Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Early 2016 Mock Draft Episode

the running back situation is thinning out for guys who I think are the upper tier of town. Yeah, I would be drafting, you know, we get to come around here in the fourth round real quick. I'd be drafted running back right here. And I completely agree with that because I'm looking over at the wide receivers and I see several. I see about five guys who I love. And so you see. So I would take Shady McCoy here and hoping that a Sammy Watkins Cooper.

Cooks or Allen, and I'll even put Edelman in that group, make it back to me on this next turn. I really... M. R. Tavis Bryant, I think he could be there too. And actually, man, I... There's a lot of talent. But there's other running backs on the board without risk. You've got Lamar Miller. Who would be... T.J. Eldon. Lamar Miller would be my pick here. Jeremy Langford would be my pick. Miller over shady because of the...

How in the world do you take any of these guys over Latavius Murray? Hey, Latavius Murray. If you think Murray is your guy. You know what I love about this is that people for no reason are so down on Latavius Murray this year. I can't wait to get Latavius Murray around later than this because I'm going to laugh all the way when he's an absolutely fine back. He was the number six back this year in total rushing and receiving yards and he's being poo-poot on.

So you don't want to take him here? You'd take Lamar Miller over here? I would take Lamar Miller. I think Lamar Miller is an elite running back talent who is looking for a team that's going to make him the bell cow. I'm starting to think more and more he's going to return to Miami. And if he does with that... Will he get 20 touches in Miami? I don't think he's going to come back unless he has some kind of promise of touches. Why is Jeremy Linkford not being considered here? This is the third round.

Jeremy Langford is the starting running back for the Chicago Bears, and he's a multi-dimensional threat. Sure, he may not be forte, but his spots, McCoy could be suspended. Lamar Miller, don't know where he's landing. You know, you got Jonathan Stewart. You could go with him. He was very, very consistent. He had, what, six, seven games towards the middle of the year, 20 plus touches. To me, I would take Langford. I'd take the outside of Langford here. Over shady? Yes.

So I think we've got a... That's a hot thing. We've got a Bermuda triangle here. I would go Lamar Miller. You would go shady and you would go Langford. Is that... Of those three guys, is that... Yeah. So how do we make that decision? I guess the champ makes the decision. Oh. We go Lamar Miller. Get ready for that all year, Foot Clan. Yeah. Lamar Miller, off the board. Coming back around here in the 4th, it went McCoy, Cooper, Stewart, and Cooks. So we're sitting here now...

Now, this is where you would have liked to have just, you could have drafted Latavis Murray again. Yep. But. And Langford, who is still on the board here. Right. But we don't have a flex in this mock. True. So we only have wide receivers. So I'm not opposed to it. Why not give some perspective on that? Yeah. So death versus starting line. Yeah, you don't necessarily draft to fill your roster in order, right? It's not like you're taking a tight end guaranteed in the sixth round because you've filled your running backs and your wide receivers. And you don't take your D and your kicker.

Yeah, best examples with quarterbacks and tight ends, because normally you only need one of those guys. What happens in a lot of drafts is people will draft their, they've listened to some shows, they've read some stuff, they go, okay, I've got to get running backs, wide receivers. Then once those are full, they immediately say, okay, I don't have a starting quarterback, I'm going to get the best quarterback I can, or I don't have a starting tight end, I'm going to get the best one I can. The difference and the problem with that strategy is you're so low into the rounds by that point.

that what happens is the difference between who you're going to take there and who you're going to take 30 picks later is barely anything. Whereas if you keep on the train of getting the depth of the more important positions and running back in wide receiver, you're going to get difference makers. So all together, at this point in the draft, what I would be doing is I would say, I'm not opposed to taking a running back even though we don't have a flex position and building that running back depth.

