Fantasy First Round Mock, QB/TE Strategies and Late Round Fliers with Trevor Sikkema and The Fantasy Footballers

Welcome to NFL Daily, where it's never too early to take Michael Wilson. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wessling podcast studio talking to my friend, my new friend, my new coworker for sure, and the new host of the new fantasy show. on NFL Channel, and wherever you get your podcasts. It's Trevor Sykema. You're back for the third time this month, but the first time as an official member of the NFL family. Thank you, Trevor.

Yeah, there was a little pump fake because we thought that the second show that we were going to do was going to be my first show as an announced employee. But, you know, we got here eventually, so it's good to be on with you. And it's great to be teammates with you, buddy. I'm very much looking forward to getting to work with you a lot this year.

But also competitors because we drafted... in the same fantasy league and you sniped Michael Wilson from me. And I have to admit that was one of the moments of the draft was like, wait, how did I not even see that? I would have taken him around or two before. So I'm very angry about that, but Trevor's on because it's an, it's going to be our last fantasy preview show of the year. And like I mentioned, you know, I'm for the NFL draft and he's got to be hosting the the new show NFL Pro with Brett Coleman and check that out on NFL Channel and they're going to be diving deep. But I like talking fantasy with people that just know ball and it's a conversation we're going to have about quarterbacks, about tight ends, and then

some late round guys because that's what we didn't really hit too much on our first fantasy show. And Michael Wilson is one of those late round guys. How is Michael Wilson a late round guy? I might as well start there.

I don't really understand because... Michael Wilson finished wide receiver 10 last year in total fantasy points.

That's crazy.

Greg, he's like average draft position is somewhere between 39 and 45 in all the places that I look. Like, okay, if you think that, all right, the quarterback position, not great at first year with Michael.

Flores as the head coach there.

Uh, they're hopefully not going to have to pass as much in the third and fourth quarters that they did last year. Like I get all of that stuff. There's no way he should be wide receiver 40. There's just no way. So yeah, I feel like every single draft that I've done. I feel like 75 percent of the leagues that I'm in, I have Michael Wilson just because we get to round eight and I go, OK, yeah, I'd much rather take him a little bit lower if I scroll down a little bit than some of the guys that are here.

So to me, he's just I mean, oh, yeah.

Sometimes you look at players and you think that it's a like it's only an opportunity thing. Michael Wilson is also talented. Like he's also an extremely hard worker. Like you see that in who, like how he runs his routes, how he is at the catch point, like all of this stuff. I have faith in the player just as much as I have faith in sort of the opportunities that I think are going to be there for him.

So yes, you're not the only one to get sniped by me on Michael Wilson. So at least you're, at least you, you have a community behind you as well.

It was one of those things where he was too far down the line. I was like, Oh wait, I would have, Yeah, to me, I could see taking him in the fifth and sixth round. It's not that crazy to me. To me, there's like in terms of the full skill set, he gives me a little bit Nico Collins vibes and just that whatever you think he can do, he can do more than that. And the Ascension is going to continue. And I think there'll be plenty of passing yards to go around there for him and Marvin Harrison.

But if I had to choose one of the two, I'd go Marvin Harrison. I got sidetracked with the late round flyers. We're going to end the show that way. That's our little tease or your part of the show. We also have the fantasy footballers, one of the biggest. fantasy football podcasts, uh, in the world, uh, who are going to wrap up the show with me. And we're going to do a speed mock draft just for the top of the drafts. But Trevor, I wanted to get to the quarterback position to start with you. Cause we haven't hit that for fantasy. And it's interesting. After a few years where quarterbacks were routinely getting taken higher, less of that this year, it's Josh Allen and a decent gap to Lamar, like Allen's second Lamar's. third are you

even interested in those two at those prices and kind of how do you look at the the two big dogs this.

Year honestly obviously like if you pick them they're going to be there for you to produce the points but i i i sort of approach fantasy football is like everything kind of has its cost for you know if you're picking this position here sort of where's the cost versus you know how much points you might be losing if you're waiting on a certain position right like that's how i always I feel like I'm viewing fantasy drafts and fantasy strategies. And so to me, if you're taking one of Josh Allen really high or Lamar Jackson after that, you're, in my opinion, passing up on running backs that are...

really really valuable this year because there's just not a lot of backs that you draft and you just go like yeah i feel totally good about this guy we're going to be good to go basically the entire season running back feels like it drops off pretty quickly this year and so to me i wouldn't be picking those guys not because i don't think they're going to deliver from a fancy perspective i do but you know it's always like would you rather have josh allen and this running back or you know like derrick henry like whoever i'm just like throwing out a chances are you probably rather take the top running back because i think the gap between one of those top running backs versus who else you'd be able to get later is a lot

bigger so i think those again like i think they'll produce for you those players you just have to then get really lucky with how the rest of the draft unfolds and anytime you're dealing with something that you can't control if you gotta wait a long time before your next pick i think that also goes in this strategy.

I lean that way too and and one of the reasons i was excited to talk to you because it's really just about evaluating the football of it all and right I agree. You got to be careful of like what positions are going to be available. You know, when I made a strong case, we'll see if people listen to it last show that.

Yeah.

Rounds three and four. I just want to load up on receivers at that point. I'm already done with the running backs. Like I'm with you. Like the cliff to me happens, you know, around Chase Brown at pick 2025. And then I love those receivers. And so you're passing on them. And so I probably won't end up with those two guys. And yet, Lamar is where I can make the football case that he could be a league winner this year. And either one of them potentially could be.

But to me, I can see a scenario where Lamar has one great monster statistical rushing plus passing season that in that offense that he is QB one by a good margin and that you're getting the value out of him. I think it's obviously riskier because of the injury possibility, but it's just my spidey sensors are telling me he's going to be in there. for the MVP again, Trevor.

Come on.

And I mean, look, there's plenty of reason to believe it, right? Because if you go to the first three weeks that he played last year before he had the hamstring injury, he had... nine touchdowns, zero interceptions. He was averaging almost 40 yards per game rushing. And he was averaging, I think, right around or right over 240 yards passing per game.

