August 26, 2026 • 45 mins
The season creeps ever so closer and Jake and John are back to help you prepare for your all important drafts! The guys review the latest injury news surrounding several high profile players, wonder if certain tight ends are worth the risk and do a deep dive on how underrated Patrick Mahomes still may be. It's a jam packed late August episode filled with plenty of news, notes, quotes and maybe even a 90's movie reference or two!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The nation's best fantasy speculation and advice. All right, what's up, everybody,
and welcome back. We've got two more off-season editions left
of Fantasy Football Weekly. It's approaching. Kickoff is nigh. Welcome.
It's your friend and faithful narrator, John Leguiza, same handle
over on the socials. Hit me up with any questions
(00:29):
or comments as always. My friend and yours, Mr. Jake Trowbridge. Jake,
how are you doing as we hit the 11th hour, friend?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'd be doing so much better if I just stayed
off of social media, turned off updates about the NFL
on my phone. If I just buried my head in
the sand from now until the start of week one, John,
I'd be on cloud nine. I have the burden of
knowledge about some of these players, which, of course, we're
(00:57):
going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, knowledge is not always power when there's maybe a
bit too much of it and it's unfiltered, right? I
think that's really it. It's this tsunami of unvetted information
and then the instant gratification of the world as it
kind of is today, right? Three o'clock in the afternoon,
the world's worried about Jamar Chase, quarter to four, not
(01:20):
that big of a deal. Everyone is going to remember
where they were when the Ashton Genting news hit. One
of the players we'll talk about today, we're going to do,
I don't know, what are we doing? This is a
What do we do episode? The choose your own adventure episode?
Because again, things are just moving so fast that we
may have had priors and takes that are now shifting
because like the grains of time, right? Things are changing
(01:44):
ever so second to one constant in this life. All right.
So before we get too philosophical, let's start at the very, very,
very top of boards. It's Hook and Akua, wide receiver two,
ADP five, I had to look this up. He's suffering
from a psoas. I didn't know what that was. It's
like a core muscle. He's also just had a lot
of weird off-field stuff going on. I think you still
(02:07):
take him at wide receiver two because the Rams do this.
They rest everybody. They've never really been interested in showing
their hand. So I don't feel great. about the situation,
but this also feels like a classic spot of he
goes out week one, goes 11 for 137 and two,
and we were all like, oh yeah, Puka Nakua and
(02:29):
Matthew Stafford, very good at football.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, I think, well, first of all, maybe it's the
week one questionables. Maybe that's what we're trying to get
to the heart of is how comfortable do you feel
drafting and then playing these guys in week one? And
with Puka especially, you make a very good point. I
think you have to assess each of these situations based
(02:51):
on what do their coaches tend to do? What's their
coach speak level like? How full of BS are they?
How reliable are they? And how do they actually sort
through these injuries? With Puka though, we are on opposing
sides of the first round draft quality, I think of Puka.
(03:13):
I said on the Fantasy Life LG show a couple
of weeks ago, that I thought Nakua's ADP was just,
it was way too high for me considering not only
this injury, but as you mentioned, all the other off
the field stuff. And I always have that question of, okay,
he's injured now. Could also something happen midway through the
(03:34):
season where he's missing even more time. So I said
back then that I would rather draft Amon Ross St.
Brown above Kuka Nakua. And I actually stand by that
even firmer now, John. I'm just, I'm not going to
have Nakua because you have to draft him so early.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, I think that's actually a hot take. I don't
think it's crazy because Amonra is just so sturdy. And
I think almost he gets a bad rap for being
like a slot merchant type where he wins at all levels.
He's very much ingrained into the end zone plan. Detroit
might score a record amount of points this year. I'm
worried the defense isn't good. They're on the fast track.
(04:12):
You got a lot of, there are a lot of
green check emojis. next to amanra i'm not going to
share the pessimism with puka although i mean i've been
hearing people call it this year an idiot tax just
meaning like maybe dinging guys even if it's like three
four or five percent a quarter here a quarter there
for just whatever may create the issue even if it's
(04:35):
not bad behavior sometimes the thing that worries me most
about puka is his It's a very rough game, and
if we're looking for volume, you don't need to be
searching for unnecessary hits. A guy that can average 10
targets a game, that's a lot of car crashes. I'd
rather him try to avoid some, but he seems to
(04:56):
lower the helmet into guys much bigger than him, which
again is part of the reason we love him, but
part of the reason he scares me. So I'm going
to stick with Puka, although I do want to be
very clear. When I pull the four in one of
the very many drafts I've been doing I am audibly
sighing because to me it feels like a very clear-cut one, two, three.
(05:16):
And then we've talked about panic setting in when you
don't have a running back. I'd feel much better if
I was really wheels up on a guy like Jamar
Chase that I feel fantastic about, opposed to a guy
like Puka that maybe I would prefer Amon Roth. But
you can get him at six or seven, which kind
of removes some of the shine off that number four pick. So, Overall,
(05:39):
I really think I am leaning towards you, where I
would take Puka there, but I just don't love the options.
I found myself with JT and McCaffrey at certain points
trying to force that running back into the situation. It's
not great. Speaking of running backs, the supply is dwindling.
I mentioned Ashton Gentry, RB12, now down to ADP19. The
(06:00):
coach speak that you mentioned, it can't be more frustrating sometimes.
The ankle sprain... which we did manage to get out
of them has been described, quote unquote, as more low
than high. Jake, as non-doctors, what do we make of this?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's so silly the level to which some coaches and like,
I think just some analysts go to try to find
some sort of excuse of like, it's not as bad
as we think, right? So it's not a high ankle sprain.
It's more of a low ankle sprain. Denny Carter from
Blue Sky always says like, oh, it's the lowest ankle
(06:38):
sprain you've ever seen. It's basically touching the ground. That's
how low this is because that's how these coaches like
to talk about it. But I think what's weird about
Ashton Gentry is that Kubiak isn't spilling the beans. The
head coach is being asked about it as of the
time that we're recording. He hasn't really come out and
said much about it. I will say the initial reports
on this were so much worse, Sean. Like, this is
(07:00):
why I talk about being weary, about being glued to
your social media updates all the time, because when the
news first broke about this, they were describing this situation
like Ashton Gentry's ankle had completely dissolved. Like, it wasn't
even on his body anymore. That's how we were talking
about this. Like, his career could be over. They were,
(07:23):
you know, forming prayer circles and hosting candlelight vigils, and
it was just, people were freaking out. And it's clearly
not that bad. But also, for somebody who is a
little more timid about drafting Ashton Gentry, as I was myself,
this is just another thing. We talk about like the
compiling of things, just to kind of simplify it. Like, okay,
(07:47):
he only kind of had one thing against him, which
was he had an upgraded offensive line, but how good
was the offensive line? Well, this is a second thing
for Ashton Gentry that makes me pivot off of him.
And I'm sure we'll talk about, you know, other guys
going around him. I will say as the Mike Washington
guy on this podcast, it's, it's made him obviously much
(08:11):
more enticing as a later round flyer, but it just
means you're going to have a tougher time getting him.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah. He's on everybody's radar. Mike Washington is also interesting.
We were talking off air pretty much just about this.
How as players enter the chat, Mike Washington, yeah, was
getting drafted in deeper leagues, but there were a lot
of places he wasn't. And I think there was even
uncertainty that it might have been his job. Now we
feel very certain about that. And if he does, maybe
(08:36):
he is really explosive. It could be great. So all
of a sudden he skips over rounds, you know, 17, 18, 19,
and 20, and he's automatically in like the 16th and
you have to make a decision on him. So I'm
glad you got to that. You did mention one thing
I forgot to open up with, which was I wanted
to be offering players opportunities. whether or not we'd rather
(08:56):
go either towards or away from the Q tags that
we've been mentioning. We did cover Amonra and JSN for Puka.
For Jenty, where I'm missing, even though I already have
bags packed and I would love to buy low, let
me add a little more uncertainty because I had one
more quote. I didn't even know if I wanted to
read it, but now I have to. You have to.
(09:18):
They remain hopeful he'll be available week one. But there's
a chance he won't be ready.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Oh, thanks. Cool.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Everybody, cool. Thanks for the clarity. Yeah, so I don't
want to keep investing if we're not sure. And it
still could be a multiple week thing. And there still
could be a lack of impact when he returns. So, like,
I'd rather go with a guy like Brees Hall. Just briefly,
do you like Brees Hall over Jenty now? They're kind
(09:46):
of going in a similar spot as Jenty moves down
and Brees Hall moving back up. If not, we have
Love down. We're going to talk about him in a minute.
What are you making about this like tier two running
back that's going on? Like the whole situation is getting
murkier by the day. And I feel like this could
be very determinative for a lot of leagues. And I'm
getting skittish on all of them.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not feeling as good to have, you know,
let's say you start your draft with a wide receiver
in round one. And then you're coming back in rounds
two and three, adding these running backs. It doesn't feel
as good as it did a few weeks ago. We
talked about Brees Hall a little bit on last week's episode.
And the fact that I was now even drafting Derrick
(10:27):
Henry over Brees Hall, I am now drafting Derrick Henry
over Ashton Gentry. Like Chase Brown is now a slam
dunk over Ashton Gentry for me. But even a guy
like Derrick Henry, and we have, you know, Always concerns
about his pass-catching ability, which isn't a lot. And you're
still relying on touchdowns for Derrick Henry. But even with
(10:49):
his age, he doesn't currently have an injury to be
concerned about. There's nobody behind Derrick Henry who's going to
siphon touches away anyways. Ashton Gentry has Mike Washington. If
they want to play it safe with him for the
first few weeks, they have a capable running back, in
my view, that can step up. So, yeah, I'm pushing
him down quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, part of the gente love that he was getting
from people like myself was not only were we hoping
for the improvement with the offensive line, like you mentioned,
new run scheme, like we mentioned, but that there was
a major volume-based play going on here. We were really
talking about one of the few guys that could get
three quarters of all the backfield touches. All of a sudden,
(11:33):
just drop that number from 76 to 62, and he
ends up behind all the players that you were mentioning.
