The Perfect Draft Strategy for 2026

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So Duane, we've got you today. We're going to talk about draft strategy because you've written an unbelievable article for fantasylife.com. Breaking down exactly what the perfect draft is and you've looked at the ADP on sleeper and ESPN and Yahoo and CBS and everywhere. Yeah, I know you do a ton of FFPC, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm excited about that and of course my draft a manifesto is also on fantasylife.com all this for free. So we're going to give you the perfect draft. We're going to give you a blueprint of how to guide on how to crush your drafts for anyone drafts. But before I get there, I have three important announcements Duane. Ready for this? I'm ready. Okay, announcement number one. So you and I, we are colleagues and we are buddies, we are pals, we are amigos. But tomorrow and Friday, we're having reunions with a couple of my former colleagues and amigos. Tomorrow, field yates, joining the show. So I'm excited about that. First time field and I, we on air together since I left ESPN. So that'll be a lot of fun. And then on Friday, you guys have been asking for it. We finally got it done. This Friday, star Fanya Bell, these to Fanya Bell will be in the house. So we're very excited about how to Fanya Bell, get all the injury updates and everything you need to know before you go into draft weekend. So all the intel there. So fun show, fun couple of shows today, tomorrow and Friday. And we've got some more surprises for next week. But so those are announcements one and two. As Duane train, PJ, do you like to, I kind of like that. Duane train versus Duane the rock. McFarland. I mean, look, the Duane train works. I don't look like the rock at all. The only thing I have in common with that with Duane Johnson is the first name. That's right. That's I am closer to Duane Johnson than you are because we are both bald. We are both bald. No, I have a dad bought and he is, you know, he's ripped. He's also, you know, world famous and beloved. And I'm, you know, moderately tolerated. And, you know, known as like, where do I know you from? I get a lot of that. But, but yeah, we do have the same hair. The other thing, the other announcement here, Duane. And this is a question for you, a question for you. I sweep the legs as Duane's utilization report was years ahead of the industry. And I completely agree with that. Years ahead of the fantasy industry. Utilizer's report is one of if not being most useful article every single week and in the preseason. And it's available on fantasylife.com could not found it. Honestly, that article is why we hired you. That's why I went on and said, can we go get Duane? Can we, can we pay him a boatload of money? Can we, you know, can we just back up the brings truck to his house and get him over here? And we managed to get that done. But my question to you, Duane McFarlane, very simply is, would you like $25,000 for free just for playing fantasy football? Would that be something that's interesting to you? Is this a rhetorical question? Of course. I'm willing to pay money to have a shot at $25,000. Much less if you tell me it's for free, Matthew. It is for free. Unfortunately, you are not eligible because you are a fantasy life employee. However, everyone else is, so as you know, Mike's hard lemonade, Mike's harder is one of our sponsors here at fantasy life, including they are the presenting sponsor sponsor of guillotine leagues. And so they're doing this thing. So if you go to Mike's hard.com/sweepstakes/fantasy football. Once again, Mike's hard.com/sweepstakes/fantasy football. You can enter a Mike's harder guillotine league, okay? You can do this for free. And of all the Mike's harder guillotine leagues, you have to survive the chop. You have to get through the season. You have to be a winner. But all the winners of the Mike's harder guillotine leagues are going to be put into a drawing. And somebody is getting $25,000 from our friends at Mike's harder. It's pretty amazing. You're going to get to play in a fun league, 100% free. And at the end of it, you got a shot at $25,000. We're also limiting the league. So you don't have, you know, like it's not like you're going to be competing against millions of people. So I think it's really great. In addition, by the way, there's weekly prizes as well. Lots of great stuff happening. So go to Mike's hard.com/sweepstakes/fantasy football. Enter a Mike's harder guillotine league. Do it now. And let me know how you enjoy it. It'll be fun. But I think that's, you know, honestly, tell me that's not a, that's a pretty good gig. Pretty good opportunity there. 25K. Just for playing fantasy football for free. You got a shot at that. Thanks to our friends at Mike's harder. So just want to bring up all that. All right. Now, Dwayne, talk to me about this article that you dropped on fantasylife.com. I know it. I read it. I loved it. You're on the show. But for the people of it, read it yet. Just very quickly, give me the overview of it. And then we're going to get into our strategy by position. And how we want to attack this draft, we're going to give you a blueprint. Literally, like, here's who you're targeting this round. Here's who you're targeting this round. Yeah. So I think the big thing is we spend so much time at you. And we need to talking about the players. What do we like about the players? What do we not like about the players? But once we've sifted through all of that, what we need to do is take that information and put that into a pliable plan that we can use on draft day. You know how drafts go. You have a plan. And then your plan's gone. You know, it's like, oh my gosh, the players I thought I was getting, I'm not. And so it's really about building this flexible plan that no matter how your draft goes, you're going to have pivots. You're going to be playing chess while your friends are playing checkers. You're thinking multiple moves ahead. And it really ties back to three key things. It's around positional supply and demand, which means, okay, how many do I need on my team? And how many are available? Like, how many that I really like are available? So the larger you're league. So if you plan to league with two flexes or three receivers and two flexes, that moves receivers up. And then you have to think about value and value is all right. What are the players that I've identified that I like later in the draft? That I can wait on that position. And what are the positions that I don't feel good about what's happening later in the draft? So I want to prioritize those positions earlier. And then the final thing is the less you invest at a position, the more you want to invest later. Next sense, right? If you spend a lot of early round picks on running backs, you don't have to take as many late. But if you wait on quarterback, you might want to take two instead of one, but we put it all together, put it into the rounds for you guys so you can map it out and see what it looks like. PJC O501 says need that link for Duane's hair routine. Do you have that? Do you have a promo code? What's the, you know, I will say, I will say hymns is a sponsor of fantasy life.com. Love us some hymns over there. As well as blackwood. So blackwood. I am using the hair mat from blackwood. My wife approves it Matthew. She is a hairstylist. So I'm still trying to get Amanda to come shoot, you know, a promo for them where she's behind me fixing my hair. We haven't gotten there yet. She's kind of camera shy. Yeah, okay. Well, let's work