Fantasy Football - NFL Draft Recap: AFC Winners & Losers - Podcast for 4/28

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Hello, welcome in. What's that sound? That's me doing rookie drafts, guys. You're not having a good time? Oh, barf. So, I mean, this is a big show because we have not got to really come together and react here on the 2026 NFL draft. So this is our first chance to get the opinions shared. What about about the Cardinals, though, Jay? Oh, they're bad. Okay. No, they're, they're, they're much worse. There were things. They're much worse with the Cardinals. No, the Cardinals are, I mean, it's like a child is running the organization on some level. And it's such an insult to Jeremiah, I love him, the talent that he is to say that because.

Quick thoughts on the Cardinals. We can all share them. Fact number one, Jeremiah Love is an incredible football player. Absolutely. And will not bust. Correct. He will be a valuable, important, fantasy relevant player for the Arizona Cardinals for many years and $50 million. Yeah. And for whoever his next team is as well, he could go on to great success. Like maybe he'll win a Super Bowl with his next team. Jeremiah Love is great. And so the argument of, look, you take the best player. And I will say this, if you draft an edge rusher who busts, it is less valuable than drafting Jeremiah Love who is good. Yes, who you have a more guaranteed outcome with. But it is, it is indefensible to use the number three overall pick on a running back, no matter how good they are.

It is, and people are like, you know, it's all about the contract. That's kind of the argument, but that's not really what it is. Yeah. The 50 million guaranteed, which is the most guaranteed money that's ever been given to a running back in the history of the NFL, just simply because you're slotted in at the number three pick overall. 11 million more than any other running back in the game today. And people say, well, look, if it's a good player and you're going to be on a rookie quarterback contract, you can afford them, you've got the cap space. That isn't the point.

The point is what you're giving up. Yes. Opportunity cost. Will Anderson is getting $50 million a year now. He just signed a cut a year. We just said $50 million in guaranteed money was the most of all time for a running back. It's because they don't matter as much. They just don't. You can't get an edge rusher. You can't get one on the free agent market. They don't hit the free agent market. Once upon a time the Cardinals passed on Adrian Peterson in the first round for an offensive tackle that didn't pan out. And we lived and watched what Adrian Peterson did for the rest of his career. So on that level, yeah, you don't want to whiff on an Isaiah Simmons or Andre Wadsworth or whoever else the Cardinals took. Everything you said is correct. Love will be very good. It's compounded by the fact they spent offseason money resigning James Connor, Tyler, Algier. They have Trey Benson. They have running backs on this roster already.

And so everybody, I mean, I have been asked about my opinion on this pick more times than I can count. And everybody wants to hear our opinion on it. Jeremiah Love doesn't deserve any hate. No. He's going to go and be great in Arizona. And he'll be the number one pick in Dynasty rookie drafts. And we'll talk about him on our winners and losers today. I think we're doing AFC. But, yeah, I mean. The good news is the genuine good news is I think that drafting Jeremiah Love and then a couple rounds later with Carson Beck. is a is a very good recipe oh man for marching for arch like get the number one you're calling it yeah the march for arch is on for archie manning let's put manning with a harrison it's got to work yeah it worked for their daddies or their their their you know their relatives i guess you should say but yeah um yeah i think it's it's a great way to get the number one so so the original vomit

sound effect that Mike produced at the top of the show was more about just expectations for where a lot of running backs were going to go didn't come to fruition. We didn't really get a lot of a lot of names with the draft capital that correlates to fantasy success. We got none. We got, we got none. But we got Judarian Price. Sure, but I'm saying day two. Yeah, we got none. Day two, there was. one running back. Was that Kalin Black? Yeah. And he wasn't invited to the combine. And he drafted by a team that is whiffing on almost all their picks. If the 49ers draft you, I mean, I could just say if they draft you, your chance of not being a good player is very high. But specifically, did he, Lynch sucks. Day two sucks. No, he does suck in.

