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God bless football, Mike Ye.

God bless football, Fuentes.

God bless football, Stugatz.

Thank you. I mean, a little more enthusiasm, perhaps, when it says- I was wondering also if it was just me or not.

It's early.

Okay, so it wasn't just me. Good. It's early.

I'm doing things. I'm looking on the line. We're trying to figure out.

What do you mean? It's Friday afternoon. What are you talking That's a good point.

It's very early for a Friday afternoon. I'm doing things.

I'm doing things.

I'm doing things.

Busy guy.

It's week zero, Billy. College football is here, man. It's no longer called week zero. It's week one, as Greg Cody explained to us on the Dan Leventhal show, Winsor God. It is a week one that last two weekends.

It's week one part one because we have six or seven teams. I think eight teams that play twice in week one. So the rare double header for some of these teams. It kicks off By the way, Florida State, Georgia Tech, 12 Eastern in Dublin. Because when you think Dublin, of course, you think Florida State and Georgia Tech.

You think of Atlanta, Georgia.

So their problem was with the number zero, not with the fact of the word week, meaning two weeks. That's what they feel like they had to change, the word zero.

I don't know. Listen, you have college football this weekend. The games mean something. It's Florida State and Georgia Tech. You have a Hawaii Midnight game. I don't think Delaware State caught their plane. Did Delaware State make it to Hawaii? I was reading stories last night. I'm concerned about this because my strategy every Saturday is lose as much money as possible and then bet it all in Hawaii at midnight. It makes you feel alive. I mean, it does.

That's not necessarily the most responsible betting advice. Maybe don't do that.

I'm not advising that you do it. I didn't say, Hey, this is what you should do. I didn't say that.

Football season is a marathon, Stuga. It's not a sprint.

On top of On top of, by the way, week one in college football, or week one, part one, whatever you're going to call it, also, it is fantasy season. We have Mike Wright, our friend from fantasy footballers, back this week, and he's going to be helping you, the listener, set up your fantasy team and us, too. And also we love nitro. You love nitro. Nitro is not back because we thought that you guys would actually want some fancy advice, not explain to nitro why it is that you need a running back on your fantasy football team. We love nitro. God bless them. But we We thought this would be more beneficial to you, the fantasy consumers, than just picking nitro's team.

Yeah, so Mike Wright- More broad strokes here. Yeah, Mike Wright, fantasy footballers, is going to join us. We do love him. We do love nitro. We realized probably mid way through the second go around with nitro and Mike Wright, that this was a tune-out for the audience.

No, unfair. I don't know if I would classify it as such because there are discussions to, should we do it again at some point? But headed into the season, we thought, you know what? Let's have the focus be on Mike Wright and not nitro.

I know, but Billy, you will agree, it's not our best idea. The fact that we were having Mike Wright help nitro and only nitro will pick his fantasy team probably doesn't serve our audience very well.

Well, here's the problem. When discussing fantasy, I've learned the best way to do it and the most fun way to do it is calls, or you have user, viewer, submissions, whatever. What really happened with nitro is Mike Ye was getting mad, and he's like, This is a waste of my time. I'm not getting anything from Mike Wright. I had access to Mike Wright, and all we're doing is learning about Nitro's team, and the guy's asking all these stupid questions.

Why shouldn't I draft two kickers? Was one of the ones that... Why do I need... Should I have two kickers? That was a question.

So I'm concerned. I have this tight-end.

Did I take a kicker in the third round?

Why not take him in the seventh round early?

For the record, I love nitro. I just didn't love that segment.

That's it. It was also when Mike would ask him, Well, who's on your team? He's like, My quarterback is Jay Allen. It's like, okay.

The guy from was this- All their first names was their first initial.

And it's always like the guy from San Diego. It's like, Well, that's not a team anymore.

There is no San Diego.

We made it to the conference finals, I think, in his fantasy league.

That's how good Mike Wright is.

That's how good Mike Wright is. That's how good Mike Wright is. Well done.

Yes. Not just that, but that honestly is the secret to fantasy is that I've been in so many league where the person who knows the least, not that I'm saying that I know a lot, but the person that knows the least often succeeds because they have absolutely no emotional attachment whatsoever, and they don't overthink absolutely anything. They just figure out the scoring system and like, Yeah, this person, I'm just going to plug them in. It's like, Why would you get rid of this person? It's like, Because they're not doing well. It's like, But they were the MVP of the season two years ago. It's just a rough start. They're like, No, it It doesn't matter.

They end up being absolutely right more times. Always. Every time because you're so right. There's so many players I hold grudges against for bad seasons, like two seasons ago, and then they end up having a great season, but I'm still mad about 2009 or whatever.

Before we get to Mike Wright coming up here in just a minute, one guy that I am high on in fantasy, and he is worth a late-round flyer. He was named the starter this week. I named him the starter this week before they named him the starter. That is Bo Nicks in Denver. I am intrigued, Mikey A, by Bo Nicks in Denver.

Can I ask you guys a question?

