June 7, 2024 • 50 mins
New Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold is going undrafted in many leagues. Should you roll the dice on a (previously) struggling quarterback who now finds himself surrounded by weapons? Learn about Minnesota and seven other teams in the AFC/NFC North.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show. Now,
here's your host, Paul Chargion.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I am Paul charging My co host is Matt Harrison
Shock Fantasy.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Hi Matt, Hello, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Nice to have you back this week.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yes, all right, back to back, Matt Harrison's.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean that's what the people want, that's what the
people get.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, well, I'd like to literally see your back on
the front and back, which would look weird. Oh, but
that Yeah, we can do back to back to back.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, my back is looking a little better than my front.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I I got to try to get the belly, had
to drop a few LB's. The problem is your proximity
to Big Boar Barbecue.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
It's about a mile mile and a half from my house,
and you need to move.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You're too close to Big Boar. You know, I'm twenty
minutes away, So it's a concerted effort for me.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Yeah, maybe I should like only walk or bike there.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
From now. Oh, that's a great idea. Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Of course in Minnesota that's half of the year. That's
a tricky proposition.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Well, it's not that far of a walk. I can
do that walk.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You gonna bike it in February.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
No, and not when it's slippery. I'll put on the
snow shoes and walk it over there.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The people who do the biking in the winter with
the big fat tires, like that's dedication right there.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, I don't like it that much, if you know,
I don't like biking that much in order in order
to like, you know, really commit to it in the
winter time.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
No, I'm with you. Although I did e bikes for
the first time. Oh yeah, a couple of months ago
when I was when I was in Utah, and that's
ion they're so fun.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
E bikes are a blast.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, it's they're not fully motorized, but they take everything
that you pedal.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
You get like five x the return one.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So you know, you can go up these really big.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Hills no problem. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And you know I was, you know, go uphill twenty
miles an hour by pedaling, you know, a quarter as
hard as you would have had to work on a
regular bike.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I did. I did not.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I did not expect it to be fun. They're blast
e bikes are super fun.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Are you're gonna get one? No?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Okay, because at the end of the day, like you,
at the end of the day, do I really want
to I don't.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I don't think I want a bike anywhere at the
end of the day.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, you could get get a couple and you could
keep them with the camper.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Oh that's true. Now, that would be the use case.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Would be in the camp Yeah for sure, not in it,
but yeah, yeah, brought with it. Yeah, exactly that space
inside the camper.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, if nobody's in the camper at the time, you
could throw the bikes in there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I could do that. But that's the the ideally
is you are in like national parks, state parks, and
you know, seeing all kinds of cool stuff. Then yeah,
I think it'd be absolutely that's great. Why don't you
buy me.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
With that big Fantasy Football Week, I love it all right.
This is the fourth of our four shows breaking down
all the teams in the NFL, highlighting key changes from
last year, and out broad outlooks for each of these teams.
We've done everything but the North teams. So now we
(03:23):
go to the AFC North Matt. Let's start with the
Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
The biggest addition to the backfield literally is Derrick Henry,
who comes over from the Titans. We'll talk more about
him in a minute. They did lose their other running backs,
Gus Edwards and JK. Dobbins both find themselves on the
West Coast.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
With the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
They also lost three starting offensive linemen and Kevin Zeitler,
John Simpson, and Morgan Moses. Second round rookie Roger Rosengarten
is expected to take over at right tackle, while Ben
Cleveland and Andrew Vorhees are slated to take over at guard.
But anytime you placed three offensive line necks, a little
bit of a red flag for an offense areed. Last year,
(04:05):
the Ravens went eight to no in games where Lamar
Jackson was sacked two or fewer times. Wow, okay, all right,
so that factors into that passing game. Jackson missed nine
total games. There we go nine high, Hey, there we
are right in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two
due to injury. But at an MVP season in twenty three,
(04:28):
where he was able to set a new career best
in passing yards just about thirty seven hundred yards, a
full five hundred more than his previous career high. That's
Todd Mounkin. He certainly helped with that, as did the
emergence of Zay Flowers as a top flight receiving option
I like today. Flowers definitely started to bloom at the
end of the season. He scored four scored four times
(04:51):
in his last five regular season games and averaged five
catches per game over that span. Rashad Bateman and Nelson
Aguilar appear to be guys.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Well you know, they're banging the drum for Bateman again. Yeah,
they ah, this is going to be the breakout. Yeah, trying.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
But I want people to keep an eye on rookie
devontees Walker maybe popping up and stealing some targets later
in the season. They're talking about him as a guy
who just has just like raw athletic ability, and that
kind of seems interesting to me. In that offense, Mark
Andrews should finally be fully healthy at the starting training camp.
He's still a top five tight end, so will get
(05:28):
better or worse for the passing game. I struggled with
this one. I think it gets slightly worse, mostly because
I'm nervous about how that O line gels with sixty
percent of new pieces. I agree the running game. Dereck
Henry is thirty years old. He's played eight seasons and
has had two thousand and thirty career carries.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Forty second in NFL history. He just passed Roger Craig,
who played for eleven years. Yeah, Gerald Riggs who played
for ten years, and herschel Walker who played for eleven seas.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And Henry's at eight and those first few years he
was lightly used. Yeah, you know, he was in a
timeshare backfield, most dominating writers.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Right, But just for fun, if he gets another two
hundred carries this year, he's gonna pass these guys in charch.
I want you to give me a one sentence blurb
on each of these guys. Okay, they're from your fantasy passage, Okay,
all right.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Aman Green, he was shockingly good for the Packers, was
an all purpose back. But I never would have guessed
that he was at this level of I didn't remember
having this kind of longevity in his career over.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Two thousand carries.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
All Right, Willis mcgahey, against all odds. He had the
horrifying injuries. Yeah, and everybody just assumed that, you know,
he would like never play again, and the fact that
he went on to a long, productive career was shocking.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Ernest Biner, Oh, Ernestiner, So he was.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It was the Kevin Mack Ernest Biner duo, frustrating fantasy
owners in the nineties for the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yes, Terry Allen.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Terry Allen was a longtime Minnesota Viking who was the
the first player to come back from acls on each knee.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Chris Johnson, Chris Johnson, I because nickname. Maybe you've ever
given the tap dancing Nancy Chris Johnson.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I had forgot about that. He was a tap dancing Nancy.
That's what he was.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I hated that guy, and part because two thousand yards
of I hated that guy exact. He had a couple
of just great seasons and everybody was like, always better
than Adrian Peterson, It's not even close. And Peterson went
on too obviously far out clips him.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Okay, I got a couple more.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Earl Campbell, Yeah, before my time too. But obviously Earl
Campbell one of the great power running backs of all time.
We've all seen the classic highlight of him literally shredding
the jersey if a player, No, they shred his jersey.
It just keeping just yeah and him just mowing down.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Guys fanatics built jerseys back then.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Sean Alexander, Yeah, I'll always first remember his six touchdown
game against my Vikings.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And then finally Tiki Barber.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, he went on to he had a long, good career.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He did. He was part of the Thunder and Lightning.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Crew with Brandon Jacobs brand. Yeah, it's nicely done. It was,
that was exactly what was Brandon Jacobs. Jacobs should have
had a longer, better career, but it didn't. It all,
It all kind of fizzled out. Tiaki had a long career.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
There, but those guys.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Dereck Henry's going to pass all year with two two
hundred carries seems very likely.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, And by the way, all the goal line work,
all the goal line work.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
He's had double digit touchdowns in six straight seasons. In
those six seasons, he's averaged twenty carries per game. If
the Ravens are planning on giving him twenty carries per game.
That's three hundred and forty carries. He might not make it,
but I do think he's gonna be an inside the
five beast though another ten plus scores probably a lock
if he stays healthy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Backups are Keaton Mitchell, who probably won't return till mid season.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah that's too bad, because man, he looked promising, you know,
and a lot of what I loved about him requires
a two healthy knees.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yeah, let's see Justice Hill is still there. I mean,
Justice Hill could be relevant if Henry starts suddenly.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Is hurt?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Ravens backs last year finished fifth in the league in
PPR Fantasy points. Most of that was due to twenty
running back rushing touchdowns last year.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I didn't know that they combined for twenty running back
rushing touchdown Gus.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Edwards led the NFL and carries inside the five.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah? Is it better or worse this year? I do
like Henry better than what they had last year, so
I'll say it's slightly better. But I don't know if
they can score at that twenty running back no rushing
probably not.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
But if I told you Derrick Henry is going to
lead the NFL and rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
You'd be like, yeah, sure, absolutely could see that feasible. Yeah,
it's not a peacock off thing right there, It really isn't.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That's it to go to the Cleveland Browns. Start with
the passing game. It is a make or break year
for Deshaun Watson. As it stands today early June, the
Deshaun Watson trade and its connected contract is the worst
deal in NFL history. Herschel Walker points and mocks the
Deshaun Watson trade.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's basically built the current Houston tex.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It has into a Super Bowl continued you have going
to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Through two injury Leyden seasons in Cleveland, Watson has been awful.
He's the NFL's highest paid quarterback. He ranked twenty sixth
as a passer by Pro Football Focus in between backup Now,
backup Justin Fields and unrostered Ryan Tannehill. In each of
(10:47):
the past two seasons, Deshaun Watson has played about one
third of the year and accumulated seven passing touchdowns and
seven passing touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
You can't even hit nine times on that, No, I can't,
which is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Consider he's the highest paid player in the NFL and
he's given you seven and seven passing touchdowns and the
granted injuries factored into that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
That even if you were most.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Charitable and you were to pro rate his seven passing
touchdowns across a whole season, like if you played all
seventeen games, you'd have twenty passing touchdowns a year. That
is terrible. That is appropriate for a middle and rookie prospect.
He completed. Watson completed just sixty one percent of his passes.
That ranked him thirty sixth, and his adjusted completion percentage
(11:32):
isn't much better, ranking him thirtieth. And finally, and I've
hammered on this so many times, Deshaun Watson doesn't run anymore.
For everybody thinks you're getting rushing touchdowns because you're remembering
the Houston days. In two seasons of Cleveland, he has
one rushing touchdown. And even more poignant, last year, he
had thirty seven total rushing yards on designed runs.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And he designed runs where they hit and not many,
but well, yes, that is something like that. Not even
he they don't use him that way, So ken Deshaun
Watson get better. Well, okay, sure, I mean he was
way better in Houston. He's only twenty nine years old.
But what I don't know is is he just mentally broken?
(12:20):
I mean, is you know, after what he did to himself,
how he sabotaged his own career entirely at his own fault,
is is he now mentally broken? And that's you know,
we don't know for sure. Your glimmer of hope is
that is what Joe Flacco walked in and did. Yeh,
Because you could have said, in this Kevin Stefanski Cleveland offense,
(12:44):
no quarterback can ever be fantasy productive because it's always
going to be about what they can do on the
ground first and everything else. But Joe Flacco walked in
and rocked this passing game. Yeah, so maybe Deshaun Watson
can do some of what Joe Flacco did at age
sixty two.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Do you feel like the aforementioned Ryan Tannehill, who's still
a free atory at this moment, wouldn't that be kind
of nice if he was there?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I know that.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think they signed Tyler Huntley as the backup.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, Tyler Huntley is there.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I'm a little nervous about that, but it seems like
Tannerhill could come in and do a Flaco maybe if
Watson's not working out.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Your new face among the receivers is Jerry Judy. In Denver,
he ran over half his routes from the slot. But
the problem is that's where Elijah Mitchell and Cedric Tillman
often play Okay slot as well, so that doesn't give
him really anywhere to go there. The Browns don't pass
enough in my mind to feed Amari Cooper, David and Joku.
