Best, Worst & 'Huh?' Rookie Landing Spots with Andrew Cooper

The 2026 NFL Draft is over. Now the real dynasty work begins. Andrew Cooper of Fantasy Alarm joins Jeff to separate the winners from the losers, highlight the dream landing spots and the fantasy nightmares, and decode the biggest reaches and strangest picks. From Jeremiyah Love's arrival to a crowded RB room to the Jets' bumper crop of slot weapons to the best snipe in NFL draft history, Coop has the intel and strategy you need to win your rookie drafts.

💡 Key Takeaways

• Coop’s “Block Line” evaluates the draft class based on when the first pure blocking tight end is taken. The 2026 class had the earliest Block Line in recent memory.
• Don't overthink Jeremiyah Love (ARI) because of the Cardinals' backfield situation. He's the 1.01, regardless of format.
• Kenyon Sadiq's landing spot (NYJ) was great ... for an hour. Then the Jets drafted Omar Cooper Jr. The slot has gotten crowded.
• Eli Stowers (PHI): the Eagles told him he’s the next in their lineage of star second-round tight ends.
• Depressed RBs: The NIL era has created a bottleneck at running back, and draft capital suffered for it.
• Coop’s favorite non-first-round dynasty picks: Eli Raridon (NE), Elijah Sarratt (BAL), Malachi Fields (NYG) and Adam Randall (BAL).
• De'Zhaun Stribling (SF) and Kaelon Black (SF) headline the reaches, and force Coop and Jeff to rethink their rankings.
• Coop rates KC Concepcion as the last rookie he’s truly comfortable taking in round one of dynasty rookie drafts — after five or six the value gets very sketchy very fast.
• Despite a weak class, there's value to mine in later rookie draft rounds.

⏱️ Chapters / Timestamps

00:00 – The Draft Is Over
03:39 – The “Block Line”: Coop’s draft quality litmus test
08:42 – Tight end landing spots: Sadiq & the Jets disaster, Stowers & Raridon
19:01 – Tight end nightmares: Roush, Klare & the Rams’ 5-TE
24:15 – Wide receiver landing spots: Williams, Bernard & the best/worst spots
36:35 – Running backs: the NIL bottleneck and why the class is thin
42:10 – Jeremiyah Love: just take him 1.01, full stop
49:09 – Jeanty, Washington & the Raiders’ split-backfield reality
55:28 – Quarterback landing spots: Mendoza, Simpson & the rushing QB flyers
1:06:25 – Reaches, head-scratchers & the panic picks
1:15:32 – Value picks & sleepers: Raridon, Branch, Brazzell & late-round darts
1:20:53 – Dynasty rookie draft strategy: round-by-round recommendations

🔗 Links Mentioned

• Fantasy Alarm
• Follow Andrew Cooper on Twitter/X 
• SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio
• Jeff’s Dynasty Rankings
• Follow Jeff on Twitter/X
• Footballguys
• Footballguys Rookie Guide

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Transcript

Jeff: The 2026 NFL draft is now behind us, and we know the landing spots for dozens of dynasty relevant rookies. Some we like, some we don't, and some have us going, huh? My outstanding guest today is Andrew Cooper from Fantasy Alarm. He's gonna join me to break it all down the good, the bad, and the ugly, and what it means to your dynasty teams and your rookie drafts, and that's next on Dynasty Compass.

[Theme music]

Jeff: Welcome to Dynasty Compass. I'm your host, Jeff Blaylock, the other Jeff B from Footballguys, thank you so much for tuning in. Whether you are watching on YouTube, listening on Apple, Spotify, or another favorite podcast platform, we are glad to have you here today. This is why this show exists to help you become better dynasty manager contend for those championships year after year after year. 

And I am just thrilled today to have Andrew Cooper from Fantasy Alarm here with me. Coop. It was, uh, it was great. I got to meet you out in Canton. I get to see you in three dimensions at the Expo last year, hopefully again this year. It is great to have you on the show. Uh, thanks so much for stopping by and spending some time with us today.

Coop: Dude, thanks for having me. We've talked about this before the draft, and it was like, why not do the Tuesday once all the chaos is done, right? I all weekend, I'm working on my rookie rankings. Just updated my dynasty rankings. We pop on, have this show, and then after I'm gonna update my best ball rankings. And then that's here, man. I mean, for tha thanks to the beautiful world of best ball fantasy football can start right away, right? Like it's here now and we're ready. So, uh, it's a beautiful thing, but first we gotta dissect this draft man, because it was a doozy.

Jeff: It was indeed. How, how was the draft weekend for you? I, I assume you were doing nothing, just sitting on the couch staring blankly at the television.

Coop: So that was Saturday for me. That was Saturday. Uh, on Thursday and Friday I had quite a bit going on. We had the SiriusXM shows, uh, the two hours before the, the drafts kicked off. Six to eight and then five to seven. And then I had a couple guest spots with, um, the Fantasy and Frames guys, the Fantasy Points guys. And I also had to run our draft tracker. Uh, the thing is, I do all the write-ups before the draft, so I'm ready to go for the draft tracker. I got my mock draft. So the first couple days are always a lot of work. 

And then Saturday is when they say, okay, here, you know what? Relax, pick a couple names out from day three and kind of give us, give us some information. That's where I got to kind of chill out, get some chores done, you know. But, uh, overall, man, the draft is just so much fun. It's, it's such a beautiful little oasis in the desert that is the off season. Just kind of get us back into football.

Jeff: Yeah. Who knew that? Just some guys reading out names for 10 hours would be such compelling, uh, drama, just so electric. Yeah, man, I, I love it. Uh, so, you know, if you had to describe the draft in, in one word, you already used doozy, so you can't use that one again. If you had to describe the draft with one word, uh, what would that word be?

Coop: Yeah. Doozy is what it always is when it's happening. But the word I would use for this one unfortunately is disappointing. I mean, I just, I had such high hopes. And the thing is, we did have a handful of guys that we liked. If you were Dave Kluge, your handful included like 175 players, right?

Jeff: Yes.

Coop: and you were, and you're fantasy wishing them all to the right spots. And we just didn't get a ton of that. And it, it's not even about landing spot. We just want more guys to go early. You know, there's one thing that I, I use to kind of judge a draft and it's, it's, it's not a proven metric, but it, for me, it's a good litmus test, right? I look to see where the first blocking tight end gets taken.

Like the first pure mauler, right? Like, I call that the block line. And you go back through the last few draft and it's like, there's, there can be some debate as to who the guy is, you know, but it's, it's usually pretty obvious, like when the Cardinals take Tip Reiman in 2024. Like they have a Trey McBride, they have weapons. This guy's an inline blocking tight end, right? That is a blocking tight end. Darnell Washington, Charlie Kolar, Gunnar Helm, these type guys, right? 

So historically we usually get like 30 guys that go before sometimes almost 40, right? The, the first blocking tight end, usually you would say, right? Late third, early fourth usually. Right? Uh, and you know, when you look at the hit rates after those guys get taken, it gets pretty ugly. Like you look at when Darnell Washington got picked and, and then you go through, man, there's not a lot of hits after that. Like you have Puka Nacua, you have a couple of those guys. I mean, Tip Reiman got picked and the top scoring two guys after him were, uh, Bucky Irving, who obviously is great. And then the next best was, um, Tyrone Tracy. Right. 

And then it, yeah, that's, I mean, so I always kinda look at that and, and it's a good way to judge the, again, you're not just saying, oh, this guy got picked before, uh, the block and tight end. This guy got picked after, so just throw 'em away. But it's, for me, it's a good measure of how, how quality the class is. Right? So in 2022, 36 players were picked before Charlie Kolar, and I'm talking fantasy relevant players. 

So we're talking about QBs wide receivers, tight ends, uh, 2023 31, 2024 was a weak class 23. Right? And we know from that tight end group, basically only Brock Bowers a start. And then there's obviously other position players are good. Uh, 2025 39, you know, and, and again, that's not because the blocking tight end got picked late. It's because a lot of guys were going early this year. You know what that number is, man?

Jeff: Just under a dozen, wasn't it?

Coop: It was, yeah, close 14, 4 14. And here's the thing, you can make the argument. People will say, and that's for me, that's where Nate, where the Jaguars took Nate Boerkircher, right? But you can make the argument that he's not a blocking tight end, to which I say, okay, fine. The next three were Carson Beck, Max Klare, and again, Max Klare argue not a block and tight end, but got drafted like he was to a team that has Terrance Ferguson, but it doesn't even matter 'cause the next pick was Sam Roush to the Bears to obviously be a block tight end. 

So you can extend that number from 14 to 17 if you want to. Who cares? It still indicates that this was a very, very weak draft where teams basically said, there's no difference makers left. Let's take the best blocking tight end. That's the thought process there. So, I mean, no matter how you slice it, pretty ugly, uh, in general. So let's talk about it.

Jeff: Yeah, let's, uh, let's, let's, let's do that. Let's, uh, let's actually skip ahead just a little bit. Talk about tight end since we were just talking about them. We'll go back and pick up the other positions here in a, in a bit. Uh, I'm with you. I, I, when I saw those blocking tight ends, multiples going off the board in round two, I'm like, well, that's a, that is an indictment on the quality of the draft class because, uh, at first, you know, you look at it, you say those are, they're all reaches and quite possibly they might've been available farther down. But as you see more and more of them going off the board, you're thinking to yourself, wow, okay. They would rather take a guy who, who is gonna be a, a, a quasi lineman 30% of the time than any of these tight ends that I have ranked above. The guy who went in the first pick of the second round.

Coop: People are dogging the i That's such a great point because people are dogging the Jaguars for their pick. But then a bunch of teams did the same thing, right? Like if, if the pick of Nate Boerkircher is so bad, then why isn't the pick of Sam Roush bad? Because Sam Roush, some people liked him as a pass catcher. I didn't very short arms only had three contested catches, only had three missed tackles. Uh, sorry, he, he only had one contested catch three catches are man to man. Just not even really doing a on that. So I, I just look at a guy like that and I'm like, well, this guy's a good blocker. He is probably gonna be the next Josh Oliver. 

But then the Bears confirmed that for us, because they obviously already have two tight ends on the team that are better at catching passes. So to me, the moment that guy gets picked, you can look back and say, okay, well the Jaguars believed they were picking the best blocking tight ends, and they actually did it right before those guys came off the board. So, great point there. Jeff. We gotta start calling Jeff Bell, the other Jeff B.

Jeff: He's, he's, he's tried calling himself that, but I got the, I got the phrase in the trademark process, so it's,

Coop: Okay. You're already in there. All right.

Jeff: So,

Coop: Back off.

Jeff: yeah. So of the non-blocking tight ends and even the blocking tight ends can have dream landing spots that just can't necessarily be for fantasy, but what was, what were, what were your favorite landing spots for some of these tight ends? This year?

