NFL Fantasy Football Podcast: Emory Hunt’s Scouting Report + Stefon Diggs Trade Reactions

Marcas Grant and Michael F. Florio are joined by LaQuan Jones to discuss the latest news, including Raheem Mostert’s new deal and Nick Chubb’s recovery from his knee injury.

Then Grant and Florio are joined by Emory Hunt, who shares his process for scouting players and the upcoming prospects that he likes the most (16:51). Listen to find out what Hunt thinks of Spencer Rattler, MarShawn Lloyd, and Xavier Worthy.

Finally, Grant and Florio talk about the Stefon Diggs trade to the Texans and the impact this could have on C.J. Stroud, Josh Allen, and Nico Collins (50:53).

The NFL Fantasy Football Podcast is part of the NFL Podcast Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow, Hey everybody, It's Wednesday, April third, twenty twenty four.
Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So we should
probably slow down on the eastern Candy to me and
your man, nam G. Marcus Grand joined by Michael f.

(00:21):
Florio and LaQuan Jones, and gentlemen, it's nice to have
you both on the West coast at the same time.
It feels like it's been a while.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, it's been a couple of weeks. Man, everybody's traveling.
You ain't got no planes set up soon, Marcus.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
I mean I may be going somewhere, but you know,
I mean, my my homeland is up north. Like, I'm
not going east necessarily. We may make a trip, make
a pilgrimage back to the Bay Area, but nothing immediately planned.
I just had mom in town.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
So the furthest east we're gonna get, Marcus, this summer's can.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Oh yeah, how's the closest You'll get the good pizza too?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Man? Is it okay? Sure? It's funny because I know,
like I know all us because like, yeah, you missed
out on good piece. I'm like, yeah, but we got
burritos and tacos and like that's a fair. That's a
fair trade off. I feel like that's a fair trade off.
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, I didn't have any of that stuff until I
came over here, and I actually do enjoy it. So
you know, big plus for California.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Welcome, Welcome. We have plit to talk about today. I
excited because this is one of my favorite shows that
we do every year. We're going to have Emory hunt on,
the founder, the creator of the Football game Plan. His
Draft guide is out and now, so we're going to
dive into sort of his draft process, talk about some
of the guys he likes. Floria, you and I were

(01:38):
talking about this before the show that one of the
reasons we like Emory is because, you know, he will
always highlight a couple of guys that maybe we either
haven't heard of or haven't really talked much about, or
he will have something in his rankings that kind of
has a scratching our heads. But the beauty of it,
Mike is that more often than that, Emory is right

(01:58):
on a lot of these things. I'm gonna age both
of us. I remember when I first started working with Emery,
like seven years ago, I was like, this guy's crazy,
Like the amount of names that he has against consensus
and the guys that like we've never heard of that
go to these small schools and then the season plays
out and like you're like, oh, Tarik Cohen is in

(02:19):
an RB two for fantasy purposes.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
No one had heard the name before Emory was throwing
it out there. So yeah, genius doesn't care at all
about consensus. And even better than that, he is not
only watching all of these players, Marcus, like he's in person,
traveling to all these small schools and everything and watching
these guys play live. So even if you don't agree
with Emery, you should one hundred percent listen and take

(02:44):
what he says seriously.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
You may disagree with the rankings, you cannot disagree with
the method because he puts in the legwork. As you mentioned,
he is traveling around the country. He is seeing a
lot of these guys live. It is legit the work
that he puts in. And I know there are a
lot of really good draft guys out there. Emries is
one that I make sure to pick up every single year.
So I was able to get that it it launched

(03:08):
on Monday. I picked it up. I am slowly scrolling
through it while I'm sitting at home watching whatever on TV,
but I would definitely suggest you get it. So looking
forward to talking to Emory today about some of the
things in the draft guy this year. In the meantime
that we do have some news and rumors things to
dive into. And first one, I was sort of out

(03:29):
of the loop a little bit this weekend, you know,
had some stuff going on, and I saw your text
Laquwan about the Dolphins and Raheem Moster agreeing on a
new two year deal worth up to nine point zero
seven to five million dollars. Let's go, look, this is
coming off what was an amazing season for Raheem Moster.
I mean he was an absolute beast. They also have

(03:50):
a guy named Devon a Chan who was an absolute
beast this past year. So I'm gonna ask you first, Lakwan,
how bad is this for eight Chan's fantasy value that
the Dolphins are re upping with Raheem Moster.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's kind of bad just based on where the e
Chan's ADP is right now, because you're you're taking a
risk there being that Raheem Moster was the lead back
back there and like we all love h and how
explosive he is, and when he gets the ball in
his hand, he could take it to the crib at
any place of the field. But like Moster are still there,
he's still healthy, He's still playing at a top notch
level for the age that he's at. I know he

(04:26):
has a spotty history of injury, but I think A
Chan is a little too high right now for my price.
So it definitely does take it step back because you know,
Raheem Moster's going to get all those goal on carries,
all the red zone usage, so the touchdown upside is
going to be there versus where a Chan will have
to get his more of a forty yard plus you know,
run or a seventy yard plus catch or whatever the

(04:46):
case may be. But I think we need to draw
back a little bit on Hn.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But I mean Flora. For me, it just feels like
h Chan. We you know, we always talk about regression,
right It just the R word pops up whenever somebody
has a big season. But in this case, he feels
like a prime candidate for regression because I just don't
imagine he's going to average nearly eight yards per carry
next year. That is an insane number. I don't care

(05:10):
how good you are. It just feels really, really impossible.
And I do feel like people are sort of drafting
him with the expectation that he remains as explosive and
is just a big play waiting to happen. And I
think there will be some there, But I just I
keep coming back to seven point eight yards per carry.
I mean that that just feels impossible to duplicate again
next year, right, No.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Way it is because it was the best ever for
anyone who had many touches. So I'm not one in
banking on history repeating itself and getting even better. And
then I also I went and looked from week three
on on the usage. Most Are played more SAMs fifty
two to forty three percent. He had more carries one

(05:52):
hundred and eighteen to eighty four. Targets went to Devon
Hn thirty to twenty one HN. They'll still had more yards.
Mostar had a eleven total touchdowns to a Chan's nine.
I think this is a backfield where both can coexist.
I think it could be a lot like last season,
where both weekly are battling for RB one fantasy output

(06:14):
and then the other one could be like an RB
two The issue is like the Kwan was saying Mostart's
not going away, and everyone was pushing up Ahan into
top ten, some even into their top five running backs
because the thought was, even if his efficiency takes a
bit of a hit, but if he is the lead
guy in this backfield and could get over two hundred touches,

(06:35):
he could be the RB one. And I still think
the upside is that high for a Chan, but the
financial investment shows that clearly Raheem Mostert is not going away,
and you would need an injury to one of these
two for the other to reach their full potential. And
it looks like in fantasy right now, we're gonna get

(06:56):
a couple rounds discount, maybe even bigger on Raheem Mostert.
And well, as much as I like a Chan, my
approach tends to be if it's a split backfield and
you're gonna give me a big discount on one, that's
probably the one I'm more interested in.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
So right now, in Best Ball drafts, Devon ah Chan
is the RB eight ouch. Rahi Moster is the RB
twenty five.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's like in the eighth, ninth round, you're getting Moster.
That is such a huge blessing discount there, and like
we're not even talking about the possibility of injury with
a Chan. I mean he came into the season, heard
he got hurt or in the season came back a
little banged up. These are things that you have to
factor in if spending a late second round pick on
a running back that is a smaller back, and we've
seen these smaller backs. He's like five nine and eighty