Sure. Is Bo Nicks good? Is Bo Nicks good? I don't know. Is Bo Nicks good?

I don't know. I have a follow-up. Can I ask you guys a question?

What?

Is Sean Payton?

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. 25 and 21 without your breeze. Yeah. Not stellar.

Yeah, I don't know. Listen, I know it's a football show. We're supposed to be experts. We're supposed to have answers. I don't know. I don't know.

How about Mike Wright.

Next.

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Mike Wright, the fantasy footballers podcast is exceptional. I hate when fantasy football season comes around, those podcasts, those football podcast, Billy, always jump ahead of ours. You know what I'm saying? Because everyone's in the fantasy. Mike Wright has the biggest and best fantasy football podcast, fantasy podcast anywhere. He was kind enough to join us last year and help nitro out with his first fantasy football draft, and he's back again this year to help you out, the listeners.

Boys. Yeah, look, I get it. No one wants to be second place to a bunch of schlubs like us. I totally get that. But we can all be in agreement that football back. It is the best time of year. Let's get this preseason out the way, and let's play some real football and win some real fantasy games.

I feel like, Stugatz, you should apologize to Mike because you made it seem like this is just a gimmick thing. Like, oh, this time of year, his little podcast just jumps ahead because everyone wants fantasy football advice when the reality is your podcast is at the top of the charts year round, which is crazy because football season is however many months, five, six months long. And then the rest of the time, you're still up there. So much so, Stugats, and I have an admission to make, and I don't think that I should be admitting this. And Mike, I hope that you don't hold this against us in any way, shape, or form. But Mike last year joined our show on a number of occasions, as you mentioned, to help with Nitro.

And we have competed against Mike and his podcast in the Sports Podcast Awards the past two or three years.

And we were in the same category. Mike's in a couple of different categories, but in the football category, we were both there. And we won back to back years. And then last year, we did not. I did a dirty little trick, if I'm going to be honest with you. And you're supposed to submit little clips that show the different range of your podcast. And one of the clips that I put in there was a clip with you, Mike and Nitro. I said, Look at how great we've covered fantasy, where I was using you to compete against yourself your sofa an award. And sure enough, your podcast actually did better than our podcast, so the trick didn't work.

No, that is fantastic. Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game. I got to respect the sneakiness. I like it.

But I still need to apologize, Billy.

I need to apologize. Yeah, well, you know.

All right. Sorry, Mike.

There's room for all of us, man.

How many drafts have you done already? How many drafts?

Real drafts, I've only done a handful. They're really are. They're sneaking up starting next week is when I'll really be drafting way too much.

All right. So how many drafts do you have in your future here?

Oh, gosh. I don't know. They pop up like weeds. I mean, before it's all said and done, I'll have done probably 10 plus. And then there's people... I mean, there's real degenerates out there. Well, shout out to all of you who are playing. They're playing best ball. They're doing drafts as soon as the Super Bowl is done. They should be like, Oh, I'm going to take care of next year right now. It's a wild world, man.

Well, I was going to ask you- I'm sorry, Billy. I was going to ask you, Mike, do you ever wake up? You just wake up one morning and you say, You know what? Not today. Just not today.

That happens a lot for the waiver wire, where you're like, Oh, good Lord. I need to go put waivers in over here.

How soon, Mike? Is too soon for a fantasy draft? Because I'm in two leads, which is not that much, honestly. And I'm the Commissioner of one, so I'm responsible for setting the date on this fantasy draft. And I don't like doing it too early. I don't like doing it after just one preseason game because you never know what can happen at training camp. You never know what can happen in these games. Obviously, the big starters are not going to be playing in week three of the preseason, so there's not really a risk there. But I always like to wait until the last minute. So sometimes it's also just to get, who do I get in my last round of the draft? Who's someone that's probably going to sneak onto a roster that may steal some points here or there?

Do you want me to answer the how late is to draft or the player question?

He did. He had two questions there.

Yeah. How late is too late to draft? I guess what is the right time to set up a draft?

Honestly, it's really about the comfort and knowledge of the fantasy football players and how much risk they want to take on. Because the injury thing is the biggest, where your second-round pick, whatever, your first-round pick, they go out, and then they're hurt before the season even starts, and you're The team is toast because you've already burned that pick. Our main league, we call it the League of Records, for the first time ever, we are drafting kick off Thursday. We're drafting, we're scrambling to put our teams in, And then we're all hanging out watching the opening night. But there is an advantage, or I should say a strategy of if you really know football and everyone in your group knows football, an earlier draft can be fun because over August, that's when these later players start to reveal themselves to the general public because the casual players are trying to catch up. So a player, if you want my late round player right now It's Rico Doudle, running back of the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys, despite all this Seedy Lamb nonsense and Jerry Jones just... We got to get Jerry Jones out of there of running things It's time for the Cowboys.