But I would want them when they are a really good value for this spot if I still have wide receivers open. And I do. So I think I lean wide receiver based on that. Now, any consideration here? And for the listener, I want to make sure they understand who's on the board. So at running back, there's Yeldon, Langford, Murray, Dionne Lewis, Chris Ivory. At wide receiver, the big names right now are Keenan Allen, Sammy Watkins, Julian Edelman. You got Hilton, Martavis Bryant, Cobb, Macklin. And then at tight end...

You do have Jordan Reed available here. You got Greg Olson available here in the fourth. Is Jordan Reed in the fourth too much of a stretch? That's too high for me in a three-wide receiver scenario when Keenan Allen is on the board. Keenan Allen was dominant, dominant until his kidney was lacerated or whatever happened to his internal body. So the pick here... Ooh, you got an internal body now. You don't have an internal body?

And an external body? Yeah, all my body's on the inside. I have one body. I have one total. One total body. Yeah, well, I was just, I was going nano. Okay. Nano with my body. And the pick here, to me, is between Sammy Watkins and Keenan Allen. However, when I say that, that's not actually true because the pick from me is Keenan Allen. So, no fear.

Him coming back. He was on it. I am like a 1990s T-shirt. I'm with you, by the way. No fear. I'm with you. Listen to this. Eight games with Keenan Allen. The Chargers' offense was number one in the NFL with 423.3 yards a game. Eight games without 24th in the league. Keenan Allen is young. He's hyper-targeted by Philip Rivers. I'm about Keenan Allen here, too. So I think we're taking Keenan Allen, unless the champ can make a compelling argument. No, you know.

If this was my pick, I would probably go Watkins over Allen because of injury. But I don't have any problem going Allen over Watkins. They're both so similar to me. Because of injury. Because of Keenan Allen coming off of injury. Watkins was like a walking injury last year. Right. I'm just saying coming off of any time that you miss half a season and you've got to come back, there's questions and rust and changes in the offense. All right. All of those things that we haven't seen for half a year.

I would just lean Watkins, where what we saw the last half of the year was Keenan Allen injured and Sammy Watkins going ham and being the third best wide receiver of the year. So I go Watkins, but here we can go Allen. We're sitting here in the fifth round, 10th pick. We have Gurley, Lamar Miller, AJ Green, and Keenan Allen. Push comes to shove time is approaching. That being said, let me give you some fourth round picks. Edelman, Cobb, Benjamin, Wilkins, Hilton, Graham, Jimmy Graham, and the fourth. Wow. Emmanuel Sanders, Martinez, Bryant, Brady.

The Andre Johnson was the funny one. Yeah, okay, so Andre Johnson got drafted here. The data is still being built. Jeremy Link for Jordan Reed, Jordan Matthews. You got as many Jordans as possible. You got Peyton in the fifth, Yeldon, Landry, Tate, and Olson. So we're sitting here, and Latavius Stinking Murray is available. This is the time when you say, back of the fifth round.

12-team league, starting running back for the Raiders. You need to fill your wide receiver and tied in. But how do you not take Latavius-Marie? Well, I think you can't ever pigeonhole yourself into, I like this guy and he's available because you have to always compare that to what else is available. So what wide receivers are available? Not just wide receivers. Dionne Lewis is available. Right? Jeremy Maclin, Eric Decker, Michael Floyd, Doug Baldwin. So Baldwin, who, you know.

You also have an affinity for Doug Baldwin. Yeah. I want to say this real quick because I'll forget just a second ago when I shouted, ah! That was because the pick right before us was Greg Olson. And in the fifth round, the fifth round is where I like to look if there is any leftovers of the top tier tight ends, you know, if you can get the Jordan Reed, Greg Olson, that, those guys in. Is Eifford in that sandwich? Iford is not in that sandwich for me. Bad meat.

Yeah, just not there. He is... Do you see the face he's making in this picture, too? That's what he says to your bad meat. So he's like a baloney to against the, the pastrami that is at the top. Yeah. Tyler Baloney, I've heard. Yes. So, getting back to... His 13 touchdowns are very upset at you right now. So, uh...

