March 20, 2025 • 58 mins
Marcas Grant, Michael F. Florio, and LaQuan Jones start the show with the latest NFL news, including updates on the Vikings quarterback situation, a proposed rule change from the Lions, and the lineup for the second season of Netflix’s “Quarterback.”
Then the guys get into March madness with a bracket of their own — pitting the top rookie quarterback fantasy seasons against each other in head to head matchups to see who had the most impressive rookie season. Who was better Cam Newton vs. Russell Wilson? Jayden Daniels or Kyler Murray? Tune in to find out!
The NFL Fantasy Football Podcast is part of the NFL Podcast Network.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Everybody. It's Thursday, March twentieth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where March Madness has a
different meaning. It's me your man, NAMG Marcus Grand joined
by Michael ah Florio and Lawan Jones. I'm gonna be
straight up with you guys, like we are recording this show.
It is just after ten am Pacific time on Thursday.
I do have two of the tournament games up on
(00:33):
the side window here with me both, so I'm I'm
telling you guys now, I'm telling the listeners right now.
If at some point, I, you know, sort of lose
my train of thought, I get distracted, it's probably because
something's happening in one of these games. I'm you know,
my prediction for the first game of the tournament is
not going well. We'll leave it at that. How it
(00:54):
knows it blows up in the first round. You know,
it's either great or it's terrible, like on the first day.
So we'll see how this thing goes. You know, I
don't know about you, guys.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have watched more college basketball in the last week
than I did the four months prior.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Absolutely absolutely, because you know, all of a sudden you
want to be an expert on high points.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I fully admit I know nothing, but the tournament is
such a fun.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Time of year. It is you know, this this weekend,
I think coming up this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the
first weekend of the tournament is maybe the best sustained
for sporting days on the American calendar. I think it is.
I get it. The level of basketball is not what
you get in the NBA. That's fine, but the excitement,
(01:39):
the you know, the kind of the pageantry of it
is great. A right, more competitive.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
They're less skilled, like that jumps out immediately, but they're
more physical, They're they're hustling harder, and like this is
every game is like a game seven to them. So yeah,
the competition.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Level is peak, yeah, for sure along those lines. Look,
it's it's late in March, right, we are pretty much
through free agency. I know there's a few guys still
kind of hanging out there that may sign. You know,
we're past the combine. The draft is still a little
more than a month away. It's sort of a slow period.
(02:14):
I mean, I guess we could have sat here and
you know, Dug through analytics on you know, mistackles forced
for running backs or something like that. But I figure
the tournaments going, why not do something fun? So I
decided that we would do a bracket of the top
fantasy rookie quarterback seasons since the year two thousand. I
(02:34):
thought about doing like all time, but I'm like, yeah,
that would maybe dig us back into some guys that
you know, maybe we didn't really watch a whole lot
or you know whatever. So I fantasy that's true. So
I capped at two thousand, and you know, we'll go
from there. So we'll kind of I set up an
eight team right player bracket, I guess, And so you
know that's gonna be a show today. We're gonna dive
(02:56):
through this, We're gonna make our picks. We're also gonna
put these out on Twitter. X exeters, we're still calling
the Twitter man, I'm not saying X fuck. No, I'm
fine with that. Putting it out on social media. You
guys can vote. And so what we'll do is every
week we'll update it so well the first round that
you guys can vote on this week, the winners obviously
(03:17):
will advance, and then in a few weeks we will
crown who is who had the greatest fantasy rookie quarterback
season since the year two thousand. So just a little
something fun to do on the show today, because look,
I get it, you guys are hungry for stats, but
really there's there's not much happening.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You could have asked me we could do a whole
segment on severn so and I would have been down
season finale tonight looking forward to it should be a
lot of fun. I can't wait to binge it. You should,
you sul absolutely bing I mean after today the season's over,
you might just go and knock out both seasons. You know,
I'll just say in a weekend. But you got kids,
so you know, over the over the course, it's like
(03:55):
right over the course of like a week or two,
you can nag it out.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I'll just say this, it is so good that I
I'm already rewatching season two and it hasn't even ended yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
That's dedication. That is kind of deep.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Actually, Wow, it's my favorite show by far on TV
right now.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I've only done that with a couple of shows, so
that definitely gets put at the top, you know what
I mean, Like, Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, it's a great show. For sure. There are some
news that we can dive into. It's not a lot
of serious news, but I'm just gonna say I take
no pleasure in reading this headline, but we must. The
Vikings have said they are not pursuing Aaron Rodgers, and
(04:37):
they are rejecting calls for trade offers about JJ McCarthy.
So it seems that for the moment, the Vikings are
ready to go with McCarthy as their starter. Florida. We
did the mock draft earlier in the week. We talked
about the fact that we were all very surprised that
JJ McCarthy was drafted in our fantasy draft in the
(04:59):
fourteenth Rone. And I don't think Rogers was. I don't
believe he was. No, I don't think so. I'm so
I would ask you, though, I mean, with this seeming
vote of confidence right now now, granted, I'll say this,
the Viking said they're not necessarily in or out on Rogers.
They haven't made a decision on their own. They're just,
you know, basically like we're not texting you anymore until
(05:21):
you figure out what you want to do with your
life sort of thing. Would you feel comfortable or where
would you feel comfortable drafting JJ McCarthy at this point.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I still think he's a low end QB two, but
he's got upside there, right, So, like there's always upside
in the unknown, because look at what Sam Donald was
this past season. Like if you told anyone, oh, Sam
Donald's gonna be QB one in Minnesota this year at
this time last year, like they would be like, why
am I going to listen to this guy talk about football?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
He doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
But like the weapons in Minnesota, the system, I trust
Koc so much. He man he was getting numbers out
of Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs for a stretch, So like,
I just think it's a one of the most fantasy
friendly spot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
It's like remember when.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Brock Purty first started, we were all like, we don't
know if Brock Purdy's good or not, but he's in
a fantastic situation.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So there's upside there.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's kind of how I feel with JJ McCarthy, Like
I would roll the dice on him over someone like
Gino Smith. I'd roll the dice on him over someone
like Michael Pennix Junior. Him and Sam Donald is a
pretty interesting conversation, I think. But that's the range, Like
I take him over Derek Carr, I'll take him over
any of these other quarterbacks that are going that late
(06:39):
for me. Once on that late, like it's cam Ward,
it's JJ McCarthy, the unknown upside guys, then I'm willing
to roll the dice on. But Marcus, I did take
a little pleasure in you reading that headline because over
the weekend, when all this Rogers news was coming out,
I tweeted like, if I'm the Vikings, JJ McCarthy greater
signed Aaron Rodgers And let me tell.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You, people in my mentions.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Like compare his stats to Josh Allen and and all
this stuff, Like people still believe that Aaron Rodgers can
be Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And I just don't see it where. I mean, what
is the basis of believing that at this point, right,
I mean we're talking about Eli. I mean we're talking
about Aaron Rodgers right now, right, I mean I was
looking I was looking at they were following. That's crazy
popped in my head, like they have the same following.
(07:31):
I glanced over at my social media and my my
Blue Sky timeline, and I just saw the name and
it just like, uh, filters, man, filters. I don't know
where you believe. Aaron Rodgers right now is the Aaron
Rodgers that was the MVP earlier in his career, right what?
What you know? Obviously two years ago he played four snaps.
(07:53):
We can't really judge anything on that. But the last
two years that he was in Green Bay there was
a noticeable decline. Last year was a noticeable decline. You know,
he was once mobile early in his career. He is
not that guy anymore. And on top of it, he
just is so I mean, ego driven, ego centric. It's
(08:14):
it's so much about Aaron Rodgers right now that it
just doesn't seem like that's what you want for a
team that does have aspirations of a deep playoff runt.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It just doesn't make sense at all. When did this
happen though, Like, when did he become this ego guy?
Like I don't remember it?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Sort of it was, it was definitely happening. It was
happening late in his Green Bay tenure. It was starting
to turn that way.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh, once they took Jordan Love, he went off the
deep end.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Oh well, yeah, the Jordan Love thing. Maybe, Yeah, that
might have been a switch.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, it just sort of makes you what I mean,
you gotta think though, this was always sort of in him, right,
there are two wolves inside all of us, and this
wolf won, you know, like they battled for a while
and this is the wolf that went out.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
No, he had a reputation of not being the best
guy for a really long time. I think it just
got swept under the rug because he was so good
at football, Like he's not a bad guy, but like
there's there's there's a lot of things that people that
rubbed people the wrong way with him.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I think that's that's probably fair to say. One
other thing about that, and you gotta you kinda hinted
at it a little bit. You mentioned, you know, drafting
McCarthy around some high upside guys like cam Ward. I
was gonna ask you should or Sanders or JJ McCarthy,
not knowing where Sanders goes.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I'll take the shot on JJ, just because I know
his situation is.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Really good, Like Sanders could end up with the Giants
or something like that. I don't love that. Yeah, all right,
that's fair. So Quan, I know how you feel about TJ.
Howkinson that you're just sort of out on him generally. Yeah,
I don't know how you feel about Orde Madison. I
don't think we've ever really dove into that a whole lot.
(10:03):
But yeah, assuming this is JJ McCarthy, I'm assuming you're
still out on Hawkinson, how or how are you on
on Addison?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Then I'm okay on Addison, like because like he's not
getting pushed up in ADP in drafts, like even in
bestball leagues, he's falling like pretty late, So it's not
like you're taking that high risk now. Hawk on the
other hand, like tight ends always get pulled up like
notable names, and like once that tight end train starts going,
you know you start seeing a couple guys come off.
Hock always gets pulled up for some reason. I don't
(10:33):
know how JJ's going to be able to support all
these passing options, Like we already know we are going
to get justin Jefferson just hyper focused on the target share,
so it's gonna have to be distributed between Addison and Hockinson.
So it's just basically looking at who will be cheaper
in drafts come draft Day, and I think Addison ultimately
become the safer option there. So I feel like Addison
(10:54):
can play a nice wide receiver three or flex appeal,
like he has the wide receiver two upside to put
up some really good weeks. So it's more so if
you believe in JJ, McCarthy and KOC in this offense,
and then you're going to go out there and get
the cheaper option and have less headaches.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Yeah, I think I'm kind of with you
on that tight end bar is so much lowered.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Like if both of those guys averaged twelve points per game,
you're loving it from Howkinson, You're you're not loving it
from Addison.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
True, you're not loving it from Madison. No, that's fair,
that's fair. I mean I said this. I said this
on our Tuesday show, right when I said I passed
on Justin Jefferson for CD LAMB. You know what? Am
I doing this again? Am I doing the same thing
that we talked about last year? And Lakwan was very
much like, yes you are, and you're like, but it
(11:41):
makes sense, you know? So I Yeah, here's the thing,
Sam Donald, I think we always believe could support maybe
this is maybe this is me ret conning this whole thing,
but could support multiple wide receivers. I don't know that
about JJ McCarthy. I don't. I'm not saying he can't.
I'm just saying I don't know. Like that's it.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, And that's not a bad thing to say. I mean,
you just don't know the unknown of JJ. It's like
you appreciate, you know, what KOs was able to get
out of Sam Donald, But can he do it again?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Can he do it again at this high peak of
where Sam Donald was. I don't know if he even
gets close to Sam Donald's production that he had, Like
if you take away the fall apart production that Sam
Donald had those last two weeks, Like Sam Donald was
a QB one man. That's great. But can JJ, as
a rookie wet behind the ears, know nothing, come in
and have a QB one production and push Jordan Addison,
(12:36):
TJ Hawk and Justin Jefferson into fantasy relevance.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We don't know. That's what it is. Well, And I
also think the difference being that at least at the
college level, we saw Sam Donald do it right. Donald
had some big years throwing the full He had a
four thousand yard year. Juju was eating it up too. Yeah, yeah,
I mean he passed he through for four thousand yards
at USC. You know, JJ McCarthy his top season was
(13:01):
still less than three thousand passing yards at Michigan. Yeah,
I get it. Different offenses. They were asked to do
different things. But on the one hand, we saw a
glimpse of Donald doing it, so you could imagine him
doing it at the next level. We haven't seen that
from McCarthy.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Does it give you the team that the people that
know McCarthy the best right now are the Vikings, like
they've spent the most time seen them all that, and
they chose JJ overpaying Donald's I don't know if that
I'm telling it all to you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
No, I mean it could be.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
And Daniel Jones left because Daniel Jones definitely had an
opportunity to resign and he kind of just like, yeah,
I'm Matt here, he's the guy. So it's like that
is also need to be taken into accountability.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
True. I would also say I think the Vikings had
hoped last year that JJ McCarthy was their starter, right,
Donald became the starter by default after McCarthy got hurt
during training camp or in the preseason, and so I think,
you know, they were obviously fortunate that Darnold went out
(14:02):
and had a great season and they were able to
do what they did, But I don't think that was
what their plan was coming into the year. That's sure.