(07:39):
five pounds, Like this isn't RB one workload where he
could take all these hits and take all these bangs.
So right there with most are coming back and extension
like they know what they're doing, you know, interchanging them
both because both have spotty injury history so far.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, I just you know, I like h Chan. I
think he's a good player. I think he's going to
continue to be productive. But you said, Lakwan, the draft
price is way too rich for me right now. I suspect,
because this news just came out not that long ago,
I suspect that in the weeks to come, that gap
is going to close quite a bit between a Chan

(08:14):
and most. I think it's going to be more. I
think it'd be more eight Chan coming down, maybe most
are moves up a little bit, but I think it's
going to be more a Chan coming down to meet
him a little bit at this point.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
But fantasy players love them some upside.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
They do love some upside. Man, they love upside, and
they love youth, and right now that is and speed. Right,
so all those things are are at a chance. I
mean most it's got speed. He does not have youth
on his side. Chan checks all those boxes, so I
sort of get why he is where he is staying

(08:48):
in the state of Florida. In Jacksonville, Doug Peterson says,
we have to get Tank bigsby going bottom line that
this year in their running game, they want to incorporate
bigsby a little bit more. Had a really good year
last year in very very limited oper I shouldn't say
very good year. That's that's over overstating it a little bit.
Had some interesting plays, right, He started that well, had

(09:10):
some fumbles, kind of got relegated to very few touches,
and then by the end, I should say it was
just kind of not really involved. But a guy that
they do have expectations for. They want to start to
lessen the workload on Travis etn Floria I mean, I
don't think anybody is suddenly going out and drafting Tank
Bigsby all of a sudden. But does this mean we

(09:32):
should be worried about Travis Etn.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
I don't think so. I always think it's better to
deal with like the beasts that you know. Let's see
how the draft plays out for the Jags. But I
thought coming out of free agency that Travis Etn was
one of the big winners because I was nervous of
them bringing in another running back, and with so many
available and on the move, not just a big name

(09:56):
free agents, but there was a lot of trades and
some quality, lower LI level players that I thought maybe
could come here and eat into Etn's workload. You look
at what Bigsby did last season, fifty carries for one
hundred and thirty two yards, and he had just four targets.
So he is not a threat at all to eat
into those valuable, valuable targets. It's something we talk about

(10:18):
a lot. A target has worked almost three times as
much value in PPR as a single carry is to
a running back. My only concern is goal line work
because last year, like you were saying, they did try
early on to make Tank Bigsby the goal line back,
but that didn't work and ETN was better at it.
So yeah, they could say all they want that they

(10:39):
got to get him going. And I do think he
needs more than the fifty carries he had last year,
because he needs someone to kind of take some work
off of Etn's plate. But that could be a good
thing because then he could be a little bit more
fresh and a little bit more explosive. But yeah, I
still am of the mindset that ETN them not bringing
in another running back and just riding with Tanks big
D is best case scenario for him.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
All right, So I mean, so are you RB ten
right now? Lq' is that too high? Too low?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Are you feeling uh for travesy ten?

Speaker 4 (11:08):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, I'm not mad at it. I mean he was
able to produce behind that terrible O line. I mean
that's pretty much what kind of knocked Tank Bigsby as
well with that two point six yards per carry. I mean,
the Jaguars run blocking O line was probably one and
the worst. I mean, I know they were down there
in the ranks at thirty first, you know, charge probably
last as well, But I really feel as though if
travesy TM was able to produce and get targets and

(11:29):
get red zone usage. RB ten's not bad. I'll take
a shot at him at RB one.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Wow, all right, yeah, I mean I guess that would
make him a low end RB one At this point
he was getting that sort of usage. This felt, you know,
if we were playing Hype Trainer smoke screen. I think
I'm sort of with you, Florio. This feels more like
a smoke screen. It feels like a thing that the
Jaguars would like to do. Like, yeah, it'd be nice
if we get Tank Bigsby more involved. But I think,
you know, when push comes to shove and we're in
the heat of things, I don't know that it's actually

(11:57):
going to happen, at least not in any real serious way,
barring an injury or anything like that. In Cleveland, general
manager Andrew Berry says the Browns are keeping a conservative
approach with Nick Chubb's recovery. Uh Lakwan Floria and I
talked about this a little bit last week. We wanted
to get your your thoughts on this, your expectations for

(12:17):
Nick Chubb. I mean, right now, he is the RB
twenty six. In fact, I believe he's just behind Uh,
he is just behind here. He most are one spot there.
Your expectations for Nick Chubb coming off a major serious
knee injury last year.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
I like that they're being conservative. But you know, if
there was anybody on this planet that can come back
as Superman and be ready to go, I think it
will be Nick Chubb. So I like that I'm getting
him in the eighth, ninth round. And you mentioned Moster,
like there was a real time draft I had on
the plane. I'm like, I take most of here, or
do I take Chubb, you know as my RB three.
Like I feel as though like this is a gift
here because this is a guy we've seen come back,

(12:54):
you know, not that he's come back, but the guy
that is able to be a pure runner, a guy
that is just running hard. And we see and you
know in fantasy format to where PPR. You know, he's
not a guy that gets a bunch of targets, but
he's still up there in the ranks. And I know
we remember Adrian Peterson, you know, twenty eleven he came
back from torny ACM and put up two thousand yards.
I think this could be a Nick Chubb, you know
what I mean, Like, I just feel as though he

(13:15):
is Superman. And now take that blessing, you know, getting
him in that eighth ninth round.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
I mean we started saying that Adrian Peterson was a
cyborg after that. I mean, you know, I'm I do wonder.
I mean, I don't know if Nick Chubb is cyborg territory.
I would love it. But as you pointed out Florida,
I mean, this is not his first major injury in
his football career to this need. Yeah, so you do
sort of wonder whether or not that's gonna eventually have

(13:41):
an impact, and especially this year, there are some other
guys on this roster that can get opportunities, that can
take some touches. So I our fear is that they
sort of bring him along slowly. They don't necessarily rush
him back, which is great for his own health, it's
bad for us in fantasy. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Being patient is gonna be hell.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
My approach with Chubb is gonna I'm gonna root hard
for him. I hope he can. Football is more fun
when Nick Chubb is Nick Chubb, but it'll probably be
on someone else's fantasy team.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah. Oh no, I mean, look, but I think that's
a fair way to go. Here's there are guys that
you know, you just sort of avoid drafting, or you
don't draft a lot because there are just too many unknown,
too many questions, Like there are plenty of guys that
I will pass up. And I'm like, you know what
if this guy succeeds somewhere else, good good on him,
Good on the people that drafted him. Uh, it's the

(14:33):
risk is not there for me, or I don't want
to take that risk. So I get that.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Don't make money?

Speaker 1 (14:40):
All right, all right, how's not mine right now? But
we I mean we will. I'm gonna hold you to that, right,
I'm gonna I'm gonna see once we get to the season,
like how much you've drafted Nick Chubb and how many
spots you've drafted Nick Chubb. I sort of your your
approach on drafting Nick Chub because I assume obviously you're
drafting him what is like a third running back, fourth

(15:00):
running back?

