PodcastFrom NFL DFS Deep Dive
Stop Overdrafting TEs! Use This Late Round Strategy Instead
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
54 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Jun 17, 2026
Published
Wed, June 17, 2026
0
Player insights
0
Players mentioned
Player analysis
Player insights
No player insights have been extracted for this episode yet.
Full transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Ein perfekter Frühlingstag. Sonne, Park, Picknick und so viele Pollen.
0:03Shop Apotheke sagt Tschüss Allergie und Hallo Frühling. Hier findest du alles, um unbeschwert durch die Allergiezeit zu kommen.
0:10Als Neukunde sparst du sogar 10% ab 35 Euro Bestellwert.
0:13Mit dem Code NEU10. Du hast ein E-Rezept? Einfach Shop Apotheke App runterladen und direkt einlösen.
0:19Gutscheinbedingungen auf shop-apotheke.com. Welcome back to the Best Ball Strategy Bible, the show where I, Ryan Heath, and my co-host Jacob Sanderson
0:26are going to break down all the team builds and all the approaches that you can use to win these Best Ball tournaments today.
0:34This week we're going to be debating the merits of Late Round Tight End and then we're going to put that plan
0:41into action in a real draft for you all as always.
0:45First, just gotta quickly plug the projections and the best ball rankings over on FantasyPoints.com.
0:50You can go ahead and get everything you need for your best ball drafting this summer over there.
0:56And for our audio listeners, you can use promo code DEEP26 for 10% off any package over there at Fantasy Points.
1:03How's it going, Jacob? You ready to draft some Late Round Tight Ends?
1:08You're coming off a lengthy trip. I hope that that was a lot of fun.
1:13But yeah, how's it going and how are you feeling about Late Round Tight End generally this year?
1:19You can take this any way that you want.
1:22I mean, right now I'm just excited to draft anything because I was outside of a best ball service area for three weeks.
1:30So I'll draft any strategy you want me to draft, quite frankly, right now.
1:34I feel feral to get back into the streets.
1:37But Late Round Tight End has been an interesting strategy that I think is worthy of a complex discussion.
1:44I've not been drafting a ton of Late Round Tight End teams this year for some reasons that maybe I can get into a little bit later.
1:53Although we're going to talk up more of the positive side of it today.
1:58That being said, I think that it's unequivocally a pretty strong advanced rate strategy at the very least.
2:04Because if you just look at who scores fantasy points, tight ends score the least fantasy points.
2:09And so if you take the positions early that score far more fantasy points, that's probably a pretty good way to advance
2:17your teams through in some of these larger best ball tournaments.
2:21And the other biggest reason I would throw in is that because tight end is a lower scoring position generally, because it's
2:28a lower volume position generally in the wide receiver position, it becomes a very touchdown dependent position.
2:34And touchdowns, inherently very high variance. If you're spending less capital on tight end and you're drafting more of the tight ends,
2:41three, four total tight ends on your team, you have more of an opportunity at just capturing that random lockbox touchdown variance.
2:49And so I think that that combination of limited capital on lower scoring players and touchdown variance, that's, I think, a pretty
2:56reasonable approach to take in best ball drafts. Yeah, I think you put it pretty well there.
3:02I don't think late round tight end requires like a ton of galaxy braining strategy, like hardcore analysis to like see why
3:09it's good and why it could work. I do think the touchdown variance is probably the biggest piece.
3:15So even if we're going beyond talking about advance rate and just talking about who is posting these meaningful spike weeks in
3:23the best ball playoffs over the past five years, since best ball mania has been a thing, I've got all the names on screen here in this tweet.
3:32These are all the guys that have had multiple 15 plus half PPR weeks in the best ball playoffs in a season.
3:40And you can see, yeah, there's Trey McBride and George Kittle right there from last year.
3:45So you can certainly get it from the early tight ends.
3:49But just as often you've gotten it from the Isaiah likely is the Dalton Schultzes.
3:54All of these kind of random later round tight ends just can run into variance in that smaller sample.
4:00So I do think that saying, OK, I'm going to give myself three chances to hit on those playoff spike weeks with late tight ends.
4:09And then I'm going to take advantage of that early in drafts by getting all of these premium positions instead of having
4:16to spend a pick on a tight end there.
4:19I just think there's something to that. We've seen that there's something to that, especially wide receiver spike weeks tend to come
4:26almost exclusively from kind of the earlier handful of rounds, like round six through eight.
4:31That's been a moving target the last few years, but that generally that has been somewhat true over these last few years of best ball.
4:40So I yeah, I do think that tight end just being the easiest to find late round spike weeks makes it a
4:47strong strategy to draft late tight ends. But to kind of flip the page over into this year, I think it's genuinely
4:55up for debate whether late round tight ends the way to go this year.
4:59It was basically all I was drafting last year, but I do think even irregardless of last year's results, our early tight
5:07ends are pretty strong and pretty interesting this year, I would say, even compared to in 2025.
5:13So like to for late round tight end to succeed, you kind of need the wide receivers in rounds two and rounds
5:20three to go nuclear rather than a Brock Bowers, who you and I are both huge fans of or Trey McBride, who
5:27just did go nuclear, just did have the insane tight end season.
5:31Right. I even into round four. I can. There's a lot of guys I like.
5:37I love Colson Lovelland there. But sure, there's a lot of really interesting wide receiver bets.
5:42That's your Luther Burden, your Mike Evans, Lad McConkie getting a little expensive lately.
5:47But there are definitely like combinations just of players in the player pool that could make late round tight end the way to go this year.
5:55But you do have to have like some confidence in those just in those dudes that you're drafting.
6:01I think it's that simple. Anything else to add like on if we're crafting a late round tight end team, what are
6:09like the things you really want to make sure we hit on in this draft coming up?
6:15Yeah, I think that ultimately you want to try and find some upside to the degree that you can.
6:21We were talking a little bit about this pre-show just going back and forth in the DMs.
6:27And we had some different guys that I may be higher on or lower on of the late round tight ends generally in my rankings.
