Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 IDP Post-Draft Thoughts

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

Justin Varnes (@downwithIDP) and Tom Simons give their thoughts on the IDP landscape following the conclusion of the 2021 NFL Draft. --- 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. Welcome to the IDP Corner. This is sponsored by FantasyPoint.com. My name is Justin Varns, one of the IDP analysts on FantasyPoints.com. And with me as always is our other IDP analyst and projection specialist, Mr. Thomas Simons. How are you doing, Thomas?

I'm doing all right. You woke me up from my labored sleep of the off season. Listen, we on the East Coast. We move quick on the East Coast. I've already had lunch. You're just waking up over there. I feel like I'm coming out of hibernation. Well, speaking of coming out of hibernation, things are starting to look pretty good for the NFL season. upon us. We've got the draft. We're going to spend today just kind of going over some post draft thoughts, how it affects free agents, some people we like this year, some dynasty stashes, some deep, deep sleepers you want to store on us a taxi squad if you play deep dynasty leagues,

and maybe a few players that we might think are overvalued. So looking forward to the upcoming season, Thomas, you had some thoughts on basically how this offseason was just a unique as the season and preseason that came before it. Yeah, this draft is a little bit weird. It has a, you know, there were a lot of players that opted out of 2020 due to the pandemic. There were too many teams in conferences that didn't even play. They didn't play enough games or they didn't play any games at all for evaluation purposes. There was a lack of combine results because there was no combine.

There was no medical information, no personal interviews. It really created havoc in this draft. And then for our side of things with the defensive players, there's a handful of teams like nine or so of them that didn't take a defensive player until the third, fourth, fifth, or even the sixth round. And a footnote, for the first time in 80 years, yes, I said that correctly, 80 years, Michigan State didn't have a player drafted. Wow. Yeah, it was a unique draft from the IDP perspective. your first seven picks were all offensive players. I was commenting the other day on our live stream, the Fantasy Points live stream when we were discussing the draft in real time.

You know, it's it was tough to not have a Chase Young or Joey Bosa or, you know, some stud there, Patrick Queen or something, you know, to be hoping to go in the first five or six picks. So yeah, it was a light, it was definitely a light draft for, IDP purposes for defensive players in general. Obviously, really heavy on wide receivers and teams forever trying to find their franchise quarterback. So that kind of dominated the early rounds. But man, really in the later rounds, things picked up. We saw defensive players flying off the boards from rounds four through seven, which, you know, is really going to kind of muddy the waters because when you spend high draft capital, there's a good chance you're expecting these players to start

immediately. When you get them on the back end, it's, you know, anything goes. It's going to be a little bit harder to project some of these players' roles going forward. But we do have some in mind, right, Thomas? Yeah, I mean, you know, you, first of all, you take a look at the way the draft unloaded in the first round. And you had a lot of Alabama and Clemson, LSU, Ohio State. I mean, the SEC had a lot of draft picks. And it tended to be a, type of draft where you really have to scratch your head and say, do they really trust their information or are they just kind of, you know, shooting from the hip? And there was a lot of picks that, you know, they seemed good. But as we get into this coming season, you're going to see that,

well, maybe it wasn't so good. Yeah. So we're going to dive in. We've broken this up into a couple of categories. We're going to start with the IDPs, who we think might have an immediate impact. So for 2021, these are players we should see on the field within the first couple of weeks of the season. People you should consider drafting, maybe even in redraft. There's not many of them. And matter of fact, I only have one cornerback on this list. So I'm going to start with that cornerback. He was actually the first defensive player to be pulled. And that was J.C. Horn, son of of Saints wide receiver Joe Horn. He was picked eight over all by Carolina.

I think he's a player that will start sooner rather than later on the outside across from Dante Jackson. He's a player who excels at man coverage and mirror match. One of the interesting things about Carolina is they played the highest percentage of zone defense last year. And I think that was largely a result of the players that they had. They played 80% zone. I think J.C. Horn is going to show at least a little bit of a shift back to some more man coverage,

but they're probably still going to play heavily zone. I also like that Horn playing across from Dante Jackson will get picked on a lot. That is a division. That is a conference that throws the ball a lot, particularly in that division. So I expect Horn to be tested, as I like to say with rookie players early and often. He's definitely my like rookie corner coming into this into this season. Part of that is because we've talked before about how how your chances of being IDP relevant as a cornerback drop precipitously after about pick number 35 to 40.

