Late-Round Perspectives: Jeff Ratcliffe Returns

FTN Fantasy's Jeff Ratcliffe comes back for another Perspectives visit to talk about his biggest Week 1 surprises, offenses who disappointed last week, buy and sell candidates, and so much more.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jeff Radcliffe is a Late Round Perspectives return guests who's
a host on Sirius XM and the president at FTN Fantasy.
He's done work for CBS Sports and Pro Football Focus
in the past.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He's a dad. He's got a PhD in anthropology.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
These are his Late Round Perspectives. This episode is sponsored
by DraftKings. There's no better way to get closer to

(00:35):
the action. With DraftKings Daily Fantasy, the ultimate destination for
football fans. New customers can play free for their share
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Speaker 2 (00:45):
Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app and.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
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Speaker 2 (01:08):
Now back to the show.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
You were the sole person as I walked into the
Hall of Fame at the Expo with the belt on my.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Shoulder that said, you know what, he should be able
to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Yeah, I mean, if you're the champ, you have the
bragging rights. And I love that. I think that's an
awesome flex to show up with the trophy, the belt
with football draft.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, Like, why are we playing if you can't do that?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Right exactly, Like that's the whole that's the whole point
is that we you know, I won the Snake Draft
last year in that league, and I wanted people to
remember that I won that league last year. I had
the luxury of you know, I drive up to Canton
every year from Charlotte.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's like a six and a half hour drive.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Whereas Rotopat was the other winner of the Auction League
last year, and he's flying and I would imagine taking
this like the belt's heavy, Like they're not light belts.
I'm sure that a lot of people listening have had, like,
you know, different trophies and and and such, and uh,
you know, Rotopat, you know, taking that through security might
be a little bit of a problem just because of
how heavy that thing is.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
I had that happen one time.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
I was actually out a trophy smack and they gave
me a belt to bring home from LA and I
had to take it out going through and had to
explain it. Of course, like TSA, they were all laughing
about it. They're like like, look at this ding dong
with a belt. But I mean, if anything, you can
get through. But I wouldn't want to travel with it,
like like root apad either.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that is the nerdiest flex
of all time.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
When you're in the TSA line and you've got a
you've got this this belt, people are looking at you
like you're either a professional wrestler or or you're a
fantasy football nerd.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
One of the one of the two is professional nerd.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, professional nerd is really what it is.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Now, look, Jeff, you've been on perspectives in the past,
so we don't need to like dig into the past
and all that, and like you know, your your journey
in the space. I just want to get right to it.
I just want to talk about what happened in week one.
People are to hear some takes from someone that's not
me within the podcast feed.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
So I'll just ask you this straight up.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
What was the biggest fantasy football surprise for you stemming
from Week one.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
It was actually there were two players I was thinking
about here, but one of them being Daniel Jones. Although
the fact that Daniel Jones can run is not a surprise,
so I'm going to toss him.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
The surprise was Quinton Johnston.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
This is a player who we saw drop three footballs
in a single football game last year, three passes and
six down the stretch. And honestly, he was headed towards
bus territory for sure, not for fantasy but for overall
NFL purposes.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
This is a former first rounder, right.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
But what I think they were doing wrong in LA
is using him as a downfield guy like a TCU.
He was a run after catch guy, you know, big
bodied player, but get the ball in his hands and
good things will happen. And that's sort of what we
saw there. Now, there were some downfield targets, don't get
me wrong, but I think a lot of times with
these guys, it's more about getting them comfortable first and foremost,
and then the good things start to happen from there. Now,

(03:59):
I don't know if this is sustainable. He also was
out targeted by both Keenan Allen and Ladd McConkey. But
if this is sustainable, if we do land somebody like
him on waivers at the beginning of the season, that
will prove to be one of the biggest surprises of
the whole year.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
For me.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, I mean me too.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I definitely wasn't high on him, And like, do you
still like if you know? I don't know if you
do rest of the season rankings or not, but if
you are, you know, do you still have Keenan Allen
and Lad mcconakey ahead of him in those rest of
season rankings?

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (04:27):
I do, And I actually had Keenan Allen as the
better waiver ad only slightly this week. It was really close,
and we know this week was not a good waiver week,
but I still have them ahead. Of course, everything's fluid
with rankings, and if we get another week of big
production out of him, it's going to be hard to
keep him lower in rankings. But one week in the NFL,
especially week one, it can be a fluke. You know,

(04:47):
the cautionary tale of Kevin Ogletree will be told year
in and year out, and maybe that's him, maybe it
isn't him.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
We won't know ultimately until this week.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
But I'm really excited by the passing game, in particular
for the Chargers.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point to make too,
is because they had the highest pass rate over expected
in the NFL in Week one. The Chargers did. Now
how much of that was personnel driven and matchup driven?
You know, I think Kansas City's gonna Kansas City might
end up being sort of a pass funnel type team,
maybe like a Minnesota that we've seen over the last
couple of years. So I think that definitely, you know,
played some role. But this is an extension of what

(05:20):
we saw last year when Justin Herbert finally got healthy. Like,
I feel like one of the edges that we might
be able to have in fantasy football entering a season
is the kind of just going against the generally accepted
claims that people have about certain coordinators and certain offenses.
I think another instance of this would be in Pittsburgh
with Arthur Smith, where yes, he's frustrating as can be

(05:44):
with his personnel deployment, right, Like, I mean, Kenneth Gainwell
led that team the backfield and snaps this past week,
But if you look back at Arthur Smith's history he's
had a quarterback like a semi legit quarterback and then
not had Derrick Henry. So I shouldn't say that Ryan
Tannehill when he had Tannehill wasn't legit because he actually
was really efficient, but he had Dereck Henry there, so
obviously they're gonna be run heavy the one season he

(06:05):
had Matt Ryan, right, and in that year, the first
year he got to Atlanta, they were top ten in
the league in pass rate that year, you know, And
I wonder if and I said that to myself, and
I said that on shows a lot in the preseason,
like what if the Steelers aren't nearly as run heavy
as everyone just expects, and then all of a sudden
we get more usability out of the pass catchers and
maybe even Aaron Rodgers. Now that's a situation that personnel

