Welcome to NFL Daily, where we wear our NFL Network polos, even on days we're not required to. And by we, I mean Patrick Claybon, who's with me in the Chris Wesling podcast studio. Good to have you back.

Good to be back. When you wear a polo here, like a network polo, nobody questions anything. I could wear whatever as long as I throw this polo on. Okay. Nobody has anything to say. I love it.

Yeah, you got the shorts on. Yeah, and look at those polos, they just fit just right. Yeah, it is good to have Patrick back. Our first ITC friend who's going to be with us a lot in the studio all season long. It's back off the road. We got Steve Weish and Colleen Wolf coming up next week, regularly, and it's all happening. I'm excited. We got our friends from the fantasy football podcast coming your buddy, Marcus Grant and Mike Florio for a big time draft.

We're going to have invading It's the studio. It's just all fantasy in here.

Yeah, we're going to do-Fantasy legend Gregor Rosenthal, by the way. Don't you forget it. Four people, seven rounds. We're going to take all the skilled position players and just do a little mock draft. You get a little feeling of the top 30 maybe in NFL drafts, but also the top at the tight end and in quarterback positions. That's going to come in just a little bit. But first, let's do some news. News. Well, what else am I going to talk about other Brandon Ayuk. This man is holding the NFL world hostage right now. That's not his fault. These things are complicated. As we're taping, Patrick, some updates.

Okay.

Pittsburgh, since we last taped, is back in the mix. Apparently, they were really never out of the mix, but they weren't meeting the potential trade terms that the 49ers were hoping for. The Patriots are out of the mix. They They did that thing, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, where they are no longer in the Brandon Ayuk sweepstakes because Brandon Ayuk, apparently, according to CSN Bay Area, made it pretty clear he did not want to go to the Patriots. It was more like he chose to not do it. I did have this theory, and I threw it out there a couple of nights ago, that maybe the 49ers are just putting these teams out there that they know Brandon Ayuk doesn't want to go to, really, which is the Browns and the Patriots, the teams he does want to go to, apparently, were the commanders who are out, and then the Steelers. As we tape this, to me, it seems increasingly likely that the Steelers story might happen, but we don't know yet.

Yeah, if it's down to Brandon Ayuk's choice, which the team is going to want to negotiate a deal, because if you're trading for Brandon Ayuk, you want him long term. If his choice dictated not the Patriots, and the commanders are out, then who else is left?

Well, the Browns, in theory, are there, and they have the one player Amari Cooper, that if they sent them to San Francisco, maybe the 2024 Niners aren't that much worse. We'll see. I want to hold my takes for now until we know what's official.Takes on ice. We'll leave it there with Ayouk. I think it's a mistake no matter what by the 49ers, but how big of a mistake? We'll find out. Unfortunately, a lot of the news this time of year is injury news, and CMC CMC, Brandon Ayouk's teammate, was hurt, is going to miss a couple of weeks because of a calf strain. We'll hit on CMC a little bit in the fantasy draft, so don't need to stay there. But that's a little concerning for a player like him who's had some issues over the years to have a soft tissue injury this early. So that's concerning. Even more concerning is Josh Downs' injury at Colts Practice today. He is out 4-6 weeks with a high ankle sprain, according to NFL Network Insider, Ian Rappaport was one of my absolute favorite breakout picks. Could still do it, but now he's got an obstacle to start the season.

What makes it even worse, it comes on seven on sevens in training camp, and nick Cross goes down, they go to the ground. Obviously, all these injuries are bad, but that one's completely unnecessary. You hear it so much, Hey, Coach, what do you want of this? We want to get healthy into the season. To have an injury on seven on sevens in a situation where guys are taking guys to the ground, Oh, that's a tough one.

Shane Steke and their coach was not pleased with it in his press conference. Nick Cross, you could tell, felt bad about it, but he said he was just trying to play football. And yet Josh Downs, to me, is their clear number two in Indianapolis. Right now, they're playing them outside, they're playing them inside, and they'll figure out how the AD Mitchell and Alex pierce snaps and tight-end targets work out. But to me, it was a very clear one. I thought Josh Downs is going to have a big year. High ankle springs are tough. You would almost hope, not from a fantasy football realm, but from a reality realm, maybe just wait till he's all the way back, even if it's week 4, week 5, because these are just one of those injuries you see so many times guys come back too early. Another injury at the wide receiver position was Rondale Moore of the Atlanta Falcons. Penciled in, I would say, to be their third wide receiver. Unfortunately, his injury had to involve an air cast, which is never a good sign, and immediately taken to a hospital.

Yeah, it's awful. The video of teammates reacting was enough to me. Didn't see any particular injury video or pictures, but just the air cast being invoked lets you know that this is going to be time, and in a contract year for Ron Dale after he's finishing up that rookie contract that came out in the desert. People throw out satellite back or a guy that's going to be a magic guy.He.

Was a running back at one point.

Yeah, but the gadget is getting yards and having production, and he could do that. I wanted to see what it was going to look like in Atlanta.

Yeah, I thought it would be good for him to be in, for lack of a better word, just a more normal offense. They're thin at wide receiver anyways. I thought he was the solid three. Then there's a pretty big drop off behind Drake London, Darnell Mooney, and then Moore. It's devastating for Moore, and it's also something that the Falcons front office and coaching staff will have to address. Just quickly, just a couple items before we get to the fantasy draft. Really looking forward to that. Connor Williams, the center, who last year was with the Dolphins, ended up signing with the Seahawks. Much needed for that team. Justin Simmons is visiting the Saints. We'll follow up on that if that deal actually happens, but that would be a nice move for New Orleans. Titans starting guard, Siddique Charles, retired young man, and they've had a bad couple of weeks, Titans, Justin In terms of surprising absences. Deandre Hopkins obviously had that injury. They lost Arden Key to a suspension. Chedobie Ouzier has been out all of camp, so not great news for the Titans in general.

