July 11, 2025 • 42 mins
One of the best ways to identify draft day values is by targeting offenses that are likely to improve over last year. Charch and Mat Harrison rationalize four bottom-tier offenses that can rebound significantly in 2025. Plus, they identify two elite offenses that could falter. And there's secrecy and nudity.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
whatever stupid stuff they decided to drop into the show.
Now here's your host, Paul Chargian.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly. I am Paul Charchian. Co
host today Matt Harrison, Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Matt, Hey, Charge, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Great to have you back. Well for a hot minute.
In Minnesota, we thought that we were going to have
the NFL Draft coming because there had been we had
there had been a leak, you know, it was in
Green Bay this last April. But they're due to announce
twenty twenty eight and twenty nine soon, and there had
been a leak that there was a major event coming
(00:53):
to us Spank Stadium. And I'm like, oh, okay, an
event that's coming to you a spank stadium, but not elsewhere.
Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, was involved with
the announcement. I'm like, oh, here it is the NFL
drafts coming to Minnesota. And it turned out it's Paul McCartney.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Which, well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Not, I mean not exactly a consolation prize, right, So
you know, McCartney is obviously iconic. He's been to Minnesota
in particular eight times, and I'll assume that's about the
case for most cities where you know, and this is
post Beatles. He's been to Minnesota eight times. So for
(01:35):
you and listeners, feel free to play along. Stadium tour
Paul McCartney age eighty three. How much would you pay
to see Paul McCartney?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I thought I was when he was sixty four, right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But I'm sixty four right years ago? Yes, exactly twenty
years ago. Yeah, last time he toured, by all accounts,
he was. He was very good.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
As the uh son of George Harrison, which yes, is true.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A lot of people don't a lot of people don't
know that.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, but that's your dad's name. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I did not know that, and we've known you.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's funny because my my grandpa also named George, so
George Harrison and my dad was the junior and he
grew up he was born in nineteen fifty and he
grew up right during Beatlemania, and he was so sick
of having that name that he was like there's no
chance I'm carrying on the legacy of the Georgie. I'm
not late, right, George Harrison the third right, So that
(02:43):
would that would have been fun. Uh, you know, I
I've I've never you know, I've never considered myself like
a huge Beatles fan.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I do. I do enjoy them, I do, uh, you.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Know, kind of honor their work and what they done
for pop music in general. But you know, I think
I'm kind of past the point of stadium tours in
my life right now, so I don't know if I
will be.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Uh so you're at zero dollar a large amount to
go to it.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
If I if I was given tickets and they were
halfway decent seats, I would definitely go. If I was
offered tickets for a hundred bucks and they were halfway
decent seats, I'd probably go. But I'm not going to
go out of my way to you know, pack into
a stadium with eighty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
In that scenario, I need to be on the floor
up front. So that's that's spot number one. I'm not
going to be in section three twelve. Sure, you know,
watching Paul McCartney, who's a quarter mile away from.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Me, have you been to a US Bank Stadium concert yet?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Not my jam, I just know I'm indie band. I'm
indie band guy. And so even if I have some
interest in seeing Metallica, they came to US Bank Stadium recently,
a stadium that's just those aren't eight again. I don't
want to be in. I don't want to be I
don't want to be with forty thousand people in section
three twelve. I need to be right up front, and
that means I better love the band because those tickets
(04:09):
to be right up front are going to be five
hundred dollars, seven hundred dollars, thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I went to the Taylor Swift concert when she was
in town last time.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yes, spoiler alert.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
My daughter is like an absolute crazy Taylor Swift fan.
My wife got into it too, and they were like,
you got to go see this, and I was.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Like, okay.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
And I'm not the hugest Taylor Swift fan in the world,
but I was blown away by what she did in
that stadium.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Did she sing her own songs?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, and and the set changes and all the stuff
she did. It was absolutely amazing and fantastic and such
a big production. You felt we were like the second
level kind of by where the Vikings press box is,
like maybe you're right above that. Yeah, and we were
in the front row, so not non obstructed view there, So.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
That was you have to throw at Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Front row of like the section of the section.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, I got you, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah, I got you. No I'm not I'm not right
up there. But it was fantastic to see everything and
to have an unobstructed view.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
It was a really great show. So I know that
they had problems with us Bank Stadium in their first
couple shows at the acoustics, but it seems like they
got it figured out there.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So well, I'm Kim mccartneil put on a great show.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Well, and maybe there's ways you can make the stadium
sound better over time, but I think you got what
you got for the most part. Yeah, all right, a
diversion from Fantasy slight diversion from Fantasy Football Weekly. But
let's let's talk about the teams we think are going
to get as a team, the offenses that are going
to get a lot better, and a couple of them
(05:50):
that we think are going to get a lot worse. Now, Matt,
I don't know about you, and I think this says
something about human psychology. I had a plethora of teams
that I thought were going to get better. I could
have picked six seven teams, including both of the both
of them that you're going to offer. I also like, yeah,
I just struggled to come up with team offenses that
(06:12):
were really good last year that I think are gonna
fall off this year. That to me, that was a
much harder assignment.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And initially with with that one, I picked one team
and I switched over to another because this team was
so good.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It was Detroit. I was, I was good, the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Number one offense last year, the number one.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Offense in football last year, but they lost their offensive
coordinator in two fifths of their offensive line.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So I think that there is something there with Detroit
not being the best offense in football this year. But
they have so much talent on that team that it's
pretty hard to choose them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. It's the offensive coordinator is
really the only thing you can point out I think
in Detroit and go, well, Ben Johnson's gone, how much
is that going to affect this team? And and you know,
for me, I don't know, but let me give you this.
Let me give you this analogy. Think back to the
(07:08):
Eagles from if you go back two and three years ago, right,
So the Eagles, if if we go back to their
Super Bowl run of that would have been the twenty
twenty three season, right or twenty twenty two I think
have been twenty twenty two season.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Back then they had Shane Steichen Jonathan Gannon. Those two
both got plucked for head coaching jobs when they went
to the Super Bowl, if you recall. So, then the
Eagles flipped over to Brian Johnson and Sean Deci and
their season tanked. You know, remember they won ten straight
(07:46):
to open the season, and then they went like two
games the rest of the way. The whole thing went underwater,
and they fired both of those guys. And then last year,
of course, the Eagles brought in seasoned coordinators with long
resumes Kellen Moore, Vic Fangio. The job wasn't too big
for them, The pressure playing in Philadelphia wasn't too big
(08:09):
for them, and they were great. They win the Super
Bowl easily. Kellen Moore goes on to become the head
coach of the Saints, Vic Fangio's obviously awesome and he's
still there, and so the Eagles were able to basically
just you know, I think this is the worry for
me on Detroit point B. This is gonna be our
most rambling podcast, every Voyd being this could happen in
(08:32):
Detroit where we're gonna look back and go you went
with John Morton and Kelvin Shephard, those are kleanex thin
resumes the only yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Gone with Dan Campbell not being like a guy who's
calling plays on one side of the ball, all of
their play callers are gone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right right, yep, I you know there's a scenario here
where despite all the incredible offensive talent, and as much
as we love Dan camp and who doesn't, I don't,
there is a scenario here where the offensive coordinators are
the undoing of this offense, just like it was for
the Eagles. Eagles offense, you know, they added Saquon Barkley,
(09:11):
which is not trivial, but mostly the same offense, the
you know, same offensive personnel that they had the year before.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Right, so let's dive in, Matt. I will let you
go first. Give me one of give me one of
your two teams that you think will get a lot
better this year.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I have the Jacksonville Jaguars. They've finished twenty fifth in
total yards per game last year at three hundred and
six yards per game on average, they were twenty fourth
in passing offense, twenty sixth in rushing offense, and twenty
sixth in points per game. Pretty consistent at eighteen point eight.
(09:49):
So not good, not a great squad last year, but
there's a lot of room for improvement. And I think
the biggest thing is they have a new head coach
and play caller, Liam Cohen, who led the Bucks to
be a top four offense in just about every metric
last year. And he's also at least partially responsible for
(10:09):
the career resurgence of Baker Mayfield. So you enter in
fellow number one overall pick Trevor Lawrence, who really is
in need of a career resurgence right now. The offensive
line will have to make a bit of a leap.
That's one of the things that kind of made me
step back just a little bit on Jacksonville. But there's
(10:30):
really only one new face there, and that's Robert Hainsey,
who followed Cohen from the Bucks, Yeah, and brought in
as their starting center. But the biggest X factor here
is number two overall pick Travis Hunter, who will undoubtedly
play a ton at wide receiver. He's gonna get snaps
a corner, but we don't care about that for this podcast.
