Fantasy Football - SUPER Mock Draft Episode! - Podcast for 8/22

Footclan is fantasy draft season. It is time to get your league right. And if you need a trophy, you need a belt, you need a championship rings, you need any of that swag that defines a great league. Head over to fantasychamps.com. You can use our code ballers. Get 10% off any of those trophies, rings, belts, any of that sweet swag. That's fantasy champs.com. The fantasy footballer studio is sponsored by Walmart. The fantasy footballers podcast with your host. Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Friday, August 22nd, on the precipice of one of the largest draft weekends of the year. Welcome into the fantasy footballers. Mike, the fantasy hit man, Jason Moore. I'm Andy Holloway. Gentlemen, we are here. It's Friday. We've got a mock draft episode today.

A super mock. Superflex. For all those two QB people out there, which there are a lot of you. I play in. There are a lot. We all play in a few Superflex leagues. It is not necessarily our preferred format, but it's fun. And you can say, you know, it changes a little bit of strategy. I think people think it changes way more strategy than it does. But yeah. I know Mike would agree with that. And I think it'll be a chance for us to revisit. player values today on the show. We'll be drafting against the footballer staff, and that'll be a good time. We're drafting back to back to back. That'll be kicking off here in a few minutes, so looking forward to seeing how these teams shape up. And I was in the UDK app yesterday, marking a few players for later in the draft. Yeah, starting to get... Getting ready for the real thing. Yeah, we've got our draft on Labor Day for our League of Record, and then...

We're in the midst of some other drafts right now. You know what other drafts are coming up? Oh. The Megalabole is open for signing up. So go to megalobole.com. Play in leagues with us. There will be 20,000 people playing. Whoever wins the entire Megalabole. We'll get an ultimate draft kit forever for the rest of their life as well as they will be in next year's listener league. Speaking of all the listener league submissions. We have made our way through them. We shall be selecting people today and contacting them in short order. Okay, yeah, we're ready to get the listener league going again for 2025. That's exciting. I perused several entries yesterday. A lot of good stuff out there. So thank you. It's hard. We only get to choose a handful of people to join us, but it doesn't mean we don't appreciate all of the entries and the time put into them. They are awesome, and your passion for fantasy is awesome, and we love you all.

Very much. Ultimate draft kit.com. If you want to pick that up before the big weekend, let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by progressive insurance. All right. It's funny because I think Jason a couple days ago mentioned Romeo Dobbs is one of those potential trade targets for teams. Matt LaFleur. He heard. He heard me talking about it. Yeah, addressed trade rumors said, quote, that will not happen. Okay. So at least that's what Matt LaFleur is saying. That's fine. I think it should have. It just makes sense for all parties. Does it? I think so, because I don't think that Romeo Dobbs is a needle mover for this version of the Packers with their receiving core. You know, Kraft is going to be able to step up if Dobbs was gone. You've got the first round rookie. Obviously, Jaden Reed's health. Maybe I don't know whether he's truly healthy or not. If you take Dobbs off the team, look, at least historically, Jane Reed just plays the slot. You go to two wide. Who's the number two wide receiver then?

I mean, this is where Jaden Reed needs to be on the field more. Well, we're all hoping. Yeah, it would be Wix who is hurt and can't catch. Yeah. But you know, one of the top things I've liked in my wide receivers. The, I think where Romeo Dobbs is, I can agree that maybe he's not like a needle mover, you know, on the extreme positive side. But I think he might be a needle mover for the Packers if you take him off. Sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I actually agree with that. By the way, the Vikings, apparently, according to Adam Schefter, I actually first saw this from Kay Adams. Did you? She was interviewing their head coach, Kevin O'Connell, and talked about how she would love to see a reunion between the Vikings and wide receiver Adam feeling. Makes so much sense. I'm back, baby. You draft Tedroa and McMillan. You've got Legat.

This is like, let's build for the. You've got Coker. You've got Renfro. Yeah, build for the future. I mean, you're not Super Bowl bound or challenging really for anything of note other than camaraderie and, you know, a good meshing young core for the future. Get something for Adam Thielen who right now the Vikings, they are banged up. Justin Jefferson is back to practice, but he's not doing much. The, uh, the first place I saw it, Andy. We're going to give the shout to charge. Oh, yeah. All chargey and was tweeting about this weeks ago. Minnesota man. Yeah. Yeah, the, you know, that would be quite the reunion. He could really help them. He really could move the needle. And right now, Ronnell Moore is already out for the entire year. Galen Ehlers hurt. Addison suspended. I've been in a couple drafts recently where, you know, I've talked about this a lot on my ice. It was basically don't draft fifth round tight in. There's good players there. And the difference between fifth round tight ends and ninth round tight ends.