After that, it's a waste land. But if you go in the early rounds or sorry, if you go early in the first round, there's a good chance they're going to see a lot of action. My only issue with Horn is that he's not a consistent tackler at this point. We do think he's got a pretty decent tackle floor, but we'd definitely like to see his tackling technique improve a little bit. That's the only spot for me that I've got concerned. Otherwise, he's probably going to be out there week one with a full training camp.

And yeah, they're going to be throwing that hit him a lot. I could see him starting right out of the gate, and at least in the nickelback position, if not starting, like you said, opposite Jackson. And he'll probably play with a chip on his shoulder after the national TV, both ESPN and the NFL network, kind of snubbed him when he was drafted. They just declared his pick and then moved on without discussing him. I mean, it was such a blatant ignorance or ignoring of him that his father, Joe Horn, got on the social media and just blasted them about it. So he may play with a chip on his shoulder. And like you said, he's going to get picked on early because he's a rookie.

Who do you like out of this for immediate impact? Well, immediate impact, I like the 18th pick of the draft, which was Jalen Phillips. The Dolphins scooped up a really good, solid defensive player for their defensive line. He's underrated and gives Brian Flores a very versatile player that fills multiple roles, and he can play inside, and he can play outside. Now, to two to our own horn, fancy points mock in the draft guide had Phillips going to the Dolphins. and as you had mentioned to me previously, it was spot on. Now, Greg Cassell called him the most explosive edge rusher in the 2021 draft.

After all the hype on Greg Russo and Quitty Pay, it may be the Phillips is at the crown jewel in this edge rush class. Edge Rush class. Now, from an IDP perspective, he should profile as a defensive end, which really helps the defensive line and linebacker eligibility issues. Miami blitzed a tonne last year, but that may have been due to the fact that they didn't really have, or they lacked a pass rush or pass rush. Now, adding Phillips through the draft to pair with Emmanuel Ogaba should help the dolphins pass rush and could allow them to mix things up in their schemes and even blitz less. Now, Phillips may start the year as a backup behind Christian Wilkins, but he should see a lot of snaps and passing situation in sub-packages and could easily take over the starting role sometime by midseason.

We started with the defensive back and then we hit defensive line. I'm going to I'm going to pick one of my favorite linebackers out of this draft. And that's Jamon Davis. He was picked 19th overall, went to Washington. I think he fills an immediate need for them. And with John Bostic, I think they liked what they saw in Cole Holcomb last year. I think they want to pair him with with somebody younger, somebody who's better in coverage.

My guess is that Bostick will see the field, but I expect to see Davis play a lot. And somewhere by midseason, I would not be surprised to see Davis turn into somewhere between 70 to 100 percent snaps next to Holcomb. And I think Washington realized, you know, it's a pretty big drop from the top, you know, the handful of linebackers who were kind of the most complete players in the draft. And after both of the top two, Michael Parsons, were drafted ahead of him, then that only leaves Jamon Davis, which I think is a great fit for Washington. So I expect him to get plugged in.

I also think he's a better fit. There was some question as not whether Washington was going to go for Jeremiah, Ousu, Karamoa. But the issue with JOK, as he's called, is he's kind of a, he's a hard player to just stick into a defense, kind of like Isaiah Simmons was last year. Obviously, there's other issues because they didn't have training camp, but you know, you get these players who can do a little bit of everything. And sometimes as as rookies, it's hard to just plug them into one position and go. I think Davis fits very easily. You can just drop him right there as a stacked linebacker,

and he's going to soak up tackles. So I like him as a week one starter. And then by midseason, that he should be close to a three-down roll, if not a three-down roll. Who else do you like? Well, Jeremiah Owasu-Koramoa, he's going to probably stand out to people with the thumping, big-time-hitting plays that he's going to make during the year with the Browns. But, you know, the fact that Davis fits the scheme better for Washington is probably the reason why they went with that. Now, to move on, I have a couple of going back to the second. a couple of safeties, I think they're going to make an impact this year. The 40th pick overall was Richie Grant from the Atlanta Falcons,

