Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Mock Draft Episode!

You know, we're big proponents of the half point per reception. A lot of you guys playing in standard leagues, and we're going to do a standard today to just see how it changes the equation. And so let's kick this thing off. I've started the draft here on fancy draftwizard.com, and the first pick was Antonio Brown. Yep, no problem. Not a surprise. No problem with it. Odell Beckham Jr. went number two. You got Lev Bell going three.

Lev Bell is sliding into three in a lot of mocks right now. Yeah? Including the one Jason just did. The confidence is going up. Tell about that MFL 10 you just did. Yeah, I just did an MFL10 where I took Levy on Bell at the third spot behind Julio and Antonio Brown. It was a PPR, so in a PPR setting, Levy on Bel is just so far and away. In our tier. In our tiers on our ultimate draft kit, Levy on Bell is actually his own tier at number one.

Yeah, so Lev Bell went three, Julio Jones went four, then Grankowski off the board early at number five, David Johnson, six, Todd Gurley, seven, and Adrian Peterson, well, who I consider a completely fine number one pick in a standard league. Yes, I would agree. Went number eight, and so that team, I think, has a great value there. I think number nine's a really tough place to be in right here. Yeah, it is, because there's, I'm looking over the board, and, I mean, we have some, you could go super risky, man.

pick up EZE here and just hope for the best. Ezekiel Elliott? Yeah, Elliot. No one really just jumps off the page of says, this is the pick, which generally in the first round you like to have. I would say the closest to that for me would be Des Bryant, the touchdown machine. All signs that the foot is looking, he will be ready.

for the season, and I think that he's in for a monster workload again. Jason, talk about a little about what you're looking for in a standard league at this position. What do you want from your elite player in a standard versus some of those other formats? Well, in my first round, I've talked about it before. I want to avoid...

the risk as best I can get someone that I can really put my confidence in because I'm giving up a lot of value in the first round. In a standard league specifically where we've got two running backs, two wide receivers, and a flex, the running back position is, I know wide receivers are all the rage, but the running back position is a little bit more scarce. And so generally, if I'm in this spot where those top guys are gone, I'm usually looking towards a running back because I think in a

couple more picks. When you're late, you know, there are, I love AJ Green. I love Des Bryant. I love DeAndre Hopkins. In a standard league, I like Alan Robinson in the second round. There's plenty of wide receivers here that I really love where I'd be happy with as my number one, which means I can grab them in a couple more picks. So if you look chalk, if you go by our rankings right now, consensus rankings in a standard league, the picks would be between Jamal Charles, Mark Ingram, and Lamar Miller. For running backs? For running backs. In a standard league.

So you've got Charles on the board, Lamar Miller on the board. You got Ingram, who I think is a great standard play but could slip to the next round on this draft. And then you got the high upside of Ezekiel Elliott in a standard league. Yeah. And I agree with you, Mike. I think Des Bryant is a great pick. But we got to make the pick now. And so who do you guys vote on here? Who do you think we should make the pick? I vote Des. I would vote for, I guess, Mark Ingram. You know what? I actually agree. I think Mark Ingram was the guy that kind of jumps off to me as.

Wow. Mark Ingram, first round running back. First round running back, ninth pick. That's what, that's coming off the board. We'll see how that goes and we'll see where Elliot ends up. We know our friend Pat Mayo disagrees with us. Oh, he's so angry. But at the same time, you know, you got to put your flag down. I think a lot of people probably disagree with us. Yeah, that might seem. I think that was a controversial pick. You had Jamal Charles, you had Doug Martin sitting on the board. Yeah.

But I think Mark Ingram's volume in a standard league, his touchdown prowess is very high. And we're all big fans of the Saints bounce back this year. Yeah. And with Kyrie Robinson gone, there were a handful of touchdowns that were vultured there that I don't think will be vultured this year. Ingram should be a top back.

All right, you got D'Andre Hopkins that went number 10, Des Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott. The Cowboys went off the board at the end of the first round. Devante Freeman, AJ Green, and Alan Robinson started the second round. And now we are back on the clock with some tough decisions to be made, guys. Time to put. Look, this is tough because now you've still got Lamar Miller, Jamal Charles on the board. I don't pass on Jamal Charles in the second round. I don't do it. Here's the thing. Wide receivers, and we've talked about this a little bit, but this year is so different.

