How to CRUSH Your ESPN Knockout League Draft | Fantasy Focus

0:00It's Saturday. The tailgate crew is on the way and you've got the cooler ice. You've got comfortable seating and, oof, where's the charcoal for the grill? No worries. That's when expressed delivery from the Home Depot can help. Order in the app or online and get what you need delivered fast and track it along the way. So you can get set up in time for kickoff. Get what you need in two hours or less with expressed delivery from the Home Depot. Subject to availability order select in stock items by 4pm restrictions if you supply. What's good everybody welcome into fantasy focus football alongside field ministry gates in Michael Lester Clay Junior. My name is Daniel David Dopp. Here on a Wednesday with some muted computers field. Thank you for that. I did it earlier this week. I'm just going to play Mike for that one. I did it earlier this week. Thank you. We got a very big show plan for today. We got a knockout league draft. We are diving into an 18 team knockout league. We'll tell you about that and what it is

1:04in just a moment. But first and foremost, hold on my friends. How are you guys doing on this wonderful Wednesday? I'm doing great fired up for a knockout league draft. We have 18 teams. You're going to rip through this draft and this is like all the friends. Yes. It's not just fantasy focus. It's people that you may know now is colleagues of our from the NFL. No, we're pumped. I'm excited to do my best to knock both of you out in the first the first round here before we get there before we get there. Let's not let that happen. Maybe we should check out the rules and regulations. Maybe we do a quick check out of the rules and regulations first my friends. Here's how a knockout league works. Welcome to a new format to ESPN fantasy football this year. Knockout style. The knockout format works similarly to a traditional fantasy football league. We'll draft your players then set your line up each week. But there's one key change. And this is the most fun part of the format. At the end of each week, the lowest scoring team gets knocked out of the league. Done for the season. As you try to avoid this fake, each

2:07week, you can track your live results in the app, including alerts when you're in danger of being knocked out or if you're not in any position to relax. The team knocked out has all of its players released into the free agent pool available for anyone to claim alongside all of the usual weekly pickups. Consistent players are paramount and fab budget management is critical. One knockout happens each week until season's end when the final team to avoid elimination is crowned league champion. Can you last long enough to be the last team standing? There you go, my friends. Going to be a ton of fun. Who's here? Here is who we have in the league so far. Field Jates, David Presley, Matthew Bowen, Daniel Dot, Mike Clay. Why is the draft order? So field is one. I'm four. Mike is five. Nothing like draft and right next year. Best friends. Six is Michael Florio, seven, Cynthia Freeland, Eric Carabell, Dan Graziano and Tyler Fulgeum. That round out the top 10. Adam Rank, Kiana Martin, Tristan

3:11Cockroft, our producers, Christina and Zach Joe Fortenbaugh is at 15 Kevin Pulsifer, our guy from chat Eric Moody follow him in chat at Eric and Moody. By the way, big news about Eric Moody coming up on tomorrow's show. Something very exciting. We're going to launch and then our friend Liz Loza pulling up the rear field. You are the number one pick in our knockout league. Yeah, we're not going to waste any more time or any get into it, baby. Nobody was surprised. The conversation centers around Jameer Gibbs and B. John Robinson. I'm going to go with Jameer Gibbs, who actually have ranked second, very simple reason here. Yep. I like Gibbs match up more in week one. That's reason one. Reason two, I have no shares of Jameer Gibbs so far this year because this is the first time I've gotten the first pick. There you go. So I now have Jameer Gibbs on at least one of my teams. There we go. I'm going to wait. One thing I want to note about Michael Florio's pick in six is it's not Michael Florian and Prof. Paul talk. This is Michael F. Florio fantasy expert from the NFL network. Yes. We'll be involved in this league. Excited about this. No surprises of the first three picks Gibbs, B. John, Jim R. Chase.

4:14I feel like I feel like I'm going to go to a S.N. I'm still just a little bit worried that in a knockout league, there is a chance that maybe something happens late with Puka. Totally. Yeah. You draft them there and it's just a little bit more of a dice roll. I'm going to go with J.S.N. there. The good news is we're eight days away from the Rams and Niners game and nothing has happened yet with Puka, but that's not a guarantee that nothing won't happen. All right. It's on the clock and I'm going Christian McCaffrey. I like the much like you. Rea. The early schedules here. I looks pretty attractive to me. At least on the good side form a cafe, which is actually not the case for someone like John Robinson. It was kind of a tricky schedule out of the gate. Jamar Chase as well as we're not really worried about Jamar Chase, but tough schedule to start the season. So definitely looking at things like that, like your Gibbs pick, I agree with that. I already like him number one, not to mention with Isaiah Pacheco on IR. I mean, I mean, he's like back to the front of the snaps. Yes. I mean, Jalen sailor, maybe they do sign cream hunt and he is a little bit of a burrow. Yeah. I mean, he's there too. I mean, that's how down this is. He's going

5:18to have to play on life knows the first name of their back. Is there a chance that Craig Reynolds pride, pride of Cutstown University comes back and does that? I don't know if he did. He did. He signed. I think he signed for a week or two and then he was kind of rassy. He was cut loose. Maybe the commanders. I think I already yesterday CMC conversation was great. We heard from a lot of people on social media on both sides of that. Go check it out in case you haven't seen it. First six picks that we've got so far. Jamir Gibbs, Pajan Roberts and Jamar Chase, JSN Christian McCaffrey and Amon Ross St. Brown. You know, the one thing I noticed about this is two Detroit lines have gone inside the top six guys. Yeah, deservedly. They're the best team in the NNL. Yeah. More guys talked throughout the week. No surprises here, though. Right? So again, just for those that you listen to what Daniel said about knockout leagues, but there is an element of obviously reaching for the stars, while also finding a way to have the highest floor baked in with your star potential, right? Which is why Puka, who has this much upside, is any player in all fantasy football is still on the board because if you don't have them for even a week. Yeah. And this is an 18 team league. Yeah. If you're picking third,

6:20you don't pick again until 34th, you're most valuable player on your team in week one might be like Javante Williams, yeah, who's a good player, but he's not the guy that I think is going to get you 30 points in week one. Whereas Puka, if he plays, could well get you 30 points in week one. Yeah. The other thing that's going to be in player, I think, is it hasn't happened yet. Puka goes seven, by the way, to Cynthia Freeland. There's a chance that we see quarterbacks go much earlier in this format than they do in a regular league. Except for maybe the number one quarterback in the game, that's going to say that's been the one thing that I've given out as as advice and you have two Mike and we've talked about this Josh Allen field. You gave the step last year, Josh Allen, when he played the Houston Texans, how many fantasy points do you score the last one? This is 8.1. 8.1 fantasy points and that's who Josh Allen gets in week one. Drake May, some Joe burrow, Trevor Lawrence, it's good, it's tough. Yep. At a gate. Drake May gets 80.1. My hand on stuff, but yeah. By the way, week one rankings will be available. I believe by the end of this week. Yes, they will. And yeah,

7:25that made the Mike and I's already in our years and yet minor and yep, got him in this morning. Okay. A rare. I mean, it was rare. Like this morning, it was disarming all three of my kids, slept until seven o'clock. Wow. And I normally like my body clock is like a six a.m. type of guy. And I'm not the kind of person that if my kids are all asleep, I'll stay down. I was like, let me go get a cup of coffee and enjoy some normal sea for an hour. It was somehow the longest hour of my life. It was amazing. I felt like I had a full day before my kids woke up and I got my week one rankings done. Good for you. I drafted Christian McCaffrey and eight leagues. Wow. Wow. That's a different one. Big deal. Different one. I'm saying this to be a little bit of a smart guy, but also it's also for real. My week 18 projections are in as in we have weekly projections in your round basically now last year, sorry last year, you can see projections in advance for every week of the season already. If you want to go ahead and just take a look at what things look like, obviously things will change every week. They're always being tuned to tweak, but

