# Becoming a Best Ball Bro: Fade Jonathan Taylor?

An episode of [The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1224965828), 1 Jul 2026, 59 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/0a233618-d694-4c81-a139-b34e00f98fb1/a0aa7dc3-e6f9-4e67-b8cf-b479018b1d6e/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=5747cc82-33a9-497c-8353-b34e00f98fbe

JJ chats with Rich about the importance of rankings in best ball before Nez of the Badge Bros joins the show. Nez and JJ discuss Nez's top early-round fades, the quarterback landscape, Zero RB, and so much more. ---------- Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app and sign up with promo code LATEROUND. Enter a lineup in the $20 million Best Ball contest for $25 and get a bonus ticket for a second entry — two shots at the title. Draft One, Get One, only on DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Help is available for problem gambling. Call (888) 789-7777 or visit ccpg.org (CT). 18+ in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. Void where prohibited. 1 per customer. Must enter a lineup into the NFL Best Ball $20M Headliner Contest. $25 entry fee. Bonus issued as 1 ticket to NFL Best Ball $20M Headliner Contest. Ticket reward is site credit valid for use only on NFL Best Ball $20M Headliner Contest. Ticket reward is single-use and expires at contest lock on 9/9/26. See terms at https://www.draftkings.com/promotions. Ends 9/9/26 at contest lock. Sponsored by DraftKings. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Rich, I got a question for you. What's the most
[0:02] Speaker 1: romantic thing that you've done for your wife?
[0:05] Speaker 2: This is hell corny, but I studied abroad in Florence, Italy,
[0:10] Speaker 2: and when I was there, I said, whoever I was
[0:13] Speaker 2: going to marry, I was going to bring there and
[0:16] Speaker 2: pro post to them there. So I brought my now
[0:19] Speaker 2: wife on a euro trip. We went to London, Paris,
[0:22] Speaker 2: and ended in Florence, where I proposed to her.
[0:26] Speaker 3: So, yes, that is the most romantic thing that I'm done.
[0:30] Speaker 1: Wow, that is That's got me because I did the
[0:33] Speaker 1: most romantic thing for my wife last weekend. It was
[0:36] Speaker 1: our eleventh wedding anniversary, and I took her to the
[0:41] Speaker 1: live drafts for the scott Fish Bowl in Charlotte. I'm
[0:44] Speaker 1: JJ and over the last couple of years, I've been
[0:46] Speaker 1: doing everything I can to be a best ball bro.
[0:49] Speaker 1: And last season things finally fell into place. I got
[0:52] Speaker 1: fortieth in the DraftKings MILLI Contest, taking home twenty thousand dollars.
[0:57] Speaker 1: Maybe I became a best ball bro, but I'm still
[1:00] Speaker 1: learn more about this game and I still want others
[1:03] Speaker 1: to come on this ride with me. So even if
[1:05] Speaker 1: you consider me a best ball bro, This could be
[1:08] Speaker 1: your year. This could be the year that you officially
[1:11] Speaker 1: become a best ball bro. This episode is sponsored by DraftKings.
[1:31] Speaker 1: We've partnered up with DraftKings again this year for best
[1:33] Speaker 1: Ball and we've got to can't miss offer on their
[1:35] Speaker 1: biggest best Ball contest ever, twenty million dollars in total prizes.
[1:40] Speaker 1: It's Draft one, get one, draft your team once, no
[1:43] Speaker 1: weekly lineup management, and your top scorers start automatically each
[1:47] Speaker 1: week all season long. Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app
[1:51] Speaker 1: and sign up with promo code Late Round. Enter a
[1:54] Speaker 1: lineup in the twenty million dollars Best Ball Contest for
[1:56] Speaker 1: twenty five dollars and get a bonus ticket for a
[1:59] Speaker 1: second entry two shots at the title. Draft one get
[2:03] Speaker 1: one only on Draft cas. The crown is yours. Welcome
[2:09] Speaker 1: into another episode of becoming a Best ball Bro. I'm
[2:12] Speaker 1: JJ Zacharyeson, joined as always by Rich Ryan Rich. What's
[2:15] Speaker 1: going on? Man?
[2:16] Speaker 3: You're a good event.
[2:17] Speaker 2: You buried the lead, You went to a barcade after
[2:20] Speaker 2: you played video your life.
[2:22] Speaker 1: You took to be fair. It was not only the
[2:24] Speaker 1: scott Fish Bowl that I went to with my wife.
[2:26] Speaker 1: I went to the Charlotte event. Scott was actually there,
[2:29] Speaker 1: so I got to hang out with him for a
[2:30] Speaker 1: little bit, which was one of the main reasons that
[2:32] Speaker 1: I went. You know, I got to say hi to
[2:33] Speaker 1: my to my guy, and then yeah, we went to
[2:35] Speaker 1: a barcade after which was a lot of fun, and
[2:37] Speaker 1: then we went to dinner. I mean, it wasn't just
[2:39] Speaker 1: like a you know, just a just a one and
[2:41] Speaker 1: done thing that would have been That would have been
[2:42] Speaker 1: pretty bad if I just went to the Scott fish
[2:45] Speaker 1: Bowl Live event, hung out there for two hours and
[2:48] Speaker 1: then and then just went home.
[2:50] Speaker 3: What did you order a cookout'? Is that a hush
[2:51] Speaker 3: puppies or yeah?
[2:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, we we went to go We went to a
[2:55] Speaker 1: great taco place. Actually it was it was delicious. Yeah yeah,
[2:58] Speaker 1: nice little, uh, little hole in the wall type place.
[3:01] Speaker 1: But yeah, man, it was a great day celebrating. It
[3:04] Speaker 1: was also like, you know, eleven years is very random.
[3:07] Speaker 1: Like it's not like like we did we went to
[3:09] Speaker 1: Charleston last last summer for our tenth for our tenth anniversary.
[3:13] Speaker 1: But you know, eleven is just another year. You know,
[3:16] Speaker 1: I I celebrate my anniversary every day with my wife.
[3:19] Speaker 1: Isn't that right? Is that how we say it? Yeah. Anyway,
[3:24] Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of updating rankings, so by the
[3:27] Speaker 1: time this comes out, hopefully those rankings are updated on
[3:29] Speaker 1: late round dot com. I do it every month for
[3:32] Speaker 1: like Dynasty, and then now that it's July, we'll have
[3:36] Speaker 1: like a weekly cadence and stuff for season long and
[3:37] Speaker 1: I've been updating the season long ones periodically whatever. But
[3:41] Speaker 1: you know, in the midst of it all, I'm trying
[3:43] Speaker 1: to finish this draft guide. But the rankings stuff got
[3:47] Speaker 1: me thinking a little bit about rankings for Best Ball
[3:52] Speaker 1: because I get people all the time asking for rankings
[3:55] Speaker 1: and Best Ball, And I want to ask you Rich
[3:57] Speaker 1: as someone who you know, you're not necessarily going to
[4:00] Speaker 1: draft two hundred teams or anything like that, but you
[4:02] Speaker 1: know you'll play, You'll draft a decent number. You know.
[4:05] Speaker 1: Probably you are sort of like the demographic of this
[4:09] Speaker 1: show in a way.
[4:09] Speaker 3: And yeah, and the people listen, I'm the extension of
[4:12] Speaker 3: the audience.
[4:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, right, exactly. So I want to ask you, like,
[4:16] Speaker 1: how important do you think rankings are? Like do you
[4:19] Speaker 1: look at rankings as this thing that you've got to
[4:22] Speaker 1: follow when you're drafting given the amount of volume that
[4:24] Speaker 1: you're playing.
[4:25] Speaker 2: So to me, They kind of feel like the you
[4:28] Speaker 2: theory in auction drafts in that I feel like rankings
[4:31] Speaker 2: are important at the beginning of the draft, and I
[4:33] Speaker 2: think they're important at the end of draft to kind
[4:35] Speaker 2: of select players that are relevant and are not going
[4:38] Speaker 2: to give you zeros. But in that middle part of
[4:41] Speaker 2: the draft, where you're filling out your stacks and you're
[4:45] Speaker 2: also reacting to the draft room you are in and
[4:47] Speaker 2: what is falling to you, I feel like a lot
[4:50] Speaker 2: of it is just about intuition and playing the game right.
[4:53] Speaker 2: If you are just a slave to these linear Excel
[4:57] Speaker 2: sheets that are telling you a list of players in order,
[5:01] Speaker 2: then I think you're going to be doing yourself the
[5:03] Speaker 2: disservice as opposed to doing what's most optimal in that
[5:06] Speaker 2: draft slot at that time. And that's really what makes
[5:09] Speaker 2: this game really fun, is that there is so much
[5:13] Speaker 2: depth to these picks that we're making in straddling the
[5:16] Speaker 2: micro ecosystem we're battling in in the draft room, but
[5:19] Speaker 2: also the macro ecosystem of the entire prize pool and
[5:23] Speaker 2: trying to score the most points in Week seventeen. And
[5:26] Speaker 2: I think you have to be reactionary and make picks
[5:29] Speaker 2: based on who you've selected previously and who the people
[5:32] Speaker 2: around you are select.
[5:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, I think that being react, like I mean,
[5:35] Speaker 1: a common theme throughout the draft guide every year, and
[5:39] Speaker 1: it's no different this year. Is just about being reactive
[5:41] Speaker 1: to what's going on in your draft and understanding where
[5:43] Speaker 1: there's like pockets of value and stuff with you within
[5:46] Speaker 1: your draft. But I think that that's even a bigger
[5:49] Speaker 1: deal in Best Ball than it is in your regular
[5:51] Speaker 1: season long league, because in best Ball you're doing more
[5:54] Speaker 1: structurally than you would be doing in your regular season
[5:57] Speaker 1: long league. You can realistically just pick whoever you think
[5:59] Speaker 1: is the best value you in season long and go
[6:02] Speaker 1: along with it and you're good to go. But in
[6:04] Speaker 1: Best Ball you can't necessarily do that. And there's some
[6:06] Speaker 1: examples that I want to get to in a second,
[6:08] Speaker 1: but I find myself sorting by ADP far more frequently
[6:12] Speaker 1: than I'm sorting by ranking. Now, I will say, maybe
[6:15] Speaker 1: people are asking for rankings simply because they want to
[6:18] Speaker 1: see who I might be higher or lower on and
[6:20] Speaker 1: you know, within my rankings, which I think is a
[6:22] Speaker 1: fair thing to wonder and to see, and hopefully that's
[6:26] Speaker 1: the main gist of it. And like the main reason
[6:29] Speaker 1: for it. But generally speaking, if you're doing fifty plus
[6:33] Speaker 1: one hundred plus drafts, right, you're not gonna want to
[6:36] Speaker 1: really just be picking off what you think is the
[6:39] Speaker 1: best value at that time based on your own rankings.