and Atlanta lost Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen during the offseason. So Grant could be an immediate impact starter at safety. He's kind of a, he's not a twitchy or explosive athlete with the high-level physical traits that the NFL craves. But he played his college games with a lot of competitive toughness and intensity that you want to see out of safeties. His size, which is 5-11, sub-200 pounds, might be a concern, but his aggressiveness and hard-nose attitude makes him a candidate to play in the box or closer to the line of scrimmage.

Now, he has to beat out Eric Harris, Jalen Hawkins, T.J. Green, and or Doran Harmon to earn a starting job. But that could easily happen as early as mid-season, maybe even sooner. Now, Grant is a playmaker. I mean, he had a 10. collegian I&T's. So he can, he's flexible enough to play either safety position, deep or in the box. But he landed in a really good spot. And I could see him playing more of an in the box safety for the Falcons. Now the 43rd pick was Trayvon Marig from the Vegas, Las Vegas Raiders. Now, the Raiders

have Jonathan Abram at safety, but he has a serious injury history and is not reliable. The team did re-sign Carl Joseph, but there was a reason why the last. let him go to Cleveland last year. Now, Greg Cossel said at TCU, Marig was predominantly a quarter's safety to the field, but his overall skill set and size and athleticism profile will allow him to be both a back-end safety, including post-safety where his fluid movement, his play speed and range come into play, and a box safety where his size and tackling ability are factors. Now, Cochell's sense is Morig will be best transatl, and likely be seen prominently as a back end safety capable of playing in split safety

coverages and playing post safety in single high coverages. I think he landed in a really good spot with Las Vegas. Let's move on to players we think that although they might not have an immediate impact, there might be somebody who you don't want to grab and redraft, but over the next couple of years, we're going to see them emerge as players that are going to dominate the IDP landscape. Keeping with our defensive back scheme here, our theme lately, the ninth overall pick, the player that went just after J.C. Horn was Patrick Sertan. He went to Denver. I love the landing spot there. This is a player who is probably one of the more complete corners in the draft.

Our Greg Kosell loved him. Lots of great things on tape. Speaking of Kosell, you've heard us mentioned Greg Kosell a couple of times on here. these thoughts that we've gotten from Greg Kosell, who is he was the best at watching game tape. He's a legend in that respect. He's got a draft guide that's on FantasyPoint.com. So if you can subscribe to FantasyPoints.com, you can download a PDF of this draft guide.

It's profiles over 200 college players. And man, Greg does such a great job of not only breaking down the tape, what I love about his analysis is it's so measured and objective. You rarely see him over-hyping a player or loving or hating any player. He just says what he sees. Very detail-oriented, and that's specific for what we really need and what we rely on. And obviously, he does, mostly he does offensive players. So now that the draft is over, you can grab that draft guide and see whether or not

It's just you're a fan of your own team and you want to see what traits Greg Kossel thinks that your draft pick might be bringing to your team, but also, you know, dynasty on the offensive side as well. So lots of good stuff in there. But back to Koselle, he loves Patrick Sartan. I mean, Sartan played in Alabama. So he's used to that kind of pro-style defense. He can play man. He can play off. He fills a lot of needs.

And Denver really needed to get younger at cornerback. Now, speaking of younger, and this is the issue, they've got some talented veterans. They've got Kyle Fuller and Ronald Darby, and that's to go with Bryce Callahan, who's somebody who spent a lot of time in the slot. So the season might start with Fuller and Darby on the outside and Callahan as the slot, and it might take Certain a while. It might even be a year or two before he's a full-time player on the outside, but that is what they expect him to be.

And Denver is basically a pretty even split between man and zone coverage. Sartan's comfortable doing both of those. I think he's eventually going to be an outside corner and somebody we can rely on in our cornerback heavy leads. Yeah, I'm going to go back to the defensive line or actually the edge on this next discussion. And it was with the 31st pick from the Ravens. And it was, I'm going to say it, Udafe, Jason, Owe. And now we know him as Jason, but according to O'A, that's his middle name.

