Live 12 Team Mock + Rankings Renovations

Yes. And go check the box that say you want to be considered as a voter. So after the nomination period... You only got to do it once. You only got to do it once. After the nomination period, which ends at the end of July, they will email a random amount of people to be the final voters on the People's Choice in the Sports and Recreation Podcast Awards for 2018. And if you check that box, you could be one of the ones selected to vote for us. What an honor.

Oh, man. Let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. Oh, you know, such a treat. Hey, we love you all. All right, the Rams have signed wide receiver Brandon Cooks to a five-year $80 million extension through 2023. So now he is under contract for six years, $88 million. Six years, $88 million. This extension is longer than Sammy Watkins. Yep. But the same amount of money, $16 million a year.

And Brandon Cooks is locked and loaded 24 years old, doesn't turn 25 until September, on a Rams offense that led the league in scoring. We got to like this for the game plan of Brandon Cooks or no change to you because you kind of already read that into the trade. Yeah, this was built in for me. You can't give up a first round pick for a guy on the last year of his contract and not already have plans that you're going to extend him.

It's risky business here for the Rams. He's never played a snap for you. You aren't, this is purchasing something that you just, you aren't 100% sure that this is going to, he's going to fit with your team. And for me personally, I don't believe Brandon Cooks is a wide receiver one in the NFL. He's being paid like one. So LA's really going to need him to show up as one. What's funny is his in-game NFL production.

ends up being wide receiver one production. Yeah. His fantasy production ends up being fantasy wide receiver one production. And yet his on the field impact may actually not be wide receiver one per, like impact. But for fantasy, it doesn't matter. Like we've said, he's only played football with Hall of Fame first ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks. And we have seen. But my.

Mike. Jared Goff's the next big thing. Thank you, voice of public opinion. And certainly he may be. But we have seen many a wide receivers have their careers created by Hall of Fame level quarterbacks only to see them go to another team, get a lot of money, and disappoint a lot of people. That's Mike King. Don't talk like that. The reality for Brandon Cook is here. Is Godfrey the King of the Public? He's my king.

That's funny. The reality with Brandon Cooks is that because of this offense, because of the fact that we saw success, look at Philadelphia last year. They spread the ball around. They had different weapons all year long. They won a Super Bowl. The Rams are going to spread the ball around. Robert Woods is involved. Cooper Cups involved. Todd Gurley's involved. Gerald Everett's going to be involved. Hopefully. Cooks will need. I think the end of your production will be there. But Cooks is going to need to catch that ball when it's the deep.

He's not going to have the targets that you necessarily want. He still may put up 1,100 yards on 65 catches. But that's the thing, is it's going to be, he has to take advantage of his shot, and they believe he can. That's why they paid him all this money. I'm trying to recall where I saw it on Twitter. So if I'm sourcing it incorrectly, I'm going to, I think it was Graham Barfield. I think he had thrown out just a comment joke of how, okay, Brandon Cooks and his seven targets a game are worth $80 million.

And Levion Bell, who touches the ball 25 plus times a game, it's just funny how, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's just funny how things work out in the NFL. Mothers, do not let your children become running backs. That is, that is good advice. That's another monstrous piece of news. We haven't talked about it, but the.

Pittsburgh Steelers did not agree to a long-term deal with Levi-on-Bel. He does expect to report. Do you expect him to report? Do you adjust him in your rankings at all? Because he's probably not going to be a stealer after this season. Yeah, I know you adjusted him, Andy, in your rankings. I did not adjust him whatsoever. This was similar to what you were saying, Mike, about cooks. This was the expectation from the get-go. They franchised him a while ago. I never thought they would get a long-term contract done. And when they franchised him, it wasn't like it was breaking news that he was going to sit out of.

camp and sit out of you know he's come in september 1st just like he did last season and last season he was just fine so maybe you could say he gets up to a slow start or possibly because he misses is there an elevated injury risk but yeah certainly could you know with those i i did not adjust levy on bell yeah i have levy on bell playing the 16 it was an interesting newsday because adam shifter reported and essentially

set an earthquake to the foundation of fantasy football. Oh, Leveon Bell is ready to sit out games if he doesn't get the deal. Didn't get the deal. But then there was later left is inferring he's going to play all 16 games. I think he will. The Pittsburgh Steelers have, there's nothing holding them back now from guaranteeing that Leveon Bell gets 400 plus touches. I'm with Andy. I don't think he's a stealer next year. And if they want to say,

We're going to get the maximum out of Levi-on-Bel. We're just going to let him carry us. That's business-wise, it's a good move. Yeah, I adjusted him because I didn't think that the difference between, you know, girly. Factoring and more, there's more risk. There's slightly more risk, both to injury and to potential holdout, because who knows, maybe he sends a message. He probably doesn't. He doesn't want to hurt his future contract, but.

I just made a small tweak, and I actually, you know, I have him behind Gurley, behind David Johnson. And that's fine, because you would still take him in your top five, correct? And we're going to see where he goes today, because we're doing a 12-team half-point mock draft momentarily. Other quick news, Shane Vereen, to the Saints. Is that important to you, Mike? Not really because he's the backup pass catcher.

Now, we had talked in studio, Andy, you brought up the name of, well, if they had brought back Travars Cadet, this would impact nothing. It's your, for those first four games, the who's going to be the compliment to Alvin Kamara, not the guy who can kind of replicate his skill set. Doug Peterson says he can't say if Carson Wins will be ready for week one. He says it's not a Doug Peterson decision. It's a doctor's decision. So Wince has been performing seven-on-seven drills during OTAs.