[6:41] Speaker 1: You're gonna want to pick off what the best value
[6:43] Speaker 1: is by what the market is generally giving you, right
[6:46] Speaker 1: what ADP generally says. And then on top of that,
[6:50] Speaker 1: you want to look at what's going on within your draft,
[6:53] Speaker 1: and you want to build structurally right, like like you said,
[6:56] Speaker 1: like if you want to see that I like am
[6:58] Speaker 1: and Ross Saint Brown more than Jonathan Taylor, or that
[7:01] Speaker 1: I no, I don't even think that you would be
[7:02] Speaker 1: able to see this necessarily, But like you know, I've
[7:04] Speaker 1: taken Ashon genty over Jonathan Taylor at times throughout you know,
[7:09] Speaker 1: this month, and so you know, you can't really see
[7:11] Speaker 1: that because I'm not. I don't think it's ranked that
[7:13] Speaker 1: way necessarily, but tier wise it would be. But I
[7:19] Speaker 1: don't think that rankings are necessarily going to help you
[7:22] Speaker 1: out the way that you think it might help you out,
[7:24] Speaker 1: because really what best ball is is understanding things that
[7:27] Speaker 1: from a bird's eye view, a high level and then
[7:29] Speaker 1: being reactionary to what the draft is giving you. Let
[7:31] Speaker 1: me give you an example, because there was a live
[7:34] Speaker 1: stream that was going on earlier today on the Late
[7:38] Speaker 1: Round YouTube channel where in that draft. So we've talked
[7:41] Speaker 1: about quarterback basically every episode of the show because I
[7:44] Speaker 1: think it's the biggest storyline of what's different or what
[7:47] Speaker 1: you know. We started to see it last year. I
[7:49] Speaker 1: remember we talked about it like the way that the
[7:51] Speaker 1: QB twos were creeping up pretty consistently. But we're seeing
[7:53] Speaker 1: it just full blown this year, just happening every single draft.
[7:57] Speaker 1: And so in this draft that I was doing, I
[8:00] Speaker 1: loved the team that I drafted. By the way, if
[8:02] Speaker 1: you want to go look at it, we're recording this
[8:04] Speaker 1: June thirtieth, So it was on June thirtieth that I
[8:07] Speaker 1: drafted this team. And I started with Bijon and then
[8:10] Speaker 1: in round two I had Nico, and then in round
[8:12] Speaker 1: three I got George Pickens. Round four was Terry McLaurin
[8:16] Speaker 1: round five was Jalen Wattle, and then in round six
[8:19] Speaker 1: and seven, I double tapped running back and got Remandre
[8:21] Speaker 1: and Jalen Warren, who are two of my favorite like
[8:24] Speaker 1: middle round running backs if you are going hero or
[8:26] Speaker 1: zero RB, like I like both those.
[8:28] Speaker 2: Guys, you'd agree the inflection point pretty much of your
[8:31] Speaker 2: entire draft was the Wattle pick, right, knowing that you
[8:35] Speaker 2: weren't going to pick for another you know, twenty some slots,
[8:39] Speaker 2: like your entire draft pivoted on that wide receiver selection.
[8:42] Speaker 1: Yeah, because I could have gotten David Montgomery was available,
[8:45] Speaker 1: for instance, And I could have gotten Dave Montgomery to
[8:47] Speaker 1: pair him with Nico Collins. I just don't really care
[8:49] Speaker 1: for Like, I think he's more of like the traditional
[8:51] Speaker 1: dead zone back than anything else. So I'm underweight, and
[8:54] Speaker 1: I will be underweight more than likely with David Montgomery.
[8:56] Speaker 1: But so I'm sitting there and after I the pick
[9:00] Speaker 1: of Jalen Warren, I knew that in the next round,
[9:05] Speaker 1: we'll see what quarterback falls. We'll see what the landscape
[9:08] Speaker 1: kind of looks like. But one of the ways that
[9:10] Speaker 1: you can sort of see the direction that the quarterback
[9:14] Speaker 1: board might go is if there are other teams in
[9:17] Speaker 1: your league that have drafted multiple quarterbacks in those earlier rounds,
[9:21] Speaker 1: Because what that means is is that there's gonna be
[9:23] Speaker 1: fewer quarterbacks available for other teams to draft and when
[9:25] Speaker 1: there's fewer quarterbacks for other teams to draft, that means
[9:28] Speaker 1: that they're going to be very needy and they're going
[9:30] Speaker 1: to push quarterbacks up the board more than likely, right,
[9:33] Speaker 1: And so I looked and before my late eighth round pick,
[9:36] Speaker 1: my eight to eleven pick, I had seen that there
[9:39] Speaker 1: was a team that already had three quarterbacks, and there
[9:42] Speaker 1: was a team that already had two quarterbacks through their
[9:45] Speaker 1: eight picks. And because of that, I knew that I
[9:48] Speaker 1: probably had to reach. Right, that's the reactive piece to
[9:52] Speaker 1: what I'm talking about here, where if you were to
[9:54] Speaker 1: look at my rankings, you're probably not getting a quarterback
[9:57] Speaker 1: in either of those next spots, right, either of the
[10:00] Speaker 1: the round late round eight, early round nine spots. So
[10:03] Speaker 1: I took Jackson Dart because he was one of those
[10:05] Speaker 1: quarterbacks that you could draft naked, right, And then you
[10:08] Speaker 1: also have to worry about then the what I'll just say,
[10:12] Speaker 1: are naked quarterbacks, right, the guys that people will draft
[10:16] Speaker 1: when they don't have pass catchers already because they know
[10:18] Speaker 1: they can get pass catchers late. Like Dak Prescott. He's
[10:21] Speaker 1: not really one that you draft naked that people don't draft.
[10:24] Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you're gonna get crazy people all
[10:26] Speaker 1: the time in these drafts where they're just like, sure,
[10:28] Speaker 1: I'll draft Dak Prescott after, you know, in the fourth
[10:31] Speaker 1: round whenever I don't even have Cede Lamb or George Pickens.
[10:34] Speaker 1: But you know, generally speaking, the team that drafts Dak
[10:37] Speaker 1: Prescott's gonna have either CD Lamb or George Pickens. And
[10:40] Speaker 1: because his ADP is where it's at, it doesn't really
[10:42] Speaker 1: stray because you're afraid that the other team's gonna do it,
[10:44] Speaker 1: So it doesn't really stray away from ADP that frequently.
[10:48] Speaker 1: With that being said, there are a lot of quarterbacks
[10:50] Speaker 1: like Jackson Dart that you don't need Molik Neighbors to
[10:53] Speaker 1: get Jackson Dart because you get Isaiah Likely, you get
[10:57] Speaker 1: a lot of I mean, pick your poison, you know,
[10:59] Speaker 1: with any of the wide receivers that that you could
[11:01] Speaker 1: get late. I ended up getting Darnell Mooney in this draft.
[11:04] Speaker 1: You know, THEO Johnson I think is still an interesting
[11:06] Speaker 1: twentieth round Dart if you want to go that direction.
[11:09] Speaker 1: So you don't need a pass catcher for Jackson Dart.
[11:13] Speaker 1: So I took Jackson Dart at eight to eleven. A
[11:16] Speaker 1: little bit ahead of ADP. And then in the next round,
[11:19] Speaker 1: I said to myself, I know I'm not going to
[11:21] Speaker 1: be able to get a stackable quarterback in the tenth
[11:25] Speaker 1: round if I don't just do it right now. And
[11:27] Speaker 1: so I took bo Nix, and I took Nix what
[11:30] Speaker 1: fifteen spots ahead of ADP and totally like a round
[11:33] Speaker 1: ahead of ADP. And do I feel like amazing about it? No,
[11:37] Speaker 1: not necessarily from like a like a clear CLV perspective,
[11:41] Speaker 1: I don't like I don't think that I'm gonna like
[11:43] Speaker 1: look back at this draft and say, man, I got
[11:45] Speaker 1: a great value with with bo Nicks, because he's gonna
[11:47] Speaker 1: rise so much over the next couple of months. I
[11:50] Speaker 1: think bo Nix is undervalued. I'll say that. But you
[11:53] Speaker 1: know I drafted him because I had Jalen Waddle and
[11:55] Speaker 1: you know Jayden Daniels has already gone, I had Tara McLaurin.
[11:58] Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna draft CJ. Strout there to complete that
[12:01] Speaker 1: stack and so and Dak Prescott had already been drafted.
[12:05] Speaker 1: And so my logic was, I'm reading the board, I'm
[12:08] Speaker 1: seeing that there are already teams with three quarterbacks. Chances
[12:12] Speaker 1: are if I don't take one right here when one come.
[12:15] Speaker 1: When my pick is coming back, there is at least
[12:17] Speaker 1: a chance that I'm not going to have a legitimate
[12:20] Speaker 1: shot at a good quarterback here right now. I think
[12:23] Speaker 1: in hindsight and looking at it, I was probably both
[12:26] Speaker 1: right and wrong. Like it wasn't as extreme as it
[12:28] Speaker 1: could have been, but it wasn't you know, there was
[12:30] Speaker 1: like a Baker type quarterback that was available, and then
[12:32] Speaker 1: I did get CJ. Stroud. He fell a little bit
[12:35] Speaker 1: a couple of rounds later, But regardless, I think that's
[12:39] Speaker 1: one of the main reasons to me that rankings really
[12:42] Speaker 1: don't matter as much as you might think. In best ball,
[12:44] Speaker 1: you know, where you really have to be super reactive.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Rankings to me, are better are far more important and
[12:51] Speaker 1: logical in a season long league where you're not structurally drafting,
[12:55] Speaker 1: where you know the supply of certain positions literally does
[12:58] Speaker 1: not dry up, you know, like you're not drafting thirty
[13:01] Speaker 1: quarterbacks in your regular season long league, so you don't
[13:03] Speaker 1: have to worry about that wall happening at quarterback and
[13:06] Speaker 1: really straying away from what your rankings are saying and
[13:09] Speaker 1: tight end same deal, right just you're drafting way more
[13:12] Speaker 1: of those players in these drafts, and then you can't
[13:14] Speaker 1: use the waiver wire. Whereas if you're in your season
[13:16] Speaker 1: long league and you just screw up at quarterback and
[13:20] Speaker 1: you're like, oh man, I just completely brought the draft.
[13:21] Speaker 1: When it's round fifteen, not only could you maybe still
[13:24] Speaker 1: get like a Tyler Shuck this year, you know in
[13:26] Speaker 1: some leagues. But on top of that, it's okay you
[13:29] Speaker 1: can look at a week one matchup and see who
[13:33] Speaker 1: the Steelers are playing, or who the Jets are playing
[13:35] Speaker 1: or whomever, and maybe use a Rogers or g I
[13:38] Speaker 1: don't know the week one schedule enough right now and
[13:40] Speaker 1: say to yourself, I could use them in Week one
[13:43] Speaker 1: and I can start streaming. So this is the main
[13:45] Speaker 1: reason in my opinion, that you don't need to be
[13:48] Speaker 1: super strict with rankings and best ball.
[13:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot to impact there.
[13:52] Speaker 2: First, the direct example of linear rankings not being so
[13:56] Speaker 2: important is rock Perty was ranked ahead of Jackson Dart
[14:00] Speaker 2: when you made the Jackson Darks selection. But yes, a
[14:04] Speaker 2: yuk who knows off the board, pierce all off the board,
[14:08] Speaker 2: Kittle off the board. What's the point of taking a
[14:11] Speaker 2: naked rock party?
[14:13] Speaker 3: Right?
[14:14] Speaker 2: So that is one part where you're deviating from linear
[14:17] Speaker 2: rankings there and taking the naked quarterback who has more
[14:20] Speaker 2: stackable pieces that we can draft later, and then the
[14:23] Speaker 2: bow Nicks piece on top of everything. Of what you
[14:25] Speaker 2: said is, this is something you've talked about for such
[14:28] Speaker 2: a long time is opportunity cost.
