Smashville Fantasy Football
Join Andrew Banta and Will Ott as they dive deep into the Smashville Fantasy Football League's 10th anniversary season. This weekly podcast offers a unique blend of league analysis, player insights, and friendly banter. Whether you're a league member or just a fantasy football enthusiast, you'll enjoy our hosts' distinct perspectives on roster management, player performance, and league-wide trends. From draft strategies to weekly matchups, we've got you covered with armchair analysis, historical comparisons, and plenty of laughs along the way.
Smashville Fantasy Football
Mock Draft Mayhem: Exploring Mock Draft Tactics and Analysis
What if your fantasy football strategy could be the key to dominating your league this season? On this episode of the Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast, Andrew, Will, and Chris break down their unique approaches in a thrilling three-way mock draft. Chris sticks to his guns, choosing players based on projected points, while Will dives deep into team dynamics and value over replacement. Even personal tactics like consulting spouses and scrutinizing team mascots come into play as we navigate the excitement of holding the 4th, 5th, and 8th picks.
You'll hear about the jaw-dropping moments and tough decisions that come with a mock draft, including the fall of Kenneth Walker III and the risks associated with players like Alvin Kamara. Debates flare up over the ideal timing for drafting quarterbacks in a 14-team league, the strategic depth of wide receiver choices, and how to handle potential player injuries. We share our hard-earned insights from past drafts to help you build a well-rounded and competitive team. Reflecting on our picks, we discuss the merits and pitfalls of players like David Montgomery and Aaron Jones, all while striving for that perfect draft balance.
As we wrap up, the episode takes a deep dive into our draft analysis, from Tua Tagovailoa to Jamar Chase, evaluating our team’s strengths and weaknesses. We touch on the importance of bench strength and navigating bye weeks, all while leveraging expert rankings and ADP to refine our strategies. Personal stories and past experiences come alive as we reminisce about previous drafts and the lessons learned. To top it all off, we champion the importance of active participation on draft night, aiming to make the fantasy football experience more interactive and enjoyable for everyone involved. Join us for an episode packed with insights, debates, and plenty of draft night excitement!
Welcome to the Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast. I'm your trade-out of toast, Andrew Bonta, joined by our analyst who swears he can predict the future, Will Ott. Finally, it's the man who somehow convinced us all. He's in charge Lead Commissioner, Chris Cookley. Get ready for armchair analysis, friendly banter and a whole lot of fantasy fun. Let's go. Alright. We are live with Smashville Fantasy Football doing a three-way mock draft here. We have five minutes. What's everyone thinking? I know not all of us have strategy or experience with mock drafts. Looking at chris here, what do you do when you go in? Do you just look at what yahoo tells you is the best guy, or do you wait?
Chris Cookley:certain positions.
Andrew Banta:What are you gonna do I?
Chris Cookley:look at what positions I have available on my roster and then I pick the highest projected points guy in that spot which is why I always win QB first.
Andrew Banta:You're going to overdraft quarterbacks there, because that's going to have the highest projected points. Well in the position that I want. I mean I rely on projections too. I don't have super deep insights into all these players. I'm not as hardcore as Will about that of following the real life production of these guys, so I rely on different rankings and everything I like. Looking at the Vorp value over replacement player stat. And also the.
Andrew Banta:Vona value over next available, which is basically just getting the guys that won't have similar production available later because according to their ADP they're probably going to get drafted. So if I can have a guy that's going to give me 20 points over the next guy at that position, I might get him over a different position where you'd only offer 10 points above who I can get next round. So it's not always getting the best guy overall. If I can still get a very close guy the next round, I might get a guy with a bigger differential.
Chris Cookley:Sometimes I try to ask Sarah what she's going to do, and then I'll take that guy.
Andrew Banta:That's a good strategy for marital bliss there From time to time Megan's in this league too. She likes team colors and mascots. If you've got the ponies, she may.
Chris Cookley:Is gonna be on the live draft with us?
Andrew Banta:probably not, but sometimes I try to convince her to. Sometimes she does. What's her favorite favorite mascot? I don't even know. I think it's going to change every year. She likes ones that are going to be animals, probably more the jacksonville jaguars.
Will Ott:You know they're like cats. What?
Will Ott:about you well, if I had a good quantitative thing with what you were saying value over the replacement I would definitely be looking at that to weight my decision on exactly who to pick. One of the things that you kind of have to look for, too, is what's changed from last season for every single one of the teams that you're really kind of trying to focus on. Obviously, if you have a quarterback that has just retired, or when aaron rogers went to the jets, we're like what's jordan love gonna do, don't really know. So staying away from green bay wide receivers in that aspect was like a yeah, I don't really want to take one of those.
Will Ott:Um, whereas aaron jones, he he's pretty, pretty good running back, uh, and, just from in terms of carrying the ball, get a bunch of yards that way. Also, he's a pretty good running back out of the backfield to make catches and get yards that way. So he's got multiple dimensions for a quarterback that doesn't have a lot of starting experience. So gaining some sort of advantage from understanding what's changed and what benefits newer quarterbacks or newer players in that offense, that's the biggest way I approach the draft from the perspective of what's really going to be the best thing to pick this year compared to last year. So there you go, Chris. Uh, what's really going to be?
Andrew Banta:the best thing to pick this year compared to last year.
Will Ott:Uh, I think the number one, number one consensus, I think is christian mcafree and his. His situation hasn't really changed a whole lot and he's gonna fall to me at four, I know in this month draft.
Andrew Banta:I'm getting cmk it was will was saying chris as far as recency c m k. It was will was saying chris as far as recency jordan love up and coming. That's a qb you might be interested in
Will Ott:in the round one, round one possibly not round one.
Andrew Banta:Don't do it. Chris is a fourth pick. I'm at fifth will I'm at eighth.
Chris Cookley:This is gonna be interesting because it's a 14 person mock draft we have. That is totally different. I have not done that yet we're in the draft room.
Andrew Banta:It's going to be a minute 45, it says, until it starts. How do you feel about your positions?
Chris Cookley:I don't love number five are we are we doing the snake thing where they go? We are doing the snake thing, yeah, I mean, five is better than six.
Andrew Banta:I guess at least I should have a decently good idea. I have a clear ranking of the top five guys in my mind and then beyond that it gets a little hazy.
Chris Cookley:I have no clue, I have zero when we get to our league and stuff.
Will Ott:I love being one of the last picks like 11, 12, uh, again right away. I get to go, go again right away and yeah, most likely someone before me is going to make a bad early pick and so therefore, my my like, if I'm 11, my eighth pick and 12th pick are probably going to be available, so I get basically two first round picks at the same time Let me all right, we are going ah.
Chris Cookley:McCaffrey's gone, dang it. Surprise, surprise. I can't believe it. Is it on me already?