So I'm with you, especially with the uncertainty. This wasn't
like a, oh, no big deal. They're not really telling us.
It's yet to be seen. And guess what? There's still
a chance that he scratched week one. So to me,
anywhere in that late second, even early third is still
(11:56):
a little bit too early. Maybe it's because I'm beating
myself up from having overdrafted him. Next up, Malik Neighbors. Again,
I was wrong about this. I fell for that. beer lead, softball,
first base, gallop. I don't know. It wasn't really a sprint.
But Malik Nabors is, yeah, yeah, very good. Malik Nabors
is not only back at practice, the red jersey is off,
(12:20):
and they're talking about, like, no restrictions, wheels up, best
player on the field, which is what we think of
when we think of Malik Nabors, really, the first thing.
It was just whether or not he could and would
get to that point. I'm not going to be stubborn.
If that's going to be the case, for me, he's
right back into the second round. I have him snuck
(12:42):
right behind Nico Collins, who I'm really kind of loving.
I think Nico has a chance to be the wide
receiver one almost with the Higgins injury and not much
else behind him. But right after Collins, who is healthy,
for me, it's Niebers who has a chance to just dominate.
What do you think about Niebers? Again, I missed that
third round, fourth round value. But going into second, if
(13:04):
he's Malik Niebers, he could still pay off. Where are
you on Malik?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The problem, I've just constantly been on opposing sides of
this entire saga throughout the offseason. Early on, with the
infamous softball trot, I was just like, wow, he's going
in like the fifth round in some of these drafts.
It's just getting kind of crazy. I was like, I mean,
I understand you don't want a guy that's a shell
(13:28):
of his former self, but this is a top-quality wide receiver,
and there was still a lot of time left, so
I was smashing the button on round five. Then he
gets into round three and I was like, I could
do round three. Okay. But I'm not going to do
round two with Malik neighbors. So now that he's up there,
there are other wide receivers going in his area that
(13:50):
don't have not only the injury concerns of Malik neighbors,
but they don't have like the bad vibes of the team.
They don't have the QB injury concerns as well. Like again,
there's a lot of things that, in my brain that
are working against Malik neighbors, the giants need to have
like a, you remember the picture of Dorian Gray? Did
(14:11):
you ever read that as a, as a young tot
in school where there was like a picture in the
attic that would basically absorb all the bad stuff that
would happen to people. And that's how these people, you know,
live so fruitfully and healthily is they had this weird,
creepy photo that like took all the bad stuff from
the giants need to invest in the picture of Dorian Gray.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, everybody go read it and then go send that
message to the Giants that they need to house one
of these. So I'm just not in on Malik Nabors.
If I miss him, it's a lot of how I
feel about CMC. I understand what I could be missing out,
but at his ADP range, the risk is too big
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, first of all, I think no matter how we
kind of slice this up, you're the big winner right
now because- You predicted it right. You played the price.
You got the better price. And whether or not feeding
the new price is wrong, you still have those. In
the best case, right, so in a case where the
new second-round price is a profit, you really won out
(15:14):
back then. So that's well played by you. Let me
ask you, though, could you rank those, you know, second-
and third-round wide receivers for us? I mentioned Nico. Where
do you have neighbors? Like, so behind pickings. How about, like,
those guys? Where are you? I think if you're pushing
him behind, let's say a tat, you're not getting him
at all. But if he's just after like a pickings,
(15:38):
would you take him early third? Or you're pretty much
outing him altogether. Because once he gets into that kind
of those choppy waters near the middle of the third,
I've had trouble saying no. But again, I do understand.
I just I have trouble saying no to the upsides.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I get still the upside argument. So no, I'm
not writing him off entirely. If I'm in my draft
and he does fall into the third round, then he's
still a consideration. But the guys that I'm absolutely drafting
over him, it sounds like maybe you would have some
questions about some of these guys. Like Drake London, yes,
absolutely drafting Drake London over him.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A.J.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Brown, yes, drafting him. Nico Collins, drafting him. Chris Olave,
given the current state of the Saints, you know, with
Jordan Tyson and everybody else who seems to be falling
off a cliff there. Absolutely Chris Olave. Now, when we
get to Rasheed Rice, that's where I start to have
some questions. It's kind of more of a coin flip.
But like T. Higgins to me, I would rather have
(16:40):
over Malik Nabors, which again just means I'm not going
to have Malik Nabors probably. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
That's another great call. You give me an idea for
maybe doing another kind of polarizing player thing where T.
Higgins forever has perpetually been where George Pickens is, right?
Like a true alpha in a secondary role that's part
of a great offense, so was deemed a second rounder.
(17:10):
In fact, if anything's changed for T. Higgins... It's probably
gotten better. I mean, the situation is a healthy Joe
Burrow post. He had the preseason stuff last year. We
were worried how that would start for him. Higgins keeps falling.
And when you think about how consolidated that Bengal offense
is and with the Pergain ceiling on that team, it's
funny you mentioned Higgins because he should have been a
(17:33):
real part of my drafting plan all summer and hasn't been.
And it's not for anything against him. I just– he
just would fall behind– Player A or fully on player B, though,
Rasheed Rice was not one of them. I'm not drafting Rice.
I'm worried maybe he's not that great at football, and
maybe he's not 100% healthy. Again, I like that how
(17:53):
it's oversimplified, but sometimes that's how you do these things.
Too many things, right? You put the thing in a
good bucket, or we put a thing in the bad bucket.
Too many things in the bad bucket, it's easy to say, no,
thank you. Next up, a player that I mentioned before,
Jeremiah Love, another injury, these High ankle sprains for running backs.
I mean, it could hurt him. He looked like he
was set up for a monster workload. They ran him
(18:16):
into the ground during a preseason game, which is generally unadvised.
He is dealing with high ankle sprain. They're admitting it. Also,
the quote is, week one is in doubt. I've gotten
away from Love because I was drafting him so aggressively
in the beginning of the third. The discount is not
great enough. He's not like pick 33 right now. So
I'm going to just let it roll as it is.
(18:37):
I'm finding a hard time with the running backs I
mentioned in that third round now. I wasn't drafting Javante.
I still don't like him. I wasn't really drafting Josh Jacobs.
I still don't really like him. So I don't know
what to do. I'm either drafting my running backs really,
really early or waiting for the fourth and going like
Swift and Tootin or Skadabo, and I'm already holding my
(18:57):
nose because as much as I like those players, Jake,
it doesn't feel like a week one RB1 that I–
you know, would trade in a one V one if
I were drafted one earlier. So see if you could
tackle any and all of that, starting with love and
getting into those third round running backs.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, John, I think that this injury has just cemented
a slow start to Jeremiah loves career. And that's not
what you're interested in drafting at this stage in ADP
and redraft. It's just, I don't want a running back.
Who's going to come out beyond potentially a very heavy
pitch count, even if he is available and, When the
(19:34):
offense isn't one that I'm super interested. If you love
the Cardinals offense, you probably have a different idea about
Jeremiah Love. But I was basing my love of Jeremiah
for the workload and the fact that... Ashton Gentry did
pretty well last year. Their talent levels are pretty similar,
(19:55):
all things considered, but the offensive line is better for
Jeremiah Love. Those are the things that worked in his favor. Now, why?
What's the argument for Jeremiah Love when the coaching staff
had come out before the preseason craziness of, of how
much workload he got in that game, but they were
coming out sounding so ambivalent about Jeremiah love. So I
(20:18):
had read the tea leaves as they're coming out, you know,
coach Lafleur wasn't very committal to Jordan love being a superstar,
certainly for anything like it. And then he's giving him
so much work in the preseason. Was it a thing
that he really wanted to see what this kid has,
you know, instead of defaulting back to James Connor, if
he's healthy, or Tyler Algier, who they just signed this offseason.
(20:43):
To me, this is a big feather in the cap
for Tyler Algier of saying the first four weeks, if
I'm going to guess which of these two running backs
takes the bigger snap count, the heavier workload, I'm going
with Algier. He's a very, very good running back in
his own right. And if I want a fast start
in my redraft leagues, which I always do, then I'm
(21:03):
going with Tyler Algier much later.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, Algier feels like a smash pick for early flex production.
If you're doing GL leagues and stuff, or even these
Eliminator leagues, I think he's got to get pushed upwards.
I was already a fan of his because, I don't know,
it felt simple, but he boxed out Bijan Robinson, who,
last I checked, is on the shortest list for best
(21:28):
football players on earth, and consistently boxed him out of
high-value goal line work. So... Why wouldn't he have gotten
that again? I mean, they paid him and then kind
of surprised everybody with that draft pick of Love. So
I still think Love is going to be productive. I
think if he proves at any point to be healthy,
he's going to be a real big fantasy asset. The
(21:50):
problem is the market agrees because pick 33 for a
guy who might miss a couple games is really rough.
And also, just because we haven't mentioned it, Got to
be careful inviting too much injury on our teams early, Jake.
We want to get out and win. We want to
win in September. That's a mistake I've made in my past.
Too many late-season winners, and sometimes that's best ball brain
(22:13):
when we think about, all right, it's going to hit
the ground running in the playoffs when it matters, kind
of large field stuff, most home leagues. That's not the case.
It's just head-to-head. If you get out to a 1-3 start,
you could be behind the eight ball and chasing the
entire year. Not what you want to be doing. So
that was really good. Let's just take a quick break.
