July 26, 2020 • 48 mins
Davis Mattek is joined by Ricky Sanders as the guys discuss Mookie Betts' recent contract extension with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The guys dive into the NFL as they discuss Devonta Freeman's possible landing spots, the future of Antonio Brown, and the Los Angeles Rams running back situation. Who will be the #1 back for the Rams this year? Davis and Ricky wrap up the show discussing what to expect from the Colts offense.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks
and more. Want the edge, then get on the grid
sports grid dot Com m Hello everyone, and welcome to
(00:22):
the daily Road to Hour here on Sports Grade TV.
I am Davis Maddock, joined today by Ricky Sanders. This
is going to kind of be a news and note show.
We're gonna start off the top here in our first
segment discussing the Mookie Bets contract. But Ricky, you you
have you have some strong feelings about about Mookie Bets. Well,
(00:42):
it's not so much some strong feelings. We should talk
about what the reported deal is. First, it's ten years,
three hundred and fifty million, and this is after he
turned down three hundred million with the Red Sox. So
you had to assume that if the Dodgers were going
to take on his contract, they knew they were paying
him at least that and that got me and friends
to talking that. Look, Mookie Bets is now by far
(01:06):
the richest mookie on earth, with Mookie Blaylock having some
troubles with the law and just obviously having a contract
nowhere near that. But then I asked my friends, I
want to ask you the same question. Do you know
which band that started off touring by the name of
Mookie Blaylock before they changed their name. I don't even
(01:26):
know when the actual Mookie Blaylock played. I'm at a,
I'm at a I'm at a big disadvantage here, give me,
give me an erra again, give me a time frame,
So nineties two you could argue still, but I would
say nineties to the two thousand tens. And the reason
that this is in play is because their band potentially
(01:46):
could be as rich as Mookie Bets, which is why
this is the conversation nineties two. I don't I'm like
I I don't even like nineties like soft rocks. So
I'm so bad this I'm gonna guess third eye blind.
Third eye blind is not the correct answer. Pearl Jam
is the correct answer. The first time they went touring
(02:07):
was as the band name Mookie Blaylock. And just a
few tidbits about that, Randy Johnson was that their first
ever contract uh their first ever concert in Seattle, so
members of Sound Garden were there as well. And for
all you Pearl Jam fans, which I didn't know until
I was reading this, their first album ten was named
after Mookie Blaylock, which I love that album I had.
(02:29):
I had no idea that was the context, but we
were just discussing then was Eddie Vetter technically the most
profitable Mookie of all time? And I think this probably
still puts Mookie bets over here. But I just want
to give you that a little bit of trivia, because man,
I don't know. Three I bet, I bet Pearl Jam
has made more than three fifty million dollars. Now, maybe
maybe Eddie Vetter is not seen all that, but I
(02:49):
would I would imagine the total profits for the career
of Pearl Jam exceeds three million. They have like thirty
five live albums that to even be selling it short.
They're one of those bands that just like every time
they played solid album, So they probably are up there
in terms of like close to grossing towards a billion
(03:09):
as a band. Yeah, I was, you know, I'm more
of a Nirvana guy. I honestly, I really have not
listened to much Pearl Jam in my life. That's a
that's a blind spot for me, So I never I
never was going to get that right. But I mean,
one of the things we should talk about is if
the difference was fifty million dollars over ten years to
what was eventually agreed upon, how does Boston not pay them?
(03:32):
I mean, for for a major League Baseball team, fifty
million dollars? Is that's like to Mike Mustakass over a decade,
you know what I mean? So like, how is how
is Boston which is a legitimately terrible team now, I
mean this, this Boston team that is going to be
playing in the pandemic short and season is egregious. And
maybe maybe you know, we know the Red Sox are
(03:54):
an analytically inclined organization. Maybe they took stock of their
their roster, their prospect, how much money they planned to generate,
and they were just like, look, you know this this
contract actually is going to be an albatross because we
are we are not going to be We're not gonna
win anything. Well, two things, when you're paying Mookie Betts
un till he's thirty seven years old, and we've seen
with like the Pool Halls contract that once you get
(04:16):
to the mid thirties, it starts to become a nuisance.
But the real reason I think that they made the
deal was because of David Price's contract, they were able
to take off the books. If you remember that, I'm
looking at the Price contract right now. He makes thirty
two million a year until so the fact that they
were able to ship him off, they basically said that
(04:36):
if they're trading Mookie, it's so they can get that
Price deal off the books. And this was one of
the few teams that could afford that. So when you
take in the other ninety million, it actually does make
a bit of sense. Uh yeah, I mean, the David
Price contract definitely matters. But like, let's let's be clear,
Mookie Betts is the best non Mike Trout outfielder in
(04:57):
baseball career waited on bass average three seventy seven career
isolated slugging to eighteen. Is a fantastic defender in right field.
I mean, maybe you could argue that right field is
like it's a it's a position you want to have
a good defender in, but it is not a premium
defensive position. So maybe it's it's not that big of
a deal. But I basically would project him to be
(05:20):
one of the best outfielders in baseball for the next
three to five years. Probably so, I think Christian Yeology
and Cody Bellinger in that conversation, but Mookie Bett is
clearly one of the best four. Um. I don't know
how I've even ranked those. If you go according to age,
Mookie Betts probably second or third there, something like that.
(05:42):
But we can agree that that Boston team is now egregious.
Did you see their over under on FanDuel by the
way twenty nine and a half winds basically being projected
to be a sub five hundred team, and you look
at the top of their rotation without David Price, without
Chris Sale. I don't know how you don't count the
under here. I think they're a team that like people
love because they're you know, a Boston in New York
(06:03):
or Chicago will always get you know, Jews from the books.
How are you gonna win thirty games with Nate Yovaldi
as your ace and Martin Perez is you're starting pitcher two?
And then it gets even uglier from there. I think
Ryan Webber's lined up to be their starting pitcher three. Yeah,
Ryan Webber, Brian Johnson, a guy named Matt Hall, who
it is my it is my job to know about
(06:25):
professional sports. I play daily fantasy baseball. I I am
all in on this stuff. I have never in my
life heard of Matt Hall, and he currently is projected
to be their fifth starter. And you know, it's not
like the lineup is as fearsome as it used to be,
you know, because you know, Jackie Bradley Jr. Is now
going to get everyday at bats for whatever reason. Michael
(06:48):
Schavis is not going to be an everyday player for
the Boston Red Sox this year. So a lot of
Jose Peraza plate appearances. Maybe they get a breakout season
from Alex Verdugo, but none of that seems, you know,
overall super likely. But everyone, we're gonna go ahead and
head into our first break here on the daily road
to hour on sports Gride TV. When we return, we're
going to dig into some NFL news and notes and
(07:10):
continue that trend for the rest of the show. So
see you guys in a few minutes on the other
side of break. Sports grid dot Com betting insights and
entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the most
important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models,
expert picks, and more. Want the edge than get on
the grid sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome
(07:40):
back to the daily road of hour here on Sports
Grade TV. I'm Davis Mannock, joined by Ricky Sanders. Gonna
move from MLB news. We discussed the Mookie Betts contract
there at the top of the hour. Now we are
moving to the NFL. Gonna go through some news and
notes around the league. Actually, the place we should begin with, Rick,
is the NFL and the NFL p A agreed to
(08:01):
COVID nine team testing. You know, this was really the
this was the fly in the ointment of you know,
not knowing what the NFL season was gonna do. We
we think that probably the NFL was waiting to see
what happened with Major League Baseball and the NBA. Those
plans aren't really gonna be a one to one fit
for the NFL because there's so much there's so many
(08:22):
more players, there's so much more more staffing involved. But overall,
I mean, I think you have to say good news
that there is the framework for testing and and for
player safety. Yeah, and I don't want to be that
guy who goes into like for selfish reasons why we
needed this, but for selfish reasons. You and I definitely
want the NFL to play for our job purposes, because
(08:45):
you know that's that's a big money maker for us.
It's a big money maker for a lot of people,
and it shouldn't only be about money. It should be
about the health and safety. It just made sense that,
you know, if these players didn't feel safe, the NFL
had to step it up. I mean, how can you
play a game where guys are constantly getting tackled, being
in piles uh, and not be a hundred percent sure
that the guys on the field don't have COVID nineteen Now,
(09:07):
I was telling people that, you know, Australia has been
playing the National Rugby League, which they don't even have
face masks like blocking you out, and you know scrums
are a big part of that. So quite literally, you know,
multiple times a series there will be a pile up
of guys and they've been able to get away with
it even in the era of COVID. So I wanted
people to be optimistic about the NFL. But when you
(09:29):
were hearing rumors of their not being you know, anything
in place. It was like, what are you doing. I'm
I'm very happy that this has happened, and and really
like just just keep the testing going. We're seeing in
the other sports, how like constant testing. It has been
the answer all along, which we knew. But yeah, thankfully
the NFL is starting to figure it out. Yeah, I'm
I'm glad that there is a plan in place. One
(09:51):
of the guys who right now probably doesn't have a
job due to the COVID nineteen pandemic is DeVonta Freeman.
Chances are that he would have, you know, had a
couple of physicals, probably would have went to work out
with a team or you know, with their coaches at
some point and uh, you know, according to Adam Schefter
on Twitter, Freeman hired super agent Drew Rosenhaus, one of
(10:13):
the biggest, one of the biggest agents in all the
professional sports, and uh says he wants a deal you
know pretty much right now. The exact quote from Rosenhaus.
We want to work at a deal in the immediate future,
and we are open to any team. He's healthy, he's
in shape, and I'm on a mission to give him
to give him to a team to have a lift
in late July. Unfortunately, Ricky, this is uh, this is
(10:36):
a game of musical chairs where there are not enough
chairs and uh, and too many musicians there are. I
I really, you know, kind of looking around the NFL,
I don't really see a backfield where it makes sense
for him to be signing. Like I think that the
two names that have been mentioned most often are Philadelphia
and Tampa Bay. But you know, really, how is is
(11:00):
DeVonta Freeman better than Boston Scott right now? I'm not
sure he is. No, I'm not sure he is either.
And you and I are in a slack chat together
and basically all of our reactions when when this came
out about DeVante Freeman is quote unquote who is he
going to kill? Obviously not in a literal sense, but like,
whose value is he going to kill? I don't think
(11:21):
he is better than Boston Scott, which just shows you,
like why he probably is unsigned at this point considering
the money that he's asking for. Looking at other situations,
I mean, Tampa Bay could make a fair degree of
sense depending on how you feel about Ronald Jones. I
know there are a lot of people who are bullish
on Ronald Jones rushing ability out there, But what about
(11:42):
you know, reuniting if Rathee moster wants U wants out
of there as the Tevin Coleman DeVante Freeman duo in
the backfield in San Francisco, and it pains me to say,
but like, why aren't the Bears interested in him? I mean,
is David Montgomery anything special? I love the volume that
he's likely going to get. I like the one to
duo with like a power back and Tarik Cohen, But
(12:05):
you look behind them, like I would be fine with,
you know, DeVante Freeman being the next guy on the
depth chart and you know, potentially eating into some of
that Montgomery work if he felt like he was slowing down.