So like Lamar was, and the efficiency numbers were up too. I think the completion percentage for him was above 70%. So, I mean, Lamar was absolutely cooking through the first three weeks of last year. And something I do like about the change, because there is some change, obviously, you know, with them getting a new offensive coordinator with Declan Doyle coming over. Doyle's coming over from the Chicago bears, the Chicago bears. They ran a lot of outside zone concepts last year. And that's also the Ravens under Todd Munkin ran more and more and more off or outside zone in three straight seasons. I think they were at like 16% in 2023 or I think they were around like 24%, 25% in 2024. And then last year, they were top 10

in the NFL in total outside zone rushes. And it was like 35%, 36%, something like that. So the run game, and I think the philosophy behind the run game, is going to be similar to what it was last season, which I think is going to give him a little bit of familiarity. I think when people talk about familiarity with quarterbacks, they often just kind of focus on the pass catchers or the passing game, the philosophy. I think the run game philosophy matters a lot too, and just how you have confidence in the guys that you're giving the ball off to, whether it's passing or running. So I think there's going to be a nice baseline, especially from the run game. And, you know, I think some of this is Caleb Williams, certainly, but the Bears... think

we're number one last year in like time to throw averages. And so when you have a player like Lamar, who is now up, like given the freedom, I should say to hold onto the ball longer, you just create so much more of a potential rushing threat with him. And, and I, I think that a lot is there for him to have a monster to statistical season. So I do agree with you and all that of the next group of quarterbacks. And, On average, it's Drake May, Jaden Daniels, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts are kind of in a tier.

And then there's like a mini drop and it's Caleb, Herbert, Dak in a close tier behind that. And that now takes you to the majority of your QB1s.

Out of that group, both groups. like who stands out to you the most that, that you wind up drafting that you're most excited about. And then maybe we'll get to that group who you're a little wary of.

Well, before some recent practice reports, I would have told you that Jaden Daniels was the guy who I was most excited about because, you know, when we talk about quarterbacks who have rushing ability, go back to what Daniels was able to do, not just his rookie season in the NFL, but also what he was able to do in college at LSU too, when he was winning the Heisman trophy. I mean, this guy's a true dual threat.

You know, he's, he is able to rack up all sorts of production and numbers. And in 2024, he was that offense. And obviously last year, a lot of things went wrong.

They were really beat up.

Daniels had his own injuries, but Daniels, when he's fully healthy, I have a lot of faith in this player and, and I have faith that this offense can be certainly a lot more explosive than it was last year. But the reports were that the offensive line is not just like, not good, but like bad, like maybe like the offense can't run type of level. So there's a difference between Jaden operating behind a bad offensive line and maybe being able to afford it to scramble a little bit more and just saying, okay, well, he's getting pressure in his face so quickly.

Like it doesn't even matter.

Like he can't even produce or scramble or escape or do anything off of that. So the name that I like the most is Jaden Daniels from a talent perspective, but that offensive line has to get so much better. I'm also, I'm also pretty in on Dak Prescott this year.

Yeah.

I think, I think the Cowboys overall could be in for a really, really nice year. But when I look at the Cowboys specifically, Dak hasn't been, the rusher lately that he was early on in his career which obviously sort of affects his fantasy ceiling but he's been really efficient in his you know touchdown to interception ratio and how he's taking care of the football he's got a lot of different weapons to throw the ball to and i think the cowboys are going to want to live in this world where they're playing a lot of 11 personnel they're spreading things out a lot and when you're spreading things out a lot it also gives you the opportunity to pick up those first downs to maybe you know have a boot and be able to scramble and

get into the red zone off play accurate, you get into the end zone off a play action. And so I think there's going to be a little bit more rushing opportunity for Dak Prescott this year as well. So he's been really efficient over the last couple of years as a passer, but I wonder if how much they're trying to spread the field out with all those receivers, how much he's going to actually have some open space to run a little bit more this year as well.

Now it depends how early quarterbacks go in your draft. Like, you know, a lot of these expert rankings and I used to, be one of the people making rankings. They put the quarterbacks lower because they think like you and you can wait. And there's some great guys that just aren't getting taken until late. Jared Goff is going incredibly late.

Jordan Love is going incredibly late. And you can't always wait at quarterback and get by. So you always have to adjust to what your draft does because sometimes these guys will go early. But I was quite surprised to see for such a safe pick that Dak Prescott is going as late as he is. And I don't think the rushing is ever coming back. It's just, it's not, it's not who he is. Maybe, I mean, a little bit here and there and, you know, maybe he'll rush for, for one or two touchdowns, whatever, whatever it's going to be.

He doesn't need to, if you're throwing for 4,500, 5,000 yards.

And that's right.

I think, I think he is as safe along with burrow, but to me, even a little safer, uh, that if he's out there, he's just going to give you points week after week. I do think Drake May and Hurts have a little bit higher ceilings, though, because of the rushing. May's rate stats were incredible, but they actually didn't have him throw the ball that much. So to me, he could...

He could fulfill the Josh Allen comps with a little bit more rushing, I could see happening, and then just more volume in terms of passing. And then Jalen Hurts has been the most bankable fantasy quarterback other than Josh Allen for five years. And because he's coming off an off year, you're buying him at a discount. And I kind of love everything I'm hearing about their offense. And I think he'll get back when you're talking about guys who can maybe improve his rushing ability or at least like get back to where he was. He was not playing healthy late last year and he's coming a little thinner.

And I just think they're going to be a better rushing team overall. And so I kind of like Hertz just for the value of it all, because next year he'll probably be back in the fourth or the fifth round.

If they're still going to commit to the tush push all the time, then obviously.

It's not going away.

It's not going to be valuable.

So yeah, a lot of changes, you know, the offensive play caller, obviously with Sean Mannion there, but like, if they're still committed to running the tush push as much as they have in the past, then yeah, obviously Jalen is incredibly valuable because of that.