[14:30] Speaker 3: And we know that while more important in bestball.
[14:33] Speaker 2: Because we can't take zeros, the opportunity cost of fifteen
[14:38] Speaker 2: selections in rounds nine to ten is not the same
[14:42] Speaker 2: as fifteen selections earlier in the draft. So taking some
[14:46] Speaker 2: flexworthy let's hope cross our fingers player at that spot
[14:50] Speaker 2: as opposed to getting a stackable quarterback with a wide receiver.
[14:53] Speaker 2: For that you made probably the most pivotal selection in
[14:57] Speaker 2: your draft. On right, you made a bet that Jalen
[14:59] Speaker 2: Waddle is going to have a good year. Stacking him
[15:01] Speaker 2: with that quarterback just makes sense in this game environment.
[15:06] Speaker 1: The Chat graded that draft between like seven to eight
[15:10] Speaker 1: and a half or so. I always have CHAT if
[15:11] Speaker 1: you guys haven't caught the live streams before, I always
[15:14] Speaker 1: have CHAT graded out of ten. Whatever my draft? Did
[15:17] Speaker 1: you know how I performed and what they think of
[15:19] Speaker 1: the draft? I thought it was like one of I
[15:22] Speaker 1: love that team. When I walked away, I didn't get crazy,
[15:25] Speaker 1: crazy ADP value throughout that draft, but I just like
[15:30] Speaker 1: the way that it was constructed. I like the individual
[15:32] Speaker 1: players that I drafted, and it came together in my
[15:35] Speaker 1: opinion from from the standpoint of like just general best
[15:38] Speaker 1: ball team construction, right, And and I think part of
[15:42] Speaker 1: that was my willingness to draft bo Nicks where I
[15:44] Speaker 1: drafted him. You know, I think we get really bogged
[15:47] Speaker 1: down and caught up in this idea that you have
[15:50] Speaker 1: to because it's true, like better CLV teams and better
[15:53] Speaker 1: teams that have good ADP value will perform better than
[15:58] Speaker 1: teams that don't, right, And so I think that we
[16:00] Speaker 1: get caught up in that sometimes and think that like
[16:02] Speaker 1: every single pick has to be a crazy ADP value.
[16:05] Speaker 1: But it goes back to the very first episode of
[16:07] Speaker 1: the show is maybe the second episode of this show
[16:10] Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, when Pat Krane was talking
[16:13] Speaker 1: about Joe Burrow versus Jalen Hurts. And there are times
[16:16] Speaker 1: where you take Burrow over Hurts when you have a
[16:19] Speaker 1: team that you are stacking Jamar Chase and T Higgins
[16:23] Speaker 1: right where you have to do what's best for your
[16:25] Speaker 1: individual team and pass up on that value. For instance,
[16:28] Speaker 1: when when I drafted Bo Nicks, Jayden Reid was still
[16:31] Speaker 1: on the board. I like Jayden Reid. I think that
[16:33] Speaker 1: he's a fun pick. You know, I'm not, like, like,
[16:35] Speaker 1: unbelievably overweight, but I certainly am investing in the Green
[16:39] Speaker 1: Bay offense, and I like Reid as a player, and
[16:42] Speaker 1: he was a value based on ADP at that pick.
[16:45] Speaker 1: But I knew what I needed to do for my
[16:47] Speaker 1: individual team. And when you look back on your draft,
[16:50] Speaker 1: you can say to yourself, oh man, because I knew
[16:52] Speaker 1: that Jordan Love was going to get drafted right like
[16:54] Speaker 1: I was gonna be able to get Jayden Reid and
[16:56] Speaker 1: then stack him because Jordan Love was because of the
[16:58] Speaker 1: way that quarterbacks were falling. And so if you do
[17:00] Speaker 1: what's best for your team, you know, obviously don't stray
[17:04] Speaker 1: too far away from ADP. That's not what I'm saying,
[17:06] Speaker 1: because you can get other ADP values elsewhere. If it's
[17:08] Speaker 1: one pick, it's not that big of a deal. I
[17:11] Speaker 1: made the comment on stream where a couple of rounds later,
[17:14] Speaker 1: because I got Isaiah Likely then in the tenth, I
[17:16] Speaker 1: had to had to reach a little bit for him,
[17:18] Speaker 1: and then in the eleventh I got Romeo Dobbs. I'm
[17:20] Speaker 1: not a big Romeo Dobs guy. It's just he's a
[17:23] Speaker 1: bringback for the Denver game right for Week seventeen, and
[17:26] Speaker 1: I had Remandre so I have like I like to
[17:29] Speaker 1: at least stack one Week seventeen game like heavily, even
[17:32] Speaker 1: if I just get one bring back for another game whatever.
[17:35] Speaker 1: But this one I got two New England Patriots. I
[17:37] Speaker 1: had multi think I had four Denver Broncos. In the end,
[17:40] Speaker 1: when I drafted Romeo Dobbs, my example was, okay, look,
[17:43] Speaker 1: I could have had Jaden Reid and then risked it
[17:45] Speaker 1: at quarterback in some way and not had Bo Nicks. Right.
[17:48] Speaker 1: The trade off then became, oh, I still got Romeo
[17:51] Speaker 1: Dobbs as my wide receiver five instead of Jayden Reid
[17:54] Speaker 1: as my wide receiver five. And straight up I like
[17:57] Speaker 1: Jayden Reid more than Romeo Dobbs. Don't get me wrong,
[17:59] Speaker 1: but in the in a best ball environment, okay, number one,
[18:04] Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs is a chance to just be better than
[18:06] Speaker 1: Jayden Reid this year. That's certainly in his range of outcomes.
[18:10] Speaker 1: I think that what would we put it out like
[18:12] Speaker 1: sixty forty, sixty five, thirty five something like that. Like
[18:15] Speaker 1: if that, I mean, some people are probably screaming saying, no,
[18:17] Speaker 1: Jaden Reid's a slot guy. He's not gonna be on
[18:19] Speaker 1: the field enough, right, and so just let's just say
[18:22] Speaker 1: it sixty five to thirty five. But in Best Ball,
[18:25] Speaker 1: you're also looking at when these spiked weeks are hypothetically
[18:30] Speaker 1: happening and the importance of when they happen, and for
[18:33] Speaker 1: that individual team, Romeo Dobbs straight up might even just
[18:36] Speaker 1: make more sense than Jayden Reid, like in a vacuum,
[18:39] Speaker 1: like without even factoring in cost. And so when you
[18:42] Speaker 1: put all of that together from a structural drafting standpoint,
[18:45] Speaker 1: it did make a lot of sense to get bo
[18:47] Speaker 1: Nix and start that stack and then get Romeo Dobbs
[18:49] Speaker 1: and kind of go from there. So overall, I'm very
[18:52] Speaker 1: happy with how that ended up working out. But I
[18:54] Speaker 1: think it just plays in this idea that rankings are
[18:56] Speaker 1: probably a little bit overrated in Best Ball.
[18:58] Speaker 2: And by the way I said Brandon, I I meant, obviously,
[19:01] Speaker 2: Mike Evans and you now have a four player game
[19:04] Speaker 2: stack as opposed to just jayde and Reid hanging out
[19:07] Speaker 2: by himself in my.
[19:08] Speaker 1: Right, although to be fair, technically I had Nico, so
[19:12] Speaker 1: there was a you know, you had, you had at
[19:14] Speaker 1: least a little mini one going on with with that.
[19:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, And the to your point about the quote unquote
[19:20] Speaker 2: reaching reaching, there would have been taking CJ. Shroud because
[19:24] Speaker 2: you took Nico earlier, right, Yeah, that would have been
[19:27] Speaker 2: a true reach.
[19:28] Speaker 1: Like I think with quarterback, if you are at risk,
[19:31] Speaker 1: if there is more than like a fifty percent chance
[19:33] Speaker 1: or even like thirty percent chance that that quarterback is
[19:36] Speaker 1: not going to make it back to you in your
[19:38] Speaker 1: next pick, then you can make the pick, you know,
[19:39] Speaker 1: Like that's that's sort of the way that I think that,
[19:42] Speaker 1: Whereas like with CJ. Stroud, there was about a ninety
[19:46] Speaker 1: ninety five percent chance he was going to make it back,
[19:48] Speaker 1: and he made it back plus some because I didn't
[19:50] Speaker 1: even take him the next two picks, and then I
[19:51] Speaker 1: got him the next one for my for my third quarterback.
[19:53] Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought that that example, you know, played
[19:56] Speaker 1: into the rankings discussion, and it is also a way
[19:59] Speaker 1: for me to say, hey, guys, go to late round
[20:01] Speaker 1: dot com and check out the rankings. You know, Well, anyway,
[20:04] Speaker 1: we have a guest today Nez Nez takes on Twitter
[20:08] Speaker 1: part of the Badge Bros. He's a big beast ball player.
[20:10] Speaker 1: He's also a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, so you know he's
[20:13] Speaker 1: a He's a man after my heart. We are struggling
[20:15] Speaker 1: these days as Pirate fans. It is not the easiest
[20:18] Speaker 1: way to live. It's one of the worst bullpens I've
[20:20] Speaker 1: ever seen in my life, But I digress. I had
[20:22] Speaker 1: a great conversation with Nez. We talked about his most
[20:26] Speaker 1: common builds on DraftKings this year, early round fades that
[20:30] Speaker 1: he's had. He has a really really fun take that
[20:32] Speaker 1: I agree with injured players and how he kind of
[20:34] Speaker 1: attacks injured players, and so much more so, without further ado,
[20:38] Speaker 1: here is my conversation with nets. All right, as my
[20:58] Speaker 1: first question for you, what's been the most common build
[21:01] Speaker 1: for you this year over on draftings.
[21:04] Speaker 4: Yeah, right now, it's been. And this kind of hurts
[21:07] Speaker 4: me because I am like a contrarian by nature, but
[21:09] Speaker 4: I am doing a lot of hyperfragile, the four to
[21:11] Speaker 4: five running back builds right now. It just makes so
[21:14] Speaker 4: much sense in the current meta to do that, and
[21:17] Speaker 4: especially on DraftKings. A PPR website where you can really
[21:21] Speaker 4: just backfill those wide receiver spots with volume and just
[21:25] Speaker 4: you know, get lucky catch one of these guys on
[21:28] Speaker 4: a game where they catch a touchdown. It just makes
[21:30] Speaker 4: so much more sense in taking bets on those late
[21:33] Speaker 4: round running backs that really need contingency value to pay
[21:36] Speaker 4: off for the most part. I mean, maybe some of
[21:38] Speaker 4: these guys have their own standalone role that we haven't
[21:41] Speaker 4: really seen yet. You know, there's some rookies, there's Marshaun
[21:43] Speaker 4: Lloyd back there. But really really feel more comfortable drafting
[21:47] Speaker 4: the wide receivers late and tight ends late as a
[21:50] Speaker 4: post to the running backs. But I would love for
[21:53] Speaker 4: it to be a zero RB year because everybody's convinced
[21:56] Speaker 4: that it's not. It's just pretty hard to do so
[22:00] Speaker 4: right now. But I'm still trying. I'm still trying.
