Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - NFL Draft Review Pt 1: AFC Winners & Losers

just the compensatory draft pick. I don't know. It just, to me, I don't know why you wouldn't trade. Well, we know he's not going anywhere this year because the teams that were looking to trade him like the Browns, they all got a quarterback. So Garoppolo is a patriot. Yeah, and just to add to the point, I would hang on to him if I were then. If you can't get enough value for him and you have a window here to win Super Bowls, I don't know. It's really tough. You see what a great backup does and what...

you know, in Arizona when Carson Palmer went down the season in. So I don't know. They must not have gotten something that was worth it for them. So let's talk about the Denver Broncos. Let's head out to the AFC West. We talked about C.J. Anderson. He came out a winner in the draft because they did not spend a draft pick on a running back. And they also upgraded. Until their six rounds. They've been upgrading their line. I mean, they made some moves in free agency. Yep. Their first pick. They were the first.

The first O-Lyman in the draft was the Denver Broncos. They got to pick exactly who they wanted. And they picked 20. Yeah. So it was, and they took Gerpoles, the offensive tackle, who looks like a mountain of a man. So I just, I agree. I think C.J. Anderson is a big winner at this point of the season. Yeah. I mean, you would say I think their offense is the big winner here in the sense that they did improve their offensive line.

They've got, you know, everybody else coming back. So, and I think the addition of Carlos Henderson, I mean, right now you had Demarius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, and nothing, like no other weapons. Now you have Jake Butt when he gets back healthy from, you know, he might start the year on the PUP. Good. But I think he will play this year. He's a tight end, so he probably won't make a huge fantasy impact at all or even a real world impact this year.

But with him and Carlos Henderson, you have some talent there in the receiving game. If Jamal Charles goes, I think the offense can take a step up. I had pointed out a couple months ago that the leading receivers for the Denver Broncos, Sanders, Thomas, number three on that list was Devante Booker. I mean, yeah, they need help. That was trouble. You needed some pass catchers there. You guys realized, you know, the draft started so kind of chaotically.

And there were so many offensive pieces drafted. You had the two running backs and the three wideouts and the trade-up for Tabrisky. So it felt like this heavily offensive draft. But in the first round, I believe there were 19 defensive players taken. It went completely the other way. And there was actually more defensive players taken this year than last year. So kind of interesting. Let's go ahead and is there anybody else to reflect on there? I don't think so. Let's talk chargers. Lots.

of fantasy implications here huge winners to me have to be melvin gordon and philip rivers yes completely agree they they could possibly be the number one and number two biggest winners in the league after this draft i mean you're talking about taking a team and you've got problems on the offensive line you grab those two guards which forest lamp which there's a lot of people say he's the best offensive linemen in the draft he's a guard so you're not going to

very rarely do you take a guard high. It does happen from time to time, but a lot of people, a lot of people who I respect said LAMP is the best line. To say as a team, you know, the nice thing about the NFL draft is that teams can't lie. You get to see what they wanted to do. What they actually believe. Right. And what they believe in who they liked and what they thought their problems were on their team, et cetera. And the fact that they spent their first three picks on offense.

improve their offensive line, and did not through the entire draft touch a running back, says Melvin Gordon is all systems go to me. He is entrenched. I mean, that's a guy I fully believe in for next year. One of those running backs that could definitely go either direction, right? He's been highly inefficient his entire career even last year when you look at, you know, the yards per carry and metrics like that. But.

I'm a believer now because it seems to me that San Diego is very much a believer. Philip Rivers was already an offseason winner, right, when you get back Keenan Allen. Yes. Now you give him Mike Williams the surprise pick of the first round or one of the surprise picks of the first round. To me, this is a, if your name isn't Keenan Allen, this is a bump down for you at the wide receiver position, high draft capital, Mike Williams, goal line.

opportunities you might even say that it's a bump down for the combined projection for both tight ends because Mike Williams should be utilized in the red zone a lot but you're talking about a bump not a not something that necessarily puts these guys into the loser category because a better more efficient offense an offense that has these injured pieces back it benefits everybody everybody's water level rises so I do like it for Mike Williams I think it's a great home for him yeah he's a he's definitely a winner in this dress yes

I mean, when you're the, you know, he's my number one wide receiver in this draft, and he went and he got Philip Rivers. Look, when you're going to, when you're drafted and you're going to Los Angeles and Jared Goff's not throwing you the ball, you're a winner in this draft. All right, let's talk about a team that was exceptionally active in the trade department. Three trade ups for offensive pieces. The Kansas City Chiefs.

We had heard rumors heading into the draft how much they liked Pat Mahomes. Well, they put their money where their mouth was because they sent a lot to move up and grab Pat Mahomes at pick 10. Give me your percentage odds that Pat Mahomes takes a snap this year for the Kansas City Chiefs. And I'm going to change that. I'm going to say starts a game. I think he only starts a game if Alex Smith gets hurt. Yeah, I agree. And so I put that at like 10%.

Okay. 10% chance. But I can't imagine a better, if I looked at all 32 teams, I'm not sure there is a better landing spot for Mahomes. He's got that high level talent, but very raw needs some work. And so to be able to go sit behind a safe Alex Smith, but be trained by Andy Reid, who has taken guys, has worked with guys like Mahom, right? I mean, he's worked with.

his number one comp of Brett Farr. Yeah, Donovan McNabb is more of a Mahomes comp than he is an Alex Smith comp. Right. And so I can get out of the pocket, make something happen. I think it's good for Mahomes. The biggest question for me on the winners, losers here is at the running back position. Because Spencer Ware, early on in the draft, it looked like he was going to come out a big winner. It seemed like all of the main running backs were gone. But when they traded up,

pretty significantly. They gave up, you know, a next year's, or that year's fourth and seventh, and just to swap a few picks in the third round to go up and get Kareem Hunt, who is a good pass catching back that says to me that Spencer Ware, at the very least, he's not a bell cow. He's not going to happen. I'm in agreement with Jason. We were discussing this a little bit before the show. I do believe this is a significant pick because Spencer Ware, he wore down over the course of this season. He was banged up towards the end of the year.

