Fantasy industry vets Joe Dolan and Tom Brawley are bringing it all season long on the fantasy free agents podcast unrestricted, unaffiliated unparalleled fantasy football analysis. The biggest weekend in the history of fantasy football to borrow a line from our erstwhile colleague friend Mentor. John Hanson is upon us Tom. It is National Fantasy Football Draft weekend. I'm not sure who coined that term. It might have been Sirius XM fantasy sports radio. There might be a special committee who's come up with it. I don't even know who comes up with it, but Tom this is official fantasy. Football draft weekend. It is a celebration and we are here to get you ready here on the fantasy free agents podcast. I am Joe Dolan. He is Tom Brolly. We are your hosts for this journey and we hope this is going to be a fun one today Tom you and I are going to break down our rankings at Fantasy free agents.com. By the way. Our cheat sheets will be updated today for all of you drafting this weekend. We are going to break down our rankings versus the two most popular Fantasy Draft platforms. And their default rankings Yahoo! And ESPN. This is not an uncommon Endeavor in fantasy podcasting or fantasy article writing. Well, we're doing both because Tom put up a nice little simple comparison Tom not a whole lot of analysis. This is going to give us an opportunity to go in a little bit deeper, but you just put up a simple comparison and cheat sheet of our rankings versus the popular sites and we're going to we're going to get into it today. How are you my friend? But before by the way we go get into that we're going Talk about some of the preseason action as well. I'm doing pretty good Joe. How are you celebrating today, you know taste some hills birthday. I know that because I made you a little birthday gift with my other friend here sick of a calendar for you a couple of last month on your birthday. And I know that it stays some hills birthday said, how are you celebrating? Well, I'm celebrating because this means taysom Hill is one year older and therefore closer to retirement. Yeah. Yeah, baby. Yeah, maybe he's getting closer to retirement. That's a good thing for you. Yeah. Yeah, so a little less stress in the closer it gets to retire but I'm sure taysom Hill is a nice guy. But on this podcast, we don't like taking hall-of-famers off the field for Gadget plays and that's what the Saints do because Sean Payton Tom has to be the smartest man in the room at all times. Anyway, I know Saints fans love taysom Hill. There's nothing personal against taysom Hill. I just hate him as a football player and I hate what he represents. So there we go. My I mean, I think if I wasn't in fantasy, I'd probably like the idea of I mean, I was Steeler fan. I like yeah, I got a grew up watching Kordell Stewart. It was exciting every time he came into the game, but for our purposes, he's a pain in the ass. So our friend our friend shorts who listens to this podcast Tom is this off color. Should I even say this? It's not vulgar or yeah, that's uh poker he calls taysom Hill Latter-Day / because he's obviously more and we want the BYU and I love that one. It's it off Kordell Stewart was / back in the day. We're shorts as a big Steelers fan. That's so I love that. I love that nickname and we kind of use it to righteously just because we hate taysom Hill and we hate the look if their starting quarterback was like Nick Foles I get it, but it's not it's Drew Brees. Anyway already off on a taste of pills. I really got you off there man. Happy birthday. Taysom Hill. I hope you don't play it down this year not for health, but because your coaches It out that Drew Brees is one of the best in NFL history. Okay, Tom. Let's take a deep breath back. By the way. Taysom Hill might be moving past Teddy Bridgewater to be the number two quarterback if you want any Bridgewater was sick. Was that the excuse last week? He was sick. Yeah. Well, I mean well, whatever it was, I mean, it just isn't any good. I feel bad for Teddy and I he had he had some prospects earlier in his career and the the leg injury has really derail his career. So we'll we'll see how he's doing. But yeah that the excuses were coming out last week for okay. Well, let's get into National Fantasy Football Draft week at Tom and we can't do that without first and foremost reminding people to listen to my podcast with Greg Cosell, which was Wednesday. We broke down some of the late-round guys who I think people are going to be interested in a lot of these like under-the-radar running backs and receivers Tom. I know you enjoyed that podcast Justin Barnes and Tom symons just broke down there IDP rankings on their on their IDP podcast. So if you have an idea, The draft you better freaking listen at that time. We have an IDP draft coming up next weekend. So I'm excited to listen to those guys already have but I better listen to it again to make sure I have all the information but you and I are going to get started here by looking at unfortunately some injuries from the Thursday night games here in preseason week three a lot of teams Tom still are not playing their starters even teams like the eagles who gave some starters some reps DeSean Jackson got out there Zach ertz got out there. But even for teams like that, they didn't play Carson Wentz which is completely understandable but some of the teams that did play starters Tom. We've got some injuries to talk about and it's unfortunate now. It doesn't appear that Cam Newton is seriously hurt but Cam Newton has a foot ankle injury thing. He left the game. He did not return to action. I mean Tom, what can we say here? We have camera. More aggressively than just about anybody in the fantasy industry. We have them at six. Do I have to move them down before we update our cheat sheets. It's the question. I wouldn't touch them. I it looked like a pretty minor injury here. Well, we'll probably hopefully get some information here in the next couple hours here. Maybe I would think something might come out here that they might say something but you know look minor to me I even have a picture up on the site, you know, it's not like his foots getting rolled up or anything. It's kind of, you know, just kind of looks a little flu. Okey. So 17 days to get ready for Week 1 if anything, maybe you take away a little bit of his rushing production, which you know is obviously a big part of of cams Arsenal, you know, he's one of the best Red Zone Runners and but maybe maybe he makes up for that a little bit as a passer. So I'm not too worried about this it obviously you see a guy a starting quarterback of his caliber go down and a preseason game and the worst thoughts come to mind. I know you've Invested heavily in them. I have to I have a lot of DJ more and Curtis Samuel as well. So it looks like we escaped something major here, but maybe we'll get a little bit more information but I would expect him to be ready hundred percent ready to go for Week 1. Yeah, so I'm not going to freak out about him right now either Tom, but we do have to keep an eye he was going for X-rays this morning. And now obviously those are all precautionary. Those are just to make sure you rule things out but we do have to keep an eye on that for Cam Newton the other big big injury news Tom Jordan. Howard excuse me, Jordan Reed not Jordan Howard. Sorry Jordan Howard. Jordan Reed of the Redskins the tight end. He's in concussion protocol Tom. This has been a major major issue for him throughout his career. I mean, you know, he has a healthy offseason for the first time in a while this guy. I mean you can schedule offseason surgeries for Jordan Reed like they're a holiday. It's like it goes crit goes Christmas New Year's Day Jordan Reed offseason surgery. That's what the calendar says. He Have one this year, but Tom the concussions have been a constant issue through him for him throughout his career. He is in the concussion protocol. I mean it this is the dirty part of fantasy when you say you didn't draft a guy because he has a history of concussions and injuries, but I didn't I didn't drive Jordan Reed once because of his history because he looked slow to me last year Tommy. He's persona non grata from me. I'm not drafting him at all. I have zero point zero shares of him. I will continue to have Who shares of him you could not give Jordan Reed away to me. Yeah, I yeah, this is the seventh documented. I mean, who knows how many in this is been an issue for him dating back to his time at Florida, you know now, you know, if it was, you know, just a couple can tell, you know, maybe the first or second concussion, you know, I would think he'd be you know ready to go for Week 1 but you know, this could be this could be an issue in the September that I mean, we just don't know how Going to respond and it's it stinks because he you know, this actually has been a good offseason for him. And you know, there has been some positive momentum for on but you know now that's all gone and you know, we have to worry about this is going into the season and I'm with you Joe. I haven't drafted at a mall. I know, you know, a lot of people have like them because you know, he has had two healthy offseason, but he hasn't looked quite the quite the same the last year that's being gentle. He was sitting up here. Yeah, I can't put it all. I mean, it's some terrible QB play and but it's not gonna get much better with Case Keenum and Haskins and you know, I looked it up over the last two seasons. He's gone over 15 fantasy points just twice and I