I want to shuffle a paper and get back to
(22:34):
the second half of these guys because we have another
list of guys that are going to matter, right? Man,
the prices are moving. All right, Jakey, thank you for
your patience. Next up, this one really hurts because I'm
putting on my fake internet stethoscope. and pretending to know
(22:54):
anything about medicine. It's Emeka Egbuka, who I was drafting.
He's now moved down a little bit. Wide receiver, 19, ADP, 41.
And I'm getting worried because they said turf toe. And
turf toe has ruined seasons, and if not, like, careers.
Egbuka already has some major threats for opportunity. That's a
(23:17):
very talented pass catcher room, especially in the front end
of the season season. If and when a guy like
Godwin goes down, you know, before McMillan goes down, Hurst
is there, they're loving him in camp. I'm getting very
worried about Ibuka. Again, the quotes are so vague. They're optimistic,
but we're not sure what it could be. And so.
(23:39):
I don't know. It feels like my parents would lie
to me about Toys R Us when I was little.
Talk to us about Emeka Ibuka, man.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, you can pick out two of anything that you want.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Oh, no, they're closed. If you're good, maybe. We'll see.
I used to get the we'll see.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
This one really does sting. I don't have a single
dynasty league where I don't have Emeka Ibuka. I spent
all offseason trying to get him because I was so
adamant that he was set up to have potentially like
a JSN... type of ascendance. I really felt that in
this offense and based on the quality of what we
saw before last year's injury, that Ibuka could be that guy.
(24:18):
And so I was also dipping in on redraft quite
a lot. Now you mentioned turf toe. I mean, even
just think about like Brock Purdy, Brock Purdy went through
the turf toe extravaganza. And at the time it wasn't
an injury that was so common that we knew a
lot about it. And people were kind of making fun
of turf toe, because it just sounds silly. It's not,
(24:40):
I mean, it, it really does derail seasons, like you said.
So I don't feel good drafting a Mecca Buka. Now
in this area of round four, there's a couple of
other wide receivers. I've talked a lot about you and
I have both went through sort of the wide receivers
in this range that we're comfortable with. A Buka had
definitely been one of those guys. Now it's like Zay
(25:02):
flowers before him. You know, if somehow he falls to
this area, great. I'll snatch up Zay Flowers. It has
me thinking I should reach a little bit on Garrett
Wilson instead of waiting for him to fall into my breadbasket.
So this doesn't just affect his ADP. It really does
affect my kind of whole strategy at wide receiver, John.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I agree a thousand percent. I had Egbuka kind
of not heading shoulders above the tier, but, you know,
he's peeking up above the horizon. And that was the
guy I was grabbing the whole time. If we're going
to go back to the stuff in things, you know,
labeled buckets, good and bad, I like so many of
(25:45):
the other players there that those bad buckets were empty.
I really like Zee Flowers. You mentioned him. We both
like T. Higgins. Mention him. I like Ladd McConkie. You know,
I like Jalen Waddell. I like a lot of guys there.
Even Garrett Wilson was the other name that I was
looking for. Those are all players that are in great setups,
great situations, and don't have that one thing, which we're
(26:09):
really worried about. Again, we're making big decisions. We haven't
seen anything at all. This could turn into a pup. Yeah,
they're being kind of optimistic because they haven't restarted the engine, right?
That's when the re-aggravations happen. That's when we really get
our news. when they go to start them up again
and find out whether or not, again, the machine is
(26:31):
just working and all the pistons are firing. I am, man,
I'm really, really worried. And again, just down to ADP 41,
he's hardly falling behind all the names that I've mentioned.
And if I'm prioritizing running backs the way that I just,
every piece of analysis that I do seems to be
pushing me in that direction. I really got to hit
(26:52):
these wide receivers. I can't risk, You know, Ibuka is
going to be your wide receiver one. I can't risk
him on the shelf. Where are you drawing the line?
I'm going to give you a couple names, and then
we're going to go into the next name on the list.
Devontae Adams, Terry McLaurin, Roma Dunzey, and Luther Burden. He's
back to practice. Would you rather have Luther Burden back
(27:16):
to practice or Emeka with the question marks?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I didn't have a whole lot of love for Luther
Burden and Emeka. That was before any sort of injury
thing with him. So I'm still giving the tiebreaker to
Emeka Egbuka unless we get some real confirmation of things
being worse than how they're playing it right now. So
I would still take Egbuka over Burden. I would take
Egbuka over Adams. I've been told that, you know, yes,
(27:44):
Devante Adams, all he does is score touchdowns. It's not
a recent phenomenon. But last year, when 40% of his
fantasy points are strictly because of touchdowns, and he's another
year older, and his quarterback has a bad back that
could flare up. That's still a tiebreaker that's in favor
of Ibuka. But, you know, last week I was on
the fence about Jalen Waddell because of guys like him
(28:08):
in this range, and I think now I would take
Waddell over Ibuka.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Can I ask you about one more player? I like
to be very selfish sometimes, but I like to think
it helps people because, again, it's not just him in
the dirt. I'm down to the elbows making these decisions.
A player that's been falling– in this range that I'm
finding right around this kind of, that decision point is
Tet McMillan. I had been hand-waving them. Very easy for
(28:33):
me to hand-wave. Again, we're comparing them to players that
I don't see red flags. When I see the quarterback
in the environment as a red flag, it was very
easy for me to say, thanks, but no thanks. I
was worried about the utilization. And with the brazzle injury,
I worried that might stunt that hope. But if the
preseason's any indication, McMillan is working like a ton out
(28:55):
of the slot and getting some layup throws for Bryce
on the move where he could see the receiver could
be a huge help and give Bacon a little bit
of floor. Where are you at Buka versus Ted McMillan?
And is McMillan even kind of part of your plan?
Because I think he's a very good player. But again,
at the price, I have to like more than the player.
I need to like the situation as well.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, it's a great call out because McMillan was somebody
who in round five, it felt like if somehow he
was there, it was kind of an easy decision for me. McMillan,
I just want to point out, I know that there's
concerns about not only the usage, as you said, but
really because of his quarterback. I always have to mention
this to folks because I know Bryce Young is not
(29:38):
the best quarterback. He's not. the best even feeder of
fantasy points to our skill position players. But this is
a guy who in his rookie season made Adam Thielen
the wide receiver six in his first like whatever that
stretch was where he was healthy, like six games or
something like that. And the dude was like already 35
(29:58):
or something. I'm pretty sure at that point. So it
can be done. The wide receiver needs to be very talented,
but McMillan is very talented. So yes, I would take
McMillan over Ibuka now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, I think maybe, and it's tough for me. To me,
that is really kind of tacitly admitting how worried I
am about the turf though. Because when it first started,
those were not even close. I would have taken Ibuka
11 times out of 10. Next up, a player that
we both really liked, and this is when I was
kind of complaining to you off-air about how I hate
(30:33):
when CLV kind of eats up my portfolio. You and
I were both very much on Tucker Kraft. He's still
the tight end five, but that price now has closed.
That's something that you and I spoke about. Yeah, Kraft
is a TE5, but he was going after pick 80.
Now he's going in the early 60s where I've had
trouble wrangling him because I I'm kind of still eating
(30:56):
in that wide receiver pool. Guys we've mentioned, I like
Jameson Williams. I like Mike Evans. I like Christian Watson.
I like Parker Washington. Those are guys I'm all kind
of drafting now over Tucker Kraft. I hate to admit it,
but he's practicing. And even though they're saying they're going
to keep him on a snap count, It's weird. As
long as he's running routes, we really don't care if
(31:18):
he's run blocking. It's funny with tight ends how people
get obsessed with that. Dalton Kincaid showed you as long
as you're running routes, it doesn't matter your snap count
because if you're efficient like Kraft can be. So where
are you on our guy Tucker Kraft as he creeps
up next to Warren who also has his own issues? Man,
I hate to admit it, Jake. I've kind of hit
the eject button at cost.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I mean, Warren and Kraft have been two of my
top-tier targets at tight end this entire time, so the
combo platter of this is not thrilling to me. Tucker Kraft, though,
I've still been... I'll admit it. I'm one of the
people still hyping up Tucker Kraft and unfortunately maybe not
helping a discount situation for Tucker Kraft in your leagues
(32:05):
because of what you said. I think that anybody who can...
break big plays as a tight end as consistently as
Tucker craft can is still going to be worth it
more than like your garden variety. Hey, I'm, I'm here
and I'm going to catch the ball and fall down.
You know, that type of tight end variety, the old
(32:25):
Jason Witten or Zach Ertz types, no disrespect to those guys,
but Tucker craft is still worth it to me. The
one thing that gives me pause is the, depth chart
is so thin for Green Bay at tight end that
I'm worried who is going to be run blocking if
not Tucker Kraft. Are they going to be forced to
(32:46):
play him more than they want for those situations? Because
they don't really have anybody right now who is healthy
and sort of a trusted veteran. So I'm not going
to get too in my head about it, but it
is something to consider.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, I didn't realize Musgrave was on the PUP list
listed behind him is like Wiley. I'm hoping, we talk
about as much as coaches and GMs lie, a lot
of times the roster and usage is the truth. It's
when they kind of have to show their cards. I'm
hoping that lack of depth is physical confidence, right? Confidence
in the recovery for Kraft because I will say this
(33:25):
also before we move on. At pick 65, he could
still change your league It kills me to have to
take him over, again, a guy like Parker Washington. But
it could really give you an edge every single week
with the vacated targets in Green Bay. And, again, if
he's going to get that full workload, he could just
(33:46):
break fantasy positionally because, again, it's going so late. Let's
stick with tight ends. It's George Kittle. He was just
activated from the pup list on Sunday. Now, my beef
with Kittle the whole time is I never thought– He
was really cheap enough. I think it's, I keep mentioning
Dalton Kincaid. I might as well do it again. He's
been the guy I've been into when it was around
(34:08):
pick 100. Now Kittle is the tight end nine moving
up into the high 80s. Last I saw was consensus
ADP 88 for Kittle. We're still not 100% sure he's
going to play week one, but it does sound pretty
sure he will be in the lineup week two. Just
a quick note, Sam Frane did tell us if he's
(34:29):
not going to play in the international game. which they're
leaving a week early for. He won't be traveling. So
we will get that information early, which I think will
help you because you could draft Kittle and you'll just
know you're not taking a zero. I don't think that
one week should throw us off it. I think the
price might. Man, Kittle could be that guy that could
change a week. Also, Jake, few guys at the position
(34:50):
have that type of per game ceiling. But you are
paying for it. We don't know if he's going to
return to 100%. Where are you on Kittle and how
he fits into these San Fran plans?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I mean, to be fair, you used to have to
pay tight end five ADP for George Kittle like that.