It's time for the new regime to take over, Jerry. You had a good run. But they're going to be a good offense. That's what I think you can project confidently about them, is they're going to be a good team. They're going to be a top 15 offense at worst. And I did a huge study of looking at runningbacks who aren't drafted to be great, but then end up sneaking into the top 24. And there's about five or so of these players every year. And the thing that all of them have in common is they're on great offenses. So I understand that Ezequiel Elliott is the name, and Mr. Cowboy is back with the team, but he hasn't been the Zeke that we knew and loved for... It's been a while since we've really seen that player. And even all the Cowboys beat reporters, where the moment Pads came on, Rico Dautil has been the best running back on this team, and he is being drafted after Zeke and just extremely late. I think there is a good chance that Rico Dautil emerges as the leader of the timeshare and the most valuable fantasy football running back from that team.

All right, Mike. So people who have a bad commissioner out there and they have to draft this week or next week, they're not doing it opening night of the NFL season. How do you handle? How do you go about? If you're drafting in the next 7 to 10 days, let's say, how do you handle guys like Jamal Chase, CeeDee Lamb, and Ayu? What do you do there?

So the big three wide receivers I'm not as concerned about. They know the system. Nothing has really changed for those players. It's not like the running back position. I don't know if you guys know this. I never played running back in the NFL, but I can make some assumptions about playing that your body has to get ready. You're going to be in a car crash every 45 seconds when you're playing running back in the NFL. Josh Jacobs last year, during his holdout, I was mentioning on the show, I'm like, Guys, I'm a little concerned I'm concerned here that he's not out there getting the reps, getting his body really ready to play. Now, maybe I just got to the correct result with the wrong process, but it still led me to be very concerned about Josh Jacobs. For wide receivers, though, these guys are the elite of the elite. I'm not concerned. They're going to play. They're not going to hold out through the season. At least I understand there's whispers that Jamar Chase is like, there are people saying he won't step a foot on a football field without without the extension. Once game checks are up in the air and you miss a game, you miss a game check, that's a whole different level of cash.

That's people's entire year salary that they're going to skip out in a game. I don't think they're going to do it.

You mentioned before that you created this list of runningbacks based on good offenses. How much stock do you put into a guy being on a good offense versus, say, a Deontay Johnson who's going to be on probably a bad offense?

Sure. For runningbacks, it's extremely important. You have to have... There's some key tenets that we need to have for our fantasy runningbacks. Number one is volume. The phrase volume is king for fantasy runningbacks. That has been true for a very long time. That's the reason why in the first round, you're seeing just essentially three guys. You see Christian McCaffrey, Breese Hall, Beejan Robinson, because those are the only three runningbacks we can... Well, number one, they're really good at football. But two, you can confidently project, these are three down runningbacks who are only going to be taken off of the field when they're tired. Project it because Arthur Smith has been kicked out of Atlanta for failing to do that, in my opinion. So that's why they're up there at the top. So if you're not going to find a guy who has volume, which is the majority of the running back position now, it's all platoons. Now, I'm I'm going to factor in efficiency. I'm going to factor in how good is the offense because I need touch downs. I need touch downs, and I need guys who are actually catching the ball because that's how fantasy scoring works in half point or full point PPR.

Yeah, I They get, there's some holdouts out there that play, they call it standard, where they don't get a point for catching the ball. But those are dinosaurs. Those guys are dying off. It's all half point, full point PPR. So it really is finding high scoring offenses and efficient runningbacks, because it's not the '90s anymore, where 20 plus runningbacks are going to get all of the work. They're rotating way too much.

Twelve team draft, where does Mike write? What's the preferred position for Mike Wright?

I'm good, I would say, to about maybe the 106, the 107, because that way, to me, I put these players into buckets. And those three running backs I mentioned, those guys are in a bucket. And then the big-time wide receiver's of Tyreek, Seedy, Jamar, I feel really, really confident in them. It sucks that I don't get to say Justin Jefferson's in that bucket. But with Sam Darnold being the guy for the Minnesota Vikings, and you don't have the unknown hope of JJ McCarthy coming to take over halfway through the year anymore because of the meniscus injury, the Darnold numbers are scary, man. They are really, really scary. Not scary enough to drop Justin Jefferson, who, in my opinion, is the best wide receiver in football. Can't drop him out of the first, but it's enough of a tiebreaker that I put those other three guys above him. If I'm at the 106, I guarantee I get one of those six players, and then second round, I get the best player back.

You put a lot of stock in offensive coordinator changes in terms of fantasy and what that might do for players, like a Cliff Kingsbury or Kelen Moore. Does that impact players greatly or not that much to you?

It is definitely part of the process. Kelen Moore would be the name I would go to while he's floating around the NFL. Can't seem to hold down a job. Sorry, Kelen, that does not affect what I'm doing over here. I'm playing a different game than you are. The last couple of years, Kelenmore has given us greatness. Ceedy Lamb, the The real breakout. Last year, before Keenan Allen got hurt, he was absolutely elite. And now we're looking at him over in Philadelphia. The big thing is bringing motion to the offense. We've started to talk about that a bit more. It's a deeper concept for fantasy football, but casual fans should get used to it. Looking at the teams and the offenses in particular who use motion the most, just rattle off any top-tier offense that you can think of, and they're there. They're using motion all the time, and Kelenmore was a part of that. So he's going to bring that to Philadelphia with tons of reports of it already, of moving guys like Devante Smith, moving him into the slot, moving them all over the field, creating actual mismatches. It's not the, We're really high T.