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah, kind of just waiting. I'm gonna look at my
exposure as we speak right now, how much I have them,
because I might have too much.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
So he's already we're in early April, and he's already like, yeah, wet,
I might have too much exposure to Nick Chubb.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Not bad, thirty yeah, that's terrible.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
It's probably thirty three percent more than I'll have. But no, no,
what's gonna happen is Nick Chubb will post a shirtless
video of him cutting on grass in like June.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
ADP is gonna shoot back up.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yep, right by Now that's a hundred percent what's going
to happen, you know, because it always happens to us
in the middle of the summer, like some guy posts
a workout video and we're like, oh, and then we
we draft, we overdraft.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Remember Mike Davis is quiet say this a j Villon.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
These guys are the greatest athletes, the best at what
they do in the world. Obviously, in short no shirt,
they're going to look amazing. I don't know why we
continue to fall for the show.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Every year we fall for the banana and the tail pot.
It is amazing the picture, and then my ADP is
going to go down though. That funny. We just have
fantasy analysts take those sorts of pictures and postly they do.
That should be our next skit this summer just getting
roasted across the internet.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
That'd be hilarious.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Gonna take a quick break, we come back. Emery Hunts
will join us to talk some prospects. Plus you've probably
heard by now the Buffalo bill has made a big
move and went down just as we were talking right now,
So we will get to that a little bit later
on in the show. We'll talk about Stefan Diggs leaving Buffalo.
That's coming up after this. You're on the NFL Fantasy
Football Podcast. Well, I mentioned at the top of the show,

(16:53):
this is always one of my favorite shows to do
every year. He's become a tradition here on the NFL
Fantasy Pod. We talked Emory Hunts, the owner of the
Football game Plan, and it is because one he is
awesome to talk to. He is very good at what
he does, but also because his new scouting guide is
out again for twenty twenty four. You can find him

(17:14):
on Twitter at f Ball game Plan. Emory always enjoy
talking to you. How is draft season going for you?

Speaker 5 (17:21):
Listen, I appreciate you'all bring me on and always showing
support and is going by great. Done now with the
Draft guide, and now I'm ready to talk prospects because
I know you guys are tired of talking about the.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Same nine guys, right, Yeah, man, it's like it's been
you know, there's so many names that kind of keep
coming up over and over again. But that we're part
of the reason we like talking to you is because
you do go a lot deeper, and we always talk
about the fact that you will put us onto guys
that either maybe we've never heard of, or at least
guys that we haven't talked about a whole lot. We
always go back to the Tarik Cohen of the fact

(17:55):
that you were bigger on Jamior Gibbson. I think a
lot of people were both those things really panned out.
Talk about your process though, I mean when you cause
you are all you're not just sitting down and watching tape.
You are watching a lot of these guys in person.
I mean, talk about your process and how you scout guys.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Now, that's a great question.

Speaker 5 (18:12):
Because it starts in December, because a lot of people
may not know during the football season, the fall football season,
and I have to preface that because people I can
cover the spring leagues and Canadian League and all that,
but during the fall football season, I cover the NFL.
I'm doing a pregame postgame show for CBS Sports, and

(18:34):
I call college games on the weekend, so I'm watching
NFL games and calling college games and watching college football.
So I don't jump into the draft until December, when
I start going to an All star game. And the
first one out the gate is the FCS Bowl, which
is a smaller all star.

Speaker 4 (18:48):
Game at Daytona Beach.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
It's a two day event, so I go down there
check out prospects, and then all of January I'm at
the College go On Showcase, the Hula Bowl, the Tropical Bowl,
East West rond And Bowl, then I'm at the Senior Bowl.
And then in February I go to both the NFL
Combine and also the HBCU Legacy Bawl, which is the
last All Star game of the circuit. So I go
to all these different All Star games and those are

(19:12):
my first times seeing guys live, which is great because
we can't get food during.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
The All Star Game. Have a guy do a great
job doing this.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
If you do a great job out there in the
All Star game circuit, you better do what you're doing
out there on film. So I see those guys first
before I go watch the film, spend most of February
and all of March just breaking down film. So my
process starts in December and usually ends around March twenty eighth.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, if you ever see a scout out there looking
real dapper in a nice usually bright colored suit.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Oh not in an All Star games, are you're gonna
see me in sweats in a hoodie because nowe how
go tend these places where he at is cold?

Speaker 4 (19:53):
You're gonna see me bumpled up.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
Like, but I'm out there and it's cool to get
out there and get out and seeing these guys personally.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
The one All Star game they got rid of was
out by us, Marcus or we could have been hanged
doing this in person.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Yeah right, I hate that one.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
I hate that they got rid of it because that
was I used to come out to Pasadena and I
loved it out there.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Man, it felt like that they never ended. You know. Yeah,
it's perfect.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Because especially in December, it's still you know, sixty degrees
and like the sun is out. It's like they're still good.
They're still good. I was talk about some of these
guys just kind of dive into some of these because
you know, you go through, you go through the draft
guide and you have these guys ranked and you get
them a rating. One of the things that jumped out
to me Caleb Williams your QB one, No surprise, Jayden

(20:39):
Daniels at number two, not a big surprise there. Number
three was Spencer Rattler, who this was a guy that
I know a couple of years ago. He was at Oklahoma.
He was a Heisman favorite. People thought he was going
to do big things. He ended up losing his job
to Caleb Williams, and you know, people have sort of,
I don't say down on him, but he's not getting
the kind of love he did maybe two three years ago.

(21:00):
What is it about Spencer Rattler that you have locked
in on the.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
Fact that you everything that you just mentioned to me,
that makes him a tougher, more pro ready prospect, right
because he has gone through some things. So let's say
we're comparing Spencer Rattler to JJ McArthur where everything has
been sweet, right, and so man, give me the dude
that has you know, kind of and it's gonna sound awful,

(21:27):
but it makes sense.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
Give me the restaurant that has a D rating.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Because I know planning right.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
I know the food is on point right, So I
know Spencer Ratler has been through some stuff, but I
like that he's come out on the other side of
it and has performed well. Talked about how he started.
Everybody remember how great he was right out of the gate.
Then he started to play inconsistent ball. His second year
got you know, bench for Caleb Williams, and Caleb Williams

(21:53):
did great things right out of the gate, so it
made Spencer look even worse. Then he goes to South Carolina,
didn't play well until the last six games of twenty
twenty two where he pulled off those big upsets against
Hinton Hooker at Tennessee.

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Then he knocked off Clemson.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
Then he did a great job versus Notre Dame, and
then you saw him this year follow up with that.
Despite not having the best offensive line play, he still
was able to keep together and play well. I've always
said I thought he outplayed Drake Me and at opener.
Drake Me and them won the game, but pound for pound,
Spencerrella played outplayed him in that game. So I feel
like he is the perfect comparison probably for Spencer Rally

(22:31):
is what we see now from Baker Mayfield. So Baker
Mayfield as a Buck is different than Baker Mayfield as
a Brown. And I much rather Baker Mayfield the buccaneer
than Baker Mayfield the Brown or even the Panther. And
I feel like because of what Baker has gone through,
he is a much better quarterback now than he was then.

(22:52):
And you want to see that progression, but I feel
like that's been Rattler's mo which is why I like
him at three.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
You have Jordan Travis right behind him at number four,
and Travis got injured and it killed f hiss Used
chances of making the national championship. It also seemingly has
taken him out of the conversation to be one of
the top quarterbacks here. But is he being overlooked due
to his injury.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
Absolutely. People are big on what they last seen. So
that's why whoever's pro day is today is going to
be the best quarterback in the class.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Right.

