Fantasy Football Daily - Carson Wentz Traded

Episode Date: February 18, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) are back to break down the Carson Wentz trade, which finally went down Feb. 18 after weeks of speculation. The guys start the pod by breaking down the details of the trade and the Colts side of the deal before jumping into the implications for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense (21:30). --- 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 FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Well, Tom, we were planning on sitting down here today and talking AFC coaching changes and going through what some of these teams are doing. and what they plan on, what might look different in the 2021 NFL season for something seems to hire new coaches, offensive coordinators, whatever. But I was waiting.

My wife was completely dilly-dallying to get out of the house today to go in, to go teach at Clemson. And the reason I kept pushing our podcast back like 10 minutes was because she was leaving. And when my wife leaves the house, my dogs go nuts. They go nuts whenever they hear the garage door. So they run up and down the stairs, barking, and it wouldn't be an atmosphere exactly conducive for podcast recording here on the Fantasy Points podcast. And so what I decided to do was just say, Tom, let's do 1130. And then it was like, all right, my wife hasn't left yet.

Let's do 1140. 1140 rolls around and she still hasn't left. So I said, Tom, I'll let you know. And you're like, well, come on because Tom, Tom, really wants to watch golf. And she leaves the house. Yeah, exactly. She leaves the house.

The dogs go nuts, as predicted. Then they hear a dog barking outside. So I'm like, oh, boy, here's what happens. I sent a link to the new Hold Steady album to our friend Matt Brown of the Athletic. We love the Hold Steady. And the new album, well, it's out. But, you know, well, well, that's another discussion for another day on a different podcast. And he responds to that, oh, man, is this what I think it is? And I go, yes, it is. And then he goes,

also, goodbye Carson. And I knew immediately when he sent that, that I needed to check Twitter. I needed to check Adam Schefter's Twitter feed because Carson Wentz has been traded. For something that, Tom, it seems it's been inevitable for two weeks now. Hell, even before the Super Bowl, it seemed inevitable that Wentz was going to be traded. And Carson Wentz has been traded to the Indianapolis cult. So this is what we're going to talk about on this podcast today. By the way, my name is Joe Dolan. I'm the managing editor at FantasyPoints.com.

And welcome to the Fantasy Points podcast. His name is Tom Brawley. Tom, we talked last week about the Matthew Stafford trade. The other domino has fallen. Adam Schaefter from ESPN has been right on this, the entire time. He said the rest of the league is in quarterback purgatory until the Carson Wentz, Dominow Falls.

Philadelphia has traded Wentz to Indianapolis. They will be accumulating like a $30 million dead cap hit, whatever. We'll talk about that. But the terms are, according to Adam Schefter and Mike Garifolo of NFL Network, a 2021 third round pick, which is number 84 overall, and a 2022 second. round pick that can become a first round pick if Wents plays either 75% of Indianapolis Indianapolis's snaps or 70% of Indianapolis's snaps and Indianapolis makes the playoffs next season. If you were to tell the Eagles two years ago this is the package they would get for Carson Wence,

they would probably be disgusted. If you were to tell the Eagles two months ago that this was going to be the package they were get for Carson Wentz, they'd probably be like, all right, yeah, that makes sense. And it's a trade that has a lot of layers to unfold, Tom. But from Indianapolis's perspective, let's start with the cults who are acquiring Carson Wentz, how do you feel about this deal? Well, first off, just let Virginia know. I'm very appreciative of her dilly-dallying today. Saved us a lot of work here. We would have been, you know, having to re-record this podcast if we did it at our playing time at 11, 1130. So very, very happy to have, you know, the extra 45 minutes back in my day. But, you know, they were clearly in a spot where they

needed to make a move here at quarterback. Philip Rivers retiring. Jacoby Brissette, you know, they did that experiment in 2019. And, you know, he was just a low end starting quarterback. So obviously they're reuniting here, Frank Reich, you know, his best success is Carson Wentz. So, you know, we're with Frank Reich in the fold there, you know, during that Super Bowl season there before he got injured. But, you know, so he's thinking, this is, you know, the type of market we have out here. You know, we're going to be fighting with everybody else for, you know, all these other quarterbacks or we have to draft one. I kind of know what I have in Wence. The price tag isn't too expensive.

You know, we're buying low on this guy. You know, he showed a high ceiling back in 17 there. So, you know, he's going to see if he can rehabilitate him here a little bit and, you know, get him gotten the right track. And it's a great situation for him to step into. You know, the offensive line was a disaster in Philadelphia last season. You know, Anthony Costanzo's gone. on in Indianapolis, but still, I mean, you know, one of the best offensive lines, Quentin Nelson might kick out the left tackle.

You know, they'll have to bring somebody else in on the offensive line there. But it's going to be one of the better units. Going to have a good rushing game behind them with Jonathan Taylor showing that he's, you know, got potential to be a top 10 back in the league. You know, the weaponry, you know, it is kind of thin at receiver, you know, you know, but it's, you know, it's kind of comparable to Philadelphia last season. You know, T.Y. Hilton's a free agent. They'll be counting on Michael Pittman to take a big step forward in his second season.

