February 15, 2023 • 50 mins
Marcas Grant and Michael F. Florio are back for a post-Super Bowl edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast! The guys break down what they thought was a Super Bowl that absolutely lived up to the hype and identify what they thought was the biggest surprise that ultimately led to the Kansas City Chiefs hoisting another Lombardi trophy. Also, is Patrick Mahomes a Hall of Famer already? Now that the offseason has officially begun, the hosts break down who will be the top fantasy QBs in this year’s drafts and focus on a few notable Super Bowl players’ stock heading into a new season. Finally, the guys look back at how they did with their Super Bowl predictions and discuss the impact of Philadelphia losing both its’ offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching positions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow, Hey everybody, it is Wednesday, February three. Welcome to
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where we're already mock drafted
for next season. It's meet your man nam G. Marcus
(00:21):
Granted joined by Michael f Florio Ryan Dennis on the
controls today and uh when I start, happy post Valentine's Day,
Happy post super Bowl? H you have you have finished
the move? I presumed to your new place. Uh, it's
it's a new month, new life, knew you. How is everything?
Everything is good? Uh? Definitely have finished the move in
(00:44):
the sense that like all of or like of the
stuff is out of my old place and in the
new place. UM, very much so. Not done unpacking or
anything like that, so that that'll be fun. But Happy
Valentine's Day to you man. You you know how to
celebrate it your night. I was envious of what you
were doing last night. So for everybody who doesn't know,
(01:05):
which probably most of you. UM, I won. I I
married over my head and my wife. Through some coworkers
and connections, was able for Valentine's Day to get us
tickets for Warriors Clippers at Staples Center. I'm not calling
it by its current name. It is Staples Center. Um,
not only we get tickets though, we were on the
floor on the baseline, second row, just behind Clippers owner
(01:29):
Steve Ballmer. So I don't I don't flex very often,
but this is a chance for me to flex because
my wife was awesome and hooked us up with an
absolutely great day. So we had a fun night. I
wish the Dubs could have pulled off the wind, but whatever,
that part doesn't matter as much. It was a good night.
It was a lot of fun that night. Absolutely. In
the meantime, we got stuff to talk about. I know
that the the NFL season is officially over, at least
(01:51):
the playing portion of the season is over. We'll get
to the player acquisition part of the season, uh down
the road a little bit. We'll talk about also some
of the coaching changes, because the coaching carousel is spinning
and really impacted one of the two teams that played
in the Super Bowl on Sunday. But let's begin with
(02:12):
what happened at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Super Bowl
fifties seven. The Kansas City Chiefs are once again the
champions of the National Football League, a thirty eight thirty
five victory on a late field goal by Harrison, Butker
that was the difference in the game. But when you
look at this thing from a whole, I guess, first off,
(02:32):
did you enjoy the game? But more importantly, was there
anything about it that that kind of took you by
surprise when you watch that game? Uh? Yes to both
of those questions. I think the ending be damned. I
think that the Super Bowl was the best game of
the season. Like we had. We had the two best
teams going at it, the two best quarterbacks that played
the best this season doing their thing. I thought it
(02:55):
lived up to the hype and then some. My biggest
surprise though, was the Eagles defense folding like a cheap
tent in the second half like this is. If you've
listen to the podcast or follow me or anything, you know,
I've been very very high on this Eagles defense since
the beginning of the year. Drafted them in a bunch
of leagues and stuff, was very bullish on them, and
(03:17):
they looked like arguably the best out. It was them
or the Niners all year long for best defense in
the NFL in my opinion, and the strength was their
secondary uh. And they had more sex than anyone by far.
This season, they didn't touch Patrick Mahomes, their secondary got
torched in the second half, they couldn't stop the run
(03:38):
like they made no adjustments in that second half, and
the Chiefs did everything right. And I know we can
say the ending and all of that. If the Eagles
defense plays like the Eagles defense in the second half,
or even anywhere close to the Eagles defense, the ending
of the game doesn't happen because the Eagles are probably
up by over a touchdown or at least a touchdown
what to that point. And you know, when you you
(04:00):
talk to a lot of people, a lot of really
smart football people, of people who talked about schemes and
watch film, they will always talk about the importance of
using motion in an offense and the different ways of
using motion, whether it is to sort of help your
offense in terms of getting your wide receivers a running
start and letting them kind of get some momentum as
they get to the line of scrimmin physical momentum in
(04:21):
case Patrick Claybon is listening, not some sort of mythical
on field momentum like actual physical you know, mass times acceleration,
sort of the momentum um, or you can use it
to kind of get some clues about what the defense
is doing. And the one thing that a lot of
folks kept hitting over and over on Monday and Tuesday
(04:42):
was the fact that the Chiefs found something during their
film study leading up to the game and used it
to their advantage. In the second half, they had a
couple of wide open touchdowns, the one deca Darius Tony,
and then they ran the same play basically on the
other side to get the touchdown to sky More And
they found something in that defense. We're just using that
jet sweep motion caused the Eagles to shift in the
(05:04):
secondary and allowed them to kind of use a little
bit of a head fake and get guys wide open.
And if I remember right, it was something they saw
earlier in the year that the Jaguars had done, and
I think it was Jamal agg knew that that pulled
off that similar move and scored a touchdown for the
Jags against Philadelphia. And so maybe that that was a
surprise to me that somehow in the months between playing
(05:27):
the Jaguars and getting to Kansas City, that they hadn't
figured that out. And look, I can't say that I
had watched every single play of every single Eagles game.
I don't know if anybody else sort of did that
or had found that little wrinkle against them, But not
only did it happen once, it happened to them twice,
and maybe to me that's sort of the biggest surprise,
(05:48):
is that they sort of had that big breakdown. The
other thing that surprised me, Mike, was how ineffective the
Eagles run game was, because that had been such a
big part of their success all year long. We had
always talked about how they were so good at doing
whatever was necessary to win. When they needed to throw it,
(06:09):
they were able to throw it well. When people took
away the passing option, they ran the ball effectively. It
looked early on as though the Chiefs were intent on
taking away the run option. Now Miles Sanders apparently got hurt.
There wasn't much talk about it, but he left the
game for a while, kind of came back. Was not
a big factor in the ball game at all. But
the Eagles just really couldn't run. Jalen Hurts had a
(06:32):
decent game on the ground, but that was it. After that,
nothing was available to them, and I really felt like
this was a team that, yes, they could throw the
ball effectively, but the run game was so much a
part of their d n A and Kansas City took
that away. I mean, my I know that the chief
run defense wasn't terrible, but it obviously wasn't the strength
of their team. But I gotta give them credit for
(06:54):
what they were able to do because they they really
neutralized it and for the most part, I felt like
they were able to make the Eagles sort of a
one dimensional team for most of the night. Yeah, I agree,
And if the Eagles had any chance of having success
on the ground, it was with Jalen Hurts, and even
in the second half, they did a good job of
bottling him up as well and closing his running lanes.
(07:15):
And I know producer hyped them wrote it in the chat,
And I know a lot of people have pointed this
out about the turf and that it was slippery and
it had an impact. It really feels like it impacted
one team more than the other. And to me, when
that's the case, I just think it's that the other
team was better, Like the Chiefs were better prepared, uh
they like and and going back to your point, the
(07:37):
turf had no impact at all on those two second
half touchdowns because they were wide open. No one else
on the camera shot with Kadarius, Tony and sky More.
To me, that is where team good coaches come through
and shine because in the regular season, the Chiefs, the Eagles,
those high end teams, they're gonna bully most teams because
they're just more talented. To me, though, when talent meets talent,
(08:01):
and I think you can make the case that this were,
if not the two most talented teams, two of the
most talented teams in the NFL. When teams like that match,
the better coach is usually gonna win in my opinion,
because the teams are so evenly matched, and Andy Reid
is one of the greatest coaches of all time. He
found a wrinkle going back months watching a game that
(08:22):
no offense to Nick Sirianni and the Eagles co I'm
not taking anything away from them. They were great this year.
They just they didn't find a weakness like like the
Chiefs did. And it's something that you know, I not
to bring it back to two Bills like I do
a lot, but like when the Bills lost, I was
like they got out coached, like they're not a worse
talented team. They just got out coached. And I think
that's the case a lot of the times when these
(08:42):
two when when two uber talented teams meet up. You know,
I I know there's always been talk about Andy Reid
and how great he has been throughout his career. After
the bye, basically had two weeks to sort of get
ready for Philadelphia and come up with some things and
figure it out. And I'll even give them for what
they did sort of changing from what they did in
(09:03):
the first half to what they did in the second
half because they started using more of that motion. They
started kind of figuring things out with the Eagles defense
and finding ways to kind of pick them apart and
making plays. Then, of course, it also helps to have
arguably the best player on the planet right now, certainly
the best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes, and
the best tight end in the league. But we saw
(09:24):
in the second half, like a lot more Juju, Smith, Schuster,
We saw there is Tony Sky more, all these other
pieces get involved and really make an impact for the Chiefs.
So I think you're right. I think in the end,
when it was all said and done, the most deserving
team won, and you know, kudos to Andy Reid and
his coaching staff are coming up with a great game plan,
(09:44):
figuring out how to sort of pick apart what their
opponent was doing and pull out a win. Um, you know, look,
the Eagles, I'm not gonna say they're gonna be back.
I'm not gonna guarantee that because you never know, but
they are in a great position to be competitive for
a while. They have a lot of talent. Uh. Nick
Sirianni is a very good head coach. So they are
positioned to certainly be in the mix for the foreseeable future.
(10:08):
It just turned out that Sunday it was not It
was not their day looking ahead though, kind of because
what we do is is fantasy football. We do fake
football here and you tweeted on I guess it was
Monday about Josh Allen and kind of going through everything
that that Allen went through this year and and all
the metrics that sort of thing. You basically finished it
(10:30):
by saying, I don't care what happened, Josh Allen is
my QB one next year. And I don't think you're alone.
I think for most people, and I've done a couple
of mock drafts, maybe not as many as I would
hope too so far this season, but telling myself it's
only February. UM, in the mod drafts I have seen,
Josh Allen is the first quarterback going off the board.
So that leads me to who is your QB two?
(10:52):
Because I feel like that person probably played in this
game on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts. Josh Allen's
off a board. You didn't get to him. Who's the
next quarterback you're reaching for? As of today of February, Again,
a lot could change between now in August. As of today,
it is Patrick Mahomes. Um. Because I love Jalen Hurts
(11:15):
and I was super bullish on him the last two
years in Fantasy but and like I had him ahead
of Mahomes last year. He was my QB three coming
into the season. But that's probably what he's gonna be, right.
I mean, he's definitely in the top three. And I
continue to say, you could put these top three in
any order, and I won't really give you much pushback.
But Mahomes is still gonna be tied to Andy Reid.
(11:36):
He's still gonna have Travis Kelsey. Uh Hurts is still
gonna have a j Brown and DeVonta Smith and Dallas Godard.
But right now, who's gonna be there? O C. They
just lost him money. Pieces of that offensive line are
set to become free agents. This is a really, really
big off season for the Eagles because they're gonna extend
Jalen Hurts and then they're gonna have to make tough
decisions on who they want to bring back and who
(11:58):
they want to let walk. So as of right now,
with there being so many unknowns around what that Philly
team might look like, I am I'm gonna go with
Patrick Mahomes. He's as safe as it gets and and
real quick for anyone listening like, why is Josh Allen
the one? My only point was he was the QB
one for the two seasons prior. He was the QB
one for the first half of the season on pace
(12:20):
to shatter the QB scoring record until he got injured.