There been great articles. San Francisco fan. Yeah, we got one over there. What do you think? Yeah, it's not good. Okay, thank you. Could you imagine how good your team could be with Shanahan coaching if they were given quality players? But like how many years in a row are we now of the 49ers taking a running back in essentially the third round? And then it never being the guy. I feel like we'll get hate like we're attacking the 49ers as Cardinals fans. No, I'm attacking them as football fans. Yes, one specific GM. Your team is always great. Would you rather be Kalin Black, who was not invited to the combine drafted by a team where these home run picks never work out? Or would you rather be, I think it's Adam Randall, who was not drafted by the general manager, not drafted by the coach, but given a token opportunity to the owner of the Ravens that said,

he's been begging me for a pick, so I just let him pick somebody. It was unbelievable. The GM, if you haven't heard this story, yeah, the owner asked for a pick and the GM's like, well, it's your team. Of course. Yeah, of course you can have a pick. Oh, and in the way he talked about, he's like, and he's like, and he did his research. It's like he's tied like a kid. Like he gave the pick to his son. And what's so sad about this is like Mike and I, I know both like Adam Randall, he's one of the more sleepy, deeper picks that were. Sleepery, deepery, yeah. Sleepery,

Like, I could see how that works. Does Steve listen to our show? I mean, he probably does. Honestly, probably. But I would say that there's no other explanation for this. When the pick came and the Ravens took Adam Randall, I was like, that's not a bad landing spot for him. You've got King Henry who's indestructible, but he's also human and at some point will stop and will self-destruct. And Adam Randall is, that's a good spot. You're on a good team. And then you find out later it was like a gift. pick it'll reflect so silly it'll reflect on the GM on his future resume I know that yeah yeah it was a wild draft we're going to get into our aFC uh draft recap show today talking through the picks and what we think um you know there are opportunities out there there are a number of players that slipped in the draft or went to teams that look like you know mckeye lemon being one of them that went to a spot we didn't expect

A team that traded up to acquire them that has plans for them. He went to a spot that the team drafting him didn't expect. Yeah, and that the Steelers didn't expect. But lots to talk about our draft. I didn't even know. What was the final total for our draft prediction? You won by one. I think I got one right. Because I changed on Judarian Price last second, moved away. You did. And you got him. And I got Stowers. Yeah. Is that what? Because you had gotten Jordan Tyson. So, yeah, it's always tough in the streets because once a couple trades happen, the ramifications. The domino effect. But, I mean, goodness, you've won for so many years in a row. I just assumed you'd pull it out. We've decided to extend the UDK pre-order giveaway an additional date. We have? Yes, through the end of the day, Mike. Oh. And we're going to give away some extra swag. So not just the Jamar Chase signed jersey.

not just the Bijon signed jersey, not just the listener league spot, but some extra swag as well. You know what I realized? Through the end of today, Tuesday. Just now, looking at, because the, if you haven't tuned to YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers and check out Magic Mike's wall, the signed jerseys that were giving away, those guys are on my League of Record team. Oh my gosh. Still, they made it. Yeah. Bejan made it, everybody. Mike, uh, Mike. We had our... Oh, yeah, there we go. The Magic Mike Wall. We had our Keeper Lottery this weekend as well, which we do in our League of Record. If you're new to the show, we have kind of a cool format where you get a franchise player, and then you pick three players from your roster. There's a Keeper League. And those three players go into a Keeper Lottery, and two of the three remain on your team. One drops into the draft. In our Keeper Lottery, we saw the likes of...

Jamir Gibbs dropped back into the draft. We saw. Jason, who did you lose? We saw Puka and we saw CMC. And then Jason. I saw who was in your lottery? My lottery was Josh Jacobs, Travis H.N. Jr. and Jonathan Taylor. Yeah. And I no longer have Jonathan Taylor. It was, I was not happy about it. Jason popped into the lot, the Zoom. Oh, that looks so cool. Jason popped in on there's a cool new graphic up on the wall I like he popped into the Zoom he found out he had lost Jonathan Taylor in the lottery and then he disappeared through a smoke bomb yeah and he was gone well because of course I show up right after everyone tells me I lost Jonathan Taylor's like I didn't get to see it it was like oh you just lost Jonathan Taylor you weren't on time I was driving through mountains I didn't have service you didn't wait um there you go so Jason was super happy yeah

But yes, ultimate draft kit.com through the end of the day today. And we'll give away that listener league spot. We want somebody to come and play with us in the listener league in 2026. Super excited about that. And yeah, there you go. On that note today, all of our ultimate draft kit, the next, the plus all the dynasty information all got updated post draft. So our rookie rankings, our dynasty startup rankings, all that stuff is fresh. It is. ready to be drafted, a lot of details, and more than just that, the opportunity pages, everything in it got the post-draft refresh. So if you already have the older draft kit and you're in the contest, great. Go check out all the new information. If you need a reason to pick it up now, all that new information is there. All right, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league.