But he's gonna be after like doing the forest Gump
(10:54):
run across the country, like coast to coast, workout this summer,
just to get his stamina up for all the plays
he's going to be involved. But Hunter, he's got a
real shot and I think I think everybody's kind of
on this page. He's got a real shot to be
a top five wide receiver in this.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
League this year. Do you think that wait ever or
this year.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Like in the league in you know, in the near future,
in the very very near future. He's also got the
potential to completely flame out at wide receiver and maybe
he's just a shutdown corner.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
So it's the wide swath of emotions here is something
that you have to pay attention to. But you have
second year wide receiver Brian Thomas Junior. It's probably the
best wide receiver rookie last year, yep, by numbers, and
they have newcomer Diami Brown, who's fine for being the
other guy in there, but really the two biggest things
(11:51):
they have going They have a top five play caller
or at least a guy who can lead a top
five offense and a weapon that could be one of
the best and most interesting in the league. So I
have to think that they're gonna make a big jump here.
They're going to finish at least ten spots higher, which
is in the top half of the offenses in the league.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I think that's a major improvement.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Out with you, I love the I love the Jaguars
to get a ton better. And you know, maybe this
is the year for Tank Bigsby. Maybe this is the
year Tank Bigsby it finally gets the chance he's always deserved.
You know, when you you bring in a new coach,
Liam Cohen, as you mentioned, he doesn't have the allegiances
to the way things used to be. And if it's
(12:35):
just on merit, Tank Bigsby should be getting more work
than Travis Etn and at least at least as a runner.
And you know what I would love to see is
Tank Bigsby first and second down Etn go to a third.
Don Roll and it's not impossible that could not that
could happen.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
It feels like they're going to split more than we want,
and which makes probably Bigsby and ETN not as louve
in the draft process this year. But I mean, I
think Etn's got the edge in ADP by quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
By quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, Bigsby is a nice sleeper there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I'm gonna take the Raiders as my team to get better.
How bad were they last year? Twenty ninth in points scored,
twenty seventh in yards, twenty ninth in passing touchdowns, twenty
eighth rushing touchdowns. So nowhere to go but up for
the Raiders. I'm gonna start by acknowledging my biggest concern
with the Raiders offensive line wasn't good last year, not horrible,
(13:37):
and didn't really get better in the offseason like I
had hoped it might. They were twentieth and run blocking
by Pro Football Focus twenty third in ESPN's run block
win rate. They allowed the seventh most sacks last year,
although some of that was on their lousy quarterbacking for
last season Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew, but the rest
of the Raiders is super compelling, so the lead story,
(13:59):
of course Genty, And we don't even need to spend
much time on him, I don't think, and so we'll
focus mostly elsewhere here. Favorite to win Rookie of the Year.
He's plus two point fifty. The next closest player is
Travis Hunter, who you just mentioned, plus six hundred, and
the next closest player to those two is Ted McMillan
at plus thirteen hundred. I mean, so it's a it's
(14:22):
a favorite. It is. It's and mostly a one man
race for Ashton Genty, But the part that note of
people are talking about, it's Tino Smith. You know. It's
it will be a run heavy offense, probably because Pete
Carroll generally likes to do that. But also remember Chip
Kelly is your offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Now that's wild that the two of them are together.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
It is, isn't it so does not It's an odd
couple matchup, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It is a little bit Chip Kelly has for people
that you remember where he was the offensive coordinator or sorry,
he was the head coach coach for the Eagles for
several years and then has been in college football since then.
Very good at UCLA and Ohio State last year as
offensive coordinator, and those years where he was with the Eagles,
(15:12):
You'll remember it was like, oh my god, the fast
paced tempo of the Eagles. They ranked third in the
NFL and points per game and third in total offense
over his three seasons as the head coach in Philadelphia
back then, Chip Kelly, I think is going to help
this offense and there's going to be more passing than
I think people realize. Gino Smith is now there, Gino Smith,
(15:36):
This Gino Smith move widely underappreciated. Matt Let's let listeners
play along. Do you know where Genosmith finished in yards
passing yards last.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Year on a per game basis or total total yards?
I would guess he's probably somewhere middle of the pack,
maybe twelve to fifteen, somewhere in there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Fourth. Really wow, completions last year, Well.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It must be high then too, It must be up
up near five. I would guess.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Third, no completion percentage, fifth, first downs fifth. That's Gino
Smith now where he was not and has not been great.
Is he stalls out in like the load of mid
twenties on touchdown passes. And that's why he's never been
a huge fantasy factor. But what he does is he
doesn't kill drives. Gino Smith isn't going to go in
(16:30):
there and he's going to be a chain movers again
fifth and first downs. Last year. You know An O'Connell
and Gardner Minshew were killing drives for this offense last year.
That's not gonna happen with Gino Smith. And of course
you get brock Bauers in his second year as a sophomore.
He had twelve hundred yards as a rookie last year
(16:51):
and only the five scores. So I think even if
the volume stays about the same for brock Bauers, with
better quarterbacking, more opportunities to get on the right side
of the fifty yard line into the red zone near
the stripe, brock Bauers could have fourteen hundred yards and
ten touchdowns easily. So yeah, I'm really really excited about him.
(17:13):
And Jacoby Myers, longtime favorite of this of this show,
all our co hosts love it. Let me mention this.
Jacoby Myers third in contested catch percentage last year, zero
drops on the season, fifteenth and first downs, and he
was Pro Football focuses wide receiver twenty. That dude is
(17:34):
so underrated. He is. The dude is just a baller.
I love him.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I love Jacob now that you talk about it, we
got Brock Bauers and Ashton Genty at least in scott
Fish Bowl scoring, They're both going in the first round,
right right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I mean you can make the.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Case that Brock Bauers is a mid first round guy,
and Ashton Genty you can make the case that he's
number one overall.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Absolutely, I don't have a problem going either one at
pick one, including Bowers, particularly if you've got any kind
of accelerated scoring for the tight end position. All right,
what's your second improved team to improve for this year? Uh?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The Jets Jets.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Jets Jets, who finished twenty fourth in total yards per
game last season at three ten, dead middle of the
pack and passing offense with Aaron Rodgers last year at sixteenth,
but the second worst rushing offense thirty first in the
league at only ninety one point eight yards per game. Yeah,
that all added up to twenty fifth in points per
(18:37):
game at nineteen point nine. But there's a completely new
coaching staff in the Big Apple, headed up by defensive
guru Aaron Glen. He brought over Tanner Engstrad to fill
the vacant offensive coordinator position, and Engstrag was Ben Johnson's
passing game coordinator. Yea, so they'll try to likely run
a lot of what Johnson's playbook was in Detroit last year.
(18:59):
Should be Detroit like offense. The Jets drafted tackle armand
Membu in the first round with the seventh overall pick,
Love I hadn't projected to play right tackle, and then
last year's first round aer Olufushanu on the left side,
and they and they obviously they have the two youngsters
(19:20):
at the book ends, but the interior line is actually
pretty solid. John Simpson, Joe Tipman, and Elijah Vera Tucker
across the middle each scored a top eleven Pro Football
Football Pro Football Focused grade at their position last year,
so it's a pretty solid offensive line. The biggest change though,
as the quarterback position, where we get rid of immobile
(19:42):
forty two year old Aaron Rodgers who's gone to Pittsburgh,
and then they bring over former Steeler Justin Fields, who's
set to be the starter.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Now, Field spent the first six weeks as the starter
in Pittsburgh. Before Mike Tomlin, in my opinion, kind of
inexplicit turned the offense over to Russell Wilson because Fields
was doing great. In the last four games that Field's played,
he had Fantasy points finishes as QB twelve, QB one,
(20:13):
QB sixteen, and QB seven. He was a pretty solid
fantasy contributor.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well you were, yeah, because of the rushing he was. Yeah,
the passing it was not good. And you know, when
you know, for the Steelers they're making wins and losses
decision and when your quarterback is only quasi functional as
a passer, and that's where I think Fields is and
has has always been.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
From a fantasy standpoint, Field is good because you know,
most games he finds his way to some kind of
some way to help your team. Well.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah, and in his last season with the Bears in
twenty twenty three, Fields finished as QB twelve and fantasy
points with twenty one per game. Last year he was
averaging twenty one per game before he was benched. So, yeah,
he's a QB one in the league. That's in fantasy.
I guess that's not getting drafted like one. So I
think that the other secret employ here. This is the
(21:08):
best offensive line Fields has ever played behind in his career.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, that's probably true.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So Breece Hall fallen from one of the top dynasty
running back assets just like two years ago to a
fourth round pick in ADP this year.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That feels like a steal, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It does.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
I like Breece Hall a lot. Garrett Wilson quietly coming
off his best season in receptions, yards and touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Really, he's a I would not have guessed that with
Davante Adams housing so much production last year.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
He's a late third round pick.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
And if you're asking, can justin field support a top
wide receiver j Moore with wide receiver six in twenty
twenty three, so fields can support a wide receiver one. Here,
it just feels like everyone's sleeping on the Jets offense.