It's man versus man. We're just, Man versus man, we're going to beat you. No, use some strategy, man. There's a reason that the Miami Dolphins get Tyreek moving because he's already at full speed once the play starts. It's a huge advantage, so use that. So for the Philadelphia Eagles, we're very excited what Kelenmore should be bringing to this offense for a team that was, if my memory serves, they were near the bottom of the league in terms of motion, and you saw what happened to their offense. The second half of the year, it sure felt like people had figured out how to stop the Philadelphia Eagles. Hopefully, they can't stop them.

I am hesitant to bring Mike Fuentes into this conversation and allow Mike EA to ask another question, because what I want for this segment is for Mike Wright to help the audience, not to help the individual people associated with this show with their draft and their team. And with that said, I bring in Mike Fuentes to ask a question I'm sure has nothing to do in terms of positive information for the audience and is only concerned about his own team. Mike Fuentes, go ahead.

Well, actually, me and Danny B are taking a look at Mike's desk, and he has power lined there next to him on his right, Tua Burrow, his Air Jordan coffee mug. It looks like Newman right here in front of the camera. And then I'm really in love with the huge Indiana Jones funkel pop there underneath the guitar. That's probably my favorite thing. My man. Yeah, I'm like, none of that matters right now. I'm doing a 16-team league this year.

Jesus. Good Lord.

That's a lot. Listen, you got off to a good start. You talked about his desk and all the things around it. What's the matter with you?

He sucked me in. Anyone who knows the The icon, that power line actually is, they're okay in my book. That's right. Darn right.

Darn right. A banger.

It's your book.

My real question is, I feel like tight end is one of the most shallow positions. It's basically You have Laporta, and then you have Kelsey, and then just a grab bag of guys. So if I want to target somebody in later rounds, do you have a suggestion outside of a McBride or somebody who might be a sleeper or even a Kyle Pitz who's in a now or never type ear? Like, Who would you suggest would be a good sleeper for a tight end in this coming season?

Sure. I would start off saying that this year at tight end, at least guys at the top, it's way heavier than it's been in a long time. It has been Travis Kelsey, Mark Andrews, log out. It has been that for years and years. And now you got Kelsey Laporta, McBride, Andrews. And I'll even put Dalton Cade in there. Those are five players that none of them would shock me if they finish as the tight-end at the end of the year. But I would say the 16-teamer is a little bit different. So this is a 12-teamer sleeper. We'll start there. What is Jake Ferguson of the Dallas Cowboys? My second cowboy I'm going to mention here. But he led tight ends in red zone targets. It just didn't come through as much as it should. Historically speaking, Dak Prescott has always favored the tight-end position going way, way back. But Ferguson was essentially a rookie last year. It's his second year, but it was his first year really being the starter. So he can even improve from what he was, which was really a breakout for fantasy football. And if you're looking, let's see, a deep, deep sleeper All right, I'll give you two.

One of them I hate, but I have to bring it up anyways. It depends on where you play, I should say, depending on your platform. But Taysam Hill of the New Orleans Saints, I hate it because it's so no gadgetty, and it drives me crazy. But I'm not sure I love anything in this world the way that the New Orleans Saints seem to love Taysam Hill. This guy gets to line up all over the field. He gets to take snaps away from the starting quarterback sometimes. And there's platforms out there like Sleeper, where he is still eligible to go into the tight-end position. And then other than that, you got to start strong. I'll say that if you can start strong and buy a few weeks at the tight-end position and then figure it out on the waiver wire, one of my favorite guys to start that right now, at least, just start, Hunter Henry of the New England Patriots. He got off to a really, really hot start last year, and his opening schedule, his opening three to four games, very favorable, at least based off of what defenses did last year. Defenses will change, of course.

But Hunter Henry is a guy who I think that if you have completely punted the position, even in a 16-teamer, I don't know if anybody's really going to be on Hunter Henry, and you can pick him up and play in the first couple of weeks, and then just make that your priority for the waiver those first couple of weeks. Grab a tight end.

Mike, for me, I haven't done my drafts yet, but I've done a lot of mocks. And one name that keeps jumping out at me where I can't believe he's still there. I mean, go back a year, Cooper Cup was going top eight picks, probably. And now I'm seeing him in the fourth round, fifth fifth round. But he was hurt and he came back and he still got his volume. What do you make of the Pukinaku, a Cooper Cup share with the Rams?