Andrew Banta:No, he's gone. Dang it surprise, surprise.
Chris Cookley:I can't believe it, is it on me already? No, no, it's on miguel. Oh okay, I see my name in blue over here is it?
Will Ott:me and this kind of one of the big things that helps you as a mock and doing mock draft is gives you a sense of what other people are prioritizing, gives you another look of hey, maybe I should be looking to draft this other person that I wasn't really considering before, especially when you get to the mid and later rounds.
Chris Cookley:The only issue with that is that a lot of the people that are doing mock drafts care about this a lot, and I don't think the people in our league do.
Andrew Banta:I'm really surprised at pick three there, Justin Jefferson. He had been going much later. I am shocked and super pleased that I get cd lamb. I thought he was gonna go second so he's almost always been going second, unless there's some recent news that I haven't read. Uh, it could be. There's an extension, hasn't been done yet.
Chris Cookley:It says oh, so he's not signed to the team.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, or is he, he's not.
Chris Cookley:Nobody's gonna pick him up. How many quarter running backs?
Andrew Banta:are you worried, too honestly maybe he fell a little bit since I last looked into this.
Will Ott:Two wide receivers this is weird it's just a much different than ours it gets you an idea in my team in forever oh, and you had like the thing where it said that where experts agree, yeah, andrew, yeah is that is that like exported back to your like email at some point, or is that just something that's available in real time?
Andrew Banta:um, after the draft, did they tell what experts thought? Yeah, is that what you mean? Yeah, I can look at that later, not in email, but it gives me there's probably a link somewhere, but yeah, it tells me right after and I can look at it, all right, oh there's been some injuries. Puka hasuka gonna beat them saints yeah nuko so we had a lot of wide receivers in round one actually go and that's something that's been changing over the course of the last couple years.
Will Ott:Wide receivers tend to be drafted earlier than the past like running backs are harder to come by. Reliable running backs there's like three reliability and also a lot of them are now through.
Andrew Banta:Like you have a third down back that's more consistently involved on maybe second down or getting yeah we're splitting getting more touches and I've found that good running backs emerge throughout the season that you didn't expect and that doesn't seem to happen as much as wide receivers. This year I think I'm attempting to lock down some wide receivers first. I'll still try to get good running backs as well, obviously, but I might have some opportunities to get replacement level running backs. That'll be good, but that's much harder with wide receivers I was trying to see if I could find my.
Will Ott:Oh, it's because I didn't press save yet on my pre-draft rankings, because I wanted to use that as a way to for me to reference, because when we actually go into a draft. I believe we will. Uh, I will have access to that to make it easier for me to go through instead of just having to sort by the ranking of Yahoo or uh average draft position.
Chris Cookley:Be curious to see how many people in our league actually do pre-draft rankings.
Will Ott:It's, it's been like probably two or three years since I've done it.
Andrew Banta:Oh it's not something I do often. Who is available for me? Let's see.
Will Ott:There's a lot of good picks josh allen.
Andrew Banta:I'm not getting josh allen. Some years I might, but no, I'm not doing that. I see drake london, mike evans I think I'll do chris alavi. So yeah, I've done one.
Will Ott:Two wide receivers not typical what I've done in past years. This is what's really interesting to me. Is someone picking marvin harrison jr he's a rookie, isn't he?
Will Ott:yeah, he's a rookie out of high state for a rookie uh jamar chase was pretty solidly up in the top two or three rounds his rookie year. He performed really well. But at the same time you're looking at Kyler Murray who's been hit or miss, injured Kind of for me it's hard for me to see that offense really kind of making the kind of moves to justify an early pick like that or a high, high ranking like that significant update josh allen, first quarterback.
Andrew Banta:Off the board went the 14th pick of round two. That's too early for me, but I might have looked at it in round three. So I wonder if we're gonna get a run on quarterbacks now I don't think so.
Will Ott:I'll probably. We'll probably see that in round. I would expect it round four.
Andrew Banta:All right, I'm up again. I wouldn't mind gaining a running back.
Chris Cookley:I should probably be talking about why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, you should definitely say your picks as you get them. So you got Josh Jacobs. I'm going to grab Nico Collins. I'm going to load up at wide receiver. I have three pretty good ones now.
Will Ott:I already have my two wide receivers.
Andrew Banta:I would have been happy with Cooper Cup too. I'm up now.
Will Ott:This is where I don't like my running back picks per se.
Andrew Banta:That's why I went wide receiver. I didn't love them. I already have two wide receivers Next round. There's one player that I would go for, possibly Kenneth Walker III. That's why I went wide receiver. I didn't love them. I already have two wide receivers next round.
Will Ott:There's one player that I would go for, possibly kenneth walker. The third um. This is where I would go against my green because I don't like my other options, and go ahead and go for my quarterback with jalen hurts and I don't normally like running quarterbacks. We had a discussion about that in our. Did you take, he's gone, he just, he just got yeah, that was my pick.
Chris Cookley:Oh, yeah, yeah okay, yeah.
Will Ott:So, uh, picking jalen hertz would be something I don't normally do a lot, but in a situation where I've drafted two wide receivers and I don't like the running backs, I either have to go for more depth a wide receiver or go for go for a really I'm quarterback especially for our, our league hertz is never gonna fall all the way to me at 53, but uh I was gonna take him next, if he was still available I would have been tempted.
Andrew Banta:I wasn't sure if I was ready to pull the trigger, but I think it's a reasonable time to look at him like I might look at top three quarterbacks in this range. But once we get past the top three, top four, I'm gonna wait a while chris has already gotten two running backs.
Will Ott:We have five people with two running backs already. I have none, so that's one of the reasons why I'm in here, unless people are going to be prioritizing running backs, yeah, and also the, the value of taking number 10 running back and 11 running back are going to be pretty small, or 11 and 15 are going to be small, whereas one versus 10 is obviously a lot more significant.
Andrew Banta:James cook just got taken. I was, and this is where I'm surprised where kenneth walker's really fallen this far.
Will Ott:David montgomery is nice, but I think the lions are going to be using more multi-set aaron j Jones. I don't really like his.
Will Ott:The offense situation over in Minnesota and Alvin Kamara has been kind of insignificant in my opinion maybe I'm misreading that, but he did have some legal trouble, I believe in the last year, and that's. We miss scheme this games, I think. So maybe that's one of the reasons why I'm kind of skewing him to a no. So I might have to revisit that for the actual draft, but so I went with kenneth walker the third, my first running back.
Andrew Banta:Definitely wanted him. Good pick. No, I wanted kenneth walker. Yeah, you took him right. Yeah, yeah, I need to get a running back. I'm looking through. I got guys like jones montgomery connor don't like oh yeah, andrew, montgomery.
Will Ott:Andrew, you're not using the sorting through. Like to to filter to only running backs.
