On today's episode, Jason discusses Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes' uncomfortably close win over North Dakota State and why he still has a big problem with the way Brandon Aiyuk handled his contract negotiations with the San Francisco 49ers. Later, NBC Sports fantasy football analyst Matthew Berry swings by to discuss why a lengthy contract holdout wasn't enough to keep CeeDee Lamb from being his WR1, whether or not CJ Stroud can support 3 high-level receiving options in Houston, how much Kyren Williams' impending punt return duties could impact his status as the Los Angeles Rams' RB1, what makes auction and guillotine leagues so fun and much more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire for Friday, August the thirtieth, Folks, it is
a glorious Friday. We have a tremendous friggin podcast. I'm
so fired up about it. Although I do have to
watch my language now that someboddies are listening with their
kids as they drive around, and yeah, I gotta dow
(00:32):
back some of the f bombs and curse words. Gotta
keep it PG sometimes ladies and gentlemen. But I'm so
fired up about today's podcast. First, we have to talk
about all the news that happened last night, Colorado surviving
North Dakota State and Brandon I You finally getting his
deal done. But first I've got to tell you about
our guests. His name is Matthew Berry. You may be
(00:52):
familiar with his work. He is the foremost fantasy expert.
He's been doing this forever. He's got his own shop.
He was at ESPN Matthew Berry is. He's great and
I know a lot of drafts for this weekend. I
have like four drafts in the next five days. I
think I'm very excited and it's it's a great time
and you guys are gonna love with Matthew Berry has
to say. I disagree with him a little on CD Lamb.
(01:14):
I don't think Cede Lamb is the second best fantasy guy.
I don't think he's the wide receiver one. But you know,
Barry's been doing this for a long time, so he
informs you what a guillotine league is. I've never done it,
but it sounds cool. So I think you're gonna like that.
But let's quickly get started. Since we had the interview
with Sean Keeler, who went toe to toe with Dian Sanders,
we must talk about Colorado surviving North Dakota State thirty one,
(01:36):
twenty six. I had back to school night for my kids,
so I missed most of this game, but I was
tracking it on my phone. Yes, you can do that.
I just remember when Brad Powers came on the College
Football Gambler Guy and he's like, listen under Colorado wins.
So I took it. Here's the interesting thing. Colorado did
not look great at all. Got to survive. Okay, they
(01:59):
rang up five hundred four yards offense eight point eight
yards per play. Shador Sanders had like four hundred fifty
yards passing Travis hundred and three touchdowns. Like this is what
you expect from Colorado, Colorado. But this was again North
Dakota State, and they could barely put them away. Now
they were up eleven with like four minutes left. Color
North Dakota State scored went for two, didn't get it,
(02:19):
and they had like a hail Mary at the end
that was futile. Here's just a small thing that I noticed.
North Dakota State yards per play six point five. They
were dashing Colorado up and down the field. They had
this settle for some field goals. That's not how you
take down you know, a team that's better than you.
(02:40):
In favor by nine and a half, Colorado did not
sniff the cover and they ran. They ran all over them,
They passed all over them. They had one hundred fifty
seven yards rushing, They had two hundred and ninety two
yards passing, eleven point two yards per tempt. If you
watch this game and your takeaway was, hey, nice win
in Colorado, you're missing the big picture. This is just
this Colorad team. I think they're gonna lose to Nebraska.
(03:02):
I as soon as I see the line for that,
I will be on Nebraska. I think Nebraska is going
to be the side. I'm not a big believer in
this team, and I'm not a anti Diana. Know some
of you guys are feeling like, oh, Jason, you just
hate d On blah blah blah. Anyways, Colorado didn't look great,
but got the win, and that's really all that matters.
Next up is Brandon Nyuk. Now this one is fascinating
(03:23):
only because on the surface you see the headline and
nobody reads anything really anymore. Right, So you see, oh,
Brandon Ayuk four years, one hundred and twenty mil awesome,
seventy six million guaranteed. Great, he's in camp.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Here's where it gets interesting. The forty nine ers are
so pissed still at Ayuk that this is what Adam
Schefter said. And now this is coming directly from the Niners, right,
and they're upset with him, and this was like what
they put out on Thursday afternoon. This four year, one
hundred and twenty million dollar extension for Brandon Nyuk has
(04:00):
been on the table since August twelfth, what that's almost
three weeks. Ayuk had been sitting on this deal, refusing, refusing,
and according to I read on SFGate dot com that
some reporters said the reason Ayuk signed was because they
(04:26):
basically said, hey, we're gonna start finding you if you
don't show up. And apparently at that point Ayuk said, hey,
called his agent and said let's do the deal now,
though that's from reporters now. Ayuk's agent pushed back and said,
that's factually inaccurate, but the check still cashes, okay, as
(04:49):
if to say, wait a minute, the deal hasn't been
on the table since. But he didn't disagree. He just
said that's factually inaccurate, but the check still cashes, as
if to say, like, hey man, you know this to
me is not a good sign for Ben and Ayuk. Okay,
he's a really good player. We know that he's talented.
I just when it's been all about the money for
(05:10):
six months and then the deal's been on the table
for over two and a half weeks, and you are like, eh,
what is it. You don't want to practice, Like what's
the deal? Why are you acting like this? And I
get it you want to be paid and I totally
get that. You know, I'm not in a contract squabble
with Fox. But you know, my deal's up here within
(05:30):
the year, less than a year, and it's like, we'll
see how things go. But like if I'm keeping it
one hundred percent, like guys like this. This is a
Niners team that was on the cusp of the Super
Bowl and the biggest storyline all summer has been their
unhappy wide receiver. It ain't the injuries, right, Trent Williams
(05:51):
is now going to move to the forefront, to the
front burner now that aux deals done. But this to
me is a sign I you didn't want to practice.
And when they said listen, so you guys know how
the fines work. If you're not showing up and you're
under contract, they can find you. But most teams will
just wave the fines right. They'll just say, okay, well
you signed, we're good. It's all good. But I'm guessing
(06:13):
that this deal has been on the table for two
weeks and the Niner said, you know what, hey, we're
gonna start finding you. They can find up to fifty
thousand dollars a day. I'm guessing that they said, hey,
we're gonna find you, and we're not taking these back
this is the deal. That's my guess. It will then
and now it's not official. I'm sure nobody's gonna confirm that.
But the Niners have clearly had enough and they said, listen,
we're willing to wave the fines. But this deal has
(06:35):
been on the table, and I you instantly was like,
I ain't getting fined fifty thousand dollars. Wave those fines.
Almost sign the deal. Dude, you just got seventy six
million dollars guaranteed. Seventy six million. I don't think a
lot of people can comprehend what kind of money that's
generational wealth. And I know somebody, some jackass.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Is gonna be like, well, Jay, it's it's in California
with the high taxes, So seventy six becomes forty And
I'm just gonna look at you and kind of shake
my head, like, Okay, he got forty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
He got forty million dollars for signing the contract after Texas,
and I'm sure the agent will take a little fine
knock it down to thirty five million. Oh no, thirty
five minutes. Like I'm just I'm stunned. This the brand
now you can think, I know it's settled, and you
guys can be excited, and we're gonna be excited when
he scores touchdowns whatever. It's just not a great vibe
when it was all I want the money, I want
(07:29):
the money. I want the money. I want the money.
I don't want to practice. I want to go. You know,
like you could have signed this two weeks ago, got
a camp and like, all right, guys, let's go this.
He made it all about himself. I just don't love that. Anyways.
Let's get to our guest to help you with your
fantasy drafts this weekend, Matthew Berry of EDBC, and he
owns a ton of fantasy businesses. Totally crushing it. Enjoyed
(07:51):
the interview.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. You know a guy, Jason likes to think
he knows everything when it comes to sports. I know
what sports fans want, but for everything he doesn't, he
(08:15):
knows the guy who does.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. A guy, you know,
the most busy man in August in all of sports,
because he is the fantasy og, the fantasy guru. He's
gonna help you win his leagues. Matthew Berry, Matthew has
a goaling my guy.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Jason always gonna talk to you. Brother, I'm gonna I'm good,
busy but good. You know.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, the most busy man in fantasy sports. And it's
not because he has CD Lambs, the top wide receiver
in fantasy football. That's not the sole reason. But I
gotta ask, really, CD Lamb wide receiver one. I'm a
little surprised, matt Are.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
You really Why Why would you be surprised?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I mean, yeah, I get it. They don't have a
ton of other weapons, but he basically hasn't worked out
trained at all. I know he's a young guy who cares.