And he prefers to go by from his first given name, which is Udafei. And so you'll hear people saying Udafei O'A and you'll wonder, well, what happened to Jason? Well, that's the reason why. He has a lot of developing to do, but especially given the fact that he didn't play a lot. in college. But he's a 654.4.4.40 guy that has a great change of direction. And, you know, he also has good bend, which is an awesome combo for an edge rusher. Now, the Ravens have a veteran front that OA will be lucky to sneak into some of the snaps in between for 2021. So he's more of a dynasty stash and a potential building block once Pernell McPhee and

Calais Campbell move on. I mean, we have to note that the Baltimore lost three of their top sackers last offseason. So OA fills a major need for them. Our buddy, or not our buddy, but Mr. Cosell thought that he would be a great strong fit as an outside linebacker on a three, four, and that's the fit he has in Baltimore. There was also something that Cousel said that was, O'A had zero sacks last season and really didn't or doesn't have a college, a ton of success in college. But O'A fits a similar profile to Danielle Hunter from Minnesota, who managed four and a half sacks in college as an underdeveloped but physically gifted player. Now, Odafe is the first name, as I mentioned, Jason is his middle. So just know that you'll hear a different name when you start seeing or watching some of the raving games.

one of you probably the most coveted linebacker in the draft who went 12th overall that was micah parsons he landed in dallas and i do think we're going to see him on the field a lot this year but i do think um his true fantasy value the like lb one uh status that he's capable of it's probably not going to come until either late this season or more than likely uh the following year too um you know they've got jaylin smith and Layton Vanderech, you know, Sean Lee retired, but they hesitated to pick up Vandrech's fifth year option. And I think we know why now. Now that they've had a chance to pick up Parsons,

there's a good chance that Vanderech's time in Dallas, you know, is limited. You know, Thomas, last season, we talked toward the end of the season about how Vanderec didn't look the same when he came back from injury. He looked up. Right. He looked like beat up. Right. Exactly.

He looked, it might have looked like he was a step. slow, but I don't think it was actually speed. I think it's more hesitancy. He did not seem to trust himself. He seemed more confused. And on a defense that was desperate for run stopping, they were pulling him off the field sometimes for veteran Sean Lee, who was, you know, on his, on his last leg. So to me, Van Derresh's star has faded a bit there in Big D. And that opens up a spot for Parsons. He's one of the most complete linebackers in the draft. He's one of the most complete linebackers in the draft. A couple of points to make is that they may use him partly as an address or two because he's got those kind of pass rushing chops that they can pull him down from the box

and maybe even fill some of the role that Alden Smith played. And if they do that, you know, they've, you know, Dan Quinn knows Keanu Neal well from his time in Atlanta. And they would use Neal in the box a bunch kind of to play the will. So I could see Parsons being, you know, part-time, you know, box, you know, stacked linebacker and part-time edge rusher. And to get a combination like that, I'm not going to make this comparison because I think Parsons can become this because this is a once-a-generation player. But if you think about players like Levante David, that's somebody who not only fills your stat sheet with tackles, but he comes up with big plays.

He gets into the backfield because they will rush him as a pass rusher. and that kind of combination is hard to find. I think it'll take Parsons a while to fully develop into that player, but he has that potential to be more than just a one-trick pony where he just soaks up tackles all day long. Yeah, you know, and if you take a look at what Dallas did in the draft, I mean, they went defense in their first six picks. They took a lineback.

They took Parsons. They took a quarterback, a D.T., a DE, another quarterback, and also another inside linebacker in Jibril Cox from LSU. So even though Cox is more of a coverage linebacker, they did address the defense that they felt sorely was, you know, and like you mentioned, they also took Neil or signed Neil in the off season. So they weren't happy with the production, even with, and we'll talk more about this when we get to the busts, our veterans that we think are not going to, are going to be impacted by this draft. But for now, Dallas is definitely focusing on their defense. Any other players you thought that were that are good dynasty stashes? There was a couple.

