Fantasy Football Daily - Fantasy Points Podcast | James Koh

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Welcome to The Fantasy Points Podcast, where "The Guru" John Hansen and Brian Drake bring you the best in fantasy football insights and analysis! In this special episode, they are joined by James Koh, co-owner of Reception Perception and former DIRECTV and NFL Network personality. Join John, Brian, and James as they reminisce about the good old days, sharing stories of hanging out and grabbing drinks after work. Hear about their experiences in the industry, the evolution of their careers, and some fun behind-the-scenes moments. After the trip down memory lane, the conversation shifts to fantasy football. James Koh shares his expert insights on several key players to monitor ahead of this NFL season! Whether you're a seasoned fantasy football player or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable information and entertaining stories. Where to find us: httpp//twitter.com/Fantasy_Guru http://twitter.com/DrakeFantasy http://twitter.com/JamesDKoh FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy to have our guests today, Mr. James Co. Of course, NFL Network and DirecTV Fantasy Zone. One of my favorite dudes in the industry, so we'll do a little chopping it up on, you know, our friendship over the years here working out in L.A. And then we'll get into some football stuff. So very excited. Stay tuned. Thank you for liking and subscribing and commenting and you're welcome.

All across the fantasy universe, welcome. to the Fantasy Points Podcast, powered by Fantasy Points.com. I'm your boy, Brian Drake, rocking and rolling with the guru, the publisher of FantasyPoints.com, Mr. John Hansen. James, welcome to the show. Hell yeah. Of course, if you're not following James on X or Twitter or whatever they're calling it this week, it's at James D. Co. Make sure you throw the D in there.

You don't want to lose that. I don't want to tell my wife all the time. All right, baby. Let's go. We're off to the next part. We're rocking and roll. James, I got to ask this because John said something to me when we were getting on the show. He goes, there's no one in fantasy football that I drank more beers with than James Co. So there's got to be some phenomenal stories.

You guys would get done with the direct TV, you know, NFL, Sunday ticket, whatever you guys called it out there. And that show would end at like 430 Pacific times. You had all night long to just go out and drink and, you know, shenanigans would ensue. So hit me with a good guru drinking story off the top. Well, listen, first of all, we got to keep it PG somewhat on this on this show. I can't I can't reveal or divulge too many industry secrets. Okay. But as you mentioned, man, it's like, you know, once it was like five o'clock from about five to like nine o'clock,

Goubrew and I would get after it. First of all, do people not understand what's going on? Like, think about the timeline here. It's Sunday night. My guy's drinking until midnight Eastern. Okay. Oh, yeah. Midnight Eastern.

And he pops up at four. a.m. Eastern to do his show. Like this man's an absolute warrior. It's unreal. I cannot believe he is doing what he's doing, man. It's just it's craziness. Um, because I tell you what, that Monday morning, like I would get up like probably like, you know, 11 a.m. Eastern, you know, just to kind of recover. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm just, I'm recovering. I've done this show. Uh, I've gone to my hotel, taking an app and I'm on my, flight back to Philadelphia by the time James is getting up. Absolute madman is the guru.

But no, we've definitely, like I said, so we did that for, we did that show five seasons, man. And the first season he was out in New York, so we didn't really get to chop it up too much. But right after that. So we're talking good three, three and a, you know, four seasons of just at post show beers every single time. And it was like, you know, the funny thing is, you know, there was a, it was a pretty large, you know, cast.

But each and every week, you know who was going to be there? Old James D. Co. and guru, just every single week, baby. We're watching Sunday night football, grabbing a couple beers. Let's go. Let's go. Because we're work hard, play hard type of guys, right? That's what I tell my kids. You know, I've got two out of college already.

One, two of them getting ready to go to college. Like, guys, when you, when you do a little, maybe you do a little partying here to blow off a little steam, but you're always celebrating something. You just did something. You you aced your final or you just ended the semester. Now it is time to perhaps consume a cold beverage or two, right? Like that's it, right? Because that show, we're locked in for 10 hours.