Wide receivers are going in bunches. I mean, crazy bunches. People are drafting them up to where when you get to the fourth round, if you haven't got a hold of a good wide receiver, a lot of times you are absolutely screwed. I mean, there's just your number one wide receiver is going to be just flat, not good enough. Which actually, because we're mocking, it tempts me to take Jamal and Charles and see what happens.

This is when you have to experiment with that stuff and go, look, if I don't get a wide receiver in my first two rounds, maybe in my first three rounds. Yeah. I personally like taking him for that reason as well because so much of this offseason narrative have been the wide receivers, the wide receivers, the wide receivers, the wide receivers. When, you know, last offseason we were very much, you know, first two running backs in a lot of dress. You're in the standard league here. I think you can take the chance. I'd like to see what wide receivers we end up in with, and we're happy. I am okay going with it. I believe you.

The way I would have done this, I would have gone with Charles if we were taking a running back in the first. Now, Charles coming back is very interesting. I will say this, to go along with your wide receiver thing. If we don't take a wide receiver here, there will be no more elite level top tier wide receivers. And I think that's the deal with the wide receivers is. I always talk about wide receiver points are easy to find, the lower end guys. But I think that the top...

top who have separated themselves by a wide margin from the rest, I think that's kind of shallow. So that's why I would, if this was my team, I would go with a wide receiver here. But I like the idea of we're mock drafting. Let's experiment. Let's find out what our team looks like if we take Charles right here. Last season at the wide receiver position, I'm going to pull it up to confirm you how to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Wide receivers with double-digit touchdowns. But I would say that four of those guys you didn't expect at all. And that would have been Ginn, Hearns, Decker probably, and Baldwin. Everyone else is kind of an expectation. So I was just trying to speak into your point about elite wide receivers. I think we do take Charles to see what we end up with. Let's do it. If this were a real draft, there's no way I would have. You wouldn't have taken Charles? I would have taken Alshon Jeffrey there. That's interesting. I would have taken Charles.

I think I would have gone to Alshone right there. Let's find out what happens. All right. So we took Jamal Charles and now we've got a long wait here because we were picking at the nine spot, came back on the snake draft, and now we got Miller, Jeffrey Cooper, Nelson, Evans, Lacey, Martin, and Marshall off the board in the second round. Oh, by the way. Lacey in the second. Interesting. Yeah. Let me say this before I get into the third round. I'm going to actually save this draft and post it on the website.

Last time we did the mock, I forgot to save it, and I closed the window, and it did not save. I apologize, and I will do it this time, and I'm saying it out loud now so that the two people across me. Remind me to do this. I'm going to write it down in big letters here, and then I'll get into the third round. Mark, draft, site. Okay, it'll go on the website. Demarius Thomas starts the third round, Keenan, Brandon Cooks, LaShawn McCoy, Sammy Watkins, T. Y. Hilton, Carlos Hyden, Cam Newton.

By my count, that is a ton of wide receivers. Yeah, I was called that a boatload. Ten wide receivers, four running backs and a quarterback. That's what I was just talking about. I've seen it this whole off season, man. If you don't end up with a wide receiver early, the pickings become slim. So that's why we're doing this. The listeners, I think this will be a valuable exercise so that we can see. So you guys are thinking Matt Forte here, right?

Yeah, we got to keep going. Zero wide receiver. So Aaron Rogers is sitting there in the third round. Cam Newton did go in the last round. You also, basically your best available wide receivers now, you're talking about exactly what Jason just told me, which is Randall Cobb, Julian Edelman, you've got Golden Tate and Eric Decker. It's not elite-level guys. In fact, I argue that the last one to go off the list, Sammy Watkins, was probably the last one that you could argue.

would be in that tier. So you have 17 wide receivers off the board in the first three rounds up to the ninth pick. So now what do we do? Yeah. So here are the guys, yeah, I mean, you named some of those wide receivers that are available. Do we fill out the roster and say, we need a wide receiver so we have to take the Cobb, Edelman, or do we keep going crazy and breaking our rules? Do we take this to the limit? Here's what you do.