And there's three very capable fantasy options on this team
that are going much lower than I think they should.
(22:07):
And I'll probably be getting a lot of Jets on
my team this summer.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, they're all values, right, and you know that's part
of the reason we're doing this exercise, And we probably
should have talked about this at the outset why we're
doing this exercise? It why are we why? What are
we even doing here? The fantasy players relive last year
in their head and they draft based on last year's results,
(22:33):
and you know, we can try to we try to
get ourselves to reproject for this year, but it doesn't
work very well. Our brains don't work that way. We
have a hard time really coming up with a scenario
where Garrett Wilson is in fact the fifth best wide
receiver or Breeshall is in fact the fifth best running back,
because you know, we haven't seen that happen, and we
(22:54):
tend to have a if we haven't seen it happen,
I can't risk that it doesn't happen mentality.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
So I think the Fantasy Football Weekly peacock off, Yes,
I've gotten Garrett Wilson as the number one wide receiver
in the league two years.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
In a row, and it yeah, no, But this year,
this is the time, though?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Is your year for that? And this is a quick break.
We'll come back momentarily and we'll talk through one more team,
one more offense we think is going to get a
lot better, and then two offenses that we think are
going to get a lot worse. When we return, Welcome
back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchion and Matt Harrison with
(23:35):
you talking through teams that we think are going to
get better, players to target, teams that we think have
a chance to get worse, and players you want to avoid. Matt,
We've got one more team that I think is going
to get a lot better, and they have to because
the New England Patriots ranked thirtieth in points, thirty first
in yards. By the way, do you know which team
(23:57):
finished dead last in yards?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
It was the Bears.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yes, it was the Bears.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Neither of us chose them. And they're so obvious.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I know, right, Why didn't we take the Bears as
as an offense. It's going to get a lot better.
Maybe too obvious, right.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I mean they have to get better.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I think the I think they will thirty.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
First, will finished and dead last.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Again, No, no, no, they will get better. Thirty first
and passing touchdowns for the Patriots twenty seventh and rushing touchdowns.
They overhauled the whole coaching staff, which they should have
and by the way, another case in point. Last year,
the Patriots didn't really do a formal coaching higher. If
you recall they had they had decided that, you know,
(24:41):
we we think we know enough again, this is this
time last year. We think we know enough about Jared
Mayo that he's our guy. We don't have to look
at anybody else, we don't have to talk to anybody else,
and that that'd up being a mistake. And if you remember,
the Raiders did the same thing last year and they
both end up firing their coach, which is, you know,
I just think you always should go through the exercise
(25:03):
of finding finding your coach anyway. Absolutely, so now they
bring so now they bring in Mike Rabele. Josh McDaniels
back with the Patriots, where obviously he had a lot
of I think it's got to be his third because
he's been, he's been, he had two other head coaching
jobs he left for came back. So Josh McDaniel's back. Okay,
(25:26):
So let's let's talk to the Patriots and what I
think they'll get better. First, offensive line better. They were
the worst offensive line in football last year. They ranked
thirty first and pass blocking by Pro Football Focus, thirty
second in run blocking by Pro Football Focused, and exactly
those rankings by ESPN's past Block Win Raid and Run
block win raid, so worst offensive line in football last year.
(25:46):
Three new starters, including the fourth overall pill pick, Will Campbell,
longtime Minnesota starting center Garrett Bradbury, who's just a guy,
and journeyman right tackle Morgan Moses also just a guy,
but just guy, just a guy's honestly, are are a
huge improvement for this offensive line. We'll take that, Matt.
(26:07):
We know Mike Rabel is gonna run the ball like crazy.
They're gonna add balance, They're gonna protect their investment in
Drake May and not get him killed. He almost died
on the field last year. So I believe that this
is going to be a much more balanced offense. I'm
still a fan of Romandra Stevenson. You know, by by
most metrics, Stevenson looked bad last year, but zero help.
(26:27):
I mean, just the offensive line was so bad. You
had the worst run blocking offensive line in football. So
he was getting he was getting the handoff, and he
was just getting buried on every play. But they also
brought in Travon Henderson in round two, and those that
combination of those two between them, I think they're gonna
have a capable running game.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
And yeah, I think they'll have fresh legs too, which
is probably important running behind that line.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, you might want that. And you know, granted Vrabel
had Dereck Henry when he was with the Titans, but
note that over his tenure, Mike Vrabel had the second
most running plays over his tenure with the Titans. Again,
they had Derrick Henry, but you know, you know, he
likes to run the ball. So then that brings us
(27:12):
to the passing game. I thought Drake May was gallant
last year. He was getting the offensive line was so bad.
He was taking the hike and he was just immediately
having to scramble and be inventive and creative, and he
did it a lot, a lot. You know, if you
can get Drake May into a spot where he can
(27:32):
over the course of the season, Matt where he can
just trust that offensive line, sit in a clean pocket
and start delivering passes, it's I think he's he is
a candidate for a really nice step up this year.
And as a reminder and why I targeted Drake May,
He's the first quarterback I took in my Scott Fish Bowl.
(27:53):
Dude's got some wheels. Yeah, you know, he can run
a little bit, and I feel like people don't really
lies that that he can run as well as he
had four hundred rushing yards last year and he only know,
only started twelve games.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
That's not nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's not nothing. He's gonna help a little bit that way.
The receivers are still, man, I don't know if Stefan Diggs,
you know, is he going to be one hundred percent
at the start of the season. Don't know. Mac Collins
isn't special. The breakout candidate and a deep deep sleeper
Kayshawn Booty.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Oh well, I think it's Booty.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah it is. It's Booty, I believe, And so I
just keep your look. Last pick of the draft candidate,
Kayshawn Booty. Somebody they're going to throw you know, I
don't know thirty touchdown passes this year, you know, somebody
as a team, Well hopefully somebody's going to catch some touchdowns.
And they can't all. It can't all be like Diggs
and Hunter Henry. So I don't if there's somebody, if
(28:50):
there's a sneaky play to be had, I think that's
the sneaky play. All right, Let's talk about teams we
think are gonna get worse. Man, which which team which
team do you believe is going going to get worse?
And how much worse?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Oh, how much worse? Well, that makes it much more difficult. Well,
the team I chose was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who
finished third in yards per game just under four hundred
per game last year, third in passing offense, fourth and
rushing offense, and fourth in points at twenty nine point
five per game. That's a great amount of points right there.
(29:24):
So there's not a lot of room to improve there.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
No, it'd be tough.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Yeah, things almost have to get worse because they went
so well last year, and they went so well that
Liam Cohen, who I mentioned earlier, was hired by the Jaguars.
The Bucks promoted Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator. He was
the passing game coordinator last season with the Bucks, but
(29:51):
this is his first stint as an OC. And then
the other big thing is Tristan Wurf's the top rated
pass blocker in the league by Pro Football Focus. He
just had arthur scopic knee surgery. He's gonna miss the
start of the season and probably be on the pup
M about half of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
There.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Worfs, by the way, he gave up zero sacks and
one quarterback hit in six hundred and sixty four pass block.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Snaps last season.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Jeez charge not.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Going to help with pass blocking.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Whoever his backup is well, Bucky.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Irving is not going with pass walking. He was one
of the worst pass blocking running backs in the league
last year, a horrible, failing twenty eight point nine Pro
Football Focus grade is not good. I think that this
WARF's injury might nuke Bucky Irving more than we want
(30:51):
to admit, because Rashad White is actually quite a bit
better at pass blocking, and I think when they go
back to pass Rashod White's going to be on the field.
The rest of the Tampa offensive line was anywhere from
bad to average, and they're missing their best guy. I
should mention as well, Chris Godwin coming back from just
a gruesome ankle injury where his foot was being all
(31:14):
floppy and gross. He's not guaranteed to start the season.
The Bucks are saying they're hopeful he's ready, but Godwin
finished last season his season is the third ranked wide
receiver in points per game, and his injury was in
Week seven. That didn't help Baker Mayfield in the first
seven weeks with Godwin, Mayfield finished as a top five
(31:35):
quarterback five times, so five out of seven games. In
the last ten games, he finished in the top five
only three times, that's three out of ten games, and
he finished outside of the top sixteen three times. So
Godwin was very important to that passing offense. They did
draft Emecha Egbuka, Yes, Johnson.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
And I love that pick. Love and to me, that
tells me they can afford to wait on Chris Godwin,
I think, and I'm not sure why they just he
was free, his contract was up and they decide to
resign him. I don't know why they did. You're going
to put the first round equity into one of the
most NFL ready players in the league in Igbuka. But
if it lets them wait on Godwin, if they want
(32:19):
to get him fully right on that angle, if he's
not right for week.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
One, yeah, absolutely, And I think that they do have
They have a pretty deep wide receiver room right there.
