REAL DRAFT REVIEW! Best Builds, Biggest Mistakes + Fill in the Blank & More! (08/25 Fantasy Football Podcast)
66m 36s
Fantasy football drafts are shifting toward a running back-heavy strategy due to injuries like Ashton Genti’s and the perception of high injury risk in key positions. In the FFT Open, multiple teams began with three running backs, reflecting panic and a lack of confidence in early-round receiver value. Genti’s situation—after a serious ankle injury—has prompted managers to treat him as a mid-round, high-risk pick, similar to past cases like Jeremiah Love. In deeper 14-team PPR leagues, running backs are prioritized due to limited flex spots, leading to a common strategy of building around two or three RBs. While some teams adopt a "receiver-receiver" early draft approach, analysts stress that this requires strong late-round depth and requires managers to be comfortable with risk. Injuries to key players like Travion Henderson, Chikori Kraski-Marit, and Tite Chandler have added uncertainty, pushing managers to draft late or adjust rankings. Quarterbacks and tight ends are seen as more vital in shallow formats, where elite starters dominate. Preseason performances, injury reports, and trade moves (like Keishan Booty’s move to Houston) are now central to draft decisions. The consistency of injuries across the league has also led to a reevaluation of value, with many managers now prioritizing stability over upside. Overall, the season’s early draft patterns reflect a cautious, injury-aware approach to player selection, emphasizing risk mitigation and adaptability.
>> This is Fantasy Football today from CBS Sports. >> So what a play! >> Can you believe this? >> It's a no again. >> It's time to dominate your fantasy league. >> To the races, play stays at its peak. >> Just gotta go to the distance. >> Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. [MUSIC] >> What's up everybody? Welcome to Fantasy Football today. We're going to take a look at some FFT open results. This thing is in full swing and by the way, we have sold out every spot unbelievable $99,000 raised for St. Jude through the FFT, the open. We're going to take a look at our 14 team PPR podcast league at the end of the show and tell you why you shouldn't panic at the running back position and throw off your entire draft strategy. But a lot of people went very running back heavy in that draft. That two teams took running backs with each of their first three picks. We've got some fill in the blank for you and some news and news that you need to know and welcome to the Wednesday or the Tuesday or it's Tuesday. Welcome to the Tuesday edition, which Jamie isberg. Heath coming, I am Adam Azer, Heath, where are you in the FFT open? >> We are early in round two. My league heard you talking yesterday about taking as long as you can to get the Ashton Gentile news and so everyone is doing it. We're on pick 16 and I anticipate that Ashton Gentile will be the next pick. Well, I only looked at eight leagues that had drafted genty, including mine. And he hasn't gone as early as 17th yet. He has gone 18th, 19th, 20th or 21st in seven of those eight leagues. So he has been clearly a mid-round pick. I think in my league, I think you went 18. Jamie, where are you in the FFT open? >> We are in round four. >> Okay, well, let me show you where I am in the FFT open. I am in round 11, you are kicking everyone's butt, and I'm on the clock by the way. But just going to give you some takeaways from this two running back, two receiver, one flex draft. >> Your team is great. >> I'm very happy with my team. I almost it's like I'm jinxing it, but it gets incredible basically right now. But I always like my FFT open team and it never does that well. But anyway, let me tell you a few things about the FFT open just for a 300, whatever it is, 36 times 11 would be what, 396 people? >> Well, but there's no, you can add the 12 because those people are in the league. >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm not doing 36. >> How many is it now? 432? >> For sure. 432 people in the league. You can draft overnight. The timer kind of goes off overnight. You can keep drafting, so you don't have to stop. I know a lot of people were stopping. >> I'm speaking. >> I was right. >> Yeah, that is work. I know a lot of people stopped drafting. You can keep drafting. There are no trades in the FFT open. You should know that. We can't have any collusion. We can't have people arguing about trades. So there are no trades in the FFT open. And then here's one thing I wanted to talk about as we did this draft. Guys, we talked so much about those top 12 running backs and maybe basing your round one pick on whether or not you can get one of those top 12 running backs. I think Ashton Genti is probably still in that. Maybe he's 12 for a lot of people. Ian Rappaport said they think he might be able to play week one, but he might miss a week. >> I thought the most important thing from what I heard was he said they think it's more low than high. >> Yeah, but he did say that they are still hopeful that he can play week one. >> Right. >> But yes, it does seem like- >> It's a most serious ankle injury of all time. >> Yeah. >> Right, we should treat him like he's got a- not that he's just necessarily going to be totally fine. And maybe he will. But how are you treating this situation? I think I have a little bit of trepidation about what he's about him not being a hundred percent at least early in the year. >> I think that's how you have to approach it. So I kind of just put it in the same context with Jeremiah Love because Jeremiah Love was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain. So this was a guy that was being drafted basically early round three and I dropped him around. And Genti, I was very excited about Genti. I had him in round one. I dropped him to the two three turn. So I think you just kind of give a discounted price to a player that does not sound like it's going to be a long-term injury that hopefully we'll be ready early in the season and hopefully we'll be a peak performance early in the season. And then you just sort of build around what the problems or the concerns could be. For Love, it's a bad team, a tough schedule and competition. For Genti, it's a bad team, maybe now competition or more competition than we thought and a bad schedule. So it's potentially lead players, like those guys could be awesome. We love them. I know Heath has certainly talked about them enough in their dynasty profiles and what they could be when things get right. For this year, it's just an uphill battle. We saw it for Genti last year, it's probably the same thing for Love this year. But if things break right without their body's breaking, then they're still good. Number two, running backs are high in number one, running back, I think, or low in number run backs. Excuse me in the case of Genti. Okay. So I just want to go back to making that point now about thinking about, oh, this top 12, this happens all the time. I think when I talk to fantasy managers, is can I get one of those top 12 running backs in round two? If not, I'm going to take one of them in round one, like you're looking at this draft right now. We're the team with the fourth pick. James Cook. So it went Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, Jamar Chase, James Cook, and then Pukinakua, JSN. Anyway, you know, I look at my team and Jamie, we did this pick on the air on FFT Express. I was deciding between St. Brown and Christian McCaffrey and we decided, let's go with Amonra St. Brown because I probably get that top 12 running back in round two and I did with Derek Henry. But you know what? I think in retrospect, I would have rather gone McCaffrey, AJ Brown. So, you know, I don't know how you guys want to ask. Yeah, go ahead. No, it's interesting that you took Amonra St. Brown over Christian McCaffrey at pick eight in this draft and drafted Christian McCaffrey pick five in last night's draft. They're both two running back, two wide receiver, full PPR leagues. Once 14 team league, the others 12. And in a 14 team league, I do prioritize running back a little bit more and also I want to have a little fun with it. I don't want to have the same guy in that league, you know, in the two leagues in St. Brown. But yes, it's a good point, but think about it. I had the fifth pick and in a 14 team league and I knew I had no chance to get in the top 12 running back in the second round unless maybe Jenty fell there. You did. In this league, I had the eighth pick and I knew I was going to get a top 12 running back in the second round. So that kind of, you know, you go, no, I thought this section was you don't have to worry so much about being able to get a running back in the and it sounds like your decision in round one was based almost entirely on whether you could get a running back in round two. Are you talking, which league are you talking about? Both. Okay. Forget about the 14 team league. That's not exactly why I did it. I just wanted McCaffrey. Here it is, but I kind of wish I had gone. McCaffrey, AJ Brown and, you know, I think every manager, you have to ask yourself, if Justin Jefferson or Drake London or AJ Brown or CD Lamb is in the second round and you're choosing between them and one of those top 12 running backs like what, you know, have rankings, figure out who you like better because for you up to take to take a running back in round one, if you want to instead of a wide receiver, am I making any sense here? Not really. All right. I mean, this is the decision that managers have to make because you kind of seen like this drafts a little bit different because of where James Cook went and probably Chase Brown over St. Brown. We kind of have a pretty good idea of the two running backs first and second. Then for the most part, four receivers populate, I'll say the next six picks, but for the most parts, next four picks. Then there's typically Taylor McCaffrey, in this case, it was Cook and Chase Brown. If you know what you're looking at in round one, it's easy to have an idea of the position you're looking at in round two. Not necessarily the player looking at round two, but the position you're looking at round two. You did that purposely in the 14 team league, which makes sense because you had an idea that if you take McCaffrey here, you're still going to get maybe it's a lot. I don't know. You took Belave or Nico or Drake London, one of those guys. Hours. Okay, so hours. There you go. That factor is in as well. In this case, you knew that if you took McCaffrey, you're getting AJ Brown, Drake London, maybe Jefferson in round two. In the case of taking St. Brown, you kind of had an idea of which running backs will be available to you. It's easy to build that out in looking at how most drafts have gone. In this case, for example, I don't know who picked fourth, but did they do that on purpose as well? Because taking James Cook, let's just say that's John the Taylor or McCaffrey, knowing that they could pair that with, pair that running back with a receiver in round two. And Taylor did go fourth in my FFD open. Yeah. So my question. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Why kind of hesitate a little bit with the two running backs than four receivers. Average opposition has changed. We've seen Taylor and McCaffrey leap over. I believe both Jackson's been the Jigba and I'm on around St. Brown, because probably this reasoning is that not wanting to take a receiver and go receiver receiver. You know, I've talked about this that we're okay going receiver receiver receiver or receiver receiver tight end or receiver tight end receiver or combination, but like you got to be comfortable with that. Do you?