Parrish Campbell hasn't really shown that he can stay healthy. But the good news is the Colts have, you know, they have one of the bigger, you know, they have a lot of room to make some moves here in free agency. We know there's some big names out there with, you know, Alan Robinson, Chris Godwin. You know, the free agency market is pretty, pretty, you know, there's a lot of receivers out there that they could make a splash move with it. So they can upgrade the group. And I just think overall the situation is a lot better. Now it's just the question is, you know, is whence repairable.

I think for the price they paid, it's worth the risk to see what they can do here over the next two or three years. Yeah. And this is the thing with the Indianapolis cult to continue with them. I saw like an estimate of from, I think it was from Spottrack, who even after bringing in Wenz and his salary, they still have projected to have like the fourth or fifth most cap space in the NFL. And it's a very good wide receiver class in free agency. You've got T.Y. Hilton's a free agent, by the way, but maybe, you know, this is a run it back thing with a franchise icon with T.Y. Hilton, you bring him back. Alan Robinson is a free agent. Even some guys like Marvin Jones down the line, he's a free agent. Chris Giles. Godwin's a free agent, even though I definitely expect that he will be back. There's a chance Gallaudet. Kenny Galladay is a free agent. Juju Smith-Schuster is a free agent.

So there are definitely options here for the Colts to improve the weaponry around Wence. And we'll talk Wence himself. But one thing the Indianapolis Colts cannot do is repeat the mistakes of Philadelphia and just keep saying, and this is probably part of what broke Wence. And Tom, I don't know if we're qualified to do a psychoanalysis of Carson Wentz. I'm sure there's a lot of factors that went into his decline in Philly. But certainly one of them was just the insistence on old guys to like prop him up. And also mistraft picks, drafting J.J. Arthega Whiteside over D.K. Metcalf.

I'm still, I'm not going to write off Jalen Rager's career after one season. But to draft him over Justin Jefferson, who ended up having the. the best rookie season of a wide receiver ever. You know, decisions like that did not help Carson Wentz. And I don't know what his relationship with Doug Peterson was like. I have to imagine the Eagles fired Doug Peterson knowing that Carson Wentz's relationship with the team was fractured. I can't imagine Wentz was like fired Doug and I'll be back.

And then they fired him and he's like, no, never mind. I'm not back anyway. Like I don't think that's what happened. I think Eagles knew that this was coming. But, you know, Indianapolis has a lot of room to make moves here. They didn't have to trade one of their first two picks in this draft for Wentz, which was probably a pretty damn good deal for Indianapolis. They have a good run game to support Wentz with Jonathan Taylor. And say what you want about Miles Sanders, he's a good back, but he's not the foundation kind of back that Jonathan Taylor is.

You got the good offensive line, though the Costanzo situation is a little bit concerning. So there's a lot of support in here, obviously with Frank Reich, above all, to help Carson Wentz out. Now, one thing I do want to get to is when we're evaluating Indianapolis from a fantasy perspective, you know, there was really only, T.Y Hilton at the end of the year was very good for this team for fantasy after he was like a ghost, Tom, for like the first three months of the season. But other than that, really the only guys who were good for fantasy for Indianapolis were Jonathan Taylor and Naim Hines, the running backs. And you look at tight end. You have Jack Doyle. Okay. Trey Burton's free agent.

Moe Alley Cox is a free agent. So you have Jack Doyle there. They do still need to improve here. And my question to you is, is Carson Wentz an upgrade over the retired Philip Rivers? And based on how Wentz played last year, I have a hard time saying that he is. Oh, I don't think that is the case at all. I think this is a downgrade overall for the web. in this offense. You know, and, you know, to be completely honest, this, this was an offense

outside of Jonathan Taylor that I was pretty much not playing at the end of last year. DFS, you know, I dabbled with Michael Pittman off the waiver wire a little bit at the end of last year, but that, that's about it. And I think this overall is a bit of a downgrade. I'm not going to be actively pursuing, you know, the receivers and the tight ends in this offense. You know, in the nature of the Colts offense last year was to really spread it around. They had, you know, and maybe that was part, partly because of the way Philip Rivers was distributing the ball. But, you know, just the way they were using their tight ends. You know, they were, you know, the target distribution was very, you know, very evenly split, even at wide receivers.

So if we're going to see that kind of split here, and I think it's a downgrade out quarterback here going from Rivers who I thought played at a fairly high. level last year, played better than I thought he did, you know, towards the end of his run in Los Angeles there. So, you know, overall, you know, we'll see if Wentz can get back to the level that he once was at. But, you know, early on here, you know, without any, like, you know, reports, offseason reports and, you know, check-ins on the team, I'm more inclined to stay away from the receivers here in Indianapolis. Yeah. And well, we'll reevaluate if they sign somebody. like a Kenny Goladay or an Alan Robinson or something like that. And I fully expect they're going to be in on that market, Tom.

You do not make this move for Carson Wentz. It's a bold move for somebody who played poorly last year. You do not make this move to say, we'll see if we can fix them, but we don't really care if we don't win this year. No, no, no, no. The Indianapolis Colts are in it to win it. That's why they signed Phillip Rivers last year.

