Smashville Fantasy Football

First Pick Fantasy Logic: Analyzing a Mock Draft

August 26, 2024 • Andrew Banta • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast: Yahoo Mock Draft Strategy & Analysis

Join host Andrew Banta in this episode of the Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast as he dives into a live Yahoo Fantasy Mock Draft. Andrew, randomly selected to pick first, walks through his draft strategy, highlighting his choice of Christian McCaffrey as the top pick and his subsequent picks, including Drake London, Josh Allen, and Kenneth Walker. The detailed discussion includes insights on wide receiver scarcity, quarterback timing, and the importance of flexibility in drafting. The episode culminates with a comprehensive analysis of Andrew's team and the value of understanding draft dynamics. Perfect for casual fantasy football player looking for tips and strategic advice.

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Andrew Banta:

Welcome to the Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast! I'm your trade-addict host, Andrew Banta, joined by our analyst who swears he can predict the future, Will Ott. Get ready for armchair analysis, friendly banter, and a whole lot of fantasy fun! All right, welcome to Smashville Fantasy Football. We are about to start a Yahoo Fantasy Mock Draft. I've just chosen my room of 12 teams, and I happen to be the first pick just by random selection there. So we're gonna just do a little practice run and see how the order of things goes and how that affects what I might pick. I know that I'm not seeking actively to get a quarterback early. Depending on how the draft goes, I could change that plan if Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes are available early, but I don't think it's too likely. They normally go pretty early, and I'm not going to reach for them this year. But having the first pick makes it super easy for me. Because I think everyone should pick Christian McCaffrey first. There's just too much opportunity and upside there to ignore and looking at the wide receivers or even the other running backs who come next, they just don't hold a candle to what McCaffrey can offer. Even if he does take a little step backwards, I think he has a lot of buffer room. So McCaffrey is off the board now. I chose him with my first pick, and now I have a long time to wait until I get picks two and three back to back since this is a snake draft style. As for who might end up falling to me now I'm just looking at my rankings and cheat sheets to see. I'm probably going to be looking for a wide receiver here. I feel like if I don't get a wide receiver by round two and just go heavy on running backs, I'm going to be really suffering at wide receiver, because it's harder to plug in a replacement level wide receiver and have them carry your team than it is a replacement level running back. I feel very happy with McCaffrey, but, unless there's just a running back who's been totally looked over... I don't know, if I could get Derrick Henry somehow, which I don't think I will at that point, more likely it'll be around, Travis Etienne, or lower. I'm not going to be looking to do that. I'll probably grab, hopefully, a nice, solid tier 2 wide receiver. Or maybe high tier 3. If I could get Marvin Harrison Jr., that'd be amazing. In other mock drafts, he hasn't been falling that far. I might get someone like Davante Adams. I'd be perfectly happy with that. And we'll see what happens. My turn is in 12 picks. Off the board now are Bijan Robinson, Breece Hall, Jonathan Taylor, Jahmyr Gibbs, Saquon Barkley. No surprises there. Obviously CeeDee Lamb. He was chosen third. Normally he's been going second, but someone chose Tyreek Hill second this time. I would have chosen CeeDee Lamb if I had been the second pick. We got Ja'Marr Chase off the board, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown was still available until just then. Now he was chosen. Marvin Harrison Jr. already went. So it's falling pretty predictably now. I'm just hoping I can get a Davante Adams. That would be nice. I might have to go as low as Brandon Aiyuk. That would be acceptable to me as well. Not looking to get a quarterback yet, so I will hopefully get the best wide receiver available in eight picks. Let's see who else is going off the board. Puka Nacua. He just went off the board. Everything's gone pretty well in order of the rankings that I have available in front of me. I use FantasyPros a lot for rankings. There haven't really been any surprises other than just a debate of one pick one way or the other. There goes Davante Adams. I hoped that people would wait on him, but they didn't this time. Five picks until my turn now, so still quite a ways to go. I don't think he'll fall to me, but if Kyren Williams was still available, I might be tempted and then I'd really need to load up on wide receivers later. I'd be pretty worried about my wide receiver corp, but gosh, I had a good time with Kyren Williams last year. But he just got taken, so looks like he's not going to fall to me either. Three picks left, and let's see here. Who else has gone? Chris Olave is gone. I'm seeing Josh Allen as a possible suggestion. I don't want to do it in round two, but seeing as I do have the back to back pick, I could, because then I wouldn't be completely shut out of getting a