Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Franchise Focus: Cleveland Browns

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) invites The Athletic's Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) to discuss the upcoming season for the Cleveland Browns, with a preface from Joe & Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) about the Deshaun Watson suspension decision. The Franchise Focus Podcast series is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy (@UnderdogFantasy). New users can sign up to Underdog using promo code FANTASYPTS for up to $100 in bonus cash on their first deposit. Visit fantasypoints.com/underdog for more info. The podcast series is also sponsored by Evan's Sports Cards & Collectibles (@evanscards). Follow @EvansCards on Twitter for weekly updates and card releases, Like on Facebook, and head to evanssportsnj.com for more info, including the always-updated eBay store. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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 final franchise focus podcast here at FantasyPoint.com. And because of the situation we have here with the Cleveland Press, By the way, my name is Joe Dolan, but we're going to be doing something different for this final podcast because for the second consecutive year, we've had to push a Deshawn Watson related team to the bottom of our list for franchise focus because Deshawn Watson, well, let's just say isn't normal. And on the worst side of it is pretty freaking creepy.

And look, my job here, unfortunately when you talk when you have to talk about this you have to talk about the implications of the Dishon Watson suspension as it relates to fantasy as it relates to gambling that's what we do at FantasyPoint.com I will fully admit I am sick to death of Dishon Watson. I am sick of this story and the whole thing sickenes me on multiple levels but I still have to talk about it. I understand that that rubs people the wrong way. It rubs me the wrong way. But also we do have to do our jobs and we have to talk about the fact that Deshawn Watson as it stands today. And today is August 2nd, 2022.

You might be listening to this on the third or the fourth, at which point things might have already changed. But as of today, Deshawn Watson is slated to play as many as 11 games for the Cleveland Browns for the 2022 NFL season. And it is not something that we can just flat out ignore. I will also say this, guys, I am so sick of talking about this story, that Graham Barfield, who's joining me for the first half of this podcast, He was like, dude, do you just want to wait until after Thursday when Roger Goodell could appeal this or add games to this? And my answer to Graham was no. A number one, I want to get this out of the way. And I want to just want to focus on the preseason.

Number two, look, if Deshaun Watson ends up getting suspended for the entire season, we'll have analysis for that because we're going to analyze what the offense is going to look like without him. At the very least, there's no way Roger Goodell is taking games away. So we know Watson's going to miss at least six games. And then in the second half of this podcast, I talked to the athletic Zach Jackson about the rest of this roster, what it might shake out. I recorded that about a week and a half ago. I thought we'd have Watson news at that point. We didn't.

So Graham, look, I'm dead serious. Not in any way to consider ourselves victims of this whole situation. But I'm just so sick of Deshawn Watson. and I'm so sick of talking about them. I just wanted to get this out of the way right now. So welcome to the podcast, friend. This is probably the single most cynical intro I've ever done, but it had to be done. Yeah, happy to be a part of it.

Happy to be a part of the 32nd final franchise focus pod, man. Congratulations to you. I mean, you did all the heavy lifting with all the podcasts, and they've been fantastic this year. So seriously, take a bow as we talk through this. But yeah, man, it's two years of Watson. I'm sick of it, too. So, by the way, I mean, totally normal human reaction. I mean, you know, we love fantasy football.

We love NFL. But there's still, you know, crappy people doing shitty things. And I mean, Watson's like chief among them. And this is like, you know, it's just kind of sucks too because like this is the first real big test of like the change of the personal conduct policy that changed back in 2020. And yeah, it's just kind of clouding over what's a really fun NFL storyline. I mean, the AFC is loaded this year, the NFC. is wide open. It kind of sucks. We've just had to deal with this Watson cloud. So it's totally normal to kind of feel a little down about it. But yeah, man, let's get to it. I mean,