That's why they're trading for Carson Went. So they are going to be aggressive. Yeah, this roster is close. You know, it's not a faraway roster right now. They're built to can't in right now. I gave them out as one of my Super Bowl best bets last week. They were close to 30 to 1. So this roster is close.

Would you be surprised if they bring backup reset or some other veteran competition here to, you know, to kind of push Carson once along. You know, last year it was kind of a, that was kind of felt like the beginning of the end whenever they drafted Jalen Hertz there in the second round, you know, there was a lot of tension around. that, but, you know, do the Colts, you know, bring in some kind of competition behind Wentz? You know, just in case things go a little sideways that they have a little bit of insurance behind them.

Well, my question then becomes, Tom, and again, not to delve into the psychoanalysis of Carson Wentz, but do you bring in competition? If the Jalen Hertz thing and the Nick Foles thing mentally broke Wentz as much as it seems it did? I mean, or do you go get a scrub backup quarterback and say, Carson, this is your team. Now, I mean, look, obviously you make this trade a potential first round pick. If things work out well for the Colts, they will be giving up a first round pick next year. Only if things work out poorly for Indianapolis, do they give up a second next year. So consider that. That's an investment in Wentz, but also you look at Wentz and what happened with Foles and what happened with Jalen Hertz. And

apparently that rubbed Wentz the wrong way in Philadelphia. And you're like, well, you know, I didn't like the Jalen Hurts pick anyway. And that's another story. We can get into that. But I look at it and say, all right, those things rubbed Carson Wentz the wrong way. But hell, they still gave them $130 million. So it's not like there wasn't a commitment to Wentz. I don't know.

It's a fascinating situation. Yeah, I find it very fascinating. I don't think the compensation is insane that they have to like, you know, build everything around them. Like they are committed for the next five years to him. You know, even the, you know, the, you know, him playing 75%, you know, if they bring in a veteran that's, you know, capable and he struggles at all, I can see them flip into a veteran quarterback. So I'll find that situation, you know, pretty interesting to monitor here. Maybe they, maybe they do give him the keys of the car. They, they go for, you know, a non-threatening type of backup here. But, you know, we'll see how all kinds of

play all kind of plays out here. We'll see if like a guy like percent, I would find him like, you know, a capable backup here that would apply a little bit of pressure behind Wentz. Definitely, you know, would have him feel a little bit over his shoulder if he struggles. So let's talk about those conditions for the Eagles right now and the Colts in that draft pick because I think they're fascinating. 75% of the snaps for Carson Wentz. If he plays 75% of the offensive snaps for Indianapolis,

then the Eagles get a first round pick regardless of how Indianapolis performs. If he plays 70% of the snaps and the Colts make the playoffs, the Eagles also get a first round pick. It's either or, by the way. It's not, oh, if both of these things happen, they get two. It's an either or situation. And if they don't, if those situations, neither of those situations happen, the Eagles get a first round pick, a second round pick, rather.

So I want to look at what you think those conditions mean for the Eagles, because, or for the Colts, because obviously the best case scenario for the Colts is Carson Wentz plays well, I mean, obviously the best case scenario is he gets back to his 2017 MVP campaign, in which case they don't give a crap if they're giving up a first round pick. The worst case scenario for the Colts, I'm going to guess, is Carson Wentz plays unbelievably poorly and still hits the 75% threshold. I can't imagine that happens. But I do want to bring this up.

Well, I could imagine playing poorly. Yeah, I can't imagine him playing poorly, but I can't imagine him playing poorly and playing 75% of the SNAP. That's kind of why I'm bringing up the Vennel. veteran thing. Like, you know, if the season does, you know, go against them, you know, it's not looking good. That first round pick, you know, it's looking like it might be a top 15 pick or something. I could very easily see them, hey, it's November or December. We're falling out of contention here. Carson, you, you're not going to play that, you know, you're not playing this week or the next

couple of weeks. You've got an injury here. Or, you know, we're just starting Brissette or whoever the veteran quarterback is behind them there. So, you know, that's kind of why I, I'm bringing it up because the compensation part, I think it's a nice little, you know, it's an incentive for both sides here. You know, it probably got the Eagles to the finish line here with the trade, getting that extra kicker in there that it could go from a second to a first round pick. And, you know, if things do go sideways,

the Colts can kind of change their path next season. So, you know, it's a fascinating little twist on this trade here. And I kind of like it for both sides. I mean, I think, you know, if he does hit that 75% threshold, that means, you know, he's probably playing fairly well. And the Colts are, you know, right there in playoff contention. And they'll gladly, you know, give away a first round pick if it looks like Wentz, you know, his career is back on the right track. Well, we actually have numbers on this, okay? This is from Elliott Shore Parks of 94 WIP, who is a notorious hot take artist, but this is just a straight fact.

those conditions in Wents's five seasons, either of those conditions have hit in four or five seasons. In 2016, he played 100% of the Eagles offensive snaps. In 2017, both conditions hit. He played 78% of the snaps, this is before his ACL tear, and the Eagles made the playoffs. So that would have been both conditions hitting. In 2018, neither condition hit.