They aren't worth what you sacrifice. However, I've seen Hawkinson. Starting to get hot about Hawk. I've seen Hawkinson drop in plenty of leagues where he's, you know, he's in the seventh, eighth round, and he should get off to a hawk start because. Okay, there it was. You know. Thank you. If you've got Jordan Addison, you know for a fact, Addison's not playing the first three weeks. We don't know exactly how healthy Justin Jefferson. is right now. He's coming off of the hamstring issue. And then Nailer is definitely injured. So the first couple of weeks, Hawkinson is going to be extremely utilized. All right. Jim Harbaugh, Chargers updates here. Declined to address whether Naji could begin the regular season on the reserve NFI list. Uh-oh. So we don't have inside information here at all. But just speculating, it seems.

from what he is currently doing in practice to say, let's go get tackled at, you know, have some helmet smash into your helmet by NFL players in real games in a couple weeks. I don't know. I lean towards him not being active. It's a really weird situation. We got some information from like talking to an eye surgeon, like of the potential outcomes from an incident. Like there's only so many things that can happen to an eyeball. Legitimately. And it's like there's either the great severity of like needing surgery for something, which he did not get. Or there is. Is that a Mac Jones though? I don't think so. Like other dudes would have got surgery. Everybody else would have got surgery. I don't think he Mac Jones with the eye. Yeah. But the, but otherwise it's like because of the timing, right, this was what, July 4th? Yeah. So because of the timing. That is the 4th of July. Yeah. Math checks out on that one.

Wait, what do you mean? Well, I mean, it was a Fourth of July accident. Right, right, right. No, what was that date again? To be fair, if you check out my neighborhood, it could have been July 8th. I don't know. Leftover fireworks. Keep going. All right. Well, thank you. Yes, July 4th, the incident should have, like, it could have been healed by now, right? So then there's only a certain amount of things that could happen. It very well could be related to vision, just vision. And pain. And pain tolerance. And like both of those things, obviously that's going to affect you on the field if you're trying to run the football. So we don't know what the- I don't think there's a shot for eye pain. You know how like if you're back, you're knee. You get drops though. Okay. They have drops that numb your eyes. Yeah. Quentin Johnston. Or an eye surgery is going to be. That's bad. That's a bad time. There's stuff if you get.

If you get stuff in your eye, a lot of the times it cannot do anything. They cannot go in and surgery remove it. You just have to live with it and deal with it. The amount of things that we have to learn about for a fantasy football show. Can we just make this more simple here? Yeah. Individual drills for Quentin Johnston in practice. So he is on his way back. Commander's head coach talked about Chris Rodriguez Jr., handling the short yardage goal line opportunities. Austin Echler is obviously there. We have Jeremy McNichols, and then we've got, go ahead. Bill Krausky could pick an orange from an apple tree. Perfection. So it is one of the handful of muddy backfields that you have a great quarterback in an offense you might believe in.

But right now, if it does break down into two or three running backs, it's going to be a hard week-to-week start situation. You'd think that Austin Echler would be the leader in the clubhouse in terms of who you draft. He certainly will be who I draft first. But it will be disappointing. I mean, we talk about the three things that you want for a great fantasy running back. Opportunity. We don't know exactly what that breaks down to. Good team. We got that. But then goal line opportunity. Like Echler might not have that. Right. So Dan Quinn was pretty. They were like, is it fair to say that, you know, Chris Rodriguez is going to be that guy? He's like, yeah. I mean, that was a pretty good answer. I'm not going to hit the breaking news button on this one. But Adam Levittan is doing some snooping. Okay. On the intern's wife on Instagram posted a just a story that says big news, all caps. Heart, heart, heart, heart. Oh. But not just a heart, Jason. Oh, oh.