on that. We'd love to see her. But Greg Lau 100 says pliable. A big word. I was told to be no vocabulary on today show neither would I because you know me between between the fact that English is my second language and the and the pino. It always gets it always gets dicey. So as you talked about it, like in terms of like, you know, a positional scarcity and availability and what you need. But to me, I think I want to start with the running backs here, Duane, because I think this year more than many years in previous years, you know, you and I both been playing fantasy for a long time. And back in the day, back in the stone ages, it was always, you know, running back, running back, right? And then the game has evolved both the NFL game and fantasy football has evolved, you know, defenses are softer passing is more advanced. And so, you know, there was there are definitely been years where you know, yeah, wide receiver in the first makes sense. There are years where there's a tight and outlier where it makes sense to go. For a wide receiver in the first round, and obviously super flex that changes it as well. But I feel like this year we're sort of back to the back to old school drafting that I think it's so important to have a running back early. Like I'm a big proponent of either running back running back this year or at least hero RB making sure you leave the first two rounds of your draft with a running back. And so let's just sort of talk about that because I feel like once you get through the first two rounds. It starts getting dice here and we're going to talk about running backs in the, you know, in the, you know, the four to six range and on. But like, talk to me about how you're approaching running backs this year because I think it's important to go there early. Yeah, I think running back gets really dicey quickly. Like you said, once you get into round three, essentially, you're really getting into major question marks rounds four and five. There are a lot as well. And I think the other thing is we'll get into the receiver. We feel a lot better about the receivers and those ranges. So I would rather build my drafts in a way where I'm getting a one to two running backs, preferably two in the first three rounds and then coming back and attacking the value at wide receiver. And one thing that I tell people, everything comes down to you in your wrist tolerance. Obviously, you don't want to force something. Maybe someone gives you pukka and somehow, you know, you love what you get in the second round and then the third round, like a Nico Collins falls to you and you have to start three receivers. Like you want to be open to that start, but it really is tricky. So what I ask people is, how comfortable are you taking basal, tutin' in round five? How about bucky-erving as you're running back one? And you start asking yourself those questions, Matthew, and you start thinking, you know? I don't know if I like that. That might be okay as my running back three or two, but as my one, and that's really the point. Like you're going to have to take swings on unknown commodities and it could be right or it could be wrong. So I think that's the thing you have to ask yourself. Yeah. There's just a much, it's not that it can't be successful. There's just a much narrower window for you to nail that, right? Because, again, and we're going to talk about this as we get through the entire draft. But by taking care of the running back position in the first couple, if you've read me or listen to me for any amount of time, you know that I have five kids or as I like to joke, my wife has six. But the fact is, is that it's a chaotic household and there have been many a night where the fridge is bare, everyone's starving, and we need dinner now. Well, luckily, I have a secret weapon. I keep my freezer stocked with Omaha steaks. 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With summer coming to an end, you're going to be spending more time indoors, get your home ready, and save up to 50% off custom window treatments during the Labor Day mega sale at Blinds.com. From room-darkening to light filtering shades, finding the perfect fit is easy. Get free samples, expert design help, and professional measure and install services. Or DIY with confidence and support every step of the way. Shop up to 50% off site-wide plus huge savings on door busters. Right now, during the Labor Day mega sale at Blinds.com. Full of rounds, or at least, you know, and you really, I feel like you want to have both starting running backs by the start of round six, and so we'll go through it there. But like, so, you know, as you see it here on your screen, right? So, you know, early round one, obviously, we like Gibbs and B. John, middle of the round, Christian McCaffrey. I'm in on McCaffrey this year. I know there's a lot of debate about him, but I'm in on CMC Love Jonathan Taylor and James Cook this year. Early round two, you got sake one there. I have Kenneth Walker and Chase Brown ranked ahead of sake one, Barclay. So personally, if you're following my ranks, I would prefer Brown and Walker in that order over Barclay. Both were finalists for my ride or die. Late round two, you've got guys like Hampton or Derek Henry getting to round three. I think the hate on Breeze Hall has gone a little bit too far. Jeremiah Love is there as well. So you sort of see some of the targets there in the first couple of rounds. But the point being, going back to what I was saying prior to the graphic here, what I was saying is that if you go, if you sort of play it out and you get at least one running back and ideally two in the first three rounds, then you'll start seeing some of those wide receivers in the four through six range. We had Matt Harmon from reception, perception on the show yesterday and we talked about that. The wide receivers in rounds four through six are really nice. And so to your point, like go to fantasylife.com, use our mock draft tool, try it out. See what happens when you go puke in the first and you go a wide receiver in the second running. Right. And Bay Shaltoot is your number one. Like the odds of hitting, you know, with a fifth, sixth round running back as you're running back one or so much slimmer than if your wide receiver one is somebody in the fifth and sixth round. Like if you've taken a couple of running backs, maybe a tight end and then in rounds four through six, that's where you're starting to fill out the wide receiver position. I believe you'll like the build much better than the opposite. Yeah. And that's exactly right. And I've tested this not just with mock drafts. I've got multiple $300 drafts, you know, a lot, you know, drafts are a little bit less than that. And I've really tried it every way. So not just in the mock drafts and I will tell you when I walk away with the two running backs early, I almost always feel better about my teams. Now, I've built some fun teams where I didn't start that way. So to your point, Matthew, it's still possible. But I just, it just the way it lines up, the running, it's not just that we want to force running backs guys. We also have a lot of young, good players. You know, you talked about Chase Brown and Kenneth Walker. I've also got Kenneth Walker above, Sequan Barkley, but it's, it's the fact that we've got O'Mari and Hampton, right? You're Mr. Ryder died from last year. He's a young ascending player. You're getting him in round two. It's not like we're trying to force a bunch of super old players in round two that we just think might project for a workload. These are really good