Watson is, you know, he's still going to go in the 12th, 13th, 14th round of underdog drafts for the next couple of days, next couple of weeks. I would imagine is this whole thing gets sorted out. And, you know, there's the upside for sure. You know what it is. But there's also the downside. I mean, the Browns are a brand new team, obviously, for him. He hasn't. played in two years. His receiver depth is not very good after Amari Cooper. You know, I, on the basis of like the morality of the whole thing, I've kind of just like said, look, I don't really want to root for Deshaun Watson. I'm not drafting him. But I don't also like, you know, hate on anybody that, you know, has drafted him or taken him at a cheaper cost because

there is the upside and especially if you're, you know, stacking with Browns. Look, if you want to like consider this like a moral thing or whatnot and you don't want to giraffe to Sean Watson because it makes you feel icky. I can't stop you for doing that. That's what it's worth. That's exactly where I'm out. I just don't want to be. I can't stop you from doing that, but there are going to be people who are like, I don't care about all that crap. And then like, I mean, unfortunately, I have to cater to those people. But like, you also understand we are on, look, this is a professional sport. There are 53 men on every roster active. That doesn't even count the guys who are on the practice squad and, and are her or whatever. Some

of them are going to be shitbirds. And if you're like, well, I mean, maybe you draft your team on a sliding scale of shitbird, okay? All right, this guy's too shitbird for me to have on my team, but not this guy. And I understand, like, I mean, you do you, you do you. But unfortunately, we can't really filter our analysis through that lens. So we're just going to have to talk about what are the implications of Deshaun Watson playing games. And Graham, let's get it down to it.

The Cleveland Browns are going to be a better football team with Deshaun Watson's their quarterback. That being said, when he takes the field at the earliest in week seven, this is going to be somebody who has not played a game of football in what, 22 months? Yeah, it'll be about two years. It'll be a long time. Yep. Yeah, new system too, new coach. You know, the Browns were one of the most run-heavy teams in the league last year, top 12 in run rate in all situations, you know, within a score when they were leading on early

downs. Like they, you know, that's their foundation. And, you know, for as long as Watson is out, we're going to see Nick Chubb and Cream Hunt obviously go off. And I think that's kind of where we should start, you know, for Fantasy Joe is like, you know, Chubb and Hunt, when they've played together, they've both produced. Like Nick Chubb has finished as a top 10 or top 12 running back and points per game for three straight years. And, you know, granted, it's at the low end of that scale. scale, you know, RB9, RV10, RB 11, somewhere in that range. But Cream Hunt's been really good, too.

You know, last year there was a huge disparity, at least in the first five games they play together in terms of their passing down work. And that's why I actually hunt outscored Chubb in those five games. You know, these two guys, man, they're going to get the ball early and often, regardless of it's Bresset or Watson under center. And I'm kind of, I'm in on Chubb, and I think I'm warming up on Hunt. Scott made a really good, like, compelling case for Hunt on one of our calls a couple

weeks ago and kind of made me like rethink my where I'm at on hunt and I think I've been a little too underweight on him and kind of overweighted de ernest johnson's impact here but regardless man I mean these two guys can produce together yeah and and look when when deshaun Watson's throwing the football though we would anticipate that this is going to be a much more pass heavy team i right let's just go to the base the basic stats okay jacobi percett has started 37 games in his NFL career gram. He's averaged under 200 yards passing per game in those starts. But he has a low interception rate. So essentially, he's not taking risks, but he's not turning the ball over. And I kind of feel like that's what the Browns will want when Jacoby

Bresset is starting again for at least the six games that he's going to be slated to be their starting quarterback. But I mean, you've dug deeper into the numbers. Just how much better is Watson than Breset? Oh, man. I mean, Watson, since he just, join the league has been nothing but a top five quarterback. You could look at any stat fantasy or, you know, just kind of like NFL counting stat related. He's going to be in the top five. One thing I think, you know, my football brain gets excited about, you know, taking the morality stance out of it. It's like my football brain is going to love Deshawn Watson throwing deep to all of these guys. Like Donovan People's Jones, Anthony Schwartz, like they've got

some fun little players that can get deep. You know, Schwartz has four three speed. DPJ has been a kind of a fun like bigger deep threat in this career so far obviously cooper can run a full route tree like in joku's really fun up the seams like this this offense has a chance to be really really fun um you know i think it's fair to question after two years though whether or not watson's still that same top five guy whether or not there's a learning curve there's all of that in play and i truly have no idea how to answer that no one does um it's one of those things truly we're going to have to see it on the field, but, you know, we can just still take, you know, the baseline of what we know Watson to be, and that's, you know, an amazing, amazing talent.