And I'm not a Char West fan, but I saw him on the field way too much for my liking in the sense as a Spencer Ware owner. So I think Cream Hunt will be involved in this offense. I still think Spencer wears that leadback. And he's still the goal line guy. I mean, he was almost. Right. He will be. 25 pounds heavier. But I think Cream Hunt's going to be involved. And if Spencer Ware were to go down, you could see a pretty heavy workload for Cream Hunt. And so I want to project here.

Well, just a little bit of long term because people like to do that. We're in dynasty season. People want to think dynasty-wise. All things to me point that Alex Smith has this year, and then they have a nice out from him next year. So I assume that Patrick Mahomes will be the guy. Do you like to go after a guy like Jeremy Macklin, who we know is an elite-level wide receiver, has been absolutely capped?

by the offensive system that they run in Kansas City. You have to imagine that cap will be raised, if not just completely obliterated by Patrick Mahomes, who can throw the ball 80 yards. And Macklin right now, I mean, his value is very, very low. It's a good question because it's not the same thing as saying. This is long term. Yeah, it's not the same thing as saying, hey, I'm going to go get Cory Coleman and eventually they'll figure the quarterback out. This is more of a veteran situation that has been capped by quarterback.

conservative play, the game plan behind the arm. And they still owe Macklin if they can cut him after this season, but it's a $4.8 million cap hit. So I can't imagine they will cut him after 2017. I think the time to do something like that might be still in the future. Right. I don't know if it's now. Yeah. I think it might be with a lack of production halfway through the year because the price on somebody like Macklin, while not expensive.

still might not be as cheap as you'd want for a, you know, a two-year plan type of guy or a, it's a high risk, right? I mean, we don't know what Patrick Mahomes is. So if the cost is nearly free, I'm like, hey, go do it. But I don't think the cost on Macklin's free. And if you told me that Alex Smith was starting in 2018, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Yeah, I mean, they could theoretically be great and go to the Super Bowl. I mean, this is a team that we thought might have the ability to get there last year. So winners.

Losers, I think Smith's aware is a loser, but we'll see how much. That's not nice. Not a ton. I mean, he just takes a little hit. You had to expect them to put somebody there, but I still think he didn't lose the fact that he's still the main leader of the timeshare. So possible Super Bowl teams also in the AFC, the Raiders, a lot of people think that they've got that potential. Any big winners and losers from fantasy after the draft, they.

They clearly did not focus on their offense, which was wise. Yeah, they focused their offseason on it. Marshaun Lynch, Jared Cook, healthy Derek Carr. Their offensive line is always, you know, one of their strengths. And so they did pick up an offensive tackle in the fourth round, but otherwise they went defense with the rest of their picks through the seventh round. So for me, their defense won. This is good for that team. Yeah, there's not a lot of winners and losers here.

For fantasy purposes, I mean, you could say, you know, continuity, the fact that nothing is changing is good. DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard were winners. You know, I wouldn't have been worried if they spent a later pick on. They did draft the running back. They took Elijah Hood. Oh, yeah. I love Michael Keaton. Yeah. But, I mean, those guys are kind of entrenched now as our backups and third down satellite guys. Right. And then for the dynasty people out there, it's worth monitoring. Just a, I'm talking just to just keep a little peeksy.

on him, but Ishmael Zamora, he fell completely out of the draft. We know he's a hyper-talented athlete out of Baylor, but the success rate of an undrafted free agent is very low, just saying keep a peek on him as the... A little dynasty peeksy? Yeah, as the Raiders, when I was looking at, you know, how are teams running their offense? Like, what's... What are they doing? Formation? Yeah, what formation? And the Raiders...

ran four wide a lot. A lot. I'm talking 22 plus percent of their snaps were four wide. And that's second highest in the league. All right. I'm very, very excited to talk about this next franchise. Out of the AFC North, we're talking about the Cincinnati Bengals, big time winners in this draft to me, Andy Dalton, at the top of it. Because you've added John Ross in the first round. Fastest Man Alive.

And Joe Mixin in the second round, another wide receiver out in the fourth round with Josh Malone. And this is a team that I have said in the offseason. I already like Andy Dalton a lot more than the consensus. He's my number eight quarterback. Now you give him John Ross, who I don't love John Ross. Like the actual player, I don't love him. If you had said, hey, he handed a wide receiver one role someplace, I'd be like, okay.

55 catches. I mean, I just don't know what to... But on the other side of A.J. Green, with Andy Dalton, needing Ross to make a few plays and more than that, change the way the defense thinks about that secondary and the way they cover and bracket and treat A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd and a healthy Tyler Eifert, huge implications to that offense. And then you bring in Joe Mix in, and you...

you put some oomph back behind Andy Dalton that they haven't had since the rookie year for Jeremy Hill. I just love everything they did on offense. Now, unless I'm Jeremy Hill or Joe. I'm not even that worried about Joe Bernard myself. I wouldn't call Joe a loser. I'd call Jeremy Hill a loser. Jeremy Hill is certainly a loser. And Joe Mixin is a good enough pass catcher to render.

Both of them fantasy irrelevant, but we have to wait and see how he's used in that system. And, you know, my gut, I doubt that they come out of the gates as saying you are our first, second, and third down back. So I tend to lean more towards Andy's side and say, Gio is not necessarily a big loser, but Mixon does have the talent to make both of them losers in this draft. Now, we have, Jason and I had a slight differing of opinion on,