6:35And part of that is that I'm not drafting a lot of late round tight end teams this year, or I should
6:43say exclusively late round tight end teams this year.
6:46So some of the late round tight ends that I'm highest on if you're using my rankings, I might think of as
6:53a little bit of a different use case. Most of my teams this year have one of Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland, or Tyler Warren on them.
7:02And if that's the case, really what I'm looking for in a tight end two towards the end of the draft is more of a floor.
7:11I'm looking for a guy who can fill in my bye week, can fill in a couple of weeks if my star tight end gets injured.
7:19I'm not looking for them to dominate or define the season in any particular way.
7:24I'm betting on my upside coming from the early tight end I invested in.
7:29So if you look at a late round tight end team, what I hope you're trying to build in is, okay, I
7:37have two paths to this working out. You know, the baseline path is I I'm going to ping pong the right touchdown weeks back and forth.
7:45I have, you know, three, maybe four guys that are live that have a real role.
7:51And I just kind of hope to get lucky on the touchdowns each week.
7:55That's kind of the backup plan to me though.
7:58It's a reasonable backup plan, but I think ideally you want to give yourself multiple outs at hitting a late round tight
8:06end who will perform not like a late round tight end.
8:10And Sam Laporta in his rookie season, probably the most notable example of this.
8:14He was literally the tight end one was being drafted in round 14, 13 for a large portion of the season.
8:21Harold Fannin last year, Johnny Smith the previous year.
8:24You know, you can find late round tight ends who will maybe never give you the level of season.
8:31Trey McBride gave you last year. Travis Kelsey gave you in his prime, but certainly can give you a legitimate tight end
8:38that you would be happy about relying on. Every single week, if it was a redraft league.
8:44And I think trying to focus on profiles that have that level of upside is more imperative when you're not spending that
8:51level of capital and you're looking for ceiling. Fully agreed.
8:55Yeah, I think with a three late round tight end approach, you want at least two of them to have like legitimate quote unquote weekly starter upside.
9:04If we were talking in terms of managed leagues like you, you want at least a couple of the guys to be
9:11able to kind of just shoot up the ranks and give you like a real ADP win.
9:17That's pretty good. I think let's see you guys in a second.
9:21Once we get into a real draft and then we can kind of put this theory to the test and we can
9:28argue over maybe who our late round tight tight ends are going to be.
9:33So I'm excited for that. All right. As we wait to get into this draft here, I think probably since we haven't
9:41done that this that much in this series so far, we should spend just a minute defining.
9:46Okay, what actually is late round tight end? How far are we going to push this?
9:52What is the earliest point at which we're willing to draft a tight end and still call this late round tight end?
9:59So I'm assuming we have to draft at least three.
10:03We could go for a crazy four tight end build.
10:06That might be fun if it falls that way.
10:09But what are you thinking, Jacob? What's like the earliest name or the earliest ADP around that you are cool with calling
10:16this a late round tight end build? I mean, of course, I should stipulate that like no person we got this feedback
10:24on Twitter to one of our earlier episodes. And no person should ever go into a draft like this saying like, I
10:31am going to execute X strategy and I'm going to do so extremely rigidly.
10:36You know, our goal here is to do that for content purposes to give you a window into various different strategies.
10:43And I think it helps to set some guardrails to be accountable to that in our content based drafts.
10:49So I'm going to go ahead and say zero tight ends until round 13.
10:54That gets us through two thirds of the draft without any tight ends on the roster.
11:00From that point forward, you know, I won't put any restrictions on how many we have to take.
11:06I think we should probably take at least three and maybe consider a fourth.
11:10But that's that's going to be where I put it.
11:14So you're looking at the range of, you know, based on ADP.
11:18I think the earliest tight end is a Rondae Gadsden at 144.7.
11:22It's a nice pocket there. You get a Conquo, Hunter Henry, Brenton Strange, Dalton Schultz, Juwan Johnson, Kenyon Sadiq.
11:28There's a big cluster of guys that start going off in the 13th and 14th rounds.
11:34So, you know, one of those guys pretty likely to be our tight end one.
11:39And then we'll we'll fill it out from there.
11:42I love that. Yeah, that's probably about where I would have gone as well.
11:46I do think just looking at the ADP, like tight end 10 through 11 through 12.
11:52There's like some kind of floor routes bets here.
11:55There's Isaiah Likely, who I just cannot get on board with.
11:59Theo and Scott spent 20 minutes trying. Yeah. Theo and Scott spent 20 minutes trying to talk me into Isaiah Likely on our last projections call.
12:07And I was having absolutely none of it. Yeah, I think really it starts with Dallas Goddard, who is criminally underrated every single year.
12:15If he were to fall to us in like round 12, round 13, I would just want to.
12:21We just need him to fall nine picks and he's allowable.
12:25Yeah, because he's like the perfect anchor there to me in terms of you're getting startable points every week.
12:32And just take two to three moonshots. So, yeah, looking forward to that.
12:36I think that's a good way to go about this.
12:39Do you have like an early round strategy? It's hard to even say until we see our draft position.
12:46But is there a way you'd prefer to build early round?
12:49I think if you're not spending picks at tight end, it's more tempting to take at least one of the kind of earlier quarterbacks.
12:58Just where else is your mind here as we're going to load into the earlier rounds of this draft?
13:04Yeah, that's probably the main thing that I would say.
13:07It's just to allocate capital on your roster. You know, you want to be trying to make sure that the marginal value
13:15of each pick is as high as it can be.
13:18So if we're already going to spend a low amount of capital on tight end, it's a natural counterbalance to be aggressive at the quarterback position.
13:27And, you know, if there's even any consideration of potentially doing a four tight end build, I personally would have a really
13:34hard time spending more than six picks combined on the onesie positions.
13:38And so to me, that four tight end build really only gets opened up with a two quarterback build.
13:45And I only really have interest in doing a two quarterback build with two fairly early quarterback options.
13:51So I don't think we need to box ourselves into anything, but I would definitely be in most of my drafts.
13:58I'm drafting a quarterback or a tight end somewhere in the first six to seven rounds.