You like the two teams that went, well, the three teams that went receiver receiver. Team three, this, if you want to go receiver receiver, this is how your team could look after four rounds. Jamar Chase, Chris Olave, Javante Williams, Quinchon Judkins. Like it a lot. Yeah. How about Jamie, he's not a receiver. Puka Nakua, Nico Collins, Josh Jacobs, Deandre Swift. Like now. Like that and more. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tramack, Bride, Breeze Hall. Great. Yeah. Yeah. And then you got a little more Jackson, Tony Pollard with the next two picks, I mean, it's pretty good. But it's also like if you're, if you're watching on YouTube and you're seeing the, the strategy here, receiver receiver, tight end, running back, quarterback, running back, receiver, running back, running back. Like, just, you know, you've got to understand that you're probably going to have to throw a lot of capital. One of those, whatever you do, you know, it could be running back, running back, and then go receiver receiver. You know, just throw a lot of capital at those positions. That's probably a little bit extreme, but, you know, you're still in a two receiver legal. Okay. I'm locked in with two top 10-ish guys, two top five-ish guys, potentially, and Smith and the Jig Bun and AJ Brown, and then I'm good to go. You know, so I still want to get more receivers a little bit later and probably sooner than this manager did. But now it's all, it's Pollard, it's Warren, it's, you know, Monongai, it's just okay. I'm going to cover myself or running back. And we had two teams last night that started, Adam, you already mentioned that two of the teams started with three running backstreet, two of the, and one of them was Jamie. Two of the teams started with three wide receivers to start the draft. One of them was me, and that, that team that I drafted with three wide receivers to start my bench, except for one player, is all running backs. This is a 14 team league that he's talking about, our podcast league draft, which we'll get to, yeah, different, yeah, so different strategies. We'll see how they work out. I will, another point I wanted to make about every league, but what we saw here, I took Jordan Mason with the 80th pick, which is way ahead of his ADP on fantasy pros, but not that far ahead of Mason's ADP on CBS right now, he's 89th, but I think you should get used to seeing stuff like that. I mean, we were originally talking about Jordan Mason as like a round 10 pick or something like that, but the running backs who have a chance to be their starter, really start to dry up pretty quickly once you get to round seven or so. And in round seven, we have Travion Henderson, who left practice yesterday, who went after Ramandre Stevenson in this draft. Then we had Rico Doudal and Jalen Warren back to back. And then I'm going, I don't know if there's, I mean, I feel like Chakory Krasky-Marit probably there on my next pick, but let's just lock up a potential starting running back and take Jordan Mason. So then we have Dobbins, Mike Washington, Gainwell, Korum, Chakory Krasky-Marit, who's dealing with a growing injury right now, you're going to get to a point where the starting running backs are the guys who have like a good, defined role. They might be running out in the seventh round. And if you have to take one, then you take one, even if it's a head of ADP. This is a somewhat shallower format, I would say, because we only have two running backs, two receivers and one flex. And then a lot of you play in the league like that. Guys, do you think it's important to have something close to an elite quarterback and or an elite tight end in this two running back to receiver, one flex format, Heath? More important than it is in a deeper league, yes, with more wide receiver, the fewer wide receivers you start, the more important it is to be elite at quarterback or tight end, for sure. Yeah. Or any, or compared to like a two flex league or anything, yes. So try, I mean, I got Joe Burrow in round six, I was pretty happy with that. The quarterbacks went pretty late. Josh Allen went 36th overall, Lamar Jackson went in round five. I would have taken them in round five, he went two picks ahead of me. So I took Joe Burrow in round six. You didn't just ask the person if they wanted to change their picks so that you could take them after that. Unbelievable. What? No, it wasn't unbelievable. Nothing. Are you sure about that pick? Just trying to make them feel bad that they took Jaden Daniels in round eight of a 14 team league. They didn't, they didn't take Jaden Daniels in round eight. I selected Jaden Daniels accidentally for a team because I thought I was on the clock. Well, we'll get into that a little bit later. And then two guys are like taking that league is impressive. Two guys I like taking late. Get your thoughts. You cutting this guy off of 10 rounds just to make it easy for you. Jordan Tyson and Zach Sharbinay, because I think there's a chance both of them go right and do an IR spot. And then you've got two free roster spots when free agency opens, take whoever you want. You don't have to drop anyone. What do you think, Jamie? Yeah, it's not a bad move, but I wouldn't be reaching for those guys just because I want to put them on an IR spot. I think if you're doing it in the appropriate range, which it looks like you did here with Sharbinay, I don't know where Jordan Tyson went. Well, I'm on the clock at 128 overall and I'm thinking about taking Jordan Tyson. Yeah, I mean, if you, if that's the best player on your board, then sure, but I'm not doing it just because, hey, I can stash them in an IR spot and hopefully they're going to be, you know, relevant for me at some point this season. That's not the reason to be Jarsen. No, that's not a lot or more so in the form of I just think like the best wide receivers in your rankings are Jacobi Myers, DiBosamio, Keishan, Booty, Jordan Tyson. So maybe I'll take Xavier worthy, haven't really, I don't have any Xavier worthy. Let's now let's take Jordan Tyson. Okay. Anyway, that's it for my FFT open thoughts. I don't know if you guys have anything you want to talk about from your drafts that might be relevant or we can move on. No, I mean, we should for any, or you should, if anybody plays in multiple leagues, sounds like you're doing that. I know he mentioned that with Parker Washington yesterday. Like you want to diversify a little bit with some of the things that you do. So I've done a lot of running back, running back starts at the back end of the first round. I made it a priority in this draft to take receiver, running back with my first two picks. So took CDLAM at live that the 12th pick. So took CDLAM and Kenneth Walker start cool. He's anything for you? No, we haven't drafted enough players for there to be anything interesting to say. All right. Well, then let me tell you something that is interesting Wednesday night, 5 to 8 p.m. Eastern the draftathon, the show. We've helped us raise so much money up to this point. And we're not that far from our goal of 200,000 dollars. Let's check in on the meter here, the raise $179, 169 right now. That's not accurate. Okay. That is what, yeah, that's what the auction has raised. And then there's another, we raised almost $10,000 in Memphis last week. And I think there's some other little things that have trickled in. Cool. All right. So we're at almost $180,000 trying to get to 200. We'd like to make a donation, tinyurl.com/fftdonate2026. And join us tomorrow night at youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday for our draftathon show, which wraps up the fundraiser basically. And we'll have a lot of fun with that. And then listen, this is really cool. We got a new feature on the website, our must draft players page on cbsports.com/fftmustdraft. Oh, I can't be first, right? That'd be bad. I shouldn't be first on this. So if you are first, no, is Mike Evans on there? Mike Evans is on there. Yep. I wish he was first. I wonder if this is just done