mean that was the whole kid like in Jordan Reed early in his career those big games. He would pop off for seven catches for 90 yards and a touchdown and the those just haven't been you know, his type of games recently and now he's going to be in one of the worst offenses one of the worst passing. I'm not going to score many touchdowns and now we got the concussion worries to go with it. So we you know, he was in our mid teens. He was around 14th or 15th. Overall. We just did a slight tweak. We've moved them down to 19 overall at the position down below Darren Waller now, so yeah, I'm not going near him. But you know, hopefully he gets healthy and he's out there early in the season. He's like, this is what I'm talking about here Tom if you could say I could have Jordan Reed On the bench of we have an auction draft on Sunday. If you tell me I can have Jordan Reed on my bench for zero dollars, but he's taking up a bench spot. I wouldn't take it that see that's what I mean by you can't give him away to me because I feel like I can use that roster spot. Even if he cost me nothing. I feel like I can use that roster spot more effectively. Yeah, I he just hasn't had the upside. I mean that that's why we like them early in his career and just there's just hasn't been that tangible upside. I don't know why you would want to roster Master tied him to at this point. You know, it's you're getting a lot of for for 45 or 50 performances not going to be a lot of scorer scoring opportunities. So I think a bench spot can be used better on a running back or receiver going forward with him speaking of running backs. We could stay with this team Washington Redskins Tom. It was good to see Darius guys. Looking good 11 carries for 44 yards. He had a four yard reception. I haven't been terribly enthused by him. I have drafted him a couple of times Tom just a couple oh, but I've drafted him a couple of times because he's been pretty cheap. I wonder if his ATP is going to rise a little bit because he looked pretty good out there. Yeah, if it does I probably won't be going in but what he's fallen deep into the eighth or into the ninth round. I have taken a couple shots on them. But this off yeah, we just touched on it with read this offense is going to stink. They're not going to score many points and he also still has Adrian Peterson still around they're not just you know, he's you know, he played fairly well last year, you know, despite all their issues and But this offensive line, I mean without Trent Williams they had some major issues. Once again last night is so bad guys had a touchdown called back because of Eric flowers holding call or is his stat line would have looked a little better but it's atrocious right now. They're going to have a tough time getting into rid of my own. So I'm not feeling good about guys even if he does somehow Russell away like 60% of the snaps in this backfield. I mean, it's not like it's gonna be a good offense to begin with a couple of things here Tom. I know he was getting some negative buzzer Lee and preseason but Ido Smith look the best of the Falcon running backs five carries for 23 yards and a touchdown. He was the first back in behind Devonta Freeman saw a lot of work so seems like we've kind of put them into the early 50s that seems like the right spot for him. Certainly somebody who had a bad rookie season, but that does not write your Tombstone here in the NFL just having a bad rookie season so Ito Smith I would say It's still the number two behind Devonta Freeman though Tom. I wouldn't be so sure. He's going to have a role independent of Freeman the way Tevin Coleman did. Yeah, I mean it's all gonna depend on frame itself. That's why I've taken some Ito Smith. I still haven't been overly impressed here in the preseason, but he you know, he has looked a little bit better from last year. It doesn't it's not gonna take much to to play better than he did in his rookie season, but you know, there's still some upside to him Freeman that hasn't been the this guy the last two seasons speaking of concussions. He's a guy that's had some major concussion issues throughout his career. So and he had the the knee and the foot and issues last year as well. So I still like take Anita Smith and then, you know late 40s at running back early 50s. I still think there's a touch of upside here and he's giving us a little bit of hope that things might be turning around here that offensive line played fairly well for the Falcons as well last night. They were they were opening up some holes. Okay, Tom. We actually have an update on Cam. Newton x-rays are clean Marty her knee the general manager says they are cautiously optimistic for Week 1 they are calling it a mild foot sprain. So that's good news for Cam Newton. Yeah, I'm guessing he'll be off of his feet here quite a bit over the next week won't be at practice. But I think he's probably going to be on on schedule to make an appearance in week. One Tom. We saw Leonard fournette seven carries for 27 yards ran over a linebacker we know. Leonard fournette can do it's a matter of him staying on the field and staying motivated. But we saw those Jaguar starters for the first time good to see that from fournette. You've been in on him more than I have. That's just a matter of me liking Devonta Freeman carry on Johnson and Eric and Erin Jones a little bit more in the range were for net goes but you know for net he's one of those guys you can see him playing 10 games and running for 550 yards or I think he's got legitimate lead the league in rushing upside. He It's one of those wide range outcome players and why I particularly like them is what I saw last night three targets and limited action. I think he's being underestimated and as a receiver here, there's no more TJ. Yeldon. Nick Foles is a competent quarterback. I mean you got a lot of and I've been high on Leonard fournette and Dede Westbrook. I move DD Westbrook up a couple spots again last night there now, there's been glowing reports coming about him all training camp long and then we saw it in the preseason game here. So, I think folks had 10 passes seven were to d d and 3 toward to fournette. So I'll take that kind of distribution in the regular season and a 70 percent Target share for Dede Westbrook and 30% for fournette. Let's just concentrate it. Okay, Tom, let's let's focus here on a little bit with the Eagles because they played their starters or some other thing real quick. I thought it was pretty interesting Troy Aikman brought up in the brawn the broadcast that D Flippo called Westbrook the best route Runner. He's worked with in his career. I mean, wow, that was a Pretty you know big statement, you know, he worked with Adam thielen and Stefon Diggs last year, of course working with the Eagles receivers and Earths and those guys, so I thought that was you know, pretty interesting little comment Tom with the Eagles here. How about this JJ not our Sega are thay go Whiteside the he is corrected. This is Scott Graham and Ross Tucker who do the who do the Eagles broadcast. They have been hammering at home that the name is our thay go Whiteside. JJ R Theta Whiteside 8 for 104 and a touchdown on nine targets. I haven't drafted are fake a white side Tom at all because I feel like he's buried here. It's almost the Dallas Goddard problem right was okay, where are the targets coming from? But this kid has looked freaking good in the preseason and he is somebody in the event Alshon Jeffery or DeSean Jackson. Both of whom have had injury problems get hurt. This guy could be somebody who's a major beneficiary in Philly. Not seen you run out in your draft them, but I'm saying this is a guy to keep an eye on because the Eagles feel like they might have gotten a little bit of a of a nice boost here to the receiving Court their second round pick. Yeah. I don't know what to do with them. So I moved them up a bit. He's in her low 90s. I just I just find it hard to you know, project much playing time and targets for him. I think he'll get some Red Zone opportunities, you know, he'll have some chances to score which might be a pain in our ass, you know, if he's stealing Yeah, touchdown and Red Zone targets away from you know guys like Zach ertz, and I'll show on Jeffrey and but II just I had a hard time knowing where to project and I feel like if he was on another roster, you know competing for playing time. He probably be in our you know wide receiver 60s or 70s, but with this depth chart and you know, the way the Eagles going to play they're going to play with a lot of two tight end set. So, you know, they're only going to have two receivers on the field a lot of the time. So I've just had a hard time project them in here. But I mean if On a deeper leg or a dynasty leg. I would be definitely targeting him in the late rounds Tom. What's up? Let's go with a couple more things. The athletic has been reporting all offseason or has been predicting all offseason that Carlos Hyde's going to get cut so it probably shouldn't be in any surprise that Darwin Thompson's getting first team reps. This is according to Brooke prior the Kansas City Star should not be should not be surprising at all that he's getting first team reps ahead of Carlos hide behind Damien Harris, Damien Williams. Rather, so this is obviously a guy Darwin Thompson who's been shooting up draft boards. I will say though Tom. It was interesting hearing Greco sell talk about him. He said, you know, he doesn't play to his size. And I wonder if you consider that a positive