He should be fine. But if I'm a defense I
have one job and that's to scheme CD Lamb out
of the game. And after that, like nobody else scares
me on that offense, I let Brandon Cooks eat Zeke Elliott.
You know, I just load up against CD Lamb and
(09:18):
say dannar gack to beat me. I don't know if
he can with those weapons.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, but what's different about that from last year? I
mean that was the same case last year, and last
year he was like, you know, the best wide receiver
and fantasy last year it was unbelievable business. I mean, like,
you know, they they're gonna move him all over the place,
They're gonna put him in the slot, you know, they
they you know, just just incredible efficiency and you know,
just massive target share. I mean, like you can you
(09:42):
can guard him and bracket him as much as you want.
They did that last year and it just it just
didn't work out. So uh yeah, I mean I think
that at the to me, I think there's there's there's
four main wide receivers. McCaffrey's number one, but then after
that there's there's kind of four wide receivers. And if
you want to throw I'm on ros Saint Brown and
that I would, I'd be cool with it. But like,
(10:03):
and I think you could you could make a pro
case or an anti case for all of them. They're
all sort of right there. Tyreek Kill is awesome, right,
tyreek Kill is amazing, but he's also on the wrong
side of thirty. He's already a little bit banged up,
and the Dolphins are brutal in December and January when
you're trying to fight for a fantasy A championship, like
you know, and to it has been terrible. So they're
(10:24):
they're bad in cold weather, you know. Then you can
talk about you talk about Jamar Chase. We expect Jamar
Chase out there in Week one, right, but like there's
still some contract issues. He's been holding out. Everything that
you would say, everything that you would say about Ceedee Lamb,
you'd say about Jamar Chase, except for the fact that
Jamar Chase actually has more target competition with with with
(10:47):
t Higgins and then and then you think about Justin Jefferson,
and you could argue, like just the downgrade from Cousins
to Sam Darnold. I don't think it's that big of
a deal. But the fact is is, obviously he's gonna
be playing with a a and lesser quarterback than he
played last year than who he's played with the majority
of his time in Minnesota. So you can sort of
knock all those guys like a little bit, and just
(11:09):
and a'man ra Saint Brown, who had an amazing year
last year was my ride or die. It made me
look smart. But he had scored He's scored ten touchdowns
last year. Canny get back to doubled touchdowns or is
he gonna be more like a six to seven guy
in terms of in the touchdowns? And then you know
he's more of a high end Tier two versus a
high end versus a Tier one wide receiver. I think
(11:29):
he's a Tier one wide receiver. But you can make
the argument, is my point. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Interesting. So I like the kind of the argument for Lamb.
I'm not as high on the Cowboys. I don't think
there're a twelve and team this year, but I am
right looking at the numbers of Lamb down the stretch.
Holy targets Batman, especially in the playoffs. I mean, seventeen
targets in that Detroit game.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, he's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Let's go to Let's go to Drake London. I see
him cracking out. Number was sixteen overall for you? Does
this mean you're high on Kirk Cousins or are You're
just like Desmond Ritter is not even a starter?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
We know, yeah, I mean, I mean, does Desmond have
a job in the NFL right now, I mean, like honest,
like Kirk Cousins. In five of the six seasons that
Kirk Cousins with starting quarterback for the Vikings, he supported
a top ten Fantasy wide receiver. He's done that five
of the last six years. And obviously a lot of
that's justin Jefferson, there's some Adam feelin in there, but
Drake London. A couple of things about Drake London. So
(12:28):
first off, yes, massive upgrade a quarterback, right, going from
like one of the Desmond Ritter and Taylor Heineke and
Marcus Barriota to Kirk Cousins is just such a massive upgrade.
But more importantly, it's also the play calling. Zach Robinson
is the new offensive ordinator. Robinson, of course from the
McVeigh tree with the Rams, and when he was with
the Rams. Obviously the Rams one of the teams in
(12:48):
the NFL that call that you know, are are very
pass heavy. They are one of the top five teams
in the NFL in terms of wide receiver target share.
You know, they they throw a lot and they throw
to their wide receiver a lot. And so you think
about those two things, and the last thing that I
think everyone sort of forgets about Drake London because it's
(13:08):
just so it's been pedestrian in Atlanta. And I don't
think it's his fault. I think it's again it was
the coaching of Arthur Smith and and the poor quarterback play.
But when Drake London was drafted Jason, he went ahead
of Garrett Wilson, he went ahead of Chris O Lobbing.
He was the first wide receiver drafted in that class.
And it's not like anyone all the people that you
(13:30):
know that grind the tape, the mel Kipers of the world, right,
you know, all all everyone that that really does this
for a living. I mean I said this too, but
I'm you know, I'm not a I'm not a guy
like you know mel Or or you know, or Daniel
Jeremiah or Connor Rodgers who's on my show at NBC.
The guys that you know grind every single game of
every single college plavor player. You know, uh, for six
(13:52):
months straight, every single person said, yeah, Drake London should
be the number on wide receiver in this class, Like
no one was, Look like, whoa really Drake London over
Garrett Wilson A lobby, Like no one said that, So
this is a guy that still has a first round
grade and it still has that talent, just hasn't been
on lock. And now here comes a fantasy friendly offensive
play caller and you know, the best quarterback that he's
(14:12):
played with in his career by a country mile.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And interesting, you have Nico Collins right behind Drake London.
And I looked at that Texans team with Diggs and
Tank Dell's going to be back Adulton Shoultz, and now
they got a good upgraded running back with Mixon. It's
tough for me to decipher what you do with Nico
Collins and the Texans wide receivers in general.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I think they're all gonna eat. I think I don't
have a stat for this, Like you know, we talked
about off Ara like I'm driving, so I don't have
this exact stat off the top of my head, but
I will say ce J Stroud is him. He's that dude, man,
He is that f and dude. And I would just
say that Nicocollins is. Last year I think was like
(14:58):
kind of this, you know, amazing break out four. Nico
Collins had a great year. The other thing that's that's
really interesting so I, you know, I'm the owner of
a website called fantasylife dot com. You know, obviously I
do all my stuff at NBC Sports, but I you know,
I also own this website, fantasylife dot com. And what
I've done is I've hired all my favorite fantasy analysts,
(15:19):
the guy that I the guys that I read, and
one of the guys that I hired a guy named
Dwayne McFarlane who's unbelievable. And Dwayne does this thing called
the Utilization Report where he does a deep dive on
every every snap, every route run, every target earned per
route run. It gets real, real deep dive. He came
from Pro Football Focus. It's really really sharp. And so
(15:39):
one of the things that he did this preseason he
did what it's called his preseason Utilization Report. And so
what he's doing is he's looking at again, obviously, you
got you know, second and third teamers out there, but
he's looking at it's all small samples, but you're you're
looking at, like, okay, for the for the ten plays
that c. J. Stroud was out there, what do the
Texans offense look like? You know? And like he does
that with every team and he does that throughout every
(16:01):
every game. So it's unbelievable. So check it out. It's
one hundred percent. FO you go to fantasylife dot com
just look for the preseason utilization report. But the reason
I bring this up is because he looked at that
and Nico Collins this preseason with the first team offense
was CJ. Straud out there was over ninety five percent
route participation. Now what that means is that every single
(16:21):
time c J. Stroud dropped back to pass and there
were players running routes ninety five percent of the time,
Nico Collins was running a route. Stefan Diggs was like
in the eighty six percent range, and Tank Dell was
in a sixty percent range. I think sixty five. Again,
I don't have the numbers up the top of my head,
but that's about where they were. And so my point
is is that ninety five percent route participation is an
(16:44):
unbelievable number. That is like elite, elite, elite. And so
if you buy in a CJ. Stroud and I do,
and you buy a Nico Collins talent and I do,
the fact that he's going to have a ninety five
percent route participation on one of the better offenses with
one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. You know,
is uh is pretty exciting to me. I'm I'm a
(17:04):
big believer in Nico Collins, and I will say I
think Stefan DIDs has a bounce back. I like, I
like all those guys that cost this year, including Tank Dell.
There are going to be enough balls to go around.