But other than that, I don't really see too many
situations where I look at it and be like, DeVante
Freeman will be a great fit there, even Washington, I
think he would just be like another guy in that backfield.
(12:27):
All right, here's here's one and uh, this is a
this is uh, this would be kind of brutal for value.
But what about Carolina their their backup running back situation
is Reggie Bonafon Mike Davis who got cut from the
Chicago Bears last year, and undrafted free agent running back
from Minnesota Rodney Smith, and then Jordan's Scarlett, who right
(12:48):
now actually is dealing with uh an injury. He he
was placed on injured reserve with a with a knee
injury last year. I don't think that Scarlet. Yeah, he
had four Russia attempts last year and that was that
was it for Jordan's Scarlett in the NFL. So you know,
I I actually think that Carolina as basically the handcuff
to Christian McCaffrey. I actually think that is a spot
(13:10):
that does make a little bit of sense. So that
would pain me quite a bit because I did think
that Reggie Bonafon looked good in the limited time that
he got behind Christian McCaffrey, you know, when when the
game was a blowout or towards the end of the year,
when he just got worked towards the end of the game,
I thought he looked pretty good, and so I drafted
him in basically every best ball that we did you
(13:32):
know late, but I mean his best comparable and player
profiler dot com Sere would this is not a guy
who's special. Basically his best metric was his birth score
at eight eight percentile, and everything else was very, very average.
So it would hurt me from a fantasy perspective because
I did think that if Christian McCaffrey went down this year,
you would get like low end RB one production out
(13:54):
of him, just because of the scheme alone and the
fact that I think they need the backfield, the backfield
to catch passes to make everything work on this team, etcetera, etcetera.
But I mean from a skill perspective, I think it
could be argued that he's probably better than him where
you know, the question is him versus Boston Scott. I
think Boston Scott's a more talented player. Yeah. Another situation
(14:14):
that would make a little bit of sense would be Houston,
where their third running back is a fellow by the
name of Buddy Howell. You would be you would be
forgiven for not knowing who that is. Uh. To me,
I think the team kind of used Duke Johnson more
like a slot wide receiver, especially with the departure of
DeAndre Hopkins. You know, it's not like their wide receiver
room is full, it's it's the oft injured Will Fuller.
(14:36):
They have Kenny Stills. They have Brandon Cook and then
Kiki Cutie and Stephen Mitchell Jr. Uh. Freeman makes some
more makes more sense as a direct like one to
one backup for David Johnson as opposed to Duke Johnson,
Like they probably want to leave Duke Johnson in his role.
And we I mean, we know, we know that Bill
O'Brien loves to sign himself some veteran running backs. I
(14:58):
could I could easily see Freeman ending in Houston. And
that's actually not a stone cold disaster for fantasy because
you don't think he will steal the word from David Johnson.
He probably is just a handcuff there. Yeah, Bill O'Brien,
the anti moneyball guy, where you're instead of projecting forward,
you're looking at the production from back in the day
and seeing like, Okay, that'll fit in nicely David Johnson's
(15:20):
year twenty three year old season if we could get
anything near that where he is now. You know that
that's how Bill O'Brien thinks. But Buddy, how by the way,
we've been talking about rock I thought for a second
that was the Weezer song, But that is not That
is Buddy Holly and I think he would be a
fine guy added to this backfield. David Johnson, we don't
(15:40):
know if he's dust like. He certainly looked like it
last year. So if you want to go, you know,
running back by committee, just to see which back has
anything left between him and Devonte Freeman, I'm completely fine
with that. I don't know how to feel about David
Johnson at this point in his career, honestly, all right.
And another one that I thought was interesting Jacksonville. They
(16:01):
hate Leonard Fournette. Right, All of all of Leonard Fournett's
backers inside of that organization are gone. Tom Copland has gone,
The coaching staff the drafted him is gone. So why
I mean DeVonta Freeman a better pass catcher than Leonard Fournette,
write a more a more efficient player. That uh that
that one would and that would ruin Fournett's value right
for Nett would be an eighth round pick if they
(16:22):
signed DeVonta Freeman. Yeah, I mean Leonard four Nett is
a guy who can grind you out some tough yards
and I'm not sure what else you're going to get
from him. Now that Chris Thompson's there, they want to
take away some of that passing work from him. Not
only do you have Thompson, you have the fact that
Laviscus nald will be lining up in the backfield. So
(16:42):
from a fantasy perspective, I'm already concerned about Leonard Fournette. Uh,
he would be someone that I probably wouldn't draft, almost
regardless of how far he fell. If they signed DeVonta Freeman, yeah,
you know, I I think that there is a need
for a pass catching role there as well. You know,
that's why they signed Chris Thompson and then backup running
back situation rich Will Armstead Devon o Zigbo. You know,
(17:04):
these are very replacement level players. This team is in
desperate need of playmakers, and Freeman when healthy, is you know,
a pretty good NFL running back. So I could definitely
see that as possibility. But we're gonna go ahead and
head into our second break here on the Daily Road
to Hour on sports grid TV. When we returned, we
were going to continue running through NFL player news, going
(17:25):
to discuss some Antonio Brown tweets, retirement and whatnot. So
see you guys on that in just a few minutes.
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more. Want the edge than Get on the Grid
(17:47):
Sports Grid dot Com. M M. You're watching Sports Screen
get one. Hello everyone, and welcome back from break Here
(18:10):
on the daily Road to Hour on Sports Grade TV.
I am Davis Pinnock, joined by Ricky Sanders as we
go around the NFL updating everyone here on Sports Grade
on all the important news notes and happenings and Ricky drama.
We're We're back. Antonio Brown is tweeted that he's done
with the game. Uh, personally, I'm not. I'm not buying it?
(18:32):
Are you? Are you buying this? Yeah? I secretly wonder.
I guess not so secretly since we're saying it on
this broadcast, but I just did this same sort of thing,
and I wonder if this is what he's doing here.
I was buying a mattress literally two weeks ago. I
decided that my queen size bed basically is being taken
up by both my fiance and my dog, and I
(18:53):
have nothing left. So we decided we were going to
buy a king size bed, but you go to the
mattress store and their charge you an arm and a leg,
So we legitimately weren't you know, having it, and there
we're it just so happened three furniture stores in the
same basically little mall that we said, you know, we're leaving,
we're not paying these prices, and we ended up coming
(19:13):
back later and getting him to lower the price. I
wonder if Antonio Brown is doing the same sort of thing,
like you guys haven't given me the deal that I wanted.
So I'm walking out the mattress store right now, but
I'm still willing to deal with you as I'm walking
out or when I walk back in. And I wonder
if that's the case here, is that Antonio Brown wanted
more money than any of these teams were willing to offer,
(19:34):
so he basically says, Okay, I'm retiring, but he still
has his phone on, and if any of these teams
call him and give him the number that he's looking for,
he probably would un retire and or walk back into
the store really quickly. So I wonder if Antonio Brown
and my mattress shopping are a little bit similar here well,
what's um. You know, what is so interesting about this
(19:56):
is I don't really understand why Seattle wants to sin him. Um.
You know, Tyler Lockett is pretty much at the peak
of his powers. DK Metcalf is, you know, he's not
like DK Metcalf is not a super versatile wide receiver.
He's not someone you can move around all over. But
clearly they're not benching DK Metcalf. They should as an
organization want to give him more targets and let him
(20:19):
grow into that role. I mean, I I view Antonio
Brown is like a very bad fit in Seattle. Basically, yeah,
a guy who probably wants volume when he gets there.
I mean, that's sort of his thing, is he wants
to be the guy. I just don't know looking up
and down rosters where he could go and immediately get
(20:40):
volume and for it to make sense for the team
to win football games for him to get that sort
of volume. I agree with you on Seattle that if
Antonio Brown were not such a headcase and he were
willing to just kind of fit in and be the
guy who could take on his role, I think similar
to what Rob Bronkowski is going to do if UH
(21:01):
with Tampa Bay is just he's willing to be like
the third wheel there. If Antonio Brown's personality allowed him
to do such things, I think it would be really
interesting with Russell Wilson, who's one of the most underrated
quarterbacks potentially in NFL history, with how he's thought of
just because of some you know, playoff basically things that
were out of his control. Uh. And I think he
(21:22):
would be a good number three here. You would have
Tyler Lockett is the guy to stretch the field, you
have dk Metcalf as a big receiver, and you would
have Antonio Brown is your possession guy. I think that
would work incredibly well for Russell Wilson. It's just a
matter of the personality fit. And because there isn't a
personality fit, I don't think he could work. Um. I
mean now it is It is worth noting Seattle does
(21:44):
love to bring in dusty old vets, right, that is
like their number one thing. Right, Trade for Jimmy Graham,
trade for Percy Harvin, bring back Marshawn Lanch after he's
been on the couch for two seasons. I mean, it
really is. Pete Carroll loves veterans. Pete loves to uh
you know, Pete Carroll loves to do this. So I
think that from that sense, like they have no problem
(22:06):
making a thirty two year old Antonio Brown a key
cog of their offense. I just think, like, you know,
if if you overall believe that that like targets are
an indicator of quality. I mean I I just think
that Tyler lock in a DK metcap are so much
more likely to get out there and earn those targets.
(22:27):
Where where else do you think, like, if if you
were to come back off the couch, who do you
think like a surprise team could be? I always include
my bears and things, just because I don't think they're talented,
and well they love vets to be vets exactly. I
mean Ted g Jr. If you'll bring him in, why
not Antonio Brown? Um? But yeah, I just I'm looking
(22:51):
up and down rosters. I don't see very many places
like I have one. I have one where he could
walk into a hundred and fifty targets and and I
we we can go through some more teams, but I
think that it is Washington. Uh. And we we saw
a couple of videos last or maybe two weeks ago
of Dwayne Haskins and Antonio Brown working out, you know,
throwing with one another. But you look at the wide
(23:13):
receiver depth chart in Washington, so they have McLaurin, then
it's Cody Latimer, Antonio Gandy, Golden steven Sims, Tray Quinn,
you know, maybe Antonio Gibson plays a little bit of slot.
Then at tight end they have Jeremy Sprinkle, Hail Hentages,
and Logan Thomas uh. And then in terms of pass
catching running back, probably just Antonio Gibson not not expecting
(23:34):
to see you know, wild amount of targets for Darius guys.