by ADP. But here's, here's our must draft players, a cbsports.com/fftmustdraft. It's all of us from the FFT crew highlighting players that were most excited to target throughout the draft from early round studs to those late round values that you need to know about cbsports.com/fftmustdraft. Heath would like to make a public apology to Dan. We'll do that when we come back. Please don'ts. Please don'ts. Well, I said, let's not, you know, he said he's going to like, he's going to be more upset about the apology than the original insult. I said, okay, let's do it. So that's coming up after the break on Fantasy Football today. Okay. Heath, what would you like to say to Dan? So I tried to, you know, be a man of integrity and not say things that aren't true. And so I accused Dan, said it was a mark on his character that he had claimed victory. And Dan has informed me that he did no such thing. It turns out that he actually agrees with me that he didn't win the tennis match. The final result of the tennis match was a no decision that it was postponed by rain. And Dan was not victorious this year in the tennis match. He is now two, oh and one in career tennis matches this year was a draw. Okay. Great. I'm sure he totally signs off on everything you just said. I love it. Okay. News and notes for you here. And next year's challenge is you versus Dan in basketball. Tennis is done. Heath versus Dan. I made Dan a little bit mad already over that because someone suggested that and I didn't think it would be any fun because I said Dan wouldn't score. Well, the fact that he was like, oh, yeah, we'll play golf. It's going to be so even because he's a great golfer. Like, come on, man. I've played twice in the last 11 years. I may have, I may not have said the time of the draft a thong show. I'm sorry. It's Wednesday night, five to eight PM Eastern Wednesday night, not tonight. I don't know if I screwed that up Wednesday night, five to eight PM Eastern. And no live stream tonight for the people that have been watching us last two to this. Malik neighbors is trending toward a week one return. He looked pretty good from the videos that were on social media. So that's cool. Leak neighbors or Devante Smith favorite.
are very, very close. I've done some rankings updates recently. I have D'Vontes, Smith R. Malik neighbors or Chris Olave. Olave. Okay. Saints running back Kendrick Miller expects a bigger role with Alvin Kamara injured. Also running back Tite Chandler for the Saints has a knee injury that could be long term. Michael Pitman and DK Meck, I don't have my mixer. So Michael, do do do do do do do do. Pitman and DK Meck have returned to practice. Lewis Cornerback, Joey Porter, Jr. may not be available for the start of the season. He wants a new contract. He's on the public list. Travian Henderson left after slipping on the grass yesterday. Jamie, any reactioners kind of wait and see here. Wait and see. It sounds like they were looking at his ankle and hopefully his foot is foot or ankle. Hopefully he's okay. It's just more pushing or should be pushing you more in the direction of Ramandra Stephenson. I can't imagine drafting Travian Henderson over. Stephenson, unless you just love your build and you're hoping for a huge lottery ticket which he would be. But Stephenson seemingly going to work on passing downs, going to be the every down back. It's just not great for Henderson right now. Yeah, there was a report a few days ago that Ramandra is ahead of Henderson. The Henderson is going to be a change of pace back. I just showed you that my FFT Open League Ramandra did go. I think it was something like eight picks ahead of Travian. I think that was before the Travian injury. Let's see. Breeze Hall expected to be ready for week one. And Kenyan Sedeek also could play week one. He's had a funny tweet about all the running back injuries right now. I think most of them are pretty minor, but there's a lot of them. Alan Robinson retired. It was fantastic in his prime. Houston sent this was the, okay, let's talk about this trade here with Houston sending safety Jalen Reed at a 2028 seventh round pick to the Patriots for Keishan booty. Heath, what's the reaction to Keishan booty going to Houston? I mean, I think it was a really good move by the Texans. And it's going to, it's good for CJ Stroud. I don't, I don't really think that Keishan booties probably going to matter in most fantasy football leagues unless Nico Collins gets hurt, which Nico Collins has missed games almost every year. So he's a, he's a wide receiver you could take in the double digit rounds. I think you said that Jamie has booty just ahead of Jordan Tyson. I, I would rather draft Jordan Tyson. But he's, he's more on the radar now than he was on the Patriots. And he's been a very high a dot guy. He is a deep threat, mostly almost exclusively a deep threat. He's one of those players. And I think that's good because those guys don't really command a lot of targets. So that if you have Nico Collins, I don't think you have to worry about him about booty, like getting a ton of targets. Whereas Higgins maybe had a chance to do that. And it kind of affirms the thing that like we've been hearing all camp. And I think people haven't adjusted to. But Demario Douglas is the slot wide receiver. Like he, he's the guy when they play three wide receiver sets, he's on the field with AJ Brown and Romeo dobs. He probably won't matter either. Yeah, McCuy lemon thinks he'll be ready for the boost for dogs though. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. But McCuy lemon or Romeo dobs, Jamie. Who I'm sorry? McCuy lemon. He thinks he'll be ready for a week one. I take the upside of lemon. And I need to adjust because I just threw basically on booty in a spot last night. That sounds funny. After the trade, so he shouldn't go ahead of Jordan Tyson. And I need to move dobs up as well. I think just looking at lemon's status, the fact that he's back and hopefully ready for week one is very encouraging. So if you're ranking the rookie receivers for redraft, I would still put carnal tape first. I have struggling second. Concepcion third and lemon should be fourth. Who is the first one? Stribbling said tape. Oh, tape. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. My bad. Let's see. Dave Kanala says that if Chuba Hubbard is available for week one, Carolina will have a running back by committee. That's not a surprise. We're hoping that one of them, we're thinking Jonathan Brooks can emerge a little bit there. Darren Waller practice with the manager here the comment. No. But basically what he said is they're going to have a first and second down guy and a third down guy. And if you're looking at the preseason work so far, Jonathan Brooks has basically been the first and second down guy. Now Hubbard has not played. But why would you not work him in as the third down guy if you're not going to use him in that role? Yeah. If that's how it's going to be that first and second down guy and a third down guy, I think it's pretty good for Brooks, right? Or whoever the first and second. Based on this team, I would say, you know, I think we probably have let Hubbard fall a little too far just knowing that Brooks has played three NFL games and has two torn ACLs and the same knee. So, you know, don't completely run away from Chuba Hubbard. But it's still I think a significant positive for books that when this injury occurred for Hubbard and how he's at least performed mostly in practice more so than in the preseason games. So he went 105th in my FFT Open League. And he went. Yeah. Chuba Hubbard. Jonathan Brooks went 60 second. So yeah, I mean, what's what's better value there? Round six for Brooks, around nine for Hubbard. I would say Hubbard. Today it's Brooks in a week. It could be Hubbard. If it's the same separation. Okay. Would you take Ramanjai Stevenson or Jonathan Brooks? I need to adjust that. I had Brooks higher. But I think given how everything is unfolding for Stevenson. He's probably