Best Pick: Dwayne Haskins Jr. (7)

Worst Pick: Courtland Sutton (6)

I have to think that if we redrafted today, John wouldn’t go RB/RB in the first two rounds. I understand the thinking - last year Chase built an elite team while all but ignoring QBs in the draft, and was able to upgrade the position with some timely trading before the playoffs.

The difference in John’s circumstances and Chase’s 2019 circumstances is that Chase had stockpiled early picks by trading back from #1 overall - having the worst QBs in the league doesn’t look as bad when you’re able to build off McCaffrey/Saquon/Julio/Reek. John still had the option of building a base like that - can you imagine how different his squad would look if he had Zeke/Cook/Julio/OBJ? That was very much in the cards if he bypassed QBs for another few rounds. That’s the kind of team that you’d have to assume makes the playoffs no matter what QBs they have. From there he still would have been able to draft Darnold/Haskins and could have chosen between Tyrod/Bears as a “break in case of emergency” QB. Instead he drafted Bridgewater, who is a fine mid-range QB2, and Kelce, a luxury he couldn’t afford given his roster needs and the fact that he could have drafted a top 10 TE a full 10 rounds later.

It was hard to pinpoint a “worst” pick for John because his poor roster really isn’t a result of bad individual picks, but more of an entire draft strategy gone wrong. There’s nothing wrong with Zeke in the 1st, Kelce in the 4th, etc. etc. except for how it affects his roster as a whole. That being said, Sutton was a reach. It’s tough to find solid WR1 value in the 6th round, but it was there. Both Keenan Allen and Allen Robinson finished as top 12 WRs last season, and plenty of high ceiling guys like AJ Green, Stefon Diggs, and Marquise Brown were still available as well. I don’t think Sutton is bad, but Denver’s QB situation is pretty suspect and Sutton will be losing targets to Jerry Jeudy, Melvin Gordon, and Noah Fant. 

Any hope John has for making the playoffs revolves around his trade capital. As bad as his roster is, if he puts any of his big 3 (Zeke/Cook/Kelce) on the block he’ll get all kinds of interesting offers. In the meantime, he’s got the worst roster in the league, and it’s not close.

​

Best Pick: Marlon Mack (17)

Worst Pick: Jonathan Taylor (5)

Brad took Aaron Rodgers with the 10th pick of the draft, marking the 12th year in a row that Rodgers was a top 10 pick in the Gridiron. Huck took him with the 2nd pick of the 4th round in 2008, a steal given that he finished as QB4 that year, and Rodgers has been a staple for people (mostly Brad) to build around ever since. 

Rodgers was QB7 in 2019, and my money is on him finishing between QB10-QB15 this season. Aaron Jones was the Packers’ first 1,000 yard rusher since Eddie Lacy in 2014, and they invested a 1st round pick in Rodgers’ new backup and a 2nd round pick in an additional RB (AJ Dillon), so it’s pretty clear what direction Matt LaFleur is driving the team. Pair that with a rookie QB (Burrow) behind one of the league’s worst offensive lines and Brad’s QB situation looks average at best. 

Everyone knows that Brad prefers his fantasy players to fit one of three specific parameters - they played for LSU, they play for the Saints, or they’re in the AFC South. That’s the only explanation I can think of for Brad spending a 5th round pick on a rookie RB in a timeshare. Don’t get me wrong, Marlon Mack in the 17th was a fantastic pick. He finished as a top 20 RB last season, scoring more fantasy points per game than LeVeon Bell. With all of that in mind, in what universe is Jonathan Taylor worth a 5th round pick ahead of players like Conner, LeVeon, McLaurin, Theilen, and others who don’t have nearly as much competition for touches?

As for his WRs, Brad drafted three huge question marks. I had both Baker and OBJ last season and watched a lot of Browns games. They showed no chemistry whatsoever, and since then the Browns have added Austin Hooper as an additional target and hired a run-first head coach. “AJ Green is going to be a great pick if he can stay healthy!” is something we’ve been saying for the past few years; who knows if he’s got anything left in the tank? Oddly enough, I think Michael Gallup has the highest upside of any receiver Brad drafted. He led the Cowboys in targets per game last season (113 in only 14 games), and with both Cobb and Witten no longer being on the team, that leaves 166 additional targets from last season being up for grabs. CeeDee Lamb should get some of those, but Gallup is still going to be the Cowboys’ preferred deep threat.

Even with all of these issues, Brad finished much better than 13th from an RBR standpoint in both Chase and I’s rankings. However, as John* is always talking about, team management is just as important as the draft, and that’s not something Brad usually takes seriously. He made the playoffs last year for the first time since 2015, but I don’t see him repeating last year’s 8th place finish (dream big!) without a significant amount of effort.

