All Episodes

June 18, 2025 • 73 mins

Join Tom Strachan and Andrew Erickson as they take part in a live Underdog Best Ball Mania draft, breaking down strategies and players that they are targeting in the contest!

Timestamps: (May be off due to ads)

Intro - 0:00:00

Underdog Best Ball Mania Contest & Strategy Overview - 0:00:10

Players Who Will Rise in ADP & First Round Fades - 0:05:40

FantasyPros Best Ball Streams - 0:13:16

1.02 - Bijan Robinson - 0:14:12

2.11 & 3.02 - Garrett Wilson & Trey McBride - 0:18:59

4.11 & 5.02 - Jaylen Waddle & Xavier Worthy - 0:24:56

FantasyPros Best Ball Draft Kit - 0:29:23

6.11 & 7.02 - Justin Fields & Ricky Pearsall - 0:30:06

8.11 & 9.02 - Kyler Murray & Jordan Mason - 0:36:41

10.11 & 11.02 - Rashid Shaheed & Bhayshul Tuten - 0:41:39

12.11 & 13.02 - Trey Benson & Isaiah Likely - 0:47:55

14.11 & 15.02 - Braelon Allen & Rico Dowdle - 0:53:52

16:11 & 17:02 - Dyami Brown & Tutu Atwell - 1:00:47

18:11 - Kavontae Turpin - 1:06:04

Draft Recap & Final Thoughts - 1:08:30

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It is the Fantasy Pro's Best Ball Show. With myself,
Tom Strauchen, and Andrew Eriksson. We are back for another
week of best Ball. Tonight, we will be hopping in
a live draft under Doug's Best ball Mania contest. Because
when you talk best ball, it is very hard not
to talk about Best Ball Maynia. It's quickly become one
of the flagship contests of the Best Ball era. Andrew,

(00:21):
how much are you looking forward to getting into Best
Ball Streets SNY on Underdog?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm looking forward to it a lot. This is actually
the first one that I have entered into under my account.
I didn't do a Coach Speak Index dual Best ball
Mania draft a couple of weeks ago. That was a
lot of fun, But it's the first one that I'm
entering a bin on the DraftKings Streets a little bit
doing a lot of drafts on Fast Draft as well,
So it'll be fun to dive headfirst into Underdog and

(00:47):
see what all the craziness and ADPs is all about. Apparently,
what I hear from the grape vine is that wide
receivers are they go crazy, especially even though even though
it's only half PPR. The drafters can't help themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, So last year was kind of peak craziness for
wide receiver on underdog. Last year there was like twenty
four of the top thirty six picks where wide receivers
there were only two maybe three running backs in the
first round. This year it's gotten a little bit better,
but as you get later on into the draft, there's
still a huge amount of wide receivers going in the

(01:22):
top one hundred picks, to the point where there's two
more wide receivers going in the top one hundred than
last year. So wide receiver is a very firsty position
on underdog and it always can take you by surprise
if they're not ready for it. The cliff edge kind
of comes around about the Michael Pittman range. Once we
see Michael Pittman creeping up into the rankings and the

(01:44):
ADP that's when we need to be kind of happy
with what we've got so far or ready to take
some swings, because it can get real ugly, real quick
if you want to jump into the drafts. We are
just waiting on a few people, So jump into the
underdog BBM draft right now. There are five spaces we
are in the thirty second lobby. After last time we

(02:05):
drafted and Andrew was out of controls, we decided we
didn't want to put him under the pressure of a
twenty second clock, so we are rolling with thirty seconds tonight.
For anyone unfamiliar, this contest has a cool two million
dollars up top, finish inside the top thirty and you
making at least fifty grand. If you make the final,
which is a five hundred and thirty nine person final,

(02:27):
you'll make three seven hundred and fifty dollars, which feels
like quite a specific amount, but it's actually exactly the
amount that if you put one hundred and fifty entries
into this contest, that's how much it would cost you
seven hundred and fifty. So if you want a max center,
making the final will mean that you break even at
a bare minimum. And the other thing that we have

(02:49):
is a regular season prize. So at the end of
Week fourteen, which is the end of the Best Ball
regular season, this will pay out to the team who
scores the most points across back at one hundred thousand dollars,
which is a nice bonus. We have seen teams into
previous years when there was more up top for regular
season prize really try to cater to that build towards

(03:11):
that specifically. Now they've brought the prize structure and missed
down a little bit so they can pay out more
to the finalists, which seems to be making most people happy.
But basically, if you finish inside the top ten thousand
in regular season points total, you'll make at least one
hundred dollars. Andrew, do you think there's a way to
build for both a regular season and the like Week seventeen.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
There probably is a way to do it, but it
seems like you're really trying to thread the needle where
you're trying to get the best of both worlds. Where
we talk about how you can best optimize for those
playoff weeks to really not only get the highest scoring
players with correlation, but at the same time being unique
in certain ways that we talked about in the DraftKings

(03:57):
Bestball Tournament and some of the strategies we talked about
last week. So I think that there's definitely some overlap
where if a lot of your teams advance, then chances
are your probably in the running potentially for the highest
scoring team through all the weeks. But at the same time,
it seems like you're probably better off trying to hone

(04:17):
in on one of them, because I'd imagine that the
teams that are the highest scoring cumulatively, you know, they're
gonna look a little bit different than the ones that
end up winning that week seventeen, you know that playoff week.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, I see, remember two years ago. We didn't do
a regular season prize last year, but two years ago
the team that won the regular season prize was out
in the first round of the playoffs. Because it can
just take so much. Look, and we know how difficult
the Best Ball playoffs are. For instance, on Best Ball Mania,
in the draft we do tonight, two or twelve teams

(04:54):
will advance to the first round of the playoffs. Then
after that, if you advance like to advance out of
the next stage, only one out of thirteen advance out
of that pod, and then one out of sixteen in
the semifinals to get yourself to the five hundred and
thirty nine seat final. So there really is a lot
that goes into making the perfect Best Ball roster construction.

(05:18):
And we talked last week and if people haven't checked
out that show, they should really go back because we
talked about all the best Best Ball strategies that you
could apply this year, the ones we like once we
don't like, and we've talked about the ones that have
had historical success. There's also loads in the Best Ball
guide over on Fantasy Pros about what has had historical success.
So we're going to try and bring all that together.

(05:39):
But Andrew, at the heart of it, it comes down
to player takes, like I know that this is your
time of year. You thrive, like every single day when
I open Twitter, there's another highly detailed thread from yourself,
and one of those that you put out a day
or two ago was about five players who will rise
up draft boards, and you had five guys who you
seem quite would be moving up. Getting any kind of

(06:02):
closing line value on those players who jump in ADP
can be quite a good thing in Best Ball as well.
So those players out of the five cmc Rashie, Rice Jamison, Williams,
DeAndre Swift, Deebo Samuel who is your most must have
in any draft?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I think right now it's probably trying to get exposure
to Christian McCaffrey where he used to be going late
or late in the first round, maybe even early second round.
Right now, I think it's going to be a situation
where he ends up going into the middle of first
round because there's just gonna be enough people that convince
themselves that it's all about the upside. That's how you
win these types of tournaments is upside bets. And we

(06:43):
know that Christian McCaffrey, when he's healthy on the field
in the Kyle Shanahan offense, that he can score more
points than any other player that takes the field, especially
in a half PPR where he scores a bunch of touchdowns.
He can catch passes out of the backfield. So Christian
McCaffrey for me, would be someone that I mean, if
someone took him number one overall, would you really be

(07:03):
so again, it would be very shocking, but you understand,
you'd understand the play behind going getting him first, because hey,
he was first last year, and if he's healthy, then
you could argue in week to week rankings that he's
going to be in that top three conversation. So I
think the McCaffrey is someone that I don't think that
he's going to go down in price unless we get
more news that's bad regarding any of his injuries. So

(07:27):
McCaffrey for me would be someone that I think that
you should be trying to get exploture two now. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
So I think there's two parts I want to just
touch on there. So firstly, there's the game theory side
of it. Nobody has taken Christie McCaffrey at the first
and if you think about when you draft out of
the first, if you know, apparently nobody has ever gotten
the one oh one, but if you're lucky enough to
get the one on one, it can feel quite samey
when you draft there because for guys who come back

(07:53):
on the turn of the two three, you find yourself
picking the same guys, and quite a lot of your
teams can look quite similar. You pulled Christian McCaffrey all
the way up to one O one, immediately you would
have a very different roster to everybody else drafting from
the one oh one, even if you just took the
guys at the two three turn, like Josh Jacobs T.
Higgins who normally fall there. So I think that's an

