Fantasy Football - Mock Draft Episode! - Podcast for 5/22

type stuff and we're going to give you short things and see if you can make something happen and like you know that the in the fantasy playoffs wide receiver 17 12 and 16 but this is 11 targets to get him to 46 yards 11 targets to get him to 65 and then nine to get him to 79 so maybe he was improving over that but i bring that up because rice is so much better at that than worthy. I think worthy has to go back to being a more traditional, stretch the field type of a guy. And you got to put Rice right back where he was because he was so darned. I haven't heard anybody really look at Rice though with any hesitation due to injury recovery. Yeah. That's fair. It feels like it's been long enough. Like Godwin's return took some time. You know, like it is a major injury. But I think he will be like one of the players with the biggest ADP variability. Yeah.

Because if you have a conviction about him and you saw what the peak would be, it's possible you get that. Betsy, no running backs. Lamb, A.J. Brown, Rashi Rice, setting himself up for his Amir White backfield. All right, we've got Josh Allen, the first quarterback off the board at 307, the beginning of a run, apparently. Breece Hall goes off the board at 308, Lamar Jackson and Jaden Daniels back to back. And we're back. to Jason who, Geno Smith's still there. You can get Jacoby Myers. Yeah. Other Raiders are available. If I could draft Tom Brady right now. Oh, as an executive? Yeah. I would. Genty and Bauer so far. Yeah. So I, you know, I took the gamble. This is being the first mock draft of the year, you're kind of exploring things. When I took Bowers, it was like, I wonder what it will be like waiting until the three, four turn to get my first wide receiver.

You wanted Marvin. You wanted Roshy. Marvin and Rushi, and they didn't go. I would have been happy with McConkey or JSN. Both of those guys went. The answer is it sucks. It doesn't feel good to sit here. And there's a lot. So in hindsight Bowers wouldn't have been the pick. I'm not, I'll decide after the draft. You know what I mean? Let's see what wide receivers I can mine through this. I'm in old man territory right now. Tyree Kill, Mike Evans, Devonte Adams. Three awesome. you know uh do me give you some more you want you want cooper cup in the mix no no no i don't i don't older guys um i you know tyreek seems like the easy best name pick to grab um i'm going to not do that i'm a little bit scared of what we saw from tyreek last year when he was not very good and he's older i want guys who looked like they were dominating and i'm going to take the highest on my current rankings which is i bet it's devante adams

Not Devante Evans. Okay, who is it? It's Mike Evans. Okay, Mike Evans off the board at the 3-11, but you'll be picking in just a moment because Brooksie went with George Kittle. I did not expect him to make it all the way back around, certainly not after talking about it. But Kittle at 312, do you like Kittle at, like looking at this board and where you have these players ranked so far in the UDK? Kiddle 312 Bowers 202. How does that, how does that disparity steal? You can mentally say, oh, Kittle was my fourth-round pick. Yeah, if that helps. That's true. That's true. I think the right way to look at it is to say, would you be happier with Nico Collins and George Kittle or Brock Bowers and Mike Evans? Because those were the picks there, the wide receiver and the tight end. And I think I would be happier with Collins and Kittle. I think so, too. Kittle off the board at 312. And then a very underrated player, Chuba Hubbard at 401.

Jason, you were back on the clock and you made a quick pick, Devante Adams, so you get the guy I thought you were taken. I get the old men, you know, one, I like how they pair together. You expect Devante Adams to have a high target count. He also used to play for the Raiders, so I see what you're doing. Right, yeah. A hint of Raider. And honestly, Mike Evans is a buccaneer. You know, it's not that far away. It's a pirate thing. I'm really going pirate here. Oh my gosh. Your high yard team? Yes. High yard. The Dussela really like that joke. What's your yard per route run? Oh my gosh. It's high. Very high. Very. Tyree kill off the board at 403 to Papa Josh. And then the rest of this round goes Ken Walker, DJ Moore. Here's the steel.