We'll talk about a little bit more in a second.
(13:43):
And well, frankly anybody else, including Jerry Judy. So I'm
out on Judy, not interested, and I think he's just
going to go to Cleveland and Witherway and die. And
at the end of the year, we're going to look
back at like a four touchdown season and somebody maybe
had to start once off the waiver wire in a
bye week.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Yeah, be a take a chance, maybe a take a
chance on me cap player.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
That's the kind of player I think Jerry duty is
going to devolve into here and already was at the
end of last year. Let's talk David Joku though in
many scoring systems, second half of last year, many of it,
much of it powered by Joe Flacco tight end one whoa.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I did not see that come.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
From Week eight forward in Joku scored or topped fifty
eight yards in every game but one. Wow, really impressive
those blow and he had some blow up games almost
entirely with Joe Flacco. His average game under Watson just
thirty five yards and zero point two touchdowns per game.
(14:41):
Oh man, he was basically like, you know, double or
triple the fantasy points scorer under Joe Flacco. And that's
your danger within JOKU is what happens with Watson under quarterback?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Now?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, So does the passing game get better or worse?
I think it's worse. I mean just Watson is a
downgrade from Joe Flacco.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I unless I was.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Out of the know at the beginning of last year,
and now that DeShawn Watson's a downgrade from him, it's
come to this. The running game, uh, considering that Nick
Chubb tore his a CL, MCL and meniscus way back
in Week two, to me, it's a little bit troubling
that he was not able to do any running on
it until April. I'd like to have seen that timetable
(15:24):
a little bit earlier. Not a not a disaster warning sign,
but I think that is a bit of a warning sign.
You know, obviously we'll know a lot more about Chubb's
timetable season gets closer longer than we'd like, maybe yea,
and well, you know, we'll know more. But even when
Chubb returns, who's to say that he goes back to
being the workhorse that he was in this offense? They
(15:46):
made him take a pay cut. And look what happened
on JK. Dobbins as an example, right you know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
JK.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Dobbins suffered a brutal, brutal knee injury, just like Chubb did.
Never the same player, never the same and Dobbins looked
amazing pre injury. So right now, ADP Chubb's going off
the board is running back thirty two in the seventh round.
I can get starters there. To me, that's too early
(16:13):
for somebody that may not start a game until mid season.
I mean, we don't know right now right now, based
only in June.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
If you're if you're drafting in June, yes, maybe not
the best time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
To roll the dice on that.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
But if it looks like he's slated to start and
and and all systems are go. I think Chubb's ADP
rockets up quite a bit from RB thirty two.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah probably. I mean, you know, if he's ready to
roll day one of training camp. Yeah, this you'll you'll
have gone back and gone seventh round. Oh my god,
I go to steal. So you know understand the risk
Jerome Ford returns. They added don to Foreman. Ford was
never built to be a work horse. They had to
use him as a workhorse for a lot of last
year out of necessity. But that's that would not be
(16:58):
the case here if Rub's not ready, I think it
would be Ford and Foreman both effectively sharing carries.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And if Chubb is healthy, how does that backfield?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Because Chub's not gonna go from zero to twenty carries
like the old days, and Foreman's not a terrible he's
non terrible. Yeah yeah, I agreed. So does this get
better worse than last year? Probably better eventually because Chubble
returned at some point to something resembling full strength and
so and last year again, you know, Ford was okay,
but he's just he was never meant to be a
(17:30):
workhorse back sure, all right, Let's go to our next team,
which is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Yeah, it's a whole new ballgame in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson
in as the starting quarterback, Justin Fields is the backup.
They replace Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph. They're
all gone. Deontay Johnson gone too, leaving George Pickens as
the unquestioned number one wide receiver there. And Arthur Smith
(17:56):
is the new offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You may remember.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Our Smith as the coach of the Falcons the last
few years, and before that, the offensive coordinator in Tennessee
where he just ran the heck out of Derrick Henry.
And now they're talking about how excited Pittsburgh is for
this new run first philosophy.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So let's go to the passing game. Okay, how can
Arthur Smith f this up? Well?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I mean, you had Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, both
guys not known for their downfield pass plays, and Jettison
Deontay Johnson. It kind of sounds like you're gonna run
the ball. Russell Wilson has to be seen as an
upgrade from Kenny Pickett. Yep, So that's good. I guess,
but beyond that, it's kind of looking scary. Calvin Austin
is currently set as wide receiver too, and I bet
(18:43):
most NFL fans don't know who Calvin Austin is. He
was a fourth round pick for the Steelers last year.
Roman Wilson was a round three pick out of Michigan.
He should get some run. And then there's the retreads
Van Jefferson, Les Watkins, Denzel Mims, Marquez Callaway.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
They're all on the current depth chart. Yikes.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
After scoring seven times in his rookie year, Pat Fryarmuth
has only managed four total touchdowns in the following two years.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I'm stunned at his de evolution from that. So that
rookie year was so promising for him. And by the way,
there's talk that the backup Washington could end up pressing
friar Mouth for time this year.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Washington is gigantic, specimen, physical freak.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It could.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Mouth had a big game late in the season where
I think he tallied like one hundred and nineteen yards
in a game, so there was a little glimmer of
hope there. He'll be on the field a ton. I
think it's arrow up on Friar move.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Good Byelow. Who else is there to throw.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
To Curry point? That's a very fair point, is it?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Russell Wilson has like zero track record of throwing to
his tas true. But Arthur Smith, if you were to
combine like Pitts and John new Smith together, Arthur Smith,
as frustrated as we were about his usage on Pitts,
I think he can get the ball to a tight end.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Absolutely. Is the passing game better or worse? I think
it's better, but not by much at all. I think
the upgrade at quarterback is not very significant, and the
running game stands to benefit more under Arthur Smith. So
let's talk about the running game. Naji Harris has played
three years in the league. He's had at least twelve
hundred total yards and eight touchdowns in every season. Last
(20:30):
year he touched the ball two hundred and eighty four times.
Jalen Warren had two hundred and ten touches. Last season,
he had over eleven hundred total yards and he scored
four times. Now, Warren was much more heavily utilized as
a pass catching option out of the backfield. But Harris
isn't that bad in his rookie year. He had a
seventy four catch season.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, that was so promising.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Yeah, everyone will point to Naji Harris had four point
one yards per carry and Jalen Warren had five point
three yards per carry, and they're all gonna say this preseason. Yeah, well, Nause,
he's gonna get get, get take the back seat to
Warren here. I don't think that's the case.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It's gonna be a split backfield. And here's why Nase's
gonna keep this job. He's six foot two, two hundred
thirty pounds Warren.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Is Is he really six foot two? Yeah, geez, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Tall for a running back.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
He's six inches taller than Warren five foot eight two
point fifteen.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I think he was six two.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
In most cases, the bigger players in the NFL tend
to be more durable, and if Nagy has to plot
his way through the line to tire out the defense
to allow Warren to get those.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
And Arthur Smith loves his plotters, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
The Steelers also brought in Corderyl Patterson as a change
of pace back. He was in Atlanta with Arthur Smith.
Soh in Atlanta in a similar spot last year. Bijeon, Robinson, Tyler, Algier,
and Patterson all had some run. Algier had two hundred
four touches last year. Bijon had two hundred seventy two.
(21:58):
It's almost the same as what we just talked about.
Naji's gonna be Beijon, Warren's gonna be Lgier. Patterson just
gets to be himself. Which is nice, better or worse.
I think it's better because I think they're gonna run
even more this year. It's gonna be like a ten
percent uptick in rushing attempts.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Let's go to the Cincinnati Bengals. Everything looks like Joe
Burrow's going to return in time for training camp. I
have no real concerns about Joe Burrow for this year,
and obviously he's great. So's Jamar Chase awesome. I don't
think we have anything to even spend time on with
those guys.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And Joe Burrow's got the long hair now, so rocking it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, all the cool guys grown their hair out.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
You are growing your hair out.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Coincides you and Joe Burrow must have a lot more
than people know. T Higgins, though, has not signed his
franchise tag offer, and we could be heading into a
stalemate in training camp. So that is something Betty, to
keep it a track of. Yeah, if if you want
to roll the dice on Higgins getting traded or maybe
(22:59):
there's a tracted holdout, you could throw a dart. And
I like this as one of my favorite sleepers, andre
Yo Savash. He's flashed a little bit last year and
I'm interested in that kid, and he could walk right
in the starting role opposite Jamar Chase. Now they put
a third rounder into rookie Jermaine Burton from Alabama, but
(23:22):
he's viewed as a very very raw athlete who is
not very productive and on great Alabama teams, he's expected
to like a long term project. I mean somebody that
would need years to develop. So Andre Yo Savash, I
mean like last pick of your draft. Just keep this
in the back of your mind. And especially if you're
doing best Ball drafts now drafting for early for whatever reason,
(23:44):
and this T Higgins thing has not played out and
you think it's going to end badly for badly if
you think he's not going to be on this team,
either if I hold out or trade or whatever, you
can get a wide receiver two and for Joe Burrough
offense right for free. Yes, thank you, journeyman tight end
Mike Giseki is your presumed starter at the tight end position.
(24:06):
But Kazeki has just proven and reproven himself to be
just like a spot starter and that's it.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Is He better than anything they've had at tight end
the last few years, though it feels.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like slightly it's better nerves Smith, that's for sure. But
they also spent a fourth round pick on Eric All
from Iowa and previously Michigan, and that is a thort
nice from favorite.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, he likes Eric a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So Yeah, so if Kazeki isn't great, I could see
them getting doing a little eric All, getting eric All
involved in this, but his timetable could be down the
road as well. So does the passing game get better
worse this year?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Better?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Because Joe Burrow's not gonna miss half the season, So
you know this is this is clearly uptick here and again, Andre, Yo.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I don't know if we're pronouncing that, No, I am.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
I looked it up to make sure I didn't screw
it up. Yo.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
See bosh Okay got it.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Running game.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Joe Mixon sent packing to Houston Cincinnati should have sold
last year. I think they got out a year late,
but I think they ultimately made the right call here.
So it looks like it's gonna be a two headed
attack with Chase Brown and Zach Moss. But I like
Moss better. You know, after years of misuse in Buffalo.
