Draft Grades By Bradley:

1. Quentin

Quentin trades his entire draft to Michael Kelly for the 8^th pick drafting position except for the 7^thround where Quentin gets Mike’s pick for his 12^th.  Insane!  Who gives up the 1^st overall pick!  Quentin with the 8^th pick takes Ja’Marr Chase.  I famously gave Andy a ton of crap last season for taking Chase in the 5^th round.  I said it was a reach and he looked rusty during the preseason.  Little did I know.  Here he is as a first-round pick.  In the 2^nd round Quentin takes Alvin Kamara.  He gets to root for LSU and the Saints this season.  Loved the AK pick.  His trial will most likely be after the season, giving Quentin first round value in the 2^nd round.  In the 3^rd round Quentin takes James Conner.  All signs point to Conner be a stud this season now that Chase Edmonds is playing with the fishes in Miami.  Love Quentin’s first 3 rounds.  In the 4^th round he gets great value with the Mike Evans pick.  I passed on Evans due to emotional reasons not rational reasons.  I just don’t want to root for the guy.  He always fights with the Saints cornerbacks.  Great player, great value, not interested.  I’m glad Quentin remained emotionally intelligent for this pick, even if it isn’t aesthetically pleasing for me.  In Round 5 Quentin takes Elijah Mitchell.  49ers run game is always a good buy in fantasy.  The concern here is Elijah has had some injury concerns.  Quentin’s message to him this season? “Elijah, I’m looking for a mind at work.”  Q goes Justin Herbert in the 6^th getting him a stud Qb.  He gets great value in the 7^th and 8^th with JuJu and Dalton Schultz.  The Schultz pick shored up Quentin’s team to not have any weaknesses and ensuring he is going to compete this season.  He reached on a kicker, but he wanted his guy and he got him. 

 

Draft Grade: B.  His team is solid, but I can’t give out an A when you have the coveted first overall pick and you cast it aside like yesterday’s garbage. 

   

2. Josh

Josh had the most Josh draft I could imagine.  He started off with my Super Bowl darling Johnathan Taylor after Mike passed on him.  Josh then went Tyreek Hill in the 2^nd round.  I like Tyreek the Freak, don’t get me wrong, but it was egregious to pick him before CeeDee Lamb, Aaron Jones, Deebo Samuel, Tee Higgins and even Kyle Pitts.  CeeDee is projected to go nuts this season after Amari Cooper was shipped to Cleveland.  Michael Gallup isn’t 100% yet and James Washington is out for the season (he took Cooper’s spot this offseason).  Tyreek is a unique player and his speed is ridiculous.  But from a player value stand point I didn’t like this pick.  I liked Deebo Samuel in the 3^rdround.  Even if he doesn’t play wide-back as he called it, he was balling out from a WR standpoint last season.  He can take it to the house after catch and I know Shanahan will be dialing up plays to get him open in space.  Just need Trey Lance to get it there.  Next you went Cam Akers.  Cam was able to come back after tearing his achilles.  Word from Rams camp is they are going to split Cam and Henderson this season, but both are working through soft tissue injuries right now.  It may not be a matter of splitting, it might be a matter of playing the healthier of the two any given week.  Akers was high on my draft sheet last year before he got injured.  Let’s see how he looks this year, but I like him as a Rb2.  Josh goes Patrick Mahomes after a trade with Max.  Mahomes-JT-Deebo is a nice core to build this team around.  The obvious weakness of Josh’s team is Tight End where he had to snag Zach Ertz and Cole Kmet.  Ertz might not be a bad value in the 10^th round.  With D-Hop out to start the season and Marquise Brown having a weird offseason (had a small hamstring injury to start camp and then got arrested earlier this month for ‘criminal speeding’).  Ertz might get an uptick in targets to start off the year.  For Cole Kmet, I imagine he too will get a lot of targets considering the Bears Wide Receiver Room is complete and utter trash. 

 

Draft Grade: C.  Tradition is tradition Josh.  JT, Tyreek and Deebo can take it to the house at any moment.  Little concerned about Rb depth. 