or A negative. He said he's more of a hard-nosed runner, I guess in the vein of a Philip Lindsay, then he is kind of the scatback. You would think the Darren Sproles type that you view Justice Hill or Tony Pollard as like he's He's kind of a hard. No straight line Runner who has great speed but night might not be a Shifty or doesn't play as Shifty as you might think based on him. I don't know whether to call to consider that a positive or A negative. I thought it was just interesting. It is interested. I consider that a slight neg I mean a back his size. You know, I want them to last. I want him to play 16 games and you know when he's 5/8 200 pounds I have concerns about him playing that style for 16 games. So I mean, I view it as a slight negative I'd Either, you know be a little bit more Shifty but you know that might be why I'm you know, seeing the report from the Kansas City Star that you know, he's also getting goal line touches with the goal line a little bit of goal line work with the first team units. So don't want to hear that if you've drafted Damien Williams early in the you know in the SEC, you know late in the 2nd round early third round here. But I mean that kind of lines up with what Greg is saying if you know powerful small package but a powerful Runner if he's getting gold on, you know goal line opportunities here. We got to do some hold out updates. Um, we've buried Melvin Gordon my favorite part of the podcast Joe my favorite part Ian Rapoport reported this week and I understand people have their qualms with rap sheet. I get it but deserve it that times barring some barring some actual hard news. We have to we have to take this into consideration. There is an expectation that Melvin Gordon's holdout is going to last into the regular season. Once again, this is not a Le'Veon Bell situation. Neither. He nor zico Elliott is going to hold out the entire season. So you're going to have Of them both at some point the problem I have with Gordon is he's more likely to miss games than Ezekiel Elliott. I think he's going to miss more games than Ezekiel Elliott and the Chargers have a much more viable backup solution than the Cowboys. I know people are putting Tony Pollard in the Hall of Fame already, but the Chargers have Austin Heckler and Justin Jackson behind him and there's a chance if Melvin Gordon comes back that he doesn't instantly get his 20 touch a game role that is a concern for me with Thank you Eliot. Tom, even if his holdout goes into the regular season and I'm still skeptical at will he is going to get his 20 Touch of game role when he comes back because I think first and foremost, I think easy a Zeke is getting paid the fact that the Cowboys have offered him. Well, I think as the second-most second-highest. Yeah, we're gonna Bridge Mortensen that was that woman. By the way, I think I border I'm sorry. Yeah, they're going to bridge that Gap. It's getting done. I think Zeke deserves to be paid as the top running back in football. You know when you draft a guy at number four overall and he plays to that you can't be incensed when the guy asks for the money that he has earned you drafted him at for overall to be the best running back in football when you draft the guy that high that's what you draft him to be. That's what Ezekiel Elliott has been. So I think they are going to bridge that Gap though. He's apparently back in Cabo working out with Marshall Faulk, but I think this is the death throes. Was I just have this feeling we keep getting these updates from Ezekiel Elliott Tom. I feel like this whole doubt is going to come to an end. I am still drafting him with the top five pick. I know as the days go on that it just gets a little bit more and more precarious. But I do feel like that Gap if the Cowboys are willing to go to 13 million a year. There's going to be a point where they're going to come to an agreement here. Yeah. It's you know, I guess they're you know, he's holding out to get over Tha girl. He's never hit. Is Av is you know 14 for so, you know, they're in the ballpark here levy on bells at 13 one. So they're they're right in that 13 to 14 million dollars a year. It sounds like so hopefully we get this all settled here. I'm with you. I'm still you know being aggressive with Elliott drafted him, you know, if you know top five if I get the fifth pick there, you know, I I've got them a couple times in the eighth ninth pick overall. So I'm still aggressive. Here but I mean what at what point do you start backing off Joe? Is it by next weekend? If I don't like it? Yeah, that's what I was thinking if we still have don't have a some sort of you know resolution here. I guess next weekend is when I start getting a little nervous and letting them past if I'm in the fifth or sixth spot. So yeah, I'm still not really concerned about and even if Elliot mrs. Game Tom, I think it'll be a game or two and that's something I think you can whether Gordon I'm more concerned about because as I told I talked about on our podcast earlier this week. I'm on team pay running backs simply because I just think they should get paid. I don't care what the analytics say. I know what they say. And I think they're correct. I just think the running back should get paid anyway, and and maybe that makes me a dummy but guess what Tom I don't care. I don't care if NFL teams are operating at full capacity. I don't care if they're operating at full efficiency their billion-dollar corporations. I really don't give a crap, but I think the offer the Chargers had made to Melvin Gordon if it is in that Ten million dollar a year range. I actually feel like that's a fair offer. He should sign. And that's the problem ten million ten million dollars a year is a pretty fair offer right now. And you know Melvin Gordon is you know, he thinks of course you're going to think of yourself as one of the best or the best running back. But you know, if you ask us sobbing I would say he's probably in the 4 to 6 range or the, you know, five to seven range in terms of best backs and in the lake right now, so 10 million dollars is what you should be paying to that type of back and I mean, that's what the issue is right. Now. The Chargers probably don't feel like he's an elite elite upper echelon back and they don't want to give them the Thirteen or fourteen million dollars a year and Gordon thinks of himself that way so I mean that's why I think we're having all the issues right now. Well, of course and look the running backs, and of course, they're going to think this way Tom this is they're not stupid for thinking this way. There are the guys who are running into the defensive lines and the linebackers coming downhill downhill with the specific goal of destroying them there. Going to want to think all right. Well, obviously we deserve to get paid and and I don't blame them for thinking that way but the running back position Tom, even if there's like a Renaissance or there's something where the the league and the Players Association decide something has to be done with this compensation. It's never going to be like the quarterback position where you just get one guy on top of the other every time a quarterback gets paid. Everybody goes world my God, I can't believe he got that much money. Yeah. Car or the Joe Flacco and those are the two that really stand out over the last couple years the next quarterback to get paid. Oh Carson want or can't believe you got that money when Dak Prescott gets paid or can't believe he's gonna get that money when Jared Goff gets paid or I can't believe it. It's just the way it works. Yeah. I mean that's not gonna ever be that way at the running back position. No running back sir, you know, there's still a high-end know there's a hierarchy there and you know quarterback that that's you know, that just it's the next man up who's going to get the biggest deals. Ellen we're kind of starting to see that at receiver here a little bit as well, which is so Michael Thomas. And so now we have a Martin Cooper and hold the oh Jones angling for that next big contract to be the highest-paid guys. So but yeah, I mean the Gordon situation feels like it is going to leak into the season now, I've just been totally off of him pretty much all summer, but you know, you know and now he's slipping into the fourth or fifth round and I still don't want it. I actually was in a draft last last night or the night before. Or and I saw Eckler go before Gordon and I die. I can't totally blame them for you know, going aggressive and trying to get Eckler if you know maybe if he starts eight to ten games and you know, he's still going to be a philan, you know, he's still gonna be playing alongside Gordon the second half of the season so, you know, we're starting to get to that point where you got to start considering Eckler above Gordon. So yeah, it's I mean with chord and that's the thing. I'm worried about. I'm not worried about Elliot when he comes back having to play A reduced role. I am worried about it with Gordon and I am Gordon, you know, if that seeps into October even November, I mean then you have worries, you know, everybody else is out of certain playing shape, you know, they've been doing this for a couple months. I mean maybe Gordon would be fresh. I mean that's you know one angle but or maybe he's just not in the best playing shape. He hasn't, you know, Ben and during the practices and you know, he's not in the best shape so that that will be a concern you you the longer this, you know continues into the regular season. So