Speaker 5 (23:22):
So last week it was Pennic Week, the week before
that was JJ McCarthy and then so on and so forth. Right,
So people are married to what they saw last And
I feel like if he had the chance to go
through the postseason in college and also the postseason All
Star Game. Probably would have been a Senior Bowl guy.
He was at the East West Ryan Bowldes doing interviews

(23:43):
and he was thrown at the combine. People would have
saw the athleticism and remember that this dude is a
really good football player, plays a lot like Russell Wilson
did at NC State, But because he got hurt and
he think his leg got amputated, they just forget that
he is a really good athletic quarterback. Then got better.
He still has two legs, He's gonna be fine. And

(24:04):
talking with him at a combound he talked about how
he got better as a passer over the course of
his career, which is again what you want to see
for someone that was used to wonder whether or not
he was gonna end up as a quarterback earlier in
his career, Like, I don't know, man, this guy is
tough out there to where you need him out there
to win games for you. You can't win without Jordan Travis.

(24:26):
That tells you a lot of how he progressed and
what I think about him as a pro prospect.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I love that di sscrection because the selection committee did
talk about Jordan Travis as though he you know, he
lost a leg. It was wild. JJ McCarthy is a
guy who has been a big, big riser up a
lot of draft boards. I mean people talking about him
maybe moving up, possibly moving up into the top five
or six overall. At this point, what is driving this

(24:54):
hype and is it for real with McCarthy, it's the
quarterback tax man.

Speaker 5 (25:00):
Listen, if there's one person you blame for all this,
it's Kirk Cousins, right, you know what I'm saying. If
you go back to Kirk Cousins in Washington, he is
the reason why all of these quarterbacks are getting paid
as if they are Patrick Mahomes. But shout out to
Kirk Cousins for getting everybody paid. But I'm saying, you know,
when you look at people thinking that, oh we need

(25:22):
a guy and whoa, whoa Cousins. You know, the stats
look nice, you know, twenty eight touchdowns, four picks. Yeah,
but he took like seventy five sacks. He had like
seventy five fumbles. That kill drives. But the touchdown interception
ratio is going to always look great because there's a
lot of empty calories. And I'm not saying JJ McCarthy
is Kirk Cousins. I'm saying, because people are so desperate

(25:44):
to make a quarterback a savior, they push guys up
when what you should do is quarterback proof your roster
to where a guy can come in and just be
a part of the Wheell be a piece of the puzzle,
like Rock Party. Based off everything that we've seen from
brock Purty and everything that we know right now from
brock Purty, you're still not taking brock Purty in the
top five of an NFL draft, right because you know

(26:06):
brock Purty is a piece of the puzzle. So I
feel like JJ McCarthy is a good piece of the puzzle.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
Now.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
I'm not gonna knock him for his throws because I
like it how people used to knock option quarterbacks like, oh,
he only beat ball twelve times, he can't really throw,
Like yeah, but think about how significant those twelve passes
had to be. Like, if we're only asking you to
throw fifteen times, you better connect on twelve of those fifteen.

(26:32):
And that's what McCarthy was able to do. And so
he protects the football, he keeps the offense on pace.
He's a good athlete, So you can get out there
and scramble and run and pick up those sheep for
his downs. He's a good player. I think he's more
of a second round type pick. But we know the
NFL is desperate for those those heroes, so they're gonna
push everybody. All those quarterbacks is gonna go up in
the first round.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Look, Tom Brady might be the go, but Kirk Cousins
is the go to getting paid. And that's what that's
what really matters. Looking over the like, I know you're
not a huge fan of Boon Knicks stuff like that,
but how many quarterbacks do you think we could see
get drafted in the first round this year?

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (27:09):
Probably six, because he talked about the four, you know,
and May McCarthy, Daniels and Kaleb and you got Pinnis
in there. And you know, there's this bow Knicks hype too,
because he started a lot of games. And if you
look at you got to if you're going to look
at Pinnicks as a Washington Husky as opposed to Indiana Hoosier,

(27:31):
you got to look at bow Knicks as an Oregon
Duck as opposed to an Auburn Tiger. And so they've
had two separate careers. So I could see six going
in round one because of hey man, what we saw
from bow Knicks. He got us Oregon was in every game.
He made some great plays off script. He's a good athlete,
and we know that he can help drive the offense. Right,

(27:53):
sayme with Pinnis and I feel like at some point
in time, if you're not going to be at the
top ten part portion of the draft, you don't want
to train up draft capital and that most important part
of the first round that has as of today, you know,
the Vikings, Broncos, and Raiders. That's that's what eleven, twelve,
and thirteen. That's an integral part where you may see

(28:14):
those three guys go to those teams.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, I think I think this goes back to your
thing about the quarterback tax, right, everybody feeling like they
got to get the guy to the point that maybe
they start reaching for some guys and maybe that pulls
a guy or two up where he probably wouldn't have
been otherwise. I want to ask you about running backs
because this class hasn't gotten a ton of love, and
I'm sort of going back and looking at it, and
I look back at some of the most more recent

(28:37):
classes where there have been one or two really big
stars and some other guys who look like contributors at
the NFL level. Is it that this class is really
just not great or is it just that they don't
have the top heaviness that we've seen in recent RB classes.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
I think the latter is so true.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
Everyone is looking for, you know, the explosive home run
hitter that can be out there every down, But that's
not this class. It's not to say that they don't
have guys that can hit the home run or that
can be every down backs, but you want to see
it combined for for two, like we said last year
with you know, Jamiir Gibbs or b John Robinson. Right,

(29:16):
but there's guys that can end up being starters based
off how they play. Like a Brellan Allen to me
can be a starter and if you want to get specific,
it could be a starter in Dallas, right, he could
be that Bell Coyle that they need. You look at
Denver Dinvererent has a bunch of backs. They need someone
that you can trust to be that lead dog, you know,
and in their backfield, or you look at a lot

(29:36):
of the other guys, hey man like we need someone
that can come in and provide a Keaton Mitchell spark,
or come in and provide a spark in terms of hey,
we need speed and exposiveness on the field. There's a
bunch of those guys. So I feel like this draft
has a great chance for a team to improve. There
RB two, there, RB three, and maybe a specialist in

(29:58):
terms of guys that can help you out in a
retur hern game as well.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
And how much Jonathan Brooks he suffered the injury last year,
would he have been ranked higher by you had he
not suffered that injury, And what kind of impact do
you think he could make in the NFL?

Speaker 4 (30:12):
You know, I like Brooks, I do feel like for Brooks.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
For me, it was a balance issue where I felt
like he was getting tipped over too often. It's almost
like he had a clumsy running style like Jeremy Lankford
or how he used to run, where you know, he's
a long legged guy, where you're running and you don't
have a good center of gravity and somebody hit you
on a hip and you tell.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
You topple over. I felt like he also, you.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Know, needed to be a little bit more patient behind
the line of scrimmage. That's why I thought Baxter was
a more well rounded back at Texas as opposed to Brooks.
So I like Brooks, but I feel like Brooks is
someone that's kind of like how Latavious Murray runs, where
you know, you see him running tall and get toppled
over a little bit. You know, they doesn't really have

(31:02):
the balance. So I feel like that's where Brooks is
for me. We wouldn't have been RB one. I feel
like Alan because of his youth, is his footwork and
his ability to really still get better. You know, he's
like fifteen years old, right, because he started college very early.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
He was such a.