What's the opportunity crossed of drafting Deshawn Watson in a best ball league vis-a-vis a standard managed league? Because in a managed league, you know, you have to hold them. It's an empty bench spot for six weeks. And some leagues, suspensions can't go on IR, some they can. It's just on your league. I think Yahoo. I think Yahoo can. I can't. I think it can. Okay. Well, I know sleeper can. I don't think ESPN does it either, but I think I think Yahoo can.

So there's an opportunity cost in a managed league. Is it different in a best ball league for you? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you're, like, let's say you get Kyler Murray, you know, we love Kyleor Murray in the first half of this year. You know, in the sixth round, you know, come back. You can get to Sean Watson, you know, one of those, you know, kind of guys with a later buy, you know, like, Kyler, Brady, you can get, you know, easily one of those guys have Watson be your QV2, and I'm fine with it. But, you know, like I said at the top, man, you know, it's one of those things where I don't really want to root for the guy, you know, but there's obviously the upside with managed leagues. Like, you know, you know what the downside is. You know your league better than any of us do. You know, if you feel like you've got a short bench, it's a 10-team league,

something like that, you know, I don't think you can really hold Watson through week nine. I mean, look, they come back, they play the Ravens and the Browns, excuse me, the Bengals in the Browns, two really tough, you know, divisional opponents than they have their buy. You know, you could be looking in a situation where you're not going to play Watson until week 10. So, you know, it's one of those things. You know your league better than we do. If you are in a deeper league, like, you know, you play in some of the higher stakes, you know, leagues like you and I do. You're, you know, you're fine, Holden Watson for the entirety of that time. But, yeah, you know, best ball is a totally different equation, especially if you're drafting, you know, Amarer Cooper and trying to get some

brown stacks. How, what are you, where are you at on Amarie Cooper, who by the way is currently nursing, it's a minor ankle injury, I think. Kevin Stefansky says he expects him to be back. But because of the anticipation of a suspension, all offseason for Deshawn Watson, Cooper has been generally very cheap in drafts. Underdog sixth round he was going, I presume that's going to go up. But heck, I mean, even if Watson got the full.

season. I was willing, even with Jacoby percent, I was willing to buy Amar and Cooper at like 67 overall. Yep. Yeah, I was in on, you know, just like you, I was in on Cooper when we didn't know if Watson was going to play this year. And I'm in on Cooper now. I mean, especially now. They just have no one else to throw to, man. It's really simple as that. Like, I think David Bell is going to earn targets quickly. But like, you know, Donovan People's Jones and Anthony Schwarz. By the way, is David Bell. Is he really? Well, I don't think they, I don't think they, I don't think they've activated him. think he's still on the Pupp list with a with a foot end. Oh, yeah, as of as of discussions here right now.

But again, these things change every day at training camp. Yeah, no. And, you know, these guys, these teams now, because the Pup is so flexible, you know, especially with rookies if, you know, they're going to take it slow with their guys. So, yeah, we'll see on Vell. But, I mean, Cooper is just, there's, there's really, DPJ and Schwartz are like, you know, guys that you're going to target like 15% of the time, maybe, you know, even with Watson throwing deep.

So, yeah, Cooper's locked into a huge target share regardless. How different do you think this offense will look with Jacoby Brissette if he has to take over? I mean, look, we know it's going to be chub and hunt. And then hopefully Amari Cooper gets like a 35% target share. That's kind of the way I look at it. I'm right. Yeah. I mean, I think that's kind of what it is.

I want, now that you mention that, I'm going to go back and look and see if Preset, like, what his, if he does lock. on to one guy because, you know, some of these backup quarterbacks, they truly are just like, I'm going to, you know, I have one read. If he's not open, I'm going to go to read two. And then that's it. Ors that can move a little bit too. So, but yeah, I think I'm in on Cooper. Joe, we have some big drafts coming up, man. We got to do some more strategy. Oh, that reminds me. You owe me money for our, for our NFFC. You're right.

We, yeah, you got a bedmo, me. I have just put you on blast publicly. I only remind you. minded you once. It's not like I've been I've been pestering you. No, I totally forgot yesterday. I got caught up doing something else. I'll pay you when we get off the, we get off the horn here. We, yeah, we, we took down me. Graham and Broly did a NFFC main event last year and took it down. Not the main event. Our team died because we had our quarterbacks for Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppel. And Tyler Huntley. We even, we even handcuffed Lamar Jackson and that didn't work out. But hey, look, Graham, we at least got through to the finals, got a nice little payday. We're going to do it again. We're going to have multiple teams in there this year.