of the round in my opinion. Alvin Camara at 406. I gave it to. I was begging. I was just like, oh, maybe they'll forget about him. No, I was contemplating going one wide receiver one running back with Camara being that running back. Well, Camara goes at 406. But he wasn't a great pick there. And then Hertz, James Cook and Joe Burrow. So five quarterbacks go between the 307 and the 409, which might end Mike and I's consideration of quarterback at this point in time. Yep, I had the toes crossed for Jalen Hertz to drop. So it didn't happen because you had kind of said, hey, do I start the run in the third round? Experimented with that. You're back on the clock. Christian McCaffrey, Chase Brown, Ladd McConkey, and give us some of the names of players that you're thinking about here. So if I were looking at running back, I mean, you're into, well, James Connor is there.

but you're it's a little bit more of a why does it never feel good to draft teams that's what that's what i said but it always works well i'm like we're in the dead zone for me but james conner's there and i don't want to do that to him because he just comes through year after year joe mixon's still sitting there i know he's dead to me he's dead to me sure but it's like here's the guys like just you're at question marks like of joe mixon's the the efficiency james connor is the you know the the the age and the history or the injury history. Those are my running backs 14 and 15. Yeah. Mixing and Connor. Mix it in Connor. And Montgomery. 13 and 15. And then it's like, do you start the rookies here or not, well, not Gentie? He never can. But I'm Aaron Hampton. What do you believe about the timeshare with Najee? How long does, I think Hampton will be the leader of the time share by the end of the year, but how long does that take? How big of, like, is the timeshare 50, 50? I just, I struggle with that.

And so I'm going to move over. I'm going to take another wide receiver. I am ready to be hurt again. Oh, I know who that is. By Garrett Wilson. And I will just be an ostrich and put my head in the sand and believe that Justin Fields is going to fix everything. I think I'm going to call right now. At least something. I think Justin Fields is going to be on your roster at the end of this draft. That's my guess. How about you mind your business? Garrett Wilson, I feel like he is like. Like Mike is, his next tattoo is probably Garrett Wilson somewhere. He just seems to find his way onto your rosters. Like, do you guys remember that Garrett Wilson was a top 10 fantasy wider? Well, because it doesn't feel like he was. I know. In part because of the trade of Devante Adams halfway through the year that just kind of. We talked about him a good amount on this week's Dynasty podcast because it was like, what do you do with the dynasty value of him? But it was like, do remember.

Weeks 5 through 9, it was legitimately happening. Like 22 points, 20 points, 11, 14, 25. Like he was, the breakout was real and the breakout was happening. He was in consideration for me. And then they went and got Devante Adams. And this wasn't just, we got Devante Adams. It's no, his best friend quarterback said, we need to get Devante Adams. So I still, I still believe in Garrett. I think it's a good pick. I like that you made it. It simplifies things for me. I will be going running back. You know I love him. Oh, you've got to be going. I'm taking Joe Mixen. I will have three top 13 running backs on this roster with Sequin, Bucky, and Mixen. It makes, you know, when you have the luxury of taking Mixing this late, it also mitigates a little of the age-related, like, injury stuff he was dealing with. When he's out there, you know, he's going to be productive.

So I'm happy with how that came together. James Connor. Oh, you son of a gun. You did that. You did that on purpose. You knew, you knew. What? So that's the Falcon flying high. Falcon is a son of a guy. He's blown up the draft. He just took Jameson Williams at the 501 who was sitting. How many rounds of if he was certainly is that? He was sitting seven or eight wide receivers below in ADP. I had him tucked to the side. He would have been my pick at 502. which you knew. That's what you get for taking old busted Joe Mixon. Well, so let me tell you, I had a backup plan. I didn't know you'd be a hooligan. So here's what I'm going to do. I look at Chris Godwin, he's my highest rated wide receiver right now on the board. However, I have Bucky Irving. Chris Godwin is coming off an injury. There's some variability there. I have Marvin Harrison. I think what I'm going to go with here is the true alpha of the team.