Speaker 5 (31:20):
Young player, and so he got a lot more runway
to work with and still has more upside.

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Left in this game.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
You mentioned Latavius Murray, and our friend and colleague Adam
Rank once said, Latavius Murray runs like a door and
that's an image that has always stuck with me, just
him running just upright like a door. Point Marshaun Lloyd. Look,
everybody who listen to the show knows that I am
I am a usc homer. I love to see the
sc guys succeed, and he was a guy that I

(31:47):
thought kind of got misused a little bit last year
as they really put a lot on Caleb Williams. You
made the comp to Aaron Jones, which I think is great.
How do you see him kind of fitting into the
next level.

Speaker 5 (32:00):
I think he's he's Aaron Jones, like in terms of
how fluid he is a runner.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
I think he'd be someone's starter.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
And it was funny watching him because when you're watching
him play, maybe it's a USC uniform, but I felt
like he was five eleven two twenty five, and I
was like, wow, he's.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
That's He's like, wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
But he runs, he runs, He has a he just
has a good natural running style. He can catch the
ball well out of the backfield. There's a little bit
too impatient as well too. You'll see him like run
uping in the back of a lot, run up the
back of a lineman, a little.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Bit too hesitant to get to the whole. Uh. And
sometimes they'll work out for me.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
You go watch the Colorado game, he kind of ran
up the back of a lineman but then reverse field
and then went back and scored like a forty yard
touchdown runner on a saying on that play and Grant.
It's Colorado defense like, so you know, take you over
the grand self, but you saw like the ability to
make something out of nothing. And I like the fact
that he is someone that was good at South Carolina,
transferred to USC, got the starting job, and still played well.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
So I feel like he.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
Is someone I hate to use the term sleeper for
a dude that is played at USC. In your role
at the combine, no one is talking enough about Barshon Lloyd.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, he is one that I.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
Feel like, as we get closer and closer, has been
getting a little bit more hype, but still not enough.
And Emery, you said, you're sick of talking about the
same nine players all the time. Everyone has been talking
Marvin Harrison Junior for years now. But not only is
he not your wide receiver one, you have Keon Coleman
and Jermaine Burton over him. So I'm sure people when

(33:39):
they look at the guy that jumps out to them,
what is it that you like about those two over
Marvin Harrison explosiveness?

Speaker 5 (33:46):
And here's the thing, man, People just think and we
work in media, we work for major networks and outlets.
Not once in a production meeting has anyone said hey,
do this for clicks right now.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
Up, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
So I'm telling you what I feel and what I've
seen right and how I view it.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
When you watch those other receivers play, it's heartache or
the explosiveness. And you know, and that's the biggest aspect
of today's game at receiver, because yes, you want to
drop back seven step, drop good protection and launch a
deep ball to a big, tall wide receiver. Football isn't
played that way anymore, so you got to be able

(34:27):
to take this hitch and go seventy yards. Those guys
burden neighbors a doon'sday. Even Coleman people sleep on his
his elusiveness as a runner. Those guys can create after
the catch. Not saying Marvin Harrison cat can't, but those
guys do it in a more explosive manner than does

(34:49):
Marvin Harrison Junior, who's a very good receiver. We know
he's gonna be an insane redizone threat, but in terms
of creating your own shot, you gotta work better off
bump press, and he has to be he has to
find ways to create separation because NFL defensive backs will
be in his hip pocket. Consistently.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
I mean, if things get bad for Marvin Harrison Junior,
I know he's got a guy he can call, he
can lean on for experience and uh some pointers if
he comes down to it, and in a little bit
of cash if you need some saving money. I don't.
I don't think that part is going to be a
problem for him at any point. Zam. You're Worthy as
a guy who blew everybody away with his forty time

(35:28):
at the combine.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
People love his speed, they love his explosiveness. People are
worried about his size. How does all that factor in?
Is the forty time overblown or is there is there
something really there with Worthy?

Speaker 5 (35:41):
There's something really there people people look at the forty
and forget the film. Like I could have told you
he was fast, like watching How He Is Blue Past,
you know Bama's secondary and like and it was And
it was great about this year's Bama game because last
year watching him versus you felt like he was a

(36:01):
double agent, like bro, like, let me check your drafts
without you know what I'm.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Saying, because why are you dropping these wide open passes?

Speaker 5 (36:09):
But this year did a great job getting underneath the reception,
making some big plays, so I felt like he was
a little bit more consistent this year and catching the football.
So his speed is evident. He can get deep. He's
not just a fast guy that you put out there.
He is someone as a legit receiver that can work
himself open. I think he's a I think he's a
little bit better than Hollywood Brown was as a prospect

(36:32):
according to migrating Scale, and I feel like that's something
that that has value. So, yeah, he could play inside,
he could play outside as a as a Z receiver.
But he's not just a fast guy that you just
throw out there. He's a He's a legit football player
that just happens to be Olympic type fast.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
Don't let him go to Miami.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
It's funny you mentioned Mark Heith Brown because I keep
saying that worthy to me just feels like he was
born to play on the Chiefs like Gett Homes that weapon.
Good luck the rest of the NFL. But this class, Emory,
not only does it have a ton of high end talent,
it's deep as well. So who are some because look,

(37:12):
Emery scouts a thousand players every year, So who are
some of the deeper wide receiver the diamond and the
rough type prospects that you have your eye on.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
Well, and I say this in jest, right, because people
love to eat eat.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
Like the propaganda is out there, right.

Speaker 5 (37:28):
People will sit there and say he comes from a
small school Colorado, Like you know, they try to limit
small schools to anything not SEC or PAC twelve.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
Right.

Speaker 5 (37:38):
No, I'm not gonna let people get away with that,
but I will say this, Exavier Weaver of Colorado.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
Is a really good receiver. No one's talking about fantastic receiver.

Speaker 5 (37:47):
He works himself hoping consistently, great hands, and he was
sure Sanders, who is QB one for twenty twenty five,
he was working himself open. It was his favorite target
or Sanders consistently open. Now, if you want to go deeper,
you know, you talk about guys that that will be
these fan favorites come, you know, spring and summer. How

(38:09):
about John Giles of West Florida six two to two
oh two, the Argonauts Elite Leaping Ability. I was at
the College GRIDN showcase and it's it's this is in
Fort Worth, Texas. So this is first week of January,
like the sixth through the ninth. So we're talking like
forty degrees would win. So it's cold out there, and

(38:31):
he's out there just like it's a seventy five degree day.
Just fluid to Bacon. DB's all day and got a
call up late to the Hula Bowl the following week
and performed really well there on a short notice against
FBS defensive backs consistently. Right then, you saw Kyle Sheets,
a receiver from Slippery Rock six two twenty two. He

(38:55):
ran at his pro day recently that the Temple's pro
day ran like low fourth or high four four or
low four or five. But for someone that's six two
twenty two, that's that's very good. He's able to win
off the line of scrimmage. He can stack defensive backs,
which means he keeps it. He keeps that separation between
him and the defender where it needs to be. He
can track the ball well deep down the field. Plays

(39:16):
a lot like Pooka Nakua. You know, so that's a
name that people kind of recognize, But this dude plays
this year's pookah, this year's year. First you see it
come out, you know, because we all had to meet
and you guys say, say something for clicks, right, So,
but he's he's a good one. And there's there's uh,
you know, there's these two Division three guys I always

(39:37):
want to bring up because it's funny when you watch
Division three players and you see the guys just do
things on the field that you don't see you don't
see from other guys. Right, You're like, all right, is
this guy fast or is he D three fast?