That's what he's consistently been. So it might not feel
like it. This is a discount for George Kittle. It
is another tight end who when he's out there, whenever
he actually has been healthy, you could pretty reliable slot
(35:23):
him in for at least an 80% chance at a
huge day. Does he always deliver?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
No.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And sometimes he plays through arguably too many injuries and
it can impact what you're getting in the fantasy stat sheet.
But I've seen a lot of chatter, a ton of chatter,
especially over on blue sky about like, stay away from
George Kittle. Don't even mess with it based off this injury.
I'm not as afraid. I've said all along George Kittle
(35:51):
and to a lesser extent, Tucker craft. These are guys
like when they say, coming off of injury or playing
through injury, I'm good. I'm going to be out there.
I'm going to play. I believe them. Those two are
very reliable in that way. So as long as, big asterisk,
as long as you're comfortable taking another stab at tight
end at the very end of your draft, just to
(36:12):
make sure, hey, on week one, week two, I have
somebody that I can slot in. I keep saying Greg
Dulcich is a name, but pick your preferred tight end
at the last round of your draft. Pair these guys
with that tight end just to be on the safe side.
But otherwise, I'm okay with the price.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, I don't think that's a bad play either. It
just depends where he falls. I'm still finding his price
is all over the place. There are times where he
goes in the early 80s. I find myself saying, no,
thank you. Then there are times where he's back in
the triple digits where he may have fallen behind a
guy like Kincaid where all of a sudden I'm thinking, yeah,
let's go. To that replacement... Theory. Jake Thomas has stepped
(36:57):
in as like a real tight end one at points.
I'm just looking at the game log. Kittle missed last
year versus Chicago, and Thomas went 7-60-1. So he's part
of the offense. He understands the plan. He's going to
play a full complement of snaps if he makes the trip,
and that'd be fine, right? I think you almost– I
don't want to say definitely, but I think you get
(37:19):
a tight end one finishing. from him, even if it's
not too pretty, but he gives a good chance at it.
All right, just a couple more names, but they're relevant
and matters. You know, the show's getting longer as we're
approaching kickoff. It's Alec Pierce, Colts head coach Shane Steichen
said Alec Pierce with the ankle is expected to return
to practice this week. I mean, maybe I need to
stop doing video-based analysis after what happened with Malik Nabors,
(37:42):
but I saw that video of Pierce. He does not
look good. All the Twitter docs are in agreement. He's
not putting pressure on it. He's still walking around. weird.
It doesn't look right to me. Maybe he returns to practice,
in which case ADP 104 would be a steal. But
I will tell people from drafting every second of every day,
that video spiked his ADP downward again. It's torpedoed. He's
(38:06):
going around pick 135, where I've found myself back in
the Alec Pierce market, which I kind of said I
wasn't going to do. But at pick 130, I mean,
we're talking about a potential top target on the team.
He's definitely a good deep target and could win you
weeks with, you know, high value touches. So where are
you on Pierce? Do you think it's a little bit
foolish of me? Who's an admitted injury pessimist to finally
(38:29):
be showing some optimism?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, no, not if the price is right. You know,
that's the whole thing is I stay away from injuries
typically in the first few rounds. So these guys that
were at the top of our list, I was more
cautious about, but if you're getting to this point, you're wanting,
or I am as much upside as possible. I was
out on Al Pierce when everybody thought he was healthy.
Cause I thought his ADP was crazy. And I thought
(38:52):
people were assuming, you know, that he was this locked
in wide receiver one. And I just wasn't feeling it
because I thought that the contract was more about what
he did overall for the offense than what he did
for your fantasy score, you know? And now that he's
falling down, It's like, sure, why not at least take
a stab on it? Especially you pair that with the
(39:13):
fact that Tyler Warren is dealing with his own injury.
Josh Downs, we didn't even talk about. He's now got
some stuff going on that who knows how serious that is. But,
you know, attrition is a real thing. Sometimes you just
need a guy who has a decent shot to go
out there and put up some big weeks, if only
because he's the only healthy target available. And between the
fact that all those other guys are banged up and
(39:34):
they signed 80-year-old Keenan Allen, I think I'm okay with Pierce.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, I think given the archetypes of the pass catchers
on that team, if and when Pierce returns- That job
is waiting for him. Forget the money, which I backed
up the Brink's truck for him. So I am keeping
the light on for Alec Pierce. Again, it's got to
be outside of pick 125. I'm glad that you mentioned
the price. That is always the most important thing. But right,
(40:02):
when he was going closer to QJ, Casey Concepcion, even
Matthew Golden, I'd rather have those players. Now that he's
going closer to, man, he's going closer to like Keenan Allen,
Khalil Shakir, who's banged up also. Jacoby Lane, who I
think the market has oversteemed. Yeah, that could be a
(40:22):
thing in Baltimore. But it's not like we've seen multiple
pass catchers in Baltimore get dragged along with Lamar, who's
talking about running again. So, yeah, I'm going to hope
Pierce is a thing. Maybe we'll know early or late. And, hey, man,
maybe he's even like an IR guy that you can stash.
Let's do last but not least, because we had Kenyon
Sadiq on there. But, man, rookie tight ends at a
(40:43):
missing time. He's not going to be part of anyone's
redraft plan. I don't think he should be. We're going
to talk Patrick Mahomes. Man, this is somebody I have found.
I'm like the anti-Mahomes guy, even though as a, you know,
I'm a longtime veteran handicapper, Jake, and I've been telling
people for the longest time, the quickest way to go
broke is to bet against Patrick Mahomes. Yet here I
(41:05):
find myself doing exactly that. QB 15, he's going right around.
Let's go a little bit after ADP 115. Andy Reid,
it's not like he was being a little cute. Mahomes
has been at every practice, has not missed a single rep.
When asked, oh, Andy Reid said, which I just mentioned,
he was quoted saying, we'll see. I'm imagining Patrick Mahomes
(41:27):
is playing. I'm just not sure what we're getting. I'm
really worried about Kelsey's age and Rice's skill. The fact
that now everybody in the world is chasing up Cyrus Allen.
I think Xavier Worthy might also not be good. He
also might be fragile. Bam's shoulder again. There's a chance
that the Chiefs were just We mentioned roster truths. When
they signed Kenneth Walker, the intention was to run the
(41:49):
ball more. I could see Mahomes being a much better
real-life quarterback than fantasy. I also like Jackson Dart, who
runs going at the same price. Talk to us about Mahomes,
and if you think maybe I should start adding him
into my plan at all, because literally I'm several hundred
drafts deep. I don't think I've clicked on Mahomes once.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
That's wild to hear. I just want to try to
transport you back. Let's do this, John. Let's see if
I can get you back on board.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yes, exactly. I don't know who's going to get that.
I don't know if anyone's going to get that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
There's got to be a Wayne's World fan or two
still around. I would hope so.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So transport two years ago, talk to John from two
years ago and say, you can get Patrick Freaking Mahomes
at QB 15 and your draft. The only caveat is
maybe he's a little bagged up. Maybe week one, you
don't love what you get. QB 15 for Patrick Mahomes.
(42:47):
When he was QB 11, QB 12 early in the
off season. It's like, I guess I kind of see
where people are pivoting away, but I've said it so
many times. I'm going to go to my fantasy grave
saying it once more. The return of Eric Bien-Ami as
the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, I believe,
is the fastest thing to get Mahomes and everybody else
(43:11):
back to the explosive play style and the big fantasy
points that we had grown accustomed to for so long
with Mahomes. So I personally am loving it. It's the
same thing I would say, though, about drafting Tucker Kraft
or drafting George Kittle. Make sure, you know, even in
a one QB league, if you're not somebody who normally
drafts two QBs, save a spot towards the end of
(43:32):
your draft for somebody that you can plug in for
those first couple of weeks. I'm not saying you have
to handcuff him with Justin Fields, but you know, Sam
Darnold or whoever is going back there, make sure you
have somebody just in case he's not looking good or
he's not out there in week one, but otherwise I'm in.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I think you're right. Especially if the price is so low,
Where you would have normally had to draft him as
a top five QB, which I was never really into because, again,
I was chasing the runners and it never worked out.
I've always, right, your lifetime defeated, right? The opposite of
undefeated is lifetime defeated going up against Patrick Mahomes. The
(44:08):
funniest part about this. case that you're like take this
back in time how about we go back to last
year where he was one of four quarterbacks to over
you know average over 20 fantasy points a game which
is really the benchmark for being really great and the
benchmark for separation at the position and yet somehow i
just refuse to believe it i feel like i am
destined to burn on this one man i i don't
(44:30):
i don't know what it is it's all there and
i'm really i am just supremely bearish on that Just
the whole pass-catching core. I could just see the whole
thing kind of going wrong for them. But, man, when
it comes down to it, I feel like I'm going
to be more sorry than not when it comes down
to Mr. Patrick Mahomes. Jake, that was really awesome. I
think we settled some of these debates for people, gay people,
(44:51):
options of plan B, plan C. So from Jake Trowbridge
and John Leguiza, our producer Robbie, everyone at Fantasy Football Weekly,
thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you next week,
and enjoy the weekend. You know what? That might be
(45:22):
a good...