Of course, you know, Zach Boss goes to Indy. He
(25:19):
had those early starts where Jonathan Taylor wasn't right yet,
and looked really good. In the six games in which
Moss got eighteen or more carries, he averaged one hundred
and six yards in almost a full touchdown per game.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
This is the Zach Moss I was stumping for when
he was in Buffalo. We finally got a long look
at him with Indianapolis and he looked good.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
And Devin Singletary got out of Buffalo and side, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Look good too. I know it's right. So James Cook
looks all right. He does.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
They don't use him enough. Chase Brown look promising in
the small sample size that we had last year. He
can catch. That's Moss is not a natural pas catcher.
Brown had just forty four carries all last year, but
he had four explosive plays of fifteen or more yards
on those forty four carries. That's a great ratio, and
Brown finished fifteenth in Pro Football focuses elusiveness rating. Brown's
(26:14):
got room to get better in your two. But Moss
should be the presumed starter here. He's proven he can
do a lot with a big workload. I think Moss
I think gets two thirds of the work. Brown gets
one third of the work.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And see that happening.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yep, that feels about right to me. Zach Moss going
off the board at running back twenty eighth, sixth round.
Perfect do the opposite draft spot for Zach Moss? Yeah,
I like him. There pass saying we.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Do pat Now that's it.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Does he get better or worse for for Cleveland's running game?
I think it's better because I do not believe. I
didn't believe in Joe Mixon going into last year. He
wasn't any good last year. Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna move.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
On, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I think that's all of our AFC North teams. Let's
take a break and go to the MC North sound good, yep.
Fantasy Football Weekly returns Paul Jarchie and Matt Harrison with you.
We turn our attention to the NFC North. First team
up is the Green Bay Packers, Matt where we got
not a lot of change the passing side, but we've
(27:12):
got some new faces in the running game.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
By the way, this NFC North, it's it's gonna be
a monster. These are some good teams additions and subtractions
in Green Bay. Josh Jacobs replaces Aaron Jones in the backfield.
That's the headliner. The Packers also lost guard John Runyon,
tackle Yosh Nyman, and spent a first round pick on
Jordan Morgan on the offensive line. But they're pretty deep
(27:38):
across the offensive line, so I don't think that they're
gonna miss a beat there.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And organizationally, man, do they churn out good lineman holy cow.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
To get good offensive line play the passing game. The
band is back together again. Jordan Love looks to build
off a promising first year as a starter, and the
Packers may have more B B plus wide receivers on
their roster, not like letter grades in Fantasy Football Week exactly,
but than any team ever because Jaden Reid, Romeo Dobbs,
(28:14):
Christian Watson, Dontavian Wicks. They'll probably all get drafted in
your fantasy league, Oh yeah, for sure. And then there's
Bow Melton, Malik Heath, and Samari Toure. They all had
a little bit of run with the team at the
tail end of last year as well. The problem is
their depth. They're all good players and they should all
get a chunk of the fantasy pie. There were only
two instances last season where a Packers wide receiver had
(28:38):
double digit.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Targets in a game.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Really yeah, wow, Romeo Dobbs in Week four Jacob Reid
in Week fourteen.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
There were only two instances last season where a Packers
wide receiver had one hundred yards two that's it. Neither
counted for you because it was Bow Melton in Week
seventeen and Red in Week eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Wow. Not in your fantasy playoffs, right.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So, as far as touchdowns go, Read and Dobbs both
had eight scores, Watson had five, Wicks had four, and
then there was a slew of others who had two
or one receiving touchdowns last season, including tight ends Luke
Musgrave and Tucker Craft. The point is, in this passing game,
I think you want Jordan Love.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I want Jordan Love, So don't have to guess everyone.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
To deal with any of the wide receivers unless you're
a best ball.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Well, well that's true best ball. That's a lot I
like it. It's a lot more compelling for best ball.
We're gonna have to try to guess week in and
week out, who's gonna be good. The smart people say
the smart people quote say, you know, Wicks has got
freaky upside that perhaps others don't sure read to me
looked like Deebo Samuel Light. And I'm really intrigued by Reed.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you love Dobbs, and I like do I love Dobbs.
I like Dobbs.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, but I think you're right that I'm just gonna
lay off the whole group and not try to figure
that thing that thing out and try to guess right. So,
I think there's just gonna be too many games where
too many dud games when your guy, your packer receiver
just it's just not his day.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Yeah, exactly. Offense up or down. I think the arrow
is trending up for the offense as they continue moving
forward in love second year in the Running Game in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Hey, before we move on, Yeah, we should mention Tucker
Kraft had a torn bicept working out, and he looks
like he's going to miss like all of training camp
and might be reckep ready for the beginning of might
be ready for the beginning of the season, but might not.
And that might be the big difference that keeps him
safely below Luke Musgrave for a while.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Okay, got it, got it in so the running game.
In twenty twenty two, Josh Jacobs had three hundred and
ninety three touches three hundred and ninety three touches that led,
and he led the league in rushing yards head over
two thousand total yards score twelve times. Last year in Vegas,
we saw his yards per carry fall from four point
nine to three point five, his touchdowns cut in half.
(31:09):
He still had two hundred and seventy touches in only
thirteen games, and his explosive run rate fell to forty
first among forty nine qualified backs.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Raiders knew what they were doing. They were just gonna
grind him up and then kick him to free agents.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
They did that.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Outside of twenty twenty two, he's missed a few games
every year, and when you look back at his five
years a workload, you have to be surprised that he
hasn't missed more over a seventy three game career. He's
kind of like Derrick Henry. He's averaging twenty and a
half touches per game for ninety six total yards.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Now.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
He turned twenty six in February, so the age isn't
a concern, but the mileage has to be. And the
Packers did draft Marshawn Lloyd in the third round, who's
very very interesting. They brought back AJ Dillon as well,
not I don't know why. Yeah, Lloyd was able to
be a top twenty college back in basically every metric,
(32:01):
including PFF's elusive rating. So we may start the season
with a healthy dose of Josh Jacobs, but I think
we finished the year with Marshawn Lloyd really cutting into
Jacob's workload and possibly taking the bulk of the carries.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, my tis My worry is.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We know the way the Packers offense, and Lafleur likes
to work that offense is no matter what he.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Splits, he splits carries.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It doesn't even matter how bad the number two running
back is. Now ineffective. AJ Dillon is, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Say to him, kram At Lafleur. As a Vikings fan,
I was not pleased that Marshon Lloyd was drafted to
Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
As a group, I think, well, it's a fantasy player.
I'm not happy that that was his landing spot.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, exactly, But I think that by the end of
the season, I think we're looking at Marshaw Lloyd.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Maybe as maybe the next next big thing there, and
certainly in Dynasty.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I'm a lot more interested in Lloyd than I am
in in any in anybody else there. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
As a group, the pass running backs finished twenty seventh
in PPR Fantasy points last season, so I definitely feel
like things are trending up in the run game for
Green Bay.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Let's go to the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Let's a lot of changes in the passing game.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Obviously with Kirk Cousins gone. Sam Donald, well, that's really
the big change, Sam Donald, you're expected starter unless JJ
McCarthy just looks unworldly in the preseason. Yeah, the plan
is for McCarthy to have a long runway. Do not
be surprised if you get zero starts out of JJ
McCarthy this year.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I would be very surprised if he gets zero starts,
because Donald would really have to have that win loss
record in a great spot for the Vikings before the
fan base is just grumbling. And their early season schedule.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's brutal, it's brutal. It's really hard.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
They might be so they play like it's a week
five in London. Then they have to bye week, and
then they come back with a home game against Detroit.
If the Vikings are one and four after that London game,
you know they're gonna come back with Mike.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I think they will.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I don't agree. I think they've I think they've got
a really really long runway on this kid and.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
The people.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
My understanding here MINNISODEA. I'm not gonna put names on things.
It's that the he is gonna have take. They're gonna
take as long as they need with him. Now, the
other side of it is Donald finds himself in the
best spot of his career by a mile shore justin Jefferson.
You got Jordan Addison, You'll eventually get TJ. Hockinson back
from his ACL. You have bookend tackles to protect him.
They have Pro Football focuses, third ranked pass blocking offensive line.
(34:41):
I mean this is you know, this is you could
dream come true for Sam Donald, and I think probably
he just looks good enough to hold the job for
a while.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Donald. Donald also gets the advantage.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Of a pass first offense and a quarterback friendly head
coach and Kevin O'Connell. And with all that surrounding talent
and the Vikings very realit give up a bunch of points.
I think Donald is gonna have some splash fantasy games. Okay,
you know, like Nick Mullins at the end of last
year kept throwing for four hundred yards and right well
(35:11):
he wasn't through, was mostly on the ground. But yes,
So your adp on Donald right now is quarterback thirty five.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
That's prettyure.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
There's only thirty two teams. Yeah, it's the twentieth round.
Totally in on Donald here. Now you're gonna hear more
from Brian Johnson later. Who's who thinks Sam Donald is
gonna be like a top ten quarterback. Yeah, I'm not
ready to go there.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Oh he thinks that the Vikings wasted a pick from Dorothy.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
That's right. So Thor and Brian are gonna come to
blows this year.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yeah, it could be ugly, could be ugly. I love
Donald as your second quarterback, and let's see how this
thing plays out. Because the surrounding town's just so good
and I do and the path he's could just buy
your volume. Unless Donald is completely broken, he's gonna have
some splash games for you to pick a pick and
(35:58):
choose from. Okay, the thing to mention about Justin Jefferson
is his lack of contract extension, which could become an
issue rolling into training camp. Hopefully it'll get done before then.
You know everything you need to know about Justin Jefferson.
He's the first player, first wide receiver off the board
in most drafts. Jordan Addison enters year two after a
solid rookie year seventy catches, eight hundred yards, ten touchdowns,
(36:21):
even more impressive knowing that Addison was catching passes from
Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs for half the year and
he was still able to put up in nine hundred
yards and seventy catches Justin Jefferson on a fantasy right, Sorry,
you're exactly right, But where would you pick him? No,
it's about right.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
So it's Tyreek Hill, right.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Cee Lamb, Ceedee labert Kill and Jamar Chase and then Jefferson.
Now that sounds a by right because of the quarterback differential. Okay, yeah,
Addison has room to get better if his quarterbacking doesn't
fail him. Addison could take a jump in his sophomore
year and improve on all those numbers. So I am
interested in him, and I think overall this offense gets
better than the non Kirk Cousins version of the Vikings
(37:00):
passing offense last year, but is worse than the Kirk
Cousins version when he led the NFL in passing yards
when he suffered his torn ACL Let's go to the
running game. Aaron Jones replaces Alexander Madison, and he's almost
certainly to be the starter here. Jones elite receiver, and
this is the best receiver Kevin O'Connell's had since he's
(37:21):
come over as the Vikings head coach. I think he's
going to see a lot more receptions to him than
any other running back has had with the Vikings. Jones
finished his Pro Football Focus is seventh ranked running back
and he ranked fifteenth and elusiveness, He's still got the moves.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Do you think the Packers downgraded at running back? They
paid jos a lot more, you.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Know what I think.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, they did what I think happened, and everybody loved
Aaron Jones. And by the way, I mean elite human being.
