Fantasy Football Daily - Baltimore Ravens with Kevin Oestreicher | 2023 Franchise Focus Podcast

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

In the first AFC North show of the 2023 Franchise Focus series, Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) brings in Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) of the @LockedOnRavens Podcast and @theravenswire to dissect the many changes the Baltimore Ravens underwent before the 2023 NFL season. Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- 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 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. Hi everyone, it's Joe Dolan, and this is the franchise-focused podcast series at FantasyPoint.com. We're continuing this week with the AFC North, and we started with the AFC East and over, a six-week period, I will be interviewing 32 different people, 32 different beatwriters, analysts, podcasters who are really close to each of the NFL teams. And the object of the franchise focus podcast series is to glean useful fantasy football information from people who would

know these things as we head into training camp and the 2023 NFL season. They're an educational process for me and I always like to get as much information as I possibly can. So I decided, why not just record these interviews, why not record these conversations, and hope that the listeners can glean some information as well. Again, we are heading into the AFC North in this section of our podcast interviews. We've already done the AFC East. I hope you enjoy. I hope you subscribe to the podcast feed, but without further ado, here's my next guest talking about an AFC North team. Today on Franchise Focus, I am welcoming in Kevin Oshstriker. He is the host and producer of the Locked on Ravens podcast. He's the managing editor of the Ravens'

wire and you can follow him on Twitter at K-Astriker 34. Kevin, thank you so much for joining me on the franchise focus podcast. Excited to talk some Ravens with you. Yeah, I'm excited to be here, Joe. I appreciate you having me. Plenty of fantasy focus here. And it's crazy, the comparison based off of Joe Flacco's Ravens when he wanted nobody on the Ravens' Offest. Now, Lamar's the centerpiece, but you got a lot of guys around him too, which is fun. Yeah, it was about Ray Rice and that's about it. And the occasional game where Tori Smith managed to catch a long pass and not draw a pass interference. Tori Smith, Tori Smith, man, if you got yards for pass interference,

Tori Smith would have been one of the greatest wide receivers of all time in fantasy. Great guy, too, by the way, Tori Smith. I think I think he's a popular guy in Baltimore. Anyway, big news for the Ravens this offseason, obviously is the resigning of Lamar Jackson. But from a fantasy perspective, once it became obvious that Lamar didn't have a whole lot of leverage or the Ravens didn't have a whole lot of leverage, maybe.

The biggest change for us is very clear. It's Todd Monkin, the new offensive coordinator. there's talk of more spread stuff. But OTA's mini-camps, what did you see? What has Todd Monkin been saying? What has the team been saying about this offense? And how much will it differ from what Greg Roman was putting out there? Yeah, but we're definitely going to see a shift.

Obviously, if you've been following the Ravens over the last couple of seasons, it's been run, run, run. The pass offense goes through the tight ends. And wide receivers are kind of irrelevant in that offense where, you know, you got jk eight albums. So this carries, Gus Edwards, with his, but Lamar with his carries was really big. And of course, for fantasy purposes, depending on how you're scoring is picking up those rushing yards, as opposed to passing yards can be big. Now, this offseason, the Ravens are prioritizing the receiver position with Monk in there, who just, I think, has a better feel

of how to use receivers in his offense. Now, Odo Beckham, Rashab Bateman, Zayflowers are the top three there. And for Lamar, the big thing, there are a couple. I'll do two here. One is the fact that there already seems to be more trust between Todd Monkin and Lamar Jackson, then maybe we saw from Greg Roman and Lamar Jackson. Part of that is the fact that Todd Monkin has told Lamar Jackson, we've heard this from Monkin himself, John Harbaal, Lamar himself, that he's going to be getting the keys. Lamar's going to be getting the keys to this offense, which I think is big for any offensive coordinator quarterback relationship.

