Way Too Early 2024 Predictions (Ep. 1248)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody. Welcome into the Fantasy pros Football Podcast. I'm
Ryan Warmley, joined today by Derek Brown and Andrew Erickson.
It's a Derekson episode. Debro, We are lucky. Ericson is
joining us just a few short days before his bachelor party. Ericson, congratulations,
where are you going?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Going to New Orleans home?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
And Derek carrslave Tyron Matthew and a bunch of guys
in a salar cap that the Saints continue to make
magic with.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Can we expect any fun Derek Carr related content? We
would be you'd be seeking him out there and trying
to ask him why he's not better.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
He's the last person I want to run into. Honestly,
I don't want to run into Derek Carr.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm hoping maybe I could see Kendre Miller and ask
him be like, dude, are we healthy this year?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Can can we get on the field? You're better than
Jamal Williams, Like.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Come on, sure I get the insights? Cute for us? Well,
today we are talking way too early. Twenty twenty four predictions.
These are our top fantasy prediction from each analyst, plus
some rapid fire predictions kind of like superlatives. In the
second half of the show, we'll also get some audience
predictions as well and see if you guys agree with
what the folks on Twitter are saying. Just so everybody knows.

(01:12):
All of our early twenty twenty four consensus rankings and
tiers can be found at fantasypros dot com slash rankings,
and also if you've got any dynasty or best ball
drafts on the horizon, or just want to see how
the latest free agency moves affect fantasy football drafts, our
mock draft simulator tool is open at fantasypros dot com
slash simulator. It's a fast and freeway to practice for

(01:34):
any kind of draft, including dynasty, startup drafts and rookie drafts. Again,
that's at fantasypros dot com slash simulator. Guys, let's jump in.
We're gonna go five to one with our top predictions.
Zero give me your number five to start.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
Well, I'm gonna start this off with that. I don't
know if this is a low hanging fruit one or
if this is just easy, but come on, Anthony Richardson
can be the QB one overall on Fantasy in twenty
twenty four and I know we only have a small
sample size to work with, but the things that we
want to that can get him there is one we know.
The rushing is real. In his two full starts last year,

(02:07):
forty eight rushing arts per game that would have been
the third best mark amongst all quarterbacks. As well as
the two full starts we got, he averaged twenty five
point seven fantasy points per game, and for everybody doing
the math at home pulling out the talk boards, that
would have made him the QB one overall. And I
get we're only going with a two game sample, so
bear with me here, But if you look at just

(02:30):
the overall offensive complexion for the Colts what we saw
last year after Anthony Richardson was sidelined, it's great things, man,
because we're gonna get play volumes. So not only do
we need the rushing upside to get there. We can
get that out of Richardson, but the play volume has
to also come along for the ride. And do I
think the Colts are gonna be a top five passing

(02:50):
rate team? No? Do I think they can be top
five in pace and mirror kind of what the Eagles
did previously, where it was like middle of the road
and passing r top shelf, and pace because in week
six through eighteen they were first in neutral pace, they
were eleventh in place per game. So all the parts
are pieces for here are here for Anthony Richardson to

(03:13):
smash and outperform his ADP and B the QB one
overall in fantasy this year.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
If I guaranteed you health, he's gonna play seventeen games
this season, where would you rank him?

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Top three? Easy? Top three?

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, Ericson? What do you think about that? Where would
you rank Richardson if you could guarantee.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Health, Probably put him in the top five. I think
that's where I have him ranked anyway. I mean I'm
not going in expecting him to get hurt. I mean
he's a rushing quarterback. I think that his injury risk
is pretty similar to most of the other quarterbacks. Just
happened to be that last year he just got concussed.
So I'm not overly concerned about Richardson, and you already
have to pay a lot to get him, Like you know,
we're expecting a breakout here, especially if you look at

(03:52):
some of these early best Ball drafts where he is
the QB five and you're like, oh, he's only played
four games or whatever. But then it's like, well, I mean,
deebro out a really strong case for it. It's like, well,
you got to pay for it.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
So ericson who's your first prediction about.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Brandon Nayuk goes for over fifteen hundred receiving arts and
scores double the touchdowns because I think, but it's all
said and done, whether brand Nayuk is a wide receiver
one on a new team or the wide receiver one
on the forty nine ers, if they decided to trade
Debo instead of trading Brandon Nayuk, I think that Ayuk
is just going to have a career year. He's continued
to ascend each of the last two seasons. He was
top five in yards per out run last year, and

(04:29):
you look at some of his overall numbers on a
per game basis, just last season, he was seventh and
receiving arts per game, or excuse me, ninth and receiving
arts per game, seventh and receiving arts overall. I mean,
in nineteen games played last year, he had over right
around fifteen hundred receiving yards.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
He had eight touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
He had a horrible red zone role, he got like
no red zone targets that still scored eight touchdowns. So look, Ayuk,
one of these seasons, it's just going to all come
together for him, similar to how we saw it with
aj Browd a couple of years back.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
We knew he was uber efficient.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
He just needed to land an offense that threw the
ball a little bit more, that feature him a little
bit more. And if that happens, whether it's because they
don't keep Debo or they move on from Ayuk to
another team, I think the stars are going to align
for Brandon Ayuk to just go absolutely nuclear this season,
playing in a contract year at just age twenty six.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Debro when ranking Brandon Ayuk, would you rather see him
stay in San Francisco or would you rather see him moved?
Because it's, you know, he's in a great offense, but
there's a lot of mouse to feed. It's an offense
where he has technically been in the doghouse before. Or
he could go somewhere else, he could get be in
a much worse scheme, maybe a better quarterback, maybe not.

(05:35):
I mean, would you rather see him move or stay put?

Speaker 4 (05:38):
I think in a microcosm, I'll probably rather him stay
put just because we have an aging Deebo Samuel, we
have an aging George Kittle. Both of those guys do
carry injury risk, injury histories with him. I'm not saying
that they're over the hill, they're thirty two to thirty five, whatever,
but they are another year older, getting closer to thirty,
getting closer to thirty two. I think, George Kittle, what

(06:00):
is thirty thirty one right now? And so looking at that,
I'd rather him stay in San Francisco. Now, Yes, passing
concerns and where the targets go is always going to
be an issue there. But how many times do we
all at least talk about like wide receivers, changing teams,
building new rapport, what does that look like? And we
could be really high on them, but it's probably gonna

(06:21):
take him down a smidge where I feel like a
lot of people would be higher on Ayuke if you
went somewhere else, I mean, wouldn't you be Erickson or
would you? Do you want him to stay in San Francisco?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I want them to trade Deebo. That's what I want
the most.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Like that is the I think ideal situation, and not
a lot of people are kind of talking about that
as a potential outcome. When it comes to IU complaining
about like, well I want more targets, Well, how do
you do that? Well, you trade Debo as an older
receiver and a bloated contract for like a third round
a third round pick, like kenenan Allen got a fourth
round pick.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You get Debo, who's younger.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
I think you could at least get a third round
pick for him, And if the four and nine are
going to move on from him anyway and then sign
Ayuk long term, then that's the play. So I think
in ideal scenario, that's the best way for a Yuk
to win. But I mean if he ends up going
somewhere where he's the clear cut wide receiver one, he
gets one hundred and sixty hundred. I mean even on
the Patriots, like you can say, oh, it's such a
bad situation. Well, once they get Ayuk and then they