I think that people are writing Cooper Cup off just too quick. Pukunakuwa, it's extremely exciting what he did of breaking the rookie reception record and all that. The fact that he did that from being a fifth-round draft pick, I think that's part of such of the intrig. When Jamal Chase, his rookie year, is awesome for fantasy football, no one's surprised. But because of the whole story of Pukina Kua, I think that really does... It gets in your bones, man. Fantasy football is emotional. We try I'm not going to pretend that it's just it's statistics, and I'm a robot, and I'm going to... No, man, the guys who are on my team, those are the best players in the NFL because they're on my fantasy football team. And when they have bad games, it's personally affecting me. So the fact that Cooper Cupp, who, when he came back, like you said, from the injury, he did have a couple of good games. I think both him and Puka can coexist. I think Puka is being drafted too high. I think Cooper Cupp is being drafted too low. Having said all that, everything rides on Matthew Stafford, who...

I think we're okay. He had a little bit of ham string tightness, but his injury concerns... If Stafford goes down, that whole everything Kyren, Pukup, Cooper Cupp, it's all ruined. And he has been a little bit more fragile dealing just these chronic back problems. So that's the risk involved with the Rams. But Cup's ADP is sensational, and hopefully We were not moving it.

Mike, has there been a guy over all the years you've been playing fantasy football that you drafted, and he absolutely wrecked your season, wrecked your league, wrecked your team, and you swore never to draft him again?

Yeah, there are I remember those players. Recently, it's been Tee Higgins.

Okay.

He just keeps breaking my heart over and over, but I still pound the table, and I say he's a really good player. He's not Jamar Chase level. He doesn't have to be. He's a really, really good wide receiver. And my main league, it's a keeper league. So you get three players, and you hold over. And so these last two years, I've had Tee, and it's just been emotionally draining for me. And yet I'll be back over here saying, he's got Joe Burrow. Everything makes sense for Tee Higgins. And then the other one was, it wasn't a draft, but it was DeAndre Swift. Back when he was on, not the Eagles's year, but the Lion's year, where I traded essentially all my big ammo to trade in my main league to go for a championship. All of it went into DeAndre Swift. It didn't work. It didn't work. And then I'm stuck holding the bag because there's nothing I can do. I can't make good trades. My ammo is gone. No one wants Swift. So we'll see how he does for the bears. But him and T are the most recent fantasy burns all over my body.

You seem to be very high on Anthony Richardson from what I've seen. I think I saw that in your rankings in a four-point Touchdown League, you have him higher than Patrick Mahomes on your rankings.

I can go and verify that. But I will say, regardless of that, yes, extremely bullish on Anthony Richardson. He is the difficult case where you can get mad that fantasy football is not real football. These guys that run, these quarterbacks that run, it is a totally unfair advantage. The reason why Josh Allen and Jalen Hertz are the elite of elite for fantasy quarterbacks is because they run so much. And that's just that simple math. Ten yards on the ground, one point. Twenty-five passing yards, one point. I'd rather a guy who runs for 50 plus yards every single game And it's projecting what Anthony Richardson could do. Obviously, it's really high risk. We've seen him play two full games. We've seen him been in more, but he keeps getting knocked out with injuries. So it's a really high risk situation for him. But I think that he's going to run so much. And as long as he can give us 3,200 or so passing yards, that with the amount that I think he's going to run, especially around the goal line, he's going to be one of these guys that maybe you don't necessarily want to watch it because he's completing 58 % of his passes.

But when he's running that much and getting all those rushing touch downs, you're not going to care.

Has Jalen heard someone we should be concerned about with Jason, Kelsey, retiring?

I think it's a combination of things, right? Because you have Jason, Kelsey. We get to find out this year, the push-push Who was really responsible for it? Because the broadcasts like to remind you each and every single time that he does it, You know that guy squats 650 pounds? Yes, I know, Troy. You already told me that this game, that That he is very strong. I get it. He has strong legs. But is it Jason Kelsi? Because other teams have tried to do it, and they can't seem to have the success rate that the Philadelphia Eagles have. You also have Saquon Barkley, who, I just mentioned DeAndre Swift. Swift actually had a ton of carries inside the five. He just was a professional at getting tackled and stopped at the one-yard line, which gave all those rushing touch downs to Jalen Hertz. He was Saquon Barkley. I mean, you want to talk about guys that squat? Saquon Barkley could do that, too. So I think that that will be the difference. I think the rushing touch downs for Jalen Hertz go down, but all that stuff I talked about with Kael and Moore, you're hoping it balances out with some more passing touch downs, which it really should happen.

His touch down mark was too low last year.

Jaden Daniels seems to be one of those guys that you might want to get. What do you do with him? Where is he going in mock draft, Jaden Daniels.

So he is one of our favorite targets. My favorite personal quarterback target, it starts with Kyler Murray, because you can get him usually in the sixth or seventh round, and he is back. The fact that the moment he came back last year for the Arizona Cardinals, they went from one of the worst offenses in the league to immediately a top 10 offense. Just because Kyler was back, now you add Marvin Harrison Jr. Kyler is my favorite target. But Jaden is right up there. He might even be my second favorite guy to draft because of the upside. Everything I just said about a quarterback running, it applies 100 % to Jaden Daniels. Plus, Jaden Daniels, I'm more confident as Daniels being a good passer in the NFL than I am for Anthony Richardson. The numbers at LSU are outrageous. Meanwhile, the college tape on Richardson, it's tough. You would see him throw a pass that only he could throw. And then the very next pass, you're like, Has this guy ever thrown a football? That's how wild the accuracy jumps were for Richardson. But Jaden Daniels, just absolutely John Madden football-type numbers from LSU last year.