Jalen McMillan was a guy we all liked a little
bit last year and showed some flashes once Godwin went down.
So I think that they're four or five deep at
wide receiver, which makes things a little murky at the
wide receiver position.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Especially when they're all healthy.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
But Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have been so good
and so consistent for so long that it's pretty hard
to feel bad about them. But overall, I think the
losses of Cohen and Werf's are the biggest things that
just loom large in this scenario. And well, I don't
think Tampa's going to fall into the bottom half of
(33:05):
offenses in the league. I think that they go from
the fourth best offense to like the twelve to fifteen range.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I'm starting to warm up to that angle and I
want I think Bucky Irving's awesome, and I'm still really
bullish on his season.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
But I know you are.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
He's slippery's heck, he's so good. He gives you power,
he gives you elusiveness. He can catch, he can he
can do everything except past block. And that's suddenly an
issue right now. Yes, we'll see. I'm nervous about it.
The team I'm also nervous about. Well, I'm really not.
It's just this is a team I still like in
(33:45):
an offense I still like. I just don't know if
they can get up to fifth and points scored again
and seventh in yards. This is going to be tricky,
and it's the Washington Commanders. Still like him, still drafting
some commanders. I just drafted Jayden Daniels in a startup
m league at pick three. What do you think of
the Empire League? What do you think of that?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I like that a lot who went picks one and two.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Josh Allen. It's quarterback heavy. It's six points for touchdown
pass quarterback Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson went one and two.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Okay, yeah, And then I took the youth movement you
have there.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, if if Daniels is healthy, you've got a
quarterback for the next ten to fifteen years in your grade.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And Joe Burrow was tempting because it's six points per
touchdown pass and Burrow could lead the league in touchdown
passes every year potentially. So I gave a lot of
thought to Burrow but did not. I ultimately took Jayden
Daniels in Parks's just more fun, and he's younger. It's
like three years younger. Anyway, Ken Washington get back to
top five, Well, mate, yes they can, but maybe not.
(34:48):
Here's your concerns number one schedule. They're not playing a
fourth place schedule this year. They have by Vegas win total.
This year, they have the ninth toughest schedule by last
year's in total, the eleventh toughest schedule specific to the
quarterback position. In fantasy, they have the seven tough toughest
schedule based on last year's fantasy points allowed. And in
(35:10):
the off season, there are a couple of things that
Washington didn't do that I really pull three things that
I really wanted them to do. I would have liked
to have seen more improvement across the offensive line for
Washington beyond just the Laramie Tunsall acquisition. Tunsell's not even
that good, you know, Houston wanted to get rid of
him and his contract. He's just okay and not any
(35:32):
better than that. So I didn't love that part. And
then they didn't address the running game. Matt Brian Robinson
is just a guy. He's Pro Football focuses thirty sixth
ranked runner last year, right in the same wheelhouse as
Cam Akers, Jalel McLoughlin, and the undead corpse of Kareem Hunts.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Nothing crazy with that running back draft.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Yes, they wouldn't have thrown a second, third, fourth round
pick on one of these many awesome guys.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Sixth rounder. Right, they put a seventh rounder into Jacory
Krossky Merritt, but he is not going to be a
factor here, So you get you get nothing better from
Brian Robinson. We know what he's all about. He's four
point three yards per carry basically every year. I can
get that at the seven to eleven. I don't. That's
that bothered me. They still don't have a viable wide
receiver two on this team. So they went out of
(36:30):
the year with Terry McLaurin and no help, and they
brought in Michael Gallop. Who cares they re signed it.
Noah Brown, he's hurt and they yes, they brought in
Deebo Samuel, so let's talk about him. He's not a
wide receiver too, he never was. He might be their
running back, right, you know, and we just you know,
we know what his role is. He's your slot guy,
(36:51):
he's your bubble screen guy. Occasionally he might be our
running back instead of Brian Robinson. Matt You saw the
Ota videos him laboring clearly overweight on the field.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh it is fat debo.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Fat Debo. I am very nervous about Fat Debo coming
off his worst season ever with career lows in receiving
yards per game, yards per game, broken tackle rate, and
he scored just three times last year. So there is Deebo.
Samuel to me is not a wide receiver too. And
then what if zach Ertz finally falls off the table
(37:28):
at age thirty four? So you know, I just feel
like the Commanders caught lightning in a bottle. They caught
teams by surprise with how good Jayden Daniels was right
out of the gate, and God forbid anything happens to
Jayden and Daniels. I mean, and this is true for
most of the offenses in the NFL. Take the quarterback
away and it's a disaster. But I just think, I
(37:49):
think that I think there are reasons to wonder if
Washington can still be a top five ish offense.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Yeah, and you alluded to the schedule a little bit.
Having your schedule change. I mean, going from the fourth
place schedule to the second place schedule. It's not that
big of a difference because that's like three games difference. Yeah,
it's really the divisions that you end up playing if
you get a lucky schedule and you end up playing
like the AFC South and Right and the NFC South,
(38:17):
you're feeling a lot better. But once you start getting
into those other divisions where it's a lot more difficult,
that makes a big difference.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
It does make a big difference. Now Washington does. I'll
mention this. Washington comes out of the gate with a
pretty favorable schedule early on, and then it gets a
lot harder. But they get some easy early games against
a Giants defense. The Bucks defense will be better, so
the secondary is gonna better. But they've got New England
and Cleveland and they got Giants twice in the first
six games, and then it gets then it gets dicey,
(38:51):
so you know, we'll we'll see if we'll see how
Washington goes after that. But this is this could be
this could be a quick start for Washington, but a
tricky finish.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah. And I mean they have the NFC North this year,
which is one of the more the most difficult teams
to play if you're going to play division. And then
they have the AFC West, which I think we allso
Kansas City, we all like the Chargers, we all like
the Broncos this year and you've got the Raiders on
the upswing, so their schedule is significantly more difficult just
(39:23):
because the rotation of divisions they got this year.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, totally agree, totally agree. All right, my man, this
has been a ton of fun. Let's hope we're right
about the teams we're optimistic about. Let's hope we're wrong
about the teams that were worried about, because maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
It will be the first place or fifth place or whatever.
Somebody's got to move down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Somebody's got to go down. You know, this is another
thing as a side note, because we've had a lot
of these tangential side notes today. When when when betting
futures like the win totals, you know, vikings win totals
eight and a half play win totals Jordan Mason over
ten touchdowns? Are we are wired as human beings to
(40:05):
want to go over over over over over. And I'm
not positive with the rationale for that is, but that
is that is how it works for us. Is just
human beings. That's just that's just who we are. And
and it's just easier. It's hard to find the it is,
it's hard to find the underplays.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Yeah, I think that that's that's it. That's an important thing.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
But some of these over unders this year that I've seen,
and I have I haven't looked too closely at it
in the last couple of weeks, but some of them
they're a little lower than I thought they'd be. They're
very enticing numbers to get the over on. Yeah, so
I think that that's an interesting thing. But those are
kind of one of my favorite plays. I like to
(40:47):
do the divisional winners as like parlays and that kind
of thing. I think that those are really fun to do.
And then and then the over unders. If you can
find the teams that you are down on and you
start betting the on that can that can be a
pretty lucrative way to hit hit a few bets here.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
I think it is. It's just, you know, the money
flows to the overs, so it pushes the it pushes
those lines up and those odds up. But there's uh,
there's you know, there's real cases to be made.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
I believe I will be out in Las Vegas, Nevada,
right in front of the first week of the NFL
season two, so oh, I know that I'll be placing
a few wagers there.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
No, don't tell me you're gonna be in Vegas. I'm
only two hours from Vegas. When I'm in Minnesota for
the Scott for Scott Fish's Home League Draft, we're gonna
do Fantasy Football Weekly at the State Fair. You're gonna be.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
Here, I'm gonna be No, it won't be State Fair week.
It will be the right before week one.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Okay, all right, I believe.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Okay, good, good.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So you can can meet me if you want.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I might depends on what you're doing. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Well, we could talk about that off air.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, well, I understand why you don't want to say
what you're going to do in US Vegas on air.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah. It's it's very secretive and mostly nude.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I'll see you there. That's all I needed to hear,
mostly nude in Thank you, Matt, and thank you for
everybody who listened through the entirety of this rambling podcast.
We appreciate you very much, and we'll talk to you
next week for more Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy Football Weekly
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(42:29):
to your favorite shows,
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
whatever stupid stuff they decided to drop into the show.