I believe in Houston.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Let me ask you quickly. I think the Patriots are
probably the worst team in the league and they just
announced that Jacoby Brissette is going to be the starter
over Drake May. I don't like the weapons, I don't
like the coach. I think this is the offensive line
is abysmal. Is there anyone on the Patriots you draft? No?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
No, If you want to if you want to take
a if you want to take a late flyer on
Jalen Folk, I get it, uh. If you're in a
if you're in a dynasty league, if you're a deep
two quarterback league, I could see taking a flyer on
Drake May because he'll be the starter at some point
and there's some upside there with his legs. But honestly, no,
this is a This is a team devoid of fantasy talent.
(17:54):
I don't like Ramandre Stevenson at cost. He's the he's
the most obvious fantasy option on the UH on the Patriots.
But part of my concern is over the last two years,
forty five percent of vermondre Stevenson's fantasy points have come
from the passing UH or from from his role in
(18:14):
the passing game, like you know, like he was he
was a big part of the reception. And the fact
is is that the Patriots this year signed Antonio Gibson,
who's as good, if not a better pass catcher to
the backfield than rimondre Stevenson. So if they're gonna use reminder,
remember it's a new coaching staff, there, new offense. So
if they're gonna use ramondre Stevenson as a first and
second town back and not really use him in the
(18:35):
passing game, or even if his passing game usage is
you know, half of what it was before, that's a
huge hit given the fact that again, forty percent of
his fantasy points the last two years have come from receptions,
have come from passing game work. And this is a
team that's not gonna be in scoring position that off,
and they're not gonna He's not gonna have a lot
of touchdown equity Formondre Stevens. And so just in terms
(18:57):
of where he's going at cost, I'm I have no
shares of Remondrie Stevenson this year.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Another piece of news that came through this week Sean McVeigh,
lets it slip or maybe designed to come out, Kyrin
Williams is going to return punts. Kyen Williams was a
monster down the stretch at running back for the Rams.
They go out and draft Blake Korum. Do you still
do you have a radical adjustment to where you had
Kyrien Williams say last week?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
No, I mean, look no I don't, because I think
it's a little bit much ado about nothing. Like in
terms of punt returning, what you want is you want
somebody with sure hands. Kyle Williams returned punts last year.
By the way, he didn't do it all the time,
but you know there were a handful of games where
Kyen Williams returned punts last year. And if you're telling
me that instead of twenty two carries a game, which
(19:43):
is what he was like getting something like last year
instead of that, maybe he gets seventeen to eighteen because
they need to save him for six or seven snaps
on punt returns, all right, whatever. Like, I think the
fact that lake Korum is there allows McVay the luxury
to do something like this where it's just like, Okay,
well I'll be able to give him a series off here,
(20:04):
a series off there, but no, he's still going to
get massive workload on one of the better offenses in football.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
And you know McVay has ever since he got to
LA and become a head coach, Todd Gurley back in
the day, obviously you know Cam Akers and then Kyron
last year, Like he's been sort of a one running
back guy. He doesn't really go to a committee. When
he finds a guy he likes and trusts, he kind
of just goes with that guy. And that's certainly the
case with Kien Williams.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Last year we saw Zay Flowers pop as a young fellow.
Everybody likes malikd Neighbors. Is there any other rookie wide
receiver really on your radar? I I'm looking on your list.
I don't really see any guys high is Xavier worthy
in casey, but they just signed Juju, who I don't
think it's going to overlap. Juju's more of an underneath guy.
But Xavier Worthy, would you say he's going to have
(20:52):
possibly a nice season.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I like Jay, I like Xavier Worthy. I think there's
a lot of great rookies obviously. I mean, look, the
the obvious name is Marvin Harrison Junior, and then you
mentioned Molik Neighbors. Milik Nighbors I think is gonna have
a monster year. Uh so those guys, but yeah, I
mean I think, uh, there's a bunch of interesting names
as rookie wide receivers. This is an unbelievable rookie wide
receiver class. So you already mentioned Xavier Worthy. I think
(21:16):
he's really interesting. With the Chargers, Lad McConkie, who's gonna
be the slot guy? I think McConkie is is very interesting.
Brian Thomas Junior again, going back to the preseason utilization
report on Fantasy life dot Com that I mentioned, Brian
Thomas Junior is playing one hundred percent of the snaps
with the starters and Trevor Lawrence, Wow, he's gonna be
VTJ and Gabe Davids are gonna be the outside Christian
(21:37):
Kirk is gonna be the slot Ingram's the tight end
that's gonna be the Jaguars offense. Uh, you know this
season and again, the Jaguars are a pass first offense.
Doug Peterson, former quarterback, former Andy Reid disciple, he is
going to be a pass first guy. I like Trevor
Lawrence to have a bounce back this year. So I
think I think Brian Thomas Junior is really interesting. Uh,
(21:58):
this one's this one's a deep cut Jason. But look,
I don't know what it's gonna happen, but I'm telling you,
at some point this year, Luke McCaffrey's gonna be a thing.
Luke McCaffrey. Well, I'm not only I'm a Washington fan,
but also, by the way, what Luke McCaffrey does well
is what Jayden Daniels does well in terms of in
terms of uh you know, going deep, winning balls, uh,
(22:21):
you know, winning some contested balls. He's also good as
a slot guy. Like I'm telling you, Luke McAffrey is
a converted quarterback, but they really like him in Washington.
It's gonna take him little while to get up to speed.
But I'm just this is I said this, I'll say,
I'll tell you this much, and you go back, you
watch the tape. In the first preseason week last year,
I made a whole big deal of this on my
show on Fantasy Football Happy Hour, which is my podcast
(22:44):
they do for NBC Sports, and I said, I don't
know what's gonna happen this year, guys, but at some
point this year, Tank Dell is gonna be a thing.
Tank del was like, you know, and people are like, really,
Tank Dally's small. What every you know? He's a late
round pick. I've said, I'm telling you at some point
that this year Tank Dell is gonna be a thing.
And sure enough, obviously last year Tank Dell was a thing.
I'm just telling you at some point this year, Luke
(23:06):
McCaffrey's gonna be a thing.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I'm gonna ask you about an auction league in a sect.
But I did get invited to a guillotine league, and
I was like, I don't know what that is, and
the guy explained it to me, and I was like, listen,
I got too much shit, you know, with gambling and fantasy. Like,
I'm sorry, I can't get up to speed on this,
but it seems like when I I did, maybe I
should revisit because you're hotter? Is it? They're fun?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
No, it's unbelievably fun. I will tell you why you
should do it, because I know you, Jason. You and
I have been friends for a long long time. You're
a guy that likes action. You're a guy that likes
you guys. You like that, you like action, you like
feeling that intensity. So here's what a guillotine league is.
And this is for all your listeners that don't know either.
You have a league like normal, right, everyone does a
(24:05):
draft like normal. Here's the twist. You don't play head
to head. You just start a lineup like normal. But
you're not playing head to head. You're just sort of
starting your lineup. At the end of the week, the
team with the lowest score in the league gets cut.
Forever they're out of the league. There's season, there's seasons over,
(24:27):
they're done, and obviously you just keep doing that and
to only into until only one team remains. Here's the
other twist, all the players on the team that got
chopped go back into the free agent pool. So now
I mean you think about it like think about your
typical fantasy league. Every team has stars on it, Every
team has players that you would want to roster, And
(24:49):
so every single week, instead of like sifting through like
you know, some slot receiver that got five targets and
hoping maybe he pops a little bit more, or some
backup running back that you're gonna stash, hoping the guy
in front of him gets injured, every week, you're bidding
on starters. Every week you're like, it'll be Week six
and you're like, oh, Patrick Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey on
the waiver wire, like it's insane. The other thing that's
(25:12):
really fun about it is just you know, you can
start a league whenever. If you're like, oh, that sounds fun,
I'd love to do it, but whatever, the season starts
in less than a week, I don't have time to
get my guys together. It's doesn't It doesn't matter because
because you don't play head to head, you can start
a league whenever you want in the season. You just
need to have one more team in the league than
(25:34):
weeks left in the season. So if there's a four
weeks left in the season, you can start a five
person lead. That sounds fun, what I mean Like, so yeah,
just do it whenever. And like I'm telling you, it's
an intense sweat like you've never had. Like you sit
there and you're like whatever you're you know, it's week
five and you had one guy in to buy, another
guy leaves the game early due to a hamstring, one
(25:54):
of your stars just underperforms, and then you find yourself
and you're like, oh my god, Like if Josh Jacobs
doesn't or touched on them on a night, I'm dead.
