Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: Washington Football Team

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) preview the Washington Football Team's 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com. --- 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 for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.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. To talk the team. FantasyPoint.com franchise focus podcast series, team 31 of 32 that we're discussing is the team, the Washington football team. team here. We are so excited to bring all these podcasts and article series to you. And we, believe me, we are more excited they're done. Tom and I are wrapping up the podcast here. My name's Joe Doan, by the way, he's Tom Broly. And it's time to talk to defending NFC East Champion, which is not

that impressive an accomplishment, the Washington football team winning the worst division in football last year, but also making some really intriguing upgrades as the team attempts to defend its title. Tom, it's good to be with you this morning. You might have heard earlier today. We discussed the Tennessee Titans. We're trying to get all these podcasts and articles out before week one of the preseason when all the teams kick off. That'll be on Thursday night.

So we will have all 32 teams done. And then Tom, we're into draft mode. We are firing into draft mode. Getting our draft cram together cheat sheets, projections, articles, all that crap is going to be up at FantasyPoint.com. Make sure you subscribe because you do not want to lose your family. Fantasy League. Tom, the Washington football team. Eight and a half wins, minus 115 to the over, plus 200 to win the NFC East, plus 120 to make the playoffs, plus 2200 to win the NFC and plus

5,000 to win the Super Bowl. I don't know if you're leaning somewhere here. I haven't read your betting preview yet, which will also be out today, but seems like pretty fair lines across the board for a team that won a crappy division last year, but you can also make the argument, has an elite defense and improved significantly on offense. Yeah, they were the only team, you know, with a losing record to get into the playoffs last year. They win the division there. They actually had the second longest odds to make the postseason last year, plus 700, plus 700, only to Jaguars at plus 800 were a little bit longer last year. But, you know, the defense kind of did it all for them last year.

you know, it was one of the, not a unit that came out of nowhere, because obviously they drafted, you know, Chase Young second overall. They've, you know, put a lot of resources into that defensive line with first round picks over the last couple of years. And it kind of paid off. Young kind of put the group over the top. And it was kind of the catalyst for the entire defense. And now that defense looks even better after some of the offseason moves they made.

They used their first round pick on. uh, Davis out of Kentucky there. Jamin, is it Jamin Davis? Jameen Davis. Jamin Davis. Let, you know what, let me, let me look that up because I pride myself of making sure, uh, I pronounce, uh, yeah, I don't really pronounce many, uh, defensive player names on a podcast and live streams, but yes, it's Jamin.

Jamin Davis. They, uh, drafted him in the first round. Uh, yeah, and they also, they needed to upgrade it in quarterback. And, and they got William Jackson, the third from Cincinnati, uh, you know, could be their, uh, kind of. of their shutdown corner for them. So they made the two groups that were kind of the weakest on their defense. They improved those. And the big, I think the big move, you know, moving from Alex Smith, great story last year, wins the comeback player of the year.

But, you know, it was one of the worst quarterback situations in the league. And they were able to overcome it and make the playoffs. But they go out and get the journeyman, Mr. Ryan Fitzpatts. Patrick, you know, he's going to be kind of handed the job here. They haven't handed him the job. He's in a competition with Tyler Heineke, but he's fully expected to be the guy. And he's been a popular target for us for, you know, for fantasy football, you know, after 150 picks in. So, you know, Fitzpatrick potentially could be a major upgrade on offense here, you know, could take this offense to a different level here.

Yeah, so let's talk about that offense because that's, well, that's kind of what we do in fantasy football. I think, I think by the way, I'm not stepping on anybody's toes here by telling you that I think this will be a good defense to draft if you have defenses in your league. That's not a hot take at all. But Tom, let's talk one player in particular, and that's Antonio Gibson, who I just find is a super appealing second round pick. I'm not sure. He will slip in to that first round, you know, because that 10 to 12 range in the first round always coincides, almost always overlaps with like, you know, 13 to 16 in the second round. It's just which players do you like best, which build are you going for? But over, let's just call him a second round pick.

I can make the argument he's my favorite second round running back at this point. Yeah, he was, I loved it earlier in the spring and summer, whenever, you know, the hype wasn't nearly, you know, nearly as fever. it is it is now. He was a guy could routinely get like towards the back end of the second round, but those days are long gone. I feel like our guy, you know, Adam Kaplan, you know, all our powwows

and he started building the momentum for Antonio Gibson here. You know, we talked all offseason that they didn't really, they didn't want to put too much on his plate as a first year player. You know, it's well chronicled how you know, he only had like 75 or 80 touches

during his career. at Memphis in two seasons there. So they didn't want to overwhelm him, but he certainly passed every test that they gave him to flying Kellers last year as a running back. So now the talk is that they're going to put more on his plate, that he's going to get more, you know, passing down situations.