One of them was the 78th pick with Chas Surat from the Vikings. He projects as a day one starter at Weekside linebacker, especially since last year's starter Eric Wilson signed with Philadelphia, and veteran Todd Davis is still a free agent. And also last year's draft pick, Troy died, didn't pan out. very well. Now, granted, we all know exactly how the weakside linebacker in Minnesota is not your traditional weakside linebacker and tends to be an underproducing fantasy player. Oddly enough, Surat was a quarterback and switched to linebacker a few years ago. So he only has a couple of seasons

that linebacker under his belt. So expect a learning curve in his rookie year. There is a, you know, we have Eric Kendricks and you also have Anthony Barb. that could be factors in the Vikings linebacker scheme. So, Sarac most likely is more of a stash type of thing. Now, over in the South Division with the Bucks, they picked up Washington Husky's tweener, as they call them, a defensive end linebacker, edge rusher, and Joe Tryon. The Bucks are returning all of their starters on defense.

So Tryon may see limited snaps in his rookie. season. Still, there are age issues like Jason Pierre Paul is 32 and so on. So they're looking towards the future with Tryon. And now, even though he may not be a reliable IDP option in 2021, he should be a rotational guy that could earn his stripes in his rookie year and he's best suited as a three, four linebacker. So he fits well in the buck scheme. Now let's move on to some sleepers. I'm going to get us started. These are players that, um, likely won't go high in redraft or maybe even in dynasty, but these are players drafted a little bit later or not drafted at all that, you know, could kind of come out of nowhere. And I'm going to start with the player that actually went undrafted.

And that's Justin Hilliard, the linebacker out of Ohio State. He was signed by the 49ers. Now, now Hilliard was a five-star recruit. But at Ohio State with the depth of talent they have, Hilliard actually never owned. a full-time role, but that's not for a lack of talent. They're just guys in front of him. And Greg O'Sell was particularly impressed with his ability to cover man-to-man on tight-ins and running backs, which, as we know, is highly coveted these days.

You know, offensive coordinators are forever trying to get their scheme set up to where they can match a linebacker across from one of their running backs and tight ends. So I think Hilliard in time will develop into a player who can help in coverage. And if he can continue to grow as a stacked linebacker, I love seeing him next to Fred Warner for years to come. And it's really that is the fact that they're not completely sold on what's going to happen next to Fred Warner. They love Fred Warner. Also, this is a new defensive coordinator, right? Robert Sala has moved on to his head coaching job for the Jets.

So now as the defense kind of reshapes, they could see, you know, Hillier's a lot. type of player that over time he could have an impressive training camp he's got a clean slate here he could start this year but i think he's a sort of player where maybe it's a year two or year three where we get word out of training camp the just of hilliard's made a move up the um up the ladder uh how about for you gregg anybody sticks out um i just said gregg because i'm was thinking of gregg but speaking of gregg that's that's all right john um there is is a Greg that I do like, and that's Greg Newsom from Cleveland, 26th pick in the draft. Now, yes, they have Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams as solid cornerbacks for the Browns,

but both had injury issues last year. Ward missed four games due to calf and groin injuries, while Williams missed the entire season with a nerve damage in his shoulder. Even if Ward and Williams are healthy, Newsom likely starts worst case scenario as the nickelback. Now, he will help the Browns improve on their past defense that ranked 22nd in the NFL last year. So I think that Newsom is a sleeper that could be somewhat productive, especially if he does get into the starting lineup and teams start attacking him because he's a rookie. Another linebacker who went late, which isn't super late, but man, this is a great fit for a draft team. And that's Nick Bolton. He was drafted by the Chiefs.

And if you listened to Thomas and I last season, you know, pull, well, I don't have any hair left because I pulled it all out trying to figure out who was going to start a linebacker from week to week for Kansas City. So Bolton has a pretty clear path to a starting job. Now, there are a lot of linebackers there. They do have a pretty heavy rotation. They've got Anthony Hitchens. They've got Damien Wilson. Actually, no, they don't have Wilson. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Wilson moved on. And I'm blanking on the kid they drafted last year, which we're going to get to. Willie Gay. Yeah, Willie Gay. So Willie Gay, this could be a good year for him to move up. But Anthony Hitchens, I don't think has ever truly been the answer there. They started pulling him off the field.