So I'm willing to give him a mulligan for the
second half of the season. If you're not and you
want to take one of these two ahead of him,
you're not gonna hear much of a of an argument
for me, because I think these three should be the
top three in any order, and Marcus, I'm doing a
slow Best Ball draft right now. They all went in
the second round, all in the top twenty picks, and
(12:42):
I tweeted about it, and the responses are like, Wow,
they made it to the second round and I went
in the first round. I think it's finally happening. Are
we going to get first round quarterbacks this year? This
is the years it's actually and I would I wouldn't
be surprised in Best Ball Draft because I think especially
this time of year when you're looking at Best Ball drafts,
this is the time when people are sort of testing
(13:04):
out theories and getting a little bit weird. I mean,
I've talked to people who have who have gone Travis
Kelsey at the one oh one. I think you're gonna
see first round quarterbacks because you can sort of play
with with roster build and see how things shake out
if you decide to go with a quarterback earlier, if
you go with a tight end at the very top
of the draft. So maybe this is the year I've
(13:25):
been I have been sort of poking at it for
a while. I will admit I have not been brave
enough to actually do it. But I have been been
kicking around the idea, so maybe this is the year
it finally happens. Part of me wants to say Jalen
Hurts is the QB two, but but I think what
I saw out of my homes this year, and not
(13:46):
that I was a doubt or not that I didn't
believe Patrick Mahomes could be great, but to see how
effective and efficient he was with the group of pass
catchers that he had um to to lose a Tyreek
Hill and to fill in the gaps with Marquez Valdes,
Scantling and Juju Smith Schuster, to bring in uh To
(14:06):
Darius Tony midway through the season, to try and figure
out how to integrate sky More, Nicole Hardman, all these
different players, and to still have the amazing season that
he did throwing for fifty two hundred yards forty one touchdowns.
To do that with that cast of characters cemented that
he really is on track. If he can stay healthy
(14:29):
and have longevity, he is on track to maybe surpass
Tom Brady as the greatest quarterback we have seen in
the National Football League. So that I think is the
reason he's not going to run for the same kind
of yards that that Jalen Hurts is. But you know what,
he'll get you three hundred and fifty maybe four hundred
yards in a really good year and ain't too bad.
So that to me kind of gives him that that
(14:51):
number two spot. But it's close. It's absolutely really close.
H you mentioned the top three, who's number four? Is
it justin Fields? As he crack your your top four
this year? Um, I think I think it's between Fields
and Borrow for me for for the fourth spot. UM.
I continue to say, though, I think there's eight quarterbacks
like after the big three, I think the second tier
(15:13):
is Fields Burrow in any order of Herbert Lamar and
Trevor Lawrence. Like after those eight, I think there's a
drop off. There's some other guys like Deshaun Watson, Geno Smith,
Daniel Jones. But I I think this is gonna be
the year where I'm emphasizing like maybe I don't get
one of these top three if you're going in the
first or second round, but I will be getting one
of the next five guys, and probably before the sixth round.
(15:36):
I will tell you that I was shocked at how
quickly that in a couple of mock drafts. I've done that.
The quarterbacks went because I was like, I'm gonna wait
until like the third round, bank bank bank bank, and
they were gone. I was like, Okay, well, I guess
I gotta change up that strategy. Uh. I just talked
about Mahomes and and how great he's been this year
and the first six seasons of his career. He has
been to three Super Bowls. He has one too, he
(15:58):
has been too. He's been Super Bowl m v P twice.
He has two NFL m vps. Let's just say, and
not wishing it, let's just say he decides to just
hang him up right that he never plays another down
to football again after a Super Bowl fifty seven? Is
Patrick Mahomes a Hall of Famer? Yes, Like I no question,
(16:19):
he could retire right now, and he's he's in there.
And in fact, I think, and maybe this is crazy
to say, I think you can already make the case
that he belongs to like the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks,
Like isn't it Like don't quote me on this, but
it's like him, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and like one
(16:39):
other quarterback are the only quarterbacks to have multiple mv
league MVPs and Super Bowl m v ps, and this
guy is twenty seven years old. Like his age right now,
Tom Brady didn't have a single m v P, single
All Pro appearance, and like, look at look at what
I mean. Mahmes is only going to get better. And
I know there's pile saying like, we're gonna have to
(17:01):
see him do it without Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey.
Eventually it's like, Okay. I was one of those people
who was like, he's not doesn't have Tyreek Hill, that's
gonna change this offense identity and all. And then he
just went out he completely revamped his game. He said,
all right, you don't want me to have the speedster guy,
I'm gonna break the record for short yard touchdowns. That's
what he did this year. Like he's he's amazing. I
(17:24):
will never doubt him. Uh he is tom Brady's biggest competition,
I would say for the goat, and uh yeah, he's
He's a Hall of Famer already and one of the
greatest ever do it. I was looking yesterday at all
the quarterbacks who have won two or more Super Bowls
in their career, and there are now that now that
(17:44):
Mahomes has won. He is quarterback to win at least
two Super Bowls. And you go through and pretty much
all of them are in the Hall of Fame. The
guys who aren't in the Hall of Fame, most of
them aren't eligible yet, right, Tom Brady not quite able yet.
Eli Uh not eligible yet, say with Ben Roethlisberger. So
those guys aren't even eligible for the Hall of Fame.
(18:07):
You know, Brady's getting there. It seems like the winds
are blowing for Eli to get in, and I would
imagine Roethlisberger probably gets in. So you're gonna have that's
gonna make eleven or twelve of the thirteen. The only
guy who has two Super Bowls who was eligible for
the Hall of Fame who is not in is Jim Plunkett.
And I think a lot of that is the early
(18:27):
part of his career. He was the number one overall pick.
Uh way back when your seventy one. He was the
number one overall pick for the Patriots and really struggled
in the early part of his career. Uh just kind
of bounced around the league, landed with the Raiders, and
they sort of resurrected him and he ended up winning
a couple of Super Bowls there, I don't know if
Plunket's ever gonna get in, So he's gonna be like
(18:48):
the lone exception. I think of guys who want two
Super Bowls and aren't in the Hall of Fame. So, uh,
that combined with the passing records that that Mahomes looks
like he's on track to break, uh just the overall greatness,
the MVP awards, all that stuff. Yeah, I think he's
he's he's probably a lock even at this moment to
(19:10):
you know, to get in a let's somehow he follows
up with ten years of just math. But even it's
funny you just said that because my argument was gonna
be like, he's not retiring, so we got to take
that off the table. Even if he plays the next
ten years and his mat like, we're gonna look at
it and say, look at his stats that he's compiled,
(19:30):
because in today's game, even a man Patrick Mahomes is
gonna average probably around four house in passing yards this
season at least, you know, somewhere like twenty five touchdowns,
So he would compile stats good enough to be in
the Hall of Fame. Then he would have multiple Super Bowls,
multiple Super Bowl m vps, and multiple league MVPs. He
could not win another award if he just finishes out
(19:51):
his career playing mediocre. I think he's a lock. So yeah,
I'm I'm confident saying he's in there. Now that we've
gotten through this, I wanted to do a little bit
of a stock watch. We kind of did it think
a couple of weeks ago. But why is the guy
to do a stock watch of guys who played in
the Super Bowl and uh where where you're thinking about
them or how you're feeling about them when it comes
(20:11):
to fantasy for next season? Travis Kelsey, let's start there.
We know he's going to be the first tight end
off the board. That's not even an argument. The argument, though,
is how high does Travis Kelsey go after what he
did this season? Um, I think what you said earlier
is the one dotto one. I'm not saying he's going
(20:31):
to be the consensus one dotto one, but I think
he will, at least in some drafts go there. I
think though, that this is gonna be a season where
there's not a consensus first player off the board, and
I think there'll be a consensus top six, and to me,
that top six is Travis Kelsey, Austin Ekeler, Christian McCaffrey,
(20:52):
and then the receivers being Justin Jefferson, Jamaar Chase, and
Cooper cup. I think those will be the top six
in almost every draft this year. But I could see
them going in almost any order. So I could see
Kelsey going first overall, I could see him going sixth overall.
I don't really see him going much later than that,
and I definitely don't see him falling out of the
first round. Yeah, he's definitely gonna fall out of the
(21:12):
first round. I think you're gonna struggle to see him
fall past five. I think in a lot of drafts,
i've seen him go as high as one overall. Um,
And when you talk about the lack of a consensus
number one, I've seen Kelsey, I've seen Justin Jefferson, you know,
I've seen Eckler. I mean, there's already a handful of
(21:34):
names that are sort of circulating, and I think it's
gonna be like that all off season where we're not
just going to land on one guy, which I think
is gonna be fun. I think it's gonna be interesting.
It's gonna be a discussion point because I always get
sort of bored when we just sort of settle on
a guy and it's March and we're just like, yep,
Jonathan Taylor, that's your guy, you know. Like so that
(21:54):
having having this discussion all year long, I think it's
gonna be a lot of fun, a lot of interesting
things to talk about. And Travis Kelsey very much in
that mix. Isaiah pa Checko had a pretty nice game
in the Super Bowl for Kansas City, and you know,
we had sort of been joking about his running style.
He runs really hard, doesn't seem like he's necessarily getting anywhere,
(22:16):
but seventy six rushing yards had to touch them. Really
was an impactful player. Does this change how you feel
about him? Do you believe that he's going to be
the guy in Kansas City's backfield next year or are
they gonna find somebody else to rotate him with. I
think he'll be the lead ground guy. Um I I
(22:36):
still anticipate like a Jerick mccannan, or if it's not him,
someone else coming in there to handle the bulk of
the passing down duties. Uh there, I know as the
in the regular season. As we got later, they tried
throwing him the ball a little bit more, but in
the playoffs we saw that, like, that's not what they
believe that his role is. And I I think he
(22:57):
can be a really good ground guy. I don't think
the Chiefs are gonna be a team that invests in
running back position very hard, so I think that leads
to him being the guy. But if he's not the
past catcher as well, that still keeps him as more
of a RB two for fantasy purposes, and it makes
him someone that doesn't have a super high floor um
and could be a little bit volatile week to week.
(23:18):
I think he'd be it all to me. He's one
of those players that it depends on where he's going
in drafts, Like if he's going as a r B two,
then fine, he's a fine pick. But people seem to
really love hyping this guy up. And I think that's
my biggest beef with him, is like I don't think
he's a bad player at all. I just I think
he gets overhyped. I think, yeah, I think he's a
(23:39):
he's a good player. He's fine. I don't think he's
that guy Clyde Edwards a Laire still has one more
year on his deal. I don't know that they're going
to pick up that fifth year option for him, but
I feel like we all sort of know who c. E.
H Is at this point. I mean, you got off
a really quick start last year, scoring a lot of touchdowns,
but we all sort of looked at that and he's like,
that's that's the stage annable, That's not gonna keep going. Then,
(24:01):
unfortunately for him, he ended up getting injured and missed
the rest of the season. But I I it's obvious
that the Chiefs aren't sold on him. I think it's
going to continue to be a rotation. I think Pacheco
will be a rotational guy, and I don't know that
I would take a shot on him before the middle
rounds in any sort of draft because he's just not
(24:23):
going to be a big part of that. The question is,
you know who's the past catcher. Is it Jerick McKinnon,
is it somebody else where? Does Edwards Alaire slot in?