Wentz played 66% of the snaps. Remember, he had the back injury, and he opened the year with the knee injury, so Foles opened and closed the year as the starter in 2018. Though the Eagles made the playoffs, Wenz played only 66% of the snaps. In 2019, Wentz played 99% of the offensive snaps, and in 2020, he played 72% of the offensive snaps. So what you're looking at here for Carson Wents is he probably played a higher percentage of the Eagles' offensive snaps than his reputation might have you believe. So, and 2020, he was benched, by the way. So again, if Carson Wentz is so bad to the degree he was in 2020 and he gets benched,

well, the Colts probably aren't going to be all that thrilled to be giving up a 22 second round pick for him anyway. And then the Eagles are probably like, all right, we got out from this contract, we got out from underneath this, and we can move forward as a franchise. And we'll talk about the Eagles angle of it, Tom. But basically what this means is if Carson Wentz is good, the Eagles are going to get a first round pick, and the Colts are probably content giving that up. If Carson Wentz is bad or he gets injured, the Eagles are probably like, well, we got out from under that contract. And if he's bad, the Colts are probably going to bench him to make sure those conditions don't hit. Yeah, and it will be a pick in probably the 40s there.

So, you know, either way, it kind of works out for them. But, you know, it's just the whole mechanics of this was fascinating. The whole timing of it was fascinating. I mean, people were like, hey, they need to get a deal done here. You know, I like the way, you know, that both teams approach this. The Colts, you know, kind of were calling the Eagles bluff, but the Eagles kind of waited it out. You know, they probably got this kicker put in there at the end to sweeten the pot a little bit for them. And, you know, I think it was good posturing on both sides here to.

to get these, you know, these little stipulations into this trade. All right, Tom, we're going to take a little bit of a break. We're going to go to our guy Ben Cucanus, who has a word from our sponsors, and then we're going to talk about the Eagles side of this deal. All right, Ben, thank you very much. Tom, let's talk about the Eagle side of the deal, because obviously what this means is Philadelphia is punting on the 20, 21 NFL season. Now, things happen in the NFL.

Maybe the Eagles needed kind of a sea change, just a franchise change here. I think anybody could admit watching the Eagles last few years, things have gotten stale. Even when they were dragging corpses of a roster across the finish line to get to the playoffs the last couple years, things have gotten stale for Philadelphia. And that's why, you know, I saw Andrew Brand, you know, who obviously is a former NFL executive and had a lot of experience, you know, with the... the salary cap. He was insistent for most of the offseason that the Eagles were not going to trade Carson Wentz because of the dead cap hit. But my contention, and obviously this turned out to be

true of Philadelphia, Tom, if you're not expecting to contend in 2021, which I doubt the Eagles are at this point, this is a complete reset year for them, what does the dead cap necessarily matter if it clears cap room for you down the line? And that was the whole contention here. And the thing that I'm going to say first from Philadelphia's perspective, and I want your opinion on that as well, is, I mean, obviously, they are more than content just saying, we're punning this year, we're going to get out from the Wendt's contract. And I expect they're also going to get out from other contracts, Deshawn Jackson, Alshan Jeffrey, some of the older guys on defense, maybe Darius Slay they can trade, clear up as much room as you can for the future, add some

picks to a roster that, and believe me, of all the people to blame for the Philadelphia Eagles situation, I still put Howie Roseman, who is still the general manager, by the way, number one. Like, Doug Peterson got fired. Carson Wentz is gone. I still think Howie Roseman is number one to blame for this entire situation, the cap hell, the bad roster. But I guess he's getting one last chance to fix this. And I expect they're going to trade or release a lot of the players on this roster. And I'll be honest, Tom. I'm a little bit surprised Philadelphia didn't throw Zach Ertz into this trade with Carson West. Yeah, I have to wonder if Indianapolis just didn't want him.

Like, I don't know what his cap number is in terms of, you know, throwing that into the trade. But, you know, I did find that interesting. We'll see if he's still kind of in the mix here. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to flip him for some kind of pick here. You know, I don't think they'll probably have to be a day three pick. I would think maybe four. Yeah, but day three picks matter for a team like the Eagles that needs a lot of young talent. And, you know, he's not a part of the future.

You can, you know, get a little bit younger at the position. You can let Dallas Goddard really, you know, kind of spread his wings, you know, learn the, you know, be a full-time player. Let him, you know, grow, you know, as well. So, you know, it helps in multiple ways, you know, Earth isn't really part of the future. It makes a lot of sense to trade them. So, you know, we'll see how it all kinds of plays out. I agree with you. I think this is kind of the start of a real.

reset here. Get the cap situation back in order. Acumulate some picks. I guess they'll give Hertz a chance to really be the guy this year. Give them the full season to evaluate them here. I know they do own the sixth overall pick, and that could be pretty enticing for them to maybe look at a quarterback, but maybe instead it's a spot where maybe they trade back and accumulate a few more picks. You know, you don't want to see that from a Carolina or somebody for nothing. Could you imagine if the Eagles traded back after what's happened the last few years at the wide receiver position for them?