It just happened. So yeah, yeah, this is something your
rule changes start getting proposed around the league. They were
a handful of them that were coming out here. The
one that jumped out to me though, the Lions proposing
the elimination of automatic first downs for defensive holding and
(14:22):
illegal contact. I think that's great. I know a lot
of people on social media thought that was great because look,
if you're a defender, pretty much everything you do is
an automatic first down, except like offsides, Like that's like
the only penalty that you can commit on defense that
is not automatically a first down. And I don't know,
as a fan, it's frustrating when you know a team
(14:46):
has third and twelve and then there's like a five
yard illegal contact penalty and it's an automatic first down,
Like it just feels like a bailout. But my question
is I started thinking, lukuon is this good eventually for
fantasy football? Because I feel like, you know, look, say
it's third and twelve, right.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
There's an automatic you know there's illegal contact, So now
it's third and seven. I feel like you're getting to
run more plays, which means more opportunities for fantasy points
to be scored. I mean, I am I seeing this backwards?
Am I am I wishing wish casting this too hard
or what?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I could see that.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
But if you're getting the automatic first down and you're
getting the yards, you're getting closer to the touchdown opportunities.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You're getting, Yes, but we're not getting the yards, Like
that's the thing, all right, we're not but you're getting
a chance for.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
But you get three plays instead of one if you
get it first.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, I see it both ways, Like it can go
both ways and impact fantasy good and bad. Like I
kind of honestly want us to get closer to the
end zone if we can get that integal contact, Like
I rather six points for my wide receiver and then
the yards on top of that, then happen to try
just to get a little bit closer more plays and
then I don't know, I just kind of feel like
(16:02):
I'm ultimately like, just give me to six points, Like
that's all I care about, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I don't know. I don't like this rule person. Really.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I see your point about more plays, more opportunities.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I haven't really waited how I would feel about it
for fantasy, but I just feel like, if it's third
and twelve and I'm a dB and I'm guarding Justin Jefferson,
he gets a step on me, I'm mauling him cause
all right, I'll give up five yards rather than give
having him burn me and give up the first down.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So I think you say that now already, right, like,
because I also think they should change past interference rules,
like I think I think they should make it. I
think they should split them up into like, you know,
sort of minor and major penalty sort of thing right
where Like I like that like if you are if
you're you know, you're you're defending somebody, you're defending Justin Jefferson,
(16:53):
and like your feet get tangled or whatever, and you
or you just sort of like you know, you just
sort of maybe maybe you get there a little bit
too early, right and they throw the flag like that
should be It's just sort of be like college, because
college is it's either fifteen yards or a spot of
the foul whatever is shorter, right, So if it's like
a minor one, you get like, you know, five yards
and whatever. If it's like if it's like what you're
(17:15):
talking about, where like I know I'm gonna get beat,
so I'm just gonna snatch you and just drag you down.
Like that's a major penalty, right, Yeah, that should be
you know whatever spot of the foul, an automatic first
down sort of thing, like I think we can, we
can do that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I do like this because there's way too many tiki
tach I think I like your proposal better than the
Lions proposal, Okay, because there's too many tiki tak stuff
that changes games chiefs, Right, there's a lot. There's a
lot of actual times where I'm watching where I'm like, no,
he would have caught that if not for the penalty
(17:48):
and ones like that, I think you should get rewarded
the yard. So yeah, major and minor.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I like that a lot. Yeah, we gotta get MG
in the office. We got we gotta get in enough there. Also,
I want I want for my pass catcher to get
the penalty yards for fantasy.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Greedy man, whether we give them the fantasy yards or
it's like a point or two points. Like drawing a
pass interference flag is a good thing for real life
and for your team, and it should be rewarded in fantasy.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah, I will absolutely hate if I lose by one
point because of a stupid penalty that happen in the
first quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Is it worse than losing by like half a point
when on a kneel down? I mean, is it really
worse than that? Know what? It's all bad for fantasy?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Kneel downs should not be negative rushing yards. You could
turn that off in some leaks though, Yeah, I like
that idea.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I like that idea, Like that's that's dumb.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I don't think it should be negative rushing yards for
the quarterback at all, Like everyone knows what they're doing,
like game over, Yeah, I guess, although, like spikes count
as incomplete passes, so.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
We're gonna penalize quarterbacks for sack yards too, Like there's
leaks that exist like that, Like I would hate that,
Like no, let's just keep fantasy.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I think that's more fair than because a lot of
sacks are our quarterback's faults. So like I think, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Cool with going all the way. Like no, I hate
that league. I think we should just have a rules show.
We should have like an episode of this show where
we just do rule changes.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Here's something I've I've thought for. I think PPR should
be weighted, like if you catch a pass like behind
the line of scrimmage, you should get no points for it.
If you catch a pass that's like, I like that
less than ten yards from the line of scrimmage, you
get half a point. Ten or more you get a
full point like that. That's how I wish PPR ran.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I like that I can get that with that, because
like it does. It does suck when a running back
it's one whole point, like a little like quick dump
off where I can like, all you have to do
is just catch it, like you know, because usually those
throws there's usually no defender near you just don't box it, man,
like a joint like that. That sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, all right, A rule show would be very fun.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
A rule show would be very fun. We should we
should think about that. We should do that. It's not
really news so much, but they have announced the participants
in season two of Netflix's Quarterback Show, Joe Burrow, Jerry Goff,
Kirk Cousins. Do we really need more Kirk Cousins he
was season one, Like is he really that interesting? Is
he really that interesting?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I need to see the benching, Like I kind of
want to see how beat up he was because apparently
he was injured, Like I want to see what was
going on, Like there had to be a reason he
had to go on like that five game streak of
just sucking.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know what's ironic. Not only was Kirk Cousins in
season one of Quarterback, but the Atlanta Falcons quarterback gets
benched in season one.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's right, So Marcus, that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And they had no storyline for him. After he gets benched,
They're like, oh, he's going to Hawaii now, Like, oh wow,
that's wild.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, I just saw that. Listen. I'm like, I mean, look,
Joe Burrow is kind of interesting. I mean, Jared Goff
is fine.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Like I think I would like golf in this because
he's like through the years, he's.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Been showing more and more personality. Like I got drafted.
He did hard knocks. He didn't know said in the West,
and like, bro, you're from California. How do you how
do you not know this? You're from California? Man, Like.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I feel like now like he'll give us more and
like he'll start showing more persons because he seems like
he's just really really happy with his situation right now.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So he should be. He should be.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean there's nothing in life that that has gone
wrong for him.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I mean when he's winning off field as well on
and off.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Field, Like he's in a place where, like, you know,
the team loves him, the fans love him, he's having
a success. It's hard to not be happy if you're
Jared Goff for sure, But yeah, I just love Kirk Cousins.
I'm like, I can't. I don't think he's that interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
If they do season three, I want like I want
young qbs right like I want Jayden, I want Caleb
Williams like Sanders, Like, let's learn about these guys.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
They should just do rookies, so like rookie running backs,
rookie quarterbacks, like I would love to see like just rookies.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I feel like at this point there's not much mystery
with Shador Sanders. We sort of know everything that's going
on with Shador. Oh. Yeah, he's been on our face
for like three years. Yeah, good batter in different We
know a lot about Shadur. Maybe yeah, maybe cam.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Ward, we can find out weekly where he ranks and
in the and his father's rankings. Yeah, Marcus, you can't
really only have one, but l Q do you rank
them weekly?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Uh No, I mean I could start. I mean put
the rankings on the fridge so that they know that
straighten up. You know, I could start doing that. Hey,
I don't know, man, that that number one rankings now
it's so.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Strong right now, Like you know, last summer we did
a star system though, and like I might bring that
back and just change it the rankings, like we those Like, yeah,
we're gonna bring them rankings back.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Do they alternate PPR and standard?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh my god, points per room cleaning? That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, folks,
it's a March show. What do you want from us?
I'll take a break. Speaking of rankings, we're gonna come back.
We're gonna dour our fantasy Rookie QB bracket that we
go through some of the top rookie seasons since two
thousand and we'll put together little tournament bracket for it.
(23:30):
And you guys can vote, remember on social media, so
go check that out. We'll die through these next the
top half of the bracket on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So,
of course, you know, if you are any measure of
sports fan, you know the n C two A tournament
has started officially today because no one counts the first
(23:50):
four in nobody counts those games, so the actual tournament
has started today. I'm sure a lot of you are
involved in all sorts of fun extracurricular activities around this thing.
We decided we do our own bracket, because you know,
never let the NFL not glom onto somebody else's supporting
experience and do their own thing with it. So I
(24:10):
went and I looked up the top eight fantasy rookie
quarterback season since the year two thousand and I seeded
them according to total points. But I figure we could
talk those through because I want to also talk about
some of the skill position guys they played with, because
maybe that impacts your decision and maybe we get an updates,
an upset somewhere. So the seedings are. The number one
(24:33):
overall seed is Cam Newton and his twenty eleven season.
He will face off against the number eight seed Russell
Wilson in twenty twelve. Interesting four to five matchup. Robert
Griffin third in twenty twelve going against Bo Knicks from
this past year in twenty twenty four. Bo Nicks is
the five seed. Justin Herbert from twenty twenty is your
(24:55):
number three seed, Dak Prescott from twenty sixteen is the six,
and your two seed from twenty twenty four Jayden Daniels
going against Kyler Murray from twenty nineteen. So I want
to look at the first two matchups in the bracket.
Here the one seed Cam Newton from twenty eleven against
the eight seed Russell Wilson from twenty twelve. I quick
(25:18):
overview Cam Newton four and fifty one passing yards, twenty
one passing touchdowns, seventeen picks, A lot of picks for Cam.
He did have seven hundred and six rushing yards and
fourteen rushing touchdowns, three hundred and sixty nine point three
fantasy points. Russell Wilson, and I you know, Russell's rookie
season was better than I remembered it for sure. Over
(25:38):
thirty one hundred passing yards, twenty six touchdowns, ten picks,
four hundred and eighty nine rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns,
two hundred and seventy seven point six fantasy points. So Florio,
is this a cakewalk for Cam Newton or does Russ
have a chance in this one?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is like a sixteen verse of one in my opinion,
one tournament. Sixteen should never be in a playing game.
They won their conference, they should they should be playing today.
But Cam Newton, I think there's an argument that Cam
Newton's rookie year is his second best season of his
career outside of his MVP season. Like it was the
only year I believe he threw for four thousand yards
(26:18):
in his career. The touchdowns passing wise weren't what we wanted,
but he gave us so much run.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, it was his.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Only season thrown for four thousand yards. He ran for
over seven hundred. He finished top three as a as
a rookie amongst fantasy quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Cam Newton is going to be very, very difficult to
dethrone in this tournament.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, I mean it just seems like a lot And
I look at the guys he had with him. Now,
he had he had players with him right because he
had Steve Smith Senior, who went for almost fourteen hundred
yards and seven touchdowns I think of the backfield duo
of Jonathan Stewart and D'Angelo Williams, who combined put up
more than two thousand scrimmage yards, had twelve total touchdowns
between the him and then Greg Olsen, who was I
(27:03):
think kind of nearing the end of his career but
still was very productive five hundred and forty yards and
five and five touchdowns reg g Reg from the seventh
Floor crew. But Laku, I mean, look, does Rusk get
credit for not really having receivers that first year? I mean, yeah,
(27:26):
I was gonna say that Sidney Rice is his leading
receiver that year, right, I was going to say that,
like he did not have much to work with.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But it's like he had to heavily lean on Marshawn
Lynch that season, but he still came out the gate
and hit the ground running. Like I feel like if
he wasn't going up against Cam, it will probably be
a better, you know, conversation amongst other quarterbacks on this bracket.
But it's just that Cam Newton, it was like a
cheet code that year, man, and like it was just
like impossible and like nobody has done it like Cam ever,
(27:59):
Like when we're talking about him mobile quarterback thrown for
four thousand yards, Like he's the only one to have
over five hundred rushing yards to go with that four k.
So it's like the dude was just unstoppable. He just dominated,
and like having Steve Smith put up almost fourteen hundred
yards is incredible to me. Like it was a highlight
reel that year. Like I went back to go watch
highlights of that year. That year's insane, Like I did.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I did not remember, Like I know Steve Smith was
very good with Cam Newton, but fourteen hundred yards, Like, god, watch.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
The highlights of that seat. You're just watching it, like
like was I alive? Like was I really watching this?
In racing? This like what Cam Newton was actually doing.