Coop: Yeah. Well, it was Kenyon Sadiq for about an hour. Uh, the Omar Cooper pick really hurt that one. Uh, I liked it so much. I actually, I had it written that was in my mock draft, Sadiq to the Jets, and I actually bet on that one +2000 odds. I was like, this could easily happen. And the thought process was that you go back through the history of Frank Reich and, you know, you have to, he's been around for a long time, but you can pull out select seasons where he used a tight end as a, as a slot receiver and had great seasons. Uh, Antonio Gates, 2014, 75% of his routes from a wide receiver spot and finished his tight end two. Zach Ertz, uh, with him obviously, basically just played wide receiver, finished his tight end four, and then with the Colts, Eric Ebron, 79% of his routes were were run from a wide receiver spot and he scored 13 touchdowns. Obviously Andrew Luck was a big part of that, but like he has a history of being able to use this big slot tight end. 

So I was like, perfect. Take Sadiq at that spot. Take Eli Stowers at 33 or 44, right? So made a lot of sense to me. But then they took Omar Cooper Jr. So, um, which hurts now it's a head-to-head battle between those guys for targets. More on that maybe later. But, um, I do like Eli Raridon to the Patriots. That one I do like, I'm a Patriots fan, but we have a history of Josh McDaniels also using two tight ends, right? Um, we have him using uh, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. One of the only times, maybe I've seen it twice, where a team has two tight ends finishing the top 12 in fantasy and they were like two and six the other time being, uh, Goedert and Ertz. I believe Ertz was great and Goedert like backdoored his way into tight end, like 11 or something. But like we've seen that from him. The AJ Brown trade pending possible, everybody's penciled it in that could, uh, all the P words you can think of for that trade. Uh, I think that. It's probably going to happen, which will hurt that spot. But in the long term, I like this player. I like that he got the draft capital. I like that he went there early. 

Uh, and I guess I'll throw, uh, since you asked favorite landing spots, I'll throw an honorable mention to, I do like that Oscar Delp got picked early and he got picked to a team that has a, uh, converted wide receiver playing tight ends that's gonna be turning 30 soon. So it's like, okay, uh, this guy's got that type of ability. He's got that kind of build. He's a raw talent. Let's have him go, you know, he is what, eight years younger than Juwan Johnson. Go talk to Juwan Johnson about what it takes to be an NFL player with the, with the skillset you have. So I do kinda like that one too.

Jeff: Yeah. I, I like both of those. I actually loved, love the, the New England pick because that, that to me is exactly the kind of tied end. Who, who is the heir apparent if something, if Hunter Henry were to move on or they moved on from him. And, and with that also in mind, I actually did, like, I love the Stowers Pick to Philadelphia because, you know, this is another one of those situations where you have a tied end that is on what I believe is a one year contract. It was restructured, uh, to be cap friendly. This year there's a bunch of void years, and so Stowers could be walking into the Goedert role full-time as early as next year. So that to me, and he was already my tied in one. So you put my pre-game, my pre-draft tied in one on an offense that needs a tight end, at least in the future, then that, that's exciting for me. Would you think about,

Coop: did you hear what they, they said to, uh, what Nick Sirianni said to him, or it might have been Howie Roseman said to Stowers when they drafted him.

Jeff: No.

Coop: He said, we got a real good history here from the number two tight ends from picking tight ends in the second round between Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert, and now you, so let's keep this thing going. So they basically told him exactly what you're thinking. You was. They were. They didn't say, oh, we're gonna use you differently. We said, this is what we do. We pick the tight end in the second round, they become our tight end.

Jeff: Yeah, it, it, you know, it's funny 'cause from a dynasty perspective, uh, I'm sitting on a bunch of 1.07 and 1.08 picks in my drafts. And, uh, once, once Cooper was picked in the first round, my heart sank. 'cause like, there is really nobody I now want with these picks because the, the top, the, the, the consensus top tied in is now tied up in a tangle of slot. Uh, slot routes with a bunch of other guys who run out of the slot very, very well, including Garrett Wilson. Uh, and then the Stowers Pick comes along. I'm like, well, there's my 1.07 or 1.08, uh, 'cause that's the guy I now am excited to draft for, for the first time in a while. I'm excited to draft somebody in the back half of round one. I've got all these Jets. Fans like Jets fans can be happy. I think they got the values they wanted. That's fine. I don't like what they did personally, but like I'm not gonna argue 'cause I like the players, so I'm not gonna argue against it. But it will, I will say this, it increased the variability for everyone and it's bad for everyone.

Coop: And as you point out that goes for Garrett Wilson, the best. If they were gonna draft a wide receiver, the best thing for Garrett Wilson would be if they were to draft a big split end out wide, right? Take, even if it were Denzel Boston or Malachi Fields, right? I mean those guys went later. So it would've been better because if you take a guy like that, then you use that guy, that guy becomes your Tee Higgins, your Mike Evans, your George Pickens, your Davante Adams, and then that lets Garrett Wilson be Chris Godwin, Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb, Puka Nacua. He can be the slot flanker, right? When you draft all these guys on the slot, now he has to go play out. Why? We've seen guys, good players get, be, be put in that role. And it's just much harder. It's much harder to face the top corner, have your foot tethered to the line. It's, it's not easy. 

And a yes, if you're a Hall of Fame player like Mike Evans or Puka or, or Davante Adams, then yes, it's easy. But look what happened to to Brian Thomas Jr. When he was asked to play that role. It is very difficult. Marvin Harrison, Jr. Has had a very difficult time doing it as well. 'cause it's the hardest role out there. So Garrett Wilson, his job may have just gotten a little bit harder in an offense where Frank Reich loves to dink and dunk it, not to mention now he's under contract till 2030. So we have this head-to-head battle between Sadiq and Omar Cooper Jr. To be the second target on the team for Geno Smith when they also have Breece Hall. This is this, no matter how you slice it, one of those guys, like between Kenyon Sadiq and Omar Cooper, Jr. One of them is about to have four years of pain,

Jeff: Yep. Maybe both of them. And then Mason Taylor too. So you've got yet another

Coop: Taylor got destroyed under Mason Taylor, under the floorboards. I, people are trying to justify that he's fine here. In what world? In what world? Because they, he's an in now and forced to be an inline blocking tight end. And it's not just him versus Sadiq, it's him versus Sadiq versus Omar Cooper to be the second target after Garrett Wilson. The, the draft could not have gone wor he, he's the biggest loser, I hate to say the biggest loser of the draft by fall because he just got put, he basically just got made into Drew Sample. 

Yeah. So, I hate to say it. I hate say about that's literally what happened, you know, I mean like, like even at least Michael Mayer had a chance to be the second target with Brock Bowers. 'cause he was going up against Tre Tucker and, you know what I mean? And uh, and that crew like. Garrett, the, it's Kenyon Sadiq him versus Kenyon Sadiq. And then the winner of that gets to Battle Omar Cooper Jr. And Garrett Wilson. That sounds terrible. For targets of Geno Smith. That's couldn't be worse.

Jeff: yeah. From Geno Smith or, or an unknown, uh, rookie quarterback Next year when they, when they draft, won in the first five picks of the 2027 draft,

Coop: both those guys have a fifth year option. So the only solution for Jason, for Mason Taylor is to leave as soon as possible.

Jeff: which I honestly, let's be honest, if you're on the Jets, that is kind of the goal. But, uh, they did manage to extend some people that broke a lot of fantasy manager's hearts. Mine, especially with Breece Hall, I was poised to enjoy him somewhere else, and now I'm poised to have him as my RB2.

Coop: Alright. If people want a little hope for Mason Taylor, there are guys that have done that and had a resurgence later in their career. Uh, Martellus Bennett was stuck as the blocking tight end for a long time. Got out of that, had a couple fantasy relevant years. Delanie Walker was stuck behind Vernon Davis for seven years and then went to Tennessee and had, uh, like three top five seasons in a row. So it's not, uh, Dallas Goedert was behind Zach Ertz until Trey McBride was technically drafted as an inline tight end for a bit there behind Zach Ertz as well. 

So it's not over, but you don't even have to roster him right now, in my opinion, because of how long it's gonna take for him to get a change of scenery. 'cause he, I mean, it's like they're not gonna trade Garrett Wilson Trade, Garrett Trade, and Garrett Wilson would solve all our problems.

Jeff: yep. Yeah, and,

Coop: Yeah,

Jeff: and Breece Hall, they could start trade him too. That would solve some of my problems on some of my

Coop: fold the Jets.

Jeff: You. They, I, you know, I, I, I pi this show, we pile on the Jets and the Browns a lot, but I mean, you know, they, they earn it. And I, I just think they, those two franchises are the poster children for why there should be promotion and relegation in American football like there is in English football. Because these two belong in a different division

Coop: Yeah. I'll tell you what, you know, I'm getting to the point where I am starting to believe that the Cardinals belong in that group too.

Jeff: They're Yes, they're getting there.

Coop: they've been a team. The crazy part about that team is that you look at like the fewest playoff wins by any organization, right? And the Cardinals are tied for dead last with the Texans, but the Texans didn't become a team until 2002, and the Cardinal's been a team for a hundred years. So like, how, how are the Cardinals always escaping these, like the Browns are, you know, the meme with a guy with his arms, or I think it's actually Jesus on the meme and he is just getting hit with arrows. You know what I mean? Like that's, that's the Browns protecting everybody from realizing like, wait a second. The Cardinals are maybe the worst franchise in all of major sports. If it wasn't for the Browns.

Jeff: Yeah. The Browns are our blocking tight end here in, in this, uh, in this metaphor.

Coop: yeah. They're really, they're, they're Hodor man. They're holding that door

Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. So obviously the Jets, uh, ended up being a nightmare landing spot for Sadiq 'cause there're there any, there any other, uh, tight ends that just went to the completely wrong place as far as you're concerned, at least from a, from a fantasy standpoint?

Coop: I mean, so I, this one doesn't hurt me because I was completely out on this player, but Sam Roush obviously couldn't have had a worse landing spot. Right? I mean, they're loaded up on weapons. They have a, uh, because of the fifth year option, Colston Loveland's contract directly overlaps with the his over the next four years. Right? So, like, Sam Roush people, again, I, I see people trying to spin this as like, oh yeah, you know, good organizations pick good players. It's like doornail under the floorboard, right? So also, um. I can answer nightmare, kind of nightmare landing spot. And also most confusing pick for tight end Max Klare. Um, I was confused by that. This is a player that the, the thing is he showed he could be a pass catcher at Purdue that he showed he could be a blocker at Ohio State. Very well rounded. We were hoping he would go to a team that, that could maximize that type of player. Dolphins would've been good.