Just a few bits of news here. Jaden Reed, three-year contract extension with the Packers, who said goodbye to Dantavian Wix and Romeo Dobbs is offseason. And they did not draft any major replacement. This was a big win for Jaden Reed. And Matthew Golden, the fact that they didn't draft anybody. Yeah. They do seem to have plans, I mean, for him. And at least we had one game. So the- Jaden Reed, three-year, 50 million. Yeah, so 20 guaranteed. The Romeo Dobbs contract was much bigger. Okay. I hadn't thought about it until now. Reed has been a good player, but not a high volume player, not a high route participation player. Right. His talent has always been there. I've always really liked what I saw from him on the field. He's always flashed. The issue is he is only a slot wide receiver. When they're in two wide, and even now, even though they lost Romeo Dobbs, it seems like it'll be golden.

and Watson in two wide, which Jaden Reed is valuable to the team. Unlike, you know, you look at what's happening for the Colts and you look at downs and you go, oh, you know, I think he's going to be on the field in two wide now. A huge upgrade. This is like, oh, it's good for Jane Reed for the draft, but he didn't get to me an upgrade over what he has been. The Vikings officially exercised Jordan Addison's fifth year option. Okay. Is Addison, he's interesting. I feel like he's not been talked about a lot. Whereas, you know, we talk about the uptick that Jefferson should receive by a competent quarterback in Kyla Murray, who I think will be a competent quarterback. Addison will benefit tremendously. I mean, Tyler has, you know, it kind of reminds me of the Christian Kirk era for the Cardinals. Sure. In Arizona where you had Hopkins on one side. And Addison, who's capable of taking advantage of defensive backs and especially on deep plays.

That combination kind of reminds me of that. That's a good comp. I believe it was Kyler who was with Christian Kirk when he was a wide receiver one in fantasy. I'll have to look that up. Kyle, get on it. Christian Kirk? No, Christian Kirk. No, Christian Kirk was a wide receiver one in Jacksonville. Really? Yeah. Oh, okay. It wasn't not Kyler. No, it was not. The NFL Network's Ian Rappaport reporting that Brandon Ayuk will be playing with his good friend, Jaden Daniels, for the commanders soon. Okay. The Ayuk saga is, it's still going for those who have forgotten because it had been kind of quiet there for a while. No one's going to trade for him. And I would imagine he's not let go yet because the 49ers hate him. Like they're, I think they're legitimately mad about everything. A punitive situation? Yes, everything that has taken place with Brandon Ayukovai. You won, dude. You got your money. And then you were.

not good. And then there's the reports of not taking rehab seriously on his injured knee. And no one, they've trashed him, you know, publicly. No one's going to come trade for him because they, why, we'll wait for you to release him. But I feel like the four nage is like, we're not going to release him. Well, you're just going to hold on to him. I mean, the thing is, is usually you would say you want to get the most value out of the assets you have. And the 49ers proved they don't care about that at all. This draft like value means nothing to them.

Still playing football. Marquez Valdez Scanling signing a one-year deal with the Cowboys. Good for you, man. Oh, and then the other news, George Pickens has not yet signed the franchise tag? Yeah, there was a lot of reporting on. Didn't they say he did? Yeah, night one of the draft, they were saying George Pickens has signed his franchise tender, which felt very much in the moment of like, well, the only reason he's going to sign that right now after they have said, we're not going to give you a long-term deal is because. to trade him. You can't trade him unless he signs the franchise. So it, with all the reporting, that's what it seemed to be the implication, but now they're saying he didn't even sign it. Yeah, then it came out that the Cowboys aren't going to trade him. Well, at first it was, at first, I believe it was Ocho Cinco that had this cryptic tweet. He's going to be happy. Yes. Yeah, like there was some big news, some big contract coming his way. And then it was, oh, he's going to sign his franchise. That's not what a player's happy about. Like, yeah, I sign my franchise. And so you assume he's going to get traded.