Chris Cookley:I have a different screen with fancy pros oh yeah, there you go, so that lets me do it on a different tab, that's fair yeah, so I have two running backs and a wide receiver and I think I'm gonna take a quarterback this round there's only gonna be cj stroud because yeah, it is.
Will Ott:It is because it's the number one quarterback left in the trip. It is.
Chris Cookley:He was also the only quarterback left that had a a lower average draft position than I was picking, so that's fair.
Andrew Banta:We are in round four and you're starting to look at guys like joe burrow, dac prescott and too early part of that's the 14 team league right. Yeah, this could change things. I might really hate the end of this draft because it is 14. I haven't done that. Oh, they're awful at the end.
Chris Cookley:There's nobody left, no matter how many people are back yet there.
Andrew Banta:There's nobody left. You know what, if I got to roll with Bryce Young, so be it, it's a mock draft.
Will Ott:Don't do that. Don't do that.
Chris Cookley:I played in a league at one point where there were too many people for everybody to have two quarterbacks, so some teams only had one quarterback. Yeah.
Andrew Banta:That really left you in a bind on bye weeks yeah, if I have a great or you just eat the bye week, yeah, well, I mean, that's what you would have to do, right, and someone's going to drop quarterback their second quarterbacks throughout the season once, people, because I'm running that gets hurt and you're like hey, they're not playing, so so you'll be able to pick up someone like derrick carr almost certain maybe not in 14 team leagues.
Andrew Banta:I don't know this is new to me, but in a 12 team you'll be able to pick up a derrick car later all right, so freaking clue who do I want?
Chris Cookley:chris is on the clock.
Andrew Banta:Oh, you got picked at me, did you get it in in time, connor, connor, okay I'm gonna get a flex.
Chris Cookley:Okay about him. It's my third running back, though, but he has a.
Will Ott:That's where he goes into space in the out, there where you go into the flex.
Andrew Banta:So oh, okay, I can get another running back. I like here. I do not like ramond stevenson, I'm going.
Will Ott:Aaron jones I'm considering whether I should go for tight end in this spot right here, or do I go ahead and create some more depth? Wide receiver Raheem Oster did really well for me last year, but at the same time I can't see that result happening again.
Chris Cookley:I don't think Lightning strikes twice. Here I'm having a really hard time looking past the average draft position and comparing it to where I am and feeling like I can't draft these people if other people aren't drafting them. This early.
Will Ott:I'll go ahead and pick the uh one of the what my my second favorite tight end, george kittle, for this mock. I think he's gonna be solid this year. I don't think I would normally draft a tight end that high, but and we were talking about before we recorded your history.
Andrew Banta:You don't draft tight ends that high, so that's different for you now, but at the same time, our league doesn't require neither we don't need a tight end.
Will Ott:I haven't drafted no, I typically never I typically never draft a tight end, or I draft the tight end that's a rookie, that has a potential to be a receiving tight end I feel like most starting that's like a rookie or something are going to perform worse than like a third string wide receiver most.
Andrew Banta:Yes, yeah, most, other than like the top two travis, kelsey, george kittle, mark andrews, kyle pitts. I'm not even sure about george kittle some years but other years he's been a big. Let him like he. Yeah, he's, he's been a big letdown like, yeah, he's.
Will Ott:He's had a bunch of injuries too. That's one of the reasons why it'd be good way to good reason to maybe not go that way. Um, but I don't really see a lot of good wide receiving tight ends that are that are younger.
Andrew Banta:All right, I'm going in five picks. Now I gotta think I'm got two running backs, three wide receivers. What do I want to go with next? There's a group of wide receivers coming up that I really like a good number you're looking at, uh, chris goblin, uh looking at probably rashi rice calvin ridley deandre hopkins there's an injury that popped up, though. He has a strained knee. He could miss four to six weeks, but then, yeah, reports saying he could be ready for week one, so a little I forgot that he's been moved to tennessee yeah I'm not really a fan of green bay I'm not.
Will Ott:I'm not a fan of rookie quarterbacks at any level, like any time. Uh, the only real one that's kind of impressed was, uh, cj shroud recently. Uh, he really kind of overperformed in my, in my opinion.
Andrew Banta:I went ahead and took chris godwin okay, well, that was yep, that was one. My other guy is calvin ridley.
Will Ott:I'm gonna take him now gotta get a tight end here. I think, okay, evan ingram or jake ferguson. Yeah see, those are two names, they neither those taste good.
Andrew Banta:Do you want to get them this early? If they're not going to taste good anyway, you might as well get them late. Yes, I do it, ferguson yeah, the 78th, luke musgrave.
Will Ott:I went with him last year as a rookie tight end just because I knew he was going to start was the first reason as a and I drafted him, I think round 13 or something like that. Um, and typically a lot of younger quarterbacks or quarterbacks that haven't started a lot will oftentimes rely on your tight end a lot, giving him a higher potential for a rookie tight end.
Chris Cookley:Here we go Round seven. You know what that means what?
Will Ott:does your drafting kicker?
Chris Cookley:Justin Tucker.
Andrew Banta:You're kidding me? Nope, he's consistent, but is he even that much higher?
Will Ott:total points he's worth at least two points a game more than most kickers last year, but this year on any, because you drafted who was the kickers. You drafted the number one kicker, I think, from the rams, greg zurlein. You drafted zurlein the year after he had his like biggest, a really big year, uh, and he then was, I think, the seventh kicker, like seventh best kicker for the next year was that me?
Will Ott:I don't know if that was me yeah, you drafted, greg zurlein, and I made fun of you for it. Maybe I didn't I shouldn't say made fun of you, but I did question your tactics.
Andrew Banta:There are a lot of years when I just pick up a kicker off of waivers and they are great. I mean they're not going to be the top three guy, but I have them finish the season top I need to draft running back. I'm gonna draft giovante williams okay, I was looking at him, but I feel pretty good at running back. I might go wide receiver again.
Will Ott:So now I've got my main core. I can then now branch off and just draft backups.
Andrew Banta:Did you get a QB yet? Will I forget? Yeah, I drafted Jalen Hurts. Oh, that's right. Yeah, you did him earlier. Yeah, I like to get my core wide receivers and running backs taken care of, plus one bench of each, because I know an injury is going to happen, and then I might look at quarterback typically, unless things change. But yeah kind of my starter plan peeking ahead at the quarterbacks available. We got justin herbert.
Andrew Banta:We still have decent quarterback, caleb williams, trevor lawrence, kirk cousins. There's some guys I feel okay about. Herbert has plantar fasciitis right now, so I have to see how that all over him we're about. To the wide receivers that I don't want to touch, there's a couple left that I feel okay with, like who I have. Well, I don't want to touch Brandon Cooks. I'll give you that one.
Will Ott:No, I don't want to touch Jerry Judy.