 

3. Ben

Big Ben goes Derrick Henry with the 3^rd pick.  Henry is a monster.  He’s coming off a foot injury that ended his 2021 campaign early.  He was touching the ball a ridiculous amount of times before his injury.  I’m a little concerned with the state of the Titans.  Traded away AJ Brown.  I don’t think Robert Woods, Treylon Burks, and Austin Hooper are going to demand the same respect as AJB.  Ben is so obsessed with Chris Herren he had to draft a player with a last name with similiar letters as him with his first pick.  In the 2^nd round he went D’Andre Swift and I have no quarrels with this pick.  Swift is a very talented running back and the Lions are going to be fun to root for this year.  Then he went Nick Chubb.  That’s a nasty three headed monster at running back.  I’m sure he will receive lots of trade requests during the season and I’m sure he is going to ignore all of them.  When everyone in this league tries to hit their ball over a hill to the left, Ben hits his shot to the ditch to the right.  For the win.  Then Ben goes Mike Williams in the 4^th round.  Williams has arguably passed up Keenan Allen as the number one wide receiver for the LA Chargers who are looking like a Super Bowl contender this season.  Then he went George Kittle to try and shore up a difficult tight end position that seems to fall off of a cliff after the top 2 or 3.  In Rounds 6 and 7 he tried to shore up his wide receiver room with Jerry Juedy and Darnell Mooney.  I’m bullish on the Broncos and bearish on the Bears… I’m BEARISH.  I like the Jeudy pick a lot.  Ben got his starting Qb in Round 8 with Joe “Big D” Burrow.  And in Round 13 he got Dak Prescott.  Tremendous value for Ben there.

 

Draft Grade: A.  Team is smooth as a Herbsaint Old Fashioned

 

4. Max

We are less than 48 hours since we concluded our fantasy draft at Lots of Luck Bar in New Orleans.  I’m sitting at the Dallas airport with two hours to kill before my flight to Sacramento.  Since we drafted Max has had one running back get shot and another running back come out with foot injury concerns.  Max’s horrendous luck continues from last season.  I will do my best to grade these based on my thoughts heading into the draft and not the most recent updates which were unbeknownst to Max at the time of the draft.  In the first round he went Najee Harris.  I had Ekeler, Jefferson, and Kupp ranked higher than Najee and I read that the Steelers offensive line isn’t that great.  I personally would not have taken Najee.  But I get it.  300 touch guy with Derrick Henry off the board at 3.   I can see the allure of a running back here.  I probably would have gone Dalvin Cook over Najee too.  In the 2^nd round I loved the Mark Andrews pick.  He was the real reason I won the title last year.  Max knows this and he isn’t going to make the same mistake twice.  Solid pick of Tee Higgins in the 3^rd.  I don’t think I would’ve been able to pass on Javonte Williams here, but Tee is a monster.  Max went with Terry McLaurin in the 4^th.  I’ll never complain about someone taking a great wideout with a bad qb that is a solid producer.  In Round 5 he traded with Josh to move up and snag Michael Thomas.  Every Saints fan is hoping Mike Thomas is healthy this season, but the Saints weren’t going to wait for him as they shored up the WR room with the additions of Chris Olave and Jarvis Landry.   In Round 6 he went Lamar Jackson to pair with Mark Andrews.  LOVE IT.  That is an awesome stack.  The 10 point touchdowns are going to be devastating for the teams you face this season.  In the next couple rounds he added Miles Sanders and Kareem Hunt.  Miles is in a contract year and the Eagles have the best offensive line according to Brandon Thorn, offensive line expert.  I like the pick.  The Eagles refuse to unleash Miles Sanders, so now that his contract is on the line, let’s see what type of effort they get out of him.  Kareem Hunt is a good value.  Last season he was a Top 10 running back until he got injured.  The Browns were beat up and couldn’t get right.  Max snagged a couple of Robinson’s in the back half of the draft in Brian and James.  Both have the potential to start for their teams to start the season. 

 

Draft Grade: B+.  Max is going to compete this season.  He just needs a couple running  backs to pan out.  Lamar Jackson-Mark Andrews stack.  Epic.