Best Pick: Diontae Johnson (14)

Worst Pick: Mecole Hardman (5)

One of the biggest disagreements Chase and I have had about the rankings over thet past week revolves around Scott’s QBs. Matt Ryan and Derek Carr together have a higher ceiling than any other QB tandem in the Gridiron. That may sound like a bold prediction, but hear me out - Matt Ryan finished as QB8, QB2, and QB3 in 2014/16/18 respectively. The man is an even year dynamo. I know that’s a random thing to bet on, but pair that with the fact that he’s got Julio/Ridley and new additions in Hurst/Gurley to throw to and what’s stopping him from another even year breakout? 

As for Carr, he finished as QB17 last season and QB20 in 2018. He was QB2 (behind only Russell Wilson) in 2017 on a per-game basis before breaking his back in week 10, and is now playing with arguably the best receiving weapons he’s ever had. I know Huck made a huge production about how ridiculous it was for Carr to be taken by Scott as QB21 off the board, but at worst it was just a boring pick.

Beyond the QBs, Scott’s draft left me wanting. I was surprised at how early he took Miles Sanders, but given the lack of other weapons in that offense I understand the upside. I love Mark Ingram, but it’s hard to imagine a situation where the Ravens backfield isn’t a crowded timeshare this season with Dobbins being added to a backfield that already included Gus Bus Edwards and Justice Hill. 

Tyler Lockett was a great pick, but Scott’s 2nd best receiver wasn’t taken until the 14th round. I don’t understand taking Hardman where he did when surefire WRs like McLaurin, Allen, and Theilen (all of whom will lead their respective teams in targets) were still available. He finished as WR25 last season thanks to his 800+ return yards, but even if you assume his receiving numbers go up that’s still a pretty streaky stat to rely on. Johnson, on the other hand, led the Steelers in targets last season (93) and will have an actual QB throwing to him for the first time in his career!

Still, despite the high ceiling I see for this team’s QBs and the upside that players like Sanders and Johnson have, if I ask myself “what’s most likely to happen” for Darth Scott I’d have to say they finish somewhere between 7th and 12th. Scott has taken managed to take rosters much worse off than this one to the playoffs in the past (like last season’s Franken-team), but for the time being I’d say he has his work cut out for him.

Best Picks: Garoppolo, Kittle (4)

Worst Pick: Raheem Mostert (5)

Clay and John* have similar teams - bad QBs, one dominant skill position, elite TE. However, unlike the FUPA Slayer, Eternal Touchdown actually has balance and upside to its weaker positions.

Garoppolo and Kittle may be the strongest stack in the Gridiron. The 49ers made the Superbowl on the back of their defense (which is why they’re the wrong team for a tripod, but I’ll get to that), but that doesn’t change the fact that Kittle is an absolute beast. He’s the only player on the team that had over 100 targets last season, and now the 49ers are going into the season without both Emmanuel Sanders (who is now in New Orleans) and Deebo “so droppy” Samuel (at least for a while), which means there could be 134 targets up for grabs in San Francisco. Some of those will go to unknowns like Aiyuk and Hurd, but I’d still expect Kittle to lead the league in TE targets this season. It’s going to be frustrating to watch 49ers games when you’re facing Clay this season, even if Garoppolo only has one reliable target to throw to.

Unlike Kittle, Mostert is not guaranteed a ton of touches this season. He was one of 3 San Fransisco RBs last season with at least 130 rushes, and the backfield is no less crowded this season. McKinnon, Mostert, and Coleman are all set to earn $2.9m+ this year, and what reason does the team have after making the Superbowl with a runningback-by-committee approach last season?

I’m buying the lede with all of this 49ers talk - Eternal Touchdown is only ranked as high as it is because of his WRs. It’s not crazy to think that either Julio, Godwin, or AJ Brown could be the #1 WR in fantasy football this year. I personally think Clay’s best course of action is similar to what I said about the FUPA Slayer; turn an elite surplus into assets that’ll make a well-rounded and more competitive fantasy team. However, I’m assuming Clay has higher hopes for the San Fransico offense and Daniel Jones/Kenyan Drake than I do, and he’ll let the team play out for at least the first several weeks of the season.

Chase and Clay both made the championship last season after making wild draft pick trades, but it’ll be interesting to see if that holds up this year. It’d be impossible to put together a QB tandem like Clay had last year (Watson/Wilson) or an elite set of WRs like he has this year without trading picks, but the lack of roster balance may not make the trades worth it in the end.

Best Pick: Marquise Brown (8)

Worst Pick: Drew Lock (4)

The first time Trevor drafted Drew Brees was in 2006, which was the first time Brees finished as a top 5 fantasy QB. Since then, my cousin Drew has finished every season as QB9 or higher on a per-game basis. In fact, Brees has finished as a top 4 QB on a per-game basis every year but one (he finished as QB9 in 2017) since 2011. Trevor drafted him as the 10th QB off the board this year. I get that he’s old and had a thumb injury last year, but still - is there a safer bet this year than Brees? The Saints are returning an elite offensive line, the best WR in football, and the same coach/QB combination and offense that the team has run for the past 15 years. I think most of us assume that the new abridged training camp and lack of preseason games will lead to some early season rust for most teams, but it seems like the Saints are set to be one of the teams least affected by this.