Peterson probably gets no targets, uh, you know, ten targets
or whatever over the course of the year. So I
think Antonio Brown could walk into the Washington professional football
team and and get fifty targets right away. The question is,
for a guy like Haskins, who basically has been extremely
(23:56):
inconsistent with his accuracy, is a smaller receiver like Antonio
Brown really a good fit for him? And by the way,
how dare you not mentioned Daddy's moss as a target
on this Your boy, Your boy, I forgot. I've drafted
him everywhere hoping that he could ascend to the top
of that tight end depth chart. But yeah, I mean,
I guess you've got to give him a second target
of any sort of quality. And if Steven Sims Jr.
(24:19):
Is your alternative, I think Antonio Brown obviously is a
guy that I would take a shot on for upside
over him considering just how he torched the NFL in
the two thousand tents. Yeah, I mean, I like, if
Antonio Brown signs with Washington, Like, what where do you
where do you think he goes? Where do you think
he goes in drafts and he signs with Washington. If
(24:40):
he signs with Washington, he's probably a seventh or eighth
round receiver. Oh no, way, No, you think he's higher
than that. Antonio Brown, like, and Antonio Brown right now,
not being on a team, goes in like the eleventh
round sometimes. Okay, So I guess I'm think of Scott
(25:00):
fish Bowl where you had the two quarterbacks and he
had like a crazy amount he was going to Like
the round he signs with Washington, which is Dwayne Haskins,
who is considered to be one of the lower end quarterbacks.
I think probably seventh round is where I would take him.
I don't think I would be reaching on him for
much more than that. I guess he had like eight
(25:20):
targets in that one game with Brady. They force fed him.
I don't know if that would be the yeah. I
mean I personally then would not end up owning him
much if he signed there. If that's where you think
he goes, um, well there. You know, there are a
couple other potential spots. I think San Francisco, especially with
the Deebo Samuel injury. You know, we think of San
Francisco as this really talented you know, they have weapons everywhere,
(25:42):
but these are their day one, you know, week one
wide receivers, assuming Debo is not back from their foot injury. Uh,
second round draft pick rookie Brandon aiyuk uh total flame out,
Dante Pettis, Trent Taylor, who right now is injured, might
not be ready by week one, and Jalen heard, I
believe Max Mcca a freeze also technically on the roster,
but I mean that is a that is a bear
(26:05):
bones group of pass catchers. Now, obviously they have George Kittle,
so that you know their number one wide receiver is
actually their number two pass catcher. But I mean that
is a group that is a wide receiver group that
needs some help for sure. Yeah, that that is extremely ugly.
I haven't I haven't really taken I've been on aok
in most drassed and I've looked at Jalen Heard, but
(26:25):
i haven't taken a moment to step back and just
look at the wide receiver room here, and it's pretty brutal.
So if there's a team that should be calling Antonio
Brown to, you know, get him out of retirement, and
you assume that Brandon Ayuk is probably not ready, you're
not gonna get you know, as much mini camp, You're
not going to get any preseason this year. So rookies
are just gonna be in a tougher spot. In general,
(26:46):
Why would this team not be on the phone with
Antonio Brown considering all the pieces you have around them.
You've got a strong defense, you feel really good about
your run game, especially if most are just ends up
staying there and you just need another receiver. I mean,
Antonio Oun should be a guy, even if he's a
little bit of you know, a personality that might not
mesh perfectly with this locker room. You need a receiver
(27:08):
so so I think you need to be on the
phone with him. Another one where I could see a
clear role for him, But I think there's no chance
this organization signs him. Is Philadelphia, they have you know,
injured al Sean Jeffrey, always injured de Sean Jackson, though
he is not injured yet j j R. Say a Whiteside,
Greg Ward, and then Jalen Reagor, who you know hopefully
is ready to play by week one, you know, as
(27:30):
as their first round, their first round draft pick. But
again Antonio Brown, he starts in base personnel for Philadelphia
and earns you know, a hundred thirty targets probably right away.
You think, yeah, I don't think there's any chance of
it happening. And by the way, de Sean Jackson mentally
injured of his own making very recently, but we won't
(27:50):
talk about that. Um. Yeah, I mean, I think you
look at this wide receiver for if all Sean Jeffrey
is not going to be healthy, you could use some help.
I think Jalen Reagor, the as it's set up, could
be the number one scoring, you know, rookie receiver, especially
if Deshan Jackson is going to have any blowback from
the things he said, or if he's going to be injured,
(28:12):
or there's just like a wide range of potential negative
outcomes for Deshaun Jackson before we even get to the positives.
You certainly could use another receiver here. They do have
Greg Ward, who looked pretty good last year. They did
sign Marquise Goodwin off the street as well, So like
a guy who's quick as well, forgot about the Marquise
Goodwin signing. That's a that's a yeah, that's ah well,
I mean he might have to play snaps for them
(28:33):
this year, oh no question. If if there's any issues
with the Sean Jackson, you will see plenty of Marquise Goodwin.
But yeah, I don't think they would they would call
upon him. But looking at these receivers in worst case scenarios,
there are some doomed day scenarios for the Eagles receivers
basically other than Jalen reagor big time. Yeah, I definitely agree.
(28:54):
I also think one more team that that might make
sense is the New York Jets because uh, well you
know they I guess they invested in the position with
Mims and Perriman this offseason. But I mean, I just
I think Antonio Brown clearly makes them a much, a
much better team, But they probably don't view it that way.
They probably are happy with the guys they have in
(29:14):
the building. No, I think they're happy with Bishop Perriman.
Even though you've seen people on Twitter tweet his stats
in a warm and cold weather, he has not enjoyed
the cold weather in a small sample. But I don't
know if you're signing Antonio Brown just because you're worried
about the temperature of the ball game. I don't think
that's happening. Yeah, I mean, I think there are clearly
(29:34):
spots to go. And I think part of the reason
why Antonio Brown threatened to retire is, uh, he wants
that bag. He he wants to secure the bag when
and if he gets signed. He's not coming back to
play on the Veterans minimum, you know, he would rather
hang out on on the couch. But we're gonna go
ahead and head into another break here on the Daily
Roada hour. When we returned, we are going to continue
our news and notes NFL discussion, going to talk some
(29:57):
roster limits and a couple other couple other NFL us
and notes. So see you guys on the other side
of bread sports grid dot Com betting insigns, and entertainment
at your fingertips as our team covers the most important
topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models,
expert picks, and more want the edge than get on
(30:19):
the grid. Sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome
back from break here on the daily Road to hour
on sports grid TV, catching everyone up on NFL news
and notes here Today on the program, we discussed some
DeVonta Freeman locations where Antonio Brown might sign if in
(30:41):
fact he does not end up retiring as he threatened
via tweet this last weekend, but actually fairly significant fantasy
football news in my mind. We got We finally got
some Sean McVeigh quotes on what he plans to do
with cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, Malcolm Kelly or Malcolm Brown
and John Kelly. So this is what he said, and
(31:02):
it's it's not great. I think he'll just naturally work
itself out. I think if you look at the success
that San Francisco had last year with that running back
by committee approach, what I thought Kyle Shanahan and their
players did a great job is is saying, hey, we're
gonna have an open minded approach, We're gonna be committed
to trying to have some balance, and then we'll go
with the hot hand. Never like to hear that or
(31:23):
whoever really expresses himself as deserving of the carries. We've
got four backs that we all feel like our NFL
legitimate starting caliber backs and not feeling like you've got
to force carries or touches to any of them. Ricky.
I mean, as as someone who likes cam Akers, and
I believe that you are in that bucket with me
as well. This is the and I know he has
(31:44):
to say this, but this is the last thing you
want to hear. I don't know if you can see
my reaction in real time because I have been focusing
on getting ready for the MLB season most of the time,
so I've not been able to keep up with these
news and notes. But we just had those Scott Fish
Bowl draft offs on Twitter, which are you know these
basically an industry wide draft with thousands of teams, etcetera, etcetera,
(32:05):
where you draft for a league of twelve. And I
finally got a cam Aker share and I was very
excited about it, and this just is painful. Alluding to
that San Francisco team, which I guess Raheem Mostert did
end up with fourteen touchdowns, So let's let's hope he's
saying that, you know, Cam Akers is going to be
my Raheem Mostert, but alluding to that backfield where it
(32:28):
was kind of a crap shoot and there were multiple
guys involved, and there was a run heavy offense where
you know, they were clearly playing the hot hand. We
saw that multiple times. I hate this. I hate this
so much. I thought Sean McVeigh was clearly, you know,
a number one back sort of guy with Todd Gurley,
and he still maybe, to be quite honest, they may
(32:48):
get a look at Cam Akers, and cam Akers just
may have the hot hand for the entire season because
he's the best back. But knowing that, you know, Darryl
Henderson and Malcolm Brown still could be part of the plans.
This just destroys how I feel about cam Acres in
the sense that you know, I was I was on
him as a rock solid fifth round pick. He's probably
(33:09):
going earlier in some leagues that aren't two quarterbacks, so
probably like third fourth round pick. Uh if he's the
best available. If we're talking like RB one, I was
all in on cam Akers. This this hurts. I mean
volume matters for running backs. It's the reason that David
Montgomery is going pretty highly is because we expect him
to get a ton of carries, even though we don't
love the talent With cam Akers. I thought he could
(33:31):
get a similar workload and was a much more talented back,
and it was on a in a system that would
commit to him and had the opportunity to balance the pass.
If this is the case and we're talking about like
of the rushing workload for cam Akers as opposed to
like sixty seventy seventy five, this really hurts me. This
hurts so this is why I don't buy it. So
(33:56):
one of the guys he mentioned was John Kelly. John
Kelly has been on the Rams roster for two years,
including some time on the practice squad. He's been active
for eight total games. He has thirty total rushes for
eighty three yards along of seven yards uh. He has
three targets over that time frame. I I don't buy
that Sean McVeigh believes that John Kelly is his starting
(34:18):
running back right. I just I don't. I think if
he thought John Kelly was a starting caliber NFL running back,
he wouldn't have drafted Darryl Henderson and he really would
not have drafted Cam Akers the next year. Right, because
the Rams roster is totally hamstrung by Jared Goss contract.
They have a bunch of dead money for Todd Gurley.
They're actually still paying part of Brandon Cooks's contract, who
(34:39):
is now applying his trade for the Houston Texans. Like
this nightmare, Like they don't have first round picks, Like
it's a total nightmare, and they spent a second round
pick and back to back years on running backs, on
Darryl Henderson and on Cam Akers. To go even further,
John Kelly never even had a one thousand yards season
in college. Uh, you know, played in a backfield win
(35:00):
with other NFL players Alvin Kamara and Jalen Heard, and
uh was was a backup behind those guys. So I'm
not I'm not buying it for John Kelly. The other
guy that he mentioned is Malcolm Brown, who you know,
folks might remember I really liked as a as a
sleeper last year. He scores the two touchdowns in Week
one Ricky. I thought I was rich, right, I was like,
(35:22):
Malcolm Brown's gonna be the dude, and uh man, he
just blew it, right he I mean he blew it.