Like the dude was bulldozing linebackers. We have never seen that.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Like that's why I was like, it's it's obviously he's
the one seed and Russ just gets bulldozed over in
this bracket.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Man, I'm sorry, I mean, I just I I remember
him at Auburn and just running people over in the
National Championship game, right, I mean, Cam Newton was just
straight up unstoppable. In college, he.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Became kind of a villain because he was just so
so good that people wanted to see, like who could
be who could beat him?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, but I'm looking at the rest of the receiving
corps for that that team in twenty eleven. I mean, yes,
Steve Smith had a huge year, Greg Olsen had a
good year. The rest of us Lega Donne, right, that's
a real person. The center from the Denver Nuggets. I
(29:33):
mean yeah, I never forgot about nine, but yeah, Lego
do It was like the number two wide receiver on
that team. They had like an aging Jeremy Shockey still
Brandon Lafelle. Uh, we're kind of just iron and out
like he threw for four thousand yards?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Like how with that group? Yes, yeah, magical twenty eleven.
My least favorite draft of all time?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Bill said the third pick, the first two were Cam
Newton and Von Miller.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Well, I mean you ended up getting one of those
guys eventually.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, way past his prime. Hey Cam, you want to
come back up, Josh Allen, We'll bring a full circle.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'll say this too. The other thing about about that
Russell Wilson season in twenty twelve, he was not well
when they drafted him. They had Matt Flynn, and they
had just paid Matt Flynn a ton of money for
one game. Ye, Matt Flynn was coming over from the
from the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, he basically had like
one one or two games where he bawled out, and
(30:41):
then the Seahawks gave him a whole bunch of money.
And then they drafted Russ and after like a few practices,
Pete Carroll was basically just like, Nope, you're the guy now.
That was it. He's too good, right, And then like
Matt Flynn, I think he played a handful of games
that season and then they moved on as a.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Heavy backup money though I know he wasn't that man.
I mean, he can't be too too many.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I'm still live it off of it today, i'd imagine
I would think.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So. All right, So are I think we're unanimous in
our prediction although I don't know. Are you picking the
upset here? Lakwan? I mean, I think you're making a
case for us, But are picked the upside? I can't.
I can't. It's a blowout. It's a blowout, all right.
So Cam runs away with that one in our predictions here.
That gets into the four to five, which I was
(31:29):
shocked to see bow Knicks landing as a five seed here,
Like I you know, I knew he had a good season,
and you know, we were all bow Leavers at some point.
I didn't think he would be a five seed, but
RG three again, I thought he'd be higher than a four,
to be honest, because I remember all the hype and
all the excitement around his rookie season. Just thirty two
(31:52):
hundred passing yards like an even thirty two hundred, twenty touchdowns,
five interceptions, eight hundred and fifteen rushing yards though with
seven rushing touchdowns, three hundred and seventeen and a half
fantasy points. Bon Knicks three thousand, seven hundred and seventy
five pass yards, twenty nine CDs, twelve picks, four hundred
and thirty rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, three hundred and
six point two fantasy points. This one, Lakwan, has the
(32:17):
feeling of a four or five matchup. This one feels
like it really could go either way.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Listen, the upset is going to the bow Levers because bone.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Knicks balled out, man, Like I really was like stuck
thinking like, oh man, Archie three did ball out man,
And they did have Kirk Cousins, you know, in that
fourth round and put some fire owners.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
But but RGIE three did ball out.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But bone Knicks was better for me, man, just based
on Look, you have to understand him coming into this season.
Everybody was like, he can't throw past the line of scrimmage,
he can't do this. He's played a ton of football
and all this other stuff. Sean like he put all
that to bed to be a top five Fantasy rookie
quarterback all time, all time, well since two thousand at least. Yeah,
(33:03):
But I'm just saying, though, it's like insane that he
went out there and do all those things that everybody
said he couldn't do.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
So I think there's more of the story the impact
here for bow Knicks. So it just makes more sense
to get the ultimate upset, even though he has one
point less than Robert Griffin and played two more games.
But still looking at it at all.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
It's like bo Knicks just he just cleared all the
haters and they're going to be mad he goes to
the next round.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Is is there recency bias bias Florio? Is it just
like bo Nicks Is the last thing we saw.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I, Well, no, no, I'm not gonna say it's recency bias.
I'm gonna say Lq's defending his guy because LQ is
a believer on this show, like like he's he's drafted
him in both our mocks. He's made it clear like
that is this guy, So I get it. It'd be
like if I defended Josh Allen, you know, like it's
but it's RG three for me, Like I think the
(33:54):
part about two extra games, like if you gave rookie
year RG three two extra games, he's sitting much higher
on this list, I think. I really, like, look, obviously
we all remember bo Nicks. We just lived it. But
like going back to what one defenses, it was harder
to score points twelve years ago than it is now,
but even more so, like the like RG three took
over the NFL that year, Like Andrew Luck was a
(34:17):
rookie that year and RG three to one Rookie of
the Year.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So I remember being.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Insanely excited for him and like very sad when he
got hurt and stuff. So if you compare his numbers
to jayde and Daniels, they're not that different from his
rookie year.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So yeah, I'm going with RG three here, come on.
My honestly, my first instint when I looked at this
was to go bow Knicks. That was my initial because
in part because of just what he had to work with. Yeah,
and not that not look not that you know the
(34:52):
Washington Club which is going by a different name at
the time. Look, the receivers weren't great. I mean, Pierre Garson,
Santana Moss, like neither one of those guys were I
remember drafting him. Oh yeah, no, I mean, look, was
a good player. He was not a great player. You know,
they had Alfred Morris, right, you're running the football who
(35:14):
I loved Alfred Morris, and he was.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
An undrafted rookie, I believe.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah. Yeah, And I was like surprised to see he
scored thirteen touchdowns because I felt like one of my
big frustrations that they never gave him goal line work,
But that he scored thirteen touchdowns is sort of amazing there.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
But if I remember correctly, like when he lost RG three, he.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Just went down the tubes. Yeah, it wasn't great after
that for him. But bo Knicks pretty much just had
Cortland Sutton. I mean that was kind of it. Yeah,
you know, I put Javonte Williams on this list of
the top skill players because, like we know you did
it would it would have looked sad if there was
just one name there and it was Courtland Sutton.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Right, But this is why he gets the edge on
RG three. Like they both didn't have like great weapons
around them. But it's just like bow had less like
you you had Santana Mass he was a good wide receiver.
Pierre Garton was a good wide receiver, but he just
had Courtland's Sutton and company.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Yeah, I'm really I'm really torn on this one. Like,
you know, more.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Touchdowns, second most touchdowns by a rookie. You're saying bo
Knicks catch it, bro. I also, I also do think
bo Nicks is sort of health and you touched on this.
Laqwan helped by the fact that the expectations for RG
three were so much higher than for bow Knicks. You know,
RG three won, He won a Heisman Trophy. Right, he
(36:38):
was he was the best player in college football. And
he gets to Washington and the whole city is behind him.
He was going to change the franchise. He was going
to really elevate this franchise back to its glory from
the eighties, you know, and then injuries unfortunately prevented all
that from happening. Bo Nix was like everybody was just like, yeah, man,
this dude's old and he can't throw. That kind of
(37:00):
the thought about bon Nicks top five deep ball passer
as well last season, but put some respect on his name.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Man, So I feel like some of the excitement is
about the fact that we didn't expect much from Bonnicks.
I think I'm still gonna vote bon NICKX in this one.
I don't know, let's go all right, all right for
the four to five matchup, though, man like it, it's
gonna be close. I'm curious to see how the general
public votes on the four to five because I think
(37:27):
I think this was gonna be close. I think, you know,
I think Cam runs away with the one to eight matchup,
but RG three RG three in Bonnix could be a
battle for sure. That's the top half of the bracket.
We're gonna do. The bottom half of the bracket still
two more matchups to go, a Bolt versus of Cowboy
and a couple of mobile quarterbacks at the bottom of
the bracket as well. Stick around for more of that
(37:48):
coming up on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Back to
the bottom half of the bracket. And by the way,
if you are watching this on video, if you check
this out on YouTube, man shout out to Kyrie Douglas
who put together these awesome graphics for us with the
shots and the players and the stats on their fantastic work.
(38:10):
So big, big thanks to him for putting that together
and making that look great. On the three versus the six,
Justin Herbert is your three seed from twenty twenty four.
Three hundred and thirty six passing yards, thirty one touchdowns,
ten picks, two hundred and thirty four rushing yards with
five rushing touchdowns, three hundred and thirty two point eight
fantasy points in a year that was very strange, right,
(38:34):
I mean, you guys remember twenty twenty and you know
there were no fans in the state, not that the
Chargers ever really have fans in the stands, but on
pump like no fans in the sitands. You had you know,
you had people like opting out of games, you had
people missing games, you had games being played like on
a Wednesday afternoon, all that kind of weirdness. And still
(38:55):
Justin Herbert went and balled out going against the sixth
seed Dak Prescot from twenty sixteen six hundred and sixty
seven passing yards, twenty three touchdowns, ten interceptions, two hundred
and eighty two rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns, two hunred
eighty six point nine fantasy points there. I'm am I
crazy Flora for thinking that Herbert could roll in this matchup,
(39:17):
not at all.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I think I think it should be that way, like
rookie year Dak. I think what made it so cool
and stuff was that like it kind of came a
little out of nowhere, like he it was. Tony Romo
was the starter still and they drafted Dak right, but
Romo wasn't healthy in training camp if I'm remembering correctly.
And then like back, yeah, they started Dak and then
(39:41):
they were like, all right, Dak's playing, well, we're just
gonna roll with him. But like that made it really
fun and stuff. But you compare numbers, Justin Herbert had
seven hundred more yards, eight more passing touchdowns, the same
number of interceptions, just fifty less rushing yards one less
rushing touchdown. Like I know his web were better that
(40:01):
I love that Chargers team from that era with Keenan,
Mike Williams, and Austin Eckler. But like Dak Prescott had
primed as Bryan still right or maybe not prime but
still relevant das he had Wait and he had prime
Zeke Elliott. So yeah, the supporting cast is pretty close.
I'm gonna go with the better numbers and give it
to Herbert.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
The thing I remember about that twenty sixteen season was
at some point during the year, like midway during the year,
the Cowboys called a press conference for Tony Romo to
acknowledge that he was no longer the starter. And I
just remember it was covered by our network, by a
(40:43):
lot of other networks as like the somber Sad occasion.
It was like it felt like, you know, none of
us were alive for it. But you know, you've probably
seen the video of you know, lou gerrig coming back
on fourth of July and doing like the whole like
today today today, it felt like that, except Luke Garrett
(41:03):
had a life threatening, debilitating disease. Tony Romo just lost
his job. Like it was covered with the same level
of seriousness as though like, you know, he was like
announcing that he had to leave the game for like
major health reasons. I'm like, but you're still getting paid.
You just just not a starter anymore? Like what are
(41:24):
we doing here? Yeah? I don't know, Uh floya is
does Dak have a shot in this at all? Or
is just a Herbert runaway? I picked Herbert, so l Q,
what do you think here? I picked Herbert as well.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
It's the thirty one touchdowns man, Like he hit the
ground running, like he utilized all the weapons out around him.
Like I just remember that year, you know, Keenan Allen
and Mike Williams, like that was just like his go
to weapons. And then you have Alstin Eckler do what
he was able to do, like Dak just had Zeke
and he kind of just leaned on Zeke having over
nineteen hundred screming yards as well. So you got to
(41:58):
go with the numbers here, And I mean, honestly, how
you go against Justin Herbert that following year those were
five thousand yards? Like it's just like it just shows
to his greatness of him coming into the league like.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
He was ready to go. I will say I did
not remember Cole Beasley being the Cowboys leading receiver in
twenty sixteen. You know, I remember, I know Beasley had
some good seasons and he was definitely a guy that
we liked in fantasy. I didn't remember him being their
leading pass catcher, remember him as a rapper unfortunately. Yeah,
(42:31):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
When you guys are talking, I pulled up Tony Romo's
career stats and like shout out to him because his
run from start to finish was eight seasons and that's it.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, yeah, I remember early in his career. I remember
he was the holder on kicks on like extra points,
and I think it was was it a playoff game
or a really important late season game. He fumbled the
snap flumb playoff and either having to run and trying
to get the he was trying to score a touchdown.
(43:04):
It was like near the goal line and he gets
stopped there. Might talk about it like he also just
missed getting a first down, Like, yeah, he fumbled the snap.