And I, I have hope. And this happens every off season with hurts and the Eagles like, Oh, this offensive coordinator, he's really going to get it down. But, maybe he should have been in this type of Shanahan tree offense all along, uh, that, you know, taking a little bit of the decision making process away from him. And, uh, I think a strong running game and, and it would be really impressive if you're helpful for him in fantasy.

If he can just scramble a little more, when you look at some of the guys that are QB twos and you just look at the names, my homes, Stafford love, uh, I mentioned earlier, Purdy is like right on the border. It's kind of crazy, crazy that these guys are, deep QB twos, and that's making the case for waiting. Jared Goff is another one that's just very bankable. No one's excited to draft him, and he's just going to deliver good numbers for you. Who would be the guys that if you were waiting and you just wanted to double up on some relatively late quarterback twos, who are your favorite players in that mix of players. Kyler could be thrown in there. I was just going to say, it's Kyler.

It's Kyler.

Kyler's the guy that gets me the most excited because just look, we can't even take anything away from the 2025 Vikings quarterback situation.

There's no point.

Go back to 2024 when Sam Darnold was there. Sam Darnold, who, all due respect to NFL athlete and Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold, is a pocket passer type of a quarterback, right? And when you look at him and Kevin O'Connell's offense and the opportunity that he had in that scheme and what they were asking him to do, he had the most rushing attempts, the most rushing first downs, and the third most rushing yards, and he was like 25 total yards away from what would have been a career-high rushing yards that season in 2024. And I think that.

It's not because like he tried to turn Sam Darnold into something he wasn't. It's because the opportunities were there. Now you have Kyler Murray to do that. And look, I understand the unknown because for Kyler, it's basically his entire football career.

You can go back to college as well when he was at Oklahoma.

He has lived in this shotgun exclusive sort of like spread it out, air raid at times with Cliff Kingsbury and what he was doing at Oklahoma as well. Like, That's been the offense that he has operated under. Kevin O'Connell is going to run something different, but I think that that could actually go into some of his strengths.

You could get a lot of play action game where as long as he is comfortable turning his back to the line of scrimmage and then, you know, when he turns back around. identifying what he needs to identify. I mean, this is a offense that, in my opinion, you talked about this a little bit earlier, can actually kind of simplify things a little bit for him, give him a couple of easier reads. And I mean, Justin Jefferson, I feel like is even being slept on a little bit in these fantasy drafts. And it's like, guys, this is still Justin Jefferson here. And I really do just think that right now, all of the Vikings players on offense are Nobody really knows what to do with. And I think that Kyler's fit in what Kevin O'Connell is going

to want him to do is actually a good thing. I know there's unknown there because he hasn't been asked to do it, but I actually think it's going to reap some rewards. And obviously, anytime you're talking about a quarterback who can give you a lot of rushing value as well, that's big in the fantasy world. So of those players in that next year of quarterbacks, the guy I like the most to have the highest ceiling is actually Kyler.

I love that. And I also think he could be someone that is delivering for you as a fantasy owner, much more in November, December.

Yeah.

Indoor teams. And more importantly, I just think he'll be more up to speed. Even when you think about Darnold's trajectory with Kevin O'Connell, you know, it was a little, it was a fast start and then down, you know, it, but it really took him a while until he balanced out. But Kyler Murray, when he's been healthy position ranks in, in fantasy eight, Third, he missed three games in 21, still finished top 10, top 10 in 24. So, like, he delivers. This is unquestionably, to me, the best weapons he's ever had overall around him, top to bottom.

And it's the best coaching he's ever had. So, I just, I think he should, I think he should be going a lot higher.

I mean, that's, you know, Jonathan Gannon erasure there. You know, just poor Jonathan.

Jonathan Gannon, good defense of mine. Didn't work out in Arizona. Didn't work out in Arizona.

So strategy in general, it's one of those where you want the top level quarterback. If they're going too early in your draft, just look at what the opportunity cost is, what other positions are going then, what's that going to cost you? I was hurt in the draft we did together that Drake May went one pick in front of me.

But then you can be fine. You can wait and you can get good guys ultimately. At tight end, I'm curious if you... employ a similar strategy? Because to me, it's a big three. It's Bowers and McBride, and they're going, you know, second round for Bowers, maybe at the turn or in round three for McBride. And Colston Loveland, I would put in that big three. He's going more in the third round. A, do you like to take a tight end? Do you think there's value? there versus the receivers, running backs that could be there or the quarterbacks? And then B, do you agree that Loveland's even in that mix?

So, yeah, this is a multi-layered question here. So, normally, I am big on if you can get one of those top tight ends. Like, when I say the top tight ends, I truly mean, like, what you talked about, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers. I will do it because I love potentially... owning that matchup every single week. Like wide receivers, running backs certainly are a little bit less, especially this year.

But like you can find wide receivers that can produce for you. Like if the other person who you're playing against in a week is like, yeah, I feel super confident about my wide receiver too. And they're getting me say like 18 points. You might be able to find a wide receiver who gets you, you know, 13, 14.

You're only losing that matchup by, you know, four or five points. There are times where Brock Bowers could have 26, 27 points for you. Trey McBride's the same way. And the other team's tight end could put up a stinker and they could have five.

Points for you.

That's a 20 point swing. So anytime that I have the ability to do that with somebody who I have a lot of faith in a tight end, I'll a lot of times take that opportunity. That happened in our fantasy draft when I was picking back into the first round, I was picking 12. So I'm picking 12 and then I'm picking 13 in the snake. I'm not picking again until a long time. And because of that, I took Brock Bowers at 13 because I wasn't going to get him.

And then I was going to have to sort of be scrambling for a tight end. This year's a little different because there are– I'm mainly talking about Tucker Kraft and George Kittle. George Kittle and Tucker Kraft have some juicy average draft position numbers right now, so where you could feel good about drafting one of those two guys.