Grant, thanks for joining me for this update that we obviously did not want to do, but we had to do. After this, after the break here, and I'm sure we're going to get a word from Ben Cucanus, I'm going to talk to Zach Jackson of the athletic about mostly the rest of this roster and what his expectations are. He had some really pointed takes. I mean, as somebody who's covered the Browns for a while. It feels like he was willing to not pull any punches when talking about the Browns. So that was a fun discussion. Graham, I hope you check it out, my friend, after this. And I am

done. I'm done all 32 of these franchise focus. Like about Joe. I'm very glad about it. Guys, thank you so much. Here comes a war. Oh, by the way, follow him on Twitter at Graham Barfield. I am at FG underscore Dole and I'll probably reiterate that on the second half of this podcast. But Graham, it's been great talking to you. And here's Ben Cucanus with a word from our sponsor. Hey, Fantasy Points listeners, Ben Cucanis here, letting you know that the franchise-focused series of podcasts is brought to you by Evans SportsCardes and Collectibles, the best place for cards, collectibles, autographs, and more.

All of our memorabilia giveaways are always from Evans' sports cards. He always has the latest boxes and releases from Panini, Upper Deck, Tops, and more. It's a family-owned small business, not a super store that you have to deal with. They're located in South Jersey, so great for an in-person visit, but just as good to visit their eBay store as well. Follow at Evans cards on Twitter for weekly updates and card releases, like them on Facebook, and head to Evansportsnj.com for more info, including the always updated eBay store. Some releases this week are the 2021 Panini Contenders and Optic Football, as well as the 2022 Panini Select Baseball. That's Evansportsnj.com online and at Evans cards on Twitter. Tell him the guys from Fantasy Points sent you.

So I want to thank Zach Jackson for being really patient with me because I've been in his DMs for like a number of weeks and I'm like, hey man, we're recording these podcasts, these franchise focus podcasts and I really would like to talk to you. And then I was like, I will wait until the Watson suspension comes down. And then ultimately, just like, you know, Zach has to go to work at Brown's training camp. We have to go to work at FantasyPoint.com, developing our rankings and our articles for the summer. So at some point I just had to interview him. We are recording this, by the way, on July 25th.

And by the time you hear this, you know what has happened with Deshawn Watson because Grant Barfield and I have already broken that down. So that is not the focus of today's podcast with Zach Jackson. I just kind of want to talk about the rest of the Cleveland Browns, even though, I mean, nobody is talking about them. But Zach certainly, it's probably going to be a little refreshing for him. You can follow him on Twitter at Akron Jackson, which I absolutely love.

He is the Browns and NFL writer for the athletic NFL. He hosts the A to Z podcast, and he's also the co-host of the Civilized Barking podcast, which another name I also love. Zach, welcome to the show. Thank you for doing this. As you might understand, this is the second year in a row I had to put off an interview

about Deshawn Watson until the very end of this article series, and we still don't have an answer as of now. Yeah, and maybe we will an hour, maybe a week. I don't know. The Brown signed up for this. you know, if they didn't think that they were a quarterback away, you know, they wouldn't have done this, right? And they didn't do it for this year. So we'll see. But it's clouded everything. And, you know, even with the ruling, I'm not sure when exactly this all goes away or when he's in top mode. So a lot of uncertainty, but certainly, you know, a wide variance because I think Deshaun Watson and this offense and this team has a high ceiling. And I think Jacoby Burset in this offense and this team in a loaded AFC, doesn't have much of this thing. So we'll find out. That's where I want to start then with with this, because Jacoby Brissette, the Browns moved on quite curiously, because I thought it

was going to be a money-saving move from Case Keenum to bring in Jacoby Preset. Turns out, now, I don't know, I'm not really deep in the weeds on this, Zach, but it turns out just based on the numbers that I have looked at that, Jacobi Percent has a higher cap number than Case Keenum. So the Browns are obviously more comfortable with Jacoby Preset as their backup than they were with Case Keenum last year. I would think the general NFL fan would view that as a downgrade, quite frankly, given that Case Keenum has probably played higher levels of football than Jacoby Preset throughout his career. But why did the Browns make that move? What's, what's your insight? What if the Brown said about making that move to bring in Jacoby Preset as their backup

quarterback? Well, I can't tell you it's a good move because it's curious to me, but in this uncertain offseason, and it was uncertain on March 18th when this happened as it is now on the verge of August. You know, they traded Keenham the same day they signed Berset. Both of those happened the day after they got to Sean Watson. So they wanted this, right? They knew that there was this lingering thing and almost certainly a suspension. And they chose Jacoby Preset.