If he picks up a first down, the Cowboys trobably
score a touchdown and go on and win that game.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Do you think he'll be more like remembered than Dak Willis,
Like I feel like he was like the face of oh,
like not the league maybe because it was Brady.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
But I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
This now, my uncle is a huge Cowboys fan and
he still lives in those Tony Romo days. He like
he low key does not like Dak and I don't
know why. And I'm like, Dak has done everything right.
He just he got injured.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Like I think the highs were higher with Romo, Like yeah,
like I think the highs were like we can actually
get back to the dance and like he can continue
us getting there.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
And like with Dak, it's kind of like, oh, this
des caught it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, someone as they said, he doesn't catch it.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I'm a joke with him like that because it turns
into like a serious football conversation like I love you all,
but like all right, rules of rules, he didn't catch it.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Man, Kyrie pointing out, yeah, Tony Romo was the starter
for Dallas in that fumble game. I think the other
thing about Romo that was sort of a big deal
is that he he sort of gave them Cowboys hope
because they wandered in the quarterback wilderness for a long
time after Troy Aikman left right, Quincy Carter didn't work out.
(44:31):
They tried to get a washed up Vinnie Testa Verdi
that didn't work out for them. Drew Bledsoe sort of
late in his career. I mean they were just trying
to sort of patch it together for a while and
then they hit on Romo and yeah, I mean that
turned into something really really good for a while. So
(44:51):
I think that's part of it too, is that like
he kind of brought the Cowboys back in a sense,
got them back to relevance, even though he can never
quite get them over the all these years.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
He was definitely more pop culturally, culturally reference.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Jessica Simpson.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah, has a video where he plays the two of them,
and it's like Dak doesn't have anything like that going on.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
It's true, very very true. Uh. The other thing about
it is our our friend and colleague Akbar Baja Biamila
uh sacked Tony Romo in college. Really nice. Yeah, if
you if you scroll, you have to scroll ways. When
you scroll deep deep through a Bar's Twitter feed, there's
a picture of Akbar at San Diego State sacking Eastern
(45:38):
Illinois Tony Romo. Nice. Look at them both now look
at him now both both big time TV stars. In
their their own respective rights, all right. So yeah, I
think Herbert is a unanimous on this one. I think
he sort of rolls in this one. I don't think
it's particularly close. Very curious how this goes. The two
(45:58):
versus the seven. Uh, Jayden Daniels is your too, coming
off a phenomenal year three thousand, five hundred and sixty
eight passing yards, twenty five touchdowns, eight hundred and ninety
one rushing yards, nine interceptions, also eight hundred ninety one
rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns, three hundred and fifty five
point eight fantasy points versus Kyler Murray from twenty nineteen
(46:20):
at three seven hundred and twenty two passing yards, twenty
touchdowns at twelve picks, five hundred and forty four rushing yards,
four rushing touchdowns, two and eighty five point three passing yards.
I want this to be close in my head, but
it's not going to be close as it looks. It's not. No,
it's not. Can we just say it together. It's clearly
(46:40):
Jayden Daniels. This is clearly Jadan Daniels.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Right, he has a chance to win the whole damn thing,
like honestly, like it's not my favorite.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
It's it's crazy though, So that's the thing, right, I mean, Lakwan,
you are currently wearing a Jayden Daniels T shirt from
Fantasy Fits. Shout out Fantasy Fits, Flora. You have been
on the Jade and Daniels bandwagon since day one. Poor Kyler,
he didn't stand a chance in this.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I loved Kyler as a rookie too, Like.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, we all did.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I think this is the season that everybody holds onto
that he can hit higher in his projection.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
So this one or I think it was. Was it
twenty twenty where he ran for the year he ran
for eight hundred yards? Because that was like yeah, I
mean he kind of did have to. Yeah, the twenty
twenty season, eight hundred and nineteen rushing yards, eleven touchdowns.
I think everybody's like, oh, all right, well Kyler's that guy, Like.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Yeah, was that his best passing year two? Because that
was when he had d hop right it was thirty
nine hundred yards that year. Yeah, He's never had a
four thousand yard season career high in passing, So yeah,
that is the year. We're all like this guy is
who he.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thought he was. We've been chasing that dragon ever since then,
it's been five years.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I kind of do hope that it comes down to
Cam versus Jaden, because I think there's a strong argument
to be made that Cam Newton had the best fantasy
rookie season ever, but jad and Daniels had the best
real life rookie season ever.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
More wow moments, for sure, more like what the heck?
How did it? Like, it's more of those. Well, I mean,
especially the you know, the Hail Mary that was sort
of the big highlight of the year. But even what
he did in the playoffs, I mean the way he
just ran through the Lions. He went to two cribs
(48:35):
and he smacked it.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Not only that, like I think he legitimately could have
kept up with the Eagles, Like there was a stretch
in that game where he scored the touchdown they were
down one or two I think, and the next time
he touched the ball, they were down three scores because they.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Just kept fumbling.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So he put up a better fight
than Mahomes did, beter than the Rams.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Because off, if it just never snowed, this has a
ring right now.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
This is why I hate snow, and this is why
I'm never returning back to live in New Jersey. That
that that's why I hate snow and we are. Let's
not get into a rams right right now. I literally
amost punched my camera.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That would have been great television, That would have been
great internet if you had done this podcast over just
a complete So, I mean, for the most part, this
is sort of a chalky bracket. I mean, you know,
there's a chance Knicks could pull the upset in the
four five.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Dak's gonna have Cowboy Nation riding with him, and Herbert's
gonna have no fans.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
So that's the thing, right, Like, if we're doing this,
my fan base is like justin, Herbert's got great numbers. Interesting.
I think Herbert has a chance. Maybe doesn't beat Jayden Daniels,
but I think I think a Herbert Daniels matchup could
be really interesting. I think it could be a fun
second round matchup. The question is, if we're doing this
big on fan bases, Herbert might not get the support
(50:03):
to get out of the first round.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Yeah, and and I hope folks don't like account for
like outside of fantasy and like they go all well,
their record was this year, no.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
No, no, don't worry, but that records don't matter. This is
fantasy strictly all this is strictly fantasy production.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
But if it's Dak versus Jayden, we might get an
NFC East.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
War in March, Washington, Washington, Dallas, you know, kind of
rivalry matchup that that could be interesting, that would be
so toxic in the comment and I'm I kind of hope.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
I really the one I want to see is RG
three vers Jayden Daniels. Like to me, that would be
a fun a fun matchup.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, I mean, that could be a fun matchup. The
problem is RG three might not get past Nicks. That's
the that's the hard part with that one. But honestly,
I think an RG three Cam matchup, Like I mean,
I think Cam rolls. He's he is the he's the
number one overall seed for a reason. But it's an
interesting conversation a Cam versus RG three matchup because you know,
(51:03):
they came in the league within a year of each other.
They were both expected to sort of revolutionize the quarterback position.
Unfortunately for Griffin we never really got to see that,
you know, through no fault of his own. But I
mean stylistically, they were very different because Cam is just
a mountain of a person like linebackers. Yeah, like you know,
(51:27):
Robert Griffin is at least built more like a normal
everyday human being, you know, like not the same, not
the same with Cam Newton for sure. Two things.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
One, I was shocked Andrew luck was not top eight,
Like I think he has the record for most passing.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yards as a rookie.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
But also I know he didn't start his rookie year,
but the first year and a half that Lamar Jackson
was the starter is arguably the greatest year and a
half stretch of like fantasy quarterback play.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, yeah, that was great. I am. I'm just think
there were guys who had like great quarterback stretches, like
Vince Young had a great stretch. He didn't necessarily have
a great career, but you know, early on with Tennessee
he had those huge comebacks and you know, he obviously
was very mobile. He had a really really good run
early on, but just it was just never sustained and
(52:19):
as a passer he just never really developed. I don't
think who else had a really good quarterback run. I mean,
Ben Roethlisberger didn't put up stats, He just won games. Oh, yeah,
he was a winner. But you're right, that was the thing.
Like statistically he was fine because like you know what
(52:39):
I mean, Ben Roethlisberger was never It was never I
don't think aesthetically pleasing to watch, but it was effective,
Like you know, he was like it was like tackling
a building trying to tackle him. You knows rookie year
man C J. Stroud his rookie year. I'm surprised that
didn't make it in there. Pay him having one.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
Of the worst rookie years always is funny to me, dude,
like because then he just turned it on after that.
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yeah, yeah, It's just like, all right, now I know
what's going on. And twenty eight interceptions is a rookie.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Twenty eight interceptions is insane. But just stop throwing the ball.
Stop stop after twenty dude.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Yeah, but I don't even like, I don't even know
who else was behind him on that roster at quarterback
that they would have even turned to.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Let's see, I have his reference page up, so I'm
pulling up the ninety eight Colts.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
Torren Small.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah, but Toren Small was a wide receiver who just
like threw a couple of passes like.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
He did one pass. Manning led the league in pass
attempts that year.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Stop throwing the ball, just like here you go, I
think he was. I'm like, I'm looking at this. He
might have been. He's currently listed, at least on Pro
Football Reference as the only quarterback on the roster. Like
that can't be right. They had that have it?
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Like, we can't, we cannot give Winston crap anymore? Man Like,
this was a terrible year.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
We can, Yeah, we can, because Peyton didn't throw thirty
interceptions almost almost horseshoes and hand grenades, man like almost,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Like Winston had more touchdowns though, just saying stopped stopped
throwing the ball.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
For I forgot that.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
Manning and Marshall Falk played together one year.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
One year, crazy before before Marshall went off to the Rams.
Yeah his glory days.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Man, No good happened there, Okay? Is that the reason
you're a Rams fan? Because of that team?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
So the Rams were the first literally like football team,
Like I watched on TV at my dad's house, and
like they were just entertaining Marshall Falk, Kurt Warner, Isaac
Bruce fan, I mean Tory Hall.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
How could you not fall in love with that arsenal
of an offense? Like, because I was a forty nine
er fan.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Did you hate them?
Speaker 1 (55:11):
Then they were in Saint Louis, right, No, I didn't
start hating them until they're still in the division. I
mean there's still a division rival and they'd had all
those years in Los Angeles, you know, and they were
rivals there. Although and also that was like when they
started getting good, because like from my childhood, like in
the eighties, the Rams were ever really good. There was
one year they went to the NFC Championship game of
(55:31):
the Niners kind of smacked them, but for the most part,
like it was kind of a one sided rivalry for
most of my childhood. And then all of a sudden
in the nineties, they go to Saint Louis and then
they put together this this greatest show on turf and
they get good and they start challenging them, and it's like, wait, wait,
what is this? What is happening? You're the Rams? What
is happening here? So like, yeah, I mean I get it.
(55:52):
They were like objectively were fun to watch, but no,
Also that was also when the Niners were the only
Western they were the only NFC West team actually in
the West. Yeah, it's like when Detroit used to be
in the West, Like no change divisions.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Just yeah, NFL geography used to not be great. Let's
go back to that, man, just change it up. Like
the Cowboys have no business being in the East. If
we're being honest, all of those teams are like a
two hour drive from one another, and then they're in
the Southwest.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
Like that was strictly to maintain rivalries. That's really all
that was. That was it. I mean, similarly to why
you know, who's at the Indianapolis culture in the AFC
South just because you know, they wanted to keep the Ravens, Steelers, Browns,
and Bengals together and the Colts were sort of the
(56:48):
the odd team out there and they moved to the
AOC South.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
I get it because I've seen people be like, let's
rebrand the divisions and put like the Jets, Giants, Bills,
and like Steelers in one, and.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
I'm like, no, I would hate that, Like, man, randomize
it many every four years.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
This randomized me. Let's go the other thing that's sort
of lost out because like the AFC West had nothing
but rivals. I mean Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Raiders were all rivals,
but in some of the Seahawks. But I guess the
Seahawks sort of got they got screwed. They not only
did they get moved out of the ANFC West, they
got moved all the way to the NFC alltogether. I mean,
(57:25):
when I was a kid, Raiders Seahawks was a division
rivalry game, you know, like that was a thing. But
I guess they just they didn't make the cut some
kind of way. You know, see Isaiah Thomas, I met
the criteria, but I was not selected. That's kind of
what that is. All Right, We're getting a little loopy,
(57:46):
probably time to pull the shoot on this way. But anyway,
go vote. We will have the polls up on the
NFL Fantasy Twitter feed. You can go vote for all
the first round matchups, and then next week we'll come
back next Thursday, because that's when the next round of
the yeh n C two A tournament will start. Till
next Thursday, we will get you with round two of
this and we'll see who makes it through and you
(58:06):
can keep voting on the best Fantasy peason since two thousand.
In the meantime, that'll do it for this edition of
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, The Happy, Safe and Healthy,
do good and live well. Enjoy the tournament. Everybody should
be a whole lot of fun. We will talk to
you again next week.