But outside of them, yeah, McBride, Bowers, and then Loveland, I do think can be fantastic for you. And then I think that Tyler Warren as well. If Warren's fully healthy, I think they're going to lean on him a ton more. But I am one of those people who, if I have the opportunity to take a tight end that I know is going to be a target monster in their offense, I'm going to do that more often than not because I'm trying to dominate that matchup right there. And I think that there's a lot of value in doing that.

It's bold.

Don't worry about the average draft position all the time. Make evaluations as a fantasy owner and just go with it. Who's got to be great? And I wound up with Loveland in that draft because he was still sitting there late fourth. And I'm not a guy that was thinking I'm taking a tight end there. And everything that, I don't think he's quite as talented as Bowers, but he is the number one receiver on the team that's trying to break the all-time record and points scored. I don't know if they're going to get there, but their defense might be in the mix to give up the most points in the league too. And so, I trust that offense certainly more than the Raiders offense. And so I actually think volume wise, he could end up with, with

those two guys at the very end. And then it speaks to what you're talking about earlier, which is opportunity costs where I think the cliff happens. Then I love Tucker craft and George Kittle, of course, but you have pretty major injury questions. You're not going to get maybe the full experience of, in September, you know, fantasy season's only so long. They'll probably round into shape, but health questions are big. Let's transition to like late round flyers before we leave. And you could start with a tight end because if you have any, like, Terrence Ferguson is a very late round flyer that I am very intrigued about.

I think Dalton Kincaid is more of a guy that if you really didn't end up with a tight end early in your draft and you need a starter at tight end 10, 11, I think Kincaid is going to have his best season. Maybe give me one tight end and then we'll get into your other favorite late round flyers. Yeah.

So, I mean, I think that those are obviously guys that could make a ton of sense. I have like a super I guess I would call this a super deep sleeper, just somebody who I don't think that you're like starting him right away, but either to stash on your roster if you've got a deep bench or just really keep an eye on him when it comes to.

The waiver wire.

And that's A.J. Barner for the Seattle Seahawks. And the reason why, I might just be convincing myself mad scientist here, but Barner had one of the higher separation averages of tight ends last year, so he had the ability to get open, so you know that he has that in him. Brian Fleury, who is their new offensive coordinator in Seattle, taking over for Clint Kubiak, He was the tight ends coach in San Francisco for the last four years. He developed guys, not just like George Kittle, George Kittle's incredible on his own, but Jake Tonges, Luke Farrell, like these guys are involved in the offense. Last year, the San Francisco 49ers, almost half of their passing touchdowns went to their tight ends. So I just feel as though their

new offensive coordinator has a tight end position coach background. They emphasize tight ends very heavily in that offense. I think they're going to continue to do so. And so Barner might be this sneaky player who, if you don't get one of the top tight ends and you're kind of just taking a flyer on a guy, you're I'd stash him on your roster as long as you have a pretty deep bench. And if not, then I'd really keep an eye on him when it came to the waiver wire. Cause again, like I just, I have a passion for trying to emphasize that tight end position in fantasy a lot. And Barner is somebody who could be a sneaky good one.

Plus he's got the coolest touchdown celebration. If you ever see him in person, he is just such an imposing physical presence. You're like, this guy's got to be awesome. And I wouldn't be shocked if he's second on that team in receptions. Like I, you know, like cup and Shaheed are going to get their share. But Barner could be in the mix as kind of the number two.

I'm totally with you. I think he's worth drafting as a tight end, too. Chica Conquo is another guy in that range I kind of like. And then Isaiah Likely, similar to Kincaid, if you didn't get one early. Yeah. He's got a chance to be second in receptions if Malik Neighbors is healthy.

And.

if Malik neighbors is missing games for that particular game, likely is probably your favorite to lead in targets. Let's go to a different position or just general late round flyers. Before we say goodbye to you, I had to throw out one name specifically. I promised my son Walker, who's just addicted to fantasy and he wants RJ Harvey in every draft. What do you think of RJ Harvey? And then we'll, we'll talk other late round flyers.

I love it.

That's pulling on my heartstrings right there because I was a big R.J. Harvey guy as a draft analyst.

I thought it was because me and my son share something and we're bonding over this, but you're just more into R.J. Harvey.

No, it's selfishly because I need my draft takes to look good. So I need more public support for a lot of those. But I think that R.J. Harvey obviously has the skill set. to be able to contribute for you on all three downs. He's got soft hands in the receiving game. He can make you miss in open field, which is a trait that is not always guaranteed with running backs. I think a lot of times people just go like, oh, yeah, he can find all this open space.

And then you go, okay, well, what does he do when he gets to open space then? Does he panic? Does he find the sideline? Does he run immediately to the nearest defender? Or does he actually know how to manipulate that space and make the most of an explosive run? I think Harvey approaches things with a true playmaker's mentality.

the consistency hasn't quite been there for him the way that it needs to, for him to, I think really take the reins of that running back room. It's going to be more by committee, but I do, I do like RJ Harvey there.

Um, well, okay.

This is another similar to me, by the way, like family's important and all that's great, but it's the takes that you root for ultimately being, being right.

Yes.

Your own value has to, has to be, um, Blake, Blake Corum's another guy who's very interesting. I talked about him, uh, on the fantasy show, uh, that we did earlier this week. And the reason why I like him is because very clearly the committee with him and Kyron Williams is a true, like it's, it's, it's one and two. Now it's one, like Kyron is the one for sure. But then Blake Corum is absolutely the two. When you look at last year's snap counts, less than 2% of the total running back snap counts last year went to somebody that was not named Kyron Williams and Blake Corum.

It was one of those two guys. That's it.

So we know that Kyron Williams is going to be their RB1. But if Kyron goes down or misses time for whatever reason, it's just Blake Corum. They're going to stick Blake Corum in the game for basically every single situation because there's not a lot of experience with any of the other backs on the roster. to really be able to execute and have that experience to be relied upon in a heavy snap count basis. So I think that he's another one where, again, if you've got a deeper bench, if you're on a deeper league, like make sure you're prioritizing quorum as a legit handcuff, not just for, okay.