 

5. Logan

When other people are gently massaging their draft, Logan decided to fold his four times and whoof it down.  The Mary Anne Smith League Pizza Eating Contest Champion Went Austin Ekeler over the big 3 wideouts.  I’m okay with it.  I personally would have gone JJ or Kupp in a 10 man league, but to each their own.  He was rewarded with his Rb decision in round 2 when he got Stefon Diggs to fall to him giving him a solid Rb1 and Wr1. Javonte Williams in the mid-3^rd was a great pick.  Williams is very talented and defenses will have to worry about the passing attack more so than in previous years.  In Round 4 he went Josh Allen giving him the Allen-Diggs stack.  In Round 5 he went Diontae Johnson who recently landed on his shoulder and got roughed up a bit.  Tomlin came back and said he would have gone back in if it was a real game.  So not much of a concern.  The bigger concern is who will be throwing the football and the abhorrent offensive line.  Also, Big Ben targeted Johnson so much because his arm was dead.  I think Johnson’s volume goes down with a younger arm running the offense.   In Round 6 you doubled down on Bills wideouts with Gabe Davis.  If Allen misses time I guess you are just done this year.  Next two picks you started to get your 2^nd and 3^rd running backs in David Montgomery and Damien Harris.  Montgomery should start for the Bears, but don’t be surprised if the carries are split pretty evenly with Khalil Herbert.  Herbert has shown flashes last season and I could see him overtake Montgomery.  Damien Harris was a decent pick.  The Pats backfield is starting to take shape into a two-horse race with Harris and Stevenson.  If Stevenson misses time you have a solid Rb2.  Next two picks you went with smaller shifty wideouts in Allen Lazard and Hunter Renfrow.  We will see if Lazard can take some of the Adams vacated targets.  Will be interesting to see how the Packers do this season with a solid defense and no Adams.  Hunter Renfrow should be decent.  With defenses having to worry about Adams and Waller, Renfrow could replicate some of his last season success.  Glaring hole in this team is tight end and lack of diversity. 

 

Draft Grade: B for Bills.  Tight end is weak and if Josh Allen misses any time your team will struggle big time. 

 

6. Andy

After 5 Running Backs come off the board first, Andy got his pick of the 3 big Wideouts.  I didn’t know if he was going to get his beloved Ja’Marr Chase back or what.  He wind up going with 2021 Fantasy Wr #1 in Cooper Kupp.  Can’t argue with that.  In the 2^nd Andy went Davante Adams over Stefon Diggs, D’Andre Swift, Mark Andrews.  I think Adams is going to be his normal self.  He might have a little more competition for targets with Waller the Baller and Renfrow there, but he is still Adams.  In Round 3 Andy went Keenan Allen.  I didn’t like this pick at all.  I could stomach the Adams pick, but Allen is getting older now and Mike Williams arguably took over the #1 WR spot on the LA Chargers offense last year.  He also did this over Pitts, Conner, Zeke.  Big miss in my opinion.  In Round 4 Josh Jacobs as Andy’s RB1.  The Raiders offensive line is not great.  They drafted Zamir White in Round 4 of the NFL Draft.  They have Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah for 3^rd down and hurry up offense snaps, which are valuable in fantasy.  They declined Jacobs 5^th year option.  They could run him until his wheels fall off since they don’t have to resign him next year.  Back in the day I feel like contract year players played better as they were trying to earn it.  But recently I’ve seen players milk smaller injuries or not play as hard to protect themselves so that they can get a new contract and gain more security.  For this to work out as a Rb1 Andy needs touchdowns.  A lot of them.  With defenses having to worry about Adams, Waller, and Renfrow running around, maybe it will open the possibility.  But this looks rough on paper.  Andy started peppering running backs after this pick.  With Breece Hall in Round 5 and JK Dobbins in Round 6.  In Round 7 he made a phenomenal pick in Jalen Hurts.  In Round 8 he got a decent value RB in Cordarrelle Patterson.  He is Atlanta’s #1 rb on the roster and if he can repeat last season could be a serviceable RB2 for Andy.  Andy got DeAndre Hopkins as a stash for when he comes back from suspension.  Then got Pat Friermuth as his TE1. 

 

Draft Grade: C-.  Andy could have started Kupp-Swift-Zeke-Williams and looked a hell of a lot better than Kupp-Adams-Allen-Jacobs.  I was wrong about Andy’s pick Ja’Marr Chase last season.  Am I wrong about Jacobs?