(08:16):
interesting theory. But equally, I think it's kind of one
of those things where I just really struggle with CMC
in general. I think you're completely right that now is
the time to get the exposure because he is only
going up in price, and the fact that he took
part in OTA's mini camp, even in drills which he

(08:36):
didn't need to great, he's healthy, He's completely fair. That's fine,
But we're talking about a running back who really hasn't
stayed healthy for the last few years, and apart from
one season when he first got to San Francisco, it's
been quite up and down. And I'm not necessarily worried

(08:58):
about the Achilles injury, but it also just feels fair
to say, could he get another injury? Are we really
banking on him to stay completely healthy? So I would
like to not fade anyone in the first round of
drafts this year. Like I mean, for me, I am
a mass enterer to drafts. Like every minute, I've currently

(09:19):
got about ninety different slow drafts on the go, and
it's a special kind of pain that you have to
be sadest enough to enjoy. But I don't want to
fade guys at the top of the draft. It's like
they're all in the first round for good reason. So
you take your stands further down and like if I've
got less than five percent of any guy in the

(09:40):
first round, then I'm going to be upset. Is there
anyone in the first round that you'd be willing to
completely fade at this point? Andrew?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
So there are two guys that come to name for me.
So one is Sigon Markley just not drafting him this
year where he's going in his ADP just because of
the workload volume, just the track. I'm trusting the process
with Barkley where just don't draft the guy coming off
the massive workload as an older running back. Usually that
works out. It's totally possible that he breaks the narrative

(10:08):
he does a Ladanelian Tomlinson is equal. Elliott did it
I think five or six years ago when he was
coming off a massive workload. He ended up turning back
another top five running back season. So is it possible
for Barkley to do it? Very much so. But he's
not gonna be as good as it was last year.
I feel really strong only about that, just given how
a storic he was so Barkley for me and the
other guy would probably be I'm on Ross Saint Brown.

(10:29):
I just very pessimistic about the if him just remaining
the center of the Lions offense. It's a new offensive
coordinator coming in. I think Jamison Williams is going to
take on a massive role, bigger than he had last year.
More like we saw in the second half of the
season when he came back from his suspension, where we
saw the target share kind of flattened between Sam Laporta.

(10:50):
A'mon Ross, Saint Brown, and Jamison Williams. They were all
kind of seeing around twenty one twenty two percent of
the targets. So I think that I'm on Ros Saint Brown.
I think he's a little bit over vowed, and I
like Drake London more than Saint Brown's think that he
could be the wide receiver one overall. And I know
that Drake London usually goes after Saint Brown, who's usually
a late first round pick. And I think Jared Goff

(11:10):
there are enough holes in his projection this year where
if his touchdown rate comes back down to Earth, they're
playing more outdoor games this season. He's not a quarterback
that can win with mobility. So if i'mon Ross Saint
Brown is the most expensive Lion, or excuse me, the
most expensive Lions receiver. I just feel better about taking
some of the value with some of these, either Laporta
or Jamison Williams. Later on, I did mention James Williams

(11:31):
is a riser. I think that because Saint Brown is
still the viewed as number one wide receiver. I still
think that Jamison can go up in ADP, but I
think that it's capped. And I've seen this. I've kind
of studied this throughout the years looking at number two
wide receivers that there's like a it's like a firewall
almost where they can't get so expensive because at the

(11:52):
end of the day, they're still viewed as the number
two on their team and that keeps their price relatively
in check. Now, sometimes it does get insane to control
gave Davis a couple of years ago, but besides that,
usually number two receivers are a little bit cheaper.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah, definitely, And like for me, I'm kind of on
the other side of this one a little bit more
as we're just waiting for two more people to jump
into this draft before we get going. So we will
get going soon. And if you want a draft alongside
is do jump in now. It's the BBM thirty second
clock that we'll be doing tonight. I'm more on via
Momra saying brownside. I think that Jmo for how volatile

(12:28):
he is, only thirty five picks or so cheaper than
a Monra, and I look at a Monra. Even last year,
which was kind of viewed as a bit of a
down year for him. Yes, he dropped like what two
hundred and fifty receiving yards from the previous year, which
was twenty twenty three when he went absolutely nuclear fifteen
hundred receiving yards, ten touchdowns. But he made up for

(12:49):
it with twelve touchdowns last year. And he said over
one hundred and forty targets in three consecutive seasons. So
there's plenty of reason why I just can talk myself
into a more. But it does feel like, Andrew, You're
probably on the side of quite a few sharp people
who seem to be a little bit worried about mom Rab.
But I'm not there in a minute. We are just

(13:10):
waiting on one last person before we kind of get
into that though. I've just got to mention, but if
you like this content, myself, and Andrew, we are here
every single Monday all the way up until draft slock.
Every other week, we'll be doing these live drafts different platforms.
We've done Drafters already, we'll be on FFPC soon. We've
done DraftKings as well. We're going to talk about strategy, stacks, sleepers.

(13:33):
Last week we talked about micro strategies and roster construction.
Every couple of weeks we'll be live drafting and breaking
down our picks in real time. And if you're in
the drafts with us, we want to know. We want
to know what you think about our team, and we
want to know if you want us to take a
look at your team and review them, because we're here
to help you build the best best ball teams you can.
So tune in every Monday at four pm Eastern on

(13:54):
Twitch at twitch dot tv forward Slash Fantasy Pros to
get the most practical, best ball advice on the web. Andrew,
we are getting very close. Now we are in the
draft room and I see we've got the one oh two.
So what are you hoping falls to us at the
one oh two.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
At the one oh two, well'll be to see what
one o one is. Probably Jamar Chase. That's usually what
ends up happening in these drafts, especially with his ADP
one point one. So basically you don't see a lot
of people get away from him Bijon. For me, you
think that he's my RB one. I don't think we
need to overthink it. High on the Falcons offense, I

(14:33):
think they can do a lot. So do you have
any pushback with that? If not, we can we can
get the pick in. No.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
I love Bijeon this year. I think that it just
makes all the sense in the world. Bijan has been
just an ascending player in various years. Last week last
week or maybe maybe it was another show we did,
I talked about like how I've been looking at the
archetype of hero RB what I really want from those guys,

(14:58):
and it comes down to goal line work, target share,
and shar volume. And when you look at all the
guys in the first twenty four picks among running backs,
the only guy who is above average in all three
categories is Bjean Robinson. So that just makes him an
incredibly easy click for me.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, my RB one for a reason. I think that
it's funny because he's been someone that's kind of been
We're waiting for him to break out, right like may break.
That's probably not the right word, but to really put
together that Oh my god, this guy just put together
this RB one full fledged season. Even last year it
was really Gibbs that put together that really strong wrong

(15:39):
even though Bijean was kind of right hot on his heels.
So I think this is the year though, if the
Falcons offense really can take a step forward, Michael Pennix
that he can really take off. And I think now
we can have to think about, all right, is Bijon
our hero RB? Is this the strategy we're going to
go with. I think that something that's important to do
is when you make your first pick. Okay, now, are
we seeing a strategy start too kind of develop here?

(16:01):
And Bijon definitely checks the boxes of it here RB.
So maybe it's time we start to look at some
of these receivers tight end maybe probably not e Laite
quarterback in a round two a little a little aggressive. So, uh,
some tight ends and receivers coming up next.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Yeah, and I know we've got a couple of people
in the chat in the draft with us. We've got
Periah two. I've definitely butchered that name, but they're at
the one oh six took justin Jefferson dread Es saying
I would rather have Gibbs over Barkley. That's a conversation
which I've heard a couple of times recently, and I
fully understand it. I can understand the people who push

(16:39):
back against it because of the worry about David Montgomery.
But when you look at sha talent of what we
saw last year, it's kind of hard to doubt Jimmier
Gibbs could be VRB one overall. Andrew, what if if
we got any kind of like negative news towards David Montgomery,
could you make that argument to push Gibbs up to
one oh one.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
So one on one, I don't probably, I think I
think he probably could. Gibbs is just an uber talented player,
and the fact that he's used so heavily in the
receiving game, I think is kind of what can separate
him from the pack. Now in half PPR, it's not
felt nearly as much, it's not as substantial as a benefit,

(17:21):
But at the same time, I do think that, and
he's taking after Alvin Kamara all those years where the
guy catches again, not to the extent of Kamara, because
I think Kamara was averaging ninety receptions per year something
bonkers like that. Gibbs isn't quite up to that level,
but he's going to be a focal point of the
offense whether the Lions are trailing and games, whether they're winning.