14:03And we're not drafting a tight end today. So probably looking at the quarterback position in that range.
14:09Here we are. We have the third overall pick coming up here.
14:13Jacob, I will just give this third overall pick to you.
14:17You can I don't know if you just want to say who your top three are or however we want to start this off.
14:25It's three is like a kind of interesting spot.
14:28It feels like you're like I feel like you're forced to go wide receiver, which isn't my favorite in the early rounds.
14:36Not my favorite spot to draft from. But yeah, go just tell me what you're thinking here at third overall.
14:42I mean, I feel like the top five this year is kind of the least interesting it's ever been, at least for
14:50me, because there's like a very set order that the five players go and usually in that exact order.
14:56And, you know, I'm not afraid to take a stand against that.
15:00But I feel like unlike most years, there's no one in that top five group who I want to have zero or two percent of.
15:09So I am just kind of being a sheep and taking Gibbs, Bichon, Chase, Puka, JSN in that order.
15:15Except that Chase went at two after I just said all that about how every draft is the exact same.
15:22I was immediately made to look like a jackass because that did not happen.
15:27And so we will take Bichon in three, which is a nice surprise.
15:31Yeah, I will take Bichon here. I've started writing my Play Callers article kind of just like over reading into every possible
15:38thing that you can about every play caller in the league is kind of how my process starts for that.
15:45And I entered it thinking that I was just going to come away even higher on Jameer Gibbs, lower on Bichon.
15:52I've been ever even before their ADP's flipped. I've always been like Gibbs 101, like far and away.
15:58Yeah, I agree. That was that was the one stand I had in the top five, but that's effectively gone now.
16:05Yeah. But like now that that's what it is, I'm like, OK, like Bichon led the league in design targets last year.
16:13Tommy Reese also was, I believe, led the league in yards per game on design targets.
16:18Maybe that's a Dylan Sampson stat or maybe it's a Tommy Reese stat.
16:23But I thought that was kind of fun for Bichon.
16:26So, yeah, there's I'm into it. It's the second overall player.
16:30I don't know why I'm justifying the pick, but yeah, I think it's pretty clear.
16:35Well, I'll put it back to you. I mean, so the rankings that are up here are the fantasy points rankings, which is a cumulative effort.
16:43The team there, not my individual rankings or Ryan's strictly individual rankings.
16:48What are there any of the top five that you are comfortable completely fading for someone going behind them?
16:54Or are you also a sheep this year? Not completely fading, but I'm trying to click Puka a little bit more than I would.
17:02Like at three, I will occasionally click Puka. But yeah, it's I feel that Puka is the wide receiver one.
17:09Our projections feel that Puka is the wide receiver one.
17:12The issue is just like I don't want zero Jamar Chase.
17:16I don't feel that confident about it. So if it like if it was anything else, then maybe I'd take a stand.
17:23But there's just not a good way to do it this year, I don't think.
17:28Yeah, no, I tend to agree. And even what you said, like I have a preference for starting running back.
17:35But that I like have no real basis to prefer any individual running back over one of those three receivers.
17:42So it's like it's more by I have a preference to start running back.
17:47I more just mean I have a preference to pick in the first two picks or towards the end of the first.
17:54But I'm not actively clicking running backs ahead of their ADP really until we get to Jenty ahead of like the Lamb-Aman-Ra contingent.
18:02But I'm like I'm not clicking Taylor or McCaffrey ahead of Chase or Puka.
18:06Yeah. So it comes back to us. We already have Bijan and you've gone ahead and starred a bunch of folks.
18:13I think I'm I think Jeremiah Love, I think, is pretty clearly my top ranked player at this point in the draft.
18:21Yeah, he's my as well. We can start running back running back here.
18:25Love and Breece are two guys that I've spent a lot of brainpower debating.
18:30There there will be like long, long blurbs on both of them and my play callers article.
18:36But I if I were to like put it concisely, I think Love just could have not Breece's rookie year, but his
18:43second season went or maybe I think it was his rookie year.
18:47It was when Dalvin Cook was there or no, it was his rookie year when Michael Carter was there.
18:54Sorry, confusing my Breece Hall breakout seasons. I think that was under Michael for the Cardinals.
18:59While it seems like they want to run are probably going to have to throw a ton.
19:05They made no real additions to their defense and they have a four and a half win total.
19:11We have seen LaFleur just say, screw it. We'll chuck the ball a ton if that happens.
19:17I guess we can get both of them now if we want.
19:21So this is crazy. I mean, yeah, all of the wide receivers.
19:25I don't love starting three straight running backs, to be honest.
19:28But my highest ranked wide receiver here is probably Zay Flowers at this point.
19:33I'm fine with Breece. Yeah, it's Breece or like a Josh Allen reach basically are the only.
19:39Yeah, and Josh Allen was like completely off my board in this drafting environment, given how much more cheaply you can get.
19:46Lamar and the other quarterbacks. So, yeah, I mean, I've done this a couple of times because to me there's a pretty
19:54big teardrop at wide receiver after Nico Collins goes.
19:57I've been high on Smith pretty much the whole year, but that's a pretty steep price for him.
20:03I'm quite high on some of the – a lot of the guys actually at the 3-4 turn.
20:09Zay, Higgins, Flowers in particular. I don't love the idea, though, of taking them essentially an entire round ahead of ADP.
20:16And I'm not very interested in clicking Rishi Rice or Malik Neighbors at their current prices personally with some of the non-football
20:23related risks there regarding health, jail, etc. So, yeah, tough spot there.
20:27Drafting at the early portions of drafts has been really difficult for me lately since we've seen simultaneously Rice have negative news implications to him.
20:36Neighbors has negative news implications to him. Jacobs has negative news issues.
20:40And then A.J. Brown, who was my favorite click there, has now moved up and is usually not available for you at that 2-3 turn.
20:48So, yeah, I'm usually hoping for Nico and Jeremiah Love.
20:52And then I do find it to be a pretty steep drop-off at almost every position.
20:57Yeah, round three – I felt this way last year, too, to be fair.
21:02And then Jackson Smith and Jigba came out of round three and was like one of the most important picks you could make.