running backs that you're getting to take in round two. Yeah. I mean, again, like we just, I mean, again, like often, you know, as you mentioned, Hampton and Henry, I think both should have very, very good years here as well. The easiest way to build a balance roster, just to put a fine point on it. The easiest way to build a balance roster this year is having at least two running backs, having two running backs in your first three rounds, right? All the running backs, you feel good about on your team, dry up by the start of round six. Yeah. Now, we've got, we're going to give you some sleepers in round seven through nine that have a few targets that, you know, if you do a zero RB or you do a hero RB, which means you only get one big anchor running back and then you go other positions until those middle rounds. So we have some targets for you there in round seven through nine. But ultimately, ideally, you have two in the first three rounds, you deal with wide receivers after that. And then we come back to the one quick note here, Matthew. So if you're drafting at the end, right? So basically picks eight through 12. It's so easy to start running back running back if you're drafting from the middle. It's also really easy to start running back running back where it gets tricky is if you're in the three or four and you take Jamar Chase or Pukinakua, a lot of times those running backs, you're targeting in round two, we'll dry up and you don't want to force it there and be like, well, I'll just take Javante Williams because I heard Matthew and Dwayne tell me I need to running back in round two, no. That's where you want to probably pull the trigger again on a receiver. And then you're going to come back in round three and maybe grab a brief solrger in my love. So it really does depend on where you're drafting from. It's very easy though. If you're in the middle to late position to come away with two, it's going to be, you're going to really need to plan out your draft if you're picking and pick three or four and how you feel about waiting on the running backs, probably getting one in round three though. A thousand percent there. This year I prefer if I'm not in the one or two spot where I'm getting Gibbs or B. John Robinson, I prefer second half of the round because right to your moment in the middle of that round, you can get CMC, you can get Jonathan Taylor, you can get James Cook, right? And then, you know, as you sit here and you see, you know, he goes down, don't stand in the end like, and when I follow my ranks also, especially towards the end of first round or the start of the second chase, brown, Ken Walker, because I have them higher in my overall than where they're going with the consensus. So that's sort of the idea. I want to just talk about some of these, let's, let's move on. So you see this, this screen here for rounds one through three, but let's talk about rounds four through six. Again, if you do get stuck in the three or the four hole and so right, you go puke or chase there, then you come back around at the end of, under round two and you don't really feel great about it. So you get a wide receiver, you get a wide receiver there, maybe you follow my ranks and you get DeVante Smith at the, at the end of the second round, because you know, he's my right or die, Nico Collins, sometimes is there, maybe you feel like a Malik neighbors, whoever it is, right? But so in terms of rounds, we talked about Breast Hall, Jeremiah Love in round three, but here's some guys in rounds four, five and six, DeVante Williams and Travis ETN. Both should have big workloads. I think there's question marks about certainly their passing game usage, but both should have fairly big usage. Round five. I absolutely love DeAndre Swift and Dave Montgomery. And Bay Shaltuut and the upside on Bay Shaltuut and again, feel much more comfortable with him as my three or even my two if I feel really strong about the other positions, but I do like the upside of Bay Shaltuut and Dwayne. And then of course, round six, March on Lloyd, the recently elevated March on Lloyd and Jadarion Price, Zaksha Reyes is going to start the season on the pop, he's going to miss at least their first four games. We had Nate Tyson a couple of weeks ago, a couple of shows ago and just talking about how so much buzz out of Seahawks camp, about Jadarion Price and how excited they are about him and what should be a very run heavy scheme. Yeah. So the way I look at this, these players that are listed, right? I would rather not be drafting those running backs in round four. I would rather be on the receivers and we'll get to those in a minute, but the way I look at this is I'm swinging for the upside and I really do think that when you think about Tuton, who you mentioned, we don't know for sure what the workload is going to look like, but it's for the Jaguars and if he did get 60% of the carries, like he's probably crushing your league at that price, right, on that offense. And then you look at Jadarion Price and March on Lloyd and they're really similar. They have unknowns as well. Price could have Sharbon A back later in the year, March on Lloyd. We don't know for sure how long Josh Jacobs is going to be out, but it could be the season. And so if you've waited and you really need to grab a back, I want to take that upside because my thought process says I can actually circle back around to some players that are more similar to Montgomery. and Deandre Swift that have really decent floors in rounds after this. Like we'll get into a Monterey Stevenson and some of these others. And we could nitpick those, but I think what you start to run out of are the true ceiling profiles. And so it feels weird to drafters because you're taking the swing on the uncertainty. But the reason I do it is I think we can get players similar to a David Montgomery and the next group of players that we're going to talk about. And the one last thing I would give to people, like if you have three running backs heading into round four, don't take any of those guys we just talked about. Exactly. Get the receivers. Go receiver receiver. Go tie it in receiver receiver. Work on the other positions on your team. If you've got two, it's open to draft one of those. If you've got one, you need to draft one to two. So it really depends on what you enter round four with when we talk about rounds four, five, and six. How do you want to attack it? Yeah, I agree. I like Swift and Montgomery more than you do because I agree with you. They're more floor plays than they are upside plays. But I do think at that price, like I think both those guys could easily have twelve, thirteen hundred yards and ten touchdowns. You know what I mean? Like I do think Swift and Montgomery, they are floor plays for sure. But I do think there's a little bit of upside there, just based on their ADP. Like I think, you know, people like, you know, they're sort of snoozy. They're older players. It's not exciting. But I do think I've seen those two guys specifically drop in some leagues just because of, just because there's just a little bit snoozy. But let's talk about some of these rounds seven through nine targets as well. I agree with you. And in an ideal world, that range, that's, that's ideally you're running back three in that range, that four to six, certainly not your one, hopefully not your one. And you know, you could live with some of those guys four year two, just to sort of depends on how you're constructing your roster and your risk tolerance. But in seven through nine, you mentioned Ramandre Stevenson. We've