yeah. With Gordon now, I have to throw my personal spin on this Tom. I haven't drafted him since the holdout only because I had actually drafted him quite a bit before the holdout. So there is probably a point where if I was going into this clean where I would consider Melvin Gordon, but he's kind of a guy almost I'm blocking out right now because I have enough invested in him. I haven't been the Scott Fishbowl. I have them in a bunch of best balls from before the hold out where I already have the investment in Gordon. I don't need to even rack my brain to decide where the right place to pick him is I hope he's there week one. I really do. I hope both he and Ezekiel Elliott Bridge these gaps, but it's looking less and less likely for Gordon. I'm still cautiously optimistic with Elliott. Yeah. I'm right there with you. Well, we'll see where we're standing next week with Elliot. I mean, that's that's I think going to be the breaking point. Well, we'll see just how you know strong people are taking him in the first round after if you know if this goes into A past next week then not then it's time to buckle up Tom. We're going to get into a our rankings versus the the top fantasy football websites Yahoo! And ESPN and you saw when you got into this a very interesting difference between the two sites vis-à-vis our rankings and we're going to talk about that when we come back right after this message from our sponsors. What's up listeners? This has been kookiness producer of the fantasy free agents podcast on anchor FM podcasting. I've been producing podcast and chose for my friends and colleagues Joe Dolan and Tom Brawley for years now. So when we decided to start the fantasy for Asians podcast, it was imperative. We find a hosting platform an app that was easy to use Quick to record and post and track our stats and that's exactly what we found in Anchor. It's the easiest way to make a podcast and gives you everything you need in one place from either your phone or your computer. They're In tools makes my life easier and I felt great knowing that anchor handles the distribution of our podcast to their other platforms like Spotify Apple podcasts Google podcasts and many more and don't worry about any difficult process to monetize your podcast. You can easily make money with no minimum listenership. So go download the anchor app or go to Anchor dot f m-- to get started today and thanks for listening to the fantasy four regions podcast unrestricted, unaffiliated unparalleled analysis for your fantasy football and bedding needs. Tom I think this is a very useful exercise for a lot of our listeners and a lot of our subscribers and frankly the reason we do it and the reason basically a lot of other sites do it is because it's not hard for us to do we've already put the rankings out. We all play on Yahoo and ESPN. So we already know what it's like to draft on these sites and it's just a simple comparison of our rankings our top 150 versus the drag. Raft rankings on the major site. So I wanted to you went through and did this you've been doing it in the past as well. What is your process in going through this? And do you find it helpful for yourself going through it? Oh God. Yeah. I mean, I'm a lunatic. I've been playing fantasy football for 16 17 years, I guess at this point and I used to do this shit whenever I you know, I was just playing in my own Hometown legs, like just seeing like, let's see how bad the rankings are. Not bad, but you know, Where I can take advantage of the rankings for Yahoo, or I mean that's my typical drafting service. But ESPN as well. Those are the two big ones here. So I've been doing this for I think about six years now just basically I jump into a mock draft on ESPN or Yahoo, and I ruined the mock draft for people but I am, you know going through their rankings and just comparing them and I see where we're higher on somebody compared to to Yahoo. So I mean we can just jump right into it here. But you know, they're running backs on Yahoo! Are you know they have their guys a lot lower than we have them on our site. So there are plenty of values at running back quarterback. Not so much. They they have their quarterbacks wrecked a lot higher than our so you're not going to get many values looking at quarterback here. So what do you think is the more exploitable site for our listeners like and and what I'm talking about if you Basically drafting against a room of people who did no research and they only count on the default rankings to draft. Which do you think is the more exploitable site where can you build really the much better team based on our rankings? I mean, I know you you're the same way kind of Joe, but you know, we we like holding off on quarterback. So we're going to have running backs and receivers and tight ends a little bit higher than you know draft rankings and that really stands out on Yahoo site. I mean Yahoo has you know guys waited way too high at the quarterback position and it opens up a lot of great buying opportunities for a lot of backs. I didn't count through here, but it's almost about 25 or so running backs that are extremely underpriced on Yahoo. Even at receiver that you know, there's 10 to 15 guys and tight end a lot of the the high-end tight ends as well. I'm looking at Travis Kelce Evan engram Conner Henry Vance McDonald that you all guys for four of the top eight were tight ends are being undervalued on the Yahoo site as well. So you basically went through and did undervalued guys. I'm sure they have guys who are way way higher on their rankings than we have on hours. But by focusing just on the guys that you think Yahoo, and ESPN have undervalued it almost kind of points out like a little bit of a Target list for you. Yeah it really He does and it it even has you know, if you dig a Little Deeper like a guy like Josh Gordon they for whatever reason, you know, suddenly they see these sites haven't caught up with the rankings. I don't know if they don't, you know, update them. You know, they go update on once a week or once a month. I don't know. They still have Josh Cornett 289. He's going at seven, you know 75 in our ranking. So there's like guys that you're really high on that. You know, these sites haven't quite caught up on another example of that is Darwin. You know, he's now 120 in our rankings. He still 217 on Yahoo's rankings. So there's you know guys that have extreme value that you can you know kind of pencil in around that and you know, Darwin Thompson 11th 12th round, you know, he's not gonna be popping up, you know people just you know, they scroll through the first 10 to 20 guys and on the Yahoo list, you know, they're not going to go real deep down the list and so a guy like Darwin Thompson might slip through the cracks and maybe not Not anymore. He's getting a lot of buzz. But you know what? I mean? A lot of people don't go way down the list when they're making their pics. Okay top. So let's start with Yahoo. And I think this is the best way to do it Go by sight and so we're not confusing people jumping back and forth between position. So let's go by sight and let's start with Yahoo. Now you think Yahoo! Their quarterback rankings are a lot more in tune with hours. So no not at all. Not at all. Okay way ahead of ya. X or way over ranked it open. Yeah, we only have two guys that are considered undervalued compared to Yahoo. And that's Carson Wentz and golf. So that's great news for guys like us that are going to wait for quarterbacks. That means they got Patrick Mahomes in the top 40 they got you know, just song when all these guys are over. You know, the quarterbacks are overpriced on Yahoo. That means people might be more willing to take them, you know, maybe around earlier than they should be going and maybe it's a around so it opens up some major by opportunities at running back in Receiver, right? That's what it does. It opens up those buying opportunities at running back and receiver. And by the way, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff probably two of our favorite mid to late round quarterbacks to draft and those guys are values. But one thing I will say about this sometimes you are at the mercy of a draft room and sometimes guys in fantasy drafts that they're not as experienced as the people listening to this not as experienced as obviously URI. Cam they don't know how to draft the quarterback position and sometimes guys will just draft two of the top eight quarterbacks, even if they can't use them both. Well, I'm gonna trade one later and sometimes that'll screw things up. So do keep that in mind but I would much rather build a strong team of running backs and receivers and have to slum it at quarterback for a little bit as opposed to having to reach on a quarterback because because that's what the default ranking say. I think I call that the Bill Simmons approach. I I remember listening to His podcast with Cousin Sal and him talking about drafting for quarterback so we can trade them later pretty stupid idea but it's a chronic idea because yeah who like who wants to trade for a quarterback? I just go pick up Josh McCown off the waiver wire, you know from years past, you know, so yeah, it's a very stupid to draft process my head Patrick Mahomes and Carson Wentz in a draft last year. I couldn't I couldn't give went away and I know Winston have an awesome year last year, but he was still pretty good I couldn't Of them away. So like if you think if you think you're a smart ass and you think you're the smartest guy in the room by