Let's look at these guys at the wider senior position and say who we believe could be elite. Okay. At that position. Because you got Randall Cobb, who was in the past, super disappointed last year. But it's right. You know, Jordy Nelson's back. You have Kelvin Benjamin, who was a touchdown red zone type of guy that would be less of a PPR option, more of a standard guy that some people are really high on. You have Eric Decker, 12 touchdowns last season. Nobody expects him or treats him like a one. But if Fitzpatrick is back, which I estimate he will be.

Decker was a one. You have the number one wide receiver over the second half of last season on the board. Tug Baldwin. You have Golden Tate, you know, no Calvin Johnson. And you have Michael Floyd. I mean, there are... What about... Why is Julian Edelman not getting any attention here? Because it's a PPR... Because it's a standard... It's not a PPR machine. What about Jeremy Maclin? He's the number one on that team. He scores touchdowns. Yeah, I think... Third round is rough for me for Maclin. He... I think we saw...

Peak. I think that was sealing last year, which was, it was good, but at this point, I mean... For me in Standard, I have a lot of guys ahead of Macklin. I think it was. I've got Tate Edelman, John Brown, ahead of Jeremy Macklin in standard scoring. Is your thought process with Macklin? I mean, to say he was peak when he has put up better numbers than what he did last year is strange to me. No, that was... In a completely different offense. I think he peaked for the Chiefs. Okay. I mean...

We're back on it. Yeah, we're back on it. No, I think that he's... He had 85 for 13, 18 and 10 the year before. He had 87 for 1088 and 8 last year. That's not even that different in numbers. He could go double-digit touchdowns. It's not peak. He could go double-digit touchdowns. You know what else he could do? He could drop two touchdowns. No. Yes. He could drop two touchdowns, but he will score eight or nine. All right, I'm giving you the pick, Mike. It's your pick. If it's my pick, I'm taking this thing to the limit.

Oh, great. And I'm going, I'm looking at these. I think I know who he's going. I'm looking at these running backs here. And we are in the third round. So, man, do we take that gamble on Mr. Thomas Rawls, the aforementioned? This is your pick, Mike. I'm not, I'm not going to argue with you. Jason, what do you think about going Thomas Rawls right here? I think Mike peaked last season, by the way. Yeah, I will say this. If we're not going to take a wide receiver and we're going to hurt that spot, you're going to flex Rawls right here?

Triple running back. Nobody's doing this. Yeah. Welcome to the fantasy footballer's mock draft show. Man, let's get crazy. Let's take it to the limit. Dude, Rawls? If we draft Thomas Rawls right here, let me make sure that the YouTube comments will be double. Yeah. What are you guys doing? Although the value of Rawls in a third round is great. Now, I will say this. Into the third round. Now, it helps with our flex position, but Aaron Rogers.

Any temptation there? No. No, there's zero temptation. We got too many. Thomas Rawls. We need to move forward. Let's do it. We do. We have to draft picks in a mock draft. Oh, my goodness. Thomas Rawls. I'm really happy with what happened here. So after we drafted Rawls, see, that's the thing to consider here. We drafted 9th, so we only had to wait six picks. And in those six picks, fortunate for us, a quarterback, four running backs and a wide receiver. Rogers, C.J. Anderson, Baldwin, Matt Jones, Forte, and Murray. Now we get a draft.

a wide receiver. The same guys that we were just looking at. Edelman, Cobb, and you know what? McLan, Benjamin. And right here, I'm going to go, let's pretend that Tom Brady is playing a full, full slate of games that his suspension is lifted. What if he's, I mean, let's.

pretend the status is right now. We're mocking right now. Yeah, right now. Oh, right? Because I was going to say that the pick is Julian Edelman for me. I think it's Edelman either way. That's what I was going to say. Even without Brady, I think Edelman is probably the guy that I would like. Seven touchdowns through the beginning of the season before his injury. Really no other weapons. With Tom Brady. Yeah. Okay. Now let's just look at the other guys that are available. If we don't go Edelman, we're looking at Randall Cobb, Jeremy Macklin.