Drew Lock, on the other hand, is among the bottom 5 QBs in my rankings. If it wasn’t clear in the podcast, I rely heavily on PFF and Pro Football Reference metrics to rank QBs. Lock improved towards the end of the season last year, but looking at this 2019 stats as a whole left little to be optimistic about his future as a fantasy QB. He’s got new weapons in Jerry Jeudy and Melvin Gordon, but even then I don’t have high expectations.

Trevor’s RBs are one of the biggest differences in Chase and I’s rankings - I love them, he doesn’t. I understand the downside that come with Chubb and Conner: Kareem Hunt exists and Conner gets injured. However, Chubb gets to play in a real offense this year, and if Stefanski is carrying over the same playbook he ran in Minnesota it’s an offense that revolves around zone runs. On top of that, Kareem Hunt actually didn’t have the crazy negative effect on Chubb’s stats that everyone thinks he did last season. From weeks 10-15, Chubb still ran for 90+ yards 5 out of their 6 games. As for Conner, I think his 2019 issues can be equally attributed to injury and a defunct offense. The Steelers were a top 4 offense in 2017 in 2018, then immediately became a bottom 3 offense without Ben in 2019. Pittsburgh offensive players came at a steep discount in the draft this season, and I think Trevor was smart to take advantage of that.

Michael Thomas and Adam Theilen are obvious top 10 WRs. I don’t need to expand on that. Hollywood Brown, on the other hand, is less of a proven commodity. There are a lot of stats that I can point to that provide optimism about Brown, but this article does it better than I ever could. 

Aside from Lock and Hollywood, I think Trevor has the perfect “high floor” team that makes them a shoe-in to finish somewhere between 5th and 8th.

Best Pick: Leonard Fournette (5)

Worst Pick: Julian Edelman (7)

There isn’t another team in our league whose playoff hopes rely on a single player’s performance/health more than Scott’s does on Cam Newton. After seeing what he did last season and seeing the addition of CeeDee Lamb, it’s reasonable to expect Prescott to finish somewhere between QB3-QB8, but that won’t take this team very far if Cam can’t stay healthy. On the other hand, Scott has one of the only teams in the league carrying two QBs with top 5 upside. I had this team ranked below Trevor’s in my rankings, but most of that revolves around the QBs having such a wide range of outcomes.

Beyond the QBs, I think Scott’s team is perfectly average. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing - starting with the RBs, Jacobs and Fournette are undisputed bell-cows on their respective teams. With that in mind, I love the 5th round price tag on Fournette, the 15th RB off the board despite finishing as RB9 last season. Huck hated on Fournette in the RBs podcast, and I’ve seen a lot of fantasy articles predicting some heavy regression from him; I just don’t understand it at all. Fournette had 76 catches on 100 targets last season as Minshtwo’s safety net, and new offensive coordinator Jay Gruden targeted runningbacks in Washington more heavily than he did receivers. I like his upside more than Jacobs’, given the Raiders added more short receiving options in Ruggs, Witten, and prototypical 3rd down back Lynn Bowden. Both Jacobs and Fournette are solid middle-of-the-road RBs, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Fournette finish higher than he did last year.

Evans and Chark are safe bets to finish somewhere between WR8 and WR20. I obviously love the upside in Tom-pa Bay’s offense this season, but have no idea what to expect from a target distribution standpoint. As an undisputed WR1 on any other team I’d expect Evans to be a top 5 fantasy receiver, but there are only so many targets available for guys like him, Godwin, Gronk, Brate, Howard, RonJon, and token white receiver Scotty Miller. I’ve made my feelings on Edelman pretty clear - he’s a drop machine that Brady made look better than he really is. I understand the idea of stacking him with Cam, but ultimately I think Scott will be glad he grabbed John Brown as his 4th WR at some point in the season.

I had the most difficulty ranking this team - at one point I had Scott ranked 4th; at another he was 13th. I like 9th place is a good middle ground even if it’s not where I expect him to end up. If Cam isn’t the same player health and/or talent wise as he used to be then Suck My Vick is a playoff longshot. If he’s healthy, though...well, suffice it to say that the rest of us are better off if he isn’t.

Best Pick: Jamison Crowder (13)

Worst Pick: Derrick Henry (2)

No matter who drafted Kyler Murray, it was going to be a bold pick. Don’t get me wrong - I get the upside. He improved over the course of last season and comes in this year with the best WR in football as an added target. He finished last season with a huge game against the Rams where he threw for 325 yards and 2 TDs. However, the 5 weeks prior he only broke 200 passing yards once (219 against the Browns). He finished last season as QB12. I talked him up on the podcast as a guy that is going to be picked in the top 5 because he’s got a lot of upside, but here are a few QBs taken after him with their per-game scoring rank from last season: Tom Brady (QB9, playing in tthe offense that made Jameis QB5 last year), Aaron Rodgers (QB7 last year, QB6 in 2018), Matt Ryan (QB13 last year, QB3 in 2018), and Drew Brees, who I gave more than enough information in on Trevor’s team breakdown. All of this is to say that between Murray and Minshtwo, who showed inconsistent flashes of being a solid QB last season, Neil’s quarterbacks carry a lot of risk which is why I ranked them much lower than Chase did.