I think they got frustrated with the questionable tag after
his name every week. I think they were just, you know,
we need somebody we can count on.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
It was just it was durability. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Now, I had a chance to do the Vikings draft
party in US Bank Stadium and they they Aaron Jones
came on, you know, came in with us, and I
had a chance to chat with him a little bit
and stand right next to him. The dude is slight
of build.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
You wouldn't think it.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
You would not think it the way he the way
he looks on the field, because he runs angry and tough,
and he he does. He plays way bigger than he
than he actually is in real life. So I guess
I'm in that regard to I'm not not surprised that
he's been He's broken down a few times. Kevin O'Connell's
an almost even distributor of the ball near the stripe.
(38:37):
He passes and runs at a roughly equal rate. There
will be some opportunities to run in touchdowns. I don't
think ty Chandler will be a factor at the goal line,
so I think Aaron Jones will have those chances. But
the catch is the nagging injuries. You just you can't
make Aaron Jones your workhorse back. He's got to be
somebody who touches the ball like fifteen times a game.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
That's still fait fantasy relevant.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It is enough to be fantasy relevant. He's currently running
back eighteen round five sounds about right. Sounds about right
running back. Overall, the running game for the Vikings gets
much better with Aaron Jones than Alexander Madison. You know,
we got plenty of things wrong last year Damian Pierce,
tank Bigsby, but last year we warned you off of
(39:23):
Alexander Madison all off season. I'm in on Aaron Jones.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yeah, let's go to Our next team is Chicago Bears.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Lots of changes in the Windy City this year. New
offensive coordinator Shane Waldron comes over for the Seahawks. He
had a hand in the emergence of Geno Smith after
the past few years. Rookie quarterback and pick one oh
one is Caleb Williams, who replaces Justin Fields Keenan Allen
acquired via trade. Yeah, DeAndre Swift acquired in free agency.
(39:53):
Gerald Everett joined the tight end room with Cole kmet
Romo Doonesa was drafted with the ninth overall pick.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yeah, they look think of think of all the all
the assets they threw himTo that Bears offense.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
And Darnell Mooney and Deonta Foreman left via free agency, so.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
They won't miss him.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
No, I don't think they will at all. Passing game,
I think everyone is expecting a huge uptick in this
department for the Bears. Fields was really known more as
a running quarterback, and Williams is quite the opposite. Keenan
Allen takes the slot duties with DJ Moore and Romeo
Odunze on the outside. Moore's going off the board at
pick thirty, that's in the third round. Alan at forty
seven and a Dounza at eighty six. To me, I
(40:34):
like my knee jerk reaction was Allen was going to
be higher than DJ Moore. I guess you get the
flashy upside of Moore there, But if it's me, I
think I like Alan best out of these three receivers,
especially with a rookie quarterback. Yeah, a little bit shorter,
a dot maybe if he's a little nervous. I think
Alan as the savvy Vett.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
I think he might be the best receiver.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
He's not gonna he won't be the flashiest on him, right,
but he's gonna be the guy where at the end
of the day, he's got eight catches for eighty yards and.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
As Scott Fish calls him, just the woobie, the woobie, Yeah, exactly.
Cole Comet, in my mind, is an above average tight end,
but he's going off the board at tight end fifteen
right now and an eleventh round pick.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
You might disagree.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
I think Gerald Everett's a pretty decent depth piece there,
and I think he cuts into it. But with all
the additions, if this passing game doesn't get better, I'd
be completely shocked and coaches.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Will be fight. Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That could be.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
On the running game side. DeAndre Swift came over from
Philly and it was a weird season for him there.
He tallied twelve hundred and sixty three total yards, he
had six touchdowns, he had a respectable four point six
yards per attempt, and he was seventeenth in the league
and explosive run rate, but he ranked fortieth in yards
(41:51):
after contact and thirtieth amongst qualifying runners enforced misstackles, which
that's not great. So a lot of his success you
attribute to the Eagles offensive line. The Bears don't have
a line as good as the Eagles, but nobody wrote
it's average, but it's not elite like Philly. So the
bright side for Swift is there's no tush push.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Right to steal those.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
So Swift might actually see some carries inside the five.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
And foreman's gone who could have been a goal line threat.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
He may have to split those inside the five carries
with a few capable backups and Khalil ground Bear and
Roshan Johnson.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I don't think we have ground bear.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We have? Why do I have a duck on here?
What did we need that for? We didn't we label
these at one time. I've only got a couple of
them labeled.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Not that you have to buttons. I gotta change that.
I gotta get I don't have the bear on here
you have? Seriously, what is wrong with you? I gotta
update the sounds on the button bar. It's time on
(43:09):
our podcast.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
So Khalil Herbert and Roshawn Johnson. Last year was an
almost even split between Herbert Johnson and Foreman from Inside Australia.
But maybe Waldron uses Swift as a bell cow similarly
to how he used Kenneth Walker in Seattle. Or was
that maybe a Pete Carroll philosophy.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah, And the other thing that worries me is Swift
was the bell cow in Philly for the most part.
I mean, you got overwhelming number of carries in. It
just didn't materialize outside of house in the Vikings. Literally
it was the tush push that did him in Well
that that certainly hurt.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
It hurts him a lot. So I think the running
game gets better in Chicago. I'm not sure it's going
to go all to Swift, but and it might be
more of a split than we like, but I think
that things overall get better for the Bears on the
running side.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
All right, let's go to the Detroit Allions, our last,
our last team here. This is the league's most unchanged offense.
You've got you have one new full time starter guard,
Kevin Zeitler. We referenced early Baltimore. Baltimore. Yeah, Jared Goff
got a contract extension. They did lose committee receiver Josh
Reynolds now in Denver passing game, he already know. I'm
(44:21):
on Ross. Saint Brown is great. Current ADP is seven
overall and it is totally deserved. No problem with that
at all. With Josh Reynolds gone, there's a big vacuum
after Saint Brown. It's not gonna be Cleiff Raymond. The
hope is Jamison Williams will fill it.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
That's the hope here. So let's talk it through a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
Have been able to start either of the last two seasons.
Noh yeah, random stuff exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
So he had the rookie a cl and then his
sophomore year he had the Gable League suspension.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
So will this be.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
The year three breakout for Jamison Williams.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Do they do year three breakouts on wide receivers anymore?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I feel like we're still publishing.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
The magazine Nico Collins. Nco Collins just had their year
three breakout. To this point for Williams, the problems opportunity.
He's not on the field enough. He's only averaging three
targets per game now. Fortunately Reynolds leaves behind four and
a half targets per game. Maybe he gets half of those,
So maybe he gets up to like Williams gets up
to like five targets a game, And now you're starting
(45:21):
to get into quasi fantasy viability.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
He had the deep a dot.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
As people know, he's all about the long ball over
sixteen yards per target.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
That's huge. That's huge.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
We love that from our fantasy players. It gives you
the opportunity for the big gains, you know, and Saint
Brown and Sam laport are gonna soak up a ton
of catches, but not enough that there can't be a
third meaningful fantasy player from this passing offense.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Well in, Saint Brown and Laporta are both kind of
short a dots.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
They are.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
That's a good point. I gotta have somebody deep.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
And that's that's where Jamison Williams figures in. Probably now
the other problem he's got to get over. He has
the fourth worst drop ball ratio in football, a staggering
fourteen percent drop rate for Jamison Williams on a small sample.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Suze yep.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Right now, Williams go off the board wide receiver forty nine,
round ten. What do you think of that?
Speaker 3 (46:16):
It sounds about right.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I actually thought it might have been a little bit lower.
I did too, since his he didn't have the production
in the past. But obviously people are baking in the
opportunity here for sure.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I don't think we have to spend a lot of
time on Sam Laporta going after the board is tight
end one end of the second round in the lead
talent that in an offense that that catered to him
and used Laporta copiously, no problem where he's getting drafted
into the second round.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
He's awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Does he get better or worse this year for the
passing game, It's hard to imagine it's going to get
better because it was already really good last year. I'm
on Ross Saint Brown was fantastic, Laporta was fantastic. But
maybe Laporta gets even better. Is in a sophomore year,
so maybe there's a little increment up in his passing game.
So maybe slightly better. But I can't see it getting
a lot better because it was already great. Let's go
(47:01):
to the running game, no changes, Jami or Gibbs, David
Montgomery returning here, this kind of fun. Matt team put
a fourth round pick into a guy named Sion Vaki,
a two way player. He played safety and running back
who spent three years in Tonga as a missionary for
(47:22):
the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
You don't hear a lot of this.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
It seems like just like a Dan Campbell guy. All
this guy is just a he's a football player.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
I think that's some of it.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
He was a finalist for the Paul Horning Award, given
to college football's most versatile player. Two way player makes sense, right,
slated to be a special teamer, so probably no big
change there. I thought, this is fascinating, though. Where do
you think Gibbs and Montgomery finished in Fantasy points last year?
Off the top of your head. Off the top, and
(47:53):
I'm not trying to trap you, no, And it's a
little unfair to ask.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
I think they're both right around top fourteen ish.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Nice job. Gibbs was nine, Monty was ten.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Okay, so I was gonna I was gonna say ten.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Twelve, like right there, Yeah, you did, absolutely, you were
right in the window.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
And Montgomery mostly due to all the touchdowns he scored.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Hold on, I think you're gonna be surprised, so our listeners.
So Gibbs going out the board, RB four. Yep, right,
Montgomery going off the board RB twenty two. So you attempted,
you know, you know, these guys finished nine and ten.
Why is Gibbs going four in Montgomery going twenty two?
(48:36):
And the the natural inclination might be to say, well,
Montgomery got a bunch of touchdowns that Gibbs didn't get.
They were within one of each other on touchdowns. Montgomery
had had eleven hundred yards. Wow, eleven hundred yards. Gibbs
had twelve hundred yards. They were almost identical in production,
(48:57):
and yet they're going off the board. Is running back
four and running back two two.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
This is just new player bias, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Andsanactly what it is, and highlight bias because Gibbs is
a highlight machine and we remember the flashy plays. Montgomery
wasn't flashy guy.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
And it's way more fun to say Jamir.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Gibbs than David montgomer.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
There is something to that. I swear to God that
people like names.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
That are cool.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
David Montgomery is about the most boring name for a
running back of all time.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I you know what, I never considered that, but you're
a hundred Jamiir Gibbs is a way cooler sounding. Yeah, exactly,
without a doubt, without a doubt. All right, that wraps
up this episode. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, this has been
add It has been a ton of fun. I'm drafting
Montgomery picked running back twenty two. I think so seven.
That's my DT. Oh, this is my duty.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Opposite guy.