Because he's not gonna completely vanish even if he's not
necessarily the workhorse that once upon a time we thought
he could be. Darius Tony, I tweeted after he scored
the touchdown. That scream you heard was Michael Florio uh
(24:45):
celebrating the cal Darius Tony touchdown. Not only did he
have a big touchdown, had a huge punt return that's
set up a touchdown, very nearly had the first punch
reteller in touchdown in Super Bowl history. Was tackled right
around the five yard line, So we saw a little
bit of what he could do. Still didn't get a
(25:06):
big role in the offense in the Super Bowl. Are
you going to reach not? Are you? How high are
you going to reach for Darius Tony next year? As
high as I gotta no, I do anticipate having him
on a lot of teams because I feel like the
hype this year and and I'm the guiltiest of anyone
(25:27):
hyping him up. Um. I feel like it's it's had
a reverse effect and it's piste off a lot of people.
Like I've I've seen a lot of people being like,
Darius Tony, He's gonna be overdrafted next year, He's this whatever,
blah blah blah. And I'm like, Okay, if that's the case,
and you just want to let him fall down draft boards,
I will gladly gobble him up. The thing is, I'm
(25:48):
hopeful let an off season with the Chiefs leads to
a larger role, especially me called Hardman's a free agent,
Jujuice Smith Schuster said to be a free agent. Maybe
there's just more opportunity there. Maybe an off season Andy
Reid really getting the game plan around Kadarius Tony. I
think that could do wonders for him. And I just
anticipate him being cheaper than he was this year and
(26:08):
a lot of drafts this year he was going somewhere
like the six seventh, eighth round. I think next year
we could get Kadarius Tony and the double digits because
people are gonna be like, yeah, we've heard this story before,
and if that's the case, it's a complete buying opportunity.
But that being said, man, you would think when Kadarius
Tony does something that I do something like you the
(26:28):
NFL fantasy handle tweeted me and like the text that
I get, like people are like, oh my god, your boy,
and I'm just like, I'm not the one out there
doing this like it happened when he got traded to
the Chiefs. Every time he has a big play, in
a big moment or something like that. I get at
least text from multiple people and I'm like, I'm not
Cadarius Tony or his family or anything, but thank you.
(26:49):
You have a brand now, Like yeah, people were telling
me I'm his burner account. Now, I mean you're not.
I don't know. You know it's funny too, because you
I think I imagined that a lot of your rosters
this year are going to have guys that people are
sick of hearing about. Darius Tony, Kyle Pitts. I'm sure
(27:12):
if I thought about it, there's probably a couple of
other guys there that everybody else in the world's like,
I'm not doing it again, and you're gonna be like, yep,
you're gonna jump right back in which I'm gonna be
amused by. I don't. I don't think there's anything wrong
with it, anything wrong with it at all. I think
it's amusing. In the Best Ball Draft, I saw Kyle
Pitts go in the fifth round, and even it was like,
this is where he's starting out. It's gonna be back
into the third round come all day. No, I saw
(27:34):
it in not even in a Best Ball draft, just
a regular redraft mock that he went in the fifth round.
So people might they might, you know, gripe about it,
they might complain about what happened, But it seems like
a lot of people are still in on Kyle Pitts.
So we're not gonna get that fat discount that we
were hoping for after what happened last year. Um last
stock watch. Miles Sanders, who I thought was gonna have
(27:56):
a really nice game against the Kansas City run defense,
was a non factor. Got the ball in the first
play of the game, took a hit, sort of fumbled
it out of bounds, was off the field for a
long time. Did come back later, but again seven carries
for sixteen yards. He had the one target, which was
(28:17):
ruled originally a fumble, then was ruled incomplete, but just
a no show generally speaking. Now on the whole, had
a really nice season. We always joked about Miles Sanders, saying,
don't draft me, and we didn't, and then a lot
of us were regretting that decision. Does one game undo
everything he did during the season. Also keeping in mind
(28:40):
that he's expected to hit free agency as well and
may not be back in Philadelphia. How how do we
feel about Bios Sanders now versus what we did maybe
a month ago. Uh, the Super Bowl doesn't change really
anything for me. It was one game, like he said,
where he kind of got banged up. But what I
(29:02):
just don't think I'm as high on a Miles Sanders
as others might be. I think he's a good running back.
I think he's capable of having some really nice games.
Like if you look at his game log, especially early on,
he had some really big blow up games, but the
final including the playoffs, his final seven games, he topped
sixty five rushing yards once and never had over a hundred.
(29:24):
So I'm wondering if he was starting to break down.
Maybe the big workload was catching up to him. But also,
like you said, he's gonna hit free agency. It's gonna
be hard unless he comes back to Philly to see
him and as in as positive of an environment as
he just played in. Like the Eagles had one of
the best old line. They had the best rushing attack,
I would say, and so much of that is because
(29:44):
of Jalen Hurts in that offensive line. So you take
him off of there and you put him on another team.
To me, he's probably going to be an RB two.
But the point that I think me and you I
know have definitely harped on already is like running back
is gonna look completely different next year because the more
than half the league is free agents. There's a bunch
of people like Dalvin Cook, Aaron Jones, Leonard Fornette, Joe
(30:07):
Mix and who could all be cap casualties and cut
and then they're joining the free agency class, and then
there's a really deep draft class coming in as well.
So um with Philly having to make all the decisions
that they have to make, I think they're going to
let Miles Sanders walk, and obviously his fantasy value is
gonna greatly depend on where he lands, but I don't
(30:28):
I don't foresee myself being super bullish on him in
fantasy next year. He crushed so many career highs this year.
When you look at total touches, uh scrimmage yards, he
was just over what his career high was as a rookie.
Eleven touchdowns when he'd never had more than six in
a season. The twelve hundred rushing yards when he'd never
had more than eight sixties seven in a season. Those
(30:52):
are gonna be hard to match. Simply because wherever he goes,
and I think even if he stays in Philly or
if he goes somewhere else, I don't know that anybody's
and to give him that level of opportunity again, and
I think that's going to make it hard for him
to sort of repeat what he did. I do think
that what we saw the first three years, it's probably
more indicative of who Miles Sanders is and who he's
(31:14):
going to be wherever he goes, because we know this,
running backs right now aren't getting paid really in free agency,
especially not a guy who really has never proven that
he can be a true workhorse back. And you talk
about what he did at the end of the season,
we saw a lot more Knneth Gainwell getting opportunities as
the year went on, as we got late into December, January,
(31:36):
into the playoffs, there was more of an emphasis on
Kenneth Gainwell getting opportunities and sort of de emphasizing Miles Sanders.
So I do think that's going to sort of play
into it. I still think he's potentially a low end
RB two depending on where he goes. We'll see what
the offense is like where he lands. Wherever it is.
But the idea that Miles Sanders is going to somehow
(31:57):
turn a corner and continue to be the guy that
we saw for the first two thirds of this season
heels really hard to believe. But yeah, also, he's not
as bad as what we saw in the Super Bowl either.
So there's like most things, it's a gray area. There's
a whole lot of in between. Despite you know what
random Twitter arguments might have you believe about any random
(32:20):
NFL players. We're not done with the Super Bowl. We're
gonna look back at some of our predictions spoiler alert
they stunk, but we'll talk about that a little bit,
and some other changes going on with the Philadelphia Eagles
that could have a big impact come three. That's after
the break. You're on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So
(32:45):
on last week's show, we went and put together some
predictions about what we thought was going to happen in
Super Bowl fifty seven, and maybe for our sake, it
probably would have been better if those things just flew
off into the ether. But all credit to Ryan did Us,
who was diligent and wrote down what we said so
that we could come back and look at it. And um, yeah,
(33:07):
I I have a taste in my mouth, and it
is obviously bitter because we were pretty awful. Floria not good.
It was not good. And also, let's just go through
these because it's it's fine. We can point and laugh
at ourselves. It's all good. Um. I asked you the
leading rush shirt was going to be in this game.
You said it was gonna be Jalen Hurts. I said
it was gonna be Miles Sanders. The actual answer was
(33:29):
Isaiah Pacheco with seventies six yards. You were significantly closer
than I was. Jalen Hurts had the Super Bowl record
for a quarterback seventy rushing yards for Jalen Hurts. Meanwhile,
Miles Sanders, as I mentioned earlier, seven for sixteen. So
kudos to you. You at least were yardage wise, at
least in the ballpark. Without If you told me the
(33:52):
leader besides Hurts would have seventy six and Hurts ran
fifteen times, I'd be like, oh, I'm easily crushing this one.
So I mean, I guess kudos to the Chiefs defense
for Keiden Hurts somewhat contained absolutely so that that one
was was pretty bad for me. Let's see most receptions
you said Jerick McKinnon, who only had three catches for
(34:14):
fifteen yards. I had a j Brown who at least
had six catches for nineties six. The actual answer was
Juju Smith, Schuster and DeVonta Smith, who were tied with
seven apiece. So Jared McKinnon was not the pass catching
factor they used to be a lot of other ways.
I thought he was a good decoy. He was a
(34:34):
lead blocker on on an Isaiah Pachecko touchdown. But yeah,
he was not. He was not a pass catcher at
all this week. No, No, he could have scored a
touchdown if he, you know, selfishly did not slide at
the one to allow his team to win a Super Bowl.
He could have scored one. But uh yeah, I thought
for sure he'd be used more than he was, and
he was on a milk cart and for much of
(34:54):
the game. It's funny too, because if that had happened
during the regular season, I'm sure people would have been
howling on Twitter about how, you know, they had Jered
McKinnon as a flex option and he should have scored
a touchdown and blah, blah blah. I feel like in
the Super Bowl it was more like, hey, that was
a really smart play and good job Jeric McKinnon. So
take away that I've seen is, uh, should we change
(35:16):
the rule where the player gives themselves up the clock stops?
And I don't hate that rule. That's interesting. I never
thought about that, but that's interesting. So like that forces
you either to decide you either score the touchdown or
you gotta run some more plays. I'm willing to entertain that.
I think that's that's kind of a good one. I asked,
will there be a defensive touchdown? We both said no,
(35:38):
although we both said that if it happened, it would
be the Eagles. Wrong. There was a defensive touchdown and
it was not the Eagles. Nick Bolton had a scoop
and score on a Jalen Hurts fumble, and for a
moment it looked like he was going to have a
second one on a Miles Sanders we thought was originally
called a fumble. They overturned that and called that an
incompletion I think even and said, he's like, I knew
(36:01):
that was incomplete, but I was gonna play it out
just to see what happened. So big swinging a miss
right there? Um there, there will never be an easier
defensive touchdown in the Super Bowl than the one that
they scored too. Not dropped it like. It wasn't like
he was he was hit or anything. He just dropped it. Yeah. Yeah,
I know exactly like you. Just the ball just slipped
(36:21):
out of his hands. Uh. The the one that comes
to mind for me is, uh, Jack Squire Wreck for
the Oakland Raiders had an interception on just a just
a lazy sort of outpassed by Joe Eisman in the
Super Bowl back I think super Bowl eighteen. I think
it was. And that was pretty easy too, because I
don't know what Tisman was looking at, but it, Uh,
(36:43):
it was pretty easy. It was a pretty quick and
easy one. Um. We did ask, will Rihanna have more
than two guests? This is the one we got right.