Let be clear here: I don’t hate Derrick Henry. He’s an elite runner who finished as RB2 last season and isn’t a terrible pick in the 2nd round. I’m nitpicking; Neil didn’t make many big mistakes in the draft. The issue with Henry is that all he has are his rushing stats. He only scored 5 more fantasy points than Aaron Jones last season despite having almost 500 more rushing yards because Jones had 47 receptions and 474 receiving yards (which among RBs isn’t even that spectacular). Add in the fact that we’ve changed receiving scoring (Jones would have scored 16 more points vs. Henry’s 6), and pass-catching RBs are almost a necessity at this point. I’m surprised Neil grabbed Henry instead of doubling down on the Cardinals by grabbing DeAndre Hopkins, but I digress - Neil could have done worse than Henry and Gurley at RB, but there’s not a lot of flash there. I would have zero Gridiron championships if it weren’t for Gurley, so it goes without saying that I have the utmost respect for him. That being said, the Falcons haven’t had a top 20 fantasy RB since Tevin Coleman in 2017, and the Falcons don’t even know how healthy Gurley is.

There might not have been a better pick in the double digit rounds of the draft than Jamison Crowder. He was incredibly injury prone in Washington, but surprisingly played all 16 games last season and put up solid numbers (78-833-6) despite a rough QB situation. He dealt with multiple weeks of awful QB play due to Darnold catching mono, and as a result was only able to catch 64% of the 122 targets that were thrown to him. I looked to see if there were any QBs taken later than Crowder with 100+ targets last season, and there were - John Brown (the Bills traded for Stefon Diggs) and Larry Fitzgerald (the Cardinals traded for Hopkins). Who did the Jets add to compete with Crowder? Breshad Perriman? What I’m trying to say here is that we were all stupid to let Crowder last that long in the draft. Crowder wasn’t the only WR steal Disco Lemonade will benefit from this season either. After grabbing Tyreek in the 3rd round, Neil grabbed Robert Woods in the 8th, Golden Tate in the 17th, and Brandon Aiyuk in the 19th. Between those picks and the fact that he was able to grab Ertz as the 6th TE off the board (?!?), the strength of Neil’s draft revolved around the fact that he was able to get extremely good value with receivers throughout. I ranked Neil’s team 8th (Chase had him 7th), but my money would be on him making the playoffs this season. Last year was his first time to miss the playoffs since 2014; he’d be a difficult guy to bet against.

Best Pick: Philip Rivers (4)

Worst Pick: Cam Akers (6)

Here’s some ironclad proof that these rankings are as impartial as they possibly could be - not only am I about to say good things about Huck’s team, but I’m about to say that drafting the Colts QB was Huck’s best pick of the draft, especially when that QB is Philip Rivers. I don’t enjoy writing about these things.

I have to, though. Rivers was QB7 in 2018 and QB17 in 2019. Huck took him as the 26th (!!!) QB off the board. For reference, Mitch Trubisky was QB26 last season. Philip Rivers at any age is a better QB than Mitch Trubisky, and he’ll be playing behind a top 3 offensive line with a lot of talented targets at his disposal. The fact that players like Burrow, Bridgewater, Lock, and Garoppolo were all taken over him is ridiculous to me. Huck’s ability to grab Rivers in the 4th is what made me rank Sex Raptor as a top 4 team this season (Chase and I had significant differences in ranking 4 teams - this is one of them). A steep price was paid for Mahomes - Danny essentially got McCaffrey and Stafford for Mahomes and Rivers - but Huck came out on top of the trade purely because people slept on Rivers.

Even with the early picks that were committed to Mahomes, this team still got a top 10 RB in Austin Ekeler as the 12th RB off the board. Ekeler was RB6 last season despite a partial timeshare with Melvin Gordon, and now we’ve increased the value of receiving yards (Ekeler would have had 36.1 additional points last season using the new scoring). Unfortunately, Huck chose to pair Ekeler with Cam Akers and/or Kareem Hunt. McVay has already said the Rams will be using a “running back by committee” approach similar to what the 49ers did last season, and Hunt should still primarily be a 3rd down specialist in an offense that will likely use a zone run scheme. Both options seem incredibly underwhelming to me. It’s worth noting that Huck could have had either LeVeon Bell or Melvin Gordon instead of Akers in the 6th round.