(17:42):
In games, we know Gibs gonna be on the field,
and that if this offense does take a step back
in terms of red zone opportunities, well, Gibbs is so
explosive that he creates his own red zone opportunities. So
I'm not going to argue against somebody with the talent.
I think if you're drafting one hundred and fifty teams,
then probably doesn't make a lot of sense to take
him so aggressively over the players in ADP. But if
you're only drafting a handful of teams and hey, this

(18:04):
is my shot to get Gibbs, then yeah, I think
it's I think you'd be a little bit more defiant
and concrete with your player takes, especially at the top
of the board when you're only drafting handful of teams
versus the Sikos that are going one fifty.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Yeah, definitely, there's a huge amount of he said for
you know, it's get you guys. If you're going to
draft four teams, then you absolutely should be taking the
guys who make you feel happy, the guys that you're
going to enjoy. If you building a portfolio. And there's
an article in the Best Ball Draft kick Guide that
I wrote about this is like spreading your exposure and
when we want to do it and what we should

(18:38):
be looking for with it. But basically, yeah, I don't
see the need if I'm building out a portfolio to
take heavy stands on first round guys and just going
back to Jamia Gibbs. Like last year six games with
over twenty PPR points. Four of those came when David
Montgomery was on the field, So there's every reason I
believe you can hit that ceiling again. We're a few

(18:58):
picks away. Nothing two crazy, it's kind of happened so far.
Lad McConkie, AJ Brown going off. We're kind of approaching
the tier where it gets back to us where we
kind of have to decide do we want to go
jewel running back? Oh, we're gonna go dip down at
one of these wide receivers T Higgins, Rashi Rice, who's
up several picks in ADP over last week. And then

(19:20):
it's Garrett Wilson, Marvin Harrison. Before you get to the
kind of next range, Andrew, what's your gut feeling of
what you'd like to fall.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I want to go with the wide receivers. I think
that we're shaping up for a hero RB build, which is,
you know what I kind of talked about after we
drafted Bijon, and that's kind of how I feel. I start,
we're starting to get a drop off a little bit
at the running back position. We're getting Chase Brown, Josh
Jacobs of the two Got top guys, Rashie Rice. That
was another guy talked about. Is ADP rising. This is expensive?

Speaker 1 (19:51):
So t Higgins, Garrett Wilson, Marvin Harrison. I'd be quite
happy with t Higgins at ADP unless you make the
case for anywhere.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
I really like you Wilson like that. That's probably my
guy here. So let's go with Wilson, go with We'll
do it.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
I know you like Justin Fields, Al I just Fields.
I probably don't have enough Garrett Wilson at a minute,
because I've been taking plenty of plenty of Tea Higgins.
I also like Chase Brown, Bookie. I think Trey McBride
is somebody I'm willing to take quite a big stand
on Can I talk you into Tray McBride in Roulph
three for a bit of a balanced start with one
running back tight End.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's what I'm saying. As long as we get the
Tray McBride touchdown regression this year, we need these touchdowns
from Tray McBride, I am. I am cool with that.
So it's interesting that I'm just looking at this now
McBride and Marvin Harrison are kind of going back to
back in terms of their ADP. Yeah, so it makes
it really I guess if you're picking at the turn,

(20:48):
you or you could probably pick both of them at
that two three turn. Do you have a? Do you
have a? Again, we went with McBride in this one,
but I would have also been very much okay with
Marvin Harris. Do you lean McBride because of the position
advantage you're looking at with tight End or Harrison? You
really want to buy that second your breakout? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, I'm good with Tray McBride because for me, it
comes down to what Train McBride did without touchdowns last year,
with just the one rushing touchdown and the one fumble
recovery touchdown was outrageous, Like he gave us so much,
and he gave us those huge spike weeks, and he
gave us in Week seventeen when it mattered the very

(21:31):
most as well. So Train McBride's somebody I think can
definitely a cent to the next level if he had
positive touchdown regression. I think the Cardinals in general or
a team I want to better, and I do like
Marvin Harrison, but I'm just a little more confident in
Tray McBride. This is the players around him compared with
Marvin Harrison compared with the players around him. I think,

(21:52):
does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh for sure, I get that.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
And yeah, just in the comments, we've got comments saying
Rice's ADP is going nuts. It really is just kind
of like ascending a lot and like Andrew, so give
me the thirty second sales pitch on why you'd still
be buying Rashie Rice at the two ten where he
went in this draft.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
You saw what he did last year when he was healthy.
He was basically a wide receiver one his target chair
I think led the NFL insane three games. So it's
just a lot of extrapolating. That's what gets me concerned
about it.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
It's a lot of extrapolates.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
So I know you said, hey, give me the salesmanch
why you're going to be drafting him here, And I
don't know if I'm going to be drafting at this price.
I really hope that this doesn't trickle down in a
redraft where he's a expensive because we were talking about him.
I think we got him again by accident on draft kings.
I think we got him at the three four turn
and a full PPR site. And to see him now

(22:55):
going inside the top three rounds at the back end
of the second round, it's just there's a lot of
concern about I just have reservations about guys that come
off of these season ending injuries where they're spending part
of their offseason rehabbing. It's different little Bitrom McCaffrey where
he's not rehabbing, so he could have came back for
the playoffs, but the knee injury at the end of

(23:15):
the year against the Bills in that snow game, They're like,
we're shutting him down, like he's not coming back. But Rice,
you know, part of his offseason has been rehabbing. And
when I've looked at receivers that have busted in the past.
Usually it's guys that were projecting to take this monster leap.
They usually go at the end of that wide receiver
one tier and then they ultimately, you know, don't deliver

(23:38):
what was promised of the hype. It's just when the
hype becomes so massive, you run into issues. And it's
as simple as well, Rice wasn't a hundred percent coming
back from his injury, and what can hurt you the
most is if he's playing, but he's not at one
hundred percent. So it's not like you can just you
can swap somebody else in for him. So that's my concern.
I think best ball wise, it is a little different
of a conversation just because if he's fully healthy weeks fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, Okay,

(24:02):
now it's a little bit more of a conversation. But Redraft,
it's it's much tougher for me to make that click
this high.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, I just kind of struggled because all that extrapolation
occurs when Xavier Worthy wasn't ready, and obviously he picked
up the pace and he gone along the season and
his splits without Rashie Rice a notable Obviously, Travis Kelcey
found a little bit better of a groover as the
season went on as well, but Hollywood Brown also missed
all this time, so I just find it a little

(24:30):
difficult to expect him to suddenly have thirty thirty four
percent target share like he did over those opening weeks.
But I'm not necessarily clicking Xavier Worthy as well. A
lot part of me just feels like, at some point
we've got to talk about Matt Naggie and his offenses
and the detrimental effect it's had on the Chiefs over
the last couple of years. But we can come back

(24:52):
to that another time. We are one pickaway and there's
one guy in the que and I'm okay with it.
We've talked about him a few times last year, to
our detriment. We drafted him on several teams last year
and it didn't work out for us. But what is
it that makes you want to pull Jalen Waddle up
ahead of Courtland, certain, Dj Moore, Zavy Worthy, George Pickens

(25:15):
quickly in ten seconds.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
I think that he's just going to bounce back. He
has two proven of a player. What he did for
his first three seasons all thousand yard campaigns. And if
we're projecting and pending doom for one of these Miami
Dolphins receivers, it's not gonna be Wattle. I don't think.
I think that would be more likely with to Tyree
Kill that is the one that basically would crumble and
collapse to see his value kind of creator. So Waddle

(25:37):
for me, I think it gets back to what he
showed us his first two years in the NFL, where
basically he was a fantasy wide receiver one and he
did it one year it was with a ton of volume.
The next year he did it with receiving yardage and efficiency.
So Waddle to me, twenty six years old, I just
I can't quit Jalen Wattle. Maybe that's the quote of
this stream, It just can't. I just can't.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Man.