21:09But I hated round three last year, and I hate it again this year, basically.
21:15Like, I was saying on Twitter earlier this week as there was like some discourse about like have we gone too far
21:22with Ladd McConkie where I was basically like I'm only okay with it just because I don't want to draft like Kyron
21:29Williams or Devontae Williams or whatever over him. Like, I'm not like that offended that I had to click him at the
21:37turn there or in the late third. But, yeah, it's just – There's a lot of guys at that turn I like.
21:44I just don't like them around ahead of ADP.
21:47Like, I actually find – I feel the opposite.
21:50Like, I feel like the late third into the early fourth is like filled with all of my guys.
21:57It's just they're my guys at their actual ADP.
22:00Okay, we need a wide receiver. So, can you pan to the wide receiver tab?
22:05I only see two. Maybe we can take one of them.
22:09Oh, my God. We have JMO. I would – Watson's too early.
22:13Let's just take JMO because it's the ADP play and then we can figure out the next one.
22:19Yeah. Yeah, wide receiver thirst going a little crazy in this draft.
22:23We've missed like both runs. We just took like a – I mean, it's funny.
22:28We were happy originally that Bijon fell to us.
22:31I now really wish we had Jamar Chase on this team.
22:34Yeah. I think I would happily have the Jamar Chase-Gadaboo 2v2 over the Bijon-Jameson 2v2, knowing that we had love and haul.
22:42But I don't really know – I guess we could have taken Rice or Neighbors and hoped to risk it.
22:49But we have not really been presented with the chance to take a wide receiver with a reasonable ADP.
22:55So, it's the way the cookie crumbles. We're looking at this pick.
22:59I'm okay with Lamar Jackson. I don't know that he's easy to stack.
23:03Andrews goes too early for our tight end rules.
23:07I think we're going to freaking hate our wide receiver options at the next pick.
23:12But we're going to not mind our quarterbacks at all.
23:15So, I would take Watson or Tate or if there's another wide receiver you like more.
23:20For the record, my actual pick, if I had complete freedom, would 1,000% be Colston Loveland at this pick.
23:27But we are doing an episode on late-round tight end.
23:30Yeah. How is the late-round tight end episode the one where Colston Loveland falls to the – he's at the 505 now.
23:38Deeply aggravated. They're trolling us. I mean, in fairness, I would never have a chance to draft.
23:43I would have Colston Loveland at pick 51 because he would never get past me in the fourth unless I had a rule stopping myself.
23:52So, that's why I've never gotten him at pick 51.
23:55But it's definitely deeply trolling. Can I see this guy's team?
23:59I want to know how much I want to offer him.
24:02Like an equity swap. Pick 55 here. He's got my two favorite wide receiver picks in Flowers and Wilson.
24:09He got a seventh overall JSN. That's like Haley's Comet situation.
24:13And then Loveland in the hood. Yeah, I quite like this team.
24:17Yeah. Park had seven. Hit up Jacob. He might be interested in some equity in this BBM entry if you are out there listening.
24:25Yeah. Man, that's just – yeah. That's – I will continue to be mad about that.
24:30They're the same every draft. And, yeah, JSN falls to seven.
24:34DeBujon falls to two. This is an interesting room.
24:37Yeah. We've got TP Hips over here going bully quarterback, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson.
24:42Getting like strong ADP value on both of them, I believe.
24:45Yeah. Yeah. Wow. This is a wild, wild room.
24:48I mean, imagine you're Park hat and you're like, well, do I take Colson Love in a full round after ADP or
24:56do I take Lamar with Henry and Flowers? That's an interesting – an interesting combo, Potterie, was served up.
25:02So this pick, we've landed the plane a little bit at wide receiver position with JMO and Christian Watson.
25:09I think my ideal plan, probably not surprisingly, would be to take a quarterback and a receiver at this turn.
25:15But to me, Parker is probably the last receiver of a tier.
25:19So I don't know that I care that much.
25:22I guess Makai Lemon I like maybe more than your projections do.
25:26Yeah. I mean, Lemon Hurts here would be nice if we could swing that.
25:31That would be very ideal. Wait. I think the guy behind us was Smith.
25:36So we've got to take Hurts because Smith is tucked in behind us.
25:40Correct. All right. So we'll take Hurts here. Yeah.
25:43Yeah. Eagles are interesting to me. I feel like we rubber band just every single year with them in terms of they
25:51promote an internal hire OC that sucks. And then they say, screw this.
25:55We're going to hire someone from outside. And they're usually really good.
25:59They get hired to be a head coach. Yeah.
26:02And then they get hired to be a head coach.
26:06And they promote an internal guy who sucks. Yeah.
26:09Exactly. Exactly. So we're like on the year of them hiring an outside guy, Sean Mannion.
26:14Jordan Mailata says he's an evil genius and that he's the smartest guy in the facility.
26:19He literally predicted Kellen Moore would become a head coach in the 2024 offseason.
26:24So I trust that guy's opinion. I think this could really work.
26:28I kind of think there's a world where everyone's like massively overthinking the Eagles in the middle of the field throw stuff this year.
26:36So, yeah, I've been clicking Hurts. And, yeah, Lemon is just like an easy stack there.
26:42Yeah. A prospect that I liked. So, yeah, kind of why not is how I see it.
26:47Yeah. I really, really hope we get Lemon here.
26:50And we do. So I feel instantly, substantially better about this team now.
26:55I've been liking basically all of the round six quarterbacks.
26:58And Hurts is definitely a part of that. And Lemon to me is, after Lemon and opinions vary on Parker Washington, I'm like a soft pro.
27:07But after those two, I find it to be like a cliff at wide receiver.
27:12Basically, the next group of guys in ADP are largely guys that I have very little interest in compared to the market.
27:19And so the guys that I have more interest in are guys that go a lot later.
27:25So, I mean, like Jaden Reed is my highest ranked available right now.
27:30I think Josh Downs is my next highest ranked.
27:33Like there's a series of guys between Pierce, Sutton, Quinton Johnston, Michael Wilson, who are four guys that I just don't think I'm going to draft this year.