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The nation's best fantasy speculation and advice. All right, what's up, everybody,
and welcome back. We've got two more off-season editions left
of Fantasy Football Weekly. It's approaching. Kickoff is nigh. Welcome.
It's your friend and faithful narrator, John Leguiza, same handle
over on the socials. Hit me up with any questions
(00:29):
or comments as always. My friend and yours, Mr. Jake Trowbridge. Jake,
how are you doing as we hit the 11th hour, friend?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'd be doing so much better if I just stayed
off of social media, turned off updates about the NFL
on my phone. If I just buried my head in
the sand from now until the start of week one, John,
I'd be on cloud nine. I have the burden of
knowledge about some of these players, which, of course, we're
(00:57):
going to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, knowledge is not always power when there's maybe a
bit too much of it and it's unfiltered, right? I
think that's really it. It's this tsunami of unvetted information
and then the instant gratification of the world as it
kind of is today, right? Three o'clock in the afternoon,
the world's worried about Jamar Chase, quarter to four, not
(01:20):
that big of a deal. Everyone is going to remember
where they were when the Ashton Genting news hit. One
of the players we'll talk about today, we're going to do,
I don't know, what are we doing? This is a
What do we do episode? The choose your own adventure episode?
Because again, things are just moving so fast that we
may have had priors and takes that are now shifting
because like the grains of time, right? Things are changing
(01:44):
ever so second to one constant in this life. All right.
So before we get too philosophical, let's start at the very, very,
very top of boards. It's Hook and Akua, wide receiver two,
ADP five, I had to look this up. He's suffering
from a psoas. I didn't know what that was. It's
like a core muscle. He's also just had a lot
of weird off-field stuff going on. I think you still
(02:07):
take him at wide receiver two because the Rams do this.
They rest everybody. They've never really been interested in showing
their hand. So I don't feel great. about the situation,
but this also feels like a classic spot of he
goes out week one, goes 11 for 137 and two,
and we were all like, oh yeah, Puka Nakua and
(02:29):
Matthew Stafford, very good at football.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, I think, well, first of all, maybe it's the
week one questionables. Maybe that's what we're trying to get
to the heart of is how comfortable do you feel
drafting and then playing these guys in week one? And
with Puka especially, you make a very good point. I
think you have to assess each of these situations based
(02:51):
on what do their coaches tend to do? What's their
coach speak level like? How full of BS are they?
How reliable are they? And how do they actually sort
through these injuries? With Puka though, we are on opposing
sides of the first round draft quality, I think of Puka.
(03:13):
I said on the Fantasy Life LG show a couple
of weeks ago, that I thought Nakua's ADP was just,
it was way too high for me considering not only
this injury, but as you mentioned, all the other off
the field stuff. And I always have that question of, okay,
he's injured now. Could also something happen midway through the
(03:34):
season where he's missing even more time. So I said
back then that I would rather draft Amon Ross St.
Brown above Kuka Nakua. And I actually stand by that
even firmer now, John. I'm just, I'm not going to
have Nakua because you have to draft him so early.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, I think that's actually a hot take. I don't
think it's crazy because Amonra is just so sturdy. And
I think almost he gets a bad rap for being
like a slot merchant type where he wins at all levels.
He's very much ingrained into the end zone plan. Detroit
might score a record amount of points this year. I'm
worried the defense isn't good. They're on the fast track.
(04:12):
You got a lot of, there are a lot of
green check emojis. next to amanra i'm not going to
share the pessimism with puka although i mean i've been
hearing people call it this year an idiot tax just
meaning like maybe dinging guys even if it's like three
four or five percent a quarter here a quarter there
for just whatever may create the issue even if it's
(04:35):
not bad behavior sometimes the thing that worries me most
about puka is his It's a very rough game, and
if we're looking for volume, you don't need to be
searching for unnecessary hits. A guy that can average 10
targets a game, that's a lot of car crashes. I'd
rather him try to avoid some, but he seems to
(04:56):
lower the helmet into guys much bigger than him, which
again is part of the reason we love him, but
part of the reason he scares me. So I'm going
to stick with Puka, although I do want to be
very clear. When I pull the four in one of
the very many drafts I've been doing I am audibly
sighing because to me it feels like a very clear-cut one, two, three.
(05:16):
And then we've talked about panic setting in when you
don't have a running back. I'd feel much better if
I was really wheels up on a guy like Jamar
Chase that I feel fantastic about, opposed to a guy
like Puka that maybe I would prefer Amon Roth. But
you can get him at six or seven, which kind
of removes some of the shine off that number four pick. So, Overall,
(05:39):
I really think I am leaning towards you, where I
would take Puka there, but I just don't love the options.
I found myself with JT and McCaffrey at certain points
trying to force that running back into the situation. It's
not great. Speaking of running backs, the supply is dwindling.
I mentioned Ashton Gentry, RB12, now down to ADP19. The
(06:00):
coach speak that you mentioned, it can't be more frustrating sometimes.
The ankle sprain... which we did manage to get out
of them has been described, quote unquote, as more low
than high. Jake, as non-doctors, what do we make of this?
Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's so silly the level to which some coaches and like,
I think just some analysts go to try to find
some sort of excuse of like, it's not as bad
as we think, right? So it's not a high ankle sprain.
It's more of a low ankle sprain. Denny Carter from
Blue Sky always says like, oh, it's the lowest ankle
(06:38):
sprain you've ever seen. It's basically touching the ground. That's
how low this is because that's how these coaches like
to talk about it. But I think what's weird about
Ashton Gentry is that Kubiak isn't spilling the beans. The
head coach is being asked about it as of the
time that we're recording. He hasn't really come out and
said much about it. I will say the initial reports
on this were so much worse, Sean. Like, this is
(07:00):
why I talk about being weary, about being glued to
your social media updates all the time, because when the
news first broke about this, they were describing this situation
like Ashton Gentry's ankle had completely dissolved. Like, it wasn't
even on his body anymore. That's how we were talking
about this. Like, his career could be over. They were,
(07:23):
you know, forming prayer circles and hosting candlelight vigils, and
it was just, people were freaking out. And it's clearly
not that bad. But also, for somebody who is a
little more timid about drafting Ashton Gentry, as I was myself,
this is just another thing. We talk about like the
compiling of things, just to kind of simplify it. Like, okay,
(07:47):
he only kind of had one thing against him, which
was he had an upgraded offensive line, but how good
was the offensive line? Well, this is a second thing
for Ashton Gentry that makes me pivot off of him.
And I'm sure we'll talk about, you know, other guys
going around him. I will say as the Mike Washington
guy on this podcast, it's, it's made him obviously much
(08:11):
more enticing as a later round flyer, but it just
means you're going to have a tougher time getting him.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah. He's on everybody's radar. Mike Washington is also interesting.
We were talking off air pretty much just about this.
How as players enter the chat, Mike Washington, yeah, was
getting drafted in deeper leagues, but there were a lot
of places he wasn't. And I think there was even
uncertainty that it might have been his job. Now we
feel very certain about that. And if he does, maybe
(08:36):
he is really explosive. It could be great. So all
of a sudden he skips over rounds, you know, 17, 18, 19,
and 20, and he's automatically in like the 16th and
you have to make a decision on him. So I'm
glad you got to that. You did mention one thing
I forgot to open up with, which was I wanted
to be offering players opportunities. whether or not we'd rather
(08:56):
go either towards or away from the Q tags that
we've been mentioning. We did cover Amonra and JSN for Puka.
For Jenty, where I'm missing, even though I already have
bags packed and I would love to buy low, let
me add a little more uncertainty because I had one
more quote. I didn't even know if I wanted to
read it, but now I have to. You have to.
(09:18):
They remain hopeful he'll be available week one. But there's
a chance he won't be ready.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Oh, thanks. Cool.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Everybody, cool. Thanks for the clarity. Yeah, so I don't
want to keep investing if we're not sure. And it
still could be a multiple week thing. And there still
could be a lack of impact when he returns. So, like,
I'd rather go with a guy like Brees Hall. Just briefly,
do you like Brees Hall over Jenty now? They're kind
(09:46):
of going in a similar spot as Jenty moves down
and Brees Hall moving back up. If not, we have
Love down. We're going to talk about him in a minute.
What are you making about this like tier two running
back that's going on? Like the whole situation is getting
murkier by the day. And I feel like this could
be very determinative for a lot of leagues. And I'm
getting skittish on all of them.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, it's not feeling as good to have, you know,
let's say you start your draft with a wide receiver
in round one. And then you're coming back in rounds
two and three, adding these running backs. It doesn't feel
as good as it did a few weeks ago. We
talked about Brees Hall a little bit on last week's episode.
And the fact that I was now even drafting Derrick
(10:27):
Henry over Brees Hall, I am now drafting Derrick Henry
over Ashton Gentry. Like Chase Brown is now a slam
dunk over Ashton Gentry for me. But even a guy
like Derrick Henry, and we have, you know, Always concerns
about his pass-catching ability, which isn't a lot. And you're
still relying on touchdowns for Derrick Henry. But even with
(10:49):
his age, he doesn't currently have an injury to be
concerned about. There's nobody behind Derrick Henry who's going to
siphon touches away anyways. Ashton Gentry has Mike Washington. If
they want to play it safe with him for the
first few weeks, they have a capable running back, in
my view, that can step up. So, yeah, I'm pushing
him down quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, part of the gente love that he was getting
from people like myself was not only were we hoping
for the improvement with the offensive line, like you mentioned,
new run scheme, like we mentioned, but that there was
a major volume-based play going on here. We were really
talking about one of the few guys that could get
three quarters of all the backfield touches. All of a sudden,
(11:33):
just drop that number from 76 to 62, and he
ends up behind all the players that you were mentioning.