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Right?

Speaker 5 (39:53):
But then he gets then the kid Cole Burgess from Courtland.
I watched the Division three national championship game and it
was col Ryland versus North Central out of Illinois, and
they both had elite level receivers. Now I knew about
Dangelo Hardy, who kind of stylistically reminds me of Andre Reid.
How he's a catch and run guy. He's six six

(40:14):
feet one nine florid athlete, fantastic receiver. I want to
say he had like two hundred yards receiving in that
game and they were going score for score. But Burgess.
I'm watching Burgess' game, his regular season games before I
watch the championship game. I'm like, is this dude legitimately
did he do something to his highlight table?

Speaker 4 (40:33):
Basically like two times fast forward.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
Because the separation is insane and he ran a four
four forty at University of Buffalo's Pro eight. But he's
another one that's a deep ball type guy. He's going
to be a zero receiver. He can fly down the field.
And both of those guys were going back and forth.
You want to see guys stand out, you want to
see their speed translates. So those small school guys, even

(40:56):
from the Division.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
III level, really stood out consistently. I didn't see any
any All Star games for both guys, but so you
have to trust the tape and trust that they're athleticism translation.
But for Sheets and Giles, those dudes have the goods.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
So as I go through mock drafts looking at them, generally,
I see anywhere's six, seven, maybe eight wide receivers in
the first round getting drafted. Do you think we get
that many? Could it be more?

Speaker 5 (41:22):
You know what's funny about that is I feel like
there's gonna be We all know there's a run that
starts in the draft, and we expect quarterbacks to go one, two, three, right,
maybe even for somebody trades up. But wherever the first
receiver or first tackle is taken, expect the next five

(41:43):
to be receiver or tackle right, So I do feel
like we'll get six receivers, especially with Buffalo just did
you know. It's like, you know, we can lock Buffalo
in for one. But I feel like with the elite level,
top end talent that we have year's class, people were
in line when they say it's a deep receivers classes.
It really is, and you expect at least five to

(42:08):
six receivers because there's a variety of types of guys.
There's tall guys that can run, shorter guys that can run,
guys on both sides of the spectrum that can catch
and run, and so it's a great class to get
wide receivers. I would say it's probably gonna look like
twenty fourteen in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
So six or seven in round one. I'm thinking by
the end of night too, we're probably gonna have like
fifteen off the board.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Maybe. Well if teams by the guy they see we
have like eighty to go through, we can get draft
receivers all night, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (42:45):
Exabula Get Out of South Carolina is another one that's
really dog one good. There's a bunch of explosive talents
that we'll see going round two. It's well, we may
see the same number replicating Round two.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
A lot of a lot of xaviers in this drafts.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
If you're worthies, have your weavers game around that two
thousand and two thousand and one era.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Apparently what before we let you go?

Speaker 3 (43:15):
And I know I asked for some deeper wide receiver prospects,
but you go eighty eight quarterbacks deep. You go hundreds
of total players deep. Every year, there's, like we were saying,
Tarik Cohen, there's always a couple of guys that you
were just higher on that most of the public hasn't
even heard of. So I'm wondering, who is that player
or maybe a couple of players for you this year.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
I give you a quarterback that that's that no one's
talking about. Man, It's just I was watching as I'm
grading uh qbs. I'm like, you know, I see a
guy name and I'm justorry he's a senior. All right,
let me let me add him in the guy right,
because there's an ego involved.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
I got to have a lot of you.

Speaker 5 (43:54):
Know, prospects, greedd right, so let me let me ask
some more guys to his listen. I don' almost cut
it off at you know sixty, let me find twenty
eight more guys, right, But I'm great in Illinois, and
I'm like, yo, this dude, John Pattick is is is
pretty dog gone good? Like he's like he got in
because the starter got hurt All timer Altimayer, I think

(44:15):
his name is got hurt and Paddock was the backup,
came in and was lighting up defenses. I'm like, why
is this dude awesome man? Why wasn't he at an
All Star Game? And so I think he's like Brock Purdy.
So I think he's gonna be this year's Brock Purdy.
John Pattick why quarterback out of Illinois. And in terms

(44:36):
of running back situation, we talked about Marshall Lloyd. I
will bring up Marcus Knight out of Tennessee Tech. And
this is another one that just kind of like randomly
popped up on my radar. And because he didn't play
in an All Star Game. But I was like, I've
heard this.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
Dude name before.

Speaker 5 (44:53):
Now I remember, oh, yeah, this is a dude that
started at Montana that was nice. He was nice at Montana.
He's six feet hundred, twenty two pounds. Kind of reminds
you It reminds me a lot of Tim high Tower.
But then he left football at Montana and played lacrosse
at Montana and I was like, well that's pretty interesting.
So you know, he has the athleticism. Then he goes
Tennessee Tech and they run a try back system. But

(45:16):
when he was getting the football, it was like, Okay,
this dude clearly is running with a purpose. He's running
finding lane. So he is someone that's going to end
up on you know, a priority free agent type get
deal and have a fun camp or something that will
end up making the roster, probably Baltimore, you know, and
to be one of these backs that we talk about
that no one has talked about that in mid season

(45:36):
and who the hell is Marcus Knight?

Speaker 4 (45:39):
There he is.

Speaker 5 (45:40):
But and just to throw it out there, defensive guy
because I know this is this fantasy, but I gotta
throw all the defensive guy. But Antonio Final if the
name sounds familiar, he was a five star, number one
recruiting the nation that went to Alabama, went to a
couple of practices and then left the team. And Nick
sables like, well he just quit, right, and so he

(46:01):
just transferred to another school. Penn statean, then transferred to
another school that didn't play anywhere, then ended up at
Lakajuana Community College. He's still he's still a five star
recruit playing at Lakajuana, and his tape looks like that
where he's just like like this, this dude is a
legit NFL player playing against juco talent. And you know

(46:22):
he's six ' four, two seventy five that no one
is talked about his protest coming up and he's gonna
test through the roof. But he is someone that if
you see him get drafted on day three, don't think
it's an eraror you know that a guy gets drafted
from Lahajuana Community College. But you gotta follow the athletes,
and this dude is insanely athletic.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Let me ask you, like real quick, how much harder
is this now with the transfer portal and guys moving
everywhere the way they do so hard?

Speaker 5 (46:50):
Man, There's so much time during this great process where
I wanted to throw my laptop and and everything out
the windom.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
Like so I'm like, you great a guy? Do you like?

Speaker 1 (46:58):
You?

Speaker 5 (46:58):
You go online as you know what a search his
name is like, you know he has long tweets like yeah,
I committed to Like, bro, what you mean you committed?

Speaker 4 (47:06):
I just graded your film like another year. Like so
it's hard.

Speaker 5 (47:11):
So I'm glad we're getting back to I think this
might be the last year because you got freshman that
started in twenty twenty one, so they don't get that
COVID year. That's the thing that I think we're now
going to get back to. If you're a senior, you're
a senior, and I'm glad the.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
COVID guys, I mean you got like twenty five. There's
a tight end that's legit going to be kicked off
his parents' health insurance by the Tommy reaches the NFL,
Like that has to make it harder.

Speaker 5 (47:36):
I tell you what, man, you know who is notoriously
known for this and I noticed this during the process,
and I'm gonna call him out. Even though I like
the program. They're a very good program at the Division
two level. They won that's championship a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
Farah State.