Sex Raptor has a somewhat underwhelming but solid group of receivers. Hilton is a solid stack with Rivers, especially as the 30th receiver off the board. Huck did a solid job of snagging WRs late, as he was able to pair Hilton with Tyler Boyd in the 8th and Jalen Reagor in the 13th. I don’t love the price on Ridley (13th receiver off the board before AJ Brown, Theilen, AJ Green), but he’s still very solid. I also loved the Hurst pick even though it all but ensures that Julio Jones will be Huck’s least favorite player this season.

All in all I think Huck put together a solid squad. Usually Huck spends several picks reaching on “his” guys (not that it hasn’t paid off on guys like Mahomes and Jackson), but aside from Akers and Ridley picks he primarily capitalized off of everyone else’s mistakes. That’t usually a recipe for a good fantasy team.

Best Pick: Cooper Kupp (5)

Worst Pick: Joe Mixon (2)

I had a lot of difficulty deciding what I expected Lamar Jackson to do this season. He led the league in passing TDs last season but was 28th in passing yards. He ran for more yards than Michael Vick ever did in a single season. On a per-game basis, he scored 6.43 more points per game than Patrick Mahomes did. For reference, that’s like comparing Deshaun Watson (24.07 PPG, 5th overall pick) to Jimmy Garoppolo (18.57 PPG, 49th overall pick). Nobody would ever consider taking Garoppolo over Watson (sorry Clay), so why was Mahomes the #1 overall pick, and why was Huck not ridiculed for it when the guy who was by far the most electric player in football still on the board? I’ve got two guesses - one revolves around Mahomes getting hurt last season. He threw for 300+ yards for 5 out of the first 6 weeks of the season, but after injuring his ankle only did so for 2 out of the remaining 7 games. That’s reasonable. The other guess would be that people expect some level of regression from Jackson. Beyond someone arbitrarily thinking “no way he can do this again, right?”, I don’t see it. Over the last 10 weeks of the season, Lamar only failed to rush for 60+ yards one time, and even on that “down” week he still managed to throw 3 TDs. In my opinion, he’s the #1 overall player in fantasy until proven otherwise, not to mentiton Koz also managed to snag his favorite target in Mark Andrews.

Koz can’t be given any laurels for drafting Jackson, though - with Mahomes off the board, he was the default #2 pick. I didn’t love his draft after that. Goff finished as QB11 last year, but did so despite being 6th worst in “bad throw%” and “on target%” and led the league by far in play action passes. The threat of Todd Gurley is a lot scarier to opposing defenses than the threat of “RBBC”, especially given the Rams’ questionable O-Line (2nd worst pocket time in NFL). 

Speaking of questionable offensive lines, Joe Mixon (RB18 on a per-game basis last season) as the 9th RB off the board is a little too bold for me. I’ve hated on the Bengals offense pretty hard on the podcast this year - I don’t expect them to be a good team, and it’s hard to root for RBs on bad teams in the 2nd half of games. When paired with MG3, who I expect to be part of a timeshare in Denver’s backfield, Koz has some pretty underwhelming RBs. 

Koz did one thing I did like, and I might even go so far as to call it the best pick in the draft - how in the world was Cooper Kupp (WR3 overall last season) available in the 5th round?? Don’t get me wrong, I’d feel weird about drafting a white receiver in the 3rd too, but the numbers don’t lie. 134 targets (10 of which were within the 10 yard line, tied for 4th in the NFL) and an elite 2.2% drop rate makes for a no-doubt top 5 receiver. Even with my concerns about Goff, it’s still hard to imagine a situation where Kupp finishes outside of the top 10 this year. Unfortunately, Kupp alone doesn’t make up for the combination of DJ Moore, Christian Kirk, and Allen Lazard filling in as Koz’s WR2 and WR3. Moore had a solid season last year, but he’s still the 2nd target at best in Carolina’s new offense. Kirk caught 68 passes last season and I doubt that number increases now that Hopkins has been added to the roster. Lazard might be Aaron Rodgers’ 2nd receiving option. Beyond Kupp, none of Koz’s receivers are going to scare anyone on a week to week basis.

I ranked Koz’s team 10th (Chase ranked him 4th), so by no means do I think he has no shot at the playoffs. I would need to be wrong about Goff, Mixon, or maybe DJ Moore for him to get there though.

Best Pick: Allen Robinson (6)

Worst Pick: David Johnson (5)

On the morning of draft day, I had Clyde Edwards-Helaire metaphorically inked in as the 13th pick. He looked like an absolute monster in the National Championship game against Clemson last year, and when I heard that Mahomes specifically asked for him as the Chiefs first round pick I was interested to say the least. Finally, when Damien Williams opted out leaving CEH as the default option in the Chiefs’ backfield, I convinced myself that he’d be the rock I built my fantasy season on this season. It almost didn’t happen - had Trevor not taken Brees I wouldn’t have been able to help myself (scroll up for my Brees comments). I understand CEH isn’t listed as a top 3 RB in anyone’s rankings but my own, but I think he’s going to be an absolute beast this year.

