Fantasy Football 2017 - PPR Mock Draft + Players We’re Ashamed To Love

A couple of running backs in that tight end off the board. The question is whether it's Gurley, Miller, Fornett, or Crowell. Those are the only four I'm even considering at this pick. So. Yeah, it would be between Gurley Miller and Fournett. I would have them ranked Miller first. But, you know, since we started with a quick question, you said you're ashamed to admit you love Todd Gurley. You're going to give him to me? I'm going to give them to you. Oh, just so I can take. Because it's your pick. You're taking the fall. You're taking the fall here. If things go south. Absolutely.

They were moving him around the formation. Yeah. Look. If they move him around the formation right into the end zone, that would be just fine. That would be a benefit. Yeah, certainly. All right. After Todd Gurley, listen to this. Two wide receivers went, Baldwin and Cooks, and then a run of five running backs in a row, maybe validating the pick a little bit because the next tier of running backs is definitely off the board. Marshaun Lynch, Lamar Miller, four net. McCaffrey and Crowell went back to back to back to back to back to back.

And that's pretty common. I mean, these early running back rounds, these early rounds running backs are just flying off the board at a higher rate than the last decade if you're looking at ADP data. Absolutely. Devante Adams and Aaron Rogers goes off the board at the 10th pick of the third round. Into the fourth we go Hopkins, Kelsey, Thomas, Watkins, Robinson, Jeffrey.

Also public service announcement, we will post the results of this draft on the website with the episode. So if you want to see the lay of the land, where players went, what our final roster looks like, it would be a good chance to kind of see how players fell. I'm really happy with what I see available at the wide receiver position right now. Yeah, I am as well. We have several, I mean, several guys who are in our third tier of PPR wide receivers. I mean, you've got...

Fitzgerald, who I wouldn't take because we've got David Johnson when there's so many other good options. Julian Edelman, Jarvis Landry, Golden Tate, Michael Crabtree. Terrell Prior. Terrell Prior. You know, look, I gave you Todd Gurley. Yeah, I know. I'm not going to get prior. You're not getting prior. Look, Landry seems like a very safe, stabilizing pick with a couple high-end running backs and a tight end. Do you lean somewhere other than Jarvis Landry?

Yeah, I mean, I would like to get a touchdown guy here and a PPR guy. That's kind of the – Oh, well. Rub the magic lamp. Why don't you? So to me, Crabtree is probably the highest touchdown guy of these type of players. I would like him. And if you want to pair him with Landry or Edelman or Tate as the PPR guys, I'll let you pick that player. All right. We do get them back to back. So I think Landry –

is coming off the board right here in Crabtree, as you said. How do you feel about Landry Crabtree as the wide receiver 1 and 2 in a PPR league? I think on first impression, if you don't look at the rest of the roster, it seems underwhelming despite the production from both of those players. You're hurting when it comes to the name recognition side of things. And to be quite frank, I do worry a little bit about Jarvis Landry's production in the post-Jai world. Or is that not?

It's not post-Jajai. It's... No, because he's still there. But, I mean, the post-the-world where he took over, what do you call that? The J-I-Jai era, I guess. Yeah. Now that the J-A-Jai era has begun. Brooks is grimacing at that. It's still the J-A-Jai era, though. That's what I'm saying. I'm not posting his breakout. I'm going with in the J-A-Jai era now. That's fine. I'm a little bit worried about Jarvis Landry, but he has been...

otherworldly since he's been in the league for PPR leagues. One of the things you have to keep in mind is while the names might not be as sexy in a PPR league, these volume receivers, they just get the job done to help you win fantasy games. And you can patch together a core of volume wide receivers in these leagues that can dominate other teams if you've got solid running backs. And that's kind of the way we've gone here.

Yeah, and one of the philosophies I take into drafts is when you have a difference maker at running back like David Johnson and Gronkowski at tight end, I look at those as point separators. And what I don't want to have at my wide receiver spot here is a couple of boom and bust players who will nullify that point differential for David Johnson and for Rob Gronkowski every other week when they bust. You know that Jarvis Landry is good for five catches. Okay. You pretty much know Crabtree is good for about that amount as well.