drafting to Elite quarterbacks, I would beg you to to try to if you do that try to trade one and see what happens because even if people overvalue the quarterback position and you try to trade an elite quarterback gets a say you drafted Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers and you're trying to trade Aaron Rodgers and you're trying to say, oh, I'll get this guy's number two running back. I'll trade Aaron Rodgers for Chris Carson. And I'll trade Aaron Rodgers for David Montgomery even those even if you're trying to trade to an inexperienced player, that guy's gonna go wait a minute. I don't want to trade that guy. I'm doing all I'm doing all right with Kirk Cousins. Yeah, and so then they through that process they realize the vet quote unquote value or lack thereof at the quarterback position in fantasy. So don't be the jackass who drafts to Elite quarterbacks because it's not going to work out for you. They don't know I guess I'm your kind of the same way. We do a lot of drafts together. I mean most of my redraft I don't even suck select a second quarterback. You know, I'm just picking one guy if you know I have issues rolling with them. I'll just drop them and go pick one off the waiver wire like, you know later in the year. I mean, I don't typically spend two draft picks on quarterbacks in my drafts nor do I so quarterbacks overvalued on Yahoo. But we do have eyes with Carson Wentz in Jared Goff Tom. You have found a ton of values at the running back position. We don't need to go through all of them if you want to go check it out. That fantasy free agents.com. We have both a little article and a cheat sheet for this but at the running back position Tom, what are some of your favorite values that you found because we I there's a list of 20 to 30 here where you think we are higher on the player than the default rankings at Yahoo. Yeah. I mean at the at the running back position the biggest discrepancies we'll get into some of those so we got like Joe Mixon we have him as a first-round running back. They have him more as a middle to late run. Back, so, you know pretty nice value there Leonard fournette. We have him mid to late third right now. They have him well into the fourth. He's 31 in our rankings 43 overall. So maybe you could hold out a little bit later with fournette. Maybe you could snag them at the end of the end of the third round in Yahoo! Leagues some more big values Chris cars and they haven't adjusted yet. I mean, he's been rising up draft boards here recently with the talk that he's dominating penny in terms of touches. And training camp so, you know, we have him as a mid to late. You know, he's 40 overall and he's 54 in the Yahoo rankings more big values Austin Eckler. He we have him at 63 over. All right. Now, he's at 104 on the Yahoo rankings trying to see little farther down. Let's Duke Johnson guy that got traded to Houston. We like his positioning there, you know better than whenever he was in Cleveland. They still haven't caught up. He's 26 spots different. So that's you know to full rounds that we have him higher. You should be going in the single-digit rounds right now and they don't and right now they don't have him ranked in the single-digit rounds. No and a little farther down the list a similar situation with Austin Heckler. We have Justin Jackson who's now 123 in our rankings. He's at 183 overall there, you know, we touched on the Darwin Thompson one just just values everywhere here at the running back position. I mean if I was choosing between Yahoo! And ESPN. I would be you know, if I was Commissioner of my leg, I would rather be drafting on Yahoo, because there's just values everywhere in terms of the running back in receiver spots here. Okay, let's go into the receivers Tom and the biggest one that stands out to me is as of yesterday. Yahoo! Still had Josh Gordon at 280 ninth. Overall. We have them 75. So there is a massive difference there. You would think that's going to catch up here a little bit this weekend, but that is I don't think you're going to be I don't think you're going to be able to sneak Josh Gordon into the 20th round of your draft. Tom know. I think there's at least going to be somebody else in your league who thinks they're going to who so who's been following football for the last couple weeks that knows that Josh Gordon isn't still suspended. Yeah, but Josh Gordon is a huge one. DJ more AJ greens a tough one. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of got the the rains that I'm seeing here that where there's the most value is the 8th to 10th. Yeah, we got a lot of guys here Deshawn Jackson mvs. James Washington and John Brown Michael gallop and Tyrone Williams. They're all guys that are going in that eighth to Tenth round in our rankings. They have these guys going away after that. So that would be a nice spot to you know, that's probably why you know, that's a spot where they probably have a lot of their quarterbacks in the rankings. And I mean, I kind of remember it from doing this thing, but you know, that's a spot where maybe you're like mate start going after. Quarterbacks in those spots because of the Yahoo rankings and you can pick off some pretty good receivers in the eighth to Tenth round and then that the tight end position Tom once again you and I have discussed this we love those first eight tight ends those top eight guys and four of those top eight. We have ranked higher in our top 150 than Yahoo! Has overall. Yeah small value Travis Kelce. He's gone 11 in our rankings 14th. So, you know, maybe you you're in a Format, maybe you might be picking 11th, and you could think that your your leg might be passing them over for receivers and running backs there. So you maybe could wait for him in the second round the big ones, you know right in the middle of the draft there in the in the fifth round. We got Evan engram and Hunter Henry is 51 and 55 overall Yahoo. Basically has them going around after that and in 62 to 66, so maybe a lockout maybe you're picking in the fourth round and you want to go running back or receiver? Fever and you think you can get one of those tight ends coming around at the back end of the fifth round before the Yahoo ranking say they should be drafted. And another nice one is Vance McDonald. He's 78 overall in our rankings. And you know, he's been a pretty steady seventh-round pick in a lot of my best ball on draft.com and they have them outside of that. They have a 90 overall. Who was it this week. Was it Randy fichtner? Who said well Vance isn't going to play a hundred percent of the snaps or he isn't going to play the whole game and a lot of people were taking that as like, oh my God. I got to move them down in my rankings. But Tom we saw this with Eric Ebron last year. It doesn't matter if a tight end doesn't play a hundred percent of the snaps. If the guy is out there in pass-catching situations when he does play and I think that's what McDonald's going to do. I haven't drafted Ebron only because I'm scared to death about about his touchdown regression and I'm scared to death by the fact that they had two solid tight ends behind him. So there's a separate argument there with Iran but with Vance McDonald Tom if he plays 65% of the snaps, but it's almost always as a receiver that his impact is going to be just the same as if he plays a hundred percent of the staff. I feel like Fichtner one to say yeah, he's not going to play a hundred percent of sniffs. But yeah, he's gonna play 90% I mean this guy he's gonna be on the field it last year. He was around, you know, typically between 45 and 55 in a given week percent of the snaps. He's going to I mean, I see him up over 70% and I think even 70% might be a conservative estimate. I think he'll probably be in the 80 to 90 range. It's going forward. So I hope that little fichtner because I hope it scares some people off because I don't think that was ever the intention was for him to play a hundred percent of the snaps. I think that he's probably going to be pretty much locked into that seventy percent between 70% and 90% going forward. So and that is a huge uptick for him and he was a tight end top 12 tight end a tight end one just playing 50% that snaps last year. So, you know, just just imagine. I mean, that's probably going to be another 8 to 10 route see a week if he Isn't that 75 percent range and Tom if you miss out on one of those top eight tight ends. I think one of the pairings that I really like is an old vet and a young up rising up youngster who probably is going to get a little bit of a hard knocks boost Delanie Walker we have him as essentially a two-round value based on Yahoo. And we have Darren Waller as a three-round value based on Yahoo. I actually think that's an interesting pairing if you miss on one of the top eight guys hell even if I I get one of the top eight guys. I'm in on Darren Waller as a tight end to I think there's enough upside to draft him at that spot. And all right, maybe my tight end one hits and I can trade waller or in the in the best situation. Maybe I can even use them as a flex. Yeah, I love that combination and Waller is going to be an even bigger value, you know, as we said at the top of the podcast we dropped Jordan Reed down a little bit. We moved there and Waller up up ahead of him. So he might be even bigger value. Now, you know Walker is a Solid value nice showing first action last week since the the gruesome ankle injury caught two passes, you know right away with Marcus Mariota scored a touchdown. So he