Mike Leone admitted he is generally bearish on Kyren Williams—questioning whether the Rams back can deliver true league-winning upside—but will still click him when he tumbles into the fourth round on Underdog. Williams often goes even earlier on full-PPR sites with more ‘boomer’ rooms, which Leone says is backward because best-ball drafters can more easily live with a non-legendary RB who merely racks usable volume. The Rams have shown no desire to remove Williams on passing downs, and if he simply repeats last year’s 73 % snap share the pick pays off at RB15 pricing. Leone’s take: you are drafting floor and projectable touches, not chasing a 23-PPG ceiling, so the only place Kyren belongs is the late-fourth pocket where those bankable weeks still carry a positive expected value.

Mike Leone said JSN is his favorite pick of the overloaded third-round receiver tier—provided Sam Darnold holds the Seattle job all season. JSN sits at the very top of ETR’s board in the early-30s range, yet Leone admits he occasionally passes because he worries the Seahawks could bench Darnold for rookie Jalen Milroe down the stretch, which would hammer passing volume. If Darnold starts 17 games, though, Leone believes Smith-Njigba’s target-earning profile makes him a smash: Seattle quietly fed him 20.2 % of first-read looks over the final six weeks of 2023, and his slot-heavy route tree dovetails with Darnold’s preference for quick, over-the-middle throws. Leone’s calculus is simple—at ADP you’re betting on quarterback stability; if you think Darnold lasts, JSN offers the cleanest WR3 ceiling in the round.

Mike Leone warned drafters not to chase Ricky Pearsall’s rising price just because Jauan Jennings is posturing for a new deal. Inside ETR’s Slack, he and the analytics crew have Pearsall roughly ten spots BELOW current ADP, while Evan Silva and the film grinders have him a whopping 30 spots ABOVE it. Leone argued that Pearsall has already absorbed the ‘Iuke on PUP’ and ‘Jennings hold-out’ headlines without any tangible camp evidence that targets are actually funneling his way. Instead of paying for pure speculation, Leone is sliding Pearsall behind similarly-priced Green Bay wide-outs who own clearer weekly roles. Until beat writers confirm Pearsall is running in two-wide sets, Leone considers him an unnecessary reach whose range of outcomes still skews toward rotational snaps rather than a rookie-year breakout.