If the Eagles traded back and how their fans would react, if like they traded back with like Jalen Waddle or Devante Smith on the board and both of them go before the Eagles pick, I mean, the fans are going to go absolutely freaking psycho. I mean, it's, it's fascinating. Tom, it really is. Now, I want to throw Adam Schaefter, who broke this story, put an article out, just a brief article with a little few more details on the trade,

and buried in the story was this quote from Adam Schaefter. The Eagles are likely to turn to Jalen Hertz, though they also intend to bring in competition for him. The Eagles' starting job is not expected to automatically be Hertz. Now, does that mean,

does that mean the sixth overall pick? Which Les Bowen of the Philadelphia of the Philadelphia Daily News said he talked to an executive from another team who expects the Eagles to be in the quarterback market at number six overall. So if you draft a quarterback at number six overall, that's not somebody to compete, by the way. That's somebody who's your franchise. So the Eagles have all kinds of way to go.

But let's assume that Jalen Hertz is the starter, okay? I think that is the most likely outcome right now, that Jalen Hertz is going to be the Eagle starter in 2021. What does this mean for fantasy to you? Oh, I've moved him up, you know, in our best ball rankings here. We'll touch a little bit more on that later in the episode. But, you know, I have him inside my top 125, I believe now at this point. You know, he's my QB 13, and I might actually bump him up a little bit.

You know, that Schefterline does, you know, scare me a little bit. Maybe I'll remember Doug Peterson's not there anymore. it's a new staff. Yeah, maybe that QB13 is about the right spot here. But, you know, he's going to be in a lot of good spots here next year. As you said, this team is going to be, you know, it's not going to be a great team. They're probably going to be chasing points most weeks. You know, we saw him in those type of situations at the end of last season.

And he was fantastic for fantasy. I think he was the QB5 or the QB6 as the starter in the final four weeks of the season. there put up some, you know, a couple, a pair of 300-yard passing games and the rushing production was obviously there. And that's something that we continue to expect here. So, you know, maybe they can, as he said, they have that number seven overall pick. They could potentially upgrade the position here and, you know, bring in a receiver here to improve the cast around them. So, you know, I'm pretty optimistic about them. And, you know, we, as we've seen with the quarterback position here over the last two years and especially last year,

these guys that can run that can, you know, raise their floor and, you know, unlock some of those ceiling games as well, you know, with rushing touchdowns and rushing production. Those guys are at a premium. So, you know, I would not be surprised if, you know, if the competition at quarterback in Philadelphia, if it stays light, if there's not this, you know, big presence behind him through the draft or veteran competition that he could sneak into the top 100. I would not be surprised. Oh, I mean, we'll see how it plays out, but I have a feeling that he's going to be one of those guys that just steadily climbs all spring and summer long until he's up, up inside the top

100. I would not be sure. Yeah, and I mean, top 100, I think, look, he averaged, he averaged like 30 fantasy points per game in his three full games last year. So, I mean, those are big time numbers. That's more than Patrick Mahomes average. So, I mean, obviously he was running around and that, but that's huge for fantasy. Now, this is the thing with Hertz. I don't know necessarily how entirely fair it is to evaluate his rookie season based on those four games. And it's one of those things where it's another reason I didn't necessarily love, as a matter of necessarily love, I hated the Jalen Hurts pick. And I've, and there's smart people who disagree with me on that because of the investment in the quarterback position. And obviously the Eagles had some

concerns with Wentz that bore out. But you now had Jalen Hertz in a situation where he was playing the final four games on a team that, I mean, in any normal year would have had no shot at the playoffs, but only because the NFC East was so bad did the Eagles have any dream of the playoffs. So you were playing on a bad team behind an injured offensive line with a bad receiving core with, you know, Zach Ertz had been in and out of the lineup, a team that had struggled to run the ball all season long with a coaching staff that was clearly checked out because the Eagles got rid of all of them. I mean, was it fair to evaluate Jalen Hertz on the fact that he completed like 52% of his passes last year? I don't know, Tom. I don't know. And that's

one of the reasons I didn't love the Hertz pick because he barely got a, he got four games. I mean, if Justin Herbert played the way Jalen Hertz did in his first four games, you probably would have said, well, it's not ideal, but he was a rookie. And, but it's just, it's hard for me to evaluate Jailen Hertz. So Nick Sieriani and his staff have a lot of work to do. Yeah, we'll see how it goes here. I mean, Siriani is a, you know, I think he'll be kind of skewed towards the run here. I mean, that feels how the offenses of run here, you know, in Indianapolis and, you know,

with the chargers in his last couple stops. And, you know, now we get a full off season. You know, new coach here, he can kind of build the offense around. Jalen Hertz's strengths here. You know, it was a tough, tough juggling act at the end of the last season. You know, you're going from one style with Carson Wentz to a completely different other style. And Jalen Hertz, and you're kind of doing it on the fly. They have an entire off season here to prepare for it.