And then the Cowboys come out and say, we're not trading them. And now it's gone full circle to, I'm not signing that franchise. Jerry. Which you guys have talked about on the footcast, like how he probably won't sign it. And then it seemed like the news came out that you were wrong. But maybe you know George better than he knows himself. And we know Jerry. And you know Jerry. He will fold. I like their draft, man. I love their draft. You know what? I hate the most about this draft. And there are. oh my gosh so many things but two of the best drafting and acquisition teams this cycle this weekend were the defensive side of the ball for the bangles and the cowboys what nonsense is this for fantasy football that's true just hold out hope that it won't work yeah i liked like you know we'll go through the teams but i like the cowboys a lot their draft i liked cleveland again

For two years in a row. Yes, I did like Cleveland. Yeah, they're doing, they're really doing good work over there. I think they're going to be a good team. It's funny. I had tweeted out. I actually think they're going to be a good team. I would. Yes. I would not know that part. They were in every game last year with nothing on offense. Their defense is unbelievable. Incredible defense. And I might believe in Todd Monkin more than I did a week or two ago. I just... Interesting. Look, this is going to be one of the big topics that we're going to talk about extensively. How do you react to all of these draft picks and the players and the teams? I always bring up Jalen Waddle to the hapless dolphins and how bad of a landing spot that was at number six years ago, only for him to go out and catch 100 passes and be a great player. The turnover in the NFL is so... I mean, what do we have, 20 new coaches, head coaches, something like that? I mean, when we did our coaching changes show between offensive coordinators, head coaches,

The change is so tremendous. The inner working of 11 on 11. It just, you see change really, really fast. Teams that seem completely hapless. I'm not saying I like to Sean Watson or what you're going to get from Chador, but like. Or, yeah, or Tailing. Yeah, or Tailing Green. I mean, there is, there's just potential to win with just some small competency on offense. We love Concepcion. I like Denzel Boston on the other side. They have Harold Fandon, who we love. We love Judkins. We have a defensive player of the year. I don't know. I don't know. I get it. They're still the Brown. They do have the pieces there. I loved the draft. I had tweeted out that it was really bad what the Browns did to us for Concepcion and Boston, which I stand by. We don't want them going to the Browns without a known quarterback.

That's not where we would ideally put them. And then you put both of them there and they're sharing targets. It's like, dadgummit. However, from a football perspective, from the Browns perspective, those are great picks. I mean, they're giving help to whoever that quarterback is. Just to correct what I said earlier, there's 21 new offensive coordinators, 10 new head coaches. So Cleveland had a six and a half win projected total. It's a brutal. It's a brutal division. Okay. So I, but yeah, I would, I would take the over on that. I would. You get a little new head coach bump. A little bit of locker room. Leaving seven games? Yeah, seven out of 17. We can get there. Miles Garrett could do five of those by himself. I don't know why I got on a Browns tirade on this episode. What am I thinking? I do this every off season. What was that old head coach I used to talk about? No. No, no, no. Mark was Cincinnati. Hugh Jackson. Yes, yes. I should learn. All right. We're taking a break and we'll talk AFC NFL.

Draft recap. You're reminding me to Rod Taylor was once of my guy, huh? Yeah. This is not the first time you've been very impressed by Cleveland. Is it a contrarian thing that I'm doing? Is it me wanting to find the good and something bad? Is that like a character thing? It is. And you know what? I tried to find it in Gus Bradley once. For you as human, it's a good quality. As an analyst? But as an analyst of the NFL, it's not a good quality because they stink. Does Newman? Yeah, Newman's. Newman has a Browns. On our set. On our set. Careful with his head. Oh! This is not great audio. Okay. Let's do it. Hi, rookie. Welcome to the NFL. All right. We'll start in the AFC West with the team with the overall number one pick. Fernando Mendoza to the Las Vegas Raiders in round one. They did spend a fourth round pick after a slew of...

offensive line and defensive improvements in the second and third and fourth round. They spent a fourth round pick on Mike Washington Jr. Combine standout. Yeah. And then a wide receiver in the six. So I think a couple of things that stood out to us, or at least to me, was like, who's going to play a wide receiver for this football team? Because they did not invest. I mean, the best hive is back, baby. Jack Besh. We are alive and well. He's not dead. We are thriving. I don't know about that, but Mendoza, I like Mendoza. I think he's going to be a very, trying to find the right word for it, like a very productive NFL quarterback. I don't know if that'll be fantasy productive for his whole career, but he is more mobile than people give him credit for. I think I'm excited to see him with Gentie and Bowers, but, you know, adding a big name wide receiver would have been, I think, more exciting for the entire fantasy world if you had seen third round pick.

you know, Denzel Boston going there. Yeah, it's hard to imagine a team with such a needed wide receiver. Well, 36 wide receivers went in this draft that they just didn't even look that direction. And I think that this is really, Bowers is, I mean, obviously their number one wide receiver, but he's a huge winner here. He will be soaking up all of the targets. I will probably be taking him over, Trey McBride. I think Bowers is the Titan one for sure. I feel like that's a pretty big. bold take. I think we really enjoyed what we got from Jacoby Brissette and Tray McBride last year. So I don't know if I'll go that far, but yeah, Bauer should have full confidence to be in that tight-in-one contention. And I still expect them to start the season with Kirk Cousins. I think he's going to play a while. I think he's going to play about half the season. So in terms of, yeah, Jack Bess or any of the other wide receivers still on the team, Trey Tucker, who was kind of their number one last year. Dante Thornton. Jaylon Naylor, the.