(07:14):
draft to tackle, it's like, Okay, maybe it's not as bad.
And now he's going to get one hundred and eighty
targets which he would never get with the San Francisco
forty nine ers.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
So those are a couple of.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Things I'm looking at I just think, all in all,
when the NFL Draft is said and done, we're gonna
be looking at au can be like, this guy's going
to be a top five receivers in.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
He deebro, give me your number four prediction.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Well, I'm going a little bit off the beaten path
of this next one. And it's a running back that
depending on where you find him in ranks. I mean,
he's anywhere in that RB three territory for people. But
I think we're sleeping on the upside for Brian Robinson.
I have him. I believe he could score twelve rushing touchdowns,
get into the double digits, and be a fantastic value

(07:52):
this year. And this all kind of comes down to
what do we project for this Washington offense and looking
at how it's going to operate under Cliff Kingsbury, and
some of this has been projecting, Okay, they're gonna go quarterback.
We all believe they're gonna go quarterback. Now we can
parse between who we think that is. I personally believe
it's gonna be Jade and Daniels. If that's the case.
Is the pass game upside there for Brian Robinson. No,

(08:15):
But I don't care about that. If he's scoring freaking
touchdowns in a really efficient rushing offense. And again people
have concerns about the offensive line. They're probably gonna address
that in the draft, but looking how Cliff has operated
it during his tenure in Arizona, in that span, he
was ninth in red zone rushing rate. We have multiple
years of pick with whichever Arizona running back you want

(08:37):
to talk about scoring a ton of rushing touchdowns. It's
all real though. Man. In that span he was also
eighth in red zone rushing attempts per game. So I
don't care if he catches a ton of passes. If
we're gonna field an efficient rushing offense and when they
getting close, it's either Daniels or whoever, or it's Brian

(08:59):
Robinson getting the goal line looks because I don't see
them going with another guy there. It's not gonna be
Austin Eckler. Hell, we've had questions about Austin Eckler. Was
he gonna have a red zone roll when Anthony Lynn
was a guy that was in the same room with him,
and now he's in Washington. So give me all the
tuddies for Brian Robinson.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
This year ericson you're slightly below consensus on Brian Robinson.
I don't think you have him ranked RB thirty and
half PPR. He's he's right around RB twenty seven in consensus.
Do you think that's about the right range for him
to be going in?

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Do I have?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
But I also have him ranked ahead of Austin Eckler,
which I don't think is consensus.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Is that correct?

Speaker 1 (09:37):
You've got him three ahead of Eckler. Let's see Robinson
twenty seven. Eckler is RB thirty, so Robinson is slightly
ahead in consensus as well.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Okay, yeah, I mean I'm just, you know, hesitant to
just buy into an offensive the rookie quarterback, like we
don't get the CJ. Shroud experience most often, not like
you get the Bryce Young experience where you get a
bad offense. And so I don't think that, you know,
Brian Robinson he's gonna beat me. I do think he's
the best value among the two commanders running backs with
him and Eckler, But I would like to kind of

(10:06):
see the quarterback land there first, kind of see how
things kind of shake up, because if it is Jane Daniels, Okay,
so what if Jane Daniels is rushing in all those touchdowns,
then where's the Ryan Robinson play going to be?

Speaker 2 (10:15):
So that would be my one.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Do we think Jane Daniels is gonna do that when
he's two hundred pounds?

Speaker 3 (10:20):
I mean that that didn't stop him from twing in college.
He was running getting smashed. He didn't care it's fairs.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
But we could also have the Lamar Jackson conversation where
it's like scores, but now hold on, when he runs
in scores and they're not in the goal line or
within the five or the ten, he's still gonna get
the rushing scores, but maybe not in close.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
As to the Ravens, don't they do you'd like to
use like a Gus Edwards or someone else, you know,
rather than Lamar on the goal line. I think I
think it's safe to say whichever quarterback the Commanders come
away with that two will be worse than Stroud but
better than Bryce Young. Those are two pretty extremes for
them to fall kind of in the middle of next
year as a rookie season, ericson there's another quarterback about

(11:00):
Anthony Richardson already in the first one, you want to
talk about a different rushing quarterback here for your next prediction.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, I think Kyler Murray's going to fish as the
top five fantasy quarterback. And this is something that he's
already done. You know, he's been in that tier of
over twenty two fantasy points per game from twenty twenty
twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
The last year.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
I was anticipating him to come back slow and not
really use his legs, and that was one.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Hundred percent wrong.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Like, he came back in average thirty rushing yards per
game coming off a devastating knee injury. Like he looked
exactly like he not missed a step in his first
game back, And I was like, wow, Like my analysis
of the injury was just not spot on at all.
So I think Kyler Murray is another year removed from
the injury. I mean just last year he was still
QB eleven in points per game. He didn't have any
of his weapons. They're going to add in a talented

(11:43):
rookie wide receiver, whichever one you want, whether it's Harrison
Neighbors Adune's say, it's gonna be somebody. They're going to
add another weapon to this offense. I think they're going
to continue to add at the offensive line position. So
I mean he checks off all the boxes of a
fantasy QB one, and I mean comparing him just like
someone like Richardson, I mean he's way cheaper, like he
goes outside the top ten quarterback, so I can get

(12:05):
the similar upside in my opinion, to Richardson again, another
rushing quarterback, but not have to pay nearly as much.
So Kyler Murray, for me, is one of my favorite
drafts in terms of best ball drafting. One of my
favorite QB targets wrote about it one of my Best
Ball articles that came out a couple of weeks back.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Kyler Murray's my.

Speaker 4 (12:19):
Guy, de bro, Where are you ranking Murray? I've got
Murray and we're handholding. He was actually in my Best
Ball Targets to him and Jane Daniels. I've got Kyler
Murray as QB eleven right now, But to be honest,
I feel like that's too low. I'm bumping him up
right now on the show. I'm gonna make him. Let's see,
let's put him in the same tier as Joe Burrow

(12:41):
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Speaker 1 (14:05):
Deebro, give me your number three prediction.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
Well, this is a guy that I don't have to
tell anybody to draft. He's going to go in the
first round of every single draft that's out there. But
I'm telling you right now, if T. Higgins has traded
Jamar Chase is going full twenty twenty one Cooper Cup.
If you look over the last two seasons, in the
six games where Chase has played, and T. Higgins has
played less than twenty percent of the snaps thirty point

(14:30):
eight percent target share. Some of those games, again, those
were Browning starts as well and not Burrow. So let's
factor that in as far as production, the full season
pace for that type of volume one hundred and ninety
five targets Cooper Cup and his magical season thirty one
point seven percent target chair one hundred and ninety one targets.
We know that Chase is in a beautiful ecosystem with

(14:53):
Joe Burrow, Heaven in the rock. You give him that
type of volume, I mean, just put him on the moon.
He's going right to the moon. Wide receiver one overall.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
So ericson Debro's prediction is if T. Higgins has traded,
Jamar Chase goes full twenty twenty one Cooper Cup this year.
What's your prediction.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
I don't care if T.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Higgins gets traded because Jamar Chase is going to go
on Cooper Cup no matter what. Because it's interesting. I'm
I'm aware of the splits you know with T. Higgins
off and on the field. But it's interesting because Debo
didn't mention anything like fantasy points or yards because that
really hasn't changed whether T. Higgins has played or not,
like he has a higher target floor, which makes sense
you take another top tier receiver out of the offense,