It wasn't even about football. We said no, No, she
did not have more than two guests. Do we count
the baby bump as a guest? I think we can
(37:04):
either way that either it's still less than two. Though.
I thought with no guests and with her just doing
straight songs like, I still thought she killed it. Absolutely No.
I thought it was a great show. She had played
a lot of the hits earlier on Super Bowl Today.
During the week, Patrick Claybne and I put together a
set list that we thought was going to happen. I
think we might have had a ten songs nailed three.
(37:27):
So uh so, not only am I not good at
super Bowl predictions, I can't predict the Rihanna set list either.
She she has so many songs that like, there were
songs that I was like, oh, I forgot this was
even what like you know, like you haven't heard him
in a while. Yeah. In my defense, she did admit
that she had like thirty nine versions of the set
list before they finally settled on one, so you know,
(37:49):
I will chalk that up. Who will be the Super
Bowl m v P We both said Jalen Hurts it
was Patrick Mahomes. And who wins Super Bowl fifty seven?
We both said the Eagles and it was the Chiefs. So,
uh we suck. That was not great? Not great, Bob,
(38:10):
We sort of sucked when it came to that. Well,
we group, I will try again next year. Good thing
we have we have. I think we have decent fantasy advice,
even if our advice and other things sort of sort
of sucks. Um on in the show though, was some
more actual kind of football talk because I talked about
the changes that are coming in Philadelphia and they are
(38:31):
losing both of their coordinators. Offensive coordinator Shane Steiken has
been hired as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, well, he was just at State
Farm Stadium in Glendale. He will call that home now
because he is the Arizona Cardinals head coach. You talked
about a little bit about you know, Jalen Hurts and uh,
(38:53):
you know, the backfield and what's going to happen next year.
What immediate concerns, if any, do you have have about
this Eagles offense knowing that one of the architects of
it is going to be in Indianapolis next year. Yeah,
that's a big one to me. I mean, the o
C is huge, even with someone like Sirianni who has
a offensive background, Like the fact that you're losing your
(39:16):
o C I think always hurts. And then you added
no pun intended there, and then I think, uh, you
add in the potential like they could lose multiple offensive
alignment and that was a key staple of their offense.
So I still think for fantasy Hurts will be fine.
A J. Brown will be fine, to VONSA Smith will
be fine. Um, but for them to be at the
level they were this year, Like if you're a Philly
(39:37):
fan or something like that, or you're looking ahead to
next season, this is a huge off season for Philly
on on both sides of the ball because I believe
it's nineteen of their players or free agents, so that's
a whole lot of them, nineteen altogether, eleven on defense,
They're gonna be a probably a different look to this
Eagles team next year. I think for the most part,
(39:58):
I don't expect anything major to have happened with the Eagles.
I'm curious to see who does come in to take
over the spot there. Um, you know, but I think
this team is already set up in a good position.
Uh you know, they've got Hurts there, They've you know,
they've got two good receivers in A. J. Brown Devanta Smith.
(40:18):
Uh you know, having Dallas Goddard has been a big
boost to the middle of the field there. So we'll see.
I mean there's talk that uh, you know, Brian Johnson
could end up taking over as the offensive coordinator. We'll
see if that happens, I don't know, but that is
gonna be kind of an interesting storyline for the off season. Meanwhile,
stike In going to Indianapolis. This is a team that
(40:41):
you know, they're not a bad team at least on paper.
They had a bad record last year at for twelve
and one. What's the biggest priority you think for stike
In to kind of get this thing turned around next year?
I think the gimme is the quarterback and they're gonna
have their pick of one of the least four of
them in the first round, potentially even moving up to
number one overall. But I think getting Jonathan Taylor going
(41:05):
again it's just as big of a priority, if not bigger.
Like stike And he's been an o C three years
to to the last two with Philly. The year prior
with the Chargers, all three was finished top ten in
rushing attempts uh and he was in the top three
each of the last two years in rushing attempts and
top five in rushing yards in touchdowns. So as great
(41:25):
as the Philly passing attack was this year, their identity
is still comes down to like they were the best
good luck stopping the run when you need to stop
the run against them, and even in the Super Bowl
we saw that, like they're the best short yardage run
team in the league. So I think you really need
to get Jonathan Taylor going again, and and that includes
revamping this offensive line because they went from being one
(41:46):
of the very best to one of the very worst
in an off season. I think there's still talent here.
I think you can you can rebuild it um. Obviously,
getting the quarterback is huge, but protecting the quarterback and
and and being able to help the game goes a
long way for a rookie quarterback as well. Absolutely does.
I think for them the biggest thing has to just
(42:08):
be stability at quarterback. They just need a guy that
they feel like they can work with and develop over
a couple of years. Because you look back, I mean,
Frank Reich took over this team in the belief that
they were going to have Andrew Luck long term. He
gets Luck for one year, then Luck retires in five seasons,
Frank Reich had five different quarterbacks, and there's just no
(42:33):
way to build continuity when you were doing that year
after year. I mean, to go from Andrew Luck to
Jacoby Brissett as sort of a bridge option. Philip Rivers
in his final year, Carson Wentz which turned out to
be sort of a disaster down the stretch, and then
Matt Ryan, who fell apart. It just looked every bit
his age. Um, they've got to get somebody in there,
(42:55):
preferably somebody young that they feel like, Okay, this is
gonna be our guy for the next at least three years,
and we can build with him and see what we have.
That continuity, I think is going to be important, and
so that I think is going to be the chief
option for Stike in But I think you're right in
the short term getting Jonathan Taylor going again until you
find that potential franchise quarterback is a big deal. I
(43:18):
know they said they're gonna try to throw the ball,
but they're gonna have to establish the run as well.
So at least the coach speak part of it seems
to be there for Stike and we'll see whether or
not he's able to put that together on the field.
The Colts, as you mentioned, the number four overall pick,
so they will have, you would think, some options at quarterback,
and maybe they do package some things and try to
(43:39):
move up a spot or two. I mean, look the Bears,
I don't think they're drafting a quarterback in one. I
think that number one pick is out there for the
taking for somebody who can put together the right package. Meanwhile,
Jonathan Gannon goes to Arizona. They have a guy they
think can be a franchise quarterback. They've got a lot
of resources tied up in Kyler Murray, who admittedly is
rehabbing from an injury this offseason. I thought the belief
(44:03):
was going to be that they had to bring somebody
in that could resort of reboot Kyler Murray. I know
they thought Cliff Kingsbury was gonna be the guy to
maximize it. That never happened to two of him, but
it heads Cliff Kingsbury then decided to go off to
Thailand to get his head straight. I joked he was
gonna be in season three of The White Lotus. But
Jonathan Gannon not an offensive guy. What does this mean
(44:27):
for Kyler Murray? I mean, does this mean they have
to bring in a quarterback centric oc to get him
going because it doesn't seem like Gannon is gonna be
that guy. I think so, and I don't love this
higher and nothing against Gannon. Oftentimes, at least in today's NFL,
you want an offensive minded head coach, it's very rare.
(44:49):
I think the last defensive one that worked out, we
could say, is Sean McDermott, and that's going back six
seven years ago now at this point, so um and
also Gannon's defense. They were great this year, but it
took a huge step once they brought in a bunch
of veterans who are like playing at an a whole
pro level, that this Cardinals defense is gonna need to
be completely rebuilt. There there's not a lot of talent
(45:12):
on that side of the ball. And then I always
get concerned with the defensive coach, like are they gonna
want to play to their strengths, which is the defense,
So that means a lot more running the ball, a
lot less chances, and when you have a quarterback like
Kyler Murray, I want them to be out there taking
chances doing what he can do. Like we joked a
lot last season that the Cardinals game plan was like
(45:33):
Cliff Kingsbury managed the show for three and a half
quarters and then asked Kyler Mury to do wizardry type
things at the end of games to kind of drag
them back, and that's a strategy that's very, very hard
to do. So I would have liked an offensive minded
coach here. But I think this is gonna be a
huge offseason for the Cardinals. Like I think d Hop
is gone, James Conner could easily be gone, Marcus Brown's
(45:55):
on the last deal of last year of his contract,
I believe, so. I think just on both sides, ball
like they're entering a rebuild, which is also why I mean,
I know we're we're not anticipating Kyler Murray being back
early in the season, but it wouldn't surprise me if
Kyler misses a large chunk of next season. Just because
this is clearly a rebuilding team. I think they're gonna
(46:15):
be having their eyes towards the future in their draft
stock and stuff like that. I don't see why they
would rush Kyler Mury back from from his severe injury. Yeah,
I mean, it's a good point when you look at
the rest of the division, especially uh and and your
Ryan makes a good point. Ryan Dennis makes a good
point that they give again in a five year deal,
so they are willing to be patient. They're willing to
(46:35):
let him sort of build this thing and unless he
is just completely awful in the first couple of years,
I mean, you know, Urban Meyer level bad. Uh. I
don't think you know they're they're going to cut ties
with him early on because you look at that division, right,
the Niners are still going to be very good. The
Seahawks had a very good year, and they looked like
(46:57):
they potentially could be improving this offseason. I don't think
the Rams are as bad as they played last year.
I think if they can keep some people healthy, I
think you're gonna see them at least be better. Maybe
you know, I don't know they're a contending team, but
I don't think they're a five and twelve team either.
So that does leave you in Arizona sort of in
(47:18):
a situation where maybe you do kind of pause and
and try to begin a rebuild, get Kyler healthy, make
sure you you kind of build around him, and see
what you can do a couple of years from now.
So it's gonna be interesting to see. But it was
a higher that kind of struck me as weird, just
because it didn't seem to fit what the priorities of
the franchise are right now. But we will see how
(47:41):
they decide to handle the off season, and we'll talk
about that and plenty more as the off season begins.
Um So, next week we also start the Florio Film Festival.
I know you mentioned you're in the new place. Now,
do you have the apparatus set up, whether it's your
streaming services, your Xbox, whatever, so you can watch Terminator
to Judgment day. We can talk about it next week. Yep.
(48:04):
I was I was gonna watch it last night, but
then you everyone to kind of agreed we should hold
off a week, and I was like, that works even
better for me. I almost watched it two nights ago,
and then I realized I didn't have the Xbox and
by the time I found that in my wires and everything,
I was like, I don't feel like watching a movie
right now. But I will have it watched by next
Wednesday and be very, very excited to talk about it.
(48:25):
I will also say that our our pal Patrick Claibon
has asked if he could come in and be a
part of this segment, at least for Terminator too, because
as far as I know, he is our resident T
two expert when it comes to all things Terminator to
Judgment day. I trust Patrick Claiborn and so he has
(48:47):
requested jumping in, So I I feel like we should
invite him in and he can talk about T two
with us. Next week. He is welcome to talk about
every movie we watch and every like. I love Patrick.
If he wants to join us every single week, have
at it. Come on, because are you coming to talk
football with us? And you can stick around and talk
nineties action movies with us because that is going to
(49:10):
be I think entertaining. So we will do our best
to make that happen starting next week's Yeah good, come
on back. Next week Florio's Film Festival starts. Well, of course,
we'll talk some fantasy football and the whole like, but
we're gonna talk some movies because it's the off season
and we can do that because we got extra time
to do so right now though, I think that's a
pretty good spot to pull the shoot on this episode.