27:42And so I tend to be pretty low on the round seven wide receivers.
27:47And in fact, I wrote an entire article about being low on the round seven wide receivers and very high on the
27:54later wide receiver window that you can check out on my sub stack.
27:59Yeah, there's a I've had like a temptation to like uno reverse my we need to draft chargers wide receivers take from
28:06lad on to QJ just in terms of like the price difference.
28:10But you are not actually getting a discount on QJ like at all.
28:14Like for a receiver, I don't think is very good.
28:18Like he's going in the yeah, is an ADP of 85 on underdog.
28:22Maybe this will be different in managed redraft leagues or whatever.
28:26But yeah, I wanted to like make that pivot and say, yeah, I believe in the environment.
28:32It'll probably be lad. Maybe it's QJ who runs more routes and what have you.
28:37And he like proves everybody wrong. But yeah, like it's just not you're not getting a discount.
28:42It's not like a value pick in any sense of the word.
28:46Neither is lad anymore. To be fair, you're only doing that if you are completely bought in to basically my view of the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025.
28:56So I earned 2026. So I acknowledge that. But yeah, I just wish there was like a better way to take it
29:03for me to take advantage of that take now when they're oh, we should draft here.
29:09But yes, I love downs. I do, too. That's pretty easy.
29:12I think we don't need dart. We don't need party.
29:16Yeah, the only other pick I'd throw out would be like Pierce all the set up party.
29:21But I like downs more. Yeah. Let's do downs.
29:24And we can probably can go. We have we have golf and love as quarterback out.
29:30So we don't really need to set up party.
29:33What's our next pick? Like, what is the number of our next pick?
29:37Is it 99? 99 and 118 are our next.
29:40So I believe golf and love both go on average right between those.
29:45If you pull up quarterback. I want to say they're like in the 107 and 110 range.
29:50107. 110. 110. Yeah. So I mean, wow, that was impressive.
29:54Yeah. So we probably I mean, this would be a spot where.
29:58Well, so normally what I would do here again is I would I would take Laporta to protect.
30:04I would draft. We obviously can't do that. So do we pull up one of the quarterbacks or do we take one more wide receiver?
30:13Or I think another wide receiver here is my preference.
30:16I'll just click Pittman. Yeah, he's he's like a fine way to round out a wide receiver room and just feel good about it.
30:24I think I guess the the one cool stat I did have was by total wide receiver fantasy points per game.
30:31Mike McCarthy ranks. I believe it's second over the past five seasons of any play caller.
30:37That has like a full season or more. Obviously, that is heavily informed by the wide receivers that he has had on his team.
30:45I don't think Pittman measures up to a CD lamb or no prime Amari Cooper or what have you.
30:51But I think that was interesting to me. I do.
30:55I agree that he measures up to DK Metcalf.
30:58That's the biggest thing to me is. Yeah, I straight up.
31:01I think he out targets Metcalf. I don't know if he outscores Metcalf just because of depth and efficiency and stuff.
31:08But I easily think he out targets Metcalf. I guess my guess is that when we get into like week four and
31:16the rest of the season in DFS, that these two are going to project almost the exact same every single week.
31:23And so the I don't like actually hate Metcalf at cost.
31:27But I think that the full two round ADP gap between them should be much closer to zero or maybe even just one round.
31:35If you want to factor in Metcalf sort of better and best ball scoring distribution.
31:40So, yeah, I'm not going to be like a full fade on Metcalf because I don't hate him as much as I
31:47hate a lot of the other round seven receivers.
31:50But I'll probably be underweight him and definitely overweight Pittman.
31:54To that point, I'll plug the continued articles. We're talking about these receivers in this range.
31:59Basically, I just went through a few different ways to get at this.
32:03But looking at the entire wide receiver position from like a rolling average of their previous two years yards per route run.
32:11It's basically just dead flat from like late six through round 12 from an efficiency perspective.
32:16And yet it actually also gets younger as you go later in.
32:20So you're generally getting younger bets, the exact same efficiency, the longer you wait at the wide receiver position.
32:27We're back on the clock. Goff is gone. Yeah.
32:30And we can't. And we have two more rounds before the end of our tight end.
32:35So it's running back or it's wide receiver. Yeah.
32:38Do you have it? I mean, I'm fine with Higgins.
32:41Yeah. I hate all these running backs. So I'm just going to.
32:45Yes. Oh, sorry. I'm I hate all these running backs.
32:49I'm just going to take Higgins and then we can.
32:52That's fine. What do we have? Six receivers now.
32:55I can tell which other receivers were available, but I don't mind Higgins.
33:00I don't know if there was anyone else I like.
33:03It was. Yeah. There's basically. Yeah. I'm clicking dig some, but that would have been early for him.
33:09So, yeah. It's a shame, at least for me, that Concepcion didn't last one more.
33:14I have him a tier higher. But then I have Higgins as the first of that tier that includes like Wandale and Coker and Shakir.
33:23And basically all the number two, like kind of high floor guys.
33:27We should take a quarterback at this pick. We should.
33:30So these are my suggestions. There's Malik Willis, who we can back stack with Greg Dulcich, potentially.
33:36That's like everyone's favorite late round tight end. Daniel Jones, I think, has just a completely illogical best ball ADP.
33:42We have Josh Downs. This guy led the league in passing yards through the first 10 or 11 weeks.
33:49Yeah, he projects to be available at our next pick.
33:52Yep, exactly. So I think Willis here. And then.
33:55Yeah, we're going to want three quarterbacks, I think, at this point anyway.
34:00So because the only other option would be we could go running back here and then wait for Jones.
34:06But I think I'd go Willis at quarterback or JCM.
34:09Yeah, let's go Willis. You can't make me draft JCM.
34:13I'm not doing it. And yeah, I just feel no urgency whatsoever.
34:17Are you that out of JCM? I mean, I'm very pro-white, but I wouldn't consider myself.
34:22I'm just like pro. There's going to be a running back playing next to Jayden Daniels with an ADP in the hundreds.