Heart exclamation point, which I have never seen. Apparently that's one of them. Well, let me, let me add some to. We got more? No, I'm just reinterpreting this. This looks like, I mean, is that a black background or a purple background? I see a little purple. That's definitely purple. If it's a purple background. Without a dead, I'm looking at it purple next to black. It's purple. That's not Minnesota purple though. Yeah, but I mean, purple's perfect. You know, you got to be vague. What are you talking about? It's not, she's not going to come out with a Vikings logo. yeah man this is purple that's purple for sure i mean basically we're reporting out i'm feeling traded to the viking yeah all right i'm updating my udkatek immediately uh we had some football last night we had cam scadaboo back out there on the field we love to see that we had the trifecta of dub eaters um oh man james winston jackson dart you want uh tommy davido yeah you want people to fall in love

with your team i'm falling in love with the giants right now i don't think they're going to be good but like they the vibes they're having fun and this is i think really good news for jackson dart for his future like he's he's set up where he doesn't have to go right into the the wolves damn oh he may be he may be there soon well he might play his way there for sure i just mean like the way their schedule is they they have a brutal schedule Like, how long can Winston last with the way Jackson Dars played this preseason? I don't know. But Scataboo being out there, that's... Who gets the boot? I mean, probably DeVito. Oh, yeah. You mean, doesn't make the roster? Yeah. Oh, for sure, Davido. I mean, you're going to have James and you're going to have Russell and then you're going to have DART. Those three will be. Oh, right. I'm like, are they going to Cleveland Browns this and carry four? No, they wouldn't do that, I guess. Yeah, you're right.

Math, maths out. Who knows? So, yeah, we had some. Sorry, Cutler, your cutlets. You're gone. We did have. We're going to cutlets you. Jalen Warren was out there. I can't even say the word. I can't switch. Brick. Jalen Warren was out there playing. Kenneth Gainwell came in after him. Caleb Johnson got some time. Got darn blowed up. He's got on it. He got blowed up on a kick return. Yeah. He was, let's not have him returning kicks. He's a vision patience guy and he's like jogging down the field, waiting for something to happen. That's not his forte. Just put him behind the line. All right. That was today's news and note sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third party insurers, not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We're not going to wait any longer. We're going to jump right in.

The fantasy footballers mock draft. All righty. We have a 12-team half-PPR super flex mock draft. So one quarterback, two running back, two wide receiver, one tight-in, one flex, one super flex. And so a lot of quarterbacks are going to be off the board, the big differential there. Obviously, we talk so much about onesie positions being quarterbacks and tight-ins. And the fact that, look, you don't have to compete. There are a lot of... the quarterbacks out there that are going to make an impact on a on a daily or a yearly basis and only 12 of them get started in your league normally in a super flex you're talking about 75% of you know quarterbacks in the league being played and and mattering so and there's also a supply and demand issue like when you talk about tight ends or versus quarterbacks at the onesie position or even if you go running backs or wide receivers and you need two so you know there's 24 starting running backs well there's

There's far more than that. A quarterback, when you're starting 24, there are 32 total. Every week that start. I mean, obviously, that start the game. There are 32. And that's if there's no buy week. So every single quarterback will be drafted in a Superflex league. And then the waiver wire will only be injuries in the future. Because you're usually, we won't do it on this mock. We won't go deep enough. But you're usually in a true Superflex. You're drafting the promising backups as well. Yep. So. Our draft spots in this draft, Mike at two, I'm at three, Jason at four. First pick off the board, Julia went with Josh Allen, not a surprise. Mike, you are on the clock as we get this first round underway. Yep, so with the second pick, there are still elite quarterbacks on the board. When I'm in Superflex, my strategy is generally when I'm up at the top. If an elite difference maker is there, I will go with them. But once that tear melts down, then I'm going to.

I want an elite player in the first round. I don't want, you know, the QB6 in the first round over a top tier running back or wide receiver, but I'm at the top, so I'm going to make it easy and take Lamar. Well, I, uh, if I had been staring down Lamar, Jaden, I actually would have gone Jaden in this draft. Jaden is who I'll take at the 103, only because of- Because you don't like 4,040. I got it. No, no, because of the Lamar Jackson. Oh, the foot. Foot injury right now. He's fine. I've seen some people more concerned about the Ravens maybe not being as open with that injury. We have been told he's fine, but if it's that tight, I would maybe go that direction. The only concern you need to have about Lamar is how forthright are they with the information about his diarrhea? He does miss games. That's the only thing that's.

