Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: New York Giants & Carson Wentz Injury

Episode Date: August 2, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan), Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley), and Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) preview the New York Giants 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com, along with discussion on recent news regarding Carson Wentz's injury and surgery. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points Podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Everybody, welcome to the Fantasy Points Podcast. There's a lot of Fs. You got to give me a little bit of slack here, a lot of Fs. The Fantasy Points Podcast, franchise focus series. at FantasyPoints.com.

My name's Joe Dolan. His name's Tom Brawley. His name's Graham Barfield. And if you're listening to this podcast, I would like to welcome all the people in our lives from, who remember that, isn't it just the biggest coincidence, guys, that like in the month of August, there's just all old friends,

they're coming around the corner, they're like, you know, what are Dolan's doing? Like, I haven't talked to them in a while. They're back, and we're back. It's the franchise-focused podcast series here at FantasyPoints. It is wonderful to be with you guys. For yet another week, we are going to be firing through these to get these done.

I think I want to get them all shipped out, like, at least by the time, like, the first preseason game comes around. So we're going to have all 32 teams covered. We waited as long as we could for the Deshawn Watson thing. I don't even think the Texans know what's going on with Deshawn Watson. So I don't know how we're supposed to know. But we got some clarity on the Green Bay Packers and Denver situations. We were holding off on Denver just in case they traded for Rogers.

So those are going to be coming down the play. next week, but it's good to be with you here on the franchise focus podcast series as we've been doing each and every weekday. Guys, today's, the topic of conversation today is the New York Giants, but we were talking off air, Tom and Graham, that the Giants are kind of boring. And we will find something to talk about with them. And I think it's going to all surround Daniel Jones. But we, just before we came on to record the podcast today, we had some major news. And since we've already covered this particular team with a franchise focus podcast and article, I think thought it would be prudent for us to update the people on the situation.

Unless you live under a rock, you probably have heard by the time you listen to this podcast that Colts coach Frank Reich, who is coming back from a stint on the COVID-19 list, announced this today, it's Monday, August 2nd, that quarterback Carson Wentz will indeed be having surgery for a foot injury. Now, Frank Wright came out and said this was like an old high school injury and a bone came loose and they're going to remove the bone. And guys, it comes with the weirdest time frame for an injury I have ever heard. It is a five to 12 week recovery. What this says to me is, first and foremost, I think the most obvious thing is the Eagles' chances of getting a

first round pick from the Colts are just like, they're almost totally shot right now. Because even at five weeks, that would take Wentz right up to week one. I wouldn't expect to see him. at that point. The conditions on that pick, remember, it was a conditional first round pick and a third round pick for Wentz. The third round already conveyed the Eagles used it this year. But the conditional first, the conditions are, Wence has to play 75% of the Colts offensive snaps in 2021 or 70% end the Colts make the playoffs. That is in severe jeopardy right now. When it comes to the Colts for fantasy, though, and Tom, I'm going to start with you. I mean, this just nukes the team for me.

And I'm not saying I was like overly optimistic about Wentz this year, you know, just based on how he played last year. But I mean, good Lord. Their quarterback now is Jacob. I don't think they have a quarterback who's thrown an NFL pass on their roster. That's something they should probably rectify at some point. But Tom, I mean, this is bad news for the Colts across the board. And especially for fantasy where, you know, people weren't really drafting their receivers highly anyway.

but I can't imagine that you feel like they have a ton of upside at this point. No, yeah, this is, I'm going to be knocking, you know, I'll go in and do my best ball rankings here later today. But I was already starting to move them down because I just assumed that Wentz was going to miss at least the first couple of games. Now we get this bizarre 5 to 12. I would, I, no, when it's that wide of a range, I'm going to go on the longer end. I think they're, you know, just trying to, you know, keep their fan base,

a little sane, I guess, by giving that five week. But I would be surprised if we see him in, you know, September, anytime in September. I'm going in with the expectation that he's missing at least three or four games going into this season. So I'll be dropping him down in the QB 30 somewhere there. The passing game. I'm not going to draft him, Tom. Oh, no, no, yeah. I won't be drafting.

He's a complete stayaway at this point. You know, there's no guarantee that he's going to get. more mobility back as the season goes along. You know, he's going to be probably more confined to the pocket here going forward. It's just a suck for the entire offense. I'll probably be moving Jonathan Taylor probably outside my first round here, I would think later today too, because I just don't see the upside with this offense anymore

with, you know, Jacob East and Sam Ellinger, and they signed Brett Hunley this weekend. So just three guys that aren't going to be really able to carry the offense for the first month of the season. while I'd rather have a quarterback who doesn't have a past throne than Brett Hunley on my roster. So, I mean, at least there's that. Graham, any thoughts here? I mean, this offense was not one I was excited to invest in anyway.