Speaker 2 (25:58):
I don't know why. I just I'm obsessed. And I
get that he gets hurt all the time, which is
probably been a big impact on why he's been underperforming.
But I just I would rather take a while in hell.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah, So we're one pick away, but we'll come back
to Wattle in a second. So we've got one running back, one,
two wide receivers on a tight end like in this
range here, I feel like we should probably take another
wide receiver and then deal with running back in a
little bit. Xavier Worthy's fallen ADP is an effect of
Rashi Rice. I'd be happy scooping up that volume that here,

(26:31):
or it'd be George Pickensmith.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
That scoop up Xavier Worthy. I think that we're seeing
the as Rice goes up and up and up, we're
now seeing Worthy go down and down and down. As
you know, that's kind of how things work with the
ebbs and flows.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
So yeah, well, dread Us is mentioned him a chat.
You've been obsessed with Bottle and I do want to
go back to the Bottle pipe because like, I really
liked Bottle. Last year, I drafted a lot of him,
and he probably the biggest stance I had in their
first round last year was Faden Tyree killed to about
four maybe five percent across four hundred teams or so

(27:06):
that I drafted, But Waddle led the team in yards
p target last year, leed the team in yards per reception.
You just need the ball more. And when Touur was
out there, he ranked third in past attempts per game.
But the splits were massive when he wasn't playing like
Waddle average four point seven more PPR points and games
with Tour last year, So I don't think it's necessarily

(27:28):
just even needing a bounce back. It's just needing to
to stay healthy, which of course is quite a dice
roll you find because you're betting on Waddle to be
a good pick this year, that you're ending up with
Tour being above your kind of consensus.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
I'm not, And that's something that I try to I
try to recognize because sometimes because we see this a
lot of the time, where we don't necessarily see the
breakout wide receiver paired with the breakout quarterback, I think
that we like that to happen, but sometimes it doesn't
really work out that way, just based on the way
that receiving ends up scoring. You know, is a receiver
winning because he's seeing a lot of volume. Is he

(28:03):
scoring a lot? I think on the touchdown side of things,
it's hard to get those breakouts that are not correlated.
Tua to me, yes, he's a I think that he's
a stackable quarterback. If you draft a Dolphins receiver, I
think it would make sense because all that he's going
to do is provide value with his passing arm. But
I wouldn't say I'm above consensus on too, because I'm
just betting on Waddle and I don't think Tua. If

(28:25):
he's just supporting really one fantasy wide receiver as a
top fifteen guy, let's say Hill falls off, gets traded
or what have you, I don't think that means too Okay, well,
he can be a top ten quarterback. He can leave
the NFL in passing yards again like he did a
couple of years ago. I don't really see that with him,
and maybe it's a little bit of hedging on my part.
I really like James and Williams, but I'm not this

(28:45):
massive Jared Goff person in terms of drafting him. I
do think, though, when the planets align, when you're talking
about breakout receivers and quarterbacks, if you do feel really
confident about both players, then I think that's like an
opportunity where hey, this is where you really should be
Bullet you know, if you really like the quarterback in
a vacuum, you like the receiver in a vacuum, and
then oh wait, they're on the same team as well. Okay,

(29:06):
I really need to be bullish on this situation and
off the top of my head, I'm trying to I
guess like the Jets again, I really like er Wilson.
I really like Field, So maybe that's an opportunity for
you know, we do need a quarterbacks still, so maybe
Fields can be someone that we look to target. But
just kind of thinking about breakouts like that.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, if you're enjoying this kind of talk and you
want more of mine and Andrew's player takes and all
our takes on what kind of best ball strategies that
we use in then Fantasy Pros Best Ball Draft Kit
is what you need. Go over at fantasypros dot com
Forward Slash best Ball. It's one stop shot for ranking stacks,
ADP trends, rookie breakdowns, roster construction strategy. I have poured
my heart and soul in some of those roster construction

(29:44):
strategy articles. And it also includes exclusive strategy content for
Fast Draft, which is a new best ball app where
draft to take just five minutes. Andrew Zimbo streets constantly
download Fast Draft app and use code Fantasy Pros when
something up to get your first depositive matchup to fifty.
That's up to ten drafts for three, and I bet
you'll see Andrew and at least one of those. So

(30:06):
we're coming up to us. We've got two picks before
is We've gone with a pretty traditional hero RB build
here of running back, three wide receivers and one tight end.
There's a bit of a running back tier coming up
with coleeb Johnson, Aaron Jones, David Montgomery, Isaiah Pacheco, just
In Fields to sit him there, though, we could stack
him up with Garrett Wilson, or we could try pushing
him around the corner if you wanted to and take

(30:27):
another player first. What stands out to you here, Andrew
as we are now on the clock.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Well, when I'm comparing because I have my rankings uploaded
here into Underdog, which you can do, and a lot
of the guys I have ranked are not on the
board in terms of their ADPs. So we can go.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Should we want to get for direct? Do you like Debo?

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I don't like Diebo?

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Oh sorry, we're going to time out. Andrew. You got
six seconds shields bring him home. So you're way above
considers on just In Fields. But I don't hate that pick.
I think that you can make a very sensible argument
that he deserves to go around where Joe Burrow does
because Joe Burro is gonna have to catch lining in
a bottle for a second straight season to really pay

(31:12):
off his current costs. But we need to pick here.
If you can just tuggle to ADP, let's take a
look at the players at ADP after we made that reach.
So I quite like Ricky pearsall and then it's kind
of getting a bit murky for me. Are you buying
the Ricky Pearsoll year two?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
I think that he's intriguing. I think that the connection
with Juwan Jennings is something that I don't want. And
there's a reason why Juan Jennings is going so much more.
He's been a big riser I think over the last
month or so two. So I don't mind. Pierce again
is another wide receiver that we could draft. I like
Jayden Reid as well. Again, we talked about not going
too elite quarterbacks. If we went Mahomes here fields and

(31:53):
Mahomes we have worthy in justin fields, We're not like
super super elite. I kind of want to do you
want to experiment a little bit?

Speaker 1 (32:00):
I don't Because we reached so much on Justin Fields,
I feel like we've got to take a wide receiver here.
We've got three seconds. I'll let you choose which one.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
All right, it's Pierce all Piercell's pig.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
Okay. See, now if we maybe if we'd played it
a bit more off ADP and we'd taken my home spare,
and maybe we'd been able to get Justin Fields back
to us. I think that's probably the way to do
this one. But because we pulled fields up ahead to
get that stack, okay, And like generally speaking, like I
kind of view best ball drafts as like you know,

(32:31):
you've got draft capital buckets. You could spend your money
however you see fit. But then it's been mindful of it.
And because we've made such a reach on quarterback ahead
of ADP coming to the chat saying that is aggressive.
For sure. Yeah, I think that's fine. But now we
can push quarterback, we have to say justin fields has
been a real hit. And so now we're looking at, okay,

(32:54):
what can we do in round fourteen? What can we
do in around fifteen? And maybe it means that we
end up with a two QB build because of it
instead of a three QB build, which can feel a
little patchy with just In Fields, But I mean, it
was a guy who gave us two different games last
year where you had two Russian touchdowns. So I'm always
down to get a little bit different because I think

(33:15):
that it can get very easy to fall into the
Best Ball rhythms of just building similar rosters all the time,
and bringing Justin Fields up that high should definitely give
us a slightly different roster. But what is it about
Jayden red that makes you so confident in him? Because
I know a lot of people are feeling doubts around
the Packers' offense in general. You know it's Josh Jacobs

(33:38):
and then everybody starts feeling a little bit worried. His
fits been in your ear and convinced you on something
about Jayden Reid.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
I think that I just I really like the week
to week spike potential with Jayden Reid. I think that
the Packers are one of these receiver rooms that really
is better in Best Ball because they don't really project
as Okay, this guy every single week is going to
leave the team in targets. You don't really feel that
way about the Packers' receivers. It really is a receiver

(34:05):
room that you're kind of throwing your hands up in
the air trying to figure out, Okay, who is the
main guy. I think that they would like Red to
be that player that maybe they funnel the most targets too.
He's playing from the slot, but at the same time,
he's not running a full allotment a route, so that
becomes problematic in terms of his week to week projection.
But we've seen the ceiling with him in a healthy
Jordan Love where he can really spike, and we saw

(34:28):
that at the beginning of the season last year when
Jordan Love was healthy. They were really run heavy last year.
I think a lot of that had to do with
I don't think Love was at one hundred percent for
most of the season. So even if they table back
the rushing a little bit, I'll take it a little bit
of passing. We talked about the Packers defense, I believe
last week talking about no Jai r Alexander maybe some
issues here and Tom, I have to say, I really

(34:50):
appreciate you defending my egregious reach on justin Field to
the best that you could, because I know it's definitely
a big reach. And hey, if he scored twenty plenty
points per game. It won't matter where we got it.
We'll just be uh, we'll be victory lapping. But yes,
going back, it probably would have been made more sense
to take my homes first and then and then take
fields later on.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
I'm kind of okay with it because at this point
in the off season it's still about seeing how the
drafts land to I don't think there are many people
doing best wall drafts at this point in the season
who aren't going to draft twenty to thirty teams at
a minimum. So for me, getting into a different roster
construction is something I like doing. I've got a team

(35:35):
on Drafters where I'm in a slow draft of a
minute where i decided that the only running backs so
that we're going to take was rookie running backs, just
to see how it turned out and just to see
how good this year's class could be. Admittedly, that's only
in a two dollars draft, so it's not like I'm
blowing all my budget for the year, but trying out