So we appreciate you hanging out with us. Hopefully you
(49:31):
enjoyed the Super Bowl. I know we did. Hopefully you
enjoyed this episode of the show. That'll do it for
this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. For Mike,
I am Marcus, stay happy, safe and healthy, do good
and live well, and we'll talk to you again real soon.
W M, I don't don't as all fare well
Wow, Hey everybody, it is Wednesday, February three. Welcome to
the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, where we're already mock drafted
for next season. It's meet your man nam G. Marcus
(00:21):
Granted joined by Michael f Florio Ryan Dennis on the
controls today and uh when I start, happy post Valentine's Day,
Happy post super Bowl? H you have you have finished
the move? I presumed to your new place. Uh, it's
it's a new month, new life, knew you. How is everything?
Everything is good? Uh? Definitely have finished the move in
(00:44):
the sense that like all of or like of the
stuff is out of my old place and in the
new place. UM, very much so. Not done unpacking or
anything like that, so that that'll be fun. But Happy
Valentine's Day to you man. You you know how to
celebrate it your night. I was envious of what you
were doing last night. So for everybody who doesn't know,
(01:05):
which probably most of you. UM, I won. I I
married over my head and my wife. Through some coworkers
and connections, was able for Valentine's Day to get us
tickets for Warriors Clippers at Staples Center. I'm not calling
it by its current name. It is Staples Center. Um,
not only we get tickets though, we were on the
floor on the baseline, second row, just behind Clippers owner
(01:29):
Steve Ballmer. So I don't I don't flex very often,
but this is a chance for me to flex because
my wife was awesome and hooked us up with an
absolutely great day. So we had a fun night. I
wish the Dubs could have pulled off the wind, but whatever,
that part doesn't matter as much. It was a good night.
It was a lot of fun that night. Absolutely. In
the meantime, we got stuff to talk about. I know
that the the NFL season is officially over, at least
(01:51):
the playing portion of the season is over. We'll get
to the player acquisition part of the season, uh down
the road a little bit. We'll talk about also some
of the coaching changes, because the coaching carousel is spinning
and really impacted one of the two teams that played
in the Super Bowl on Sunday. But let's begin with
(02:12):
what happened at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Super Bowl
fifties seven. The Kansas City Chiefs are once again the
champions of the National Football League, a thirty eight thirty
five victory on a late field goal by Harrison, Butker
that was the difference in the game. But when you
look at this thing from a whole, I guess, first off,
(02:32):
did you enjoy the game? But more importantly, was there
anything about it that that kind of took you by
surprise when you watch that game? Uh? Yes to both
of those questions. I think the ending be damned. I
think that the Super Bowl was the best game of
the season. Like we had. We had the two best
teams going at it, the two best quarterbacks that played
the best this season doing their thing. I thought it
(02:55):
lived up to the hype and then some. My biggest
surprise though, was the Eagles defense folding like a cheap
tent in the second half like this is. If you've
listen to the podcast or follow me or anything, you know,
I've been very very high on this Eagles defense since
the beginning of the year. Drafted them in a bunch
of leagues and stuff, was very bullish on them, and
(03:17):
they looked like arguably the best out. It was them
or the Niners all year long for best defense in
the NFL in my opinion, and the strength was their
secondary uh. And they had more sex than anyone by far.
This season, they didn't touch Patrick Mahomes, their secondary got
torched in the second half, they couldn't stop the run
(03:38):
like they made no adjustments in that second half, and
the Chiefs did everything right. And I know we can
say the ending and all of that. If the Eagles
defense plays like the Eagles defense in the second half,
or even anywhere close to the Eagles defense, the ending
of the game doesn't happen because the Eagles are probably
up by over a touchdown or at least a touchdown
what to that point. And you know, when you you
(04:00):
talk to a lot of people, a lot of really
smart football people, of people who talked about schemes and
watch film, they will always talk about the importance of
using motion in an offense and the different ways of
using motion, whether it is to sort of help your
offense in terms of getting your wide receivers a running
start and letting them kind of get some momentum as
they get to the line of scrimmin physical momentum in
(04:21):
case Patrick Claybon is listening, not some sort of mythical
on field momentum like actual physical you know, mass times acceleration,
sort of the momentum um, or you can use it
to kind of get some clues about what the defense
is doing. And the one thing that a lot of
folks kept hitting over and over on Monday and Tuesday
(04:42):
was the fact that the Chiefs found something during their
film study leading up to the game and used it
to their advantage. In the second half, they had a
couple of wide open touchdowns, the one deca Darius Tony,
and then they ran the same play basically on the
other side to get the touchdown to sky More And
they found something in that defense. We're just using that
jet sweep motion caused the Eagles to shift in the
(05:04):
secondary and allowed them to kind of use a little
bit of a head fake and get guys wide open.
And if I remember right, it was something they saw
earlier in the year that the Jaguars had done, and
I think it was Jamal agg knew that that pulled
off that similar move and scored a touchdown for the
Jags against Philadelphia. And so maybe that that was a
surprise to me that somehow in the months between playing
(05:27):
the Jaguars and getting to Kansas City, that they hadn't
figured that out. And look, I can't say that I
had watched every single play of every single Eagles game.
I don't know if anybody else sort of did that
or had found that little wrinkle against them, But not
only did it happen once, it happened to them twice,
and maybe to me that's sort of the biggest surprise,
(05:48):
is that they sort of had that big breakdown. The
other thing that surprised me, Mike, was how ineffective the
Eagles run game was, because that had been such a
big part of their success all year long. We had
always talked about how they were so good at doing
whatever was necessary to win. When they needed to throw it,
(06:09):
they were able to throw it well. When people took
away the passing option, they ran the ball effectively. It
looked early on as though the Chiefs were intent on
taking away the run option. Now Miles Sanders apparently got hurt.
There wasn't much talk about it, but he left the
game for a while, kind of came back. Was not
a big factor in the ball game at all. But
the Eagles just really couldn't run. Jalen Hurts had a
(06:32):
decent game on the ground, but that was it. After that,
nothing was available to them, and I really felt like
this was a team that, yes, they could throw the
ball effectively, but the run game was so much a
part of their d n A and Kansas City took
that away. I mean, my I know that the chief
run defense wasn't terrible, but it obviously wasn't the strength
of their team. But I gotta give them credit for
(06:54):
what they were able to do because they they really
neutralized it and for the most part, I felt like
they were able to make the Eagles sort of a
one dimensional team for most of the night. Yeah, I agree,
And if the Eagles had any chance of having success
on the ground, it was with Jalen Hurts, and even
in the second half, they did a good job of
bottling him up as well and closing his running lanes.
(07:15):
And I know producer hyped them wrote it in the chat,
And I know a lot of people have pointed this
out about the turf and that it was slippery and
it had an impact. It really feels like it impacted
one team more than the other. And to me, when
that's the case, I just think it's that the other
team was better, Like the Chiefs were better prepared, uh
they like and and going back to your point, the
(07:37):
turf had no impact at all on those two second
half touchdowns because they were wide open. No one else
on the camera shot with Kadarius, Tony and sky More.
To me, that is where team good coaches come through
and shine because in the regular season, the Chiefs, the Eagles,
those high end teams, they're gonna bully most teams because
they're just more talented. To me, though, when talent meets talent,
(08:01):
and I think you can make the case that this were,
if not the two most talented teams, two of the
most talented teams in the NFL. When teams like that match,
the better coach is usually gonna win in my opinion,
because the teams are so evenly matched, and Andy Reid
is one of the greatest coaches of all time. He
found a wrinkle going back months watching a game that
(08:22):
no offense to Nick Sirianni and the Eagles co I'm
not taking anything away from them. They were great this year.
They just they didn't find a weakness like like the
Chiefs did. And it's something that you know, I not
to bring it back to two Bills like I do
a lot, but like when the Bills lost, I was
like they got out coached, like they're not a worse
talented team. They just got out coached. And I think
that's the case a lot of the times when these
(08:42):
two when when two uber talented teams meet up. You know,
I I know there's always been talk about Andy Reid
and how great he has been throughout his career. After
the bye, basically had two weeks to sort of get
ready for Philadelphia and come up with some things and
figure it out. And I'll even give them for what
they did sort of changing from what they did in
(09:03):
the first half to what they did in the second
half because they started using more of that motion. They
started kind of figuring things out with the Eagles defense
and finding ways to kind of pick them apart and
making plays. Then, of course, it also helps to have
arguably the best player on the planet right now, certainly
the best quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes, and
the best tight end in the league. But we saw
(09:24):
in the second half, like a lot more Juju, Smith, Schuster,
We saw there is Tony Sky more, all these other
pieces get involved and really make an impact for the Chiefs.
So I think you're right. I think in the end,
when it was all said and done, the most deserving
team won, and you know, kudos to Andy Reid and
his coaching staff are coming up with a great game plan,
(09:44):
figuring out how to sort of pick apart what their
opponent was doing and pull out a win. Um, you know, look,
the Eagles, I'm not gonna say they're gonna be back.
I'm not gonna guarantee that because you never know, but
they are in a great position to be competitive for
a while. They have a lot of talent. Uh. Nick
Sirianni is a very good head coach. So they are
positioned to certainly be in the mix for the foreseeable future.
(10:08):
It just turned out that Sunday it was not It
was not their day looking ahead though, kind of because
what we do is is fantasy football. We do fake
football here and you tweeted on I guess it was
Monday about Josh Allen and kind of going through everything
that that Allen went through this year and and all
the metrics that sort of thing. You basically finished it
(10:30):
by saying, I don't care what happened, Josh Allen is
my QB one next year. And I don't think you're alone.
I think for most people, and I've done a couple
of mock drafts, maybe not as many as I would
hope too so far this season, but telling myself it's
only February. UM, in the mod drafts I have seen,
Josh Allen is the first quarterback going off the board.
So that leads me to who is your QB two?
(10:52):
Because I feel like that person probably played in this
game on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts. Josh Allen's
off a board. You didn't get to him. Who's the
next quarterback you're reaching for? As of today of February, Again,
a lot could change between now in August. As of today,
it is Patrick Mahomes. Um. Because I love Jalen Hurts
(11:15):
and I was super bullish on him the last two
years in Fantasy but and like I had him ahead
of Mahomes last year. He was my QB three coming
into the season. But that's probably what he's gonna be, right.
I mean, he's definitely in the top three. And I
continue to say, you could put these top three in
any order, and I won't really give you much pushback.
But Mahomes is still gonna be tied to Andy Reid.
(11:36):
He's still gonna have Travis Kelsey. Uh Hurts is still
gonna have a j Brown and DeVonta Smith and Dallas Godard.
But right now, who's gonna be there? O C. They
just lost him money. Pieces of that offensive line are
set to become free agents. This is a really, really
big off season for the Eagles because they're gonna extend
Jalen Hurts and then they're gonna have to make tough
decisions on who they want to bring back and who
(11:58):
they want to let walk. So as of right now,
with there being so many unknowns around what that Philly
team might look like, I am I'm gonna go with
Patrick Mahomes. He's as safe as it gets and and
real quick for anyone listening like, why is Josh Allen
the one? My only point was he was the QB
one for the two seasons prior. He was the QB
one for the first half of the season on pace
(12:20):
to shatter the QB scoring record until he got injured.