So, you know, that's a positive in its own. hurts, you know, gets a full offseason. You know, last year was a disaster with the COVID-19 situation. And, you know, maybe it's not going to be completely ideal this off season as well. But, you know, at least people are going to be more familiar, you know, with the, you know, with the technology. And maybe we'll get some on-field opportunities by the time the summer rolls around. So, you know, that at least has me a little bit optimistic here that Hertz can, you know, put a little bit better, you know, football on tape here. Overall, I still, I, I, I left last season very optimistic about what I saw from him, even though, like you said, he completed, you know, barely over 50% of his

passes. But, you know, he wasn't afraid to take downfield shots. And the rushing, obviously, is a big boost here for, for our purposes in the fantasy wall. Yeah. So, I mean, that's, that's the thing with Hurtz. Frankly, I ended up liking him more than I thought I would. And if you were to go, and I understand what happened in that last game against the team. He was awful in that game. They benched him for Nate Sudfeld and everybody freaked out, said the Eagles should lose all their draft picks for all eternity because of it, which is a joke in another. I'm not putting week 17 on him. That was a whole, that was a franchise debacle there. I mean, you can't even evaluate that. And honestly, the Eagles are in a better spot as a franchise because

of what they did in week 17, because they have the number six overall pick in this draft with a of talent at the top of the draft. But you know, Tom, and I mean, maybe this is going to end up looking foolish, but based on what I saw on film and from the performance within the context of the modern NFL offense, and I cannot believe I'm saying this after that national championship game, what, three years ago between Georgia and Alabama, I actually feel like maybe I'm being colored by fantasy, but I almost feel more optimistic about Jalen Hertz than Tuatunga by Loa at this point. Like, I just feel like his skill set might fit the modern NFL game a little bit better. Yeah, isn't that insane to think? I mean, you know, two, two I looked like two years ago,

like he was, you know, I don't want to say a sure thing, but, you know, he was, you know, a tier below that. Like, he was a guy that was going to have this 10 to 15 year career at the, you know, at the very least and, you know, have a Drew Brees-like career. Like, you know, just this hyper-efficient, you know, passer and hurts, you know, he was gimmicky. and, you know, didn't really have a place in the NFL. Of course, we got the Taysom Hill comparisons after the draft last year. And now, you know, they're kind of on equal footing, I would put it. You know, still plenty of questions going into their sophomore seasons here in the NFL.

But, you know, I feel a little bit more. I don't even know if I want to say a little bit more optimistic about Hertz. But, you know, I'm certainly feeling better about where Hertz is going into year two after, you know, compared to where he would be going into year one, you know, you know, Tua, we'll see where he gets to, you know, it is a bit unfair for Tua. You know, he was coming back from a major hip injury. Yeah, yeah, that's totally true. You had Ryan Fitzpatrick breathing down his neck, Brian Flores, you know, the shortest of short

leashes behind him. So, you know, we'll still see how it all plays out in Miami. It sort seems like they're, you know, in the running here for one of these quarterbacks. They'll try to make a play for one of them. But yeah, it's amazing how things can quickly change. And, you know, the course of like two seasons, basically. Yeah, so one more player I want to touch on, Tom, and I think the Eagles receiving core is going to look different.

So we'll see what we do with Jalen Rager and Dallas Goddard. We'll get to that on another day. But I want to touch on Miles Sanders because, in essence, if Jalen Hertz is the starting quarterback here for Philadelphia, you'd think that's probably a good thing for Miles Sanders. See, I don't. I've moved him down. Okay. I just think, you know, Hertz is going to be, you know, more active around the goal line.

He's going to run in touchdowns. He's going to, you know, use his feet. I don't think he's going to be, you know, as, you know, once didn't check it down a ton either, but, you know, I don't think Hertz is going to be a checkdown type of quarterback. So I think it's a slight hurt to him. I don't think they're going to be very good. I still think the offensive line is a major liability. So, you know, I'm kind of against the rest of the staff.

I'm looking at our best ball rankings. I have him, you know, as a late second round, early third round pick at this point. I'm not nearly as bullish on Sanders right now. But I do think some aspects of this are going to help him when you maybe work in more of these RPO's and these misdirection type of plays and more triple option runs. And he did have, you know, some pretty good rushing games at the end of last. season. That is one thing to be optimistic about. Some of his best performances were towards the end of season. But I do have my overall worries about Mahal Sanders still. So we have to evaluate, and let's just presume we're drafting

best ball right now, Tom. You said you're moving Jalen Hertz in close to your top 100, but also, you know, you also have to take into account here. And this is the problem when you're doing best ball rankings this time of year, the fact that the Eagles might draft a quarterback at number six. That is looming here. There is pretty much a consensus top four quarterbacks in this draft, whichever order you want to put them, with Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, and Trey Lance. I think it would be Philadelphia might explode if the Eagles drafts another North Dakota

State quarterback right now. But, but, yeah, so they might. But, I mean, there is a consensus top four quarterbacks in this class. And Tom, I wouldn't be surprised to see all of them go in the top ten. So, I mean, there is an ample opportunity to draft a quarterbacks. quarterback in this draft so that you have to build that in when you're making your rankings with Jalen Hertz right now. But if you were drafting today, who goes first on your board, Jalen Hertz or Carson Wentz? Oh, it's not even close. It's Jalen Hertz. I don't trust Wins after what I've seen.