safer. Stevenson. Chikori Kraski Marit was limited. He's got a groin injury. Rashad White is working his way back. They're not there. Apparently the groin injury is not too bad for Chikori Kraski Marit. But we'll keep an eye on it. Mike McDaniel was talking about the injury to Keaton Mitchell, the charger's offense. He said they're offense sustained a mild setback with Keaton Mitchell. Do we have a timetable for Keaton Mitchell? I don't think there was ever any injury officially reported. Okay. So like, for example, I drafted him last night on our podcast league. There's no white cross with a red block around it as he described it. So there's no injury tag associated with him yet. My guess is that is something that'll probably happen today. If he misses practice again, but something to keep an eye on there for sure. And you know, you say there's no injury reported. This really, I was thinking about this on the drive of the work today. I'm really annoyed about the Christian McAfry thing. You can't say this was part of the plan all along for them to rest me at some point in training camp and also have your coach say that you had tightness. Either one of you is lying or both are true and you're just misleading us. But that's we kind of crap to me. I hate that. It's that we are in the time of year and it gets worse before it gets better, where they don't have to tell us the truth about injuries and that we shouldn't expect that they are. And especially the 49ers. Yeah. But if he's if he's really just resting and it was part of the plan that you cannot say he has tightness, like you cannot do that. I've never heard anyone. They can't do. They can do whatever they want. They shouldn't do that. That's not right. It's not cool, man. Yeah. Yeah. The the genty part of it is interesting because roasters are locked in, right? Roaster cut down is the 30th. Is it the 30th? It's going to start happening soon. I'm not sure when it is. Yeah. I don't know if it's the first roster cut down. I believe the cut the mids first cut down date is August 30th. I think if if I read it correctly, I'll go back and check before I say no. It's August 30th is the is the final one. The final. Okay. So then it is right. So if he's going on short term, I are genty. They would have to make that designation then on the 30th. Okay. Or I guess they don't have to, but that would be a smart move because then they could keep somebody that they don't want to cut. I'm going to go through just finish up the notes here so we can get to the fill in the blank and all that stuff. Andy Reed did not commit to Patrick Mahomes playing week one, but all the reporting and even Mahomes himself is saying that Mahomes will be ready or should be ready. Pewter report, which covers the box. Pewter, they speculate that Tampa Bay could keep Josh Williams running back over Sean Tucker. And I wonder if that does anything and makes you feel a little more confident in Bucky Irving Heath. I would feel better if they didn't keep Sean Tucker for Bucky Irving. Yes. Maybe they just don't keep either one. They don't keep Bucky Irving. They got to trade Bucky Irving. No, they don't keep Josh Williams or Sean Tucker. Well, I think even this report, you know, if like, Pewter report does a pretty good job. I don't know. No, they're great. I mean, I'm just joking, but they Williams is cheaper from a cost perspective. I'm guessing he's younger. I don't know the ages for both those guys. And there's probably a special team's component to this also. So this really is, I think it's a plus for two reasons. One, it hopefully allows Bucky Irving to be the goal line option. And Williams is just more of a true backup. Two, maybe Tucker ends up someplace where he can get some opportunities. Yeah, absolutely. Quinchon Juckins. I wanted to mention Khalif Raymond for the Bears. If you're in a super deep league, he's apparently having a very good camp. He'll be on the field a little bit. Quinchon Juckins returned to practice and the Cardinals waived Trey Benson. He's got this injury. He just can't get healthy. And it's such a shame that Trey
Benson's career and it's never really got a chance to get started, maybe it will someday. If I had him in a dynasty league, I wouldn't get rid of him yet and see what happens with the trade Benson. All right. Should we go over? I think we should do the preseason, I think we should do the fill in the blank and not the preseason left over. I'm going to move the preseason left over after fill in the blank because that's what the people are here for. I got a lot of fill in the blank questions or, you know, submissions yesterday and a lot of them were about tennis and I don't really want to talk about tennis. I do want to talk about this one from Laquan Jones, Chris Godwin will finish inside the top blank wide receivers this season. Thirty per game, twenty six. So I saw, let me see if I can find it in Dave's, Dave's, uh, oh yeah, Dave tweeted, Baker may feel to serious XM NFL on his wide receivers, Chris Godwin looks like the best version of Chris Godwin being back in a system that's going to help him be successful in spots. He does things really well in Baker also said, a book has been banged up a little bit, but still looking for a huge jump from year one to year two. Jalen McMillan is underrated for us. I think he's our best separator in one-on-one man coverage. And with the book and McMillan out, Hurst has been playing X and Z for us and he's taking advantage of his opportunity. He's a big time talent. He's definitely going to help us. So he praised everyone, but he did say Chris Godwin's going to be in a system that really helps him. You took Chris out one quite early yesterday. I did. It was a, it was our PPR league. I basically went zero wide receiver. Uh, it took, it was fourteen team league, McCaffrey, Bowers, H, Travis H and I think. And then Skataboo. And then I took Chris Godwin as my wide receiver one. He was like fourth or fifth in the rankings for you guys, I think. Um, I like him. Feels almost as good as Patial Tutan as your RB one, which is what I said. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, from Jared, the single most frustrating fantasy player at own on a week-to-week basis this season will be blank. Week-to-week? Jamal? I was going to say Brian Thomas. Hmm. And I was going to, I was, I think those are better answers. I was going to say Christian Watson, but all three of those guys are going in the same round five, six range with Jamal almost always going first, but that's kind of what, what they are. Yeah. Do you think Laporta, because Laporta has been sort of that guy at times? Do you think he'll be more consistent this year? Yeah. Uh, hopefully he's healthy. I think one thing to consider is his position versus the receiver because his inconsistencies compared to the field will be much different than the receivers and consistencies to the field. All right. Next one is from Jar Jar Thinks, which is a funny name. Why are Drake London and Teterola McMillan so far apart? Identical talents on similar offenses. Drake London is blank spots overranked. Uh, overranked or over drafted? I feel like his ranking in his draft position have to be pretty similar now. Uh, I don't think so. Well, I'll tell you, I'm about around 18, 16 to 18 in both, I think. Yeah. So I don't think that's over draft, but I would say zero, too. Do you see, it's a funny comparison or it's an interesting comparison London and McMillan? Yeah. I guess if you were probably saying, okay, can we were probably projecting more of a year to leap for London than we are for McMillan. So that's fair. The quarterback situation stink from both, comparatively, to a lot of other receivers. You know, I think when you're talking about like Drake London versus the, the, the receivers around him, like his quarterback situation might be the worst, but he's, you know, so talented, he talked about the gesture. Like, you know, we've seen him with Michael Pentax, very productive, so at least you can hang your hat on