Now here's your host, Paul Chargian.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly. I am Paul Charchian. Co
host today Matt Harrison, Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Matt, Hey, Charge, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Great to have you back. Well for a hot minute.
In Minnesota, we thought that we were going to have
the NFL Draft coming because there had been we had
there had been a leak, you know, it was in
Green Bay this last April. But they're due to announce
twenty twenty eight and twenty nine soon, and there had
been a leak that there was a major event coming
(00:53):
to us Spank Stadium. And I'm like, oh, okay, an
event that's coming to you a spank stadium, but not elsewhere.
Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, was involved with
the announcement. I'm like, oh, here it is the NFL
drafts coming to Minnesota. And it turned out it's Paul McCartney.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Which, well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Not, I mean not exactly a consolation prize, right, So
you know, McCartney is obviously iconic. He's been to Minnesota
in particular eight times, and I'll assume that's about the
case for most cities where you know, and this is
post Beatles. He's been to Minnesota eight times. So for
(01:35):
you and listeners, feel free to play along. Stadium tour
Paul McCartney age eighty three. How much would you pay
to see Paul McCartney?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I thought I was when he was sixty four, right.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
But I'm sixty four right years ago? Yes, exactly twenty
years ago. Yeah, last time he toured, by all accounts,
he was. He was very good.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
As the uh son of George Harrison, which yes, is true.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
A lot of people don't a lot of people don't
know that.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, but that's your dad's name. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I did not know that, and we've known you.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's funny because my my grandpa also named George, so
George Harrison and my dad was the junior and he
grew up he was born in nineteen fifty and he
grew up right during Beatlemania, and he was so sick
of having that name that he was like there's no
chance I'm carrying on the legacy of the Georgie. I'm
not late, right, George Harrison the third right, So that
(02:43):
would that would have been fun. Uh, you know, I
I've I've never you know, I've never considered myself like
a huge Beatles fan.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
I do. I do enjoy them, I do, uh, you.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Know, kind of honor their work and what they done
for pop music in general. But you know, I think
I'm kind of past the point of stadium tours in
my life right now, so I don't know if I
will be.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Uh so you're at zero dollar a large amount to
go to it.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
If I if I was given tickets and they were
halfway decent seats, I would definitely go. If I was
offered tickets for a hundred bucks and they were halfway
decent seats, I'd probably go. But I'm not going to
go out of my way to you know, pack into
a stadium with eighty thousand people.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
In that scenario, I need to be on the floor
up front. So that's that's spot number one. I'm not
going to be in section three twelve. Sure, you know,
watching Paul McCartney, who's a quarter mile away from.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Me, have you been to a US Bank Stadium concert yet?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Not my jam, I just know I'm indie band. I'm
indie band guy. And so even if I have some
interest in seeing Metallica, they came to US Bank Stadium recently,
a stadium that's just those aren't eight again. I don't
want to be in. I don't want to be I
don't want to be with forty thousand people in section
three twelve. I need to be right up front, and
that means I better love the band because those tickets
(04:09):
to be right up front are going to be five
hundred dollars, seven hundred dollars, thousand dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I went to the Taylor Swift concert when she was
in town last time.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yes, spoiler alert.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
My daughter is like an absolute crazy Taylor Swift fan.
My wife got into it too, and they were like,
you got to go see this, and I was.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Like, okay.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
And I'm not the hugest Taylor Swift fan in the world,
but I was blown away by what she did in
that stadium.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Did she sing her own songs?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, and and the set changes and all the stuff
she did. It was absolutely amazing and fantastic and such
a big production. You felt we were like the second
level kind of by where the Vikings press box is,
like maybe you're right above that. Yeah, and we were
in the front row, so not non obstructed view there, So.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
That was you have to throw at Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Front row of like the section of the section.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, I got you, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah, I got you. No I'm not I'm not right
up there. But it was fantastic to see everything and
to have an unobstructed view.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It was.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
It was a really great show. So I know that
they had problems with us Bank Stadium in their first
couple shows at the acoustics, but it seems like they
got it figured out there.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
So well, I'm Kim mccartneil put on a great show.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Well, and maybe there's ways you can make the stadium
sound better over time, but I think you got what
you got for the most part. Yeah, all right, a
diversion from Fantasy slight diversion from Fantasy Football Weekly. But
let's let's talk about the teams we think are going
to get as a team, the offenses that are going
to get a lot better, and a couple of them
(05:50):
that we think are going to get a lot worse. Now, Matt,
I don't know about you, and I think this says
something about human psychology. I had a plethora of teams
that I thought were going to get better. I could
have picked six seven teams, including both of the both
of them that you're going to offer. I also like, yeah,
I just struggled to come up with team offenses that
(06:12):
were really good last year that I think are gonna
fall off this year. That to me, that was a
much harder assignment.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And initially with with that one, I picked one team
and I switched over to another because this team was
so good.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It was Detroit. I was, I was good, the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Number one offense last year, the number one.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Offense in football last year, but they lost their offensive
coordinator in two fifths of their offensive line.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So I think that there is something there with Detroit
not being the best offense in football this year. But
they have so much talent on that team that it's
pretty hard to choose them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. It's the offensive coordinator is
really the only thing you can point out I think
in Detroit and go, well, Ben Johnson's gone, how much
is that going to affect this team? And and you know,
for me, I don't know, but let me give you this.
Let me give you this analogy. Think back to the
(07:08):
Eagles from if you go back two and three years ago, right,
So the Eagles, if if we go back to their
Super Bowl run of that would have been the twenty
twenty three season, right or twenty twenty two I think
have been twenty twenty two season.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Back then they had Shane Steichen Jonathan Gannon. Those two
both got plucked for head coaching jobs when they went
to the Super Bowl, if you recall. So, then the
Eagles flipped over to Brian Johnson and Sean Deci and
their season tanked. You know, remember they won ten straight
(07:46):
to open the season, and then they went like two
games the rest of the way. The whole thing went underwater,
and they fired both of those guys. And then last year,
of course, the Eagles brought in seasoned coordinators with long
resumes Kellen Moore, Vic Fangio. The job wasn't too big
for them, The pressure playing in Philadelphia wasn't too big
(08:09):
for them, and they were great. They win the Super
Bowl easily. Kellen Moore goes on to become the head
coach of the Saints, Vic Fangio's obviously awesome and he's
still there, and so the Eagles were able to basically
just you know, I think this is the worry for
me on Detroit point B. This is gonna be our
most rambling podcast, every Voyd being this could happen in
(08:32):
Detroit where we're gonna look back and go you went
with John Morton and Kelvin Shephard, those are kleanex thin
resumes the only yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Gone with Dan Campbell not being like a guy who's
calling plays on one side of the ball, all of
their play callers are gone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right right, yep, I you know there's a scenario here
where despite all the incredible offensive talent, and as much
as we love Dan camp and who doesn't, I don't,
there is a scenario here where the offensive coordinators are
the undoing of this offense, just like it was for
the Eagles. Eagles offense, you know, they added Saquon Barkley,
(09:11):
which is not trivial, but mostly the same offense, the
you know, same offensive personnel that they had the year before.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, all.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Right, so let's dive in, Matt. I will let you
go first. Give me one of give me one of
your two teams that you think will get a lot
better this year.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I have the Jacksonville Jaguars. They've finished twenty fifth in
total yards per game last year at three hundred and
six yards per game on average, they were twenty fourth
in passing offense, twenty sixth in rushing offense, and twenty
sixth in points per game. Pretty consistent at eighteen point eight.
(09:49):
So not good, not a great squad last year, but
there's a lot of room for improvement. And I think
the biggest thing is they have a new head coach
and play caller, Liam Cohen, who led the Bucks to
be a top four offense in just about every metric
last year. And he's also at least partially responsible for
(10:09):
the career resurgence of Baker Mayfield. So you enter in
fellow number one overall pick Trevor Lawrence, who really is
in need of a career resurgence right now. The offensive
line will have to make a bit of a leap.
That's one of the things that kind of made me
step back just a little bit on Jacksonville. But there's
(10:30):
really only one new face there, and that's Robert Hainsey,
who followed Cohen from the Bucks, Yeah, and brought in
as their starting center. But the biggest X factor here
is number two overall pick Travis Hunter, who will undoubtedly
play a ton at wide receiver. He's gonna get snaps
a corner, but we don't care about that for this podcast.