8:27it's a good to kind of way to look ahead and kind of get a feel for things like that. If you want to look ahead, they use all B zeroes after the upcoming week. Now they're they're all there. So it's just part of the part of the offering here at the end and they're there. I mean, they've been there since before the draft. I mean, the initial run of projections. All right, so we've made it through 13 picks and just to keep things rolling Daniel, Jonathan Taylor, after Puka, and then what then we went CD-Land Dan Graziano James Cook comes off the board, Justin Jefferson, Sequon Barkley and Tramick Bride, the first tight end goes to Tristan H. Cockroft. Question for you guys. Do you feel like, because I know I know where I stand on this, do you feel like the positional advantage that you're gaining at tight end matters as much and knock out leagues as it would in a regular league? I think what's interesting is if your plan is to win the league, which is usually your plan, right? Is that your plan? That's my plan. Let's just go from that premise, Mike. Okay. Is the plan of what we're doing in that in that case, when you get to the end, you want to make sure you have like a top two tight end and a top

9:27a couple top two running top five running backs, you know? So getting McBride at least locks you in if you make that run to the end to have one of those elite guys, you don't want to every week be rolling out Kyle Pits like just being set there and not having to bid on tight ends at all. Like even if Brock Bauer's becomes available necessarily. So I think there's some strategy to that. So I feel you on that, Mike. I do. I do feel you on that. I also think that there is something like you got to get to the halfway point because the beauty of the knock out league is not just like that it's an every week strategy. It's that a team that comes out of the gates piping hot. Can week six just fall flat on its face? Other because of by weeks or I think we should do this more often. I want to put this in the ear of the viewers and listeners of the show. I'd love to start a thing where we do each week. The best worst fantasy league, best worst fantasy team of the week. Where like you submit your submission where you're like I started Josh Allen, Ashton Gentie, Chase Brown, George Pickens, Terry McClaren, Colston Loveland, the Chargers defense and Cameron

10:30Dicker and I scored 41 points. Yeah. Happens there every week. So we need that to keep that in your brain if you're listening right now. The best worst fantasy team of the week or the worst best fantasy team of the week. Just to answer the original question of do I feel the need to go out and get a tight end? Yes. Because of what makes this format so different field. A superstar tight end very well may become available on the waiver wire. So if I am in the draft and I feel like boy, I really want to make sure I grab one of my tight ends. I'm not worried about it as much as I am in other leagues because there is still a chance. If I don't get him in the fourth round, there's a chance I get him in week six, which is that we say that about every position. You can say about Josh Allen. You can say that about Jamir Gibbs. You can say about Jamar Chase, right? Yeah. I just think kind of locking if you lock in McBrider Bowers, you don't have to think about tight end the rest of the years, as long as you're active. You don't have to spend the money like everyone else is going to be able to get him guys. You can just kind of home in on those other positions. So I don't know, there could be something to it. I guess you could say that about every position too, but there's just feels like something about you have to get the elite guys at the position. You have to figure

11:34out how to get the elite guys at every single position by the end, basically. And that's one way to just do it. Just lock in that one spot and then focus on the others. It does now that I in thinking through that as you're talking Mike, it does feel like given what knockout formats are and the fact that you look were specifically kind of talking about island positions, it will be a lot harder to get island positions on the waiver wire because there are just fewer options than so now that you say that, even though I still don't feel the need to reach because I get the premise of let's make sure we grab our guys so that we don't have to fight with 17 other 15 other teams to be able to grab them off the waiver wire. A couple interesting things that have taken place since we last spoke. Yes, sir. Is Josh Allen's off the board. Josh Allen goes second round fifth pick. Christina and Zach deciding to land the best quarterback in fantasy, which is really interesting about Josh Allen though for knockout leagues. As Daniel said, who's he playing week one? Houston Texans. And how's that matchup look? Very hard. Or perhaps the hardest. I think I have him I think seventh in my quarterback rankings for week one. Yeah, it's going to be one of those where

12:37get used to this phrase because it's going to happen a lot. The ranking doesn't really matter. It's are you playing the player or not right? That comes up early in the season. Like it doesn't really matter whether you have Josh Allen ranked first or eighth. Yep. It's are you starting him against Houston or are you not? Let's say that you've got Josh Allen and Tyler Schuck who's taken on the Detroit Lions injured second day area and how it looks like. Are you like, do you maybe want to throw a shot at a weaker defense, but not as good of a quarterback? I don't know. That's a great question. I'm going to quickly catch us up here guys while we go through the rest of this. We're getting back close to the clock. Yeah, Mike. You're on the clock here in five picks here in the second round. Since we talked about it, Tramick pride came off the board with the 13th pick of the first round after that. O'Marion Hampton, Devon H. Ann, Brock powers, Chase Brown, Kenneth Walker, the third and Derek Henry. Those two picks were Liz's picks at the turn. So Liz went running back running back here at the turn with KW three and Derek Henry. The rest of the second round, AJ Brown,

13:37Nico Collins, George Pickens, Josh Allen, Drake London, Ashton Gentee, Chris Olave, then Breeze Hall, Zay flowers and Javante Williams to Eric Carabell. We now have Cynthia Freeland on the clock. Michael F. Florio on deck and Michael Lester Clay Jr. in the hole. By the way, Ashton Gentee was really interesting coming off the board. Yeah, it's looking promising for a week one, but it's not a sure thing. Let's go through some of the quotes recently. There was one. I saw this. Sorry. I think the more while you look that up, I think the more concerning thing for him where he's being drafted is the fact that Mike Washington Jr. looks awesome. And there's a lot of chatter about him having a bigger role than maybe we thought this along those lines. Mike dove into one of the quotes that I was going to mention to you, which is GM John Spitek for the Raider spoke yesterday and said that Ashton Gentee quote, I expect him to be back as quick as he can. Maybe quicker than some people would expect when that is. We'll see. So definitely some some vague GM

14:39speak involved there. Little bit. Perhaps the chance he is back in week one. He also noted that the person who stumped for Mike Washington Jr. for the Raiders in their draft room was clink, Kubiak. And when clink Kubiak head coach stumps for a player, it does not mean that that player is going to be sitting around collecting dust on the site. Wow. I need to say this really quickly. Second round, 30 second pick overall. Mike decides rather than take his plant, my flag guy, Jeremiah love goes with Ross. You rice. There's a reason love is still available and that reason is that he's questionable for week one. We don't know if he's going to play. And even if he does, how much will he play in week one is the question. So right. Still very optimistic about the season. I've been over this. I do expect a slow start. That's notable. Obviously here in a knockout format where you have a bad week one. And there's so many teams. There's 18 teams like your your death is short here. So if he doesn't play in week one, that could that could burn you pretty bad. And there he goes. He got wow. Who did that? Who got his on you? Wow. It's like you were not listening

15:40when I was I guess I wasn't listening to Mike when he was talking. Sorry about that. Here's the thing Mike that's still a tear thing for me. Look at the running backs available after Jeremiah love at this point from me. Bucky Irving, Basel Tutten, cam scataboo, David Montgomery, Quinchon, Judkins. I recognize the guys you're not going to be able to start if he doesn't play in week. Okay. So when you have you have Kyle Menungai in there. I just found myself in a pickle, by the way. And Daniel to a degree. A little bit there. So which is so picking first obviously means that you pick last in the second round. Yeah. First and the third. And you got to wait a long time. Yep. My first pick as you guys know is to be our Gibbs. At some point this running back crop crop is going to dry out. But do I reach I mean reach reach for running back at pick 36 or 37 when the best available in our knockout rankings. Mike's a Bucky Irving, Chil Tutten, Skataboo, David Montgomery, Quinchon, Judkins. Or do you just keep on stockpiling these premier wide receivers. So I ended

16:42up drafting Teteromaic Bill and and Devonte Smith and said, let me go for the top wide receivers over the running back. And I think that one of the realities of Jumeer Gibbs or having a top pick afford you is that you're kind of baking in like a, you know, one T to 25 point outcome for your number one pick. You have a bit more security like whoever drafted 18th in this exercise took Kenneth Walker the third. Liz got him. Walker is a he's going to have a great year. We're very optimistic about Kenneth Walker the third. But if he goes for 12 against the Broncos in week one, that would be much less surprising than if Jumeer Gibbs goes for 12 in week one again. Yes, yes, agree with that already agree with that field. Oh, Mike, you're back on the clock. All right. So I'm going to quickly recap while we do this. Yeah, keep going. We ended up coming off the board. We finished with Breeze Hall's a flowers, Javonte Williams. Cynthia took Travis A. Chan, Kyron Williams, Rashi Rice by Mike in the second round. I took Jeremiah Love then DeAndre Swift, Colston, Loveland and Teteromaic Millen who you took field you talked about that.