And, you know, even we saw with Rivers last year, you know, this offense, it skews more towards the run. You know, they have a big time back in Jonathan Taylor. I think, you know, we're just starting to see the best of what he could do at the end of last year. So, you know, I would lean heavily towards Hertz here. You know, Hertz, you know, I'll probably keep him. I have him a QB 13 right now. I'll be, you know, I'll see how it all kinds of plays out here in free agency and the draft. If he gets through that unscathed, though, I could easily see him being my QB10,

QB 11, you know, right around like Tom Brady and Ryan Tannihill and Russell Wilson. You know, I have him below those guys right now. And Matthew Stafford is the other guy right in that range. So, you know, maybe if he gets through unscate through free agency in the draft, maybe I could see sneaking him up to, you know, that Brady range in the QB9, QB10 range. So, yeah, I mean, and I agree with you. And obviously you move hurts up if the Eagles don't draft a quarterback. Because, I mean, I guess they could sign somebody like Ryan Fitzpetheth.

Patrick or even Jacoby percent, who we discussed earlier on this podcast, too. I want Ryan Fitzpatrick to go somewhere and start, man. I want to see one more. I've been wanting him to go to, like, Washington. Get him to a contender. That's what I want him to go to like Washington. I have a big bet on them, 80 to one Super Bowl odds. I want to see Washington with a solid quarterback move here.

I want to see him starting somewhere. But, I mean, I think it does tell you, like, A, where the Colts were last year offensively. And look, I mean, they were a run first offense. I thought Rivers played well, but I mean, he wasn't a great fantasy quarterback that you're willing to draft Jalen Hurst, who probably isn't guaranteed a starting job over Carson Wentz, who, I mean, he is. He's going to start for the Indianapolis Colts.

So, yeah, I agree with you. I think Wentz is probably, if I'm drafting today, a midling quarterback too, and I'm factoring in the fact there that they have a lot of cap space and I expect them to make moves at the wide receiver and maybe the tight end position. Yeah, he'll be moving up. I mean, it'll be fascinating to see what they do in the free agency there. If they make a big splash move, I could see really moving him up. You know, that was a big issue last year.

Sackertz was kind of the go-to guy for many years there. And he kind of fell off last year. And, you know, he didn't really have that go-to guy. And, you know, that certainly played a part. So he can get like a big-time receiver here, somebody that he can really rely on. I could see really moving him up in the rankings here. But yeah, you're right.

He's probably going to be more of a low-end QB-2 for me right now. You know, I'm looking at other guys like Baker-Mayfield. I still probably want more. James Winston, if he gets the starting job in New Orleans, which it looks like he might. I probably like Winston a little bit more so. But, you know, he's right in that class behind those guys. I think he's probably in that, you know, QB-18 to QB-21 range.

Who won this trade, Tom? I don't know if anybody really really. really won it. I, you know, this is, I feel like this is kind of like the, the Rams and Lions trade where, you know, I see it helping both teams. Well, I think the Lions definitely won that trade, but not like, let's, because that is so obviously a win for the Lions, if you allow me to interrupt, because they weren't going anywhere with Matthew Stafford, and they get two first round picks and a third, and I guess Jared Goff, he was kind of a throw in there. Remember, by the way, when somebody told. I see that as a huge win for the Rams though too.

Oh, no, yeah. They were stuck in purgatory with, you know, golf there. So they have a chance to start clean. And, you know, I feel like this is kind of a similar situation for both of these teams. Yeah. And I mean, like, for the Rams, I like that they're going for it. But like, I mean, if you, from the Lions perspective, the fact that they're blowing the the whole damn thing up, I think that trades a clear win for them.

And I love that the Rams are going for it. But this trade for me, the Wens trade, oh, by the way, just as an aside, remember when somebody on Twitter told me that it was only a third round pick for Stafford, the Rams had to give up two first round picks to get rid of the Jared Gough contract? I mean, come on. The Eagles might get a first and a third for Carson Wentz, who played worse than Jared Gough last year. I mean just to completely BS take that. And we knew all along the Eagles were not going to have to give up picks to get rid of Carson Wentz. Doesn't mean they were going to get two first like Matthew Stafford got. I always thought that was preposterous. But like the fact that they were going to have to give up picks to get rid of Carson Wentz was preposterous the whole way. But getting back to this trade, I mean, it's kind of fine for both teams. The winner is Carson Wentz.

But it's kind of fine for both teams. I mean, it's not great for both teams. I mean, it could be great for the Colts. It could be great for the Eagles. If Wentz sucks, this is a great trade for the Eagles. If Wentz is great, it's a great trade for the Colts. If Wentz is good, it's probably a great trade for the Eagles. if Wentz is good, it's probably a good trade for both teams. So it's one of those things where I look at it like,

as I'm sitting here, I'm like, yeah, that kind of makes sense. Like, I can't really fault the Colts for this trade as we're sitting here in the moment. And I can't really fault the Eagles for the trade as we're sitting here in the moment. Yeah, I mean, it's a classic spot for the Colts. You know, we do these kind of trades all the time in fantasy football, you know, you know, assets that are way down. but we expect better results for them going forward. And, you know, they've shown us in the past that they have good results, you know, in them. So, you know, I like it's a bit of a risk risk here for the Colts. But, you know, I don't think it's a huge risk. You know, it's, you know, the salary's, you know, a little bit of a, you know, impediment.