(35:56):
these things, pulling players up at times, trying to get
a little bit unique, and ultimately when we talk about
justin fields and what we hope he can be as
a fantasy pick. We are looking for that nuclear outcome,
and if that happens, it really won't matter that we
reach thirty spots on him. If he fails or if
he's mediocre, then that's where it might sting us. And
that's where we can try to work things out as

(36:17):
we go, and we can we can balance that by
looking for different stacks. We can balance that by looking
for different values. We've got a chat point in the
chat saying, Praira zero zero two going, I'm going with
Raiders stack. What could go wrong? I love the Raiders
stack this yea, just give me Geno, give me brought Bowers,
give me Jacobe like, I'm fully down with that. We

(36:39):
are two picks away now, Andrew. I'm not going to
curse anything or say anything, but we could definitely, we
could definitely circle back to a point we've already made
or the running backs. I know you like Jordan Mason.
I know that there's plenty of interest out there in
a Macca rag Buka, who picked up some really positive
speak over the last couple of weeks with Baker Mayfield

(37:00):
and Mike Evans both talking him up. Then as you
go down Keyon Coleman, somebody who fits is really really
high on for this year. Camp's Catabo is somebody who
lots of people love within the fantasy football industry. So
this feels like a really fun round. I'd be quite happy.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Mahomes almost made it back to us. He almost made
it all the way.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
I mean, if Mahomes had made it back, that would
have been great. But okay, so what about Kyler Murray
for our second quarterback? And then we'll leave it. Does
he have the same bye weekcause.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
Just now it does not bye we gate, So okay, well.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
I'd be good with Kyler Murray and then we could
push this around the corner and the guys who are
like Booker, Jordan Mason and potentially Jaden Higgins. Who would
your priority be?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Ali Jordan Mason. I think that he just has a
ton of touchdown upside in the Vikings offense that we
expect to be very efficient this year. So I know
he's the top of the he's the top of ADP
and yeah, he's one of the top guys in my
rankings in terms of running back.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I'm good with it. I Mean, what we've got
now is a real traditional hero running back kind of build.
We took our Hero running back in round one with
Bijon Robinson, who we both think can BEVRB one overall.
He's the RB one overall in my rankings up on
Fantasypros dot Com. Andrews E yours as well. Yeah, he's on.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yes, he is my number one range running back. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
And the Hero running back strategy over the course of
years we dipped into this last week. It just it
has been an incredibly solid strategy. It's been used less
in the last few years. When it was go back
to twenty twenty one, eighty five percent of teams on
Underdog with drafting Hero running back builds down to just
fifty percent last year. And while even myself and plenty

(38:55):
of other people are talking about this could be a
bounce back year for zero running back, it's so easy
to make the same argument for Hero we're running back
in here. We're running back after all, was what won
on Underdog last year with Jonathan Taylor Jamar Chase In
the first two picks. It was a Joe Burrow double
stack of Chase t Higgins Joe Burrow. I think they

(39:16):
still had Deebro's guy Jamain Burton, but I don't think
he contributed a single point to the team across the
entire seventeen weeks.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
But that's what you.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Can get away with when you absolutely hit the nuclear
button with Jamar Chase T. Higgins. So plenty of fun,
still be having plenty of roster construction stuff that we
can get into as we go. Kind of closing in
on round ten, Andrew, would you just mind recapping the
team for the audio listeners please?

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah. So at quarterback we have Justin Field and Kyler Murray.
I like to point out we were one pick away
from home spaing all the way to us. He fell back.
I think he fell almost thirty spots past his ADP,
so that would have been a while if we end
up getting both of them. So running back Bijon Robinson
and George Mason, so our hero RB start and then

(40:02):
we're starting to hit on some of these later guys.
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson, Jayalen Wattle, Savior Worthy, Ricky pearsall
rounding out the four wide receivers who I feel pretty
good about. I think we got some good upside in
that group. And then tight end, we went with an
early round guy Tray McBride, and that's going to wrap
up our We have quarterback tight ends or quarterbacks stacked

(40:25):
justin fields. At Wilson we have Colin Murray stack with
his tight end. So you know, again besides the fields reach,
which partially because I had him so high up in
my ranks, I maybe wouldn't do that again, but besides that, overall,
like the build so far, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
No, it's it's an interesting point because I find that
I always upload my rankings to these sites, but I
quite often spend more time on the ADP side. And
it's that kind of thing of you can see here
you've got Ericson's rankings on the my rank tab and
then ADP right next to it, and that ability to
see when you're higher or lower on a player, it

(41:01):
can really allow you to go, Okay, well that is
my guy who I would take thirty picks ahead of
ADP here, But maybe that means I should push it.
I've been grabbing him ahead of ADP a bit, so
let's push it and see if he falls to me
and all that kind of stuff. And also guys who
are follow us. You know, if a guy we rank

(41:22):
at what like one hundred and twenty and we're at
pick one hundred, you're not going to want that guy.
But if we're at pick one forty and we've got
the guy at one hundred and twenty, then it's definitely
becoming intriguing. Of course, you find both mine and Andrews
rankings on fantasypros dot Com. Rashard Babman is the guy
that you just start there. Now. Look, I know that
your big on the fifth year breakout argument? Is it

(41:44):
for Rashard Babman?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Yes, the fifth year annual breakout. Although he's not on
a new team. If the Ravens have been willing to
deal him, he would be on a new team because
there have been rumors that he's been wanted to be
acquired by other teams that the Ravens said no because
they know he's a stud when he's healthy.

Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah. I appreciate everybody who's hitting the subscribe and follow
button over here on Twitch. If you guys want to
draft wards every week, this is the place to be
doing it. I see we've got ourselves a couple of
new ones over there, roster Bating. Appreciate you and we
will definitely be rosta Bating over this one. When we
get to the end of the draft, we are two
picks out, so we're kind of hitting a bit of

(42:22):
a dead spot for wide receivers. At this point, Rashid
Shahed's still on the board, but after him, Okay, I'm
gonna put my foot down with the momms. Isn't necessarily
the guy I want to be drafted. Can I talk
you into Zach Charboney?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
Yeah? I think that Sharboney is fine where he goes.
We know that he could deliver RB one weeks when
he's he's off the board, so I would have I
would have been okay with the pick Tom if he
was available, but unfortunately he's not. I don't mind Shaheed.
I think that he's like the perfect best ball receiver yep, to.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Be honest, and as a wide receiver five as well,
that kind of takes a lot of boxes for me. Obviously,
quarterback situation different. But last year, when both him and
a Larvae were healthy, Shaheed had a thirty percent target
share to a Larva's twenty percent. Now, maybe we don't
get the best of him this year, but I like
getting a fifth wide receiver in round ten definitely ticks boxes.

(43:17):
The reason I'm kind of quite high on Sharboney. I've
been working on a video for my channel, The Fantasy
Sanctuary today about the ten most important backup running backs,
and I just think that Zach Sharboney could potentially have
contingent value as well as standalone value this year. He's
so good when he gets the ball in volume and

(43:38):
as well in the receiving game. Sam Doneld absolutely peppered
Aaron Jones for targets last year. But enough about him,
Let's talk through the guys at the top of ADP.
We could take Tray Benson for a bit of Arizona correlation,
or would you prefer by shall tooton?

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I like to And I understand that the OTAs have
kind of been up and down with him. He's fumbled,
but rookie, so I think that he still has a
ton of upside. So I like going to in here.
Remember when we as we're building this hero RB team,
it gives us the luxury to now just take shots
on a lot of these running backs. Can I guarantee

(44:16):
that Big Shell Tune is the rookie running back that
you need to draft this year. I mean, I'm really
high on him, but he just he could be one
part of the cog right of the late round running back,
so that we end up drafting in some of these
double digit rounds because even though we drafted a quarterback
pretty early, we drafted an elite tight end our top

(44:37):
five wide receivers. I feel pretty good about like going
to battle with this squad. Usually when you go early
quarterback early tight end, you usually take a sacrifice at
the receiver position. Now, we don't really have a locked
and loaded RB two, but I'm cool with punting the
RB two. That's the whole premise behind hero RB strategy
is you can replace that production. So so far, yeah,

(44:59):
I'm like in the way that this strategy is going
out with this hero RB approach.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Yeah, it's worth pointing out that one of the big
benefits of hero RB is that when you want to
start loading up on running backs, which the point we did,
it's the range where we've seen league winners come from
over years. We've seen the likes of James Connor, We've
seen the likes of Richard White, We've seen going back further,
Leonard Finett. This is the area where the running backs

(45:25):
have doubts. People start to dry up on wide receiver.
But if I can double dip in this range and
get two running backs in most drafts, then I feel
pretty good about my running back group. And the only
time I'm not really looking to do that is if
I've maybe started duel RB and gone running back running
back and I'm so far behind the mark other positions

(45:45):
that I feel the need to avoid running back a little.
But you can see it here since our pick, there
really isn't many wide receivers going off the board. It's
tight ends, it's quarterbacks, So it's a great area to
live in if you need the quarterbacks. I understand people
being wary of the Jags backfield coming with saying I'm
currently staying away from the Jags backfield. No idea who emerges.