34:30And I don't. I like white more, but I'm not willing to bet my entire season that I'm right about that bet.
34:37I'm more convinced that there's value to be had in the backfield than I am that Rashad White is the correct answer.
34:44Yeah, I mean, I think like. I agree. I guess I'm being a little too harsh.
34:50I get negatively polarized on Bill Krosky Merritt all the time, as we've learned on our draft live stream.
34:56I just always want to take like the most extreme possible opinion on him.
35:01There's something about him. But you're right. Like, who else would it be?
35:05And it's a valuable backfield. Yeah, I guess. Like, I'm just not clicking running back here very much.
35:11I'm just kind of not messing with the Vikings guys with Chris Rodriguez, with JCM.
35:17But if I'm like forced to pick a favorite in that range, I guess it's him.
35:22But yeah. I take a lot of those guys.
35:25That's before we can. Okay. Interesting. All right. Well, I just think running back before we can draft tight ends.
35:32Yeah. And I hope it's Daniel Jones. Yes. Yeah.
35:35We could go Jones at 142 and then just start maybe actually get one of those tight ends we wanted at the turn.
35:42A Gadsden, a Chig. Oh, we could have done Jaden Daniels earlier with the Chig sack in mind.
35:49That would have been kind of fun, too. That's setting it up in advance.
35:53Yeah. Yeah. I thought Daniels went right before we took Hurts.
35:57I think I would have advocated for Daniels if he was available at the Hurts pick.
36:02Uh, I think he did. But all right. All right.
36:06She goes there anyway. So let's do Jones. And then we can come back and discuss the tight end.
36:12So right now we have all available to us.
36:15Why don't you just put it up? The tight ends up in order of ADP.
36:20Yeah. So we have Gadsden, Henry, Strange, Sadiq, and Jawan Johnson, which are all a very tight tier in ADP.
36:27Um, my personal favorite, uh, probably not that surprising of the group would be a Rondae Gadsden.
36:33Um, speaking to what I brought up earlier, you know, if we're going late round, we're trying to play it by volume.
36:40I want to find upside bets. And to me, like he is the upside bet Hunter Henry, Britain, Strange, uh, Jawan Johnson
36:48Sadiq is, is more, is a different category, but like Hunter Henry and Britain Strange are tight end to volume bets.
36:55Um, Gadsden's the breakout bet. Yeah, fully agree. Uh, I'm just, I am going to feel the gut wrenching disappointment as this timer ticks down.
37:03If Gadsden gets sniped here with this last pick skill at KB.
37:07All right. We get Gadsden. So the build works.
37:10Egg sale, everybody. Great Gadsby. Yeah. I love it.
37:13Um, yeah, I, I'm into, I'm just into Gadsden now.
37:17Uh, I, I was like, I, I was hedging earlier in the year before like the David and Joku ADP drop happened,
37:24but my opinion basically from the day and Joku signed is I don't care.
37:29And if Gadsden's ADP falls because of this, I'm now interested.
37:32And that, that's exactly what happened pretty much. Uh, they, yeah, they just like don't play the same position really at all.
37:40Like your bet on Gadsden is just, he's a better receiver than anyone else on the chargers outside of land McConkie.
37:47And hopefully Mike McDaniel realizes that. And when you look back at his history, he's had Darren Waller and John O.
37:54Smith, uh, scoring as top three tight ends, even with them on like 65% route participation rates.
38:00Like I, I feel pretty amazing making that bet at this point in drafts.
38:04It, it was scary, uh, pre-draft and like around free agency time for sure.
38:09But yeah, I don't, I don't see any reason to not have like a Gadsden position, uh, when he's going in round 12, round 13.
38:18Yeah. I'm pumped that with the, with the sequence of events, like he's a guy that I think always had and will
38:25forever have inherent risk to his route volume. So I would rather that risk be, I guess a little bit heightened with
38:32the David and Joku ad, and I'm getting three rounds cheaper Gadsden because of it versus, you know, having to draft him at the inflated cost.
38:41Like I, I would always rather bet on this type of player when a limited route share is very priced in, which
38:49it just clearly is in the 13th round. Um, and you mentioned it with McDaniel, like there used to be a thought
38:56on him when I remember Mike is sick. He had this nice year, the season prior, and then he was really marginalized in the McDaniel offense.
39:05And I think there was a narrative for a while that McDaniel was, was not a very good, um, offensive play caller for these move tight ends.
39:14And maybe he's evolved or maybe he just didn't like Mike is sick.
39:18He, I'm not really sure, but we've seen now definitely two consecutive seasons of Johnny Smith and specifically Johnny Smith, even when
39:26Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle were both playing, uh, Johnny Smith was a huge part of the offense.
39:32And then Darren Waller became a big part of the offense whenever he was healthy last year.
39:37So I'm, I'm very bullish on Gadsden. Um, I'm really hoping now that Kenny and Sadiq falls to us the next pick,
39:45because one of the reasons I've been more bearish on late round tight end this year is I don't think that the
39:52mid to late tight ends have as many really high caliber upside bets.
39:57It's previous years, because I think this pretty class is a lot worse, but, uh, we got like, I think really fortunate here.
40:04Sadiq's fallen a full round past ADP to us.
40:07We get to me, the two highest pure upside bets at tight end outside of the first 12 rounds on our team.
40:15Um, and then now I think it's just a matter of finding some dusty, um, routes consolidator to, uh, round out the tight end room.
40:23And, you know, we're probably able to stop at three and be pretty happy with this grouping.
40:29Yeah. We, we had planned for maybe we'll set it up with Malik Willis, but I don't think we even need like
40:36a Greg Dulcich on this team now that we have Gadsden Sadiq.
40:41We could, I don't think there's anything wrong with just doing three upside tight ends, but yeah, certainly we can go.
40:48I don't know. I'm not drafting these types of tight ends very often, but your TJ pick your flavor of TJ Hawkinson, Dalton Schultz, Gunnar Helm.
40:56Well, we could, we could go running back here as well at a fourth one at any point.
41:02Uh, yeah, I'll, I'll say that, you know, we promised a late round tight end team.