(06:27):
wise isn't nearly as strong as LA. But what if
we're seeing that with LA, like we could see legit
league winning upside from a lot of these guys in
that Chargers offense as a result.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
I mean, you point out just the general practice that
I like to have in fantasy is going to where
people aren't and not just doing so for the sake
of doing so, if there's an exploitable area, and you
know game theory ideas here, if there's an exploitable area,
we can pivot to those areas and gain an advantage.
You know, I talked about it a whole bunch over
the draft season, like whether people realize it or not,

(06:57):
Like ninety percent of people out there are value based
drafts because they're drafting based off of overall rankings, which
are created, you know, with value of a replacement. So
they're all value based drafters. So today there's no value.
Value doesn't exist anymore, so we have to go to
other places to find that value and maybe apply other strategies. Right, well,
the same thing can apply here, yes, Arthur Smith. Now,
as you were saying that, though, I'm like, but was

(07:18):
the passing game just the run game because Aaron Rodgers
wasn't throwing very far down percent?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah, I think that's right.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
But from the perspective of like pass rate and they
what we might see at the end, you're totally right, though.
I mean, Aaron Rodgers had the lowest a daughter you know,
ari ars per attempt in football this past week. So
that's a very very good point.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
To add for sure, Dk Metcalf was such a beast
after catch. I mean, I don't know how sustainable that is,
but seventy three of his eighty three yards came after catch.
If they're going to do more of that, I mean,
Dk is at least a person you can lean into there,
just given a size profile.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
So I like that. But yeah, I think you're onto
something here. You know.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yes, you think Greg Roman and Harball, you think run, run, run, run, run. Now,
granted though Kanseity Chiefs are tremendous against the run, and
that proved to be the case in Week one, I'm
curious to see once Naji Harris gets off the speed
a little bit more, what is that going to look like.
Are they just going to continue to lean on a
Marien Hampton or will they actually work Harris in and
do a little bit of a one to two with

(08:12):
those two guys.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, one hundred percent, one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
And look, I'm not saying that it's definitely gonna go
one of these directions. I think it's just about having
an open mind about the way that these directions can go.
You know, Like, I'm sure the Steelers will be a
lot more run heavy and maybe the Chargers will too.
I mean, look, the Chargers are not going to maintain
like a sixteen percent pass rate over expected rate throughout
the entire season. It's just really good to see that
they're opening things up for Justin Herbert and we might

(08:35):
be able to see, you know, more pass cutters be
relevant in that offense as a result. One of the
things after week one that often happens is we get
these disappointing players and these disappointing performances, and then we
sort of assume that the players who are good that
disappointed or you know, not even necessarily elite like an
AJ Brown, but just like anyone who just had a
disappointing performance, we just assume, oh, we drafted them relatively high,

(08:58):
so therefore they're gonna bounce back, they're gonna have a
good year. But is there a player from week one
that you look at and you say to yourself, I'm
actually a little bit concerned here, Like, I don't think
that this.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Is locked in, that this player is going to bounce back.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
If you're gonna go higher, Because like down the list,
he was one of the players that I got asked
a ton about.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Would you drop him?

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Like I wasn't even drafting him, but man, that was
very concerning and basically Jackson Smith and Jig was the
entire offense. But let's go to a player who was
actually drafted somewhat earlier, Kenneth Walker.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
The RB dead zone strikes again, right.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
He was largely drafted in the third round, if not
the fourth round, And I actually shifted my perspective on
that backfield pretty dramatically in the course of fantasy draft season.
It was a couple of things that was Kenneth Walker
unable to get onto the field, and then Clint Kubiak
came out and he specifically noted the consistency out of

(09:51):
Zach Sharbonay and he started singing his praises and sometimes
coaches do that for the sake of doing it, but
there was a few things where he said, hey, this
is a priority and by the way, Zach, Zach does
that right, Yeah, And there was momentum building there that
this is no longer a one to two situation. This
is a true time share situation. And Zach Scharbonay did
play more snaps last week. Now it doesn't guarantees going

(10:13):
to this week, but I do think Kenneth Walker is
really ultimately gonna be a big time disappointment for a
lot of fantasy managers out there.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
You know, I got a rant for a second.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
I mean, I'm talking to a guy that has a podcast,
you know, with you know that's all about Grant. I
got to talk about how I've been talking about Kenneth
Walker versus Zach Sharbonay for since since sharbon A entwered
the league saying that he's the more consistent, grinded out
runner and Walker is the more home run hitting guy.
And last year was when I I heavily invested in Sharbona.

(10:43):
And then I'm like, you know what, coaching staff after
coaching staff now have just given Kenneth Walker the backfield share.
And so I say to myself, Okay, likely that's what
we'll see again because he's coaching. And clearly Kenneth Walker
is a good talent, like we know that he has
a lot of upside. And so this was the year
that I went in and I'm like, you know what,
I'm gonna draft Kenneth Walker more than I usually draft
Kenneth Walker.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
And lo and.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Behold, this is the year where we probably shouldn't have
done that, Like, I do you think that there's any
part of the injury that played a role in Week
one in that usage that we saw from him.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
I would think it has to. But yeah, that's the
problem with Kenneth Walker is he's just has an inability
to stay healthy.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
And it's worse with him that it's not season enders.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
It's like these Rando two or three week absences or
these nagging injuries that really put a damper on things.
I'll tell you honestly, this reminded me a lot of
I just talked about coaches talking about a particular thing
and then saying the guy has that thing. We heard
accuracy out of Sheen psych and and it was accuracy
all off season long. And by the way, Daniel Jones
he has some pretty good accuracy. I think that whole

(11:44):
thing was a dog and pony show. By the way,
I think it was Daniel Jones from the jump as
soon as they signed him, and they just had to
kind of make it look like Anthony Richardson had a shot.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
But when I hear coach is really key in on
certain things that they want in their offense and then
name players who at those things, my ears perk up,
so I had actually flipped. I had sharbona is a
guy who I wasn't drafting early in August to a
guy who I was really heavily targeting in the middle
rounds by the time we got into the herd of
fantasy draft season.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
To me, coach speak is probably most important at the
running back position because in the end, they're making the
decisions of who's going to be on the field and
who's not. Like we could very easily they could have
just said, hey, we won Kenneth Walker on the field,
even if it's the exact same player doing the exact
same thing.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
That's what drives fantasy football.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
So you have to pay attention to coach speak, you know,
with these with these backfield is probably more than any
other part of the of the you know, offense. Are
there any lower key ads that you're looking at off
the waiver wire that you think people might have missed
this week?