Cliff, I know him well because I'm an Arizona boy, so I watched his offenses. They're not the most creative things in the entire world, but I think that you'll get enough that drafting him is a really good idea. We've been telling people, whenever you invest in a quarterback, you might want to draft Jaden Daniels at the end, just in case. He is the prototypical late-round quarterback that can break fantasy football. It's a long time ago, but Lamar's MVP season, he was being drafted right around where Jaden Daniels had been drafted. I had him. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, you You could have screwed up eight picks. But because you got Lamar right, he turned into a championship team.

Mike, when should you start thinking about a quarterback? Not in the first round, not in the second round, right?

Yeah. Don't do it that early. But the numbers are actually It plays out more of take the early guy, Josh Allen, Jalen Hertz. You can take them. In Mahomes, I'll go Allen Hertz, Mahomes, Lamar. If you're going to go early, It's okay because the hit rate, historically talking about quarterbacks drafted in that range, the hit rate for them to at least be a top five quarterback is very strong. Obviously, if you draft a quarterback, the first one, you want him to be the first overall quarterback. But just saying the percentage chance that they will not destroy you is pretty good. It's actually those middle quarterbacks. Those are the guys that, historically, are not coming through with their floor and it's not coming through with their ceiling. Those middle-round quarterbacks, that's actually where I avoid it. I either jump in early or I wait later, and I'm leaving the draft with Jared Goff and Jaden Daniels.

The fantasy footballer's 10th anniversary, Megalish, Show is going to be held this Saturday in Los Angeles Live at the Palace Theater. For tickets, go to ballerslive. Com. Mike, congratulations first on 10 years. When you started this- You seem surprised it was this Saturday, by the way. No, I'm wondering if Mike is I'm surprised that 10 years on, this is where he is right now.

Yeah.

Not on this show is not what I meant.

This show started where the three of us all worked together at a tech company making video games, where all we wanted to do was spend our time talking about fantasy football.

That company actually goes under. We're all trying to find jobs. The other guys are working, getting their real estate license. I'm trying to start a beard oil company trying to like, What are we going to do, boys? And then it's like, Hey, it's three guys upstairs in a kids' converted bedroom just sweating our balls off because it's Arizona and you have to turn the AC off to record because that's how loud it was in in the house. The fact that it's there to 10 years later and we have a big office, we have multiple employees, we have an incredible team, yes, it is extremely surprising.

What is your personal favorite fantasy I guess, type league? Is it individual teams? What is your preference, Mike?

My preference, first off, is the ones that I win. I like those ones the best. Yeah, of course. But I like keeper league.

I hate keeper league, man. Oh, get on board, man.

Dynasty is really fun because you get to... I drafted Evan Engram in our Dynasty League in the rookie draft, I just traded him this year. So his entire career was on my team. So it's like, Evan Engram is one of my guys. I'll love that guy forever.

Hard to let go, huh?

Yeah. Oh, very, very, very difficult. But those can be tough. If your team falls apart and you're trying to rebuild and actually trying to win, it can take a while. Where Keepers gives you just a little taste of that, where maybe you find lightning in a bottle. Our main Keeper League, I got Antonio Brown right before he turned into Antonio Brown, and I kept him through that whole entire run, and people hated it because they knew in that league, no one else is ever going to have Antonio Brown. He's mine. He's on my team. Getting a taste of that, the attachment to some of the players, I like that more than the full start over, and I like it a little bit more than I just have everybody forever.

All right, so give me a guy who's worth a flyer at each of these positions. Late in the draft, okay, You're reaching, you're just trying to find the guy that has some upside or is an injury away from becoming the guy. Let's start with running back, the running back position. Give me a flyer at running back.

Okay, so I threw out Rico Dattle for you. The other one I'll throw out is, let's go... Man, it's tough, but I'll go J. K. Dobbins, Los Angeles Chargers. One, because when he's healthy, his talent is unbelievable to me. We saw him a couple of years ago, returned from an ACL, gets hurt, misses six games, and comes back, and he's still hurt, and he averages over seven yards of carry. We called him J. K. 1l because it was J. K. 1 Like, if you watched him running out there, he's literally throwing half of his body forward, just willing it to go down the field. But he's one of those players, like I talked about, Rico Doudle of the chargers are going to be a good offense. It's going to be high T. It's going to be It's going to be Greg Roman hardball way over there. It's going to be run, run, run, run, run Give me a flyer at wide receiver. Okay. Wide receiver. Let me think here. The name, it jumps to... I'll give you two guys. Okay. One is Dontavian Wicks of the Green Bay Packers. The super nerd metrics that we talk about in fantasy football, like yards per route run, targets per route run, these types of things that most casual NFL fans have never heard of.