But he's gonna be after like doing the forest Gump
(10:54):
run across the country, like coast to coast, workout this summer,
just to get his stamina up for all the plays
he's going to be involved. But Hunter, he's got a
real shot and I think I think everybody's kind of
on this page. He's got a real shot to be
a top five wide receiver in this.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
League this year. Do you think that wait ever or
this year.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Like in the league in you know, in the near future,
in the very very near future. He's also got the
potential to completely flame out at wide receiver and maybe
he's just a shutdown corner.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
So it's the wide swath of emotions here is something
that you have to pay attention to. But you have
second year wide receiver Brian Thomas Junior. It's probably the
best wide receiver rookie last year, yep, by numbers, and
they have newcomer Diami Brown, who's fine for being the
other guy in there, but really the two biggest things
(11:51):
they have going They have a top five play caller
or at least a guy who can lead a top
five offense and a weapon that could be one of
the best and most interesting in the league. So I
have to think that they're gonna make a big jump here.
They're going to finish at least ten spots higher, which
is in the top half of the offenses in the league.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
So I think that's a major improvement.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Out with you, I love the I love the Jaguars
to get a ton better. And you know, maybe this
is the year for Tank Bigsby. Maybe this is the
year Tank Bigsby it finally gets the chance he's always deserved.
You know, when you you bring in a new coach,
Liam Cohen, as you mentioned, he doesn't have the allegiances
to the way things used to be. And if it's
(12:35):
just on merit, Tank Bigsby should be getting more work
than Travis Etn and at least at least as a runner.
And you know what I would love to see is
Tank Bigsby first and second down Etn go to a third.
Don Roll and it's not impossible that could not that
could happen.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
It feels like they're going to split more than we want,
and which makes probably Bigsby and ETN not as louve
in the draft process this year. But I mean, I
think Etn's got the edge in ADP by quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
By quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah, Bigsby is a nice sleeper there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I'm gonna take the Raiders as my team to get better.
How bad were they last year? Twenty ninth in points scored,
twenty seventh in yards, twenty ninth in passing touchdowns, twenty
eighth rushing touchdowns. So nowhere to go but up for
the Raiders. I'm gonna start by acknowledging my biggest concern
with the Raiders offensive line wasn't good last year, not horrible,
(13:37):
and didn't really get better in the offseason like I
had hoped it might. They were twentieth and run blocking
by Pro Football Focus twenty third in ESPN's run block
win rate. They allowed the seventh most sacks last year,
although some of that was on their lousy quarterbacking for
last season Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew, but the rest
of the Raiders is super compelling, so the lead story,
(13:59):
of course Genty, And we don't even need to spend
much time on him, I don't think, and so we'll
focus mostly elsewhere here. Favorite to win Rookie of the Year.
He's plus two point fifty. The next closest player is
Travis Hunter, who you just mentioned, plus six hundred, and
the next closest player to those two is Ted McMillan
at plus thirteen hundred. I mean, so it's a it's
(14:22):
a favorite. It is. It's and mostly a one man
race for Ashton Genty, But the part that note of
people are talking about, it's Tino Smith. You know. It's
it will be a run heavy offense, probably because Pete
Carroll generally likes to do that. But also remember Chip
Kelly is your offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Now that's wild that the two of them are together.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
It is, isn't it so does not It's an odd
couple matchup, for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It is a little bit Chip Kelly has for people
that you remember where he was the offensive coordinator or sorry,
he was the head coach coach for the Eagles for
several years and then has been in college football since then.
Very good at UCLA and Ohio State last year as
offensive coordinator, and those years where he was with the Eagles,
(15:12):
You'll remember it was like, oh my god, the fast
paced tempo of the Eagles. They ranked third in the
NFL and points per game and third in total offense
over his three seasons as the head coach in Philadelphia
back then, Chip Kelly, I think is going to help
this offense and there's going to be more passing than
I think people realize. Gino Smith is now there, Gino Smith,
(15:36):
This Gino Smith move widely underappreciated. Matt Let's let listeners
play along. Do you know where Genosmith finished in yards
passing yards last.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Year on a per game basis or total total yards?
I would guess he's probably somewhere middle of the pack,
maybe twelve to fifteen, somewhere in there.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Fourth. Really wow, completions last year, Well.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
It must be high then too, It must be up
up near five. I would guess.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Third, no completion percentage, fifth, first downs fifth. That's Gino
Smith now where he was not and has not been great.
Is he stalls out in like the load of mid
twenties on touchdown passes. And that's why he's never been
a huge fantasy factor. But what he does is he
doesn't kill drives. Gino Smith isn't going to go in
(16:30):
there and he's going to be a chain movers again
fifth and first downs. Last year. You know An O'Connell
and Gardner Minshew were killing drives for this offense last year.
That's not gonna happen with Gino Smith. And of course
you get brock Bauers in his second year as a sophomore.
He had twelve hundred yards as a rookie last year
(16:51):
and only the five scores. So I think even if
the volume stays about the same for brock Bauers, with
better quarterbacking, more opportunities to get on the right side
of the fifty yard line into the red zone near
the stripe, brock Bauers could have fourteen hundred yards and
ten touchdowns easily. So yeah, I'm really really excited about him.
(17:13):
And Jacoby Myers, longtime favorite of this of this show,
all our co hosts love it. Let me mention this.
Jacoby Myers third in contested catch percentage last year, zero
drops on the season, fifteenth and first downs, and he
was Pro Football focuses wide receiver twenty. That dude is
(17:34):
so underrated. He is. The dude is just a baller.
I love him.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I love Jacob now that you talk about it, we
got Brock Bauers and Ashton Genty at least in scott
Fish Bowl scoring, They're both going in the first round,
right right.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I mean you can make the.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Case that Brock Bauers is a mid first round guy,
and Ashton Genty you can make the case that he's
number one overall.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Absolutely, I don't have a problem going either one at
pick one, including Bowers, particularly if you've got any kind
of accelerated scoring for the tight end position. All right,
what's your second improved team to improve for this year? Uh?
Speaker 3 (18:13):
The Jets Jets.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Jets Jets, who finished twenty fourth in total yards per
game last season at three ten, dead middle of the
pack and passing offense with Aaron Rodgers last year at sixteenth,
but the second worst rushing offense thirty first in the
league at only ninety one point eight yards per game. Yeah,
that all added up to twenty fifth in points per
(18:37):
game at nineteen point nine. But there's a completely new
coaching staff in the Big Apple, headed up by defensive
guru Aaron Glen. He brought over Tanner Engstrad to fill
the vacant offensive coordinator position, and Engstrag was Ben Johnson's
passing game coordinator. Yea, so they'll try to likely run
a lot of what Johnson's playbook was in Detroit last year.
(18:59):
Should be Detroit like offense. The Jets drafted tackle armand
Membu in the first round with the seventh overall pick,
Love I hadn't projected to play right tackle, and then
last year's first round aer Olufushanu on the left side,
and they and they obviously they have the two youngsters
(19:20):
at the book ends, but the interior line is actually
pretty solid. John Simpson, Joe Tipman, and Elijah Vera Tucker
across the middle each scored a top eleven Pro Football
Football Pro Football Focused grade at their position last year,
so it's a pretty solid offensive line. The biggest change though,
as the quarterback position, where we get rid of immobile
(19:42):
forty two year old Aaron Rodgers who's gone to Pittsburgh,
and then they bring over former Steeler Justin Fields, who's
set to be the starter.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Now, Field spent the first six weeks as the starter
in Pittsburgh. Before Mike Tomlin, in my opinion, kind of
inexplicit turned the offense over to Russell Wilson because Fields
was doing great. In the last four games that Field's played,
he had Fantasy points finishes as QB twelve, QB one,
(20:13):
QB sixteen, and QB seven. He was a pretty solid
fantasy contributor.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well you were, yeah, because of the rushing he was. Yeah,
the passing it was not good. And you know, when
you know, for the Steelers they're making wins and losses
decision and when your quarterback is only quasi functional as
a passer, and that's where I think Fields is and
has has always been.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
From a fantasy standpoint, Field is good because you know,
most games he finds his way to some kind of
some way to help your team. Well.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah, and in his last season with the Bears in
twenty twenty three, Fields finished as QB twelve and fantasy
points with twenty one per game. Last year he was
averaging twenty one per game before he was benched. So, yeah,
he's a QB one in the league. That's in fantasy.
I guess that's not getting drafted like one. So I
think that the other secret employ here. This is the
(21:08):
best offensive line Fields has ever played behind in his career.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, that's probably true.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
So Breece Hall fallen from one of the top dynasty
running back assets just like two years ago to a
fourth round pick in ADP this year.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
That feels like a steal, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
It does.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
I like Breece Hall a lot. Garrett Wilson quietly coming
off his best season in receptions, yards and touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Really, he's a I would not have guessed that with
Davante Adams housing so much production last year.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
He's a late third round pick.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
And if you're asking, can justin field support a top
wide receiver j Moore with wide receiver six in twenty
twenty three, so fields can support a wide receiver one. Here,
it just feels like everyone's sleeping on the Jets offense.