Speaker 4 (49:50):
We We've covered so many over the last two episodes,
so many.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Do the opposite guys.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Yes, we got Pacheco, we got we got some of
the Chargers running backs. Late got it's got Montgomery. There
there's a you can build a really good backfield I
know between the fourth.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Thanks for listening everybody. We'll be back
with more next week with more Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy
Football Weekly is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show. Now,
here's your host, Paul Chargion.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I am Paul charging My co host is Matt Harrison
Shock Fantasy.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Hi Matt, Hello, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Nice to have you back this week.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yes, all right, back to back, Matt Harrison's.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I mean that's what the people want, that's what the
people get.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, well, I'd like to literally see your back on
the front and back, which would look weird. Oh, but
that Yeah, we can do back to back to back.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, my back is looking a little better than my front.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I I got to try to get the belly, had
to drop a few LB's. The problem is your proximity
to Big Boar Barbecue.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
It's about a mile mile and a half from my house,
and you need to move.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
You're too close to Big Boar. You know, I'm twenty
minutes away, So it's a concerted effort for me.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Yeah, maybe I should like only walk or bike there.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
From now. Oh, that's a great idea. Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Of course in Minnesota that's half of the year. That's
a tricky proposition.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Well, it's not that far of a walk. I can
do that walk.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
You gonna bike it in February.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
No, and not when it's slippery. I'll put on the
snow shoes and walk it over there.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
The people who do the biking in the winter with
the big fat tires, like that's dedication right there.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, I don't like it that much, if you know,
I don't like biking that much in order in order
to like, you know, really commit to it in the
winter time.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
No, I'm with you. Although I did e bikes for
the first time. Oh yeah, a couple of months ago
when I was when I was in Utah, and that's
ion they're so fun.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
E bikes are a blast.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, it's they're not fully motorized, but they take everything
that you pedal.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
You get like five x the return one.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
So you know, you can go up these really big.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Hills no problem. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And you know I was, you know, go uphill twenty
miles an hour by pedaling, you know, a quarter as
hard as you would have had to work on a
regular bike.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I did. I did not.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I did not expect it to be fun. They're blast
e bikes are super fun.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Are you're gonna get one? No?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Okay, because at the end of the day, like you,
at the end of the day, do I really want
to I don't.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I don't think I want a bike anywhere at the
end of the day.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, you could get get a couple and you could
keep them with the camper.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Oh that's true. Now, that would be the use case.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Would be in the camp Yeah for sure, not in it,
but yeah, yeah, brought with it. Yeah, exactly that space
inside the camper.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Well, if nobody's in the camper at the time, you
could throw the bikes in there.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, I could do that. But that's the the ideally
is you are in like national parks, state parks, and
you know, seeing all kinds of cool stuff. Then yeah,
I think it'd be absolutely that's great. Why don't you
buy me.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
That?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
With that big Fantasy Football Week, I love it all right.
This is the fourth of our four shows breaking down
all the teams in the NFL, highlighting key changes from
last year, and out broad outlooks for each of these teams.
We've done everything but the North teams. So now we
(03:23):
go to the AFC North Matt. Let's start with the
Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
The biggest addition to the backfield literally is Derrick Henry,
who comes over from the Titans. We'll talk more about
him in a minute. They did lose their other running backs,
Gus Edwards and JK. Dobbins both find themselves on the
West Coast.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
With the Chargers.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
They also lost three starting offensive linemen and Kevin Zeitler,
John Simpson, and Morgan Moses. Second round rookie Roger Rosengarten
is expected to take over at right tackle, while Ben
Cleveland and Andrew Vorhees are slated to take over at guard.
But anytime you placed three offensive line necks, a little
bit of a red flag for an offense areed. Last year,
(04:05):
the Ravens went eight to no in games where Lamar
Jackson was sacked two or fewer times. Wow, okay, all right,
so that factors into that passing game. Jackson missed nine
total games. There we go nine high, Hey, there we
are right in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two
due to injury. But at an MVP season in twenty three,
(04:28):
where he was able to set a new career best
in passing yards just about thirty seven hundred yards, a
full five hundred more than his previous career high. That's
Todd Mounkin. He certainly helped with that, as did the
emergence of Zay Flowers as a top flight receiving option
I like today. Flowers definitely started to bloom at the
end of the season. He scored four scored four times
(04:51):
in his last five regular season games and averaged five
catches per game over that span. Rashad Bateman and Nelson
Aguilar appear to be guys.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Well you know, they're banging the drum for Bateman again. Yeah,
they ah, this is going to be the breakout. Yeah, trying.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
But I want people to keep an eye on rookie
devontees Walker maybe popping up and stealing some targets later
in the season. They're talking about him as a guy
who just has just like raw athletic ability, and that
kind of seems interesting to me. In that offense, Mark
Andrews should finally be fully healthy at the starting training camp.
He's still a top five tight end, so will get
(05:28):
better or worse for the passing game. I struggled with
this one. I think it gets slightly worse, mostly because
I'm nervous about how that O line gels with sixty
percent of new pieces. I agree the running game. Dereck
Henry is thirty years old. He's played eight seasons and
has had two thousand and thirty career carries.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's that's a lot.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Forty second in NFL history. He just passed Roger Craig,
who played for eleven years. Yeah, Gerald Riggs who played
for ten years, and herschel Walker who played for eleven seas.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And Henry's at eight and those first few years he
was lightly used. Yeah, you know, he was in a
timeshare backfield, most dominating writers.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Right, But just for fun, if he gets another two
hundred carries this year, he's gonna pass these guys in charch.
I want you to give me a one sentence blurb
on each of these guys. Okay, they're from your fantasy passage, Okay,
all right.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Aman Green, he was shockingly good for the Packers, was
an all purpose back. But I never would have guessed
that he was at this level of I didn't remember
having this kind of longevity in his career over.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Two thousand carries.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
All Right, Willis mcgahey, against all odds. He had the
horrifying injuries. Yeah, and everybody just assumed that, you know,
he would like never play again, and the fact that
he went on to a long, productive career was shocking.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Ernest Biner, Oh, Ernestiner, So he was.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
It was the Kevin Mack Ernest Biner duo, frustrating fantasy
owners in the nineties for the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yes, Terry Allen.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Terry Allen was a longtime Minnesota Viking who was the
the first player to come back from acls on each knee.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Chris Johnson, Chris Johnson, I because nickname. Maybe you've ever
given the tap dancing Nancy Chris Johnson.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I had forgot about that. He was a tap dancing Nancy.
That's what he was.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I hated that guy, and part because two thousand yards
of I hated that guy exact. He had a couple
of just great seasons and everybody was like, always better
than Adrian Peterson, It's not even close. And Peterson went
on too obviously far out clips him.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Okay, I got a couple more.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Earl Campbell, Yeah, before my time too. But obviously Earl
Campbell one of the great power running backs of all time.
We've all seen the classic highlight of him literally shredding
the jersey if a player, No, they shred his jersey.
It just keeping just yeah and him just mowing down.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Guys fanatics built jerseys back then.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Sean Alexander, Yeah, I'll always first remember his six touchdown
game against my Vikings.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And then finally Tiki Barber.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, he went on to he had a long, good career.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
He did. He was part of the Thunder and Lightning.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Crew with Brandon Jacobs brand. Yeah, it's nicely done. It was,
that was exactly what was Brandon Jacobs. Jacobs should have
had a longer, better career, but it didn't. It all,
It all kind of fizzled out. Tiaki had a long career.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
There, but those guys.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Dereck Henry's going to pass all year with two two
hundred carries seems very likely.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, And by the way, all the goal line work,
all the goal line work.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
He's had double digit touchdowns in six straight seasons. In
those six seasons, he's averaged twenty carries per game. If
the Ravens are planning on giving him twenty carries per game.
That's three hundred and forty carries. He might not make it,
but I do think he's gonna be an inside the
five beast though another ten plus scores probably a lock
if he stays healthy.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Backups are Keaton Mitchell, who probably won't return till mid season.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah that's too bad, because man, he looked promising, you know,
and a lot of what I loved about him requires
a two healthy knees.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Yeah, let's see Justice Hill is still there. I mean,
Justice Hill could be relevant if Henry starts suddenly.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Is hurt?
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Ravens backs last year finished fifth in the league in
PPR Fantasy points. Most of that was due to twenty
running back rushing touchdowns last year.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How about that?
Speaker 4 (09:25):
I didn't know that they combined for twenty running back
rushing touchdown Gus.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Edwards led the NFL and carries inside the five.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah? Is it better or worse this year? I do
like Henry better than what they had last year, so
I'll say it's slightly better. But I don't know if
they can score at that twenty running back no rushing
probably not.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
But if I told you Derrick Henry is going to
lead the NFL and rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
You'd be like, yeah, sure, absolutely could see that feasible. Yeah,
it's not a peacock off thing right there, It really isn't.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
That's it to go to the Cleveland Browns. Start with
the passing game. It is a make or break year
for Deshaun Watson. As it stands today early June, the
Deshaun Watson trade and its connected contract is the worst
deal in NFL history. Herschel Walker points and mocks the
Deshaun Watson trade.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's basically built the current Houston tex.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
It has into a Super Bowl continued you have going
to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Through two injury Leyden seasons in Cleveland, Watson has been awful.
He's the NFL's highest paid quarterback. He ranked twenty sixth
as a passer by Pro Football Focus in between backup Now,
backup Justin Fields and unrostered Ryan Tannehill. In each of
(10:47):
the past two seasons, Deshaun Watson has played about one
third of the year and accumulated seven passing touchdowns and
seven passing touchdowns.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
You can't even hit nine times on that, No, I can't,
which is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Consider he's the highest paid player in the NFL and
he's given you seven and seven passing touchdowns and the
granted injuries factored into that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
That even if you were most.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Charitable and you were to pro rate his seven passing
touchdowns across a whole season, like if you played all
seventeen games, you'd have twenty passing touchdowns a year. That
is terrible. That is appropriate for a middle and rookie prospect.
He completed. Watson completed just sixty one percent of his passes.
That ranked him thirty sixth, and his adjusted completion percentage
(11:32):
isn't much better, ranking him thirtieth. And finally, and I've
hammered on this so many times, Deshaun Watson doesn't run anymore.
For everybody thinks you're getting rushing touchdowns because you're remembering
the Houston days. In two seasons of Cleveland, he has
one rushing touchdown. And even more poignant, last year, he
had thirty seven total rushing yards on designed runs.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And he designed runs where they hit and not many,
but well, yes, that is something like that. Not even
he they don't use him that way, So ken Deshaun
Watson get better. Well, okay, sure, I mean he was
way better in Houston. He's only twenty nine years old.
But what I don't know is is he just mentally broken?
(12:20):
I mean, is you know, after what he did to himself,
how he sabotaged his own career entirely at his own fault,
is is he now mentally broken? And that's you know,
we don't know for sure. Your glimmer of hope is
that is what Joe Flacco walked in and did. Yeh,
Because you could have said, in this Kevin Stefanski Cleveland offense,
(12:44):
no quarterback can ever be fantasy productive because it's always
going to be about what they can do on the
ground first and everything else. But Joe Flacco walked in
and rocked this passing game. Yeah, so maybe Deshaun Watson
can do some of what Joe Flacco did at age
sixty two.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Do you feel like the aforementioned Ryan Tannehill, who's still
a free atory at this moment, wouldn't that be kind
of nice if he was there?
Speaker 3 (13:11):
I know that.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
I think they signed Tyler Huntley as the backup.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, Tyler Huntley is there.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I'm a little nervous about that, but it seems like
Tannerhill could come in and do a Flaco maybe if
Watson's not working out.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Your new face among the receivers is Jerry Judy. In Denver,
he ran over half his routes from the slot. But
the problem is that's where Elijah Mitchell and Cedric Tillman
often play Okay slot as well, so that doesn't give
him really anywhere to go there. The Browns don't pass
enough in my mind to feed Amari Cooper, David and Joku.
