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September 7, 2023 • 13 mins

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It's Fox Sports Radio's Official Fantasy Football Podcast! Dan Beyer, Mike Harmon, and Ryan Burschinger preview the season opener between the Chiefs and Lions, where already we have big injury news with major fantasy implications! The guys highlight some replacements for Travis Kelce in the event that he can't go Thursday night. Plus, plenty of fear surrounding Cooper Kupp's health, and could Mike Evans find himself in a better situation before the end of the season?

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode. If I want your flax. Yeah,
there's football tonight, Chiefs and Lions. We're going to get
to that in just a bit. Mike Harmon is here.
Get them on social media at Swollendome twitter dot com
to be specific. Ryan Berschinger, our executive producer, is here
as well. Hit him up at Ryan Berschinger. So many
stories leading into week one, and let's talk about first

(00:22):
of all, holdouts, big deal Chris Jones thing you know,
lingered throughout the entire offseason with the Kansas City Chiefs,
Mike hold out wise, when you come to storylines, how
much does Chris Jones affect the Kansas City Chiefs?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think Jones missing from that case defense much more
of a huge deal.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Here.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
You look at the Chiefs and a lot runs through
what Jones is able to do up front. And if
you don't have that, now we start talking about, all right,
a run game is going to be able to work
more efficiently. And then you know, for teams that can
work the combo and in the AFC, a lot of freebies.
All right, that's the one thing this year. You know,

(01:04):
last year we had a three or four teams are
like all right, they're just awful. I don't only have
those free passes really anymore. We don't know what Houston
is yet, but they're not in division, so I'm not
worried about them in the division. Even if you don't
like the Raiders, they still have some weapons that can
hurt you. And you have a guy, while he's upright

(01:24):
in Garoppolo, who's been the operational efficiency guy, like he
would be on the poster board next to his hero
Tom Brady. So you know, there's no free lunch. So
if Jones's thing and him saying, hey, I can afford
to hold out, really lingers, Yeah, that's a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
The Kansas City Chiefs, obviously playing tonight against the Lions,
will get to that in a second, but it's just
hold outs to the story. There's also this story with
Cooper Cup that has changed over the last couple of
months when it comes to his hamstring injury. I have
Cooper Cupp as a holdover in one of my leagues.
It's gonna act absolutely handcuff me for the first couple

(02:02):
of weeks of the season. Question is now, I'm trying
to figure out if Cooper Cup is injured, how long
do the Rams sit there and say, all right, let's
keep him out. Let's keep him out, and if the
season's lost, what's the point of even playing him At
some point That's what worries me about, you know, having
a guy like Cooper Cup.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
The Cooper Cup injury is terrifying because if you're someone
like me, if you drafted Cooper Cup, you probably used
your first round pick to do it, and so to
have that news come out maybe right after that, or
maybe you're somebody like me where it came out that
day and you said I'm not scared, I'm doing it anyway,
damn it, and you still took Cooper Cup, and then
maybe you're having some regret. Yeah, this is going to

(02:43):
be a really scary situation to watch because, as you said, Dan,
there really is no answer. And when something is lingering
in this manner where they're being super cagey about it
and sending him to other places to have specialists take
a look at it, it doesn't sound great. It sounds
more than a day to day type of thing, which

(03:05):
they keep describing it as. If I'm looking elsewhere on
that Rams offense, maybe to two at well, get some work,
maybe Puka Nakua gets some work, but overall, it really
dampers the entire Rams offense quite frankly if you don't
have Cooper Cup there, because it really limits Stafford's options.

(03:25):
It's limiting the amount of times that cam Akers can
then touch the ball because you're just not on the
field as much. Yeah, there is a lot of a
trickle down that comes from Cooper Cup having this lingering injury.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, and you also had the questions of Matthew Stafford.
Was he truly mulling retirement in the off season. Not
with the it would say logic would say, with the
amount of money that was still in the offing, that
that was just some fanciful writing and reporting in the
City of Angels. But he is towards the end and
the Rams, let's face it, guys, as we did our

(03:59):
NF see preview, they're one of those teams that you
start raising an eyebrow going could they be bad enough
to circle the drain along with the Cardinals to where
they're battling for the number one overall pick? Could it
get that bad? Right? When the defense isn't as deep
as it was. You look at the offense and Cooper
Cup Interestingly enough, as we sit to talk about this,