Like if he's, he's kind of handcuffing Kyron Williams here game to game. But again, if Kyron ever misses time, I mean, you might have a surefire RB two on your team that you get to then just put in your lineup with him.

He could have standalone value. It's a great shout out. I am surprised now to see how ladies going, right? It will stick with me. I think for quorum's career that ultimately in the NFC championship game, and they played great offense. I mean, they were the one team that made Seattle's defense look ordinary over and over and over again.

You know, who's on the field. It was Blake quorum, like in the biggest of spots, Blake quorum, I think played as much or more than Kyron Williams snap count in the NFC championship game. Had great production, big plays. And yeah, they trust him. All right. I'll throw out some of my late round flyers. If you you have one or two you just want to hit rapid fire go for it i do like josh downs who's going like in round 10 or 11 just think he'll have a lot of high volume i was so thin at running back in our draft that i loaded up on these types of guys i think are the best bets Kalen Black, I think, is a good late round pick with the 49ers, with all the concern about Christian McCaffrey.

Mike Washington's going to be starting out the season, having a role for the Raiders. I think it could last. I kind of like Woody Marks to have a better season than people expect for Houston. And then I'll even throw out Marshawn Lloyd, a player... where I'm going against what I normally say, I'm not sure I really believe in the player, but I think people are sleeping on how crazy this opportunity is unless they add some veteran.

He is going to get a lot of run this year. I think Josh Jacobs is going to get suspended. And I think Josh Jacobs is an injury risk too. So those are some of my late round guys that are my favorites. I don't know if you agree, disagree on any of those and have any favorites you want to throw out.

One other one, one other one that I'll, I'll just shout out is, is Jalen Warren. I feel, I feel like in some drafts that I've done, Jalen Warren's lasted a really long time.

Yes.

Ninth, 10th, 11th round. And I go, OK, yeah, obviously they they have Rico Dowdle now and he's going to be a factor for sure. And and I get that it's a new offense, but it's still Aaron Rodgers.

Mm hmm.

Aaron Rodgers still doesn't want to get hit. Guess what he's going to want on the field to not get hit? A running back to dump the ball off to. So if you are in a PPR league, I think Jalen Warren's going way too late for how much he was used as a receiver last year. Pretty sure the Steelers led the NFL in targets and receptions to the running back position. through the regular season. Either they finished first or second. I can't remember because they were back and forth towards the end of the season. But I think Jalen Warren's going to get plenty of work still as a receiver. So if you're in a PPR league, I think he's going way too late.

I totally agree. He is falling into that bucket of players. It's no longer a cool young player. And he's not declining in reality, but people are just bored of taking him. He is lasting too long. And he wakes up making people miss. I mean, he does every year. He leads the NFL in broken tackle rate, missed tackle rate. Um, every, every day Sycamore wakes up and he's just slinging takes all day long. That that's what he does on a variety now of, uh, NFL media programs. Uh, we're definitely going to try to have you on an NFL daily here and there. You're going to be busy, uh, during the season, but good luck with everything with the fantasy show.

And then everyone check out, subscribe, uh, to NFL Pro. It's already got its own YouTube channel. Trevor and Brett Coleman, two of the best to do it. Appreciate you.

I appreciate you having me, man. Excited to be both teammates and competitors here this upcoming season.

I will be taking you down. And that's fine. You know, we can do that as new friends. Let's take a quick break. We'll talk to some other new friends after the break. It's the Fantasy Footballers.

See you then.

Back on NFL Daily, wrapping up our second fantasy football preview. One thing I realized as I bring in the fantasy footballers, we had them on a couple of years ago. We got two out of the three here, Jason and Mike. We're missing Andy.

You got the best ones. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we did. They have one of the biggest podcasts in the world. Not even fantasy football podcast, but just podcast period. And I looked through kind of what we did last week with Josh Norris. And we just talked with our friend Trevor Sycamore. about strategy and wide receivers in the middle of the draft and late round flyers and tight end quarterback strategy. We haven't really hit the top.

So I'm going to keep this simple. This is all my 11 year old son wants to talk about anyways, is the first two rounds of the draft. And we're just going to pretend like we're drafting, basically go down our big boards and hit as many of the top 20, 25 players or so in some sort of order, just so we can kind of look at what the first two rounds are going to look like. So why don't we, I'll start with Jason in this mock draft. That's not a mock draft. Cause we're not really building a team.

Who is, who is your number one overall?

It's, it is clearly the easiest.

That's right. I get, I get the number one. It's Gibbs.

Jameer Gibbs is, I think he's capable of breaking fantasy this year. You know, Every couple of years, someone goes nuclear and pretty much is on half of championship rosters. This year, you know, people ask us all. One of the most common questions we get is, where do you want to draft? If you could pick your draft spot, where do you want to draft? Most years, it's somewhere like pick four, pick five. There's like a couple of elites, and I want the last one of them so I can get the highest second round pick.

This year, I want the 101.

Jameer Gibbs without David Montgomery with, you know, the quotes from Dan Campbell talking about We haven't scratched the surface with him.

We're going to push him. We're going to see more. It's like you can't see much more.

But also, if you look at the games that Jameer Gibbs has played without David Montgomery in his career, he outscores LaDainian Tomlinson. He outscores Christian McCaffrey's best years. Like he has the potential to truly by himself kind of win a championship this year if he stays healthy and does what his potential would allow.

I like that Mike jumped in easy quickly and said, Oh, that's the easiest pick. So you think there's a big, I'll give you the second. Do you think there's a big drop between whoever you have at two is I do.

I don't know that it's a necessarily at the end of the year, we'll have a huge drop in points. It's just risk, you know, have like Demir Gibbs is the bell cow and he's on a high powered offense.

The number two pick. Am I, am I up? Am I taking him?

Yeah, go for it.

It's Bijan.

It's not, you're not going to mess around with it. I, Kind of spent the beginning of the offseason more on the side of Bijon over Gibbs just a little bit. But, oh man, the news out of Atlanta is not.

I know, it's tough. It's not the best you have.