We'll talk about a little bit more in a second.
(13:43):
And well, frankly anybody else, including Jerry Judy. So I'm
out on Judy, not interested, and I think he's just
going to go to Cleveland and Witherway and die. And
at the end of the year, we're going to look
back at like a four touchdown season and somebody maybe
had to start once off the waiver wire in a
bye week.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Yeah, be a take a chance, maybe a take a
chance on me cap player.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
That's the kind of player I think Jerry duty is
going to devolve into here and already was at the
end of last year. Let's talk David Joku though in
many scoring systems, second half of last year, many of it,
much of it powered by Joe Flacco tight end one whoa.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I did not see that come.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
From Week eight forward in Joku scored or topped fifty
eight yards in every game but one. Wow, really impressive
those blow and he had some blow up games almost
entirely with Joe Flacco. His average game under Watson just
thirty five yards and zero point two touchdowns per game.
(14:41):
Oh man, he was basically like, you know, double or
triple the fantasy points scorer under Joe Flacco. And that's
your danger within JOKU is what happens with Watson under quarterback?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Now?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, So does the passing game get better or worse?
I think it's worse. I mean just Watson is a
downgrade from Joe Flacco.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I unless I was.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Out of the know at the beginning of last year,
and now that DeShawn Watson's a downgrade from him, it's
come to this. The running game, uh, considering that Nick
Chubb tore his a CL, MCL and meniscus way back
in Week two, to me, it's a little bit troubling
that he was not able to do any running on
it until April. I'd like to have seen that timetable
(15:24):
a little bit earlier. Not a not a disaster warning sign,
but I think that is a bit of a warning sign.
You know, obviously we'll know a lot more about Chubb's
timetable season gets closer longer than we'd like, maybe yea,
and well, you know, we'll know more. But even when
Chubb returns, who's to say that he goes back to
being the workhorse that he was in this offense? They
(15:46):
made him take a pay cut. And look what happened
on JK. Dobbins as an example, right you know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
JK.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Dobbins suffered a brutal, brutal knee injury, just like Chubb did.
Never the same player, never the same and Dobbins looked
amazing pre injury. So right now, ADP Chubb's going off
the board is running back thirty two in the seventh round.
I can get starters there. To me, that's too early
(16:13):
for somebody that may not start a game until mid season.
I mean, we don't know right now right now, based
only in June.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
If you're if you're drafting in June, yes, maybe not
the best time.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
To roll the dice on that.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
But if it looks like he's slated to start and
and and all systems are go. I think Chubb's ADP
rockets up quite a bit from RB thirty two.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah probably. I mean, you know, if he's ready to
roll day one of training camp. Yeah, this you'll you'll
have gone back and gone seventh round. Oh my god,
I go to steal. So you know understand the risk
Jerome Ford returns. They added don to Foreman. Ford was
never built to be a work horse. They had to
use him as a workhorse for a lot of last
year out of necessity. But that's that would not be
(16:58):
the case here if Rub's not ready, I think it
would be Ford and Foreman both effectively sharing carries.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
And if Chubb is healthy, how does that backfield?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Right?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Because Chub's not gonna go from zero to twenty carries
like the old days, and Foreman's not a terrible he's
non terrible. Yeah yeah, I agreed. So does this get
better worse than last year? Probably better eventually because Chubble
returned at some point to something resembling full strength and
so and last year again, you know, Ford was okay,
but he's just he was never meant to be a
(17:30):
workhorse back sure, all right, Let's go to our next team,
which is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Yeah, it's a whole new ballgame in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson
in as the starting quarterback, Justin Fields is the backup.
They replace Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph. They're
all gone. Deontay Johnson gone too, leaving George Pickens as
the unquestioned number one wide receiver there. And Arthur Smith
(17:56):
is the new offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You may remember.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Our Smith as the coach of the Falcons the last
few years, and before that, the offensive coordinator in Tennessee
where he just ran the heck out of Derrick Henry.
And now they're talking about how excited Pittsburgh is for
this new run first philosophy.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So let's go to the passing game. Okay, how can
Arthur Smith f this up? Well?
Speaker 4 (18:22):
I mean, you had Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, both
guys not known for their downfield pass plays, and Jettison
Deontay Johnson. It kind of sounds like you're gonna run
the ball. Russell Wilson has to be seen as an
upgrade from Kenny Pickett. Yep, So that's good. I guess,
but beyond that, it's kind of looking scary. Calvin Austin
is currently set as wide receiver too, and I bet
(18:43):
most NFL fans don't know who Calvin Austin is. He
was a fourth round pick for the Steelers last year.
Roman Wilson was a round three pick out of Michigan.
He should get some run. And then there's the retreads
Van Jefferson, Les Watkins, Denzel Mims, Marquez Callaway.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
They're all on the current depth chart. Yikes.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
After scoring seven times in his rookie year, Pat Fryarmuth
has only managed four total touchdowns in the following two years.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
I'm stunned at his de evolution from that. So that
rookie year was so promising for him. And by the way,
there's talk that the backup Washington could end up pressing
friar Mouth for time this year.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Washington is gigantic, specimen, physical freak.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It could.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Mouth had a big game late in the season where
I think he tallied like one hundred and nineteen yards
in a game, so there was a little glimmer of
hope there. He'll be on the field a ton. I
think it's arrow up on Friar move.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Good Byelow. Who else is there to throw.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
To Curry point? That's a very fair point, is it?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Now?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Russell Wilson has like zero track record of throwing to
his tas true. But Arthur Smith, if you were to
combine like Pitts and John new Smith together, Arthur Smith,
as frustrated as we were about his usage on Pitts,
I think he can get the ball to a tight end.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
Absolutely. Is the passing game better or worse? I think
it's better, but not by much at all. I think
the upgrade at quarterback is not very significant, and the
running game stands to benefit more under Arthur Smith. So
let's talk about the running game. Naji Harris has played
three years in the league. He's had at least twelve
hundred total yards and eight touchdowns in every season. Last
(20:30):
year he touched the ball two hundred and eighty four times.
Jalen Warren had two hundred and ten touches. Last season,
he had over eleven hundred total yards and he scored
four times. Now, Warren was much more heavily utilized as
a pass catching option out of the backfield. But Harris
isn't that bad in his rookie year. He had a
seventy four catch season.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, that was so promising.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Yeah, everyone will point to Naji Harris had four point
one yards per carry and Jalen Warren had five point
three yards per carry, and they're all gonna say this preseason. Yeah, well, Nause,
he's gonna get get, get take the back seat to
Warren here. I don't think that's the case.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
It's gonna be a split backfield. And here's why Nase's
gonna keep this job. He's six foot two, two hundred
thirty pounds Warren.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Is Is he really six foot two? Yeah, geez, that's.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Tall for a running back.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
He's six inches taller than Warren five foot eight two
point fifteen.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I think he was six two.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
In most cases, the bigger players in the NFL tend
to be more durable, and if Nagy has to plot
his way through the line to tire out the defense
to allow Warren to get those.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
And Arthur Smith loves his plotters, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
The Steelers also brought in Corderyl Patterson as a change
of pace back. He was in Atlanta with Arthur Smith.
Soh in Atlanta in a similar spot last year. Bijeon, Robinson, Tyler, Algier,
and Patterson all had some run. Algier had two hundred
four touches last year. Bijon had two hundred seventy two.
(21:58):
It's almost the same as what we just talked about.
Naji's gonna be Beijon, Warren's gonna be Lgier. Patterson just
gets to be himself. Which is nice, better or worse.
I think it's better because I think they're gonna run
even more this year. It's gonna be like a ten
percent uptick in rushing attempts.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Let's go to the Cincinnati Bengals. Everything looks like Joe
Burrow's going to return in time for training camp. I
have no real concerns about Joe Burrow for this year,
and obviously he's great. So's Jamar Chase awesome. I don't
think we have anything to even spend time on with
those guys.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
And Joe Burrow's got the long hair now, so rocking it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, all the cool guys grown their hair out.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
You are growing your hair out.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Coincides you and Joe Burrow must have a lot more
than people know. T Higgins, though, has not signed his
franchise tag offer, and we could be heading into a
stalemate in training camp. So that is something Betty, to
keep it a track of. Yeah, if if you want
to roll the dice on Higgins getting traded or maybe
(22:59):
there's a tracted holdout, you could throw a dart. And
I like this as one of my favorite sleepers, andre
Yo Savash. He's flashed a little bit last year and
I'm interested in that kid, and he could walk right
in the starting role opposite Jamar Chase. Now they put
a third rounder into rookie Jermaine Burton from Alabama, but
(23:22):
he's viewed as a very very raw athlete who is
not very productive and on great Alabama teams, he's expected
to like a long term project. I mean somebody that
would need years to develop. So Andre Yo Savash, I
mean like last pick of your draft. Just keep this
in the back of your mind. And especially if you're
doing best Ball drafts now drafting for early for whatever reason,
(23:44):
and this T Higgins thing has not played out and
you think it's going to end badly for badly if
you think he's not going to be on this team,
either if I hold out or trade or whatever, you
can get a wide receiver two and for Joe Burrough
offense right for free. Yes, thank you, journeyman tight end
Mike Giseki is your presumed starter at the tight end position.
(24:06):
But Kazeki has just proven and reproven himself to be
just like a spot starter and that's it.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
Is He better than anything they've had at tight end
the last few years, though it feels.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like slightly it's better nerves Smith, that's for sure. But
they also spent a fourth round pick on Eric All
from Iowa and previously Michigan, and that is a thort
nice from favorite.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Yeah, he likes Eric a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
So Yeah, so if Kazeki isn't great, I could see
them getting doing a little eric All, getting eric All
involved in this, but his timetable could be down the
road as well. So does the passing game get better
worse this year?
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Better?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Because Joe Burrow's not gonna miss half the season, So
you know this is this is clearly uptick here and again, Andre, Yo.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
I don't know if we're pronouncing that, No, I am.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
I looked it up to make sure I didn't screw
it up. Yo.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
See bosh Okay got it.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Running game.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Joe Mixon sent packing to Houston Cincinnati should have sold
last year. I think they got out a year late,
but I think they ultimately made the right call here.
So it looks like it's gonna be a two headed
attack with Chase Brown and Zach Moss. But I like
Moss better. You know, after years of misuse in Buffalo.
Of course, you know, Zach Boss goes to Indy. He
(25:19):
had those early starts where Jonathan Taylor wasn't right yet,
and looked really good. In the six games in which
Moss got eighteen or more carries, he averaged one hundred
and six yards in almost a full touchdown per game.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's pretty good. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
This is the Zach Moss I was stumping for when
he was in Buffalo. We finally got a long look
at him with Indianapolis and he looked good.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
And Devin Singletary got out of Buffalo and side, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Look good too. I know it's right. So James Cook
looks all right. He does.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
They don't use him enough. Chase Brown look promising in
the small sample size that we had last year. He
can catch. That's Moss is not a natural pas catcher.