17:45Third round so far, Devonte Smith producer Presley took Lad McConkey. I was really hoping he was going to make it to me. Matt Bowen took Garrett Wilson. I took Tyler Warren and Mike goes with the running back. Quintan Judkins going to get that second running back. Quintan Judkins. I expect him to get off to a better start to the season than Jeremiah Love. And I like him this year. I've drafted him a lot. Also, I think we have a big drop in tier here at the running back position. I did think about Tyler Warren. One of my concerns there was early in the year. They open with Baltimore Kansas City in Houston, which is going to be a really, really tough slate for that cold I use that as a jumping off point to a thing I've seen around the NFL. I don't know if this was intentional or not. I don't know if it's just reflective of general strength of the NFL right now. So many of the teams that we think are going to be really good this year have ridiculous early season schedules. Let me go read the Rams. People probably know this by the Lions. I was just going to say that. I said so many didn't say all the Rams in their first five games. But the

18:4649ers giants Broncos Eagles both on the road and then the bills. That bills game is Monday night football lots and lots of prime time for the Rams early. No surprise there. The Jaguars a trendy pick to make an even further step from last year in their first six games. Browns week one that feels windable. Obviously at Denver home to the Patriots at Cincinnati. I think will be much better this year. Oh, yeah, great. Home to the Eagles. Home to the Texans. Like that's a tough schedule right there as well. The Patriots who of course last year took advantage of a great schedule at Seattle home to Pittsburgh at Jacksonville at Buffalo in their first four games. Like this is going to be a fascinating start for so many teams who are banking on progress from last year. Getting out of high interest credit card debt is hard by yourself, which is why so five things. It should be a team sport. Help yourself out with a so five personal loan and consolidate your high interest debt into one low monthly payment. Save even more with no fees required and do it

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20:52somebody wants crispy wings and somebody's asking if they're sliders that's why you need more than one call in the playbook frigid air offers a range with over 15 cooking modes so you can tackle hosting with confidence there's a stone baked pizza for restaurant quality pizza and as little as two minutes air fry mode for crispy favorites and air sous vide for juicy tender sliders plus there's slow cook no preheat and more that's the game time MVP combo stone baked pizza and air fry both built right into your oven so whether you're ready for kick off or feeding a full house frigid air has every craving covered available at the home depot how doers get more done only when using stone baked pizza mode cook time requires preheat and reheat and may vary based on ingredients. Quick update on the draft guys as the seventh pick of the third round Cynthia Freeland goes with quarterback bow nicks with Lamar Jackson Drake May and Jaden Daniels still on the board. Is this part of that early season schedule where you're trying to look at the chiefs right

21:56they do yeah that's pretty good defense. I think yeah. I will say the Broncos fall into that category of tough early season schedule. Take a look at theirs, all right. Like they might have the toughest six game schedule and I'm not talking for fantasy just just real life real life with some fantasy actually for sure some tough fantasy magic some of the progress for for Denver at Kansas City week one Monday night football home to the Jags home to the Rams at San Francisco at Los Angeles home to Seattle. Yeah that's a tough one. How about that for six games to start there are a lot of teams that have this. Yeah. Crazy. I think. Yeah Lamar Jackson nicks go before Jackson to surprise Jackson I feel like as of the top quarterbacks let's say the top seven or eight quarterbacks one of the easier schedules to open the season yes from a fantasy standpoint. So I think I think that's a fine enough pick here definitely surprise nicks went ahead of him but this is why also I like bone XO your team that's right you're just trying to be able to make it this this format is so

22:56different than the other one because it really is a weekly format. I mean it is just like I need to just survive this week and end if Bob does struggle in week one against Kansas City there are pivot options right absolutely somebody starting quarterback is going to be put into the waiver wire there might be quarterbacks that are also available on the waiver wire that surprises we can say this too just to make sure that everyone recognizes the starting lineup is for this is quarterback two running backs two wide receivers a tight end and a flex and then we only have four bench spots because we have 18 teams in the league. So we're trying to not completely deplete the player pool as a part of this. Yeah. It's going pretty status quo to like a normal league the top my top four tight ends are gone exactly my top 21 running backs are gone and of my top 22 receivers 20 are gone the exceptions are Malik neighbors and Devon to apps neighbors being the obvious one but if he's limited in week one obviously you don't want to be starting him the quarterback is the one where it's kind of all over the map Allen went Jackson went and then of course Bo Nick's that's it so far quarterback. There goes and there goes Adam. So there we go there we go guys. Hey,

23:57Adam's and Jalen waddle off the boards and now we have okay. So there it is 23 of my top 24 the only exception like neighbors and your favorite wide receiver this year Luther. Then third comes off the board to our body. Paul's all right quick recap then for those listening since bonix it was a mecca abuka bucky Irving Roma dunes a Lamar Jackson T Higgins Terry McClure and the Vante Adams Jalen waddle and then Luther burden the third to pulses chop house. It's so long to wait between next when you're putting in 18 team I think I think I made my last pick during Monday show it feels like it. Yeah, it's hard to watch all of these options drying up. It is our starting line. I'm sure going to look at compared to all the other when we're doing 10 and 12 team leagues and we're going to be like, oh man, this team's in trouble. This is a problem. Well, let's take a look at the running back position right now. We are still not out of the third round. And again, our running backs available on the board. Basel Tutton, Jalen Warren, Jadarian Price, Marcia Lloyd, Tony Pollard, Rico Dowdell. Yeah. Hey, I like the tick that

24:57Moody just made David Montgomery. Love the schedule early out of the gate. Yes, agree. As far as running backs are as far as offenses go. They've a what do they have after the bills in week one? Do you have a the bills? First of all, the defenses. This is not a shomic dermat defense anymore. We should point that out. This is a very advantageous matchup. After that, let's see, we have Buffalo. They have Cincinnati who I'm not, you know, they're a little they're not as bad as they were, but it's still a good matchup, I would say. And then they've Indianapolis. Dallas should be better, but that's manageable. And then the Titans and then the Jags. So I don't think are that great. And then the giants before thereby. I mean, that whole first half of the season is very interesting from a fantasy standpoint. Jack's defense is an interesting one. I've seen them get some love. I think they may feast it on a couple of things last year. So I'm insane turnover production, which is just hard to recreate years here. And not the most difficult schedule for opposing quarterbacks. Yeah. And they also have the best perhaps the best week one matchup at home against Cleveland. So you're going to see them drafted quite a bit. Since you had David Montgomery come off the board who might talk to

25:57about we had Drake May and then Cortland Sutton, both of those to Liz Lose, so Liz at the turn going with a quarterback and a wide receiver there. Malik neighbors round four, second pick to our guy, Eric Moody. This is one of the big question marks because of his week one availability. And we talked about that earlier this week, guys. We are hawking the Twitter feed of Jordan Ranoff right next 10 days. Because I thought this was gamesmanship. Yes, your day. I talked about how like yeah, you know, you can't let the cowboys think you're going to play right or 10 days away or 11 days away from the game made a lot of sense. You're like, Hey, early on just get some excitement around everything. Fans are excited. Absolutely. By the way, we're all excited like John Harbuss pumped to be back in camp down in West Virginia at the to call the shoot. What's the place they all do it in West West Virginia? Oh, I don't know. It's the really cool place where they do a lot of training camps there. So embarrassed. I don't know this right now. Oh, I'm in the conference center. The phone. We're talking about the green briar. Yes, the green bro looks awesome. I want to go play

27:00there. One day. No one cares. All right. But yes, we are hawking Jordan Ranoff Twitter feed because that that Malik neighbors thing felt a little steadier to me than it does right now. I will care about you golfing to the green buyer. Ryer, when you tell me what breaking news, Adam Schefter is going to do from the seventh hole while you guys are playing. Okay. That's what that's what matters to me. I can do that. I can work on that. I'm trying to think who's eligible for a contract right now on the board with. Oh, no, I'll play it. It's a week. Neighbors will be a full go and week one. That's what we want to hear. Basel Tutten comes off the board at the fourth round as well as Michael Pittman Jr. Daring at price and Marshawn Lloyd. There's a spicy one. Yep. That's a. That's a. That's a classic. That's a classic knockout. Running right? Yeah. That's a classic knockout pick there too, right? Yeah. Josh Jacobs probably going to miss some time. Could miss a lot of time. Yep. Could meet me. I mean, Josh Jacobs could be done with the Packers. Yeah. We have no idea. There are a lot of different ways that that one could go. Yep. There we go. All right. There we go. Addison took Jalen Hertz. And I've been talking about this all off. Well, I know. That was made when the schedule came out. Yes. The Eagles have