looked pretty good there. So, you know the some of the injury current concerns might be out the window. I mean Mariota, I think as we've seen him all over last year. And in that first preseason game, he just looks better more comfortable out there whenever Delanie Walker is I know there's going to be a lot more little tougher to spread around some of those targets with AJ Brown and Adam Humphries now on the offense, but I still see Delanie Walker and Corey Davis Kind of duking it out for the Target share lead there and you know, I can see both of those guys being between 20 and 25% Thomas looked over to ESPN here and I think my clay does their rankings with yes. He does I think so and I mean looking at him I tell I think Like need to bump some of our quarterbacks down to leave even a little farther and in our top 150 is here a little bit. Yeah. I mean yeah ESPN has the quarterbacks buried in the top 50 Tom. I actually think they're a little too low. Yeah. I mean I'm going through some of these I mean Lamar Jackson hasn't you know, they have them at 139. I mean, he hasn't seen 139 and you know, since you know and you later, we also have to be realistic with ours, right? You know it like we can sit we could put no quarterbacks in our top 150 and say wait on a quarterback, but it's not actionable for people right? They can't take that advice and say well, you know, look we have Patrick Mahomes at 37 in our top 150 because we have to put them there. That's the first pick of the fourth round in a 12 team league in most Hometown leagues Tom. He's not lasting that long and we understand that and he sure as hell isn't going to last till 47 were ESPN has him in a lot of Hometown leagues. I mean, I'm looking at some of these gaps of 847 272 with my Holmes Watson and then 72 to 103 with Watson and Mayfield. I mean those Pretty Stark. I mean I'm with the other that's the little bit too unrealistic. Yeah, so I'm if you want to wait on a quarterback and and that's all that matters to you ESPN's your site because their quarterbacks are buried in there. They got Josh Allen Tom who was a League winner. I was gonna say no that's actually the opposite if you want to take a quarterback early, you would want to draft an ESPN. I don't advise doing that but you know, okay, let me rephrase. Yes. If you don't want quarterbacks getting sniped early. Yes and you put an and putting you in an uncomfortable position because this does happen. Sometimes Tom I harken back to a draft. We did on Yahoo, a couple years ago where you were in perfect position to draft one of the two quarterbacks you had targeted and some guy at like the eight nine turn took both of them and you were like, are you kidding me? And you sometimes unpredictable things? Happened that will screw up your draft if you want to just be comfortable with where the quarterbacks are going. I think ESPN is the right spot because because like people will be looking at these rankings and being like, okay, you know Watson out of he's a seventh sixth round guys, right? I guess I can hold off. Well, I mean Josh Allen was a League winner last year and they have them at 2:43. That's undrafted in most leagues. Yeah. I mean we do a top 150 that's you know, obviously, you know couple you know, That 14 rounds 14 15 rounds. So I mean 200. I mean that's most deep legs. I mean, I mean most pretty standard drafts or fifteen to sixteen rounds. So they have they have quarterbacks utterly buried and I think we are low on quarterbacks, but the inner we have to think he's have them buried now Tom the valve. Yeah, that just makes it a little tougher to find values at some of the other position there are tighter at the other position. So like I had a friend of ours Ju Listener of the podcast he was texting me last night. He's like man these ESPN rankings are actually pretty tight like compared to some of compared to to what we were doing and I agreed with them based on what was happening Tom. What were some of the values that stood out to you at the running back position though? Because there are a couple I mean Damien Williams really jumps out to me though. I understand why ESPN has him buried. I mean, I'm yeah, I'm looking through here. He's really low on the Mike. Lai's pretty low on the running backs here the rookie running back stay. David Montgomery at 60 overall mile Sanders at 69 overall. We have those guys at 46 and 50 7 respectively. So, you know those those are two guys on the rise here. He's not completely buying in. So maybe you can snipe those guys in the fourth or fifth round here. He's pretty caught up. Overall Darwin Thompson is still an extreme value. I'm sure he might have just that it's 122 208 here. So, you know, maybe you can go out and still snipe star Darwin. You're Tom Damien Williams. They have 45 which is lower than anybody is on them. I know that's but they have Darwin Thompson at 2:08. That doesn't make sense. Yeah. Well, I mean I would have to go back through them. But I'm guessing he has Carlos Hyde much higher than he should be a you know, now that we have all this I should but yet 700 right? Yeah the the top that he's gonna get cut here. They're not invested in them at all. You know, some of the other big values not a saint here. I'm looking through the list here. Look at Nick Chubb and carry on Johnson actually. We at the top though because we have those are pretty night. There's a couple really nice value you bring those out those guys up in the second round. Yeah, Nick Chubb we have as an early second-round pick. I mean, I've seen him go into the first that's not uncommon nor do I didn't necessarily disagree with it. Carry on Johnson. We haven't 19 that's a mid second round pick. They've got him in third round. So I mean maybe you can go wide receiver wide receiver and your ESPN draft and snag one of those guys based on the default rankings, and that would be in really nice start for you. I was I even remember Chubbs because I'm pretty sure Yahoo! Had him at like seven or eight overall. So there's quite the discrepancy like 2222 picks difference between Nick Chubb on Yahoo! And ESPN. So if you're a real big Nick Chubb fan, maybe you want to Draft on ESPN better chance of getting them in the second round. All right, Tom the wide receiver position and this is a short list ESPN's wide receiver rankings. Very very sharp. At least if you consider our banking sharp and they are award-winning. I yeah, I think so. We've we've gotten some credit over the years from fantasy first. If you think are our wide receiver rankings are sharp. Well ESPN's right there. Yeah. I mean no major values. They're a little slow still on the Josh Gordon suspension here 75 to 573. I'm guessing that they're going to have some sort of update here. You would think in the next couple days. I don't know. It's been a week. But neither of these sites have updated their rankings. I guess since since last Friday. So other guys nothing too major here. John Brown is that 114 and our rankings which makes them a tenth round pick 161 overall. So that's you know, 14th 15th round there, you know Quincy and Noone was you know, a guy that we've been a little higher on the most. He's 147 to 2:18 there, you know, the Curtis Samuels a nice little one here at 79 compared to 96 on ESPN, but Not a whole lot of wiggle room here are our rankings are probably a pretty similar to ESPN's right now receiver and at tight end Tom kind of the same list that we had up above. Although five of our top eight tight ends. And those are the ones we like are our values on ESPN. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised he has, you know, some of their tight ends as six rounders here are the big three after the the next three after the big three of the hojae how Lord Ingram Hunter and regroup all we all have them as kind of fifth round picks. He has them as basically six round picks. So maybe you could get your you know, if you don't get one of those first three tight ends in a ESPN draft, make sure to take a tight end of the fifth round if you if you want one of those three guys, or you could hold off and get cooking McDonald. We have those guys as seventh round picks that you know cook is going 84 overall in ESPN's and Vance McDonald is a 99 on ESPN. So that's Very nice value for you want to hold off and wait for Mark Vance McDonald and the other one. I really like going down. The list is Mark Andrews. We have him 135. I even think we might be a little low on Andrews at 135. We might want to sneak him up a little bit, but they have him kind of buried at 167. They must be really buying into the hip not playing enough snaps in the preseason here with Nick boil seeing the majority. But if anybody watch that preseason game I should have got this in the notes Mark Andrews had a nice catch. Some he was looking like he was at the end of last season. He was just rolled rolling over guys rolling over defenders. He picked up about eight ten yards after contact last night on the couch. So he's a guy that's a pretty nice value. If you can't get one of those first eight tie-downs. And by the way, I mean, we just said it was Vance McDonald Nick boils a blocker like Mark Andrews when he's out there. He's going to be running routes now, obviously they have they have havenhurst which complicates things but Andrews was a better player than her / year. Yeah. It's kind of surprising. I mean It's a very similar situation to how Vance McDonald is used in Pittsburgh last year. So, I mean, it's funny that we were talking about that earlier but Andrews