We don't know what it's going to be like yet. We don't know who the quarterback is. But I'm going to take the shot at it because if it's Aaron Rogers, DK Metcalf will be a value at 502, period. And I don't think he'll go at 502 because I think it will be Aaron Rogers. And I think he will be taken higher than this. You know, you talked about Garrett Wilson and what Adams did in New York. It wasn't pretty, but those guys produced. And Aaron Rogers is going to throw to his guy. And frankly, they don't have anybody else. Yeah.

So to me, I'm happy getting a one, a true one. Pickens being traded was so incredible for people who want to go in on D.K. Metcalf. So I'm going to go Metcalf. I can't remember, like, it's very rare that I've drafted D.K. Metcalfe in any of these moms year over year. He's not often on my roster. He's often overvalued, in my opinion. But he's off the board. So I've got Barclay, Irving, Mixing at running back, Harrison, and Metcalf at wide receiver. Mike, you are back on the clock. You went wide receiver, wide receiver with McConkey and Wilson. I am balanced two RBs, two wide receivers. And it's, look, guys, it's, it's May. I just want to feel alive. And thankfully, my rankings and my projections. Blake Jarwin? Stand up with me. No. Adam Troutman? Trayvion Henderson. Okay. Your 80, ADP, be darned right now. It's going to, it will. It will. It will correct. It is because.

The way that my projection is going is the competition of Ramandre, especially with McDaniels, like, I think that remandre is not an issue, where Najee is an issue at the start. There's some pretty nice comments about Ramandre yesterday from the head coach, Mr. Rabel. Yeah, well, we will see when Henderson puts the pads on. And he's going to catch way more passes. Oh. Jason has made a sound and a clap. I knew. He's right behind Henderson for me. So Henderson off the board. So it was Henderson or Judkins for me. Godwin, Hampton, Harvey. So three straight rookies, Devante Smith, and then three more running backs. David Montgomery, who I think Jason would have been happy with. Quintan Judkins. That was who I was targeting the whole time. And then Isaiah Pacheco off the board. Taking the...

taking the Mike Evans, Devante Adams, old men at wide receivers. I was going to try to go coach on Judkins and Ash and Genty at running back. It was a great pick. Leave it to Betts and Borg to screw up my draft. Kyle, you are fired. So here I am. I've got one running back, two wide receivers, and a tight end. Looking at who is available. This last round, you know, it was like I knew I could get the rookies to come through. RJ Harvey, Hampton, Henderson, Quinn John Jenkins. You thought you could. I got none of them. They're all gone. But there is one running back left that I believe in that had day two draft capital that I think is going to really surprise. Oh, okay. I'm wondering if.

Yeah, I'm just going to take them. I was like, what, what round two? But you said day two. Yes, day two. Caleb Johnson was a prospect I really liked. I think that he fits the Steelers style of play. Five rookie running backs? Five rookie running backs in round five. Okay. All right. Yeah. So old man wide receivers, young running backs. And we're almost done with the fifth round here. Brooks has got a couple of picks at the end of round five and the sixth round. We'll take a break and come back with Jason's six-round pick. All right, Roma Dunesay goes at 512 and Xavier Worthy at 601. I told you guys this when I got done with my projections. I have worthy projected for more fantasy points than Rashi Rice. But that does not mean, and we know this from watching the Chiefs for a while, they don't always have.

fantasy relevance at wide receiver but I do I do think worthy is going to be a big contributor I think it's a pretty good value in the sixth round Jason you are back on the clock Gentie Caleb Johnson at running back Bowers Evans and Adams as pass catchers yeah so I could at this point look at quarterback to me there's just a bunch of guys in the same tier I don't think there's a difference maker where I've got to have a one that's left depending on how you view Baker repeating what he did last year or Kyler running more or whatever. Maybe you see someone different. But to me, it's, there's just a lot of guys there that are all the same tier. In fact, my highest ranked quarterback is way lower in ADP. So I'm not worried about the quarterback position for a while. I can go either way. I could go running back or wide receiver. You know, personally, I think I'm weaker at wide receiver. So I'm going to go that way. And I'm going to take.