(15:33):
but the production has still been there regardless of whether
Higgins has played or not. So the thing that I'm
looking at, and this is something that I've found in
all my wide receiver research. When you're trying to project
that really special season, it comes down in red zone targets.
Cooper Cup his special season twenty twenty one by the
NFL and red zone targets like this is the easiest
path to becoming a wide receiver one.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Overall.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Jamar Chase, when Joe Burrow was healthy last year, led
the NFL and red zone targets per game. This is
exactly what you need to be looking for, and that's
why Jamar Chase is my wide receiver one. I feel
really good about it, even compared to you guys like Lamb, Tyreek,
Kal Justin Jefferson. Look, I was a year early on Chase.
I think last year just because the Burrow injury nothing
really they didn't have the chance to gel offensively.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
But for me, I just think that this is so
the year for Chase.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Just looking last seven games played with Burrow in twenty
twenty three, when Burrow was his most healthy, Chase was
on pace for one hundred and forty three catches over
eighteen hundred yards and twelve touchdowns. So I love Jamar Chase.
That's why he's my one on one, That's why I
would take first overall in all fantasy drafts.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
And yeah, it doesn't matter to me.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I think if Higgins does get traded, I think that
the floor has definitely risen with the targets. But I
think that Chase could. I think you get like twenty touchdowns,
like there's no more Joe Mixon, like he's gone. They
have no reason to give it to a running back anymore.
Zach Moss, Chase Brown, No, Jamar Chase.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
He's our goal line back, de bro if Higgins stays,
because you're obviously, you know, buying in on a massive
Chase or if Higgins goes. If Higgins stays, where will
you be ranking Jamar Chase?

Speaker 4 (17:04):
I mean, right now, I've got Jamar Chase as wide
receiver two. The only person that I have above him
is CD Lamb. But I think they're in the same
conversation and honestly a tear by themselves, and people could
got it as far as bat their eyes at that. Like,
I know, Tyreek Kill is still extremely freaking good. He
is still another year older. I know, Justin Jefferson is
still really stinking good. We don't know as of recording

(17:27):
this who the quarterback is going to be, and that
does play into it. Justin Jefferson is wide receiver one
overall with Sammy Darnold throwing the ball tougher to see.
So right now I'm projecting Chase like I got him
at wide receiver two with factoring in T Higgins there.
So yes, you're telling me T Higgins moves on, I
have no problems bumping him up to number one.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Erickson, give me your number two prediction.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
George Pickens outscores Drake London. So I think we have
two wide receivers here that I think saw their stock
Boomo the most in terms of the follow up from
free agency. Know whether it's because of I think both
got quarterback upgrades. With George Pickens, he got competition taken
out from his offense. We'll see what the Steelers do
during the draft to add other receivers. Cordell Patterson. I'm

(18:14):
not including as someone that's going to take targets away
from George Pickens. But for me, George Pickens has already
shown like that he can put out fantasy wide receiver
one numbers.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
That's something Drake London has not done yet. So Drake
London is a.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
Lot more projection in my opinion, even if you view
the quarterback position as a major upgrade. It is, but
he still has yet to actually produce Fantasy points two
years in the NFL. Like, it's great that he has
a high target chair, love that, but who has he
been competing for targets with and injured Kyle Pitts.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
That's it. If Kyle Pits is gonna be healthy this year, Okay,
what does that mean? You know?

Speaker 3 (18:44):
When they're both been healthy, their target shre has been
pretty similar Darnold Mooney, he is not necessarily a player
that was. He made a big difference last year for
the Bears, but before that he committed a high target
share in his offenses. So is Drake London really that
superior of a third year breakout candidate than George Pickens,
Especially when you compare their rankings and where they go

(19:04):
and draft me. Drake London's like a second round pick.
George Pickens goes in rounds five or six. So again,
I think both guys can have better years this year
than they've had in the past two seasons. But given
the price, I think it's closer than a coin flip.
The concern is, obviously if the Steelers are super run heavy.
You know, all the touchdowns go through Naje Harris, Jalen

(19:26):
More and with Arthur Smith. But b John Robinson was
the first round pick. He was a top ten pick,
like on the Falcons, is gonna stop running the ball
all together? And how is Kirk Cousins going to respond
from his achilles injury? At least I know the Steelers
quarterbacks are healthy between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, so
I like both guys to improve, But at the cost,
I think George Pickens is a better value than Dreke.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
London and in tell me if this is a fair assessment,
But in looking at the rankings, you're more in line
with consensus on Pickens. Is just that you're lower on London.
It's would you characterize it that same way, It's not
that you're extra high on Pickens, it's that you're just
kind of lower than consensus on London, I.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Would say, so.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
I just think that we've done this song and dance
before the last two years, where we saw a receiver
that had yet to break out, and then he got
a quarterback up grade and then oh, here we go,
he's gonna be a top twelve guy.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Like, lock him in.

Speaker 3 (20:16):
Michael Pittman didn't deliver, Chris Alave didn't deliver Greg London
like again, like he can be better with Kirk Cousins.
But what does that actually mean? Oh he finishes as
a top twenty receiver. Well you draft him as a
top twelve guy. Sorry.

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(21:56):
now dro You don't agree necessarily with Ericson on the
Drake London side of his prediction. But your prediction is
also quite bullish on George Pickens.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
I mean, I think people are gonna think it's bullish,
but I don't think it is. Like, and I'm backing
it up with my ranking. I have George Pickens as
wide receiver eighteen in my rankings, So that leads me
to George Pickens is a top twenty wide receiver in
twenty twenty four. And we've already seen this happen in
a shorter stint. When Deonzay Johnson was out last year
weeks two through five, George Pickens was tenth in target

(22:28):
chair twenty seven point one percent target chair, He was
first an air yard percentage, eighth in yards per route run,
and he was also wide receiver sixteen in fantasy points
per game. Now I know that people are uncertain about Okay, well,
who's the quarterback going to be? Well, here's the thing.
We've already seen what iterations of both like with offenses

(22:48):
with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Look like DJ Moore
had no problems smashing last year as the guy. So
Russell Wilson has supported high touchdown seasons last year year
for Cortland Sutton so it's like, well for us, sucks
justin Fields can get the job done and still support
George Pickens. And we've already seen him produce like this
last year when Deontay wasn't there. So now Deontay is gone, Okay,

(23:11):
well fine, let's go George Pickens. So I don't really
understand why, Like you look a lot of places, whether
you're doing Best Ball drafts, an underdog and other places,
it's like George Pickens is a wide receiver three. Just
kind of scratching my head.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I don't know why, deep Road. So obviously we've hit
on Pickens just since we did talk about London. And
I know you're a big London fan. You are higher
that can sens us on London. I think you might
have him ranked higher than any expert in ECR right now.
It's still obviously early in that process, so maybe that'll change.
But you are very excited about London this year. Correct.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Oh absolutely, I've got him as well. Wide receiver seven.
And I understand Andrew Anderson is on the show and
he's he's kind of fading Kirk Cousins and the passing
attack to in a certain extent. I get the concerns.
I'm betting on talent. I'm betting on a player that
we've already seen the ability to command high targets like
Rickson was talking about. Now, I think we finally get
competent quarterback play. And I'm not telling you that Cousin

(24:06):
is gonna be you know, QB twelve to fifteen in
the NFL Top ten whatever. I just want league average
quarterback play, and we have not seen that at any
iteration of the Atlanta Falcons with Drake Lonnon in town yet, Mariota,
no way, Heinike uh huh, Desmond Ritter, come on, no.