Like it's a sweat like you've never had before when
you every single week your season's on the line, and
it's one of those things that you're like, ah, all
I gotta do is just not finished last. It's easier
than you think, but it isn't. I mean again, like
you've ever done a survivor.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Pool work, Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You ever have to do. It's similar to that where
you're like, oh, I'll have to do is pick one
NFL team to win. That's easy, and then you get
into it and you're like, oh, you start thinking about
it and going back and forth, and you know, your
mind plays chicksy the in anyway, It's intense and really
really fun. I've played it for the last three years.
Everyone that I've ever introduced it to, anyone that have
ever introduced the league two or the idea of the
(26:39):
league plays it and it's just like the rest fantasy
is dead to me. This is the only way to
play fantasy. It's like it's it's so it's so fun
and addicting and intense, and.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I might have to night. You got me wanted to
fire one up real quick on an auction league, So.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Eighteen leagues dot com you can take. There's a site
that it does leagues com.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, auction league. I've been in the league an auction
for three years. I have not won yet, which makes
me upset because I usually like to every three years
I can win. I feel like I'm good enough to
win a fantasy title, but the auction leagues kind of
have me all mixed up. What's your best strategy for
an auction back.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
I have some really good strategies here. So a couple
of things. First off, I think that one thing that
gets really missed a lot in auction league, strategy is
budget and budget maintenance, right, because values come out all
the time. So what's your in your auction league? What's
your budget?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I think it's two hundred, yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Two hundred okay, So here's what I would do. I
want you to take that. This is very simple exercise,
but it's important on your take out a piece of
paper and write down all the positions you need to fill.
So you know it's quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers,
a flex, a tight end, six bench, whatever it is, right,
Maybe you play two flexes. I don't know. Is it
(27:57):
a super flex league, whatever it is, right, you write
that down, and then, using your your budget of two
hundred dollars, I want you to write just kind of
by each position a number that you'd want to spend
in that position. Like you're like, okay, you know what,
I want to spend forty bucks on my RB one.
I'm making up numbers here. I'm gonna spend fifty bucks
(28:19):
on my RB one. I'm gonna spend thirty five on
my RB two. I really wanted to lead tight end
this year, so I'm gonna go thirty on tight End one.
I'm gonna go cheap at quarterback. So I'll put you know,
fifteen bucks at by quarterback position. I want, you know,
I'll get some lower tier guys, the wide receivers and
twenty five bucks eat, you know whatever. I'm making it up, right, Yeah,
(28:40):
but you sort of budget it out that way, and
I want, you know, five dollars a bench spot or whatever,
and so that way you can just sort of see, Okay,
here's how I want to distribute my budget. Okay, now
then you do two other things. First off, obviously you
need auction values. And I'll give another plug. But honestly,
at fantasylife dot com, all the guys we do projections
and we have a we have a tool that's amazing
(29:01):
that you just all you have to do is plug
in your all your settings. You know, like it's a
two hundred cap, it's PPR, but it's tied in premium
and blah blah blah, and it will spit out auction
values for you. Okay, so you do that. But wherever
you get your auction values, okay, you've got it. And
then you're going through the auction and uh, let's say
I'm making it up, but let's say you decide you
(29:22):
want fifty bucks on RB one and we don't have
to check out, right, Okay, Breese Hall comes out, and
maybe Breeze Hall is like one of the first guys
that comes out, and people are a little scared and
they're holding their money, and all of a sudden, you're like,
you're able to get Breese Hal for like forty four dollars. Again,
I'm making stuff up here. Okay, you're great. Say you're
right in Breeze Hall and you just scratch out that
(29:42):
fifty and you put forty four, and now you know
that you've got six extra dollars to play with. Maybe
add six dollars to running back too, maybe you know,
maybe you're like, I went cheap on quarterback, but you
know what, now I've got six. Now I'm gonna, you know,
go up a tier at quarterback and I'm gonna add
six bucks to my quarterback budget. Whatever it is. Or
you really want Breeze Hall, you get into a bidding war,
(30:03):
turns out you end up acquiring for like fifty five dollars.
All right, So now you're like, okay, now I've got
to let me where am I losing five dollars? From
you look at your sheet and just during the auction.
It's just it's a very easy way to sort of
visualize your budget management as all the prices come out.
The other thing that I like to do in an auction.
So that's just a very simple way, but I think
(30:23):
that will help you construct a good team. And too
often in auctions, people pay too much or pay too little,
and they find themselves at the end of the at
the end of an auction either either you know, missing
out on a bunch of good bargains because they've spent
too much money, or they find themselves with way too
much money at the end and they're they're you know,
all of a sudden, they're spending thirty five dollars on
(30:44):
Devin Singletary and you're like, you know, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Hot I had both of those right man.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
So that that's just a very simple exercise that I
think will also help you visualize how you want to
how you want to construct your roster given the budget constraints.
And then the other thing that I like to do,
I think too often in auction formats, what people are
like Breezese Hall's an obvious name, but let's just use
that for example, people are like, Oh, I really like
Breee Hall, So you know what I'm gonna do. I'm
(31:10):
not gonna. I'm not gonna mention Breese Hall. I'm not gonna.
I really want you to give you somebody else like
Trey McBride. I love Trey McBride. This year. I'm not
gonna hold off on trainmkbride. I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna throw him out this year because I'm gonna save
my money to get Trey McBride. And then what happens
is is that so you wait three, four or five
rounds and all of a sudden, Don Kincaid, Mark andrews Uh,
(31:33):
Sam Laporte, they all go and maybe each day each
go for a buck or two less and then whatever
you've waited on it. And then let's say you've called
it again. I'm making up a number thirty five dollars
for Train McBride this year. Okay, you throw out Trey McBride. Well,
turns out three other people have been waiting on Trey
McBride and suddenly it gets crazy and there's some insane
(31:53):
and all of a sudden, now it's up to like
forty eight dollars, and you're like, I can't pay forty
eight dollars for Trey McBride because my sheet here says
thirty five basically my scoring. And now you're completely screwed
because like you bypassed all these other elite tight ends
and now you don't have Trey McBride, and now you've
got thirty five dollars that you don't know what to
do with because that's what you budgeted and there's no
(32:13):
other tight end on your sheet. We're twenty dollars. So
I'm a big believer in and now all of a sudden,
you've got a pivot, right fun So what I like
to do is if there's a player or a couple
of players that I want, I throw them out immediately,
like if I'm like like again, because I want to
know two things. First Off, it's not like Trey McBride
(32:34):
is a sleeper, Like we're not talking about a buck
at the end kind of guys, like you could get
Luke McCaffrey for a buck at the end if you
want it. I'm talking about I'm talking about whatever the
priest hauls of the world. It's not a secret. And
so I would rather if I'm going into an auction
saying I really want Breese Hall and I really want
them for fifty dollars, I'd rather throw them as soon
as I get a chance to nominate a player, because
(32:56):
things one of two things happens. Either I get them
for fifty dollars or less and I'm like, okay, great,
I'm on plan, or he goes for way more money
than I want to spend, and now I can pivot,
and now I know. I want to know as soon
as possible if if I need to pivot my plan
or if I'm on track right and so way too
often in an auction what happens is that players just
(33:20):
they wait, they try to hold onto stuff, and then
there's one guy left that has, you know whatever, Well,
why are you betting on traineming Bride? You have dogon
k Yeah, man, but I've got all this money and
I don't know what to spend it on it. You're
just like you're a sight all right, Well so you're
finishing eighth, but you just FD my team, and like,
so I just I'm a big believer in just throwing
out the guy you want versus throwing out a lot
(33:44):
of people. Yeah, and other people are like, I'm just
gonna throw out somebody. I don't want to try to
get money off the table, and I just I don't know.