 

7. Caleb

Love the Justin Jefferson pick in the 1^st.  Some analysts think he could finish as this season’s top wideout looking at talent, schedule, and fit.  In the 2^nd you went Leonard Fournette.  Uncle Lenny is an okay pick.  He should receive all the goal line work, could catch a lot more check downs this season.  Big concern is the offensive line for the Bucs.  Losing their center and then another center and then their left guard.  Interior pressure is Brady’s weakness.  They will need to get that shored up fast.  I personally would have gone Swift, Diggs, or Andrews here, but I know some fantasy websites have Lenny as a borderline first round pick.  We’ll see how it all shakes out.  In the 3^rd Caleb trades with Stephen.  Stephen moves up to snag Kyle Pitts and Caleb gets Zeke.  Giving him a solid Rb duo.   In Round 4 he got Michael Pittman.  I enjoyed having Pittman last season.  He’s a beast.  In Round 5 he got Allen Robinson.  I like this pick.  Kupp will get the top corners.  Robinson should thrive in the previous Robert Woods role in the Rams offense.  Stafford will be by far the best Qb he’s ever played with.  Career year in store?  Caleb goes DK Metcalf, the Manimal with Geno Smith throwing to him this season.  His talent has to have some fantasy value even with the bad Qb situation, right?  In Rounds 7 and 8 Caleb shored up Rb depth with AJ Dillon and Rashad Penny.  In Round 9 he went flier Wideout depth with Toney.  And in Round 10 he got a solid starting tight end in Dallas Goedert.  He gets his starting Qb in Round 12 with 45 year old Tom Brady. 

 

Draft Grade: A.  Solid team.  Will compete.  I don’t care for Brady this season with the offensive line worries.  He is not as mobile at 45 and loses his safety net in Gronk.  But in the 12th round?  The value is there. 

 

8. Mike

After we all participated in an epic and controversial coaster game, a pop a shot contest, a pizza-eating contest, a punt, pass, kick competition, a field goal competition, and a mini putt tournament for added entries to win the first overall pick; Mike just trades up to get it.  I know those events were fun and we all had a great time, but I love that after all that effort the coveted draft position we were all competing for is just traded away.  Mike sacrificed his 7^th round pick for it.  Let’s see how it shakes out.  With the 1^st overall pick Mike goes CMC.  Most analysts had JT or CMC here.  Most had JT.  But Mike got his boy.  After two years of Andy not taking care of him, Mike hopes to rekindle the old flame that had him winning titles a few years ago.  At the Round 2/3 turn Mike goes Aaron Jones and CeeDee Lamb.  These two could easily combine for over 200 targets this season.  Aaron Jones will split drives with AJ Dillon, but his potential to load up on receptions this season with the loss of Davante Adams is legitimate.  CeeDee is the star on the Dallas offense now that Cooper is a Brown and Michael Gallup is still rehabbing.  In Round 4 he goes Courtland Sutton and In Round 5 he goes Darren Waller.  I love the Sutton pick, I’m bullish on the Broncos this season.  Waller over Kittle was interesting.  Both have had recent injury concerns.  I didn’t realize that Waller wasn’t practicing because his contract didn’t become fully guaranteed until Week 1.  He didn’t want to risk getting hurt prior to the season starting.  Look for him to be his normal self when coming back, he just must compete with Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow for targets.  In Round 6 Mike got the Sun-God, Amon-Ra St. Brown.  Stud on the Lions will be a fun WR3 for Mike this season.  In Round 8 he goes Tony Pollard and in Round 9 he goes Trey Lance, securing a running Qb for added fantasy value.  In Round 10 he gets Rhamondre Stevenson, which was just a fantastic pick.  Mike loaded up on depth in the back half of the draft.

Draft Grade: A+.  RB is studly and deep.  WR is studly and deep.  Waller was high risk/high reward.  Lance was high risk/high reward.  QB and TE can be managed via free agency in a ten-man league.     