(24:27):
So I just want league average quarterback play that happens
passing raids, going up. Target's gonna be there, Drake London smash.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Ericson, give me your number one prediction for the twenty
twenty four season.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
New York Jets are gonna win the AFC East. They're
gonna go from last the top ten and touchdowns scarp
per game, and Breeze Hall is gonna be the Fantasy
RB one. So I think that the Jets are this
weird by low type of team because of what happened
last year with their offense and basically got destroyed after
Aaron Rodgers rectured his achilles. But I think there's reason

(25:00):
to be optimistic for Gang Green this year. You look
at the other teams of the AFC East. The Patriots
are rebuilding. They don't have a quarterback, so they are
not going to be competitive necessarily in wins and losses.
Miami Dolphins are kind of in this weird limbo state.
They just lost a bunch of talent and free agency
and they didn't have anything to kind of put back
in its place. They don't have a lot of draft picks,

(25:20):
and they have this two contract that's also looming, like
kind of putting them in a weird place. Are they
gonna be as good as last year? And you have
the Bills, who I feel like did they kind of
just miss their window to really take a chance at
the Super Bowl. So I think the Jets as a team,
I mean, if there's any team that's all in, it's.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
The New York Jets.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
They signed two thirty three old tackles as band aids
on this offensive line to help protect Aaron Rodgers, who's
also over forty years old. So if any team does
not care about twenty twenty five at all, it's the
Jets they care about twenty twenty four, and how do
they score points in twenty twenty four?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Presall, that's how you do it.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
The last time we saw Bresol against my Patriots, the
guy almost had forty touches in a game against the
league's best run defense. So briest Hall, I think, is
just slated to go absolutely nuclear this year.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Again.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Finished second among all running backs and yards from scrimmage
last year in eighteen weeks, first in catches, and this
was him having the second to last rushing success rate
in the NFL, like he could not rush for a lick,
and yet he still was able to put up yardage
from both receiving and rushing because of his explosive ability.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
So I think it's going to be the Breese Haall show.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
I really think this office is going to be going
through him, especially with Garrett Wilson adding Mike Williams again
another band aid wide receiver fixture to this offense.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
So again, I've never I think I've ever been high
on the.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Jets in like entire existence, But in twenty twenty four,
I think the Jets are good bet and Breestall is
going to be the guy.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
I'm gonna put my chips in on.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
I respect the conviction in Hall, and I'm really excited
for all this year as well. I don't think I
could justify not having Christian McCaffrey as RB one. And
in fact, if you look at our early ECR rankings,
only two people in the industry that we have in
our rankings do not have McCaffrey number one. You are
one of them. Ericson of course having him at two behind.

(27:05):
Who's the others Kevin Steele at least as of the
most time, the most recent time he updated this.

Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well, you said, you said justify. What does that to me?
That sounds like I.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Think coming off the season that we just saw from McCaffrey,
and I don't know why we have much reason to
expect next year will look drastically different. I just don't
know how you can put like Breece Hall would need
to have the season that McCaffrey just had to surpass him.
We we just saw McCaffrey do it, and I don't
know why we would expect outside of, you know, an
unfortunate injury. I don't know why I would expect him

(27:38):
to not do it again. I mean Deebro, what do
you think?

Speaker 4 (27:41):
I mean, Look, I'm actually I feel like I'm straddling
the middle between both these takes. H I've got Breecee
Hall as my fourth overall player right now and my
RB two, So I'm I'm I mean Ericson's basically we're
riding in the same party bus. He's just driving. Well.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Well, Deebro, you didn't have McCaffrey as RB one last year,
so why are you putting him back as RB one?

Speaker 4 (28:02):
Because a lot of the reasons where I bumped him
down from RB one was a lot of Okay, does
is he going to share any of the red zone touches?
And we saw that did not happen with Elijah Mitchell
because Elija Mitchell just can't stay healthy. I mean, it's
sad but true. And so this year, I mean, look
back at last year, and even though McCaffrey was playing

(28:22):
so many snaps, it's not like San Francisco ran him
into the ground. They weren't giving him twenty eight to
thirty touches a game. Some of that's because of the
pace and things like that, and he could play all
those snaps because they're running a slow offense. And they're playing,
you know, less plays per game. So I mean for CMC,
I just looking in the metrics, it's hard for me
to justify. Okay, is he going to outside of injury

(28:44):
worries and things like that, I think he's firmly still
in the prime of his career. So it's I'm with
you on that Breese Hall could be the RB one
overall this year. I think it's a two horse race, though,
I think it's CMC and Breeze.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
I just think it's a better bet to bet on
a guy who's going to be twenty three years old
on an ascending offense. First, you'd rather bet on a
twenty nine year old running back in a twenty three
year old running back and he's uber prime.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
Like I mean, I think we're making both our sound
bets to make. To be honest, we only pick one overall.
You can't get both on your team.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
How old did you say McCaffrey was. Did you say
twenty nine? I think he's like twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
He's not twenty. He's just turning twenty eight or twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
He's turning twenty eight before the season. He's twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, sorry, I mean now.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Now Erickson's trying to make it even older than Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yes he is.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
He is definitely younger. I don't think he's so old
that that's a concern for me.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
He's going off the season we had like four hundred
touches and like the track record of that is actually like,
look at all the running backs. Josh Jacobs, he came
off a big year of four hundred, like of a
ton of touches, led the NFL touches and did not
finish as an army one like I did. The reason
that's why I was fading Jacobs last year because he
led the NFL in touches, and then we look at
every single running back like la Danling Thomasin's the only

(29:58):
guy that really ever returned in to another top five
running back I think Zeke one year two. But neither
of those guys finishes the RB one again. And that
includes McCaffrey the year he came off one of his
massive seasons in Carolina, next year he got hurt. So again,
if everyone's just going to ignore the fact that this
guy's coming off such a massive workload, he's older versus
a young running back like Breese Hall, who showed that

(30:19):
he could be the RB one overall.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Like, that's the bet that I'm gonna make.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
So I think I think the conversation between CMC and
Jacobs is a different one though, because there's a big
volume gap there too. Like CMC had I think it
was about three hundred and forty touches last year now
walked out of twenty. Well, yes, we can count the well,
I know we can count the playoffs too. I'm talking
about in the regular season, but yeah, you're.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Right about them. You're right the playoffs and Stoke counts.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
The other thing about this is Josh Jacobs had over
four hundred touches in that season. So I'm with you
on the volume and stuff. I get it, I get it.
But the other side is we saw CMC stay fully
healthy that season. I'm not going to rule up that
he can do it again. Although I concede your point,
it's not like I'm fading Breeze Hall here. He's my
RVY too. He's a top five player for me.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah, you're I also quite like Hall. And again I
don't want to knock your enthusiasm for Hall. And we
can move on from the point after this. But I
just I it feels like it will take a special
barring injury, which could happen, right, he did have a
lot of touches last year. Barring injury, it feels like
it will take a truly special season to knock McCaffrey

(31:28):
at the perch, given the talent he still obviously has
in the situation that he's in. But I liked that
this is supposed to be, you know, kind of it
waits to early fun predictions, So so I respect the
convention there.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
I'm just getting mad.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Oh I'm having a blast. I'm having a great time. Uh, Debro,
give me your.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
Number one prediction Ericsons saving all the fun for New Orleans. Yes,
so yeah, he's getting all the hate out right now.
I look, there's a guy that people I threw this
out on Twitter, and people hated this take, and I
I don't get why, because in previous years people have
had no issues betting on Travis kelcey taking him in

(32:07):
the first round of drafts, and last year we saw
Travis Kelcey esque production out of trade McBride. But apparently
saying Trey McBride is going to be a top fifteen
overall player in twenty twenty four and he's worth taking
in the first round of fantasy drafts. Is a crazy
thing to say, and I get it. I'm not fading

(32:28):
again talking about similarly talented tight ends that are young.
I'm not fading semi ballgame. I have Sami ball game
as my tight end two. But we also start to
talk about he is going to compete for targets with
Amina Saint Brown red zone looks as well as that
rushing offense. Who is there for Trey McBride right now?
And even if you put okay, let's say he gets
Mileek neighbors. Let's say he gets Marvin Harrison Junior to

