Fantasy Football - Mock Draft! Ballers vs Ducers - Podcast for 8/14

I don't know who you are, but I do know what you need. I can tell you, I know some gentlemen with a very particular set of skills. Skills they have attained over a long career of studying tape and statistics. Skills they want to share to make you a nightmare for the rest of your league. Head over to www.ultimatedraftkick.com and order it right now. You will be prepared for your draft. Your league will be frightened of you. And you will kill them. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers podcast. Jason Moore is here. Howdy. Mike Wright in the building. Hello.

I'm Andy Holloway. It's a mock draft episode. It's going to be a good one. Makalaka ding dong. Maka, ding dong. And it's going to be fun. Today we are going to do it a little differently than the last few mocks. We're actually going to share a team today. It'll give us... Like the good old days. Yeah, it'll give us some more time to talk about the pick and fight about the pick and make some decisions about building our team. The rest of the spots will be filled up by... staff and support of the fantasy footballers and we'll see if we can have ourselves a successful mock draft. He's looking forward to taking on the crew once again. I know they live to defeat us. They live to try. Yes. But they're going to need to be a cat. We've taken out them lives. See, cats have nine lives. Oh, nine, I know, but it's because we're going to kill them ten times. Well, according to that intro, we will kill them.

Okay. Yeah. So a mock draft today. We have a UDK for Life giveaway happening right now. Jamar Chase signed Jersey as well. Pick up the UDK by Monday. We'll do a live stream event. We'll give away an ultimate draft kit for life as well as that signed jersey. Ultimate draft kit.com. Also very excited to announce our charity partnership for 2025. So. Every year we've done this, we are donating a portion of all revenues generated by the Ultimate Draft Kit. This year, our partnership is with the Koenig Childhood Cancer Foundation. It is a wonderful foundation. They provide life-saving financial and emotional support to children battling cancer. So like I said, a portion of this year's sales for the UDK goes directly to KCCF, and you can learn more about that and more about them.

at UltimateDraftGit.com. You'll see the note on there and it'll give you some more information about that partner. So we're very excited about that. And we appreciate everybody every year that has supported this show as we work to support a variety of different childhood cancer charities and foundations. What else is going on? You can follow the show over on X at the FF Ballers. You can watch it. It's a good episode to go tune on on YouTube. because we'll have the draft board up for the mock draft, YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. We are also doing a mini series that we're releasing an episode of every Saturday. So we went real quick from like two shows a week to three to like five to now like six, seven if you've got the footcast. So no shortage of fantasy football content for the fantasy football addicts out there.

Sorry, I'm being a little quiet. I'm adjusting my Trayvion Henderson rankings. Mike is in a good place. Is this from practice today? He can't stop, guys. I refer to yesterday's top 10 tips and tricks. Don't let the preseason videos overdo it. I'm talking to everybody here with the ADP. The ADP, let's come on. Let's hold off. Yeah. It's not. helpful for Mike and the revenues of the pants store to let's just say like pants sales are cratering yeah Mike is not buying pants right now trade on intersend it's the big play stuff and we talked about amir abdula in the preseason it could be one of those but remandre is banged up right now yeah so that's not going to help the ADP no no he may go one overall very soon at least

Mike will have to decide between CMC and Trayvion with pick number one. But we got more news to talk about. News and notes from around the league. Presented by Progressive Insurance. Actually, Brooksie jumping in with some breaking news, a slight update on the Ramandre Stevenson injury. Mike Vrabble did note Wednesday that the unspecified injury, because that's what we had heard. He had missed a couple of practices. It's not specified. It's unspecified. He said it's not considered significant. Okay. So it's unspecified and insignificant. It's the time of year where you can do these things, and we have no idea. No, and then in the meantime, with the time afforded on the field, Trevion Henderson is catching 70-yard wheel route passes in multi-team joint practices. They did not cover him. I will say that. Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know. It was great. He caught the ball and ran 70 yards, but also the defense forgot he existed.

That dude, that's what happens on sneaky wheel routes. I saw a high school clip the other day of one of the kids coming in off the sideline. So they only had 10 on the field. Everyone lines up. He takes two steps on the field from the sideline. Before the snap. Before the snap and no one covered him and he's just all by himself on the side. That's legal, right? That seems a little dirty. That seems real high school. If you're not on, like if they're lined up. He just took like one step out. Yeah, yeah. They were all lined up. I mean, you want your 11 on the field. Yeah, but like NFL wise, I mean, you know, if you make a substitution, they hold the ball. That wouldn't be allowed, right? Not in the NFL. I feel like that's happened in the NFL, though, hasn't it? Oh, no. What happens in the NFL is they break the huddle. One guy looks like he's trying to get off the field. Yeah, and they go have a stop right before. He stops right. And you have an argument with the coach like you're pretending you're really walking off the field. And then Johnny Mansell runs.