Brown had just forty four carries all last year, but
he had four explosive plays of fifteen or more yards
on those forty four carries. That's a great ratio, and
Brown finished fifteenth in Pro Football focuses elusiveness rating. Brown's
(26:14):
got room to get better in your two. But Moss
should be the presumed starter here. He's proven he can
do a lot with a big workload. I think Moss
I think gets two thirds of the work. Brown gets
one third of the work.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
And see that happening.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yep, that feels about right to me. Zach Moss going
off the board at running back twenty eighth, sixth round.
Perfect do the opposite draft spot for Zach Moss? Yeah,
I like him. There pass saying we.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
Do pat Now that's it.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Does he get better or worse for for Cleveland's running game?
I think it's better because I do not believe. I
didn't believe in Joe Mixon going into last year. He
wasn't any good last year. Yeah, we're gonna We're gonna move.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
On, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I think that's all of our AFC North teams. Let's
take a break and go to the MC North sound good, yep.
Fantasy Football Weekly returns Paul Jarchie and Matt Harrison with you.
We turn our attention to the NFC North. First team
up is the Green Bay Packers, Matt where we got
not a lot of change the passing side, but we've
(27:12):
got some new faces in the running game.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
By the way, this NFC North, it's it's gonna be
a monster. These are some good teams additions and subtractions
in Green Bay. Josh Jacobs replaces Aaron Jones in the backfield.
That's the headliner. The Packers also lost guard John Runyon,
tackle Yosh Nyman, and spent a first round pick on
Jordan Morgan on the offensive line. But they're pretty deep
(27:38):
across the offensive line, so I don't think that they're
gonna miss a beat there.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
And organizationally, man, do they churn out good lineman holy cow.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
To get good offensive line play the passing game. The
band is back together again. Jordan Love looks to build
off a promising first year as a starter, and the
Packers may have more B B plus wide receivers on
their roster, not like letter grades in Fantasy Football Week exactly,
but than any team ever because Jaden Reid, Romeo Dobbs,
(28:14):
Christian Watson, Dontavian Wicks. They'll probably all get drafted in
your fantasy league, Oh yeah, for sure. And then there's
Bow Melton, Malik Heath, and Samari Toure. They all had
a little bit of run with the team at the
tail end of last year as well. The problem is
their depth. They're all good players and they should all
get a chunk of the fantasy pie. There were only
two instances last season where a Packers wide receiver had
(28:38):
double digit.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Targets in a game.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Really yeah, wow, Romeo Dobbs in Week four Jacob Reid
in Week fourteen.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
There were only two instances last season where a Packers
wide receiver had one hundred yards two that's it. Neither
counted for you because it was Bow Melton in Week
seventeen and Red in Week eighteen.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Wow. Not in your fantasy playoffs, right.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So, as far as touchdowns go, Read and Dobbs both
had eight scores, Watson had five, Wicks had four, and
then there was a slew of others who had two
or one receiving touchdowns last season, including tight ends Luke
Musgrave and Tucker Craft. The point is, in this passing game,
I think you want Jordan Love.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
I want Jordan Love, So don't have to guess everyone.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
To deal with any of the wide receivers unless you're
a best ball.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Well, well that's true best ball. That's a lot I
like it. It's a lot more compelling for best ball.
We're gonna have to try to guess week in and
week out, who's gonna be good. The smart people say
the smart people quote say, you know, Wicks has got
freaky upside that perhaps others don't sure read to me
looked like Deebo Samuel Light. And I'm really intrigued by Reed.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you love Dobbs, and I like do I love Dobbs.
I like Dobbs.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, but I think you're right that I'm just gonna
lay off the whole group and not try to figure
that thing that thing out and try to guess right. So,
I think there's just gonna be too many games where
too many dud games when your guy, your packer receiver
just it's just not his day.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
Yeah, exactly. Offense up or down. I think the arrow
is trending up for the offense as they continue moving
forward in love second year in the Running Game in
twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Hey, before we move on, Yeah, we should mention Tucker
Kraft had a torn bicept working out, and he looks
like he's going to miss like all of training camp
and might be reckep ready for the beginning of might
be ready for the beginning of the season, but might not.
And that might be the big difference that keeps him
safely below Luke Musgrave for a while.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Okay, got it, got it in so the running game.
In twenty twenty two, Josh Jacobs had three hundred and
ninety three touches three hundred and ninety three touches that led,
and he led the league in rushing yards head over
two thousand total yards score twelve times. Last year in Vegas,
we saw his yards per carry fall from four point
nine to three point five, his touchdowns cut in half.
(31:09):
He still had two hundred and seventy touches in only
thirteen games, and his explosive run rate fell to forty
first among forty nine qualified backs.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Raiders knew what they were doing. They were just gonna
grind him up and then kick him to free agents.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
They did that.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Outside of twenty twenty two, he's missed a few games
every year, and when you look back at his five
years a workload, you have to be surprised that he
hasn't missed more over a seventy three game career. He's
kind of like Derrick Henry. He's averaging twenty and a
half touches per game for ninety six total yards.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Now.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
He turned twenty six in February, so the age isn't
a concern, but the mileage has to be. And the
Packers did draft Marshawn Lloyd in the third round, who's
very very interesting. They brought back AJ Dillon as well,
not I don't know why. Yeah, Lloyd was able to
be a top twenty college back in basically every metric,
(32:01):
including PFF's elusive rating. So we may start the season
with a healthy dose of Josh Jacobs, but I think
we finished the year with Marshawn Lloyd really cutting into
Jacob's workload and possibly taking the bulk of the carries.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Yeah, my tis My worry is.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We know the way the Packers offense, and Lafleur likes
to work that offense is no matter what he.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Splits, he splits carries.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
It doesn't even matter how bad the number two running
back is. Now ineffective. AJ Dillon is, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Say to him, kram At Lafleur. As a Vikings fan,
I was not pleased that Marshon Lloyd was drafted to
Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
As a group, I think, well, it's a fantasy player.
I'm not happy that that was his landing spot.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, exactly, But I think that by the end of
the season, I think we're looking at Marshaw Lloyd.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Maybe as maybe the next next big thing there, and
certainly in Dynasty.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I'm a lot more interested in Lloyd than I am
in in any in anybody else there. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:59):
As a group, the pass running backs finished twenty seventh
in PPR Fantasy points last season, so I definitely feel
like things are trending up in the run game for
Green Bay.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Let's go to the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Let's a lot of changes in the passing game.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Obviously with Kirk Cousins gone. Sam Donald, well, that's really
the big change, Sam Donald, you're expected starter unless JJ
McCarthy just looks unworldly in the preseason. Yeah, the plan
is for McCarthy to have a long runway. Do not
be surprised if you get zero starts out of JJ
McCarthy this year.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
I would be very surprised if he gets zero starts,
because Donald would really have to have that win loss
record in a great spot for the Vikings before the
fan base is just grumbling. And their early season schedule.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
It's brutal, it's brutal. It's really hard.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
They might be so they play like it's a week
five in London. Then they have to bye week, and
then they come back with a home game against Detroit.
If the Vikings are one and four after that London game,
you know they're gonna come back with Mike.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
I think they will.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
I don't agree. I think they've I think they've got
a really really long runway on this kid and.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
The people.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
My understanding here MINNISODEA. I'm not gonna put names on things.
It's that the he is gonna have take. They're gonna
take as long as they need with him. Now, the
other side of it is Donald finds himself in the
best spot of his career by a mile shore justin Jefferson.
You got Jordan Addison, You'll eventually get TJ. Hockinson back
from his ACL. You have bookend tackles to protect him.
They have Pro Football focuses, third ranked pass blocking offensive line.
(34:41):
I mean this is you know, this is you could
dream come true for Sam Donald, and I think probably
he just looks good enough to hold the job for
a while.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Donald. Donald also gets the advantage.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Of a pass first offense and a quarterback friendly head
coach and Kevin O'Connell. And with all that surrounding talent
and the Vikings very realit give up a bunch of points.
I think Donald is gonna have some splash fantasy games. Okay,
you know, like Nick Mullins at the end of last
year kept throwing for four hundred yards and right well
(35:11):
he wasn't through, was mostly on the ground. But yes,
So your adp on Donald right now is quarterback thirty five.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
That's prettyure.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
There's only thirty two teams. Yeah, it's the twentieth round.
Totally in on Donald here. Now you're gonna hear more
from Brian Johnson later. Who's who thinks Sam Donald is
gonna be like a top ten quarterback. Yeah, I'm not
ready to go there.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Oh he thinks that the Vikings wasted a pick from Dorothy.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
That's right. So Thor and Brian are gonna come to
blows this year.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Yeah, it could be ugly, could be ugly. I love
Donald as your second quarterback, and let's see how this
thing plays out. Because the surrounding town's just so good
and I do and the path he's could just buy
your volume. Unless Donald is completely broken, he's gonna have
some splash games for you to pick a pick and
(35:58):
choose from. Okay, the thing to mention about Justin Jefferson
is his lack of contract extension, which could become an
issue rolling into training camp. Hopefully it'll get done before then.
You know everything you need to know about Justin Jefferson.
He's the first player, first wide receiver off the board
in most drafts. Jordan Addison enters year two after a
solid rookie year seventy catches, eight hundred yards, ten touchdowns,
(36:21):
even more impressive knowing that Addison was catching passes from
Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs for half the year and
he was still able to put up in nine hundred
yards and seventy catches Justin Jefferson on a fantasy right, Sorry,
you're exactly right, But where would you pick him? No,
it's about right.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
So it's Tyreek Hill, right.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Cee Lamb, Ceedee labert Kill and Jamar Chase and then Jefferson.
Now that sounds a by right because of the quarterback differential. Okay, yeah,
Addison has room to get better if his quarterbacking doesn't
fail him. Addison could take a jump in his sophomore
year and improve on all those numbers. So I am
interested in him, and I think overall this offense gets
better than the non Kirk Cousins version of the Vikings
(37:00):
passing offense last year, but is worse than the Kirk
Cousins version when he led the NFL in passing yards
when he suffered his torn ACL Let's go to the
running game. Aaron Jones replaces Alexander Madison, and he's almost
certainly to be the starter here. Jones elite receiver, and
this is the best receiver Kevin O'Connell's had since he's
(37:21):
come over as the Vikings head coach. I think he's
going to see a lot more receptions to him than
any other running back has had with the Vikings. Jones
finished his Pro Football Focus is seventh ranked running back
and he ranked fifteenth and elusiveness, He's still got the moves.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Do you think the Packers downgraded at running back? They
paid jos a lot more, you.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
Know what I think.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, they did what I think happened, and everybody loved
Aaron Jones. And by the way, I mean elite human being.
I think they got frustrated with the questionable tag after
his name every week. I think they were just, you know,
we need somebody we can count on.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
It was just it was durability. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Now, I had a chance to do the Vikings draft
party in US Bank Stadium and they they Aaron Jones
came on, you know, came in with us, and I
had a chance to chat with him a little bit
and stand right next to him. The dude is slight
of build.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
You wouldn't think it.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
You would not think it the way he the way
he looks on the field, because he runs angry and tough,
and he he does. He plays way bigger than he
than he actually is in real life. So I guess
I'm in that regard to I'm not not surprised that
he's been He's broken down a few times. Kevin O'Connell's
an almost even distributor of the ball near the stripe.