(32:50):
compete with targets with, that's still only two guys. I'm
not worried about Michael Wilson. I'm not worried about Greg Dortch. Okay,
he's it's a great story and stuff. He's not commanding
one hundred and fifty freaking targets last year. Trade McBride
weeks eight through eighteen amongst all tight ends first and
weighted opportunity first, and targets share fifth, and PFF receiving

(33:12):
grade fourth. In yards per hop run, He's top five
and every single thing that you look at, and we
can talk about, oh, the fantasy points per game. He
scored only three touchdowns and he had the fourth most
red zone targets over that span. So give him another touchdown, two, three,
however many you want to do, he still would have
been better. I look at his production and he's entering
the prime of his career and he could take another

(33:33):
step forward and he could lead the the Airzon the
Cardinals in targets this season. He could get one hundred
and fifty freaking targets. How is that not worth and
cannot be a top fifteen player in fantasy. Somebody's got
to tell me because I don't understand it. It can happen.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
So I'm in ECR trading. Pride is tight end four.
He's at the bottom of Tier one and I totally crazy. Well,
I totally, I totally get the case for him over
Kelsey and Andrews. You're taking the guy who's on the
upsett of his career rather than you know, back end
of his prime or past his prime with Kelsey and Andrews.
But if you're taking McBride or if you think he's
gonna finish as a top fifteen player. Where do you

(34:11):
think Laporte is going to finish? Because I think Laporta,
like rightfully, is thought of as the young tight end
that people are maybe most excited about. I mean maybe
not rightfully, I shouldn't say that, but but it seems
like the hype train is very much there for Laporta
and partially there for McBride. So if you think McBride's
going to be a top fifteen player, where do you
think Laporte is going to be.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
I've got Laporta tight end two. Now looking i've got him,
he's lagging a little bit of my overall rankings. Like
I think that if you look at Laporta, he should
be in the same conversation as a second round pick
as Mark Andrews has been in previous seasons, like whether
it's second or third round pick and where that falls
for people, Like I think that's the the five on.

(34:49):
Both of these guys are in a tier by themselves
alone in my rankings as tight end one and tight
end two.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Ericson what do you make of McBride versus Laporta, think.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Think that McBride is by far the better value.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
I don't think it's even close because he goes rounds
after sample Porter, because that's all'm looking for when it
comes to the onesie positions is value, Like that's what
I want, Like who can fishes tight end one? Like? Okay,
maybe you can make the case that Laporta has a
slightly better chance to McBride, But I don't. I think
that de Roil laid out the case that that's not
really reality, especially when you just look at and who
he's competing with targets with. I like the Cardinals offense

(35:23):
talked about Kyler Murray earlier, high on him. If Kyler
Murray hits, well, who's he bringing along with him? Probably
Trey McBride. And the biggest difference between their fantasy scoring
last year was touchdowns. Tre McBride did't scoring touchdowns, SA
Porter score ten. That could flip because that's ultimately what
changes the most year to year is that touchdown production,
the volatility of scoring. So McBride ends up on the

(35:44):
higher side of that variance that he's going to easily
outscore Sam Laporta as the number one target most likely
on the Arizona Cardinals.

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(36:34):
safety and air pressure check. Discount Tire, let's get you
taken care of, guys. Let's move into the rapid fire
questions segment. Here, I'm gonna give you, guys some kind
of prediction or superlative and you will give me your selection.
First one Fantasy Comeback Player of the Year Deebro, who
you got.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
Ah, it's Jared Wilson. That's the low hanging for He's
coming back from having to deal with Zach Wilson for
an entire season, so not coming back from an injury.
But the ego, the pride, the target, share of the
catchuple targets were all hurt in the process. All of
the volume stuff is there for him. He was wide
receiver thirty two in fantasy points per game last season,
the wide receiver six and expected fantasy points per game.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
I'm sure given how high Rickson is on the Jets,
he agrees with that one. So ericson, who is your
comeback player of the.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Year, Jaylen Waddel Miami Dolphins.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Let's go nice PPR gold. This is a breakout PPR
monster next year.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Ericson Deontay Johnson does it again? Does it again?

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Does it again?

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:36):
How many targets you think Dante Johnson is getting this year?

Speaker 3 (37:38):
By the way, well, he's gonna need a life jacket
because he's gonna drown drowning target.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, TV, Rose your PPR gold.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Oh this is Tank Dell for me, man, And I
don't think that people understand in the seven games that
Tank Dell and Nico Collins were both full time players.
Tank Dell, not Nico Collins, actually led the two of
them in target share twenty two point five percent to
twenty two point one. He led the team an air
yard chair. Weited opportunity and fantasy points per game. So
I think we're look, if we're assuming that Tank Delvin,

(38:09):
if seen all the workout videos, that he's fully healthy,
he's gonna catch a ton of balls this year from
CJ Stround.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
By the way, everybody make sure you're following deebro on
Twitter if you want a preview of who we're going
to talk about on the show, because pretty much every
time I see him tweeting stats, I'm like, oh, that's
a player that he already said he wants to talk
about today. Yep, you always know it's COVID Boldest Fantasy
prediction and our producer is saving you know something that's
like at twenty percent chance of happening. Roughly, debro.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Julia McLoughlin will be a top twenty four running back
in twenty twenty four. He's discount devon a chan. You're
talking about undersized runners sharing backfields, and yes, I'm not
saying that Javonte Williams is going anywhere. But Javonte Williams
was not healthy, he was not good. He was not
breaking tackles last year. Maybe that looks a little bit
better in the year twenty twenty four. But what I

(38:59):
can tell you is Juliu McLoughlin, if you look at
every single efficiency metric out there, he was top twenty
in everything explicit run rate, miss tackles, force, yards of
the contact per a ten. Oh, look at that. He
was also top five and yards per route run. So
if he can shove samaj p Run into the shadow
realm and he can get enough of a red zone role,

(39:20):
I understand we have questions about the quarterback, but as
if that gets answered in the draft, he's the best
pass catching option that they have on that team. In
that backfield. He can get dump offs and he could
be fantastic this year. Ericson what's your boldest prediction.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
I'm ready for all those bow knicks dump offs.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
The only reason I want bo Nixon, denver Man.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Expoint whatever. Seven A DoD is gonna be.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Hit different.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
So my bow prediction I already kind of mentioned it,
but presol RB one and because of that he's going
to be the first player drafted in twenty twenty five
fantasy football drafts, which I encourage people to think about
that exercise. You know, I just like McCaffrey gonna be
twenty nine years old next year. Is he really gonna
be the one to one again? And if he's not,
then who would be? So I like Bresol as a
candidate and Bjon Robinson as well.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
I was gonna say Bijeon is the guy I kind
of think about who could be talked about his twenty
twenty five one oh one, or maybe Jamar Chase if
he really does go full Cooper twenty twenty one Cooper Cup.
Let's go to the sleeper pick of the year. This
is a player outside the top one hundred and half
PPR overall expert consensus rankings, Erickson, who is your sleeper
pick of the year.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
I'm gonna go with Roshan Johnson. I know this is
rapid fire, but debro keeps, you know, adding in more
so I'm gonna add I'm gonna add in another layer here.
We got to Sean Johnson. So for me, Rochean, he
kind of reminds me a little bit of of Kyrien Williams,
where we have a coaching staff that has been very
vocal about loving this guy right but as a rookie,

(40:53):
you know, it seemed like they were gonna give a
bigger role, but then he got hurt. He got an injury.
You know. Last year was rochan He suffered a concussion,
and they had other running backs and their rotating guys
and the offense was kind of a mess. So we
never had to really experience I think a full fledged
Roshawn Johnson type of experience. Now, obviously they brought in
DeAndre Swift. That's made Ross and Johnson really cheap. But
it comes down to goal line production in my opinion,