Yeah, it's He's rough. In an offseason with a lot of excitement, especially considering the nuke news, and now you're worried about up front. You got a second year of quarterback.

It's tough. I think he's 26, 27 years old. And yeah, Coach Brian Callean said he was really surprised by it. But this happens in training camp. A player, he came in, he just said football is not for him anymore. The Lions and Giants were fined $200,000 each. It's a lot of money for all their fights the other day at practice. The NFL is trying to discourage fighting, even though coaches encouraged fighting. I thought that was interesting. That's a new wrinkle. Then I just want to say rest in peace to Dwyane Thomas, who holds an interesting place in football and Dallas Cowboys history because he He was an electric young running back when he came onto that team, but he also held out for more money and had a holdout at a time when that was crazy in the NFL, just looking for anything. Also, I think of him because He was the subject of a really good book by Dr. Z. Paul Zimmerman. It was called Dwayne Thomas and the End of the Cowboys Era, I believe. It provided an interesting look at a unique player, and it had a story in it that always stuck with me, that the voters voted him Super Bowl MVP.

Then because at the time, Super Bowl MVP was sponsored by a magazine. It was called Sport magazine. The editor of Sport magazine was worried that when Dwyane Thomas accepted the award later in the offseason at the banquet and the free car that came with it, that's a big deal for these players who were making $20,000 a year, that he was going to fly off the handle or something. He just made an executive decision, and in the moment, handed the award to Roger Stalback, who went 11 for 19 for 117 yards. To Stalback's credit, he went out of his way publicly to say that should have been Dwyane Thomas's award over and over. Rest in peace, Dwyane Thomas. An interesting guy. I do like to think about the history of the game.

Yeah, and it's unfortunate because there's a media environment that would probably be a lot more understanding and accepting of Dwyane, who was an outspoken athlete, especially a black athlete in the early '70s. Called Gilbrand a liar. Tom Landry was a plastic man. Ultimately, that level of honesty and access, he had some trouble. He got racially profiled. They found some weed in the car. It's a familiar story. But the way that the perception of him went out by a media that was not very friendly, I do wish that a lot of these guys had a different opportunity in a media environment that would accept them a little bit.

Yeah, so he had that rookie just outstanding in the offseason, like I mentioned, he wanted to renegotiate, and that just didn't happen at the time, and called Tom Landry, the Plastic Man. Oh, it takes some guts to call Tom Landry, the Plastic Man in 1971. But if you dig underneath the hood a little bit, there was a lot of similar criticism about Tom Landry back in the day as great a coach, obviously, as he was. So rest in peace, Dwyane Thomas. This one little thing, housekeeping here, Patrick. Before we get to the fantasy draft, I want Randy, Eric's back from paternity leave, to throw up on the board our graphic here, our Team Deep Dive board, because I've heard from the fans. They're mad. Why do you spend so much time on the LA team? Oh, you're always talking about the goals, and so we've created a board. We're going to go deep on all 32 teams at some point. It's going to take a while. We can't do this all in a week. You'll see on the YouTube show, we've highlighted, I don't know what color that is because I'm colorblind.

It's green. It's a highlighted green.

I thought it was yellow. See, and that's where, frankly, you guys are being insensitive. We've highlighted the teams that we've already taken care of. Well, we've done five so far. It's a 27 to go. Looking forward to that, but we'll do it throughout the course of the season. Everyone feels like they get the right cut.

You all are better than me because I would have left the team off or just gaslit somebody.

That would have been great. I was like, Should we highlight the Bengals? We did do it with nick Westling, but that was more personal talk earlier. No, bangles will get their time. All right, we're going to have our time with Marcus Grant and Mike F. Florio. Fantasy experts around here, along with Claybon. Don't sleep on Claybon as a fantasy expert.

I have proximity to greatness, including right now.

Mock Coming after this. Oh, yeah. We're back on NFL Daily, and I'm excited. The studio, the Chris Westling podcast studio, is as full as it's been in weeks. We've now got the fantasy crew has joined Patrick Claybon and I, Marcus Grant and Mike F. Florio. Welcome to NFL Daily.

Thanks for having us.Yeah.

I'm glad to be. I love this music. It's like an off-brand '60s James Bond spy thriller. I'm not doing it, though.

It could also be a game show. It could be a fantasy draft.

It's Jim Coales as the character.

I love it. I I love how much you guys have taken fantasy at the NFL to another level like Florio's hair here. Oh, man. Just trying to separate himself even more from the other Mike Florio. I actually forgot. I called you Mike Florio saying you were coming up on the show, and people were like, You got to say Mike F.

Florio. I mean, I don't care, but the other people-It's confusing.

He doesn't know anything about fantasy. I'd much rather hear what you have to say. Of course, you can check out the fantasy podcast that we do, and fantasy Live is going to be coming up sooner than later, and Patrick's involved in that, too.

Next week, Monday, August 12th, is when we start back up. Yeah.

Great programming. Yeah, this is going to be fun. I thought what we'd do is a mock draft. I've done very We're doing a little fantasy prep so far, so I made a little big board that Patrick is cheating off. In the interest of time, we're going to do something a little different here. We're going to pick an entire starting group of skill position players players. So quarterback, two runningbacks, three wide receivers, and a tight end. And that's it. And there's just four of us. So we'll go around seven times. We're going to put one minute on the clock each time, and we'll talk about the pics and try to give some analysis and something extra, Marcus. Don't just sit there and be silent. I will participate. I'm excited about that. I will participate. All right. So we randomized this before we started taping, and it's going to sound like the fix is in, but I got the fix.

It was 25% chance, man.