The Tom Brady pick was incredibly simple for me - Jameis Winston was QB5 last season solely because he was in Bruce Arians’ offense and because Tampa Bay has arguably the best set of receiving targets in the NFL. Tom Brady is much better than Jameis Winston. I’d invite anyone to draw me a map to a potential situation (injuries aside) where Tom Brady isn’t a top 5 QB this season. I’m less confident about Roethlisberger, but I honestly didn’t anticipate him being there at my pick in the 2nd round. He’s put up QB1 numbers for years, so I would have guessed he would have gone in the late 1st or early 2nd round. Big Ben was QB6 overall in 2017 and QB2 overall in 2018, so here’s hoping he’s healthy.

To be clear, I don’t think David Johnson was an awful pick. It was definitely a homer pick - I had him ranked below Mark Ingram (RB8 last year) and LeVeon Bell, but Johnson is the best RB the Texans have had since Arian Foster. If he breaks out, I want it to be on my roster.

Allen Robinson was WR12 last year and was the 22nd receiver off the board this year. I understand everyone’s hesitation to draft him - the Bears QB situation is bad. Is it any worse this year than it was last year, though? I hope Foles wins the job and ends up being a significant upgrade over Trubisky, but worst case scenario Robinson is catching balls from the same QB that made him worth 10 spots higher than where I drafted him. I’ll admit, receiver is probably my weakest position. I hope Henry Ruggs breaks out this year and all the Tyreek Hill comparisons come to fruition, but I know I’m assuming a lot of risk between him and Landry, the latter of whom is coming off of hip surgery and will be sharing targets with yet another new Browns receiver in Austin Hooper. Speaking of Hooper, that’s who I assumed I’d be taking in the 2nd to last round this year - I appreciate the gift everyone gave me in Evan Engram. As I mentioned on the podcast, he’s the only TE in football who had more targets/game last season than Travis Kelce. Best case scenario he continues being a target machine, worst case scenario I have to use a move when he gets injured. If I only get 6 weeks of production from Evan Engram it will have been worth the pick.

I ranked myself pretty high because I have (in my opinion) an elite pair of QBs. Everyone else on the roster, with the exception of maybe Jarvis Landry, are the type of high upside gambles that I expect to be anywhere from decent/startable to the type of player that carries me to Gridiron glory.

Best Pick: DeSean Jackson (17)

Worst Pick: JK Dobbins (7)

Let’s be clear here - I do not think Chase has a top 4 team in the league. I ranked him 7th, which technically makes him slightly above average in my book.

That being said, I think Chase knocked his first 3 picks out of the park. Allen, Wentz, and Saquon are a tremendous base to build off of. Both Wentz and Allen finished as top 10 QBs last season and have improved receiving options this season. Pair that with a player who is, if healthy, a no doubt top 3 RB and it starts to look like Chase has a really solid chance to be a repeat champion. In fact, the only criticism I have of these picks is that Matt Stafford wasn’t one of them - how is it that the first year Stafford plays as a top 10 QB on a per-game basis is the one Chase doesn’t reach on him? For shame!

After that things got a little rocky. Mark Ingram averaged over 5 yards per carry finished as RB8 in fantasy, so what reason do the Ravens have to not give him at least 200 carries again this season? Pair that with the fact that the Baltimore backfield was already crowded and I think JK Dobbins was a huuge reach in the 7th round. He and DeAndre Swift might be absolute studs that would put up crazy numbers if given the opportunity, but both were drafted into situations where there’s no clear path to carries. I’d much rather have someone like David Montgomery, who got 242 carries last season despite looking awful on all but maybe 5 of them, than a great player like Dobbins or Swift that comes with no guaranteed touches.

I don’t love DK Metcalf in the 6th CeeDee Lamb in the 7th for similar reasons - Metcalf is an athletic stud, but the Seahawks are still a run-first team that targets Lockett more than DK, and there were other teams’ WR1s still available on the board. As I mentioned in Brad’s notes, Michael Gallup led the Cowboys in targets last season yet was drafted a round later than Lamb, so I’m not really sure what Chase was thinking there. My hot take for Chase’s team is that most weeks his best WR lineup will actually be McLaurin, Cooks, Jackson. Hear me out: 

• McLaurin is going to get double digit targets every week purely because the Redskins will be consistently playing from behind and there’s nobody else to throw to. 

• Prior to last season, Cooks played in all 16 games for 4 consecutive years, netting over 1,000 receiving yards in each year - the Texans gave up a 2nd round pick for him; he’s going to be targeted. 

• Finally, DeSean Jackson only played in 1 full game last season (but played part time in 2 other games before getting injured) - in that game he had 8 receptions for 154 yards and 2 TDs. His health is far from guaranteed, but if he’s healthy then Jackson is worth starting every week over Lamb, and depending on the matchup I’d probably start him over Metcalf as well. I happily took Preston Williams in the 16th, but was immediately unhappy with the pick when I saw Chase grab Jackson in the next round. A player with that much weekly upside should cost much more than a 17th round pick.