that. Um, I don't know. I understand the two escapacism and it did look awful in the preseason, but I think there's more like we have seen to a play better football than we've seen Bryce Youngplay. Yeah. Uh, I did want to go back and look at player like wide receivers on bad offenses. If we think, I don't know that London's going to be on a bad offense. I think last year they were 23rd and scoring something like that. Not good. They're, it's really just like, yeah, you, it's fine. If you, as long as you get the target volume, you can excel as a wide receiver on a bad offense. And, you know, last year he was the number three wide receiver per game in the first nine games of the season. And then he suffered any injury and he came back and he was terrible in three games after returning. And the Falcons were 20th and gross passing yards per game, 26th and passing touchdowns. Drake London's had a target per out run rate of 28% or higher in three of his four seasons. McMillan had a pretty low target per out run rate from what I, from what I remember. I expected to go up, but I'm not quite ready to compare them to say that they're the same. It's talent wise, they might be, but we just, we've seen much more from London. Obviously, then we have from McMillan from CJ Chippley in week one, the backfield split in Pittsburgh will be blank percent Warren and blank percent Dowdell 50, 50, 49, 51. That's one where we could probably look a little bit at what happened in the preseason, although maybe, maybe not, but I think Jalen Warren was in at the beginning and he played, they both had five carries Warren played all three snaps on the first possession. And then I think Dowdell played every snap on the second possession and then they split on the third possession, so 50, 50. Why don't we take a little pause from fill in the blank and take a break and we'll come back and talk Kayla Williams, we'll talk Jalen Hertz and more after this. Welcome back to fantasy football today from chief moose, the sport or activity that Adam could be Dan at is blank. But come on, I've already done ping pong, are you kidding? I know I can play a lot, but I cannot be Dan at that. Oh, everybody, I got your digestion here, the pizza, you had a soul, the mushroom was so cold. Come on. So ping pong is the answer. Ping pong right now is the only thing I know that I can beat him at. Keith, you should have seen when we were in the rain delay, like we were trying to come up with alternate ideas. I know you saw me probably posted on X, you know, like, what could they do? I think Adam would beat Dan in the ptting contest. I think I would too. Are you kidding me? That burpee flatulant guy? Yeah. That's so interesting. Dan likes his sandwich is heavier than you do, but you would eat more pizza than him. Yeah. I think I was one of those skinny guys, like when he wants to eat, he can eat. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I can eat big. I can't. I think I'm not a challenge Dave, but I definitely challenge Dan. So that was part of the, so just so you know, ping pong in the curtain. So we were discussing maybe a wing eating contest, and Dave was the happiest, he was very happy that day. That was the happiest day was when he was like, Oh, let's do that. David JB was so, so awesome, very that whole thing. You guys did a great job. All right. Quentin Brown. If the Eagles offense actually gets all the new easy buttons from shifts and motions and under center, the Shanie McVeigh treatment for Jalen Hertz could have him finish as QB blank. One. I don't think it's really so much about the passing for him, because I think that's going to, like he's not going to be a 4,500 yard passer. No matter what the offensive changes are, like you need him to be 710 rushing and then the passing to be good. 10. Yeah. I mean, I think he could be 700 and seven or eight. I think he could still be a top five quarterback, right? Well, I mean, that's, that's where he is almost every year, you know? So it's been a steady decline for the last five years in his fantasy points. And so you don't lose AJ Brown and feel better about it. I mean, there's just no way around that, which is, I think built into his ADP. So hopefully, McCuylem and Don Tevingwick's better Devonte Smith, I would say similar Dallas Gotter because you want those touchdowns, like that plus the back to being a better runner or more of more robust runner, more volume when it's running gets him to the level that you want to see. The highest I would think would be probably top three. So 20, 2022, he was 3,700 yards passing, 760 yards rushing, 35 combined touchdowns. That's the guy. In 15 games. Oh, wow. And he was QB two per game of 27.9. Yeah. Wow. That's a great. Like the shanty McVeigh treatment doesn't really make me go, wow, it's, can you run? Ben Zathas, who would win in a pastrami eating contest? I had, I had corn beef yesterday for the first time in a very long time. And I crushed it. I mean, full, that's a plain bagel piles of corn beef. It was at your overpriced deli. No, I went to a different place. Swiss cheese. You have some bad foods to just, bad, bad food recommendations. Yeah. What do you think about this one? Big bagel, lightly toasted, pastrami, Swiss cheese, tomato, and Russian dressing. It's very similar to the, it's the same as X sandwich as the ham and it's the ham one. But it's pastrami, I guess. It was a cinnamon bagel with plain bagels. No, it was plain bagels. Yeah, that's the difference. Yeah.
Okay, next question, Caleb Williams will finish this QB blank. From Mark. >> Seven. >> 12. >> Did you answer heath? >> I said 12. >> Oh, I'm sorry, didn't hear you. From Yogi Danza, if you could leave every draft with three players, regardless of format, your favorites would be blank. GBSports.com, what's the URL, CBSports.com/fft busdraft. >> Yeah, Jameer Gibbs, Jamar Chase, B. General. >> I'll say Chase Brown, Devante Smith, and Vlad McConkey. >> That's pretty good, and you could do that in rounds one, maybe two, three and four, if you have a late pick. Keith, you have a real answer? >> I mean, it's probably based on what I've done. I mean, I think we're doing this show on Wednesday, people we keep drafting. It's probably Zay Flowers, Sam LaPorta, and Brock Birdie right now. >> All right, Dan. Well, now you don't have to listen to Tomorrow's show. Next is from Gamer Eric. >> Blank will lead the league in quarterback rushing. >> Jane Daniels. >> I'm just going to look at my projections, and I have Jayden Daniels. >> I'll say Jayden Daniels, from Hipster Dufus 21. >> I think they're leading passports. >> Okay. The leading pass catcher for the Colt in 2026 will be Blank. >> Are we doing yards or fantasy points or receptions? >> That's a great question. I think yards. >> Josh Towns. >> I have, I still have Alec Pierce with 11 more yards. So. >> Then Towns. >> Then Warren. >> Okay. From Brownie fan Mike. If I already have Isaiah Pacheco, then I can get Jameer Gives for blank percent of my auction question. >> I mean, that's not the question. >> That's about 20%. >> How much would you spend of your auction budget on Jameer Gives? >> 30%, I think 35 is what I have in it. >> Okay. >> We had an email right about somebody doing B-john and Gives in our pre-draft conversation. I was talking to Todd Rohn, so I shared the team with one of our more generous Donators for St. Jude, and he was also pissed that he didn't know that Donations determined the draft order and really mad at you, Adam, because you put us 12th, or I'm sorry, 13th, at 14th, while you gave yourself the fifth pick. >> What's that, is that an advantage for me? >> Well, yeah. So he told me somebody in an auction that he participated also did that and ended up with already a quarterback, forget who the receivers were. It was bad. >> It was bad? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I mean, I think you have to really, it kind of depends on how many players you have to start. More receivers, more flex, whatever, probably less likely to go studs and duds there. Next, let's see, fill in the blank for-- >> He's always the worst thing I did last night putting himself in the fifth spot or cutting the draft off at 12 rounds. >> I think cutting the draft off was, well, no, the worst thing he did was justifying the small benches because he likes to have short benches. >> So, you understand this league has been going on since 2013 and I don't think it has ever changed. I didn't change any of the format, other than removing kickers and DSTs. Everything else stayed exactly the same. And it has year over, year over, year since we were starting spots and the same number of bench spots. Yeah, but we lost a kicker in DST. I'm fine with that. >> But that does change the structure of everything because each starting spot is now more valuable because there's 25 points of game that are not going to be scored each week. >> If everybody wants or the majority want, I'm happy to get that. >> It's too late now. >> You're in DS. It's not. We do a two round draft for all I care or just put them on free agency. Yeah, I'm glad that was the worst thing I did last night, okay? Maybe myself the fifth pick? I don't know. I just kind of-- >> I mean, no. Picking for someone else was the worst thing that you did. >> That was an accident. I didn't, nothing bad happened there. I thought I was on the clock. I was the commissioner so I can pick for anyone in the time. >> No. >> The other worst thing was that some one manager had connectivity issues and clocked out probably five times during the draft. And every time that it looked like he might have auto-picked, Adam paused it and asked the guy was okay. And then about two rounds after the last time he did that, somebody else auto-picked repeatedly said that they auto-picked, wanted to take the player that Adam ended up taking in Jaden Daniels. >> No, that's not true. >> And ended up with Kenneth Gainwell. Yes. >> No, I asked. >> That's the guy I wanted when I timed out and got Kenneth Gainwell. You never asked him. >> Oh, I missed that, I did not see that. I missed that. >> No, I did. >> You got Kenneth Gainwell sent us an email and Adam will trade you Jaden Daniels for Kenny Gainwell. >> I don't want Kenny Gainwell. >> He didn't either. >> All right, back to, I don't know what's going on here, back to Philip Blake from Jake. If Ken Walker stays healthy for 17 games, he will finish the year as RB Blank. So, if you're talking total fantasy points, yeah, I'll go six. >> Okay, yeah, because I mean, in this scenario, other players are getting hurt or everyone's playing 17 games. >> Right. >> You know, other players are getting hurt. >> Yeah, then he's going to be pretty high up there. From Jay, a mid-round wide receiver or running back, I must leave the draft with is Blank. >> Yeah. >> Just because I draft them, I'll say Jordan Mason. >> Yeah, I don't ever know exactly what qualifies as a mid-round. It was probably Bill before, it's probably still Bill. >> I'm going to go Evans. What do you use mid-round? Mid-round for me is five through eight. But what about you? >> Oh, well, I don't draft, Bill that often, generally. >> Well, the 12-round draft, or is it a. >> I mean, a 14-round draft is pretty normal, right? So if you take away kicker and defense, it's really like a 12-round draft. >> So here is where I have the chat transcript in front of me from the draft last night. He says, "I was just amazed at the Jay and Daniel's value. Congratulations. That was at 8.30 a.m. Eastern." >> Travis, who I assume wanted Daniel said, "That's what I wanted before losing connection with that game will autopic silence from Adam, not a word." >> Not a word. >> Not a word. >> I was having dinner with my family for what it's worth, but so I was kind of. >> Oh wait, I'm sorry. I missed something here. >> But did he say something? Did this game, game well draft, or say something while he drafted, game well? >> So here's what happened. I'm sorry. I skipped because there were some other comments and they're more disparaging. I said 8.35, said, "Loss connection." He says, "Insane." Adam said, "Did you want Jay and Daniel's?" No response from Travis. I'm assuming trying to figure out what was going on. Adam says, "You good there." He says, "Incredible." Then he said, "I was just amazed at the Jay and Daniel value because of that point, Adam had drafted." >> And then he said, "I want. No, that's not right." >> That's what I wanted before losing connection with that game well autopic. >> That's a different guy. No, same guy. >> What? But how far? >> That's not the guy you picked. No, it's not the guy you picked, Jay and Daniel's for. The guy you picked, Jay and Daniel's for, didn't want him and wanted Karnel 8. It's good. Yes. But it is true that right before that, he said he lost connection and didn't want game well and you didn't see it. And then you responded to messages. And then he said, "That's the guy I wanted when I autopiced game well and you didn't see it." I'm sorry. >> It's extremely convenient. >> No. That's not true. I never would have done that. All right. Last one is from Gamer Eric again. Stribbling. Dejean Stribbling's upside will be wide receiver blank and his downside will be wide receiver blank. >> Upside will be wide receiver 31 and downside will be wide receiver 62. >> I was going to say 30, so agree completely and I will say the downside is wide receiver on the way where where. >> I see more upside with Stribbling than you guys do, but not if everyone stays healthy for every game. But this is the LOL. This is the 49ers. >> But even with all the injuries they've had over the years, they've had maybe two top 30 wide receivers. >> No. False. 2024, Juan Jennings was wide receiver 27 per game with only 7.5 targets per game, which is a lot. >> Okay. I apologize, I'm sure there's been some per game guys because nobody ever plays a full season. >> That's true. Debo Samuel and Brandon Ayuk in the same season were both top 15 per game, Debo, however, A lot of rights.
rushing, but Brandon IU because wide receiver 16 per game in 2023 average 15.7 points per game. That's very good. And in that same year, Debo Samuel averaged 12.7 per game, 12.7 PBR fantasy points per game on just receiving totals alone, which is okay. Um, I don't know where that would rank most years last year. It would have been a top 30 guy, but that was on 5.9 targets per game. I don't know. I'm kind of, I'm really starting to feel the John Stribbling, but I know all the stuff he's done out there has been without any of the main past catchers on the field. So I'm well aware of that. Uh, if everybody stays healthy, there's going to be a crunch at targets, but things with the 49ers, you only need like 100, 105 targets to be pretty good. We drafted him in the 14 team podcast league last night as our third receiver, uh, starting three running backs in a row. Okay. And what do you remember where that was? Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to pull up the draft. Um, I actually have, I actually have to deal round eight. Okay. And 14 team league. I have to deal with a, uh, developing situation in one of the FFT open leagues real quick. If you wouldn't mind, give me your thoughts on cam ward, who went eight of 12 for 69 yards against Seattle backups. And in two preseason games, he's probably gotten more action than any other starting quarterback that I can think of here. And he's really looked bad, inaccurate down field. And what does this mean mainly for car and L Tate? And if you want to talk about Pollard and Spears, Pollard, I think you played the entire first possession and then didn't play anymore. Spears played the next two, but Titans offense, uh, from a fantasy standpoint, guys. I guess just starting with the, the passing game or the carnal tape part of this, but I think you should factor in Wondell Robinson to like, you have to downgrade them. They just have not looked good. So Tate, for me, was in a range of Marvin Harrison, Brian Thomas, Jr. Chris Godwin. Um, I don't think anybody else of significance like that group, you know, so like ahead of Michael Wilson, those, those type of guys, Jordan Addison, uh, I've dropped them behind all those guys, the, the first group that I mentioned. So I would still start to look for him late around six early, around seven, depending on how receivers come off the board, but not with as much enthusiasm. Again, he's still a rookie receiver. He's going to get better. This offense is going to get better. I said this after the first preseason game, this is Brian Dable trying to implement his offense and Cam Moore's probably going to struggle. You don't like to see the offensive line like that, but you know, again, I think they'll just start to gel a little bit more and for a team like this, it could be a lot of garbage time, depending on how they're chasing points when it comes to Tate and the same thing for Robinson. You just have to drop them down a couple spots. Yeah, I, I haven't moved them too much just because carnal tape wasn't ever really ranked based on what my projection was. It was kind of based on the hope of the upside. I think I still have him. I've got him at the end of round seven. So I may be just a little behind Jamie on him still, but there's still a lot of upside there. There's obviously a lot of risk and we've seen more of the risk. But I think the second year quarterback with a new offensive coordinator trying to do new things probably explains more of it than we're giving credit for. And then when it comes to the running backs, you know, Pollard for me was always in that. He was ahead of this group, but you know, the Patriots guys, the Steelers guys, Brooks. I don't know. I don't feel very confident in it right now. So he's, I'd rather have Ramon Dre. I'd rather have Jonathan Brooks. I'd love to see one of the Steelers guys sort of emerge, but he's right in that mix with them. So still could be drafted if you go here or RB or zero RB as a number two running back. But I mean, initially when before the, training camp started, like I was looking at him like round six. Like that's not the case anymore. All right. Ready to talk about a 14 team league. For those of you drafting in deeper formats, I will put the draft results up on YouTube right now, youtube.com/fantasyfootball today. If you want to observe while I do that, I'm sorry. As commissioner of 36 FFT Open leagues, sometimes these issues come up. Everybody do your best to, if you're drafting, if you're one of the 400, what do we say, Heath? 432, 432 people drafting. Just do your best to not, but anyway, Jamie, what were some of your major takeaways from the deeper format, the 14 team league? Huge run on running backs and round one. So no surprise there, just given the genty injury and some of the panic and knowing I think was going to happen in round two. So it was Ken Walker went round one. We took Derek Henry and one one. I think the money channel went at 14. There you go. You don't have to guess anymore. I've got the draft board for you. There you go. So no surprise, the big run on running backs there. And it didn't stop. I kept thinking at some point, these guys are going to start drafting other positions. And no, it just kept going. I thought it was a little bit over the top in terms of the even like drafting third and fourth running backs. But it's something yet to be prepared for and pivot if you need to. These drafts lately have been so helpful for me because they've helped me come up with my own personal tiers. And I had been talking about an ADP tier of the older wide receivers, some of not everyone old in this range. But it's debonte Adams, Terry McClure and Mike Evans at the back of it. And then mixed in there, you've got just looking at this draft, Jameson Williams, Roma Dunezay, maybe Christian Watson, Parker Washington has certainly moved into that range now. And I from the last two drafts I've done have noticed that I personally like Devonte Adams better than everyone else in that group. Jameson Williams, Terry McClure and Parker Washington, Roma Dunezay, Mike Evans. Mike Evans was off the board before all of those guys in this draft if you're looking at the results. So when Adams went in round four, what was that? Like 51st overall. Let me see, Adams 51st overall. I was up and I took scataboo and I really hated that pick. But I was I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to have I want my three running backs. If for me set 14 team league, I want three running backs. I feel like I can start every week. So I got those with three of my first four picks. And I didn't have any wide receivers. McCaffrey Bowers Travis H and Cam Skataboo. But I guess my point is, you know, doing all these drafts, doing mock drafts. For me, it changes when it's a real draft. It makes me really gives me a lot more clarity on how I feel about players. And I really like Devonte Adams, I guess. So anyway, that's, you know, you said it was very heavy on running back. I didn't want to be that running back heavy. But I just kind of panicked and took scataboo there. And then you took Tutan with your fourth pick, 54th overall after taking chase, rice and flowers from the three spot. So let's talk about how your team turned out. He with a three receiver build and a 14 team league. Yeah, I don't really like that Tutan pick. And I think it's probably worth reminding people, you see Tutan in round four, it's round five and a 12 team league and in the middle of round five. But even so, it's earlier than I wanted to take him. But I wasn't sure there would be another running back in the NFL left when I picked again. So I took him, I, I, I both love getting Lamar Jackson in round five of a 14 lead team league and hated it because Jayden Daniels went two full rounds later, which is like 30 picks later. I don't think most people can count on that happening. But I probably would have waited and not taken Lamar Jackson and taken it a running back or something. I had made the intentional choice not to take Sam LaPorta in this draft because I had four managed drafts that I'd already done. And he was on all four of those teams. So Jamie got a great value on LaPorta later. And I took Isaiah likely, it like pick one 20 or something. I thought that was a pretty good value. And then I just tried to draft as many running backs as I could. I've got Tutton and Chris Rodriguez. I've got RJ Harvey, Bill, Tank Bigsbee, and a couple other backup running backs. I think that the key for me is Lamar stays healthy. And I'm right about having three of my top 12 wide receivers and a 14 team league. Then the running backs don't matter that much. Yeah. For me, my philosophy is kind of influenced by just being in a league like this and knowing. If there's anything available on waiver wire, on the waiver wire that I feel like pretty comfortable with on a weekly basis, it's wide receivers that, you know, I can throw in and get like a decent week out of. You could probably find a Quentin Johnson Jordan Addison type wide receiver on occasion on the waiver. Yeah. But you can't really find a running back unless there's an injury. It's hard to find a running back. Well, it's easier when you have a smaller bench. It is. No, it is. And that's why that's why I did it because it's to make it easier, but it's still hard. I mean, unless there was an injury at running back, it's really difficult to find any running back on the waiver wire that's giving you anything worth starting. I was just going to look. I mean, yeah, it's going to have to be an injury. I was just going to look at the guys that didn't get drafted. So the probable RB2 and Dallas Malik Davis didn't get drafted. The probable RB2 in Cincinnati, Somal JP Ryan. I was surprised. Najie Harris didn't get drafted. Seth McGowan didn't get drafted. I'm not sure. Was Emmett Johnson drafted? Yes. He was. So there's probably six or seven. Nick Singleton didn't get drafted. Yeah. Just as Hild didn't get drafted. He's probably the guy that's going to be able to score you eight to ten points.