I think people can understand.

Well, you know what I want to do? We're going to go we're going to go clockwise. Randy, behind the glass, let's start here. I'm going to go way off the board of the ways of anyone you guys would take. I'm taking Justin Jefferson first overall.

This is one of those things where if you're not watching or paying attention to fantasy all offseason, and then you look at the list and Justin Jefferson is the sixth wide receiver.

I don't get Explain it to me. I don't care. I think he's the best player in the NFL. I'd rather have a receiver right now than a running back. I'm taking Jefferson.

Yeah, I mean, he was on pace in the games he played without Kirk Cousins for 2,000 yards last year. So maybe he is just quarterback proof. But the reason he's fallen where he is is because all those other wide receivers are coming back to the exact same situation, and he has a quarterback downgrade.

The quarterback downgrade isn't enough because they give Jefferson the money. I know that they're going to flood him with targets. They're absolutely going to flood him with targets. The Addison situation probably has an impact in that as well.

I'm not worried.

I don't think it's a ridiculous pick. It's just that everybody has been scared off because of Sam Darnold. That's it.

They'll create passing yards. All right, so that means the minute is up, and we're going clockwise here. Florio, you're next.

Okay, I'll go with who I would have win at first overall. Look, I know a lot of people are expecting me to say CMC here, but I'm going to go with CeeD Lam because just like I want the wide receiver early. We have to start the most of them, so I will take CeeD there.

Okay. The thing with CeeD Lam being so high to me is like, I don't know, I just hate the guy coming off his career year. I just pushed back against that almost immediately. Regression candidate. Greg calling for the-Not regression, but just going into last year, he wasn't the first overall. I still like CeeD and Tyreek just a little bit better. Maybe A. J. Brown.

I get that. But with all the great things CeeD did last year, what's really changed in the Cowboys offense? I mean, They still have to lean on him. Now you have Brandon Cooke who's a year older. They don't know who really the number two wide receiver is there. It was such a great offseason. They went and brought Zeke back.

He's not at training camp. That's different. The running game might be terrible.

One thing that impacted CeeD's draft position last year was people bought into this myth that Mike McCarthy was going to come in and they were going to pound the rock, maybe. They didn't run the ball at all.

That's a good point. Man, a minute goes fast. You got to be ready for your pick, Marcus.

Well, look, he fell all the way to me at I'm going to take Christian McCarthy. I mean, why not? Look, I get it. He's nicked up. He's going to miss some time, but it's still a guy who's going to occupy a large portion of one of the best offenses in the NFL. I'm going to take CMC.

I only needed to see that injury where he has a calf strain. He's out for a couple of weeks of practice, and I'm a little spoofed. Like a soft tissue injury. Maybe it'll be nothing. It'll be totally fine. But when there's great other running back options, I actually would not have him. I have him third now among my running backs.

I think the people People who aren't going to draft CMC because of this probably weren't going to draft him anyway. I'm more concerned about Trent Williams issues related to CMC than I am. It's a calf. Christian isn't going to forget how to play football these next couple of weeks. Why would Kyle have him do anything?

Which, by the way, it is wild that nobody's been talking about Trent Williams with all the other things happening.

Right. That's the most important thing. My son Walker got CMC somehow ninth in a kid's draft, which just proves kids are That's stupid. It was last year. They're young and dumb.

Those kids are on the podcast. They're in the news. That's why he's falling. Okay, I will take the guy who was on pace to have a billion yards last year in Tyree kill. I don't know. Low hanging fruit.

I think he would have a good argument for being first overall. I would be totally fine with that. Maybe you get a little worried there's not quite as many 60-yard plays in this offense, but maybe there are.

People, I think, look at it and they're like, Oh, Seedylam was the wide receiver one last year. I'm just like, No, no, no. Tyreek Hill was running away with it until he suffered that ankle injury.

Still wild. I think he left Patrick Mahomes, and somehow his stats got better.

Right. He's the number one player in the NFL, according to the players. The players of the NFL. Who probably voted in mid-November when I was honking about Tyrie kill winning MVP.

He should have if he didn't get hurt.

Yeah, I think if they're looking at it from distance from his peers, I think it's a pretty good case. Now that Aaron Donald's not anymore.

You could also make the case for CMC then, too. I don't know where I'm finished.

Number one, right? Oh, and the best players overall. I don't know. People hate it on CMC. You are aware, Patrick, it's a snake draft here. You get to go back to back. You have to be ready. I see you easy enough. We're trying to be fair because they're going to put it We'll keep on graphics after the show. Who had the best team? We can have the listeners, the viewers vote on who was best. Maybe we'll even keep track best ball rules or something. If I don't do well, you'll never hear about it again. If I win, I'll bring it back up.

Well, snake Back to me. It gives me an opportunity to... I haven't been in, but I'm in.

Bjan, let's do it. Yeah. No, it's hard to not be in on Bjan. The biggest thing for all of us is that Arthur Smith is not there to galaxy brain this thing, right? Yeah.

I had him I don't know. I picked on the clock. I wasn't expecting to have one overall, but it was either him or Jefferson.

There's no chance that suddenly Michael Pruitt is going to get goal line carry. It's just not going to happen this year. No.

They did use Tyler Algier, though. They were saying in a little team scrimmage at night that he was getting half the first-team reps. Any concern there?

Maybe enough to split hairs between him and another running back who hasn't gone yet, but there's a clear-cut top three runningbacks.

Okay. I don't think there's a secret. I think there's a clear-cut top four, so we'll disagree there. But yeah, Bijon didn't do anything his rookie year that got me off my spot of like, this is going to be the best fantasy running back for the next five years in aggregate, even if he's not one every single year. He's the man.

He's got his own mustard out now, too. I feel like we can.

Really?