wide receiver. Okay, I'm next. Aiyuk was taken! Oh, that just kills me. He was taken right before I could go. Ugh, so that really hurts, liked him. I can get Drake London and I think I probably will. De'Von Achane is there. I'd feel good about him too. Let's get Drake London. And I have the ability to get either De'Von Achane here or Josh Allen. I'm going to go against my usual move here, I think, and get Josh Allen. Having the first pick of the third round, I know he's not gonna be there later, and neither will probably any of the top six running backs. I'm gonna pop the cork, even though I hadn't planned on it, but just given that all those top tier wide receivers and running backs were taken in an expected order, and no one went even earlier on quarterbacks to give me an opening on perhaps jumping a few levels on a wide receiver or running back.. I decided to alter my strategy and get Josh Allen, and I think you need to always be willing to be flexible if things don't go the way you were hoping. So now that I have him, that completely changes my strategy with quarterbacks. I'm not gonna look to roll with two tier three quarterbacks like I probably would have otherwise. I'm just gonna do Josh Allen or die, and pick up a guy off the waiver wires if, heaven forbid, he got injured or, when his bye week comes up. But now I'm really gonna need to get probably a wide receiver here, cause It is getting a little scarce on the top tier guys. I still feel good about D. J. Moore, even though he is on the Bears. And, that can sometimes be a question mark for players because they don't have a very productive offense. I'd be very happy with D.K. Metcalf as well. Jaylen Waddle's there. Nico Collins. Cooper Kupp. People think he's going to have a down year, but I'm not passing him up... if he's available, and some of those guys I just mentioned are not, because I'm gonna rely on skill and past performance. I'm not counting him out. He's just too good, for me to think he'd fall off too much. This has him as a Tier 4 running back. I would still put him Tier 3, and maybe even mid to high Tier 3 personally. De'Von Achane is still available. I'm a little surprised. I've seen him go a little earlier a lot of times. I have 14 picks to go, so a lot is gonna happen. In this particular draft, there are tight ends required in the starting lineup. That's not how Smashville Fantasy Football does it. I'm gonna mostly ignore them, unless, Sam LaPorta or Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews fell really far, cause I'm practicing for our actual draft first and foremost, so I don't care too much to get a tight end unless they were really being forgotten about, which I don't think they will be for too long. Sam LaPorta will probably be scooped up pretty soon, I would imagine. I see Rachaad White still on the board. Even after guys like Joe Mixon, Josh Jacobs, James Cook have been taken. That might be tempting to do. I also like Kenneth Walker, who's available. I could get convinced to take them, especially since I do get back to back picks. I like that a lot about being the first pick in a draft. Not only do you get the best guy on the board, but you get the chance to get guys back to back the rest of the rounds, and even though you're waiting for what seems like an interminable amount of time, you don't have to make gut wrenching calls. You can get both, have your cake and eat it too. If you are 50-50 on one guy versus another, why not both? I'll probably get myself a wide receiver and a running back here and not have to make such a difficult choice. D.K. Metcalf is gone. D.J. Moore is still available. He probably won't be by the time it comes to me, unfortunately. I can see Rachaad White will probably be gone too, but I might get a guy like Malik Nabers, Stefon Diggs, who people are really counting out in the average draft position. He's being drafted as the wide receiver 18. Is Kenneth Walker still available? I think I can get Kenneth Walker. Let's see here. Okay, so I get two picks here. I can get Kenneth Walker, which I'm pretty happy about and then a wide receiver too. So let's go ahead and do that. I'll be looking later in the draft to get Kenneth Walker's handcuff as well. Only have five seconds left. Kenneth Walker, and then for my wide receiver... guys have gone pretty predictably in order of their tier list. Really without large exception. I could get George Pickens, Tee Higgins. Zay Flowers has burned me before, I'll probably skip over him. Tank Dell, Christian Kirk, Terry McLaurin. I'm gonna go with George Pickens though. Perhaps a little bit early, but that's just because there's really been no surprises in this mock draft and the wide receivers and running backs have been going in ADP order pretty quickly, and no one's made any dumb decisions that I've noticed. Except possibly me, drafting Josh Allen, the first pick of the third round. Maybe that's the dumbest decision so far. Time would tell throughout the season. Let's see, I've got 20 picks now to my next turn. Feeling pretty good about running back with Christian McCaffrey, Kenneth Walker. I'll eventually try to get, to back up Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet. Sometimes he goes earlier than you'd think. Simply because he's decent in his own right if you're looking at the later rounds, so I can't just feel safe waiting until round 