That's what's taking him off the field. Not that foot. He's fine. I will say, you know, when you're talking about the big, you know, the best quarterbacks, the top four or five if you throw burrow in there. I see Lamar as the clear pick outside of the injury. Like I would have taken Lamar over Lamar Jackson. But injury does matter. You would have taken Lamar over Lamar Jackson? Yeah, Lamar over Josh Allen. I would have taken him as the first quarterback off the board. But I will say that when there is this injury concern and it's... hopefully nothing probably nothing but when you're splitting hairs over elite elite or elite options yeah i don't i don't blame you andy for going well i'm just going to take the healthy elite do do that's a question for jaden daniels do we really think he can get there i think he can absolutely get there now he is he has his own risk because he has to level up he can't just do what he did last year and be worthy of that but i i you know based on what he did

I definitely think he could get there. You saw Kyler take that second year leap forward with Cliff Kingsbury, and this will be the second year with Cliff. Oh, baby. Breaking news. Oh, my goodness. The commanders have traded Brian Robinson Jr. to the 49ers for a six-round round. Oh, the check-in. Oh, my gosh. This is great. So, Mike, where are you drafting Christian McCaffrey? 101. Wow. Brian Rob. Are you serious? Do you think Brian Robinson matters to Christian McCaffrey? Would Jordan Mason have mattered to you? No. And Jordan Mason's a much better running back. I think that they, this is a player who could take the, you know, instead of having Christian McCaffrey play 90% of the snaps and have, you know, 350 touches through the course of the year.

you could have some of that go away. It's not going to, it's not going to nerve McCaffrey. They're not going to be in a timeshare. But I'm saying, yeah, 101 is a high bar. 101 versus, you know, the 109. I'm saying 101 as in like, it, this changes nothing for me. Well, let's check it with Kyle. Kyle, you just drafted Christian McCaffrey moments ago. How do you feel about that pick? Anything changed with your opinion? I ain't scared. No. Brian Robinson lost his. spot to a seventh round rookie. Brian Robinson is me. That is that is not fair. Say saying a seventh round rookie when it's Bill Cross. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yes. Bill Crosky could kill two stones with one bird. I mean, how dare you? The.

The 49ers. It matters to have some players that can take snaps, though. I mean, that's fine. You need bodies to take snaps. And look, he'll be hurt soon because that was the other point we needed to get to is Brian Robinson is definitely getting injured now. Yeah. It's been the story. So it also, it does have implications. I mean, McCaffrey has been hurt three of the last five years. Brian Robinson is now the higher value. insurance back on the 49ers that will run the football and need running back. So it certainly takes Garindo out of the must draft if you grab. Yeah, I mean, it puts them in a position where look, historically speaking, your odds are much greater that Brian Robinson is starting games for the 49ers this year than he isn't. That's the truth. It has increased today. It did increase. Even pre-Christian McCaffrey, we saw this all the time. Players get hurt, 49ers get hurt.

We got to get back to the draft. I went Jaden Daniels. Jason went Jalen Hertz. So the first four off the board, all quarterbacks. This is where you start to see a little bit of... This is where it slows down. Yeah, Burrow ends up kind of in his own tier. I was on with JJ, Zachary Eastern yesterday, talking about this exact thing. Burroughs kind of in the top five for some. He's also kind of in his own tier because of a pocket passer. But Jamar Chase went 105, so that's where he went in the Superflex. Bejohn, not Brian Robinson, but Bejohn Robinson.

at the 106, Burrow at the 107. So the top five off the board. Jefferson, Barkley, Lamb, Gibbs, and Kyle, that pick that Jason just mentioned, at the 112. Ammonrae St. Brown starts off our second round, Puka, Genti, Nico, neighbors. So the last five people in the draft, no QBs with the first two picks. I did that last year in a Superflex. Did not work out well for me. It is viable for sure, but you do eventually what happens is you do back yourself into taking quarterbacks when maybe some other values on the board. It's just the gamble. For that league, Andrew, is that a best ball league? It was. So best ball is certainly a bit different because you can't manage your roster. You can't, you know, go if there is a backup that happens to, that isn't picked up and you can stash. And in a best ball, I mean, you're drafting how many rounds?

22. Yeah. So in a super flex best ball, I would say it is less viable to go with a later round quarterback. Yeah, I mean, I was going to say in a super flex basketball, I think I took four. I think took four or five late and it literally was a nightmare. It was terrible. It was like Daniel Jones and Bryce Young and Derek Carr. I had nobody. I basically ended up with nobody. So just throwing that out there. We had neighbors, Brian Thomas, Derek Henry. Interestingly, the next. quarterback off the board, not Baker, not Kyler, not Patrick Mahomes. It's Bo Nix at 208. All right. I don't mind it. He was the quarterback seven last year and he basically did nothing for the first month. With me being back on the clock now, I look at the tiers of different positions. Obviously, I could take the number one tight end. Or at running back and wide receiver, I want studs there. And so at running back, there's a lot of guys I like. I look at the list.