Bjan's Djan? Yeah. I love that.

Sitting right there. Right there.

All right. I know we got a couple of... We got what? Three wide receivers off the board. I took a running back. I'm going to go wide receiver here. For me, the next best available wide out is going to be Jamar Chase. Look, Joe Burrow is back in healthy again. Those two seem to have some mind meld since their days at LSU. They're even so connected. They both shave their heads at the same time. That's how in lockstep they are. I think a healthy Jamar Chase, a healthy Joe Burrow, just go destructo on the AFC North this year.

I'm selective about what camp hype I'm willing to believe in, but for some reason, like Joe Burrow, just looking all the way back at camp, I'm believing in that because Jamal Chase quietly had his best year by far as a rookie, and it does feel like he's due right now to have that career year type of year. And that there's a big drop off between him and Tee Higgins. I was the guy who was like, Tee Higgins is almost like 1AB, but he's really not. No, he's not.

He's going to have a video game season eventually where he goes for 1,700 yards or whatever. That's coming. But I'm picking the other running back there. I said it's a clear-cut top three. Give me Brees Hall, who had one goal line carry last year and still was the Rb2 in fantasy football.

That's one where I was surprised when I saw the average opposition that he's getting so high. To me, that seems like a slight projection. I don't know.

He was the Rb2 last year despite the slow start and the no touch downs and no Aaron Rodgers.

And the bad quarterback situation.

Literally coming back from that ACL repair. Now he's had a full offseason. I don't see why as much as I would love to be cautious on all things Jets.

Offensive line should be better.

He's the one jet that I feel good about. The rest, not so much.

Aaron Wilson. I guess he could be freaked out injury-wise about anyone, but for some reason, because it's happened, I'm more freaked out injury-wise about him. He's very big play reliant, maybe not quite as many, like five, six.

That is big play reliant because he makes big plays.

The injury thing is what I separate B. John and Bries all from.

This is why they kick me out of the fantasy community. I think I wrote him down, Fifth or Sixth, that running back.

I want to know who's in your clear-cut top four.

Yeah, I guess we're about to find that.

He's got back-to-back pick. Maybe I'll take him back-to-back here. Let's go. Well, Saquon would be one place to start. Why How would he not be? I think people are overth it. He passed the eye test last year that he is still very much Saquon running behind in one of the better offensive lines in the league, even though they lost a couple of pieces there in Philadelphia. They are going to have shutdown opportunities. I think he's going to catch the ball more. They've been doing that at camp. I don't doubt the talent. Just such a better situation. I think he's as safe as it gets.

I think it ends up being a wash, because he's in a much better offense. You mentioned a much better offensive line. The difference is the Eagles won't have to lean on him the way the Giants He was the Giants' offense. It's like, We've got to feed him touches. Here, they can give him the ball, they can get it to A. J. Brown, Devontae Smith. They can spread it around a little bit more. I think that's the difference.

I feel like we're going to learn a little bit more about Saquon and the Eagles as well, because he's not going to come off the field. There's not going to be as much rotation at the running back position. We could see, whereas Saquon in the passing game in New York was like, God, what are we going to do? Literally, this is the only thing we can do in our passing is get Saquon involved. Now, I think it's more incorporated.

Everyone's afraid of the push-push stealing touch. Deandre Swift and Saquan had the same number of goal on carries last year. There we go. Even if he's losing some to Jalen Hertz, being on a better offense.

You got to believe in the talent, and the situation is great. All right, now, you're not going to find out who's in my tier because I only have one wide receiver left in my first tier of receivers, too, so I'm going to take him instead. I'm going to stack some eagles, Saquan and A. J. Brown, put them on the same team, get all the eagles' touch downs. I just feel like maybe I'm too basic these days when it comes to fantasy, that if they're that good and they're in the middle of their prime, I try not to think about it too deeply that I just can't imagine A. J. Brown not having an incredible and dominant season, whether he's as good as Chase and Tyreek. We'll see, but to me, he's in that tier of wide receiver. Tell me I'm wrong.

He is the most disrespected elite wide receiver because he doesn't go... In early drafts, it's the top five guys, and then you'll see Béjan and Bries, and then the other receiver start to go. I'm always like, A. J. Brown belongs in that group. He's not far behind any of them, and yet he's got a great quarterback. He's got a new OC that could get the most out of him, I believe. Yeah, I'm excited for that.

Make your own list, people. This is where I like, just take the guys you want. Reality is going to be a lot less It's unpredictable.

I mean, I wouldn't say disrespected, but I think he's the elite receiver that also has another elite receiver alongside of him. I think that's the fear.

Also how they finish is going to influence people. If the season ended in week eight, it's like, Oh, my God, AJ Brown.

What? You don't like that the quarterback doesn't respect the head coach? It seems like a mild issue. Who's next? I'm now confused with the snake. All right, go.

You left this one on the board there. I'm going to take the Aria Stark of the NFL world.

Oh, no.

Give me a Monra Saint-Croh. You can go out there and look, you talk about the great year he had last year. Then you watch receiver and you're like, every body part of his was hanging on by a thread by week four. Imagine what This guy could be with a healthy foot and a healthy oblique in what we know is going to be one of the best offenses in football.

Constantly loaded up with targets, always open. The injury concerns, he did miss that time, but it's like, that's everybody. That's one thing I've been trying to get out of my vocabulary for the entire, if he stays healthy. You can apply that to every person on the planet.

I'm done. I'm salty because I was really hoping he would fall in a lot of spots.

I'm looking at this ADP with Claybon He's going eighth overall.

I really was hoping he'd fall in a lot of light.

He was the wide receiver three last year despite the mistime.

Eight isn't high enough.

No, I have him ahead of Justin Jefferson.

Yeah.

Not that crazy. All right, Marcus.

