't get Greg Olson or Evan Ingram, which is the gamble, then we might end up with a better option in Kyle Rudolph. So that's great news. Oh, the jersey's been replaced. If you want to finish the draft alone, that's fine.

Other options I want to throw out there for our listeners, Marshawn Lynch is still on the board, potential starter in Oakland, Kevin Coleman, Tom Brady. I think some people sitting here at 608 might think about Tom Brady. Yeah, I think a lot of people will be thinking about Tom Brady. And this is where we say he might be pretty good. But if you look at what you're going to lose versus what you can grab later, the difference between Tom Brady.

And what we will find in a Matthew Stafford and a Philip Rivers and a James Winston on a per game basis is not going to be as drastic as what you're going to experience with running backs and wide receivers. All right. Who do we want to make the pitch? Speaking of Matthew Stafford, we recommend don't over-emphasize the strength of schedule. You can look at the season beginning, though. And those first four games, I'm looking at the strength of schedule here.

The second easiest first four games for Detroit at the quarterback position, and they're number three at the wide receiver position. So I see where you're going. I would personally take Marvin Jones, not only because of the potential for the very hot start for my team. But we might end up stacking. Well, we may end up stacking him. We may end up with a guy that we can flip then in the...

In week three or week four, flip for a player who is disappointed, but you know that the ceiling is so massive that they should not be trading you that player for Marvin Jones. Sure. And ironically, so let's go with Marvin Jones. The next two off the board with the two names I brought up, which was Greg Olson and Tom Brady. And then I held my breath and Landry went. Chris Hogan. Ooh.