13, 14 to get him because someone often takes him then. Elijah Mitchell I can usually get later though for Christian McCaffrey's handcuff. I would probably do it in that order even though Christian McCaffrey is my bell cow and I want to plan B if he does get injured. But yeah, I feel pretty good about running backs. Wide receivers, I don't feel that great. But, you have to make trade offs. I have the top tier quarterback and the very top ranked running back, so obviously wide receiver was bound to suffer at that point. So all I can do is try to shore it up, make sure I have enough of them so that if some guys really don't pan out, the other guys have a chance to. So I'm probably gonna end up by the end of the draft, having stacked more wide receivers than, running backs. Whereas other times I might end up with even one more running back than I have wide receivers or more 50-50, but given the weakness of my wide receiver corp, I'm going to have to do it a little differently here. I was really open to having one position being stronger than the other. I didn't know if it was going to be running back or wide receiver until I got really to my second round pick. And saw how things had gone. Obviously, getting the first pick, being able to get Christian McCaffrey, that's leaning towards your running back side a little more heavily, because the next best wide receiver on the board was either Drake London or I think Mike Evans was available. That's not really top tier guys anymore. It's already a tier three guy. Which is tough, especially when there's less likely to be just a breakthrough wide receiver that no one was expecting, compared to running backs, where a guy on waivers may suddenly make a name for himself. Eight picks to my turn now. Off the board, we've started to get the next tier down running backs gone, which makes me very happy about getting Kenneth Walker locked in. Alvin Kamara is gone, David Montgomery, Aaron Jones, Rhamondre Stevenson, James Conner, all gone. Najee Harris still available, Zamir White, Raheem Mostert, DeAndre Swift, but I'm probably not gonna get any of those guys because I'm pretty good right now. I'll pass them over. Coming up in what's listed as Tier 5 on Fantasy Pros, We got a lot of very solid guys that I'd feel happy with having. Terry McLaurin, Chris Godwin, Calvin Ridley, DeAndre Hopkins. Christian Watson is a little further down, but all of those guys I'd feel really good about having, so I have a lot of options, And I can hopefully get two from that list. I'm pretty sure I will, unless the next five picks just go completely against me, and all five of those guys are taken. Raheem Mostert has been drafted off the board, so he's no longer there to tempt me. Even though he's from Purdue, and I love him, I don't think he'd fit my team right now with the way the draft's gone. He'd be in my flex spot, but I think there's better options when I've already gotten pretty good running backs in there. Four picks to go. Let's see who was just taken. George Kittle. So, as far as tight ends, I haven't even paid much attention to them because they're not my interest, but all the top tight ends have been taken. LaPorta, Kelce, McBride, Andrews, Kittle, Pitts. They're all gone. My turn. I can get Terry McLaurin, and I'm very happy to do so. I will definitely get him with my next pick. And, now, back to back picks again. Hooray! I could jump up for another pretty solid running back in Najee Harris, but I think I need to shore up my wide receivers, because I'm not feeling so great about that yet. So, let's get Chris Godwin. He's still available. Now, the formulas and suggestions disagree with me on that. They strongly suggested another running back like Harris, Swift, or Pollard. Or even Brian Robinson, but I just think I needed more wide receivers. That's my fourth wide receiver, and all of them are going to end up with significant playing time once you factor in injuries and bye weeks. Sometimes you have to be willing to go against what it's telling you to do, and just have your own criteria and your own team balance. Najee Harris is now gone. I have a very long 18 picks till my next one, so we'll just see who's going now. I think probably now you're going to start to see those other wide receivers I mentioned, get taken off the board. And that's why I took two back to back. Because I don't think if I waited, I'd have a chance at a Calvin Ridley or DeAndre Hopkins. I think I'd be left with really guys that I don't want to end up starting. Like Tyler Lockett. Maybe Courtland Sutton, Xavier Worthy. I don't want it to fall that far. I've really got my starting lineup locked in at this point, and I'm just looking for guys with upside or guys to replace, with injuries. I'm not quite ready to jump on handcuff for Kenneth Walker yet, Zach Charbonnet. I'm gonna try to wait. But we'll see. At this point, I don't have it really locked in my mind if I'm going to get a wide receiver now or another running back. Because I did get those two wide receivers back to back. I'm pretty good at both. I think it'll be who I consider the next best available player. Calvin Ridley's available. I'm almost positive he won't be when it's my turn in 12 picks. Tony Pollard's available. Devin Singletary, Javonte Williams, all available. I don't expect any of them to be available for long. Jayden Reed was just taken. He