He could play more in their hurry-up offense. So you combine that with what he did as a runner and, you know, his success at the goal line last year, you know, the sky's the limit. you know, J.D. Picissick, I don't think we're expecting to totally go away, but if he can get into that, you know, 60, you know, 65 plus percent of the snaps and, you know, be around, you know, 18 to 20 touches a game. The sky really is the limit for this guy. He's, he's as talented as any young back in the league right now. And, I mean, look, and you've got a good offensive line, so that's going for you. You have a team that is almost certainly going to be, Tom, even if it's not a quote unquote good team. going to be competitive because you have that defense. I just think there's so much upside here

when it comes to Antonio Gibson. And another guy, I've been drafting a ton of, and I know this is going to make John Hanson happy, and Scott Barrett happy, is Logan Thomas, who has been kind of my guy, my targeted guy, if I miss out on a really early tight end. Like, I've been almost in ways kind of ignoring the T.J. Hawkinson, Mark Andrews, tier. And like, I'll take Thomas in the ninth, tenth round. And I'll do that happily because you can back them up with somebody interesting, like an Adam Troutman or a Jonu Smith, somebody on that lower end. Tom, I love drafting Logan Thomas. Yeah, I've jumped on the train here, especially recently since training camp started. You know, we found out that Aaron Rogers is sticking in Green Bay. So the Denver situation with

Noah fan, you know, it's a crowded receiving core there. Teddy Bridgewater and Jew lock are the guys. So, and then Dallas Godder. I had a head of Logan Thomas earlier this summer. And now, you know, at least looks like Zach Ertz is, you know, probably going to be in the mix, at least for the first part of the season. We'll see if they move him before the trade deadline. But so Logan Thomas is a guy I've elevated in my own personal rankings up to that tight end seven range.

And I found that, you know, he's typically going off the board about 100 picks in, but, you know, he's a guy that can sometimes slip. I just, we have a fantasy points, you know, league where we're giving out a bunch of prizes with the NFFC guys, you know, for our subscribers. And, you know, I got him like 115 picks into a draft in that league. So he's a guy that's very affordable, getting an upgrade at quarterback here. I guess the one concern is that, you know, they do bring in Curtis Samuel,

who's a viable second wide receiver who could take away some. targets, but I guess the hope is that, you know, with Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, his targets are coming farther down the field. You know, he has more upside with his targets. So, you know, a little bit of tradeoff for the target share with, you know, higher, you know, better targets coming his way. So I'm with you. Logan Thomas is a guy that's been rising in my own draft boards. You know, a lot of guys are interesting on this team. Terry McLaren. Curtis Samuel, though, has been out with, I think he was on COVID and he's been dinged up. So that's one to watch as well, but also just another reason to kind of throw some support

behind Logan Thomas, who has been consistently going after Curtis Samuel in drafts, Tom, but is healthy and is building rapport with Ryan Fitzpatrick. By the way, just on Fitzpatrick. I do like him for fantasy this year. Like, I wouldn't call it a 100% guarantee he starts every game this year, Tom. If things go, if things go wayward, Taylor Heineckee is going to. get a shot here. Now look, Fitzpatrick's the quarterback one. There has been no grounds, no, no drumbeat at all that this is a legitimate competition at all. But Taylor Heinecke is somebody

who will play if things do go sideways for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yeah, I've actually read stuff where Heineke's kind of struggling in camp right now. You know, he's more of a second reaction type of player and, you know, it's very regimented in camp, you know, get it out of the ball, you know, get the ball out of your hands quick in the pocket. So I've heard he hasn't had the best camp. But, you know, Fitzpatrick, you know, he's going to get many chances here. I think they realize that he's their best chance of success here. And he gives them that higher seal.

They're looking to advance past the wild car round. They're looking to actually be contenders. And they have a lot of the pieces to do it, as we said, with the defense. And they have one of the more intriguing, you know, kind of, you know, skill groups that's kind of been hindered here, you know, with the quarterback play that they had last year. You know, Terry McLaurin, he's a guy that, you know, I've been, I'm going to have a lot of Terry McLaurin. I'm probably in the 25% range here in terms of, like you said, Joe, because we've been drafted in the last podcast, we were talking about how we've been drafted in the middle of the

first round there. And a lot of times McLaren's kind of sitting there when I come back in the third round. So he's going to be on a lot of my teams, but he's a guy that could really take a step forward here with Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, throwing passes down field here. So, you know, it's reasons to be pretty optimistic about this entire group taking a big step forward going from, you know, pretty low-end quarterback play to even just average quarterback play. That's all we're, that's all we're asking for from Ryan Fitzpatrick. That could really unlock the ceilings for a lot of these fantasy players in Washington.

For the last time, we talk about the team on the franchise football because I guess next year, Tom, the team is going to have a name. It appears it will not be the team anymore, but the team is going to try to defend its title as NFC East Champions. Better shot to do that with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. Follow him on Twitter at Tom Broly. Follow me on Twitter at FG underscore Dolan. Thank you for talking team with us here on the franchise focus podcast. We'll be back to wrap up the entire series tomorrow with the one everybody's been waiting for. I mean, this is like Zepard. clamoring for it, Joe.

Tom, this is like Zeppelin closing out their main set and coming back and playing a stairway in the encore. People are going to back. Our servers are going to crash with our Houston Texans breakdown. That's why we saved it for last. We knew that's the one everybody was clamoring for. So we're going to talk Houston Texans tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. And we will discuss the Texans.

Well, whenever you decide to listen to that, God bless you if you do. Thanks for tuning in. of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.