But the fact that that was established so early and the fact that the Ravens won't be getting to the line with like three seconds to go before the ball is snapped is another huge thing for him. And I think that will honestly help Lamar from a long-term perspective. while Monkins is offensive coordinator. Now, the other thing is with throwing the ball and how that's going to impact the running game. I think as a whole, we'll see the running attempts decrease and the passing attempts increase. But the big thing is what does it do to Lamar's carries? How much of the Ravens want to put Lamar in quote unquote harm's way? And I will say

Lamar has gotten a lot smarter with his body compared to what his rookie season was. I think his rookie year, we saw him take a lot of unnecessary hits for one extra yard. He shied away from that and he's become a lot better with his body over the course of the rest of his career here. But for fantasy purposes, if you're talking about Lamar, who maybe would get 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 carries per game, if that number falls to 45, 6, 7, what does that do to a rushing floor that you feel safe taking Lamar? Because, you know, he's going to get, you know, rushing attempts and even rushing touchdowns on those carries. So the offense, I think, will be better for Baltimore from, I think both honestly, a fantasy perspective and a real team perspective.

But Lamar's rushing usage to me is maybe the biggest decrease in points we might see because the Ravens still have Dobbins. They still have Edwards. And they're going to throw the ball a little more this year, I think, too. So not to defend Greg Roman. I don't want Ravens fans coming at me. When a team regresses offensively, believe me, I'm from the Philadelphia area. I know how much radio gets on the coaches.

But not to defend Greg Roman too much, but they did not have a lot to work with at all, at wide receiver last year. And it's something that I think was, quite frankly, a failing of the front office. Rashad Bateman goes down. This team's got nothing. What have you seen from this rebuilt receiving group? How do you expect Odell Beckham, Zay Flowers,

maybe a returning Rashad Bateman and the addition of Nelson Aguilar. How do you foresee that receiving core shaking out in terms of roles and potentially volume? Yeah, it's exciting. You know, for the first time in a while, it feels like Baltimore has a really, good receiving group. And honestly, it's one that you can argue is maybe one of the best in franchise history with the top three they have in Odell Rashab Bateman and Zay Flowers as you talked about. Those three are going to be really involved here. And I like the fact that you have a lot of versatility with them. I think with Odell and Bateman, the key factor is health. Both those guys have

a lot of health questions entering this year. So, you know, taking them is one of your top three receivers in a fantasy draft. It's a little bit risky. I think you got to have some depth behind those guys to bank on either of them playing a full 17 game season, which is possible. I'm not saying it's not. But those two, I think with Lamar, we've seen improvements from Lamar as a passer each and every season, even if they're slight. Now, the thing with Lamar is also healthy. He's missed the back end of both regular seasons over the past two years. And with Lamar, we've seen with Tyler Huntley, who has been their backup, when Lamar goes out, the whole offense, the floor and the ceiling just crashes to the ground. Odella is someone who has been very

adamantly saying he is fully healthy after having the year to recover. after that ACL injury in the Super Bowl in 2021 with the Rams. He's someone who could come back and have a very rejuvenate year in this Todd Monkin offense. Bateman is someone who I think we saw flashes from at the very beginning of last year and then ended up fading before getting injured a little bit. His struggle with drops, too, over the course of this career, which has cost them some long touchdowns so far in his very short career. So those two health and just overall ability to stay on the field.

But if they do, I think the offense suits them very, very well as guys who are just route running technicians. And speaking of that, Zay Flowers is one of those. guys too is going to break a lot of ankles. And I think he's going to have a pretty big role. I know in Dynasty drafts, he's a first round pick, 10, 12 team leagues. But even in redraft, he's a guy that you can swing on in the mid to late rounds, have him as a bench piece. And depending on if O'Don misses some time, if Rashob Bateman misses time as well, the offense, I think is going to, and it's weird to say, because Mark Ganges is also in the offense and to think,

well, where his snaps and receptions is the targets coming from. But if Bateman or Beckham goes down. I think you have an offense right now that's going to throw the ball a lot more. There will be targets to go around where there weren't many to go around to wide receivers last year as we saw Mark Andrews and essentially some of the running backs get some of those. But to me, I think that those the receivers and Beckham, Bateman and Flowers are going to have roles this year. And depending on how the health situation shakes out, each could be pretty valuable. I'm going to stick with the receiving court because I want to talk about the health situation. We obviously got a bit of a like a little shutter when Rashad Bateman wasn't

participating in mini camps because he got, I guess, a quarter zone shot or what did John Harbaal say? It was a quarterstone-like shot or something like that. What's the situation with Rashad Bateman and what of the Raven's expectations on his recovery from that foot injury? Yeah, there were definitely some worries overall when Bateman didn't participate. But John Harbaugh, I think, provided a very clear update on him where sometimes those screws in the foot can cause some discomfort. And there was some concern about whether those screws were still in or out.