Now we're at a spot where I'm not in love with anybody at this particular ADP, but I think what I'm going to do here, I'm going to go Jonathan Taylor because I feel like we haven't talked a lot about him as a fantasy community. When we talk about the colds, we've been focusing on Anthony Richardson and the rushing upside, and can he be another Cam Newton type, and on and on and on. But let's not forget who Jonathan Taylor was when he was fully healthy. To have those two guys in the backfield I think, is potentially amazing for this offense. I think he gets a ton of opportunity. I think he scores a bunch of touch downs. I just feel like he's flying under the radar, if that's possible.

Whenever I do draughts on a podcast, I have immediate regrets. My first immediate regret is that I didn't take Taylor, that I took A. J. Brown over Taylor. That was the other running back in my group. Four? Because when you have a guy that used to be going first or second overall in fantasy, and everything is geared up because he's healthier now, the offensive line for a monster season, and Chris Ballard is like, The one guy I'll talk about is Jonathan Taylor is going to have a monster season. I buy it. Yeah, that was a good pick.

Aj Brown was a good pick as well. Okay.

Yeah, let's get another line.

I'll take Jamir Gibbs. It's honestly because people are, you could say, the big play criticism, all these other things, he's having to share time. The time that we saw Jameer Gibbs in his rookie year, I'll take that year again. I'm comfortable getting that year again here at this point in the draft, and I'm not even going to worry about it.

Yeah, they're a team-It could be so much better, too. I think he is getting better just as a player. They are a team where it just feels like they can't be better than they were last year. The yards, though, will shake out maybe in a... I don't know if Amon Ra can get quite as much as he got a year ago, but I think Jamir Gibbs can get more. No.

Yeah, I still worry. I like Jameer Gibbs. I just worry that David Montgomery still exists, and he's going to get a lot of work there in Detroit.

Give my guy a break.

He's awesome. Jameer Gibbs is closer, I think, to the rest of these runningbacks who already went, whereas if I just wanted an actual NFL runningback for one game, he might be the best runningback in the I think there's a chance that he's that talented. We're that talented. There isn't a podcast out there that's giving any better fantasy advice than this right now. Well, except for Micah, for example. But we are going to take a quick break, and we'll come back for the grand finale of this draft, rounds 4 through 7. We flew through that pretty quick. We stayed nimble. Back on NFL Daily. It's going to be the second half of the most influential, consequential fantasy draft of the season.

Ever.

If I do well, We're coming back to this. If you're watching on YouTube, we're going to fly up our team so far, Eric and Randy behind the glass. You can look at the teams that we have so far. I have an all-NFC team, Justin Jefferson, A. J. Brown, and Saquon Barkley. So you can follow along. We'll look at the complete teams at the end of the show, but they're going to roll through them now if you're just catching up. But we are back, and it's a snake in the draft here. Patrick, you're up.

Okay, so I was able I do satisfy my running back position. I do want to remind people that if you listen to this draft and want to have your actual draft strategy, all the draughts aren't going to be this compact and concise. Ultimately, I like talent, and I think talent is going to overcome a whole lot. It's a risk because I need him to overcome a whole lot, but I'll take Devante Adams.

Okay.

That's totally reasonable.

Because, again, volume is king, and if Devante is getting volume, is he getting buckets? Is he going to be upset about some balls being thrown to places they shouldn't be? Yes. But the reason he's upset is because he cares and I want him in my school.

He helped get Jimmy up out of there. Somebody had to. That's one less guy to complain about. Look, I mean, I don't everybody's worried about the quarterback situation, but I'm with you. He's still one of the most talented receivers in this league, and he's by far going to be the target monster in this offense, and that's mostly what we want.

I had him seventh at wide receiver, and that was after going to Raiders' practice this week. And seeing Aiden O'Kunal triple pump on every throw, throw an interception, like every pass. It was not pretty. And yet it's Devante. He'll get yards.

All right. So I am up. And like Patrick, I have satisfied my running back requirement here. I'm going to go back to the wide receiver spot. This is a couple of different options here, but I am going to go with Garrett Wilson at this spot. This is a dude who was just outside the top 25, had over a thousand yards, 95 catches last year with awful quarterback play. The expectation being that Aaron Rodgers is healthy. I don't even need Aaron Rodgers to be like great vintage Aaron Rodgers. I just need him to be, even if he's 80% of the peak Aaron Rodgers, that's light years better than anything he had last year. If he was able to get 1,000 yards with that quarterback crew, I'm excited about what he can give you with a decent quarterback.

I think he has the perfect recipe for fantasy value because he has the great quarterback, but he doesn't have great competition. It's thin there. Is Mike Williams ever going to really be healthy? I guess he just came off the pup list.

I like Malikai Corley more than him personally.

That's a projection. That's a stretch.

I'm up, right? Yes. Should I go with the safe pick or the splash?No.What.

A splash, man.

Give me Marvin Harrison.

All right.

Who I have as a top 10 wide receiver in my mind. Wow.

That's a I didn't even have him in my top 20. Maybe I'm crazy.

In hindsight, it makes so much sense because myself and Michael F. Florio, firm Kyler Camp folks. To see him with a top tier wide receiver like this, I understand it.

We've seen it already. When he had D-Hop, D-Hop was routinely putting up top 5, top 10 numbers. I think Marvin Harrison, I'm not going to say rookie year Marvin Harrison could be D-Hop, but he could be D-Hop.

He could be rookie.

He could stretch the field. He could thrive in the red zone. I'm very bullish on this off.

Talent and opportunity. I mean, that's all we're really asking for. You're talking about arguably the most talented receiver in this class. You're talking about Garrett Wilson not having a lot of target competition.