wasn't really on my watch list. Really nothing against him. He's just not a guy I've researched as much. Someone just took Ladd McConkey. He is quite farther down the list, so that's a little bit out of order. DeAndre Hopkins is still available. Could it be possible? Could I get him? Could I get Tony Pollard? I just don't see how it could happen. At some point for this draft, I will need to get a tight end. No one great's available. Evan Engram has had good years, has had terrible years. David Njoku, Dallas Goedert, Brock Bowers. Maybe I'll get Brock Bowers much, much later in the double digit rounds, but, not really jumping at the bit getting any of those guys. I could just get whoever from the tight ends and be okay. Not even looking at defenses or kickers until the last two rounds. I could get tempted into a defense in the 13th round if a great one was available, but it normally doesn't work out that way. I'm happy not doing a second quarterback, so really I have the freedom to just fill up with wide receivers and running backs for a little while. And especially get those handcuffs. I don't want to wait too long on them. But I think I can still wait a tiny bit. My next turn's in three picks. Who else has been taken here? People jumped on the defenses. We have the 49ers and Jets off the board. Good for them. I don't want them now. So that's great. Every pick that goes to a defense or, heaven forbid, a kicker this early is a better wide receiver or running back that's available for me. So that is awesome. As far as the quarterbacks, the top 11 have been taken. Yeah, I'm perfectly happy having Josh Allen there. Alright, we have Ezekiel Elliot gone. Tony Pollard's still available. I might have to do it. I have not seen him fall this far. Is he still available? He's still available. His ADP is 82. I've seen him drafted higher than that. I'm just going to have to get him now and figure out how to make it all work later. Now I'll definitely want another wide receiver. Let's see who we can get. Oh my gosh! I can get DeAndre Hopkins. Wow. Things are really breaking well for me now. Guys that I did not think I had a chance of getting have fallen to me. I mean, yeah, DeAndre Hopkins ADP is only 93 and it's pick 97, but I have not had him available at this time other mock drafts, so that's great. I'm feeling really good about my running backs and wide receivers now. Running back just to run through it again, we've got Christian McCaffrey, Kenneth Walker, Tony Pollard. Wide receivers: Drake London, George Pickens, Terry McLaurin, Chris Godwin, DeAndre Hopkins. While I'm sure Drake London and George Pickens will outperform some of the others, I almost love more that I have Chris Godwin and DeAndre Hopkins. Just cause they've fallen so far down the board, and maybe I'm stuck in the past and looking at them through rose colored glasses, but I have just such great memories of them on my teams in past years that I still want them, and I'm happy to have them on my team. I don't know if production will follow, but some of it is also just having a team that you love and are excited about. That's got to be a part of it. It's more fun if they're people whose play you know, and you recognize than guys that you don't follow as much through the years. As far as other running backs, I'm not looking for another standalone running back at this point. Javonte Williams is still available, Austin Ekeler. Great guys, but for my team, I'm not likely to need the fourth and fifth running backs in my lineup, except if Christian McCaffrey or Kenneth Walker get injured. So really, it makes more sense to get their handcuff because those projections for Charbonnet and Elijah Mitchell are going to skyrocket if those top guys do get injured. So I'm drafting for upside at this point. And there's not really any other wide receivers I'm targeting. I have five. Sometimes I get six. No one is really jumping out at me. Xavier Worthy was one who I thought maybe, but he was just taken with the 10th pick of the 9th round, I think? Tyler Lockett's available, but I'm not too interested in him anymore, even though, years ago, he was amazing. Jackson Smith Njigba, Jordan Addison are available. I could see getting them, but I think I might want to get Zack Charbonnet next, even in the 10th round for me. Still got a ways to go. 9th round guys, where are we? I took Hopkins, Tua at QB was taken. We had Chase Brown taken, Keon Coleman. Defenses and kickers have started to be taken. Ravens taken, Justin Tucker taken, Aubrey taken, Butker taken for kickers. I'm glad people are taking them. That gives me better options later and less chance that someone's gonna take Zach Charbonnet, who I'm targeting. It would definitely be early to take Charbonnet if I did not have Kenneth Walker. But since I do, that changes things. Because I'm only going to play whoever I draft in this spot if Walker gets injured. I think at this point I could draft him above his ADP. Let's see what his ADP is anyway. His ADP is 127, we're at pick 116. Yeah, I'd be reaching a little if I didn't have a different makeup of my team. But, since I do have to consider what my team's makeup is, I feel pretty good taking him here. Javonte Williams at running back was just taken. He's one of the last guys that could really tempt me to take a guy that doesn't fit my team makeup as much. And frankly