With the exception of like T.Y. Hilton late, I still think he's probably a value. I'm not like fretting that I have T.Y. Hilton shares. But, I mean, with the exception, I mean, forget about it. I mean, just terrible. Yeah, the five to week, five to 12 week thing is so funny to me too. it's like, oh, he could be back by week one or, oh, he could be back by, like, the middle of, like, November. It's just, I don't know, it's hilarious at this point. The timeline of this all is bizarre, too.

Like, over the weekend, they're saying, oh, we're going to see if he can, you know, just kind of like take it easy and probably, you know, hopefully he can avoid surgery. It's not a less frank. And now, you know, Monday, it turns around. It's maybe getting worse. And they're like, okay, yeah, we should just go ahead and try to fix this. But, yeah, I'm with you. I mean, I was kind of low on Jonathan Taylor to begin with. I had Aaron Jones, like, significantly ahead of them.

Devante Adams significantly ahead. I'm closer to like Stefan Diggs and Calvin Ridley. And yeah, I think I'm going to be, I'm going to be moving them down too. I really didn't have much JT to begin with. And, you know, now I'm probably going to be even more, uh, more, I guess, cautious around his ADP. If he slips, if he starts slipping in like the mid-second round, though, that's interesting. Nick Chubb range. And, and I mean, I'm, I'm like a little higher on him than I am Chubb, as much as I love Chub,

only because of, I just think Taylor's got a better shot to be like a true bell cow, even if, well, now, here's the other thing, though. I was kind of excited about Taylor with Wentz because Wentz doesn't check the ball down, so I didn't think that was going to be, I thought there would be less incentive for the Colts to get Naim Hines on the field than when Philip Rivers was quarterback, for instance. Now I don't know. I mean, I don't, Jacob Easton has a big arm, but Tom, let's explore the elephant in the room. Are the Colts going to trade for a quarterback? because they have every incentive now, because I think there's a very low chance, just from my read on the situation. The Colts have every incentive to make sure Wents takes as long as possible to get healthy, because if they can just stem off, by the way, it's a very tough early season schedule, but say you go like two and four over the first six weeks and you're like, all right,

we've got 11 games left, we're in a weak division, we can still make the playoffs, Oh, and by the way, Wentz still might not play 75% of the snaps. That is the best outcome for the Colts. For them to do that, trading for a veteran quarterback is probably the best course of action. So who's out there? Everybody's going to say Nick Fools. Yeah, and that's not going to happen. I just don't see it happening.

His play has really fallen off here the last couple of years. And you just don't want to bring that elephant back into the room. If you're really serious about rehabilitation, You know, Carson Wentz here, getting him back to where he was, you know, at the start of his career, you're not going to bring in Nick Fools. You don't want to bring that elephant into the room. So, then you look elsewhere. I mean, there's not really any great names, you know, in terms of free agents. We said they brought in Brett Hundley. And, you know, I look at the other quarterback rooms. It's not like, I just don't see a name out there. So they've spent draft picks on Jacob Eason here. you know, Sam Ellinger's on the roster. I kind of see them probably sticking with the status quo here, given one of these younger guys a chance. Unless, you know, a big name gets, you know,

towards the end of August, which I don't think will probably happen. But I just don't see many avenues for them right now. So I think they kind of, they might have to suck it up and go into the season with, you know, Jacob Isson, you know, a second year man as the quarterback here. And Frank Reich apparently told Isan, by the way, quote, it's your show. That's from

Zach Keeper. I mean, look, you're probably right now, like Frank, right, they haven't had to sit down with with Chris Ballard and decided, hey, what are our options here? Wentz just got this news today, apparently. So, I mean, look, there's a lot of time here. Graham, the only other guy

I could think of is Jimmy Garoppola. Yep, and that's the guy mentioned you guys a little bit ago. It's like they would have to do some finagling with his contract. You know, the Niners have probably tried to move Gropolo quietly all offseason since they drafted Lansson probably haven't had many suitors because of that contract. But yeah, the flip side to this too is like the Colts

first five games are brutal. They play the Seahawks, the Rams, the Titans, the Dolphins, and the Ravens, and the Ravens, and they could theoretically start the season, Owen five. Three of those games, Titans, Dolphins, and Ravens all on the road too. So yeah, yeah, it's, uh, unfortunately for Colts fans, man, it's a really tough start of the year for them. Yeah. And so then, then the thing becomes say you do start 0 and 5. Well, again, you have one more game this year to make up that gap. That's significant. But if you get to the point where you're like, it's not going to happen this year,