And there's three very capable fantasy options on this team
that are going much lower than I think they should.
(22:07):
And I'll probably be getting a lot of Jets on
my team this summer.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, they're all values, right, and you know that's part
of the reason we're doing this exercise, And we probably
should have talked about this at the outset why we're
doing this exercise? It why are we why? What are
we even doing here? The fantasy players relive last year
in their head and they draft based on last year's results,
(22:33):
and you know, we can try to we try to
get ourselves to reproject for this year, but it doesn't
work very well. Our brains don't work that way. We
have a hard time really coming up with a scenario
where Garrett Wilson is in fact the fifth best wide
receiver or Breeshall is in fact the fifth best running back,
because you know, we haven't seen that happen, and we
(22:54):
tend to have a if we haven't seen it happen,
I can't risk that it doesn't happen mentality.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
So I think the Fantasy Football Weekly peacock off, Yes,
I've gotten Garrett Wilson as the number one wide receiver
in the league two years.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
In a row, and it yeah, no, But this year,
this is the time, though?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Is your year for that? And this is a quick break.
We'll come back momentarily and we'll talk through one more team,
one more offense we think is going to get a
lot better, and then two offenses that we think are
going to get a lot worse. When we return, Welcome
back Fantasy Football Weekly. Paul Charchion and Matt Harrison with
(23:35):
you talking through teams that we think are going to
get better, players to target, teams that we think have
a chance to get worse, and players you want to avoid. Matt,
We've got one more team that I think is going
to get a lot better, and they have to because
the New England Patriots ranked thirtieth in points, thirty first
in yards. By the way, do you know which team
(23:57):
finished dead last in yards?
Speaker 3 (23:59):
It was the Bears.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yes, it was the Bears.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Neither of us chose them. And they're so obvious.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I know, right, Why didn't we take the Bears as
as an offense. It's going to get a lot better.
Maybe too obvious, right.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
I mean they have to get better.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
I think the I think they will thirty.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
First, will finished and dead last.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Again, No, no, no, they will get better. Thirty first
and passing touchdowns for the Patriots twenty seventh and rushing touchdowns.
They overhauled the whole coaching staff, which they should have
and by the way, another case in point. Last year,
the Patriots didn't really do a formal coaching higher. If
you recall they had they had decided that, you know,
(24:41):
we we think we know enough again, this is this
time last year. We think we know enough about Jared
Mayo that he's our guy. We don't have to look
at anybody else, we don't have to talk to anybody else,
and that that'd up being a mistake. And if you remember,
the Raiders did the same thing last year and they
both end up firing their coach, which is, you know,
I just think you always should go through the exercise
(25:03):
of finding finding your coach anyway. Absolutely, so now they
bring so now they bring in Mike Rabele. Josh McDaniels
back with the Patriots, where obviously he had a lot
of I think it's got to be his third because
he's been, he's been, he had two other head coaching
jobs he left for came back. So Josh McDaniel's back. Okay,
(25:26):
So let's let's talk to the Patriots and what I
think they'll get better. First, offensive line better. They were
the worst offensive line in football last year. They ranked
thirty first and pass blocking by Pro Football Focus, thirty
second in run blocking by Pro Football Focused, and exactly
those rankings by ESPN's past Block Win Raid and Run
block win raid, so worst offensive line in football last year.
(25:46):
Three new starters, including the fourth overall pill pick, Will Campbell,
longtime Minnesota starting center Garrett Bradbury, who's just a guy,
and journeyman right tackle Morgan Moses also just a guy,
but just guy, just a guy's honestly, are are a
huge improvement for this offensive line. We'll take that, Matt.
(26:07):
We know Mike Rabel is gonna run the ball like crazy.
They're gonna add balance, They're gonna protect their investment in
Drake May and not get him killed. He almost died
on the field last year. So I believe that this
is going to be a much more balanced offense. I'm
still a fan of Romandra Stevenson. You know, by by
most metrics, Stevenson looked bad last year, but zero help.
(26:27):
I mean, just the offensive line was so bad. You
had the worst run blocking offensive line in football. So
he was getting he was getting the handoff, and he
was just getting buried on every play. But they also
brought in Travon Henderson in round two, and those that
combination of those two between them, I think they're gonna
have a capable running game.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
And yeah, I think they'll have fresh legs too, which
is probably important running behind that line.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Yeah, you might want that. And you know, granted Vrabel
had Dereck Henry when he was with the Titans, but
note that over his tenure, Mike Vrabel had the second
most running plays over his tenure with the Titans. Again,
they had Derrick Henry, but you know, you know, he
likes to run the ball. So then that brings us
(27:12):
to the passing game. I thought Drake May was gallant
last year. He was getting the offensive line was so bad.
He was taking the hike and he was just immediately
having to scramble and be inventive and creative, and he
did it a lot, a lot. You know, if you
can get Drake May into a spot where he can
(27:32):
over the course of the season, Matt where he can
just trust that offensive line, sit in a clean pocket
and start delivering passes, it's I think he's he is
a candidate for a really nice step up this year.
And as a reminder and why I targeted Drake May,
He's the first quarterback I took in my Scott Fish Bowl.
(27:53):
Dude's got some wheels. Yeah, you know, he can run
a little bit, and I feel like people don't really
lies that that he can run as well as he
had four hundred rushing yards last year and he only know,
only started twelve games.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
That's not nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
That's not nothing. He's gonna help a little bit that way.
The receivers are still, man, I don't know if Stefan Diggs,
you know, is he going to be one hundred percent
at the start of the season. Don't know. Mac Collins
isn't special. The breakout candidate and a deep deep sleeper
Kayshawn Booty.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Oh well, I think it's Booty.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah it is. It's Booty, I believe, And so I
just keep your look. Last pick of the draft candidate,
Kayshawn Booty. Somebody they're going to throw you know, I
don't know thirty touchdown passes this year, you know, somebody
as a team, Well hopefully somebody's going to catch some touchdowns.
And they can't all. It can't all be like Diggs
and Hunter Henry. So I don't if there's somebody, if
(28:50):
there's a sneaky play to be had, I think that's
the sneaky play. All right, Let's talk about teams we
think are gonna get worse. Man, which which team which
team do you believe is going going to get worse?
And how much worse?
Speaker 4 (29:03):
Oh, how much worse? Well, that makes it much more difficult. Well,
the team I chose was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who
finished third in yards per game just under four hundred
per game last year, third in passing offense, fourth and
rushing offense, and fourth in points at twenty nine point
five per game. That's a great amount of points right there.
(29:24):
So there's not a lot of room to improve there.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
No, it'd be tough.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Yeah, things almost have to get worse because they went
so well last year, and they went so well that
Liam Cohen, who I mentioned earlier, was hired by the Jaguars.
The Bucks promoted Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator. He was
the passing game coordinator last season with the Bucks, but
(29:51):
this is his first stint as an OC. And then
the other big thing is Tristan Wurf's the top rated
pass blocker in the league by Pro Football Focus. He
just had arthur scopic knee surgery. He's gonna miss the
start of the season and probably be on the pup
M about half of the season.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
There.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Worfs, by the way, he gave up zero sacks and
one quarterback hit in six hundred and sixty four pass block.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Snaps last season.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Jeez charge not.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Going to help with pass blocking.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Whoever his backup is well, Bucky.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Irving is not going with pass walking. He was one
of the worst pass blocking running backs in the league
last year, a horrible, failing twenty eight point nine Pro
Football Focus grade is not good. I think that this
WARF's injury might nuke Bucky Irving more than we want
(30:51):
to admit, because Rashad White is actually quite a bit
better at pass blocking, and I think when they go
back to pass Rashod White's going to be on the field.
The rest of the Tampa offensive line was anywhere from
bad to average, and they're missing their best guy. I
should mention as well, Chris Godwin coming back from just
a gruesome ankle injury where his foot was being all
(31:14):
floppy and gross. He's not guaranteed to start the season.
The Bucks are saying they're hopeful he's ready, but Godwin
finished last season his season is the third ranked wide
receiver in points per game, and his injury was in
Week seven. That didn't help Baker Mayfield in the first
seven weeks with Godwin, Mayfield finished as a top five
(31:35):
quarterback five times, so five out of seven games. In
the last ten games, he finished in the top five
only three times, that's three out of ten games, and
he finished outside of the top sixteen three times. So
Godwin was very important to that passing offense. They did
draft Emecha Egbuka, Yes, Johnson.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
And I love that pick. Love and to me, that
tells me they can afford to wait on Chris Godwin,
I think, and I'm not sure why they just he
was free, his contract was up and they decide to
resign him. I don't know why they did. You're going
to put the first round equity into one of the
most NFL ready players in the league in Igbuka. But
if it lets them wait on Godwin, if they want
(32:19):
to get him fully right on that angle, if he's
not right for week.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
One, yeah, absolutely, And I think that they do have
They have a pretty deep wide receiver room right there.