28:04the easiest fantasy schedule during the regular season and the hardest during the fantasy playoffs. But again, you could feast on Eagles for the first few months of the season. Use them a lot, I should say. And then you won't need them by the time the fantasy if you're so live. You're defeated one. It's against the law. It's against the federal line. Just in case anyone doesn't do that. Mike, as always, giving up bad advice on the show guys. Are Eagles federally protected? I actually know what Eagles are. Well, all of these are. Yes. Are you familiar with the Chimney Swift? I am. Yeah. Yeah. Chimney Swift, it turns out are federally protected. Apparently, Chimney Swift are small birds that that perch. Yes. They have to go into like, um, hollow locations. I know all this. And I know that they're federally protected because we had like a whole pack of them fly into our chimney in the middle of July. And they were there for a month. You can't do anything about it. You just want to let them be. They have to let them. They have to find their way out of there naturally. And I'm telling you, for a month straight, like every 90 minutes, these birds would flutter and make noise. And that wasn't ideal. It wasn't ideal.

29:05Sounds like ideal. That sounds idyllic is what it sounds like. You just wake up to the sound of birds right outside your window. You and I have a different definition of idyllic. You've got three unbelievable tiny cute little daughters. And it's just like, it sounds like a princess, like scenario in your home. Sure. Yeah. I don't think my wife now. That's not how it works. That way. Okay. All right. Well, um, interesting pic that was just made right now. And we haven't really talked about this one very much. Yeah. Dan Graziano took Ramondra Stevenson with the 10th pic of the fourth round. Not that I'm super intrigued by Ramondra, but patriots are eight days away from playing. Yeah. Maybe on Henderson. Wasn't practicing yesterday. Still because that ankle injury. So Ramondra could have more value in a knockout league as a result of Travion. Yeah. Still nursing that long ways to go by next week in some ways, but also like close enough that and we already think Ramondra is going to be the guy in this backfield. The leader of this backfield, maybe not the guy meaning 80% of the snaps, but again, knockout strategy. A little bit different than Tickle's credit. No, that about it.

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31:11the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional grade products, you can count on to fast, dependable delivery. They're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Granger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-Gringer, click Granger.com or just stop by. I just made a knockout decision here looking at guys like Carnel T, Marvin Harrison, DK Metcalf, Alec Pierce. I went Metcalf, like the schedule out of the gate. Tates, obviously some uncertainty as he gets build some chemistry. Chemistry there with his new quarterback, Harrison, tougher schedule. Pierce obviously may not be a full go. My team is on the screen. Here's how we started. Christian McAfrin, Quinchon, Judkins, running back for Shi Rice and DK Metcalf at Wide Receiver. Four picks in. Marolan. We are rolling along. We are at the end of the fourth round and just a couple of picks. I totally bled the entirety of that clock there, guys. I was having a hard time in

32:16trying to make a decision between which of these wide receivers did I want. Carnel Tate, who I'm more excited about for the longevity of the season or Wondell Robinson as the potential. Do I just think that he might have a safer floor in this week one situation? I like that thought process because I just followed your lead there, Daniel. I went, I thought my first three picks were all guys that I think have tons of upside. Me or Gibbs, do I have to Smith and Tateiro and McMillan? That left me with a gap at both tight end and running back and we have reached the point where upside is much harder to find at those two spots. Correct. So I just, I figure, you know what? I like Travis Kelsey earlier in the season than later in the season. He's like my age. And Tony Pollard, same deal. So my team, as it takes, again, picking from the one hole, Jameer Gibbs as my RB1, Tony Pollard, Tateiro, McMillan, Devonthay Smith, Travis Kelsey is my tight end. So I still need a quarterback and a flex from my starting lineup before we get to our four bench spots. Couple philosophical questions

33:16for you guys. Yeah. Okay. Because it's the, you know, it's, it's, it's because it does matter. Like week one every week is consequential. Are you more likely to fill out your entire starting lineup before you get to the bench? Or no, great question. Because this is the kind of thing where you're starting lineup is actually what matters. Not like bolstering your bench. You can bolster your bench all season long. I can't tell you how often I see people in season long regular drafts. Yes. Fill out the starting lineup. And I'm like, it's really fine. If you don't draft, it's okay if you don't. Yeah. Do you guys feel that's different in a knockout league, especially a knockout league with no kicker or defense? One million percent. Sort of going to answer your question here because I am going to take a tight end to help fill out. I know there's a little risk on this one, but I'm looking, I don't want to take another brown because I have Quinchon Judkins and I don't want to be that relying on a week one dud. And then it's a mess. So, I'm actually going to take a little bit of risk here with Sam LaPorta, Hobie's healthy and ready to go. What I really, why do you think it's worthwhile is the Lions maybe have the most attractive fantasy schedule out of the game. Certainly if a great schedule is a team this year, the easiest

34:19in the NFL, the fantasy schedule the first month and throughout most of the season is extremely attractive. So I'm going to expect them to score a lot of points. LaPorta in the tight end slot. I'd like to say this right now, Michael F. Florio with my favorite pick of the fifth round so far, if there was ever a time where I would be in on Christian Watson, it would be in the first week of a knockout league because I don't have to worry about the whole season long. I can use them until I need to not use him anymore. Right. Right about him. I actually think he has a little more value in this by the way in week one. So second, I want to keep talking about what keep talking about the picks, of course, but I want to discuss strategy here as well. No matter who gets knocked out in week one, there's going to be a high profile player. Unless that player is hurt, you're going to have I mean, just read the names of the very top Gibbs Robinson, Jamar, Almanron, McAfrie, Nuku, Taylor, Lamb, Cook, Jefferson, sake one. How do you guys approach the fab process each week in knockout leagues? How aggressive are you right out the case? Is it? Yes. Are you the kind of

35:20person that, because I remember we played in a knockout league together, I think all of us. And last year Eric Moody, I believe Christian McAfrie's team got knocked down in week one, person who had Christian McAfrie and I think Moody spent it all on CMC or a healthy dose of it. And he had a great team that they made it worked out. Big run. I think he may have won the league, actually. But obviously if you do that, you are left to pick up just scraps from there on out. Do you guys generally lean aggressive? Do you generally lean towards patients? Because you could say like, yeah, my team, I barely scraped by in week one. I need to spend big for week two. Or you had a tough week one here, team was just unlucky. And like your team actually isn't that bad. So I've got, I've got two thoughts. I'd love to know where you're at on this too, obviously. I don't, but I, I see when we see us alive after I could still knock you both out week one, right? Did we just, yes, yes, yes, yes, I wasn't listening. I heard your voice on the rules thing.

36:20You're paying attention. Yeah, yeah. I think that for me, I don't necessarily go big right out the gate. There's a little bit of a, first off, it's so difficult in a, in a league with a thousand dollar fab budget. And you have no idea what everyone else is going to think. Someone could come available and you bid $17 and someone else bid $634. That's my thing. That's my thing. No idea what people are doing when they're valuing. Like this is what I need to get this guy, right? You correct me. Is other one of you know this? If Keith, I think Keith is listening or watching probably knows the answer to this. I believe the waiver report is revealed each week. Yes, obviously new to ESPN. This, this, for me, I believe that as well. The like, you know, hey, let's just say, I'm just making this up. The person who has whatever, who has a Jeremiah love, sorry, Daniel, likes loses in week one. And Mike wins Jeremiah love for $278. We'll be able to, you'll see who the number two you'll bid 200 Liz bed 150 Adam Rank bid 100. Mike had the highest