(46:08):
It would be so much easier if we were able
to thin miss down to a two headed backfield. Two
headed backfields are fine, We can deal with them. Three
headed backfields they do become quite problematic. I do wonder
whether somebody like Ettien gets traded because he does have
a small amount of trade value. Now Tank Bigsby has
no trade value, and obviously they're not going to get

(46:30):
rid of too, and so it becomes a little tricky.
And it becomes a little tricky to know what Jaggs
want to do this year. I mean, obviously Shad Khan
probably would like him just to be semi respectable for
the first time. But it's two and really the key
to that, and enough to get rid of somebody like
Ettien who was a former first rounder, and for all

(46:51):
the kind of mixed opinions on him, he's been pretty
good for the Jags a lot of the time. So yeah,
I don't want to get too heavy on any of
the players from the Jags in terms of like how
I'm building my best ball portfolio, But there's definitely different
rosters that you build that can benefit from different players.

(47:12):
Like you know, sometimes if you need experiences, if you
need touches, if you've gone with some like Trevon Henderson
earlier or Marion Hampton, then getting somebody like ettn might
buy you that early season touches and volume and high upside.
But if you're already going with like Bijan out of
the gate and you need somebody that can just give
you some more nuclear upside down the back, then maybe

(47:35):
two and can provide that. So I think I think
it's a fun conversation point. Definitely, and Andrew, You've been
busy starring players whilst I've been waxing lyrical about all
this best ball stuff that bubbles away in my brain.
And we've got Trey Benson, David and Joku, Joshua Palmer,
Hollywood Brown and Dalton Kincaid, and then what Isaiah likely

(47:57):
as well, we are two picks away. Who's the you're
hoping false towards the most out of this group, It's.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
Probably Trey Benson. I just think that he is a
I think that he's going to have a massive role
if and when James Connormis's time. James Connor stayed healthy
basically for the first time in a long time. He
played more than thirteen games last year for the first
time since twenty twenty one. And this Arizona offense we
already have Kyler Murray. This Arizona offense just is a

(48:23):
rushing machine. It's been very effective. James Connor is top
ten terms of the yards from scrimmage the last two seasons.
And I think that Trey Benson, Yeah, I didn't show
a lot last year because he was also he got
banged up towards the end. But if he had even
flashed a little bit. If he'd got that opportunity with
James Carr missed time last year, I think his ADP
would be significantly higher because I just I know Connor's

(48:44):
going to miss games this year. And even if Benson
doesn't have a standalone role alongside of healthy Connor, I
think down the stretch he can have a big role
of Colormis's time.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Yeah. I Connor is, what had at least eight touchdowns
in each of the last three seasons, consistently been undervalued fantasy,
But Father Time tends to be undefeated, and he does
tend to get banged up. So I'm good with that
one one pickaway. We have two four five one at
this point, so we're running back position. Actually was gone
from feeling like a weakness now to a point where

(49:15):
we can start spreading our picks around and go with
what we really feel like is best. Would you be
happy taking Isaiah Likely and then saying that we've done
it a tight end position or would you rather go
Joshua Palmer and build out that kind of wide receiver
room a little bit more?

Speaker 2 (49:32):
I mean, I don't we can't do a show between
us and not drafted least one Raven when we missed
out with Sean David. So yeah, Isaiah, like he's gotta
be the guy. Isaiah likely to me is just he
just seems like he's just all gas, no breaks, Like
he's like the ultimate upside pick that just goes thirteenth round.

(49:53):
We know we can be a tight end one Ark
Andrews missus time, and every time I talk about Isaiah,
likely from the coaching staff it's well, he's gonna be
in the Hall of Fame. That's the way that they
look at this guy. And I think in the best
ball format where we don't necessarily have to project the
weeks where he does end up having a bigger role
or the Ravens are trailing, these are the games that

(50:13):
he just has monster performances. So if Andrews takes a
step back, gets banged up, then likely's going to be
hitting our lineup in some of the biggest ways possible,
especially with touchdown equity attached to Lamar Jackson. So again,
I like Marquis Brown, I like Josh Palmer, but do
I envision either of those guys having the type of
ceiling that likely could bring, especially at tight end, which

(50:34):
I think to your point, now we're done at tight end,
we don't need to worry because McBride's going to get
He's gonna fill in all those and the only time
Likely's probably gonna outscore McBride is on the bye week.
And then when Likely just goes boom and goes absolutely,
he absolutely erupts in some of these spots like we
saw in Week one of last year.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
Yeah, and I think your point about touchdowns is so
worthwhile because in half PPR format, touchdowns matter even more.
It can really separate a good week to a great week.
Last year, Isaiah Likely had six touchdowns, and that was
even at a point where after Week one up until
later in the season it felt like Isaiah Likely wasn't
really giving you great weeks. But the only tight ends

(51:14):
to have more touchdowns than him where Pat Fryer moved
took a Craft, Johnny Smith, Sam Laport, George Kill and
of course Mark Andrews, who heard ten. So if a
couple more of those swing Isaiah Likely's way, if we
see the Ravens just lean more into Isaiah Likely, it
wouldn't surprise me at all if in the next month
we get an Isaiah Likely contract extension. All three of

(51:35):
the Ravens tight ends currently under contract are all out
of contract within the next year, so they're going to
have to make some decisions on who they want to
run things through, and Isaiah likely has earned his opportunity,
so I'm good with it. I think that that's a
fun one good question in the chat here from Pera,
what do you think about drafting both our beast for

(51:56):
one team Brian Robson and Ecklet for me? I think
there are definitely backfields that I want to do this
with their backfields where there's enough ambiguity or enough situational
stuff that you can look to work through it. I'm
not necessarily sure about the Commanders because Brown Robinson just

(52:16):
hasn't displayed much ceiling. Like me and Andrew were both
in on Broan Robinson. Last year, we drafted him on
our three and fifty dollars Fantasy Pros Championship team on FFPC,
and he did very little for us, really, like when
he wasn't scoring touchdowns, he was deadweight. Eckler, I quite like,
you know, he ranked what top five in target rate

(52:37):
among running backs last year with like an eleven and
a half percent target share, he really seems like he
should be going slightly higher. But yeah, there's definitely backfields
where in Bestball I'm okay with it, and redraft I'm
not because I won those roster spots for other upside swings.
Andrew kind of how do you view that? Is there
any backfields that you particularly would target for taking both

(53:00):
for an inbox, I.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Think backfields are a little bit more ambiguous. So I
know we talked about Jacksonville's I have no issue taking
shots on on multiple guys because they're all going. I
think the price is the big point where you're hoping
that they're all cheap, that you can get access to
different paths. Because sometimes we see backfields where one week
or it's during one part of the season, it's one

(53:23):
guy's backfield, but then it exchanges hands because of an
injury or something else happened to guy takes. So I
think that there's a lot of ways to so I
guess for me, like I kind of like the idea
of drafting from the same backfield, So, you know, like
Kenneth Walker, for example, this is something I've been kind
of theorizing, you know, as a hero RB right, he's
not really viewed as a hero RB just because where

(53:44):
he goes. But if you draft him and Charbone like
their combined scoring probably is that of a hero RB.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Speaking of LB, we're about to go back on the
clock in a moment. We've got two four five two
the wide receivers in this range, Adam Feeling, Jalen Noel
not necessarily guys, but we were desperately want in this
format more full PPR guys. Braylan Allen, Rico Dowdle in
the q VO, do you think that we could take
one of these and then maybe done till like the

(54:12):
eighteenth round, And if so, you got fifteen seconds to
make a case and click the buttons.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Braylan Allen easy for me. I think that he's going
to have a substantial role in the Jets offense. We
already have justin Field, so for taking advance fields has
to be good for this team to have a shot well.
Like we made that very very clear when when I
can't speak for Tom, I'm the one that's driving yet
again and I reached on justin Field. So we need
this Jets team to play well. So I think Braylan
Allen could be a big part of that.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Well, okay, we're back on the clock and then we'll
do so what we could finish out to a running
back room with Rico Dowdle, I'd be completely good with that.
I think that Rico Dowdle, again, it's one of the
guys I've talked about today in this backup running back video.
Good with that, let's do it, I think right, just
kind of fine with him over Michael Wilson. Just in

(54:59):
turn of the Cardinals team that we've built out, I
think is probably okay, So grabbing that running back works
for me. But just going back to Justin Fields, like
a lot of the time you hear people talking about
how due threat running backs don't check the ball down,
but Justin Fields absolutely checks the ball down. Justin Fields

(55:20):
is absolutely willing to check the ball down, even when clean,
not under pressure, at one of the highest rates in
the league. You go back to twenty twenty two and
the only caught back ahead of him that year was
Russell Wilson last year when he was with the Steelers,
again comfortable checking the ball down and running back. So
I don't worry about the idea of stacking Justin Fields

(55:42):
and Brailer Allen up you could possibly say the negatively correlate,
because if Justin Fields is hitting his ceiling, he's getting
the rushing touchdowns and taking them away from Brailan Allen.
But I'm kind of fine with it. I think for
just overall, betting on the Jets offense to be underpriced
currently is the argument would put forward here.