Jeff: Yep,

Coop: Um, you know, because we've seen Bobby Slowik, he worked with Shanahan for a long time and you see what they do with George Kittle and it's like, yeah, that'd be great. But instead he goes to a team. Excuse me. The problem with the landing fight you run into is Terrance Ferguson just runs routes, you know, so how do you, how do you decipher that room?

Jeff: You know, I don't know if there's ever been a five tight end set used in the NFL football history, but we may see one now with the Rams because Sean McVay being a fairly recent convert to multi tight end sets, went from hardly ever using them to using them at the highest rate in the league last year. And, uh, that seems to be a, a continuing pattern, their solution for replacing, uh, their aging wide receivers just to add another tight end to the, to the formation and, and let them run around out there and distract the linebackers. So Puka Nacua can take a screen pass and run for a touchdown,

Coop: Yeah, if it has been used, if it has been used before, it was used by Arthur Smith, at some point

Jeff: yeah. Yes, yes. Yeah. So, so the fourth tight end could score the touchdown. Yes, we, we are, we are actually very glad his fantasy managers at Arthur Smith is now at Ohio State, where he is clearly generating draftable tight ends because that happened,

Coop: we're protected.

Jeff: They're protected. They're protected. You know, it does though speak between the, the addition of the blocking tight ends, all those early draft picks for them being a, a general indictment on the class. It also, to me, is a sign that this evolution of offenses to multi tight in sets 12 and 13 and in the Rams case 14 personnel is, is going to be a continued trend this year. We're gonna see even more of it, and fantasy managers need to get out in front of that with some of the assets they have and, and, and just be ready that the wide receiver three position is disappearing as a, uh, as a, as a staple of, of modern NFL offenses is.

Coop: No question. Yeah, and it's, it's definitely the defense's fault. I mean, the defense's, for a long time offense was complex and defense was reactionary and finally Fangio and these guys figured out a way to make defenses much more complex. The cover six. 'cause like a lot of times you would have a quarterback where. You got a play call and there's two different plays, there's two different sides of the play. And you read the defense and you say, okay, is it single high safety? Is it too high safety? Okay, single high, I'm gonna throw to the right. And if the it's not open, I'll look back to the left. It's too high, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna throw left. Right? Well, the cover six basically puts, uh, cover two on one side and cover four on the other side. So you turn and you look one way and you're like, oh, wait a second. This is cover two. I'll throw back to this side. And then you, and then you turn and throw to a spot, and they're playing cover four over there. 

And that's not even getting into the complex def uh, like, uh, setups, like palms. All these if then, if this, then that rules on releases. It's getting so much more complex. And the response by offense is, okay, if they're gonna go small with these nickels and, and two linebackers and, and use a safety like a linebacker instead of three linebackers, then we're gonna go big and we're gonna focus on the middle of the field. So that's where we're living right now. I'm sure it'll rotate back at some point, but the time being, uh, this is the world we live in.

Jeff: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. Well talk. Speaking of wide receivers, what, what were some of the favorite landing spots you had for, uh, wide receivers in this draft?

Coop: So one of 'em, and I wanna get your thoughts on this chef that made my rankings very complicated. Is that going into the second round, I thought I was thinking to myself, okay, the Steelers are going to probably continue trying to find a slot receiver because they got sniped on Makai Lemon. Uh, and then they took Germie Bernard in the second and I was like, okay, nice, well-rounded player. Um, could end up a Van Jefferson type maybe, you know, can do everything but maybe not great at one particular thing.

Jeff: Yep.

Coop: And then the next wide receiver ticket, but 30 picks later was Antonio Williams. Right? And that was like, okay, this is a player I like, this is a landing spot where I like Terry McLaurin, but it is what it is. There are slot snaps open and Terry McLaurin, say which you will. He's not a target hog. He's a guy that does more with less. He gets like 110, maybe 120 targets. Like the year he finished, like WR8, I think he had like 112 targets, not nothing crazy. So like it's a great landing spot. So now I'm torn. It's like you got this team that was prioritizing this role. They, they gave him the draft capital in Germie Bernard, but then you got this guy, Antonio Williams, uh, who maybe got the better landing spot. So I, where do you live on those two guys? Those just the, just those two.

Jeff: I I, I, at this moment, just looking at the draft at the board and looking at the players that we have and looking at the depth charts that we have today, I, I do like Williams's spot better 'cause I like that offense better. And, and the competition for those targets I think is a little less, you've already nailed it. I mean, you don't have a true ball hogging alpha in, in the Washington offense. And, and so to me, I, I like Williams there. I, I like Germie Bernard to Pittsburgh. I thought it was a good pick for them, but I, I don't like that offense, and I don't know what it's going to look like because we, we now have, uh, today it's being recorded on the Tuesday after the draft. 

This, we just had news today that the Pittsburgh Steelers dusted off a really old rule out of the rule book and, uh, put a, uh, what, what I, I'm not even getting the name right, because I'd forgotten it even existed. It's a basically first rite of refusal, uh, tag on, on Aaron Rodgers. So we, we've got clearly an issue over there. Uh, there's not, uh, not, not, not a good plan B in Pittsburgh for quarterback. And so the prospect of then bringing in one in 2027 or signing, you know, a Russell Wilson type, it just doesn't excite me either. So I, I, you, you say Williams or Bernard, wherever I had them before. It's Williams now because, uh, I, I'd like that offense better. I like that situation. He landed in a little bit better.

Coop: Yeah, that's been a big debate for me, those two. And, and I originally had Bernard ahead. I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna settle on Antonio Williams. I think it's just a higher upside play, unfortunately. Uh, it does hurt my guy Chi. But again, in fantasy football, we gotta remember that betting on or against rookies is one of the best ways to create leverage. So I'll be drafting both those guys with the, the notion that like somebody has an opportunity to get a hundred targets here, because Terry's not gonna get, I mean, maybe he will, but Terry's probably not gonna get 150 targets at this stage. So somebody can get a hundred.

Jeff: Yeah. And then you also still have Luke McCaffrey kicking around kind of as your, as your wide receiver, two-ish there. So that, that to me is another opportunity that Williams has, that there's just not a, there's no target hog number one, and there's no real clear number two either in that offense. So when I look at where rookies are landing, that's one of the things I'm looking at is, is where's the direct competition for the role that they have? 

And then secondly, where is it otherwise, uh, because maybe the role they have is gonna have to be expanded because there isn't a guy who can fill, you know, a slot role or be the X role or be, you know, the, the, the flaker role. And so that, those are things that I try to look at. Um, any other good, good landing spots for you? Anything else that excited you when you, you heard the name called, or, or at least won you money because you'd already picked that that's where they were going?

Coop: Yeah, there were. There were a couple of, there were a couple of those. I had the Ravens take an offensive line. We won. We won that bet. I had two quarterbacks during the first round. We won that bet I had, um. Uh, Kenyon Sadiq, we did really good on our betting article. One of them when the, the Vikings didn't take a safety, that floored me. I was like, the, they were all that you could pick anybody you wanted that we won, we lost. Um, but yeah, uh, we did okay there. I will say, um, for fantasy, Chris Bell to Miami intriguing because, you know, he, people can say he slid, due the injury and they got targets open all over the place. Caleb Douglas pick really confused me, right?

Jeff: Yes. Yes.

Coop: Um, I have no idea what that's about. Yeah. And then for real life football, I think the Giants did a really good job with Malachi Fields. Um, they traded up the, the Caleb Douglas people are actually saying that the Dolphins were gonna take Malachi Fields. And then the Giants traded three picks to move up to the spot right before them. And they took Malachi Fields and then the Dolphins just panicked and took Caleb Douglas. That's kind of the narrative people are saying. But for a real NFL standpoint and the Malachi Fields pick is actually good news in my opinion. 

If you, if you have Malik Nabers, the opposite of what we talked about with Garrett Wilson. Malik Nabers now gets to play that slot flanker role, right? And Malachi Fields will go be the big split end on the outside, and Isaiah Likely can operate in the short area. If that team had picked a slot wide receiver, that would've been a nightmare. Instead they picked a boundary guy and everybody can kind of, uh, have some hope still, including Malachi Fields except Slayton. That's really bad news for every And Darnell Mooney, they like those guys. Uh, that's the last thing you wanted to say

Jeff: Yeah. Uh, Slayton, I don't know that he had long-term dynasty utility anyway because of the, the, he's never been able to, or at least not recently, been able to emerge out of a pack of crowd, a crowded receiver room. But that does, that does, uh, really hurt. Uh, a couple of the other guys there, uh, particularly, particularly Mooney. Mooney is always that guy who just never seems to be in the right situation and, and once again finds himself not, not in the right situation. Um, any nightmares, any guys just ended up in, just flat out a, a terrible place for you from a, from a fantasy standpoint, and you did make an important point a second, you know, that teams, of course, are drafting for actual NFL needs, not for fantasy purposes. So some of the things that confuse us as dynasty analysts are perfectly normal for, for NFL analysts. So there may very well be some spots that were great for real football and terrible for fantasy. That may be on your nightmare list.

Coop: Yeah, definitely. I would say number one is gotta be, uh, Zavian Thomas. I think with that pick, uh, you gotta understand, again, let's talk about the blocking line, right? Once that blocking tight end line goes to me, the well of difference making ball movers, people that catch passes or run the football. Are gone and now teams are starting to look at special teams, uh, as part of the equation. And I think that's exactly what the Zavian Thomas pick was. I think that the Bears are going to have him return possibly both kicks and punts and um, and that'll be fine for leagues that have points for that. 

But, uh, I think that being behind Rhamondre Stevenson, who has a, again, a fifth year option for him, Luther Burden, Colston Loveland, it's just not a, um, it's not a good spot. Uh, Colby Young people are loving every, people always just say, oh, all that matters is what quarterback they play with. I mean, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are under long term contracts. Like how long you're gonna have to wait for him to be the guy? Um, I don't know. It feels a lot like it's gonna be another Jermaine Burton. And then I wanna get your take on Brennan Thompson. Apparently Mike McDaniel loves this guy and was like, there's a video of him saying that if they pick him at some point during the draft, he'll take his shirt off, which he didn't take his shirt off, but he was very excited about the pick. So I, I don't know, it just seems very crowded over there. I was hoping they would trade Quentin Johnson, but they didn't. So it just feels like in a, a big heap of guys that we like at the bottom of it.

Jeff: Yeah. Let me, let me just hit Colby Young for just, uh, Colby Young. I, I, you see him as kind of the Tee Higgins, uh, successor if, if Andre Higgins moves on. So we'll see if that were to play out and, and we'll see if Cincinnati stays out of the trend of, uh, three, uh, multi, multi tight end sets because then that would take that position off the board in favor of, uh, presumably healthy Eric All, and either Gentry or whoever they, whoever, whichever blocking tied in they draft or the 2027 draft. 