Andrew Banta:I like Lad McConkey Probably not Tyler Lockett anymore. I don't know Lad McConkey.
Chris Cookley:So I have no idea what's up with Nick Chubb. What happened to him, went?
Will Ott:down week two Knee surgery and having a backup running back is better than, I think, having a backup wide receiver. So I'm going to take Zeke.
Andrew Banta:I have four wide receivers, three running backs right now. They won't get a lot of time. Whoever I pick now.
Will Ott:And that also gives me a way I can flex to have three running backs or three wide receivers, and I'd be okay with either one of those combinations, I'm up.
Andrew Banta:This is maybe a little early for me, but it's a 14-team league, so I'm going to take Tua oh you just got a quarterback. Yeah, I'm going to get another wide receiver and grab Jaden Reed.
Chris Cookley:it's a 14 team league so I'm gonna take to it. Oh, you just got a quarterback. Yeah, I'm gonna get another wide receiver. Grab jayden reed right now.
Will Ott:Let's see so we're looking at positions drafted. Grid green joe is the only one that has not. Who is the? Last pick has not drafted a quarterback.
Will Ott:Yet and that's something else that I really love to look at during the draft process is to look at that positions drafted grid. That gives me a sense of urgency behind every player's needs. So, being joe in this situation, he he could draft a quarterback now, but at the same time, the number of quarterbacks that are probably gonna be drafted in the next two or three rounds early to grab a defense I mean you drafted a kicker already.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, well that's all out the window, since you drafted a kicker, but typically I would yeah yeah, I would have drafted somebody for me oh man drafted pittsburgh defense.
Chris Cookley:All right, probably I'm gonna freaking defense too I think he's joking it was the highest, it was the highest rated defense, but oh, that stinks now.
Andrew Banta:For me, this is an interesting one. It's a guy I was looking at before. He has an injury that he didn't have last time around my last lock draft hopkins. But I'm so deep on wide receivers at this point that I think I'm okay for him to get healthy.
Andrew Banta:I do have three guys with bi-weeks that are wide receivers, I think on the same week, but I don't worry about that too much, because I think things are going to change so much that it it's going to be in flux regardless at this stage in the draft.
Chris Cookley:My starting lineup is filled and I am sorting the flex filter by projected fantasy points and I'm just drafting whoever's at the top and I'm checking by weeks to make sure I don't grab a whole bunch of the same positions on the same week. But that's as deep.
Andrew Banta:But if you do that, you're not necessarily drafting for upside. If you're doing that because you're getting guys that they think will get baseline points mediocre, nothing stellar, but they're not gonna have those I don't know enough about them to make informed decisions, that's fair I probably should have drafted gus edwards, but I was under the gun and I I skipped over a couple people.
Will Ott:Um, I was kind of considering I was I should have drafted gus edwards. Uh, I was also considering Tyra Lockett, jameson Williams.
Andrew Banta:Jacoby Myers.
Will Ott:Austin Eckler is going to be interesting on Washington.
Andrew Banta:I hate Washington Within the next two rounds is where sometimes I'll look for handcuffs to my players. But since I went pretty weak at running back, I'm not as interested in handcuffs you're familiar with what handcuff is right, chris?
Chris Cookley:yeah, are you uh, yeah, he would be christian mccaffrey gets injured, who's his backup?
Andrew Banta:right, but if david montgomery gets injured, that's not the same sort of level of the house is burning down disaster as McCaffrey going down. So I think I'll go without any sort of backup. Guys to my running backs, most likely.
Will Ott:This is where I need to get a receiver. Chris Hale not confident in that at all.
Andrew Banta:Will. You were talking about looking at what other guys in the draft have what their needs are.
Will Ott:I just have trouble multitasking like that that's one of the benefits of having ADHD.
Andrew Banta:I just can't process that much information at once. I'm worried enough about what my next pick is, and I can't focus too much on what everyone else has done as someone, so I went ahead and drafted Shahid, and I can't focus too much on what everyone else has done as someone, uh.
Will Ott:so I went ahead and drafted uh, uh, shashi, shahid, uh, rashid. I was looking through names and I didn't really see anyone that kind of stood out to me, so I went the cookley route and that's the best way of of the way I was sorting through it. It was the top wider I got disconnected.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, I just got kicked out for a minute. Let's see who I go with here run cat six cable across the house one more running back.
Will Ott:Yeah right, chubbs injured, but I was gonna get chubbs yeah, I think I have enough guys to wait for him to get healthy once we get actually closer to the draft time. Uh, our actual. Samuel I'll start looking at more of the injuries.
Chris Cookley:Somebody should set that off time? Has anybody asked the commissioner when we're drafting?
Will Ott:I believe we told the commissioner when we're drafting. Come on, commissioner, let told the commissioner when we're drafting.
Andrew Banta:Come on commissioner, let me check your schedule. At this point I don't know who I want. Just get a tight end. I'm reaching the point, especially with 14 teams, where I'm just like I don't know who I want.
Chris Cookley:Yeah, and it's just like I'm having a lot of trouble caring a whole heck of a lot about this, because I know they're not my actual players, sure, and also I don't know who any of these people are, you don't know who Matthew Stafford is these people being the players. Is he still available? Can I grab him?
Andrew Banta:yeah, I was gonna, except he had the same bye week as Tua, so I held off for that reason and our league.
Will Ott:This would be around like what? 13 or something like that probably uh 148. So matthew stafford, that would be my second pick. So yeah, it would have been like a 13th round pick would be matthew stafford in our league and I would be happy getting matthew staffrid in the 13th round as my second quarterback If I decide to go two-quarterback team this year because I've gone only one before.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, if I have a top guy, I go one until I need to replace, but if I have a lower-tier guy I get two, because some are going to have tougher matchups.
Chris Cookley:It's easy enough to pick up a quarterback for a week in our league too.
Will Ott:Yeah, what I did was and I think a different league I drafted Aaron Rodgers I don't think it was last year, I think it was the year before that Rodgers and then I also drafted Dak Prescott and I expected Aaron rogers or something. I think it was aaron rogers not performing and no, it was someone else, I don't remember. But basically I ended up switching to dak and then he ended up taking off in the second part of the year. Uh, it was a nice move to have a dak prescott available, especially if you have those like mediocre quarterbacks. That's, one might take off, one might not. So you can get an idea of hey, this guy was not expected to do much this year and turned out for you. You don't have to fight with other people to get muffled for agency anyone interested in deshaun watson?
Andrew Banta:do you have a ethical dilemma with him?
Will Ott:I. I have no ethical dilemma, because I will not pick him anyway yeah I wouldn't, I'm not picking him. I'm not picking him now. I was shot bateman. I liked him if he didn't get injured all the time, but since I've already got a decent number of wide receivers, I could take him.