Speaker 2 (56:01):
Yeah, and this one either could look really good when
we look back on it, or could age like some
spoiled milk about being higher on the Jets and trying
to draft Jets players aggressively. At least this year, we don't.
We're not drafting two Jets in the first round. I
remember reading comments about two Jets in round one what

(56:22):
could go wrong? And it's like, oh, basically everything could
go wrong, And of course, yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Yeah, I had that exact thought process a couple of
days ago when I was drafting Ashton Gensy in the
first round and then Brott Bauers fell to me in
the second round. I was like, do I draft two
raidious players in the first eighteen picks? And it just
it was something I just absolutely couldn't do. One guy
who's towards the top of ADP Ever a minute, well,

(56:51):
towards the top of your ranks, Andrew, so you might
want to adjust it is Anthony Richardson, Like, do you
think Anthony Richardson's just fully toast at this point?

Speaker 2 (57:01):
He's a harder and harder click to make, and harder
and harder player to not move down rankings every time
you kind of evaluate his situation where it seems like
he's more likely to he's following the Trey Lance path
where he's constantly injured and he's not getting enough reps
and would it be beneficial for him to play in
the XFL or Canadian Football just to get more reps

(57:24):
at quarterback? He's still so young, he's younger than Cam Warn.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
He's so raw as well, and he was always raw
and he always needed that. But like, I think, it's
pretty hard to come back from passing the ball at
a lower rate than some of t bow seasons. Like
when you're complete in less than fifty percent of your passes,
it's really difficult to maybe argument, Okay, well he absolutely
slings the ball downfield. Okay, great, but we need catchable

(57:50):
ball rate.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Yeah, It's it's tough for richards to, especially based on
what the Colts want to do offensively, the Colts can
afford to lose, lose so many games. And the thing is,
because they play in the AFC South, they can probably
win enough games to keep the GM there, keep the
head coacher because they don't want to get fired because
if they come out and they lose a bunch of games.

(58:15):
I mean, I get that, you know, the combined efforts
from Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson, assuming that he does
come back at some point, I mean, maybe that can
get them to six seven, eight wins and that keeps
their jobs. But ultimately it's hard to look at the
Colts season and think, how is this season of success?
If Daniel Jones is the guy that leads them to wins,
is that a success? And then they have to sign

(58:36):
him to a contract and then does that actually help
them in the long run. Now I have kind of
flowed out the idea in my mind that you know,
is Daniel Jones the retread quarterback this year that hits
right Gino Smith a couple of years back. Baker.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
That's my next question. If we say in the Anthony
Richardson's toast, then how much high I should Daniel Jones
somebody that we know has reasonable rushing up side be
going he should.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Be going significantly higher, especially if you're playing for the
cumulative scoring. I think the issue with Jones is you're
concerned about what happens in the playoff weeks, whether he's
the quarterback or not. But you could argue if he's
playing so well that he's going to be in the
playoff weeks. Additionally to the regular season, we saw I
think it was twenty twenty two a couple of years ago,

(59:21):
where he had seven hundred rushing yards in a Brian
Abell offense. So he's playing for his NFL life, Yeah,
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
Right, Yeah. So currently he goes at pick two sixteen
on underdog, which is essentially kind of right back end
of round eighteen. Ahead of him picked two oh one
is Aaron Rodgers Ben Sam Donald at two h four.
Cam Ward is sorry one sixty six, So, like, how
much further could you push him up? Do you think

(59:49):
he belongs ahead of Sam Donald that kind of like
in the one eighty range, like one seventy range, or
would you push him ahead of cam Wood? Gino Smith,
Matthew Stafford.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
I don't think I put him ahead of cam Ward.
I think that or gin know, I just because I
think that just logging starts is so important.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
So it's basically ahead of Aaron Rodgers and maybe ahead
of Sam Donald.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
Yeah, so I have him my rank, so I have
in QB twenty nine or excuse me, I have him
behind Dart Rogers, Donald and Richardson. And for me, it's
really the I'm just not bullish on him being available
in the playoff weeks like that is my major concern.
And is he really a guy that, oh I got
to the playoffs because of Daniel Jones. Maybe he's again
he's a quarterback that's also not been able to put

(01:00:33):
it all together for an entire season, like he's miss games,
he's head dealt with injuries. So I think he's undervalue
based on how he can help a team as a
third quarterback. But I just I don't know if he's
going to be there in the playoff weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Yeah, so we're about to go back on the clock.
We've only got five wide receivers, so it feels like
the vast majority of our last three picks probably need
to be wide receiver. Andrew, I can see you've added
Donnie Brown, Kafundi Turpin, Jayl and Coca to the l.
In terms of other players, can I make a case
for Darius Slayton constantly undervalued and them as Cavin Austin.

(01:01:07):
So we got twenty seconds. I'll let you make this one.
But then when we come back around for the corner,
I'm making the next pick.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
That's fair. I will go with. I like Diami Brown here.
I think he's again another guy, fifth year receiver on
a new team, checks off some boxes. Let's say all
the defensive players get hurt on Jacksonville, they got to
play Travis Hunter full time on defense, and then there
you go Diami Brown playing full time on offense. Whichever

(01:01:35):
Lawrence maybe, maybe, just maybe could work out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
Against the Colts. So yeah, it shows the wide receiver tap.
And let's have a look just purely at the wide receivers, please, Andrew. Yes,
So the guy who I want to take here is
too to out Well. Please. I just think that too
to out Well seems completely locked into the wide receiver
three role for the Rams. This year, we've seen how

(01:02:00):
valuable that's been. DeMarcus Robinson over last couple of years
to two has come along to a reasonable level, and
the Rams sort of bringing him back is not like
a massive priority, but enough of a priority. And I
just think that playing alongside Pooka and Funny Adams, that
he can be a nice value this year.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
I think that that's a really sharp pick we talked
about at Well. I think I think we drafted that
well on our DraftKings team to a couple of weeks ago,
because he's just gonna have a bigger role in three
wide receiver sets. He's never going to be the focal
point of the Rams offense. But DeVante is an older receiver.
He's missed games. Pooka we know, plays like a maniac

(01:02:39):
and just is not afraid to take contact, so he
can miss games. So yeah, at Well is a guy
that nig Veigh is relatively high on versus the other
receivers on that team. So I think that he's a
great late value option.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Like you mentioned, you know, playing three wide receiver sets.
The Rams played three wide receiver sets at one of
the highest rates in the league. Andrew, with one pick
left on the ball, would you be so kind to
recap the team for us? Please?

Speaker 2 (01:03:03):
Yes, quarterback we have fields and Kyler Murray we have
at running back. By Jon Robinson, Jordan Mason, Shehelle Touton,
Trey Benson, Brylon Allen, Rico Dwell at receiver, Garrett Wilson,
Jalen Waddle, Xavier Worthy, Ricky Pearsall, Rashid Shaheed, Dianie Brown
too to at well, and then at tight end we

(01:03:23):
have Trey McBride and Isaiah Likely.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Feels film, what do you feel we're missing from this team?

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Hmmm, I kind of feel we're not. I don't know,
I feel like we're missing any positions because I don't
feel like we need to have a third quarterback, because
of the two guys we have are mobile players who
can deliver lea or a week winning weeks. We have
two good we have our elite tight end. We have
the one of the best backup tight ends, handcuffed tight
ends you can have. So it's weird, but I feel

(01:03:53):
like we don't need to be pressured to go in
any which direction. It can almost be who's the best
player available, and I think that we can go in
that direction. So for example, like will Shipley's in the
queue right now, do we have to draft another running back? Oh,
he's gone now, of course because I said his name.
But I think it's right now. It's kind of dealer's
choice in terms of who we could pick and you know,

(01:04:15):
someone that maybe correlates for a week seventeen matchup, something
that along those lines. I don't think there's really any
of the quarterback stacks. I know there's not really many Bengals.
I mean, is Drane Burton on the board.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Let's let's not go.