Uh, with respect to Thompson. Yeah. This is not my favorite landing spot. I mean, I obviously love guys to go to good offenses, but there's too many guys in this good offense already. This, to me was, was like a, like the Rams picking up another tight end. It's like, you've already got five that can catch the ball. A lot of competition for targets. Not my favorite spot for, for Thompson, so I'm with you. He is a, he is a downgrade for me.

Coop: the other thing you gotta bet on is Mike McDaniel not getting a head coaching job again, because like we already, he already basically confirmed the Browns offered to it to him and he said no

Jeff: Smart

Coop: the OC for the Chargers, but like. How long and like if the Chargers go and win a couple playoff games, like we're, you know, we're hoping how long until somebody comes knocking probably next year.

Jeff: next year.

Coop: Right. So, you know, you got this co coach capes up for the guy and now he's on a four year contract with another team.

Jeff: Yeah. And, and, and the turnover in offensive coordinators has already been a nightmare this year. We've, we've got 18 new play callers, I believe, uh, for the, for teams this year, which is difficult to try to trace out and tease out. But then, you know, you, you throw in, you throw in that successful coaches tend to get, get gigs. Uh, I'm glad personally for him. I'm glad McDaniel's just to, to stay, to, to go to LA rather than, than to, uh, uh. Then take on the, uh, the mess that is the Cleveland Browns in that situation, inheriting a quarterback room with five people in it, none of whom really should be starting in the NFL. You say what you about Deshaun Watson. He has not been a, a, a really good NFL starter in years. And the track record of guys coming back after, you know, four years essentially of not playing quarterback is, is not very good. So not it's a short, small sample size, admittedly, but, but it's, it's not good. Um, what really surprised you? What pick did you, did you just kind of go, huh, uh, for a wide receiver this year and you have, you got some options? There's a number of them in my book, but, uh, we'll see which one you go with.

Coop: Number one with a bullet for me, and again, there's a really obvious one that I'm not gonna pick here, but Omar, Omar Cooper Jr. To the Jets. Really? I was shocked by that. I mean, I thought they were trading back in to take a quarterback, right? Get the fifth year option on a quarterback. But you just took a big slot, tight end. You have an inline tight end. You just took a big slot tight end that is supposed to operate in that area of the field. You have Garrett Wilson. Then you circle back and you take another slot wide receiver. 

I mean, it just felt like, to me, felt like overkill. And the Browns and the Jets both did this, which we talk about bad organizations, like they, everyone is pretty unanimous when you're a bad team, load up on the trenches, get your quarterback, and then go for weapons and hired guns like cornerbacks, you know, and, and pass rushers and free agency, whatever you can do. But, um, to load up on weapons when you don't have a quarterback feels like the formula for frustration among diva type positions and players that we've seen. And this team already has a bunch of guys, Garrett Wilson and Le' and, um, I'm gonna said Le'Veon Bell, but close enough. Breece Hall, like they're just, they're already, they're already upset with like their usage and their workload. And then now you just. Bring in a bunch more pass catchers when your quarterback is Geno Smith. Like, it just feels like, uh, feels like somebody's son is playing Madden, and I they've been accused of that, so, uh, not good,

Jeff: yeah. And of course you talked about Garrett Wilson having to now take on basically the top guy everywhere he turns. And so we can add some frustration on that front as well. We may end up with a whole bunch of frustrated people on a, on a four and 13 team that, uh, will get to screw up next year's draft with, uh, some premium draft capital.

Coop: Yeah, they say, they say it's one of the weakest drafts of all time for like position players and the Browns and Jets. Take four of them. It's like, come on, come on guys.

Jeff: teams find ways to lose ever more creative sometimes. This was just basic fundamentals. You,

Coop: it's awesome, dude.

Jeff: drafted shiny objects when you really needed, uh, needed some bulldozers.

Coop: Yeah.

Jeff: Well, at least they didn't ruin another running back either of them. So, so that, that was good. let's look at running backs for a second. Uh, obviously this was not a good year for running backs and not very many of them, uh, other than the, the two first round talents, not many of them went into, went early and, and I think a lot of teams realizing they can just pick off who they want farther down the line. Are there any, any guys that you thought of that, that, you know, are, are in great landing spots from a, from a fantasy perspective?

Coop: So the interesting thing about the running back position is we didn't get the draft capital we wanted at all, but in terms of landing spot, it was virtually all the teams. And this never happens like before the draft, I was fantasy folks, we sit back and we say, oh, these would be the best landing spots. Right? And it's always like the chiefs, I know the chiefs took Kenneth Walker this year, but the last like five years has been like the chiefs. And then those teams never take a running back this year. They kind of all did. They just waited until the end of the draft to do it. 

So you talk about like the landing spots that we liked, like. We did like the Seahawks and they did, that's gotta be number one, right? 'cause they took Jadarian Price and they took him the first round. After that it got sketchy. But like the 49ers behind Christian McCaffrey, people wanted that landing spot. People wanted the Vikings to take somebody and they took Demond Claiborne. People wanted the Ravens to take somebody. They took Adam Randall. People wanted the commanders to take a player. They took Kaytron Allen. I mean like, I guess the one lane, like the people talked about the Giants, the Titans took Nick, Nick Singleton, like the people were talking about, the giants taking, running back and they didn't. Uh, but that was like the one team that people said this would be a good landing spot that didn't take somebody. 

I mean, most teams that were considered good landing spots took guys the Broncos took somebody like, it's, so, it's hard to say that the landing spots were bad, but we all, we would almost prefer the draft capital to the landing spots. You know, like the hit rate when you get down to round five and six for bad, it's not good.

Jeff: Yeah. I'm wondering if this is, if this is just part of the, the, uh, it is funny to me 'cause you, you've got, on the one hand you've got, you've got a, a run on blocking tied ends. You have a run on being big, you've got a run on, on trying to force the middle of the field to have a lot of action because these shell defenses have taken out everything else and then yet. Uh, either because it's an indictment on the talent level or, or it's just this understanding or desire not to pay running packs with first and second round money Arizona, notwithstanding, which put them one step closer to relegation. 

As we were talking earlier, uh, it, it's just funny to me that they, they didn't take some of these guys, and that doesn't seem to be, I'm wondering if that's a, a permanent feature now for running backs that we, we can mock guys in the second and third round all we want, and we're gonna see them go in the fifth and sixth rounds from this point forward.

Coop: This. I think what this is is we just hit the bottleneck, right? Like you take a hose and turn it on and then pinch it, and then let it go, right? You're gonna get water coming out and then it's, you're gonna hit that air bubble and then you're gonna get a ton of water coming out. That's what COVID and the NIL did to the running back position where you had this normal pipeline and then COVID hit, combined with the NIL, which let's be frank about what this is. There are now two professional football league. That's it. Simple. Like people hate when you say it that way, when you're a professional, it means you're paid to do something, right? 

You and I, no matter how much we get yelled at or how wrong we might be. We are professionals in analyzing fantasy football, right? Like that's, we get paid to do it. Like even if you get paid, in my opinion, even if you get paid 25 bucks or whatever, an article out there, you're a professional because that's, that's, you're getting paid to do something. So the, the moment and, and Jadan Baugh from the Gators is getting paid $1.3 million. You know what Bucky Irving's getting paid this year? 1.2 Jadan Baugh gonna get paid more money to play for the Florida Gators than Bucky Irving gets paid in the same state to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baugh reported reportedly gets unlimited use of the team playing for as long as he stays at the university Private jet. He can fly wherever he wants, like, has a better contract than Bucky Irving. 

You know, the, uh, Mike Washington was a top five back in this draft, and with the rookie wage scale, you know what? He gets paid this year? $1.3 million. Same as Jadan. you know, and the other thing, there's only 40. There's less than 40 guys. I looked it up. There's 38 running backs in the league that make more than $2 million. So if you can get guaranteed to get paid $300,000 to stay in college for one year and then maybe get more money next year, take the money like, and that's what we're seeing. So next year, in the next two years, we're gonna see these guys run outta eligibility and then here they come crawling to the NFL and then now we're gonna get better drafts. But this was the bottleneck year. No doubt about it in my mind.

Jeff: We're gonna get better drafts with older players. So that will be another interesting test of the model is that now we've got 23 and 24-year-old running backs coming out instead of 21 and 22-year-old running backs. But, you know, talking about paying running backs and, and running backs getting paid. We now have out of the draft the highest paid running back in the NFL and he has as many NFL carries as you or I do. Uh, and that to me is really something what, what? You know, we talk about loving draft capital, so I guess we have to love this draft capital. I just don't love the situation. He goes into. Where, where are we on, where are we on our, our wonder kind? Uh, Jeremiyah Love the 1.01 in fantasy drafts. Fantasy rookie drafts, including Superflex coming up into this weekend.

Coop: Just gotta take 'em one brother. You just gotta take 'em one, just forget the rest of it. You really just have to, in my opinion, both formats, single QB and Superflex, you just take this guy one. The hit rate for running backs taken in the top 10 alone. Forget three overall is extraordinary. Even the bad players, even the worst possible guys you can think of, which let's, I mean, as of right now, Ashton Jeanty. Had one, like he had 1300 yards from scrimmage, and that's still one of the worst ever. That's the high hit rate we have here. Trent Richardson had 1300 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, and then they ended up trading him. He was probably one of the biggest busts. You still could have traded him in your dynasty leagues if you didn't like the way he looked as a rookie, because he went out and had 1300 yards of scrimmage. 

You know, like the hit rate Here is astronomical. Players that get this draft capital always get a massive opportunity. Like, I really don't care. Uh, he could have got drafted to the Raiders. Either the Raiders, the Raiders took him, and they had both those running backs just based, it would be a terrible decision by them, but just based on hit rates and, and the uh, and the amount that they're spending on the player. You just draft the player. So simple as that for me, like guys that get this hit rate and he is got the profile too, you know, like you just draft them and if it's, if you lose, it's a bad beat. 

To me it's like poker. Like, if I have pocket aces and you know, an an ace and two kings comes up on the board, I'm going all in, you know? And if, if somebody pulls a royal flush and I lose, then so be it. But that, that, that's gonna hit rate we're talking about here. So I am just gonna go end of story. Uh, RIP to all the other running backs on that team. You know,

Jeff: Yeah. Including the one they, they picked up Tyler Allgeier, who was finally getting his shot at being the lead guy and now he is in a committee with a bunch of other people behind the number one pick.

Coop: crazy, man. It's just,

Jeff: And for Allgeier,

Coop: you don't see it coming, you know?

Jeff: for er, it was even more embarrassing I think, because James Conner was the guy who announced the pick on day two, not, not Allgeier. So he is even behind Conner on something that's nothing to do with football. So I, I.