Andrew Banta:If he does starts taking off, he stays healthy, probably a nice pickup either gonna get one more wide receiver or one more running back. I only have four running backs. I normally like to have five. I have five wide receivers. Oh, let's see, I think I'm gonna go with maybe the oh, where is he? Oh, no, uh, I failed it at getting to the right spot. It got me a defense I was going to get Chubba Hubbard. And not for a great reason, but he's like the best name in football.
Chris Cookley:Second quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Andrew Banta:How do I feel about getting Minnesota that they picked for me? I do not like that Drop. Oh, they were better. They were better teams than that. Oh, I hate when it autodrafts for me, but yeah, multitasking and trying to talk my turn already it slows me down, for sure.
Chris Cookley:What do we think about?
Andrew Banta:Adam Thielen. Historically, I love him. Do we care? I don't know how good he's going to be this year.
Chris Cookley:I'm sitting at 172. I'll take a guy who's averaging 130.
Andrew Banta:All right, let's just get Chubba Hubbard now, since it switched the order on me Chubba, chubba, chubba, chubba. I wish it did not do Minnesota for me. Order on me chubby, chubby, chubby, chubby. I wish it did not do minnesota for me.
Will Ott:I would much further head, like the eagles man. It's insane where galvin cook has ended up. I think tracy orman has some, some potential in indianapolis to see reasonable playing time, so I'll pick him up as a hopeful. A lot of these others are not looking good, although there is one running back. I probably should have considered first JK Dobbins Probably a decent idea. Alright, I have to go defense because there's only two picks left. My biggest problem is I don't know whose defense is going to take off. I've heard some things about las vegas.
Andrew Banta:I think that we're okay, and I didn't see my first choice available yeah, I don't see anyone that I'm like dying to have at this point. I might just go with one quarterback because I think I could get a okay guy when I don't guy. Let's give me a reason to watch the Colts and get Matt Gay for kicker.
Chris Cookley:I feel like I want to get another running back, but the highest rated running back is Rico Dowdell.
Will Ott:Probably going to skip him, it's okay, you have Dustin Tucker as your kicker Kicker yeah you have Justin Tucker as your kicker.
Chris Cookley:Kicker. Yeah, let's take a flyer on Demario Douglas, whoever that is One of the few players on the 23 Patriots to have an impressive season. Okay, is he a wide receiver? Yeah, slot receiver. Final round.
Andrew Banta:Who's going to be my Mr Irrelevant. Yeah, I'm just going, just gonna get. I don't even care which position at this point I'm gonna get highest. Whoever rejected this guy didn't even have a picture whoever strikes me as neither does this guy, oh my gosh, maybe having a chance to do something good for instance jason myers and car caro santos both had 158 fantasy points last year.
Andrew Banta:My goodness I just don't see any wide receivers that interest me at this point. I'll probably what with five. I'm probably going to end up getting one at some point off waivers. But let's just go ahead and get a backup quarterback because I don't feel strongly enough. I bet I could get car on waivers, but this was just a throwaway pick on this for me. The 14-team league is throwing me for a loop a little bit. 14's a lot.
Will Ott:I drafted Daniel Carlson from Las Vegas Raiders Duh Bears. That is my last pick, Staying true to my form, drafting kicker round 17.
Andrew Banta:So how's everyone feel about how they did? Any clue Ambivalence? I don't know. How did I do? Can? I see my results.
Chris Cookley:Draft results Standings Ah, second place Dang it. Where are you seeing that with?
Will Ott:y'all, yeah, I I didn't like, I didn't like a couple of my picks. I think I rushed them I definitely was.
Chris Cookley:Could have paid more attention to players, as, as I was coming onto the clock, um, I wish it would give you your grade for your draft, but I feel like that takes some processing time this is with Fantasy Pros.
Andrew Banta:I can pull up that for us. That's why I got it on here, so we could analyze some stuff. Let me share that tab. I see my sharing crapped out when I got disconnected and I forgot to reshare, so that sucks. But oh well, everyone see that. Okay, 96 out of 100. I didn't feel that good about it. Oh man, I feel like I really screwed up on a few picks you, sir. I had it autographed for me.
Andrew Banta:I had it autographed for me twice because I just ran out of time and panicked yeah, I wasn't short on time.
Chris Cookley:That happened to me once and I didn't love it.
Will Ott:I'm not, I wasn't sold on chris alave, I don't know, all right so here it's giving some info on mine and we'll go down to your teams as well oh nice top of the list yeah, so
Andrew Banta:overall my starters were middle of the road, but I did make a concerted effort to have a good set of bench players at the top of the bench, so no surprise for me. This is how most of my drafts have been going. Actually, I've really focused on having the top two guys at each position off the bench be able to carry their weight overall first starter, sixth bench, first quarterback, 12th. But I like Tua, I'm okay with that. Yeah, running back 11th, feel bad about that, that's gonna hurt more. But wide receiver first. There was my trade-off for it. Tight end don't really care, not a focus for me. Flex first, defense kickers, whatever it's. Got some insights. You drafted one player in the top three, cd lamb. I felt very good about him falling.
Andrew Banta:I didn't think every single draft I did almost without fail.
Chris Cookley:I was going to grab him and I saw the na or whatever next to his name and it spooked me and maybe there's something that I hadn't followed.
Andrew Banta:Info wise there it wanted me to draft, uh, evan mcpherson earlier and a defense later, and my score would have been 19 points higher. So it says by week six is going to be tough for me. Three players isn't like. No, that's ridiculous. There's always going to be a worst week. That it lists some steals DeAndre Hopkins but I don't know if the data reflects his injury, so maybe that's not going to be a steal, but he was low enough on the list that I could have.
Chris Cookley:I can wait until I get healthy, hopefully.
Andrew Banta:Chubba Hubbard Yep and I tried to get him around earlier and just fumbled my way out of it, but he was still available.
Will Ott:Derek Carr. I feel strongly about about.
Andrew Banta:I don't feel super strongly about him, honestly for a 15th round pick.
Chris Cookley:He was not that great last year no yeah and I reached with minnesota vikings but it was the one that got replaced by aiden o'connell. Or is he left? Is he on?
Will Ott:a different. Yeah, he's in new or? And last year he did not perform super well, if I remember correctly, but at the same time, is that a fluke? Is that just him not having? Because I think Didn't. Alvin Kamara, I think miss time.
Chris Cookley:Probably. I feel like he always misses time. I didn't hear his name at all tonight. Who got him?
Andrew Banta:will, did you? No no I was looking at him and someone, like one or two pics in front of me, got him. Yeah, let's see I drafted 51st by john montgomery, who wants to see theirs will. Okay, got yours overall mid to lower grade of c plus 78 out of 100. It does not like your running back starters, but it likes nothing about what you did I like my receiver, you wide receiver I like your quarterback.
Will Ott:yeah, in our league having quarterback wide receiver seemed to have worked better for me.