Speaker 4 (12:39):
I do think there's one. Now it's gonna be it's
gonna take time. Like if you're adding somebody who you
expect to start this week, this is not the name
for you, but it's Isaac Tesla. Every time this dude
is on the football field, something good happens. He showed
up every single week in the preseason. We got to
see them an extra game because of the Hall of
Fame game. He made things happen. I think ultimately all
of that is what forced their hand to trade Tim

(13:00):
Patrick away. And now while he was behind Khalif Raymond,
he goes out there and makes look like the catch
of the league. They are going to be forced to
get him on the field if you add him. Now,
he was widely overlooked because people are going after Quentin
Johnson and Hollywood Brown and maybe Keenan Allen and Kashawan
Boody and guys like that, Citric Tillman whatever. I think
this could pay dividends down the line, but you just

(13:22):
have to make sure you're you're patient. And with waivers,
they tend to be jj like, really reactive. Most folks
want to save their waiver priority if they're in traditional
waiver leagues because they want to get the guy who
broke out. I don't want to be that. I want
to be proactive. I want to have the dude who
broke out on my bench right. I want everybody to
go to waivers on Tuesday and be like, oh, come on,

(13:42):
Ratcliffe has him? What the heck?

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Right? I think that could be Isaac Tesla. Now there's
lots of mouths to feed there. I get that.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
But again, when a player plays this well, it is
hard to keep him off the field, and he's going
to just keep showing up.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
I feel that way similar, Like I like that call
out a lot, especially because like when you can, when
you can stash a play who you know has contingent
upside too, which is what we get with him, Like,
I like, how how viable will he be with if
JMO and I'm and Ross Saint Brown and Samuel Porter
are all healthy, who knows? I mean a lot of
you guys are probably probably playing in deeper leagues, so
you can still you know, stash him and maybe even
use him. But if I mean, if JMO goes down

(14:15):
knock on Wood, you know, if I'm and Ross Saint
Brown goes down knock on Wood, then all of a sudden, very.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Very viable piece and usable piece in fantasy.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Another player that's like that to me who actually had
the peripherals this past week was elk iamanor who I mean?
He had a twenty eight percent target share. You know,
ran a really good route rate. You know, obviously there's
some question marks with you know, how good this Titans
offen is going to be. But they played Denver in
Week one, so how much can we really take away
from that kind of matchup.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Are you in on elk Iaman or you think that's
a decent call out too.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
I actually had him relatively high in rookie rankings way
back in Dynasty rookie draft season. So he ran the
twenty nine routes, as you mentioned, really good route rate.
Get this though, forty five percent of the more nine routes.
So kid, run down the field, let's go make some
plays and ultimate they're going to start connecting on those balls.
And by the way, to anybody out there, the further
the ball travels in the year, the lower the completion

(15:05):
rate is going to be. We're not going to connect
on a lot of those throws twenty plus or further downfield.
But when they connect, oh boy, we're going to see
some fireworks here. And you know, he worked his way
up there. I was surprised Van Jefferson was even in
a starting conversation. I'm always surprised that he is when
he is. But he worked his way into that spot.

(15:26):
And I mean, this is a kid who obviously produce
at the college level, was a little bit overlooked there,
but shows up does well at the combine. Obviously kind
of flies under the radar for a lot of folks,
but he's no longer, you know, flying under the radar.
People know who he is. By the way, Canadian too.
I love that shout out Canada with him, but adding
him in even regular sized leagues to wait, I think

(15:47):
it's a great move.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Yeah, yeah, I mean his journey was wild, Like he
went from Canada and then he like played in Massachusetts
in high school, and then everyone thought, like it seemed
like in the pre draft process he was going to
be a day two pick, and he ended up going
way later than than most like mocks, you know, thought
that he would go and then lo and behold, he's
what he's basically like the day three wide receiver right
now that that people are are most interested and I'm

(16:09):
still interested to see what happens with like a Tory
Horton too, just based on the hype that he was getting,
you know.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Out of camp.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
All right, we got to talk about this tank bigsby trade.
He goes to the Eagles. How are you looking at
that Jacksonville backfield right now? And then another question like
how do you feel about Tank Bigsby. Is he someone
that you think would be a handcuff, like a direct
handcuff to Saquon Barkley or do you still anticipate sort
of a split backfield if Barkley were to go down.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Yeah, so, I mean first and foremost, Uh, the ETN
performance easily could have been one of the most surprising
in Week one. You know, we've seen him kind of
circling the drain a little bit here, wasn't quite the
player that we thought he was going to be coming
out of the college level. Well that was the player
that was the player right there. And Liam Cohen's run game,
let's be really clear about it, was extremely effective.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Last year.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
It was you know, Rashad White, okay, fine, but Tank Bigsby,
And then even going back into the preseason last year
in Tampa, Sean Tucker was awesome. You know, yeah, it's
the run scheme there. So I love this for ETN.
If you kind of reluctantly put his sticker on the board,
because there was no way a slapping that sticker up
there with confidence during the draft season, you made out
here and we're gonna see is it baseil Tuton or

(17:17):
is it Laquin Allen or is it both? Because they
kind of liked both of these guys, spent reasonably high
picks on both of them. We'll see going forward. But
now for the Philly backfield, this is interesting. There was
a quote out there, and it always cracks me up
that this guy's name is Michael Clay, the special teams
coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles, but he said that they
really valued him as a kick returner. That was one

(17:39):
of the primary reasons why they were going out and
getting him. And last week we saw kick returns, massive
amount of them, so much more important this year than
it was last year. So number one he slots in
is the number one kick returner this week, It'll be
interesting to see what they do with him. Is he
running ahead of AJ Dillon because Will Shipley doesn't look
like he's gonna play. I think it might be more
of a response to their not fully confident in AJ Dillon,