Coop: I, I will give them credit. I, I, so I was shocked by that. I was shocked by the, I was like, oh my God, I hope he is not announcing the first pick, you know? But, so James Conner announced the pick, but then I, when they, when they had him up there, it made sense because I had forgot that he went to Pitt. So that's why they picked him. That's why they picked him. So, but yeah, that's tough. I mean, when they signed Tyler Allgeier, I was like, alright, here we go, Allgeier versus Benson. And then they brought James Conner back and I was like, oh no. 

And now they've signed, and now they've drafted Jeremiyah Love. That's what I'm saying. Is that like, it might be a bad pick. Michael Bidwell is the owner of the team and he also makes himself the team president. That's one of the worst situations in all of football. Jerry Jones situation, the three longest tenured GMs are all owners. Uh, two of 'em are owners of the team, and the other one's Mickey Loomis, who also I think is a pretty bad GM. But I like. It just, it, when you have a guy that's just meddling like that and, and having these opinions and falling in love with certain players, like you just, you gotta insert a football man in between. I love that the, the Chargers finally did that because the Spanos family got so much flack and they finally said, let's bring in Jim Harbaugh and let's him, let him run everything. And I think it's going great. 

So that's what the Cardinals need to do. Like, I know Bill Belichick's probably old and way out of it, but like, you need to find a guy like that where you can just say, you're gonna, you're gonna do everything now, and we're gonna stay out of it because, uh, it's been real bad. And, uh, for Arizona, for the Jets, for the Brown Woody Johnson like decides what color uniforms they wear every week. It's like, dude, take a step all the way back, like way back. Uh, and just let, let people that actually know what they're doing, do that stuff. I remember one time he said he announced the Jersey combination on Twitter. And the fans were like, no, we're cursed in those jerseys. You need to change it to, to different jerseys. And he changed it to different jerseys, and they lost 41 to three. Like it, the, the jerseys are, there's no curse. Dude, your organization's terrible.

Jeff: yeah, yeah. Burn them all

Coop: First of all,

Jeff: clearly are not good. The jerseys are not getting it done in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Coop: you have a gazillion dollars. Hire somebody, man, hire somebody that knows football.

Jeff: Yeah.

Coop: that's Michael Bidwell, man, the Cardinals, they just, they frustrate me. But you know what, like, we just got to, 'cause the thing, the thing about this pick though, Jeff, where we can, like, if the Cardinals didn't take him, somebody else would've in the top 10. That's guaranteed. Right? So just draft them. Just draft them.

Jeff: Yeah. And if you, you aren't, don't have the 1.01 this year, uh, and don't get him, uh, you may very well be able to pry him off of whoever does and is disappointed when he only has 1200 yards of offense because he's sharing a backfield with 13 other people on an offense that is not very good at moving the ball. Jacoby, Brissett put up some great numbers. Last year if you took away garbage time, he did not put up very good numbers at all, and that's kind of where Arizona is. I've seen at least four too early mock drafts for 2027 for the NFL first round. And guess who's got the first pick in every single one of them?

Jeff: That would be Arizona.

Coop: There it is, dude. Yeah, I mean, they're over under for wins is four and a half,

Jeff: Yeah. And that feels generous. I would, I would, uh, I would, uh, slam that under,

Coop: One of the, one of the key indicators for me with bad organizations, and we talked about it with Mike McDaniel, is the decision of your coaching. The, like, what your coaches. One of the biggest indictments is if your offensive coordinator leaves to take an offensive coordinator job somewhere else, when that job was on the table, and this isn't even the first time we've seen that. Like Drew Petzing left to go to the Lions when he didn't get fired. Right? 

Like he just, his contract was up and he was like, I'm done. And we saw Klint Kubiak do that too. Klint Kubiak had a one year deal with the Saints. They scored 90 points in the first two games. They didn't fire Klint Kubiak. He was free to sign anywhere and he chose to leave. So like that to me. Big indictment on, on your club, but enough bashing on the Cardinals

Jeff: For now,

Coop: for now.

Jeff: for now. Uh, the other guy you mentioned, uh, from last year, Jeanty being a disappointment for a lot of guys who spent a lot of fantasy managers spent an early first round pick on him. Raiders did add somebody who was fairly popular, fairly high up on a lot of our pre-draft boards. That was Mike Washington. Do you, do you like that? Uh, do you not like that or, you know, do, is that what, was that what you would consider our segue into the nightmare landing spots question?

Coop: it's definitely not ideal. I mean, it just makes him a handcuff plus, you know, because I don't think there's anything that Mike Washington does better than, than Jeanty. Like in any phase of the game, they might try and split the workup, but I think what they, they should do is just do a pure handcuff situation where when Jeanty's tired and, and granted, uh, for what they do, they picked a good guy for it. 

So Klint Kubiak, what he does, he does a lot of. Zone blocking is kind of his main thing, right? And for those that don't know what I'm talking about, one cheat code for watching football is at the start of every play. Watch the offensive line. If everybody moves in the same direction, steps in the same direction, that's probably a zone block play. If you have guys forcing open a hole, or if you have somebody pulling, especially if they're pulling, that's man on man blocking. And the basically with zone, you're moving everybody the same way. The running back has to find the hole with man on man blocking like a power. You know, the hole is, uh, D gap and the guy just shot out of a canon to that spot. 

I think what you're gonna see is kind of like what we saw with the, the Seahawks last year, which is like Kenneth Walker comes out, he runs a lot of creative stuff against in the zone blocking schemes. And Rick Denison, the, the guru they brought with Kubiak does a great job with offensive line and then maybe for, you know, when they spell him, you come out and when team stacked the offensive line, then you run a man block scheme where you want a big guy shot out of a cannon, which was Zach Charbonnet. But this guy is literally 100th percentile by size, speed, combination 2 23, ran a insane 44 3 or whatever. 

So I think it's a good mix. I think Jeanty iss gonna be fine. And, and I think if Jeanty gets injured, Mike Washington has the opportunity to have big upside, but we need to see this offense actually take a step forward. I, I think that they're moving in the right direction. Like so paying for Tyler Linderbaum, bringing in Kubiak and Denison, like, I like it. I, I, I, I think the Raiders are trending up.

Jeff: Uh, I do too. I just, uh, you know, I mean, look at the draft. I just wish they had picked any of these wide receivers that, that might have been able to come in because, you know, I, I, I don't know how successful, uh, Jeanty and Washington and Bowers are gonna be against the stack boxes because no one's gonna be afraid of Tre Tucker, Jalen Nailor, and Jack Besh. And I'm a Jack Besh Stan, and I'm still not thinking that this is a, a wide receiver core that's going to make anything easy on the offensive line or these running backs.

Coop: over the last two years, here are the wide receivers that have run the most routes over the last two years. Number one, Ja'Marr Chase, number two. Jerry Jeudy, number three. Tre Tucker. He's just out there running pure cardio man. I'm with you. I was shocked. I was shocked that they didn't draft another wide receiver. And you know what, there were a couple perfect fits. Like Kubiak runs this scheme where he is like, you're trying to open up deep passes, right? You're trying to like Jackson Smith-Njigba led the league in 40 plus yard catches even more than Alec Pierce and Rasha, um, Rashid Shaheed. Did a great job of that with, um, uh, with, with his scheme, with the, with the Saints. And, uh, in 2023 with the 49ers, Brock Purdy had the highest yards per attempt season of all time. 

So I'm looking at it and I'm like, dude, Raiders, Chris Brazzell, Ted Hurst, just take one of these field stretching guys and it would be a perfect landing spot for them and the perfect scheme for them. And then they didn't do it. And then Ted Hurst went to the Buccaneers. Ew. Terrible. Like, I should have mentioned that one. Like now they have, now they have like Egbuka and Godwin and Jalen McMillan and Godwin, and it's like, yeah, we, we miss that. Just like, to your point with Mike Washington, if he got picked where he got picked, but to the commanders, we would love it.

Jeff: Yep.

Coop: Yeah. So it does, it is a bad one.

Jeff: Yeah, we mentioned, you know, Kansas City has kind of been at the, the top end of our dream landing spot for running backs for, uh, uh, quite some time now. Uh, do, do we like that Emmett Johnson landed there in Kansas City? Yep.

Coop: Uh, I think it across the board it's kind of annoying 'cause he's a good pass catcher seems like a smart player. Like the ability to catch passes and find yourself in the right spot is a positive IQ trait for running backs, in my opinion. But like, best he's gonna be is like their version of like, I, we just want Kenneth Walker to do everything. Once they got Kenneth Walker, it became a bad landing spot. So, I dunno, maybe over the long term as Kenneth Walker ages, but Kenneth Walker, despite looking old, because I think because of the shaved head, he's not old, he's 25. Like, he look, he looks so, so much older than he is. He is not old at all, you know.

Jeff: So great advice from Coop. You wanna look older? Shave your head.

Coop: well, depending, depending, you know, sometimes, sometimes if you shave it, you look younger. It's, it's, it's an interesting com. The, the shaved head move is a, is a, is a real, it's a real head scratcher, no

Jeff: There you

Coop: pun intended. But for Kenneth Walker, I will say, I don't even think it's just a shaved head. Like you look at Kenneth Walker, he looks like he look, doesn't he look old, older than he is? He does. So, uh, it's not just me on that.

Jeff: Yeah. Uh, any, is there any other spot that we haven't talked about for, uh, running back that surprised you the most? Including how far down the board they fell before they ended up somewhere.

Coop: Um, there's one more one, but when we get to reaches, we could talk about that one. So, we'll, let's back pocket

Jeff: do that. Well, let's hit quarterback very briefly 'cause I don't think there's a whole lot to talk about here. This, this quarterback class, uh, is going to go down basically on, on what Mendoza does. There's been obviously a lot of chatter about, uh, the Rams taking Ty Simpson at 13. Where are you, uh, in terms of, you know, does that make Simpson now a definite first round dynasty pick first, mid, middle of the round and talking Superflex not, not otherwise. Uh, or is, is this just the, the head scratcher for someone who's not bald in, in Sean McVay and the brain trust there in la?

Coop: Yeah, he, uh, he has to be a first round pick. I think he has to be, uh, back end of the first series where I have him ranked. But, um, we have to be honest about draft capital with quarterbacks. Insanely predictive metric, insanely right, like. The hit rate for second round, even and beyond is so bad. Uh, I mean, Drew Brees is like just got the world on his shoulders in terms of like the total QB one seasons right now, just in the league quarterbacks picked in the second round. You have that, that are starters. You have Jalen Hurts, you have Geno Smith, and you have Tyler Shough. Those are the three guys. 