So I'm willing to give him a mulligan for the
second half of the season. If you're not and you
want to take one of these two ahead of him,
you're not gonna hear much of a of an argument
for me, because I think these three should be the
top three in any order, and Marcus, I'm doing a
slow Best Ball draft right now. They all went in
the second round, all in the top twenty picks, and
(12:42):
I tweeted about it, and the responses are like, Wow,
they made it to the second round and I went
in the first round. I think it's finally happening. Are
we going to get first round quarterbacks this year? This
is the years it's actually and I would I wouldn't
be surprised in Best Ball Draft because I think especially
this time of year when you're looking at Best Ball drafts,
this is the time when people are sort of testing
(13:04):
out theories and getting a little bit weird. I mean,
I've talked to people who have who have gone Travis
Kelsey at the one oh one. I think you're gonna
see first round quarterbacks because you can sort of play
with with roster build and see how things shake out
if you decide to go with a quarterback earlier, if
you go with a tight end at the very top
of the draft. So maybe this is the year I've
(13:25):
been I have been sort of poking at it for
a while. I will admit I have not been brave
enough to actually do it. But I have been been
kicking around the idea, so maybe this is the year
it finally happens. Part of me wants to say Jalen
Hurts is the QB two, but but I think what
I saw out of my homes this year, and not
(13:46):
that I was a doubt or not that I didn't
believe Patrick Mahomes could be great, but to see how
effective and efficient he was with the group of pass
catchers that he had um to to lose a Tyreek
Hill and to fill in the gaps with Marquez Valdes,
Scantling and Juju Smith Schuster, to bring in uh To
(14:06):
Darius Tony midway through the season, to try and figure
out how to integrate sky More, Nicole Hardman, all these
different players, and to still have the amazing season that
he did throwing for fifty two hundred yards forty one touchdowns.
To do that with that cast of characters cemented that
he really is on track. If he can stay healthy
(14:29):
and have longevity, he is on track to maybe surpass
Tom Brady as the greatest quarterback we have seen in
the National Football League. So that I think is the
reason he's not going to run for the same kind
of yards that that Jalen Hurts is. But you know what,
he'll get you three hundred and fifty maybe four hundred
yards in a really good year and ain't too bad.
So that to me kind of gives him that that
(14:51):
number two spot. But it's close. It's absolutely really close.
H you mentioned the top three, who's number four? Is
it justin Fields? As he crack your your top four
this year? Um, I think I think it's between Fields
and Borrow for me for for the fourth spot. UM.
I continue to say, though, I think there's eight quarterbacks
like after the big three, I think the second tier
(15:13):
is Fields Burrow in any order of Herbert Lamar and
Trevor Lawrence. Like after those eight, I think there's a
drop off. There's some other guys like Deshaun Watson, Geno Smith,
Daniel Jones. But I I think this is gonna be
the year where I'm emphasizing like maybe I don't get
one of these top three if you're going in the
first or second round, but I will be getting one
of the next five guys, and probably before the sixth round.
(15:36):
I will tell you that I was shocked at how
quickly that in a couple of mock drafts. I've done that.
The quarterbacks went because I was like, I'm gonna wait
until like the third round, bank bank bank bank, and
they were gone. I was like, Okay, well, I guess
I gotta change up that strategy. Uh. I just talked
about Mahomes and and how great he's been this year
and the first six seasons of his career. He has
been to three Super Bowls. He has one too, he
(15:58):
has been too. He's been Super Bowl m v P twice.
He has two NFL m vps. Let's just say, and
not wishing it, let's just say he decides to just
hang him up right that he never plays another down
to football again after a Super Bowl fifty seven? Is
Patrick Mahomes a Hall of Famer? Yes, Like I no question,
(16:19):
he could retire right now, and he's he's in there.
And in fact, I think, and maybe this is crazy
to say, I think you can already make the case
that he belongs to like the Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks,
Like isn't it Like don't quote me on this, but
it's like him, Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and like one
(16:39):
other quarterback are the only quarterbacks to have multiple mv
league MVPs and Super Bowl m v ps, and this
guy is twenty seven years old. Like his age right now,
Tom Brady didn't have a single m v P, single
All Pro appearance, and like, look at look at what
I mean. Mahmes is only going to get better. And
I know there's pile saying like, we're gonna have to
(17:01):
see him do it without Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey.
Eventually it's like, Okay. I was one of those people
who was like, he's not doesn't have Tyreek Hill, that's
gonna change this offense identity and all. And then he
just went out he completely revamped his game. He said,
all right, you don't want me to have the speedster guy,
I'm gonna break the record for short yard touchdowns. That's
what he did this year. Like he's he's amazing. I
(17:24):
will never doubt him. Uh he is tom Brady's biggest competition,
I would say for the goat, and uh yeah, he's
He's a Hall of Famer already and one of the
greatest ever do it. I was looking yesterday at all
the quarterbacks who have won two or more Super Bowls
in their career, and there are now that now that
(17:44):
Mahomes has won. He is quarterback to win at least
two Super Bowls. And you go through and pretty much
all of them are in the Hall of Fame. The
guys who aren't in the Hall of Fame, most of
them aren't eligible yet, right, Tom Brady not quite able yet.
Eli Uh not eligible yet, say with Ben Roethlisberger. So
those guys aren't even eligible for the Hall of Fame.
(18:07):
You know, Brady's getting there. It seems like the winds
are blowing for Eli to get in, and I would
imagine Roethlisberger probably gets in. So you're gonna have that's
gonna make eleven or twelve of the thirteen. The only
guy who has two Super Bowls who was eligible for
the Hall of Fame who is not in is Jim Plunkett.
And I think a lot of that is the early
(18:27):
part of his career. He was the number one overall pick.
Uh way back when your seventy one. He was the
number one overall pick for the Patriots and really struggled
in the early part of his career. Uh just kind
of bounced around the league, landed with the Raiders, and
they sort of resurrected him and he ended up winning
a couple of Super Bowls there, I don't know if
Plunket's ever gonna get in, So he's gonna be like
(18:48):
the lone exception. I think of guys who want two
Super Bowls and aren't in the Hall of Fame. So, uh,
that combined with the passing records that that Mahomes looks
like he's on track to break, uh just the overall greatness,
the MVP awards, all that stuff. Yeah, I think he's
he's he's probably a lock even at this moment to
(19:10):
you know, to get in a let's somehow he follows
up with ten years of just math. But even it's
funny you just said that because my argument was gonna
be like, he's not retiring, so we got to take
that off the table. Even if he plays the next
ten years and his mat like, we're gonna look at
it and say, look at his stats that he's compiled,
(19:30):
because in today's game, even a man Patrick Mahomes is
gonna average probably around four house in passing yards this
season at least, you know, somewhere like twenty five touchdowns,
So he would compile stats good enough to be in
the Hall of Fame. Then he would have multiple Super Bowls,
multiple Super Bowl m vps, and multiple league MVPs. He
could not win another award if he just finishes out
(19:51):
his career playing mediocre. I think he's a lock. So yeah,
I'm I'm confident saying he's in there. Now that we've
gotten through this, I wanted to do a little bit
of a stock watch. We kind of did it think
a couple of weeks ago. But why is the guy
to do a stock watch of guys who played in
the Super Bowl and uh where where you're thinking about
them or how you're feeling about them when it comes
(20:11):
to fantasy for next season? Travis Kelsey, let's start there.
We know he's going to be the first tight end
off the board. That's not even an argument. The argument, though,
is how high does Travis Kelsey go after what he
did this season? Um, I think what you said earlier
is the one dotto one. I'm not saying he's going
(20:31):
to be the consensus one dotto one, but I think
he will, at least in some drafts go there. I
think though, that this is gonna be a season where
there's not a consensus first player off the board, and
I think there'll be a consensus top six, and to me,
that top six is Travis Kelsey, Austin Ekeler, Christian McCaffrey,
(20:52):
and then the receivers being Justin Jefferson, Jamaar Chase, and
Cooper cup. I think those will be the top six
in almost every draft this year. But I could see
them going in almost any order. So I could see
Kelsey going first overall, I could see him going sixth overall.
I don't really see him going much later than that,
and I definitely don't see him falling out of the
first round. Yeah, he's definitely gonna fall out of the
(21:12):
first round. I think you're gonna struggle to see him
fall past five. I think in a lot of drafts,
i've seen him go as high as one overall. Um,
And when you talk about the lack of a consensus
number one, I've seen Kelsey, I've seen Justin Jefferson, you know,
I've seen Eckler. I mean, there's already a handful of
(21:34):
names that are sort of circulating, and I think it's
gonna be like that all off season where we're not
just going to land on one guy, which I think
is gonna be fun. I think it's gonna be interesting.
It's gonna be a discussion point because I always get
sort of bored when we just sort of settle on
a guy and it's March and we're just like, yep,
Jonathan Taylor, that's your guy, you know. Like so that
(21:54):
having having this discussion all year long, I think it's
gonna be a lot of fun, a lot of interesting
things to talk about. And Travis Kelsey very much in
that mix. Isaiah pa Checko had a pretty nice game
in the Super Bowl for Kansas City, and you know,
we had sort of been joking about his running style.
He runs really hard, doesn't seem like he's necessarily getting anywhere,
(22:16):
but seventy six rushing yards had to touch them. Really
was an impactful player. Does this change how you feel
about him? Do you believe that he's going to be
the guy in Kansas City's backfield next year or are
they gonna find somebody else to rotate him with. I
think he'll be the lead ground guy. Um I I
(22:36):
still anticipate like a Jerick mccannan, or if it's not him,
someone else coming in there to handle the bulk of
the passing down duties. Uh there, I know as the
in the regular season. As we got later, they tried
throwing him the ball a little bit more, but in
the playoffs we saw that, like, that's not what they
believe that his role is. And I I think he
(22:57):
can be a really good ground guy. I don't think
the Chiefs are gonna be a team that invests in
running back position very hard, so I think that leads
to him being the guy. But if he's not the
past catcher as well, that still keeps him as more
of a RB two for fantasy purposes, and it makes
him someone that doesn't have a super high floor um
and could be a little bit volatile week to week.
(23:18):
I think he'd be it all to me. He's one
of those players that it depends on where he's going
in drafts, Like if he's going as a r B two,
then fine, he's a fine pick. But people seem to
really love hyping this guy up. And I think that's
my biggest beef with him, is like I don't think
he's a bad player at all. I just I think
he gets overhyped. I think, yeah, I think he's a
(23:39):
he's a good player. He's fine. I don't think he's
that guy Clyde Edwards a Laire still has one more
year on his deal. I don't know that they're going
to pick up that fifth year option for him, but
I feel like we all sort of know who c. E.
H Is at this point. I mean, you got off
a really quick start last year, scoring a lot of touchdowns,
but we all sort of looked at that and he's like,
that's that's the stage annable, That's not gonna keep going. Then,
(24:01):
unfortunately for him, he ended up getting injured and missed
the rest of the season. But I I it's obvious
that the Chiefs aren't sold on him. I think it's
going to continue to be a rotation. I think Pacheco
will be a rotational guy, and I don't know that
I would take a shot on him before the middle
rounds in any sort of draft because he's just not
(24:23):
going to be a big part of that. The question is,
you know who's the past catcher. Is it Jerick McKinnon,
is it somebody else where? Does Edwards Alaire slot in?