(18:01):
and they want a guy who, if he's going to dress,
will also work on teams for them. That's really important
for those final roster spots, and especially if you get
a running back out there who can return for you,
that's very, very important.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
I think it's.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Probably a split. It's Shipley doing his seeing. He's looked good,
I mean good before the injury, and then Bigsby can
give you a little as well. But it's just really
hard to replace Sequon Barkley if he goes down with
one guy.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, no, one hundred percent, I mean Bigsby.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
My take on Bigsby two has always been like he's
not been a pass catcher in the NFL. He's actually
been a really inefficient pass catcher in the NFL, and
like he got volume in college, and you know, my
model actually didn't mind him at all because of that volume.
But when you kind of dig in, like he wasn't
a super effective pass catcher even at Auburn, So it's
like you add it all together and more than likely
he's just not that kind of player.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
But well, Shipley is that kind of player.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
So I do think that like the two of them combined,
if Barkley again, we're all knocking on wood. We don't
want Saquon Barkley to get injured, but you know, we
have to understand and think about the contingency plans here.
If something like that were to happen, I do think
there'd be a split between the two as well, the
Jets offense another that whole game.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
Was just a surprise in general.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I mean it was the most weak one thing of
all time watching the Jets and Steelers be be one
of the big I guess it wasn't the biggest shootout
after what we saw.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
With Baltimore and Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
But are you bought into the Jets offense or do
you think it's just sort of like a one off,
kind of weird thing.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
That's a really good question because it's almost like a
yes and no, Like there are parts of it that
I'm definitely bought in on. I mean, we know that
if you're a mobile quarterback to the extent that Justin
Fields is, your fantasy floor is massive. A lot of
times I think that the folks out there think that
that's a ceiling aspect, but it's actually a floor. Like
he goes out, he runs for sixty yards. I mean
that's a touchdown and a half of fantasy points in

(19:44):
terms of passing touchdowns, that's massive just as a starting spot.
I thought he threw the ball well, but it's concerning
that he only had twenty two passing attempts. So for
Garrett Wilson's sake, looking at him downfield, I mean, all
of the work there was good. Mason Taylor, by the way,
is banged up right now, so we'll have to see
what happens with him. Not that he was heavily involved,
but that's the element. Where is the passing ceiling for

(20:06):
the offense and for justin fields, I'm not quite sure
it's there. Because they're going to run the craft out
of the football. He's gonna run. Breese, who looked pretty
good in that run scheme, is going to run. The
only concern for him is when they get into the
red area, especially down in the gold line, you're gonna
see Brayleen Allen probably come in. I mean, it's hard
to not put a two hundred and thirty five pounds
six foot back out there and have them there in

(20:26):
those situations. So it does take a little luster off
of him, Breece Hall that is. But still they're improved
and it's abundantly clear that that Detroit mindset that came
with them is working, at least initially here. If you
drafted Justin Fields, though in particular you drafted him in
the late rounds maybe in one quarterback league where you
drafted him to be your second quarterback in super flex.

(20:48):
I do think this is sustainable. He has a long
leash and I think he's going to be a very
good producer like he was QB what was it. It
was QB six over the first six weeks of the
year last year for Pittsburgh and that was with Arthur Smith,
like basically the reins.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
On him the whole time. Yeah, so a very high
ceiling there, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
I think a lot of like the preseason stuff with
them too, is that what are you really gonna learn
from a Jets offense that isn't allowing Justin Fields to
be himself in the preseason becau, they don't want him
to get hurt, Like they don't want him to escape
the pocket and do the things that Justin Fields does.
So I do think that like a lot of that
stuff was probably overblown, like you said, I mean there
was a play on the for like their first drive

(21:25):
whereas like third and eleven or third and ten, and
they ran it and they gave it to Isaiah Davis
and it was like in Steelers Terror Like it was
not a I mean, like ninety nine percent of the
time teams are running a passing play at least a
screen on that kind of play, and they ran it,
and I sent a tweet out. I was like, I
was like, if this is any indication of how the
Jets offense gonna go this year.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, they're gonna be. They're gonna be a run heavy offense.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
You know what happens when that true negative game script hits,
which they might hit this weekend because they have a
tougher matchup, you know, against Buffalo.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
All right, I'm gonna ask you a sort of this
or that couple questions here about offenses across the league.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Which offense are you more nervous about right now? We'll
go with Houston or Denver.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
Oh, definitely Houston. I'm not actually overly concerned about Denver.
Sean Payton did note that they went a little too
pass heavy. I would say more than just a little
too half pass heavy in the beginning of that game.
If they can get that a little bit more balance,
and I mean, come on, Archie Harvey, you know he's
so fast and explosive, just a few more touches, just
a few more touches, but not overly concerned about them.

(22:26):
I thought, obviously Courtland Sutton look just fine. Troy Franklin
showing up a little bit there, his ascension has continued here.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Houston.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
I definitely have some concerns about and it's not necessarily
a Nico conversation. I know people are concerned about him.
He's extremely talented. He's going to get his regardless, but
how much do the the younger receivers and it's all
of the Iowa State kids, because there's three of them
on the roster, how do they produce? Here? Can Christian
Kirk manage to get healthy? The backfield is concerning and

(22:56):
it's fascinating to watch Nick Chubb because you could see
old Nick Chubb is sort of there, like he had
seven for Smith tackles on those runs, but there's just
no juice anymore. And it's a shame because he's one
of my favorite running backs of that generation. He's a
throwback dude. Yeah, and there were points at in his career,
especially early on, where it was like this dude could
take anything to the house. You can't do that now.

(23:19):
And even when mixing's back. I'm not convinced mixing can
be that much of a thing. So and I'm sorry
for the Woody Marx people out there. I'd love that
to happen, but I'm just not convinced that any of
the backfield works. And without that, it is going to
be really tough for this team to sustain. They can't
put it all on CJ.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Stroud.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's it's a brand new offensive line.
I mean there are pieces there that everyone was pretty
concerned about. And I mean you go up against a
Rams front that we know can generate pressure and can
get to the quarterback, and it was a tough matchup
on paper for them. And I'm concerned too about what
that offensive line looks like. I don't think that they're
gonna have any semblance of a run game. I saw
the same thing with Chubb as well. It's like, all right,

(23:56):
if you don't have the holes, you can maybe break
some tackles, but you got to be able to at
least get one or two of those big runs per
game to be sustainable from a fantasy perspective.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
And I just don't know if it's going to be there.
Even if Saldamiko Ryans came out.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
He's like, we want to get Nick chubbed the ball
a little bit more, but personnel doesn't allow for it.
I mean, you can't just do that, like you can
say you want to do it, but it's not going
to be very easy to actually implement that and do that.
Let's talk about other offenses. This is sort of like
lower tiered. So we went from Houston and Denver. People
were excited about Houston this year, obviously, people have high
hopes for Denver. Now let's go sort of a tier down,

(24:32):
maybe even multiple tiers down. You get Carolina and Miami.
Which offense of those two are you more nervous about
right now?