[22:02] Speaker 1: That's how I feel, too, Like I'm still throwing out
[22:04] Speaker 1: some zero RB teams because I don't want to miss it.
[22:07] Speaker 1: If because like, realistically, I've been doing a lot of
[22:09] Speaker 1: research for my draft guide. The last two years at
[22:12] Speaker 1: running back have been sort of the most predictive years
[22:15] Speaker 1: that we've seen at the position over the last like
[22:18] Speaker 1: like fifteen years. Like it's been very very strong, whether
[22:21] Speaker 1: that's due to injury, but I also think like the
[22:23] Speaker 1: NFL meta is playing into that a little bit with
[22:25] Speaker 1: just it being more run because it also been the
[22:26] Speaker 1: most run heavy years over that timeframe as well, which
[22:30] Speaker 1: kind of like allows for yes, like there might not
[22:33] Speaker 1: be as much target share going to running backs because
[22:35] Speaker 1: it's feeding into tight ends, but they at least are
[22:37] Speaker 1: seeing more work on the ground to kind of combat that,
[22:39] Speaker 1: whereas wide receiver they're just not, and so you get
[22:42] Speaker 1: sort of like a flatness at wide receiver. And so yeah,
[22:45] Speaker 1: I mean I'm in the same boat where like it
[22:48] Speaker 1: just you feel so uncomfortable this year more than ever
[22:51] Speaker 1: going zero RB. And I think maybe the market's a
[22:54] Speaker 1: little bit sharper too. Have you have you noticed that?
[22:56] Speaker 1: Do you think that the running back market is slightly
[22:59] Speaker 1: sharper with the player takes that we're seeing out there,
[23:02] Speaker 1: And just like you know, like a backfield where you
[23:05] Speaker 1: have like a Remandre in Travion, like two guys that
[23:07] Speaker 1: are middle round picks, it feels like a Remandre historically
[23:10] Speaker 1: might have been ahead of where Travion's going, but it's
[23:13] Speaker 1: just not happening this year.
[23:14] Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, I think you absolutely have to admit
[23:17] Speaker 4: that the field is getting sharper, you know, as best
[23:19] Speaker 4: ball goes on. You are clearly seeing adaptations to the
[23:23] Speaker 4: draft boards right now, and the running backs are a
[23:27] Speaker 4: prime example of it. I think guys are very appropriately
[23:29] Speaker 4: priced in terms of roles that they have or have
[23:33] Speaker 4: had in recent memory, plus factoring in how many high
[23:37] Speaker 4: value touches a guy has in an offense and baking
[23:41] Speaker 4: in that uncertainty of the situation, like very appropriately in
[23:45] Speaker 4: my opinion, Like that late second round just loaded with
[23:48] Speaker 4: running backs that all have like different forms of upside
[23:51] Speaker 4: in terms of touchdown equity versus their role, especially as
[23:53] Speaker 4: a pass catcher. On on DraftKings as well, I think
[23:56] Speaker 4: the field's gotten pretty sharp at identifying who the strong
[24:00] Speaker 4: running backs are and how to how to value them appropriately,
[24:03] Speaker 4: like across across the board, and it.
[24:05] Speaker 1: Feels like like do you have a I mean, I'm
[24:08] Speaker 1: sure you have like some like favorites in like the
[24:11] Speaker 1: you know, round nine to eleven to twelve, whatever the
[24:14] Speaker 1: case may be. You know, like we'll just dub them
[24:16] Speaker 1: like later ish type picks. But at the same time,
[24:19] Speaker 1: does it not feel like once those like year two
[24:22] Speaker 1: guys are off the board, especially in like round five,
[24:25] Speaker 1: you know, like the Tutons, the Travions, if you want
[24:28] Speaker 1: to throw them in there. Though I've I've personally been
[24:29] Speaker 1: drafting more Remondra than Travion, But like those types of players,
[24:33] Speaker 1: it feels like there's just a big, like drop in
[24:36] Speaker 1: projected product production after those guys. Do you feel that too?
[24:39] Speaker 4: One hundred percent? Like you are you are buying points for,
[24:43] Speaker 4: like you're able to buy points at those pitches, you know,
[24:47] Speaker 4: not like I came up with that term myself, but
[24:48] Speaker 4: that's how I that's how I think of it. Right
[24:50] Speaker 4: when I'm drafting running backs in that range, I know
[24:52] Speaker 4: I'm going to get some points from those running backs
[24:54] Speaker 4: once you get past And like Alvin Kamara is like
[24:56] Speaker 4: shooting up draft boards right now, which like I would
[24:59] Speaker 4: agree with. That does sound like he's going to have
[25:01] Speaker 4: a good role in that offense, which would be great
[25:03] Speaker 4: for a PPR as soon as you get past him,
[25:06] Speaker 4: like in around like fourteen on. At that point, you're
[25:08] Speaker 4: just like buying hope and the hope that like these
[25:11] Speaker 4: guys have something that happens to their to their running
[25:15] Speaker 4: mate that allows them to ascend to RB one status
[25:18] Speaker 4: and there are some decent bets there, some that are
[25:20] Speaker 4: certainly better than others that can I think have that
[25:23] Speaker 4: I have the confidence in them assuming that strong RB
[25:25] Speaker 4: one role if that situation takes place. But at that
[25:28] Speaker 4: point though, like, yeah, these guys are not guaranteed to
[25:31] Speaker 4: score points, and for me that that that means something, right,
[25:35] Speaker 4: I think there's definitely something to that where you know,
[25:38] Speaker 4: the probabilities are not in your favor for those guys
[25:40] Speaker 4: to hit, but we are well aware of the upside
[25:43] Speaker 4: if that does take place.
[25:44] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, One, if we're looking at the early rounds,
[25:48] Speaker 1: do you have any guys that you've been generally fading
[25:50] Speaker 1: this year or are you sort of like spreading out exposure,
[25:54] Speaker 1: Like I guess you could also talk about how you've
[25:55] Speaker 1: approached that historically, because I think a lot of people
[25:57] Speaker 1: are always curious about, like, you know, do you want
[26:00] Speaker 1: that four percent blanket for everybody you know in the
[26:02] Speaker 1: first couple of rounds because it's it's a more comfortable
[26:04] Speaker 1: way to sort of approach things.
[26:06] Speaker 4: Yeah. No, I've always taken a pretty strong stance in
[26:09] Speaker 4: the first two rounds of drafts. Last year just to
[26:12] Speaker 4: kind of toot my own horn, pat In my back here.
[26:14] Speaker 4: I faded Brian Thomas Junior pretty heavily. I faded Bucky
[26:17] Speaker 4: Irving pretty heavily in favor of guys like Derrick Henry
[26:20] Speaker 4: and Jonathan Taylor. Just thinking like, wow, these guys have
[26:23] Speaker 4: like really really strong profiles is running backs, and I
[26:25] Speaker 4: can I can build out teams that I think give
[26:28] Speaker 4: me better expected value than if I you know, it
[26:30] Speaker 4: took some of these other some of these other risks.
[26:32] Speaker 4: This year, I'm doing the same thing. I'm taking some
[26:35] Speaker 4: some some fades here. The two fhades that that are
[26:39] Speaker 4: the strongest for me, and I think this might come
[26:40] Speaker 4: off as spicy is Jonathan Taylor and uh In Saquon
[26:44] Speaker 4: Barkley this year. These guys, to me, I think have
[26:48] Speaker 4: some some concerns, different concerns for each Quon. For me,
[26:53] Speaker 4: the concern is, is that explosiveness still there that we
[26:55] Speaker 4: saw two years ago that really just did not show
[26:58] Speaker 4: itself last year. Can we fully put that on the
[27:00] Speaker 4: on the old o C. I'm not entirely convinced, on
[27:03] Speaker 4: top of the fact that he's going to lose a
[27:05] Speaker 4: lot of these goal line touchdowns, that that is so
[27:08] Speaker 4: massive that like him compared to Derrick Henry, Derek Henry's
[27:11] Speaker 4: getting that rock sat Klon's not man and that that,
[27:14] Speaker 4: to me, really really hurts the ceiling there. And the
[27:17] Speaker 4: JT Bear case for me is just are we one
[27:21] Speaker 4: certain that Daniel Jones can not only come back at
[27:24] Speaker 4: full health but do what he did last year. I've
[27:27] Speaker 4: been a Daniel Jones defender. I thought that he had
[27:30] Speaker 4: some some pretty good seasons in New York, but the
[27:34] Speaker 4: truth of the matter is that he's pretty inconsistent and
[27:37] Speaker 4: if he can't, if you can't do what he did
[27:39] Speaker 4: last year, it's a cascading effect on that offense. And
[27:43] Speaker 4: it starts with Jonathan Taylor's ability to be who he
[27:45] Speaker 4: was last year, even though he has obviously such amazing
[27:48] Speaker 4: skill and can break long runs even no matter who's
[27:51] Speaker 4: at quarterback. But Daniel it's hard to deny that Daniel
[27:53] Speaker 4: Jones was a big reason why he was so successful
[27:56] Speaker 4: last year.
[27:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I agree. I mean you can even
[27:58] Speaker 1: look at the splits right after Jones went down and
[28:01] Speaker 1: it was just disasters. I mean, everyone who had Jonathan Taylor,
[28:03] Speaker 1: they were like, oh, I got the league winner, and
[28:05] Speaker 1: then it just it just went to the crapper because
[28:07] Speaker 1: the offense just just was horrible, right, And that's I
[28:12] Speaker 1: definitely more so for me with the tailor take that
[28:14] Speaker 1: the Saquon take. I've still been taking Saquon not I'm
[28:18] Speaker 1: not overexposed, but like still drafting him. But the the
[28:22] Speaker 1: the difference too is that like there's a difference in costs,
[28:24] Speaker 1: Like even though like four or five picks is significant
[28:28] Speaker 1: because with Jonathan Taylor, I think Amana only just started
[28:32] Speaker 1: to officially go ahead of him in ADP and to me,
[28:35] Speaker 1: like Saint Brown, I'm taking him over over Jonathan Taylor
[28:38] Speaker 1: all day, just based on what his floor ceiling combo
[28:42] Speaker 1: looks like. And I mean he just also just projects
[28:44] Speaker 1: really well Amana Saint Brown does. But the JT stuff,
[28:48] Speaker 1: it's hard for me to really see a significant gap
[28:51] Speaker 1: in projection from him to the bottom of that round
[28:53] Speaker 1: two tier with with some of those like Derrick Henry,
[28:56] Speaker 1: Let's say, right, like, is there is there truly? Truly? Yeah,
[29:00] Speaker 1: j T will probably catch a few more passes and
[29:02] Speaker 1: and and be you know, more of a plus in
[29:04] Speaker 1: the in the passing game. And yes, you know there's
[29:06] Speaker 1: there's less competition for him on that team, but like
[29:09] Speaker 1: realistically we know Derek Henry is in the better environment,
[29:12] Speaker 1: like locked in better environment. You know, like you said,
[29:14] Speaker 1: you had to, you have to you have to play
[29:16] Speaker 1: into this Daniel Jones thing a little bit to really
[29:18] Speaker 1: buy into Jonathan Taylor. And so to me, it's like
[29:20] Speaker 1: that tier almost starts to begin with Jonathan Taylor, and
[29:23] Speaker 1: you just don't want to be drafting at the top
[29:25] Speaker 1: of that tier in the.