Everybody. It's Thursday, March twentieth, twenty twenty five. Welcome to
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where March Madness has a
different meaning. It's me your man, NAMG Marcus Grand joined
by Michael ah Florio and Lawan Jones. I'm gonna be
straight up with you guys, like we are recording this show.
It is just after ten am Pacific time on Thursday.
I do have two of the tournament games up on
(00:33):
the side window here with me both, so I'm I'm
telling you guys now, I'm telling the listeners right now.
If at some point, I, you know, sort of lose
my train of thought, I get distracted, it's probably because
something's happening in one of these games. I'm you know,
my prediction for the first game of the tournament is
not going well. We'll leave it at that. How it
(00:54):
knows it blows up in the first round. You know,
it's either great or it's terrible, like on the first day.
So we'll see how this thing goes. You know, I
don't know about you, guys.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I have watched more college basketball in the last week
than I did the four months prior.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Absolutely absolutely, because you know, all of a sudden you
want to be an expert on high points.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I fully admit I know nothing, but the tournament is
such a fun.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Time of year. It is you know, this this weekend,
I think coming up this Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the
first weekend of the tournament is maybe the best sustained
for sporting days on the American calendar. I think it is.
I get it. The level of basketball is not what
you get in the NBA. That's fine, but the excitement,
(01:39):
the you know, the kind of the pageantry of it
is great. A right, more competitive.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
They're less skilled, like that jumps out immediately, but they're
more physical, They're they're hustling harder, and like this is
every game is like a game seven to them. So yeah,
the competition.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Level is peak, yeah, for sure along those lines. Look,
it's it's late in March, right, we are pretty much
through free agency. I know there's a few guys still
kind of hanging out there that may sign. You know,
we're past the combine. The draft is still a little
more than a month away. It's sort of a slow period.
(02:14):
I mean, I guess we could have sat here and
you know, Dug through analytics on you know, mistackles forced
for running backs or something like that. But I figure
the tournaments going, why not do something fun? So I
decided that we would do a bracket of the top
fantasy rookie quarterback seasons since the year two thousand. I
(02:34):
thought about doing like all time, but I'm like, yeah,
that would maybe dig us back into some guys that
you know, maybe we didn't really watch a whole lot
or you know whatever. So I fantasy that's true. So
I capped at two thousand, and you know, we'll go
from there. So we'll kind of I set up an
eight team right player bracket, I guess, And so you
know that's gonna be a show today. We're gonna dive
(02:56):
through this, We're gonna make our picks. We're also gonna
put these out on Twitter. X exeters, we're still calling
the Twitter man, I'm not saying X fuck. No, I'm
fine with that. Putting it out on social media. You
guys can vote. And so what we'll do is every
week we'll update it so well the first round that
you guys can vote on this week, the winners obviously
(03:17):
will advance, and then in a few weeks we will
crown who is who had the greatest fantasy rookie quarterback
season since the year two thousand. So just a little
something fun to do on the show today, because look,
I get it, you guys are hungry for stats, but
really there's there's not much happening.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
You could have asked me we could do a whole
segment on severn so and I would have been down
season finale tonight looking forward to it should be a
lot of fun. I can't wait to binge it. You should,
you sul absolutely bing I mean after today the season's over,
you might just go and knock out both seasons. You know,
I'll just say in a weekend. But you got kids,
so you know, over the over the course, it's like
(03:55):
right over the course of like a week or two,
you can nag it out.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I'll just say this, it is so good that I
I'm already rewatching season two and it hasn't even ended yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
That's dedication. That is kind of deep.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Actually, Wow, it's my favorite show by far on TV
right now.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
I've only done that with a couple of shows, so
that definitely gets put at the top, you know what
I mean, Like, Wow, that's great.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, it's a great show. For sure. There are some
news that we can dive into. It's not a lot
of serious news, but I'm just gonna say I take
no pleasure in reading this headline, but we must. The
Vikings have said they are not pursuing Aaron Rodgers, and
(04:37):
they are rejecting calls for trade offers about JJ McCarthy.
So it seems that for the moment, the Vikings are
ready to go with McCarthy as their starter. Florida. We
did the mock draft earlier in the week. We talked
about the fact that we were all very surprised that
JJ McCarthy was drafted in our fantasy draft in the
(04:59):
fourteenth Rone. And I don't think Rogers was. I don't
believe he was. No, I don't think so. I'm so
I would ask you, though, I mean, with this seeming
vote of confidence right now now, granted, I'll say this,
the Viking said they're not necessarily in or out on Rogers.
They haven't made a decision on their own. They're just,
you know, basically like we're not texting you anymore until
(05:21):
you figure out what you want to do with your
life sort of thing. Would you feel comfortable or where
would you feel comfortable drafting JJ McCarthy at this point.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I still think he's a low end QB two, but
he's got upside there, right, So, like there's always upside
in the unknown, because look at what Sam Donald was
this past season. Like if you told anyone, oh, Sam
Donald's gonna be QB one in Minnesota this year at
this time last year, like they would be like, why
am I going to listen to this guy talk about football?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
He doesn't know what he's talking about.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
But like the weapons in Minnesota, the system, I trust
Koc so much. He man he was getting numbers out
of Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs for a stretch, So like,
I just think it's a one of the most fantasy
friendly spot.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
It's like remember when.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Brock Purty first started, we were all like, we don't
know if Brock Purdy's good or not, but he's in
a fantastic situation.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
So there's upside there.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's kind of how I feel with JJ McCarthy, Like
I would roll the dice on him over someone like
Gino Smith. I'd roll the dice on him over someone
like Michael Pennix Junior. Him and Sam Donald is a
pretty interesting conversation, I think. But that's the range, Like
I take him over Derek Carr, I'll take him over
any of these other quarterbacks that are going that late
(06:39):
for me. Once on that late, like it's cam Ward,
it's JJ McCarthy, the unknown upside guys, then I'm willing
to roll the dice on. But Marcus, I did take
a little pleasure in you reading that headline because over
the weekend, when all this Rogers news was coming out,
I tweeted like, if I'm the Vikings, JJ McCarthy greater
signed Aaron Rodgers And let me tell.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
You, people in my mentions.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Like compare his stats to Josh Allen and and all
this stuff, Like people still believe that Aaron Rodgers can
be Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
And I just don't see it where. I mean, what
is the basis of believing that at this point, right,
I mean we're talking about Eli. I mean we're talking
about Aaron Rodgers right now, right, I mean I was
looking I was looking at they were following. That's crazy
popped in my head, like they have the same following.
(07:31):
I glanced over at my social media and my my
Blue Sky timeline, and I just saw the name and
it just like, uh, filters, man, filters. I don't know
where you believe. Aaron Rodgers right now is the Aaron
Rodgers that was the MVP earlier in his career, right what?
What you know? Obviously two years ago he played four snaps.
(07:53):
We can't really judge anything on that. But the last
two years that he was in Green Bay there was
a noticeable decline. Last year was a noticeable decline. You know,
he was once mobile early in his career. He is
not that guy anymore. And on top of it, he
just is so I mean, ego driven, ego centric. It's
(08:14):
it's so much about Aaron Rodgers right now that it
just doesn't seem like that's what you want for a
team that does have aspirations of a deep playoff runt.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It just doesn't make sense at all. When did this
happen though, Like, when did he become this ego guy?
Like I don't remember it?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Sort of it was, it was definitely happening. It was
happening late in his Green Bay tenure. It was starting
to turn that way.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Oh, once they took Jordan Love, he went off the
deep end.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Oh well, yeah, the Jordan Love thing. Maybe, Yeah, that
might have been a switch.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
I mean, it just sort of makes you what I mean,
you gotta think though, this was always sort of in him, right,
there are two wolves inside all of us, and this
wolf won, you know, like they battled for a while
and this is the wolf that went out.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
No, he had a reputation of not being the best
guy for a really long time. I think it just
got swept under the rug because he was so good
at football, Like he's not a bad guy, but like
there's there's there's a lot of things that people that
rubbed people the wrong way with him.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, I think that's that's probably fair to say. One
other thing about that, and you gotta you kinda hinted
at it a little bit. You mentioned, you know, drafting
McCarthy around some high upside guys like cam Ward. I
was gonna ask you should or Sanders or JJ McCarthy,
not knowing where Sanders goes.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I'll take the shot on JJ, just because I know
his situation is.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Really good, Like Sanders could end up with the Giants
or something like that. I don't love that. Yeah, all right,
that's fair. So Quan, I know how you feel about TJ.
Howkinson that you're just sort of out on him generally. Yeah,
I don't know how you feel about Orde Madison. I
don't think we've ever really dove into that a whole lot.
(10:03):
But yeah, assuming this is JJ McCarthy, I'm assuming you're
still out on Hawkinson, how or how are you on
on Addison?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Then I'm okay on Addison, like because like he's not
getting pushed up in ADP in drafts, like even in
bestball leagues, he's falling like pretty late, So it's not
like you're taking that high risk now. Hawk on the
other hand, like tight ends always get pulled up like
notable names, and like once that tight end train starts going,
you know you start seeing a couple guys come off.
Hock always gets pulled up for some reason. I don't
(10:33):
know how JJ's going to be able to support all
these passing options, Like we already know we are going
to get justin Jefferson just hyper focused on the target share,
so it's gonna have to be distributed between Addison and Hockinson.
So it's just basically looking at who will be cheaper
in drafts come draft Day, and I think Addison ultimately
become the safer option there. So I feel like Addison
(10:54):
can play a nice wide receiver three or flex appeal,
like he has the wide receiver two upside to put
up some really good weeks. So it's more so if
you believe in JJ, McCarthy and KOC in this offense,
and then you're going to go out there and get
the cheaper option and have less headaches.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
All right, Yeah, I think I'm kind of with you
on that tight end bar is so much lowered.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Like if both of those guys averaged twelve points per game,
you're loving it from Howkinson, You're you're not loving it
from Addison.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
True, you're not loving it from Madison. No, that's fair,
that's fair. I mean I said this. I said this
on our Tuesday show, right when I said I passed
on Justin Jefferson for CD LAMB. You know what? Am
I doing this again? Am I doing the same thing
that we talked about last year? And Lakwan was very
much like, yes you are, and you're like, but it
(11:41):
makes sense, you know? So I Yeah, here's the thing,
Sam Donald, I think we always believe could support maybe
this is maybe this is me ret conning this whole thing,
but could support multiple wide receivers. I don't know that
about JJ McCarthy. I don't. I'm not saying he can't.
I'm just saying I don't know. Like that's it.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, And that's not a bad thing to say. I mean,
you just don't know the unknown of JJ. It's like
you appreciate, you know, what KOs was able to get
out of Sam Donald, But can he do it again?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Can he do it again at this high peak of
where Sam Donald was. I don't know if he even
gets close to Sam Donald's production that he had, Like
if you take away the fall apart production that Sam
Donald had those last two weeks, Like Sam Donald was
a QB one man. That's great. But can JJ, as
a rookie wet behind the ears, know nothing, come in
and have a QB one production and push Jordan Addison,
(12:36):
TJ Hawk and Justin Jefferson into fantasy relevance.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We don't know. That's what it is. Well, And I
also think the difference being that at least at the
college level, we saw Sam Donald do it right. Donald
had some big years throwing the full He had a
four thousand yard year. Juju was eating it up too. Yeah, yeah,
I mean he passed he through for four thousand yards
at USC. You know, JJ McCarthy his top season was
(13:01):
still less than three thousand passing yards at Michigan. Yeah,
I get it. Different offenses. They were asked to do
different things. But on the one hand, we saw a
glimpse of Donald doing it, so you could imagine him
doing it at the next level. We haven't seen that
from McCarthy.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Does it give you the team that the people that
know McCarthy the best right now are the Vikings, like
they've spent the most time seen them all that, and
they chose JJ overpaying Donald's I don't know if that
I'm telling it all to you guys.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
No, I mean it could be.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
And Daniel Jones left because Daniel Jones definitely had an
opportunity to resign and he kind of just like, yeah,
I'm Matt here, he's the guy. So it's like that
is also need to be taken into accountability.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
True. I would also say I think the Vikings had
hoped last year that JJ McCarthy was their starter, right,
Donald became the starter by default after McCarthy got hurt
during training camp or in the preseason, and so I think,
you know, they were obviously fortunate that Darnold went out
(14:02):
and had a great season and they were able to
do what they did, But I don't think that was
what their plan was coming into the year. That's sure.
