Ballers Mock Draft + Forgiving Fantasy Failures

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for our live event in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be great. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube and check it out. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, it's mock draft time.

We got a mock draft today, and I'm excited. Welcome into the fantasy footballers. How are you boys doing? Jason is stretching. I got to get prepared, you know, prepare my body, my mind, my soul's mock draft. Your muscles are... I am ready. No, I... Little known fact. No one on this earth is less flexible than I am, except for Jason. Yeah, they say like, okay, I want you to...

Keep your legs straight and bend over and just grab your ankles. I'm like, I could barely get my knees. Number one, who's asking you to do these types of things? My personal trainer. As we're working out. Wink. Oh, my. Goodness gracious, Mike. Welcome to the show. What kind of a mood is Mike in today. I don't know what he's talking about, but you are correct about the flexibility that if.

I have none. Between the three of us, if someone's life depended that one of us could touch our toes, I'm sorry, I hope you lived a good life. Because it's not happening. I am convinced that what's happening is when I go to sleep at night, some of these pro sports surgeons, they take a little bit of my hamstring to repair ACLs around the league. Because I can't move. Then you're doing the world of service. That's right. We thank you. That's probably while the ACLs are going out.

They're not flexible at all. You're choosing the wrong. Very rigid. Yeah, it's very illegal, too. Welcome in to the stealing people's muscles while they sleep? Correct. It's not legal, is it? It's like the kidney story. Yeah, much stranger. Welcome to the fantasy footballers. Let's talk fantasy football. Here's a quick question of the day. Who is a player? And this is one I personally requested as a quick question. Who is the player that you don't want?

to forgive for a bad season that you probably should forgive. Because a lot of the times we're talking about players and stats and specific projections, but a lot of times on this podcast, we are about high-level principles of winning. You know, how do you navigate your league with the different league mates that you have in the format and the way you think about trades? And here's another high-level principle. You cannot let all past mistakes of a player.

players you've had on your team that left you with some third degree burns last year. You can't let them tear you down for the future. So I know that each of us at least has won, probably many, players that we probably want to bury in our rankings and be sad about never come back to. But we need to forgive. We need to be forgiving people. I'll jump in here first. And my guy, I want to forgive him. And I can tell that the people have not.

Because this guy is going in the 14th round of PPR mock dress. I can't believe that. And this guy has been a fantasy superstar for many years of his career. And he was coming off of three straight years of over 17 yards per reception. But last year, things took a turn for the worst with his free agent signing. And that is Deshaun Jackson.

Now, despite his low output in yards, 50 receptions for 668 yards. According to Air Yards.com, he was still 16th in air yards. That's more than Michael Thomas, Devin Funches, T.Y. Hilton, Tyreek Hill. His average depth of target was still 16 yards. He only had six fewer receptions than the previous year, but over 300 yards fewer total.

So the air yards did not translate to receptions. They just, right. But the opportunity is there. The big players were there. Deshawn Jackson, if you watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was running free frequently. James Winston just missed him. And Winston's actually pretty good when it comes to the deep ball. Mike Evans gets all of his production through air yards. Just the sink was not there with Deshawn Jackson. Another year of a full training camp.

doesn't have the distraction of coming off of the free agent signing, that contract, getting down to work. I think we need to forgive Deshaun Jackson and remember that three of the previous four seasons before last year, he had over 1,000 yards. And the year, in 2015, when he only had barely over 500, he only played in 10 games. When we talk about Chris Godwin and Adam Humphreys, we talk about them competing for what?

The wide receiver three wide receiver spot. That's the discussion. This is not a debate. The starting wide receivers for Tampa Bay are locked and loaded as Mike Evans and Deshawn Jackson. It's a worthwhile forgiveness that you have bestowed upon him. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I have a little bit more words. I think that if he caught a couple of those deep balls that were missed, he'd still be going late this year with fears of age.

I mean, he's getting up there and Godwin, because I actually think Godwin could compete for that number two by season's end. Different role, though. Like, Deshaun Jackson. Yes, he's the burner on the outside. Still stretches the field. Yeah, Ted Ginn's been doing it at old age. If you're fast, you're fast. And I will grant you that. No, I don't hate it, but I do see some of the reasons for it. For me, this isn't a guy that I want to forgive. This is more like what Andy was saying, like, who's a guy you just don't want to forgive? And I'll be honest, man.