(04:22):
Cooper Cup is still being drafted as the tenth wide
receiver overall.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Really, I mean you could set my hair on fire.
I mean, come on, really, come on that, Like, I
don't know, nothing would give me any confidence to draft
him as a back end wr one at this point saying, Hey,
he used to do that, and he's done it before.
It is not going to suddenly solve his knee and

(04:49):
put him back out healthy. Yeah, I don't do we
see him at all like that. That's become some of
the questions with some of these injuries, Right, Is he
gonna be in bubble wrap just like Kyler Murray should be?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah? I just you know, with that organization, if they
see a gap to tank this season, I think that
they are all for it.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Is that one of the reasons the McVeigh thing right,
that we bullied him back into coaching after one bad year.
But I mean, is that it you know you can
then have a full reset.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I've said this a couple of times, and I've said
it on this podcast. When we were out at RAMS
training camp, they just kept talking about how they had
thirty five to forty you know, rookies on you know,
in camp, and it just was like, thou protest too
much or talk about that too much. There's a reason
that they're doing that, Like they were trying to convince

(05:41):
you that it's a fresh start, that there is new
blood coming in. And I think there are subconsciously just
trying to tell you we're gonna stink, you know, but
they want to spin it in a way that makes
it look like, hey, a lot of good stuff. And
the stuff that I've heard, and I mean, heck, the
stuff publicly for the rams that's been you know, from
just Cooper Cup's injury doesn't point to a great season,

(06:03):
and then you hear other stuff and you're just wondering
how bad it could get. Let's talk about two more stories.
Mike Evans obviously sitting a deadline for the Buccaneers, but
his name on the trading block. I'll tell you what,
maybe last year I'd be like, man, he could go
to a worse position. I don't know if he can
get any worse, you know than when he is in Tampa. So, like,

(06:24):
you know, the it would be the upside of drafting
Mike Evans if he ended up getting traded.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, I'm looking at possibilities in terms of like what
could happen with Mike Evans, like like landing spots that
he could he could find himself in that would be
tremendously advantageous for him. I mean, shoot, the Broncos keep
losing receivers left and right. That would be something where,
even though it's not a gigantic step up, that absolutely

(06:50):
would be a step up fantasy wise if he landed
somewhere like Denver. But Mike Evans is an incredible situation
to look at because he was up in until last season, right,
the model of consistency and elite consistency at that the
numbers that he puts up year in and year out.
Last year was the first time where you started to

(07:10):
feel ebbs and flows with Mike Evans. And now suddenly
he's in a situation where the quarterback situation is very
shaky and he is still you do have a healthy
Chris Godwin alongside him, so he will still be competing
for targets, unlike last season where Godwin was out for
some time and even then that didn't benefit him. So

(07:34):
I've still like, if Evans is your third receiver, you
still feel pretty good about that, and I would. But yeah,
like you're saying, Dan, it's really only going up if
Evans is traded elsewhere, he would only be traded somewhere
that is going to be a better situation for him.
So yeah, I think that's something to take into account.

(07:55):
If you're Mike Evans owners, you hope for the best
and that the best is somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Same thing, you know, looking at the Buccaneers of all right,
are we ready for a hard reset? Right we? Quarterback
of the future is not Baker Mayfield. It's probably not
Kyle Trask. Otherwise Baker Mayfield wouldn't be there, So let's
push that aside. You got a decent running back in
Rashad White, but Godwin and Evans now long to do.

(08:23):
Evans with the great nine year thousand yard streak. That's great,
but we know father time starts to come, and if
he's disgruntled about his deal, you can say, well, now
we can just reset everything. Go back into the marketplace,
go find someone five years younger than what he is.
I mean, a lot's going to be determined, you know,

(08:44):
if they get that false sense of hope out of
the start couple matchups against the NFC North. They start
on the road at Minnesota. Then the Bears go calling
to Tampa. Week two. My dad was actually asking me
if I was coming down. I'm like, yeah, no, it's
it's always soon, dad, It's always soccer season. And then
week three you've got the Eagles home game. Week four