(41:14):
like who could score or who could earn that role
in this offense that Cale Williams, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen,
like this Bears offense could break records potentially, at least
from a Bear's perspective.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Four thousand yards is in the cards this year for
the Bears.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
I love it you quantified that from a Bear's perspective,
thirty passive touchdowns is in the range.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Of possibilities for more records broken for the Bears.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Quarterback in the Bears passing game.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
So just looking at the last two years, DeAndre Swift
his teammates, right, his teammates have averaged over sixteen rushing
touchdowns Jamal Williams and Jalen Hurts. So maybe it's not
a DeAndre Swift thing where it's like he or more
it is a DeAndre Swift thing where he's not a
good red zone rusher, like teams have looked to gravitate
away from him at the goal line. And if that's

(42:00):
the case, that could be Roshan that then stumbles into
ten twelve, who knows, fifteen rushing touchdowns if this offense
does kind of take off.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
In year one with Caleb Williams.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
So that's why like Roshawn Johnson as a sleeper, deebra,
who's your pick?

Speaker 4 (42:14):
The DeAndre Swift stands are coming for Ericson.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
I'm just gonna they've been coming. I mean they've been coming.

Speaker 3 (42:19):
They came at the Lions, they came at the Eagles,
and what do you know, I'm still standing.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
So they got the lighters, they got the pitchforks.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
They're ready for you.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Man.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
There will be at your door later today.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Man.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
But a guy that I got to talk about here
again I brought him up numerous times. It's Marshawn Lloyd.
I assuming he goes round three, round four of the
NFL Draft, and I fully think that's absolutely possible. I've
talked about this in spades on the NFL Draft Show
with the or Uh. He's not twenty in every elusivity
metric that you could pull up in the last two years.
He's got a three down skill set. I think he's

(42:49):
gonna crush this year. He's a mean running dude. He's
a tone setter. I love his game.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
I am with you. I really like Lloyd as well.
And speaking of rookie surprise rookie impact player, and this
is gonna be somebody other than the obvious names. So
we're not picking Neighbors or Marvin Harrison Junior, or Roma
Dunze or camb Williams or any of those guys, but
somebody other than the obvious name surprise rookie impact player. Deebro,
you can go first.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
I was gonna pull up Jermaine Burton for this, but
I can't get away again. I'm talking about guys that
I'm willing to make the bet on. It's Javon Baker, dude,
I'm not gonna shut up about him. I love his game.
I love the fact that I think he's going to
go higher than people expecting the NFL Draft. We're talking
about a player that was eighth in yards per route
run last year. I don't care about the testing stuff.

(43:35):
He's a freaking stud, Debro.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Just for listeners that are just kind of tuning in,
Javon Baker, what school was he? What you se f right?

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah? I think he is a little lesser note. I
know you've been sort of banging that drum, Debra for
a while.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
To trying to turn it up to eleven and want
people to hear it.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Man former Alabama transfer.

Speaker 4 (43:56):
Five star ward group transferred Ericson.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
I love your pick for a surprise rookie impact player
as well.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, in hindsight, like it would have probably made more sense,
like pick a wide receiver given how good the wide
receiver class is, But you know, what's what's the fun
in that? So I went with a running back who
ran a horrible forty yard dashtime audric estime running back
out of Notre Dame because I just don't care, Like,
I just enjoyed watching him so much, and if the
draft capital kills him whatever. He just got to get
on the field like that upbraid. He's just gotta get

(44:24):
a chance somewhere on some team to show what he
can do. And I think Audric estimate a massive running back,
super efficient his last year at Notre Dame. Look if
Karen Williams could get it done in like after running
a horrible forty, and he could, he could thrive at
the NFL level. I think Estimate two can do the
same as long as he gets a chance. So we'll
see so similar guy in his rookie season. You pounded
the table for is Audric estime your new Tyler L's

(44:47):
year because you were super high on him and I
I poop poove the take, but he he did show out?

Speaker 4 (44:53):
Is he your new Tyler L's year?

Speaker 3 (44:55):
He probably is, Like, because there's that one metric that
I've looked at the most when it comes running backs,
and it's like it's yards per snap, yards per play basically,
like how efficient are you a creating yards when you're
on the field on a personap basis, whether it's perceiving,
whether it's rushing. And that was something that kind of
got me onto Algier, that got me onto Elijah Mitchell
from Andre Stevenson and most recently Aldrick estimate, like he

(45:18):
graded really highly in that metric for me, and the
forty yard dashtime was like, it was tough for me
to best because it's not even like the fact that
he's like slow or anything like that. Like if you
watch his film, like you can realize he's not like
a plotter. But I'm just concerned, like, oh, well, he
ran a four six ' five seventh round pick and
it's just like that really just hurts any type of
floor running back and off if you go that late.

(45:39):
But I mean, I think that the size enough is
appealing with him for NFL teams that I think hopefully
he can at least maybe crack the end of day two,
if not earlier.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Day three.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Deebro didn't didn't estimately run faster at as Pro Day.
I forget what the actual number.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
Those are all myth he did he did, but the
videos out there, man, I was like they were tying
him in the four or fives, and I was like,
that's well, but I will say he ran in the
four sixes, So he's not He's not in the Elijah
Holyfield situation anymore. He didn't run a four to seven,

(46:15):
so the hope light is turned back on I.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
I really liked if similar to Rickson, Like I just thought,
estimately it was really fun to watch, Like at Notre Dame.
I like, I've been saying this a lot about this
class on the Dynasty feed, but to me, this running
back class, I do really like Lloyd. I think Lloyd
can be a three down guy. Most of the running
backs in this class I see as guys who can
fill a role, and I can very easily imagine the
role that Orodric Estimate fills and that appeals to me,

(46:40):
especially as a rookie of guy who if he goes
to the right team and is used in the right role,
I think can be a valuable player, you know, for
an NFL team and possibly for fantasy. I was saying
that I would have loved prior to them signing Derrick Henry.
I would have loved him on the Ravens as the
Gus said wards, like guys gonna get all those touchdowns types,
you know, not anymore now that they have Henry. But
something like that is what I would like to see him,

(47:00):
and I think he can be pretty good.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
And well continuing to draw the correlation between Estimate and Algier.
Algier was also a fifth round pick, so we're talking
about outliers.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, and I remember arguing with you because I was like, Dude,
the Falcons would have took him in the fourth.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Round, but they had known any fourth round picks.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
No, I gotta give your flowers. Man, you were absolutely
right on him. That's what I wanted to bring it up.
I'm like, I'm not very high on Estimate, so maybe
I'm just eating Crow again. This year.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
We'll see, dro you have a rookie for your surprise
top five fantasy quarterback. It's Jane Daniels.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Baby, it's gonna be all Jane and Daniels. We want
the rushing upside, we want the downfield shots. We went
all those things. Well guess what you get them Jade Daniels. Man,
if there's a guy that could be top five this
year and everybody's like, well, geez, I wish I wasn't
drafting him as a QB two and early best balls
right now, which is insane.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Ah, Yeah, it's Jane Daniels.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Does he need to go to the right situation for
you to feel that way or it will be regardss
Like if he's the pick for the Patriots at three,
and that's been talked about a lot, is like not
a very good situation for a rookie quarterback to be
dropped into. Would that change this pick for you?

Speaker 4 (48:05):
Nope, he's gonna run. We know he's gonna run. So
as long as he runs and we get some passing
production because he's really stinking good from the pocket, I
think it could still happen, but I want to see
him when the commanders I've said that been there still there.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Ericson who's your surprise top five fantasy quarterback?