It just happened. So yeah, yeah, this is something your
rule changes start getting proposed around the league. They were
a handful of them that were coming out here. The
one that jumped out to me though, the Lions proposing
the elimination of automatic first downs for defensive holding and
(14:22):
illegal contact. I think that's great. I know a lot
of people on social media thought that was great because look,
if you're a defender, pretty much everything you do is
an automatic first down, except like offsides, Like that's like
the only penalty that you can commit on defense that
is not automatically a first down. And I don't know,
as a fan, it's frustrating when you know a team
(14:46):
has third and twelve and then there's like a five
yard illegal contact penalty and it's an automatic first down,
Like it just feels like a bailout. But my question
is I started thinking, lukuon is this good eventually for
fantasy football? Because I feel like, you know, look, say
it's third and twelve, right.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
And.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
There's an automatic you know there's illegal contact, So now
it's third and seven. I feel like you're getting to
run more plays, which means more opportunities for fantasy points
to be scored. I mean, I am I seeing this backwards?
Am I am I wishing wish casting this too hard
or what?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I could see that.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
But if you're getting the automatic first down and you're
getting the yards, you're getting closer to the touchdown opportunities.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You're getting, Yes, but we're not getting the yards, Like
that's the thing, all right, we're not but you're getting
a chance for.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
But you get three plays instead of one if you
get it first.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, I see it both ways, Like it can go
both ways and impact fantasy good and bad. Like I
kind of honestly want us to get closer to the
end zone if we can get that integal contact, Like
I rather six points for my wide receiver and then
the yards on top of that, then happen to try
just to get a little bit closer more plays and
then I don't know, I just kind of feel like
(16:02):
I'm ultimately like, just give me to six points, Like
that's all I care about, all right.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
I don't know. I don't like this rule person. Really.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I see your point about more plays, more opportunities.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I haven't really waited how I would feel about it
for fantasy, but I just feel like, if it's third
and twelve and I'm a dB and I'm guarding Justin Jefferson,
he gets a step on me, I'm mauling him cause
all right, I'll give up five yards rather than give
having him burn me and give up the first down.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So I think you say that now already, right, like,
because I also think they should change past interference rules,
like I think I think they should make it. I
think they should split them up into like, you know,
sort of minor and major penalty sort of thing right
where Like I like that like if you are if
you're you know, you're you're defending somebody, you're defending Justin Jefferson,
(16:53):
and like your feet get tangled or whatever, and you
or you just sort of like you know, you just
sort of maybe maybe you get there a little bit
too early, right and they throw the flag like that
should be It's just sort of be like college, because
college is it's either fifteen yards or a spot of
the foul whatever is shorter, right, So if it's like
a minor one, you get like, you know, five yards
and whatever. If it's like if it's like what you're
(17:15):
talking about, where like I know I'm gonna get beat,
so I'm just gonna snatch you and just drag you down.
Like that's a major penalty, right, Yeah, that should be
you know whatever spot of the foul, an automatic first
down sort of thing, like I think we can, we
can do that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I do like this because there's way too many tiki
tach I think I like your proposal better than the
Lions proposal, Okay, because there's too many tiki tak stuff
that changes games chiefs, Right, there's a lot. There's a
lot of actual times where I'm watching where I'm like, no,
he would have caught that if not for the penalty
(17:48):
and ones like that, I think you should get rewarded
the yard. So yeah, major and minor.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I like that a lot. Yeah, we gotta get MG
in the office. We got we gotta get in enough there. Also,
I want I want for my pass catcher to get
the penalty yards for fantasy.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Greedy man, whether we give them the fantasy yards or
it's like a point or two points. Like drawing a
pass interference flag is a good thing for real life
and for your team, and it should be rewarded in fantasy.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah, I will absolutely hate if I lose by one
point because of a stupid penalty that happen in the
first quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Is it worse than losing by like half a point
when on a kneel down? I mean, is it really
worse than that? Know what? It's all bad for fantasy?
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Kneel downs should not be negative rushing yards. You could
turn that off in some leaks though, Yeah, I like
that idea.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I like that idea, Like that's that's dumb.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I don't think it should be negative rushing yards for
the quarterback at all, Like everyone knows what they're doing,
like game over, Yeah, I guess, although, like spikes count
as incomplete passes, so.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
We're gonna penalize quarterbacks for sack yards too, Like there's
leaks that exist like that, Like I would hate that,
Like no, let's just keep fantasy.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I think that's more fair than because a lot of
sacks are our quarterback's faults. So like I think, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Cool with going all the way. Like no, I hate
that league. I think we should just have a rules show.
We should have like an episode of this show where
we just do rule changes.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Here's something I've I've thought for. I think PPR should
be weighted, like if you catch a pass like behind
the line of scrimmage, you should get no points for it.
If you catch a pass that's like, I like that
less than ten yards from the line of scrimmage, you
get half a point. Ten or more you get a
full point like that. That's how I wish PPR ran.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
I like that I can get that with that, because
like it does. It does suck when a running back
it's one whole point, like a little like quick dump
off where I can like, all you have to do
is just catch it, like you know, because usually those
throws there's usually no defender near you just don't box it, man,
like a joint like that. That sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, all right, A rule show would be very fun.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
A rule show would be very fun. We should we
should think about that. We should do that. It's not
really news so much, but they have announced the participants
in season two of Netflix's Quarterback Show, Joe Burrow, Jerry Goff,
Kirk Cousins. Do we really need more Kirk Cousins he
was season one, Like is he really that interesting? Is
he really that interesting?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
I need to see the benching, Like I kind of
want to see how beat up he was because apparently
he was injured, Like I want to see what was
going on, Like there had to be a reason he
had to go on like that five game streak of
just sucking.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
You know what's ironic. Not only was Kirk Cousins in
season one of Quarterback, but the Atlanta Falcons quarterback gets
benched in season one.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's right, So Marcus, that's right.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
And they had no storyline for him. After he gets benched,
They're like, oh, he's going to Hawaii now, Like, oh wow,
that's wild.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, I just saw that. Listen. I'm like, I mean, look,
Joe Burrow is kind of interesting. I mean, Jared Goff
is fine.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Like I think I would like golf in this because
he's like through the years, he's.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Been showing more and more personality. Like I got drafted.
He did hard knocks. He didn't know said in the West,
and like, bro, you're from California. How do you how
do you not know this? You're from California? Man, Like.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
I feel like now like he'll give us more and
like he'll start showing more persons because he seems like
he's just really really happy with his situation right now.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
So he should be. He should be.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean there's nothing in life that that has gone
wrong for him.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
I mean when he's winning off field as well on
and off.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Field, Like he's in a place where, like, you know,
the team loves him, the fans love him, he's having
a success. It's hard to not be happy if you're
Jared Goff for sure, But yeah, I just love Kirk Cousins.
I'm like, I can't. I don't think he's that interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
If they do season three, I want like I want
young qbs right like I want Jayden, I want Caleb
Williams like Sanders, Like, let's learn about these guys.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
They should just do rookies, so like rookie running backs,
rookie quarterbacks, like I would love to see like just rookies.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I feel like at this point there's not much mystery
with Shador Sanders. We sort of know everything that's going
on with Shador. Oh. Yeah, he's been on our face
for like three years. Yeah, good batter in different We
know a lot about Shadur. Maybe yeah, maybe cam.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Ward, we can find out weekly where he ranks and
in the and his father's rankings. Yeah, Marcus, you can't
really only have one, but l Q do you rank
them weekly?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Uh No, I mean I could start. I mean put
the rankings on the fridge so that they know that
straighten up. You know, I could start doing that. Hey,
I don't know, man, that that number one rankings now
it's so.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Strong right now, Like you know, last summer we did
a star system though, and like I might bring that
back and just change it the rankings, like we those Like, yeah,
we're gonna bring them rankings back.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Do they alternate PPR and standard?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh my god, points per room cleaning? That's what it is. Yeah, yeah, folks,
it's a March show. What do you want from us?
I'll take a break. Speaking of rankings, we're gonna come back.
We're gonna dour our fantasy Rookie QB bracket that we
go through some of the top rookie seasons since two
thousand and we'll put together little tournament bracket for it.
(23:30):
And you guys can vote, remember on social media, so
go check that out. We'll die through these next the
top half of the bracket on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So,
of course, you know, if you are any measure of
sports fan, you know the n C two A tournament
has started officially today because no one counts the first
(23:50):
four in nobody counts those games, so the actual tournament
has started today. I'm sure a lot of you are
involved in all sorts of fun extracurricular activities around this thing.
We decided we do our own bracket, because you know,
never let the NFL not glom onto somebody else's supporting
experience and do their own thing with it. So I
(24:10):
went and I looked up the top eight fantasy rookie
quarterback season since the year two thousand and I seeded
them according to total points. But I figure we could
talk those through because I want to also talk about
some of the skill position guys they played with, because
maybe that impacts your decision and maybe we get an updates,
an upset somewhere. So the seedings are. The number one
(24:33):
overall seed is Cam Newton and his twenty eleven season.
He will face off against the number eight seed Russell
Wilson in twenty twelve. Interesting four to five matchup. Robert
Griffin third in twenty twelve going against Bo Knicks from
this past year in twenty twenty four. Bo Nicks is
the five seed. Justin Herbert from twenty twenty is your
(24:55):
number three seed, Dak Prescott from twenty sixteen is the six,
and your two seed from twenty twenty four Jayden Daniels
going against Kyler Murray from twenty nineteen. So I want
to look at the first two matchups in the bracket.
Here the one seed Cam Newton from twenty eleven against
the eight seed Russell Wilson from twenty twelve. I quick
(25:18):
overview Cam Newton four and fifty one passing yards, twenty
one passing touchdowns, seventeen picks, A lot of picks for Cam.
He did have seven hundred and six rushing yards and
fourteen rushing touchdowns, three hundred and sixty nine point three
fantasy points. Russell Wilson, and I you know, Russell's rookie
season was better than I remembered it for sure. Over
(25:38):
thirty one hundred passing yards, twenty six touchdowns, ten picks,
four hundred and eighty nine rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns,
two hundred and seventy seven point six fantasy points. So Florio,
is this a cakewalk for Cam Newton or does Russ
have a chance in this one?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
This is like a sixteen verse of one in my opinion,
one tournament. Sixteen should never be in a playing game.
They won their conference, they should they should be playing today.
But Cam Newton, I think there's an argument that Cam
Newton's rookie year is his second best season of his
career outside of his MVP season. Like it was the
only year I believe he threw for four thousand yards
(26:18):
in his career. The touchdowns passing wise weren't what we wanted,
but he gave us so much run.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, it was his.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Only season thrown for four thousand yards. He ran for
over seven hundred. He finished top three as a as
a rookie amongst fantasy quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So yeah, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Cam Newton is going to be very, very difficult to
dethrone in this tournament.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, I mean it just seems like a lot And
I look at the guys he had with him. Now,
he had he had players with him right because he
had Steve Smith Senior, who went for almost fourteen hundred
yards and seven touchdowns I think of the backfield duo
of Jonathan Stewart and D'Angelo Williams, who combined put up
more than two thousand scrimmage yards, had twelve total touchdowns
between the him and then Greg Olsen, who was I
(27:03):
think kind of nearing the end of his career but
still was very productive five hundred and forty yards and
five and five touchdowns reg g Reg from the seventh
Floor crew. But Laku, I mean, look, does Rusk get
credit for not really having receivers that first year? I mean, yeah,
(27:26):
I was gonna say that Sidney Rice is his leading
receiver that year, right, I was going to say that,
like he did not have much to work with.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But it's like he had to heavily lean on Marshawn
Lynch that season, but he still came out the gate
and hit the ground running. Like I feel like if
he wasn't going up against Cam, it will probably be
a better, you know, conversation amongst other quarterbacks on this bracket.
But it's just that Cam Newton, it was like a
cheet code that year, man, and like it was just
like impossible and like nobody has done it like Cam ever,
(27:59):
Like when we're talking about him mobile quarterback thrown for
four thousand yards, Like he's the only one to have
over five hundred rushing yards to go with that four k.
So it's like the dude was just unstoppable. He just dominated,
and like having Steve Smith put up almost fourteen hundred
yards is incredible to me. Like it was a highlight
reel that year. Like I went back to go watch
highlights of that year. That year's insane, Like I did.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I did not remember, Like I know Steve Smith was
very good with Cam Newton, but fourteen hundred yards, Like, god, watch.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
The highlights of that seat. You're just watching it, like
like was I alive? Like was I really watching this?
In racing? This like what Cam Newton was actually doing.
Like the dude was bulldozing linebackers. We have never seen that.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Like that's why I was like, it's it's obviously he's
the one seed and Russ just gets bulldozed over in
this bracket.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Man, I'm sorry, I mean, I just I I remember
him at Auburn and just running people over in the
National Championship game, right, I mean, Cam Newton was just
straight up unstoppable. In college, he.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Became kind of a villain because he was just so
so good that people wanted to see, like who could
be who could beat him?