I just that's not a strategy that I think ultimately
works in the long term, because every player is going
to come out, and if you have players that you want,
you want to know whether you're in or out out
of them earlier rather than later, so you have more
time to adjust as the draft goes on.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
All right, Matthew Berry fantasy legend, whether it's players, leagues,
He's the guy obviously go to all of his websites
with fantasy say all your websites, the best stuff, yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah, yeah, fantasylife dot com, unbelievable. And then obviously all
my stuff that I do with rotorworld dot com, my podcast,
Fantasy Football Happy Hour Sunday mornings during the NFL season,
Fantasy Football pre game eleven until kickoff on East Coast
time on the NFL, on NBC YouTube channel, and Peacock
And of course you can catch me on Sunday nights
(34:35):
just before the game on Football Night in America before
the Sunday Football game on NBC Sports Big.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
The guy works hard. Thanks a lot, Matthew, I know
you're busy. Have a great football season and go win
a couple leagues, will you.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I'm gonna try, Jason. Thanks Ben,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up Straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Fire for Friday, August the thirtieth, Folks, it is
a glorious Friday. We have a tremendous friggin podcast. I'm
so fired up about it. Although I do have to
watch my language now that someboddies are listening with their
kids as they drive around, and yeah, I gotta dow
(00:32):
back some of the f bombs and curse words. Gotta
keep it PG sometimes ladies and gentlemen. But I'm so
fired up about today's podcast. First, we have to talk
about all the news that happened last night, Colorado surviving
North Dakota State and Brandon I You finally getting his
deal done. But first I've got to tell you about
our guests. His name is Matthew Berry. You may be
(00:52):
familiar with his work. He is the foremost fantasy expert.
He's been doing this forever. He's got his own shop.
He was at ESPN Matthew Berry is. He's great and
I know a lot of drafts for this weekend. I
have like four drafts in the next five days. I
think I'm very excited and it's it's a great time
and you guys are gonna love with Matthew Berry has
to say. I disagree with him a little on CD Lamb.
(01:14):
I don't think Cede Lamb is the second best fantasy guy.
I don't think he's the wide receiver one. But you know,
Barry's been doing this for a long time, so he
informs you what a guillotine league is. I've never done it,
but it sounds cool. So I think you're gonna like that.
But let's quickly get started. Since we had the interview
with Sean Keeler, who went toe to toe with Dian Sanders,
we must talk about Colorado surviving North Dakota State thirty one,
(01:36):
twenty six. I had back to school night for my kids,
so I missed most of this game, but I was
tracking it on my phone. Yes, you can do that.
I just remember when Brad Powers came on the College
Football Gambler Guy and he's like, listen under Colorado wins.
So I took it. Here's the interesting thing. Colorado did
not look great at all. Got to survive. Okay, they
(01:59):
rang up five hundred four yards offense eight point eight
yards per play. Shador Sanders had like four hundred fifty
yards passing Travis hundred and three touchdowns. Like this is what
you expect from Colorado, Colorado. But this was again North
Dakota State, and they could barely put them away. Now
they were up eleven with like four minutes left. Color
North Dakota State scored went for two, didn't get it,
(02:19):
and they had like a hail Mary at the end
that was futile. Here's just a small thing that I noticed.
North Dakota State yards per play six point five. They
were dashing Colorado up and down the field. They had
this settle for some field goals. That's not how you
take down you know, a team that's better than you.
(02:40):
In favor by nine and a half, Colorado did not
sniff the cover and they ran. They ran all over them,
They passed all over them. They had one hundred fifty
seven yards rushing, They had two hundred and ninety two
yards passing, eleven point two yards per tempt. If you
watch this game and your takeaway was, hey, nice win
in Colorado, you're missing the big picture. This is just
this Colorad team. I think they're gonna lose to Nebraska.
(03:02):
I as soon as I see the line for that,
I will be on Nebraska. I think Nebraska is going
to be the side. I'm not a big believer in
this team, and I'm not a anti Diana. Know some
of you guys are feeling like, oh, Jason, you just
hate d On blah blah blah. Anyways, Colorado didn't look great,
but got the win, and that's really all that matters.
Next up is Brandon Nyuk. Now this one is fascinating
(03:23):
only because on the surface you see the headline and
nobody reads anything really anymore. Right, So you see, oh,
Brandon Ayuk four years, one hundred and twenty mil awesome,
seventy six million guaranteed. Great, he's in camp.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
We're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Here's where it gets interesting. The forty nine ers are
so pissed still at Ayuk that this is what Adam
Schefter said. And now this is coming directly from the Niners, right,
and they're upset with him, and this was like what
they put out on Thursday afternoon. This four year, one
hundred and twenty million dollar extension for Brandon Nyuk has
(04:00):
been on the table since August twelfth, what that's almost
three weeks. Ayuk had been sitting on this deal, refusing, refusing,
and according to I read on SFGate dot com that
some reporters said the reason Ayuk signed was because they
(04:26):
basically said, hey, we're gonna start finding you if you
don't show up. And apparently at that point Ayuk said, hey,
called his agent and said let's do the deal now,
though that's from reporters now. Ayuk's agent pushed back and said,
that's factually inaccurate, but the check still cashes, okay, as
(04:49):
if to say, wait a minute, the deal hasn't been
on the table since. But he didn't disagree. He just
said that's factually inaccurate, but the check still cashes, as
if to say, like, hey man, you know this to
me is not a good sign for Ben and Ayuk. Okay,
he's a really good player. We know that he's talented.
I just when it's been all about the money for
(05:10):
six months and then the deal's been on the table
for over two and a half weeks, and you are like, eh,
what is it. You don't want to practice, Like what's
the deal? Why are you acting like this? And I
get it you want to be paid and I totally
get that. You know, I'm not in a contract squabble
with Fox. But you know, my deal's up here within
(05:30):
the year, less than a year, and it's like, we'll
see how things go. But like if I'm keeping it
one hundred percent, like guys like this. This is a
Niners team that was on the cusp of the Super
Bowl and the biggest storyline all summer has been their
unhappy wide receiver. It ain't the injuries, right, Trent Williams
(05:51):
is now going to move to the forefront, to the
front burner now that aux deals done. But this to
me is a sign I you didn't want to practice.
And when they said listen, so you guys know how
the fines work. If you're not showing up and you're
under contract, they can find you. But most teams will
just wave the fines right. They'll just say, okay, well
you signed, we're good. It's all good. But I'm guessing
(06:13):
that this deal has been on the table for two
weeks and the Niner said, you know what, hey, we're
gonna start finding you. They can find up to fifty
thousand dollars a day. I'm guessing that they said, hey,
we're gonna find you, and we're not taking these back
this is the deal. That's my guess. It will then
and now it's not official. I'm sure nobody's gonna confirm that.
But the Niners have clearly had enough and they said, listen,
we're willing to wave the fines. But this deal has
(06:35):
been on the table, and I you instantly was like,
I ain't getting fined fifty thousand dollars. Wave those fines.
Almost sign the deal. Dude, you just got seventy six
million dollars guaranteed. Seventy six million. I don't think a
lot of people can comprehend what kind of money that's
generational wealth. And I know somebody, some jackass.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Is gonna be like, well, Jay, it's it's in California
with the high taxes, So seventy six becomes forty And
I'm just gonna look at you and kind of shake
my head, like, Okay, he got forty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
He got forty million dollars for signing the contract after Texas,
and I'm sure the agent will take a little fine
knock it down to thirty five million. Oh no, thirty
five minutes. Like I'm just I'm stunned. This the brand
now you can think, I know it's settled, and you
guys can be excited, and we're gonna be excited when
he scores touchdowns whatever. It's just not a great vibe
when it was all I want the money, I want
(07:29):
the money. I want the money. I want the money.
I don't want to practice. I want to go. You know,
like you could have signed this two weeks ago, got
a camp and like, all right, guys, let's go this.
He made it all about himself. I just don't love that. Anyways.
Let's get to our guest to help you with your
fantasy drafts this weekend, Matthew Berry of EDBC, and he
owns a ton of fantasy businesses. Totally crushing it. Enjoyed
(07:51):
the interview.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. You know a guy, Jason likes to think
he knows everything when it comes to sports. I know
what sports fans want, but for everything he doesn't, he
(08:15):
knows the guy who does.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows a
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. A guy, you know,
the most busy man in August in all of sports,
because he is the fantasy og, the fantasy guru. He's
gonna help you win his leagues. Matthew Berry, Matthew has
a goaling my guy.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
Jason always gonna talk to you. Brother, I'm gonna I'm good,
busy but good. You know.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Yeah, the most busy man in fantasy sports. And it's
not because he has CD Lambs, the top wide receiver
in fantasy football. That's not the sole reason. But I
gotta ask, really, CD Lamb wide receiver one. I'm a
little surprised, matt Are.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
You really Why Why would you be surprised?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I mean, yeah, I get it. They don't have a
ton of other weapons, but he basically hasn't worked out
trained at all. I know he's a young guy who cares.
He should be fine. But if I'm a defense I
have one job and that's to scheme CD Lamb out
of the game. And after that, like nobody else scares
me on that offense, I let Brandon Cooks eat Zeke Elliott.