And the, the leashes for these guys can be super short. I mean, Davis Mills is putting up pretty much the same numbers as Tyler Shough, but when you lose, the team, drafts another quarterback. Like if you're a Tyler Shough fan, more than anything in Dynasty, more than stats, even more than being a starting player in your dynasty lineup, you need to re root for the Saints to win games. That's the only thing that can truly protect quarterbacks picked on day two and beyond from a horrible fate, is you, you, if they win, then the team won't be in a position draft to quarterback if the Saints lose a bunch of games. And on, you know, uh, an Arch Manning or somebody sitting there, they're gonna take him like Kellen Moore has to protect, protect his job. If the Saints win three games this year, then that's gonna happen. 

Vegas says the Saints are gonna win more than that, and I think they will. So Tyler Shough not a player I hate, but just keep that in mind. And that goes for this draft, like Ty Simpson being picked in the second round. Great news for him, no matter how you slice it. Horrible news for everybody that fell. So I'm fully with you, Jeff, that you know, it's Fernando Mendoza and then, and then who cares. But Ty Simpson at least is in that spot. Everybody else really, really is in a super uphill battle. I mean, the best fantasy quarterback in terms of career points scored, picked in the third round is Russell Wilson. And the next best is Matt Schaub, which like Matt Schaub was, he was fine, but

Jeff: Matt Schaub. Yeah, he was someone you could start. Yeah, he was someone you could start in Superflex, but that's about it. That's all I can say about him.

Coop: that's what I'm saying. And that's the, that's the second best third round pick. In the fourth round you got Dak Prescott and then bunch of junk in the fifth round brother. The best fifth round quarterbacks, like, they're not even existent. I was looking at it the other day, I can't even remember the names, dude. Like, you have to go back to like Fran Tarkenton to find like an actual real, like, difference making quarterback picked in the fifth round. The fifth round is a, uh, disaster. 

And then of course you got like Tom Brady and Brock Purdy, but like the, the vast majority, I mean, you go back through the last 25 years and take the quarterbacks that finished, uh, top, you know, 10 in fantasy, right? Like, so we're talking 250 players. More than half of those players were picked as either the first or second quarterback in, in the draft. It's just, and, and I went back to look at, I was like, okay, lemme see if I can find some years where the both the first and second quarterback busted and the third quarterback hit. I can only find one. It was the year that Jay Cutler was drafted and I don't even remember the quarterbacks, uh, that were picked the form here. Lemme pull 'em up just so we can get an example of what it looks like. 

But like historically speaking, you either have classes where every quarterback hits, like Jalen Hurts was picked behind Jordan Love and Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow and even Tua. Or you have classes where the top guys hit but the other guys don't. So, and here's the thing about, okay, so I got the Jay Cutler class here. Uh, the thing about this class is that Vince Young actually did have a QB1 season, technically, but I consider him bust and you did too. So if we wanted to be real technical about it, there's probably no answers. But Vince Young, when Vince Young at three, Matt Leinert to 10 and then Jay Cutler at 11. And that's one of the few examples where, uh, the QB three hit in the top two flamed out. So for me, I just can't bring myself to. Ever rank the QB three in any draft at one. I just don't do that. Um, just 'cause historically it doesn't work like that.

Jeff: Yeah. Any, is there anybody in the, in this quarterback class who's who we, who's not in the first round pick this year in the NFL, any of them that you take a flyer on or, or are you just out this year? Even in Superflex?

Coop: Superflex and deeper. So oddly, after that whole spiel, that was just doom and gloom, right? That is just, I, I, I bring a lot of darkness, but then, you know, we find, we find a silver linings, right? Uh, there are two guys that got like the perfect landing spots, I think, in my opinion, number one. And they're both the, the rushing guys. Taylen Green, right? Taylen Green. You want a guy that's just a freak athlete and has no passing ability. Like, where do you put that guy? How about we put him in a room where everyone hates the quarterbacks in there, or at the very least, they're insanely divisive. Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders. I mean, that is like. The most toxic room of all time. 

And then you have a coach come over from one of the most successful rushing quarterbacks in the history of ever in Lamar Jackson, like literal QB one led the team in passing touchdowns one year somehow MVP seasons, right? Like if you're gonna pair this guy with somebody that can figure it out, you would put him with Todd Monken and, and that gang and that crew. So, Taylen Green, definitely worth a flyer in very deep Superflex leagues. And then Cole Payton too, like if people are gonna write articles about Jalen Hurts and the problems he is making and the issues, uh, if you want to put the, the fire to his feet as an organization bringing a rushing quarterback. 

And now, instead of like Joe Flacco versus Anthony Richardson, which it was never gonna, it was always apples to oranges. Like, one guy's gonna be better at passing, one's better at rushing. Now you can actually say, Hey, Jalen, by the way, we brought him this kid. Don't worry about him. He does all the same things you do. Don't worry about that. Like,

Jeff: exactly

Coop: like, like he literally does all the things you do. Let's just, let's just see how you do and, and, you know, we pay you a lot of money. Let's see if maybe he can replace you. You know, like as far as the landing spot for Cole Payton, I like that one too. So, like those two guys, very deep, long shots, but like, hey, why not? You know, J everyone hated the Jalen Hurts pick and said he would never replace cards. Carson Wentz, who got legitimate MVP votes the year that the Eagles beat the Patriots. And then that happened. So like, Hey, why not?

Jeff: Yeah, things change fast here in the NFL changed things changed even in this hour. We went from bashing the Browns for 45, 50 minutes and Coop just called them an ideal landing spot for somebody.

Coop: it is. We're back. Dude. Full circle, man. Time is a flat circle.

Jeff: time is a flat circle. Uh, is there anything else in quarterback world that surprised you, uh, at all, including guys who didn't get drafted or, or guys who just plummeted? Uh, much farther than we might have thought.

Coop: yeah. Ty Simpson going early bad. Uh, Garrett Nussmeier. I would've drafted him earlier than where he went. Not, not to start for me, but, but just because I think he's gonna be the next, like Davis Webb, I think he was a very smart kid. He's very polished. I bet he can run the heck out of a scout team. And a guy like Davis Webb kept getting contracts in the NFL never to start, but basically to be a coach and to be a scout guy and do all that stuff. Uh, and they asked him about that. 

They're like, why don't you just become a coach? And he's like, do you know how much coaches get paid? And everyone's like, not really. He's like, do you know how much QB coach gets paid? And he goes, 'cause the veteran minimum is a million dollars. So yeah, like, and I think Garrett Nussmeier could be that kind of on that kind of track. And his dad's an NFL coach, so he has a path right into being a coach at some point. So like. I think that when you get to that part of the draft, like why wouldn't you want that guy in a room? And this is not even a quarterback I liked, I basically called him Davis Webb or you know, Tim Boyle before the draft. A guy that, you know, has all the skills, but none of the traits. Um, I was surprised he was a seventh round comp pick. Uh, you know, but once again, chiefs bring in some of the right guys in the building and that's, you know, that's why they're the chiefs,

Jeff: Yeah, I think it's very smart, uh, advice there, Andrew. When you, when you, when you talk about. When you talk about with these, these lower, these lower round quarterbacks and their success rate in terms of big fantasy successes, almost non-existent, but yet there are still 32 backup quarterback jobs in the league. And these quarterbacks tend to tend to play every once in a while, and it may be years go by. Uh, but if you've got a big enough bench, uh, then having someone like a Nussmeier, uh, is somebody that you can pull out when he starts and stick him in your lineup in week 12 when six teams are on by and your quarterback's hurt and he'll give you 12 or 13 or 15 points, and that's all you need from him. So those, that's a guy to pick up.

Coop: I, I do, I, there's two types of guys right now that I view that way, which is, number one is easy international, uh, pathway players. You're allowed to keep an extra player in camp if you have one of these players. So like, not drafting one of those guys to me is irresponsible. Or just like, sign one, bring someone in. You can bring an extra guy in. Bring him in, right? What do you only have 90 plates in the cafeteria? Like, bring in the free guy, right? Uh, then the other one is, uh, you get to have an thank thanks to the 49ers starting Christian McCaffrey, at quarterback, they, or whatever had they had to do there. Like you're allowed to have an emergency third quarterback, active, like have a third quarterback. That's it. That's, that's it. You're allowed to have an emergency player, one player, if you have one, have one. 

And so why wouldn't you want Garrett Nussmeier polished player? Like if your backup is some like true, like even, you know, if you're gonna make, if you have like Anthony Richardson or somebody who's like, not reliable, but is a project, make that person inactive and have Nussmeier be active because he is, at least in my opinion, very polished and serviceable. So felt like, I mean, the way too much, talking about a seventh round comp pick quarterback, but Brock Purdy was a seventh round comp pick quarterback. So

Jeff: Yeah. Tony Romo was an undrafted free agent. So, I mean, there, there is, there is, there are examples. It doesn't mean that any one of these guys is gonna be that guy, but there are those guys.

Coop: no doubt.

Jeff: so let's, let's talk about the thing that we've wanted to get to all this time, which is our reaches, because there weren't very many of them in this draft that we could talk about. Maybe just two or three. Now, this was, this felt like the draft. Going back to my first question to you, what if I had one word to describe the draft? My word would be reach. I, I think that's what this felt like to me. So, uh, you know, I'm sure we've covered some of these guys already, but, but who did you just see as the, the biggest reaches in this draft from a, an

Coop: Yeah,

Jeff: standpoint?

Coop: let's just start with the obvious ones, which were the 49ers players. And they have, the thing is they have a history of doing that and it has a history of not panning out. So I will still draft De'Zhaun Stribling because I liked him. People I trust, like Matthew Harmon liked him, but like, based on virtually every spreadsheet that there is out there, it was a reach. Uh, and same with Kaelon Black. I mean, the guy didn't even get invited to the combine. Uh, and when you define reach, it's like in your fantasy draft. Single QB regular draft. Your buddy takes Josh Allen in the first round and you're trying to talk to him about it. And he goes, what do you mean? This guy's great. I got a great pick. He's gonna be the quarterback one. And you have to explain to him, it's not that you picked a bad player, it's that you could have got that player in the third round. 

You know, I think JJ Zachariason recently explained it as, uh, you know, you pay, you're, you're going out and you're paying $15 for a $10 coffee because the coffee's so good. But you could have just had the coffee for $10 or you probably could have got it for $5. You know what I mean? Like, you actually could, probably could've got it for $5 if you just waited. So it's like right now, and you know, they might make us look stupid. Brad Holmes made everybody look stupid when he picked Jamir Gibbs and those guys. But like right now, those look like reaches also. Uh, the Caleb Douglas pick has to be mentioned because now we're getting pretty obvious indication that, um, that, uh, they got sniped and they panicked. Right. I worry that maybe the Germie Bernard pick has a little bit of that to it.