I think he's sneaky does. Zade Trey Jones, Michael Wilson, Trey McBride. I'll ride with those guys and the running backs. I actually think more than the Jets.

This is how I know that Greg's been out of the fantasy community for a while because there's a Greg Dorchhive that has formed.

Yes, Dorchh too.

And Trey McBride, he's very, very popular.

The human Dorch.

Save that thought. We are required to take a tight end, so I think he will be drafted. You're up. Oh, I am up. Yeah, you got back to back. Again, I'm really regretting the AJ Brown pick now because there's a drop off at running back. Taylor would It would have been a better idea. I'm going Puka. This injury, it's a Bursasack injury, Sean McVay said, which typically is just a one week injury, so that they're being very careful with him. I know Cooper Cupp looks better at training camp. I was there for a day. He can't base too much on one day, but Puka is going to be the number one option in this offense. He's younger, he's faster, he's more dynamic. I feel like he is right there with all the wide receivers that we've said so far, really, after the top three or four.

That was going to be my boring pick.Okay.I.

Went splashy.Dang.Calling me boring. He's just...

Everyone loves Puka.How.

Do you know? I love the fact, and this has nothing to do with the football or fantasy, but I just love the fact that Puka has lived his best life this offseason.Yes. Great.

He lost weight doing it. His body looks different.

I'm all here for it. Get after it, man. You had a great rookie season. You live in Los Angeles. Do your thing, dude. I love it.

Is this my pick?

No. I know it's confusing. It's It's the snake. We're going to snake. We're going to snake.. Thanks, Walker. Love you, buddy. I'm going to take the guy you took a quarterback last year, Walker, actually. I'm going to take the first quarterback off the board. I do think there's a difference between the top couple of quarterbacks and the rest. I'm taking Josh Allen. I'm not really buying the Mahomes' back to QB1 fantasy idea. I think this is Josh Allen MVP season. I don't care about the weapons around him. He's still at the point in his career where he's going to have rushing value, especially towards the end of the season. I feel good about that because I think the other positions, they're more even with the players that are remaining. I want either Josh Allen or one other quarterback, but I'll take Josh.

Yeah, you don't have to tell me I'm the biggest Josh Allen fan there is. But I'm trying to think from a fantasy standpoint here.

But this isn't a normal draft because we have to fill in all these positions. You really know so many are getting taken.

They've both finished their running back room, right? I don't think I should take a running back This draft does create some…

It's a little bit of strategy.

Yeah, maybe we should proselyze more four-team leaks.

You know what? I will double down on my Kyler-Merry love, and I will I think Trey McBride as my strategy.

There it is.

I thought you were going to take Kyler Murray.

Instant payoff. All right.

I like Trey McBride. He's my tight-end one. He made Zack Hertz extendable in Arizona last year.

Between the two of you, Marcus, is Floria the one throwing I don't know, hotter takes just to get a little attention. He's like, Hey, I got McBride. Who needs Kelsey?

But here's the thing. Mcbride was the tight-end one with Kyla Murray last year. In targets and in fantasy points.

Not a hot take.Yeah.

I don't think it's a hot take. Straight facts.

We actually did a tight-end ranking spot on around the NFL, and I think we had him as the number three tight end in the entire NFL. It's just reality. He's that good.

He really is that good. I mean, literally, he got hot last year, and Zackert is like, Yeah, I'm a head-up. I'm a head-out.

I think he just has more competition. So even if he's as good or better, there's just better receivers there than there were a year ago because of Marvin Harrison Jr. And even Zay Jones, a healthy Zay Jones. I'm not saying that.

But there's more receivers in Kansas City.

Greg's on the Zay Jones high, but I love it.

I just mean Zay Jones is a quality rotation receiver when he's out there. He's like a third or fourth. Patrick's mocking me. No, I'm not.

I just love it.

I do love that. He's nottily looking down. I was running fantasy before you were even alive.

We no longer talk about Zay Jones standing up.I.

Still talk about that.We should. His 11th century is still amazing.

You wouldn't want to draft Zay Jones in fantasy. I just mean he's part of a good rotation. Supposedly, he's been good at camp. All right, Mark, you're up.

I'm looking. I still have one more wide receiver spot. I feel good about the tight ends that are left out there, so I'm not going to do that. But I'm worried that wide receiver is hollowing out. I'm going to take Drake London here.

Yeah, that was my next one.

I'm very much a Drake London stand. It's not just me being a USC homer. I mean, I think he's talented. And he finally has the quarterback upgrade we've been asking for. No more Desmond Ridders, no more Marcus Mariotas. I mean, the fact that we were like, Hey, man, Taylor Heineke, maybe that can make... That's where we were at some point. So now it's Kirk Cousins. I'm ready to go with Drake London.

I love that. I think he set up, unfortunately, we actually talked about it earlier in the show, an injury to Ron Dale Moore, which doesn't sound great, but that's a thin group even before that. I just think this guy Our friend Matt Harmon, he's been talking up that he's profiled like a one receiver the last couple of years, just hasn't had the opportunity.

Am I on the clock?

Yeah. Why? Wait, is my clock about to run out? I think we're… Sometimes we get… We're playing out the clock.Okay. But if you want to go…

I just got excited because I am going to state a case here, and I believe it, and I will do so with my pick. I will take Cooper Cup right here, right now. I realize I'm leaping a lot of wide receivers, a lot of guys that we think great things about, Nico Collins being one of them. I just feel that Puka allows Cooper Cup to be Cooper Cup, and he'll be in the slot. He can pile up targets, pile up catches, pile up rack. If you have an injury concern, again, I don't care. I have injury concerns about everybody. It's the National Football League. It's the worst thing about it. So, yes, I will take Cooper Cup here and feel great about it.