Andrew Banta:Where'd you get Jamar Chase? At what pick? I just picked eight. That's good for Jamar Chase. Oh yeah, yeah, that's real good.
Will Ott:Yeah, he was going earlier. Every mock draft I've looked at I only got to, I think, 20 players in my preferred players list on my pre-draft rankings, yeah, and so he was the highest one that was left and I was like, okay, I picked him last year, I'm just gonna pick him again yeah, I'd feel good about that for sure.
Andrew Banta:And there's another tab where we can look at that says what if? Sort of things. But it's saying you know, do the defense earlier. It's not accounting for injuries and stuff. So I don't necessarily agree with that.
Will Ott:I haven't really read up a whole lot on what kind of defensive changes will be impactful for a lot of the different teams. So my analysis on exactly when I should have taken or who I should have taken at defense I don't know.
Andrew Banta:Your bi-week 10 is going to be the roughest for you. According to this, and that's okay.
Will Ott:I'm okay with honestly putting all my buys into one week and just saying I forfeit this week if it means I have a better team.
Andrew Banta:It's just about making the playoffs. I liked your Matthew Stafford pick too. Had he not been the same by week as Tua, I would have got him there as well.
Will Ott:And then Cookley let's see here, a famous hand game, likes your draft more than any other expert. I don't know what that means.
Andrew Banta:So they have expert rankings in the next tab we can look at.
Chris Cookley:But it's just saying I guess their opinions.
Will Ott:Yeah, Brees Hall.
Andrew Banta:You're a stacked kicker. Look at that K. So I had Brees Hall last year and the first half of the year it was horrible and the last half of the year it was great. So if you get more of the latter, that'll be a good pick.
Will Ott:Yeah, I think a lot of it too comes down to whether Aaron Rodgers is healthy, how they handle having a healthy Aaron Rodgers. Is he still playing? We'll see New Jersey. Jets.
Andrew Banta:Overall, had you what third to last? I thought he retired Starters and bench. Your grade is a greatest, a, c, minus oh, it's terrible.
Chris Cookley:100 terrible.
Andrew Banta:I don't care to have the top three kicker, that's just that was my priority rounds earlier than he's ranked. Reconsider that, maybe next time likes my draft rich piazza's big on on Justin Tucker. He's actually related to him, little known fact, yeah.
Chris Cookley:Is he really?
Andrew Banta:No, I haven't Love it.
Chris Cookley:Is he?
Will Ott:related to Mike Piazza, though it would have flexed to see you take CeeDee Lamb.
Chris Cookley:Yeah, I'm glad you didn't decide that he was the one that I was going to.
Andrew Banta:Damn it. And why didn't you? Did you run out of time?
Chris Cookley:No, he's the one that had the N-A next to his name, right, and then you grabbed him with the next pick.
Andrew Banta:Okay, it scared you away, and I don't know why, because this is a mock draft.
Chris Cookley:It's not like I'm stuck with him if he's actually injured.
Will Ott:Sure, it's about practice. My dude, it's practice.
Chris Cookley:Let's just assume that I got him and you didn't, and I won, I won. Let's do that, oh, okay.
Andrew Banta:That sounds fair. Yeah, Week 11, Mike Evans, James Conner, Baker Mayfield and Adam Thielen all of their bye week Will. How do you expect Adam Thielen to be this year? I love Adam Thielen. I just I guess, looking historically, and he's amazing. I'm not a fan of Bryce Young. Is that why Everyone's so down on him this year? He's also what 32, 33 okay, so he's over the hill in terms of wide receivers yeah, honestly, I think most of it is just because caroline's a dumpster fire.
Will Ott:Yeah, I I want to stay away from the carolina panthers almost as much as possible.
Andrew Banta:If it's not running back, I don't want him gotta get cam newton back at the point chris got him, though I'd be okay with it because I feel like you're drafting for upside with him at that point. Maybe he looks like himself from past years what round did you take him? Pretty late I think pretty late yeah we can look in a second but justin tucker steelers, so you just reached on the kicker, and defense is what it thinks uh, which is what I would agree every single year that I've done this with Chris Cookley.
Andrew Banta:Let's see. And here's kind of the experts that like or don't. Yeah, but we can just talk on this other thing.
Chris Cookley:Just you and I got in round 13.
Andrew Banta:Rich Piazza 91. But you know, you got these guys that give you an F down here. I don't really follow the individual analysts, so I don't have one that I trust. Why do those?
Will Ott:people, not like CJ Stroud.
Andrew Banta:I don't know. For everyone that I've looked at they have a plus on one side, a minus on the other side. Maybe they just think versus is ADP.
Chris Cookley:I want to know how these people have opinions on my draft when they weren't part of it.
Andrew Banta:They weren't there, man, you don't know, I don't know. I like this page, though. It tells steals and reaches. I liked Gane Hopkins there in round nine and it says I drafted him two rounds later than he'd been going. Chilpa Hubbard, I got two rounds later. Derek Carr, chris, you got Jayden Reed in there in round eight and then Demario Douglas, who I?
Chris Cookley:don't even know he's that slot receiver. That I was saying was the best Patriots.
Will Ott:My only thing was Matthew Stafford.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, matthew Stafford, you got. I like that pick.
Will Ott:There was no reaches. Well, let's see the reaches, reaches.
Andrew Banta:Let's check the plus two round reaches. Mine was the vikings auto drift. I'm not gonna take responsibility for that I have no regrets on jt.
Chris Cookley:No reaches for will no real regrets there.
Andrew Banta:You can look at value picks which are just one round later to a yeah, I like that. Nick Chubb I like that, Despite the injury. I got him after David Montgomery, Aaron Jones and Tony Pollard, so I'm okay at running back at that point, Drafting for healthy Chubb later in the season. And Dalton Schultz it actually auto drafted for me there.
Will Ott:Oh, the auto drafter saved you big time.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, those rounds in there. I was distracted and missed my draft time. Do we know? Is the? Was that time per pick? Was that how it'll be on the actual draft day? It seems? Like.
Chris Cookley:I don't think so.
Andrew Banta:That felt really quick, it seemed really fast.
Chris Cookley:I thought we had a minute usually.
Andrew Banta:I think so too, so hopefully I'll do a little better there. Chris, you got Joshua Palmer, baker Mayfield and Adam Thielen around later than they have been going.
Will Ott:I was pretty straight up you're pretty close to their ADP and I wasn't looking at ADP.
Andrew Banta:I wanted to be unique well, I don't look at adp too much, but it just tells me if I'm being stupid on something. So at least that means you're not way out there. Uh, no, slight reaches, chris. Slight reach on ferguson will. Slight reach on kittle. I was a little surprised you took Kittle there, but that's going to be different than the Smashville draft anyway.
Will Ott:There's no tight ends required. Yeah.