Jeff: too. I

Coop: Yeah. Where they basically were like, man, let's just get one of them now. And then they took Germie Bernard and then another wide receiver that happens in, in, in rookie drafts too, when you take, like, let's say the second round comes around and you take a quarterback and then no one takes one till round five happens in every expert

Jeff: Yeah.

Coop: because in mock drafts, you know what I mean? You know how we do it, dude. We're like, I'll get one later. Yeah. I'll screw, I'll just, you know, so like, you look like you feel like an idiot and I think maybe there's a little bit of that there. Um, and you know, I'm not even going to mention the Jaguar's pick because the more I think about blocking, uh, Marlin Klein, I just, I don't see the appeal there. I think they was like, I don't think Marlin Klein. Should have gone ahead of Max Klare and any planet. Um, I didn't like that pick either. Uh, so there's a few of those, you know, quarterbacks, it's really even hard to

Jeff: Yeah.

Coop: get into it because I don't think they were really drafted all that early. Uh, I don't get why Ja'Kobi Lane was picked by the Ravens ahead of, um, ahead of Elijah Sarratt. Ot and the Ravens also have like a number of times where they've double tapped a position and the second guy is always better. Like four times that's happened with tight end with them four different times and they drafted two tight ends again

Jeff: It's gonna happen five this

Coop: Yeah. So I'm like,

Jeff: one's better this time too.

Coop: I, it's just like I, maybe their philosophy is like, let's take the safe guy, then we take the risky guy, you know? But like, I don't know, dude feels like a, uh, a

Jeff: Yeah.

Coop: playing a little too conservative in a league where you gotta get aggressive.

Jeff: Yeah, the, the Douglas, Caleb Douglas picked to Miami, Germie Bernard to Pittsburgh. Both of those struck me. The very thing, very same way you were. It's like you're on the clock in a draft in a one minute to pick somebody, and you had three guys in mind and they went bang, bang, bang, the three picks right in front of you, and then you're left looking at the list of players trying to come up with something and the clock hits one second and you have to click on a name, and, and that's what they got. I, I'm sure it didn't work that way, but it sure felt like it, given that there was other talent that fit their schemes better, that was available. Uh, at least in my eyes, 

I'm not, I'm not a pro scout and certainly, you know, not, uh, uh, someone who makes draft picks for, for a living. That's not what I get paid for. I get paid to analyze, not to, not to make the picks, but those, I agree with you. Those just struck me as, as, as a, as class leading odd, uh, and Stribling. I mean, as someone who does dynasty rankings, uh, I, he's tough because now I'm having to reckon with his draft capital. I still think he's the 22nd best wide receiver in this class. But now, now I'm having to do something with him because I can't ignore that. He is the, the

Coop: I'm gonna,

Jeff: pick of the draft.

Coop: I got him ranked top 20. I can't, um, I can't ignore draft capital that much. I can't, I can't top 20 at all positions, not just wide receiver. Like I can't ignore it to that degree. I'll put guys ahead of him that I liked better that got that went on day two. But like, I can't, I, you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. And especially because unlike Caleb Douglas, like we do have people like Matt Harmon legitimately called him like his second fa, not best, but one of his favorite players besides KC Concepcion. So like, I'm not going to completely, uh, bash that. I, I will say one other thing that we're gonna potentially see is that like there were a lot of day two trades. That were wild, like teams giving up three thirds to move back up in the second, you know what, it costs the Jets to move back into the first round, a fifth round compensatory pick. 

So it's, it's basically like while everybody was panicking, the jets moved back up into the draft, you know, from the second round into the back of the first round and they gave up, pick 1.79, and then the next day, you know, everybody went home, went to bed, and woke up with all these big plans and teams were trading three thirds to move up. It's like, um. I feel like the Jets alone, you can't call that pick necessarily a reach because they paid nothing to do it and it was jarring the next day. 'cause I thought like, damn, it's gonna cost you nothing to move up now in the second round because it costs the jets nothing to move up. But no, it costs you a lot to move up a lot. The, uh, the Giants paid a lot to get Malachi Fields a second and a fourth basically, to, to take them

Jeff: Yeah, I, I, I wonder Coop if the Pittsburgh was a cautionary tale there, uh, because of what happened with them and, and, uh, and Makai Lemon, that when team saw the guy they really wanted and he was still hanging out there, they did whatever they could to get that pick and, and just lock that up rather than wait for him to fall. Which to me, added to the whole reaches situation to begin with is, is that when I'm a believer, you get your guy in fantasy if, even if it is a reach of a pick a little bit, but some of these just sort of, that guy probably would've still been there when, when it dropped down to you. I think they, this reactionary league that we, we love so much, uh, overreacted and tried to out clever itself at the same time, and we end up with the draft and you throw in a draft class that ain't that great and you end up with what we ended up with on day two And,

Coop: and you throw in another key contributor that they change the pick clock to eight minutes from 10. Yeah. I mean, that's meaningful when you're trying to make phone calls and, and, and maneuver. Like, that's, that's big. I think. I think they were feeling that.

Jeff: Yeah. You saw a broadcast team that knows better that that couldn't make, manage an eight, eight minute clock and they don't have to make any calls. So yeah. Some of these other things. Yeah, I did not like that. Move to an eight minute clock. Yes, it made, made for better television, but it did not make for a better draft as far as far as I could tell.

Coop: Yeah. It hurt the, I mean, and again, as someone who loves the draft, I'm okay staying up. So

Jeff: Yeah. I'm in the mountain.

Coop: even as an East Coast

Jeff: Yeah. I, I'm a mountain time zone guy. This stuff ends early for me, so I, I'm, I'm, I'm quite content for, I'm quite content for NHL playoff games to go three overtimes, because, you know, it's, it's still before midnight over here.

Coop: I've ne I've ne I'll tell you, I've never seen a, I've never, I've never watched a whole Portland Trailblazers game, you know,

Jeff: I haven't either, so,

Coop: they, they start at like 10 at night, dude. Like, it's just, they're supposed to start at 10 at night, you know, NBA, they start at like 10 20. So it's, it's not happening.

Jeff: Yeah. Yeah. I, I lived in the Eastern Time zone for a number of years, twice in my life, and I don't know, I, I can't, I just cannot, I gotta, I've gotta gotta be in at least central time. Uh, but I do like mountain time a lot. The only thing with Mountain Time is that you never know when something is actually on, because they never tell you, they tell you things. They're Eastern, central and Pacific, but it's like, we don't even exist out here.

Coop: Yeah, of course.

Jeff: uh, value picks. Uh, so we've talked about the, the head scratchers, uh, who, who really kind of swooped in and got something great for, for not trading up and not doing the kinds of things that cost them a lot to get there.

Coop: Yeah. I would say, um. I liked the Eli Raridon. Didn't pick for sure like as far as, you know, getting him at the very end of the third round there after a bunch of blocking tight ends went. I thought that was a great pick for them. Um, I liked, and this is a player, you can tell this is a good value pick because I didn't really love the player going in to the draft in Zachariah Branch that he's a little small. I didn't know if he's gonna be an every down player. The Falcons, they have a big split end in Drake London. They have a big tight end in Kyle Pitts. They have inline tight ends like Austin Hooper, Charlie Woerner. They can afford to have like a smaller guy that maybe he's just a part-time guy or he can play flanker and be off and never have to deal with the jam, like as far as a landing spot and getting a good, they didn't have to trade up to get him like a third round Zachariah Branch. I thought that was good value for them. 

Um, Panthers getting Chris Brazzell, I thought PE some people had him as a first round pick and again, for them. They whiffed on Xavier Legette, they hit on Tetairoa McMillan. They're trying to figure out like Jalen Coker seems like a rock solid guy, but like you only want to, since you have rock solid, you might as well go high risk, high reward and look for maybe like a guy that can stretch the field. Chris Brazzell is exactly that. Like if he doesn't pan out, whatever, you have Coker. But now you've got this exciting guy that can come in and play on the outside and he's got the size and speed. I thought that was a really good pick for them. Um, the running backs, it's really hard to say because they fell so far that it almost feels like they're all just kind of, you know, I, you can, well, is there any running back for you where you were like, really liked him pre-draft and he went and he went to a, 'cause they're all value picks. So like a guy you really liked that you think got a good landing spot, maybe.

Jeff: Uh, well, not, not really just because of the, the overall situation. Uh, I did like where Johnson ended up, even though they do have, uh, Walker and there's a chance Walker gets 80%, 90% of the work and there's nothing there. Um, but I, I look for me upside too. I mean, this guy can catch passes. Walker's not really known for that. He can, but that's not his thing. So we, we do have some opportunity there. But going back to Branch and Brazzell, I mean, to those, to me, were two of my favorites as well. I love the landing spots, even though I do not see them as everyday players. But if you look at the Atlanta Falcons, I mean, you, you name the, the, the, the key guys for them. But the other wide receivers are Jahan Dotson, Olamide Zacchaeus, you know, Dylan Drummond. Devin Tompkins, KC Washington, and, and whoever Chris Blair is on my chart, I don't know who that is. 

So apologies to Mr. And Mrs. Blair, if you're watching this. Your son is wonderful. I just don't know who he is. So that's, that's one me, not him, that's me. So, you know, Branch has a shot man at getting regular rotation and even, even not on gadgets. Now the question is, he may be, he may be a track star running routes for, for nothing. Uh, but that, that to me gives him some playing time. And then Brazzell, you know, Carolina really needed somebody who could take the lid off the, the defense so that, that Tetairoa constantly facing the cornerback. And then, oh, hi, safety. How are you? Uh, so I think that's, that's gonna be really helpful for him. Again, somebody, I don't know, can be an every down kind of player, but you, you got, you pegged Legette, I mean, that's the guy that I think he can, he can knock out of the starting

Coop: Yeah. Legette. The problem with Legette man, he just, his fundamentals so poor. Uh, especially he jumps every time the ball comes to him. I, I've only seen that a couple times. Preston Williams had that problem. Um, there was a player that used to play for the Panthers a long time ago that actually went to the Patriots that, I can't remember his name now, but he, he would do the same thing no matter what the play is. He would jump, and I've got tons of clips of it from Legette even on like slants. You get no, the, the real killer. Not to mention you're making it harder to catch the ball, but the real killer is YAC. They talk about staying grounded. A.J. Brown does a good job, always. He only jumps when he has to, uh, you get no YAC because you lose all your momentum. And like Legette just, if he, he, I, I don't know if that's even something he could even learn. And it sounds like based on the moves they've been making, they don't think so either.