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Well, I mean the situation from Jane Daniels won't be
that bad when he's thrown to Brandon Ayuk again back
to their twenty nineteen days at Arizona State.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
So that's gonna happen. So all right, my surprise top
five quarterback.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
And I really don't like talking about this player, but
Deshaun Watson, Yeah, I just he just checks off too
many bocks when it comes to rushing production. And even
last year he was still scoring fantasy points even though
how bad he was, So I don't really know if
Deshaun Watson is ever gonna turn it on again, Like,
I really don't know it maybe just that his prime
has just passed him, but the fact that this guy

(48:58):
had once led the NFL and pass yards, Like, I'm
still intrigued, especially with how cheap he is in drafts now,
so I kind of bite my tongue whenever I draft
him in Best Ball drafts. But he's someone that can
be really productive and I mean to have weapons. Like
it's like hard to look at the situation be like, oh,
this is horrible. It's like, I mean, all they do
is keep adding wide receivers. I mean, they're cast off
players for the most part. But he runs, I mean

(49:19):
if I mean, if he can do like.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
Like come on, So I was gonna say, don't, don't, don't,
don't make us buy into Jerry Judy again. I don't
know if I can. I don't know if my heart
can take it again ericson, I just don't know.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Imagine after the Browns a trade for Deshaun Watson telling
them that one day you would be saying if he
could be eighty percent of Joe Flacco. That is really
disheartening and it's not wrong.

Speaker 4 (49:45):
It's really wrong.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
On debro give me your bust alerc. This is a
player inside the top fifty in our half TPR rankings.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
People are drafting TJ Moore and ranking him like Keenan
Allen's not a thing, Keenan Allen's just gonna be in
the retirement home, Keenan Allen's terrible in it. I don't
know what you're looking at if you think that all
of those things are true. DJ Moore is being drafted
and ranked as a wide receiver one in multiple different spots,
and I just can't get there. Man, he was the
wide receiver nineteen and expect the fantasy points last year.

(50:17):
Now you have a guy that commands targets right next
to him.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Bust Ericson, who's your bust devon a chain? And that's
I think you're way down on him relative to.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
Where do you have him ranked. Then, Ericson, I don't
have him that ranked.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
When it comes to like running back specifically, I think
that he's still I think I still have him as
a what RB fourteen. I just I just don't like
drafting running backs that don't have touch floors Like I
wouldn't be wrong with that, but that's not where.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Do you have Gibbs then, because it's a similar conversation.
Gibbs was your high on Gibbs. Why do you hate
a chain?

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Well, because Gibbs did it last year, stayed healthy, and
he's viewed as the actual starting running back on his team,
Like that's not the case. I just think that there's
there's a lot of scenario where just see eight Chan
just failing, like even last year, like as good as
he was, it's like, but I mean, especially during the
beginning of the season, but like he left a lot
to be desired at the end of the year, like

(51:12):
you were like, hold on to this guy, but he's
gonna save me, and then he never did, like he
never showed up at the end when it really mattered.
They extended raheem Moster, Like I don't want to think
of Moster either, because he's someone that I think everyone
else is writing off. And I kind of felt the
same way. But it's like, are we being too aggressively
writing him off? Like should it really be this stark
where a Chan is a top ten running back and

(51:32):
heemst like outside the top thirty, Like, I mean that's
I don't necessarily disagree with it. But it's like, is
that really right? So I just think there's a lot
of scenarios where it doesn't pan out to.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Your point, You're actually not that low on him, and
at the like positionally amongst the running backs, you're low
on him overall.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah, So like I just like a lot of more
wide receivers.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Then in general, post hype sleeper ericson you can go.
First year Christian.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Watson, I begging the hamstring monsters just go away, because
I think that the Packers are just an interesting offense.
And even last year, you know, I want to I
like Jayden Reid a lot, so I was really happy
to see him be really productive, but throughout the entire season,
like Jordan Love spread the love in the offense, like
there wasn't really no one player that commanded such a

(52:19):
commanding target share where I think they're going to continue
to spread the wealth between all the calendar playmakers. And
Watson is now super cheap, but we've seen his ceiling
when he's healthy and he's a monster, So it's the
matter of keeping the hamstrings healthy. I think he could
bounce back after being really hurt in his second year.
De Bro.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
Yeah, the guy I got to bring up here is
Samir White. And the reason I framed him as the
post hype guy is when he came out, everybody was like, oh, well,
he's he's gonna compete with Touches. I mean basically, it
was the same kind of conversation we had last year
and he got tank, big speed. He didn't do anything
in his rookie season, and then we finally saw him
get on the field last year, it was like okay,

(53:00):
And now the Raiders have invested in him like he's
going to be their lead guy. Josh Jacobs went out
the door and Zamir White. We've already seen the production.
So I'm going with Zamir Man like I've got him
as a top twenty four running back right now.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Uh, let's go to best tight end value. This is
a guy outside the top four in our rankings. De Row,
you can go first.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
I feel like we've talked about this guy in numerous
seasons and numerous different spots, and we keep waiting for
him to break out.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
And I'm in on it right now.

Speaker 4 (53:26):
John new smith Man next to time. We've talked about
a lot of dolphins on this show, but where the
touchdowns go? And I think they firmly can go to
John new Smith in this offense. Last year, Tyreek Hill
Jaylen Waddle soaked up fifty three percent of the of
the target chair, seventy four percent of the air yard chair.
Nobody else in that entire room commanded targets, redzeal targets anything.

(53:47):
And now John Nesmith is going to be the clear
number three option in this passing attack. Yeah, he could
be a top twelve tight end and people are not
drafting him like that.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
If John O. Smith couldn't do it with Arthur Smith,
how can he do it anywhere else? Myself wondering, Eric seen,
who's your best tight end value?

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Tucker Craft Crafty draft Tucker every single best ball draft
because he always goes after Luke Musgrave, and I just
think that's wrong. I think Tucker Craft is he was
a better proSP Luke Musgrave had his chance to start
and then he got hurt, and then they've had Tucker
Craft come in and he was just better and he
played over Musgrave. So I have Musgrave or excuse I
have Craft confidently ranked over Musgrave. Again, It's gonna be tough,

(54:25):
I think for either of them to really carve up
that massive role if both stay healthy.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
But Musgrave has not been that guy.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Like Musgrave has not been someone that stayed healthy at
the college level and didn't stay healthy last year. So
again it's another Packers player. I think one of these
Packers players. Again Jayden Reed is the most expensive guy,
but one of these Packers players. If somebody goes down
like these there's so much talent in this offense that
if we can get targets concentrated onto one or two players,
whether it's Kraft, Watson, Reid, et cetera, like, you could

(54:53):
see these guys really take off after most of them
stay healthy or at least some of them stayed healthy
last year.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
So craft is that dude?

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Deep bro?

Speaker 3 (55:00):
I want to ask you one question before we get
off the bull prediction or the rapid fire questions. But
when it comes to Zamir White, is there like a
threshold of running backs that the Raiders could draft where
you would feel less confident? So it's like Raiders draft
marsha On Lloyd. Okay, Lloyd's RB one. I'd have to like,
where does that kind of fall for you? Where it's like, Okay,

(55:20):
they added this guy. I think White's still the guy.
But if it's, oh, they added Jalen Wright, they added
marsha On Lloyd. Okay, now I'm concerned about Zamir White.
Where does that cut off for you?

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Kind of hit?