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (24:39):
Boy, I think that we don't get any lower in
terms of tiers right here. These are two of the
worst teams unfortunately in the NFL right now, honestly, believe
it or not. And I think this has to do
with coaching a little bit too. And it pains me
to say this, but it is Miami. I don't know
if Mike McDaniel makes it through the entire season. He
was visibly just completely flustered after the game, and Okay,

(25:00):
Tua did not look himself.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
He was off in that game.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
Tyreek Hill wasn't able to get much done, and now
there's all field stuff clouding his future as suspension could happen.
We don't know now. There's no charges pressed against him,
but there are allegations in the divorce filings, so the
NFL is already investigating there. Jalen Waddle has not looked
like the same player he was earlier in his career.
I will say devant A Chan still looked like devant

(25:25):
a Chance still looked awesome. Only ten touches, though, I'd
love to see more there, but I'm not concerned about him.
But overall the state of the entire team, they looked
absolutely dreadful. We'll see if they can bounce back against
the Patriots, but I have more concerns for them.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, there's like this weird balance of because like we
look at a team like Cincinnati, where are like, Okay,
we know the defense isn't very good, and therefore we're
more bullish on the offense because they're gonna have to
play catch up all the time, et cetera, et cetera.
And you look at that with my Miami's defense might
be one of the worst units that. I mean, at
least the secondary is really horrific, right, and so offense
are going to have their day against them. The problem though,

(26:01):
is that sometimes offenses, like in those environments, offenses like
the opposing offenses are gonna have great time of possession,
you know, be able to do whatever they want on offense,
and then when you get the ball back, if you
don't have a foundation like the Bengals do, you can't
really take advantage of those negative games scrips from like
a stat padding perspective, like from a fantasy perspective, and like,

(26:23):
that's what scares the living crap out of me with
Miami right now, is that, like the offensive line not
strong at all, right, Tua, like you said, didn't look
good in that Week one game. It shouldn't have been
that that difficult of a matchup. It's sort of like
a middle of the road type matchup. But it was
in a domed environment too. You know, there's there's reasons
that we that we should have seen more from that

(26:43):
Miami offense. Whereas with Carolina, I mean, I think the
infrastructure with Carolina is at least like semi there.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Like the offensive line isn't that bad. I just think
it's gonna come down to.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Bryce Young, and I just you know, was there anyone
in that Carolina offense that you still feel okay about
moving forward?

Speaker 4 (27:00):
I actually feel really good about tetor Roha mconnough. I
thought it was a great debut for him. He stepped up,
and then Cuba is Cuba, and that didn't change. He's
an RB two. He's gonna produce like an RB two
and the world needs RB twos in fantasy. He's going
to be just that very little competition for touches for
him in that backfield. I believe in Dave Canalis. I
think that's really what this comes down to. Last year

(27:22):
he benched Bryce Young. That is the kiss of death
in most instances, and Bryce Young took that motivationally and
turned it around.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
That is really impressive.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
And yes Bryce deserves credit, but so too to Canalist
because obviously that could be handled in a multitude of
bad ways. He obviously didn't do that. So I think
it's just going to be a slow and steady thing here.
Their defense isn't going to help them. But I do
think that Bryce will improve as we as we go
forward here, and hopefully they'll get Xavier le get involved
a little bit more. Obviously there's opportunity for him, but

(27:56):
we still have yet to see him really truly flash.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
I mean, look, we talked a little bit about the
Jags earlier and they faced the Jags and this is
not in the show sheet, but I do want to
throw it out there, like, did you watch Trevor Lawrence
and that offense too, and would they fall in this
same bucket or are you more optimistic about what they
have going on versus Carolina and Miami.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Well, the run game was good, So I have a
little saying, and I talk about this often in the
preseason because you know, you'll see a preseason game and
a guy will go off and they'll be like, oh, what.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
It was against the number twos or exams?

Speaker 4 (28:26):
The number three is, Well, they're supposed to go off
against them, So that's a good thing, right if they
go off. I don't care who they're playing against. If
you do what you're supposed to do, then it's a
good thing. Trevor Lawrence was supposed to go off, even
if it wasn't four hundred yards and five touchdowns, Like
give me two seventy five and two you know, show
up and do a little bit more. He did not

(28:46):
do that, And like, honestly, I don't I'm not gonna
panic if I have Brian Thomas and I'm not gonna
panic if I have Travis Hunter. But that it was
a little concerning. The only productivity we got out of
Brian Thomas was a rushing touchdown like that is that
is concerning there. But again, I do believe in Liam Cohen.
You know, we saw him help Baker Mayfield to a
career year. We saw what he could do in that offense.

(29:09):
And it's not just there, it's every step of the way.
And we have, you know, some of the his ideas
obviously blended with the McVeigh ideas from his time with
the Rams. So I think it's just gonna take a
little bit. I mean, you're wiping the stink of and
declining Doug. So, Doug Peterson, right, you're one, good, You're two, eh,
you're three. All right, we're gonna fire him, right, That's
that's the progression usually for him. You got to get

(29:31):
rid of all of that. It doesn't happen in one week.
They obviously spend a lot of time reworking the overall
state of the roster with Gladstone in there as well.
So I think it's gonna take time. I'm not gonna
throw in the towel on them just yet.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, I feel the same way. And look, this this
week is what another one of those weeks.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
So they get Cincinnati and you're sitting there and you're like,
if we don't see it this weekend, that that to
me is when you start from.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
A passing attack perspective, right, if we don't see something.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
And I know Cincinnati's defense played fine in Week one,
but obviously, you know, going up against Joe Flacco, it's
a divisional game, it's a little bit different versus the
highest over under on the slate, you know, and this
supposing or supposed to be a shootout, you know, against Jacksonville.
I don't know, man, if we don't see it this weekend,
I'm gonna that's when I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
At least start to found the alarms, all right.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
You mentioned the Buccaneers with Liam Cohen a mecha Buca, right,
I mean, he is, He's an enigma. I mean, the
dude is I don't know if you've heard the interviews
with him, but he came out there was an interview
I saw where he starts talking about like how he
loves superheroes, how he's a big gamer, he likes Elden
ring on one of the nerdiest games you can find
out there, and then all the while he called his

(30:40):
shot at the end of that game against Atlanta this
past week, and he scored the game winning touchdown, obviously,
And so we see all that go down, and is
he now a top twenty wide receiver in fantasy football?
Like are you feeling good about that? Or are you
still concerned about what happens when Chris Godwin comes back.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
I think you have to be concerned with that. But
we don't know which Chris gotten we're gonna get. Before
the injury last year he was brilliant, like he was incredible,
So you still have Mike Evans there as well, So
that has to be factored in.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
And I mean six targets. I guess I have to
go to that first and foremost.