then the Colts, their incentive should be is Carson Wentz going to be our quarterback beyond this season? And then you use it as an evaluation period. I've also seen, by the way, Marcus Mario dair, to thrown around. I guess that could work too if you want to stop gap. But, you know, I think for the Colts, maybe just from a France, franchise purpose, Tom here, the best bet for them is to get a look at Jacob Eason, because if they can't count on Carson Wentby on this year, you might as well see if you already have somebody in the building who you can count on. Yeah, that's my thinking on it. You know, as Graham laid out there, the opening stretch is going to be tough for anybody to come in, you know, learn a new playbook and, you know, have success right out of the gates. So I think you give these guys a lot of reps in the, you know, three preseason games that you have, play play. Play, play the play.

he's got, you know, him and Ellinger, you know, each give them basically a half and see what you got. And, you know, they could be in a similar situation at the end of the year where they're like, do we really want to go forward with Carson Wentz? Do we have a viable option behind them? You know, this was a team with fairly high aspirations and now it almost feels like they're kind of like stuck in purgatory here a little bit. Kind of, you know, this season could go sideways for them. So I wasn't feeling that, you know, that was one of my best bets I gave out under, 10 wins, you know, when we were doing the franchise focuses a couple weeks ago with the Colts. But I haven't seen where the number is now, but.

Is it even on the board? It might be on the board here later today. They probably took it off here over the weekend. So maybe we'll have an update, you know, later this week. But I think they're probably going to be, you know, that AFC South is going to be pretty wild. It's going to be pretty wide open. It's, you know, arguably the weakest division in the, in the Lidavis. now, especially, you know, with the situation that quarterback here for the Colts.

Yeah. All right. Let's get to the NFC East, which was the weakest division in the NFL last year. And let's talk New York Giants. Tom, let's go to the odds. Season win total, 7 minus 130 to the over, plus 450 to win the NFC, east, plus 210 to make the playoffs, plus 4,000 to win the NFC, plus 8,000 to win the Super Bowl. Tom, the markets are telling you here, we do not believe the New York Giants are a contender,

even in this week division. Yeah, I'm a little bit surprised. They made some pretty good moves in the off season. Got some difference makers in like Kenny Goladay. You know, they brought in Adori Jackson to potentially be that second quarterback on this roster across from James Bradbury. So they made some, you know, pretty interesting, you know, signings here. But still, you know, still pretty cool on them overall.

You know, the win total has ticked up just a little bit from March. but expectations are still really low. It's all going to hinge on Daniel Jones, as we know here. They kind of spent the offseason. They drafted Cadarius Tony in the first round. So really trying to load up on the weaponry around him. But the question remains if Jones is good enough to take advantage of it. And, you know, I think there's still some question marks on that offensive line as well.

That was one spot where, you know, I think people thought that they would address it, you know, high in the draft. and they are going to give their, you know, first in their third round pick from last year, you know, the two tackles, pert and Thomas, they're going to give those guys a chance to play. So, you know, it's a lot on this offense is on these, you know, early round picks that they've used the last couple of years. Yeah. Graham, for fantasy purposes, I have not been diving much into the Giants at all. Now, I am going to say, our guy, Dr. Edwin Porst, Dr. Physical Therapy, you've heard him here on the podcast.

You know him from the website. He is bullish on Sequin Barclay. Now, that doesn't mean the Giants aren't going to be cautious with Seacquan Barclay. But Edwin believes that Sequin should be ready to go early and often this season. I have been taking Seekwan if he falls to the back end of the first round. And I'm totally fine with taking Seekon if he falls to the back end of the first round. But here's the thing, Graham.

Who else are you drafting from this team? And who else are you excited to draft from this team? Because I'm almost coming up empty here. I kind of like Kenny Ghaladay as a wide receiver three at like the five, six turn. You know, for most of the summer, pretty much everybody's remained tame on Gala Day. And I get it. I mean, you know, Daniel Jones still has a long way to go and his progress as a quarterback. I think the larger concern, excuse me, the larger concern is Jason Garrett.

Garrett, you know, I wrote this up in franchise focus, but Garrett was one of the most run-heavy coaches in all-game situations last year. I'm not convinced he's going to know how to get all these pieces to work together. But that being said, I mean, even if the Giants, you know, struggle and they are somewhere around their win total, they're going to have to throw quite a bit late in games. And that should be Kenny Gallaudet. I mean, Jones has not had a perimeter alpha receiver like Ghaladay in his career. And Daniel Jones was actually kind of good at throwing deep downfield last year.