This is this is actually crazy. So Malcolm Brown an
undrafted free agent at the University of Texas. How long
do you think he's been in the NFL? Just if
you had to guess four years. He's about to enter
(35:43):
his sixth year in the NFL. He has been on
the Rams for so long. He was drafted and played
for the St. Louis Rams, not the Los Angeles Rams.
He was on the St. Louis Rams. That was the
first team he played for. So he's been in the
NFL for five years. He's racked up a hundred and
ninety seven carries UH. Last year when he got his
audition as the starter, you know, he was awful against
(36:06):
San Francisco, ended up finally at the end of the
year sixty rushing attempts uh three point seven yards per carry,
was targeted only six times in a in a year
where you know, he started more often and and played
more often than any other year of his career. So basically,
those two guys are should not factor in the equation
(36:26):
at all. I think, like, I mean, do you do
you think either of them were going to come into
this at all? I think Malcolm Brown has a much
better chance. Look, John Kelly played three offensive snaps last year,
so yeah, I don't. When I was saying I'm heartbroken
by this, it wasn't because I thought John Kelly legitimately
should factor in. It's the fact that we might get
(36:47):
a three running back committee, which which I think is believable.
I don't know. Malcolm Brown was pretty ugly last year
when when given the chance. You mentioned that like big
first week, but he was given some opportunities after that,
and I remember multiple Daily Fantasy weeks where Malcolm Brown
was the stone chalk and it was like we were
(37:07):
talking like mid forties in terms of yardage and that
was about it from him. I mean, Malcolm Brown not
not someone that I think it's gonna be, you know,
the top back, But if you factor him in for
like twenty of the rushing market share, he becomes annoying.
I think Darryl Henderson is the guy that they probably
have the most faith in of the ones who are
(37:28):
on the roster now. But you think about it, would
they have drafted the second round back if they truly,
truly did have that much faith in him. And you know,
the more I think about it, the more this just
feels like coach speak because you know, cam Akers very
talented back. They had missed Todd Gurley, who was their
guy with this similar personnel. I still happened to believe that,
(37:51):
you know, even in worst case we get like a
back end RB two situation from uh obviously from the
new act and and as he you know, works in
like the second half of the season, that's where you're
gonna get your reward with cam Akers. So I'm still
drafting him with a fair degree of confidence. But you know,
(38:11):
reading the tidbit on him while you're drafting him is
gonna just make you feel a little bit uneasy. But
it's a rookie running back, so of course you know
there's a there's a wide range of potential outcomes here. Yeah,
So this is I think, this is why I don't
believe Sean McVeigh. He he voted with his pocketbook. Right,
That's what that's what we say kind of in in
(38:32):
the world in general, right, that that people in general
do vote with their pocketbooks. Right. It takes. It takes
money to change anything, and Sean McVeigh has a very
limited number of ways to improve his roster. Uh. You know,
that's just the way. That's the way that the Rams
have chosen to go about building this team, and in
the very limited way that he can build his roster. Uh.
(38:55):
You know, he spent that second round pick on Cam
Akers a year after spending that pick on Aarl Henderson,
and I think I think that, uh, that selection is
an admission that Darryl Henderson is not going to be
a good enough NFL running back. Yeah, you're I think
you're probably correct there. I mean, I'm just on Pro
Football Focus looking at the graining from last year. It
(39:17):
wasn't great. I mean, wasn't a very good receiver, wasn't
a very good pass blocker. He was a decent runner um,
but you know, clearly not a guy who screams that
you need to be given him all the carries. I
think cam Akers should get every shot to shine. And
like I mentioned, I think Cam Akers quote unquote having
the hot hand throughout the course of the entire season
(39:39):
is possible, like a Raheem Mostert last year, where maybe
the coach did even have intentions of it being a
big split, but once you see cam Akers run the football,
it's just gonna be like, all right, let's keep giving
this guy the football. Um. Yeah, speaking of Raheem Moster.
By the way, we got a report from rap sheet
Ian Rappaport on Twitter that Raheem Mostert has spoken to
(40:01):
a number of the high ranking members of the forty
niners hierarchy to clear the air and get on the
same page moving forward. This is per Ian Rappaport on Twitter.
So most Hearts, set to make three million dollars this year,
recently requested a trade if they couldn't match Tevin coleman salary,
and uh, basically I think that, Um, this is like,
(40:25):
this is most Art saying like all right, whatever, you know.
It's like it's like when you bluff in poker and
then you get called, or like you you bluff on
the turn and then you get called and then the
other person checks to you on the river, and then
you just check back and you're like, all right, I
give up, Like I'm I'm not actually gonna go all
in in this scenario. Like that's what happened to her
emost Heart. He raised on the turn, but he was
not willing to go all in and like actually like
(40:46):
hold out or do anything. Well when three million dollars
is sitting there on the table. Uh, you understand why.
I mean it's it's it's different for him than it
is for obviously someone bluffing and poker, because you realize
you're probably losing the hand. Uh. If he plays the
hand as is, if he just checks all the way through,
he's got three million dollars headed his way. So it's
(41:07):
really tough for him to to lose it. I think
it's another you know, Mattress scenario where he's like, Okay,
I'm leaving if you guys don't pay me. But he's
actually walking back in the door and be like all right,
I'll take the three million. And I mean it's a
good set up for him, you know, for productivity. If
they're not gonna pay him this year, if he you know,
headlines a heavy rushing attack for this forty Niners team, again,
(41:30):
maybe teams do consider paying him. Uh. We see it
all the time with running backs. All he needs is
like a one to two year contract where he gets
a sizeable amount and that will make his career um
and again I think this offense is set up well
for him. He was five point six yards per carry
last year. Fourteen receptions wasn't huge, uh in you know
the passing game, but ten total touchdowns and I love
(41:54):
Raheem most in this offense. I know you you like
haven't been a fan of him, but I think by
the fault he ends up leading them and because they're
gonna be so run heavy, he may not be fun
in PPR leagues, but like not leagues that don't reward
for receptions. I still think he's gonna be a fine
investment in all formats. I know you're not quite as
(42:14):
high on him, but look at those receivers now, I
mean without Deebo Samuel, Like, what else is this team
going to try and do to win? So I like
most are a lot. As a rusher, I think he's
I think he's a really good runner, right you you
hand the guy that football, you you get him outside
the tackles, he's like, actually, he was a better track
athlete in college than he was a football player. He
(42:37):
never even got to a thousand rushing yards when he
was at when he was at Perdue in college, which
you know, I always think it's fascinating for an NFL
player obviously to have not been a good college player.
But you know, a big part of what the forty
Niners do is they throw the ball at the running back,
right Because Jimmy Garoppolo is not they don't want him
throwing the ball down the field a ton, So they
use their running backs in the passing game a lot
(42:59):
of specially in more competitive games, you know, not when
they're blowing out the Green Bay Packers or or whatever.
So I think my concerns with most of are I
just don't know if he has that passing game skill set. Basically, no,
he I don't think he does. Like I mentioned, fourteen
receptions in total last year, so he's a guy who's
(43:20):
gonna have to get most of it done on the ground.
I just think this is a team that's more committed
to the ground than most, So I think the opportunity
should be completely fine. Uh. It's never fun to roster
back in PPR leagues where you know you're barely ever
going to get a reception. But I think he's one
of the outliers that you could still consider. I don't
(43:41):
want to call him at Derrick Henry Range but like
two tiers below Derrick Henry in the same thought process.
I mean, if most are gets there from a fantasy perspective,
he will have done so in a way remarkably similar
to what Derrick Henry does, where it's it's pretty much
all touchdowns. So everyone, we're gonna go ahead and head
into our final break here on the Daily Road To Hour.
(44:02):
We have a few minutes left on the program. When
we get back, we are going to discuss the recent
report from the Colts offensive coordinator about t Y Hilton
and how he expects the offense to work in So
we will go ahead and see you guys here on
sports Grid TV on the Daily Road to Hour in
just a few minutes. On the other side of break,
(44:24):
sports grid dot Com betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome back to
(44:46):
our final segment here on the Daily Road to Hour
on sports Cred TV. This has been Davis Mannock and
Ricky Sanders Covering our last little bit of news and
notes here, we got a great quote from the offensive
coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts about how they expect their
offense to work in. Nick Serrani said about t Y Hilton,
(45:06):
I expect a great bounce back year for him. He
had a lot of injuries. I expect the version of
t Y Hilton if he stays healthy. There's no doubt
that this is who the past offense is going to
run through. So in that season, Hilton recorded seventy six
receptions shade over twelve receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns, which,
(45:29):
by the way, how crazy is it that Andrew luck
is still retired? Just like you kind of forget that happened,
but it was one of the wildest things um at
the time. So Hilton has bet a guy Ricky for
a large part, I have avoided up until this point,
but I gotta say, the prospect of a healthy t
Y Hilton just getting that insane target workload again, I'm
pretty intrigued here. Yeah, it's hard to not believe a
(45:54):
coach going out and saying something like that. That doesn't
feel like a thing that they need to have coach
speak of out. And you look at t Y Hilton
for a one, two, three, four or five six years stretch,
a guy with at least a hundred nine targets each
of those years, and in eighteen he missed two games,
he still had a hundred and twenty targets. So if
(46:14):
that's gonna be the case you had been selling me
on Paris Campbell, I am not gonna lie guy who
is just a pure speeds there best comparable according to
player profile, it was a Santana Moss. You look at
the forty yard dash, a four three one uh in
the same speed score. I think it's still makes sense
for this to be a multi receiver offense. And I
still have some interest in Paris Campbell. But man, if
(46:36):
you're you're telling me that Philip Rivers is gonna walk
in here, who has really done great things, you know,
with the volume to Keenan Allen, and you're gonna use
him in a similar fashion and just get him. You
know that that those sort of targets basically on pace
for like one one fifty. I have interested him again
in fantasy. Now I've met t Y Hilton. He's like
half my girth and I'm taller than he is and
(46:58):
he's thirty years old, so it's hard for me to
believe that body hasn't broken down at all. But if
you're gonna get anyone that many targets, I think you
gotta have some interest. Yeah, I mean, especially because we
have seen t Y Hilton do it. He gets to
play in that dome that's just a perfect perfect fit
for his skill set, and he does. He has very
little competition for targets. You know, Jack Doyle and Michael Pittman,
(47:22):
A lot of guys who are are just okay. So
everyone that's gonna do it for us here today at
the Daily road to Hour on sports grid TV. Thank
you very much for watching and listening as we went
around the NFL gave a little bit of Mookie Betts
coverage as well. We will continue to go around news
and notes since you guys soon. Sports grid dot Com
(47:43):
Betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven as our
team covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real
time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more. Want
the edge than get on the grid. Sports grid dot
Com
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks
and more. Want the edge, then get on the grid
sports grid dot Com m Hello everyone, and welcome to
(00:22):
the daily Road to Hour here on Sports Grade TV.