So he does have a wide variety of experiences. They clearly wanted to clean out the whole quarterback room. I mean, it doesn't matter. And I'm tired of dwelling on it or even thinking about it. But this whole thing says a lot about how they really felt about Baker Mayfield. right case played well in his two starts last year and the offense operated as as it's supposed to look when you draw it up in the meeting rooms but i think there was a real ceiling on him so you know to me it just all leads to to this there's one sure thing on the cleveland browns and that's nick chub

andrew berry has invested in the running back room he has invested in the offensive line Kevin Stefansky has a way he wants to run the offense, you know, a baseline of it anyway, regardless of who's the quarterback. And Nick Chub is a monster. Nick Chub is tough to tackle and can pull away. And regardless of who's playing quarterback, the run game can drive things to a point

and it can open things up in the play action as it's done in both years, both when the past game was humming and when it was struggling. So to me, this is about, you know, the Browns will play to their strengths. and then, you know, depending on who's quarterbacking and how they counterpunch and how teams offend them, then they'll open up everything else. But from a fantasy standpoint, when I look at the Cleveland Browns, and it will be the same after the ruling comes out, Nick Chubb is the guy that I want.

And now let's go to maybe more of a long-term thing in this backfield. They draft, Cream Hunts in the final year of his contract. The Browns, obviously, they brought back De Ernest Johnson. They drafted Jerome Ford in the fifth round. that was particularly interesting because our guy Greg CoSell at fantasy points with all his scouting reports pre-draft compared Jerome Ford stylistically to Kareem Hunt. I thought that was absolutely fascinating. Do you believe this is a Brown's team and Andrew Barry that is set up to move on from Kareem Hunt after this season? Yes, definitely. I mean, Kareem has had injury issues and

Kareem is going, you know, getting ready to play at 27 years old, right? It just, it just makes sense. That doesn't mean it's going to happen. It just makes sense. When Kareem comes out and says, I want a contract, well, of course he doesn't. Of course, he's not going to get one because he wasn't healthy last year. Stylistically, I see the comparison. And in Jerome Ford, I think we'll catch passes for this Browns team at some point later this year or into the future years. Kareem is probably 40 pounds heavier than Jerome Ford.

Maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration. So I don't know that. I do think if they move one, it'll be Deerunis Johnson because his contract is much more tradable than Kareem Hunt is. and he has, you know, less injury history, less mileage in general, right? But when this offense is humming or at least trying to hum, Kareem Hunt has a role in this offense. He is the third downback. He has played every third series, you know, when they've been on scripts or at least,

you know, in something comparable to a script. And Kareem Hunt is a proven NFL running back. I think Kareem Hunt is a top 15 NFL running back, even having missed much of last year. I think he would have played at the end of last year if the Browns were still in contention, right? So Drumford's going to make the team and Nick Chubb's going to make the team and Kareem Hunt is probably going to make the team. So are they going to keep five, six running backs or is there going to be a move? That's, that's a mystery that starts to, you know, kind of reveal itself as they get into camp here shortly. Interesting.

Obviously, before the Browns traded for Deshawn Watson, before they knew they'd even be in contentioned for Deshawn Watson, before they knew they were going to win. if you want to call it that, the Deshawn Watson sweepstakes, they made a move for Amari Cooper. And, you know, kind of in hindsight now, Zach, I think at the time people thought that's all the Cowboys could get for Amari Cooper. But in hindsight, seeing what some of these other wide receivers went for

this offseason from A.J. Brown to Devante Adams, Tyree Kill, and then especially perhaps most egregiously, Hollywood Brown, Devante Parker, all these guys required more draft capital to get than Amari Cooper. What do you get any notion that the Browns think that maybe they got a player on the down slope, but still somebody who's going to help them? Or is there kind of a thought in their building that they essentially stole Lamarie Cooper this off season? Yeah, there is that thought.