41:08Um, we should probably take at least one actually very late round tight end.
41:13So I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to say we should go ahead and find a running back or receiver to draft here.
41:20We probably need at least two more running backs and one more receiver.
41:25Um, maybe just one more running back. I don't know if there's anyone here that's, that's, I have no one just tell
41:32me a name or I'm going to click. Horrible.
41:35Okay. Jeremy. Yeah, it is. I hate that. He's, I feel like when I'm, at this point in drafts and I'm like,
41:43I don't, I don't like any of these guys.
41:46Oh my God. I have to click a name.
41:49I always click Jeremy Bernard. I don't, I, I hope my exposure doesn't end up being like insanely high on him.
41:56I don't, I don't feel like that strongly. I should have saved our last receiver spot for Don Tavian Wicks.
42:02Actually. I wasn't. Oh yes, we should have. I, I've been getting, I've been getting a lot of wicks.
42:09Are you, is that just me or. No, no.
42:12I take a lot of wicks. I mean, not very surprising, but yeah.
42:16It's, it's interesting to draft with not my rankings because I'm like seeing names that I don't see.
42:22So like, you know, like the, like the concept of the John Stribbling being a name that I'm looking at.
42:29It's not really something I'm used to. Um, you know, Isaac says laws, a lot of name that frequently appears in my life.
42:37Uh, so I, I'm used to like, especially late rounds.
42:40It's actually good because it's good to remember that other players exist.
42:44Cause I just get into this habit of drafting off of my personal rankings and you get to the last four rounds
42:52where there's so much variance in who drafts, who at that point, you can almost throw ADP out the window.
42:58And I just draft like the same collection of eight guys over and over again, where it's like, yeah, 80 Mitchell time,
43:06Dottavian wicks time, uh, Jeremy Bernard time. Um, I, are you a Brandon?
43:10I, you guy, I take him in like every draft.
43:14You take, I, you can like every draft. Yeah.
43:17I, I, I wanted to be earlier in the off season, but I think it was kind of beaten out of me just with like round 18.
43:26Yeah. I don't, you're right. There's no reason that he's that cheap.
43:30Like it, it's worth it at that point. The, the median outcome is a zero around 18.
43:36Like we're drafting like Zachariah branch. You may as well.
43:39Yeah. And like, come on, you're right. You're honestly right.
43:42Like. Yeah. Diggs has been that guy for me where it's just like, he's not on a team.
43:48So there's no reason for him to go where he does.
43:52And I just click him every time. But yeah.
43:55If, if it's true that Diggs is going to sign like in these next few days, like the rumors have been heating up then yeah.
44:04Yeah. Maybe I, you will become that guy for me now.
44:07I never really was that into Jennings, but Diggs I take, although I like a lot of the guys in that range
44:15and he's a little bit more expensive, but I, you can Debo have been like absolutely windmilling.
44:20I acknowledge that the risk on Iuke is horrendous.
44:23I just think it's like a certain point, like Cooper cup has just gone off the board and all right.
44:30So it's running backs receivers. Maybe, I mean, maybe, maybe there's a case for, for stowers.
44:36Even he's stacked up is, is Dulcich gone or is he available for us still?
44:41Uh, Dulcich I believe is gone. He's gone. Yup.
44:44Okay. So is there a running back here maybe quick?
44:47Uh, let's do. I'm going to just click Mike Washington.
44:50Oh no. Oh God. Okay. We got him in.
44:53Look at that. Nimble fingers. Nimble fingers. Yeah. I clicked it and unclicked it and clicked it again.
44:59Basically the option here for our third tight end is we either take, can you go and click on tight end position?
45:07Yes. So either we take the, the Routes guys, which is like, got our helm, kind of Pat Fryermuth, or we could
45:14take a third upside bet, which is correlated in Eli Stowers.
45:18I mean, I have helm ranked way higher than these guys.
45:22I've been high on him. Uh, but I, I wouldn't like massively argue with the Stowers pick stacked up with Hertz.
45:29I'll, I'll leave it in your hands to, to make the case or if you want to make the case for someone else.
45:37Oh, helm goes. Well, helm helm goes. Uh, I prefer Michael Mayer is my favorite late round tight end, but I, on
45:44a team with Hertz where we're stacking up all these Eagles.
45:48I think I, I think I'll acquiesce and, uh, all right, Jacob, I'll let you draft Eli Stowers.
45:54I know. Oh, come on. Get out of here.
45:57I know. I know you're always fighting and saying that we need to be drafting Eli Stowers more, uh, in, in every context.
46:05So I'll, I'll throw you a bone here and I'll, and allow you to draft Eli Stowers.
46:10Yeah. Well, this is, I actually knew this was going to happen.
46:14I went to the future. That's why I said, we're doing this on your account.
46:19Yeah, that was, I w I should have been a little more suspicious before the show when, yeah, this would have ruined
46:27my, my Eli Stowers, 0%, um, screenshot equity. So, uh, I do think he legitimately makes sense of this team.
46:34I think he makes sense thematically with what we wanted to lay out at the beginning of, of shooting for upside.
46:41Uh, I wouldn't say that we can't take a fourth.
46:44Like we did take three straight running backs to start.
46:47Uh, I don't think a four total running back team is totally insane.
46:52Um, but I think I would probably rather spend our last one at either a fifth running back or an eight receiver.
46:59Cause we, we, we landed the plane a little, but we did still not take any receivers till round four.
47:06Um, and we have a stacking option. Now we don't, as I was about to say that in Wicks.
47:12So let's leave mayor there. I'll, I'll throw out some running back names that I look at are, are any of the following available?
47:20Uh, George Halani. He must be. Yes, he is.
47:23Uh, Jaden blue. This is, you're just like, I, every like best ball tweet.
47:28That's annoyed me for the last two weeks is like flashing through my eyes right now as you're talking, but keep going.
47:36Um, and some watching P Ryan. Of course. How could we forget?
47:40Some are there any running backs? Who are your like favorite, like 18th round running back?
47:45Uh, let me see. I, I try not to draft running backs this late.
