Drafting the (near) perfect team

**Patrick Daugherty** (0:15)
Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Rotoworld Football Show. It's Thursday, August 27th, 2026
And I'm Patrick Daugherty, and I'm gonna be talking to you about the Rotoworld Football Show. John Newsmith, now Green Bay Packer, Alec Pierce, finally back at practice, Mike Evans, supposedly ready for week one. We're not going to talk about it today, because we are going to draft the near perfect team. We're going to go through ADP for the first 10 rounds. We're going to be on a fake clock, and we're going to draft this team together, so it's going to require cooperation, maybe a blending of team building strategies. We're going to go through the first 10 rounds, hopefully, draft you a perfect team, and then, yeah, hopefully, give you something to think about as you head into your draft week this weekend or maybe next weekend, but all that when we come right back after this.
I lied when I said there was no big breaking news though. Denny might actually know what it is. Kyle does not. Will you wish our guy, Kyle Dvorchak, Denny Carter, a happy 53rd birthday today? It's his birthday. It's Denny's birthday. He's not 53 though.

**Denny Carter** (1:19)
I'm 52

**Patrick Daugherty** (1:20)
You're only 52 Happy birthday, Denny.

**Denny Carter** (1:22)
Thank you.

**Patrick Daugherty** (1:23)
How are you feeling? Is the beard kind of like a cry for help, midlife crisis maybe?

**Denny Carter** (1:30)
I feel like the beard is inevitable at this point of life. Just to see what it looks like. Be like, okay, I'm not going to try to look like I have a baby face anymore because I've reached a certain age.
That's what happens. Now, I will say, I do kind of regret not trying to grow a beard back when I had all dark facial hair. Now, 75 percent of it is gray on the sides.

**Patrick Daugherty** (1:57)
Just For Men is a sponsor of the show.

**Denny Carter** (2:01)
They should send me something and I'll see how it is. But yeah, it's been a good birthing so far. I got banana bread this morning as a nice birthday gift for my wife. You can't beat that. Banana bread and coffee, man, that's my favorite.

**Patrick Daugherty** (2:16)
I love it. Okay, yeah, you actually are 53
Banana bread and coffee. By the way, you said just to see how it looks, your beard, it looks sexy as hell. That's what it looks like, Denny.

**Denny Carter** (2:28)
The YouTube comments, this is what they've been saying.
Look, does it inflate my ego? It does. Am I trying to keep a level head about the whole beard? I am also. Yes, I am trying.

**Patrick Daugherty** (2:40)
Many are saying, some of us are saying, happy birthday, Kyle hasn't said anything. Do you even wish any happy birthday?

**Kyle Dvorchak** (2:46)
You guys had two minutes of beard-riffing already. I wasn't going to interrupt that. You guys were cooking, man. The people love the beard color commentary.

**Denny Carter** (2:54)
You're filibustering.

**Patrick Daugherty** (2:55)
You're still not saying happy.

**Kyle Dvorchak** (2:56)
Let's get the draft started. We're running out of time.

**Denny Carter** (2:59)
Happy birthday, Denny. Thank you. Thank you.

**Patrick Daugherty** (3:02)
You still won't say it.

**Kyle Dvorchak** (3:02)
All right, producer, cut that. Cut that. Make sure I didn't say it.

**Patrick Daugherty** (3:04)
We don't want them to know that. We're not going to be able to cut anything out tomorrow, by the way, Friday, August 28th, when we're live at 1 PM Eastern. I'm answering your preseason draft questions at rotoworld.com, probably live on YouTube, not probably live on YouTube. Find the link on rotoworld.com, though. We're going to answer your questions on Friday. We're going to answer our questions now, our philosophical questions about drafting in the year 2026 Our first question has been answered. I tried to rig it. You guys refused to rig it. What spot were you going to be picking from? Producer Adam insisted on being random. You guys agreed.
I was okay with it, unless it was a number I didn't want.
It was a number I didn't want. We were 11, but you know what? This is how a real draft goes. You don't want the 11th pick, you get the 11th pick. We're drafting from the 11th spot. Again, the exercise is we're in a PPR league, quarterback, RBRB, three wide receiver spots, tight end flex, that's how I think of it. That's otherwise known as, quote, real fantasy. That's what I call real fantasy. Denny, the birthday boy, we'll let him pick first.
He's on the clock at 1.11, 1.11.
Denny, around the spot, so Jameer Gibbs is gone, John Robinson is gone, Chase Pukka, they're all gone. Even Amanra, he stopped falling. James Cook, probably gone. I'll tell you just here though, CeeDee Lamb, Saquon Barkley, Justin Jefferson, really fallen in the strap. Ashton Genti, Devon A. Chan, Kenneth Walker, the clock is ticking. What do you, sounds like the perfect pick to begin our near perfect draft?