Uh-huh. There you go. Dolphins wide receiver Tyree Kiel Jalen Waddle both returned to practice on Wednesday. McDaniel said Hill is being monitored so he can protect him against himself. Okay. Stop hitting yourself. It's not like that's not an ankle monitor. I kind of like that. I'm sad. Mike Gassicki hamstring injury. So he sustained it on August 2nd. Still rehabbing. Chiefs running back Cream Hunt, a quad contusion. And then Justin Jefferson with the hamstring, it's a close one to monitor, definitely progressing but not practicing this week. So they're going to play that as slow as they can. They need him for the regular season. Yeah, they should. He's good. He does not need to practice. Correct. Very good at football. And do we, Mike, I'm going to turn to you for this very important Matthew Stafford related update. Do we have any more news on Matthew Stafford? The news is. Is he practicing?

I don't, I'm not really sure. It says no Matthew Stafford. Like, I don't know what's going on here, man. We got the tweet was no Matt Stafford is Rams go about their job talking about yesterday. And dude, we, it's getting very, very scary. So, yeah. For all Rams related players, not just for Matthew Stafford. We are recording this show a little bit early. Yeah. So just a heads up, if any news updates come through, that is why this is the last. bit of information that we have. But yeah, Jefferson, if you get back to him real quick, you know, if you have to draft today, which is happening, right? Like I just, I went and got a haircut yesterday. Person I met in there, they just did their draft. They just did it. So there are drafts happening from now until kickoff. Is the Jefferson news, is the neighbor's news? Either of those situations dissuading you at all based on your projections for those players if you're coming down to that pick.

Not really. I mean, the truth is where Jefferson is being picked, I'm usually going to take one of the top three running backs. Right now where neighbors is being picked, you know, I've got neighbors and Nico Collins. They're in the same tier to me. I don't see the range. Is Pooka in that tier? Yeah, Pooka's in that tier. I don't see the range being that different on any of those guys, in which case, if push comes to shove and I have to draft right now, I'd be fine taking Nico. And you over Jefferson. No, no, no, over Malik neighbors. Oh, I got it. But you are Lamb over Jefferson right now. I am sure, yeah. What about Amun Ra and Jefferson? Is this hamstring injury enough to make you worried about that? I don't think it is for me. It's not for me. Not for me either. The Jefferson and C.D. Lamb, Jamar Chase, there and there's a little break there. All right, that was today's news and notes.

Sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote today at Progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations covered subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. Well, we're going to jump right in. No further ado. The Fantasy Footballers Mock Draft. All right. Like I said, we got the full crew in there today. So we'll be competing with footballer staff, writers. And it is a 10-team half-PPR mock today. One team for the three of us. We're sharing it. So we'll get to, you know, fight. Yeah, we'll get to figure out where we negotiate. Yeah, we talk about maybe we'll hand the picks over. Maybe we'll make them together. We'll see how it goes. One quarterback, two running back, two wide receiver. One tight in, one flex, four bench spots. We ended up with the randomly selected spot. Number four overall. And so let's kick this thing off. We've got Jamar Chase off the board with the number one pick. Jake.

Goes with Jamar, not a surprise there. Brooksie comes in with Sequin with the number two overall pick. Okay. Putting Bejohn Robinson at the 103 to the Falcon himself. Not on a bathroom break right now. Actually here participating. Well, let's double check that. Nope, he is here. Okay. And he probably didn't flush that pick down the toilet. So Bejohn should be good. Here we are staring down Justin Jefferson and company at the number four overall Spodjamir Gibbs, CD Lamb. The RB one on the board. You got Christian McCaffrey that Mike is trying to talk about. I was literally looking and I was like, wait, the RB won. Who did I miss? I'm not going to fight for him here, but that's what I would do. And the people know this about you. And they probably are trusting us to make a different decision. So you would genuinely.