When you have a quarterback competition where one of them isn't playing and they're winning the job.

By not playing. Yeah, it's like, that's not good.

But Bijan, he's a special talent like Jameer Gibbs. And we know that he can hold up to all the touches. And he will get all the touches. Similar to Gibbs, his nemesis. Not his, it was probably his buddy. Our nemesis in terms of. Tyler Algier stealing away a whole bunch of goal line opportunities over the years from Bijan.

That threat is gone. I'm not as worried about Brian Robinson. Make sure you're drafting the right B Robinson. Everyone from Atlanta. The double check always measure.

It happened. It happened to a friend of mine. Not not this year. A couple of years ago.

It's harder now because they're both on the same roster. It's like, no, I check. This is the Falcons.

He retells that story all the time. I'm like, you don't need to retell that story.

You don't have to tell people embarrassing stuff about yourself.

It just makes you look like an idiot.

But Bijan will be a three-down workhorse, and we saw some long touchdowns finally last year, so I'm pretty confident in him as my second pick.

All-time great.

And they do have Bill Callahan as their offensive line coach there and a bunch of guys who have started a long time. So that would be one note of optimism. The other is just that he's a freak. Now, this came up in the draft I did. I'm going to go nuts here. I'm so panicked about the wide receiver turn.

I don't want to repeat my takes because I made a big Saquon over CMC stand on our previous show. I don't think it's that crazy to go Saquon third overall. I honestly think there's such a crazy.

I don't want.

I want a real running back.

You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. You don't have to say this out loud. You don't have to say embarrassing things.

I know.

We just went over this.

If I don't want to get like made fun of and like because I know in this particular quote unquote draft, like I'll get him six or eight or whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

But Chase Brown was my cutoff of running backs, and I don't have Jenty in that group. I want one of these eight or nine running backs, and I don't want to get stuck at the turn with none of the running backs. And I actually feel good enough about the receivers that I don't think it's that crazy to take Saquon here, but I know I.

Don't have to.

We always say on the shows, if you believe in a guy, take him. It doesn't matter what we say or anybody else says. If you are confident... I think you're right strategically. The running backs in the middle rounds, they're pushed up where they shouldn't be. They're terrible picks. They're trash. So you really do need to leave the first couple of rounds with a running back or three.

And there's tear breaks. So if you believe Saquon over some of those other running backs, I mean, personally... Saquon, to me, there's probably eight or nine more running backs that I would prefer to have over Saquon. Now, obviously, Lane Johnson, if he's healthy and the offensive line is better and, you know, there's a bounce back. But it's rare to see, you know, coming up to near age 30 off of a large workload, the efficiency numbers get better after it dips for a year.

And that's my fear with Saquon.

I'm trusting the offense. I'm trusting the camp reports.

I mean.

Come on, Jason.

Haven't you heard about the camp practice under the lights that they just had? The team scrimmage where he's going like, maybe I'm getting carried away.

I mean, Saquon is a great player.

And, you know, if that's the next running back you want, you don't want to get stuck at the turn without one.

Draft him. This is great news for me, though. Right.

The crazy thing is taking him over the best receivers. Maybe that's too far. It's maybe I just have him RB3, but maybe he deserves to be more like 7th or 8th overall. So where would you go with the next pick?

To me, it's Gibbs and Bijan at the top and followed by four wide receivers. The next group of running backs after those two are behind my elite wide receivers. Jamar Chase is my number one this year. I think in most years he would be, I think. You can make an argument for a handful of these wide receivers to be the best, but athletically, he's so special, and I think he's got the best quarterback of the bunch.

So if they're healthy, I mean, we've seen it before, the wide receiver one overall where he lapsed the field, I'll pull the trigger on Jamar Chase.

Do you have Chase number one overall as well? At receiver, rather.

I do, yeah. I'm very... optimistic for the Cincinnati Bengals this year. Very, very....

I think they're the team that you want pieces of. Mike is unhealthy levels of optimistic about the Bengals.

I tend to agree. It's a tough call between him and JSN and what we'll get to the other options. But yeah, who are you going to take then? Who's your second receiver if that's how you go?

Well, I wouldn't take a second receiver. If we're doing a draft, I would take McCaffrey here. I would take on the risk of I mean, you want to talk wide receivers, McCaffrey's receiving numbers would have put him as a top 12 wide receiver last year, except he's not. He's a running back and he gets a bunch of carries on the ground. He, you know, we're like dribbling, Dajon's dribbling the rookie, the second rounder. It's like there's, you're trying to figure out what is, what's the answer for San Francisco? Kittle, is he going to be ready off of the Achilles? The answer is McCaffrey until the wheels fall off. He's going to catch 100 passes or so.

He's going to carry the ball, or like the plan, he'll carry the ball 250, 300 times or so. He will do it again. The McCaffrey argument, it kind of just, it's boring. It's old. It's tired because the entire argument is if McCaffrey stays healthy, he's the RB1 at the end of the, I believe he will be the RB1 over Jameer.

Gibbs if he stays healthy. Healthy. That's the question because.

There's previous years where he's led the league in touches. He has not stayed healthy the next year. It did freak me out. He was out of camp for a minute, but I should point out.

It was just a little tight.

Part of the plan, right? Part of the plan, just tightness. I'm a little bit more freaked out as well. I'm less bullish, but obviously you can't really argue against Christian McCaffrey. He's either been the running back number one or number two overall or injured. And that's his range of outcomes.

Three of four years with San Francisco as the number two or number one running back in fantasy, and not just like the number one in fantasy football, the number one where if he was on your team, you made the playoffs.

What Gibbs is going to do this year. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not rooting against you, but I did draft Kalen Black just.

Without my cap.

I have no problem with people wanting to hedge or take the other side of the bet. It's just a, does he stay healthy? Where, you know, like Bijan, things could go really bad for the Falcons. We just talked about the quarterback situation. Things outside of Bijan's control could go bad, and McCaffrey will be fine.

Look, injuries and things could go bad. I guess, you know, we've done fantasy long enough.