at that point he'd probably be trade fodder. I could trade him or Pollard. I wouldn't want to keep them both because I'd be too stacked with good to mid-tier guys when I really just need my top two guys and their handcuffs at this point and maybe one other guy. I like it sometimes when temptations get taken away like that, because I think he was taken below his ADP. I'll have to double check because I am on the clock. I'm going to go ahead and take Charbonnet. And now the question is, should I wait on Elijah Mitchell or just go ahead and take care of business and get him now? I don't really see any other wide receivers or running backs that I need. I could get a tight end. No one too tempting is available. Let's go ahead and get Elijah Mitchell and just take care of business. Oh, shoot. And I just made a mistake there. I could not get to the draft button fast enough while talking. So it made the decision for me. It took, Dallas Goedert at tight end. I did need a tight end, and he was the next one I would have taken. So it doesn't ruin things with me. Mitchell will probably be available, so it probably doesn't really change anything for me, but I need to work on my familiarity with the platform so I can make my way around the navigation better, especially when I'm switching screens, I'm looking at rankings and research and stuff. I need to make sure come actual draft day that I'm more comfortable with that, so that I don't do any dumb errors like I just did. So let's look at the tight ends. Yeah, I got Goedert. He's ranked the 11th tight end, tier 3 guy, but he was the next guy on the board. Normally I pass him up just because I wait even longer at tight end. I wouldn't advise that for everyone. It's just that I'm in a league that tight end is a flex. You can have wide receiver or tight ends. I really don't value the tight ends much in our format. Defenses available: Steelers are available, Bills, Texans. I'd feel okay about any of those. I'm not going to get them quite yet at round 12, though. I don't think I need to get a second quarterback yet, because they're probably only going to play one week if everything goes well. I'll definitely get Mitchell next round. That'll take completely care of my running backs. I got five wide receivers, I could add Brandin Cooks. I could add Mike Williams recovering from an ACL tear, guys that could have upside, but don't need to play right away. Brandin Cooks has burned me before. It's been hard to rely on certain times. Jerry Jeudy. He really burned me last year. I drafted him way too early and he's fallen so far that I think it just left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not very interested in him. Adam Thielen is available. He's fallen so far and it's hard to just not respect him anymore. He started the wide receiver 11 overall through 11 weeks. Oh, here we go. Okay, time to make some decisions. Let's get Mitchell in. Where do I search? Okay, Mitchell. Take care of that. We got Mitchell. Now, who do I want next? Don't really want another tight end. I could get a backup quarterback. Where's my defenses? I could do Steelers here at pick 13. That's about the earliest I said I'd do. Yeah, why not? Let's do the Steelers. that was just a matter of I didn't have anyone else really jumping out at me on my wishlist. I'm not really looking for any more running backs. We're back. It looks like I got disconnected there. I'm not sure when that happened, but we finished up the draft. My last pick was Baker Mayfield. So to run through my team one more time, we got Josh Allen at QB, Drake London, first wide receiver, George Pickens next. This isn't in draft order. This is just looking down my lineup. Running backs I feel much better about than the wide receivers, obviously, because that was my focus, the way the players were falling. We got Christian McCaffrey and Kenneth Walker. I got their handcuffs Zach Charbonnet and Elijah Mitchell. Really ironclad plan at running back this time around. Tight end we got Dallas Goedert, solid. Terry McLaurin is my flex guy at wide receiver. I think that's a great option. Could do much worse. Jason Sanders, my kicker. Pittsburgh's my defense. Solid. Nothing to write home about. Then bench, I feel really good about some of these guys. On the bench, we have wide receiver Chris Godwin. We got Tony Pollard. We got DeAndre Hopkins. The aforementioned Charbonnet and Mitchell. And then finally, Baker Mayfield as a backup QB. Should something happen, I think I could make do with him for the whole season. I think this draft went really well. So let's look at what the analysis says for me. FantasyPros gives me a consensus grade, and it has said you get an A+, 97 out of 100. So it's liked what I did. I'm gonna click analyze here. Position ranks I like looking at. Overall, said I was first. Starters, first. Bench, second. That's pretty rare to see both ranked first and/or second. So that's great. Normally, if I load up my bench, it's because, I really neglected a position like quarterback. Normally my starters are much lower if my bench is high, which is okay, because I know guys are going to get injured and some of those bench players are gonna end up starters after a few weeks of the season. But, to have both be ranked high just feels awesome. QB, first. Running back, first. Wide receiver, here's where I made a sacrifice. I'm the 10th ranked team for wide receivers. 