80 plus receiver reception guys with some touchdown potential. It's not prolific. And, you know, I could have argued Terrell prior as a higher ceiling there, but I do think he has a better chance of having a three reception week and disappointing when you have the difference makers. Right. I think you laid that out perfectly. All right. Brady, Breeze, Luck, and Ryan have all gone before our pick here at the end of the sixth round.

Amidst that group as well, priors off the board, Tate's off the board, Martavis Bryant, who we talked about in the news section of the show. He closed out the fifth round. Tyreek Hill went after Martavis Bryant in this draft. I think that's a bit of a risk for whoever took Martavis Bryant there. Emmanuel Sanders went off the board, and then you had a couple more tight ends. Jimmy Graham, Jordan Reed are now gone as well.

Let's bring up the quarterback position. I don't want to take one here. Right, but we need to let people know what the lay of the land is. Russell Wilson on the board, Kirk Cousins on the board. I like both of those quarterbacks quite a bit. But because we are, you know, we are a little bit weaker at wide receiver. I think it would be a mistake to take them here because there's guys I love way later like Andy Dalton. All right. Wide receivers, Larry Fitzgerald, Julian Edelman, Stefan Diggs, Jameson Crowder, all PPR targets. But I see Danny Woodhead.

Yeah. And I see Danny Woodhead, you know, we're taking two picks here. I think running back wide receiver is the combo that we need. How do you feel about going Danny Woodhead and then pairing him with Julian Edelman at this pick? Those are the exact two guys that I was going to argue for. So this is going to be a really easy turn here. You know, it's incredible when you get. When Mike is gone. Yeah. We just have Sympatico. Yeah, things work out the right way.

Yeah, Julian Edelman. Okay, yeah, you're here too. We still love you, all right? Just chill, you big old grizzly. Watch how you talk to him. He will destroy you in Molly. Well, yeah, the clause. Julian Edelman's guy wanted to talk about because in every real draft that I have done so far this year, sometimes I don't get him, but I'm always targeting him. Because his, where he's falling to, because of Brandon Cook's coming to town, if you break down the market share.

for the Patriots and you look at, you know, where Brady has gone and what Wes Welker was able to do when there were other great weapons there. Julian Edelman is just undervalued right now. And then you throw in that it's a PPR league. And I love getting him everywhere I can because he's a guy that according to my personal rankings should have been the guy we took over the last rounds, two wide receivers. I wouldn't have taken him there because he falls. He falls. Look.

Brandon Cooks went 302 in this draft, a 10 team, right? 302 in a 10 team. Edelman went 7.01. That is a massive gap where I cannot help. Look, Edelman is the better value. Yeah, he's certainly the better value. You know, at the end of the year, if Edelman finishes ahead of cooks, I don't think anybody will be like shocked, even those people who have cooks projected for more. So he's the clear better value. All right. What happened after we took those picks? Well, first I'm going to give.

people are a roster. I want to catch them up. So David Johnson and Todd Gurley at Running Back, Jarvis Landry, Michael Crabtree, and Julian Edelman at wide receiver. We also have Rob Gronkowski and I left out Danny Woodhead there. Danny Woodhead at Running Back as well. So we've got three running backs, three wide receivers. I think it's interesting to let people know that Danny Woodhead was drafted in this league by us ahead of C.J. Anderson. Yeah.

So I think for those of you, you know, and you don't sound surprised because I think it's just a better PPR pick. In a PPR league, Danny Wood had the last two times that he has played, you know, essentially he lost two of those seasons. He was an RB1. And I realize he's switching teams, but he's switching to a perfect situation where you've got Kyle Eusecheck and his 40 receptions. Out the door. Out the door. No Kenneth Dixon now.

Dennis Pitta was basically like a checkdown running back last year for all intensive purposes, and he led all tight ends at the position for receptions. Danny Woodhead is going to feast. The only worry with Woodhead is, is he going to get injured again? First of all, he's on the Ravens. So I think the chance of him getting injured has gone up. The heart ring will be safe this year. Get ready. That's bold.