Speaker 5 (47:49):
Like so I'm great and I'm great in d N
and I'm like, oh, this is nice. Man, Like, you know,
athletic well put together. Then I go and you know,
to ask you see how the guy that set up
and has a session for a career lades. All right,
let me go put in the stats at the bottom
and I scrolled I don't know what, maybe scrolled out
to his birthday and it was like ninety six.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
I'm like, hold on, dog, right right quick? What are
you going up? Man out there like quarterback? Who I
was like, Oh, it's cool.

Speaker 5 (48:21):
Malik uh Mitchell finally got an opportunity to start, you know,
at quarterbackuse he bought his time behind Garrek Bernhardt who
was twenty nine years old. He was a lacrosse dude
that played at Maryland and so he ended up with
the Falcons. Like cool, Malik Mitchell got his opportunity, stayed there,
say the course led them to the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
And I'm looking at his his birthday. I'm like, bro,
you gotta be kidding me.

Speaker 5 (48:43):
Like he was born in ninety seven, ninety eight, and
he's right now starting quarterback for a team of the
Indoor Football League.

Speaker 4 (48:51):
So he knew the NFL process wasn't even wait like
Parrish State, stop with these old players, man.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Like, oh man, that's great. Her as always did, we
appreciate the time we appreciate the insight. Uh I put
it out on Twitter that your your draft guid. They
must purchase for me every year. For folks though, who
don't know where can they find it?

Speaker 5 (49:14):
Football gameplan dot com slash twenty twenty four Draft Guide.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
It's the only place you could find it.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
If I catch one of y'all hit me up saying
you all sell your stuff on Amazon, I'm a we
fight because somebody put it on the black market. But
go to Football gameplayer dot com slash twenty twenty four
Draft Guide. It's a PDF file, So don't hit me
up saying, oh you know, I mean where you just
shipped me my book?

Speaker 4 (49:40):
Like bro, I would tell you a thousand bucks for
this level of insight.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Right.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
So it's a pdf, full color. It's an easy read.
It's it's useful.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
Information, Like you don't really need all the worthiness of
a Scotter report.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
What can you do? Where can he get better? How
does he fit? We did in co It's all right
there in bullet points.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, eleve one hundred percent I do. It's compact, it's
concise and has everything you need to know. Everybody is
just one page. It's just mentioned full color it's beautiful.
I highly recommend that the folks go out and go
check this thing out. Emory, as always, dude, we appreciate
your time. Enjoy the rest of draft season. I know
you're out, you're promoting the book, man, but enjoy the
rest of draft season. We will definitely talk again soon.

Speaker 4 (50:24):
I need to slap New York Town's bestseller on top
of it. So feel important.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Absolutely as that happen.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Let's push that now.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Let's make that happen. Dude. Yeah, man, but I enjoyed
draft season. Do we'll catch up.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
Thank you, guys, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
We's like a quick break, come back. Talk some Stefan digs.
He's got some new digs down there in Houston. Talk
about that next on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Well,
the big news happening as we were starting the show
and could not go without talking about it, and that

(51:01):
is the Bills trading Stefan Diggs to the Houston Texans.
In return, they get a second round pick in twenty
twenty five. So, Floria, I mean, let's just you are here.
I'm sure you are in your feelings, your initial thoughts
on Stefan Diggs no longer being in Western New York.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
I hate it.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
I hate it. I hate it.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
I hate it.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
I hate it. I look.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
I think Bills fans are going through it right now.
A lot of them have been tweeting me and saying
stuff that I've been saying for a while now. Like
he declined under Joe Brady, he averaged forty three yards per.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Game under Joe Brady.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
No denying that his worst month statistically every year since
he's been a Buffalo Bill is December. He's in the
playoff games where the Bills have been eliminated, he's largely
been held in check. I said after their loss to
the Chiefs this year that I actually have doubts for
the first time about if Diggs is the answer for

(51:59):
wide receiver war So I would be okay moving on
if it just came at a better Like to me,
it's the fact that they're eating nearly thirty million in
dead cap, that they're giving up two additional draft picks,
and they're just getting a second round pick next year.
Every free agent that could make an impact has already

(52:20):
found a home. So yeah, they're kind of putting all
their eggs in the basket of trying to replace him.
Via the draft. I don't think they have enough firepower
though to get one of the big three wide receivers
and know of I mean, look, we know Emery Hunt,
loves Keyon Coleman and Jermaine Burton, and there's other names
out there that they can get. But I believe when

(52:42):
you have a twenty eight year old quarterback that I
truly believe is a top two quarterback walking the planet.
At worst, he's top four, your goal every year is
how can we get as best suited as possible to
win a Super Bowl? And I think the Bills are
right now further from the super Bowl than they were
twenty four hours ago.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
I mean, I think they are as well. The problem
is I don't see them trading up right, I mean
herely is they have given up a lot this offseason, right.
They lose they trade Stefan Diggs, They've lost Gabe Davis,
They've they've lost some stuff along the offensive line. If anything,
they need to be trying to acquire more draft capital,
trying to acquire more assets that way. And I don't
think they're in a position really to be giving up

(53:22):
draft assets to move up, even to get at one
of the top level wide receivers. I guess the good
news is that because this draft is deep, there's likely
going to be somebody there for them at number twenty eight,
and at some point they're going to have to make
a move to fill one of those gaps. Now, because
you have lost your top two wide receivers. I don't
remember who I saw tweeted, I'm sorry for now remembering,

(53:44):
but none of the wide receivers from the thirteen second
game are there anymore. They're all gone.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Room Stefon Diggs had in that thirteen second game seven,
So yeah, that it hurts. But the thing is he is,
as a long time suffering Bills fan, he is the
best wide receiver they've ever had since I've started watching them,
and that that goes back over twenty years.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
So all right, so let's talk about this fantasy wise though,
right it's just starting in Buffalo because Josh Allen has
sort of been the undisputed QB one for a while now.
But now he doesn't have Gabe Davis, he doesn't have
Stefan Diggs. Yes, he does have Dalton Kincaid and James Cook,
Khalil Shakir. Is he and he can still run?

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Is he?

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Still the QB one.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
I think it's an incomplete right now as to who
their wide receiver one is. If they go out and
make a trade for a different veteran wide receiver that
is rumored to be out there or something like that,
then maybe I feel a little bit different about it.
But I kind of spoke about this on the cheat
sheet last week, like I've had Josh Allen as QB

(54:58):
one fantasy for years now, but under Joe Brady, the
passing numbers went down and it was like less than
two hundred and forty passing yards per game, less than
two passing touchdowns per game. He was heavily relyant on
the running and the rushing touchdowns, and you're not going
to get fifteen rushing touchdowns out of your quarterback all
the time. So I do think this opens up the window.