Speaker 4 (31:15):
If this was a game where he saw he scored
the two touchdowns score and saw thirteen targets, well I'd
probably be singing in a slightly different tune. So often
in fantasy when we look back, we look at fantasy points,
but then there's context that hides within those fantasy points,
and that is the key context here.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Now that could change after.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
This week, but I think top twenty is maybe a
little aggressive, although I will say, like Ohio State wide
receivers like this era, Man has been dominated by these guys,
and the scary thing for people who don't follow college football,
he wasn't the best receiver on the team last year
in at Ohio State. That's really scary right there, but
obviously a great start form. I believe in him as

(31:53):
a wide receiver. Three going forward ego and godwins back.
But I'm not willing to go up into the top twenty.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
All right, So I'm gonna ask you a MECHG BUK
versus player X, And you might say player X throughout
all of these, but I'm just curious and it'll allow
people to kind of see where you're at, all.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Right, A metag Buca versus Roman dunsa.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
Oh, I like what a Dunsay did, But I'm actually
gonna go with Buca there. The overall inconsistency of the
Bears is what's gonna hold me back. I'm more confident
in Baker Mayfield than I am in Kayleb Williams.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, I think that's that's the right call.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
I mean, there's there's just a lot of Also, I
had to throw the Roma Dunsay thing out there. People
are gonna laugh at this because there's been a big,
big controversy.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
It's not really controversy, but uh, there's been a lot
of talk.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
I had a podcast earlier in the off season where
I talked about liking Agbuka more than a Dunza in Dynasty,
and it was right after the draft had happened, and
I saw it as sort of like a you know,
game theory re roll situation between the two, right, and
then it became a big thing. And now we're sitting
in redraft and people like Egbuka more than a Dounsa.
So I had to just throw that at Dunsay one
out there as the first one. All right, Well, go

(32:54):
Igbuka or Ricky Piersall. Maybe you just like a Dunday
more than piersaal, but I'll at least throw the name
out there.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
Yeah, it's it's definitely a Buca there. Pearsall was another one.
Great yardage production, but the target volume is a little
concerning and eventually, in theory, the forty nine ers should
get healthy.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
And thus up with that team. All that it's.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Constant in the Shanahan era. I like Pearsol from a
ceiling standpoint, no doubt about it. It's gonna be a
little tough if we get multiple weeks of Mac Jones
out there, because I have no idea what to expect
out of him. It could be good, who knows, yea,
but yeah, definitely, I think we're going to be better
off with a Buca.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
You know what, I have another player that I should
have thrown on here and hopefully this isn't going to
throw you too much for a loop, but Buka or
Zay Flowers.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Say Flowers, I can automatically say that one. There's very
little competition for targets there. I'm not a shot Bateman guy.
You know, tes Walker take a step forward. I mean
I loved him at North Carolina, but he obviously came
in as a as a green player, and we saw Lamar,
I mean Lamar. The growth that this dude has had
as a passer at the pro level is really remarkable.

(33:58):
Not that he was like, he wasn't a slouch coming
into the league. He had that one brilliant year, but
really think four thousand year yard seasons might be few
and far between for Lamar. Now I'm thinking no, they
might be the new normal. Not forty nine hundred yards,
but at least four thousand yards in that thirty touchdown
range or higher every year. And Zay's the primary beneficiary

(34:19):
of all that work.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah, I'm throwing I threw Zay out there because if
I'm gonna toot my horn about like Buca versus at Dooonzay,
I wasn't high enough on Jay entering the season, so
I have to, you know, I have to have to
take the early season l so far, all right, Well,
look at Igbuka versus DK metcalf.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
I gotta go DK here. And again it comes down
to competition for targets. When you look at the way
their wide receivers were used. There was only one other
full time wide receiver was Calvin Austin, and then they
were basically going twelve personnel and rotating through like it
was Friarmuth and Darnell out there, and then John who
actually led the way and snaps out of the tight ends.
So I think we're going to continue to see that,

(34:55):
because like, who do you feel confident in you know
you're gonna roll skronic out there for sixty percent of
the snaps. I don't think they're gonna do that, So
it's gonna be a lot of work for DK Metcalf.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
I also think that to what we talked about at
the beginning of the show with Arthur Smith in the
offense and that lower aid dot and is kind of
getting Metcalf to create after the catch is not necessarily
a horrible thing for his fantasy value because he's probably
still gonna see the down the field targets, you know,
maybe not like super super frequently, but he'll still see
the down the field targets. But if they're gonna pepper
in more of those like easy you know, higher completion

(35:27):
rate stuff and get you know that, that's gonna be
great for his half in full PPR value.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
So I'm with you. I think I think Metcalf.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I think it was an encouraging game, at least for
Metcalf overall.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
One player who didn't do a lot in week one.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Obviously Patrick Artan had something to do with that, But
Calvin Ridley, are you taking Ridley over Igbuka or Buko
over Ridley.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Three drops by the way.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Three Oh yeah, he had some big drops too, not yeah, yeah,
it was pretty brutal.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
I'm still on Ridley here, and it's so weird. Like
Ridley a few years ago, was was it his first
year with the Jags. I thought people were insane for
where they were drafting him. Right, he was drafted like
just outside of the top twelve, And of course he
scored like a ton of Fantasy points in Week one
and my Twitter mentions were just glorious for about twenty
four hours, but then he faded and then you know,
he was up and down from there. But here this year,

(36:15):
I actually liked where he was being drafted. Same player,
same evaluation, maybe a slightly worse quarterback situation, but really
not that much worse. And yet he was going outside
of the top twenty four. He's the clear number one receiver,
and yes, even if I a man or does you know,
continue to rise up, it's still going to be Ridley, right.