37:26bid at 278. So yes, he won. He may have quote unquote overspent, but only by $78, which in the first week, it's hard to say that $78 too much is really overspending because you just have no idea. I also think the first couple of weeks, people might want to be a little bit more conservative because they don't want to spend it all up front. Sure. So there's a chance that if you do want to be a little more aggressive, if there is a superstar superstar, if for some reason, Jimier Gibbs, Bashan Robinson, Pukinakua, Jamar Chase is available. And you want to go out and be a little more aggressive. I think it's easier to do early Iran because people don't want to go through and think about not having enough money for the rest of the season. Yeah, agree there. Yeah. No doubt about it. I think it kind of depends to the player or something. I don't want to do is continue to spend hundreds of dollars at a time, just getting a little better in a position when I have the money to make a splash on an elite player to my point before when you get to the championship, you want to have the the best guy at the position. Elite. So if Gibbs, Robinson, CMC, Chase, Dakota, JSN, Josh Allen, McBride, Bowers, could become available. That's where that's where

38:31I'm looking hard at that. I think everyone is value, but those guys, my goal is, and this is like threading a needle. Obviously, you want to be one of the top scoring teams just because it's safest. But if I can just be in the middle to like bottom third, but still not be the worst, and save as much money as possible, if you can have a bunch of fab by the time that you get to the middle of the season, the guys that start to get dropped in the middle of the seasons, those teams are more stacked than the teams at the beginning of the season. My, uh, finish if you have thought I was going to change subjects. I just love the idea of something interesting. I'm being able to just think about grabbing someone and waiting in the middle of the, you know, you get to week eight, and now all the sudden the team that gets dropped has six actual superstars on it, not a team from week one or we two. It's tough because their strategy is really all over the place. I'm not sure there is like one specific thing you can do. There's just a lot of nuances with the way that you can approach all of these situations. Yeah, no doubt about it. Um, what I wanted to just object. Yeah, subject change here is the quarterback situation here in this round,

39:31early in the round, Mapo and takes Joe burrow later in the round. The guy I was targeting, but I was uncertain if you would get back to me. It's a lot of quarterback depth. I was okay waiting, but Tristan Cochraf, no surprise on top of things here. Get your guy Justin Herbert. Wow, you're waiting early season schedule. Cincinnati Tampa Bay and week one. I think they're going to be better defensively, but that's fine. But then ad Houston at Pittsburgh for Joe burrow, but on the other side, Justin Herbert opens with Arizona at home, Raiders at home. And then at Buffalo, I said, I still believe it's going to be a really good match up this year for quarterback. So the schedule, again, I think Herbert is the best weeks one, two, three schedule in the league. So a fascinating that burrow goes before Justin Herbert. This is more of a of a real life than a fantasy conversation. But if you guys see in this, everybody's tweeting about this now, the stretch the the chargers have starting a week three schedule wise. Mm-hmm. Again, real life factors here. Real life at Buffalo. Yep. At Seattle. Yep. Home to the Broncos. At the chiefs. At the Rams. I mean, tactically a road game, but you know, literally the same stadium.

40:32Home to the Texans at Baltimore. That's six straight games. They play home to the Jets and then home to the Patriots, which is something to keep in mind there. Remember, after week three, you might not need Herbert anymore. You might be able to scoop someone up. You might get Bonyx off waivers. You might get Brock Pertie off waivers. You might get so generally you're not going to be dropping the number one quarterback. But you know, but in this format, you don't have to when he's going to Seattle or Denver, whoever may be, you don't have to start him, right? You're going to be able to replace these guys this year goes on. It's, but the first three weeks, if you could cement yourself as a, as a legit team, that's the huge quick recap here of the fifth round that we had field talked about taking Travis Kelsey after that. Can you gain well? Joe burrow. I took Rico Doudal with the fourth overall pick. Mike went with Sam LaPorta. Then we had Christian Watson, Harold Fanon, Jr. Carnell Tate, Dak Prescott, George Kittle, who did fly to Australia. I believe Mike. We talked about that before the show. Not for vacation either. We don't know that. We don't know that actually. He might know you're right. Maybe he did just maybe just have flown

41:33there for vacation likes the party. Then Travian Henderson, Chris Godwin, Jr. Justin Herbert, Marvin Harris and Jonathan Brooks and Josh Downs with Michael Wilson and Matthew Golden, rounding out the fifth round to start the sixth to quickly catch us up. Joanne Johnson. We're in the sixth round and Joanne Johnson just went at the tight end physician. That's how deep it is when you have an 18 team knockout league guys. I think with Jordan Tyson out for whatever. We'll say maybe six weeks of the regular season roughly. Yeah. I believe they said as week eight, something like that. Johnson's been viewed as a target right now for the early season. In this format, you don't have to start Johnson throughout the whole year, but maybe it take advantage of that schedule early in the year. Coming off a year with career highs across the board for him last year. He was pretty darn good. He was tight in the nation. He came off his shout out, Liz Lose. A field says it's fine. He came out tight end 11. He was drafted. He was tight and eight last year. Love that. It's fine, but like that's the arc type of fantasy football player that like you don't really get fired up to start that guy on

42:36Sunday. You're not like I'm exactly why he went ahead of Godter. Okay. I'm just saying. I mean, this is why you're you. You are the machine. You are the engine. You are the pistons behind the ESPN fantasy operation. And then people like me are just blabbering because it's like, yeah, like it's exciting to start like, you know, to mere gifts. Yeah. Right. John Johnson is a little different. However, Mike, I appreciate the argument. Also like 10 points. You're like, all right. I'm excited about that. Well, if someone's going to race an eyebrow who's watching this, I'm going to explain why that may have happened here. So Michael, the circus dancers are not the man of the people is what you're trying to say here. That's what it is. That's it. People call me after that. No one goes to that after that. We had John Johnson. Man of the minions. Jackson, two of a half of many kids movies. I've trust me. I watch a lot of minions and stuff. Caleb Williams was the fourth pick of the sixth round then Stefan digs, JK Dobbins, JK Ferguson, RJ Harvey, Brock Purdy. Another quarterback that just keeps being slept on, which one of you had all those Brock Purdy stats was talking about how good he's been over the

43:38last couple of years. Mike, that's you top three top 12 fantasy points for game three years and running now. I believe it's top 10 actually three years running is Brock Purdy. So yeah, when he's played, he's been effective. He has missed games at times, but yeah, he was really good down the stretch last season. Remember how good he was 17 plus fantasy points in seven of his nine games. He had 26 plus in three straight. 15 16 17 15 16 17 beautiful. Yeah, top 10 three years in a row and points per game. So he's in a good spot. I think he had like 26 and 15 like 31 and 16 and 36 and 17 or something like that. He crushed it that the final three games of the playoffs were unbelief. Very pissed because somebody just took my quarterback target. I was going to look at him too. Who just took Jared Gough? Eric Carabell. DMU Eric Carabell. Yeah, that is an Eric Carabell pick. Great pick by Eric Carabell. No surprise. He's always very, very sharp with this quarterback process. I wanted to mention something. He is in this draft right now. He's Dan Graziano. If you haven't yet, go on ESPN.com. There's a piece that Dan wrote called Graziano's bold but realistic

44:41predictions for all 32 NFL teams. I don't like it. Don't be surprised if dot dot dot. Yeah, I don't like it. You don't like it. How come it says positive things about your Scott? Didn't he say, don't be surprised if Jared Gough gets traded. The lines move on from Jared Gough. The following surprise if Jamison William. Oh, I was thinking about a different article that he wrote then. Maybe it's a different article that he wrote. Oh, okay. His bold prediction was don't be surprised if Jamo leads the team in receiving. I got to say, though, and I do feel a little bit bad for Graz in situation like this. We're in this, this information and aggregation era now, right? Where Graz wrote a piece called bold but realistic predictions, right? I think the bold is the most important part of that conversation. And like, yeah, he's acknowledging these are bold. Bold to me means probably not super likely. Exactly. Realistic and super likely are two different things. Yeah. And I've seen aggregators that are like ESPN's Dan Graziano believes James Williams will lead the lions in receiving. That's not what the article is. Do you guys really think Dan Graziano who's like this

45:43incredibly well respected, educated, smart, talented reporter would be like, yeah, you know what's probably going to happen is James and Williams will most likely lead the team in receiving. It's possible. Of course, it's possible. Yeah. But it was really people that write about those that's a bold prediction from Dan, but the people writing about it, they'll get traffic if they put it that way. People click on it. I just wanted to give I wanted to show some some rough. Some sympathy to people like Graz who get put in this this pick. You're right. You're right. Um, hey, we have a bold predictions show coming up. We do. We sure do. Yeah. We sure do. I'm going to report field eight says that Kyle Yuschek will lead the 49ers and fantasy points. Oh, Graz, Graz just text to be by the way. He, I think he and I are aligned on the aggregators, but Graz is the best. And by the way, you can't repeat what he said. I'm going to think it's what I say word to word. I'm scared. Graz that one. Fields, you're on the clock back to back here. While you make your picks, I'm going to quickly recap everyone on what's happened in the six round. We had Jordan Addison off the board of Dan Graziano. Then EK took Jared Gough who we talked