[29:26] Speaker 4: End one hundred percent. That's really where I'm at, is
[29:29] Speaker 4: like he is sneaky in that tier, and because there's
[29:31] Speaker 4: a gap between him and the next RB and that range,
[29:34] Speaker 4: it feels like he's not and it feels like you're
[29:36] Speaker 4: supposed to take Jonathan Taylor, but in reality, the projections
[29:39] Speaker 4: are not that different. And I think that's where stands
[29:41] Speaker 4: can really come into play. It's risky, but at the
[29:44] Speaker 4: end of the day, like if you're if you're playing
[29:46] Speaker 4: DFS and you have a guy that is more expensive
[29:50] Speaker 4: but projects the same as a guy that is cheaper
[29:52] Speaker 4: in cost, You're probably gonna take the guy that's cheaper
[29:54] Speaker 4: in cost exactly. So you can really make some outside bets,
[29:58] Speaker 4: outsized bets, in bets small using those those principles and
[30:02] Speaker 4: and that that's what I like to do. I like
[30:03] Speaker 4: to take some risks and flesh things through like that.
[30:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes a ton of sense. The other sort
[30:08] Speaker 1: of like pocket. You know, we kind of talked about
[30:10] Speaker 1: those running backs in that area. The other one of
[30:12] Speaker 1: the interesting pockets for me this year. And I'd love
[30:15] Speaker 1: to hear your take if you agree or not. But
[30:17] Speaker 1: is that like late third you know, through the fourth
[30:20] Speaker 1: round into the into the early fifth at wide receiver,
[30:22] Speaker 1: there's just so many interesting upside profiles there in my opinion,
[30:27] Speaker 1: you know, I've been throwing a lot of darts in there.
[30:28] Speaker 1: So my first question about this pocket is are you
[30:31] Speaker 1: attacking wide outs there? And then if you are, which
[30:34] Speaker 1: wideouts you're sort of gravitating towards?
[30:37] Speaker 4: Yeah, one hundred percent I am in this range especially,
[30:41] Speaker 4: you know, if you're talking about the three four turn,
[30:44] Speaker 4: that's you know that that's where that pocket of running
[30:46] Speaker 4: backs is. So I'm almost certainly making up for a
[30:48] Speaker 4: wide receiver in that range. My my favorites right now
[30:52] Speaker 4: as like like Rashid Rice used to be in that range.
[30:56] Speaker 4: I was just a gift, but that that's that's that's
[30:58] Speaker 4: long gone. But my two favorites in that range right
[31:02] Speaker 4: now are Jay Flowers and T Higgins. I was never
[31:05] Speaker 4: much of a Zay Flowers guy. Last year, the efficiency
[31:09] Speaker 4: just shot up like crazy, and I really don't see
[31:12] Speaker 4: how that changes much this year. I don't think the
[31:14] Speaker 4: target competition around him is very strong, and I think
[31:16] Speaker 4: Lamar Jackson's play style has changed, like in Jay flowers
[31:20] Speaker 4: favor as well, where he's not running as much and
[31:23] Speaker 4: Zay Flowers has been tremendous, and I think that that
[31:27] Speaker 4: target share really has nowhere to go but up if
[31:31] Speaker 4: not sustained, and if it does sustain, then he pays
[31:33] Speaker 4: off price as well. I've just been really impressed with
[31:35] Speaker 4: him as a pass catcher, so taking taking some Zay
[31:37] Speaker 4: Flowers and then T Higgins, I'm so in on this
[31:41] Speaker 4: Bengals offense, which does hurt me to say as a
[31:44] Speaker 4: Steelers fan. I think that T Higgins is just borderline, obnestly,
[31:49] Speaker 4: straight up underrated as a pass catcher because we look
[31:51] Speaker 4: at the box scores, we look at the historicals and
[31:54] Speaker 4: were zoomed out big time, and we see the year
[31:57] Speaker 4: the yearly results for te Higgins and you know, wow,
[32:00] Speaker 4: he doesn't have a thousand yards in the last two
[32:02] Speaker 4: seasons and you know already. You know he's just getting
[32:04] Speaker 4: mogged by Jamar Chase. But when that team is healthy
[32:08] Speaker 4: and clicking, T Higgins has one of the best ceilings, yeah,
[32:11] Speaker 4: point blank period week to week, uh for for any
[32:15] Speaker 4: wide receiver. And if they can finally click, there's just
[32:18] Speaker 4: always something going on with that Bengals. Either T Higgins
[32:20] Speaker 4: is hurt or Joe Burrow gets hurt. If that offense
[32:23] Speaker 4: clicks and stays healthy, they are going to be a
[32:25] Speaker 4: wrecking machine. And T Higgins I think has upside for
[32:29] Speaker 4: like that Devonte Adams type of season last year where
[32:31] Speaker 4: he's just touchdown after touchdown after touchdown, and that's something
[32:34] Speaker 4: that I want to part of.
[32:35] Speaker 1: Doesn't it feel like people don't give T Higgins the
[32:38] Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt for contingent upside as well, Like
[32:41] Speaker 1: it's like there's like there's like never discussion about like
[32:44] Speaker 1: T Higgins would would be seeing twenty six twenty seven
[32:47] Speaker 1: percent of the team's targets if Jamar Chase went down
[32:49] Speaker 1: if not more right, and like there's there's really nice
[32:51] Speaker 1: contingent upside there too. And then the Zay Flowers thing.
[32:54] Speaker 1: I think at this point, given the way that round
[32:57] Speaker 1: that early round three looks because like early round three
[33:00] Speaker 1: to me is not that much different than like early
[33:02] Speaker 1: round four at that point, right, And so like, I
[33:05] Speaker 1: I think that you can, especially like if we get
[33:07] Speaker 1: late in the season and I want to hear if
[33:09] Speaker 1: this is the right game theory as me being a
[33:12] Speaker 1: you know, an ascending best ball bro. Sure we can't
[33:14] Speaker 1: say that I am officially necessarily, but like from a
[33:17] Speaker 1: game theory perspective, for me, it feels like, maybe don't
[33:20] Speaker 1: do it now, because you know the millie. You know,
[33:22] Speaker 1: obviously we got a month and a half until like
[33:25] Speaker 1: things are really closed and settled. But if we get
[33:27] Speaker 1: into August and Zay Flowers is still comfortably almost every
[33:31] Speaker 1: draft going late third or mid to late third, it
[33:34] Speaker 1: feels like he would be the kind of player to
[33:37] Speaker 1: take in the early third to differentiate your lineup a
[33:40] Speaker 1: little bit, because there really isn't that dramatic of a
[33:42] Speaker 1: gap in my opinion between him and I mean, look,
[33:45] Speaker 1: I published market score New Metric for late round and
[33:49] Speaker 1: one of his top comps is JSNS twenty twenty five,
[33:52] Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm like, I don't want to miss
[33:54] Speaker 1: out on this. I wasn't in on ZA last year.
[33:57] Speaker 1: You know, it's so similar to you. And like, I
[33:59] Speaker 1: do think that like the way that people look at
[34:00] Speaker 1: his end of season numbers maybe a little bit skewed
[34:03] Speaker 1: just because it happened late when we weren't even using him.
[34:06] Speaker 1: I think it was like a week eighteen game where
[34:08] Speaker 1: he like went bonkers. But obviously, you know, the Lamar
[34:10] Speaker 1: Jackson injury happened, and you know he's been more of
[34:13] Speaker 1: that like floor play than ceiling play. But we've seen
[34:15] Speaker 1: the ceiling and there's a new offensive coordinating. There's all
[34:17] Speaker 1: these like factors where you can tell a story of
[34:20] Speaker 1: him like having a pretty six season, and in my opinion,
[34:24] Speaker 1: in that early third if he does stay back right
[34:27] Speaker 1: in that into that in that late third range, and
[34:30] Speaker 1: then we get into August and he's still there, that's
[34:32] Speaker 1: a way to differentiate your builds to say, oh, I'm
[34:35] Speaker 1: getting Dereck Henry at the two ten, I can I
[34:38] Speaker 1: can stack that and then even even get Lamar then
[34:41] Speaker 1: I mean Lamargo's late fifth often, which is crazy. Yeah,
[34:44] Speaker 1: so you can get him in the early fifties easily
[34:46] Speaker 1: and just stack the entire team.
[34:47] Speaker 4: Yeah No, No, You're spot on, And I think people hear
[34:50] Speaker 4: what you're saying and think about beating the field in
[34:53] Speaker 4: that regard, like, oh, like I'm having I'm gonna have
[34:55] Speaker 4: unique Gibbs and Bijon combos. And while that's true, I
[34:59] Speaker 4: think it's more so important for like a personal portfolio standpoint,
[35:01] Speaker 4: that you don't want all of your best premium picks
[35:04] Speaker 4: to be paired with the same players over and over
[35:06] Speaker 4: and over. And if we think that projection, if you
[35:08] Speaker 4: think that projection is flat for those wide receivers, you
[35:10] Speaker 4: should absolutely pull him up. I've done that, I've already done,
[35:13] Speaker 4: I've already begun doing stuff like that with with Zay Flowers. Yeah,
[35:17] Speaker 4: he's just so set up to smash. I love the
[35:19] Speaker 4: JSN comp for the market score just because he has
[35:22] Speaker 4: such an outsized like shot of just dominating targets in
[35:26] Speaker 4: that offense. There's there's very little threat to him as
[35:29] Speaker 4: a pass catcher.
[35:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. And then in that range
[35:33] Speaker 1: though too. This is where I've struggled a lot, because
[35:36] Speaker 1: I really like look, I like Luther Burden, I like
[35:40] Speaker 1: I'll take some swings at Colston Loveland at times. I
[35:42] Speaker 1: really like Jalen Wattle and Terry McLaurin, like there's so
[35:45] Speaker 1: many good white and like the the market Score stuff
[35:49] Speaker 1: loves Heetero McMillan. I'm still a little bit worried about
[35:51] Speaker 1: like situation and stuff like that, but like, I don't
[35:53] Speaker 1: want to completely ignore what market Score is saying about him.
[35:56] Speaker 1: But there's so many talented wide receivers in that range.
[35:58] Speaker 1: And what I noted from a port folio standpoint is
[36:01] Speaker 1: that now it just naturally fades the running backs there,
[36:04] Speaker 1: the Traves Etns, the Javonte Williams, Cam Skataboo. So how
[36:08] Speaker 1: are you handling that? Like, how are you handling those guys?
[36:11] Speaker 1: Are you just like if you're going heavy wide receiver there,
[36:14] Speaker 1: are you just comfortable with being underweight on those running
[36:16] Speaker 1: backs or are you still attacking those running backs?
