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Hello everyone, and welcome to the second installment of Razzball’s 2016 NFL Draft Preview.

For those of you who read the first installment, picks 1-10, I talked a lot about the two biggest factors that each team will have to ask themselves in the next few weeks until the draft, and even on draft night. “Team needs or individual talent?”

The process is simple. Evaluate the team after the 2015 season, and then evaluate all of the prospects, on the team’s Big Board, to determine the strategy. Will teams select prospects to help the team as a whole at certain positions, or select prospects because they are raw, physical, superb athletes?

Note: This post was written before and during the Philadelphia-Cleveland Trade. Here’s the short and sweet version – Eagles acquire the #2 overall pick, Browns trade back, both teams will acquire picks this year in the later rounds, plus a slew of 2017 first round picks, and Robert Griffin III is a happy man. Sam Bradford is not. In terms of who the Eagles will take, it all depends on who the Rams take. If the Rams select Goff, Wentz will most likely go to Philly, and conversely. I won’t go in-depth, but here’s how I think the rest of the board shakes out, except for the teams who selections I think will stay the same.

Rams – Jared Goff

Eagles – Carson Wentz 

Browns – Ezekiel Elliot (If the Browns really do believe in RGII, which they proved/indicated by trading back, then they want opposing D’s to respect all aspects of their offense. D’s can easily put pressure on RGIII with Isaiah Crowell or Duke Johnson in the backfield. If Elliot is the HB for the Browns, it opens up the field for Griffin, but just a little bit.)

Let’s get to picks 11-20…

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Early yesterday morning, the Titans and L.A. Rams completed a massive trade in which both teams acquired a slew of draft picks, and in return, sent a slew of draft picks.

No players were traded, although it felt like Case Keenum was cut immediately. Here’s the full trade…

Titans Receive – 1st round pick no. 15, 2 second-round picks, 1 third-round pick, 2017 first round pick, and 2017 third round pick.

Rams Receive – 1st round pick no. 1, round 4 and 6 picks.

Well, if there is any indication that the Titans want Goff/Wentz, it is now confirmed, as the Rams are giving up an arm and a leg to select a quarterback. Remember, no matter where they finish in their 2017 campaign, the Rams are giving up their first round draft pick. That decision could blow up in their face.

But is it definite that they would select a QB with their first round pick? It is likely, but not set in stone. Carson Wentz and Jared Goff are definitely one of the top options in the draft, but what are the team needs of the Rams? Their biggest team need is definitely QB, as Case Keenum doesn’t really get the job done, and Nick Foles was downright awful. Yet are there any other positions they could address at the first spot? Wide Receiver is another position for the Rams to target in the draft, however top prospects Will Fuller and Laquon Treadwell at the Wide Receiver position are the best in College Football, yet they aren’t Top-5 material. They are definitely 1st-Round material, as there are a few teams that need to address the Wide Receiver position. However, their next team need is where it could get interesting.

As you remember, I had the Titans selecting Cornerback Jalen Ramsey from Florida State in the previous mock draft, yet the Titans no longer have the pick, so where could Ramsey fall to? The third, and next big team need for the Rams is at the Cornerback or Safety position, as their secondary was one to improve last year. So could the Rams select Ramsey, who up until the trade, was one of the top prospects? No.

The Rams were busy in the offseason, and managed to slap a Franchise Tag on Trumaine Johnson, and went out and got Coty Sensabaugh. Their secondary will be a group to fix during the draft, yet during rounds 4, 5, or 6. In the first round, they’ll manage to snag the QB coming out of North Dakota State in one of the biggest blockbuster (draft) trades in the NFL.

I’ll make sure to touch on the Fantasy Impact of Wentz going to Cleveland, and I’ll fix my Mock Draft to accommodate the trade, with new selections for the teams who pick after the Rams.

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Welcome to the start of the NFL Season, the Draft!

Believe it or not, the process leading up to the NFL Draft started last preseason, when all of the team scouts gathered to share the plan for collegiate scouting all across the country. They looked at offensive tackles, inside linebackers, and each and every special teams player to formulate an idea for how their team should attack the draft based only on a big board, an entire list of the top prospects of the country. Next, back at their headquarters, teams missed the playoffs, won the Super Bowl, had injuries, lacked certain depth at certain positions, players performed great, players failed to live up to potential, and everything else happened during the course of the regular season. Scouts, the front office, and the coaching staff have met before the pro days, scouting combines, and other individual training sessions, and have fully formulated a answer to the most crucial question: “team needs or individual talent?”.