The year they won the Super Bowl, when they got to the postseason, they had real issues with teams picking him apart. They also move Daniel Sorensen into the linebacker spot as well coming up from safety. So they have been piecing together that linebacker core. And that's really where they've been burned as a defense. And, you know, of course, Patrick Holmes can pretty much keep you in any game, but they don't want to continually rely on that. So I like that they addressed the linebacker position here. And I think if everything goes well, we're going to see Willie Gay and Nick Bolton as the primary linebackers in years to come. One of the things that Kossel did say is that for Bolton to be effective, he's the type of linebacker that needs to be kept clean,

which means that he needs to have a strong front defensive line in front of him. Well, Kansas City has got that. They are stacked on their defensive line, so this could be a really good fit for him. The question is, is he going to stick on third downs? We already mentioned this rotation. We need to see him be able to be a little bit more of a complete player and be able to shed blocks a little bit more when he's not kept clean. But I do like his potential long-term. Yeah. And if there is a knock on the situation, it would be the defensive coordinator,

Steve Spagnolo, is brutal on rookies. And you can, I mean, he makes them prove that they can play before he trusts them. And that was evident last year with Willie Gay. But as you mentioned, or as we spoke about, Damien Wilson is gone. So this opens up some snaps for that Bolton could claim or share with gay. What about other sleepers that you've seen? You know, there's a couple others. One of them's not really, I mean, everybody's going to be probably on them, especially if he sees time in the interior of the defensive line.

But Quitty Pay on Indianapolis was a great landing spot for him. And getting help from the presence of DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, pay could be a one-day starter over Stewart if he has a solid camp and or summer. Now, Kassel mentioned that there's still much to unlock both athletically and physically with pay as he has the traits to profile, to develop into a quality edge rusher with speed to power being a foundation, plus efficient hand usage to playoff contact in addition to working inside at defensive tackle. And now, that's the key to pay is the fact that if he can move in.

inside and play defensive tackle along with Buckner and or Stewart, moving up and down that line of scrimmage is going to create matchup problems with opposing offensive lines. And with some solid coaching from the staff and these veterans, pay could help the Colts improve on the lack of pressure that they had in 2020. And again, he can play inside and out, and that could help its snap count. Now, another player is 60th pick Pete Warner, or Warner from the, the New Orleans Saints. Now, the Saints have been seeking a reliable three-down middle linebacker for ages, and they may have found one in Werner. He likely starts at weak side

linebacker in his rookie season with DeMario Davis inside and Bond from Wisconsin on the other on the strong side. But he should work his way into the middle as early as year two. He has the athletic physical traits to be a three-down linebacker. So this is something that I, I know, know that Graye Cassell had a big write-up on Warner in our draft guide. So check that out. And you'll see that Warner could actually see some snaps, significant snaps, 60% or more as early as day one. Now let's move to the other side of the coin. And these are players drafted either in the first round or the first couple of rounds that are big names that might not get off to a fast start and might even flame out altogether. I know you've got a couple on your list, right, Thomas? Yeah, the first place is a double shot.

And it's the Buffalo Bills. With the 30th pick, they took Gregory Russo, and then later on, they took Carlos Basham, and they're both edge rushers. Now, with veterans Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison as their primary edge rushers, getting younger makes sense, but, you know, especially with their Super Bowl window just now opening. it's still a problem for Russo and Basham. Now, Russo missed almost all of 2018 with an ankle injury, tore up the league in 2019, and then opted out last year.