I am Davis Maddock, joined today by Ricky Sanders. This
is going to kind of be a news and note show.
We're gonna start off the top here in our first
segment discussing the Mookie Bets contract. But Ricky, you you
have you have some strong feelings about about Mookie Bets. Well,
(00:42):
it's not so much some strong feelings. We should talk
about what the reported deal is. First, it's ten years,
three hundred and fifty million, and this is after he
turned down three hundred million with the Red Sox. So
you had to assume that if the Dodgers were going
to take on his contract, they knew they were paying
him at least that and that got me and friends
to talking that. Look, Mookie Bets is now by far
(01:06):
the richest mookie on earth, with Mookie Blaylock having some
troubles with the law and just obviously having a contract
nowhere near that. But then I asked my friends, I
want to ask you the same question. Do you know
which band that started off touring by the name of
Mookie Blaylock before they changed their name. I don't even
(01:26):
know when the actual Mookie Blaylock played. I'm at a,
I'm at a I'm at a big disadvantage here, give me,
give me an erra again, give me a time frame,
So nineties two you could argue still, but I would
say nineties to the two thousand tens. And the reason
that this is in play is because their band potentially
(01:46):
could be as rich as Mookie Bets, which is why
this is the conversation nineties two. I don't I'm like
I I don't even like nineties like soft rocks. So
I'm so bad this I'm gonna guess third eye blind.
Third eye blind is not the correct answer. Pearl Jam
is the correct answer. The first time they went touring
(02:07):
was as the band name Mookie Blaylock. And just a
few tidbits about that, Randy Johnson was that their first
ever contract uh their first ever concert in Seattle, so
members of Sound Garden were there as well. And for
all you Pearl Jam fans, which I didn't know until
I was reading this, their first album ten was named
after Mookie Blaylock, which I love that album I had.
(02:29):
I had no idea that was the context, but we
were just discussing then was Eddie Vetter technically the most
profitable Mookie of all time? And I think this probably
still puts Mookie bets over here. But I just want
to give you that a little bit of trivia, because man,
I don't know. Three I bet, I bet Pearl Jam
has made more than three fifty million dollars. Now, maybe
maybe Eddie Vetter is not seen all that, but I
(02:49):
would I would imagine the total profits for the career
of Pearl Jam exceeds three million. They have like thirty
five live albums that to even be selling it short.
They're one of those bands that just like every time
they played solid album, So they probably are up there
in terms of like close to grossing towards a billion
(03:09):
as a band. Yeah, I was, you know, I'm more
of a Nirvana guy. I honestly, I really have not
listened to much Pearl Jam in my life. That's a
that's a blind spot for me, So I never I
never was going to get that right. But I mean,
one of the things we should talk about is if
the difference was fifty million dollars over ten years to
what was eventually agreed upon, how does Boston not pay them?
(03:32):
I mean, for for a major League Baseball team, fifty
million dollars? Is that's like to Mike Mustakass over a decade,
you know what I mean? So like, how is how
is Boston which is a legitimately terrible team now, I
mean this, this Boston team that is going to be
playing in the pandemic short and season is egregious. And
maybe maybe you know, we know the Red Sox are
(03:54):
an analytically inclined organization. Maybe they took stock of their
their roster, their prospect, how much money they planned to generate,
and they were just like, look, you know this this
contract actually is going to be an albatross because we
are we are not going to be We're not gonna
win anything. Well, two things, when you're paying Mookie Betts
un till he's thirty seven years old, and we've seen
with like the Pool Halls contract that once you get
(04:16):
to the mid thirties, it starts to become a nuisance.
But the real reason I think that they made the
deal was because of David Price's contract, they were able
to take off the books. If you remember that, I'm
looking at the Price contract right now. He makes thirty
two million a year until so the fact that they
were able to ship him off, they basically said that
(04:36):
if they're trading Mookie, it's so they can get that
Price deal off the books. And this was one of
the few teams that could afford that. So when you
take in the other ninety million, it actually does make
a bit of sense. Uh yeah, I mean, the David
Price contract definitely matters. But like, let's let's be clear,
Mookie Betts is the best non Mike Trout outfielder in
(04:57):
baseball career waited on bass average three seventy seven career
isolated slugging to eighteen. Is a fantastic defender in right field.
I mean, maybe you could argue that right field is
like it's a it's a position you want to have
a good defender in, but it is not a premium
defensive position. So maybe it's it's not that big of
a deal. But I basically would project him to be
(05:20):
one of the best outfielders in baseball for the next
three to five years. Probably so, I think Christian Yeology
and Cody Bellinger in that conversation, but Mookie Bett is
clearly one of the best four. Um. I don't know
how I've even ranked those. If you go according to age,
Mookie Betts probably second or third there, something like that.
(05:42):
But we can agree that that Boston team is now egregious.
Did you see their over under on FanDuel by the
way twenty nine and a half winds basically being projected
to be a sub five hundred team, and you look
at the top of their rotation without David Price, without
Chris Sale. I don't know how you don't count the
under here. I think they're a team that like people
love because they're you know, a Boston in New York
(06:03):
or Chicago will always get you know, Jews from the books.
How are you gonna win thirty games with Nate Yovaldi
as your ace and Martin Perez is you're starting pitcher two?
And then it gets even uglier from there. I think
Ryan Webber's lined up to be their starting pitcher three. Yeah,
Ryan Webber, Brian Johnson, a guy named Matt Hall, who
it is my it is my job to know about
(06:25):
professional sports. I play daily fantasy baseball. I I am
all in on this stuff. I have never in my
life heard of Matt Hall, and he currently is projected
to be their fifth starter. And you know, it's not
like the lineup is as fearsome as it used to be,
you know, because you know, Jackie Bradley Jr. Is now
going to get everyday at bats for whatever reason. Michael
(06:48):
Schavis is not going to be an everyday player for
the Boston Red Sox this year. So a lot of
Jose Peraza plate appearances. Maybe they get a breakout season
from Alex Verdugo, but none of that seems, you know,
overall super likely. But everyone, we're gonna go ahead and
head into our first break here on the daily road
to hour on sports Gride TV. When we return, we're
going to dig into some NFL news and notes and
(07:10):
continue that trend for the rest of the show. So
see you guys in a few minutes on the other
side of break. Sports grid dot Com betting insights and
entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers the most
important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models,
expert picks, and more. Want the edge than get on
the grid sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome
(07:40):
back to the daily road of hour here on Sports
Grade TV. I'm Davis Mannock, joined by Ricky Sanders. Gonna
move from MLB news. We discussed the Mookie Betts contract
there at the top of the hour. Now we are
moving to the NFL. Gonna go through some news and
notes around the league. Actually, the place we should begin with, Rick,
is the NFL and the NFL p A agreed to
(08:01):
COVID nine team testing. You know, this was really the
this was the fly in the ointment of you know,
not knowing what the NFL season was gonna do. We
we think that probably the NFL was waiting to see
what happened with Major League Baseball and the NBA. Those
plans aren't really gonna be a one to one fit
for the NFL because there's so much there's so many
(08:22):
more players, there's so much more more staffing involved. But overall,
I mean, I think you have to say good news
that there is the framework for testing and and for
player safety. Yeah, and I don't want to be that
guy who goes into like for selfish reasons why we
needed this, but for selfish reasons. You and I definitely
want the NFL to play for our job purposes, because
(08:45):
you know that's that's a big money maker for us.
It's a big money maker for a lot of people,
and it shouldn't only be about money. It should be
about the health and safety. It just made sense that,
you know, if these players didn't feel safe, the NFL
had to step it up. I mean, how can you
play a game where guys are constantly getting tackled, being
in piles uh, and not be a hundred percent sure
that the guys on the field don't have COVID nineteen Now,
(09:07):
I was telling people that, you know, Australia has been
playing the National Rugby League, which they don't even have
face masks like blocking you out, and you know scrums
are a big part of that. So quite literally, you know,
multiple times a series there will be a pile up
of guys and they've been able to get away with
it even in the era of COVID. So I wanted
people to be optimistic about the NFL. But when you
(09:29):
were hearing rumors of their not being you know, anything
in place. It was like, what are you doing. I'm
I'm very happy that this has happened, and and really
like just just keep the testing going. We're seeing in
the other sports, how like constant testing. It has been
the answer all along, which we knew. But yeah, thankfully
the NFL is starting to figure it out. Yeah, I'm
I'm glad that there is a plan in place. One
(09:51):
of the guys who right now probably doesn't have a
job due to the COVID nineteen pandemic is DeVonta Freeman.
Chances are that he would have, you know, had a
couple of physicals, probably would have went to work out
with a team or you know, with their coaches at
some point and uh, you know, according to Adam Schefter
on Twitter, Freeman hired super agent Drew Rosenhaus, one of
(10:13):
the biggest, one of the biggest agents in all the
professional sports, and uh says he wants a deal you
know pretty much right now. The exact quote from Rosenhaus.
We want to work at a deal in the immediate future,
and we are open to any team. He's healthy, he's
in shape, and I'm on a mission to give him
to give him to a team to have a lift
in late July. Unfortunately, Ricky, this is uh, this is
(10:36):
a game of musical chairs where there are not enough
chairs and uh, and too many musicians there are. I
I really, you know, kind of looking around the NFL,
I don't really see a backfield where it makes sense
for him to be signing. Like I think that the
two names that have been mentioned most often are Philadelphia
and Tampa Bay. But you know, really, how is is
(11:00):
DeVonta Freeman better than Boston Scott right now? I'm not
sure he is. No, I'm not sure he is either.
And you and I are in a slack chat together
and basically all of our reactions when when this came
out about DeVante Freeman is quote unquote who is he
going to kill? Obviously not in a literal sense, but like,
whose value is he going to kill? I don't think
(11:21):
he is better than Boston Scott, which just shows you,
like why he probably is unsigned at this point considering
the money that he's asking for. Looking at other situations,
I mean, Tampa Bay could make a fair degree of
sense depending on how you feel about Ronald Jones. I
know there are a lot of people who are bullish
on Ronald Jones rushing ability out there, But what about
(11:42):
you know, reuniting if Rathee moster wants U wants out
of there as the Tevin Coleman DeVante Freeman duo in
the backfield in San Francisco, and it pains me to say,
but like, why aren't the Bears interested in him? I mean,
is David Montgomery anything special? I love the volume that
he's likely going to get. I like the one to
duo with like a power back and Tarik Cohen, But
(12:05):
you look behind them, like I would be fine with,
you know, DeVante Freeman being the next guy on the
depth chart and you know, potentially eating into some of
that Montgomery work if he felt like he was slowing down.