Andrew Banta:Pick analysis. This is for Chris, so it says how many points you theoretically could have gained this level of conjecture.
Chris Cookley:I just don't trust, though who knows what anybody else is gonna do with other people not doing that?
Andrew Banta:thing yeah, it's just going with adp and maybe also what needs were for each team. Oh, team strengths I like looking at though right now we're looking at chris's and I like this little web graph, or whatever you call it. Outer circles are for the top ranked of that position. Inner circle is lowest ranked. Mine normally looks all spiky like a sea urchin where I'll just be like wildly erratic.
Chris Cookley:Weak on tight end and wide receiver. Apparently I thought I did okay at wide receiver, but I guess not, here's mine at least.
Andrew Banta:Ah, here we go. I got a spiky one, flex rank one, wide receiver rank one.
Chris Cookley:Everything else suck fest oh my gosh, but a decent running back uh and it likes you at 96 out of 100. That's a 96 out of 100 draft. You better believe it, because not all positions are created equal.
Andrew Banta:What the would you rather have a top flex or a top kicker?
Chris Cookley:I'd rather I know what you would rather have.
Andrew Banta:I know what you would rather have give me a top kicker.
Chris Cookley:But any good, they're not equal. Though give me a top kicker come on.
Andrew Banta:I don't love this draft as much as the one I did earlier. Let's look at Wills. Yeah, strong at QB, of course, solid at wide receiver, not too bad at flex. If I had to pick what's going to be low, it's going to be defense. Kicker and quarterback Sounds about right. And here's the draft board where we can see what everyone did. So snake draft, look from left to right and zigzag back. I'm surprised jamar chase went that low. I would have taken him way before jonathan taylor, before b john robinson, before bruce hall, way before john rob Jefferson is.
Will Ott:I think his average draft position is actually right around that.
Andrew Banta:I think so too yeah, but I would have taken Chase first. If I didn't take CeeDee Lamb, I would have taken Chase, and that can be almost a coin flip. You like Chase better Will, is that what you said?
Will Ott:I think he's got a better situation okay yeah, that's fair.
Andrew Banta:That could be close. But yeah, I do lamb and chase or chase and lamb right in a row before looking at anyone else but mcafree.
Will Ott:I guess you can have tyree kill in there too yeah, I think definitely tyree in there I think really honestly, when it comes down to draft night it should be christian mcafree tyree kill. Yeah, I can't. And then your number three, I think can be a little bit more of a toss-up, but it's probably going to be something like demar chase, cd lamb justin jefferson reese hall.
Andrew Banta:I've been hearing buzz about people not liking justin jefferson's situation this year yeah, with a rookie quarterback or no.
Will Ott:Gg mccarthy, yeah, no, okay, yeah, yeah, I would, I would. I would pass on justin jefferson's situation this year. Yeah, with a rookie quarterback or no. Gg mccarthy, yeah, no, okay, yeah, yeah, I would, I would.
Andrew Banta:I would pass on justin jefferson yeah, like I love justin jefferson, I do not like if it's where the quarterback's there, I would be a little bit more excited.
Will Ott:Bonix is in denver.
Andrew Banta:Okay, does he have the starting job? For sure, though, bo Nix and Zach Wilson are both options.
Will Ott:I expect Bo Nix to start soon. Like I said, I typically dislike rookie quarterbacks too anything surprising up here on the draft board.
Andrew Banta:Looking at it all together.
Will Ott:Jalen Waddle was, I think, a little interesting to see in my mental brain. Without doing any mock drafts or trying to remove what I thought or saw on Yahoo rankings, I think Jalen Waddle would be a little higher than what I would expect to see. I think, amari Cooper I should have considered to be picked earlier. Zay Flowers I don't remember seeing them because I was so concentrated trying to remember who I was going to pick would you have Zay Flowers that high or lower?
Will Ott:I would have wanted to pick him earlier, I think would you okay yeah, maybe I'm just not aware of his progression.
Andrew Banta:I had him on my team. I believe he got injured.
Will Ott:I think he got injured and then he got injured. I think he got injured and then he got injured. I think one year he didn't do that much for me, but I forget why. Lamar Jackson got injured, and that's one of the reasons why I didn't like him this one was quite a bit different.
Andrew Banta:I'm looking at the quarterbacks now. Jordan Love, second quarterback.
Will Ott:I like Jordan Love, but wow, I think most people like Jordanordan love more than I like jordan love that's the earliest I've seen him go.
Andrew Banta:For sure I like to go before jalen hurts lamar jackson, cj stroud, patrick mahomes yeah, patrick had a pretty rough year last year.
Will Ott:I shouldn't say when his rough year was means he looked human.
Andrew Banta:He did look human, yeah.
Will Ott:Whereas previous years he looked like he was unstoppable, he could do whatever he want. He was throwing side things saying, hey, I'm going this way, going the other way, sorry.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, but don't disrespect the man. No, Okay, maybe don't draft him first or even second, but yeah after all those guys.
Will Ott:I hate the idea of drafting a quarterback before round four.
Andrew Banta:Me too, unless he just drops in front of me and I'm like, oh, I can't help it. He should have been taken by now.
Will Ott:I feel a lot less confident in my understanding of where players are really going to be. They're going to be in a system or a team that caters to their strengths. I like to try to find that out before, or I have a good idea, because I've watched enough football from the year before and a lot of the changes haven't happened. You have Aaron Jones in Minnesota. You have, like Keenan Allen, chicago blows my mind.
Andrew Banta:The fact that Keenan Allen is in Chicago. Yeah, stefan. Diggs being in Houston you do not like wide receivers in Chicago or anyone in Chicago, my most favorite Chicago Bears player while playing fantasy football has been Matt Forte.
Will Ott:Hands down Loved Matt Forte. He was leaned on so much by their quarterbacks. He was able to get good rushes. He was able to get good receiving yards he was reasonably healthy. I could expect a lot from him, so I drafted him a lot in my past. I I love drafting matt forte, them and the kickers. I'll draft chicago kickers because I figure they're not going to get on the board with touchdowns as often.
Andrew Banta:They'll go ahead and kick some field goals and that field goals are going to be obviously worth more points than extra points I like looking at on here how other people's picks influence everyone, like where do you think defenses would have started going if someone didn't pick one at the start of round eight?
Will Ott:instead you got san francisco, then new york, baltimore, dallas, cleveland, kansas, pittsburgh all within the next round I think nine and ten is where a lot of fantasy football players will start drafting defenses, Partially because they get into that zone of I don't know who I should be drafting here, so they just pick something that they know.
Andrew Banta:So let me finish out the starting lineup on my team.