Jalen McMillan was a guy we all liked a little
bit last year and showed some flashes once Godwin went down.
So I think that they're four or five deep at
wide receiver, which makes things a little murky at the
wide receiver position.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Especially when they're all healthy.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
But Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have been so good
and so consistent for so long that it's pretty hard
to feel bad about them. But overall, I think the
losses of Cohen and Werf's are the biggest things that
just loom large in this scenario. And well, I don't
think Tampa's going to fall into the bottom half of
(33:05):
offenses in the league. I think that they go from
the fourth best offense to like the twelve to fifteen range.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
I'm starting to warm up to that angle and I
want I think Bucky Irving's awesome, and I'm still really
bullish on his season.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
But I know you are.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
He's slippery's heck, he's so good. He gives you power,
he gives you elusiveness. He can catch, he can he
can do everything except past block. And that's suddenly an
issue right now. Yes, we'll see. I'm nervous about it.
The team I'm also nervous about. Well, I'm really not.
It's just this is a team I still like in
(33:45):
an offense I still like. I just don't know if
they can get up to fifth and points scored again
and seventh in yards. This is going to be tricky,
and it's the Washington Commanders. Still like him, still drafting
some commanders. I just drafted Jayden Daniels in a startup
m league at pick three. What do you think of
the Empire League? What do you think of that?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I like that a lot who went picks one and two.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Josh Allen. It's quarterback heavy. It's six points for touchdown
pass quarterback Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson went one and two.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Okay, yeah, And then I took the youth movement you
have there.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
I mean, if if Daniels is healthy, you've got a
quarterback for the next ten to fifteen years in your grade.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
And Joe Burrow was tempting because it's six points per
touchdown pass and Burrow could lead the league in touchdown
passes every year potentially. So I gave a lot of
thought to Burrow but did not. I ultimately took Jayden
Daniels in Parks's just more fun, and he's younger. It's
like three years younger. Anyway, Ken Washington get back to
top five, Well, mate, yes they can, but maybe not.
(34:48):
Here's your concerns number one schedule. They're not playing a
fourth place schedule this year. They have by Vegas win total.
This year, they have the ninth toughest schedule by last
year's in total, the eleventh toughest schedule specific to the
quarterback position. In fantasy, they have the seven tough toughest
schedule based on last year's fantasy points allowed. And in
(35:10):
the off season, there are a couple of things that
Washington didn't do that I really pull three things that
I really wanted them to do. I would have liked
to have seen more improvement across the offensive line for
Washington beyond just the Laramie Tunsall acquisition. Tunsell's not even
that good, you know, Houston wanted to get rid of
him and his contract. He's just okay and not any
(35:32):
better than that. So I didn't love that part. And
then they didn't address the running game. Matt Brian Robinson
is just a guy. He's Pro Football focuses thirty sixth
ranked runner last year, right in the same wheelhouse as
Cam Akers, Jalel McLoughlin, and the undead corpse of Kareem Hunts.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
Nothing crazy with that running back draft.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
Yes, they wouldn't have thrown a second, third, fourth round
pick on one of these many awesome guys.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Sixth rounder. Right, they put a seventh rounder into Jacory
Krossky Merritt, but he is not going to be a
factor here, So you get you get nothing better from
Brian Robinson. We know what he's all about. He's four
point three yards per carry basically every year. I can
get that at the seven to eleven. I don't. That's
that bothered me. They still don't have a viable wide
receiver two on this team. So they went out of
(36:30):
the year with Terry McLaurin and no help, and they
brought in Michael Gallop. Who cares they re signed it.
Noah Brown, he's hurt and they yes, they brought in
Deebo Samuel, so let's talk about him. He's not a
wide receiver too, he never was. He might be their
running back, right, you know, and we just you know,
we know what his role is. He's your slot guy,
(36:51):
he's your bubble screen guy. Occasionally he might be our
running back instead of Brian Robinson. Matt You saw the
Ota videos him laboring clearly overweight on the field.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Oh it is fat debo.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Fat Debo. I am very nervous about Fat Debo coming
off his worst season ever with career lows in receiving
yards per game, yards per game, broken tackle rate, and
he scored just three times last year. So there is Deebo.
Samuel to me is not a wide receiver too. And
then what if zach Ertz finally falls off the table
(37:28):
at age thirty four? So you know, I just feel
like the Commanders caught lightning in a bottle. They caught
teams by surprise with how good Jayden Daniels was right
out of the gate, and God forbid anything happens to
Jayden and Daniels. I mean, and this is true for
most of the offenses in the NFL. Take the quarterback
away and it's a disaster. But I just think, I
(37:49):
think that I think there are reasons to wonder if
Washington can still be a top five ish offense.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
Yeah, and you alluded to the schedule a little bit.
Having your schedule change. I mean, going from the fourth
place schedule to the second place schedule. It's not that
big of a difference because that's like three games difference. Yeah,
it's really the divisions that you end up playing if
you get a lucky schedule and you end up playing
like the AFC South and Right and the NFC South,
(38:17):
you're feeling a lot better. But once you start getting
into those other divisions where it's a lot more difficult,
that makes a big difference.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
It does make a big difference. Now Washington does. I'll
mention this. Washington comes out of the gate with a
pretty favorable schedule early on, and then it gets a
lot harder. But they get some easy early games against
a Giants defense. The Bucks defense will be better, so
the secondary is gonna better. But they've got New England
and Cleveland and they got Giants twice in the first
six games, and then it gets then it gets dicey,
(38:51):
so you know, we'll we'll see if we'll see how
Washington goes after that. But this is this could be
this could be a quick start for Washington, but a
tricky finish.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah. And I mean they have the NFC North this year,
which is one of the more the most difficult teams
to play if you're going to play division. And then
they have the AFC West, which I think we allso
Kansas City, we all like the Chargers, we all like
the Broncos this year and you've got the Raiders on
the upswing, so their schedule is significantly more difficult just
(39:23):
because the rotation of divisions they got this year.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, totally agree, totally agree. All right, my man, this
has been a ton of fun. Let's hope we're right
about the teams we're optimistic about. Let's hope we're wrong
about the teams that were worried about, because maybe maybe.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
It will be the first place or fifth place or whatever.
Somebody's got to move down a little bit.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Somebody's got to go down. You know, this is another
thing as a side note, because we've had a lot
of these tangential side notes today. When when when betting
futures like the win totals, you know, vikings win totals
eight and a half play win totals Jordan Mason over
ten touchdowns? Are we are wired as human beings to
(40:05):
want to go over over over over over. And I'm
not positive with the rationale for that is, but that
is that is how it works for us. Is just
human beings. That's just that's just who we are. And
and it's just easier. It's hard to find the it is,
it's hard to find the underplays.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Yeah, I think that that's that's it. That's an important thing.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
But some of these over unders this year that I've seen,
and I have I haven't looked too closely at it
in the last couple of weeks, but some of them
they're a little lower than I thought they'd be. They're
very enticing numbers to get the over on. Yeah, so
I think that that's an interesting thing. But those are
kind of one of my favorite plays. I like to
(40:47):
do the divisional winners as like parlays and that kind
of thing. I think that those are really fun to do.
And then and then the over unders. If you can
find the teams that you are down on and you
start betting the on that can that can be a
pretty lucrative way to hit hit a few bets here.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
I think it is. It's just, you know, the money
flows to the overs, so it pushes the it pushes
those lines up and those odds up. But there's uh,
there's you know, there's real cases to be made.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
I believe I will be out in Las Vegas, Nevada,
right in front of the first week of the NFL
season two, so oh, I know that I'll be placing
a few wagers there.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
No, don't tell me you're gonna be in Vegas. I'm
only two hours from Vegas. When I'm in Minnesota for
the Scott for Scott Fish's Home League Draft, we're gonna
do Fantasy Football Weekly at the State Fair. You're gonna be.
Speaker 4 (41:39):
Here, I'm gonna be No, it won't be State Fair week.
It will be the right before week one.
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Okay, all right, I believe.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Okay, good, good.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
So you can can meet me if you want.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I might depends on what you're doing. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Well, we could talk about that off air.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Yeah, well, I understand why you don't want to say
what you're going to do in US Vegas on air.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah. It's it's very secretive and mostly nude.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
I'll see you there. That's all I needed to hear,
mostly nude in Thank you, Matt, and thank you for
everybody who listened through the entirety of this rambling podcast.
We appreciate you very much, and we'll talk to you
next week for more Fantasy Football Weekly. Fantasy Football Weekly
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
(42:29):
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