But other than that, I don't really see too many
situations where I look at it and be like, DeVante
Freeman will be a great fit there, even Washington, I
think he would just be like another guy in that backfield.
(12:27):
All right, here's here's one and uh, this is a
this is uh, this would be kind of brutal for value.
But what about Carolina their their backup running back situation
is Reggie Bonafon Mike Davis who got cut from the
Chicago Bears last year, and undrafted free agent running back
from Minnesota Rodney Smith, and then Jordan's Scarlett, who right
(12:48):
now actually is dealing with uh an injury. He he
was placed on injured reserve with a with a knee
injury last year. I don't think that Scarlet. Yeah, he
had four Russia attempts last year and that was that
was it for Jordan's Scarlett in the NFL. So you know,
I I actually think that Carolina as basically the handcuff
to Christian McCaffrey. I actually think that is a spot
(13:10):
that does make a little bit of sense. So that
would pain me quite a bit because I did think
that Reggie Bonafon looked good in the limited time that
he got behind Christian McCaffrey, you know, when when the
game was a blowout or towards the end of the year,
when he just got worked towards the end of the game,
I thought he looked pretty good, and so I drafted
him in basically every best ball that we did you
(13:32):
know late, but I mean his best comparable and player
profiler dot com Sere would this is not a guy
who's special. Basically his best metric was his birth score
at eight eight percentile, and everything else was very, very average.
So it would hurt me from a fantasy perspective because
I did think that if Christian McCaffrey went down this year,
you would get like low end RB one production out
(13:54):
of him, just because of the scheme alone and the
fact that I think they need the backfield, the backfield
to catch passes to make everything work on this team, etcetera, etcetera.
But I mean from a skill perspective, I think it
could be argued that he's probably better than him where
you know, the question is him versus Boston Scott. I
think Boston Scott's a more talented player. Yeah. Another situation
(14:14):
that would make a little bit of sense would be Houston,
where their third running back is a fellow by the
name of Buddy Howell. You would be you would be
forgiven for not knowing who that is. Uh. To me,
I think the team kind of used Duke Johnson more
like a slot wide receiver, especially with the departure of
DeAndre Hopkins. You know, it's not like their wide receiver
room is full, it's it's the oft injured Will Fuller.
(14:36):
They have Kenny Stills. They have Brandon Cook and then
Kiki Cutie and Stephen Mitchell Jr. Uh. Freeman makes some
more makes more sense as a direct like one to
one backup for David Johnson as opposed to Duke Johnson,
Like they probably want to leave Duke Johnson in his role.
And we I mean, we know, we know that Bill
O'Brien loves to sign himself some veteran running backs. I
(14:58):
could I could easily see Freeman ending in Houston. And
that's actually not a stone cold disaster for fantasy because
you don't think he will steal the word from David Johnson.
He probably is just a handcuff there. Yeah, Bill O'Brien,
the anti moneyball guy, where you're instead of projecting forward,
you're looking at the production from back in the day
and seeing like, Okay, that'll fit in nicely David Johnson's
(15:20):
year twenty three year old season if we could get
anything near that where he is now. You know that
that's how Bill O'Brien thinks. But Buddy, how by the way,
we've been talking about rock I thought for a second
that was the Weezer song, But that is not That
is Buddy Holly and I think he would be a
fine guy added to this backfield. David Johnson, we don't
(15:40):
know if he's dust like. He certainly looked like it
last year. So if you want to go, you know,
running back by committee, just to see which back has
anything left between him and Devonte Freeman, I'm completely fine
with that. I don't know how to feel about David
Johnson at this point in his career, honestly, all right.
And another one that I thought was interesting Jacksonville. They
(16:01):
hate Leonard Fournette. Right, All of all of Leonard Fournett's
backers inside of that organization are gone. Tom Copland has gone,
The coaching staff the drafted him is gone. So why
I mean DeVonta Freeman a better pass catcher than Leonard Fournette,
write a more a more efficient player. That uh that
that one would and that would ruin Fournett's value right
for Nett would be an eighth round pick if they
(16:22):
signed DeVonta Freeman. Yeah, I mean Leonard four Nett is
a guy who can grind you out some tough yards
and I'm not sure what else you're going to get
from him. Now that Chris Thompson's there, they want to
take away some of that passing work from him. Not
only do you have Thompson, you have the fact that
Laviscus nald will be lining up in the backfield. So
(16:42):
from a fantasy perspective, I'm already concerned about Leonard Fournette. Uh,
he would be someone that I probably wouldn't draft, almost
regardless of how far he fell. If they signed DeVonta Freeman, yeah,
you know, I I think that there is a need
for a pass catching role there as well. You know,
that's why they signed Chris Thompson and then backup running
back situation rich Will Armstead Devon o Zigbo. You know,
(17:04):
these are very replacement level players. This team is in
desperate need of playmakers, and Freeman when healthy, is you know,
a pretty good NFL running back. So I could definitely
see that as possibility. But we're gonna go ahead and
head into our second break here on the Daily Road
to Hour on sports grid TV. When we returned, we
were going to continue running through NFL player news, going
(17:25):
to discuss some Antonio Brown tweets, retirement and whatnot. So
see you guys on that in just a few minutes.
Sports grid dot Com Betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips as our team covers the most important topics in
sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more. Want the edge than Get on the Grid
(17:47):
Sports Grid dot Com. M M. You're watching Sports Screen
get one. Hello everyone, and welcome back from break Here
(18:10):
on the daily Road to Hour on Sports Grade TV.
I am Davis Pinnock, joined by Ricky Sanders as we
go around the NFL updating everyone here on Sports Grade
on all the important news notes and happenings and Ricky drama.
We're We're back. Antonio Brown is tweeted that he's done
with the game. Uh, personally, I'm not. I'm not buying it?
(18:32):
Are you? Are you buying this? Yeah? I secretly wonder.
I guess not so secretly since we're saying it on
this broadcast, but I just did this same sort of thing,
and I wonder if this is what he's doing here.
I was buying a mattress literally two weeks ago. I
decided that my queen size bed basically is being taken
up by both my fiance and my dog, and I
(18:53):
have nothing left. So we decided we were going to
buy a king size bed, but you go to the
mattress store and their charge you an arm and a leg,
So we legitimately weren't you know, having it, and there
we're it just so happened three furniture stores in the
same basically little mall that we said, you know, we're leaving,
we're not paying these prices, and we ended up coming
(19:13):
back later and getting him to lower the price. I
wonder if Antonio Brown is doing the same sort of thing,
like you guys haven't given me the deal that I wanted.
So I'm walking out the mattress store right now, but
I'm still willing to deal with you as I'm walking
out or when I walk back in. And I wonder
if that's the case here, is that Antonio Brown wanted
more money than any of these teams were willing to offer,
(19:34):
so he basically says, Okay, I'm retiring, but he still
has his phone on, and if any of these teams
call him and give him the number that he's looking for,
he probably would un retire and or walk back into
the store really quickly. So I wonder if Antonio Brown
and my mattress shopping are a little bit similar here well,
what's um. You know, what is so interesting about this
(19:56):
is I don't really understand why Seattle wants to sin him. Um.
You know, Tyler Lockett is pretty much at the peak
of his powers. DK Metcalf is, you know, he's not
like DK Metcalf is not a super versatile wide receiver.
He's not someone you can move around all over. But
clearly they're not benching DK Metcalf. They should as an
organization want to give him more targets and let him
(20:19):
grow into that role. I mean, I I view Antonio
Brown is like a very bad fit in Seattle. Basically, yeah,
a guy who probably wants volume when he gets there.
I mean, that's sort of his thing, is he wants
to be the guy. I just don't know looking up
and down rosters where he could go and immediately get
(20:40):
volume and for it to make sense for the team
to win football games for him to get that sort
of volume. I agree with you on Seattle that if
Antonio Brown were not such a headcase and he were
willing to just kind of fit in and be the
guy who could take on his role, I think similar
to what Rob Bronkowski is going to do if UH
(21:01):
with Tampa Bay is just he's willing to be like
the third wheel there. If Antonio Brown's personality allowed him
to do such things, I think it would be really
interesting with Russell Wilson, who's one of the most underrated
quarterbacks potentially in NFL history, with how he's thought of
just because of some you know, playoff basically things that
were out of his control. Uh. And I think he
(21:22):
would be a good number three here. You would have
Tyler Lockett is the guy to stretch the field, you
have dk Metcalf as a big receiver, and you would
have Antonio Brown is your possession guy. I think that
would work incredibly well for Russell Wilson. It's just a
matter of the personality fit. And because there isn't a
personality fit, I don't think he could work. Um. I
mean now it is It is worth noting Seattle does
(21:44):
love to bring in dusty old vets, right, that is
like their number one thing. Right, Trade for Jimmy Graham,
trade for Percy Harvin, bring back Marshawn Lanch after he's
been on the couch for two seasons. I mean, it
really is. Pete Carroll loves veterans. Pete loves to uh
you know, Pete Carroll loves to do this. So I
think that from that sense, like they have no problem
(22:06):
making a thirty two year old Antonio Brown a key
cog of their offense. I just think, like, you know,
if if you overall believe that that like targets are
an indicator of quality. I mean I I just think
that Tyler lock in a DK metcap are so much
more likely to get out there and earn those targets.
(22:27):
Where where else do you think, like, if if you
were to come back off the couch, who do you
think like a surprise team could be? I always include
my bears and things, just because I don't think they're talented,
and well they love vets to be vets exactly. I
mean Ted g Jr. If you'll bring him in, why
not Antonio Brown? Um? But yeah, I just I'm looking
(22:51):
up and down rosters. I don't see very many places
like I have one. I have one where he could
walk into a hundred and fifty targets and and I
we we can go through some more teams, but I
think that it is Washington. Uh. And we we saw
a couple of videos last or maybe two weeks ago
of Dwayne Haskins and Antonio Brown working out, you know,
throwing with one another. But you look at the wide
(23:13):
receiver depth chart in Washington, so they have McLaurin, then
it's Cody Latimer, Antonio Gandy, Golden steven Sims, Tray Quinn,
you know, maybe Antonio Gibson plays a little bit of slot.
Then at tight end they have Jeremy Sprinkle, Hail Hentages,
and Logan Thomas uh. And then in terms of pass
catching running back, probably just Antonio Gibson not not expecting
(23:34):
to see you know, wild amount of targets for Darius guys.
Peterson probably gets no targets, uh, you know, ten targets
or whatever over the course of the year. So I
think Antonio Brown could walk into the Washington professional football
team and and get fifty targets right away. The question is,
for a guy like Haskins, who basically has been extremely
(23:56):
inconsistent with his accuracy, is a smaller receiver like Antonio
Brown really a good fit for him? And by the way,
how dare you not mentioned Daddy's moss as a target
on this Your boy, Your boy, I forgot. I've drafted
him everywhere hoping that he could ascend to the top
of that tight end depth chart. But yeah, I mean,
I guess you've got to give him a second target
of any sort of quality. And if Steven Sims Jr.