You're on the clock. This is just your team. And let's say it's not a mock draft. You're not doing this to try. Like, do you believe that right now in a live startup redraft league, you would be pulling the trigger on Christian McAfee here over Justin Jefferson, over Tamir Gibbs, Henry, C.D. Lamb? Yeah. The three that went, those are the ones where, like, I have McCaffrey number one, but I get it with the risk. I don't mind going Robinson over. McCaffrey or if I have the one I take Jamar at number one so those guys they push McCaffer I'm willing to so those three names that just went yes all of those you you would be willing to push McCaffrey down for yeah I'm okay with it but what's your pick Jay like what would your vote be here and we'll come up to

I'll come to a conclusion. Yeah, I mean, this is a slight drop-off, I think. I mean, personally, I have C.D. Lamb over Justin Jefferson. So if you're between those two, my rankings would take him. You add in the hamstring. But this is over Gibbs? Did you take them over Gibbs here? For me, I would take him over Gibbs. I like, I've got Henry one spot ahead of Gibbs. So I think my rankings at the very top are a little bit different than your two. So we have no agreement. We have no agreement. So who would you take at the fourth spot? I would take Gibbs here. That's what I would do. I would take Gibbs at the 104. We're off to a tough start, guys. Gibbs is my fourth ranked. Why don't I have my own team?

Whose idea was this? I believe it was yours. So, um, Gibbs. I'm fine with McCaffrey. Oh, whoa. I would rather take, let's put it this way. I want Gibbs, right? I would take Gibbs. We could take Gibbs. Um, but I would rather have McCaffrey than going wide receiver. Then take Gibbs. Let's see what the team looks like. Is that what you're okay with that? Yeah, I am totally fine with that. I think it's, it's an appropriate spot right here. McCaffrey, you have McCaffrey ahead of Gibbs. I don't want to stand in your way. Well, I've got McCaffrey ahead of Gibbs if you're just talking about, you know, season long stat totals, but that doesn't factor in the- No, fancy points. No, but that doesn't factor in risk. Like the risk rating of Jamir Gibbs versus the risk rating of Christian McCaffrey are not equal. That is why we include those rankings in our tier-based rankings in the UDK, is because your decision is going to be philosophical. How do you build your team? What kind of risk do you want to take on? Obviously Gibbs was...

You know, he was very, very good. We went Gibbs because Mike told me I could. C.D. Lamb goes next in Justin Jefferson, McCaffrey at the 107 to Matthew Betts. So Mike shook his head a little bit. No, I was shaking my head at we gave, we gave pick five and six. You had every opportunity to get the RV1 and you pass. That's dumb. Derek Henry at 108. We got my guys tomorrow. Yeah, we do. He better be a my guy for you, Mike. Chris McCaffrey? Yeah. You'll have to stay tuned. I guess. Derek Henry at 108, Alman Ross St. Brown to Kyle at 109. Malik Neighbors makes it into the first round of a 10 team with the 110. And then Ashton Genti, unsurprisingly, to Papa Josh, with the first pick of the second round, he is, he's got Genty on the dynasty team. And him and the Falcon, they spend every other minute just oodling their own team. Yes, they do. Devon Aitian at the 202, Nico at the 203.

Puka, Josh Jacobs, and Brock Bowers off the board in a, in the second round. Now, Mike, in a 10 team, yeah, it's a 10 team. Talk about that. In a 10 team, you know, we, you know, on yesterday's tips and tricks, Jason's was, one of Jason's was, don't take two onesies, you know, in the first few rounds. And like, generally I do agree upon that. But in a 10 teamer, You're supplying demand for wide receivers and running backs changes? Wait, did we take? We took Chase Brown. We didn't even talk about it. Wait, what happened? What a great pick we just did. I didn't mean to. Wait. No, we're leaving. Why would we have taken Chase Brown? Leave him on the team because he's awesome. I. Did you just accidentally click Chase Brown and drafted? Trying to add him to the queue. He did the wrong button again. I did this so much. Like you do sleeper drafts. I'm hosting the show. I was talking. I know that's why I didn't want to do it.

anything. I'm just trying to put them in order so I can't use hosting as an excuse for not understanding which buttons you can click while not talking. You just, you just, all you had to do is hit the Q button instead of the draft button. But I guess we've moved on. Goodness gracious. So in a 10 teamer, the onesie positions are. Why don't I have my own team? The onesie positions are really where you can make up some ground 10 team at the end. Everybody's team is going to look awesome unless you have. just botched your draft because there's more running backs. By accidentally drafting players? Don't draft another one. Yeah. Don't add anyone to the Q, Andy. You guys write them down. You got a little. You're in charge to click in the button. The RBs and wide receivers, the supply is higher. So, especially elite tight ends move up. Like, if you want to take Brock Bowers at the end of the first or in the early second, that's fine with me. Let me piggyback that real quick. Because what I was going to do before I drafted Chase Brown.

inadvertently, but to our advantage, was, was, I was going to talk about our opportunity to draft Tray McBride because you just, you just talked about it. You have a positional advantage in a 10 team. McBride was available to us. We all decided to go Chase Brown. Yes. At which point, Brian Thomas Jr. went next. London and Irving, Chuba, Kyron, and AJ Brown. We're back on the clock. Tray McBride's still there. But there are other players that you guys can go ahead and add to the queue. Yeah, I will say that the players. Who would you have picked over Chase Brennan? Definitely without a doubt taking either Brian Thomas or Drake London. Having started with Gibbs, we could go more of a hero RB. And Brian Thomas and Drake London, to me, represent the end of those top 10 wide receivers that I really really want one. So now it's like, yeah, I totally agree. I would have gone wide receiver there. But now when you're looking at who's left and it's Ladbaconki and Jackson Smith and jig, but it's like I don't.