A. Chan, Bucky Irving, Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Kyron, Chase Brown. Love, love all of them, Amarian Hampton. So I'll probably get one of those guys back to me. At wide receiver, there's only two guys that I really like. The top 10 wide receivers to me are clear cut. And there's only two left. Drake London and A.J. Brown's a little hurt right now. So I'll easily pull the trigger to get one of those top 10 wide receivers. And then I'll take the leftovers of that tier of running backs that I like. Yeah, I, you know, Ladd McConkey's on the board, obviously. Marv's still there, JSN, who I like. I probably am okay swinging back around to the wide receivers here, especially with AJ Brown's injury. I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on A-chan. I know that the injury risk is out there, but I want to be clear about this. Like, there's one single injury analyst that has made the comment that he's going to miss three games. I have went out there and done the research and looked.

That's an ambitious prediction when somebody doesn't know the ins and outs of the specific injury. It's also not coming from the dolphins. That's not what they're saying. Maybe he misses one. But look, there's a big difference between one and three to start the year. A. Chan, Jalen Wright's hurt, right? Madison's gone. Like, A. Chan, if he's healthy and getting him this late in the draft, it feels like this is the time to pull the trigger going way behind. some other name. Another name to say that isn't there for the Dolphins when we're talking about A-chan is Jonu-Smith. Because the targets that Johnu had in that area, I mean, Devon A-chan is going to be near 100 targets. So I'm going to go with the confidence play on A-chan being okay, even if it takes a game or two. Mike with Lamar in the first round, I have Daniels and A-chan, Jason with Hertz and London. You've got Lamar. You've got a pick here. Yep. I agree with Jason's assessment of the wide receivers.

I get that the injury is a concern, but I'm a little surprised you didn't go with the Jalen Hertz, A.J. Brown stack, but that's all right, because I'll take A.J. Brown. All right, A.J. Brown, off the board as we get towards the back of the second round. Chase Brown, finishing out the second. We'll take a break, and we'll jump into the third. All right, Julia, started with Josh Allen, goes Chase Brown, Amarion, and Hampton to start the third round. Mike, you're back on the clock, Lamar, and A.J. Brown. I am. I made a calculated move going with the wide receiver of like, does Chase Brown come back to me? And no, he, no, he did not. But it was going to put me in quite the pickle because I love Chase Brown. Chase Brown is a my guy. But the news in Indianapolis shifted around my rankings. You fart face. Johnny Taylor, I knew. Jonathan Taylor is higher in my rankings now than Chase Brown because I think that Daniel Jones will like,

The passing work is more secure for Taylor. Is Jones the quarterback the whole season? I don't know. But Jonathan Taylor was already a good pick. But if we're going to get those receptions in there, he is a elite pick. He's my number six running back right now. That's where he is for me too. When you talk about your outside of the big five of Bejohn, Barclay, McCaffrey, Henry, and Gibbs, then he is that next guy up of the next tier. For me, he's my number one. So I was wanting him. when I was looking at London or Jonathan Taylor and I knew you were going to be the one to take him. That's right. All right. I have Jaden and A. Chan. I'm going to, you know, it's a mock draft. I'm going to toy around here. I know that there are five teams, actually six after me that will pick twice. Six that don't have quarterbacks. So I'm actually going to pull the trigger on a second quarterback right here. And I'm going to take a player that I have a great deal of confidence in this year.

Not the highest quarterback by ADP, but I'm going to go Baker Mayfield here in the third. And I want to just see what happens with the rest of the quarterback from the way back through. Laser. And I like the depth of wide receiver a little bit more. So Jason, you're back on the clock. Jalen Hurts, Drake London. I've got Jalen Hertz, Drake London. I'm looking for a running back here. I could take the tight end. But with real stud running backs to still have as my running back one, I'm not going to take them over the tight end position. They'll score more points.

It would be between three players I really like, Kyron Williams, Josh Jacobs, and Bucky Irving. I have no shares of Bucky Irving. He is highest in my half-PPR rankings. I think it's a fun pick. I didn't like when he was being picked as like the running back six, running back seven early in the off season. But at this point, I'm not sure what running back number he is, but it definitely feels appropriate for him. Kiron goes next. Jason taking Bucky over Kairn, very. 11 running back 11 very interesting but brock bowers off the board josh jacobs off the board papa josh refusing to draft a quarterback so far jefferson neighbors ken walker and uh that's where we're at in the third round where are you right now my temperature check on ken walker uh so the temperature check is i haven't moved him uh let me go he is my running back 17 uh