(55:21):
Like for me, before this move, I was very much
show Allen has won, even though I think there's a
conversation now if you want to put Hurtz or Lamar
or Mahomes, I might argue it, but I understand the
logic and to me, though, those are the big four quarterbacks,
and I know I say stuff like this a lot.
You could jumble him up in any sort of order,

(55:42):
and it probably feels like he'll still make a right decision.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I mean, for me, at this moment, Jalen Hurts is
probably my QB one with the passing weapons he has,
with his ability to run the football. We'll see if
he still has the touchdown upside, if they're still using
the brotherly shove at the goal line. They add Sakwan Barkley,
which is another weapon out of the backfield who can
run and catch the football. On paper, this is a loaded,

(56:08):
loaded offense. So right now, he's my QB one. I
do reserve the right to change my mind based on
what happens with Buffalo over the next couple of months,
But I don't know that I can put Josh Allen
up there. I still think I'm with you, he's one
of the top four. I would probably my gut feeling
is to have him at three, to go with Jalen Hurts,
then Lamar, then Josh Allen, and it's a close three

(56:31):
of me because Mahomes is definitely there too now that
they've added Hollywood Brown, so there's a lot there on
the other side. I guess let's stay with Buffalo here.
First pass catching. I mean, I've seen a lot of
people already putting Dalton Kincaid as a top five tight end.
Does that sit okay with you? I think it's it's.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Okay with me, But that is top five, Like tight
end five would be the absolutely highest I'd be willing
to put him because I mean, I'm not willing to
put him over Sam Laporta, Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, and
I think Trey McBride still comfortably sits ahead of him.
But after that, I mean it's like it's it's Kinkaid,

(57:14):
Pitt's Kittle, Like that is the second tier of tight ends.
So yeah, right now, out of all of those secondary options,
volume is in king.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Kaid's favor, I would say, I mean, I think so, right.
I mean, they don't have any wide receivers that are
gonna threaten him. Sure, James Cook will get targets, but
not enough to really make a big, big impact, you know.
I mean, I'm sort of looking. I mean, we don't
have a healthy TJ. Hawkinson to start the year. George Kittle,
his overall numbers look fine, but the week to week
is gonna be up and down with so many things

(57:42):
going On in San Francisco. Maybe so, I mean, I
love Dalton Kinkaid coming out of Utah. I know you
love Dalton kin Kaid when they drafted him. He's sort
of had Dalton Schultz or not Dalton Schultze, Dawson Knox
kind of in his way a little bit seems like
they've cleared the deck. So maybe just volume alone sort
of gets him in that situation. On the Houston side,

(58:06):
is c J. Stroud at top five fantasy quarterback now?

Speaker 3 (58:10):
So to me still I don't think he goes in
that tier one, which we just said was those other four,
Alan Hurtz, Jackson Mahomes, whatever order you want to put
him in. To me, c J. Stroud comes in as
QB five, but I put him in the same tier.
It's a short tier for me as of right now.
Of this second quarterback one, it's Stroud, Joe Burrow, Anthony Richardson.

(58:32):
I think you could mix those guys up. Maybe you
can make a case for like a dak or Kyler
or Jordan Love to join them. But to me, those
are the three that, while they're not quite as proven
or as high of a ceiling, I would say as
those the top four because of what those four give
you with their legs. Anthony Richardson could give you a
ton with their legs. Joe Burrow and c. J. Stroud

(58:54):
have the capability of just going off as passers and
giving you forty five hundred passing yards and thirty five
passing touchdowns. So and with Stroud, the reason I would
put him over Burrow is because there's less injury concern.
Like love Joe Burrow when he's out there on the field,
but having him be on the field has been an

(59:14):
issues in two of the last three seasons or two
of the last four seasons. So because of that and
the youth on c. J. Stroud's side, I'm going to
go with him. But who good luck figuring out that
Texans wide receiver room.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
That's the next thing, right because now they've got Nico Collins,
They're gonna have sank Dell healthy at some point. They've
got Stefan Diggs, they've got Dalton Schultz at the tight
end spot. They added Joe Mixon, who, you know, maybe
not a huge pass catcher, nobody's gonna confuse him with,
you know, Christian McCaffrey, but can offer something out of
the backfield. I'm it's gonna be It's gonna be one

(59:51):
of those things we're on a week to week basis.
We thought it was frustrating last year trying to figure
out Collins in Dell, It's going to be even more
frustrating now than you have a third guy in the mix. Yes,
even with a you know, if you believe that Stefan
Diggs is diminished, which is a fair criticism, right, even
if you believe that, it's still gonna be really really

(01:00:11):
hard to figure out the other thing for me, and
this applies to both the pass catchers and to Stroud himself.
How much more passing volume can this offense have? Because
Stroud through the ball almost five hundred times last year, right,
that was you know, top fifteen in terms of pass attempts. Sure,
maybe that number goes up a little bit, but now

(01:00:32):
you potentially have a more consistent running game with Joe
Mixon there. How much more passing volume does he have?
Can he spread the ball around to I won't say
support well, I mean can he support four pass catchers? Right?
Can he support the three wide receivers and a tight end?
That part, to me gets a little bit dicey. Can
he support all those guys on a regular basis, And
even as good as his rookie season was, I'm just

(01:00:55):
not sure if there's enough volume right now.

Speaker 4 (01:00:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
And the thing is Steph did four years in a row,
has been one hundred catch receiver, one hundred and fifty
plus targets, and he's very vocal. He's not gonna go
somewhere and suddenly become the third option in the passing games.
So I think that all three will be heavily involved.
I am excited to dive a little bit deeper once

(01:01:21):
we finish this up and see the usage and everything
for all three. But you look at at like Tank
Dell for example, he had two games last year with
more than six catches. Like Nicocollins was a big play
merchant as well. And that's what makes this offense so
much fun is they didn't need a ton of volume

(01:01:41):
because CJ. Stroud arguably was the best deep ball passer
last year.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
That it was.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
You weren't banking on Dell or Nico Collins to get
you six, seven, eight catches every week and that's how
you get your points. You were like, give me these
fifty yard touchdowns. That's what I want, and I don't
think that's Dig's strong point. It was a big issue
actually down the stretch him and Allen couldn't get on
the same page, somewhere on Allen, somewhere on Digs when

(01:02:07):
it came to the not being able to connect on
the deep ball. But I think Diggs now suits in
as your possession guy. He's going to be your chain mover.
He's probably gonna lead you in targets most weeks, whereas
those other guys are going to be the big play ones.
I keep thinking about it, and the more I think
about it, the more I'm like, they're all probably will

(01:02:28):
settle somewhere in like a wide receiver two range, maybe
like fifteen to twenty four and maybe a little bit
spread that out a little bit more. But week to
week is going to be if everyone stays healthy, it's
probably going to be frustrating.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
It's gonna be really, really frustrating, but it's gonna be
fun to watch. And I know we've said this before,
I will say it again. Jacksonville's perceived rain atop the
AFC South looks like it's going to be way shorter
than any of us had ever anticipated. Because the Texans
are loaded, actually on the offensive side. I said it today.

Speaker 3 (01:03:02):
You can tell me from crazy. I think right now
the Texans should have higher Super Bowl adds than the Bills.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
I don't think that's crazy, not at this moment. Again,
you know, we'll see what happens by the time draft
season is over and we get to the start of
the year. But for right now, I don't think that's
crazy at all. Problem for all those teams. The AFC
is loaded, and the two time defending champs are on
that side of the Ledgers, So we will see what
happens in meantime. Good spot for us to take a

(01:03:30):
break for the week. For the day, We're back with you,
of course on Thursday for the Cheat Sheep. Be sure
to check that out, and again thanks to Emory Hunt,
be sure to go check out his draft guide at
Football gameplan dot com. In meantime, now I'll do it
for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Stay happy,
safe and healthy, do good and live well. Enjoy the week.

(01:03:52):
Good luck with your at wide receiver rankings everybody, and
we will talk to you again real soon.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Wan, don't don't