talked about him on the show a decent amount going after Travegan Henderson, but we prefer Stevenson, we think he's the better running back in terms of how he'll be used. We feel better about his role and the trust that the Patriots coaching staff has in Stevenson. You have both Steelers running backs here in Warren and Dowdell. Again, Rodgers doesn't throw deep. So it's going to be a lot of dump off to those two guys and we expect them to be reasonably run heavy, even under Mike McCarthy, Jonathan Brooks and Blake Korum. You know, Brooks should be on the on the right side of a split between Chuba Hubbard and of course Blake Korum can get probably 10 touches backing up, Karen Williams in a year where we think the Rams will be leading a lot in the second half. And so Korum will get some work here, but like so I like these guys in this range. But you know, in this seven to nine range here, Dwayne, but like I wouldn't want to count on any of these guys. Yeah. I mean, Stevenson, you could probably get by as you're running back to if you're really strong everywhere else, right? Same thing for we go Dowdell. But Jonathan Brooks and Blake Korum, they're different bets, right? There's almost like a hard chalk line between those top three names in the next two depending on what your team needs. So maybe you've already got two running backs and you want to swing for the fences on your third. Then it's probably Jonathan Brooks or Blake Korum because if Karen Williams were to go down, Blake Korum immediately is someone we're ranking in the top six, right? So you get massive contingent upside in the Rams offense with him. And then Jonathan Brooks is probably, I would argue at this point in the draft is the player Matthew when I look at it and you're like, okay, what young running back could like just take over their running back room this year and I wouldn't be that surprised. I think Jonathan Brooks is the name. How that's going to look early in the season? That's TBD. I don't want to really be starting Jonathan Brooks in week one. I'll tell you that. But as my running back three, I really like Brooks and I like Korum. The other thing I'll say, and I wanted to ask you about this is Marshawn Lloyd, Matthew because we have the wide range of outcomes on Jacobs. So for you guys that are drafting, this range we just showed you is really where he goes. We put him up above because we really wanted to call him out. But I would ask you, like, are there certain bills where you're more into Marshawn Lloyd or you just end period because like one of the things that could happen is we could have Jacobs out for the season. We could have Jacobs out for the season. The other thing that could happen by the way is the same thing with Jonathan Brooks. He could also just not be any good. We've never seen Marshawn Lloyd be good in the NFL. We think he's going to be good. We like the skillset. We like what he did in college. We like the offense and the opportunity for Lloyd. But we've never actually seen him be good in the NFL and that's the same with Jonathan Brooks. I don't know that I love the opportunity. They were the offense of skiing in Carolina the way I do in Green Bay. But like, we've never seen, you know, there's all this Jonathan Brooks hype, you know, and highly drafted blah, blah, blah. But like, we've never seen Jonathan Brooks be good in the NFL. Like, we think he's going to be good, but you just don't know. But yes, I'm in on Lloyd just because I think it is more likely than not that Jacobs does not play this year. I mean, I think there's a non-zero chance the Packers release him. And I think that there's a chance that even when, you know, I, there's just too much risk with Jacobs. And I do think in a world where Marshawn Lloyd gets the opportunity that he could take the job and run with it. Is there a round where you're willing to take Jacobs knowing that he could be back? Because I would say if we were to place him somewhere, it would be on a team where I really felt bad about my running backs and I knew I just needed to swing it upside. It's probably around nine or 10, which is below 80 P. So you may not get him. But that's probably about where I would be comfortable taking a swing on Jacobs. I think that's fair. And I'm also more comfortable taking a swing on him if I have a, if I have a, if my team has a large bench, if the league settings are, you know, a large bench or that you have an NA slot, you know, like some leagues, it's like only if they're on the IR. Can you put them in? Yeah, versus slot. But there are some that like, yes, whether if they're suspended, they're on the, exempt lift on the IR or whatever, just if they're not available, you can put them in that slot. And so leagues in that have that setting, I feel better about it because now I'm not wasting a roster spot hoping. But I agree with you. That's the scenario where if you've just get an ace out of running backs and you're just like, I got to just take a lot of flyers. He certainly is one that you could do. Speaking of targets in rounds 10 or after, Josh Jacobs is none of this list. Here's some of the guys I like as kind of late round flyers at the running back position. Bill, Jikori Krosky-Marit, my guy. He could be easily the lead running back of what I think is going to be a better than average offense. Kenneth Gainwell, also Kenneth Gage, catch well, his name. How about George Mason, likely supposedly going to be the lead back of the Vikings. We like the Vikings offense, you know, Keaton Mitchell, hearing all these great camp reports that they're using Keaton Mitchell in all sorts of weird creative ways on a Mike McDaniel. This is a guy that he, you know, had the wanted posters, the whole story. So I'm in on Keaton Mitchell this year. Jonah Coleman is one of my all-time favorites as late round guys because I think he's got, I think he's a chance. He's the most talented running back on that team and just, I think he's the starting running back over the second half of the year for the Broncos. Of course, you know, Mike Washington, in terms of the Ash and Gentie stuff, with he being banged up. And of course, Tank Bigsby, talk about just backups that have, if anything would have to say one, he's a top 10 running back. So don't know if there are any of these guys on this list that jump out to you, Duane, or if there are other names you'd like to have. Yeah, for sure. These are my late round draft targets. Yeah. And what I would say is, like, if you've only got three running backs heading into these rounds, it's like the movie signs, remember, a swing away, Emeril. Like you just have to swing. You're going to have to, like, go for it. And you're going to need to take multiple guys. You need to at least take two in this range. You might be taking three depending on how well, you know, you like your other, you know, positions. And I would hope they're strong. If you've only got three running backs entering this range, but Croskey Merit and Mason are two of my most drafted. And I think they're actually pretty similar range of outcomes to what we talked about with some of the other floor guys going in rounds four to five. We don't have the certainty around their roles that we do for some of those others, but I think there's a world where they play out very similarly, right? And you're getting a similar player, five rounds later. So that's where we come back to the value. So I do pivot over here. If I need backs that I think could be in my line up in week one, this could also go guys. Like, let's say you drafted two running backs in the first