Now, Basham was a four-year starter at Wake Forest, but the term tweener keeps cropping up when people discuss Basham. Now, the problem that you have is that they're specialized edge rushers. And, you know, they did that last year in the draft. and they barely used their draft pick last year. So is either of these two going to actually see significant time on the field? Now, Rousseau is a project, had a horrible pro day. He has physical traits and being 6-7-266, but he has very limited pass rush moves,

and Greg Kosell found his tape to be very inconsistent. Now, Basham is raw and has plenty of room for growth, but and he could see more time at defensive tackle than that on the outside. And that doesn't bode too well when you have limited snaps and you're forced to rush from the inside position. So these two could be kind of bust or at least lean towards that, especially in the first year. Yeah. The other player, oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, I think as more and more teams get to a point where they are trying to roe,

state defensive linemen. This is something we talked a lot about last season. And the idea that to find a defensive lineman that plays 80 plus, you know, percentage of snaps, that's becoming a rare, more and more rare to find that. And Russo and Basham, I mean, it's hard to see them becoming that type of player. Their chances are they will be, you know, specialists. They'll come down. they'll come in either in sub packages, maybe on a, you know, on a blitz heavy or, you know, a heavy package on a third down where they're trying to get as many pass rushers on the field at once.

And we're not saying that they won't get out there and make some plays for the team. But it's hard enough to rely on a defensive lineman every week. They're already inconsistent in terms of their production. That's just they're like tight ends in that way. But in in Buffalo, like, you know, Thomas is, you know, as you were saying about their Super Bowl window here opening, they're going to be careful to not stick these younger players out on the field where they're going to make big mistakes in the run game.

And I can see both of these players contributing over the next couple of years, but for them to really earn a full-time role, something you can count on a fantasy, I think is going to be hard to come by. There's a lot of other talent. There's veterans on the field. And as you were just mentioning, they've already established a pretty heavy rotation.

And these guys will be part of that rotation, but they're likely going to be on the outside looking in when it comes to consistent snaps. Yeah, and they mean last year they went after AJ Epinessa, and he saw a limited amount of time when we thought, well, we're not quite sure how they're going to use them. Well, we saw how they used them. And I could see the same thing happening to Rousseau and Basham this year.

The other guy I was thinking about was Caleb Fraley from our Farley, from the Tennessee Titans, the 21st pick overall. Now, we had seen in the first round, Horn went first, and then Sir Tam went second, and Farley went third. And there were concerns about Farley's recent back surgery going into the draft. And it may be why he was the third cornerback taken off the board and not the first. This is especially true when you consider that Farley has had two back surgeries and a surgery on a torn ACL before he's even taken his first NFL snap. Now, if Farley is healthy, he could be a day one starter for the Titans who have a serious lack of depth that cornerback. Still, this injury history makes him a very, very strong candidate

to be a bust. All right. And finally, we're going to wrap up with just a real short segment here on some of the veterans who are likely affected by the draft. We've already talked a little bit about this, but Thomas, I know you have some more thoughts on what's going on in Dallas in terms of their line backing rotation. Well, we've already talked about the fact that Van der Reisch and Van derich didn't get his fifth year option renewed or signed up. And Jalen Smith, they were not happy with exactly how Smith handled the inside. He felt overwhelmed or they felt that he was overwhelmed during the season. You know, they they went and got Allen, who's a safety, but could be playing a lot of time in the box at a linebacker position.

Sean Lee retired. And so I think the fact that they went out and drafted Parsons, first of all, they traded down a couple of spots to pick up some extra picks and then got Parsons, the guy that they wanted. And then they turned around and they picked up Gibreel Cox later in the draft. Now, Parsons is probably going to be a weak side linebacker to start with, which really doesn't bode well for Vanderech and or Smith, because sooner or later, Parsons is the most likely going to either move inside or they're going to give some time to Cox inside. And this could mean less snaps for Vanderex and Smith. Now, I'm not saying that they're going to be, you know, gone in their first season. in this first season for the rookies. But Van der Wesch and Smith, the writing is on the wall, especially for Vanderech.

I mean, as we had mentioned earlier, he looked tentative last year, did not look very well or didn't look good when he came back from injury. And there's got to be issues going on with Jalen Smith that we don't know about because for them to go out and draft two inside linebackers, that's an earmark for Smith moving to the outside and or right off the roster. I mean, this is definitely writing on the wall for these two. Now, you have some thoughts over in Arizona. Yeah, I'm just going to mention a couple of linebackers because we think this draft in particular is, you know, secondary is always tricky.