Cam Newton, Aaron Rogers, Luck, and Brady are the only quarterback's off the board, just for the record. Russell Wilson's still there, Breeze, Portles, Palmer, Rothersberger. Not that I'm considering a quarterback here, because I'm not. I would take, I would take Latavius Murray here. That's who I would take. I would forego the third wide receiver spot, and I would actually select Latavis Murray myself. I feel like there is risk with Lamar Miller. I think we know there is.

I think there is less with Gurley. But I would take, personally, I'd take Latavius Murray and strengthen the depth of my running back position in a standard league. That would be my selection. But I am all the years. I am one-third of this voting party. So if we're going to take a running back here, for me, it would be Dionne Lewis over Latavius Murray. However, the data is still early, and this is when you can kind of take advantage of the system because he is,

Not unsuspended yet. And his name is Josh Gordon, and he is an elite-level wide receiver to me. So you'd take him right here. I would take him right here. I would not play the dance anymore, the risk of somebody else noticing that he's on the board. You don't want to wait for him to come around in the sixth? I'm fine if you guys want to do that, but just I want to highlight him right here. Josh Gordon would be a great pick here. Josh Gordon would be a great pick. I agree.

Every time you draft, you play that dance of, I want to get the most value I can. Now, the one thing I would say is that we are, we're near our own turn. So there's not that many picks between us. Yeah? That being said, if... So if you're fine with Lewis and Murray, though, then just take Gordon now. Exactly. You spoke my brain. Yes, I spoke his brain. Because we got two running backs we still like for depth.

And truly, if both of those guys go, we're still okay because there's only two. That's the logic behind those type of turn picks. We have, you know, multiple options of running back you like. We might lose them both. It's possible. And that speaks to tiering. You want to tier your players where you have them scoring at a similar range so that you don't really mind necessarily getting the top or the bottom of that tier. And to push your value.

You want to get the last remaining player of that tier. All right, so I am fine moving forward with Gordon and rolling the dice. We have our running back spots filled, so we have some flexibility. I'll take Josh Gordon after Gordon went Murray, Wilson, Ivory, and Floyd. That leaves Dionne Lewis on the board.

Interesting. I mean, when you look at AJ Green, Keenan Allen, and Josh Gordon is your wide receiver core in a 12-team league. That's pretty good. It's amazing what Gordon's value late does to your receiver core in a draft like this. With Gurley and Miller, I do think we need to stabilize the running back.

core uh miller has had an up and down we don't know where he's landing so i would be really really strongly recommending running back here yeah well dion lewis fell to us it was kind of part of the draft strategy of our last pick so i say we continue with that strategy nobody on the board makes me all right aryan foster it is and i've selected arian foster no i have not dion lewis is who i took um i'm sure i'll be taking arian foster somehow

later on this summer. All right, Jeremy Macklin went right after him. Kelsey, off the board in the 6th. Could be a value there. That's not bad. I think it's a good pick. You got Eifert went two picks after Kelsey. Surprised? No, no, not at all. I'm surprised that... There are a lot of people that are going to listen to us and say, why in the world are you guys disrespecting Tyler Eifford? He won me a championship last year. He dominated. Why no gronk-like respect?

Why no third round consideration for a guy like that? 13 touchdowns. Simply because the yardage was so very low. He was a touchdown dependent guy. Yeah, he sure got you a touchdown. He got you a lot of it. Dependent position. It is. However, when you're talking like a guy like gronk, gronk is not dependent.

on a touchdown. He can still get you seven to ten fantasy points per week without scoring. I put Jordan Reed and Greg Olson in that same category. That's why you went in the first. That's why he went in the first. Right. You put them, you put Reed and Olson in that category. Reed and Olson both get a ton of targets. So even in a standard league, you don't bump effort up. No, the argument I'll make.