Jeff: Yeah. You know, I, I forget who it was. They were, they were talking about, uh, the science of, of when you leave your feet versus not leaving your feet. When you're on your feet running, you, you're running with the earth, pushing back against you. When you're in the air, you've got these little molecules of oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide pushing on you. And there there's a big difference between a handful of molecules and the earth pushing on you. So, yeah, I, I did not, I don't understand Legette's technique either. You, you jump up in the air to catch the ball at your chest when you could have just done that. And I'm not a, obviously not an NFL receiver, so, uh, there may be reasons for that, but I think Matt, Matt, uh, Waldman, our, our guy was also all over that. It's like this is just not a formula for

Coop: yeah, I think it, it's the, it's, it's a mental thing because it seems like he has to be doing something at the catchpoint and, you know, maybe sports psychology can help get over that, but like, until that changes, I don't know. He needs, he needs a coach that can really, that has a, has success fixing that particular problem because it's, uh, it's a deal. Dealbreaker.

Jeff: Yep. Well, let's, let's turn toward home here. Is there anybody that you're really excited about drafting in round one of your rookie draft story? You like me and trading out as fast as you can?

Coop: Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely looking to trade out. I would say that for me, um. I would say just simply that KC Concepcion at five in a single QB or six in a Superflex, that's the last guy I feel really comfortable taking because like I Jadarian Price makes me nervous and then I have to decide between Kenyon Sadiq or Omar Cooper Jr. And I like 'em both and you gotta rank 'em back to back. But one of those guys is probably going to have a very difficult time finding targets and, and they only gets dicier after that. So really KC is the guy in the round one where I'm like, great. Like if I have a top five, six pick, I'm just gonna take whoever best available is and be happy with it. After that, I'm trying to get out of there. I do not want to in a single QB league, so just take Mendoza out. And some people are just ranking Mendoza at six or or seven or eight or nine because they're like,

Jeff: Gotta go

Coop: don't just, yeah, just like don't take, you know, give yourself a shot and don't try and, um, you know, roll the dice here, but like. I'm trying to get out of those other picks and, and if anybody loves Jadarian Price or Sadiq or Omar Cooper or Denzel Boston or whoever, I'd say fine. Like that's fine. Like if you love that guy, then trade out from eight or nine. But like that's where I think it gets really sketchy.

Jeff: Yep. How about, uh, how about round two? Any guys there that you're really looking to draft or, or any, any really good values you see there?

Coop: Uh, I'll definitely be drafting Eli Raridon, I think, and even probably some Oscar Delp also, I think from what I've seen so far, Malachi Fields can be ahead at a pretty decent price. And, excuse me, I think that that spot is not all that awful either. So, you know, I'll probably dabble some, some Elijah Sarratt too, I guess. But pro, not really. Eli Raridon's probably the guy I'm most excited about taking there.

Jeff: Yeah. I seem to be gravitating toward, toward the tight ends, at least the, not the ones that block, but the other ones, uh, that, that are available down there in round two, because I'm not real wild about the receivers or at this point, the running backs given the draft capital and the situations there. And it's really difficult for me to say that, yeah, this running back I really liked five days ago. I now really like today because I don't, um, but what about later rounds? 'cause sometimes, you know, the, the key to dynasty is to find that first round talent in round three. Are there any of those kinds of guys in this class that you see in Dynasty that in round three or later you're going, this is, this is the guy I wanna leave this round with?

Coop: Yeah. Um, not real. I mean, so like, uh, just outside the consensus top 24, I've never been a big Khalil Shakir guy, so I'd be willing to take a shot on Skyler Bell. Uh, in that range, uh, the both Ravens that ends, I actually like Matthew Hibner and we all know Josh Cuevas. The, it's like the second guy ends up being

Jeff: Second guy.

Coop: ibner can make things happen. Like you go and watch the highlights. Like he, this is not a blocking tight end. Like in the, the past the problem has been they take a blocking tight end like Charlie Kolar and then they circle back and dick Isaiah Likely as a pass catching. I think this time they didn't do that. I think both these guys are past catching tight ends. Um, and Hibner is kind of interesting. Both of 'em are though. Like I'll take Cuevas with my last pick too. Uh, and then I will also just take, um, Adam Randall just because it's like, you know, if I'm gonna, if we're already down into mystery boxes, like, you know, just take the converted wide receiver who's like a physical freak and uh, you know, we all know Derrick Henry is winding down at some point, probably, eventually, maybe he'll just play forever. But Adam Randall, at least he's like, at least you can make the argument that he's like a freak. You know, Eli Heidenreich too is a pass catcher. I guess. Like, you know, I'm just, at a certain point I'm looking for very unique skills who has a unique. Aspect that could blossom into this crazy thing. 'cause a lot of these guys are probably just gonna be special teams or next man up type guys. So like, who has like one unique trait that could turn into something that is special

Jeff: Okay. What, uh, you know, what would you say, you know, looking back on, on three days of the draft, two days in which you're, you're trying to do 17 things at once while you're, you're on air and managing, uh, managing your, your website and other things, and, and day three, when you can just had a chance to reflect what was, what was your favorite moment out of the entire draft?

Coop: easily? I could pick all these like, heartwarming moments and the, you know, the crying and the, the hug and the parents. But I definitely as a team Chaos fan, got a gotta pick when Howie Roseman completely pulled down the Steeler's pants in front of all of Pittsburgh. They had Makai Lemon on the phone. They had him on the phone and they're literally playing some like, like Renegade Styx music video. And then Howie Roseman swoops in steals Makai Lemon. And then they have to take, uh, Max Iheanachor. And it's like a fine pick. But I mean, I That's what you love about the draft. You want people that watch draft day every year, like that's what they wanna see. They wanna see like chaotic trade, uh, knife in the back. Well, the all time knife in the back move taken, taken the Steelers guy at their draft in Pittsburgh live on air for everyone to see. That's awesome.

Jeff: yeah. Uh, be a Cowboys fan. I can't necessarily take that one, but that was, uh, that was definitely a

Coop: you helped.

Jeff: moment.

Coop: Hey, you helped in that, right? You had a little part in that. So I, I know you gave him to, I gave you, gave him to arrival, but still like you guys had a

Jeff: Yeah. Yeah, no, it was definitely, definitely played a part in that. Yeah, I go with one of the crying moments, actually, uh, two of them, I, I think they're right together. They're in the seventh round, which is, uh, the Cincinnati Bengals using the Pat Tillman pick to choose the first guy coming off the board from Navy and then Heidenreich, uh, being able to not only come out and have the full NFL experience while he is also on the phone. Incidentally, he said he was talking to a team about an undrafted free agent contract when his name got called, but also because it was in Pittsburgh, and that's who took him. So he got to get the, you know, the sort of home team experience there. So I thought both of those were, were really terrific, outstanding kinds of moments, those moments when the, the NFL rises above itself and, and actually, you know, when, when you, when your seventh round picks are probably not going anywhere, so why not make a really good statement with them when you have the opportunity? And I love that both teams did that.

Coop: Great call, man. Dude that, yeah, so much fun and also very fun player. Like, you know, like you could see it, you see a little bit of that, like Danny Woodhead in there, you know, obviously hardworking guy. But this guy's got past catching chops, so you never know.

Jeff: Yeah. He is one of the guys I, I, I will target in those late rounds because why not? You know, he's, he's got unique skillset. He has high upside, he doesn't have the numbers because he played at Navy. Um, but you know, why not? And, and if you've ever, if you ever wondered whether a guy had the work ethic to make it in the NFL, you don't have to doubt it with Heidenreich

Coop: No. Yeah.

Jeff: definitely definitely has that. But Coop, this has just been outstanding. Thank you for taking time today to, to hang out with me and do this. Uh, before you go, since we didn't cover it earlier, can you tell everybody, uh, where they can find you and all your awesome work, uh, whether it's on the webs or on SiriusXM, or wherever else you are applying your trade these days?

Coop: Absolutely. So Fantasy Alarm, where most of my articles live. And, uh, on Twitter at @CoopAFiasco, I always share whatever is free from my writing on Twitter or Reddit. And then of course, I have everything behind the paywall from rookie rankings to dynasty rankings that are updated already to best ball rankings, which will be up, uh, by the time this is posted, most likely. Uh, we have all the premium content that you wanna see there. Tons of betting stuff, and not just that, but Fantasy Alarm. I mean, we have, uh, one of our writers is one hockey writer of the year. Three different times we've got NASCAR writer. Our guy Mike Ione, wins the MMA thing himself. That's the hard part about taking his pics, is he is always winning himself. I'm like, you gotta let some, he always takes down like the left hook and he is like, oh yeah, I won again. I'm like, dude, you gotta settle down. Uh, Jake Perry on PGA, uh, James Grande and, and John and Pemba on NBA. Like if you're a Multisport athlete, I mean, you can just get the football stuff, of course, get the draft guides, but if you like playing different sports, we got a little something that all that for you. And you can catch me on SiriusXM, uh, channel 87. Our show is weeknights six to 8:00 PM I'm on Thursdays and Fridays, so, uh, check that out. I got plenty of content flying around for you guys and, and thank you so much for having me here, Jeff. This is the first time we've chopped that up on a show, even though we've met before. But I always love hanging out with the whole crew. Dude, you know, Dave Kluge, Joey Wright, Bob Harris, I mean Joe, Joe Bryant is just such a good guy, man. Like, just classic good guy, you know. So shout out to the Footballguys. You got a good crew.

Jeff: Yeah. Couldn't, couldn't be happier to, to, to be hanging out with those guys on a daily basis.

Coop: It's the best dude.

Jeff: just amazing. I wake up every morning and go, am I really, really a Footballguy?

Coop: Yeah, I, I, I left Jeff Bell. I left Jeff Bell out on purpose, by the way. Uh, specifically, but the rest of those guys, dude, love those guys.

Jeff: you know?

Coop: I was just kidding. I love

Jeff: no, of

Coop: whole. You got a whole, such a good crew, man. It's a good crew.

Jeff: When you're talking with one Jeff B it's kind of hard sometimes to mention the other one, but, but we, we are a hive mind. Jeff Bell and I, we, we travel together a lot, at least in the, in the, in the figurative sense as a pair of dynasty guys or Footballguys. So thank

Coop: thing. He's a sharp guy,

Jeff: is a, he is a really, really sharp guy. Well, I thank everybody else who has been listening or watching through this episode. I hope you learned a lot today and you're armed better for your fantasy rookie drafts, some of which are probably underway as we speak. Perhaps you are on the clock, so hopefully something that Coop said today saves you from a Germie Bernard or, or, uh, Douglas pick that Miami had. Uh, and maybe get you something more inspired than, than those guys. Uh, please, like please subscribe. All the things that we ask. Uh, if, if I have, uh, if you've got a question or even just a comment, if you'll leave that on YouTube, that's always really helpful. I respond to all of those personally. If you're on Apple, uh, if you could drop a five star rating and a comment or a review, that would really help this show grow. And, uh, we will be back next week with another episode of Dynasty Compass.

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