Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - NFL Draft Review Pt 2: NFC Winners & Losers

NFL and fantasy community that they would decline the option. Now, they had just cleared out their scouting and GM. It was this one of those things where the option was declined because no one was in the building to actually... To submit the paperwork. No, I mean, in reality, I think this is good news to a degree for Sammy Watkins' owners in the sense that he doesn't have a guaranteed contract next year. So, one, he's playing for it. Two, he has the opportunity now to...

go somewhere that has more passing volume in the future. I mean, I don't think it's going to change whether or not he's a good player going forward. So, I mean, if you've got him on your team, I would rather him go to a system where he's got more volume. It's a good reminder because that's what matters, whether you can play Sammy Watkins week to week. And they can still franchise them if they feel like they made a mistake. That's what's going to happen because it will cost the bills more money. Panthers have exercised.

As opposed to what Calvin Benjamin, he has not. Oh, come on. All right. Panthers of exercise, Kelvin Benjamin's fifth year option. The Lions of Exercise Eric Ebron's fifth year option. Talk about these two. I want to talk about the second one because... You go ahead. Eric Ebron, I still am a huge believer in Eric Ebron. And I know that's not a popular thing to do because he is disappointed for being a number...

10 overall NFL draft pick. He doesn't look at his three years. He hasn't disappointed me. Well, that's good. I don't look at last year and say Eric Ebron is a huge disappointment. No, but unless you were expecting him to be, unless you overdrafted him and I don't know. Yeah, I think my point is that.

People wanted him to come out and be one of those top five fantasy tight-ins when he was drafted, you know, a couple of years ago. But he has improved every single season. He gets a bad rap for drops. And going into this NFL draft, one of the deepest classes for tight-ins. Yeah, we were worried about him. There were questions of, are they going to take in Joku? Are they, you know, what if Howard falls there, which he almost did? And then...

Are they going to pick up that fifth year option? This is saying we are now committed to him. He's necessary for the offense. He's going to be here this year. He's going to be there next year. This is year what? This is year four. Four. Okay. He's disappointing to me as far as he's in the perfect situation. The Jermichael Finley of the modern age. He's with the Lions. They are a pass happy team. When's the last time?

They had a dominant running back. Barry Santers. Thank you for proving my point. And then on top of that, they didn't have a really reliable second weapon. Marvin Jones, you know, had those great couple games to start. But then he was just basically a disaster for the rest of the season. You had Golden Tate. They're relying on Anquan Bolden. And it's just you have Eric Eber on there. Why are you not?

the guy who was stepping up, forcing the team to get you the ball. And see, here's the thing. I think Eric Ebron did do that. He just didn't score touchdowns. And that's one of those things that's always hard to quantify and predict. He's a positive regression candidate. It'll probably be a sleeper for us on our draft game. I mean, he had five touchdowns in his sophomore year. He only had one touchdown last year. But if you look at his receptions, he went from 25 his rookie year to 47.

to 61, and he only played 13 games last year, and he had 61 for 711 yards. Had he had, you know, normal tight-in touchdown numbers, people would be loving him. So I really do. He's one of my favorite draft candidates for his ADP right now. Justin Forsett retired from the NFL, but his Twitter lives on, so we can be happy about that. I love Justin Forsett. Appreciate your time, my friend. Enjoy retirement. Yeah, yeah. Hope it treats you.

Treats you well. All right. The NFC East, we're going to start right now. The NFC winners and losers from the draft. We're going to start with the Dallas Cowboys. The team we knew heading into the draft needed to address the defensive side of the ball. They did that with their first three picks, which was a defensive end and two cornerbacks. They addressed Tuesdays. What's that? Taco Tuesdays. All right. All right. Mike, always on top of the analysis. Ryan Switzer in the fourth round.

A 5-8-181 wide receiver out of North Carolina and a seventh round wide receiver. So from the, on the offensive side of the ball, you know. They didn't touch much. They didn't touch much. I mean, they got a great wide receiver for their system. Obviously, Cole Beasley works. Ryan Switzer's called Cole Beasley. I mean, they're very similar types of players. Small, great, you know, quickness and route running. But this offense is intact.

Everybody that you were already going to draft is great. I would say the only winner since everyone else is fine is Jason Witten because they could have gone out and got his heir apparent. They didn't. So he's going to be what he is. I would put Darren McFadden on that list. Yeah. That's a great point. That's a great point. Because they didn't bring another backup in. They obviously feel confident that McFadden can do that job. And we know how great that job is if someone goes down ahead of him. And the Switzer pick.