So I've kind of been in on Ghaladay as like a wide receiver three. I don't really want him like if I'm going to start my draft like running back heavy and take a quarterback like let's say in like the fourth round or something like that. I don't really want Goladay to be my two. I love him as a three. just because you kind of have that, like, baked in safety with your first two guys. But outside of that, man, yeah, it's pretty dusty, you know. I'm not excited to draft Ingram or Shepard or Sleighton or any of those guys late. Yeah, and he's been falling.

He's been falling a little bit here. I've noticed, you know, the Cincinnati receivers with T. Higgins and Jamar Chase, they've been kind of moving up draft boards. You know, Brandon Ayuk. He has started to fall. I've seen him around in some sixth round. picks there. So I'm with you, Graham, I've been taking them a little bit there. The only other guy, and I know, you know, he's nothing sexy here, but Cadarius, Tony, I mean,

as a last realm, oh, he's free. He's, he is just so dirt cheap now. I realize that, you know, he's kind of behind on the depth chart right now, you know, had some, you know, issues with the, you know, reporting the camp, mini-camp, and, you know, there have been good reasons why he's slipped down the depth chart. But, uh, I, think by, you know, middle of the season, like he's going to have some sort of role here. You know, first round talent, slip into the end of, you know, 240 picks into drafts. So I've been taking some shares of him, fully acknowledging that, you know, he might be a guy that gets out of the gates pretty slow. But maybe not somebody that you really need to target in season long.

Let him just sit out there on the waiver wire. But a good little target at the end of draft. Yeah. Oh, and by the way, just for what it's worth, we're talking here on August. second guys. We are still in the waking moments of training camp here. So let's not freak out. But Giants beatwriters have been overtly saying that Daniel Jones has struggled so far in training. And I mean, like for like a week of training camp, okay, we got the entire preseason coming. Let's not write the epitaph for his season just yet. But the Giants would probably have to be

concerned, Graham, with how he's responding to the fact that he knows this is a make or break season for him. yeah no doubt and like i said it kind of goes back to the coaching staff too like i'm not super confident that garret's going to know you know kind of know how to get all these pieces to to mesh together but yeah dan dug in over at the athletic i read a piece from him this weekend where he said you know him and galaday dan r jones and golladay just happened not been on the same page um and it's definitely it's it's not time to freak out for sure um but i also don't think it's necessarily a surprise when the track record, you know, last year being the only track record, was a mixed bag, to say the least.

Tom, I mean, Daniel Jones, the problem I have with him is I don't think he, like, by any stretch of the imagination stinks, but, like, has he given us any reason to believe that he's ever going to be very good? Not really. I mean, he certainly had some flashes. I mean, you think about that game down in Tampa during his rookie season. And there was some really, really good ceiling games. I think he had like four or five games where he scored 30 plus fantasy points.

But, you know, that upside really wasn't there last year. I just haven't seen it enough as a passer. He does run a little bit, which, you know, entices us a little bit more for. That's the one thing for fantasy is, though, the running. That's the one thing. Yeah, I just don't know if there's enough there for the passing, though. And, you know, where he's been drafted, you know, I've been targeting Trey Lance and Justin fields and you know he's about 150 150 picks into drafts i've been you know even like ryan

fitzpatrick and more of an unknown with two i've been more willing to go there i just don't know maybe those were just kind of flash in the pan type games and as a rookie in 2019 because we really didn't see much of that ceiling last year so yeah he i've been pretty cool on him you know mostly the entire offense here this all all this off season well guys that'll wrap up the new york Giants podcast. It's just a team that I haven't been terribly excited to be diving into the waters on. And, you know, tomorrow on tomorrow's podcast, we're going to be talking about another team that I haven't been terribly excited to dive into the waters on. Even though I'm intrigued by the team as a whole, that would be the New York Jets. Obviously, we had the big Carson Wentz news today, and that was

the big focus at the top of this podcast. And I guess, guys, we'll be continuing to update news. There will be training camp news coming down, but that is kind of the first real huge blow of training camp following the Cam Acres pre-training camp news. But that one is a big blow for the

Indianapolis cult. A lot to digest with that one. I hope you all enjoyed this edition of the franchise focus podcast here at Fantasypoints.com.

Follow me on Twitter at FG underscore Dolan. Follow Tom on Twitter at Tom Brawley and follow Graham on Twitter at Graham Barfield. Follow the site on

Twitter at Fantasy PTS. And remember to go to the website, subscribe if you want to read these massive articles that accompany these podcast. More so the podcast

accompany the articles, but maybe you prefer your audio content, but believe me, you will not regret the written content that we are putting out. Thanks everybody for listening, and we hope you join us tomorrow for a breakdown of the New York Jets. Thanks for tuning in to this edition

of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.