(09:07):
on the road at New Orleans. Week five, everybody's favorite,
the Lions. So I mean, you look at the first
five games. What are you won in four? Maybe you're
two and three, but will you see enough to say,
all right, we keep running with this now. I think
Evans is in another uniform before this all ends. And
then you grab a couple of draft picks whatever those

(09:29):
may be, conditionals and move on.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
There is one other big story we're gonna touch on,
and we're going to do that next, Travis Kelcey and
the Kansas City chiefs. Kelsey's injury that coming up. Do
you want to let you know that I want your
flex a bit of a different format this year. We're
gonna try to come at you with information five days
a week. So that's why you're gonna want to download
and subscribe again. He's Mike Harmon, that's Ryan Berschinger, I'm
Dan Beyer. It is I want your flex. We break

(09:53):
down Chiefs Lions next here on the pod. All right,
it is kickoff Lions and Chiefs. How was kelsey knee injury?

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Huge?

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Huge situation with the Chiefs not expected to play, how
do you go about this tonight? Mike matchup? Wise? With
the Chiefs entertaining the Lions on opening night and Patrick
Mahomes does not have his favorite target.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Feeling pretty good about a an over and and going
hard at Valduez scantling in my you know, daily fantasy
leagues and meek one, I'd feel pretty confident. Uh you know,
you've got the speed receivers and everybody's excited sky Moore
and everything else. Uh, those are gonna be more hit
and miss, I think over the course of the year.

(10:40):
But going up against Detroit off the jump, I'm in
Kansas City was favored by six and a half. I've
seen some movement with Kelsey being out seeing some fives
five five and a half's out there, but between Kelsey
and Jones, it's it certainly creates a bit of angst.
I'll take the Chiefs to win at home, but certainly

(11:01):
my level of confidence if we were doing a confidence pulled.
Dan has drifted markedly in this game, but I'll take
the home crowd to help push them over and hope
you get to see a lot of Isaiah Pacheco as well.

Speaker 3 (11:16):
What's really hard to about a week one injury to
Travis Kelcey is that you probably in your draft took
Travis kelce in the first round absolutely never looked back
at tight end. You just simply locked it in and
said perfect, I'm good. Don't need to worry about that anymore. Well,
suddenly now you do. If you need to scour the

(11:36):
waiver wire for a replacement, obviously you could look at
Noah Gray, who had it is a very nice matchup
against the Lions, and if you slot him in at
tight end, he's going to get targets. So that's definitely
a possibility if you want to look elsewhere. A guy
that I really like is Jake Ferguson the Cowboys tight end.

(11:58):
I traditionally Cowboys tight ends have gotten a good amount
of workload, and he is a talented tight end who
there have been reports saying that the Cowboys expect him
to be a featured part of that offense. So there are,
there should be options available to you. If you drafted
a backup tight end, that's probably still your best call.
But Noah Gray is is definitely a possibility.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, especially give you a reason a watch and you're
ignoring your family, you're giving You're ignoring your family, and
you're like why, We're like, well, Noah Gray is playing it. Duh.
I'll say this. I love Jeric McKinnon on Thursday Night.
I think that, you know, but Checko's emergence last year.
Now with Kelsey having his situation, I am all in

(12:45):
on on jerck McKinnon having success for the Chiefs against
the Lions. And if I have drafted any of the
lines that I expect, I'm playing all of them. Why
wouldn't you know, Chris Jones, Yeah, there's no reason to
not play. You know, you're obviously playing Gibbson, Montgomery and
Saint Brown, but if you know you got room for others,

(13:05):
why not line them up? I think it could be
a fun fun Thursday Night.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Certainly makes for Sam Laporta fans. Let's find up there
you go, right, there's another opportunity because he probably was
not drafted or was drafted very late. Newly. Go take
take a look at the waiver wire. But you know,
everybody plays, everybody wins. We know golf does like to
go to the tight end. There's a couple others that
you can look at, and Bush mentioned a few. Last

(13:29):
guy Juwan Johnson who had a big year last year
for the Saints. And we know Derek Carr loves the
safety valve.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yes he does, Yes, he does. All right, football is here,
fellas we are out of time. Hope you like that
little tidbit of a segment. We'll come back tomorrow. Harmon
will have his rankings and hop plays and everything that
we can do with that. But so for Ryan Bersinger
and Mike Carmon, I'm Dan Byer. It's been I want
your flex here on Fox Sports Radio.
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