Because he's not gonna completely vanish even if he's not
necessarily the workhorse that once upon a time we thought
he could be. Darius Tony, I tweeted after he scored
the touchdown. That scream you heard was Michael Florio uh
(24:45):
celebrating the cal Darius Tony touchdown. Not only did he
have a big touchdown, had a huge punt return that's
set up a touchdown, very nearly had the first punch
reteller in touchdown in Super Bowl history. Was tackled right
around the five yard line, So we saw a little
bit of what he could do. Still didn't get a
(25:06):
big role in the offense in the Super Bowl. Are
you going to reach not? Are you? How high are
you going to reach for Darius Tony next year? As
high as I gotta no, I do anticipate having him
on a lot of teams because I feel like the
hype this year and and I'm the guiltiest of anyone
(25:27):
hyping him up. Um. I feel like it's it's had
a reverse effect and it's piste off a lot of people.
Like I've I've seen a lot of people being like,
Darius Tony, He's gonna be overdrafted next year, He's this whatever,
blah blah blah. And I'm like, Okay, if that's the case,
and you just want to let him fall down draft boards,
I will gladly gobble him up. The thing is, I'm
(25:48):
hopeful let an off season with the Chiefs leads to
a larger role, especially me called Hardman's a free agent,
Jujuice Smith Schuster said to be a free agent. Maybe
there's just more opportunity there. Maybe an off season Andy
Reid really getting the game plan around Kadarius Tony. I
think that could do wonders for him. And I just
anticipate him being cheaper than he was this year and
(26:08):
a lot of drafts this year he was going somewhere
like the six seventh, eighth round. I think next year
we could get Kadarius Tony and the double digits because
people are gonna be like, yeah, we've heard this story before,
and if that's the case, it's a complete buying opportunity.
But that being said, man, you would think when Kadarius
Tony does something that I do something like you the
(26:28):
NFL fantasy handle tweeted me and like the text that
I get, like people are like, oh my god, your boy,
and I'm just like, I'm not the one out there
doing this like it happened when he got traded to
the Chiefs. Every time he has a big play, in
a big moment or something like that. I get at
least text from multiple people and I'm like, I'm not
Cadarius Tony or his family or anything, but thank you.
(26:49):
You have a brand now, Like yeah, people were telling
me I'm his burner account. Now, I mean you're not.
I don't know. You know it's funny too, because you
I think I imagined that a lot of your rosters
this year are going to have guys that people are
sick of hearing about. Darius Tony, Kyle Pitts. I'm sure
(27:12):
if I thought about it, there's probably a couple of
other guys there that everybody else in the world's like,
I'm not doing it again, and you're gonna be like, yep,
you're gonna jump right back in which I'm gonna be
amused by. I don't. I don't think there's anything wrong
with it, anything wrong with it at all. I think
it's amusing. In the Best Ball Draft, I saw Kyle
Pitts go in the fifth round, and even it was like,
this is where he's starting out. It's gonna be back
into the third round come all day. No, I saw
(27:34):
it in not even in a Best Ball draft, just
a regular redraft mock that he went in the fifth round.
So people might they might, you know, gripe about it,
they might complain about what happened, But it seems like
a lot of people are still in on Kyle Pitts.
So we're not gonna get that fat discount that we
were hoping for after what happened last year. Um last
stock watch. Miles Sanders, who I thought was gonna have
(27:56):
a really nice game against the Kansas City run defense,
was a non factor. Got the ball in the first
play of the game, took a hit, sort of fumbled
it out of bounds, was off the field for a
long time. Did come back later, but again seven carries
for sixteen yards. He had the one target, which was
(28:17):
ruled originally a fumble, then was ruled incomplete, but just
a no show generally speaking. Now on the whole, had
a really nice season. We always joked about Miles Sanders, saying,
don't draft me, and we didn't, and then a lot
of us were regretting that decision. Does one game undo
everything he did during the season. Also keeping in mind
(28:40):
that he's expected to hit free agency as well and
may not be back in Philadelphia. How how do we
feel about Bios Sanders now versus what we did maybe
a month ago. Uh, the Super Bowl doesn't change really
anything for me. It was one game, like he said,
where he kind of got banged up. But what I
(29:02):
just don't think I'm as high on a Miles Sanders
as others might be. I think he's a good running back.
I think he's capable of having some really nice games.
Like if you look at his game log, especially early on,
he had some really big blow up games, but the
final including the playoffs, his final seven games, he topped
sixty five rushing yards once and never had over a hundred.
(29:24):
So I'm wondering if he was starting to break down.
Maybe the big workload was catching up to him. But also,
like you said, he's gonna hit free agency. It's gonna
be hard unless he comes back to Philly to see
him and as in as positive of an environment as
he just played in. Like the Eagles had one of
the best old line. They had the best rushing attack,
I would say, and so much of that is because
(29:44):
of Jalen Hurts in that offensive line. So you take
him off of there and you put him on another team.
To me, he's probably going to be an RB two.
But the point that I think me and you I
know have definitely harped on already is like running back
is gonna look completely different next year because the more
than half the league is free agents. There's a bunch
of people like Dalvin Cook, Aaron Jones, Leonard Fornette, Joe
(30:07):
Mix and who could all be cap casualties and cut
and then they're joining the free agency class, and then
there's a really deep draft class coming in as well.
So um with Philly having to make all the decisions
that they have to make, I think they're going to
let Miles Sanders walk, and obviously his fantasy value is
gonna greatly depend on where he lands, but I don't
(30:28):
I don't foresee myself being super bullish on him in
fantasy next year. He crushed so many career highs this year.
When you look at total touches, uh scrimmage yards, he
was just over what his career high was as a rookie.
Eleven touchdowns when he'd never had more than six in
a season. The twelve hundred rushing yards when he'd never
had more than eight sixties seven in a season. Those
(30:52):
are gonna be hard to match. Simply because wherever he goes,
and I think even if he stays in Philly or
if he goes somewhere else, I don't know that anybody's
and to give him that level of opportunity again, and
I think that's going to make it hard for him
to sort of repeat what he did. I do think
that what we saw the first three years, it's probably
more indicative of who Miles Sanders is and who he's
(31:14):
going to be wherever he goes, because we know this,
running backs right now aren't getting paid really in free agency,
especially not a guy who really has never proven that
he can be a true workhorse back. And you talk
about what he did at the end of the season,
we saw a lot more Knneth Gainwell getting opportunities as
the year went on, as we got late into December, January,
(31:36):
into the playoffs, there was more of an emphasis on
Kenneth Gainwell getting opportunities and sort of de emphasizing Miles Sanders.
So I do think that's going to sort of play
into it. I still think he's potentially a low end
RB two depending on where he goes. We'll see what
the offense is like where he lands. Wherever it is.
But the idea that Miles Sanders is going to somehow
(31:57):
turn a corner and continue to be the guy that
we saw for the first two thirds of this season
heels really hard to believe. But yeah, also, he's not
as bad as what we saw in the Super Bowl either.
So there's like most things, it's a gray area. There's
a whole lot of in between. Despite you know what
random Twitter arguments might have you believe about any random
(32:20):
NFL players. We're not done with the Super Bowl. We're
gonna look back at some of our predictions spoiler alert
they stunk, but we'll talk about that a little bit,
and some other changes going on with the Philadelphia Eagles
that could have a big impact come three. That's after
the break. You're on the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. So
(32:45):
on last week's show, we went and put together some
predictions about what we thought was going to happen in
Super Bowl fifty seven, and maybe for our sake, it
probably would have been better if those things just flew
off into the ether. But all credit to Ryan did Us,
who was diligent and wrote down what we said so
that we could come back and look at it. And um, yeah,
(33:07):
I I have a taste in my mouth, and it
is obviously bitter because we were pretty awful. Floria not good.
It was not good. And also, let's just go through
these because it's it's fine. We can point and laugh
at ourselves. It's all good. Um. I asked you the
leading rush shirt was going to be in this game.
You said it was gonna be Jalen Hurts. I said
it was gonna be Miles Sanders. The actual answer was
(33:29):
Isaiah Pacheco with seventies six yards. You were significantly closer
than I was. Jalen Hurts had the Super Bowl record
for a quarterback seventy rushing yards for Jalen Hurts. Meanwhile,
Miles Sanders, as I mentioned earlier, seven for sixteen. So
kudos to you. You at least were yardage wise, at
least in the ballpark. Without If you told me the
(33:52):
leader besides Hurts would have seventy six and Hurts ran
fifteen times, I'd be like, oh, I'm easily crushing this one.
So I mean, I guess kudos to the Chiefs defense
for Keiden Hurts somewhat contained absolutely so that that one
was was pretty bad for me. Let's see most receptions
you said Jerick McKinnon, who only had three catches for
(34:14):
fifteen yards. I had a j Brown who at least
had six catches for nineties six. The actual answer was
Juju Smith, Schuster and DeVonta Smith, who were tied with
seven apiece. So Jared McKinnon was not the pass catching
factor they used to be a lot of other ways.
I thought he was a good decoy. He was a
(34:34):
lead blocker on on an Isaiah Pachecko touchdown. But yeah,
he was not. He was not a pass catcher at
all this week. No, No, he could have scored a
touchdown if he, you know, selfishly did not slide at
the one to allow his team to win a Super Bowl.
He could have scored one. But uh yeah, I thought
for sure he'd be used more than he was, and
he was on a milk cart and for much of
(34:54):
the game. It's funny too, because if that had happened
during the regular season, I'm sure people would have been
howling on Twitter about how, you know, they had Jered
McKinnon as a flex option and he should have scored
a touchdown and blah, blah blah. I feel like in
the Super Bowl it was more like, hey, that was
a really smart play and good job Jeric McKinnon. So
take away that I've seen is, uh, should we change
(35:16):
the rule where the player gives themselves up the clock stops?
And I don't hate that rule. That's interesting. I never
thought about that, but that's interesting. So like that forces
you either to decide you either score the touchdown or
you gotta run some more plays. I'm willing to entertain that.
I think that's that's kind of a good one. I asked,
will there be a defensive touchdown? We both said no,
(35:38):
although we both said that if it happened, it would
be the Eagles. Wrong. There was a defensive touchdown and
it was not the Eagles. Nick Bolton had a scoop
and score on a Jalen Hurts fumble, and for a
moment it looked like he was going to have a
second one on a Miles Sanders we thought was originally
called a fumble. They overturned that and called that an
incompletion I think even and said, he's like, I knew
(36:01):
that was incomplete, but I was gonna play it out
just to see what happened. So big swinging a miss
right there? Um there, there will never be an easier
defensive touchdown in the Super Bowl than the one that
they scored too. Not dropped it like. It wasn't like
he was he was hit or anything. He just dropped it. Yeah. Yeah,
I know exactly like you. Just the ball just slipped
(36:21):
out of his hands. Uh. The the one that comes
to mind for me is, uh, Jack Squire Wreck for
the Oakland Raiders had an interception on just a just
a lazy sort of outpassed by Joe Eisman in the
Super Bowl back I think super Bowl eighteen. I think
it was. And that was pretty easy too, because I
don't know what Tisman was looking at, but it, Uh,
(36:43):
it was pretty easy. It was a pretty quick and
easy one. Um. We did ask, will Rihanna have more
than two guests? This is the one we got right.
It wasn't even about football. We said no, No, she
did not have more than two guests. Do we count
the baby bump as a guest? I think we can
(37:04):
either way that either it's still less than two. Though.
I thought with no guests and with her just doing
straight songs like, I still thought she killed it. Absolutely No.
I thought it was a great show. She had played
a lot of the hits earlier on Super Bowl Today.