All in all, I think Chase put together a very solid team. If he can figure out his 2nd RB spot and makes the right start/sit decisions with his receivers on a weekly basis I think he can coast into the playoffs. His team isn’t nearly as good as he thinks it is, but it’s still a contender.

Best Pick: Sterling Sheperd (12)

Worst Pick: Kenny Golladay (4)

When Huck announced the trade for the #1 overall pick, there was a collective groan from those of us who didn’t know about the trade beforehand. My first thought was, “Oh God, Huck got Danny drunk and convinced him to give him the 1st pick as a token of their friendship or some shit”. However, in trademark Danny fashion, he took the assets from the trade and made the absolute most of them, turning Patrick Mahomes (1) and Kareem Hunt (8) into Christian McCaffrey (1) and Matthew Stafford (2), a trade I think most of us would make in a heartbeat. 

This is Danny’s 3rd consecutive year to be ranked in the top 3 of these power rankings. I truly think he is one of the best drafters in the league. If he were able to pair that with a cutthroat trade mentality and slightly more attention to detail throughout the season we’d all be in very big trouble.

A few important numbers for Danny’s team - 26.5 and 21.72. Those are the average fantasy points per game for Matt Stafford and Ryan Tannehill respectively last season. Stretch those numbers over a full season and Stafford is QB3 and Tannehill is QB7 overall. The reason Danny was able to draft them as the 14th and 17th QBs off the board is likely sample size; surely over a full season they won’t repeat those performances, right? Keep in mind Stafford played 8 games last season and Tannehill played 12 (and played in an offense that was initially designed for Marcus Mariota). Based on what we saw before last season I expect them to perform around the same level they were drafted with each of them being borderline Top 15 QBs, but I wouldn’t be remotely surprised if either ends up “breaking out” over the course of a full season this year.

I don’t feel the need to say much about McCaffrey. Danny got last year’s 3rd best player in fantasy with the 7th overall pick. More importantly, McCaffrey scored 123.6 points more than the next best RB. For context, the difference between McCaffrey to Henry (RB2 overall) points-wise is almost equal to the difference between Dalvin Cook (RB5) and Latavius Murray (RB30). I think Danny will have a tough time choosing between Singletary and Montgomery as a weekly RB2, but having McCaffrey all but guarantees his RBs will outscore his opponents every week.

I mentioned in the WR podcast that I’d pick Davante Adams as the #1 overall WR this season, so I love that Danny got him as the 3rd receiver off the board. I don’t hate the Golladay pick, but it’s difficult to find a major flaw with his draft. I would have preferred Kupp, JuJu, or AJ Brown over Golladay, but Stafford-Golladay is still a pretty scary stack. Much like Chase’s DeSean Jackson pick, Sterling Sheperd is another player that shouldn’t have been available in the double digit rounds. He’s still the Giants’ WR1 and averaged more than 10 fantasy points per game when healthy last season, so he’s a solid WR3 to pair with the 3 lottery ticket receivers on the NOTORIOUS bench (Pittman, Watkins, Claypool).

As usual, Danny drafted really well. If he wants a shot at the championship this year he’ll have to adjust how he manages his team, especially when it comes to trades. I’ve been critical of the “nice guy” approach to trades in the podcast and I stand by it. It’s good to look for trades that benefit both sides, but the ultimate goal should to put together a roster so strong that it absolutely decimates everyone else. Danny’s got a great head start on that with a strong draft, but as John* is constantly waxing poetic about in the group text, a great draft will only take you so far!

Best Pick: JuJu Smith-Schuster (5)

Worst Pick: Rob Gronkowski (4)

Fear not, Cameron - the teams ranked 2nd in 2018 and 2019 both made the playoffs after going 6-7 in the regular season. If that’s not lucky then I don’t know what is!

I ranked Cameron’s QBs as 5th best in the league, but that might be a bit too high. We all know the ceiling that comes with Deshaun Watson, but Kirk Cousins ceiling dropped considerably this season when the Vikings traded Diggs away. Cousins finished as QB14 last year and QB10 in 2018, but a lot of that production revolved around Diggs, who single handedly represented more than 20% of the team’s targets and 38% of the team’s 20+ yard plays. I like Adam Theilen, but nobody on the current Vikings roster stretches the field like Diggs. If Cousins is going to succeed this year he’ll need Justin Jefferson to immediately step up into a big role in the offense.