Teams always approach the draft differently. However, specific positions have to be addressed in the draft, but sometimes, a player might just have so much sheer talent you can’t afford to let them pass. One example could be what the Patriots did a couple years ago. They drafted Jimmy Garoppolo. One might think to themselves “Oh yeah, quarterback is a pressing need in the first few rounds when you have a such lack of talent at the position”. However, Belichick and company saw something in the young thrower and decided that individual talent trumped team needs, and they could address it in the later rounds.

Below, I will make the decision in a mock draft of what teams I believe will take picks based on team needs, and then individual talent. Let’s get to it!

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Remember me?

Yeah, I’m talking to you.

How ya been? That’s good. Having withdrawals from Fantasy Football? Yeah, I understand that. I am too. But that’s why Viz, Joe MacDonald, Smokey and Ralph, JB Gilpin, and the whole team at Razzball Baseball (and plenty of other Razzball writers from Basketball) are here to help with those withdrawals. Never tried Fantasy Hockey? Soccer? Golf? Check out those guys, because they make it the offseason little easier and a whole lot more enjoyable.

Well, as the Deflate-Gate Court Battle is underway, and the combine a couple days removed, this is the perfect time to reflect on how the season went. And, it has been a very unique, interesting, awful, sad, awesome, complicated and happy year. We have had ups and downs, injuries, great sleepers and Andrew Luck.

On a legitimate note, this will be the first article of two where I will break down the season to see what we did right, and what I did wrong. The first one will be titled, Things I’ve Learned While Barely Writing About Daily Fantasy Football, which will the the lighter of the two, and the second will be titled Things I’ve Learned About While Playing Daily Fantasy Football, which will be a more in-depth, factual article about what I’ve learned, and how to implement these things into the 2016 season.

And on that note, let’s get started…

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I’ve spent a total of 45-60 minutes trying to come up with a good introduction for this article, trying to talk about everything from Jewish activities on Christmas, to learning about past mistakes in DFS and applying that to the next week, and nothing has stuck. So I’ll mention one thing before I begin the actual article. Apparently Derek Carr is playing against Amari Cooper in a Season-Long Championship Game, and Cooper finished with 2 receptions for 10 yards, with the longest reception being 7 yards.

I’ve about had it with Fantasy Football.

New to Daily Fantasy Football? Try out this new free FanDuel’s contest, where half the league is guaranteed to win. (Played on FanDuel before? You can build a team for $5 for a chance of $100,000, part of a one million dollar prize pool!)

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After one week feeling under the weather (in which I mostly slept and watched the 1972 AFC Divisional Game), I am back covering Week 15 in the Daily Fantasy Football scene. Well, being off the grid for a week, what did I miss? Did Thomas Rawls, Andy Dalton, Tyler Eifert, T.J. Yeldon, Vincent Jackson and Jonathan Stewart all suffer injuries, some season-ending? Yeah right!

You’re kidding.

Let’s review the hectic week.

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Alright, we get it. Everyone is going to win this week because everyone’s lucky number is 13. Enough! Something very interesting happened Monday Night on DraftKings last week. Something that defines how Fantasy Football is such a fickle mistress. The setting? DraftKings’ $600k Blitz. Per RotoGrinders.com-

This one came down to the very last play. “GregieC03” was sitting pretty and looking as if he would lock up the six-figure payday if Cleveland could make the game-winning field goal. Instead, the Ravens blocked the kick and returned it for a TD which catapulted underjones from out of the top five into the lead by the slimmest (.20) of margins. “Underjones” would also take fourth place and win a live final seat to cap off a great weekend for him.

Final Standings:

1. underjones 217.84, $100,000
2. GregieC03 217.64, $50,000
3. FitnessKING613 214.34, $25,000
4. underjones 212.4, $15,000
5. Josh677 211.5, $10,000

At this point you have to laugh and just settle for $50k. I know, what a settle.

Week 12 was a bad week for the chalk WR’s. Players such as Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, and Antonio Brown all scored below 10 points, which absolutely destroyed a ton of people’s tournament lineups, as D-Hop was owned by 52.9% owned in Fanduel’s Week 13 Sunday Million. Let’s review the rest of Week 12….

Join myself, Jay, and your fellow readers in a special Razzball-only Contest! Buy-in is just $5.00 and the top-5 finishers in a 22-team league are all part of the prize pool! Sign up here!

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Food, football, family and friends. I hope everyone had a healthy, happy and safe Thanksgiving. I recently caught up with Razzball’s own Tehol Beddict and Doug Moore on Twitter about what they are thankful for in 2015.

Me: What are you thankful for this year Tehol? The new Concussion movie? Because the NFL isn’t thankful for that.

Tehol: My new job that has totally ruined my life in every way possible.