10th ranked for tight end. No big loss at tight end. Feel bad at wide receiver, but had to be done. Flex, 6. Eighth at defense. Fourth at kicker. This is one of the better drafts I've had. I think the best I had, at least as far as FantasyPros analysis goes, is 98. So 97, pretty close. And I think maybe this team even feels a little better to me. Some insights, you drafted two players ranked in the top three at their position. Obviously, ranked first, Christian McCaffrey, Josh Allen. I love to have two guys ranked number one. I don't have to really second guess if I'm starting them any week. Doesn't matter the matchup, they're matchup proof. It thinks that maybe I could have drafted Austin Ekeler and drafted a tight end later. I think I commented on looking at Austin Ekeler as a temptation thing, but really it just came to the makeup of my team. I just didn't need another running back at all. It says I can finish 20 points higher, but it's hard to predict how things are going to shake out when you have injuries and, bye weeks and everything else. So many things are going to change. You never know. Week nine, I have a lot of players on bye. There's always going to be some bye week that's tougher than the others, so I don't worry about that until the time comes and I'll figure it out. I really don't factor in bye weeks at all. I'd be okay to just bite the bullet if every single player had the same bye week. It would kind of be amazing, honestly, if I could just take a loss one week and not worry about byes anymore. It says Baker Mayfield was a steal in the final round. He had been going two rounds earlier. Here, I expected it would say this about Mitchell, Charbonnet, or both, but it says I reached for him. I'm not going to cry about it though, because he fits my strategy, he fits my team. I don't think FantasyPros takes handcuffs into account really, and even though he'd probably still be there later, there wasn't anyone I was sacrificing to take him. So here we have overall projected rankings, number one. Starters: number one. Awesome, and a rare situation. Bench: number two. Huh. It looks like, for some reason it didn't bring in the names of the teams, but that's okay. Team eight went really heavy on their wide receivers and running backs, which is what I typically do. Has experts, says who likes my draft and which players they really are a fan of. It's funny, you normally get the exact opposite in the thumbs down, and the thumbs up. It's oh, we loved Drake London and George Pickens and Tony Pollard and then on the other side you'll get oh I hate Drake London, George Pickens, and Tony Pollard, so you just don't know. I don't worry too much about the thumbs down ones. This is probably the least valuable page to me actually. Steals and reaches. Usually I like to try to get two steals in there. Obviously you're not going to steal in the first six rounds. Things are too predictable at that point. No one's going to forget about a player like Kenneth Walker and let you get him two rounds later. I would have liked to get another steal in here, but I think because I went heavy on handcuffs it really kneecapped some of my ability to do that. But yeah, Baker Mayfield, I'll take it. We can do a value pick. Okay, here, in the mid rounds you can have a chance at value picks. I'm almost surprised I didn't get Tony Pollard two rounds late. It felt like he was falling so far. And he is not a guy that I was looking to get, especially with that makeup of my team. Especially compared to the mock drafts I had been doing, Pollard was going earlier. And to see him still on the board there, I couldn't resist. He was a value pick for me. DeAndre Hopkins, I think I said that same thing at the time. I was surprised he was still on the board. And Dallas Goedert. I can't take credit for that one. That was the one pick the computer picked for me, cause I was slow on the button. But, I was gonna get Elijah Mitchell there, so maybe it's for the best that I didn't, because Goedert probably wouldn't have been available in, round 12, pick 12. Let's see if I made any bonehead reaches. I know reach, it's gonna tell me Elijah Mitchell. Yep, but no one else, so you got to ignore it sometimes when it's saying don't draft a guy because it makes sense for my team. No slight reaches, not even Charbonnet. Yeah, he'd been going around there. That's why I was a little worried about leaving him for later. Obviously I had the next pick, but yeah, if I had left him for round 13, I don't think I would have got him. Pick analysis. Here's where it says, who I could have done instead. It would have suggested I picked Austin Ekeler instead of Dallas Goedert. I just didn't need running backs at that point. And then, instead in round 12, done Pat Freiermuth. Wouldn't have had, Dallas Goedert available at that point, but I guess it considers Freiermuth close enough. It says, don't do Elijah Mitchell. I respectfully disagree for my team makeup. Let's see some of the others. All the issues it has center largely around Elijah Mitchell. Aaron Rodgers, I only missed by I think one spot. I really have no idea how he's going to be this year. So it's hard to feel one way or the other about him at this point. But yeah, I think that draft went really well. Team Strengths. Whoa, this is great. I normally have a team much more unbalanced than