It's a difficult position to find consistency in. And we see a lot of tinkering in the secondary these days. So we mentioned what's going on in Atlanta's secondary, possibly Denver's as well from some of these picks. But really some of these veteran linebackers are likely starting to look like they're moving out of the fray. And these younger, more versatile linebackers are moving in. One of the most interesting ones, if it works, is Arizona picked up Zayvind Collins early. in the draft. And if they, if, look, if Arizona can pull this off, it's going to be great. They picked up a Zaven Collins, who's great in the box and, you know, kind of like Michael

Parsons, but even more so can move down and really be an edge rusher. He could, he could straight up be an edge rusher if they want him to, which means they may be asking him to kind of take over that Hassan Reddick role. Reddick had major success as as more of a stacked outside linebacker that they deployed as an edge rusher last year. He had 14 and a half sacks in that role. I had 14 and a half snacks while he was having 14 and a half stacks. So they may use him that way, but there was talk that Steve Kime had mentioned general manager Steve Kime had mentioned that they envisioned Zaven Collins playing the mic for them. And that is veteran Jordan Hicks. Now Hicks has had a great run here over the last couple of years, an elite player, but he did take a step backward last

year. Whether or not Zaven eventually, you know, or sorry, whether or not Collins takes over that position remains to be seen. But I will say that it does make me a little hesitant in terms of projecting Jordan Hicks. One of the things that we do on FantasyPoint.com in terms of the IDP section is we have a little graph numbering system. that is next to our projections. And one of them is basically reliability. Like, what are the chances that this player is going to maintain this role all season? And this definitely puts a big, a big red flag on veteran Jordan Hicks.

And another position, another linebacker that I'd already briefly touched on, and that's going to be John Bostic out of Washington. I think between Cole Holcomb, who kind of emerged last year and obviously their draft pick, Jamon Davis. The writing's on the wall for John Bostic. I think he will definitely play next season. But until we have something clear from training camp, now might be a good.

And part of the reason we're bringing this stuff up is now is a good time to start looking to buy low on some players and to sell high on some players. So selling high on Jordan Hicks, trying to get any value out of John Bostic. Definitely late in Vandreche, but a sneaky one is selling Jalen Smith high. These are some options that might help. you in your drafts and pick up a few more draft picks before the season starts. Thomas, any final thoughts?

No, I mean, we pretty much, a lot of this is going to change, especially as last year's rookies start getting an off-season, you know, practices and workouts and into training camps. Now, granted, there's a lot of voluntary sessions that a lot of players are not going to show up for, but still, it's going to be different than it was last year. And, you know, this year's draft, as we mentioned, was a really cookie and different draft. There was a lot of havoc coming in because there wasn't a lot of information that these war rooms could go on. And so there's, let me put it this way.

The Seattle Seahawks, who usually have eight or more draft picks every year, only had three. And there was a reason why they did that. because they didn't trust this draft. There's a lot of serviceable players that can fill roster spots for you, but they're not stud or immediate impact players. There's going to be a handful, yes, but not like in the past. So you're going to have to deal with the fact that a lot of these players that are coming in will most likely be transparent in the first year and not very serviceable for you.

All right. going to wrap this up. These are our post-draft thoughts. If you have any interest in following up on more of this, remember we've got Greg Kossell's draft guide up on the FantasyPoints.com website. Thomas and I lock down the IDP part of the site, but obviously on the offensive side, Dynasty, Devi, all that stuff's covered by some pretty heavy hitters led of course by the legendary John Hanson, Joe Dolan, Grand Barfield, you know, Scott Barry, the list goes on and on. Tom Brawley, and we've got a pretty diverse group here that's bringing a lot of information for the analysis, from the film study, even betting.

So it's a pretty impressive group, and Thomas and I are certainly just proud to be a part of it. But we're trying to continually raise the IDP game. So if you were to sign up for one of these major sites, you know, one of the things we hear is that the IDP sections are lacking in some of them. And so Thomas and I are lifting that up quite a bit on FantasyPoint.com. So go there now. Check out, you can get a subscription heading into the 2021 season. Once again, my name is Justin Varns.

You can follow me on Twitter at Down with IDP. And I'm going to sign off from here. Thomas, take us out. Be well and be safe. 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.