I don't want to forgive him, I think in part because of how high I was. He was one of my three my guys last year. So hard. You know, I was telling everybody, draft him. And oh, man, that I feel good. Let me set this up for it. I feel like you bought two premium tickets for a cruise. You and this fella, you were going on a bromance, a voyage across. Was this a fire fest?

that's where the boat ended up because he thought he was oh i'm up i'm getting the balcony view i'm on the top of the ship i get first class service all day long and he actually started there yeah and then halfway through he knocked you out and you end up at the fire festival trapped on the island fighting to survive yeah and this this person that pushed me off of the big boat is

Prescott. Dag Prescott, one of my three my guys last year. First half of last season, he was the quarterback number one on fire. Second half of last season, the quarterback 34 out of 32 teams. Not nearly as high as one. Not nearly as high. And here's the reason why I don't want to forgive him because of the film. Watching him, he looked lost. He missed throws left right and center. I mean, he just looked.

Like a bad quarterback. I would watch him, and I'd watch Blake Bortle's, and I'm going, okay, why is Blake Bortle's not a better quarterback than Dak if we're just taking that second half of the last year? His confidence melted. It did. Like a popsicle in the Arizona sun. But I do think I need to forgive him because right now he's going about the quarterback 20. He's about quarterback 20 in my rankings.

But this is, I have to remember, this is still a guy who has done what very few people have done, his first two years in the league. He was a quarterback one, a top 12 guy, both years, including last year when he sucked the second half. To say all of a sudden, okay, well, so this next year he's going to be quarterback 20, I think there's a little bit of like spite and vengeance in, I realize he lost Des.

But honestly, that could be better for him because he did not do well targeting Des. You have to lock a quarterback in for the entire season today. And you have to lock in either Dak Prescott or Andrew Luck. Who do you lock in for this season? Ladies and gentlemen, he's putting the glasses on. Oh, you brought them back. They're making a triumphant return. Oh, no. I'm taking Dak over luck all day. No. True story.

Come on. Deal with it. Oh, my goodness. All right. Come on, man. I realized the reason this segment came to mind is I realized there was a player I didn't want to forgive. I didn't want to talk about. I didn't want to pay attention to. His name is J. Ajai. Now, this might make Brooks happy because I know, Brooks, you are a J. Jai owner. Oh, he's OG. Yeah, you're the original Ajai.

Gangster. But listen, let us not forget a couple of important facts. Since the, even though last year was very, very disappointing for JJ owners because they were coming into the season with an expectation of greatness in the trade, he's 23 years old. Jay Jai is 23 coming back this season as the bell cow on a Super Bowl champion.

Now, maybe you disagree with the Bell Cow comment. Yes. 24, by the way. Is that true? Just double check. Yeah. Okay. I still will allow the point to continue with 24 years old. He had eight top 24 weeks in 2016. He had only three bust weeks on the season. So even in the weeks when he wasn't top 24, he was sitting around 30, 31. So he had a very consistent, nice RB1, RB2 year. Then he went.

and got traded last year. 173 carries. That's what's gone with Lagerie Blunt. Add to that the fact that from the time he came over to Philadelphia, he still outpaced Lagerie Blunt right when he came onto the team, 104 to 93 from the time he was traded. The purpose of that trade was not to rent Jha Jai for 104 carries and throw him away. Now, I don't think any of us think that's what they're going to do.

But it seems like our rankings think that. And this is a team that ran the ball well. This is a team that needs to run the ball well. And this is the team that at least all indications pointing in camp are that JHA is going to bear the brunt of that responsibility. So I had to move them up.

I need to forgive him. I have even worse for you because he's 25 now. We're pre-recording this episode because we're going to Minneapolis. His birthday was, his birthday was tomorrow, which was actually last week now. And he aged two years. Oh.

Yes. These things happen. But yeah. Here is, like I said, at 25, he's got a young, 23-year-old body. That's, that's ridiculous that his birthday took place. My concern between this recording and. Yes. My concern for JJ is that he won't. He is 20, he just turned 26. It just happened. He ages fast, those knees. Oh, man. Okay, so. But here's my concerns. Let me lay them out for you. Yes.

that I don't believe he'll be a bell cow. We've already seen Doug Peterson a few years of using a very heavy running back by committee. They like Cory Clement in the Red Zone as they used him last year. Jay Ajai, even though he has the chops to be the passing game running back, why would you go with him when you have Corey Clement and you re-signed Darren Sproles passing down specialists? So what is the carry count for Jay Jai then? What do you think it is?