46:44about. Mike Evans, Isaiah likely Matthew Stafford to Michael play NFL. Then I took Tyler Shuck, Dallas Goddard, Dejon Striblin and field. You went back to back with two quarterbacks, baby. I did. Yes. So I'm picking the end. This was the end of six in beginning of seven. And I really wanted Jared Gough as my quarterback, like badly. I'm talking about him on the bold prediction show. No, uh, teasers, but they're sort of the teaser right there. Um, and I ended up with Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence plays the Browns in week one, which for a long time, that was considered like a tough matchup for a quarterback. I'm not saying they're a bad defense now. But without Miles Garrett, they definitely feel like a little less daunting to me. But I wanted to give myself some optionality early in the season because if I'm not totally certain on T-Law based off of the schedule, at least they have Patrick Mahomes to kind of like weave my way through the season, whether it's with those two guys as my quarterbacks or until I can accumulate or I should say, acquire a quarterback who's better than either of those guys. I'm with you on that.

47:47Did you already have your flex or does that? I don't, but the flex options to me, we've reached the point now. I kind of agree. I'm not entirely sure. Like we're both looking at the same thing right now. I'm like, Oh, no, I don't like it. We're totally certain that Mackay Lemon is better than Jalen Coker, especially in Debo Samuel, right? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, I did the same thing that field did. I went with a second quarterback, Justin case. I mean, in part because my first quarterback is Tyler Schuck. I do like the week one matchup against the Detroit Lions and how banged up that secondary is going to be. So I think he has a nice week one matchup, but I don't know as though I love him as my only quarterback for the entirety of a knockout draft. So I would like to be able to have Baker Mayfield. I do love what Baker potentially brings to the table a little bit of that wild card. Daniel, I have a question for you. Yeah. Think about you just mentioned the lion's secondary. Yeah. If the team still goes 12 and five, would you be on board with a season in which the lions have the highest combined point scored and points allowed by a team in NFL

48:47history? Would I be okay with it? Yes. And we went 12 and five. Yes. We made the playoffs. I presume if you go 12 and five, you're making the playoffs. Yeah. Okay. Because all the care about is getting in the playoffs. Once I get to the dance, then you figure it out. Either way, you would imagine Branch and Walker will be back. I don't know by midseason worst case. I would imagine they're back to 100%. I mean, that's going to make a big difference. I think their defenses. Herbie Joe's pretty good. What did I say? Walk crazy. Walk. Oh, yeah. I knew where you meant. I knew what you meant. Former lion safety. Not long ago. Yes. You would expect them to be healthy. And I think the lion's defense on paper is pretty good. Yeah. So I think it's a top 10 defense on paper, just a matter of getting those star players healthy. And then of course, we've been saying that for about three years now. So we don't care about this, but the sixth rounder that I'm super excited about from last year, Ahmed Hustenine being able to come off the brings a lot of fire. I'm excited to see what he can do as a pass rush. And they loaded up on replacement safeties, too. Like I think they'll be, I think they're gonna be okay. All right. I'm gonna quickly recap again. Where we're at in the seventh round here.

49:47Field went with Patrick Mahomes for his first pick. Then Brian Thomas Jr. Jaden Reed. I went with Baker Mayfield. Mike, you went with Quentin Johnson. I know how high I've been on Mike McDaniel and the charger. That's exactly true. So I got, yeah, I brought in Quentin Johnson. Yeah, look, again, I'm trying to take advantage of weeks one, two, three. The schedule is so appealing. If I can get a couple of good games, which we got at him early last year, yes, you did. That's going to be huge in this format. I don't have to start him all season. I keep stressing that, especially in the flex bottom, I'm going to be able to replace that at some point. It's funny to me because it's like when you put your money where your mouth is, you agree with me. When you don't, this is not the same format. You got to adjust this little different. You just talked about the schedule after week three. That's true. It's true. Michael F. Lurio after Mike took Quentin Johnson. He took Jordan love. Then Cynthia Freeland took Aaron Jones. EK took Mark Andrews then Jordan Mason and Romeo Dobbs. Next. Did you just say like that on Jordan Mason? Yeah. I think that's a good pick at this point. A guy who could potentially get you flex numbers.

50:47It looks like he's going to lead the Vikings backfield certainly in carries and goal line work. There's a lot of chatter about him being the centerpiece there. So I worry about his passing in usage, which will limit him. But in this format, we're talking about 30 some running backs off the board already. And you just got probably the starting running back four minutes. So again, Aaron Jones will play a lot but Mason, a lot of momentum building there. And there's not many. Like how many teams potential starting running backs are left? Washington, maybe. Yes. End of list. That's it. Yeah. That's it. Maybe Jacksonville. But yeah, it's it is dried up quickly. So by the way, to answer your earlier question, my starting lineup is filled out. Oh, is it all bench from here? Hey, hey, why don't we talk? Can if we can then why don't we throw Mike's lineup up there just to be able to see what a full starting lineup looks like? Areing something new that happens at practice? This will be my week one. This will be a week one starting lineup. All right, we'll start out. Start out at the top. Mike can give us your lineup. Roll him with Matthew Stafford. A little bit tough out of the game at the 49ers, but it clears up then for a couple of weeks. So

51:48I expect a decent game to start for him. But then we're going to back Christian McCaffrey and Quinch on judgekins. We're going to get a ton of volume out of them where she writes no indications. He'll be limited or out in any way for week ones. I'm happy to take him where I got him. DK Medcaff go to the early schedule there. Quentin Johnson extremely light scheduled open the season. And then we're going to fill it out here with tight end Sam Laporta. So I think I'm happier with this and I was our draft on Monday. Honestly, and that was a 12 team. Or so are you so when you look at this starting lineup, obviously again, 18 team leagues. So there's a little bit thin in certain areas. First bench spot. Are you most worried about being able to find a second flex just in case? Are you worried about Sam Laporta? Maybe not being around week one. So you want to target a tight end? How do you approach? Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be just give us your strategy right now. So we know what you're going to say. Such a cop out. But we'll see use available. I mean, it's okay. The here's the thing. I'm really far away from picking again. So this thing could move in a lot of different directions. But here's the thing. My lineup is my line of filled out. So I could take some chances now on guys that maybe I don't want to start week one. But maybe by week two or three, they'll have to be starting. In a

52:5118 team league, if you pick fifth, how many you're talking about 13 picks, but so are we going like 25, 26 picks between like that's for Mike. It wasn't a math guy. I know it's for me. Learning for you. Yes, for me. 35. There's one of the guys that was on my radar. Christina and Zach just picked Alec Pierce who would have been. He kind of stood out way up my right. Where is on your radar, Mike? Yeah, he's a guy that's standing out as best available. But the problem was I'm not going to start in week one. So I wasn't going to touch. Oh, there's a good back by Liz right there. My Washington, Jr. Love that. Good one. Yes, we're down the last four rounds here. Any like other like sort of theory strategy questions generally that you guys have about or that you guys want to talk about, but knockout leagues. I will just say this. Okay. We're in the seventh round. And the names that we're looking at are gross. 18 teams. Yes, right. That's, but that is the point. If you are going to do an 18 team knockout league, I would just suggest that you kind of refresh your brain on the names at the bottom of the list. Because we all know the

53:52guys at the top, the top one 50 that we've been talking about, but in an 18 team league. And I recognize you may not play them, but this is also where you could potentially grab some flyer that no one else is going to know is going to turn into something. So just make sure you refresh your brain on all of the names at the bottom of our player pool in this league because you will be tested on them in the draft. No doubt. We're also going to pick up the pace with some by be shortening up the clock here. Oh, are we? Yes, just love that. You know, we're at the point now where these guys all kind of blend together. 30 second picks begin right now. All right, love that. We're starting the eighth round. Eighth rounds already started. Wow, it's already going fast. So Koleel should get it. TJ Hockinson, KC Concepts Yone and Greg Dolchitch. Which one do you like, Mike? Concepts Yone. He was on my radar for the next pick. I think he's going to be very busy right out of the gate for the Browns. What I was going to say about knockout leagues is you have to be comfortable though, especially when you have just four spots in your bench, like we do, which is in part a factor of the 18 teams. Is you got to be comfortable with going into the season, say, like I like the