I am not sold that Cooper Cup is still not the Ramsey wide receiver one, because last year was a lost year. He had the ham string injury in preseason. He comes back. He played well. He then had a high ankle sprain that he missed that time, and the next two games were weird. But in the games where Cup, Puka, and Stafford played, they were separated by two targets.

Okay, but what about the yards and touch downs on those targets? He wasn't the same guy, so that freaks me out. I don't think it's a crazy pick.

Two years prior to that, was the top two wide receiver.

I'd rather have Olave, who still... Now I can just throw the names out there because I'm stacked at right receiver. Dk, I'd rather have him than Kup, but then I'd probably take Kup.

Okay, all right. You got one more I have one more pick, though, Patrick.I.

Have one more pick.You do. Much to the chagrin of some people sitting at this desk, I will take Kyle Pitz.

Second tight end off the board. Second tight end.

I'm in. I haven't been in yet. I'm in now. I'm in 2024, Kyle Pitz. All right.

I'm not backing because I never left. I've been in the whole time. Lauren and I have been here the whole time. We're ready to welcome more folks to the bandwagon.

You're taking them over, Kelsey.

I am.

Laporta.

Sure did.

Andrews.

And I do it again.

Would you take them over McBride?

Yes.

I would have.

I'm in one. Kyle Pitz. Love it.

The value of the particular pick does play. I'm not taking either of those guys.

Right. We only need to take four tight ends in this draft.

But yeah, just considering where I am, I feel great about it. All right. I feel good about it. All right.

Okay, so now it's back to me here. I'm going to take a tight end. I'm going to...

It's interesting the tight ends going before the quarterbacks in this class.

Yeah. Here's the thing. When you draft, you learn when you draft with actual analysts, it's like a game of chicken to see who's going to take the first quarterback, generally.

I know, but this draft is weird.

It's different. I know. Either way, I'm taking Sam Laporta, mostly because he's the third tight end off the board now. I think if we talked about Sam Laporte as the first tight-end, I would have waited and gotten a McBride, a Pitz, maybe a Mark Andrews. But we're talking about him as a third tight-end in this draft. Yeah, I'll take him. He was the number one tight-end in fantasy last year as a rookie. Again, the situation It hasn't really changed much in Detroit. Maybe they can't get better, but I don't think they have a major fall off either.

No. He runs the route that Jared Goff loves to throw the most. He's maybe the best in the NFL at throwing. It's crazy. I mean, it was maybe the greatest tight-end rookie season of all time. Tied ends usually improve a lot.

It was the best fantasy rookie season ever by a tight-end.

Kyle Pitz is sneaky good, though. Got over a thought there. No, Kyle Pitz is very good.

He had more yards than Laporta. He just didn't have the touch downs. I'm up, You are. This is a guy I've planted my flag on this year, and it's surprising because he's on my team's biggest rival, but Isiah Pacheco. I think Isiah Pacheco is about to be a top five fantasy running back, maybe even better this year.

Wow, it's a lot of angry running.

He learned how to catch down the stretch last year, and now there's no Jerrord McKinnon. I mean, his backups are Clyde Everton-Lair and a rookie that most of the world didn't know existed before training came.

All right, go in big picture because I'm the only one that has a running back pick left, and I have no idea who I'm going to take All these guys seem so similar to me. It's, again, why I made a mistake not taking Taylor earlier. James Cooke, Derrick Henry, Travis ETN. I would throw Kamara maybe even in that group. Kyren Williams. I love Ramondre. Still has a potential difference. Ken Walker. Those are a lot of guys to me who you could make cases for almost any of them over each other. Maybe it's a year that you wait that round. I don't know.

I think that's a spot, at least for me, where I tend to wait. I'll go wide receiver, maybe a tight end, and then there's some middle round guys. I like James Cook a little bit later. I like David Montgomery a little bit later. Jalen Warren, I like a little bit later. That's a tier of runningbacks. I'm like, I'd rather not.

But if you do like one of those names and you get laid into your draft and you don't have a positional need, I think it's just fine to go ahead and grab that guy because that guy will have incredible value in week 5, 6, 7. That may win you your league.

If you believe in it. You can never have too many running backs. He'll snag him. That's what I mean.

Right.

Who's up? You.

Back to you for two. You get your final.

You get one of your guys. I got to choose a tight end. I'm going to take Dalton Kincaid for a couple of reasons. One, to stack Josh Allen with him. That's fun on this team. Two, to just annoy any Chiefs fans out there that, yes, Travis, Kelsi is going undrafted. It just doesn't seem like it's going to be fun to have Kelsi this year. I'm a little worried. Should we be worried?

Yes, he's going to be a tight-end, too. Whatever.

If he had better touch down look last year, finishes as a tight-end one once again. I mean, he's going to be fine, right? He's maybe not as great as he once was, but he's still better than 90% of the tight-ends out there.

There's six games every season where it seems like he gets old, and I think that's why we all took guys that are ascending. I could see Kincaid going for 1,100 yards and being their number one receiver.

If you look at the Chief's last four seasons and add up their playoff games, eventually, if they have another run, there's an extra season of football.

They don't care about regular season, especially September, October. He looked like Travis Kelsey in the playoffs again, though.

Okay, I'm just going to stick with my board, stick and pick like Joe Shane likes to do. He somehow decided that before anything happened. I don't know. I'm going to go James Cooke. We got three bills on this team. Derrick Henry is another option, but I'm assuming we're going PPR here. I think between the receiving... Man, I'm already rethinking in ETN. Etn is so solid, and yet he doesn't get me going. Can I change my pick? Sure. I'm changing it midstream. That's too many bills. I'm going Travis ETN. There's no argument against Travis ETN going this high. He should go in this draft.

He should because he has very little competition in that backfield, too. They keep trying to make Tank Bigs be a thing, but I don't think we can't make Fetch happen. I don't think it's going to work.