You know, I just load up against CD Lamb and
(09:18):
say dannar gack to beat me. I don't know if
he can with those weapons.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yeah, but what's different about that from last year? I
mean that was the same case last year, and last
year he was like, you know, the best wide receiver
and fantasy last year it was unbelievable business. I mean, like,
you know, they they're gonna move him all over the place,
They're gonna put him in the slot, you know, they
they you know, just just incredible efficiency and you know,
just massive target share. I mean, like you can you
(09:42):
can guard him and bracket him as much as you want.
They did that last year and it just it just
didn't work out. So uh yeah, I mean I think
that at the to me, I think there's there's there's
four main wide receivers. McCaffrey's number one, but then after
that there's there's kind of four wide receivers. And if
you want to throw I'm on ros Saint Brown and
that I would, I'd be cool with it. But like,
(10:03):
and I think you could you could make a pro
case or an anti case for all of them. They're
all sort of right there. Tyreek Kill is awesome, right,
tyreek Kill is amazing, but he's also on the wrong
side of thirty. He's already a little bit banged up,
and the Dolphins are brutal in December and January when
you're trying to fight for a fantasy A championship, like
you know, and to it has been terrible. So they're
(10:24):
they're bad in cold weather, you know. Then you can
talk about you talk about Jamar Chase. We expect Jamar
Chase out there in Week one, right, but like there's
still some contract issues. He's been holding out. Everything that
you would say, everything that you would say about Ceedee Lamb,
you'd say about Jamar Chase, except for the fact that
Jamar Chase actually has more target competition with with with
(10:47):
t Higgins and then and then you think about Justin Jefferson,
and you could argue, like just the downgrade from Cousins
to Sam Darnold. I don't think it's that big of
a deal. But the fact is is, obviously he's gonna
be playing with a a and lesser quarterback than he
played last year than who he's played with the majority
of his time in Minnesota. So you can sort of
knock all those guys like a little bit, and just
(11:09):
and a'man ra Saint Brown, who had an amazing year
last year was my ride or die. It made me
look smart. But he had scored He's scored ten touchdowns
last year. Canny get back to doubled touchdowns or is
he gonna be more like a six to seven guy
in terms of in the touchdowns? And then you know
he's more of a high end Tier two versus a
high end versus a Tier one wide receiver. I think
(11:29):
he's a Tier one wide receiver. But you can make
the argument, is my point. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Interesting. So I like the kind of the argument for Lamb.
I'm not as high on the Cowboys. I don't think
there're a twelve and team this year, but I am
right looking at the numbers of Lamb down the stretch.
Holy targets Batman, especially in the playoffs. I mean, seventeen
targets in that Detroit game.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, he's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Let's go to Let's go to Drake London. I see
him cracking out. Number was sixteen overall for you? Does
this mean you're high on Kirk Cousins or are You're
just like Desmond Ritter is not even a starter?
Speaker 4 (12:04):
We know, yeah, I mean, I mean, does Desmond have
a job in the NFL right now, I mean, like honest,
like Kirk Cousins. In five of the six seasons that
Kirk Cousins with starting quarterback for the Vikings, he supported
a top ten Fantasy wide receiver. He's done that five
of the last six years. And obviously a lot of
that's justin Jefferson, there's some Adam feelin in there, but
Drake London. A couple of things about Drake London. So
(12:28):
first off, yes, massive upgrade a quarterback, right, going from
like one of the Desmond Ritter and Taylor Heineke and
Marcus Barriota to Kirk Cousins is just such a massive upgrade.
But more importantly, it's also the play calling. Zach Robinson
is the new offensive ordinator. Robinson, of course from the
McVeigh tree with the Rams, and when he was with
the Rams. Obviously the Rams one of the teams in
(12:48):
the NFL that call that you know, are are very
pass heavy. They are one of the top five teams
in the NFL in terms of wide receiver target share.
You know, they they throw a lot and they throw
to their wide receiver a lot. And so you think
about those two things, and the last thing that I
think everyone sort of forgets about Drake London because it's
(13:08):
just so it's been pedestrian in Atlanta. And I don't
think it's his fault. I think it's again it was
the coaching of Arthur Smith and and the poor quarterback play.
But when Drake London was drafted Jason, he went ahead
of Garrett Wilson, he went ahead of Chris O Lobbing.
He was the first wide receiver drafted in that class.
And it's not like anyone all the people that you
(13:30):
know that grind the tape, the mel Kipers of the world, right,
you know, all all everyone that that really does this
for a living. I mean I said this too, but
I'm you know, I'm not a I'm not a guy
like you know mel Or or you know, or Daniel
Jeremiah or Connor Rodgers who's on my show at NBC.
The guys that you know grind every single game of
every single college plavor player. You know, uh, for six
(13:52):
months straight, every single person said, yeah, Drake London should
be the number on wide receiver in this class, Like
no one was, Look like, whoa really Drake London over
Garrett Wilson A lobby, Like no one said that, So
this is a guy that still has a first round
grade and it still has that talent, just hasn't been
on lock. And now here comes a fantasy friendly offensive
play caller and you know, the best quarterback that he's
(14:12):
played with in his career by a country mile.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And interesting, you have Nico Collins right behind Drake London.
And I looked at that Texans team with Diggs and
Tank Dell's going to be back Adulton Shoultz, and now
they got a good upgraded running back with Mixon. It's
tough for me to decipher what you do with Nico
Collins and the Texans wide receivers in general.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I think they're all gonna eat. I think I don't
have a stat for this, Like you know, we talked
about off Ara like I'm driving, so I don't have
this exact stat off the top of my head, but
I will say ce J Stroud is him. He's that dude, man,
He is that f and dude. And I would just
say that Nicocollins is. Last year I think was like
(14:58):
kind of this, you know, amazing break out four. Nico
Collins had a great year. The other thing that's that's
really interesting so I, you know, I'm the owner of
a website called fantasylife dot com. You know, obviously I
do all my stuff at NBC Sports, but I you know,
I also own this website, fantasylife dot com. And what
I've done is I've hired all my favorite fantasy analysts,
(15:19):
the guy that I the guys that I read, and
one of the guys that I hired a guy named
Dwayne McFarlane who's unbelievable. And Dwayne does this thing called
the Utilization Report where he does a deep dive on
every every snap, every route run, every target earned per
route run. It gets real, real deep dive. He came
from Pro Football Focus. It's really really sharp. And so
(15:39):
one of the things that he did this preseason he
did what it's called his preseason Utilization Report. And so
what he's doing is he's looking at again, obviously, you
got you know, second and third teamers out there, but
he's looking at it's all small samples, but you're you're
looking at, like, okay, for the for the ten plays
that c. J. Stroud was out there, what do the
Texans offense look like? You know? And like he does
that with every team and he does that throughout every
(16:01):
every game. So it's unbelievable. So check it out. It's
one hundred percent. FO you go to fantasylife dot com
just look for the preseason utilization report. But the reason
I bring this up is because he looked at that
and Nico Collins this preseason with the first team offense
was CJ. Straud out there was over ninety five percent
route participation. Now what that means is that every single
(16:21):
time c J. Stroud dropped back to pass and there
were players running routes ninety five percent of the time,
Nico Collins was running a route. Stefan Diggs was like
in the eighty six percent range, and Tank Dell was
in a sixty percent range. I think sixty five. Again,
I don't have the numbers up the top of my head,
but that's about where they were. And so my point
is is that ninety five percent route participation is an
(16:44):
unbelievable number. That is like elite, elite, elite. And so
if you buy in a CJ. Stroud and I do,
and you buy a Nico Collins talent and I do,
the fact that he's going to have a ninety five
percent route participation on one of the better offenses with
one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. You know,
is uh is pretty exciting to me. I'm I'm a
(17:04):
big believer in Nico Collins, and I will say I
think Stefan DIDs has a bounce back. I like, I
like all those guys that cost this year, including Tank Dell.
There are going to be enough balls to go around.
I believe in Houston.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Let me ask you quickly. I think the Patriots are
probably the worst team in the league and they just
announced that Jacoby Brissette is going to be the starter
over Drake May. I don't like the weapons, I don't
like the coach. I think this is the offensive line
is abysmal. Is there anyone on the Patriots you draft? No?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
No, If you want to if you want to take
a if you want to take a late flyer on
Jalen Folk, I get it, uh. If you're in a
if you're in a dynasty league, if you're a deep
two quarterback league, I could see taking a flyer on
Drake May because he'll be the starter at some point
and there's some upside there with his legs. But honestly, no,
this is a This is a team devoid of fantasy talent.