And I think undoubtedly it's a shrewd and sharp move in the moment. And then when you look at the price tag, yes. But they had to restructure his contract. And we know the contract is a big part. I mean, the Cowboys could have reworked it. They chose not to, right? It always kind of trended that way. The Browns are going to have Amari Cooper on their books for a long time.

And they're guaranteeing him 20-some million beyond this year. Right. So that's a lot. But on this team that has zero proven in the receiving core outside of Amari Cooper, regardless of who's the quarterback again, Amari's going to catch a lot of balls. He's going to play all over the formation. He's really going to be the focal point. He's going to be that Jarvis Landry point of not only where they start in the passing game

with these quick crossers and stuff to get him going, but where they're going to look. So, you know, to me, he is a fantasy buy, what the production ends up being and what shape it all takes. I don't know. I'm certainly not closing the book on any of the other guys. But, I mean, I think Cooper is going to catch 80, 90, 100 balls. And I think, you know, that there could be big other numbers around it, too,

because he just, he's light years ahead of the other guys. And so it is age 28 season. He is under contract for a long time. And I think eventually you would think that a top level passing offense does not have him as it's number one. But as the Browns go to camp and start looking at this first month of the season, he is far and away their number one receiver. And regardless of game script and quarterback and all those things, there's going to be a lot of opportunities for him. So I think this speaks more to the lack of depth of the receiving core that you've kind of alluded to here. than it does to this player in particular.

But the second most accomplished perimeter pass catcher on this team right now is David and Joku, who, hey, look, the production probably does not indicate that he should have gotten a four-year, 50-some million dollar contract extension. But, you know, excluding what you think of the Watson situation, which I know is hard to do in this process, I think Andrew Barry has been generally regarded as a sharp guy. there is obviously something he and the coaching sass, Stees and David and Joku, that Zach, for fantasy purposes, my purposes,

and heck for Brown's fans' purposes, just watching the team, has not necessarily translated on a consistent basis. Can he take that step this year? Because the finances say the Browns are counting on him. I mean, he can. He's not good at football. He's big, he's fast,

he's freakishly talented in the open field. He has made progress in several areas. And there are things that he can do that a lot of tight ends can't, right? Is he going to catch it if he's open? I don't know. He's usually going to catch it when three guys are on him. It's just, you know, we can debate that and we'll see.

He only played 60-some percent of the snaps in this offense as, you know, a guy that picked up the fifth-year option on. Now, a lot of that was Austin Hooper was there to block, right, and run four-yard routes and fall down. I mean, the Joku's number is. have come on short passes that he's taken. And they are counting on him doing that. And they are counting on eventually Watson's ability to extend

an improvised plays, making it. So Nogoku just gets opportunities to catch balls, you know, on improvised plays and over the middle, 20 yards, and just outrun guys, right? Both before and after the catch. So all the talent is there, and I know there's a tight end shortage. But there is a chance that it's just a laughably bad contract. because he's not good at football. So we'll see.

There's no other case of a guy being in a sixth year and being developmental, but he is this and there are skills there. And we'll just see how it all comes to be. I think the favorite to be the second, to catch the second most passes on this team, at least in terms of wide receivers, is rookie wide receiver David Bell, who I think the old adage is he could roll out of bed

and fall into an NFL slot receiver, today. And I think that's probably the case with him. But he did open camp on the Pup list. I think it's a foot injury. Is there anything to be concerned about with David Bell? And if not, do you expect that he's essentially going to start for this team right from day one? Yeah, I think you're getting ahead there in a couple areas. And I don't necessarily disagree with what you're saying. But we don't know the injury. And if a rookie misses a couple weeks at camp, it's hard to catch up. And two, I just think he's very close to Omar Cooper stylistically. And if this is they buttoned up Jacobi Berset offense.