Gronk in the 4th was a pretty big reach. I think he’ll easily be a top 10 TE this season, but the production he’d have to put up to be worth a 4th round pick is unattainable in the Buccaneers offense. Last year Jameis distributed 116 targets across 5 different TEs while the team’s top 3 receivers soaked up 309 (!!!) targets. Brady loves TEs (especially in the red zone), so Gronk should still be a significant part of the offense, but can his role really be bigger than Ertz’s (135 targets), Waller’s (117), or Andrews’ (98) role in their respective offenses? All of those TEs were taken after Cameron took Gronk. Even if he ends up with double digit TDs, it’s hard to imagine a situation where he ends up a top 3 TE. If Cameron used his 4th round pick on someone like Fournette or Carson instead his team would look a hell of a lot scarier than it does now.

Chase and I both ranked Cameron’s RBs as the worst in the league, but that’s more a result of everyone doing a solid job of drafting RBs this season than it is an indictment on his team. LeVeon looked awful last year, but he’s still a lock for 300+ touches this season and the Jets apparently have an improved O-Line (which is, in all fairness, a pretty low bar). After drafting Bell, Cameron didn’t exactly prioritize drafting a 2nd RB. It’s worth wondering whether he should have grabbed one instead of drafting a LB, 2 DBs, and a kicker between rounds 8 and 11. That being said, between Kerryon Johnson, Tarik Cohen, and Zach Moss, he should have a serviceable RB2 available to him on a weekly basis. The tricky thing will be figuring out which one to start.

The biggest strength of Cameron’s roster is in his WRs. Hopkins was a no-brainer - he’ll get peppered with targets an an uptempo offense - but Smith-Schuster and Diggs were both outstanding picks that really stuck out to me. They’re the type of WRs that the 15 yard to 10 yard scoring swap will affect the most. JuJu is going from catching passes from a smush-faced nobody to a first ballot Hall of Famer, and Diggs will now be the #1 deep threat catching passes from the QB with the strongest arm in the league. Eternal Touchdown is the only team in the league whose receivers I ranked above Cameron’s, but at the end of the year I wouldn’t be surprised if they had 60% of the league’s top 10 fantasy receivers between the two of them.

Best Pick: Aaron Jones (3)

Worst Pick: Amari Cooper (4)

This marks the second year in a row that I get to face the team ranked #1 overall in my week 1 matchup. I managed to beat Cameron last year after Rodgers put up a dud against the Bears, but I don’t like my chances to repeat against Michael’s team. 

Wilson and Baker will be a fun QB duo to root for this season. Wilson is a safe bet to finish as a top 5 QB, but Mayfield comes with a wide range of outcomes - given the fact that I ranked Michael’s QBs as 2nd best in the league, it’s evident that I expect Baker to end up on the higher end of that range. To date he’s had the joy of playing for Hue Jackson and Freddie Kitchens. Now that the Browns have hired Kevin Stefanski, Baker gets to play in a real offense that might actually let him benefit from the crazy amount of weapons he has to work with. I had him penciled in as my 2nd round pick before I saw that Roethlisberger was still available (even with the injury, I still felt it was a safer pick), but there’s a solid chance I regret that decision later this year.

Michael followed that up by getting great value on both of his RBs. Aaron Jones finished as RB3 last season, but for one reason or another he was available to be taken as the 11th RB off the board. Carson finished as RB12 despite dealing with multiple injuries last year, and yet Michael was still able to grab him as the 16th RB. Like I said in Huck’s breakdown, the best teams are often built off of capitalizing on others’ draft mistakes more-so than making bold picks. When presented with a gift during the draft, Michael accepted it.

I don’t hate the Amari Cooper pick. He’s going to be a good WR this year. My only problem with him as the 9th receiver off the board is that I think his ceiling is capped by the amount of weapons Dak has to throw to. I’ve mentioned multiple times throughout these rankings that Michael Gallup led the team in targets last season. With the addition of CeeDee Lamb and a larger role being anticipated for Blake Jarwin, I think there were better options than Cooper available. All of that aside, Michael’s got a stout group of WRs. Keenan Allen and Devante Parker should be the #1 receiving options for both of their respective teams. Between them and Cooper, The Maestro has 3 WRs who can individually carry a team to victory with a breakout performance on any single week.

Michael ultimately ended up in the unanimous #1 spot because aside from TEs, his team has no real weakness. If I’m facing Huck, I just hope that Mahomes has a down week. If I’m facing Clay, I just hope the 49ers offense has a a bad week. If I’m facing John*, I tell my fiancee that I’m willing to take her to brunch on Sunday because I already know my team has sealed up a win that week. If you want to beat Michael’s team, your team probably needs to put up 170+ points, and even that might be enough on any given week. In the past I’ve used RBR (Rotisserie Balance Rating) as a somewhat arbitrary way of explaining how I rank teams. That being said, I put a lot of value in a balanced team because fantasy football is random as hell. Lamar Jackson was incredible last season, but even he has weeks where he only puts up 14 points like he did week 5 against Pittsburgh. A strong and balanced roster serves as a sort of contingency for weeks like this. If Michael’s QBs have a down week, you still have to worry about his RBs and receivers. If his RBs have a down week...and so on and so on, you get it. Michael’s team is going to be a pain in the ass to go up against this season.