During the week, Patrick Claybne and I put together a
set list that we thought was going to happen. I
think we might have had a ten songs nailed three.
(37:27):
So uh so, not only am I not good at
super Bowl predictions, I can't predict the Rihanna set list either.
She she has so many songs that like, there were
songs that I was like, oh, I forgot this was
even what like you know, like you haven't heard him
in a while. Yeah. In my defense, she did admit
that she had like thirty nine versions of the set
list before they finally settled on one, so you know,
(37:49):
I will chalk that up. Who will be the Super
Bowl m v P We both said Jalen Hurts it
was Patrick Mahomes. And who wins Super Bowl fifty seven?
We both said the Eagles and it was the Chiefs. So,
uh we suck. That was not great? Not great, Bob,
(38:10):
We sort of sucked when it came to that. Well,
we group, I will try again next year. Good thing
we have we have. I think we have decent fantasy advice,
even if our advice and other things sort of sort
of sucks. Um on in the show though, was some
more actual kind of football talk because I talked about
the changes that are coming in Philadelphia and they are
(38:31):
losing both of their coordinators. Offensive coordinator Shane Steiken has
been hired as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, well, he was just at State
Farm Stadium in Glendale. He will call that home now
because he is the Arizona Cardinals head coach. You talked
about a little bit about you know, Jalen Hurts and uh,
(38:53):
you know, the backfield and what's going to happen next year.
What immediate concerns, if any, do you have have about
this Eagles offense knowing that one of the architects of
it is going to be in Indianapolis next year. Yeah,
that's a big one to me. I mean, the o
C is huge, even with someone like Sirianni who has
a offensive background, Like the fact that you're losing your
(39:16):
o C I think always hurts. And then you added
no pun intended there, and then I think, uh, you
add in the potential like they could lose multiple offensive
alignment and that was a key staple of their offense.
So I still think for fantasy Hurts will be fine.
A J. Brown will be fine, to VONSA Smith will
be fine. Um, but for them to be at the
level they were this year, Like if you're a Philly
(39:37):
fan or something like that, or you're looking ahead to
next season, this is a huge off season for Philly
on on both sides of the ball because I believe
it's nineteen of their players or free agents, so that's
a whole lot of them, nineteen altogether, eleven on defense,
They're gonna be a probably a different look to this
Eagles team next year. I think for the most part,
(39:58):
I don't expect anything major to have happened with the Eagles.
I'm curious to see who does come in to take
over the spot there. Um, you know, but I think
this team is already set up in a good position.
Uh you know, they've got Hurts there, They've you know,
they've got two good receivers in A. J. Brown Devanta Smith.
(40:18):
Uh you know, having Dallas Goddard has been a big
boost to the middle of the field there. So we'll see.
I mean there's talk that uh, you know, Brian Johnson
could end up taking over as the offensive coordinator. We'll
see if that happens, I don't know, but that is
gonna be kind of an interesting storyline for the off season. Meanwhile,
stike In going to Indianapolis. This is a team that
(40:41):
you know, they're not a bad team at least on paper.
They had a bad record last year at for twelve
and one. What's the biggest priority you think for stike
In to kind of get this thing turned around next year?
I think the gimme is the quarterback and they're gonna
have their pick of one of the least four of
them in the first round, potentially even moving up to
number one overall. But I think getting Jonathan Taylor going
(41:05):
again it's just as big of a priority, if not bigger.
Like stike And he's been an o C three years
to to the last two with Philly. The year prior
with the Chargers, all three was finished top ten in
rushing attempts uh and he was in the top three
each of the last two years in rushing attempts and
top five in rushing yards in touchdowns. So as great
(41:25):
as the Philly passing attack was this year, their identity
is still comes down to like they were the best
good luck stopping the run when you need to stop
the run against them, and even in the Super Bowl
we saw that, like they're the best short yardage run
team in the league. So I think you really need
to get Jonathan Taylor going again, and and that includes
revamping this offensive line because they went from being one
(41:46):
of the very best to one of the very worst
in an off season. I think there's still talent here.
I think you can you can rebuild it um. Obviously,
getting the quarterback is huge, but protecting the quarterback and
and and being able to help the game goes a
long way for a rookie quarterback as well. Absolutely does.
I think for them the biggest thing has to just
(42:08):
be stability at quarterback. They just need a guy that
they feel like they can work with and develop over
a couple of years. Because you look back, I mean,
Frank Reich took over this team in the belief that
they were going to have Andrew Luck long term. He
gets Luck for one year, then Luck retires in five seasons,
Frank Reich had five different quarterbacks, and there's just no
(42:33):
way to build continuity when you were doing that year
after year. I mean, to go from Andrew Luck to
Jacoby Brissett as sort of a bridge option. Philip Rivers
in his final year, Carson Wentz which turned out to
be sort of a disaster down the stretch, and then
Matt Ryan, who fell apart. It just looked every bit
his age. Um, they've got to get somebody in there,
(42:55):
preferably somebody young that they feel like, Okay, this is
gonna be our guy for the next at least three years,
and we can build with him and see what we have.
That continuity, I think is going to be important, and
so that I think is going to be the chief
option for Stike in But I think you're right in
the short term getting Jonathan Taylor going again until you
find that potential franchise quarterback is a big deal. I
(43:18):
know they said they're gonna try to throw the ball,
but they're gonna have to establish the run as well.
So at least the coach speak part of it seems
to be there for Stike and we'll see whether or
not he's able to put that together on the field.
The Colts, as you mentioned, the number four overall pick,
so they will have, you would think, some options at quarterback,
and maybe they do package some things and try to
(43:39):
move up a spot or two. I mean, look the Bears,
I don't think they're drafting a quarterback in one. I
think that number one pick is out there for the
taking for somebody who can put together the right package. Meanwhile,
Jonathan Gannon goes to Arizona. They have a guy they
think can be a franchise quarterback. They've got a lot
of resources tied up in Kyler Murray, who admittedly is
rehabbing from an injury this offseason. I thought the belief
(44:03):
was going to be that they had to bring somebody
in that could resort of reboot Kyler Murray. I know
they thought Cliff Kingsbury was gonna be the guy to
maximize it. That never happened to two of him, but
it heads Cliff Kingsbury then decided to go off to
Thailand to get his head straight. I joked he was
gonna be in season three of The White Lotus. But
Jonathan Gannon not an offensive guy. What does this mean
(44:27):
for Kyler Murray? I mean, does this mean they have
to bring in a quarterback centric oc to get him
going because it doesn't seem like Gannon is gonna be
that guy. I think so, and I don't love this
higher and nothing against Gannon. Oftentimes, at least in today's NFL,
you want an offensive minded head coach, it's very rare.
(44:49):
I think the last defensive one that worked out, we
could say, is Sean McDermott, and that's going back six
seven years ago now at this point, so um and
also Gannon's defense. They were great this year, but it
took a huge step once they brought in a bunch
of veterans who are like playing at an a whole
pro level, that this Cardinals defense is gonna need to
be completely rebuilt. There there's not a lot of talent
(45:12):
on that side of the ball. And then I always
get concerned with the defensive coach, like are they gonna
want to play to their strengths, which is the defense,
So that means a lot more running the ball, a
lot less chances, and when you have a quarterback like
Kyler Murray, I want them to be out there taking
chances doing what he can do. Like we joked a
lot last season that the Cardinals game plan was like
(45:33):
Cliff Kingsbury managed the show for three and a half
quarters and then asked Kyler Mury to do wizardry type
things at the end of games to kind of drag
them back, and that's a strategy that's very, very hard
to do. So I would have liked an offensive minded
coach here. But I think this is gonna be a
huge offseason for the Cardinals. Like I think d Hop
is gone, James Conner could easily be gone, Marcus Brown's
(45:55):
on the last deal of last year of his contract,
I believe, so. I think just on both sides, ball
like they're entering a rebuild, which is also why I mean,
I know we're we're not anticipating Kyler Murray being back
early in the season, but it wouldn't surprise me if
Kyler misses a large chunk of next season. Just because
this is clearly a rebuilding team. I think they're gonna
(46:15):
be having their eyes towards the future in their draft
stock and stuff like that. I don't see why they
would rush Kyler Mury back from from his severe injury. Yeah,
I mean, it's a good point when you look at
the rest of the division, especially uh and and your
Ryan makes a good point. Ryan Dennis makes a good
point that they give again in a five year deal,
so they are willing to be patient. They're willing to
(46:35):
let him sort of build this thing and unless he
is just completely awful in the first couple of years,
I mean, you know, Urban Meyer level bad. Uh. I
don't think you know they're they're going to cut ties
with him early on because you look at that division, right,
the Niners are still going to be very good. The
Seahawks had a very good year, and they looked like
(46:57):
they potentially could be improving this offseason. I don't think
the Rams are as bad as they played last year.
I think if they can keep some people healthy, I
think you're gonna see them at least be better. Maybe
you know, I don't know they're a contending team, but
I don't think they're a five and twelve team either.
So that does leave you in Arizona sort of in
(47:18):
a situation where maybe you do kind of pause and
and try to begin a rebuild, get Kyler healthy, make
sure you you kind of build around him, and see
what you can do a couple of years from now.
So it's gonna be interesting to see. But it was
a higher that kind of struck me as weird, just
because it didn't seem to fit what the priorities of
the franchise are right now. But we will see how
(47:41):
they decide to handle the off season, and we'll talk
about that and plenty more as the off season begins.
Um So, next week we also start the Florio Film Festival.
I know you mentioned you're in the new place. Now,
do you have the apparatus set up, whether it's your
streaming services, your Xbox, whatever, so you can watch Terminator
to Judgment day. We can talk about it next week. Yep.
(48:04):
I was I was gonna watch it last night, but
then you everyone to kind of agreed we should hold
off a week, and I was like, that works even
better for me. I almost watched it two nights ago,
and then I realized I didn't have the Xbox and
by the time I found that in my wires and everything,
I was like, I don't feel like watching a movie
right now. But I will have it watched by next
Wednesday and be very, very excited to talk about it.
(48:25):
I will also say that our our pal Patrick Claibon
has asked if he could come in and be a
part of this segment, at least for Terminator too, because
as far as I know, he is our resident T
two expert when it comes to all things Terminator to
Judgment day. I trust Patrick Claiborn and so he has
(48:47):
requested jumping in, So I I feel like we should
invite him in and he can talk about T two
with us. Next week. He is welcome to talk about
every movie we watch and every like. I love Patrick.
If he wants to join us every single week, have
at it. Come on, because are you coming to talk
football with us? And you can stick around and talk
nineties action movies with us because that is going to
(49:10):
be I think entertaining. So we will do our best
to make that happen starting next week's Yeah good, come
on back. Next week Florio's Film Festival starts. Well, of course,
we'll talk some fantasy football and the whole like, but
we're gonna talk some movies because it's the off season
and we can do that because we got extra time
to do so right now though, I think that's a
pretty good spot to pull the shoot on this episode.
So we appreciate you hanging out with us. Hopefully you
(49:31):
enjoyed the Super Bowl. I know we did. Hopefully you
enjoyed this episode of the show. That'll do it for
this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. For Mike,
I am Marcus, stay happy, safe and healthy, do good
and live well, and we'll talk to you again real soon.
W M, I don't don't as all fare well
Hosts And Creators
Marcas Grant
Adam Rank
Michael F. Florio
Kimmi Chex
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