(38:37):
He passes and runs at a roughly equal rate. There
will be some opportunities to run in touchdowns. I don't
think ty Chandler will be a factor at the goal line,
so I think Aaron Jones will have those chances. But
the catch is the nagging injuries. You just you can't
make Aaron Jones your workhorse back. He's got to be
somebody who touches the ball like fifteen times a game.
Speaker 4 (38:59):
That's still fait fantasy relevant.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It is enough to be fantasy relevant. He's currently running
back eighteen round five sounds about right. Sounds about right
running back. Overall, the running game for the Vikings gets
much better with Aaron Jones than Alexander Madison. You know,
we got plenty of things wrong last year Damian Pierce,
tank Bigsby, but last year we warned you off of
(39:23):
Alexander Madison all off season. I'm in on Aaron Jones.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yeah, let's go to Our next team is Chicago Bears.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Lots of changes in the Windy City this year. New
offensive coordinator Shane Waldron comes over for the Seahawks. He
had a hand in the emergence of Geno Smith after
the past few years. Rookie quarterback and pick one oh
one is Caleb Williams, who replaces Justin Fields Keenan Allen
acquired via trade. Yeah, DeAndre Swift acquired in free agency.
(39:53):
Gerald Everett joined the tight end room with Cole kmet
Romo Doonesa was drafted with the ninth overall pick.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Yeah, they look think of think of all the all
the assets they threw himTo that Bears offense.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
And Darnell Mooney and Deonta Foreman left via free agency, so.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
They won't miss him.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
No, I don't think they will at all. Passing game,
I think everyone is expecting a huge uptick in this
department for the Bears. Fields was really known more as
a running quarterback, and Williams is quite the opposite. Keenan
Allen takes the slot duties with DJ Moore and Romeo
Odunze on the outside. Moore's going off the board at
pick thirty, that's in the third round. Alan at forty
seven and a Dounza at eighty six. To me, I
(40:34):
like my knee jerk reaction was Allen was going to
be higher than DJ Moore. I guess you get the
flashy upside of Moore there, But if it's me, I
think I like Alan best out of these three receivers,
especially with a rookie quarterback. Yeah, a little bit shorter,
a dot maybe if he's a little nervous. I think
Alan as the savvy Vett.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
I think he might be the best receiver.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
He's not gonna he won't be the flashiest on him, right,
but he's gonna be the guy where at the end
of the day, he's got eight catches for eighty yards and.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
As Scott Fish calls him, just the woobie, the woobie, Yeah, exactly.
Cole Comet, in my mind, is an above average tight end,
but he's going off the board at tight end fifteen
right now and an eleventh round pick.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
You might disagree.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
I think Gerald Everett's a pretty decent depth piece there,
and I think he cuts into it. But with all
the additions, if this passing game doesn't get better, I'd
be completely shocked and coaches.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Will be fight. Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That could be.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
On the running game side. DeAndre Swift came over from
Philly and it was a weird season for him there.
He tallied twelve hundred and sixty three total yards, he
had six touchdowns, he had a respectable four point six
yards per attempt, and he was seventeenth in the league
and explosive run rate, but he ranked fortieth in yards
(41:51):
after contact and thirtieth amongst qualifying runners enforced misstackles, which
that's not great. So a lot of his success you
attribute to the Eagles offensive line. The Bears don't have
a line as good as the Eagles, but nobody wrote
it's average, but it's not elite like Philly. So the
bright side for Swift is there's no tush push.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Right to steal those.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
So Swift might actually see some carries inside the five.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
And foreman's gone who could have been a goal line threat.
Speaker 4 (42:21):
He may have to split those inside the five carries
with a few capable backups and Khalil ground Bear and
Roshan Johnson.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I don't think we have ground bear.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
We have? Why do I have a duck on here?
What did we need that for? We didn't we label
these at one time. I've only got a couple of
them labeled.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Not that you have to buttons. I gotta change that.
I gotta get I don't have the bear on here
you have? Seriously, what is wrong with you? I gotta
update the sounds on the button bar. It's time on
(43:09):
our podcast.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
So Khalil Herbert and Roshawn Johnson. Last year was an
almost even split between Herbert Johnson and Foreman from Inside Australia.
But maybe Waldron uses Swift as a bell cow similarly
to how he used Kenneth Walker in Seattle. Or was
that maybe a Pete Carroll philosophy.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah, And the other thing that worries me is Swift
was the bell cow in Philly for the most part.
I mean, you got overwhelming number of carries in. It
just didn't materialize outside of house in the Vikings. Literally
it was the tush push that did him in Well
that that certainly hurt.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
It hurts him a lot. So I think the running
game gets better in Chicago. I'm not sure it's going
to go all to Swift, but and it might be
more of a split than we like, but I think
that things overall get better for the Bears on the
running side.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
All right, let's go to the Detroit Allions, our last,
our last team here. This is the league's most unchanged offense.
You've got you have one new full time starter guard,
Kevin Zeitler. We referenced early Baltimore. Baltimore. Yeah, Jared Goff
got a contract extension. They did lose committee receiver Josh
Reynolds now in Denver passing game, he already know. I'm
(44:21):
on Ross. Saint Brown is great. Current ADP is seven
overall and it is totally deserved. No problem with that
at all. With Josh Reynolds gone, there's a big vacuum
after Saint Brown. It's not gonna be Cleiff Raymond. The
hope is Jamison Williams will fill it.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
That's the hope here. So let's talk it through a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (44:41):
Have been able to start either of the last two seasons.
Noh yeah, random stuff exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
So he had the rookie a cl and then his
sophomore year he had the Gable League suspension.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
So will this be.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
The year three breakout for Jamison Williams.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Do they do year three breakouts on wide receivers anymore?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I feel like we're still publishing.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
The magazine Nico Collins. Nco Collins just had their year
three breakout. To this point for Williams, the problems opportunity.
He's not on the field enough. He's only averaging three
targets per game now. Fortunately Reynolds leaves behind four and
a half targets per game. Maybe he gets half of those,
So maybe he gets up to like Williams gets up
to like five targets a game, And now you're starting
(45:21):
to get into quasi fantasy viability.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
He had the deep a dot.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
As people know, he's all about the long ball over
sixteen yards per target.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
That's huge. That's huge.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
We love that from our fantasy players. It gives you
the opportunity for the big gains, you know, and Saint
Brown and Sam laport are gonna soak up a ton
of catches, but not enough that there can't be a
third meaningful fantasy player from this passing offense.
Speaker 4 (45:47):
Well in, Saint Brown and Laporta are both kind of
short a dots.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
They are.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
That's a good point.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
That's a good point. I gotta have somebody deep.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
And that's that's where Jamison Williams figures in. Probably now
the other problem he's got to get over. He has
the fourth worst drop ball ratio in football, a staggering
fourteen percent drop rate for Jamison Williams on a small sample.
Speaker 3 (46:08):
Suze yep.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
Right now, Williams go off the board wide receiver forty nine,
round ten. What do you think of that?
Speaker 3 (46:16):
It sounds about right.
Speaker 4 (46:17):
I actually thought it might have been a little bit lower.
I did too, since his he didn't have the production
in the past. But obviously people are baking in the
opportunity here for sure.
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I don't think we have to spend a lot of
time on Sam Laporta going after the board is tight
end one end of the second round in the lead
talent that in an offense that that catered to him
and used Laporta copiously, no problem where he's getting drafted
into the second round.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
He's awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
Does he get better or worse this year for the
passing game, It's hard to imagine it's going to get
better because it was already really good last year. I'm
on Ross Saint Brown was fantastic, Laporta was fantastic. But
maybe Laporta gets even better. Is in a sophomore year,
so maybe there's a little increment up in his passing game.
So maybe slightly better. But I can't see it getting
a lot better because it was already great. Let's go
(47:01):
to the running game, no changes, Jami or Gibbs, David
Montgomery returning here, this kind of fun. Matt team put
a fourth round pick into a guy named Sion Vaki,
a two way player. He played safety and running back
who spent three years in Tonga as a missionary for
(47:22):
the Church of Latter Day Saints.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
You don't hear a lot of this.
Speaker 4 (47:26):
It seems like just like a Dan Campbell guy. All
this guy is just a he's a football player.
Speaker 3 (47:31):
I think that's some of it.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
He was a finalist for the Paul Horning Award, given
to college football's most versatile player. Two way player makes sense, right,
slated to be a special teamer, so probably no big
change there. I thought, this is fascinating, though. Where do
you think Gibbs and Montgomery finished in Fantasy points last year?
Off the top of your head. Off the top, and
(47:53):
I'm not trying to trap you, no, And it's a
little unfair to ask.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
I think they're both right around top fourteen ish.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Nice job. Gibbs was nine, Monty was ten.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Okay, so I was gonna I was gonna say ten.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
Twelve, like right there, Yeah, you did, absolutely, you were
right in the window.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
And Montgomery mostly due to all the touchdowns he scored.
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Hold on, I think you're gonna be surprised, so our listeners.
So Gibbs going out the board, RB four. Yep, right,
Montgomery going off the board RB twenty two. So you attempted,
you know, you know, these guys finished nine and ten.
Why is Gibbs going four in Montgomery going twenty two?
(48:36):
And the the natural inclination might be to say, well,
Montgomery got a bunch of touchdowns that Gibbs didn't get.
They were within one of each other on touchdowns. Montgomery
had had eleven hundred yards. Wow, eleven hundred yards. Gibbs
had twelve hundred yards. They were almost identical in production,
(48:57):
and yet they're going off the board. Is running back
four and running back two two.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
This is just new player bias, which is huge.
Speaker 1 (49:05):
Andsanactly what it is, and highlight bias because Gibbs is
a highlight machine and we remember the flashy plays. Montgomery
wasn't flashy guy.
Speaker 4 (49:15):
And it's way more fun to say Jamir.
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Gibbs than David montgomer.
Speaker 4 (49:20):
There is something to that. I swear to God that
people like names.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
That are cool.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
David Montgomery is about the most boring name for a
running back of all time.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I you know what, I never considered that, but you're
a hundred Jamiir Gibbs is a way cooler sounding. Yeah, exactly,
without a doubt, without a doubt. All right, that wraps
up this episode. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, this has been
add It has been a ton of fun. I'm drafting
Montgomery picked running back twenty two. I think so seven.
That's my DT. Oh, this is my duty.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Opposite guy.
Speaker 4 (49:50):
We We've covered so many over the last two episodes,
so many.
Speaker 3 (49:54):
Do the opposite guys.
Speaker 4 (49:55):
Yes, we got Pacheco, we got we got some of
the Chargers running backs. Late got it's got Montgomery. There
there's a you can build a really good backfield I
know between the fourth.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Thanks for listening everybody. We'll be back
with more next week with more Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy
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