So Cole Beasley is coming to the end of his contract. The Cowboys can get out after this season, extremely cheap. And Cole Beasley, he accounted for 20% of their targets last year. This is a position that Dak likes the target. Now, I know that Des missed some time, but still Des Brian played, you know, 12 games. He's just, he is a part of.

that offense, that slot receiver. So in a PPR, I like taking Switzer in a dynasty. Yeah, with a third round rookie pick. I don't think it's going to affect Beasley this year. Yes, agree. Let's talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. One of the teams that we thought could snag a running back very early in the draft. So I guess by way of not doing that, they, you know, Darren Sproles has an established role.

The Beat Rider opinion is that Sproles is still going to headline that dirty backfield, as I'll call it right now, because look, you have Wendell Smallwood, who I think they, my opinion is the team likes Wendell Smallwood. Which is just bananas. I don't think Wendell Smallwood did anything.

wrong last year at all. He didn't do anything right. He didn't have the opportunity. One of the things that's important. But I don't think he's a headline back. You know, after the draft, we look at, you know, we talked last show about, you know, what is the team saying their truth because they drafted who they did and they didn't, you know, draft a running back. So sometimes you could say, okay, that shows confidence in their players, right? You say, well, they like Windows Smallwood. I don't think that's the case here. Some reports after the draft were talking about how they were looking at Dalvin Cook.

But the Vikings traded. I think they wanted Dalvin Cook. And the Vikings traded up unexpectedly to snag him away. The draft just didn't fall that direction. And then, you know, their board dictated other options. So this is one I would just throw a little bit of caution saying that they are happy with their current running backs. And I could still expect to see changes as the season progresses. Mike, before you contribute there, I do want to take a quick second and remind everybody that. Thank you.

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sandwiched by a couple of wide receivers as well. So winners, losers, is there anybody unmentioned here in Philadelphia? To the loser to me, when you're looking at the wide receiver crew, you have Green Beckham, who appears to be the failed.

Busted draft pick, second round, I believe. Nelson Agalore failed first round pick. But Mack Hollins has size. He has speed to easily replace the depth that Green Beckham was providing. If you want to call a winner, I mean, Carson wins. Yeah. Of the off season.

It was comedic last year, the wide receiver core, that Philadelphia was running out there. It was a gun with no bullets in the chamber. This offseason, you go. No, it had the flag with the boom or pal on it. Pew, pew, pew, pew. And now you add Alshon Jeffrey, Tori Smith, Mack Hollins, Shelton Gibson in the fifth round. This is a significant offseason and draft capital spent to equip. We've seen this around the league, right? James Winston, Tampa, they just did this. Corey Davis.

And they drafted another wide receiver whose names escaping. Taylor. Tawan Taylor. Tawan Taylor in Tennessee. Look, you traded everything to get Carson wins. Literally. They don't have anything left. And then now you have an opportunity to equip him. And I think that's the message here. Certainly. But more in free agency than the draft. I think these are future.

future wide receivers versus people that will make any impact. Look, you got out enough if you want to get Doriel Greenbeckham to walk out the door. You got to get enough, guys. All right, the New York football Giants. Evan Ingram, in the first round, Jason, you're going to be okay. They chose Ingram over in Joku. I know that you're not happy, but Evan Ingram is a mismatch. He's a speedster. He's 6, 3, 2, 34, and in just another piece that says, hey, if you can't do it now, Eli, you're not going to do it at all.

I mean, that's what it says to me. You've got Brandon Marshall in there, Evan Ingram. Is there any potential chance that you view O'Dell Beckham Jr. as a loser in this offseason because of, okay, you've got Brandon Marshall and Evan Ingram. Both should be goal line weapons. None for me. None for me at all. Just checking. No, and it's a good thing to check. You always have to ask these questions. But Odo Beckham, despite his size, is just...

that good at football. It doesn't matter where you are on the field. He scores. I mean, we had talked about this that half of his touchdowns were from seven yards or shorter. I mean, he just has that neck. He can get open and he can make very difficult catches. We don't really question Antonio Brown. Exactly. When you add in. And that's who he is. Yeah, Juju Smith-Schuster and Martavis Bryant. How is Antonio Brown? He's fine. Yeah. No big deal. I also think that when you look at what they brought in,