Every player.

Yeah, for literally every player, but the... Kind of the line for me, and it's weird, maybe Saquon shouldn't be quite above it, is just those two running backs. And then I just feel so good about the next receivers that I'm just going to play it safer and go with Jackson Smith and Jigba over McCaffrey and really over any other running back. There's like a slight worry about total volume and maybe the pie is split up a little more this year. How could it not be with A.J.

Barner and Shahid's there the whole year? But the low end of outcomes and watching hard knocks is definitely contributing to this, that this guy's just like, you know, like a future hall of famer. When you see him, he just is so sick to watch.

He is definitely it. I don't blame anyone for making him your wide receiver one. I think you can make arguments. Like I said, for, for four different guys, uh, at that position. And obviously what he did last year, leading the league in receiving, having double-digit touchdowns, winning a Super Bowl.

You can't really ask much more from him. But it was such a perfect year. Everything went right. When you have that many receptions and you're over 15 yards of reception, that just doesn't happen back-to-back years. So I think there will be a little bit of regression, but I'd still love to have him. If I'm now on the clock, I'm going to live dangerously. You know, there's there's some risk out there, maybe off the field, but I'd pull the trigger here on on Puka Nakua. You've got a guy who could easily lead the league in receptions in yardage is finally used around the goal line. Just a dominant player. And my favorite part is the consistency. You know, it's like he's not one of these boom-blast wide receivers that,

you know, at the end of the year, he looks great, but that's because half his games were great and half his games were bad. He's just every single week going to put up tons of points, catch a million balls, plays through injury. So Puka is really just the only worry is like, you know, he's more between the ears.

He's doing some dumb stuff.

Yeah.

But yeah, being a knucklehead is not that kind of knucklehead. Yeah. You can't cross off all the knuckleheads. Well, what if you knew he suspended week one, which I think is a realistic.

If I knew that right right now, Puka is my wide receiver to ahead of Jason. And if he was if he was suspended week one, I would take the other two guys in my top four over Puka for sure.

I agree that you wouldn't knock him down, though, too far. To me, it's one game. You're playing the long game. And to me, he'd still be a top eight pick. Where do you go then, Mike?

So it's between the there's two players. I would narrow it down to.

And. You know, are the.

What you're saying about the running backs, I tend to agree. So I would just I'm going to take James Cook here. James Cook is here that he's elite. And people don't think of James Cook as elite, but you really should. The guy seems to just get better each and every year. He is a perfect fit for the offense. Yeah, Josh Allen's going to take some rushing touchdowns away. That hasn't stopped James Cook from piling up rushing touchdowns in recent memory.

And maybe we get a little bit more pass. There's whispers in the bushes of maybe a little bit more passing work this year. If you added that Then James Cook is someone who can actually go for that RB1 overall position. But I would feel very confident with him as a running back one here.

And he's just, he's great at football in a way that people don't seem to recognize. I'm not really sure why. Josh Norris and I talked about that too, about just like, you know, First, you want to know who are the best players. My theory is maybe it's just a boring name. And he was Dalvin's brother. He was supposed to be Dalvin's lesser brother, but he's turned into Dalvin's equal or better brother. Or he's just lost in the Josh Allen sauce.

I don't know.

I think it was expectations coming in you know he wasn't a first overall you know a first round pick a highly drafted superstar running back he wasn't supposed to be that and then he got off to a slow start in his rookie season so by the time you got to year two it was like the priors were confirmed but it's just it's dumb and wrong and obviously he's on a great team when you when you're drafting running backs you're gonna very soon you know you just talked about genti not being in the top there's there's a lot of these great running backs it's like man, how does it work for the Raiders and the Dolphins to score enough points? But if you're on the bills, you're okay.

I totally agree. If listeners out there aren't really feeling my Saquon Barkley or Dye flag plant, I think James Cook could slide right in there. I think he fits with all these top wide receivers. You probably couldn't take him too high for me to think it's a reach. Even if he went third or fourth overall, that seems fine to me. I'll go... I'll go Justin Jefferson here. Whoa, man.

I have the benefit that I kind of ignore all fantasy until like second week of August. Like a lot of fans out there. But I used to do it for a living like you guys. And there are these ADPs out there that I'm just like, what?

Really?

And to me, I'm just, I'm not worried. To me, it's like, This is one of the greatest receivers I've ever seen play football. To me, he's right there. I don't mind that he's in my pecking order behind the three receivers that were taken already. But to me, they're kind of 1A, B, C, and D. I think they're going to produce offense. Kyler can produce offense, whether he's like a great NFL quarterback. I don't know, but they'll have plenty of yardage in Justin Jefferson's Justin Jefferson. So I just feel like there's I maybe you guys disagree.

I feel like there's very little downside in Justin.

There's well, there's definitely downside. There's all the upside in the world. I mean, if you want to say he's the best wide receiver in the league, neither one of us would ever argue against that. um the downside is just if kyler can't get it done i mean we saw last year justin jefferson played 17 games you know he wasn't injured at all and you can't even believe that because i don't know do you know where he finished.

Wide receiver 22 at 9.4 points per.

Yeah it was it was not to accept that yeah yeah throw that up i don't think that's gonna happen again either we've seen down years from like deandre Hopkins where he was bad one year and then he came back.

He was the wide receiver one the next year.

If you want to call your shot and say the Vikings are fixed without JJ McCarthy and the problems of nine, that's totally fine.

We're from Arizona. We had to deal with Kyler.

Here for a long time. And I think we're not skeptical that it could work. But we can definitely see how it doesn't. And then so like my pick next, if I'm on the clock now for it is Amon Ross St.

Brown. Yeah.

And so maybe Justin Jefferson could be number one and Amon Raw might not be number one. But Amon Raw has been number three, three years in a row. And so I'm getting him here as the fifth wide receiver off the board. Nothing has changed for him. His team is the same. His coaching staff is the same. His quarterback is the same. Their schedule is much easier now.

this year since they've got the fourth place schedule. So Amon Ross St. Brown to me is, is I think he is not given. I mean, obviously he's a first round pick. Everyone knows like James Cook where it's like, yeah, he very similar. He should be thought of with the elites of the elite.