All right, Eiffert followed up our Edelman pick, Cousins Mario to Rudolph. Other highlights from this round, Russell Wilson is gone. Hunter Henry, hype machine himself is gone. I love one of the nice things when you grab a gronk early is every single time someone grabs a tight end. It's just, is delicious. It's like, ha ha. He's not as good as to. Well, not only that, but it's like you're not taking one of my running backs or wide receivers away. Yeah, absolutely. I guess we did that to other people who took gronk. It's awesome.

Same goes for early quarterbacks in this situation because we're getting to stock up on what we consider startable players. I mean, I don't think there's any reason Edelman can't start over Crabtree or Landry in the right matchup or the right situation. I like that PPR depth. Here's something to keep in mind for roster construction. I say this a lot. I say this every year. You don't win fantasy championships at your draft.

We love the draft. It's great, but unless you're playing a best ball league, like we'll talk about in a couple minutes, you don't win it by just drafting. The top 24 wide receivers, the best wide receivers over the last few years at finishing in the top 24, the highest percentage, finish outside the top 24 more than half the time. So I tweeted that and people are like, man, that's kind of confusing. What does that mean? It means making the right start sit.

matters every bit as much as who you draft. And so getting a plethora of guys that... It's like we need a year-round podcast to help you both now and in the season. Yeah. Stick around. We do it. All right. We're sitting here. Eighth pick of the eighth round. Gillisle's off the board. Larry Fitzgerald finally went. I think it's a great pick. 803 in a PPR. Crowder, Moncrief, Sneed, Kelvin, Benjamin, Decker, Brown. Those are some names on the board.

At the running back position, it's interesting right now. Eddie Lacey's sitting there. Still on the board. Smash Jackson. Smash Jackson on the board. Paul Perkins. No, I gave you Gurley. You'll never. You will have to pry AP. That's really smart of you. You give me one early in the draft and then every other player I want. I can veto. And I have to feel a sense of gratitude to you. The best part about having the veto is I can threaten the veto and not use it.

See, I'm just saying, oh, I'm not going to let you do that. If you want to select them, I'll veto, but then you don't select them. So you still got the veto? This is really tricky. Hey, Terrence West. I've said I would take him. Yeah, but do you, would, would you want to pair the Baltimore backfield? I don't really have a problem having both of those options. You know, West, I believe had 40 receptions last year. Can somebody vet that? I think he had. Brooks is nodding. I think he's going to. Yeah, he did have a lot. I thought it was like 38, but you might be right.

Here's the thing, when I look at our roster and how it's constructed, I am confident in David Johnson. What do you got, Brooks? Looks like he's. Is he still struggling? I heard him grunt. 34. 34. That's still pretty good. Yeah. With our roster, I think David Johnson, Todd Gurley, and Danny Woodhead will be able to give us two starting running backs every week. I would go wide receiver, wide receiver here.

so that we've got the matchup play. Like our wide receivers, we don't have the Julio. We don't have the Antonio Brown. Every week with this type of a roster, we need to be saying. Let me lean into that thought process then. I'm totally on board. What I'm not on board doing with a wide receiver, wide receiver pick is giving us more middle of the road options and making that starts a decision more difficult, whereas I'd rather take some players they have the opportunity to break out and become wide receiver one.

wide receiver two possibilities. Absolutely. Players like Kelvin Benjamin have at least shown he's been a one for times in his career. Dante Moncrief is a touchdown machine for a great offense. And I'm going to throw James and Crowder in there as well just because you've had the departures in Washington. They love him. He's the guy in two wide. It's not, you know, it's prior and Crowder. When they go too wide, which is rare, he's going to be on the outside. But when they go three, he's still on the field. He's never going to leave the field this year.

You know, if it were up to me, I think I would try to angle myself. You know, Devante Parker, probably too early for him. He's another flyer I'd like to take later. Right. If the possibility is there. I think at the right spot, Randall Cobb could be another touchdown guy. Now, at the, CJ Procise is tempting from a PPR perspective on the running back side. But again, we can wait on him. I think I'd feel pretty good going Crowder Moncrief or if you want to go Crowder Benjamin. I would go Moncrief and Benjamin. Of course you would. All right.