(24:19):
Is your alternative, I think Antonio Brown obviously is a
guy that I would take a shot on for upside
over him considering just how he torched the NFL in
the two thousand tents. Yeah, I mean, I like, if
Antonio Brown signs with Washington, Like, what where do you
where do you think he goes? Where do you think
he goes in drafts and he signs with Washington. If
(24:40):
he signs with Washington, he's probably a seventh or eighth
round receiver. Oh no, way, No, you think he's higher
than that. Antonio Brown, like, and Antonio Brown right now,
not being on a team, goes in like the eleventh
round sometimes. Okay, So I guess I'm think of Scott
(25:00):
fish Bowl where you had the two quarterbacks and he
had like a crazy amount he was going to Like
the round he signs with Washington, which is Dwayne Haskins,
who is considered to be one of the lower end quarterbacks.
I think probably seventh round is where I would take him.
I don't think I would be reaching on him for
much more than that. I guess he had like eight
(25:20):
targets in that one game with Brady. They force fed him.
I don't know if that would be the yeah. I
mean I personally then would not end up owning him
much if he signed there. If that's where you think
he goes, um, well there. You know, there are a
couple other potential spots. I think San Francisco, especially with
the Deebo Samuel injury. You know, we think of San
Francisco as this really talented you know, they have weapons everywhere,
(25:42):
but these are their day one, you know, week one
wide receivers, assuming Debo is not back from their foot injury. Uh,
second round draft pick rookie Brandon aiyuk uh total flame out,
Dante Pettis, Trent Taylor, who right now is injured, might
not be ready by week one, and Jalen heard, I
believe Max Mcca a freeze also technically on the roster,
but I mean that is a that is a bear
(26:05):
bones group of pass catchers. Now, obviously they have George Kittle,
so that you know their number one wide receiver is
actually their number two pass catcher. But I mean that
is a group that is a wide receiver group that
needs some help for sure. Yeah, that that is extremely ugly.
I haven't I haven't really taken I've been on aok
in most drassed and I've looked at Jalen Heard, but
(26:25):
i haven't taken a moment to step back and just
look at the wide receiver room here, and it's pretty brutal.
So if there's a team that should be calling Antonio
Brown to, you know, get him out of retirement, and
you assume that Brandon Ayuk is probably not ready, you're
not gonna get you know, as much mini camp, You're
not going to get any preseason this year. So rookies
are just gonna be in a tougher spot. In general,
(26:46):
Why would this team not be on the phone with
Antonio Brown considering all the pieces you have around them.
You've got a strong defense, you feel really good about
your run game, especially if most are just ends up
staying there and you just need another receiver. I mean,
Antonio Oun should be a guy, even if he's a
little bit of you know, a personality that might not
mesh perfectly with this locker room. You need a receiver
(27:08):
so so I think you need to be on the
phone with him. Another one where I could see a
clear role for him, But I think there's no chance
this organization signs him. Is Philadelphia, they have you know,
injured al Sean Jeffrey, always injured de Sean Jackson, though
he is not injured yet j j R. Say a Whiteside,
Greg Ward, and then Jalen Reagor, who you know hopefully
is ready to play by week one, you know, as
(27:30):
as their first round, their first round draft pick. But
again Antonio Brown, he starts in base personnel for Philadelphia
and earns you know, a hundred thirty targets probably right away.
You think, yeah, I don't think there's any chance of
it happening. And by the way, de Sean Jackson mentally
injured of his own making very recently, but we won't
(27:50):
talk about that. Um. Yeah, I mean, I think you
look at this wide receiver for if all Sean Jeffrey
is not going to be healthy, you could use some help.
I think Jalen Reagor, the as it's set up, could
be the number one scoring, you know, rookie receiver, especially
if Deshan Jackson is going to have any blowback from
the things he said, or if he's going to be injured,
(28:12):
or there's just like a wide range of potential negative
outcomes for Deshaun Jackson before we even get to the positives.
You certainly could use another receiver here. They do have
Greg Ward, who looked pretty good last year. They did
sign Marquise Goodwin off the street as well, So like
a guy who's quick as well, forgot about the Marquise
Goodwin signing. That's a that's a yeah, that's ah well,
I mean he might have to play snaps for them
(28:33):
this year, oh no question. If if there's any issues
with the Sean Jackson, you will see plenty of Marquise Goodwin.
But yeah, I don't think they would they would call
upon him. But looking at these receivers in worst case scenarios,
there are some doomed day scenarios for the Eagles receivers
basically other than Jalen reagor big time. Yeah, I definitely agree.
(28:54):
I also think one more team that that might make
sense is the New York Jets because uh, well you
know they I guess they invested in the position with
Mims and Perriman this offseason. But I mean, I just
I think Antonio Brown clearly makes them a much, a
much better team, But they probably don't view it that way.
They probably are happy with the guys they have in
(29:14):
the building. No, I think they're happy with Bishop Perriman.
Even though you've seen people on Twitter tweet his stats
in a warm and cold weather, he has not enjoyed
the cold weather in a small sample. But I don't
know if you're signing Antonio Brown just because you're worried
about the temperature of the ball game. I don't think
that's happening. Yeah, I mean, I think there are clearly
(29:34):
spots to go. And I think part of the reason
why Antonio Brown threatened to retire is, uh, he wants
that bag. He he wants to secure the bag when
and if he gets signed. He's not coming back to
play on the Veterans minimum, you know, he would rather
hang out on on the couch. But we're gonna go
ahead and head into another break here on the Daily
Roada hour. When we returned, we are going to continue
our news and notes NFL discussion, going to talk some
(29:57):
roster limits and a couple other couple other NFL us
and notes. So see you guys on the other side
of bread sports grid dot Com betting insigns, and entertainment
at your fingertips as our team covers the most important
topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models,
expert picks, and more want the edge than get on
(30:19):
the grid. Sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome
back from break here on the daily Road to hour
on sports grid TV, catching everyone up on NFL news
and notes here Today on the program, we discussed some
DeVonta Freeman locations where Antonio Brown might sign if in
(30:41):
fact he does not end up retiring as he threatened
via tweet this last weekend, but actually fairly significant fantasy
football news in my mind. We got We finally got
some Sean McVeigh quotes on what he plans to do
with cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, Malcolm Kelly or Malcolm Brown
and John Kelly. So this is what he said, and
(31:02):
it's it's not great. I think he'll just naturally work
itself out. I think if you look at the success
that San Francisco had last year with that running back
by committee approach, what I thought Kyle Shanahan and their
players did a great job is is saying, hey, we're
gonna have an open minded approach, We're gonna be committed
to trying to have some balance, and then we'll go
with the hot hand. Never like to hear that or
(31:23):
whoever really expresses himself as deserving of the carries. We've
got four backs that we all feel like our NFL
legitimate starting caliber backs and not feeling like you've got
to force carries or touches to any of them. Ricky.
I mean, as as someone who likes cam Akers, and
I believe that you are in that bucket with me
as well. This is the and I know he has
(31:44):
to say this, but this is the last thing you
want to hear. I don't know if you can see
my reaction in real time because I have been focusing
on getting ready for the MLB season most of the time,
so I've not been able to keep up with these
news and notes. But we just had those Scott Fish
Bowl draft offs on Twitter, which are you know these
basically an industry wide draft with thousands of teams, etcetera, etcetera,
(32:05):
where you draft for a league of twelve. And I
finally got a cam Aker share and I was very
excited about it, and this just is painful. Alluding to
that San Francisco team, which I guess Raheem Mostert did
end up with fourteen touchdowns, So let's let's hope he's
saying that, you know, Cam Akers is going to be
my Raheem Mostert, but alluding to that backfield where it
(32:28):
was kind of a crap shoot and there were multiple
guys involved, and there was a run heavy offense where
you know, they were clearly playing the hot hand. We
saw that multiple times. I hate this. I hate this
so much. I thought Sean McVeigh was clearly, you know,
a number one back sort of guy with Todd Gurley,
and he still maybe, to be quite honest, they may
(32:48):
get a look at Cam Akers, and cam Akers just
may have the hot hand for the entire season because
he's the best back. But knowing that, you know, Darryl
Henderson and Malcolm Brown still could be part of the plans.
This just destroys how I feel about cam Acres in
the sense that you know, I was I was on
him as a rock solid fifth round pick. He's probably
(33:09):
going earlier in some leagues that aren't two quarterbacks, so
probably like third fourth round pick. Uh if he's the
best available. If we're talking like RB one, I was
all in on cam Akers. This this hurts. I mean
volume matters for running backs. It's the reason that David
Montgomery is going pretty highly is because we expect him
to get a ton of carries, even though we don't
love the talent With cam Akers. I thought he could
(33:31):
get a similar workload and was a much more talented back,
and it was on a in a system that would
commit to him and had the opportunity to balance the pass.
If this is the case and we're talking about like
of the rushing workload for cam Akers as opposed to
like sixty seventy seventy five, this really hurts me. This
hurts so this is why I don't buy it. So
(33:56):
one of the guys he mentioned was John Kelly. John
Kelly has been on the Rams roster for two years,
including some time on the practice squad. He's been active
for eight total games. He has thirty total rushes for
eighty three yards along of seven yards uh. He has
three targets over that time frame. I I don't buy
that Sean McVeigh believes that John Kelly is his starting
(34:18):
running back right. I just I don't. I think if
he thought John Kelly was a starting caliber NFL running back,
he wouldn't have drafted Darryl Henderson and he really would
not have drafted Cam Akers the next year. Right, because
the Rams roster is totally hamstrung by Jared Goss contract.
They have a bunch of dead money for Todd Gurley.
They're actually still paying part of Brandon Cooks's contract, who
(34:39):
is now applying his trade for the Houston Texans. Like
this nightmare, Like they don't have first round picks, Like
it's a total nightmare, and they spent a second round
pick and back to back years on running backs, on
Darryl Henderson and on Cam Akers. To go even further,
John Kelly never even had a one thousand yards season
in college. Uh, you know, played in a backfield win
(35:00):
with other NFL players Alvin Kamara and Jalen Heard, and
uh was was a backup behind those guys. So I'm
not I'm not buying it for John Kelly. The other
guy that he mentioned is Malcolm Brown, who you know,
folks might remember I really liked as a as a
sleeper last year. He scores the two touchdowns in Week
one Ricky. I thought I was rich, right, I was like,
(35:22):
Malcolm Brown's gonna be the dude, and uh man, he
just blew it, right he I mean he blew it.
This is this is actually crazy. So Malcolm Brown an
undrafted free agent at the University of Texas. How long
do you think he's been in the NFL? Just if
you had to guess four years. He's about to enter
(35:43):
his sixth year in the NFL. He has been on
the Rams for so long. He was drafted and played
for the St. Louis Rams, not the Los Angeles Rams.