three rounds, but one of them's during my love, or one of them's action genty. You don't know what week one looks like. Getting a player like Croskey Merit or Mason that you can plug into your line up if one of those guys is not playing is going to be really important for you. And then tank Bigsby, I would just call out as being an elite handcuff. If something happened to Sequan Barclay with the offensive line of the Eagles and given all the cuts that they made, like he's going to step into a really large workload. And it's a very binary decision for you. Like you're either, if Sequan Barclays in, you're not worried about tank Bigsby. If Sequan Barclay goes down, it's very easy. Normally tank Bigsby is going into a starting slot somewhere, whether it's your flex, you're running back to. So I really like him. And the last name that we don't have on this list that I think is really similar to tank Bigsby is Ray Davis. And he goes even later in drafts, like he's a guy that you can get with your last pick. Yeah. No, I like that call. Hey, we spent a lot of time on running backs doing it. It's crucial important, no? It's important position. It's that important. But we do need to move on to why receiver exhausted Texans fans saying, Duane making references that add the salt and pepper to his hair. I like that one. Well done. That's right. So again, we talked about this with wide receiver. Like I think ideally, you're running back early. And so rounds four through six, just an absolute sweet spot to load up on high upside targets, especially if you take two running backs early in those first two of the first three rounds, rounds four through six. But you know, late round two for a wide receiver again, especially if, as we talked about, depending on where you, where you draft and how it, how it, how it plays out. So let's go ahead and pull up the draft targets here in rounds one through three. Obviously, early in round one, you've got proud fantasy life investor, Jamar Chase and Pukka Nakua, middle of the round, JSN and Monro St. Brown. I've seen those guys switch sometimes. Some people like the Sun Godmore, some people like JSN more, late round one, I'm good with CDLAM, I'm good with Justin Jefferson here, middle of round two. How about Detective Drake London, AJ Brown? Those are guys that are going in the middle of. Round two and then Nico George Pickens late round two round three Malik neighbors Chris Alavi Devanti Smith again I have Smith my right or die. I'm as my wide receiver ten So I have him as a late round late second rounder. I'm comfortable with them there But those are some of the guys, but you know, and we don't really need to talk about all these guys I want to talk more about the rounds four through six guys because again These are all great names especially by the way if you get you know running back early and then you in the second round You could get you know one of the one of those, you know You know a Nico and AJ Brown a Devanti Smith the Pickens whatever a Lave. Thanks kind of a huge year But look at these wide receivers here and rounds four through six to eight again Especially if you like if I was running back heavy and I got say Colston Lovlin in the third round Which has been a build that I've done a ton this year. I have a massive amount of Colston Lovlin this year I know you do as well Think about like I'd be totally comfortable going into a league with where I've got two strong running back I've got Colston Lovlin and my number one wide receiver is lad Maconkey or Zay Flowers or Jayden Waddle Jayden Waddle I mean again just look at this range of four through six go ahead and bring that that up. Yeah, it's a great range Right, I mean you can walk away with one of these from each of these rounds I mean now you've got your three receivers. You've got an elite tide and you've got two really good running backs or potentially You started with three running backs and then you're coming back for these three receivers So I this is the absolute sweet spot and if you look at these names guys I think you're gonna have a lot more comfort with these names than the running backs going in this range And that's really what we're talking about and I think the big thing here and why I think we're gonna get some wide Receiver ones out of this range Matthew is something that I've noticed in my research is when we get these big shakeups with Coordinators teammates leaving you get moved over to another team Those things tend to shake up opportunities for talented players, which all of these are like Christian Watson is a great example A lot of people are still thinking of him like oh, it's this downfield thread He catches some bombs. No, it's in a totally different role guys He's playing the Z this year they're moving him all over the formation his average depth of route in the preseason was an eight Not a 15 they they have changed the offense to put it around Christian Watson as their move player And he's a he's a he's a smash pick in round six and then Parker Washington right there as well He's playing that same role for the Jaguars with Liam Cohen who turned Chris Godlin into a 19 fantasy point per game player Two years ago with the box before the injury. So there's a lot to like here I plugged in the week one projections into our projection model over at fancy life calm You guys can go check it out on the site Luther burden came in as the number 13 wide receiver four week one as far as ceiling points Matthew Yeah, yeah, I mean like again, I mean love Watson love Parker Washington I have a lot more burden than I do what Dunes a I don't have a ton of James and Williams this year for whatever reason but Any of these guys again, like if you've gone three running backs if you went three running backs and you got Tyler Warren in the fourth or whatever then just again like if if between you know You could get like Maconkey and burden or waddle and you know James and Williams Christian Watson a ton of Christian Watson to your point so I just like again I think if you compare two star running backs a tight end and like a couple of these wide receivers versus a couple of elite wide receivers And then you know some question mark running backs. I guess the better way to put it here Dwayne is that the difference between call it you know James cook and then Rico doubt all Is far larger than the different 15 call it CD lamb and Jalen waddle, right? You know or Zay flowers. That's the point is it's like would you rather you know like just picking out like mid would you rather have Jonathan Taylor James cook and then you know call it Zay flowers or lad Maconkey or would you rather have you know say You know CD lamb I'm on Ross ain't brown or CD lamb and then You know Travis ETN and Bay Shaltouton or Dave Montgomery. Yeah, you're just like it just I'm telling you You'll like your team a lot better if you go running back early and then your wide receivers and that four to six range Yeah, and that's a great way to put it That's what people should be thinking through do I like this combination of players better than that a lot of times people call that the two V2s right as you're thinking of a multiple rounds ahead in your draft And I do think people are gonna feel a lot better about the wide receivers and Matthew We didn't even name them all there's a bunch of other ones that go in that range that like are totally viable in rounds four and five You've got you know T Higgins and Teteroma McMillan You know even DJ more now playing with Josh Allen. I know they're not like our favorite targets, but they're very viable