Any further concern than you already had because of this report or no? No, I mean, this was, again, if you've been listening in the offseason, that's the expectation. It's hopes to be ready week one. That's part of why he's a little bit lower already in our ranking. Yeah, for me, it's status quo here. I don't let myself get carried away because the big thing for ACL repair guys, he's out there doing drills without a knee brace. Playing seven on seven doing drills.

for your team is a lot different than facing 11 giant human beings who want nothing more than to destroy you. It's a lot different. Kenneth Dixon, not going to be on Pupp to start the year. Alex Collins. Yeah, that's good news for Kenneth Dixon. He'll at least have a backup. Sure. Hey, before we get into the mock draft, want to remind everybody about the ultimate draft kit. This is our passion project. This is what we spend January through May.

building out. It's the one tool you need to dominate your fantasy football drafts. Still building. Of course. Still upgrading. It's not a magazine. This is a digital product that I just updated a whole bunch of rankings. Jason and Andy are doing the same thing. As soon as news breaks, we update things. Of course, sleepers breakouts, bus. All of those things are there. Exclusive access to information from Matt Harmon's reception.

Check it out, ultimate draft kit.com. And now is the time to get in so you can dig into that information and have fun with it all off season. Yeah, absolutely. And also, because that ultimate draft kit is going to bring you some hashtag foot clan titles this year, make sure you know where to get it, which is fantasy champs. If you're a fantasy champ, go to fantasy champ.com. Look, they have the best trophies. You want high quality?

You don't want this trophy showing up. Right. You know, wrapped in some tissue with some packing peanuts in there. If you're looking for a high quality trophy for your league, which is awesome, then fantasy champs is where you need to go. They are priced great, but the quality is unbelievable. And they have custom fantasy football jerseys. We met a certain fella who came to the live show rocking a fantasy champs.

custom-made football jersey. He was a very custom. Very, very custom. He was an incredible guy, great story, and seeing him sporting this thing, letting everyone know that he's a champion. I mean, he was doing it right. Yeah, so go to fantasychamps.com. Use the promo code ballers to save 10%. All right, guys, let's do it. The fantasy footballers mock draft. Yeah, buddy. All right. I did a random selection of a draft position.

12 team, half point. I would have preferred. Perception, mock draft. You randomed those top five picks. Sorry. Are we in there? We are not. We're number seven, and we're kicking it off right now. We're drafting as one team. Seven is usually just about my least favorite spot. It's better than the turn, the back turn. And we're going to get the question a lot more, and it's fine. Don't mind answering it. But for everyone listening, my favorite draft spot right now,

is the 104. All right, we're drafting from the seven spot here on Sleeperbot on their draft boards. We've been using Sleeperbot as the official mock draft partner of the fantasy footballers all off season. I can see in there now they have made more upgrades to their mock draft. You now have a roster and a chat tab on the right hand side. You can pause the draft. You can undo draft errors in real time. You can take a look at keepers and set them in advance. This is the premium.

Best way to mock draft, and you can invite your friends in, and you can check it out on the YouTube channel if you want a visual idea of what's going on. Todd Gurley went number one. David Johnson, number two, Lev Bell three. Interesting that Lev went behind those two guys in this draft. Ezekiel Elliott, four. Four stalwarts at the top. Antonio Brown, number five, Alvin Camara, number six.

Gentlemen, we have a decision to make because we are staring down the likes of Saquan Barclay, DeAndre Hopkins, Leonard Fournette, Melvin Gordon, and O'Dell Beckham, Jr. What do we want to do in this draft, boys? Well, oh, go ahead, Jay. I was going to say, that is why I don't like the seven, because there are six guys I am super happy to get. Now, everyone that's on the board here, still a great player, but I really feel like there's a tear break there. Let me bring something up.

Sure. Let me ask this question to you, Jason. Because we know and like some of these rookies later in the draft, maybe it's a Rashad Pini or a Sony Michelle, somebody that we believe in, Royce Freeman, does it give you any hesitancy in the first round to go Saquan Barkley knowing value is there for rookies that haven't proven themselves later?

It doesn't give me any hesitancy. I am still here at the 107 taking a running back personally over a wide receiver. Even though Odell Beckham, DeAndre Hopkins are here, I would prefer to take Saquan Barkley because that volume is going to be there. He's going to have... Really? Barclay's your pick over the other fella who's there? Are you talking about Leonard Fournette? No. You're talking about Melvin Gordon. I'm talking about Melvin Gordon, who I shook his hand. I almost crumpled.

into a liquefied mess because he is a superhero of a human being was shocking to see him. And that was really funny story, a quick, quick detour, just the fact that I had interviewed Ronald Jones a second earlier in the day. And we looked at him and he's built, right? Right. He's sturdy. He's like as built as you can get at about, what is he, 511? Yeah. And six foot, six feet tall. And so.

You guys had been at one of the players' lounges. We were in the player lounge with the players waiting to interview Melvin Gordon, and they're like, oh, he's right over there, let him eat, and then we'll talk to him. And so his back was to us, and I just thought to myself, I go, you know, look, he's, I'm surprised that there's not a huge difference between Ronald Jones. Because Ronald Jones is 205, which is. Yeah, that's a knock on him, right? Part of the reason I say, you know, I don't like Ronald Jones is because I don't think his frame's going to hold up. But then I was looking, I was like, you know, there's not that big a difference here.

And then a second later. It wasn't Melvin Gordon. Mike's like, no, no, no. That's Melvin Gordon sitting right next to him. And Melvin got up and the superhero was like, oh, okay. Ronald Jones is going to crushed. Melvin's. Melvin's my vote here. My vote too. Easily. Oh, absolutely. Honestly, I said Sequin mostly because you're, you've always been the anti-Melvin guy. Yeah, look. My eyes have been opened and accepting of the fantasy points that Melvin Gordon.