He scores really, really well in them. And these are metrics that we use to find guys that can truly break out. The question for him is, will he be on the field? Where they have an embarrassment of riches at the wide receiver position. It just comes down to if Duntavia gets an opportunity, I think that he will come through. And the other one, I'm going to throw out Khalil Shaqir of the Buffalo Bills. Had an awesome yards per reception this past year. The whole wide receiver crew for the Buffalo Bills is in flux. What you know is the offense will be good. Josh Allen will probably throw for 4,500 passing yards, 30-plus passing touch downs. It's just who's going to benefit from it. Curtis Samuel already dealing with Turf toe. Keion Coleman is a rookie, and I think he'll be pretty inconsistent. So Shaqir is a deep flyer.

Dontevian Wix2gots was one of those guys last year that we would pick over under on receiving yards because he'd get one or two targets a game, and he'd break out a 15-yard reception if he caught the one target that he would get for a game, which is why he was crazy. A staple of Billy's Big Board, yes. Exactly right. In addition to the 10th anniversary, if you want, you can get the ultimate draft kit at ultimattraftkit. Com. Of And a portion of that will go to St. Jude's, which you guys have done a great job raising money over the years. You guys, you're going to like this. As part of the ultimate draft kit, you can get a risk and upside meter to be checking in on players.

Oh, wow. What does that look like? Just explain that to me, I think that's exciting.

With all the players, you can see out their projections because that's how we do it. We start at the quarterback and then start divvying things out to the rest of the team. But those are medium projections. I can't project that Devon Achan is going to run for eight yards a carry. I can't do that because it's just not being intellectually honest. That's such an outlier. But What I can do then is in his upside meter, I go and I put... He's at a nine. So what it looks like when you're looking at the players, it's just an easy little... There's a green bar and a red bar. High red bar means high risk, high green bar means high upside. Make it easy.

I mean, send me the entire kit, if you don't mind.

Hey, boys, we can work it out.

Send them money.

Send them money. That's the point of this.

Everyone can get it. That's the point of this.

I'm not going to send you money. I'm just asking for a kit.

It goes to children's hospitals, do you guys?

Then I'll give you the money. I'll give you 100% go to the children's hospital or no? No, I pay for a portion.

A portion, man. I got a business to run, too.

Okay. All right. I would like my 100% to go to the children's hospital if you don't mind, okay?

I'll tell you You make a donation, I'll get you a free draft kit.

Okay. Wow. Wow. That is a Billy. You're going to have to show me how to make a donation. I've never done it before.

I think you're telling on yourself, man.

Yeah, I don't care. I've been telling on myself for 20 years. It's like just telling on himself. Give me a flyer quickly here, like a late round guy that you might like it tight-ed.

I mean, Hunter Henry is about as nasty as you want to get there. Okay. But I'll throw One more out for you. Let's go... We don't know exactly what the Baltimore Ravens passing attack is going to look like, but Isiah Likely, the other tight-end for that team, he was very serviceable.

He had some games last year.

Yeah, when Mark Andrews went down, Isiah Likely was an excellent pickup and just a full plug and play tight in. And just with the progression of his career, it wouldn't be a surprising thing If their focal point of the offense is Zee flowers, Mark Andrews, and then... They've been trying to find that other wide receiver for years. The reports on Rashaad Bateman, they're always up, always down, getting hurt all the time. It wouldn't surprise me if they switched things up and they feature Isiah likely a little bit more.

Do you ever give your fake team, your fake players, a fake free game speech? How does that work?

Oh, yeah. You got to order them in your starting lineup appropriately. You You move a guy up to Rb1 like, I'm giving you the confidence boost today. Man, I'm putting you in my Rb1. Don't let me down.

You've been promoted to Rb1. Yeah, and they care. Act like an Rb1, yeah. Are you mean like Brian Flores, or are you nice like McDaniel? Too soon. Too soon, sorry.

I'm more of a McDaniel motivational with positivity.

What is the thing since Fuentes brought it up earlier? We haven't heard from him since. The thing that you are proudest of around that desk.

I love the power line, and I don't know if you can see. I might be blocking it. I'm the weatherman right now. If you can see Bill and Ted back here?

That's who that is in the orange jacket. I didn't know.

Yeah, big time Bill and Ted.

Is that Donovan McNabb on your bookshelf running?

I don't know. It might be. Right next to the vans. Number 6?

Yeah. No, it's Smith then. It has to be Devante Smith. Yeah. And I like your retro Bucks helmet, too.

Oh, that one's signed by Mike Evans. Oh, there you go. Wow.

I like it more now. Send me that, too, with the kit, all right? Yeah. The fantasy footballers, you can check them out on Spotify, Apple. You can check out their website, fantasyfootballers. Com. Mike Wright, we appreciate this. We're sorry, Nitro couldn't make it. He parlayed his success with you last year into his own fantasy show. So thank you, though, buddy.