(36:36):
And I like what we saw in the preseason, though
it was limited action with him and Wards, so I
think this is just a blip, yes or ten, but
he did see decent enough targets it's just the drops
that he's got to clean up.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, still like a thirty two ish percent target share.
I mean, you can't you can't be mad about that.
Let's go to Jamison Williams.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
If Tesla blows up, maybe not, but I still have
to go with Jamison Williams here. I think it's so
funny JJ that the team was talking about this year
as being his breakout year, and it's like, didn't you
go for a thousand yards last year?

Speaker 3 (37:05):
But let's get him triple digit targets this year. That's
really the key.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
And I'm not worried about Week one, like everybody, green
Bay is the real deal, Like they are the real deal,
and they were already really good, and then they added
an elite pass rusher that's just an absolute game changer.
Who was He was like kind of hanging on for
dear life last week. But the beautiful thing is they
didn't have to blitz. Green Bay blitzed nine percent of
the time, and yet they still generated a ton of

(37:29):
pressure sacks on Jared Goff like all of that.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
That's just such a huge advantage.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
But obviously, back to the original conversation, I want that
downfield talk all that hype that we were hearing in
the preseason out of Detroit to come to Fruition this week.
I think this is a much better situation for it.
So let's see Jamison get get loose a little bit here,
and yeah, I still do prefer him.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
That's ceiling out of him is absolutely massive.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, no, I agree. He was a player that I
targeted a lot this year. It was a disappointing Week one.
And for the record, everyone, this release is on Friday.
The Packers are playing Thursday night. So if Jeff and
I are wrong about how good that Packers defenses, do
not come and after that game is over.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
But hopefully we'll look well, we'll.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Look right that we're you know both, because I I
agree with you totally about that defensive unit.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
All right, the last one, same team. Mike Evans are
a mecha BUCA.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Mike Evans definitely still Mike Evans. He he's going to
be a Hall of Famer. He has the entire resume
to be a Hall of Famer. But he didn't show
signs of decline last year. And I look at that
touchdown productivity over the last two seasons, double digits each
of the last two years. What is twenty four total
over that span of time. He has history, Like you
do another one, you put another thousand yard season, like

(38:39):
that's going to be one of those records that we're
gonna look at and be like, what will that be broken?
You know, it's just incredible. They not only equaling Jerry Rice,
but then Jerry Rices not even doing it in his
rookie season. All of it is just amazing stuff. I'm
rooting for him, you know, he was a It's so
funny how some of these guys change in the collective
consciousness of fantasy football too, because he was like a
nemesis for a lot of people half a decade and

(39:02):
right before the Brady era, and maybe it was just
Jameis Winston was ephysids. Now a lot of people really
have come on board with him, and I love that
For Mike Evans and yeah, I still have him higher.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
Than a Mecca Buka.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Look his peripherals last year. Mike Evans peripherals last year.
We really have only seen it happen. I actually did this,
I think even the last week or the week before.
But if you look at players who had as like
close to his yards perou run rate, last year that
were in year ten or later, you basically have two
of them since twenty eleven, it was a Kwan Bolden
and Andre Johnson.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Those were two of them.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, and Klon Bolden one of the most underrated careers
football history, I think, but it was it was Ankwon
Bolden and Andre Johnson. And if you looked at what
they did the following year, they did drop a little
bit in their overall points per game, but that's to
be expected if they have a really high yards prout
run and they were really efficient. They were both still
really really like Andre Johnson was still a top ten
wide receiver the following year, and Kwan Bolden is still

(39:54):
a top twenty four to one. Like I think we're
still looking at that with Evans, Like there's no reason,
like entering the year for me to believe that Evans
was dust and toast. And so maybe this is the
year where things start to fall a little bit, But
I just don't think that it's going to get to
a point where we're like, oh man, this is like
when I don't know, Roddy White hit the wall or
something like that, you know, like it's I don't think
I don't think we're looking at it, or does Bryant

(40:15):
does Brian's probably the better example of that where or
you know Kenny Galladay, although Kenny Galladay happened at like
twenty six years old.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
Yeah, it happened very quickly. Did Those are the worst though?
And you just brought back horror memories for me with
Roddy White, So thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yes, yes, no problem.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
One more question before we get into some buys and
lows or some buys and selves. Is DeAndre Swift right
now after what we saw on Monday night? Is he undervalued?
Like what are your thoughts in the Bears offense in general?
And like I'm having I bring this up because I'm
I think any fantasy analyst is kind of having like
some weird dissonance with with DeAndre Swift right now.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
So I'm very curious as to where you're at.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
So he ran hard and obviously that was a brutal matchup,
and I was actually impressed by that. I'm looking at
my own you want him, I'm saying he's appropriately valued.
Maybe he is a tick undervalued by the masses for sure,
but I'm looking at that offense and we know what
Ben Johnson ideally wants to do. He wants to have
a thunderback in there, and then you have your lightning

(41:13):
with Swift.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
But he doesn't have that.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
And you could talk up Kyle Mananga and trying to
get the ball in his hands. You could maybe hope
that Roshan is something and we'll see if he ultimately
plays this week. But I don't think they can really
run the offense exactly the way he wants to. So
the long winded way of saying, though, Deandres is going
to probably touch the ball a whole heck of a lot.
He touched the ball a lot last year. Wasn't very efficient,
But I just said earlier the world needs RB twos

(41:37):
as well. He's an RV two in an offense that
may not be consistent. But let's put it this way.
The Bears, look they crapload better in Week one than
they did basically at any point last year. You know,
there were things happening in that offense, and Caleb running
around a little bit looked good. He looked a little
bit more comfortable closer to the player he was at
the college level. And yeah, Swift probably a tick underrated