54:56long term upside of KC Concepts Yone and then pivoting to potentially dropping him after two weeks. Yes. Yeah. It's just a reality, right? Right. Like if he's not making the cut, and he's got seven targets through two games, and you really need or you really want to prioritize adding somebody else, he gone. Yeah. The other thing that I would say just about knockout leagues is it's perfect when you can play, I think 17 or 18 is the perfect number for the number of people. For the number of people. Yeah. And the reason I say that is, you know, if you play 17, you play all the way through week 17 and the head-to-head championship is in week 17 when almost every team is still playing for something. Yeah. Week 18, totally understandable. You get action every single week. And you're still going to have like good players playing on both teams, but you're also susceptible to Josh Allen of the bills or locked into a seat. So he's not playing in week 18. If you play with like 10 or 12,

55:57there are a couple of different ways to go about it. Actually, a handful of different ways to go about it. Like you can cut the league off like at a certain number of weeks. You could play a play off like you get down to four teams and kind of go round Robin for four weeks or something like that too. I mean, I mean, one of these leagues with my buddy Kevin Paulsof or our buddy Kevin Paulsof he does more than 18, right? Yes. More than 18 and it's multiple chops. First two weeks, there are no chops as where you're allowing people to be able to go through. No one has cut. And then after that, it's like you will have a couple of weeks where you have more than one team has cut to be able to let people play. So there's a lot of different ways that you can set it up to be able to make this work. Totally. Yeah. There are a lot, there's certainly a lot of ways to make this fun and different and interesting. I do think the ideal number, the most straightforward number is 17 or 18. These require some maintenance, but that's sort of the fun of these things is the strategy involved in waivers is very different than the strategy involved in typical standard leagues. And that is, I think the most fun, sorry Mike, you didn't like that Mike. I don't like that one. What happened?

56:57Tyler Murray. I would have been like, you be too, but I feel like at this point, schedules not too bad for them. I'm a little surprised he fell this far. I am. Tyler. Yeah. I'm surprised he fell this far. A lot of quarterbacks. Went after him that I've ranked, uh, went before him that I've ranked after him, shut off, Daniel Jones Baker, love. Well, it's just went one spot later. So 2014 for pulse. What a beast? Yeah, it is a beast. It is a beast of a league for that. Final five in a week, 17 shootout. He does. That's really cool right there too. Nice. Uh, you're back on the clock, Daniel. Yeah. I'm going to go with what I believe is the wide receiver two of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, if you guys let me draft. Millie. Millie. Nice. Like it. Um, upside, upside, upside. Dammit. Matt Bowen. That was the other guy I had in my new rush. I thought, yeah, he was in my queue as well. Um, I went to Chris Rodriguez, by the way, little running back depth could be the lead back, the lead rusher and goal line option for Jacksonville as soon as week one. I actually have rush. He'd ranked ahead of JLM Lookmillan, but because my number one wide receiver is Jackson, Smith and Chigba. I decided not to double up on the offense there. That's why I want JLM.

58:00Understandable. All right. I just took back to back wide receivers. Jerry Judy to potentially fill out my flex and K. Sean Booty, New Houston Texans wide receiver. So I am now pretty receiver heavy. You are a little bit, but um, the roster that I have right now, Trevor Lawrence, with my running backs, being Jameer Gibbs and Tony Pollard, my wide receivers, being Teterot, Macmillan and Devante Smith with Jerry Judy and K. Sean Booty. Travis Kelsey is my starting tight end. Patrick Maholms is the second quarterback that I have again, reminding I waited in quarterback a long time. So I gave myself what I think is some optionality field. Yes. Matt Bowen. Yes. Played for what professional football franchise? Uh, the Chicago Bears. And he just took Keaton Mitchell over Kyle Menungai. Interesting. I'm going to take Kyle Menungai. Do you guys know I like him this year? I was aware of that. Kyle Moon Nungai. Did you guys know that Matt Bowen's son is like one of the best high school. Yeah, he's got four sons, I believe. He's got one of the and one of his sons is one of the best high school players in the country. Unbelievable. He's amazing. Do you think that a lot of that DNA comes from his mom?

59:04I would probably guess. Okay. It feels weird to say mean things though, but Matt Bowen should my good man high integrity guy. Mike went with Taren's Ferguson. Money is all weird. I'm out of this. Right, Mike. Hey, if you're absolutely about Sam LaPorta and week one, is there a nice option there at the Ted Endspot? Taren's Ferguson might fit the bill and play safe. Right, let's say say about this format. It's all about first. Yeah, you just want to get knocked out. Yeah, look, I'm going to say like I think he's pretty clearly third in line for targets. I wanted to get him on the team. I do think the board is going to play third in line and targets in the office. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. So I would say that it's the tagline for knockout leagues is if you're not last year first. Yes, that's a great way to put it. Thank you. Yeah, I like that. I'm going to take a look. If you guys don't mind, I'm going to throw my line up here. Quick on the screen. We'll do a quick recap of all of ours. Now that we have our starting lineups and part of our benches field out, I've got Tyler Schuck at my quarterback with Baker May Field as my number two QB. Jeremiah Love Rico Dowdell Kyle Menungai are my three running backs.

1:00:07My wide receivers Jackson Smith and Jigba Wondale Robinson and Jalen McMillan with Tyler Warren. A reminder, this is an 18 team knockout league in which the player pool gets thin quickly. Let's say a quick look at field steam field at the quarterback spot. You also have two quarterbacks with Trevor Lawrence and Patrick Mahomes. Yeah. Patrick Mahomes Trevor Lawrence. You mentioned Miergibs, Tony Pollard, Deteromic Millen, Devonte Smith, Jerry Judy, K. Sean Booty and then my tight end. It's Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey, who I like him more early in the season than I do, probably late in the season when those legs get heavy. Were you on the seven, 35 years old, whatever he is? Were you trying to put a battery together there? Yes. You were. Yes, I was. By the way, I forgot to follow up on this, but you made a baseball reference earlier with on dead in the hole. Yeah. I was waiting to see if you were paying attention. That's mostly our theme. That's a theme of the podcast. That's right. Everything's baseball. Let's take a look at Mike's lineup real quick. All right. And that's enough. Go ahead and pull it off the screen and we're good to feel. That's it. Feels dang it. We already looked at my good, Joe. We'll do it one more time. Yeah. My line up,

1:01:09we talked about earlier Stafford McCaffrey, Juddkins, Rice, Medcalf, Laporta and Johnson. They're the starters for week one, barring disaster and then the bench so far as Chris Rodriguez and it turns Ferguson. But we're not done yet. We are not done yet. We have two picks left. How about our guy Kevin Pulse of Ruzon the clock right now picking 160th. Wow. And he still has a dig at a quarterback. Pulse will not make his quarterback pick until either the last or second to last round. Seems like it. When with a guy that's not going to play for the first handful of weeks of the season, but I will say this about Kevin Pulse. I thought about him. I think you'd be hard press to find somebody who plays and just mentally is Kevin Pulse. I agree with you. That man plays in a lot to fantasy football leagues. It's one of the weirdest whites and amazing. So look at his options. There's a lot of knowledge in that brain. So CJ Stroud appealing a lot of guys left are not guys you want to really be starting maybe even some super flex leagues. But the schedules are appealing for a lot of these guys early on. So maybe that's a stop process here. CJ Stroud great schedule early on. Sam Darnold, Bryce Young, Cam Ward, Jacobi Bersetch, you know,

1:02:12Smith Aaron Rogers. The names you just read don't inspire Sean Watson, but I realize that's all it's all different. That's like right. You're talking about how this is week one. We're trying to win one week. Yeah. In a season long, I'm with you for even in super flex. I don't feel good. I have CJ Stroud as my quarterback in our dynasty league. That's a super flex. I don't like starting him. Yeah. I remember when you had that I was like, damn Daniel Scott. I thought for a minute I had something. But in this league when it is a knockout league, it's all about one week at a time, guys. And Joe Fortenbach finally made the decision to end this streak. Oh, Josh Jacobs. Yeah. It's interesting. Again, you got to be prepared to like if your team is on the if we find out it's going to be eight weeks for Josh Jacobs then if he can survive eight weeks. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Pulse also ears were burning listening to the podcast. Obviously took Sam Darnold at that point because he realized how thin the quarterback position was. Right. That is also true. That is Gunner and Helm comes off the board next to now a lot of Titans going since I took Ferguson. Yeah. Makes me happy. Oh, yeah. You started that run, Mike. Yeah. I take full credit. Yep.