Yes.

And he's just, he's not because he's not that archetype of player. Another guy who will play through any injury imaginable.

It's true. And you're right about the schedule and all the indoors games. Although, you know, Justin Jefferson gets him to at home at least. I'm with you like that. That is like the less sexy pick. If Sam Laporta is actually back, you know, maybe that cuts into to him a little because, you know, they're both over the middle.

I think that helped Amonra. But you're right. It's been in three, you know, a bunch of straight years. So it's hard to argue there.

All right.

Let's make this like a first-round mock. So this will be your last pick here, Mike, and we'll end with my pick here at 12, so choose wisely.

All right.

So this is where I throw the ADP out a little bit, and I'm just going with my rankings. I will take Kenneth Walker of the Kansas City Chiefs, who he is.

Just the man I love so much.

I've been a Kenneth Walker truther since the very beginning. And there's been some highs and there's been a lot of lows here. It's been mostly lows.

And you're buying high. You're buying high right now. You're buying the peak. But I'm 100% in of the Andy Reid's offense has been For what we know of Andy Reid, it has been broken, truly broken for a couple years now. And their decision this year to fix it was to throw a whole bunch of money at Kenneth Walker and immediately.

When people are looking at free agency, who went where, I love the day one, whatever, the tampering. It's like the deal's not even done, but it's agreed upon. And the free agency isn't even open. They went and got Kenneth Walker. And I'm sure Walker had tons and tons of suitors, but he gets to go play with Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reed, running backs, not in the last five years when they've just been bad. They've been bell cow players who are getting, you know, 25 plus opportunities a game.

He's Andy Reed was our running back guru for a long time. He was a wizard. You went Kareem hunt when there went there and he's a third round pick.

You went, don't care. Give me Kareem hunt.

And then, Up until he was a knucklehead, he was a fantasy superstar in Kansas City, and I think that's what's going to happen with Kenneth Walker, not just on the ground, but through the air. And I think that Walker really, really helps this offense in terms of the wide receivers aren't top-tier guys, but you didn't have to worry about the running back at all. You didn't have to worry about Pacheco or the husk of Kareem Hunt.

It was like But now you really, really have to worry about it. And I think they're going to feed him tons. This dude is going to be barfing on the sidelines.

I like that you guys disagree so much on this because I don't think....

I like Kenneth Walker a lot this year. I don't disagree with the premise. I wouldn't take him here. I love where he's going in most drafts at the back of the second. I think that's thievery. And I want to personally keep him there. so that I can draft him there in these drafts. But I know if I'm in a draft with Mike, he will never make it there.

It's tricky because you guys now have a big enough platform that you can impact the ADP. If you all agreed Kenneth Walker is a first-round pick, that'll just move things a little bit.

Yeah, we had our My Guys episode yesterday, and I saw Kenneth Walker, and I saw a bunch of ADP today of some of these guys.

They're around up now, and that's tough.

That's amazing.

The power that you have. Yeah.

Kenneth Walker is on my list of guys like I would accept. It's like as my second round running back. And so I don't disagree with the overall point. Chase Brown's definitely on that list.

Yeah. Love Chase.

Jonathan Taylor is someone I'm considering here, but he certainly would be on that list. And that's that's about it for me. I feel a little anxious about H.N. And then after that, I think I would actually rather have the receivers and even the Brock Bowers is of the world and just play it safe and just hope for the best later at wide receiver, which means I got the last pick and I'll go CD lamb here. It like, who would have you guys been thinking heavily?

Yeah.

It would have been between CD lamb and Jonathan Taylor. And I would have gone CD lamb.

Same.

Um, just, just bankable. I think George Bick, George Pickens is a little more bankable than I've seen in draft. So if he's there on the two, three turn, um, I'm feeling good about that too. I think there's enough for them, them both to eat. And I do love all the reports of, of Pickens kind of coming in hungry and ready for this season, but he's still not CD lamb, just like as a consistent overall talent. So, Lamb is my pick. That's our first round.

We did it.

I gave you the easy stuff, kind of like the low-hanging fruit. We hadn't hit that yet, but I wanted to hit the top of the draft.

That's the most exciting part.

I mean, the top of the draft is what people care about the most. They leave their draft and they go, who did I get in the first? That's what they care about.

Appreciate you both. We'll have to give Andy some grief, but that's Jason Moore and Mike Wright, of course, of the Fantasy Footballers. Thanks, guys.

Hey, thank you, man. Always a pleasure, man.

Thanks again to the fantasy footballers. Thank you to Trevor Sykema. Man, I got a lot of fantasy takes out in the last couple of weeks. Just guys I don't want, like Ashton Gentry. I think we've gone over it at this point. Those receivers, and especially the Titans, are going to be bankable. Couple items of news before we finish up for the week.

Leonard Williams signed a big contract. Congratulations to him for the Seahawks. I noticed the Texans tackle Braden Smith got injured. That's not a good sign for their Offensive line, Trent Brown probably at right tackle. But most importantly, so many people have reached out in the last 24 hours about the NFL canceling the Pro Bowl and the Pro Bowl games.

And if you've been with me going back to around the NFL and especially JRVP, you know how much the Pro Bowl has meant to me and Anthony over the years. And I appreciate all the well wishes. And just ask for a little bit of privacy here.

At this time. Um, it's tough.

It's tough for everyone here at the NFL. Sorry to hit end the show on such a down note. Let's put, put the music on Eric. Um, but yeah, I, um, it's going to take a little while to recover from this. We'll do it by Sunday, Sunday evening, big show live on YouTube. And in your ears, a few hours later, Jordan Rodrigue and I will break down all the cuts, all the trades and, All the teams getting ready for week one. It is happening on Sunday. We will see you then.

Fantasy First Round Mock, QB/TE Strategies and Late Round Fliers with Trevor Sikkema and The Fantasy Footballers

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