John Harbaugh clarifying the screws had come out. He had undergone the procedure to get those out of his foot. And the cortisone shot was for the discomfort after the screws were taken out. So if it was before and the discomfort was there, it would have been a bit more serious because if that continued, the procedure to get the screws out would have happened now or in a couple weeks and that maybe would put his week one availability in jeopardy. But with the screws coming out, I think it's more for discomfort. Those foot injuries are not easy to come back from, you know,

when the Ravens took Marquis found at Oklahoma in 2019. he had a Liz Frank and he had to get the screws out and they had to go through that whole process. So it feels like Bateman, hopefully they should be ready for training camp. If not, I wouldn't put too much cause for concern. Maybe if he is still out at the very end of training camp, I start to maybe sound those alarm bells. But at this point, the Ravens don't have to rush Bateman back or anything. At this point in the off season,

you sacrifice some snaps taken in training camp for the 100% health that you hope to get these guys back to. So I take this as precautionary at this point, which is honestly how the Ravens should be handling things, especially after what happened with their team in 2021, but they played J.K. Adams in that final preseason game, and he tears his ACL misses the whole year. The Ravens obviously took Zay Flowers in a run of four consecutive wide receivers to come off the board in the middle of the first round there in April.

They passed on Jordan Addison for him. What did the Ravens like about Zay Flowers and how he fits into Todd Munkin's offense, vis-a-vis maybe some of these other receivers that went in the first round? Yeah, I think for the Ravens like, They liked how Zay Flowers is a three-level player can win both short, intermediate, and deep. Someone who I talked about as route running. He is lethal in the short intermediate game. And also, he's not like a burner.

It doesn't have like that four, two, four-three speed, but does have that deceptive speed, as I like to call it as well. He did struggle with a couple of drops here and there in Boston College. And I feel like that's something that like Rashob Baton is going to have to get short up if he wants to be that, you know, star stud guy. but I think he's NFL ready at this point. This Ravens team is hoping to compete and they have been ready to compete now. It all just depends on the health. I think the Ravens views Zay Flowers is a very NFL ready guy to the point where if they needed to maybe get a guy with 80% of snaps in a couple games at Beckham or Bateman misses a few. They can rely on him.

You know, some of the other guys, I think a lot of people were very high on Jackson's bit than jig, but he was my number one guy in the class, but he goes a couple picks earlier to Seattle. So it was essentially between Jordan Addison and Zay Flowers. you mentioned. But I just think the Ravens like how he's able to win at all three levels and has been very productive at doing so over the course of this college career. Hopefully they can translate over that to the NFL game and it can be good for him. And I think he's a good fit and he's already bought into the Ravens. They're really big on culture guys. And I think Zay Flowers, not that Jordan Addison wouldn't have, but Zay Flowers has already bought it on that, which is huge for him.

So when I see a player not participating in minicamps, that's always a big concern for me. And I really didn't know how to react when I realized that J.K. Dobbins, not participating was more contract related than injury related. I was like, should I be more encouraged that it's contract related after we saw him really, I mean, was explosive at the end of last year and he didn't even look close to 100%, at least to my eye. What's the deal with his contract situation? What are the expectations on getting him in uniform and practicing? Is this something we should be concerned about? Yeah, well, for J.K. Dobbins, I'd say frustration is not anything new. here in Baltimore with J.K. Dobbins. Dobbins expressed his frustration over his role in the Ravens

Wildcar loss of Cincinnati last year where, you know, didn't get the ball in a lot of situations. Dobbins has only had one career game over 15 carries in this entire career. It was the last game of the season last year. So I think for what Baltimore has in the running back room with Dobbins and Edwards and Justice Hill, they have a really good stable there. But with JK Dobbins, health has been the concern for him. He's played in 23 games of the course of three years. And it just feels like the number, if this is a hold and the number that the Ravens are offering him is not up to expectation. And we know the deal with running backs right now. It's, you know, the position is an all-time low value-wise.