[36:18] Speaker 4: I am quite comfortable fading Etn and Javonte Williams. I
[36:23] Speaker 4: think there's big systemic risk in New Orleans. And I
[36:26] Speaker 4: say that as somebody that really came around on Tyler
[36:29] Speaker 4: Shuck and think that he is good. But I am
[36:33] Speaker 4: well aware of the outcomes that he might have tricked
[36:35] Speaker 4: me and he might not actually be good. And yeah,
[36:39] Speaker 4: and what if Jordan Tyson can't stay healthy? What if
[36:41] Speaker 4: Chris Olave like has another like there's a lot of
[36:44] Speaker 4: fragility in that offense that I think would really cascade
[36:47] Speaker 4: and have pretty strong effects. On top of the fact
[36:49] Speaker 4: that Alvin Kamara is likely to stay and take that
[36:51] Speaker 4: pass catching role from Etn. That was what made him
[36:53] Speaker 4: so so valuable last year. And is Etn. I mean,
[36:57] Speaker 4: he's he's fine, but is he a slammed where as
[37:01] Speaker 4: like some of these wide receivers are to me, to me,
[37:03] Speaker 4: no and Javonte. Shout out to Javonte last year really
[37:06] Speaker 4: made me look like a fool. Had to draft Miles
[37:08] Speaker 4: Sanders couldn't draft Davonte. I'm not drafting Javonte again at
[37:12] Speaker 4: these prices. He you know, he signed a big contract,
[37:16] Speaker 4: but he needed such a large workload in my opinion,
[37:19] Speaker 4: to pay off, and I don't know necessarily that that
[37:22] Speaker 4: is sustainable for him this You know, he's been injured
[37:25] Speaker 4: a lot in his career. So I'm totally fine with
[37:27] Speaker 4: fading Javonte. There could be some other running backs emerging
[37:30] Speaker 4: in that offense as well, But camp Scattaboo I not fading, sir.
[37:34] Speaker 4: Absolutely no shot in my fading camp Scataboo. And it's
[37:39] Speaker 4: not one hundred percent because of the back flip. But
[37:41] Speaker 4: the backflip did a lot for me. The backup did
[37:44] Speaker 4: a lot for me. That is a lot of force
[37:45] Speaker 4: on that leg, And yeah, that was really all I
[37:48] Speaker 4: needed to see. I don't think there's an outside bet
[37:51] Speaker 4: like camp Scattaboo in that range, Like David Montgomery, I
[37:55] Speaker 4: don't think has camp Scattaboo upside. Josh Jacobs does not
[37:59] Speaker 4: have camp Scattaboo up side. He has such the perfect
[38:02] Speaker 4: blend of high value touches that he can just dominate fantasy. Yeah.
[38:06] Speaker 4: He can catch, he can get eighty targets, he can
[38:10] Speaker 4: run for ten touchdowns. That is such a ridiculous profile
[38:13] Speaker 4: that if he wasn't injured, we're taking Kem Scattaba in
[38:16] Speaker 4: the second round. And I feel like uber confident in that.
[38:19] Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree that that is the one. And
[38:21] Speaker 1: not only that, he just checks a lot of like
[38:23] Speaker 1: the market trend boxes that I've studied, you know, historically,
[38:26] Speaker 1: of guys who smash ADP and do really well against
[38:29] Speaker 1: ADP expectation, and like year two backs in general are
[38:33] Speaker 1: really good bets, right, And then he's got a great
[38:35] Speaker 1: pass catching profile, And that's the thing that I think
[38:38] Speaker 1: people don't fully understand about him. Is that, like even
[38:40] Speaker 1: him as a prospect coming out, Like the problem for
[38:43] Speaker 1: him was, you know, does he have the burst? Does
[38:46] Speaker 1: he have the long speed to be able to generate
[38:48] Speaker 1: big plays? The answer to that is actually no, Like
[38:51] Speaker 1: he didn't even show that last year, right, But it
[38:53] Speaker 1: didn't matter. Like if he can gain you know, five
[38:56] Speaker 1: to six yards and get these like, you know, ten
[38:58] Speaker 1: yard chunks every now and again, that's fine. And then
[39:01] Speaker 1: also like Tyrone Tracy being back there, and I was
[39:04] Speaker 1: a Tracy Truther when he came out, but I have
[39:06] Speaker 1: to be honest, like he has not been an efficient
[39:08] Speaker 1: pass catcher at the NFL level, right, And so there's
[39:10] Speaker 1: a very real chance like Scattaboo, like you said, is
[39:12] Speaker 1: taking those high value touches, and I've been clicking his
[39:15] Speaker 1: he is the one running back, even because I've mostly
[39:17] Speaker 1: faded David Montgomery too, Like I find I find David
[39:21] Speaker 1: Montgomery and Javonte Williams to be kind of traditional dead
[39:25] Speaker 1: zone backs if we were to reference like what that
[39:28] Speaker 1: you know, the dead zone is kind of just an
[39:29] Speaker 1: archetype zone at the end of the day. But but
[39:31] Speaker 1: like they're the guys that you're buying into just based
[39:34] Speaker 1: on projected volume. Like it's not like Javonte Williams wasn't
[39:38] Speaker 1: just bad as a receiver last year. He was horrific,
[39:41] Speaker 1: you know, like like like so so bad. And it
[39:45] Speaker 1: scares me that they're already you know, I'm not saying
[39:48] Speaker 1: that Jayden Blue himself is going to be standalone value
[39:51] Speaker 1: type guy, but I do think that he could play
[39:53] Speaker 1: a Justice Hill type role on that team. And if
[39:55] Speaker 1: that's the case, that lowers Javonte Williams ceiling, and then
[39:58] Speaker 1: all of a sudden, on a full PPR site, you're
[40:01] Speaker 1: also you're not getting as much of that receiving work.
[40:04] Speaker 1: But then you're also just banging banking on touchdowns and
[40:07] Speaker 1: banking on him having another you know, like like like
[40:10] Speaker 1: at his price, you would need probably like realistically, like
[40:13] Speaker 1: a twelve thirteen touchdown season, I think for him to
[40:15] Speaker 1: really pay off.
[40:16] Speaker 4: Exactly you are, he's being drafted very close to a
[40:19] Speaker 4: ceiling in terms of the workload that he needs to receive,
[40:22] Speaker 4: and I just don't think he has the skill to
[40:24] Speaker 4: absolutely like command that workload. He needs things to happen
[40:29] Speaker 4: to his run. Like Jayden Blue just has to be atrocious,
[40:31] Speaker 4: like you was last year to do that. But Jayden
[40:34] Speaker 4: Blue year two guy, you know, maybe he's got you know,
[40:37] Speaker 4: a little more maturity about him another year in the building. Yeah,
[40:40] Speaker 4: I just don't like the javontept.
[40:41] Speaker 1: And I also like we sit here in late June
[40:45] Speaker 1: and we are talking about Jaden Blue in that way, right,
[40:48] Speaker 1: and like we we sit here and world and like
[40:50] Speaker 1: there's definitely tons of people listening to this right now
[40:53] Speaker 1: that are saying, you're You're really not going to draft
[40:55] Speaker 1: Jvonte Williams because of Jayden Blue?
[40:57] Speaker 4: Are you really? Yeah?
[40:57] Speaker 1: We guys like like historically this is the game, Like
[41:01] Speaker 1: it's a lot easier to make the case with like
[41:02] Speaker 1: David Montgomery because what he marks at least showed us
[41:04] Speaker 1: something last year at least, I mean, he wasn't like phenomenal,
[41:07] Speaker 1: but he at least like was able to command some
[41:09] Speaker 1: volume and do something right as a rookie. And I
[41:12] Speaker 1: understand that you look at like the Dallas Cowboys depth
[41:14] Speaker 1: chart and you're like, well, what could change, Like what
[41:16] Speaker 1: could go wrong? Well, number one, we'll see what happens
[41:18] Speaker 1: with any sort of guys that gets cut or if
[41:20] Speaker 1: they want to make a move or something like that.
[41:22] Speaker 1: But also this is exactly what gets you into a
[41:25] Speaker 1: trap often with these running backs, is that you're going
[41:28] Speaker 1: off a projected VAU and of course some of them
[41:30] Speaker 1: could hit, like Gavante Williams might hit. I'm not saying
[41:32] Speaker 1: that it's it's guaranteed, right, but like that's the kind
[41:36] Speaker 1: of player that generally, you know, seven times out of ten,
[41:39] Speaker 1: if you want to play probability will will burn you,
[41:42] Speaker 1: you know, because you're getting them off. I feel that way.
[41:46] Speaker 1: I probably have drafted more Javante actually than Travis Etn.
[41:49] Speaker 1: I'm being honest, which is kind of wild, because I
[41:52] Speaker 1: think that the ETN Bowl case is a little bit
[41:54] Speaker 1: easier to make. But the thing that has gotten me
[41:57] Speaker 1: is is Alvin Kamara. Like if he's there, he's he's
[42:01] Speaker 1: not gonna do nothing. And I just I think ETN
[42:04] Speaker 1: belongs like a round later. I think Javonte belongs like
[42:06] Speaker 1: a round later than where they're they're being drafted right now.
[42:09] Speaker 1: And those wide receivers just make it so much easier
[42:11] Speaker 1: to to take the wide outs.
[42:12] Speaker 4: You know. Yeah, yeah, very well said.
[42:16] Speaker 1: All right, so we have Skataboo, who you're into right
[42:20] Speaker 1: coming off that that pretty rough injury. Quinnchot Judkins is
[42:23] Speaker 1: also coming off of an injury, and we could even
[42:26] Speaker 1: throw let's throw Molik Neighbors in there as well as
[42:28] Speaker 1: just this general like, how do you approach injuries? Is
[42:32] Speaker 1: it a blanket thing that you sort of go by
[42:34] Speaker 1: and you say, I'm not drafting these dudes because I
[42:36] Speaker 1: don't want to deal with their them being banged up
[42:38] Speaker 1: and I know, or is it just just case by
[42:40] Speaker 1: case with these dudes.
[42:41] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's case by case for sure. It's because
[42:44] Speaker 4: of how different the situations are, Like Milik Neighbors is
[42:47] Speaker 4: such a its own thing and its own beasts, and
[42:50] Speaker 4: I'm not drafting Melik Neighbors. I am of the belief
[42:53] Speaker 4: that he will end up on pupp and miss the
[42:55] Speaker 4: first four games of the season, and if we get
[42:58] Speaker 4: depending on when we get that news, I will take
[43:00] Speaker 4: the discounted shares when that news hits because it will
[43:02] Speaker 4: definitely affect the price. And if I'm wrong, all right,
[43:05] Speaker 4: I'm wrong on Milik Neighbors and he looks good in
[43:08] Speaker 4: camp or or is not going to open up on pop.
[43:11] Speaker 4: You know, the rosiest scenario you can paint about Melik Neighbors,
[43:15] Speaker 4: how high does he rise yet?
[43:17] Speaker 1: I've thought that too. Yeah. Also, also, doesn't it feel
[43:21] Speaker 1: like the wide outs that you would be taking where
[43:23] Speaker 1: he's going right now could easily just be eighty percent
[43:25] Speaker 1: ninety percent of what Molae Neighbors would generate anyway.
[43:29] Speaker 4: I mean, Milie Neighbors. We love him as a talent.
[43:31] Speaker 4: There's a lot going on here that is scary. Yeah,
[43:34] Speaker 4: it could take a while to come on, and maybe
[43:35] Speaker 4: he goes OBJ mode when he comes back and we're
[43:37] Speaker 4: he's like a right here we go. But now I
[43:40] Speaker 4: am I'm waiting to take those to take those bites
[43:42] Speaker 4: at Neighbors. But Judkins, I'm not so worried about the injury.
[43:45] Speaker 4: It's just Wow, this offense and this team could be
[43:49] Speaker 4: very bad. This is somebody that I think thrives on
[43:51] Speaker 4: positive game script because he has Samson in the backfield
[43:54] Speaker 4: that's doing that pass catching work. Could they surprise us?