Will Ott:Whereas it's, in my opinion, better to go ahead and take more of a gamble Around 10, 11, 12, try to get someone that might be able to have a breakout year, a rookie that's not necessarily talked about enough. Tampa Bay's wide receiver, Palmer Rondale Moore those were like picks that I have made in the past where there was reason for me to believe that those players, they have the athleticism that they need to be NFL players, to be starters in the NFL.
Will Ott:They have necessarily the experience or they're maybe missing just something like fine-tuning the route, running timing with their quarterback, understanding how big that playbook is and being able to memorize that instead of being in college for four years and having a pretty good idea of what the playbook is going to be looking like. So I try to go for players like that in those rounds because those, if things go, well then you now have, uh, a flex that wasn't there before, or someone gets injured, and so now they become your flex instead of the other person that got injured was flex and now is replacing the person that got injured as part of your starting lineup.
Will Ott:That is, I think, of more value than getting a position that never gets injured interestingly, chris didn't cause a run at kicker, really.
Andrew Banta:I think he just went so early that you got a couple splattered through there, but not just a bunch in a row, like with the defenses. It's gonna happen with a bunch of people in the smashville league, though I'm gonna ignore it and just take the gift of better wide receivers and running backs that it is, and quarterback too. At that point, daniel, carlson's a great kicker the first kickers and defenses are going to be off the board before I get a quarterback.
Will Ott:I almost guarantee yeah, probably we should look at the statistics from previous years for Daniel Carlson versus the rest of these kickers, other than Justin Tucker, maybe Jason Sanders, just because Miami had an amazing offense and were just able to blow almost everything out of the water.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, Harrison Buck is good, but I'm not reaching for him.
Will Ott:In terms of how many points he got. I don't know how many points he got. He's a good kicker. I would take him in my real team. Yeah, I'm doing that, but when it comes to fantasy football, it doesn't matter.
Will Ott:I have to look into the past of our league and find that year that Chris drafted Greg Zerline early and then compare Greg Zerline's previous year he was the number one kicker by, I think, 30 or 40 points over the course of the whole season, which is pretty significant, especially for kickers and then compare that to the year that he drafted him. I know he was not the top five kicker in terms of fantasy points the year that he drafted him looking just at my picks here, first 10 rounds, I felt good, and then at that point. Because picking did you start tilting?
Andrew Banta:because I auto picked too well, I mean that hurt too, but one of the reasons it auto picked was because I was being indecisive at that point and then by the time I made the decision, I only had two or three seconds left and ran out of time to actually find the guy past.
Will Ott:Then it's like I'll pick matt gay because it's the colts that's one thing that I didn't do tonight in our mock that I normally do in regular draft. I normally love to start putting players in a queue. Yeah, even though I'm not going to necessarily draft them, I'm like, hey, these are the ones I'm on my radar for when my pick comes around in five minutes.
Andrew Banta:I haven't utilized the queue.
Will Ott:Oh, the queue is amazing.
Andrew Banta:For sure.
Will Ott:Because it gives you a sense of this is what I was looking at, or right after I made my pick, and then you can just be like okay, this player came off the board, so I'll go to the next one, because that's how I I rated them what round did you start to lose confidence?
Andrew Banta:if?
Will Ott:ever uh. I feel like my was maybe weird 8. Minute. I mean not to say that I didn't like my bateman pitch, but I didn't really feel super confident about it. I feel like there were a lot of picks that I wasn't super excited, but at the same time I also didn't feel like I left a lot on the table.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, there's no real head scratchers with your picks, oh I giovante williams.
Will Ott:I wasn't sure if I should have drafted him or not in that slot. I didn't mind that pick I'm not a fan like denver, he wasn't gonna follow me?
Andrew Banta:I don't think.
Will Ott:I don't think denver's good. So because denver's not good, it's hard for me to want to take giovavante Williams. When a team is less likely to put points on the board. They're less likely to lean on their running back.
Andrew Banta:True. I mean, I definitely like Tony Pollard over him and that's why I picked him three picks before. But had I not done Pollard, I would have done Javante Williams.
Will Ott:Austin Eckler. That was a weird pick by whomever that was. That's a running back two for Washington.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, is this his first year with Washington?
Will Ott:Yeah, he had a contract.
Andrew Banta:I mean I liked him on the Chargers, but yeah, I don't know what he's going to be like now.
Will Ott:He was one of my favorite players to draft.
Andrew Banta:Yeah.
Will Ott:He did catch the ball out of the backfield, ran the ball pretty well, typically, did well with not getting injured. What else can you ask for? He's like alvin camara being a similar idea, but like I gotta love those guys, especially after they've proven themselves, because that first year not really sure. Deandre swift was a example of a player that I was really thinking oh, oh my gosh, this player is going to be really good. He's going to have great success in the NFL. He can run the ball fairly well with good quickness, lateral speed going up and down. He can do some bursts. He catches the ball pretty well in the backfield. And what does he do? Not a whole lot.
Will Ott:I was really kind of upset, I think. When he was a rookie I played baseball and I think I drafted him in the third round and I was very disappointed. This was good and enlightening. To make sure that I definitely go more into my draft rankings, my pre-draft rankings, to realize, hey, if I move everyone into my I don't really want to draft them section, then I have no one to draft. I need to make a lot more wait. What are you saying there?
Andrew Banta:I'm too picky in the past. Do you utilize just a will, not draft no matter where they fall section, because I never do that.
Will Ott:Everything's just depends where they fall I'll put people in the do not draft section, not necessarily, because I will never draft them, but more so that it'd be like Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen falling to the 10th or 11th round. Like that's not going to happen.
Will Ott:There's no point in me. I'm not that interested to take them at their likely drafted round. So I just move them out of the way, so I don't have to think about it round. So I just move them out of the way, so I don't have to think about it. And then obviously I'll still see them on the list of options to choose from when it's draft night.
Andrew Banta:So if they were to fall to, let's say, round eight, josh allen it's time so many people are using in our league, so many people are going to use auto draft. That's not going to happen.
Will Ott:Auto draft will take them before it gets ridiculous yeah, because I think we have typically three or four people utilize auto draft every year, which it's not my favorite. I would almost love it to be saying hey, in order to play, you have to be here on draft night if they weren't, then what would we do if?
Will Ott:they didn't have an excuse. Hey, I took, I had to take my kid to the emergency room, or something like that. I'd be like, okay, you're not playing next year, brutal, I'm also more competitive, uh, or I want that competitive atmosphere where everyone is involved Me too Obviously, and you're using your brain instead of the computer just picking the next pick. I want someone to be like hey, I made this choice.
Andrew Banta:Yeah, I wanted this player, even if it's just my favorite colors of jerseys.
Will Ott:Yeah, I don't care, it's a person drafting. Yeah, I want the buy-in too. It's so unparticipating, it's more fun that way.
Andrew Banta:That's it for this episode of Smashville Fantasy Football Podcast. As always, we have aspirations of adequacy. No-transcript.