I appreciate it. Again, I love cutting it up with you guys. You're a good group of guys to talk with, so anytime, you let me know.

All right, we'll do it again soon. My biggest regret is not starting a fantasy show. Don't worry.

I'll clip this for our award nomination, you guys. We're good.

Thank you, Mike. Happy 10th anniversary to you, man. Thank you.

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And we're back.

Yeah. Godless Football is presented by S If we do game days, please drink responsibly. The Smirnov Company, New York, New York.

Yeah, go ahead, Billy.

I have a question for you. It's a game I'd like to play. I don't know if you want to-Is this a new game?

I have a question for you.

I mean-No, no, no, no, no. This is a different game. We have that game. You want to play a game?

We have so many games. No, just go ahead. You were talking. Go ahead.

Oh, you don't want to... Well, what I was going to do is play a game. If you don't want to play a game, we won't play.

All right, let's play a new game. I think Mikey Ye is disappointed with our performance in that last segment, but go ahead. Let's play a game.

Well, this game is called Mike Right or Mike Wrong, and here's how it works. Here's how it works. We had Mike right on for a long time. I feel like we did a better job by not having Nitron. We love nitro. We'd love nitro. I would love to have nitro on again.

We'd love to check it on nitro's fantasy. Can you guys stop houching your criticism of nitro by saying you love nitro? It was a best idea.

I love nitro.

Every time you have to put a qualifier, though, it's never good. I know. We love nitro, but the man was an American American Gladiator.

I don't want him thinking, I don't like it.

Okay, we love him so much that we didn't invite him back. Anyway, go ahead, Billy.

I think that American Gladiator, and I could be wrong, and maybe someone can look this up, I think that American Gladiator is a Nobel Prize. You are always an American gladiator. Gladiator. Always Nobel Prize award. You're always an American gladiator.

Once a gladiator, always a gladiator. Correct.

I am saying how much I love him because I still want to have him on into a fantasy segment with him later on, just not this week. In that situation, I think we made the Mike Wright decision, right? But I also believe we may have boxed out Mike Ye. I think we may have been Mike wrong in that situation. Mike Ye, how would you grade the interview that we did with Mike Wright? Mike Wright or Mike wrong?

It was a little C plus-ish. I mean, it was okay. It was good. You got a lot of good stuff in there.

No, I like this. Mikey A, Mikey B, or Mike Ye C. How about that? And now, Mikey F.

Wow.

Billy threw a pen. Mikey F, if it's really bad.

Oh, Mikey F, too. Mikey D. Mikey F.

Brutal for me.

We stumbled on a new game in our first segment called I Don't Know. Well, Mike Wright knows, and there's so many guys I want to ask about because I don't know. I don't know. Is Devon Achan going to be really good this year, or is he going to take a step back? I don't know. I don't know. Mike Wright, Mike, no. But I never got to ask.

That's a good question.

Never got to ask.

Yeah, sorry. I think we should do a segment, Billy, where we have Mike Wright back on and only Mike EA ask questions, okay?

You'll win your fantasy league.

I mean, listen, Mike EA has great to both you and I and this show for many, many years. Loyal, and we love him, and he just wants this one goddamn segment where we ask the right questions. That's all he wants. I lost my fantasy league, and I had to make a calendar for everybody in the league featuring myself. Oh, yeah.

Did you do that? We never got that.

Oh, yeah, I definitely did it. Do you have one for you? I do have one for me.

Where is it? Get it.

No, I'm definitely not going to get it yet. They They haven't seen it, so I can't show you guys yet.

When do you give it to them?

At the draft, at this year's draft.

What month are we doing? Are we doing September?

We're doing September to August.

Okay. Interesting.

I had a theme. I lost my fantasy league. So the Mike Wright segment is personal to me because I can't do that again. Okay.

It was bad.

To be honest with you, I'm more interested in your calendar than your fantasy. Of course you are. Everybody is. Where did you take these pictures?

I have people I'm flying. Billy, I learned Photoshop for this.

Really?

Billy, I'm going to tell you a secret just between me and you.

Yeah.

I had myself animated for one picture.

Really?

I paid a professional illustrator to animate me.

That seems like cheating.

Billy, if you saw the picture, you wouldn't be upset. No one would have said, You know what? You know what? You cheated. They'd say, Thank you for doing this.

So there's a theme?

There is a theme.

Can you tell us the theme, at least?

Yeah, I'll tell you that. It's called a Loser Through Television and Film. So it's all famous TV and movie scenes replacing me with the star of the movie.

Are they all shirtless TV and movie scenes?

At least six of them are. And then others- Were others just scenes that you decided to recreate shirtless? I think I chose well. I will say that.

Did you choose running, sprinting on the beach as Rocky or Apollo?

It was one of the last ones to get the ax. It could only be me. I couldn't have somebody else in the seat.

We didn't spend any time on Tua. I didn't ask for Billy's reaction. I didn't ask Mikey A for his reaction from afar. And the reason is, Joe Rose, the big dog, said it perfectly a day ago. Why are we still talking about this?

God bless football.