That age where, you know, when the Ravens signed marketing room in 2019, the whole thing was, oh, well, you know, 30 years old. When that number comes up, it's the running back number 30 years old. He got a cut date and that's that. But that number's gone down to 29, 28, 27. We just saw Dalvin Cook get cut. So that's where the running back position is right now. For J.K. Dobbins, he's someone where the values are. really interesting. I feel like it's not an all-time high for him at this point. He's someone who we

know when he's healthy can put up big numbers is an explosive runner. Average six yards of carry his rookie season on a pretty extensive amount of carries, which led all running backs that year. But can he stay on the field? That's what he has to prove to the NFL this year. So if he gets there, if he plays a full 17 game season, if he goes out there and has in a thousand yard year, 10 touchdowns, that to me raises his value far above what it is now because he answers the health questions and has another really great year. And look, I understand the long-term stability in the NFL. You want to get that as early as you can because one play can effectively end your entire

career and for a play with health concerns like Dobbins, if he has another injury-rovaled season, will his contract that he gets next year be as much as he potentially could get this off-season? So it feels like this could be a hold in. And my question now is how far does it go? Like how big of a statement does he want to make? Is this just a mini-camp statement where he comes back to training camp and all he's fine and dandy and they negotiate or is he really serious about this if it is a hold in and he holds out

through training camp in which case fantasy wise would be a big boost to gus edwards but you know for jk dauben's owners out there you know you want them on the field especially as early as you can get him out there you know tom munkin mentioned that he wants and maybe you trade some of those lamar runs for a checkdown you know lived live to fight another day let the running back take the abuse so i within the context of that that comment i thought it was interesting that the ravens essentially signed Justice Hill, who by the way, averages 16 yards per game in his career. So very sparingly used. They signed him to a two-year deal on the first day of the league year.

That's when they agreed to the deal. What did that say? And by the way, then the Ravens didn't do anything at running back in free agency or the draft. So is that an indicator that Todd Monkin might view Justice Hill as a bigger part of this offense than we're used to seeing? Yeah, I think it's a couple things. One is the Ravens probably are the team. Maybe New England's in this conversation too, but they are one of the teams that really value special teams

and will resign guys purely on that ability. Justice Hill is someone who has been a major special team for them over the course of his career as a gunner has been really good for them. But something he showed me last year, and I wasn't expect, I didn't even have on my 53 man roster because he pretty much was cut at 2021 when he suffered an injury. He comes back, showed explosiveness, hard nose running. the Ravens love Justice Hill, both as an offensive contributor and what he does on special teams.

Now, I think with the way the offense is shifting, and you talked about it, right, maybe trading out a Lamar run for a running back checkdown. The short passing game, in my estimation, and a lot of others, is an extension of the run game. And so if you're able to get the ball into a Justice Hill's hands, for example, as a third down back, that's not a bad option to have. I know the way of third down backs has gotten kind of taken out of the league in some sense, but some teams still do it. having that pass catching guy. I think J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards both have that ability. But with Justice Hill, he's a sleeper guy where look, if J.K. Dobbins holds out for us to miss some time or if Gus Edwards has to miss some time as well,

Justice Hill in an offense that I do think will continue to go with the committee approach to be the second guy in that committee with the upside of, especially in a PPR format, getting some catches in there as well. I think Justice Hill is a sleeper guy, you know, maybe at a very end of bench where you can pick he'd be a very top waiver priority if one of those guys were to go down. So maybe a late round last pick of your draft steal, but he's someone who I'm excited to see what he can do this year. You're a fantasy player.

So you understand that in 2021, Mark Andrews was like a league winner. If you had Mark Andrews in your fantasy playoffs, you were making a lot of money. Last year, not so much. I don't think he scored a single touchdown in the second half of last season. I know he dealt with the shoulder injury. Was that something that lingered? or and if not or maybe in addition to, what else kind of went a little backwards for Mark Andrews season last year?