this. I'll have if you look at this little, I don't know what you call it, like spider web graph or whatever. I'll normally have ones that go into number 12 and then you have something that spikes at number 1. It's obviously further towards the outside of the circle is a 1 rank. At the very center is the 12th rank. Blue is your starters and yellow is your bench. I rarely get one that actually looks somewhat like a circle in any way. It's almost like usually a starfish of trade offs of one position versus another. But I think I managed to be relatively well balanced. Wide receiver was my trade off, but even that wasn't a total disaster. It's not like I have the 12th ranked wide receiver one, wide receiver two, and flex spot. I'm just bulletproof at QB and RB and really good at kicker even and my flex spot. So yeah, wide receivers being ranked ninth, that's fine by me. Feels good. Here's a draft board. I can kind of look through it and this is a snake draft, so it shows you the flow of guys. I drafted down there, then I had to wait all the way down to here to get Drake London and Josh Allen back to back. I like to see what might have happened if I didn't jump on a QB that early. That is the earliest I would jump on a QB. I think I'll refuse to do it in Round 1 or Round 2. So Round 3, Pick 1, that's the earliest I might have taken him, because that's pushing it a little bit. But, I think Josh Allen is pretty near unanimously considered to be the top QB prospect this year, and he would have been gone for sure by round four when I would have had my pick here at the end. Once you pop the cork on them, you start getting the other guys pretty quickly and I knew that Jalen Hurts would be gone, Lamar Jackson would be gone. Patrick Mahomes would be gone. Anthony Richardson, I would love to get, if I could get him in round seven. It's just not going to happen. And I think it's a big question mark. He could be the QB1 this year. I don't know. Or he could be, the 20th. I just have no idea. If he gets injured, which is a very high possibility as we saw last year, I'm not wasting a top 4 round pick on him. I'm not wasting a top 5 round pick. I could be tempted in round 6, but so far I've not even had the opportunity to consider it there. A lot of the QBs are just going early, and if I don't get one of those top three, I guess top four since Mahomes went fourth. Usually he's been going third. If I don't get them, I'm content to wait all the way down to the Tuas. Justin Herbert is normally available round 13. He went a little earlier this time. I'd be happy with Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels. Trevor Lawrence, he's normally been going a little before Herbert, so they switched this time. I'm fine waiting if I don't get the top guys. There's just too many question marks around Anthony Richardson. C.J. Stroud should probably be amazing, honestly. I might rank Stroud a little higher than Richardson. But, you don't know if he's going to have a low regression to the mean this year. I might be tempted in round six, but not since I got Josh Allen. Dak Prescott, I think for round six is too early. I've got him other years and been happy with him, but I'd be looking for him at round ten, maybe round nine, but probably round ten. Let's see if there's anything else where I feel like I made a horrible mistake. Marvin Harrison, never falls. I'm not willing to take him in round one, and he just seems to go immediately round two. Gosh, I thought Kyren Williams was gonna fall to me for a minute. That would have been interesting. That would have been awesome, though. I got Kyren Williams last year off the waiver wire. And yeah, he was pretty untested. But he got his shot, and he was a league winner for me. Kenneth Walker, felt great about. George Pickens, here's just a gap in my knowledge where I don't know much about him. I just trusted the rankings at that point and threw him in there, knowing that I need a wide receiver there. I wasn't ready yet to take a guy like Terry McLaurin or definitely not Chris Godwin yet. Even Keenan Allen, just, I wasn't that comfortable with him in round 5. Fell back on the software where I'm not sure. This section of round 6 through 9 was great. Even if it's not telling me I got steals here, I felt like I got steals here. Terry McLaurin was not normally falling to me. Let's see. He's 31st wide receiver. Feel good about him. I can't believe I got Godwin and Hopkins. I thought I might get one or neither of them, and then Pollard fell so far. Then, I just shored up my backup plans there with Charbonnet and Mitchell. I was able to take defense and kickers a round early, each. Let's see who I would have wound up with at defense if I didn't wait, because I was a little unsure about that. I could have taken Aaron Rodgers. That would have been who I would have done if I didn't do a defense there. I could have done Aaron Rodgers here in round 13, then I wouldn't have got the Steelers most likely. I wouldn't have got the Texans, wouldn't have got Dolphins, wouldn't have got Bills. If I thought I could get the Bills, I would have waited. I didn't think I would get them. Wouldn't have got Vikings, wouldn't have got Packers. I'd have to wait for Eagles or Bears, eww, or Saints. Yeah, I feel like Steelers are a step above them. I'll draft the Eagles or Saints for sure, other drafts. But, not at