A gamble. I'm going to take a risky pick, a guy that has to be the only wide receiver left here who has a consistency score of an A. When he's on the field, he is fantastic. Chris Olave is a great wide receiver. Oh, you got Kyle back there. Yeah. He's a great wide receiver. Obviously, there are fears of just another concussion that stops the season. But. If he's on the field, I think he's going to score a lot of fantasy. You get shucked. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if that's good or bad. Like, if you get shucked, is that good? I think it's like you'd like to be shucked. I would say in general, I don't think that that sounds like a very positive phrase. No. That's more of a negative phrase. Yeah. Try it. Okay. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it. Try it in a sentence. Is that what you do with corn? Yes. You suck in the ear. Yeah. But yeah, I want you use it. Use it. It's like throwing away a pick. You say, I got shucked, but.

as positive as you can. Oh, I got shucked. That sounds pretty easy to me, man. I don't know. This went a different direction than I was in. Hey, I just following the rules here. Yeah, I'm surprised you set him up like that. Chris Olavie to Jason, Tony Pollard at 603, and then Tetaroa McMillan, rookie wide receiver off the board at 604. I like that. Huge run of wide receivers here. I like that. Yeah, McMillan is a good pick there. Sutton is a good pick at 605, I think. It's just a very solid wide receiver. You can put Sutton into your wide receiver too and feel safe every week. Getting that in the sixth round feels good to me. Waddle, Travis Hunter, another rookie off the board. Juan Jennings and then Zayflower. So six straight whiteouts and eight of nine in the sixth round. I don't like that.

because I think that's where I would have been looking, but Mike, you're back on the clock. Foof, all right. Now we're getting into it here. This is where the Monk gets really interesting. Yeah, I got the three running backs. So I would, I mean, I'll take another running back if I need to, but I don't, I mean, is Tyrone Tracy a starting running back? Is Jalen Warren a starting running back? I do not know. And then at the wide receiver position, it's, you know, it's Addison. It's George Pickens. It's Jerry Judy. Brandon Ayuk, who I, that's, that's insane. That is, that current ADP? Yeah, but Brandon and I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't drive Brandon and I, you for like the next six rounds. Unless you have an IR spot. I don't even know if it's draftable. You're having an opportunity cost of even if it doesn't feel like a fantastic player that you're going to be getting at this particular spot. I'm going to go.

So it's my wide receiver three. It's not necessarily where my projections are, but I'm going to go. I'm going to chase a little bit of wide receiver one upside. Everyone's favorite player from last year. I'm going to take Calvin Ridley. Interesting. How did it feel to draft Calvin Ridley? Not great. No, I realize at this moment in time in the first mock draft of the 2025 fantasy football season, we are entering the land of non-conviction. Yes. Like, ah, that guy's got upside. It also is the land where you don't really want to pay attention to current ADPs right now. Correct. You want to pay attention to kind of like, you know, look a little deeper. You know, there are a bunch of interesting wide receivers changing teams, right? Like Debo Samuel is a commander now. And the pick I'm going to make here is a wide receiver that is on a new team and is the primary target. And I think we'll get Pepperwood targets from an up and coming quarterback. I'm going to take Stefan Diggs. I'm going to take Stefan Diggs in the sixth round.