Press Taylor did say that Tank had a horrible start, as bad as a start as he could possibly be, putting the ball on the ground, not having in production. But he's still there. He's still going to be a part of the offense. But he also said he would never put a ceiling on Travis ETN.

Travis ETN is going to get-I mean, he's among the leaders in touches since he entered the league. I feel good. My team's done. Yeah, I'm about to make-Get that graphic ready, Eric. We're going to look at all these teams once we're done. This is our final round. Florio, who are you taking?

I need a quarterback, and I'm very tempted to take Kyler to just have the all Cardinal stack. But I'm going to take a guy that I truly think only Josh Allen and maybe Jalen Hertz rival in upside. I will take Anthony Richardson there.

Okay. Oh, all right. I see.

Davin Richardson for the last run. Yeah, I guess only four quarterbacks. I'm very interested to see who doesn't get drafted. At quarterback. He's the upside play. He'd also maybe be the best ball play, too.

If he stays healthy, I truly think it's Allen and Hertz are the only ones that match his upside because he can give you the double-digit rushing touch downs, but also run for a thousand yards, which Hertz and Allen.

I mean, Lamar.

But Lamar doesn't get the rushing touch down. Okay.

In an offense that held Gardner-Minchu above the watch for a significant amount of time, and eventually-And got better pass catchers now, too.

The coach, the staking effect seems real when you look at what's happened with the chargers and then the eagles and then the colts the last, we believe, seven years.

All right, so I need a quarterback here. I'm just going to say it. I'm I'm going to make Patrick angry. Yeah, I'm taking that.

I was going to be so happy.

I thought about it like, there's nobody else that I really super like in a four-team draft that I really super love. If I wanted to be really spicy, I could have been like, Oh, CJ Stroud. Not CJ Stroud. Not spicy. If I were to be really spicy, I could have been like, Jaden Daniels.

That would have been spicy.

That would have been crazy spicy. Not for a four-team draft.

It always goes spicy.

It has to be spicy. Let's go Jaden Daniels. Mostly, only basically just a-I mean, Lamar is a better pick.

No, it is. But this is mostly-Objectively, he's a better pick.

He is objective. This is mostly to make a point, though, because if we're talking rookie quarterbacks, in a one-year situation, I'm taking Jaden Daniels over Caleb Williams. If we're talking dynasty, Caleb is the guy. Consider this like a protest pick, a point-making, flag-planting pick. If you guys are-What about in a four-team draft where the listeners vote on who has the best team, though? Then I probably would have stayed with Lamar Jackson.

I think you guys are It's crazy. To me, Hertz and Josh Allen are one and two in some order.

I love that the GOAT right now is not going to get drafted. Our current GOAT.

We don't know that. Patrick had that very last pick of the draft. He has a quarterback available.

Yeah, if Marcus had stuck with his pick, then I would be drafted. Like Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs. I will not be. I'll be drafting Lamar Demetrius Jackson.

It bothers me Jalen Hertz wasn't picked in this draft, but I get it. Four quarterbacks.

I was going to look at my team and be like, What are you doing with Jaden?

Well, just like that is a truck on the goal line. People are overly worried that the push push isn't going to exist. It doesn't matter. He's still going to be one of the best goal line runningbacks or quarterbacks.

Yeah, and the offense is going to be better, especially than it was towards the finish of the season. I'm ultimately banking this Lamar pick that there will be an overall offensive improvement with Derek Henry, and not just that Derek's taking rushing touch. Because, again, Lamar wasn't running the ball in the end zone a whole lot anyway, so I'm completely fine with it.

Well, and yeah, the least surprising development of the day, Patrick ended up with Lamar Jackson. That's what we love about Patrick. He's consistent. Let's look at our final teams. Eric Roberts, who's back from paternity leave, is working hard on these graphics We're looking at team Rosenthal. Again, yes, go on our YouTube page, subscribe, like. You can see my team, Josh Allen, Saquon, ETN, Jefferson, Brown, Pukina Kua, and Kincaid. I like that. It's a frisky team.

My rule of thumb is always target good offenses, and you did exactly that.

Well, I mean, okay, actual teams. I was like, Yeah, I hope you're trying to make good offense. Fantasy football. Florio has got Richardson, Bries Hall, Pacheco, CeeDee Lamb, Ammon Ra, Harrison, and McBride. A lot of projection from the spicy hot take king. That's what I say.

What's projection there besides the card?

Just the last two guys, the card. That's it. Let's look at Marcus.

Dings with an asterisk because I'm just making a point here, but the rest of it I love. The rest of it I love.

That's a Strong team. Mccafee, Taylor, Chase, Wilson, Drake, London, Laporte. But to be real, this is a four-team draft. Your team better be strong. You're starting line up, or else you're doing something wrong. Then finally, Patrick Klabon, the host of fantasy Live. Lamar Dijon, Jamir Gibbs, Tyrie Kehl, Cooper Cup, Devante.

He's got some youth at running back, but a veteran presence in the wider super-room.

These guys have run some routes. They've seen some things.

I love my team, but if I could choose another team, this would be the team. Sorry to these men over here.

That's all right.

No, I clearly like explosive runningbacks and guys who are taking supplements.

In a real-life game, if these teams were to play, Patrick seems wins easily, I think.

That does feel like it. Thank you guys for joining. You can check out the NFL fantasy football podcast. You must be back a couple of times a week at this point.

We are twice a week, and then NFL fantasy Live starts Monday, August 12th. Check your local listings for times.

Look at that. We still have television shows. Nfl Network, where you check your local listing. Patrick and I will be back, by the way, with game debut later than the regular season. I'm excited.

I know it's going to be any. So two is great.

Patrick, Marcus, Florio. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We'll see you next time.