(41:59):
by folks out there.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, I mean, I thought there were times where Caleb looked,
you know, at a little uncomfortable, but he looked more
comfortable than he did last year in my opinion, and
he had some real I mean, that throw that he
had on the sideline to Doomsday early in the game
was brilliant, you know, and he was escaping the pocket.
I think everyone watching that was like, I didn't remember
him being that fast.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Like he was.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
He was quick with the ball when he was when
he was scrambling, he had a really high scramble rate.
That was all really good to see. And then Swift,
like you said, the matchup was really tough. I think
eye test wise, like he passed it in week one,
like I thought, he looked fine.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Like you said, he ran hard.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
And anytime I see the dichotomy of Kyle Mnungai versus
DeAndre Swift, I'm like, Swift is clearly the NFL running back,
but young guy's.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
Not there right now, you know, he's just not there yet.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
I still think like, at least in the front half
of the season, we're gonna see Belcal DeAndre Swift more
than likely, and that, like you said, that can.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Be very easily.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
RB two production, all right, let's talk about your favorite
buye after Week one A by candidate.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
It feels like any wide receiver when somebody's panicking right now.
But I don't think you're gonna pride Jamar Chase Away.
I don't think you're gonna probabe Nico Collins. Maybe maybe
Nico Collins, but probably gonna be difficult Brian Thomas. But honestly,
I saw a lot of people wanting to sell a J.
Brown and so if that's the case, I don't know
what this passing offense is going to be under Patolo.

(43:22):
We know, you know the the Eagles track record. They
had a super Bowl team, the guy gets a head
coaching job, then they have a disaster at OC then
they have a super Bowl team, the guy gets a
head coaching job. So let's hope the pattern doesn't repeat.
I would love to see them throw the ball downfield
a little bit more in this matchup here. I don't know.
I mean, they're gonna have to. I don't know how
effective they're gonna run the football against the Chiefs, right so,

(43:44):
I think our window is going to be relatively short.
By the way, Dallas Goddard may not play as well,
so they're gonna have to force the issue a little
bit here. And aj Brown he's more consistent than DeVante Smith,
but he's not an every single week like you know,
you're just gonna ink in double digitargets. He's gonna put
up at least eighty yards and seven catches, Like, he's

(44:06):
not that type of player. He's more boom or bus
for a wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
One. I do think he can get him on the cheap.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, No, I like to call out, you know, there's
a lot of reason to believe that, Like he still
wasn't one hundred percent too right, Like he wasn't practicing
throughout August, and it takes time, even even veterans to
get going, and so there's some upside even just from
that perspective too. I still think that the Eagles are
because I've got a lot of people panicking about the Eagles,

(44:33):
like within my Patreon and stuff, and my stance is
still like they're they're gonna throw the ball more than
they did last year, Like they it's almost impossible for
them to have the same kind of game scripts and
to have such few pass attempts as they did last year,
and things like let's just be real, like when you
go on a run like they did, and when you're
that good of a team and that strong of a team,

(44:53):
generally you run pretty pure like like things generally will
go your way from like an injury perspective or what
have you, and stuff might hit the fan more this
year than it did last year. Is based on like
natural regression and variants in the way that this stuff
goes right, So I do think there's gonna be more
passing volume. And like you said, if Dallas Goddard doesn't
go this weekend, We've seen the continent upside when one

(45:14):
of those three is out, the other two end up eating.
So I'm very bullish if that happens for AJ Brown
and DeVante Smith. On the flip side, who do you
think is a good sell candidate? And we'll end the
show with this one.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
I don't know if people are gonna like this. I
will see Deebo Samuel is my answer to this question. Yeah,
I'm not buying in on this being sustainable because you
know you just mentioned with AJ Brown not playing in
the preseason, Well, Terry McLaurin also holding in for a
bulk of the preseason and is still getting up to speed.
He's still the number one receiver there. I'm not worried

(45:47):
about Week one whatsoever. I think he's going to bounce back.
Whether it happens this week, We're not not really worried
about it. But I don't see it as sustainable production
for Deebo Samuel. This is a player whoever the course
of his careers, only had one triple digit target season.
That was the big year. We've seen him look a little.
He looked good in Week one, but over the last
couple of seasons seems to lose a little bit and

(46:08):
like a quarter of a step, not a full step,
but like a quarter of a step in the run game,
He's not as effective as he once was. All of
those things are starting to add up for me, and
I don't think this is sustainable. He is a name
brand player, people know him, people like him, So I
think you actually could make out by selling Highland.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Yeah, appreciating the choir.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
I mean, I do my fifteen transactions each week, and
he was a sell for me this week. I mean,
would you be shocked if Week one is his highest
volume week of the season.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
No, not at all. I mean it was double digit
targets too, Like no, not at all.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's very and not only that,
but he had to get a rushing touchdown in order
to really really get there.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
From a fantasy perspective, So it's one of those things.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
I think he's a good fit for the Kingsbury offense
because they run a lot of horizontal stuff and that's
where he can really dominate and do well. But I
don't know if that's going to necessarily translate to fantasy
football as well. It's certainly not as well as it
did in Week one. So I really like that call out, Jeff.
Always a pleasure to sit down and talk to you,
let every know, everyone know what you're working on this
year and what you guys have going on.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
Absolutely. I mean the radio show is always going on,
Sirius XM. I'm on six days a week now, but
weekdays eight to ten am Eastern and then on Sunday's
nine to ten am Eastern. Of course Ftanfantasy dot Com
there's so much every season we're trying to add more.
We've really upgraded a lot of the stats offerings this year,
so all the DVOA information, Aaron shots of stuff, it's

(47:30):
so much more accessible. So go check it out if
you haven't already. We have free daily content over there
as well. I read an article basically every single day
and most of them are free, So check it out
over at ftanfantasy dot com.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Best but one of the hardest working folks in the
fantasy football industry, there's no doubt. Make sure you check
out all my stuff over on Lateround dot com. As
you guys know, you know a lot of podcasts hitting
the feed every single week, so subscribe to the show
and then the Late Round Fantasy Football show is going
to be on YouTube one pm Eastern every Friday, myself
and David Kitchen. That show will hit the podcast feed

(48:01):
on Saturdays. But if you want to watch live and
see our ugly mugs, you can tune in YouTube dot
com slash at Late Round FF one pm Eastern every Friday,
and you can watch this show too if you're just
listening to the audio. This show will be on YouTube
as well every Friday, so you can see Jeff and
my well not Jeff's but my.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Ours.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I can say I can say Kitchen's ugly mug because
he's working for me now, but I will not say
that about Jeff.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
But Otherwise everyone thanks for tuning in. Really appreciate it.
Have a great weekend.