47:50Like the Mike Washington, Ray Davis is kind of where I try to stop.
47:54Uh, I can George Halani is just so hilarious.
47:58I can legit see the case for Halani. I don't think I'm that convinced by Jaden blue.
48:03Yeah, exactly. I don't think I'm that convinced by Jaden blue.
48:07Some AJP Ryan. I can definitely understand. I don't know.
48:10Like are any of these guys more exciting to you than Michael mayor though?
48:15I mean, uh, in a back, no. Um, yeah, I mean, in theory we're going down swinging with our top three running backs.
48:23So I don't, I don't totally hate stopping at four.
48:26Who are the receivers? Just out of curiosity. I know we only have 15 seconds.
48:31Uh, I don't know if any of these guys do anything for you.
48:36I don't. Christian Kirk. I've been clicking some, but I don't think we need him on this team.
48:42Let's just do Michael mayor. We made this about the tight ends.
48:46He's your favorite late round tight end. So speak on that to close the show as we make him our tight end for.
48:54Yeah. So Michael mayor is just tell me why he's not like the second option in the Raiders passing game right now
49:01until, until, and unless they sign a brand and I you care or whatever.
49:06I, I don't see why we shouldn't just consider mayor the second option.
49:10We have seen Kubiak use these multi tight end sets set like a top five, top six rate in the NFL.
49:17He is a smart play caller. I think he's going to recognize that.
49:21Uh, yeah, just having Michael mayor on the field is better than having three of Jack Bess and Trey Tucker and like
49:29every other rate, like nobody Raiders receiver. So it mayor in his career that he's been above like 60% of the routes
49:36averages close to 10 underdog points per game, which is like a low end tight end one high end tight end to
49:44like a, and obviously amazing contingent value of hours gets injured.
49:47So on this team where we're going late tight end and we're fading the early tight ends, it works doubly.
49:54So we're like getting leverage on that kind of idea.
49:58So yeah, mayor's super fun. I don't, I get like that.
50:01Greg Dalsich is just like the, everyone's favorite, like final round tight end that took off and rocketed.
50:07But I feel like there's just as good or better of a case for mayor.
50:12Cool. No, I'm, I'm here for that. I mean, every time, especially this off season, when I was writing up my articles
50:20on why I thought the 2026 tight end class was overrated and how much of an outlier though, the top tight end prospects were the last three years.
50:29Like the biggest fly in the ointment for everything that I wanted to write was like how good of a prospect Michael
50:37mayor was and how inconceivable to me it was that he hasn't fired.
50:41So maybe it's not too late. Maybe he'll, he'll have a late career breakout.
50:46Maybe he'll do that for our team. Um, so why don't we just run down the team really quick?
50:52Uh, and then we'll get out of here. Yeah.
50:55So for the team, we went three, four, seven, four kind of unorthodox build, but I think we landed it pretty well.
51:03Uh, Jalen hurts Malik Willis, Daniel Jones at quarterback at running back.
51:07We got the one Oh three overall B John Robinson, Jeremiah love Reese hall.
51:11Then we didn't click running back until Mike Washington.
51:14So only, uh, ending with four there at wide receiver, Jameson Williams, Christian Watson, McKay lemon, uh, Josh downs.
51:21Those two guys stacked with our QBs, uh, Michael Pittman, Jaden Higgins, Jeremy Bernard.
51:26Uh, and then at tight end, the four guys we took were a Rondi Gadsden, Kenyon Sadiq, Eli Stowers, and Michael mayor.
51:33Uh, honestly, we kind of just went with like four total moon shots.
51:37That wasn't too hard to foresee though. I think if you're putting the two of us in a room together and saying
51:45we have to draft three or four tight ends.
51:48So that makes sense to me. I like this team for like relative to how weird it is, or like how different
51:55it is from like a lot of the drafts I'm doing just in terms of, I'm usually drafting five running backs.
52:02I'm usually not drafting more than three tight ends.
52:05And I'm usually, uh, at least interested in a tight end, uh, uh, as Sam Laporta's like usually last stop tight end one for me.
52:14Uh, yeah, relative to how different it is. I really liked this team.
52:18I'm kind of digging it. I'm yeah, I'm kinda, I I've become more curious about the late round tight end strategy as a whole, just from this exercise.
52:28I think I, I, I am too. Um, I probably my biggest concern about the team was just the wide receiver room
52:35and not getting a wide receiver until freaking Jamison Williams.
52:38But I, I like what we were able to do to land the plane.
52:43We had a little rookie upside with my Kyle lemon.
52:46We added a, a stabilizing veteran with Michael Pittman jr.
52:50As our wide receiver five. So I thought we, we mitigated that pretty darn well.
52:55Uh, and I think we got fortunate to get some fallers at the 10 position, especially the Sadiq fall.
53:01So I love how much upside it felt like we created.
53:05Certainly if I could draft, uh, 10 rooms like this probably would be drafting more late round tight end teams.
53:12And so maybe, maybe I'll give myself a chance to do so in the future by, by passing on Colson Loveland, like one time.
53:20Yeah. Just, just one time. And I also feel like, like we were tempted to just click Laporta.
53:26Like this team would have been just as insane if we just clicked Laporta too.
53:31Yeah. So I think, yeah, just letting that, that is like the argument at tight end this year, I think is so
53:38many of them are just such good clicks to me that it's almost like, well, it's, it's sort of like with quarterback and redraft every year.
53:47Right. Like there, there are just so many good clicks later that it's like, you may as well just push it off as much as you can.
53:56Uh, I don't know if I'm fully there for tight ends in best ball, but I, I, yeah, there's some, I don't
54:04know if I'm fully there for tight ends in best ball.
54:07I don't think similar, uh, to that just strategy wise kind of rattling around in my brain.
54:13Uh, so we will leave you guys with that.
54:16Thanks as always for coming and watching and hanging out and drafting with us.
54:21I'm Ryan Heath. Uh, that's Jacob Sanderson. Uh, yeah.
54:24Have a great rest of your day and enjoy the rest of best ball summer.