[43:57] Speaker 4: Could you know, Watson have a good season with these
[44:00] Speaker 4: pass catchers like around him and he's you know, at
[44:03] Speaker 4: least competent enough that they can score touchdowns? I suppose,
[44:07] Speaker 4: you know, maybe any quarterback in that back could do that.
[44:11] Speaker 4: But I have a lot of trouble taking Judkins over
[44:14] Speaker 4: somebody like Tootin, somebody like Henderson. Yeah, I'm not drafting Judkins,
[44:19] Speaker 4: but that's more so of the situation in the propile
[44:22] Speaker 4: as opposed to like his injury.
[44:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with the Judkins take. Like I
[44:27] Speaker 1: U the one time that I've gotten him is that
[44:29] Speaker 1: sometimes he'll fall to the early sixth and that's when
[44:32] Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, you know, like I'm like, Okay, well
[44:34] Speaker 1: all those guys are gone, and now the opportunity costs
[44:37] Speaker 1: is maybe like maybe a Jags wide out or something
[44:40] Speaker 1: like that, But I can get exposure to those guys
[44:42] Speaker 1: and other drafts, so like, I'll get some, but I
[44:45] Speaker 1: would guess my Judkins exposure is going to be in
[44:47] Speaker 1: like the three percent range by the end of the season,
[44:49] Speaker 1: you know, the offseason. So I'm definitely with you, and
[44:52] Speaker 1: I also look at things in more of a case
[44:54] Speaker 1: by case with these injuries. One really interesting thing that
[44:57] Speaker 1: I want to pick your brain on is quarterback ADP
[45:00] Speaker 1: and what it's doing there where some of these QB
[45:03] Speaker 1: twos are seeing this upticking cost. But do you think
[45:07] Speaker 1: that there's a reason for this, Like, is there something
[45:09] Speaker 1: that you can point to to say this is why
[45:11] Speaker 1: we're seeing, like you know, CJ. Stroud go only a
[45:15] Speaker 1: couple rounds sometimes after like Brock Purdy, who we know,
[45:18] Speaker 1: you know, is in a good environment, produces et cetera,
[45:21] Speaker 1: et cetera.
[45:22] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's a bit of like a rising
[45:25] Speaker 4: tide effect with quarterback, where the quarterback run starts and
[45:29] Speaker 4: drafters on DraftKings just do not want to be left
[45:31] Speaker 4: with a bad quarterback, so they just they run to
[45:34] Speaker 4: the podium and draft these guys as soon as that
[45:38] Speaker 4: that big window starts. It just doesn't stop until until
[45:41] Speaker 4: they're all gone. And I kind of I get it.
[45:44] Speaker 4: You know, when you're in when you're at that range,
[45:47] Speaker 4: there is a better chance of somebody likes CJ. Stroud
[45:49] Speaker 4: hitting your lineup than Travis Hunter in that range. So
[45:52] Speaker 4: like there is there is that safety element that people
[45:55] Speaker 4: naturally lean towards. And there's also just a lot of
[45:58] Speaker 4: really good data out there right now that is very
[46:00] Speaker 4: very very hard to ignore that says three quarterbacks is
[46:04] Speaker 4: a profitable strategy and it earns you money more often
[46:06] Speaker 4: than taking two quarterbacks does in this current landscape. So
[46:10] Speaker 4: I think that has just kind of bled over and
[46:13] Speaker 4: draft gangings is really just kind of taking that to
[46:15] Speaker 4: the next level over here where everybody's just going early
[46:20] Speaker 4: and often. But it's it's I think it's correct, you know,
[46:23] Speaker 4: I think it's just smart.
[46:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. So here's the thing though, like, are you in
[46:28] Speaker 1: those like given the environment, given like you've done so
[46:31] Speaker 1: many drafts, you know what a typical draft sort of
[46:34] Speaker 1: like like how it goes?
[46:36] Speaker 4: Yeah?
[46:36] Speaker 1: Does that make you then? Because like I feel gross
[46:39] Speaker 1: when I skip over a quarterback in round nine or ten, right,
[46:44] Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, I got to get I don't know,
[46:46] Speaker 1: Kenneth Gainwell or someone random like that, right, Yeah, And
[46:48] Speaker 1: then I look back and I'm like, why did I
[46:50] Speaker 1: do that? When clearly a brock party outcome is going
[46:54] Speaker 1: to be better than a you know, from just the
[46:58] Speaker 1: majority of the time exactly look better, especially like Bryce Young.
[47:02] Speaker 1: You know, like it's crazy to me that there are
[47:05] Speaker 1: times where you are forced to make those decisions and
[47:09] Speaker 1: having to choose a Bryce Young type player in like
[47:14] Speaker 1: round twelve because if you don't, there's gonna be crazy
[47:17] Speaker 1: drafters around you that are going to take them in
[47:19] Speaker 1: that range. You're almost to your point forced to do that. Now,
[47:23] Speaker 1: are you playing into that when that happens? Because you
[47:26] Speaker 1: have to play into that or are you just like
[47:29] Speaker 1: the majority of the time, just trying to get ahead
[47:31] Speaker 1: of that in your drafts and just get those, like,
[47:34] Speaker 1: you know, round six to round nine quarterbacks to make
[47:37] Speaker 1: sure you at least have some substance there. Yeah.
[47:39] Speaker 4: No, I certainly play ball with the field and do
[47:42] Speaker 4: my fair share of three quarterback drafting, but I'm not
[47:44] Speaker 4: shy about doing two quarterbacks. They just have to be good. Yeah,
[47:48] Speaker 4: I can't do good and okay, they have to be
[47:52] Speaker 4: They have to be good where I'm not worried about
[47:54] Speaker 4: ventu risk at all, no matter what happens, and just
[47:58] Speaker 4: just leaning into those guys being good and hopefully you know,
[48:02] Speaker 4: well stacked, so that way the bet on those two
[48:04] Speaker 4: quarterbacks makes sense. But no, I am doing a three
[48:06] Speaker 4: quarterback thing, and there's times where you know, in on
[48:10] Speaker 4: my way to getting my third quarterback, I'll have my
[48:12] Speaker 4: second quarterback before I even have my flex player. You know,
[48:15] Speaker 4: you just have to do these sort of things on
[48:19] Speaker 4: draftings with the scoring system and the in the ADPs. So, yeah,
[48:23] Speaker 4: I played ball with the field.
[48:24] Speaker 1: Man. Well, let me ask you this. Let me go
[48:27] Speaker 1: through a little exercise here, and this is something that
[48:30] Speaker 1: was not, you know, show sheet related, but I think
[48:32] Speaker 1: it's an interesting like thing to like exercise to walk
[48:35] Speaker 1: through given this quarterback landscape. So let's assume that you
[48:40] Speaker 1: got Jalen Hurts as your QB one. Okay. I mean,
[48:44] Speaker 1: I love Jalen Hurts. I think that he's under price
[48:45] Speaker 1: this year, but you got Let's just say that you
[48:47] Speaker 1: got Jalen Hurts as your QB one, okay, And then
[48:50] Speaker 1: I want to ask you different quarterbacks and for you
[48:53] Speaker 1: to say if you would stop at two quarterbacks and
[48:56] Speaker 1: be comfortable with that, or if you would need a third. Okay,
[49:00] Speaker 1: we start. We'll start easy, Okay, we'll go. We'll go
[49:02] Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts as one, and and Trevor Lawrence as your
[49:07] Speaker 1: as your two? Would you would you be comfortable stopping there?
[49:09] Speaker 4: Yeah? Easy too?
[49:10] Speaker 3: Okay?
[49:11] Speaker 1: How about Jalen Hurts and Jackson Dart mm hm, you know,
[49:20] Speaker 1: is it partially a Jackson Dart take for you?
[49:22] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a Jackson Dart thing, because I am I
[49:24] Speaker 4: am just kind of worried about that that New York
[49:26] Speaker 4: Giants opp and so I'll say three.
[49:28] Speaker 1: Okay, how about brock perty as the other one?
[49:31] Speaker 4: Two? Two?
[49:32] Speaker 1: How about how about bo Nicks is the other one two?
[49:37] Speaker 1: He seems really underpriced by the way, but is.
[49:39] Speaker 4: A stud that the Broncos are gonna rock.
[49:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy that. How about Kyler as your two, three, three?
[49:47] Speaker 1: And then since we talked about it, how about Tyler
[49:49] Speaker 1: Shuck as your two? Would you need three? There?
[49:52] Speaker 4: That's that's that's gonna be a three for me? I
[49:54] Speaker 4: am I I love Shuck, but I can't act like
[49:57] Speaker 4: it's it's a slam dunk.
[49:58] Speaker 1: And then we'll go two more Jordan Love and then
[50:01] Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield Jordan Love.
[50:03] Speaker 4: I would go too. I would take the two risk
[50:06] Speaker 4: on Love and then Baker I'd go three.
[50:07] Speaker 1: Okay, I think that's where we're pretty aligned with a
[50:09] Speaker 1: lot of that stuff. But I think I think it's
[50:11] Speaker 1: a really interesting conversation because we had like I had
[50:13] Speaker 1: Liam on and Liam is a very much a two
[50:15] Speaker 1: quarterback guy, like he is very but but again, I
[50:18] Speaker 1: think his point was very reasonable, saying that three quarterbacks
[50:21] Speaker 1: will probably help you advance, but two quarterbacks might be
[50:24] Speaker 1: able to help you maybe in the playoffs a little
[50:26] Speaker 1: bit more, just based on the fact that you would
[50:27] Speaker 1: get that additional flex you know, I personally anecdotally, like
[50:32] Speaker 1: I went heavy three last year and I had the
[50:34] Speaker 1: most success that I've had in Best Ball, you know,
[50:36] Speaker 1: so I you know, I'm probably like I stick to
[50:38] Speaker 1: three ninety to ninety percent of the time. Probably, But yeah,
[50:42] Speaker 1: I think it's a really interesting conversation to just generally have.
[50:46] Speaker 1: Let's go to to tight end. Are you more of
[50:49] Speaker 1: an elite tight end guy or are you a late
[50:51] Speaker 1: round tight end guy?
[50:52] Speaker 4: I mean neither. Really, I love, love, love the middle
[50:58] Speaker 4: range of tight ends. Arding with Tucker Craft, I will
[51:02] Speaker 4: he has a chance to be my highest drafted player
[51:05] Speaker 4: this this Bestball season? Does Tucker Craft love The way
[51:08] Speaker 4: that he's trending off his injury and the moves that
[51:12] Speaker 4: they made in Green Bay to me, signals so much
[51:16] Speaker 4: confidence in Tucker Craft being like an engine and that offense.
[51:20] Speaker 4: Because Christian Watson doesn't handle a lot of volume, maybe
[51:23] Speaker 4: he will this year. I think he's a fun bet.
[51:25] Speaker 4: Jayden Reed doesn't play fifty percent of snaps, uh. And
[51:28] Speaker 4: then Matthew Golden Boy, I hope he's okay, bad, could be,
[51:33] Speaker 4: could be a terrible pick, wasn't a good prospect, maybe
[51:36] Speaker 4: he's not good at football, and then entered Tucker Craft,
[51:38] Speaker 4: who was just a monster last year when he was healthy. Uh,
[51:43] Speaker 4: just like like I said, the way that he's trending
[51:45] Speaker 4: off this injury has me very confident in him. I'll
[51:48] Speaker 4: still do three tight ends when I draft Tucker Craft
[51:51] Speaker 4: because it's a PPR site. You can flex one of
[51:53] Speaker 4: those guys, and that that range is just so solid.