I’m pretty confident in that he isn’t talking about Razzball. However, if he is, I would lay off the comments. Just kidding, pepper the man with questions. I then quickly reached out to Doug.

Me: What are you thankful for this year?

Doug: In all seriousness? I’m thankful for my family, friends, my girlfriend, the job I have and my co-workers.

I have two issues with this statement. First, he thinks I’m kidding, and possibly a goofy guy? I’m very offended at this generalization. I am very serious. Example A. My second issue? Doug is way too nice and serious guy, and needs to realize that there are more important things in life than family and jobs.

He quickly realized.

Doug:  Oh, and for football and fantasy football as well.

Let’s review Week 11…

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Sunday, Sunday. That’s what The Mamas and the Papas should have sang about. No one likes Mondays. Example A: Bengals vs Texans.

But Sunday was fun, as we saw crack take down Razzball’s Week 10 DFS League and take home $60. I finally stopped the cold streak, as I placed 12th, the final position that won. I’ll take it. That’s what DFS is all about. Also, our very own Matt Hayes finished second, winning $45. Congrats Matt, spend wisely! I would definitely buy Jay a bourbon with the winnings, even though he doesn’t write DFS articles. So what? A bourbon is a bourbon, and you should buy it for him. Let’s review Week 10 and look at crack‘s lineup and other highly-owned plays and see how they did!

Join myself, Jay, and your fellow readers in a special Razzball-only Contest! Buy-in is just $5.00 and the top-12 finishers in a 55-team league are all part of the prize pool! Sign up here!

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So apparently people that are colorblind couldn’t watch TNF? Wow. Anyway… I cannot believe we are in the double-digit weeks of the NFL regular season. Much too fast, I say. It was a very good week for the chalk this week, as many highly-owned players did very well for themselves. Personally, it was a very enjoyable and watchable Week 9, with Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, PIT-OAK, MIN-STL, and SF-ATL were all great games to watch and follow. As for myself, it was an alright week. I finished in the top-200 in Fanduel’s $1.25 Million Sun NFL Rush, but for the second week in a row, I failed to place in Razzball’s Fanduel Weekly Contests. This time shall be different I say… while crying. Let’s break it down.

Join myself with Jay and your fellow readers in a special Razzball-only Contest! Buy-in is just $5.00 and the top-12 finishers in a 55-team league are all part of the prize pool! Sign up here!

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I have a very interesting story to tell you, the readers. Picture this: Myself, good ol’ Zach, sitting on his couch, cursing Drew Brees. “Why is he cursing Drew Brees?”, asks you. Good question. Yes, I played Drew Brees, and yes, I loved that decision. However, out of the 8 tournaments I played last Sunday, Brees was only in 1 of those lineups. I was really high on Jay Cutler and Joe Flacco, and they did alright (19.54 and 22.60 pts), but they did not have Drew Brees-type games last week. So there I was, Monday morning, convincing myself that I should no longer write for Razzball anymore, and I should just spend the rest of my days rewinding old DVD’s. I had spent nearly $55 on entry fees for tournaments, and I was struggling, only winning $12. But then something happened. Graham Gano happened. 3/3 on FG’s and 2/3 on XP’s. On Tuesday morning, I opened up the FanDuel app, and I yelled, “YES!”, as I realized I still had the willingness to fight. $75 had been won. Thank you Graham Gano (And Jonathan Stewart).

Join myself, Jay, and your fellow readers in a special Razzball-only Contest! Buy-in is just $5.00 and the top-12 finishers in a 55-team league are all part of the prize pool! Sign up here!

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Week 7 is in the books. Like always, this week entailed busts, surprises (Nate Washington), some busts and some great games and finishes. However, this was the best week for me, and for many others as Todd Gurley, Julio Jones, Philip Rivers, and Rob Gronkowski were all mid-to highly owned and posted some great numbers, all with 1 TD or more.

Razzball held their second weekly $5 Football League, and it was serious fun. I finished 10/55 (3 points behind Jay!), hitting on such players like Philip Rivers, Todd Gurley, Lamar Miller, and Gronk. It was a good week for the chalk plays, as not many highly-owned players laid duds like they have in the past. I really encourage anyone interested in Daily Fantasy to try Razzball’s league (link is right below). It’s some good experience, and fun to see how you stack up against your fellow readers, myself, and Jay, who runs Razzball. If you do better than Jay Long himself, you should continue to play DFS, as I am told he is very good. He told me that once.

Join myself, Jay, and your fellow readers in a special Razzball-only Contest! Buy-in is just $5.00 and the top-12 finishers in a 55-team league are all part of the prize pool! Sign up here!

Please, blog, may I have some more?