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, but I'm looking at the rest of the receiving
corps for that that team in twenty eleven. I mean, yes,
Steve Smith had a huge year, Greg Olsen had a
good year. The rest of us Lega Donne, right, that's
a real person. The center from the Denver Nuggets. I
(29:33):
mean yeah, I never forgot about nine, but yeah, Lego
do It was like the number two wide receiver on
that team. They had like an aging Jeremy Shockey still
Brandon Lafelle. Uh, we're kind of just iron and out
like he threw for four thousand yards?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Like how with that group? Yes, yeah, magical twenty eleven.
My least favorite draft of all time?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Bill said the third pick, the first two were Cam
Newton and Von Miller.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Well, I mean you ended up getting one of those
guys eventually.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, way past his prime. Hey Cam, you want to
come back up, Josh Allen, We'll bring a full circle.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'll say this too. The other thing about about that
Russell Wilson season in twenty twelve, he was not well
when they drafted him. They had Matt Flynn, and they
had just paid Matt Flynn a ton of money for
one game. Ye, Matt Flynn was coming over from the
from the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, he basically had like
one one or two games where he bawled out, and
(30:41):
then the Seahawks gave him a whole bunch of money.
And then they drafted Russ and after like a few practices,
Pete Carroll was basically just like, Nope, you're the guy now.
That was it. He's too good, right, And then like
Matt Flynn, I think he played a handful of games
that season and then they moved on as a.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Heavy backup money though I know he wasn't that man.
I mean, he can't be too too many.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I'm still live it off of it today, i'd imagine
I would think.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So. All right, So are I think we're unanimous in
our prediction although I don't know. Are you picking the
upset here? Lakwan? I mean, I think you're making a
case for us, But are picked the upside? I can't.
I can't. It's a blowout. It's a blowout, all right.
So Cam runs away with that one in our predictions here.
That gets into the four to five, which I was
(31:29):
shocked to see bow Knicks landing as a five seed here,
Like I you know, I knew he had a good season,
and you know, we were all bow Leavers at some point.
I didn't think he would be a five seed, but
RG three again, I thought he'd be higher than a four,
to be honest, because I remember all the hype and
all the excitement around his rookie season. Just thirty two
(31:52):
hundred passing yards like an even thirty two hundred, twenty touchdowns,
five interceptions, eight hundred and fifteen rushing yards though with
seven rushing touchdowns, three hundred and seventeen and a half
fantasy points. Bon Knicks three thousand, seven hundred and seventy
five pass yards, twenty nine CDs, twelve picks, four hundred
and thirty rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, three hundred and
six point two fantasy points. This one, Lakwan, has the
(32:17):
feeling of a four or five matchup. This one feels
like it really could go either way.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Listen, the upset is going to the bow Levers because bone.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Knicks balled out, man, Like I really was like stuck
thinking like, oh man, Archie three did ball out man,
And they did have Kirk Cousins, you know, in that
fourth round and put some fire owners.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
But but RGIE three did ball out.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
But bone Knicks was better for me, man, just based
on Look, you have to understand him coming into this season.
Everybody was like, he can't throw past the line of scrimmage,
he can't do this. He's played a ton of football
and all this other stuff. Sean like he put all
that to bed to be a top five Fantasy rookie
quarterback all time, all time, well since two thousand at least. Yeah,
(33:03):
But I'm just saying, though, it's like insane that he
went out there and do all those things that everybody
said he couldn't do.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
So I think there's more of the story the impact
here for bow Knicks. So it just makes more sense
to get the ultimate upset, even though he has one
point less than Robert Griffin and played two more games.
But still looking at it at all.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
It's like bo Knicks just he just cleared all the
haters and they're going to be mad he goes to
the next round.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Is is there recency bias bias Florio? Is it just
like bo Nicks Is the last thing we saw.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I, Well, no, no, I'm not gonna say it's recency bias.
I'm gonna say Lq's defending his guy because LQ is
a believer on this show, like like he's he's drafted
him in both our mocks. He's made it clear like
that is this guy, So I get it. It'd be
like if I defended Josh Allen, you know, like it's
but it's RG three for me, Like I think the
(33:54):
part about two extra games, like if you gave rookie
year RG three two extra games, he's sitting much higher
on this list, I think. I really, like, look, obviously
we all remember bo Nicks. We just lived it. But
like going back to what one defenses, it was harder
to score points twelve years ago than it is now,
but even more so, like the like RG three took
over the NFL that year, Like Andrew Luck was a
(34:17):
rookie that year and RG three to one Rookie of
the Year.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So I remember being.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Insanely excited for him and like very sad when he
got hurt and stuff. So if you compare his numbers
to jayde and Daniels, they're not that different from his
rookie year.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
So yeah, I'm going with RG three here, come on.
My honestly, my first instint when I looked at this
was to go bow Knicks. That was my initial because
in part because of just what he had to work with. Yeah,
and not that not look not that you know the
(34:52):
Washington Club which is going by a different name at
the time. Look, the receivers weren't great. I mean, Pierre Garson,
Santana Moss, like neither one of those guys were I
remember drafting him. Oh yeah, no, I mean, look, was
a good player. He was not a great player. You know,
they had Alfred Morris, right, you're running the football who
(35:14):
I loved Alfred Morris, and he was.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
An undrafted rookie, I believe.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah. Yeah, And I was like surprised to see he
scored thirteen touchdowns because I felt like one of my
big frustrations that they never gave him goal line work,
But that he scored thirteen touchdowns is sort of amazing there.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
But if I remember correctly, like when he lost RG three, he.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Just went down the tubes. Yeah, it wasn't great after
that for him. But bo Knicks pretty much just had
Cortland Sutton. I mean that was kind of it. Yeah,
you know, I put Javonte Williams on this list of
the top skill players because, like we know you did
it would it would have looked sad if there was
just one name there and it was Courtland Sutton.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Right, But this is why he gets the edge on
RG three. Like they both didn't have like great weapons
around them. But it's just like bow had less like
you you had Santana Mass he was a good wide receiver.
Pierre Garton was a good wide receiver, but he just
had Courtland's Sutton and company.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Yeah, I'm really I'm really torn on this one. Like,
you know, more.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Touchdowns, second most touchdowns by a rookie. You're saying bo
Knicks catch it, bro. I also, I also do think
bo Nicks is sort of health and you touched on this.
Laqwan helped by the fact that the expectations for RG
three were so much higher than for bow Knicks. You know,
RG three won, He won a Heisman Trophy. Right, he
(36:38):
was he was the best player in college football. And
he gets to Washington and the whole city is behind him.
He was going to change the franchise. He was going
to really elevate this franchise back to its glory from
the eighties, you know, and then injuries unfortunately prevented all
that from happening. Bo Nix was like everybody was just like, yeah, man,
this dude's old and he can't throw. That kind of
(37:00):
the thought about bon Nicks top five deep ball passer
as well last season, but put some respect on his name.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Man, So I feel like some of the excitement is
about the fact that we didn't expect much from Bonnicks.
I think I'm still gonna vote bon NICKX in this one.
I don't know, let's go all right, all right for
the four to five matchup, though, man like it, it's
gonna be close. I'm curious to see how the general
public votes on the four to five because I think
(37:27):
I think this was gonna be close. I think, you know,
I think Cam runs away with the one to eight matchup,
but RG three RG three in Bonnix could be a
battle for sure. That's the top half of the bracket.
We're gonna do. The bottom half of the bracket still
two more matchups to go, a Bolt versus of Cowboy
and a couple of mobile quarterbacks at the bottom of
the bracket as well. Stick around for more of that
(37:48):
coming up on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Back to
the bottom half of the bracket. And by the way,
if you are watching this on video, if you check
this out on YouTube, man shout out to Kyrie Douglas
who put together these awesome graphics for us with the
shots and the players and the stats on their fantastic work.
(38:10):
So big, big thanks to him for putting that together
and making that look great. On the three versus the six,
Justin Herbert is your three seed from twenty twenty four.
Three hundred and thirty six passing yards, thirty one touchdowns,
ten picks, two hundred and thirty four rushing yards with
five rushing touchdowns, three hundred and thirty two point eight
fantasy points in a year that was very strange, right,
(38:34):
I mean, you guys remember twenty twenty and you know
there were no fans in the state, not that the
Chargers ever really have fans in the stands, but on
pump like no fans in the sitands. You had you know,
you had people like opting out of games, you had
people missing games, you had games being played like on
a Wednesday afternoon, all that kind of weirdness. And still
(38:55):
Justin Herbert went and balled out going against the sixth
seed Dak Prescot from twenty sixteen six hundred and sixty
seven passing yards, twenty three touchdowns, ten interceptions, two hundred
and eighty two rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns, two hunred
eighty six point nine fantasy points there. I'm am I
crazy Flora for thinking that Herbert could roll in this matchup,
(39:17):
not at all.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
I think I think it should be that way, like
rookie year Dak. I think what made it so cool
and stuff was that like it kind of came a
little out of nowhere, like he it was. Tony Romo
was the starter still and they drafted Dak right, but
Romo wasn't healthy in training camp if I'm remembering correctly.
And then like back, yeah, they started Dak and then
(39:41):
they were like, all right, Dak's playing, well, we're just
gonna roll with him. But like that made it really
fun and stuff. But you compare numbers, Justin Herbert had
seven hundred more yards, eight more passing touchdowns, the same
number of interceptions, just fifty less rushing yards one less
rushing touchdown. Like I know his web were better that
(40:01):
I love that Chargers team from that era with Keenan,
Mike Williams, and Austin Eckler. But like Dak Prescott had
primed as Bryan still right or maybe not prime but
still relevant das he had Wait and he had prime
Zeke Elliott. So yeah, the supporting cast is pretty close.
I'm gonna go with the better numbers and give it
to Herbert.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
The thing I remember about that twenty sixteen season was
at some point during the year, like midway during the year,
the Cowboys called a press conference for Tony Romo to
acknowledge that he was no longer the starter. And I
just remember it was covered by our network, by a
(40:43):
lot of other networks as like the somber Sad occasion.
It was like it felt like, you know, none of
us were alive for it. But you know, you've probably
seen the video of you know, lou gerrig coming back
on fourth of July and doing like the whole like
today today today, it felt like that, except Luke Garrett
(41:03):
had a life threatening, debilitating disease. Tony Romo just lost
his job. Like it was covered with the same level
of seriousness as though like, you know, he was like
announcing that he had to leave the game for like
major health reasons. I'm like, but you're still getting paid.
You just just not a starter anymore? Like what are
(41:24):
we doing here? Yeah? I don't know, Uh floya is
does Dak have a shot in this at all? Or
is just a Herbert runaway? I picked Herbert, so l Q,
what do you think here? I picked Herbert as well.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
It's the thirty one touchdowns man, Like he hit the
ground running, like he utilized all the weapons out around him.
Like I just remember that year, you know, Keenan Allen
and Mike Williams, like that was just like his go
to weapons. And then you have Alstin Eckler do what
he was able to do, like Dak just had Zeke
and he kind of just leaned on Zeke having over
nineteen hundred screming yards as well. So you got to
(41:58):
go with the numbers here, And I mean, honestly, how
you go against Justin Herbert that following year those were
five thousand yards? Like it's just like it just shows
to his greatness of him coming into the league like.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
He was ready to go. I will say I did
not remember Cole Beasley being the Cowboys leading receiver in
twenty sixteen. You know, I remember, I know Beasley had
some good seasons and he was definitely a guy that
we liked in fantasy. I didn't remember him being their
leading pass catcher, remember him as a rapper unfortunately. Yeah,
(42:31):
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
When you guys are talking, I pulled up Tony Romo's
career stats and like shout out to him because his
run from start to finish was eight seasons and that's it.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, yeah, I remember early in his career. I remember
he was the holder on kicks on like extra points,
and I think it was was it a playoff game
or a really important late season game. He fumbled the
snap flumb playoff and either having to run and trying
to get the he was trying to score a touchdown.
(43:04):
It was like near the goal line and he gets
stopped there. Might talk about it like he also just
missed getting a first down, Like, yeah, he fumbled the snap.
If he picks up a first down, the Cowboys trobably
score a touchdown and go on and win that game.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Do you think he'll be more like remembered than Dak Willis,
Like I feel like he was like the face of oh,
like not the league maybe because it was Brady.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
But I'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
This now, my uncle is a huge Cowboys fan and
he still lives in those Tony Romo days. He like
he low key does not like Dak and I don't
know why. And I'm like, Dak has done everything right.