So I'm with you, especially with the uncertainty. This wasn't
like a, oh, no big deal. They're not really telling us.
It's yet to be seen. And guess what? There's still
a chance that he scratched week one. So to me,
anywhere in that late second, even early third is still
(11:56):
a little bit too early. Maybe it's because I'm beating
myself up from having overdrafted him. Next up, Malik Neighbors. Again,
I was wrong about this. I fell for that. beer lead, softball,
first base, gallop. I don't know. It wasn't really a sprint.
But Malik Nabors is, yeah, yeah, very good. Malik Nabors
is not only back at practice, the red jersey is off,
(12:20):
and they're talking about, like, no restrictions, wheels up, best
player on the field, which is what we think of
when we think of Malik Nabors, really, the first thing.
It was just whether or not he could and would
get to that point. I'm not going to be stubborn.
If that's going to be the case, for me, he's
right back into the second round. I have him snuck
(12:42):
right behind Nico Collins, who I'm really kind of loving.
I think Nico has a chance to be the wide
receiver one almost with the Higgins injury and not much
else behind him. But right after Collins, who is healthy,
for me, it's Niebers who has a chance to just dominate.
What do you think about Niebers? Again, I missed that
third round, fourth round value. But going into second, if
(13:04):
he's Malik Niebers, he could still pay off. Where are
you on Malik?
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The problem, I've just constantly been on opposing sides of
this entire saga throughout the offseason. Early on, with the
infamous softball trot, I was just like, wow, he's going
in like the fifth round in some of these drafts.
It's just getting kind of crazy. I was like, I mean,
I understand you don't want a guy that's a shell
(13:28):
of his former self, but this is a top-quality wide receiver,
and there was still a lot of time left, so
I was smashing the button on round five. Then he
gets into round three and I was like, I could
do round three. Okay. But I'm not going to do
round two with Malik neighbors. So now that he's up there,
there are other wide receivers going in his area that
(13:50):
don't have not only the injury concerns of Malik neighbors,
but they don't have like the bad vibes of the team.
They don't have the QB injury concerns as well. Like again,
there's a lot of things that, in my brain that
are working against Malik neighbors, the giants need to have
like a, you remember the picture of Dorian Gray? Did
(14:11):
you ever read that as a, as a young tot
in school where there was like a picture in the
attic that would basically absorb all the bad stuff that
would happen to people. And that's how these people, you know,
live so fruitfully and healthily is they had this weird,
creepy photo that like took all the bad stuff from
the giants need to invest in the picture of Dorian Gray.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, everybody go read it and then go send that
message to the Giants that they need to house one
of these. So I'm just not in on Malik Nabors.
If I miss him, it's a lot of how I
feel about CMC. I understand what I could be missing out,
but at his ADP range, the risk is too big
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Well, first of all, I think no matter how we
kind of slice this up, you're the big winner right
now because- You predicted it right. You played the price.
You got the better price. And whether or not feeding
the new price is wrong, you still have those. In
the best case, right, so in a case where the
new second-round price is a profit, you really won out
(15:14):
back then. So that's well played by you. Let me
ask you, though, could you rank those, you know, second-
and third-round wide receivers for us? I mentioned Nico. Where
do you have neighbors? Like, so behind pickings. How about, like,
those guys? Where are you? I think if you're pushing
him behind, let's say a tat, you're not getting him
at all. But if he's just after like a pickings,
(15:38):
would you take him early third? Or you're pretty much
outing him altogether. Because once he gets into that kind
of those choppy waters near the middle of the third,
I've had trouble saying no. But again, I do understand.
I just I have trouble saying no to the upsides.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, I get still the upside argument. So no, I'm
not writing him off entirely. If I'm in my draft
and he does fall into the third round, then he's
still a consideration. But the guys that I'm absolutely drafting
over him, it sounds like maybe you would have some
questions about some of these guys. Like Drake London, yes,
absolutely drafting Drake London over him.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
A.J.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Brown, yes, drafting him. Nico Collins, drafting him. Chris Olave,
given the current state of the Saints, you know, with
Jordan Tyson and everybody else who seems to be falling
off a cliff there. Absolutely Chris Olave. Now, when we
get to Rasheed Rice, that's where I start to have
some questions. It's kind of more of a coin flip.
But like T. Higgins to me, I would rather have
(16:40):
over Malik Nabors, which again just means I'm not going
to have Malik Nabors probably. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
That's another great call. You give me an idea for
maybe doing another kind of polarizing player thing where T.
Higgins forever has perpetually been where George Pickens is, right?
Like a true alpha in a secondary role that's part
of a great offense, so was deemed a second rounder.
(17:10):
In fact, if anything's changed for T. Higgins... It's probably
gotten better. I mean, the situation is a healthy Joe
Burrow post. He had the preseason stuff last year. We
were worried how that would start for him. Higgins keeps falling.
And when you think about how consolidated that Bengal offense
is and with the Pergain ceiling on that team, it's
funny you mentioned Higgins because he should have been a
(17:33):
real part of my drafting plan all summer and hasn't been.
And it's not for anything against him. I just– he
just would fall behind– Player A or fully on player B, though,
Rasheed Rice was not one of them. I'm not drafting Rice.
I'm worried maybe he's not that great at football, and
maybe he's not 100% healthy. Again, I like that how
(17:53):
it's oversimplified, but sometimes that's how you do these things.
Too many things, right? You put the thing in a
good bucket, or we put a thing in the bad bucket.
Too many things in the bad bucket, it's easy to say, no,
thank you. Next up, a player that I mentioned before,
Jeremiah Love, another injury, these High ankle sprains for running backs.
I mean, it could hurt him. He looked like he
was set up for a monster workload. They ran him
(18:16):
into the ground during a preseason game, which is generally unadvised.
He is dealing with high ankle sprain. They're admitting it. Also,
the quote is, week one is in doubt. I've gotten
away from Love because I was drafting him so aggressively
in the beginning of the third. The discount is not
great enough. He's not like pick 33 right now. So
I'm going to just let it roll as it is.
(18:37):
I'm finding a hard time with the running backs I
mentioned in that third round now. I wasn't drafting Javante.
I still don't like him. I wasn't really drafting Josh Jacobs.
I still don't really like him. So I don't know
what to do. I'm either drafting my running backs really,
really early or waiting for the fourth and going like
Swift and Tootin or Skadabo, and I'm already holding my
(18:57):
nose because as much as I like those players, Jake,
it doesn't feel like a week one RB1 that I–
you know, would trade in a one V one if
I were drafted one earlier. So see if you could
tackle any and all of that, starting with love and
getting into those third round running backs.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Well, John, I think that this injury has just cemented
a slow start to Jeremiah loves career. And that's not
what you're interested in drafting at this stage in ADP
and redraft. It's just, I don't want a running back.
Who's going to come out beyond potentially a very heavy
pitch count, even if he is available and, When the
(19:34):
offense isn't one that I'm super interested. If you love
the Cardinals offense, you probably have a different idea about
Jeremiah Love. But I was basing my love of Jeremiah
for the workload and the fact that... Ashton Gentry did
pretty well last year. Their talent levels are pretty similar,
(19:55):
all things considered, but the offensive line is better for
Jeremiah Love. Those are the things that worked in his favor. Now, why?
What's the argument for Jeremiah Love when the coaching staff
had come out before the preseason craziness of, of how
much workload he got in that game, but they were
coming out sounding so ambivalent about Jeremiah love. So I
(20:18):
had read the tea leaves as they're coming out, you know,
coach Lafleur wasn't very committal to Jordan love being a superstar,
certainly for anything like it. And then he's giving him
so much work in the preseason. Was it a thing
that he really wanted to see what this kid has,
you know, instead of defaulting back to James Connor, if
he's healthy, or Tyler Algier, who they just signed this offseason.
(20:43):
To me, this is a big feather in the cap
for Tyler Algier of saying the first four weeks, if
I'm going to guess which of these two running backs
takes the bigger snap count, the heavier workload, I'm going
with Algier. He's a very, very good running back in
his own right. And if I want a fast start
in my redraft leagues, which I always do, then I'm
(21:03):
going with Tyler Algier much later.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, Algier feels like a smash pick for early flex production.
If you're doing GL leagues and stuff, or even these
Eliminator leagues, I think he's got to get pushed upwards.
I was already a fan of his because, I don't know,
it felt simple, but he boxed out Bijan Robinson, who,
last I checked, is on the shortest list for best
(21:28):
football players on earth, and consistently boxed him out of
high-value goal line work. So... Why wouldn't he have gotten
that again? I mean, they paid him and then kind
of surprised everybody with that draft pick of Love. So
I still think Love is going to be productive. I
think if he proves at any point to be healthy,
he's going to be a real big fantasy asset. The
(21:50):
problem is the market agrees because pick 33 for a
guy who might miss a couple games is really rough.
And also, just because we haven't mentioned it, Got to
be careful inviting too much injury on our teams early, Jake.
We want to get out and win. We want to
win in September. That's a mistake I've made in my past.
Too many late-season winners, and sometimes that's best ball brain
(22:13):
when we think about, all right, it's going to hit
the ground running in the playoffs when it matters, kind
of large field stuff, most home leagues. That's not the case.
It's just head-to-head. If you get out to a 1-3 start,
you could be behind the eight ball and chasing the
entire year. Not what you want to be doing. So
that was really good. Let's just take a quick break.
I want to shuffle a paper and get back to
(22:34):
the second half of these guys because we have another
list of guys that are going to matter, right? Man,
the prices are moving. All right, Jakey, thank you for
your patience. Next up, this one really hurts because I'm
putting on my fake internet stethoscope. and pretending to know
(22:54):
anything about medicine. It's Emeka Egbuka, who I was drafting.