might be a guy that just plays around 50% of snaps, but he's going to be probably running routes on probably about 40% of those so he'll have his opportunities. Okay Tom after we are message from our sponsors, by the way. Let's just say this overall Yahoo. I think it's more exploitable if you want to draft in a sharper room at that's probably ESPN, but if you want to Really load up on values. It seems like Yahoo's the place to do. So. Yeah, it's especially at running back and receiver which is you know, got you know, that's where we're targeting most we're guys that hold off on quarterback. So they have the quarterbacks overvalued. So, you know, if I had to pick one spot to draft I would pick Yahoo. Okay Tom after this message from our sponsors. We're going to get into the high-stakes team. I drafted this week because you are going to be doing the same with our friends at the nff see on Tuesday and I want to review that. team right after Ben kookiness What's up listeners? This has been kookiness producer of the fantasy free agents podcast. If you're listening to this you obviously like podcasts and I'll go out on a limb and say you like music too. It used to be looking for podcasts on one app and listening to music on another but now on Spotify you have all your listening needs including the fantasy free agents podcast for free. No, you don't need a premium account Spotify has a huge catalogue of podcasts on every topic and you can follow your favorite podcast. So you never miss an episode download So listen offline, wherever you are and easily share what you're listening to with your friends via spotify's Integrations with social platforms, like Instagram spotify's the world's leading music streaming service, and now it can be your go to for podcast as well. Just search for the fantasy free agents on the Spotify app or browse podcasts in the EU or Library Tab and follow us. So you never miss an episode and now back to the unrestricted unaffiliated unparalleled analysis of the fantasy free agents. Thank you Ben for that wonderful message. I'm sure everybody enjoyed hearing you turn podcast into a 14 syllable word as you they are want to do in New Jersey pod kaes Tom you like that or bad and equip the nicest guy on the planet Earth. You've gone completely heal on been the last week. You need to you need to suck up to him a little bit next week. You call him Bend Louganis. That's funny. But jeez you're making fun of his ways talks poor guy. Are you probably don't even listen to podcast though. You just edit these together. He probably just he just knows how to do it. So I pour bad but we'll trim a little better. I'm going to see if he actually listens to it because if we're ragging on him here at the after the sponsorship segment, he's going to have to he's going to have to point it out to us and he's going to have to yell at us. So we'll see if he listens to it. There is a little Easter egg there. Hey Ben were ragging on you pie that if you hear this text been blue gayness to us tomorrow. Greg Louganis, I'm Greg Louganis. Yeah podcasting is a Bend Louganis Greg Greg Greg kookiness. Okay. All right. I just did now. I'm all confused. I'm treating you like you're Groundswell Cassell. Yeah. Alright. Okay. So Tom, I just did this draft in the nff. See this past Tuesday. It is a third round reversal. I had the eighth pick. I want you to go through and tell me what you think of my team 12. Rounds third round reversal and then we're going to preview your draft that's coming up on Tuesday. I picked eighth I opened with David Johnson was not expecting him to be there Mike Evans T Y Hilton Chris Carson Evan engram Josh Gordon Jarvis Landry Royce Freeman Duke Johnson, Drew Brees. Justice Hill. Those are my first eleven picks. I'm okay with it. I thought it was a very sharp room. I thought I got some players I targeted. I thought I got sniped on other players. I targeted I think I think it's a solid team. I am not entirely comfortable with it. And I think that's exactly what you what you should expect from a high-stakes room. No, I really like your receiver group here with Evans Hilton. I'm surprised Josh Gordon lasted two six eight in the in the felt right to me. I know not. All right. I'm just I'm just surprised overall. I mean everything, you know all the drafts I'm saying now, man. He you did that. Earlier this week. He went 3 for which is the most extreme I've seen but it feels like he's kind of been penciled into the fifth round here. So I'm surprised and the sharp of a room that he finished went into the six a trained here and I even have some guys that I haven't necessarily been targeting but the value was right Jarvis Landry. I took in the seventh round. You know what Tom I mean do I love that pick know but he's my fourth receiver and I feel like I can really I feel like I can really use like his floor as that fourth receiver. This is this is PPR and then I have a guy like Royce Freeman again. Somebody I wasn't targeting but I love my first two backs David Johnson and Chris Carson and I feel like between Royce Freeman Duke Johnson and Justice Hill. I'm going to be able to get a third running back out of that group that I feel good about. Yeah. You got Carson at a nice price there. I mean, he's been rising up boards right now. He's currently early fourth round picks. So I think that's a solid number two. Especially what the way Penny struggling here. I'm surprised you want anger my head at Howard. I'm looking at this. I'm still shocked that OJ Howard lasted to the middle of the sixth round. I obviously have no issue going Ingram over how and I mean they're all I think I know why those yeah go ahead Howard's my most drafted tight end and best milk, and I wanted to diversify a little bit and I think Ingram I don't have a ton of Ingram and I think he's going to catch a lot of passes at wide receiver Tom DK Metcalf. Another guy. I haven't been targeting. That's just a A pure upside pick. I know he's going to have surgery. We'll see what happens but then II back that up with two boring receivers who I think can catch a lot of passes in a new war on coal Beasley those those two guys those guys are probably my first to get cut to the waiver wire if I find somebody more appealing. Yeah got DonTrell Hilliard late there. That's an interesting little pick. You don't have child, but you know, he could be, you know, something happens to to chop and the first couple weeks of the season. The he could be a or b or B to for you or maybe a flex so I'm liking what I see from here and a little eye for late in the late in the draft going for the strict upside there if he can somehow manage to stay healthy. Yeah, I mean, that's just that she's my third tight end. I have Ingram and then I actually went with the upside for Dallas Goddard Tom because again, there's somebody I've seen falling a little bit like Dallas got her is just it's falling down draft boards because he hasn't really played in the preseason and I think people I'll have recognized. Okay, we were drafting them in like the single-digit rounds early. I'm not really sure where the upside is. But there is a guy who I wasn't targeting early now. I've seen fall the 13th 14th round where I'm like, okay, there's I mean, it's Zach ertz gets hurt Dallas got hurt at up for tight end in fantasy. Yeah, I think he's also a product. He's one of the more extreme like best ball to redraft guy. Yep. I'm he's better for the best ball format because you know got a pic whenever he's gonna catch his three passengers. Passes for 75 yards and a touchdown. So, you know, he's he's a little tougher to manage and redraft if there's not an injury ahead of him. So I think that's you know, probably why we've started to see him, you know, come down boards a little bit because it is a little different drafted him in redraft compared to best ball and FFC. The NFC is six point four touchdown pass. So the running quarterbacks word eval you'd so I went with two guys on the extreme opposite Tom guys who do not provide rushing value with Drew Brees in bed. Roethlisberger I was gonna say what wait what do we put me over under for Combined rushing yards for Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger this year? 37. Yeah. I know but Breeze does do the small though. That's true. He'll have a sneaky Breeze is still capable of getting that sneaky were three rushing touchdowns. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you're not going to get much out of her some production out of those two old geezers at the position. Okay, Tom. So let's preview your beat Tom Brawley contest that's coming up on Tuesday the 27th, it is sold out so We haven't been promoting it. I know we could do it by the way. Do you did you? Who's having a beat contest the hour before your draft? I did not I hope it's somebody Cole Adam freaking Kaplan. No way. I thought it was a plan has. Oh, yeah, not only is he doing the ACI Tom? But he's doing the beat Adam Kaplan at the nff. See that's at 8:30 on Tuesday the 27th in the rotor wire online Championship. Yeah. I hope there's still spots available. I'm sure that like sold out in like 30 seconds. Everybody wants to be Adam Kaplan for the well, I guess he's all in on fantasy football. Now, let's talk them 15 years, but he's all in now. The ACI be Adam Kaplan. We love Adam and the ACI is America's favorite fantasy football league. Tom a video submissions have been outrageous for the Adam Kaplan and fatigue. Yeah. I have seen a few of them there. They're pretty spectacular. Okay Tom. So in this in Tuesday's draft, you are picking first overall. Of course, I got that email rocks for you this year. Because it's third round reversal and what third round reversal is the NFC still does third round reversal. It was essentially created by LaDainian Tomlinson. I was gonna say they should just call it the Tomlinson role so LaDainian Tomlinson and later on Tom Shaun Alexander were so dominant for Fantasy that they provided such an advantage over the field that the NFC essentially adopted the rule that if you have the first pick Instead of a normal snake draft the first and second round snake, but then the third round also goes backwards to the first round draft order. So essentially you don't get the two three turn. If you have the first overall pick you get the you get the three four turn so it goes 124 then you pick 36th and then you pick 37th. That's what you're going to be doing this. Year now looking at my draft board that I had here Tom. Are you beginning to formulate an idea of what you might be doing with that spot a little bit here. I do like first off. I am not too enthused that I did get the number one pick. This is like one of the giraffes that it I'd rather have, you know picking maybe maybe even just like four or five would be fine. I mean a little more flexibility at that spot, but so now pick a 36th overall that kind of changes things a little bit. It you know, I think I might have to go sort of some sort of receiver and 24 and then I have like some of the facts. I mean we've touched on the podcast in the third round. I could I think I could still maybe sneak out a Leonard fournette or a Freeman or you know, Mark Ingram or Aaron Jones here based on the the draft board that you've shown me here. So, you know, I'm looking at your drunk. I'm surprised how how high Mark Mark Ingram. I guess it was coming back through the third rounds, right? You know, I I can still manage a pretty good running back for my second back in the third round and then pick a nice receiver here. So it's not it's not as bad as I was thinking last night when I first got the email and I saw the number one overall ice like son of a gun, but I think it's a little bit more manageable. I know I see McCaffrey want overall number one, but if anybody's listen to this, you can probably just pencil in Berkeley for me at number one here. Well, we'll start the draft a little bit early here a couple days. So Negotiating the contract. Yeah, I'm already you know, the jerseys already been made. Okay. All right Tom, so that that was just a little bit of a fun exercise. We are playing some high stakes this year you and I on Sunday night were drafting we have our hometown leagues to and you know, because we're playing in these high stakes by the way, Tom, we're not getting paid for this. So a $50 by in on Sunday. We still like doing these and this auction draft we're doing on Sunday night is going to be a blast. So I'm thinking maybe we should do a little bit of oxygen. I might be a good you know segue into a little bit of auction talk next week, you know with our draft because we really haven't touched on it much and you know, I believe it. We're in the industry. We know we have to do a lot of snake drafts and you know, we're in a lot of best balls, but you know if we had just one draft a year my preferred one would be an auction and like here's the thing at snake trap say they're more popular but they're also easier to contextualize the analysis right? It's easier to say Josh. Gordon is a six. Frown pick than it is to say he's a 15 to $20 auction value, but depending on the room because if he gets nominated early, he might go for more or you know, if he'd gets nominated that you know, it's auctions are so much more context-based than a snake draft or everybody's kind of rigidly locked into their pics. Yeah, and that's part of the reason I'm a I'm a dreidel and junkie when it comes to draft in and you know, I'm locked in for two two and a half hours and you know, there's no sleeping it off. Drop so I mean you can you know picking at the one spot in a Reed raft and a snake. I mean you have a lot of time between picks got 20 some pics going between your selection so you can nod off and then catch up in 10 minutes. But oxide you got to be on your toes the entire time. Well, it's believe me. We like to have our natter days during our auction drafts. And if you got to go hit the can to return the matter days to Nature. You have got to bring your computer with you. I'm yeah, you got to make sure you have the sanitizer with you to clean up. Up. Oh, yeah, you know what's a power move in an auction draft the bid from the can when you're when you're emptying the tank that is a power move. And when you hear the draft room from outside go. Oh what you've made that did power move Tom. We don't we don't pause for people to go to the bathroom when we're doing an auction draft. So you got it. You got it, baby. Yeah now I would love to do it entirely in person. It's just not practical. Tom your brother who is recovering from shoulder surgery, he's in what Korea right now we couldn't fly him over for the auction draf. I'm sad to say. Yeah. I still need to get warm from him. Make sure he's going to be able to do the draft. I hope so. Well, yeah, you better it's an auction trap thought. Oh my gosh ruined out of people. He said he's still going to figure it out here, but we need to probably launch some way up. Anyway, I would I have never done that a live auction. I went to the kids with you last year the his draft over in the Hall of Fame and kind of witnessed one, but I've never partake Tin part, you know partook partook. Yeah and a live auction draft. So I don't know that that is on my bucket list of things to do in the next in the near future. Yeah. We got a couple auction drafts coming up in very soon here. Unfortunately, none of them in person, but that that is a that is a bucket list item for me Tom. So what we're excited for it that Sunday night draft, that's really when I start feeling it's Football season when that auction draft comes down. Hey Mac prolly over there in Korea respond to your brother. I know you're I know you're on painkillers and stuff and you're probably feeling great. But respond to your brother. We got to know that you're going to be there because Tom the worst thing you can do is be an auto drafter at an auction. It's the complete opposite from a snake. I love when we have an auto draft or in a snake especially in an IDP League because it picks idps and like the seventh round. But if we have an auto drafter in an auction, it ruins it for everybody because the Mmm, always will bid up a player to his projected value and it ruins it ruins the flow of the room. Yeah, and that's when you put up the injured guys. So yeah, it is a bummer whenever somebody isn't in the room for an oxen draft that we will have none of that. So Matt Bradley, if you're listening to this podcast get somebody to draft for you or get your ass there. All right, Tom, we're going to get excited for that draft on Sunday will be talking about that next week. Hopefully we have no more injury news to cover early next week on Podcast I start teaching next week Tom, but it's on Wednesday. I found my schedule. I thought it was Monday Wednesday know it's Wednesday Friday. So I start teaching my journalism class next week. We're gonna have to build around that I'm gonna have a big announcement coming up next week as well for me. So stay tuned for that. It's going it's going to be a nice opportunity for me a big opportunity. I'm excited to announce for that Tom. You have been crushing it with content up at Fantasy free agents.com. I've got to pick up the slack as A matter of fact as soon as we get off the air here, I'm going to go make myself a sandwich for lunch. And then we're going to get to working on updating our cheat sheets in our final rankings so we can get those up. So pay attention to my Twitter feed at FG underscore Dolan and Tom's Twitter feed at Tom Brawley and also the sites Twitter feed at tff a fantasy. So, you know that when our cheat sheets are updated for your weekend dress today. So for Tom Brawley, I am Joe Dolan. Thank you for joining us on this much longer than anticipated edition of the fantasy free agents. Cast I hope you all enjoyed and good luck in your drafts this week. Thanks for joining us. I'm a fantasy free agents podcast. Remember to subscribe rate and review on the app of your choice. Our next episode is just around the corner.
Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) are ready to help you dominate your drafts by exploiting the draft rankings on Yahoo and ESPN (28:55). They also get into the preseason action to start the podcast, including Cam Newton's injury (5:40), Jordan Reed's concussion (7:25), and RB holdout talk (19:55). They wrap up the podcast by discussing Joe's NFFC draft from this week (57:00). A special congratulations to our own Joe Dolan for finishing #1 in Draft Accuracy for the 2018 season among 140+ sites and experts! This was Joe’s second #1 overall and third top-3 finish in the last 5 years, making his rankings THE most accurate preseason fantasy football draft rankings on average since 2015. Check out the complete list at fantasypros.com/nfl/accuracy/multi-year-draft.php. Joe’s draft was held on 8/20, but there’s still time to beat Tom! To draft against Tom, join the Rotowire Online Championship and select the online draft date and time of 8/27 at 9:30 PM Eastern. Play for the $200,000 grand prize! 