receivers in that range so it's it's not as it's not as thin as just the guys We listed there are a lot of other players in the go in that range that I saw it last night You said it kind of jokingly jokingly about Rico Dowdle, but I was in a draft last night where Rico Dowdle went in round five And I was like I'm not trying to hate on Rico Dowdle, but no thanks. I do not want to be taking Rico Dowdle on my fantasy team in round five No absolutely not not in round five and then and then you think about like again, just the depth of the position Especially again the more running back heavy you go I promise you the less screwed you are at wide receiver because that right it gets it gets thin quick It gets dicey quick at running back and especially because in these middle rounds these four through six You want you know some of these star wide receivers, but in terms of the depth on your team Think about some of these targets go ahead and and pull up, you know rounds nine through eleven, right? We can we talk about seven through nine In a second, but look these are guys that are going rounds nine through eleven You know we like QJ right he's gonna be the number two wide receiver and what we think is gonna be a really good Chargers offense Josh Downs. I'm not really worried about he's gonna play in two wide receivers sets I'm not worried about Keenan Allen. He's had some off the field issues very recently, right? Jayden Reed Stefan digs the number two for Jayden Daniels K. Casey Concepcion I know you and I both really like his rookie profile, right? McCuy lemon. I'm actually I'm sneakily into Devonte Dantavian wicks, but McCuy lemon, right? How about Wondo Robinson? 140 targets each the last two years and now he's playing with the same coach that paid him 17 million dollars to come to Tennessee like You know in Dejean Stribbling not to be confused with Dejean love Dejean Stribbling An actual 49ers wide receiver that we like Right, I mean like these are like all these guys are going rounds nine through eleven and I think all of these guys are usable All of them have some upside-duane Yeah, and the rookies where they're going lemon at 109 Concepcion at 120 basically Stribbling at 123 We kind of have an overreaction from the market of where rookies burn them last year Matthew and it's fair But now they've been priced back down We don't normally get round one picks like McCuy lemon and Casey Concepcion and these ranges of the draft And they really can add is your wide receiver four or five on your team I think there is a ton to like with those players and my last five drafts that I've streamed over at fantasy life over on real-time sports Where you guys can play in the fantasy life championship? $300 entry I've taken lemon all five drafts. I mean because he's taking on round nine and ten I'm like what it's a round one. It's a round one pick like as a as a receiver We don't normally get that kind of discount these days Yeah, it's valiant Vincent notes the Strib Club is always open everyone knows that Especially with the way you just sort of think about this like again These are some of our nine through 11 so we talked about getting wide receivers four through six and then round seven through nine That's where you can attack quarterback That's where potentially you can attack tight in if you didn't deal with it earlier There are some running backs in round seven through nine you go back to again We talked about the Jonathan Brooks the Ramondra is the world, you know a Blake Horim one of the Pittsburgh guys whatever But then again, you come back around a rounds nine through 11 and you just feel really good about a lot of these guys So, you know again rounds four through six great spot to load up on high upside targets if you take two running backs early If you if the way the draft falls of here in the three or four spot, you know late round two and round three Do have great values at wide receiver? Round seven through nine. I don't love a lot of the wide receivers in the round seven through nine So that's kind of an area where I'm going on other positions But then as we talk about rounds nine through 11 great for bench depth. There's some really high upside guys Trying to lose weight on a GLP one getting the nutrients you need doesn't have to be complicated That's where groons comes in one convenient daily pack gives you greens plus 20 plus vitamins and minerals in a low-carb Gummy that's easy to take wherever you go. No guess work. No hassle. Just a little bear that tastes great Save up to 52% off with code podcast at groons.co. That's code podcast at GRUNS.co This is the sound of captivity This is the sound of rescue and And this is the sound of freedom Give Arminia's captive bears a second chance by supporting international animal rescue call 508 826 10 83 or search the great bear rescue to learn more Let's move over to quarterback here look proud fantasy life investor Josh Allen is the number one quarterback in fantasy football and has been for many many years He also I see him go sometimes late second in the third. I don't mind him at that price I just don't like my builds when I go quarterback early I feel the quarterback position is so deep this year to Wayne I tend to want to wait Yes, I'm with you very deep where I would pull the trigger on Josh Allen I've seen it a few times as whenever you're playing in a league with just two running backs two receivers and one flex Especially if it's a 10 teamer. Yeah, once you get to 12 It's a little more of a stretch, but I have seen him make it to the middle of round three. I'll just say this about Josh Allen. He is an early pick and he costs money or a cost draft capital, but his ones above replacement over the last four years are insane. Singlehandedly, Josh Allen has helped put people in over 50% of the playoff leagues in ESPN over the last three years. So I do think when you get to middle of round three, but I am with you. If he does not fall to that range, I'm pretty much waiting on quarterback, especially if I've grabbed my runners because the receivers are so good also in this next grouping where we're going to talk about these other quarterbacks that go. So I will just say if Allen falls to me in the middle of round three, though, I will pull the trigger. So go ahead and pull up our draft targets graphics here, guys, because, you know, look, sometimes you see Lamar and Drake may go in the fourth. If they fall to the fifth, I'll take them there. I don't want them in the fourth again. At that point, I'm rather, I'd rather take like my first wide receiver or if I've gone running back, running back, wide receiver in some quarter in the first three rounds, I'll grab it tight in in the fourth because again, look at who's going in round five. Give me a Joe Burrow. Give me a Jaden Daniels. Give me a Jalen Hertz, right? Or even further down as you see it there, like round seven, like, I'm sup, I know you and I both are. We both are big fans of the Bears Offensive here. I think Caleb has a monster year. I think Justin Herbert has the best year of his career and not just because he's engaged to Madison Beer, but because he has Mike McDaniel and a healthy offensive line, then we get it around eight. I mean, that press cut's been a top 10 fantasy quarterback every single year. He's been healthy, right? I mean, Dwayne, I hate to say something nice about your cowboys, but, you know, if you get Dak press cut or Trevor Lawrence or Jackson Dart in round eight, pretty Kyler Murray on the homes in nine, like, it just feels like there's just so much depth at the position. I get it on Josh Allen, but I just think you'll like your build more. If you get one of these, if you know, if you grab your quarterback starting in round five and after. Yeah. So what I'll say to the tradeoff is if you take Josh Allen in round three, saying stuff you're elite tied in, you're basically, and we'll get to it in a second, you're going to be all in on George Kittle as around eight or nine pick because you spent it. You're going to be, it's going to be tough to squeeze in a tight end in the middle rounds because you're going to want the receiver so much. So it's a really important question to think about. Like is what do you feel better about waiting on the quarterback or the tight end position? Because you might get, you're probably going to get pushed into waiting on one or the other. And I do agree with you. I feel better about the depth at quarterback because there's so many I like. Whereas if I'm just pinning all my hopes on George Kittle, if someone else takes in, then I'm like, great. What am I doing now? Like we have some names for people, but I'm not going to feel the same way I would about getting Kittle. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't love pits this year. I don't love Harold Fanon, I'm, you know, and they're all crazy. Kelsey, you know, again, like Kittle, the two quarterback, the two tight ends that I get late a lot when I wait are Kittle or Isaiah likely and I really like Isaiah likely when you're playing in a guillotine league because I just think there's going to be a floor there for Kittle. I'm sorry, there's going to be a floor there for Isaiah likely because I think he's going to get a lot. I know he's going like tight in 12. I'm higher than consensus, but honestly, like you're really locked into basically one or two targets late and and tight in. And if somebody else in your league is doing the same thing, which happens a lot, it might be screwed. Whereas, you know, somebody grabs, you know, Caleb and Herbert, fine, give me Dack, give me Brock Purdy, you know, I'll take Trevor Lawrence. I'm good. Like it's just, there's, I agree with you. It's better about the depth at quarterback and waiting later on that position than I do about waiting on tight end because I just, there's, and if at the quarterback position, there's just so many more outs. Yes. Exactly. There as well. So you can. And if you wait, you can take two quarterbacks, guys. And what I'll say is if you wait and let's say Brock Purdy is your first quarterback or even a bow nix, then you come back with Kyler Murray after that. And I get it, guys. You think Kyler Murray stinks. He's not lived up to who we thought he might be as the first overall pick. But Matthew, in the last two seasons, he's played where he played at least, you know, where he played more games. He was the QB 9 and 12. Yeah. And now you get to play with Kevin O'Connell, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Hawkinsons, you've got a healthy offensive line. Kyler is the guy that could throw and you guys are going to think this is crazy. But he's one of the few guys that could throw for 4,000 yards and run for six or seven hundred. And if that did happen, you're going to have a top six quarterback that you got in round 11 or 12, Dwayne, as you know, I, Dwayne, as you know, I am never wrong just early. Yes. Kyler Murray, my two year ride ride ride from two years ago, I'm in on him this year. I agree with everything you just said with Kyler Murray. He has been a top 12 fantasy quarterback on a points for game basis. In every year of his career, he's played at least eight games. Yeah. He's been a QB 1 on a points for game basis every year of his career. And now he's in the best situation he's ever been in in his life. And so again, right, ideally round seven through nine, that's kind of the sweet spot. You wrote up and running back wide receiver early, you'd grab a tight end somewhere and then those run seven or nine, you know, Caleb Hurler, Herbert, Prescott, Trevor Lawrence, the traveler. But if you have to wait even later, and this is why by the way, normally when you're in a super flex league, Dwayne, normally you go QB, QB, but I've been in a couple super flex leagues where I get an elite quarterback early, you know, first two rounds or so because they go quickly into super flex. But I have no problem waiting because look at some of the guys that are going rounds 10 or later and they obviously get moved way up when you're in a super flex league. But Jared Goff, we think the line's often going to explode. It's a great schedule for Goff. I think Baker Mayfield is closer to the QB 4 he was two years ago than he was last year when he was so banged up, contract year for Baker, by the way, Jordan Love, especially given the question marks at running back to they let Jordan cook this year. We've talked about Tyler Schuck a lot in this show. Top 12 fantasy quarterback once he became the starting quarterback last year runs more than you think. And of course, Malik Willis may not be a great real life NFL quarterback, jury's still out there, but the floor is high because of the rushing in fantasy Dwayne. Yeah. I mean, the recipe to hitting a smash in these late rounds is either taking someone from a Shanahan style scheme, which is Jordan Love here, or getting a run, I was about to say running back, but a quarterback that's like a running back, which is Malik Willis, getting someone that gives you over 100 rushing attempts. And so you've got two shots at that. And yes, Baker was so banged up last year and people just forget that. And he doesn't have Mike Evans now, but you know, he still has some good receiver. So again, if you waited it quarterback, don't be afraid to take two, even if you're in a smaller league. And then you give yourself, you know, some time to see how it plays out over the first few weeks. Yeah. Exactly. And we like, in terms of building it, one of the reasons we like going tight and early is because of how deep the quarterback position is again. We think round seven through nine is really the sweet spot. But, you know, Lamar, Drake May, Burrow, and the fifth, don't hate that either as well. Because again, if you've already got one good wide receiver, you'll be able to get another good wide receiver in the sixth, and you've already got, you know, a couple running backs at that point. But I don't have a lot of Brock Bowers and Trey McBride this year, even though I think both are going to have monster years, because Dwayne, they often go in the second round, and sometimes early in the third, because give me Colston Loveland in the fourth till the day I die. I have so much Colston Loveland this year. If I'm wrong on this Dwayne, I know it's going to be a long year for both you and I. But I feel like, you know, getting one of the earlier, being one of the earlier guys in your league on a tight end is a winning strategy this year, given the depth of that position versus quarterback. Yeah, I agree with you. And McBride sometimes falls in these things now, Matthew, so I mean, he's moving down. And so I've gotten him in the third round when McBride gets into round three, I'm very okay with that. But I'm with you. I'm typically trying to leave myself open for Colston Loveland in the fourth round. And if you guys are picking from the end where Loveland goes right now on sleeper, he is pick 39, so you can get him in the fourth, Yahoo, he's pick 39. If you're drafting on ESPN, you might even get him in the middle of the fourth. He goes pick 43. So what I found is when I take Bowers, or when I take McBride in round