I don't view those guys. Meet Higgins available. Garrett Wilson, Marvin. Do you want to Chase Brown and meet Higgins though? No, no, no, no, I don't. My point is these wide receivers. Did you say add to the Q? Is that what you said? My point is these wide receivers who are the next best available are a tier down from Drake London and Brian Thomas. I totally agree. So do you view Bucky Irving, Kyron Williams, and Chuba in the same tier as Chase Brown? I. Personally, I think Kyron Williams and Chase Brown are in the same tier of Stafford's playing. Kyron scares... Every ram right now scares the tar out of me. I was just saying, like, if you look at it from the other perspective, was there a different tier break there between Bucky and Chase Brown? I don't know. I know Chase Brown, Jason, you're completely convinced he'll be a...

A dominant player. This is not an anti-Chace Brown take at all. So are you saying you'd go Tray McBride here and we'd try to ride. Yeah. At this point, I would not have gone Tray McBride over those other two wide receivers that I viewed as still elite. But with the tier break, with Chase Brown and Kyron being gone, with Brian Thomas and Drake London being gone, us in the third round, it's a 10-team league. Personally, I think that's where you go trade. So I would look at the running backs real quick. So on the board. You know I'd love me some Johnny Tate. Yeah, yeah. Johnny Tay?

Johnny Taylor? I just kind of trailed off. I thought you were trying something new. Jonathan Taylor, James Cook, O'Mary and Hampton, those guys are all still there. So like Hampton with this build is interesting. I would be looking at Hampton or McBride. I think because we've got Gibbs and Brown, and you can make the argument because we've got them, we can take the rookie and if he gets off to a slow start. But right now, Najee can't even jog without hurting his eyes. Personally, I think with the two, I would lean McBride. Okay. Something in me says you guys should make the pick. I got it. Okay. All right, Tray McBride off the board at 304. Again, I-lawless, Jason. I still think Tray McBride was a fair decision to make in the second round of a 10-team league. I do agree. Luckily, I didn't let us make that mistake and we got them in the third. Really crafty by me, if I'm honest. I will say that if we were going to end up with McBride, this was the route to do it.

Because we would have ended up with, you know, I mean, I would rather have Chase Brown and Trey McBride than Trey McBride and Jonathan Taylor. I can't believe I did it again. Trey McBride in the third round, Jonathan Taylor, Amarian Hampton in the third, Mankakey Higgins. Totally believe it. Garrett Wilson. I don't even think it's the last time this episode. I'm going to be honest. I think there's a 40% chance it happens again. Unless he keeps saying like, okay, you guys push the button. He has no clue. He has no clue which one. My hands have been off the board. Sleeper, can you add some tool tips? I know, like just some mouse over. Let me just be. No, no, no, no. Thank you for this opportunity. Mm-hmm. There's no world where plus should be how you draft. No? Like add? No. Add to team? No, because we're not, we're not running like a free agent bin. But you think piece of paper.

should be a paper draft piece of paper should not be draft plus should be Q so like and a new graphic should be draft that's what I'm going to board because to me the paper is like make a note right add them to your list yeah on this piece of paper exactly right I don't know now that does make sense when you explain it like that all right we'll take a break we'll come back with the rest of the the rest of the draft Um, I, uh, during the break, we all discussed it and totally agreed with me that plus was confusing and, um, and I'm really smart. All right. Jonathan Taylor after our McBride pick, Hampton, McConkey, Higgins, Garrett Wilson and JSN, big wide receiver run at the end of the third round. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see the wide receivers coming off the board. Newly minted James Cook at the 401. Not a problem there ahead of Connor. I moved him ahead of Connor recently. Marvin Harrison at the 402.