Free agent signing of Jalen Naylor, I mean, I forgot. They can't. Didn't they give them a bunch of money? They did. They don't have a three-year 35 million. True wide receiver, unless one of last year's rookies steps up, which they did not do last year with plenty of opportunity. There is not a lot. It's not good for Mike Washington to go to this situation either. Like if you were looking at players, like, yes, you'll have an opportunity to be the backup. But he could have gone to a team that he could have emerged as the starter. Like if he goes to Tampa Bay or something, you know, you're like, oh, maybe it doesn't work with Bucky and this is the dude now. I, that's not happening here. It's obviously not happening where Mike Washington Jr. will ever be the dude without an injury to Gentie. That's, that's clear and obvious. He is only a backup. However, this was the team coming from, you know, the Coob's system. Yeah. Now the head coach here coming from Seattle, where even though they had a clearly superior.

Kenneth Walker on the field, they kept putting Charbonnet out there. Then Coobes comes to the Raiders and they ask him what they think about Gentie, and he basically says, I want a two-back system. We were arguing you can want whatever you want. You don't have another running back on the roster, so it's going to be all Gentie. Well, now they went and spent, you know, obviously it wasn't a day two pick. It was a fourth rounder, but, you know, Mike Washington was one of the somewhat touted running backs in this class and at least gives... I think it's interesting. It gives a little bit more credence to the ability to have a large split for Genti. It's funny because, you know, it's, we'll just, you make the natural progression of, okay, well, Mike Washington's in the Charbs role for Kubiak, except Mike Washington athletically is nothing like that. Is, no, is the opposite of Charbs. Yeah, I, I, um.

I guess it just comes down to, does that draft pick change your opinion of Ashen Gentie? For me, the answer is no. As in where he's going in fantasy? Or my confidence in him? I think my confidence is about the same. I do think Mike Washington is, I don't think it's everything is Ashen Gentie, though. I think you will have more of a committee that people are going to want. For sure, without that pick, Gentie would have had a lot more volume when I stat him out than with this pick. Okay. Yeah. Well, we'll be doing that soon. I mean, the full ultimate draft kit releases on June 1st, which means you're going to have every team's individual players and stats from all three of us in the ultimate draft kit and see how we break down each of those team's offenses. Kansas City. I'm at. Kansas City went defense heavy early on. They traded up. They went corner, two corners, two defensive linemen in the first four rounds. And then their first offensive, uh,

jump, which we thought maybe they were going to grab, you know, Jordan Tyson for Patrick Mahomes. It didn't happen. They had two first round picks. They were both on the defensive side. Emmett Johnson goes in the fifth round to Kansas City, very similarly to my opinion of Mike Washington with Gentie. Emmett in the fifth, who I liked, has no impact on my view of Kenneth Walker whatsoever. This was actually a huge, you know, the fact that they... didn't go get more offensive weapons tells me they're focusing on the ones they have. Yeah. And so, you know, all the incumbents benefited from the way that they chose to go about this draft, Rashi Rice, Xavier Worthy, Travis Kelsey, because they didn't go after a Sadiq or Stowers, and Kenneth Walker. You know, Emmett is a maybe you see the field. He needed, he needed, I like the Mike Washington comp in the sense that this is a team that really needed a,

a backup running back. They just did, they lost Pacheco. Sure, they went out and gave the bag to Walker, but they don't have anyone behind him. You have to have someone behind him. It's a good quality pick. Andy, I know you liked him at Johnson, his film. I think it's a, it's just a good fit. Walker's gone down. I mean, both in the past. For sure. I don't think that the chiefs are ideally wanting to do a split. That's where I view it a little different than the Raiders. Yep. But it's a good pick. And honestly, the big takeaway for fantasy for me on the Chiefs is simply that the big fear I had pre-NFL draft of Rushie Rice being moved on from this offseason if they had taken one of those big three wide receivers. For dynasty purposes, Rice is a little bit more solidified as in the future wide receiver for this team. They don't have someone past him. Kansas City thoughts, Mike? Anything you want to add? I have nothing new to add.