He's now moved down a little bit. Wide receiver, 19, ADP, 41.
And I'm getting worried because they said turf toe. And
turf toe has ruined seasons, and if not, like, careers.
Egbuka already has some major threats for opportunity. That's a
(23:17):
very talented pass catcher room, especially in the front end
of the season season. If and when a guy like
Godwin goes down, you know, before McMillan goes down, Hurst
is there, they're loving him in camp. I'm getting very
worried about Ibuka. Again, the quotes are so vague. They're optimistic,
but we're not sure what it could be. And so.
(23:39):
I don't know. It feels like my parents would lie
to me about Toys R Us when I was little.
Talk to us about Emeka Ibuka, man.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, you can pick out two of anything that you want.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Oh, no, they're closed. If you're good, maybe. We'll see.
I used to get the we'll see.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
This one really does sting. I don't have a single
dynasty league where I don't have Emeka Ibuka. I spent
all offseason trying to get him because I was so
adamant that he was set up to have potentially like
a JSN... type of ascendance. I really felt that in
this offense and based on the quality of what we
saw before last year's injury, that Ibuka could be that guy.
(24:18):
And so I was also dipping in on redraft quite
a lot. Now you mentioned turf toe. I mean, even
just think about like Brock Purdy, Brock Purdy went through
the turf toe extravaganza. And at the time it wasn't
an injury that was so common that we knew a
lot about it. And people were kind of making fun
of turf toe, because it just sounds silly. It's not,
(24:40):
I mean, it, it really does derail seasons, like you said.
So I don't feel good drafting a Mecca Buka. Now
in this area of round four, there's a couple of
other wide receivers. I've talked a lot about you and
I have both went through sort of the wide receivers
in this range that we're comfortable with. A Buka had
definitely been one of those guys. Now it's like Zay
(25:02):
flowers before him. You know, if somehow he falls to
this area, great. I'll snatch up Zay Flowers. It has
me thinking I should reach a little bit on Garrett
Wilson instead of waiting for him to fall into my breadbasket.
So this doesn't just affect his ADP. It really does
affect my kind of whole strategy at wide receiver, John.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I agree a thousand percent. I had Egbuka kind
of not heading shoulders above the tier, but, you know,
he's peeking up above the horizon. And that was the
guy I was grabbing the whole time. If we're going
to go back to the stuff in things, you know,
labeled buckets, good and bad, I like so many of
(25:45):
the other players there that those bad buckets were empty.
I really like Zee Flowers. You mentioned him. We both
like T. Higgins. Mention him. I like Ladd McConkie. You know,
I like Jalen Waddell. I like a lot of guys there.
Even Garrett Wilson was the other name that I was
looking for. Those are all players that are in great setups,
great situations, and don't have that one thing, which we're
(26:09):
really worried about. Again, we're making big decisions. We haven't
seen anything at all. This could turn into a pup. Yeah,
they're being kind of optimistic because they haven't restarted the engine, right?
That's when the re-aggravations happen. That's when we really get
our news. when they go to start them up again
and find out whether or not, again, the machine is
(26:31):
just working and all the pistons are firing. I am, man,
I'm really, really worried. And again, just down to ADP 41,
he's hardly falling behind all the names that I've mentioned.
And if I'm prioritizing running backs the way that I just,
every piece of analysis that I do seems to be
pushing me in that direction. I really got to hit
(26:52):
these wide receivers. I can't risk, You know, Ibuka is
going to be your wide receiver one. I can't risk
him on the shelf. Where are you drawing the line?
I'm going to give you a couple names, and then
we're going to go into the next name on the list.
Devontae Adams, Terry McLaurin, Roma Dunzey, and Luther Burden. He's
back to practice. Would you rather have Luther Burden back
(27:16):
to practice or Emeka with the question marks?
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I didn't have a whole lot of love for Luther
Burden and Emeka. That was before any sort of injury
thing with him. So I'm still giving the tiebreaker to
Emeka Egbuka unless we get some real confirmation of things
being worse than how they're playing it right now. So
I would still take Egbuka over Burden. I would take
Egbuka over Adams. I've been told that, you know, yes,
(27:44):
Devante Adams, all he does is score touchdowns. It's not
a recent phenomenon. But last year, when 40% of his
fantasy points are strictly because of touchdowns, and he's another
year older, and his quarterback has a bad back that
could flare up. That's still a tiebreaker that's in favor
of Ibuka. But, you know, last week I was on
the fence about Jalen Waddell because of guys like him
(28:08):
in this range, and I think now I would take
Waddell over Ibuka.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Can I ask you about one more player? I like
to be very selfish sometimes, but I like to think
it helps people because, again, it's not just him in
the dirt. I'm down to the elbows making these decisions.
A player that's been falling– in this range that I'm
finding right around this kind of, that decision point is
Tet McMillan. I had been hand-waving them. Very easy for
(28:33):
me to hand-wave. Again, we're comparing them to players that
I don't see red flags. When I see the quarterback
in the environment as a red flag, it was very
easy for me to say, thanks, but no thanks. I
was worried about the utilization. And with the brazzle injury,
I worried that might stunt that hope. But if the
preseason's any indication, McMillan is working like a ton out
(28:55):
of the slot and getting some layup throws for Bryce
on the move where he could see the receiver could
be a huge help and give Bacon a little bit
of floor. Where are you at Buka versus Ted McMillan?
And is McMillan even kind of part of your plan?
Because I think he's a very good player. But again,
at the price, I have to like more than the player.
I need to like the situation as well.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, it's a great call out because McMillan was somebody
who in round five, it felt like if somehow he
was there, it was kind of an easy decision for me. McMillan,
I just want to point out, I know that there's
concerns about not only the usage, as you said, but
really because of his quarterback. I always have to mention
this to folks because I know Bryce Young is not
(29:38):
the best quarterback. He's not. the best even feeder of
fantasy points to our skill position players. But this is
a guy who in his rookie season made Adam Thielen
the wide receiver six in his first like whatever that
stretch was where he was healthy, like six games or
something like that. And the dude was like already 35
(29:58):
or something. I'm pretty sure at that point. So it
can be done. The wide receiver needs to be very talented,
but McMillan is very talented. So yes, I would take
McMillan over Ibuka now.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, I think maybe, and it's tough for me. To me,
that is really kind of tacitly admitting how worried I
am about the turf though. Because when it first started,
those were not even close. I would have taken Ibuka
11 times out of 10. Next up, a player that
we both really liked, and this is when I was
kind of complaining to you off-air about how I hate
(30:33):
when CLV kind of eats up my portfolio. You and
I were both very much on Tucker Kraft. He's still
the tight end five, but that price now has closed.
That's something that you and I spoke about. Yeah, Kraft
is a TE5, but he was going after pick 80.
Now he's going in the early 60s where I've had
trouble wrangling him because I I'm kind of still eating
(30:56):
in that wide receiver pool. Guys we've mentioned, I like
Jameson Williams. I like Mike Evans. I like Christian Watson.
I like Parker Washington. Those are guys I'm all kind
of drafting now over Tucker Kraft. I hate to admit it,
but he's practicing. And even though they're saying they're going
to keep him on a snap count, It's weird. As
long as he's running routes, we really don't care if
(31:18):
he's run blocking. It's funny with tight ends how people
get obsessed with that. Dalton Kincaid showed you as long
as you're running routes, it doesn't matter your snap count
because if you're efficient like Kraft can be. So where
are you on our guy Tucker Kraft as he creeps
up next to Warren who also has his own issues? Man,
I hate to admit it, Jake. I've kind of hit
the eject button at cost.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
I mean, Warren and Kraft have been two of my
top-tier targets at tight end this entire time, so the
combo platter of this is not thrilling to me. Tucker Kraft, though,
I've still been... I'll admit it. I'm one of the
people still hyping up Tucker Kraft and unfortunately maybe not
helping a discount situation for Tucker Kraft in your leagues
(32:05):
because of what you said. I think that anybody who can...
break big plays as a tight end as consistently as
Tucker craft can is still going to be worth it
more than like your garden variety. Hey, I'm, I'm here
and I'm going to catch the ball and fall down.
You know, that type of tight end variety, the old
(32:25):
Jason Witten or Zach Ertz types, no disrespect to those guys,
but Tucker craft is still worth it to me. The
one thing that gives me pause is the, depth chart
is so thin for Green Bay at tight end that
I'm worried who is going to be run blocking if
not Tucker Kraft. Are they going to be forced to
(32:46):
play him more than they want for those situations? Because
they don't really have anybody right now who is healthy
and sort of a trusted veteran. So I'm not going
to get too in my head about it, but it
is something to consider.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, I didn't realize Musgrave was on the PUP list
listed behind him is like Wiley. I'm hoping, we talk
about as much as coaches and GMs lie, a lot
of times the roster and usage is the truth. It's
when they kind of have to show their cards. I'm
hoping that lack of depth is physical confidence, right? Confidence
in the recovery for Kraft because I will say this
(33:25):
also before we move on. At pick 65, he could
still change your league It kills me to have to
take him over, again, a guy like Parker Washington. But
it could really give you an edge every single week
with the vacated targets in Green Bay. And, again, if
he's going to get that full workload, he could just
(33:46):
break fantasy positionally because, again, it's going so late. Let's
stick with tight ends. It's George Kittle. He was just
activated from the pup list on Sunday. Now, my beef
with Kittle the whole time is I never thought– He
was really cheap enough. I think it's, I keep mentioning
Dalton Kincaid. I might as well do it again. He's
been the guy I've been into when it was around
(34:08):
pick 100. Now Kittle is the tight end nine moving
up into the high 80s. Last I saw was consensus
ADP 88 for Kittle. We're still not 100% sure he's
going to play week one, but it does sound pretty
sure he will be in the lineup week two. Just
a quick note, Sam Frane did tell us if he's
(34:29):
not going to play in the international game. which they're
leaving a week early for. He won't be traveling. So
we will get that information early, which I think will
help you because you could draft Kittle and you'll just
know you're not taking a zero. I don't think that
one week should throw us off it. I think the
price might. Man, Kittle could be that guy that could
change a week. Also, Jake, few guys at the position
(34:50):
have that type of per game ceiling. But you are
paying for it. We don't know if he's going to
return to 100%. Where are you on Kittle and how
he fits into these San Fran plans?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I mean, to be fair, you used to have to
pay tight end five ADP for George Kittle like that.