Yeah, there were some struggles. I know that Jacksonville game was brutal for Mark Andrews owners. He dropped a wide open touchdown in the end zone, had one call back, I think. It was just, there was a lot going on for Andrews. The shoulder injury, I think, is good to go now. You know, I think that even during the year, it got better as time went on. I know he suffered it kind of in the middle of the season,

but guys are always playing banged up at the end of the year. So it wasn't anything too, too bad from what at least I understand. But for Mark Andrews, what ended up happening was Lamar. Lamar went down right at that Denver game, the end of the first quarter there, didn't play another snap. And with Tyler Huntley, as I said, the offensive ceiling and floor just craters and the offense scores instead of, you know, the 25, 28, 32 points a game, it's 13, 15, 17, a lot of field goals.

The Ravens Red Zone offense also was abysmal. last season that they did not convert barely barely any touchdowns in the red zone they had to trot justin tucker out there for 25 yard chip shots 30 yard chip shots and obviously with fantasy the value comes with those touchdowns and andrews just wasn't getting those looks and just the throws weren't there the targets weren't there and with bateman and duverne going down the ravens put so much into those two teams just knew this double triple mark andrews and who else is 36 year old to Sean Jackson, is he going to beat us? The Marcus Robinson, is he going to beat us? You know, it really was if you take away Andrews, like in 2019 when they had Hollywood Brown,

there was a joke where one guy would produce a ton one week and the other guy that week would do nothing because the game plan was to take one of those guys away. This past year it was it take Andrews away in the passing game and what are they going to do. So now 2023, I'm excited now that they have Beckham and Bateman and Duvrenay and Flowers and all these guys to take the load off of Andrews. And I think a much better passing offense. But I think it was just a bad luck of the draw for Andrews and now a season played out because I think it could have been a lot better. But the Lamar injury, the way the offense kind of really was putting the shambles of the end of the season contributed to, I think, a down year for him at the end of the end of my franchise focus podcast. Maybe

somebody we haven't mentioned so far or maybe just mentioned in passing who could be an underrated fantasy contributor on the team. Who do you think that guy is for the Ravens? There are a few guys. I go back and forth, but I'm going to stick tight end. I'm going to say Isaiah Likely. He's someone who won't be the tight end one in this offense as long as Mark Andrews is around. But Andrews, we talked about it, I'd have to miss some time last year. And when that happened and Isaiah Lakey was kind of thrust into that tight end one role, produced at such a high clip scored touchdowns, wrapped up yards, and someone who is very interesting in terms of maybe how Tom Munkin's going to use him this year. He can line up out wide.

He can line up in the slot. you can use him in these four wide receiver sets and put him all over the field. And you can say, oh, he's just our big wide receiver out there, runs a routes very well, showed flashes both in the preseason. And the big thing was he wasn't just a preseason darling. When he got the opportunity, he said it was a regular season darling as well. So again, if you're looking for, if you have an opening on your roster for a third string, tight end, or even if you want to use them as your backup and maybe bank on increased production

or an Andrew's injury, like you never want to see a guy get injured. But if Andrews does go down, I think likely has in, credible value in someone who, again, Andrews is the tight end in that offense. There's no taking that away from him, but likely could be a really cool sleeper pick in someone I'm personally targeting a lot of my drafts this year. His name is Kevin Oshstriker. He is the host and producer of the Locked-on Ravens podcast where you can catch him on YouTube. You can catch him on Apple Podcasts. Wherever you consume your podcast, wherever you're listening to this one, you can find

that. It's also the managing editor of the Ravens Wire and you can follow him on Twitter at K. Offstriker 34. Kevin, thanks so much for joining me on the franchise focus. It's been a pleasure. to have you back soon. Yeah, Joe. Any time you need me, I'm here for it. I appreciate you having me on here. It was really fun talking with you. We'll continue our first week and wrap up our first week of the franchise focus podcast series with the Cincinnati Bengals tomorrow. Hope everybody joins me, and I hope you had enjoyed the first week of the series. I'll be back. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, wait, and review on your favorite platform and come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.