 

9. Stephen

After the big 3 wideouts were off the board Stephen goes Dalvin Cook.  Slam dunk Top 5 running back pick right there.  In Round 2 he goes Saquon Barkley, giving him a solid Rb duo to start his draft.  Barkley should get more catches in this offense.  My only concern is Daniel Jones not looking great this preseason and the state of the Giants wide receiver room.  In Round 3 he got aggressive and traded up to snag Kyle Pitts.  Pitts will be a target monster for Atlanta.  In Round 4 he went Travis Etienne, aiming for his own 3-headed monster like my previous Fire and Blood team that had Le’Veon, Gurley, and CMC.  In Round 5 he drafts his first Wideout in Marquise Brown.  In Round 6 he pairs him with Kyler Murray.  He then went on a Wide Receiver tear drafting Brandin Cooks, Rashod Bateman, Drake London, Treylon Burks, Johan Dotson.  Then in Round 13 he got Cook’s handcuff Alexander Mattison. 

Draft Grade: B+.  Nelson Sousa would give Stephen an A+ for this draft, but I’m not Nelson Sousa.  If he can figure out the best two wide receivers to start each week he’ll be a playoff team.  I can imagine this be frustrating throughout the season if he chooses incorrectly most weeks.  The Rb’s might not make it matter but might be hard to manage this team from a psychological standpoint with so many different wideouts on the roster (9). 

10. Brad

            Brad with the last pick in the draft but got to take two picks back-to-back.  Not a bad spot to be in.  He goes Joe Mixon to lock up his Rb1 and Travis Kelce to get an elite Tight End.  The Bengals added Ted Karras at Center, Alex Kappa at Guard, and La’el Collins at right tackle.  Addressing the offensive line in free agency they were able to focus on defense in the draft.  According to Warren Sharp’s analysis the Bengals drew one of the harder schedules this season with only 5 teams having harder pulls.  The Bengals rushing attack has a favorable schedule to start the season and average OPRK rank for the back half of the year.  In the 3^rd and 4^th he goes Wideout-Wideout with the DJ-AJ combo.  DJ Moore has 3 seasons of 1100+ yards with random Quarterbacks and AJ Brown was traded to the Eagles, favorites to win the NFC East.  After the DJ-AJ combo Brad goes Jaylen Waddle and Dameon Pierce.  Jaylen Waddle finished as WR#14 with 141 targets, 104 receptions, 1015 yards and 6 touchdowns in his rookie debut.  That was against CB#1’s.  This season Tyreek Hill joins the Fins squad and will draw much attention away from Waddle, who fits perfectly into new head coach Mike McDaniel’s offense.  Dameon Pierce was a huge reach in this draft.  Being drafted ahead of AJ Dillon and David Montgomery.  Evan Silva believes Pierce is the starting running back for the Texans.  I don’t’ think Montgomery survives Khalil Herbert, who Brad snagged a few rounds later.  Brad then went Chris Godwin and Chase Edmonds getting tremendous value.  Godwin’s rehab has look miraculous this offseason and Edmonds was paid like an RB1 for Mike McDaniels, the mastermind behind the 49ers run scheme that has been very successful over the past few seasons.  In the 9^th round Brad tried to aggressively trade up and nobody would take the bait.  No problem as the guy Brad wanted dropped to him at the end of the 9^th round.  Christian Kirk.  Jacksonville believes in his abilities, and they paid him like he is Trevor Lawrence’s new Wr#1 (4 year, $72 million).  I’m bullish on the Jaguars and guessing Kirk averages double digit targets per game.  In the 10^th round Brad shored up his Tight End depth with TJ Hockensen.  Hockensen was a monster last season before being injured.  Brad got Russel Wilson and Matt Stafford to hold down his Qb spot. 

 

Draft Grade: B.  Not a typical Brad team.  Strategy was exposed to be heavy on two things: talent and targets.  We’ll see if the defending Super Bowl champ puts another solid season together or we’ll see if his smaller pass-catching backs are his downfall.        

 

Draft Grades in Order:

1. Mike: A+
2. Caleb: A
3. Ben: A
4. Stephen: B+
5. Max: B+
6. Quentin: B
7. Logan: B
8. Brad: B
9. Josh: C
10. Andy: C-

 

Bullish on Hogans and Kelly’s this season.  Thanks for reading and good luck!