But, you know, the draft picks aren't too much. If they, if Wentz is, you know, 80% of what he showed us in 2017, you know, this is probably a victory for the Colts. So, and Frank Reich, you know, he's, he's, I thought he did a good job in a tough situation with Jacoby Percette in 2019. You know, Andrew Locke retires right before the start of the season. You know, he's put in a tough situation. You know, I thought Peret played above, you know, what I thought he was capable of. It wasn't enough. They went after Philip Rivers.

As I said, I think Rivers had his best season in a couple years under Frank Wright last season. And so, you know, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, maybe he's, you know, feeling a little confident. But, you know, he's had a good run here the last two seasons with quarterbacks that they've had to start here. So he's feeling good. He thinks he can work a little more magic. And he's actually worked with him before. So he knows what Wentz is capable of.

So, you know, I think it's a smart move on the Colts part. If it backfires, you know, it's not a, you know, you lose a couple picks. I see it as a good tray for both sides. Yeah, I think it's totally fine, Tom. I guess we were going to get into some deeper bestball talk. We're doing a, I don't know if you and I are going to be on the live stream, but John Hanson's doing a live stream. Yeah, I believe we're going to be on there.

I'll leave those details up to Ben Cucanis, but yeah, we're excited. I'm at least participating in a best ball tennis tonight. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, this is that time of year. I mean, I usually jump in like May after the draft, but I'm excited. I might dip my toe in here a little bit before free agency, a little bit before the draft. And I get a couple teams, see where the market is and see where it moves. But, you know, we'll be rolling out more best ball content here in the near future.

You know, I know, Scott Barrett's been, he's been one of the unfortunate people down in Texas, you know, in and out with his internet and electricity here. but we'll have a lot of best ball content coming up here pretty soon. And you can find our rankings on the site as well. Yeah, we do have the rankings up there. And again, Tom, we were supposed to do like a, the initial plan was AFC coaching changes and early best ball content. We went for 45 minutes on the Wendst deal.

We have so much more to say about that trade. And obviously, if things work out, you know, we're going to have to see how these rosters work out. The Colts are going to improve the roster around Carson Wendt. I'm not sure the Eagles have the financials to improve their roster around Jalen Hertz, but I don't know if they want to. I think they'll probably push that to 2022 and they'll try to build up a youth movement here this year.

It's just another move in an utterly fascinating offseason. It was wonderful talking to you about it. And I hope everybody enjoyed listening to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. If you want to subscribe to FantasyPoint.com on our early Bird 20% off special, get all of our best ball content that's coming. Scott Barrett's going to do a big best ball kind of treat. Of course, he's down in Texas, and we're thinking of him and his family and anybody who's down in Texas. If you're there, I hope we're giving you a little bit of a reprieve talking about this trade.

If you can download it and listen to it. Yeah. I mean, if you did down. Maybe you'll be listening to this a week or two from now, too, as well. Yeah, I mean, I hope you guys are doing okay. I expect this is going to have at least a couple of weeks of, of, of, of, of, utility, Tom, because free agency doesn't start for another free or free. four weeks, so at least we're going to get some utility out of this.

But if you want to go to FantasyPoints.com, subscribe to our early bird special, a 20% off, you get our best ball content and our rankings and all that. We're going to be continually pumping that stuff out, live streams, draft reviews, all that. Follow Tom Browley on Twitter at Tom Browley. Follow me on Twitter at FG underscore Dolan. And make sure you follow the site on Twitter at Fantasy PTS because Greg CoSells draft guide. He is going to start sending over profiles to me. Very shortly, we are going to put that up on the website.

You don't even need to subscribe to the website to get Greg Costell's draft guide, by the way. It's $25. Maybe you're not in on fantasy. If you're not, I don't know why you'd be listening to this podcast, but hey, maybe you just wanted to listen to something about the wench trade. I think people are going to be really, really into that great CoSell draft guide. Maybe you're an Eagles fan of it. Last year, it was, you know, that was just the first step. We're really blowing it out this year.

We gave it away for free last year. but, you know, it's looking good. We've seen some of the early mockups of some of the pages and, you know, hopefully an application here. You know, we've been in the, you know, the beginning process of that. So it's looking really sharp. I think people are going to freaking love that, Joe. Yeah, I mean, I think it, and I think NFL Twitter is going to love it, not just fantasy

Twitter. Maybe you're an Eagles fan, and you're wondering if they should draft a quarterback or you're focused on those big time wide receivers. I think Greg Costell's draft guide is going to be really important for you. Wes Huber, our newest full-time hire, is doing some deep dives on the top prospects in this class as well. It's been wonderful reading his stuff. That's up on FantasyPoints.com. Thank you for joining us for this edition of the FantasyPoints.com podcast.

You guys are the best. Tom Brawley, this is Joe Dolan. Have a wonderful day, everybody. And let's hope there's not another huge move here within the next 30 minutes. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review. view on your favorite platform and come join the roster at fantasy points.com.