the expense of getting the Steelers there. And then, as far as kicker goes, if I hadn't done kicker there, I would have missed out on Sanders probably. Matt Gay, he went a little earlier. It's round 15. I think most times he was going undrafted, actually. I can't remember who I was getting instead right now, but Matt Gay was normally, there still at the end of the draft, because sometimes I've got him just being an Indianapolis Colts fan. I could have got him, but Sanders is generally ranked higher. Tyler Bass, Dustin Hopkins, Evan McPherson. Evan McPherson would be all right, but I don't know. It probably won't make too large of a difference there, but I think Baker Mayfield's a bigger certainty this year than Aaron Rodgers. Rodger's ceiling is higher, but his floor is lower. Who knows? So I feel really good about this draft. I am very happy with how things worked out. I didn't feel like guys were getting stolen from me a few picks before I was about to get them. That's great. Things will not go the same in the Smashville Fantasy Football real Draft. That's just a reality. It's not gonna happen like that. QBs are gonna go much earlier in our draft. There's not a focus on tight ends, but some people will still take tight ends early. They'll just value them like wide receivers, even though I don't value them as high as wide receivers of equivalent stature. Some of the defenses and even kickers are going to go earlier. So if anything, I expect my team makeup to be better in the Smashville Fantasy Football Draft. I'm not going to get a Josh Allen though. That's the trade off. But I'll probably have guys even a little bit better at wide receiver and running back, and I'm okay with that trade off, but I just couldn't pass up Josh Allen this time. I had the opportunity to get the top guy, so I took it. So sometimes I'm practicing specifically for the real draft. Other times I just try to make the best team I can. And this time I made the best team I can, even though it's not going to look like, our real draft, almost certainly. The important takeaways are to have a plan going in. Have guys that you're looking to get if they're being skipped over even a little bit, but be willing to change your plan. I'm okay going heavier on running backs or heavier on wide receivers. I don't come in saying I'm doing a zero RB or zero wide receiver strategy, or I'm definitely drafting a late round quarterback. I think I'm going to draft a late round quarterback, but if I get a top running back and an okay wide receiver, and then I can get the first quarterback off the board, I'll do it and then not worry about it anymore. It'll help me sleep at night. Not having to draft two QBs otherwise of roughly equal value, and then think every week, are they going to have the better game? Are they playing indoors? What's the matchup like? Josh Allen, I'm playing him regardless of matchup. That's going to be a little less mental load and I can really focus on other positions that I'm going to play. I think in the standard week, not counting for byes or injuries, there's not going to be too many questions about who I play. Let me pull up my team one more time. Every week I'm playing Josh Allen, Christian McCaffrey, Kenneth Walker, Drake London, George Pickens, Terry McLaurin without fail. The only one that could maybe change is Terry McLaurin, based on how games have been going. Maybe matchups. I might sub Tony Pollard or Chris Godwin in there for him, but I don't really see DeAndre Hopkins jumping over him many times. Then obviously Steelers and Sanders. So there are really no question marks on my roster week one. Which is more than I can say some years when I draft. Some years I'm like, I don't know who's going to be my flex spot because I was really reaching for one. Obviously, McCaffrey or Walker get injured, I have guys ready to go. Wide receivers, if they get injured, handcuffs don't really work for wide receivers. So that's why I didn't look for any. It doesn't always translate into more value for the next wide receiver on the depth chart. So really I just not look to replace them off waivers with a handcuff. I'd be just looking at Godwin, Hopkins, Pollard in the flex spot. Otherwise, just plugging in the guys for the bye weeks. I think I have pretty obvious subs here. Injury subs and bye week subs. We'll see what changes during the season, because there's always things you can't predict, but I don't think there's anyone from this list that I'm dropping and switching out before week one. In most years there are one or even two players or special teams like defense that I end up dropping to just switch out because I made a dumb draft decision and second guess myself. So I think this was a success and it's good practice. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time. That's it for this episode of the Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast! As always, we have aspirations of adequacy, so come back and we'll try to do a bit better next time. Who knows? We may even reveal that one sneaky trick guaranteed to win your fantasy league. But until then, keep those trades rolling and get your lineups set before kickoff. See you next week!

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Andrew Banta

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Will Ott

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