(17:54):
I don't like Ramandre Stevenson at cost. He's the he's
the most obvious fantasy option on the UH on the Patriots.
But part of my concern is over the last two years,
forty five percent of vermondre Stevenson's fantasy points have come
from the passing UH or from from his role in
(18:14):
the passing game, like you know, like he was he
was a big part of the reception. And the fact
is is that the Patriots this year signed Antonio Gibson,
who's as good, if not a better pass catcher to
the backfield than rimondre Stevenson. So if they're gonna use reminder,
remember it's a new coaching staff, there, new offense. So
if they're gonna use ramondre Stevenson as a first and
second town back and not really use him in the
(18:35):
passing game, or even if his passing game usage is
you know, half of what it was before, that's a
huge hit given the fact that again, forty percent of
his fantasy points the last two years have come from receptions,
have come from passing game work. And this is a
team that's not gonna be in scoring position that off,
and they're not gonna He's not gonna have a lot
of touchdown equity Formondre Stevens. And so just in terms
(18:57):
of where he's going at cost, I'm I have no
shares of Remondrie Stevenson this year.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Another piece of news that came through this week Sean McVeigh,
lets it slip or maybe designed to come out, Kyrin
Williams is going to return punts. Kyen Williams was a
monster down the stretch at running back for the Rams.
They go out and draft Blake Korum. Do you still
do you have a radical adjustment to where you had
Kyrien Williams say last week?
Speaker 4 (19:21):
No, I mean, look no I don't, because I think
it's a little bit much ado about nothing. Like in
terms of punt returning, what you want is you want
somebody with sure hands. Kyle Williams returned punts last year.
By the way, he didn't do it all the time,
but you know there were a handful of games where
Kyen Williams returned punts last year. And if you're telling
me that instead of twenty two carries a game, which
(19:43):
is what he was like getting something like last year
instead of that, maybe he gets seventeen to eighteen because
they need to save him for six or seven snaps
on punt returns, all right, whatever. Like, I think the
fact that lake Korum is there allows McVay the luxury
to do something like this where it's just like, Okay,
well I'll be able to give him a series off here,
(20:04):
a series off there, but no, he's still going to
get massive workload on one of the better offenses in football.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
And you know McVay has ever since he got to
LA and become a head coach, Todd Gurley back in
the day, obviously you know Cam Akers and then Kyron
last year, Like he's been sort of a one running
back guy. He doesn't really go to a committee. When
he finds a guy he likes and trusts, he kind
of just goes with that guy. And that's certainly the
case with Kien Williams.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Last year we saw Zay Flowers pop as a young fellow.
Everybody likes malikd Neighbors. Is there any other rookie wide
receiver really on your radar? I I'm looking on your list.
I don't really see any guys high is Xavier worthy
in casey, but they just signed Juju, who I don't
think it's going to overlap. Juju's more of an underneath guy.
But Xavier Worthy, would you say he's going to have
(20:52):
possibly a nice season.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
I like Jay, I like Xavier Worthy. I think there's
a lot of great rookies obviously. I mean, look, the
the obvious name is Marvin Harrison Junior, and then you
mentioned Molik Neighbors. Milik Nighbors I think is gonna have
a monster year. Uh so those guys, but yeah, I
mean I think, uh, there's a bunch of interesting names
as rookie wide receivers. This is an unbelievable rookie wide
receiver class. So you already mentioned Xavier Worthy. I think
(21:16):
he's really interesting. With the Chargers, Lad McConkie, who's gonna
be the slot guy? I think McConkie is is very interesting.
Brian Thomas Junior again, going back to the preseason utilization
report on Fantasy life dot Com that I mentioned, Brian
Thomas Junior is playing one hundred percent of the snaps
with the starters and Trevor Lawrence, Wow, he's gonna be
VTJ and Gabe Davids are gonna be the outside Christian
(21:37):
Kirk is gonna be the slot Ingram's the tight end
that's gonna be the Jaguars offense. Uh, you know this
season and again, the Jaguars are a pass first offense.
Doug Peterson, former quarterback, former Andy Reid disciple, he is
going to be a pass first guy. I like Trevor
Lawrence to have a bounce back this year. So I
think I think Brian Thomas Junior is really interesting. Uh,
(21:58):
this one's this one's a deep cut Jason. But look,
I don't know what it's gonna happen, but I'm telling you,
at some point this year, Luke McCaffrey's gonna be a thing.
Luke McCaffrey. Well, I'm not only I'm a Washington fan,
but also, by the way, what Luke McCaffrey does well
is what Jayden Daniels does well in terms of in
terms of uh you know, going deep, winning balls, uh,
(22:21):
you know, winning some contested balls. He's also good as
a slot guy. Like I'm telling you, Luke McAffrey is
a converted quarterback, but they really like him in Washington.
It's gonna take him little while to get up to speed.
But I'm just this is I said this, I'll say,
I'll tell you this much, and you go back, you
watch the tape. In the first preseason week last year,
I made a whole big deal of this on my
show on Fantasy Football Happy Hour, which is my podcast
(22:44):
they do for NBC Sports, and I said, I don't
know what's gonna happen this year, guys, but at some
point this year, Tank Dell is gonna be a thing.
Tank del was like, you know, and people are like, really,
Tank Dally's small. What every you know? He's a late
round pick. I've said, I'm telling you at some point
that this year Tank Dell is gonna be a thing.
And sure enough, obviously last year Tank Dell was a thing.
I'm just telling you at some point this year, Luke
(23:06):
McCaffrey's gonna be a thing.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I'm gonna ask you about an auction league in a sect.
But I did get invited to a guillotine league, and
I was like, I don't know what that is, and
the guy explained it to me, and I was like, listen,
I got too much shit, you know, with gambling and fantasy. Like,
I'm sorry, I can't get up to speed on this,
but it seems like when I I did, maybe I
should revisit because you're hotter? Is it? They're fun?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
No, it's unbelievably fun. I will tell you why you
should do it, because I know you, Jason. You and
I have been friends for a long long time. You're
a guy that likes action. You're a guy that likes
you guys. You like that, you like action, you like
feeling that intensity. So here's what a guillotine league is.
And this is for all your listeners that don't know either.
You have a league like normal, right, everyone does a
(24:05):
draft like normal. Here's the twist. You don't play head
to head. You just start a lineup like normal. But
you're not playing head to head. You're just sort of
starting your lineup. At the end of the week, the
team with the lowest score in the league gets cut.
Forever they're out of the league. There's season, there's seasons over,
(24:27):
they're done, and obviously you just keep doing that and
to only into until only one team remains. Here's the
other twist, all the players on the team that got
chopped go back into the free agent pool. So now
I mean you think about it like think about your
typical fantasy league. Every team has stars on it, Every
team has players that you would want to roster, And
(24:49):
so every single week, instead of like sifting through like
you know, some slot receiver that got five targets and
hoping maybe he pops a little bit more, or some
backup running back that you're gonna stash, hoping the guy
in front of him gets injured, every week, you're bidding
on starters. Every week you're like, it'll be Week six
and you're like, oh, Patrick Mahomes and Christian McCaffrey on
the waiver wire, like it's insane. The other thing that's
(25:12):
really fun about it is just you know, you can
start a league whenever. If you're like, oh, that sounds fun,
I'd love to do it, but whatever, the season starts
in less than a week, I don't have time to
get my guys together. It's doesn't It doesn't matter because
because you don't play head to head, you can start
a league whenever you want in the season. You just
need to have one more team in the league than
(25:34):
weeks left in the season. So if there's a four
weeks left in the season, you can start a five
person lead. That sounds fun, what I mean Like, so yeah,
just do it whenever. And like I'm telling you, it's
an intense sweat like you've never had. Like you sit
there and you're like whatever you're you know, it's week
five and you had one guy in to buy, another
guy leaves the game early due to a hamstring, one
(25:54):
of your stars just underperforms, and then you find yourself
and you're like, oh my god, Like if Josh Jacobs
doesn't or touched on them on a night, I'm dead.
Like it's a sweat like you've never had before when
you every single week your season's on the line, and
it's one of those things that you're like, ah, all
I gotta do is just not finished last. It's easier
than you think, but it isn't. I mean again, like
you've ever done a survivor.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Pool work, Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
You ever have to do. It's similar to that where
you're like, oh, I'll have to do is pick one
NFL team to win. That's easy, and then you get
into it and you're like, oh, you start thinking about
it and going back and forth, and you know, your
mind plays chicksy the in anyway, It's intense and really
really fun. I've played it for the last three years.