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
That's not good crazy here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Well, you you could throw ad Mitchell or I'd imagine
ad Mitchell might be there. Otherwise you could be looking
at guys like DJ Giddons or Khalil Herbert to throw
on there for a little bit of correlation, but I'm
not sure. I mean, DJ Giddens maybe is an interesting one,
but I'm not sure we need to be able running

(01:04:54):
back in terms of what else we've got there. Obviously, Yeah,
the Cardinals played Bengal, which is one of those matchups
that everybody wants exposure to, and as such, it's quite
difficult to get those pieces viscially in the draft unless
you're taking the dart for one bit, and so maybe
we just have to bypass that one quickly. Just going
to touch on mis dreads, what we think about Drake

(01:05:16):
May's value. Absolutely love him for me, one of my
highest rosted quarterbacks so far and three spots ahead of
positional adp on May myself Andrew as a Patriots fan,
how do you feel about him?

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
I wish we had him on this team. Unfortunates didn't
work out in the in the roster build because we
took Jets players instead of Patriots players. Yeah, yeah, Drake
May Is you think he's exactly what you want from
a late round quarterback. Draft him in all formats?

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Yeah, ranked what like four to fifth in Russian yards
per game among quarterbacks as well. The only guys ahead
of him were all people who finished incredibly high up,
so very much down with that one, we uh a
few picks away currently obviously a two six, seven to
two bill, which feels fine. I know some people will

(01:06:05):
make passionate arguments one way or another. I think the
way we've build this with a double tap of dual
threat quarterbacks and then the elite tight end with the
high upside tight end works nicely. And then just being
able to attack volume of running back and wide received
position has been fun. Raheem Moster is somebody I've drafted

(01:06:26):
a little bit of lately, I think there's an argument
for him. Sometimes I'll throwing Mark as well. They're scantling
in twenty round formats. I'm not sure I would hear Andrew.
You've got Kavanti turpinstad who goes with an ADP of
two hundred and fifteen, and I think in a lot
of drafts probably isn't getting drafted at all. What is
it about Kavanti Turping that makes you so aggressive on him?

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
The coaches have really raved about his abilities and special
teams and getting the ball in his hands. So if
Pickens has really taken the top off the defense, then
I think that Kavante Turper could still be you a
lot and that underneath option And to me, he kind
of reminds me a little bit of these under the
radar wide receivers that signed contract extensions that nobody really

(01:07:11):
cares about. Understandably, a lot of it has to do with, well,
how does he add value on special teams? But before
Juwan Jennings melted faces last year, he had a really
productive game in the Super Bowl and they signed to
a contract extension. The teams show that, hey, we really
like this guy, and I think that to me, suggests, Okay,

(01:07:33):
maybe I'm making a little bit of a bet against
George Pickens. Let's say I think on field, George Pickens
makes so much sense. It's the perfect fit with Dak Prescott.
But let's say he's the on field, his head's not
on right exactly, So maybe Cavantae Turpin takes on a
bigger role. We know that he can generate big plays,
be explosive, So that's kind of my pitch with Cavante Turpin.

(01:07:57):
And again, I like them a lot more obviously before
the Picking trade happened. But I still think that he
has in an offense that we're decently excited about should
bounce back. You know, I don't think it's ever a
bad idea to be drafting players that you know the
coaching staff is high on, especially with Shat and Himer
taking over play calling duties, but necessarily what he was
doing last year with Mike McCarthy still there. So he's

(01:08:19):
seeing what Turpin can do, and I think that he might, Hey,
we need to get this guy more schemed touches because
he's explosive with the ball in his hands. And I
think I was making a joke somewhere where I was
talking to Okay, who runs more routes or who gets
who has a higher target rate per route run this year,
Comante Turpin or Travis On like, just based on a

(01:08:39):
per route basis, like they're both honestly, would not scrasy
if they're both over thirty percent, just based on when
they're on the field, they're going to probably get the ball.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
I think it's an interesting one. I think I'd probably
be more interested in twenty round best ball or slightly
deeper ones. In a classic fashion, the draft board seemed
to just crash for when we got round to our
eighteenth round pick. So, Andrew, who did we end up
with for our final pick? We did take a mink
later Yeah, okay, all gas, no breaks, love it free

(01:09:08):
wide receivers. To finish it out, Andrew, for one last time,
would you mind recapping this team? And then we'll touch
on a couple of things just quickly before we get
out of here because we are running little tonight perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
So we'll go and order in which we drafted the
guys so Bijohn Robinson, Garrett Wilson, Drey McBride, Jay Len Wattle,
Xavier Worthy, Justin Fields, Ricky Piersoll, Kyler Murray, Jordan, Mason,
Shee Chahd Mishelle Touton, Trey Benson, Isaiah Likeley, Braylan, Allen Rico, Dwdele,

(01:09:39):
Diamie Brown, Juju Atwell, and Cavante Turpin wrapping us up
with the eighteenth pick.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Hey man, I think it's plenty of fun. I think
that it's got all the hallmarks of a classic Hero
r B builders we talked about. It's got the elite
tight end, it's got the duel threat quarterbacks, which had
so much upside to it, the running back room we attacked,
the volume, which definitely feels fun. We've got Pera in
the chat saying that they went three seven, six to

(01:10:07):
two for them in this draft, probably should have taken
one more wide receiver. I don't hate it, though. I
think that they had a nice draft as well. Andrew,
how'd you feel about our draft before we get out
of here.

Speaker 2 (01:10:17):
I think that we did well in terms of following
a here RB build. I like that that's usually my
preferred strategy going in. I think when you get a
top three pick where you can pick a Jamior Gibbs
or in our case, a Bjeon Robinson. It makes it
really easy to go here RB versus when you're picking
at the back end of round one, where you're really gravitating,
you think a little bit more towards those wide receivers.

(01:10:39):
Then it's trying to figure out which of these other
running backs in rounds two around three, can any of
these guys be my hero running back? The Justin Fields
pick will obviously now go down in either infamy or
will be famously that we pick Justin Fields ahead of ADP,
So we'll see how that shakes out. But I can't.
I mean the fact that Mahomes almost fell, so He's

(01:11:00):
could have gotten them back to double that would have
been pretty wild. Unfortunately, the draft room was too sharp
and they did not let Mahomes fall. One more pick
to us. I like the running backs. We got a
lot of only one rookie running back, which again you're
subjected to what the people are doing. But I think

(01:11:21):
that there's a rule for me this year is you
got at least get one rookie running back on your team.
This rookie classes is too good that even if you
don't pick the right one, you got to take at
least one shot on one of these rookie running backs,
whether it's Ashton gent and Run one or any of
these guys in the double digit rounds, I think you've
got to take at least one shot on some of
these rookies. But at the same time, second year running
backs as well are also good investments. So we got

(01:11:43):
two of those guys, with Trey Benson and Braylan Allen.
The receivers, I know, I talked about it. Usually we
need to hear r B. With elite quarterback and elite
tight end, usually your receiver room is not great. I
don't really feel that way about our receivers. I feel
pretty good about, you know, having Wilson as a target
hog Waddle bounce back a couple second more, second year

(01:12:03):
wide receiver Rashijihi, Diamie Brown at well, some guys that
can deliver spike weeks and then going with two tight
ends and Trey McBride and issaah likely. So again, I
think it's always good to enter drafts with an open
mind to what you could do. Get going with Bjon's like,
all right, we'll do here, RB. We'll see how it
shakes out. And I think overall it shook out pretty well.

(01:12:23):
I've definitely drafted probably teams that have been significantly worse
than this team, and at the end of the day,
no one knows exactly what's going to happen. But all
I know is this team is about Tom. This team
is going to take flight. I know that for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
Yes, well, we've got a long way to find out
if it works out. But if you want to keep
drafting drafts with us, we appreciate everybody who's been hanging
out in a chat and drafting alongside. Is Every Monday
here on Twitch, you can find myself and Andrew. We
will be live at four pm East and all you
got to do is go to Twitch dot tv, forward
Slash Fantasy Pros. You'd be hanging out with myself and
Andrew drafting out a variety of platforms. You can always

(01:12:59):
ask as many quick sinces you want and we will
take you through everything that we feel about best ball.
I appreciate everybody who's been with us tonight and myself,
and Andrew and producer Sef. We'll be back next Monday.
Catch you next time. Guys.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football Podcast.
If you love the show, the best free way to
support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple
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