He was on the St. Louis Rams. That was the
first team he played for. So he's been in the
NFL for five years. He's racked up a hundred and
ninety seven carries UH. Last year when he got his
audition as the starter, you know, he was awful against
(36:06):
San Francisco, ended up finally at the end of the
year sixty rushing attempts uh three point seven yards per carry,
was targeted only six times in a in a year
where you know, he started more often and and played
more often than any other year of his career. So basically,
those two guys are should not factor in the equation
(36:26):
at all. I think, like, I mean, do you do
you think either of them were going to come into
this at all? I think Malcolm Brown has a much
better chance. Look, John Kelly played three offensive snaps last year,
so yeah, I don't. When I was saying I'm heartbroken
by this, it wasn't because I thought John Kelly legitimately
should factor in. It's the fact that we might get
(36:47):
a three running back committee, which which I think is believable.
I don't know. Malcolm Brown was pretty ugly last year
when when given the chance. You mentioned that like big
first week, but he was given some opportunities after that,
and I remember multiple Daily Fantasy weeks where Malcolm Brown
was the stone chalk and it was like we were
(37:07):
talking like mid forties in terms of yardage and that
was about it from him. I mean, Malcolm Brown not
not someone that I think it's gonna be, you know,
the top back, But if you factor him in for
like twenty of the rushing market share, he becomes annoying.
I think Darryl Henderson is the guy that they probably
have the most faith in of the ones who are
(37:28):
on the roster now. But you think about it, would
they have drafted the second round back if they truly,
truly did have that much faith in him. And you know,
the more I think about it, the more this just
feels like coach speak because you know, cam Akers very
talented back. They had missed Todd Gurley, who was their
guy with this similar personnel. I still happened to believe that,
(37:51):
you know, even in worst case we get like a
back end RB two situation from uh obviously from the
new act and and as he you know, works in
like the second half of the season, that's where you're
gonna get your reward with cam Akers. So I'm still
drafting him with a fair degree of confidence. But you know,
(38:11):
reading the tidbit on him while you're drafting him is
gonna just make you feel a little bit uneasy. But
it's a rookie running back, so of course you know
there's a there's a wide range of potential outcomes here. Yeah,
So this is I think, this is why I don't
believe Sean McVeigh. He he voted with his pocketbook. Right,
That's what that's what we say kind of in in
(38:32):
the world in general, right, that that people in general
do vote with their pocketbooks. Right. It takes. It takes
money to change anything, and Sean McVeigh has a very
limited number of ways to improve his roster. Uh. You know,
that's just the way. That's the way that the Rams
have chosen to go about building this team, and in
the very limited way that he can build his roster. Uh.
(38:55):
You know, he spent that second round pick on Cam
Akers a year after spending that pick on Aarl Henderson,
and I think I think that, uh, that selection is
an admission that Darryl Henderson is not going to be
a good enough NFL running back. Yeah, you're I think
you're probably correct there. I mean, I'm just on Pro
Football Focus looking at the graining from last year. It
(39:17):
wasn't great. I mean, wasn't a very good receiver, wasn't
a very good pass blocker. He was a decent runner um,
but you know, clearly not a guy who screams that
you need to be given him all the carries. I
think cam Akers should get every shot to shine. And
like I mentioned, I think Cam Akers quote unquote having
the hot hand throughout the course of the entire season
(39:39):
is possible, like a Raheem Mostert last year, where maybe
the coach did even have intentions of it being a
big split, but once you see cam Akers run the football,
it's just gonna be like, all right, let's keep giving
this guy the football. Um. Yeah, speaking of Raheem Moster.
By the way, we got a report from rap sheet
Ian Rappaport on Twitter that Raheem Mostert has spoken to
(40:01):
a number of the high ranking members of the forty
niners hierarchy to clear the air and get on the
same page moving forward. This is per Ian Rappaport on Twitter.
So most Hearts, set to make three million dollars this year,
recently requested a trade if they couldn't match Tevin coleman salary,
and uh, basically I think that, Um, this is like,
(40:25):
this is most Art saying like all right, whatever, you know.
It's like it's like when you bluff in poker and
then you get called, or like you you bluff on
the turn and then you get called and then the
other person checks to you on the river, and then
you just check back and you're like, all right, I
give up, Like I'm I'm not actually gonna go all
in in this scenario. Like that's what happened to her
emost Heart. He raised on the turn, but he was
not willing to go all in and like actually like
(40:46):
hold out or do anything. Well when three million dollars
is sitting there on the table. Uh, you understand why.
I mean it's it's it's different for him than it
is for obviously someone bluffing and poker, because you realize
you're probably losing the hand. Uh. If he plays the
hand as is, if he just checks all the way through,
he's got three million dollars headed his way. So it's
(41:07):
really tough for him to to lose it. I think
it's another you know, Mattress scenario where he's like, Okay,
I'm leaving if you guys don't pay me. But he's
actually walking back in the door and be like all right,
I'll take the three million. And I mean it's a
good set up for him, you know, for productivity. If
they're not gonna pay him this year, if he you know,
headlines a heavy rushing attack for this forty Niners team, again,
(41:30):
maybe teams do consider paying him. Uh. We see it
all the time with running backs. All he needs is
like a one to two year contract where he gets
a sizeable amount and that will make his career um
and again I think this offense is set up well
for him. He was five point six yards per carry
last year. Fourteen receptions wasn't huge, uh in you know
the passing game, but ten total touchdowns and I love
(41:54):
Raheem most in this offense. I know you you like
haven't been a fan of him, but I think by
the fault he ends up leading them and because they're
gonna be so run heavy, he may not be fun
in PPR leagues, but like not leagues that don't reward
for receptions. I still think he's gonna be a fine
investment in all formats. I know you're not quite as
(42:14):
high on him, but look at those receivers now, I
mean without Deebo Samuel, Like, what else is this team
going to try and do to win? So I like
most are a lot. As a rusher, I think he's
I think he's a really good runner, right you you
hand the guy that football, you you get him outside
the tackles, he's like, actually, he was a better track
athlete in college than he was a football player. He
(42:37):
never even got to a thousand rushing yards when he
was at when he was at Perdue in college, which
you know, I always think it's fascinating for an NFL
player obviously to have not been a good college player.
But you know, a big part of what the forty
Niners do is they throw the ball at the running back,
right Because Jimmy Garoppolo is not they don't want him
throwing the ball down the field a ton, So they
use their running backs in the passing game a lot
(42:59):
of specially in more competitive games, you know, not when
they're blowing out the Green Bay Packers or or whatever.
So I think my concerns with most of are I
just don't know if he has that passing game skill set. Basically, no,
he I don't think he does. Like I mentioned, fourteen
receptions in total last year, so he's a guy who's
(43:20):
gonna have to get most of it done on the ground.
I just think this is a team that's more committed
to the ground than most, So I think the opportunity
should be completely fine. Uh. It's never fun to roster
back in PPR leagues where you know you're barely ever
going to get a reception. But I think he's one
of the outliers that you could still consider. I don't
(43:41):
want to call him at Derrick Henry Range but like
two tiers below Derrick Henry in the same thought process.
I mean, if most are gets there from a fantasy perspective,
he will have done so in a way remarkably similar
to what Derrick Henry does, where it's it's pretty much
all touchdowns. So everyone, we're gonna go ahead and head
into our final break here on the Daily Road To Hour.
(44:02):
We have a few minutes left on the program. When
we get back, we are going to discuss the recent
report from the Colts offensive coordinator about t Y Hilton
and how he expects the offense to work in So
we will go ahead and see you guys here on
sports Grid TV on the Daily Road to Hour in
just a few minutes. On the other side of break,
(44:24):
sports grid dot Com betting insights and entertainment at your
fingertips seven as our team covers the most important topics
in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks,
and more want the edge than get on the grid
sports grid dot Com. Hello everyone, and welcome back to
(44:46):
our final segment here on the Daily Road to Hour
on sports Cred TV. This has been Davis Mannock and
Ricky Sanders Covering our last little bit of news and
notes here, we got a great quote from the offensive
coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts about how they expect their
offense to work in. Nick Serrani said about t Y Hilton,
(45:06):
I expect a great bounce back year for him. He
had a lot of injuries. I expect the version of
t Y Hilton if he stays healthy. There's no doubt
that this is who the past offense is going to
run through. So in that season, Hilton recorded seventy six
receptions shade over twelve receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns, which,
(45:29):
by the way, how crazy is it that Andrew luck
is still retired? Just like you kind of forget that happened,
but it was one of the wildest things um at
the time. So Hilton has bet a guy Ricky for
a large part, I have avoided up until this point,
but I gotta say, the prospect of a healthy t
Y Hilton just getting that insane target workload again, I'm
pretty intrigued here. Yeah, it's hard to not believe a
(45:54):
coach going out and saying something like that. That doesn't
feel like a thing that they need to have coach
speak of out. And you look at t Y Hilton
for a one, two, three, four or five six years stretch,
a guy with at least a hundred nine targets each
of those years, and in eighteen he missed two games,
he still had a hundred and twenty targets. So if
(46:14):
that's gonna be the case you had been selling me
on Paris Campbell, I am not gonna lie guy who
is just a pure speeds there best comparable according to
player profile, it was a Santana Moss. You look at
the forty yard dash, a four three one uh in
the same speed score. I think it's still makes sense
for this to be a multi receiver offense. And I
still have some interest in Paris Campbell. But man, if
(46:36):
you're you're telling me that Philip Rivers is gonna walk
in here, who has really done great things, you know,
with the volume to Keenan Allen, and you're gonna use
him in a similar fashion and just get him. You
know that that those sort of targets basically on pace
for like one one fifty. I have interested him again
in fantasy. Now I've met t Y Hilton. He's like
half my girth and I'm taller than he is and
(46:58):
he's thirty years old, so it's hard for me to
believe that body hasn't broken down at all. But if
you're gonna get anyone that many targets, I think you
gotta have some interest. Yeah, I mean, especially because we
have seen t Y Hilton do it. He gets to
play in that dome that's just a perfect perfect fit
for his skill set, and he does. He has very
little competition for targets. You know, Jack Doyle and Michael Pittman,
(47:22):
A lot of guys who are are just okay. So
everyone that's gonna do it for us here today at
the Daily road to Hour on sports grid TV. Thank
you very much for watching and listening as we went
around the NFL gave a little bit of Mookie Betts
coverage as well. We will continue to go around news
and notes since you guys soon. Sports grid dot Com
(47:43):
Betting insights and entertainment at your fingertips seven as our
team covers the most important topics in sports wagering, real
time odds, predictive betting models, expert picks, and more. Want
the edge than get on the grid. Sports grid dot
Com
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.