Everyone that I've ever introduced it to, anyone that have
ever introduced the league two or the idea of the
(26:39):
league plays it and it's just like the rest fantasy
is dead to me. This is the only way to
play fantasy. It's like it's it's so it's so fun
and addicting and intense, and.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I might have to night. You got me wanted to
fire one up real quick on an auction league, So.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
Eighteen leagues dot com you can take. There's a site
that it does leagues com.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Okay, auction league. I've been in the league an auction
for three years. I have not won yet, which makes
me upset because I usually like to every three years
I can win. I feel like I'm good enough to
win a fantasy title, but the auction leagues kind of
have me all mixed up. What's your best strategy for
an auction back.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
I have some really good strategies here. So a couple
of things. First off, I think that one thing that
gets really missed a lot in auction league, strategy is
budget and budget maintenance, right, because values come out all
the time. So what's your in your auction league? What's
your budget?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I think it's two hundred, yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Two hundred okay, So here's what I would do. I
want you to take that. This is very simple exercise,
but it's important on your take out a piece of
paper and write down all the positions you need to fill.
So you know it's quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers,
a flex, a tight end, six bench, whatever it is, right,
Maybe you play two flexes. I don't know. Is it
(27:57):
a super flex league, whatever it is, right, you write
that down, and then, using your your budget of two
hundred dollars, I want you to write just kind of
by each position a number that you'd want to spend
in that position. Like you're like, okay, you know what,
I want to spend forty bucks on my RB one.
I'm making up numbers here. I'm gonna spend fifty bucks
(28:19):
on my RB one. I'm gonna spend thirty five on
my RB two. I really wanted to lead tight end
this year, so I'm gonna go thirty on tight End one.
I'm gonna go cheap at quarterback. So I'll put you know,
fifteen bucks at by quarterback position. I want, you know,
I'll get some lower tier guys, the wide receivers and
twenty five bucks eat, you know whatever. I'm making it up, right, Yeah,
(28:40):
but you sort of budget it out that way, and
I want, you know, five dollars a bench spot or whatever,
and so that way you can just sort of see, Okay,
here's how I want to distribute my budget. Okay, now
then you do two other things. First off, obviously you
need auction values. And I'll give another plug. But honestly,
at fantasylife dot com, all the guys we do projections
and we have a we have a tool that's amazing
(29:01):
that you just all you have to do is plug
in your all your settings. You know, like it's a
two hundred cap, it's PPR, but it's tied in premium
and blah blah blah, and it will spit out auction
values for you. Okay, so you do that. But wherever
you get your auction values, okay, you've got it. And
then you're going through the auction and uh, let's say
I'm making it up, but let's say you decide you
(29:22):
want fifty bucks on RB one and we don't have
to check out, right, Okay, Breese Hall comes out, and
maybe Breeze Hall is like one of the first guys
that comes out, and people are a little scared and
they're holding their money, and all of a sudden, you're like,
you're able to get Breese Hal for like forty four dollars. Again,
I'm making stuff up here. Okay, you're great. Say you're
right in Breeze Hall and you just scratch out that
(29:42):
fifty and you put forty four, and now you know
that you've got six extra dollars to play with. Maybe
add six dollars to running back too, maybe you know,
maybe you're like, I went cheap on quarterback, but you
know what, now I've got six. Now I'm gonna, you know,
go up a tier at quarterback and I'm gonna add
six bucks to my quarterback budget. Whatever it is. Or
you really want Breeze Hall, you get into a bidding war,
(30:03):
turns out you end up acquiring for like fifty five dollars.
All right, So now you're like, okay, now I've got
to let me where am I losing five dollars? From
you look at your sheet and just during the auction.
It's just it's a very easy way to sort of
visualize your budget management as all the prices come out.
The other thing that I like to do in an auction.
So that's just a very simple way, but I think
(30:23):
that will help you construct a good team. And too
often in auctions, people pay too much or pay too little,
and they find themselves at the end of the at
the end of an auction either either you know, missing
out on a bunch of good bargains because they've spent
too much money, or they find themselves with way too
much money at the end and they're they're you know,
all of a sudden, they're spending thirty five dollars on
(30:44):
Devin Singletary and you're like, you know, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Hot I had both of those right man.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
So that that's just a very simple exercise that I
think will also help you visualize how you want to
how you want to construct your roster given the budget constraints.
And then the other thing that I like to do,
I think too often in auction formats, what people are
like Breezese Hall's an obvious name, but let's just use
that for example, people are like, Oh, I really like
Breee Hall, So you know what I'm gonna do. I'm
(31:10):
not gonna. I'm not gonna mention Breese Hall. I'm not gonna.
I really want you to give you somebody else like
Trey McBride. I love Trey McBride. This year. I'm not
gonna hold off on trainmkbride. I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna throw him out this year because I'm gonna save
my money to get Trey McBride. And then what happens
is is that so you wait three, four or five
rounds and all of a sudden, Don Kincaid, Mark andrews Uh,
(31:33):
Sam Laporte, they all go and maybe each day each
go for a buck or two less and then whatever
you've waited on it. And then let's say you've called
it again. I'm making up a number thirty five dollars
for Train McBride this year. Okay, you throw out Trey McBride. Well,
turns out three other people have been waiting on Trey
McBride and suddenly it gets crazy and there's some insane
(31:53):
and all of a sudden, now it's up to like
forty eight dollars, and you're like, I can't pay forty
eight dollars for Trey McBride because my sheet here says
thirty five basically my scoring. And now you're completely screwed
because like you bypassed all these other elite tight ends
and now you don't have Trey McBride, and now you've
got thirty five dollars that you don't know what to
do with because that's what you budgeted and there's no
(32:13):
other tight end on your sheet. We're twenty dollars. So
I'm a big believer in and now all of a sudden,
you've got a pivot, right fun So what I like
to do is if there's a player or a couple
of players that I want, I throw them out immediately,
like if I'm like like again, because I want to
know two things. First Off, it's not like Trey McBride
(32:34):
is a sleeper, Like we're not talking about a buck
at the end kind of guys, like you could get
Luke McCaffrey for a buck at the end if you
want it. I'm talking about I'm talking about whatever the
priest hauls of the world. It's not a secret. And
so I would rather if I'm going into an auction
saying I really want Breese Hall and I really want
them for fifty dollars, I'd rather throw them as soon
as I get a chance to nominate a player, because
(32:56):
things one of two things happens. Either I get them
for fifty dollars or less and I'm like, okay, great,
I'm on plan, or he goes for way more money
than I want to spend, and now I can pivot,
and now I know. I want to know as soon
as possible if if I need to pivot my plan
or if I'm on track right and so way too
often in an auction what happens is that players just
(33:20):
they wait, they try to hold onto stuff, and then
there's one guy left that has, you know whatever, Well,
why are you betting on traineming Bride? You have dogon
k Yeah, man, but I've got all this money and
I don't know what to spend it on it. You're
just like you're a sight all right, Well so you're
finishing eighth, but you just FD my team, and like,
so I just I'm a big believer in just throwing
out the guy you want versus throwing out a lot
(33:44):
of people. Yeah, and other people are like, I'm just
gonna throw out somebody. I don't want to try to
get money off the table, and I just I don't know.
I just that's not a strategy that I think ultimately
works in the long term, because every player is going
to come out, and if you have players that you want,
you want to know whether you're in or out out
of them earlier rather than later, so you have more
time to adjust as the draft goes on.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
All right, Matthew Berry fantasy legend, whether it's players, leagues,
He's the guy obviously go to all of his websites
with fantasy say all your websites, the best stuff, yeah.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Yeah, yeah, fantasylife dot com, unbelievable. And then obviously all
my stuff that I do with rotorworld dot com, my podcast,
Fantasy Football Happy Hour Sunday mornings during the NFL season,
Fantasy Football pre game eleven until kickoff on East Coast
time on the NFL, on NBC YouTube channel, and Peacock
And of course you can catch me on Sunday nights
(34:35):
just before the game on Football Night in America before
the Sunday Football game on NBC Sports Big.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
The guy works hard. Thanks a lot, Matthew, I know
you're busy. Have a great football season and go win
a couple leagues, will you.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I'm gonna try, Jason. Thanks Ben,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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