Well outside of where his ADP lands, but that's the player I'm going to take here. He's higher in my rankings, but with Henderson, I don't feel like using my fifth and sixth round on the New England Patriots. No, that's smart. I'll just get one. And that's, you're all full, man. Once enough. I'm all full. So I'll take. No more Patriots, please. I'll take digs. And then I was with you, like the quarterbacks, there's so many names that I'm like, I'm wanting it to thin out. before I take one in that next bucket. Because we were talking about this on Tuesday. You know, you look at that and, oh, I could have taken Mahomes or Murray or Knicks or Baker or DAC or there's just too many names. Aaron Jones goes next and then Patrick Mahomes goes off the board. First pick of the seventh round. Would that be the lowest Patrick Mahomes has been drafted in? Oh, yeah. Ever? Sure. Since year two? Yeah. That's a little bit wild. And so I'm back in the land of non-conviction. What's wild?

Is that a good pick? I have a different quarterback higher than him, so. I, Mahomes is so brutal. It's so brutal because everything is still there. And it's just turned off right now. I think what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take his running mate of all eternity. Oh, interesting. I'm going to take Travis Kelsey in the seventh round. One, because no one's ever gotten to do that before. Yeah. And two, because I know while Kelsey is declining. there is a PPR stability to Travis Kelsey. Like I do feel like the position gets fixed with Travis Kelsey. Like he is your starter. Yeah. You're not streaming the position. You might not get the prolific numbers, but you're getting a seventh round fix at the position. And so I'm going to take it. I'm going to take him in the seventh round, not feeling like I want to go quarterback, Mike. You are back on the clock, fresh off of a Patriot and a Calvin Ridley. All right. So now I, the, oh, man.

There's one particular player where you just talk to us, Mike. Reveal. Reveal. It's much harder because if I bring up his name, there's no way. I'll do it. I'll do the right thing, everybody. You're going to take him or talk about it? I'm going to do both. I'm going to do both of these things. Drafting Jacobi Myers is going to feel. Oh, come on, man. That's my raider. Yarr. Drafting Jacobi Myers is not going to feel great. But he just produces throughout his career. He has Gino Smith, one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league right now. And it's not going to feel good. So you can put some stickers or something on him. I don't know. Or to make him feel spicier. You know, I'm going to do it. I'm going to put a, how do I? Baby Jake, put something good on Jacobi Myers. I don't know how to work this machine. So.

T.J. Hawkinson went next after Jacobi Myers. I was between Hawkinson and Kelsey for tight end. So I love that pick. I think Hawkinson is a player that people are going to have a hard time having confidence in in drafts. But I think he's going to be very, very solid. Pickens goes at 705. Brian Robinson at 706. Pearsall at 707 could be a great steal. Bo Nick's gone at 708. That's who I was drafting. Well, no, you're not because you don't get to pick him. No, I know. I'm saying that's who I was hoping would come back to me. I feel like that's been your story of every round. Yeah. You're loving this spot. And they'll pick 11. Not so far. DeAndre Swift at 7.09 could also be a steel. And then Sam. Oh, hold on. We're putting a lot of poop on Sam La Porta. Oh, you figured out how to do. Well, apparently you had to do it right after you made the pick. So I can't go back and give Jacoby Myers the gold star that he needs. So now I's got to, I got to bring someone else down. Right. Yeah.

So Leporto off the board at 710. Do you like that pick? Laporta potty. Because of the poop. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're good. We're good. I think, I think, uh, I think, uh, Hawkinson and Loporta in the seventh round is, yeah, that's very good value. All right, Jason, you're back on the clock. I don't know how many buccaneers or Raiders or Pittsburgh pirates are available, but, um, two picks here at the turn. Yeah, this is, uh, this is interesting. I, I wanted Brian Robinson or D'Andre Swift. along with Bo Nix. Those were kind of my primary targets. When I look at the running back position, this is where my team right now, Gentie, Caleb Johnson. Caleb Johnson. That's your whole running back room. That's my whole running back room. And the running backs thin out tremendously. There's not a lot of people out there that I am really in love with at this point. Aaron Jones was off the board. So I feel like I need to take one. And it's between two