1:03:17And that's more a flex. Guys, I can pick later. That's right. I can take him back up Titans. We got two guys left. Mike, your wide receivers, two of them are very similar to each other in DK Metcalfe and Quentin Johnston, both field stretchers. Yep. One of them's got a good quarterback. The other one has Aaron Rogers. Are you worried about Aaron Rogers not being able to throw the ball down field to DK Metcalfe? I mean, look, there's a reason Metcalfe is going where he's going and the 30s and not in maybe the teams where he was. He could have been in Seattle, but he was the best guy in the board at that point. And also I was comparing schedules. And again, I'm not too intimidated by the early schedule for the Steelers. I think they'll come out fresh when it's warm and they'll get the ball in his hands. I'm glad you're here because this is a great reminder and you say it every time you make a pick. Just when you're drafting looking at the first handful of weeks is what is most important, Mike, and you are continually doing that as you are making your picks. Yeah, I'm not too, uh, I don't think I picked anyone that I'm like worried about the schedule. You can't get a, there's a season long brain and there's a knockout brain. And you kind of have to draw a line between them when you decide to do this draft. I like that. Caleb Johnson comes off the board of Dan Graziano.

1:04:23We're at some dark throw picks here. Guys that you know, all dark. Where we've heard of Johnson. I mean, that guy we thought might be out of league. Not long ago, but now he can play a role in Sanford or in Green Bay. All right, we're down to the nitty-gritty here with our final picks. And there's going to be a tough one to close this out. There's not a lot of guys left. I'm going to quickly recap the 10th round for you guys while we are waiting to get here with Cynthia Freeland on the clock. Round 10 with Liz we went. Liz is picks at the turn. We're Emmett Johnson and Jalen Nailer. Then Malik Washington, Sam Darnold, Josh Jacobs, Gunner Helm, Jacob Brissette, Evan Engram, Ryan Flanoi to Adam Rank, Jacobi Lane, Caleb Johnson, Denzel Boston, CJ Stroud, and Chris Bell. There we go. Chris Bell. If you can be patient, Mike Florio, Mike, you can be a winner there. We are all about to make our final picks. We can rip through our teams after we do exactly that. Mike is down to his, just made his penultimate pick, Matt Daniel on the clock here.

1:05:25I will be first to wrap up because I had the first overall pick in this 11 round draft. And producer Presley just ahead of me. And I'm going to rip this up. All right, so my final two picks will be Dylan Samson and George Hulani. I needed to try and throw a couple of running back darts as up to this point. I am rather under indexed at running back. Sure. My team, I don't if we can pull it up quickly, but we can. Absolutely. Again, I had the number one pick in this draft. I decided between Beigeon Robinson and Jameer Gibbs. Scheduled play to factor, specifically as early as week one, right? I mean, the lion's getting the saints versus the Falcons getting the Steelers can be enough to break the tie. So I went with Jameer Gibbs. Trevor Lawrence is my QB Tony Pollard my RB to Ted Eroma, Mike Milo and Devonte Smith, my starting receivers Travis Kelsey, a tight end. Jerry Judy, my flex and here my bench guys, Patrick Mahomes, Kashon Booty, Dylan Samson, George Hulani. I need a running back not named Jameer

1:06:29Gibbs and Tony Pollard to find a pulse. Or I'm going to have to hit the waiver wire really hard. Yep. I mean, this is, but the great part about this format field, you will be hitting the waiver wire every single week along with everyone else as new people are added to it. I'm going to take a quick look at my roster because I just wrapped up my squad starting to the quarterback spot. I already said, I can't get him. Who might be on the, who are you trying to get? I got him. I did. So I, I had a moment there where it was like weird. I put I searched for Caleb Black and put him on my Q and then I put the top U and usually it says who was picked there and I thought you took him and I was like, and then it just like was weird. I couldn't get him to press it. But anyway, you're good. I'm going to finish your team. Sorry. Go ahead. All right. So my team Tyler Schuck and Baker Mayfield of the quarterback spot running backs are Jeremiah Love, a little bit of question mark there week one Rico Dowdell Kyle Menungai and Zach Sharbinay. I'm going to throw on IR and just add somebody immediately when the draft is over. My wide receiver, Jackson Smith and Jig, but Wondell Robinson, Jaylen McMillan and Trey Harris. My tight end is Tyler Warren.

1:07:33And I'm going to definitely be working the waiver wire. I mean, we're all going to be working the waiver wire in this league with all the, the loose ends that we have on our rosters. Mike, you have a full roster now as well. Give us the final team. All right. Final team. We have good old Matthew Stafford in the quarterback spot and then we're going with Christian McCaffer, Quinten, Judkins, wide receivers, receiver, STK Medcaffin, Quinten, Quinten, Johnston, Sam Laporta, a tight end that your starters. And then the bench, Chris Rodriguez, Terrence Ferguson, Braille and Allen and Caleb, Caleb Black. My last two picks. No wide receivers. No, not in the bench. Allen is, look, if Breast Hall is a little setback and isn't ready for week one, remember, he was a little beat up. It looks like he'll play, but if not, I have Allen is a potential flex option. And then again, I don't always target the insurance running back for my players. I don't necessarily do that. But in this case, if you look in the draft room, when Christian McCaffer, so there's a little cue by his name, he looks like he'll be fine for a week when I'm not worried. But again, if something shocks us like two years ago, and he doesn't play, at least I have Caleb Black ready to go, which is so important in this format. I cannot say,

1:08:37it's okay if he misses one week. I'll just throw, you know, Chris Rodriguez in there be fine. I need to not finish last and week one. So I have a little security there with Caleb Black. Here's how the last round is playing out just for you. Sickos that want to know the dark throws that we are throwing. Round 11 pick one, George Hullani, Bryce Young for Nando Mendoza, Trey Harris, Caleb Black, Jordan James, back to back 49ers running backs just in case they're Mike Aaron Rogers, Keenan Allen, Jack Besh, Alameda Zakias, Calvin Ridley, Travis Hunter, Chris Brooks, Pat Bryant. I think Chris Brooks is a good pick there too. We're, we have no idea. Obviously, March on Lloyd is the first one in that in that room. But we're trying to see it's, we're throwing darts here now. Pat Bryant, Cam Ward, Gino Smith, Tank Bigsby, and Darnel Mooney. You know a lot of those guys are going to be contingent drops in week one. That's one of the two. Go there after week one when you're placing claims for some superstars are going to be dropping the insurance backs and flyers. We're taking in the last round. All right, before a piece out,

1:09:38I got to be on my draft from the grade. What'd you get? I got an A minus. I don't know. Minuses. I got a B. Okay, Mike. I don't know. I got to open it. You tell me, don't you have it there? I get the email. I didn't get it. I didn't get it. Mike doesn't have functioning internet. Mike got it. Oh, I don't have it. What I get? Mike and Mike and Eric Carebell both. Oh, Ma'am. Oh, there it is. I hate that. I got it. I got it. A. Oh, it's so beautiful. What a team. Oh, my gosh. Pulse is chopper. I'm first overall. First overall. I gave out F's in this. No. Hey, you know, quarterback. Pulse got an F. Hey, oh, Ken. Was this quarterback Sam Darnel? That's Gino Smith who was a great schedule to start. He said, oh, yeah, likes. Whoa, I've never seen an F and I've seen some bad draft. I've never seen an F. That's in respect. Wow. Wow. The pulse revenge tour begins right now. That's going to wrap it up for us for your own focus. We love you guys. Thank you for hanging out. Don't forget to let me show the behind to yourself. You deserve it. Field and I will see you tomorrow and Friday. One of the beach later. Later. Later. Later. See you guys.

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