[51:56] Speaker 4: But that Tucker Craft laporta fan and it's range, I
[52:01] Speaker 4: just that is that is the sweet spot for me.
[52:03] Speaker 1: Do you have any any late round guys that you've targeted.
[52:06] Speaker 4: Yeah, two guys that have targeted one, Mount Washington, Darnel
[52:10] Speaker 4: Washington for the Steelers. Very very into him. I don't
[52:15] Speaker 4: this is a this is a hot take, but I
[52:16] Speaker 4: think there's a chance that he plays a decent amount
[52:19] Speaker 4: in eleven personnel for the Steelers, where you don't. If
[52:23] Speaker 4: you have Darnel Washington out in eleven, you have three
[52:25] Speaker 4: out wide. Obviously, it doesn't necessarily signal a pass because
[52:29] Speaker 4: he's like he's another lineman, but he can. But he
[52:32] Speaker 4: has pass catching chops as well. I would not be
[52:34] Speaker 4: shocked if he kind of steals some of a friar
[52:37] Speaker 4: moose lunch there in that offense and then The other
[52:40] Speaker 4: guy that I like is is THEO Johnson. I think
[52:43] Speaker 4: THEO Johnson's out out of the wayside right now. He
[52:45] Speaker 4: was a decent prospect out of Penn State. I liked
[52:48] Speaker 4: him a lot last year and really kind of burned me.
[52:50] Speaker 4: I mean, as for as much as an eighteenth round
[52:52] Speaker 4: tight end can burn you last year. But he's last
[52:54] Speaker 4: round right now because Isaiah likely is there good receiver
[52:58] Speaker 4: Isaiah Likelee, But is he enough to totally dust THEO Johnson?
[53:02] Speaker 4: Is this offense going to run you know, one tight
[53:05] Speaker 4: end sets all that often? I don't know. That's not
[53:08] Speaker 4: the way the NFL is trending. So I think THEO
[53:10] Speaker 4: Johnson's a decent shot for a tight end of the
[53:13] Speaker 4: last round.
[53:14] Speaker 1: I love that call out. I mean, I think both
[53:15] Speaker 1: are really really important to what the current meta is
[53:19] Speaker 1: in the NFL too, right Like I've kind of railed
[53:21] Speaker 1: against this throughout the offseason. But the way that, like
[53:24] Speaker 1: even the way that the Jags and like Gladstone talked
[53:27] Speaker 1: about the heavy personnel usage across the league kind of
[53:30] Speaker 1: annoyed me post draft because he was basically just saying,
[53:34] Speaker 1: like this is the way teams are doing things. Therefore,
[53:36] Speaker 1: we're going to do things this way too, and drafting
[53:39] Speaker 1: the tight ends that they drafted and obviously reaching for
[53:43] Speaker 1: one that was more of a blocker, you know, in
[53:45] Speaker 1: like round two and such. And the real I think
[53:48] Speaker 1: benefit of being heavy is the versatility of what these
[53:52] Speaker 1: tight ends can do, right, Like, That's the important part.
[53:55] Speaker 1: This is why the Rams can do it. Yes, they
[53:58] Speaker 1: have guys like and this is why I think Terrence
[54:00] Speaker 1: Ferguson's interesting because he's someone who can literally line up
[54:04] Speaker 1: out wide and play that role and be like a
[54:06] Speaker 1: Darren Waller type. But then they also have a Kolbe
[54:08] Speaker 1: Parkinson who's more of like the traditional tight end. Max
[54:11] Speaker 1: Claire is sort of a more traditional tight end type
[54:14] Speaker 1: player who I mean, he's he's a good prospect, but
[54:16] Speaker 1: like more in like the not the Terrence Ferguson, you know,
[54:19] Speaker 1: athleticism side of things, right, Like I think they were
[54:22] Speaker 1: just looking like long term, like, oh, Max Claire and
[54:24] Speaker 1: Terrence Ferguson together is actually an awesome pairing, right You
[54:27] Speaker 1: can be really interesting with them and be versatile with them,
[54:30] Speaker 1: whereas you don't just like it's not just like let's
[54:33] Speaker 1: just throw tight ends out there and then you have
[54:34] Speaker 1: to look at personnel, which is why I think the
[54:36] Speaker 1: THEO Johnson thing makes a lot of sense. It's like,
[54:38] Speaker 1: we don't know for sure what Isaiah likely is. I'm
[54:41] Speaker 1: still drafting some likely, don't get me wrong, but like,
[54:44] Speaker 1: like THEO Johnson could easily just be very involved in
[54:47] Speaker 1: this offense when you look at the remaining pass catchers
[54:50] Speaker 1: on that team, especially if Moleague Ihbors is banged up.
[54:52] Speaker 4: Like, yeah, it's rough. Yeah, I can really see a
[54:56] Speaker 4: path to the THEO Johnson mattering given all those factors.
[54:59] Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, last thing before I let you go.
[55:01] Speaker 1: I do this with everybody. Give me a hot take,
[55:04] Speaker 1: a bold take for this twenty twenty six Best Baller
[55:07] Speaker 1: NFL season.
[55:08] Speaker 4: Yeah, this is sort of a bummer man. And I
[55:10] Speaker 4: kind of touched on this a lot. Is that I
[55:11] Speaker 4: think a lot of these offenses that people are painting with,
[55:14] Speaker 4: you know, rose colored outlooks, I think are just not
[55:17] Speaker 4: going to pay off. So I'm really worried about the Colts.
[55:21] Speaker 4: They have a lot of expensive pieces. I'm worried about
[55:22] Speaker 4: the Saints. They have a lot of expensive pieces. And
[55:26] Speaker 4: I just really think that these offenses have a chance
[55:28] Speaker 4: to fail and they're just very fragile, and that's not fun.
[55:33] Speaker 4: But I think that is something that I think we're
[55:34] Speaker 4: going to see and then and then I'm more happy, like,
[55:37] Speaker 4: oh here, here's what could happen. Is I think the
[55:39] Speaker 4: Cardinals I think just could be a good offense. There's
[55:42] Speaker 4: a chance that the Cardinals team isn't good, but some
[55:46] Speaker 4: of their parts is so strong. What if they're just good?
[55:48] Speaker 4: What do they just score a bunch of points and
[55:50] Speaker 4: they are just the dream fantasy matchup week in week
[55:54] Speaker 4: out because they can put up points, they can't stop
[55:56] Speaker 4: points being put up. And then it turns out Jeremiah
[55:58] Speaker 4: Love was a smash Marvin Harris breaks out in year
[56:00] Speaker 4: three because oh wow, he was a great prospect. I
[56:02] Speaker 4: guess you should have just took him at his cheapest price,
[56:05] Speaker 4: and then it just one last rose colored one. JSN
[56:08] Speaker 4: I think could absolutely repeat what he did last year
[56:11] Speaker 4: and end up as wide receiver one in the event
[56:14] Speaker 4: that the Seahawks defense takes a step back and they
[56:16] Speaker 4: don't really have that much of a run game at
[56:18] Speaker 4: the moment with Price, the rookie and Halani and Emmanuel
[56:22] Speaker 4: Wilson there, what if they just throw more They didn't
[56:24] Speaker 4: throw a lot last year, but they were incredibly efficient.
[56:26] Speaker 4: If they throw more and Jasn is still this efficient receiver,
[56:29] Speaker 4: he could have a bonkers season.
[56:31] Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I like that market Score really so
[56:34] Speaker 1: I mean spoiler for anyone who's getting the draft guy,
[56:36] Speaker 1: but market Score actually has Puka and JSN ahead of
[56:39] Speaker 1: Jamar Chase right now. It just it's just like the
[56:41] Speaker 1: the inut go into that, like it just likes you know,
[56:44] Speaker 1: part of it is like you know, teammate competition and
[56:46] Speaker 1: stuff like that, but like it just it just likes
[56:48] Speaker 1: them more. And the JSN thing that I've been toying
[56:52] Speaker 1: with as well is that is exactly what you said.
[56:54] Speaker 1: Like we know statistically that that hyper efficient defenses regress
[56:58] Speaker 1: year over year, like it just happens all the time.
[57:01] Speaker 1: And you know, assuming that the that the Seahawks are
[57:04] Speaker 1: going to be as domin like they're going to be
[57:05] Speaker 1: really good still, but like as dominant defensively, it's probably
[57:09] Speaker 1: not the strongest bet to make. And so yeah, leaning
[57:12] Speaker 1: into JSN then makes sense obviously.
[57:14] Speaker 4: Yeah, so I had to finish with some good news
[57:17] Speaker 4: in the scars, like what what I think? But yeah, no,
[57:19] Speaker 4: those are those are my hot takes.
[57:21] Speaker 1: I love it. I love it all right, man, this
[57:22] Speaker 1: was this was awesome love. This is actually what we
[57:25] Speaker 1: were saying before the show. Is our first time potting
[57:27] Speaker 1: together and doing it together, which is great. Yeah, looking
[57:29] Speaker 1: forward to this for a couple of a couple of
[57:31] Speaker 1: Pirates fans just trying to get through right now.
[57:34] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean yeah, pray for us. Pray for us.
[57:37] Speaker 4: We're going through it. Weekend night in, night out. Could
[57:39] Speaker 4: be the best night of our lives, could be the
[57:40] Speaker 4: worst night of our lives. Just depends on what happened.
[57:43] Speaker 1: All the time. Let ever know where they can find you,
[57:45] Speaker 1: what you're working on and all that good stuff.
[57:47] Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks man. I am Nez Takes on X. I
[57:50] Speaker 4: am talking about the Pirates a lot. I'm also talking
[57:52] Speaker 4: about fantasy football a lot. I cover all the sports,
[57:55] Speaker 4: so if you are somebody that likes sports, you will
[57:57] Speaker 4: find a ton of takes from me over on and
[58:00] Speaker 4: then on YouTube. I stream every single day John Warner
[58:03] Speaker 4: and I aka Roto run on YouTube. Find us at
[58:06] Speaker 4: the Badge Bros. Again talking every sport. We do cover football,
[58:10] Speaker 4: so obviously it's football show. You can find us over
[58:11] Speaker 4: there doing some besketball drafts over there every day on
[58:15] Speaker 4: YouTube JJ thanks so much to this is a blast.
[58:18] Speaker 1: Of course, I love both of you guys. You guys
[58:20] Speaker 1: do awesome work, so I couldn't recommend you guys more.
[58:23] Speaker 1: And of course, everybody, make sure you are checking out
[58:25] Speaker 1: lateround dot com. The draft guide will be live and
[58:29] Speaker 1: by the time you listen to this basically ten days,
[58:32] Speaker 1: which is frightening for me but it'll be joyous for you.
[58:34] Speaker 1: Go check that out lateround dot com. Pre order it,
[58:37] Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe, check out the YouTube channel YouTube
[58:40] Speaker 1: dot com slash at LATEROUNDFF. But otherwise, everyone, thanks for
[58:43] Speaker 1: tuning in.

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