You know, I think if David Bell coach is the second leading white guy in terms of receptions, I think it means your offense stinks. So there's definitely going to be a role for him. And I definitely think he is, you know, from a mental standpoint and a route running reliability standpoint, not just better than the average rookie, but savvy enough for the Browns to think this guy is going to have a role. But we just don't know how much time he's going to miss and or what this pass offense is going to be, I mean, all the way down the depth chart, none of these quarterbacks were here

last year. Jarvis Landry was the get out of jail guy for the old quarterback for all four years, right? Odell made occasional appearances. Richard Higgins made occasional appearances, and Donovan People's Jones has made like 10 big plays in his career last year. There were 10 times where it just didn't happen. So, you know, People's Jones and Schwartz by experience and by athleticism, are ahead of Bell before we even know the extent of the injury. And Cooper is a lot like Bell in terms of where they're going to deliver him the ball.

So am I stunned if David Bell has a 70 catch season? Close. Am I surprised if David Bell becomes a really good, really savvy slot receiver? No. But for like that big of a role and a significant fantasy contribution, given all the uncertainty right now, I think you're setting yourself up for a big swing and a miss. So with the rest of the receiving core, and this is how I'm going to wrap it up. Normally, I've been asking folks for kind of a fantasy sleeper.

And if you have one that we haven't mentioned yet, Zach, I would love if you throw it out there. But I think it's probably going to come from this receiving core because somebody's got to catch passes. We talked about DPJ, big play guy. Anthony Schwartz is a burner who only has had flashes. They have Joaquin Grant. They drafted Michael Woods. Is there one of these guys that you think might be able to step up this year and actually become a reliable option for whoever's playing quarterback? Yeah, I mean, I think from a talent standpoint, it's People's Jones is the easy answer.

I mean, he has the wingspan, the straight line speed, and has some proven big plays on his real. He's not going to get into the route super quick. He has to add polish to his game, and he might. He's 23 years old. We know they couldn't get him the ball in college, you know, spend his rookie camp, you know, just way down the death chart. But when they needed him, they got what they needed. Last year, through all the quarterback change and bad offense, they weren't sure, but they kept giving him chances. I mean, he, Schwartz is going to catch an 80-yard touchdown at some point, right?

And like I said, David Bell, if he catches 40 to 70 balls, it's not going to stun me. But in terms of who could be the best player, and if any of these guys could, could be like consistently six catches, 100 yards, do this type of thing. It is People's Jones. So, you know, Harrison Bryant's not an awful tight end too. I don't think you're going to draft him or you need to draft him even in the deepest of drafts. We have this uncertainty with Bell. There's going to be touches for Joachim Grant, but he's here to return kicks and he's tiny.

I'm not sure how healthy he'll be. Right. But like, if you're thinking that Deshaun Watson's going to play and that eventually the Browns are going to be a vertical attack offense than Donovan People's Jones is not just the best potential value, but he's just so much better to me in terms of raw talent than all these guys, even if a lot, not all of it comes together, even if a lot more of it comes together than we saw last year, then he could be a star. And again, I'm not putting that on him. And I'm not saying he's in the galaxy of the top, you know, young receivers. But he's still young

enough that he could be a rookie. He basically is a rookie when you look at his path. And there's some real talent there. You know, third camp, third season, you know, maybe, maybe the green light comes all the way on. His name is Zach Jackson. He covers the Browns for the athletic NFL. You can listen to him on the A to Z podcast and the Civilized Barking podcast, Zach. I have done 32 of these. You are the only person who I think has outright said one of the players on the team stinks at football. So I really appreciate it. that. Well, he does. Like, he does.

To me, that's not controversial at all. Yeah, I don't think Browns fans are going to disagree with you. You must have gotten some incredible emails or tweets when they signed him to that contract, like from Browns fans. Yeah, but you know what? Like, it's not like it was stunning. It was always trending that way. Yeah, this is the third straight off season.

They've made some sort of commitment to him. Because remember, when they signed Hooper, he asked out, right? He's changed agents about six times. They picked up the option last year, which they kind of had to do. And then this year they looked and they said, you know, there's no way that they're saying that this guy is a superstar. But they're saying if we don't lock him up for 11 and eventually sign him for 14, some other team probably an AFC team is going to give him 15 and we're going to have to play against him. You can follow him on Twitter at Akron Jackson.

Zach, thank you so much for joining this podcast. I understand you've got to go back to Watson watch. Hopefully for your sake and for everybody's sake, it's over soon. Thanks for tuning in. this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.