Speaker 4 (55:31):
I think it's if they draft a guy inside of
the top four rounds of the NFL draft, considering all
the other needs that the roster has. If they go
that direction, then I'm a little bit more concerned about Zamir.
We could parse out, like you know, pass catching and
things like that, but I think it's more just the
draft capital for me. If if it's a guy that
they're filling out the depth chart, like it's round five

(55:52):
or later, it's the Zamir.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Show, last rapid fire question. Who do you trust more?
Derrick Henry or Rashad White. They are back to back
in our staff consensus. Frank Gigs, Eric's and Derek Henry
are shodway.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Derrick Henry. It did did Derrick Henry. Derek Henry, Yeah,
it's Dereck Henry, Yeah, Derek.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
If Gus Edwards can score twelve touchdowns in this offense,
even Derrick Henry, regressing for what he's been at the
height of his career, can score like eighteen in this offense,
I've all in on Henry this year, perhaps unsurprisingly. Let's
go to some audience predictions. We'll go through these quickly.
We asked the folks on Twitter to send us some
of their favorite bold predictions here going into twenty twenty four.

(56:33):
I've broken these up by position. I avoided the ones
that were on players that we already have talked about
on this show, So thank you everybody for your submissions,
but we did already hit on some of those players.
Here are the quarterback ones. Trevor Lawrence top five quarterback,
Aaron Rodgers top three quarterback, Matthew Stafford top five quarterback,
and Sam Darnold top five quarterback. That one might have
been a joke. Well, of those four, which one stands

(56:54):
out to you?

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Eric's like of one of them that I like the
most or that I've like, we want to hate Rogers
one has me most cringe. And even though I was
on the Jets, is like, I can't imagine he's gonna
fish in the top three quarterback.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
He has to throwing forty touchdowns. Let's they all go
to Breeze Hall.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
So I'm gonna say, I mean, I guess the one
that's probably most realistic man Sam donal One is kind
of spicy because it's like it's all system. I mean
like Spicy hasn't like okay, like how do you paint
this path where it's like, well, if Donald just operates
in the system, it's all if he's like brought Perry
Plus or whatever.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Somebody takes his jersey and pretends to be Sam Donald.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Are we are talking about how the Vikings are such
an ideal like the best landing spot you could ever
have for rookie quarterback, Like if it ends up.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
That Donald Sam Donald is younger than b Nick, so
he's basically a rookie.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Yeah. I'm really intrigued by the Lawrence Top five Quarterback
white just because like there was so much hype for
that a year ago, as like, oh, he's like ascending
into the elite, you know, upper echelon of quarterbacks, and
it didn't happen. I don't think it'll happen this year,
but I find that to be an intriguing one. Tight
ends Jake Ferguson Top five tight end and Kyle Pitts
tight end one. I believe that's the mission came with

(58:07):
the Michael Scott, no doubt about it. I am ready
to get hurt again. So do you think either of
those has has any likes to it? Ericson, I like
the Pits one.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
I mean if they lose a playmaker and Kyle Pits
becomes like the de facto like clear cut wide receiver
one on that team or pass catcher, then yeah, I
could think.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
You see it happening.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Do you Rod more likely Pits tight end one or
Ferguson top five?

Speaker 4 (58:32):
Pits? It's it's Pits. I just don't see the volume. Well,
you can make the volume cave for Jake Ferguson. I
just don't know if the talent ceiling is there for
him to get up to that spot, like he would
have to score some ridiculous amount of touchdowns. I'm going Pitts.
I'm ready to get hurt again.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Wide receivers Keenan Allen barely a low end wide receiver
too this year, and the other one, Jaden Reed, top
five fantasy wide receiver. We also have DK Metcalf top
five and receiving yards. I don't know how they feel
about the overall fantasy scoring, but Keenan Allen barely a
low end wide receiver two, Jaden Reid top five wide
receiver and DK Metcalf top five in receiving yards. Steve Brow,

(59:09):
what do you think about those?

Speaker 4 (59:11):
Keenan Allen is a strong wide receiver too, So I'm
gonna take that when I'm put a little bit more
mustard on top of it.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Ericson any thoughts on Alan Reid Metcalf, I feel like.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
The Allen was only like, yeah, his per game is
gonna be top ten. Then he misses like five games
with the Hamshing injury, and that's why he finishes where
he does as a wide receiver too. But it's like
when you actually play him, he's he's gonna put up
you know, still top tier. I mean, I think kill
Williams is gonna be like that's gonna be binky, Like
he's gonna.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
Drop back and throw me like worst k now, like
this is what he's gonna do.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
So it is historically tough for rookie quarterbacks to support
really strong fantasy wide receivers.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
And Stroud didn't do it last year.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
I just a historically tough. I didn't say it as impossible.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
But I think it's interesting because the Bears are not
a typical team that picks first overall. So like that's
where you have to like kind of lay just X
because it's like most quarterbacks that can pay first on
go to a horrible team, which.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Is not the case at all with the shit totally ours.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
So that's something to kind of like keep in mind
from like comparing it to like, oh, Trevor Lawrence, like
he went to horrible situations, like because the number one
pick always usually goes to the worst team, but in
this case he went to the Bears, who got it
from the worst team.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Yeah, no, that's totally true. The last one here and
the only running back that I saw in the audience
predictions that we didn't already hit on earlier in the
show is Saquon Barkley RB one. De bro is that
you know on the table? You think this season?

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
I think it's on the table. All we have to
do is see the rushing touchdowns go from Jalen Hurts
to Saquon Barkley, which is not crazy to think. Again,
DeAndre Swift's not there. Saquon actually gets Ritson rushing attempts.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Yeah, you guys both have saquad and RB six at
least as of the most recent update on the site,
I think that's about the right spot to be ranking him.
But he is one of those guys who's not in
the top three at the position who I do think
like you could paint the picture of how he ends
up RB one fairly easily.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
We're gonna know, I believe that the Eagles open the
season in Brazil on a Friday night, we're gonna know
in their first goal line possession when Saquon Barkley lines
up under centered' be like, oh my gos sake.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Let's go score twenty touchdowns? Is you're eye drafted him?
Like that's that is gonna play out.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
We're all gonna like debate because they're gonna not play
them anytime in the preseason. We're gonna be like, what's
the touch push? Like, what's gonna happen? Is it gonna
be Barkley?

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
Is it gonna be Hurts?

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
And then they're gonna be in Brazil and we're gonna
have a great game on a Friday night. Because the
NFL rules every single day of the week, they're always
gonna be on and take one's gonna line U under
center and be well, there's our answer or it's gonna
be sake. One's not even on the field. It's like, well,
I just blew my second round pick and it's gonna
be jailing. It hurts twenty touchdowns again, so yeah, sake
on Barkley's.

Speaker 4 (01:01:36):
Yeah, we're all gonna get trolled with Kenny Gainwell getting
the first rushing touchdown of the season for the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
All right, thank you everybody who sent in their their predictions.
I appreciate you guys replying to us on Twitter. Thank
you everybody for listening to our what thirty plus predictions
that we got through in this jam pack show. That
was a ton of fun. So I appreciate everybody sticking
around for the hour plus four Debro and ericson. I
am Ryan Warmley. We will see you again next weekend
to Erickson, have a good time in New Orleans, come

(01:02:02):
back safe. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy
Football podcast. If you love the show, the best freeway
to support us is by leaving a positive review on
Apple podcasts, at fantasypros dot com, slash review, or on Spotify.
Follow us on x Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros,
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slash Fantasypros

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Hosts And Creators

Andrew Erickson

Joe Pisapia

Derek Brown

Thor Nystrom

Ryan Wormeli

Pat Fitzmaurice

Matthew Freedman

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Way Too Early 2024 Predictions (Ep. 1248)