available in the waiver wire most year. So, so he went three wide receivers to start. Jamie went three running backs from the 13th spot and the four and pick 14 also went three running backs. But Jamie Derek Henry, Omari and Hampton, Breeze Hall, DJ Moore, did you think you were going to go two running backs to start with each year first two picks when you had the 13th pick and the 16th pick? Yeah, our our initial discussion was running back running back receiver receiver just knowing who was going to most likely be on the board in rounds three and four. You know, I think we kind of committed to similar to to your thoughts like getting running back since league is is some of the priority. It's what helped us win the league last year. I forget who the third one was but we took Breeze Hall last year in round five because everybody was kind of running away from him and it just ended up being a good guy. So, we had the money chan and Breeze Hall. I don't remember the other one was about somebody we took early. And this was just taking a few different players that neither myself or Todd have drafted much of yet. So, Henry and Hampton, I would have probably as much as I don't love HN but that's in the 12th team league. I would have taken HN most likely ahead of Henry and then I probably would have gone barkly. I'm sorry, I was on Hampton around two but in any event when Hall was was still sitting there, we said let's take the the running back value here just knowing again what this league was like. I don't love Marvin Harrison as my second receiver as our second receiver but I think the combination of Harrison, Stribling, Coker will make that work if DJ Moore does what he's capable of doing what I think he's going to do. So, I was probably fine with it. You mentioned the quarterback value. We were thrilled to get Dak Prescott where we got him and then just taking some late round flyers on guys that you see me probably dropped a lot. Jalen Coker, Marshal Lloyd, we talked about this on the sleepers show that we did for FFT express. So, I'm very happy with how this roster turned out. It's just a matter of we'll you know like these point. You know, we'll three of you know my top 15 running backs. Essentially when Bruce Hall's healthy, will they be good? As the guy who took the first tight end Brock Bowers 24th overall, I think there's no way I would have taken him if it had been a three receiver league. I don't think so anyway. It would have been perfectly fine value but a 14 team three receiver league. I don't I couldn't have justified waiting until the fifth round to take my first wide receiver. So two receivers, two running backs, one flex. Yeah, it is 14 teams that makes it deeper but it's not that it's not that different from like a 12 team three receiver league, I guess. But yeah, I don't think I would have taken Bowers there. I probably would have taken Rishi Rice instead or neighbors or Smith, but probably Rishi Rice. I don't know if you guys had any thoughts on I asked you Heath earlier about, you know, shallower format like FFT open. Should you try to get at least an elite tight end or a quarterback and you said, yeah, I mean, but not necessarily for sure, but shallower format. Yeah, but what about this deeper format with tight end and quarterback? Generally speaking, I think you probably don't want to spend a lot on both your quarterback and your tight end in a 14 team league. I didn't plan on drafting an elite quarterback, but I think it was picked 59 when I took Lamar Jackson and I did, and it's a six point per pass touchdown league. I just couldn't not do it. And I was trying to, I figured out the way I look at it, I've got elite wide receivers, I've got an elite flex. If I have an elite quarterback, that gives me five spots where I should be as good or better than most the league. And so that's why I took Lamar there and then I just waited it tight end. I think Dave might be the only one or Dave's team might be the only one that took kind of a high end quarterback and tight end. He took craft and Drake May in rounds five and six and only had one running back through six rounds. It was Quinch on Judkins. Oh boy. His running backs. I mean, this is too risky for me, but he went Lam A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson, Dave Richard here. Lam A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson, Quinch on Judkins, Tucker craft. He must have, he must have felt like he just missed out. Look at the four picks before him or Jaylen Warren, Ramondra Stevenson, Jonathan Brooks and Rico Dowdell. So they probably just missed out on it here. I think you could have taken Pollard there though. He didn't. He went Tucker craft and then Pollard went one pick before he took Drake May in rounds six. So his running backs are Quinch on Judkins, Mike Washington, Jonah Coleman, Ray Davis and James Conner. That's, I mean, hopefully for him, he's hoping Ash and Jenny doesn't play a week one or two and then he has Judkins and Mike Washington to start. But if Jenny, if Jenny's healthy early, Dave's going to have a lot of trouble. And I like RB two. I think I like the upside of some of Dave's non-Judkins running backs more than I do my own. I tried to kind of do a blend of guys that I think could have big upside if I got hurt. And guys like RJ Harvey, who I feel like in full PPR, I'm probably be going to going to be able to start in a full PPR league. So that's one thing to consider when you're a week at running back is are you all the way in on give me the biggest upside if they get the opportunity or do you want a couple of guys that you can start? Okay. So I just want to point out one thing. If you look here at Eric Rice and team 14. And if he had taken instead of Mike Evans, if he had taken a running back there and this square would have been green, we would have had two connect fours. Okay. That is now a vertical and a diagonal, which is really, you don't see a lot of that. You don't see a lot of connect fours. Oh, you see, here's one lamb Jefferson Maconkey, DJ Moore is a connect for. I love it. I guess you do see a lot of them. I'm not familiar with how many connect fours that we usually see. Here's one. Here's a connect five. Wow. Okay, fun with track. We're doing right now. Ending the show. That's a good thing. It's going to be interesting. I need to go up on the top here. I've heard it. All right. We'll talk to you. Jamie and I are going to record breakouts. He's all breakout team. And then we'll talk to you tomorrow with the draft. I thought it more. Talk to tomorrow on fantasy football today. Paramount podcasts out of the shadows of Paramount mountain. Three heroes level up. At Styrus and Gileas battle against the evil giant Deathhanner to save the kingdom of Euryah from so much peril. Laser knives. Order it towards bad brother. Sentience killers and swordscorpion. Death armor. Fire. In this thing. That thing. Whatever that is. So much peril and heroes. This is just the beginning of the story of Hampton Square. Golden Axe. New series streaming September 16th on Paramount Plus.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
A major draft trend in the FFT Open is a heavy focus on running backs, with two teams drafting three RBs in the first three picks.
Ashton Genti’s injury (a serious ankle sprain) has led to cautious drafting, with many managers treating him as a high-risk, mid-round pick, similar to Jeremiah Love's injury situation.
In 14-team PPR leagues, running backs are prioritized due to limited flex spots, prompting managers to build around RBs rather than receivers.
Some teams use a "receiver-receiver" strategy in the early rounds, but analysts caution that this requires strong depth and flexibility in later rounds.
Players like Jordan Mason, Travion Henderson, and Chikori Kraski-Marit are being drafted late due to injury concerns or declining ADP, despite being out of early-round rankings.
Quarterbacks and tight ends are considered more critical in shallow formats (two RBs, two WRs, one flex), where elite starters are essential.
Recent injuries to wide receivers and running backs (e.g., Malik Neir, Devante Smith, Tite Chandler) have created uncertainty, prompting managers to adjust rankings and draft strategy.
The trade of Keishan Booty to Houston is seen as beneficial for CJ Stroud but not a major fantasy impact unless Nico Collins is injured.
Preseason performance and injury reports are key in assessing player value, with some managers shifting picks based on real-time updates.
A key takeaway is that fantasy managers must balance risk and value, especially when drafting in formats where one position dominates.
Summary:
Fantasy football drafts are shifting toward a running back-heavy strategy due to injuries like Ashton Genti’s and the perception of high injury risk in key positions. In the FFT Open, multiple teams began with three running backs, reflecting panic and a lack of confidence in early-round receiver value. Genti’s situation—after a serious ankle injury—has prompted managers to treat him as a mid-round, high-risk pick, similar to past cases like Jeremiah Love.
In deeper 14-team PPR leagues, running backs are prioritized due to limited flex spots, leading to a common strategy of building around two or three RBs. While some teams adopt a "receiver-receiver" early draft approach, analysts stress that this requires strong late-round depth and requires managers to be comfortable with risk. Injuries to key players like Travion Henderson, Chikori Kraski-Marit, and Tite Chandler have added uncertainty, pushing managers to draft late or adjust rankings.
Quarterbacks and tight ends are seen as more vital in shallow formats, where elite starters dominate. Preseason performances, injury reports, and trade moves (like Keishan Booty’s move to Houston) are now central to draft decisions. The consistency of injuries across the league has also led to a reevaluation of value, with many managers now prioritizing stability over upside.
Overall, the season’s early draft patterns reflect a cautious, injury-aware approach to player selection, emphasizing risk mitigation and adaptability.
FAQs
Many managers prioritize running backs due to concerns about injuries, especially with players like Ashton Genti or Jeremiah Love. In two-running-back, two-receiver formats, running backs are seen as more reliable and valuable, especially when there's a lack of depth in wide receiver talent or stability.
Ashton Genti's serious ankle injury has led to caution in drafts, with many players treating him as a high-risk pick. Managers are now more likely to draft him in the mid-to-late rounds, similar to how Jeremiah Love was drafted and then dropped due to injury concerns.
Yes, the FFT Open has no trades allowed. Drafts proceed without collusion or trade discussions, and players must draft independently to maintain fairness and prevent collusion.
In leagues with fewer starting spots, like a two-running-back, two-receiver format, managers must prioritize elite players in key positions. This makes elite quarterbacks or tight ends more valuable than in deeper leagues with more flexible positions.
Players like Jordan Mason, Travion Henderson, or Mike Washington are often drafted late in the draft due to declining ADP or injury concerns, but they can still provide strong value if they start the season with a solid role.
Managers should balance both, but with a focus on elite wide receivers in the second round to complement strong running back play. This ensures depth and versatility, especially if one position falters.
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