two, Loveland's on the board in round four. And I'm like, man, I want to trade my second round pick back. And I want to take Colston Loveland in round four. Yeah. And I will say that if, as you see it there on your screen, like if you miss out on Loveland in the fourth, I'm perfectly fine with Tyler Warren in the fifth. Tucker Kraft in the sixth. I don't love, you know, again, if I miss out on Tucker Kraft, if I don't get one of those first five guys in the range where we have him, I don't really love pits or fan it in the seventh. I'd rather wait till the eighth to get a kiddle. I'd rather wait to get an Isaiah likely, a Joanne Johnson, a Dalton Concade. We'll talk about those guys in a second here. But again, I just sort of feel like the best, ideally, Loveland in the fourth, or Warren or Kraft in the fifth or sixth, I like all three of those guys. I don't know if you're, I know you that's the group you would like to come away with one of those. It's typically Kraft for me because he goes the latest and I love the receivers in round five. For sure. Kraft guys on ESPN. This is wild going pick 91. He's 63 on sleeper and 60 on Yahoo. So if you're over on ESPN with Tucker Kraft and I wouldn't, I wouldn't like push it too far. I would just take him in round seven if I was playing on ESPN. So I really love Tucker Kraft, all the reports are great that he's going to be ready to go week one. Might be a little limited in his snaps and stuff early in the season, Matthew, but massive ceiling. Imagine if Tucker Kraft hadn't got hurt last year, guys, he might actually be the tied in three off the board ahead of Colson Loveland, like he would be right there next to that. So Kraft is my second most draft to tie it in this year behind Loveland. Round seven and eight aren't great at wide receipt, excuse me. Round seven and eight aren't great at wide receiver running back, but that's why I like round seven, get me a quarterback, round eight. I don't mind taking a round eight, you know, give me George Kittle or I'll take one of those running backs. I don't love the range there, but I don't mind that a little bit. But then again, if you're, if you're, you find yourself just in terms of the way the draft goes and, and just, you know, maybe you have different preferences than Dwayne or I. But if you find yourself still looking for a tight end in round 10 or later, these are some of the guys. This is why I don't love getting the, the fan and the pits because give me some Isaiah likely who I'm really high on this year, give me some Dalton concade again, gotta be healthy. But I'm sort of in, I'm buying tomorrow, my 10 list of 10 column comes out. And one of the, one of the lists is always pre-season storylines I'm buying. And one of the storylines I'm buying this year is that Dalton concade is healthy and is gonna have the year that we've been promised for the last couple of seasons. And then Johan Johnson, like always underrated, but we think this saint's offense is gonna be better than average. And after Chris Olavly, like there's, Jordan Tyson gonna miss two months. Johan Johnson will be the number two pass catcher on an above average offense. And he just goes super, super late, finally Dalton Schultz, like again, nothing sexy about Dalton Schultz. He is a catch and fall tight end Dwayne. But he's gonna be the number two pass catcher for the Texans. And then, you know, stop, you've heard this before, but the Rams have a, of a young tight end that they like. But a lot of camp buzz about Terrence Ferguson. Yeah, and so I think the way I look at this is like the two guys that I like the most are King Caden likely with you, Matthew, and the way I like to think about this is, all right. If I get lucky and things go right in week one, which players from this group could potentially be ranked in the top six tight ends in week two. And the two names are likely in Dalton, King Cade. If they play in full-time roles in week one, they will move way up the ranks. And when you look at the bills, they do not have a fullback anymore. They had one in the preseason. They cut them, which means they're not gonna play in their 21 personnel. This one Dalton, King Cade was coming off the field. So now they're gonna use more two and three tight end sets, which he's one of them. So there's a very good chance Dalton, King Cade, surprises us with like 75, 80% of the past plays in week one. And if that happens, I promise you, Matthew, every fantasy analyst on the planet will then have Dalton, King Cade inside their top eight the very next week. Yeah. Man says PJC 0501, SAP Ferguson, not bad, everyone throwing out team names there. You have to draft them to name your team that, but I like it as well. So just to recap here, Duane, in the last two and a half minutes here, basically what we're saying is our ideal draft strategy, two running backs in the first three rounds. And then maybe a wide receiver there, right? And then you see it right here, right? So running back round two, last call, rounds five or six. It gets really dicey after rounds five and after round six. Wide receivers, we like it in rounds three, four through six, nine through eleven, tight end either round four. Again, if we get Loveland, or if you get further later on in the draft, quarterback, we like to go either rounds five and six or seven through nine. But again, running back early with one wide receiver, then that four through six range, but ideally Loveland or a couple of tight ends. One of the tight ends, rounds four through six, I think you want tight ends and pass catcher, tight ends and wide receivers. I'm going to redo this. Hang on, I'm going to shut up because I just screwed this all up and my social guys are like, I can't clip that. Go for it. First three rounds, I think you want at least two running backs, maybe a wide receiver, rounds four through six. I think that's where you want your wide receivers and ideally a tight end in there. Then round seven or eight, that's where you want your quarterback, right? And then round nine, round eight or nine, then you can start filling in depth. And there's some real nice wide receiver and rounds nine through eleven. You can take a couple of shots, you know, with a running back here, they're throughout that. But again, running back early, then wide receivers and tight ends, then wide receivers, then tight end, then, oh, sorry, then quarterback, then tight end. You guys will cut that. Duane, thank you for putting up with this. You know, you're awesome. We will all check you out at Duane McFarlane on social media and we'll check out all your work, including the utilization report from the preseason at fantasylife.com. And you can get more nerdy with all your draft strategy. Always appreciate you, Duane, the rock McFarlane. Yeah, appreciate you having me on and I am updating this article today, guys, and it will have examples at the end of the article based on all the latest average draft position stuff for Yahoo, ESPN, sleeper. So you'll see how I've mapped them out from all the different draft positions. So that will be updated today. It'll be dropping on fantasylife.com tomorrow. promo code berry gets you 10% off fantasylife plus at fantasylife.com. It's a ton of great tools. You also get 20 projections, berry 20 right now. We have the berry 20. Yeah. Yes. Where do you 20 or or Duane 20, either one, choose either one of them. Go check that out. Listen, field yates tomorrow. It's closing time though. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. For Duane, I'm Matthew. We'll see you tomorrow. Peace out. [MUSIC PLAYING]