That's what he's consistently been. So it might not feel
like it. This is a discount for George Kittle. It
is another tight end who when he's out there, whenever
he actually has been healthy, you could pretty reliable slot
(35:23):
him in for at least an 80% chance at a
huge day. Does he always deliver?
Speaker 2 (35:29):
No.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And sometimes he plays through arguably too many injuries and
it can impact what you're getting in the fantasy stat sheet.
But I've seen a lot of chatter, a ton of chatter,
especially over on blue sky about like, stay away from
George Kittle. Don't even mess with it based off this injury.
I'm not as afraid. I've said all along George Kittle
(35:51):
and to a lesser extent, Tucker craft. These are guys
like when they say, coming off of injury or playing
through injury, I'm good. I'm going to be out there.
I'm going to play. I believe them. Those two are
very reliable in that way. So as long as, big asterisk,
as long as you're comfortable taking another stab at tight
end at the very end of your draft, just to
(36:12):
make sure, hey, on week one, week two, I have
somebody that I can slot in. I keep saying Greg
Dulcich is a name, but pick your preferred tight end
at the last round of your draft. Pair these guys
with that tight end just to be on the safe side.
But otherwise, I'm okay with the price.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, I don't think that's a bad play either. It
just depends where he falls. I'm still finding his price
is all over the place. There are times where he
goes in the early 80s. I find myself saying, no,
thank you. Then there are times where he's back in
the triple digits where he may have fallen behind a
guy like Kincaid where all of a sudden I'm thinking, yeah,
let's go. To that replacement... Theory. Jake Thomas has stepped
(36:57):
in as like a real tight end one at points.
I'm just looking at the game log. Kittle missed last
year versus Chicago, and Thomas went 7-60-1. So he's part
of the offense. He understands the plan. He's going to
play a full complement of snaps if he makes the trip,
and that'd be fine, right? I think you almost– I
don't want to say definitely, but I think you get
(37:19):
a tight end one finishing. from him, even if it's
not too pretty, but he gives a good chance at it.
All right, just a couple more names, but they're relevant
and matters. You know, the show's getting longer as we're
approaching kickoff. It's Alec Pierce, Colts head coach Shane Steichen
said Alec Pierce with the ankle is expected to return
to practice this week. I mean, maybe I need to
stop doing video-based analysis after what happened with Malik Nabors,
(37:42):
but I saw that video of Pierce. He does not
look good. All the Twitter docs are in agreement. He's
not putting pressure on it. He's still walking around. weird.
It doesn't look right to me. Maybe he returns to practice,
in which case ADP 104 would be a steal. But
I will tell people from drafting every second of every day,
that video spiked his ADP downward again. It's torpedoed. He's
(38:06):
going around pick 135, where I've found myself back in
the Alec Pierce market, which I kind of said I
wasn't going to do. But at pick 130, I mean,
we're talking about a potential top target on the team.
He's definitely a good deep target and could win you
weeks with, you know, high value touches. So where are
you on Pierce? Do you think it's a little bit
foolish of me? Who's an admitted injury pessimist to finally
(38:29):
be showing some optimism?
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Well, no, not if the price is right. You know,
that's the whole thing is I stay away from injuries
typically in the first few rounds. So these guys that
were at the top of our list, I was more
cautious about, but if you're getting to this point, you're wanting,
or I am as much upside as possible. I was
out on Al Pierce when everybody thought he was healthy.
Cause I thought his ADP was crazy. And I thought
(38:52):
people were assuming, you know, that he was this locked
in wide receiver one. And I just wasn't feeling it
because I thought that the contract was more about what
he did overall for the offense than what he did
for your fantasy score, you know? And now that he's
falling down, It's like, sure, why not at least take
a stab on it? Especially you pair that with the
(39:13):
fact that Tyler Warren is dealing with his own injury.
Josh Downs, we didn't even talk about. He's now got
some stuff going on that who knows how serious that is. But,
you know, attrition is a real thing. Sometimes you just
need a guy who has a decent shot to go
out there and put up some big weeks, if only
because he's the only healthy target available. And between the
fact that all those other guys are banged up and
(39:34):
they signed 80-year-old Keenan Allen, I think I'm okay with Pierce.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, I think given the archetypes of the pass catchers
on that team, if and when Pierce returns- That job
is waiting for him. Forget the money, which I backed
up the Brink's truck for him. So I am keeping
the light on for Alec Pierce. Again, it's got to
be outside of pick 125. I'm glad that you mentioned
the price. That is always the most important thing. But right,
(40:02):
when he was going closer to QJ, Casey Concepcion, even
Matthew Golden, I'd rather have those players. Now that he's
going closer to, man, he's going closer to like Keenan Allen,
Khalil Shakir, who's banged up also. Jacoby Lane, who I
think the market has oversteemed. Yeah, that could be a
(40:22):
thing in Baltimore. But it's not like we've seen multiple
pass catchers in Baltimore get dragged along with Lamar, who's
talking about running again. So, yeah, I'm going to hope
Pierce is a thing. Maybe we'll know early or late. And, hey, man,
maybe he's even like an IR guy that you can stash.
Let's do last but not least, because we had Kenyon
Sadiq on there. But, man, rookie tight ends at a
(40:43):
missing time. He's not going to be part of anyone's
redraft plan. I don't think he should be. We're going
to talk Patrick Mahomes. Man, this is somebody I have found.
I'm like the anti-Mahomes guy, even though as a, you know,
I'm a longtime veteran handicapper, Jake, and I've been telling
people for the longest time, the quickest way to go
broke is to bet against Patrick Mahomes. Yet here I
(41:05):
find myself doing exactly that. QB 15, he's going right around.
Let's go a little bit after ADP 115. Andy Reid,
it's not like he was being a little cute. Mahomes
has been at every practice, has not missed a single rep.
When asked, oh, Andy Reid said, which I just mentioned,
he was quoted saying, we'll see. I'm imagining Patrick Mahomes
(41:27):
is playing. I'm just not sure what we're getting. I'm
really worried about Kelsey's age and Rice's skill. The fact
that now everybody in the world is chasing up Cyrus Allen.
I think Xavier Worthy might also not be good. He
also might be fragile. Bam's shoulder again. There's a chance
that the Chiefs were just We mentioned roster truths. When
they signed Kenneth Walker, the intention was to run the
(41:49):
ball more. I could see Mahomes being a much better
real-life quarterback than fantasy. I also like Jackson Dart, who
runs going at the same price. Talk to us about Mahomes,
and if you think maybe I should start adding him
into my plan at all, because literally I'm several hundred
drafts deep. I don't think I've clicked on Mahomes once.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
That's wild to hear. I just want to try to
transport you back. Let's do this, John. Let's see if
I can get you back on board.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yes, exactly. I don't know who's going to get that.
I don't know if anyone's going to get that.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
There's got to be a Wayne's World fan or two
still around. I would hope so.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
So transport two years ago, talk to John from two
years ago and say, you can get Patrick Freaking Mahomes
at QB 15 and your draft. The only caveat is
maybe he's a little bagged up. Maybe week one, you
don't love what you get. QB 15 for Patrick Mahomes.
(42:47):
When he was QB 11, QB 12 early in the
off season. It's like, I guess I kind of see
where people are pivoting away, but I've said it so
many times. I'm going to go to my fantasy grave
saying it once more. The return of Eric Bien-Ami as
the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, I believe,
is the fastest thing to get Mahomes and everybody else
(43:11):
back to the explosive play style and the big fantasy
points that we had grown accustomed to for so long
with Mahomes. So I personally am loving it. It's the
same thing I would say, though, about drafting Tucker Kraft
or drafting George Kittle. Make sure, you know, even in
a one QB league, if you're not somebody who normally
drafts two QBs, save a spot towards the end of
(43:32):
your draft for somebody that you can plug in for
those first couple of weeks. I'm not saying you have
to handcuff him with Justin Fields, but you know, Sam
Darnold or whoever is going back there, make sure you
have somebody just in case he's not looking good or
he's not out there in week one, but otherwise I'm in.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I think you're right. Especially if the price is so low,
Where you would have normally had to draft him as
a top five QB, which I was never really into because, again,
I was chasing the runners and it never worked out.
I've always, right, your lifetime defeated, right? The opposite of
undefeated is lifetime defeated going up against Patrick Mahomes. The
(44:08):
funniest part about this. case that you're like take this
back in time how about we go back to last
year where he was one of four quarterbacks to over
you know average over 20 fantasy points a game which
is really the benchmark for being really great and the
benchmark for separation at the position and yet somehow i
just refuse to believe it i feel like i am
destined to burn on this one man i i don't
(44:30):
i don't know what it is it's all there and
i'm really i am just supremely bearish on that Just
the whole pass-catching core. I could just see the whole
thing kind of going wrong for them. But, man, when
it comes down to it, I feel like I'm going
to be more sorry than not when it comes down
to Mr. Patrick Mahomes. Jake, that was really awesome. I
think we settled some of these debates for people, gay people,
(44:51):
options of plan B, plan C. So from Jake Trowbridge
and John Leguiza, our producer Robbie, everyone at Fantasy Football Weekly,
thanks so much for listening. We'll catch you next week,
and enjoy the weekend. You know what? That might be
(45:22):
a good...
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