bad options. Javante Williams, who is the primary first. I was, I was just starting to run the numbers, Jay, on my, uh, the, you know, like the running backs weren't in the top 24 with projected. Uh-huh. Like, I don't, I haven't projected the, their offense. Like, you know, accumulated all the projections for the Cowboys offense. But it's like, Dallas is right there again. Uh, there, there's fantasy value in them hills. But I don't know where it is. But I think I'm actually going to take a different running back. Oh, you coward. Got a bag of money this off season. Otherwise he'd be the guy that drafted Giovante. Right. That would be. So the issue of drafting Javante Williams is that you calls me yellow. Yeah. Unless it's for not drafting Javante, then it's okay. Yeah, because I'm terrified. No, I'm going to take Najee Harris. I think that's a good pick right here. We don't know. Obviously, they drafted O'Mari and Hampton. O'Marian Hampton will take over.

I think it pairs well with Caleb Johnson. They won't not use Najee. They're not going to not use him. And I think to start the season, it'll be Najee as the forerunner before Hampton takes over. I could see Caleb Johnson starting the season as more of a timeshare and taking over as the season goes along. So I think they pair pretty nicely together. All right, Jason went Najee. Jerry Judy goes next at 712. That was who I was targeting for the eighth round selection. I was hoping Judy. with the Cleveland Brown stank on him would slide all the way into the eighth round. He didn't. Two good picks, I think, by Brooks. He's taking four whiteouts in a row, but Judy and Addison back to back at the turn. Addison is one of those players that's not going to go as high as he probably should. No, he, the, I wanted to take Jacoby just so I could talk about him. I have Addison just a couple spots higher than Jacoby. Jason back on the clock.

Always with an opportunity to draft Tramante Williams. Oh, he's so he's there. He's still there. He's still there. Can you believe it? Oh, man. But you do have other options. Sometimes you get lucky. And I'm going to draft Kyler Murray. Okay. Kyler Murray off the board at 802. There was a lot of talk this, this offseason about him running more. I believe it. I think Marvin Harrison gets better. It always is a frustrating experience. I shouldn't say always because it wasn't. It was just this last year. It was so frustrating. It's been a, I mean, between that and then the injury played. Sure, yeah. It hasn't felt good in a while. No, it hasn't. But if you look at, you know, eighth round rushing upside, I've got Kyler and Baker basically identical in my rankings. I'm going to take the guy that I think has the higher rushing, you know, ceiling. All right, somebody did it. Jamantio Williams is off the board. Yeah, it was going to be me.

Betts didn't. So Tracy, Cup, Scataboo. Oh, Scataboo. I was hoping he made it back. Okay. Michael Pittman and then Giovante goes to Betsy. So just so everyone knows, Matthew Betts is the guy that drafted Javante. And you can find him on Twitter. Jaylon Warren, off the board at 808. What do you think about that pick? I mean, Jaylon Warren is. It was going to be my pick. If he made it down. Yep. So he went behind Caleb Johnson by. three rounds and will probably be the day one starter. So that's always one of those fun ones to watch in week one to see what the breakdown looks like. Jaden Reed. Jane Reed right there. That is a great pick. I will take every opportunity to attack Jaden Reed statistically and I do. But at the back of the eighth round is like everyone has value somewhere. That feels great. He wasn't getting past the Packer fan. No, he was not. All right, Mike, you are on the clock eighth round. Man, I need a.

So I got four wide outs. I got three running backs. Running backs are drying up. Four picks left need a quarterback and a tight end over the next four rounds. Tight end is difficult here. There's two guys who I'm looking at. And the news of today with Kenny Pickett and Gabriel taking those reps, I had truly believe, I'm like, I think Joe Flacko just wins this job. Like if their goal is to win as many games as possible and not worry about the future, Joe Flacco is the guy you go with. But if they're considering future, then you've got to give Kenny Pickett and the other guys the chance. And I bring that up because David Najoku with Joe Flacco would feel incredible at this point. So I'm probably going to have to even go in and make some adjustments on my projections. My tight in four is still on the board. You're tight in four. Yeah.