He just he got injured.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Like I think the highs were higher with Romo, Like yeah,
like I think the highs were like we can actually
get back to the dance and like he can continue
us getting there.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
And like with Dak, it's kind of like, oh, this
des caught it.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, someone as they said, he doesn't catch it.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
I can't.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
I'm a joke with him like that because it turns
into like a serious football conversation like I love you all,
but like all right, rules of rules, he didn't catch it.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Man, Kyrie pointing out, yeah, Tony Romo was the starter
for Dallas in that fumble game. I think the other
thing about Romo that was sort of a big deal
is that he he sort of gave them Cowboys hope
because they wandered in the quarterback wilderness for a long
time after Troy Aikman left right, Quincy Carter didn't work out.
(44:31):
They tried to get a washed up Vinnie Testa Verdi
that didn't work out for them. Drew Bledsoe sort of
late in his career. I mean they were just trying
to sort of patch it together for a while and
then they hit on Romo and yeah, I mean that
turned into something really really good for a while. So
(44:51):
I think that's part of it too, is that like
he kind of brought the Cowboys back in a sense,
got them back to relevance, even though he can never
quite get them over the all these years.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
He was definitely more pop culturally, culturally reference.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Jessica Simpson.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah, has a video where he plays the two of them,
and it's like Dak doesn't have anything like that going on.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
It's true, very very true. Uh. The other thing about
it is our our friend and colleague Akbar Baja Biamila
uh sacked Tony Romo in college. Really nice. Yeah, if
you if you scroll, you have to scroll ways. When
you scroll deep deep through a Bar's Twitter feed, there's
a picture of Akbar at San Diego State sacking Eastern
(45:38):
Illinois Tony Romo. Nice. Look at them both now look
at him now both both big time TV stars. In
their their own respective rights, all right. So yeah, I
think Herbert is a unanimous on this one. I think
he sort of rolls in this one. I don't think
it's particularly close. Very curious how this goes. The two
(45:58):
versus the seven. Uh, Jayden Daniels is your too, coming
off a phenomenal year three thousand, five hundred and sixty
eight passing yards, twenty five touchdowns, eight hundred and ninety
one rushing yards, nine interceptions, also eight hundred ninety one
rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns, three hundred and fifty five
point eight fantasy points versus Kyler Murray from twenty nineteen
(46:20):
at three seven hundred and twenty two passing yards, twenty
touchdowns at twelve picks, five hundred and forty four rushing yards,
four rushing touchdowns, two and eighty five point three passing yards.
I want this to be close in my head, but
it's not going to be close as it looks. It's not. No,
it's not. Can we just say it together. It's clearly
(46:40):
Jayden Daniels. This is clearly Jadan Daniels.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Right, he has a chance to win the whole damn thing,
like honestly, like it's not my favorite.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
It's it's crazy though, So that's the thing, right, I mean, Lakwan,
you are currently wearing a Jayden Daniels T shirt from
Fantasy Fits. Shout out Fantasy Fits, Flora. You have been
on the Jade and Daniels bandwagon since day one. Poor Kyler,
he didn't stand a chance in this.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
I loved Kyler as a rookie too, Like.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, we all did.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
I think this is the season that everybody holds onto
that he can hit higher in his projection.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
So this one or I think it was. Was it
twenty twenty where he ran for the year he ran
for eight hundred yards? Because that was like yeah, I
mean he kind of did have to. Yeah, the twenty
twenty season, eight hundred and nineteen rushing yards, eleven touchdowns.
I think everybody's like, oh, all right, well Kyler's that guy, Like.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Yeah, was that his best passing year two? Because that
was when he had d hop right it was thirty
nine hundred yards that year. Yeah, He's never had a
four thousand yard season career high in passing, So yeah,
that is the year. We're all like this guy is
who he.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thought he was. We've been chasing that dragon ever since then,
it's been five years.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
I kind of do hope that it comes down to
Cam versus Jaden, because I think there's a strong argument
to be made that Cam Newton had the best fantasy
rookie season ever, but jad and Daniels had the best
real life rookie season ever.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
More wow moments, for sure, more like what the heck?
How did it? Like, it's more of those. Well, I mean,
especially the you know, the Hail Mary that was sort
of the big highlight of the year. But even what
he did in the playoffs, I mean the way he
just ran through the Lions. He went to two cribs
(48:35):
and he smacked it.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Not only that, like I think he legitimately could have
kept up with the Eagles, Like there was a stretch
in that game where he scored the touchdown they were
down one or two I think, and the next time
he touched the ball, they were down three scores because they.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Just kept fumbling.
Speaker 3 (48:54):
Yeah yeah, yeah, So he put up a better fight
than Mahomes did, beter than the Rams.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Because off, if it just never snowed, this has a
ring right now.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
This is why I hate snow, and this is why
I'm never returning back to live in New Jersey. That
that that's why I hate snow and we are. Let's
not get into a rams right right now. I literally
amost punched my camera.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
That would have been great television, That would have been
great internet if you had done this podcast over just
a complete So, I mean, for the most part, this
is sort of a chalky bracket. I mean, you know,
there's a chance Knicks could pull the upset in the
four five.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Dak's gonna have Cowboy Nation riding with him, and Herbert's
gonna have no fans.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
So that's the thing, right, Like, if we're doing this,
my fan base is like justin, Herbert's got great numbers. Interesting.
I think Herbert has a chance. Maybe doesn't beat Jayden Daniels,
but I think I think a Herbert Daniels matchup could
be really interesting. I think it could be a fun
second round matchup. The question is, if we're doing this
big on fan bases, Herbert might not get the support
(50:03):
to get out of the first round.
Speaker 3 (50:05):
Yeah, and and I hope folks don't like account for
like outside of fantasy and like they go all well,
their record was this year, no.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
No, no, don't worry, but that records don't matter. This is
fantasy strictly all this is strictly fantasy production.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
But if it's Dak versus Jayden, we might get an
NFC East.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
War in March, Washington, Washington, Dallas, you know, kind of
rivalry matchup that that could be interesting, that would be
so toxic in the comment and I'm I kind of hope.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
I really the one I want to see is RG
three vers Jayden Daniels. Like to me, that would be
a fun a fun matchup.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, I mean, that could be a fun matchup. The
problem is RG three might not get past Nicks. That's
the that's the hard part with that one. But honestly,
I think an RG three Cam matchup, Like I mean,
I think Cam rolls. He's he is the he's the
number one overall seed for a reason. But it's an
interesting conversation a Cam versus RG three matchup because you know,
(51:03):
they came in the league within a year of each other.
They were both expected to sort of revolutionize the quarterback position.
Unfortunately for Griffin we never really got to see that,
you know, through no fault of his own. But I
mean stylistically, they were very different because Cam is just
a mountain of a person like linebackers. Yeah, like you know,
(51:27):
Robert Griffin is at least built more like a normal
everyday human being, you know, like not the same, not
the same with Cam Newton for sure. Two things.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
One, I was shocked Andrew luck was not top eight,
Like I think he has the record for most passing.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yards as a rookie.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
But also I know he didn't start his rookie year,
but the first year and a half that Lamar Jackson
was the starter is arguably the greatest year and a
half stretch of like fantasy quarterback play.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, yeah, that was great. I am. I'm just think
there were guys who had like great quarterback stretches, like
Vince Young had a great stretch. He didn't necessarily have
a great career, but you know, early on with Tennessee
he had those huge comebacks and you know, he obviously
was very mobile. He had a really really good run
early on, but just it was just never sustained and
(52:19):
as a passer he just never really developed. I don't
think who else had a really good quarterback run. I mean,
Ben Roethlisberger didn't put up stats, He just won games. Oh, yeah,
he was a winner. But you're right, that was the thing.
Like statistically he was fine because like you know what
(52:39):
I mean, Ben Roethlisberger was never It was never I
don't think aesthetically pleasing to watch, but it was effective,
Like you know, he was like it was like tackling
a building trying to tackle him. You knows rookie year
man C J. Stroud his rookie year. I'm surprised that
didn't make it in there. Pay him having one.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
Of the worst rookie years always is funny to me, dude,
like because then he just turned it on after that.
Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yeah, yeah, It's just like, all right, now I know
what's going on. And twenty eight interceptions is a rookie.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Twenty eight interceptions is insane. But just stop throwing the ball.
Stop stop after twenty dude.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
I mean.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Yeah, but I don't even like, I don't even know
who else was behind him on that roster at quarterback
that they would have even turned to.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
Let's see, I have his reference page up, so I'm
pulling up the ninety eight Colts.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (53:38):
Torren Small.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Yeah, but Toren Small was a wide receiver who just
like threw a couple of passes like.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
He did one pass. Manning led the league in pass
attempts that year.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
Stop throwing the ball, just like here you go, I
think he was. I'm like, I'm looking at this. He
might have been. He's currently listed, at least on Pro
Football Reference as the only quarterback on the roster. Like
that can't be right. They had that have it?
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Like, we can't, we cannot give Winston crap anymore? Man Like,
this was a terrible year.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
We can, Yeah, we can, because Peyton didn't throw thirty
interceptions almost almost horseshoes and hand grenades, man like almost,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (54:23):
Like Winston had more touchdowns though, just saying stopped stopped
throwing the ball.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
For I forgot that.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
Manning and Marshall Falk played together one year.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
One year, crazy before before Marshall went off to the Rams.
Yeah his glory days.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
Man, No good happened there, Okay? Is that the reason
you're a Rams fan? Because of that team?
Speaker 3 (54:51):
So the Rams were the first literally like football team,
Like I watched on TV at my dad's house, and
like they were just entertaining Marshall Falk, Kurt Warner, Isaac
Bruce fan, I mean Tory Hall.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
How could you not fall in love with that arsenal
of an offense? Like, because I was a forty nine
er fan.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Did you hate them?
Speaker 1 (55:11):
Then they were in Saint Louis, right, No, I didn't
start hating them until they're still in the division. I
mean there's still a division rival and they'd had all
those years in Los Angeles, you know, and they were
rivals there. Although and also that was like when they
started getting good, because like from my childhood, like in
the eighties, the Rams were ever really good. There was
one year they went to the NFC Championship game of
(55:31):
the Niners kind of smacked them, but for the most part,
like it was kind of a one sided rivalry for
most of my childhood. And then all of a sudden
in the nineties, they go to Saint Louis and then
they put together this this greatest show on turf and
they get good and they start challenging them, and it's like, wait, wait,
what is this? What is happening? You're the Rams? What
is happening here? So like, yeah, I mean I get it.
(55:52):
They were like objectively were fun to watch, but no,
Also that was also when the Niners were the only
Western they were the only NFC West team actually in
the West. Yeah, it's like when Detroit used to be
in the West, Like no change divisions.
Speaker 3 (56:11):
Just yeah, NFL geography used to not be great. Let's
go back to that, man, just change it up. Like
the Cowboys have no business being in the East. If
we're being honest, all of those teams are like a
two hour drive from one another, and then they're in
the Southwest.
Speaker 1 (56:27):
Like that was strictly to maintain rivalries. That's really all
that was. That was it. I mean, similarly to why
you know, who's at the Indianapolis culture in the AFC
South just because you know, they wanted to keep the Ravens, Steelers, Browns,
and Bengals together and the Colts were sort of the
(56:48):
the odd team out there and they moved to the
AOC South.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
I get it because I've seen people be like, let's
rebrand the divisions and put like the Jets, Giants, Bills,
and like Steelers in one, and.
Speaker 3 (57:00):
I'm like, no, I would hate that, Like, man, randomize
it many every four years.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
This randomized me. Let's go the other thing that's sort
of lost out because like the AFC West had nothing
but rivals. I mean Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Raiders were all rivals,
but in some of the Seahawks. But I guess the
Seahawks sort of got they got screwed. They not only
did they get moved out of the ANFC West, they
got moved all the way to the NFC alltogether. I mean,
(57:25):
when I was a kid, Raiders Seahawks was a division
rivalry game, you know, like that was a thing. But
I guess they just they didn't make the cut some
kind of way. You know, see Isaiah Thomas, I met
the criteria, but I was not selected. That's kind of
what that is. All Right, We're getting a little loopy,
(57:46):
probably time to pull the shoot on this way. But anyway,
go vote. We will have the polls up on the
NFL Fantasy Twitter feed. You can go vote for all
the first round matchups, and then next week we'll come
back next Thursday, because that's when the next round of
the yeh n C two A tournament will start. Till
next Thursday, we will get you with round two of
this and we'll see who makes it through and you
(58:06):
can keep voting on the best Fantasy peason since two thousand.
In the meantime, that'll do it for this edition of
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, The Happy, Safe and Healthy,
do good and live well. Enjoy the tournament. Everybody should
be a whole lot of fun. We will talk to
you again next week.
Hosts And Creators
Marcas Grant
Adam Rank
Michael F. Florio
Kimmi Chex
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