James Connor at the 403, George Kittle off the board with the fourth pick of the fourth round. Mike Evans, Kenneth Walker off the board. And do you feel a little backed into that wide receiver position here in the fourth round? A little bit, yeah. That's appropriate. Yeah, I wish we had Brian Thomas Jr. or Drake London in that second round. Yeah, so of the wide receivers, don't worry about it. Well, Tyree kills back at practice. He's on the board. Like his ADP right now is significantly higher than where we are. Like he's been passed in a bunch of our mock drafts for the same tentativeness. But he's healthy. He's back at practice. He's on the board. Terry McLaurin, not been paid yet. He's on the board. Adams, you talked about being scared out of your mind with Stafford. That seems like the worst place to go for our first wide receiver when you have some trepidation there. Yeah, the wide receiver won territory. According to my personal rankings, and I don't know that your guys is.

are anything like this, but mine go DJ Moore, D.K. Metcalfe, Devante Adams, Tyree Kill, as far as the players that are available. But I do think that there are types of players. Did you say DJ Moore at the top? I did say DJ Moore at the top. But if you were to compare DJ Moore, I don't want him to be my wider. That's where I was getting. He is ahead of D.K. Metcalfe. But I don't think he is a consistent player. I don't think he is necessarily guaranteed to be even the number one for his team. Whereas D.K. McCaff profiles, I mean, we know he's the number one wide receiver for his team. There's no other option on that roster. What would your pick be, Mike? I know that Jason and I, a little higher on DK McCab. I would be totally fine with taking the shot on Terry Kill here. I'm also okay going a slightly maybe safer route with, you know, you could go Devonthe Smith. If you wanted to, you could swing for the fences at Tetero McMillan in the fourth.

I personally, I would be going with Tyreek Hill. It's not a comfortable spot to have him as your wide receiver one, but you have to factor in. We have Trey McBride, so we have that positional advantage. And with it being, again, being 10 team, I think you can kind of swing right there on Tyreek of what if he comes back and he's a top five wide receiver. You can make up some of your depth and, you know, like where, you know, guys like Metcalf and Sutton. They're good players, but if they hit their ceiling, they're not hitting a Tyree Kill ceiling. Meanwhile, we can find some pieces that maybe can fill it out. I'm super excited. I agree. And I love it. We took Tyree Kill. Travion went next, probably just to get some air time.

The Falcon wants to get trivia. Oh, no, he likes him. That's why. Yeah. DJ Moore, Devante Adams. Josh Allen, so first quarterback off the board, turning in the fourth round and a 10 team. That's really good. Yeah, and then Lamar Jackson off the board. We're back on the clock. I was actually rooting for Cortland Sutton to make it to this pick because I feel like Sutton is an actual borderline wide receiver one. But Metcalf didn't go. Yeah, Metcalf is still there. To me, he is significantly ahead in my rankings. As my as a wide receiver too, like I. If this was my team, I would have taken D.K. Metcalfe over Tyreek Hill. But if you do that, Tyreek does not make it back. And D.K. did. So to me, considering we missed out on those second round wide receivers because of your brilliant Chase Brown pick. That's super smart. Tyree Kill and D.K. Metcalfe in the fourth and fifth are great to pair with Gibbs, Chase Brown, and Trey McBride. I like the way the roster's turning up. Would you have gone? I mean, I'll take Metcalf. Jason seems strong there, and I'll go with that. You hit the right button.

I did. I did. See, the plus means draft and the little teeny paper means list. List. Yeah. Got it. I would. Would you have gone Sutton over Metcalf? I would have gone Sutton over Metcalfe and I would have gone Tedaroa McMillan McMillan McMillan with that pick over both D.K. and Sutton. Yeah, I probably, I would have been really comfortable there too. But Tyreekill and D.K. Metcalfe, I mean, if there's any age requirements for our wide receivers to get in, We have that to those requirements. They're not going to be IDed, no. Jemir Gibbs, Chase Brown, the running backs, Trey McBride at tight end, Tyreek L.K. METCAF, the wide receivers. If you look at the, I guess we're calling it the mistake. Not to me. And you say that's Brian Thomas Jr. instead of Chase Brown. That means our third round is Jonathan Taylor instead of, you don't get McBride. So how do you feel how it?

played out? Would you still have preferred Brian Thomas with the wide receivers we ended up with? Moving from Chase Brown to Jonathan Taylor. I have my Taylor concerns. You're the most bullish. Yeah, I'm very bullish on Taylor. I would love to have Taylor. But getting McBride while we have two great running backs and two very good wide receivers, I think it's worked out. It probably is even better than had we taken one of those. Because Metcalf, to me, I see Metcalf. He's my wide receiver 17 and he's your wide receiver 14. Getting that in the fifth round solidifies a roster. So I like it right now. We're really balanced after Metcalf went McMillan and then Jameson, who also would have been in consideration for me if it was just my pick. Jaden Daniels, Camara, Hertz, and Sutton rounding out the fifth round in our 10 team mock. We've got.