Like, I don't know, James, like eight hours, nine hours. And, you know, we're on live TV. Eight hours of live TV. People don't understand the mental drain it takes to do eight hours of live TV. But, but no, it was great, man. And obviously, Guru and I were, it was a great tandem because, you know, he's got obviously all of his data sets and all that kind of stuff. And I would just come in with some wild deep sleepers.

And every now and again, I'd hit on some. And yeah, man, we just had a good ass time. It was a really, really fun show. And I've told people for a long time, that particular show, that Red Zone show, Fantasy Zone, it's the, it was the most underrated fantasy show in the history of fantasy. Really was. And it was just a great, honestly, if you were just a great, honestly, if you were just football fan. It was just a great football show because by the time we got into like, you know,

season four and five of what we were doing there with the guru and I. So much of it was just even beyond fantasy football, man. We were just talking ball. And I think it was, it was just such a great show. And I think if you were a fan of the, the sport, one of the most underrated shows ever, because we just didn't get proper promotion. We didn't get proper, you know, credit. We did get paid though, thankfully. Well, we did get paid. Let me tell you, we got paid pretty well. So I wasn't, I meant about that paycheck.

Let me tell you that. Yeah, I miss it. You know, let's be honest. Yeah, let's be real. Let's be real. But I think too, and I've done my share of these type of studio shows and working with other people. And, you know, I'm always, I'm the guy that I'm, I chop it up with the camera guy. You know what I mean?

Like, you know, you, you are cool to like the lowest level guy. But the entire crew, I mean, come on, James. Have you ever been with a better chemistry group and just synergy and just friendliness? Our guy, Dr. Mark Addix, Lindsay Rhodes, Dan Helly. I mean, we really, by the last couple of years, like we were like a pretty close-knit family there. It was. No, we were on cruise control. We didn't need to do any meetings or anything.

And again, I just want to pull back the curtain here. Like people got to understand. I've worked at a lot of different places. I've been doing TV for 15, 16 years. Okay. Every place I've ever worked, there's huge. Huge egos. Huge. And I'm not talking, and mostly on the on air side, but behind the cameras too, man, like producers got egos too. Right. So like you don't understand at different places that I've worked, it's never been like that. It was the best work environment, man. And I miss it dearly. I can't believe we're going to year number two, guru, without this show. I miss it. I miss it dearly. It was a great show. It was a great on air product. And as you mentioned, working with those folks, man. It was a lot of fun too, so it was good stuff.

Well, we're just getting things started right here. Hang tight, folks. More with James Coe and the guru after this quick time out. You and the Per Noelle, the pro of the embalage caduce. Cote of deballage, it's who the mauer? The mull reiss-o-bord-arachid met your art of deballage at the pre-billage. And with three mull-o-bode-cremeo and chocolate-a-pacquare,

you have to your train. to find again and again this pleasure sucre, saline, and again, and again. The Pern-N-Hale has

Biscuits, you're not, Tarese, and there's nothing Rieces. All right, everybody, we're back. James Coe is our guest

here at the Fantasy Points podcast. You know him, you love him from reception, perception. I love the work you do over there

with Matt Harmon. And I've always been a fan of yours. You and I are basically around the same age. You know, we've got the same sort of interest with wrestling

and, you know, sports and all that good stuff. But you're a guy, your t-shirt game's always on point when you're on camera and you're big into content creation, which I'm a huge fan of getting out and doing funny bits, doing funny things that aren't just, I'm going to read you a bunch of nerdy stats in front of a camera. Like, I think that's kind of what separates you from the pack.

So we always like to throw a couple bones out there. We have no, there's a lot of content creators that listen to this show. So what would you say to folks who are creating content or have ideas about it? kind of your philosophy on fantasy football content in 2024 um my my content if you um if you watch it closely it is i am i'm always like sneak serving vegetables okay like because like i'm dressing up as jim komer i'm dressing up as bob ross i'm dressing up as the fantasy cops and it's funny it's stupid it's ridiculous um but in the when you get the information the information's all advanced stats you know I worked in a lot of next-gen stats I worked a lot of

fantasy points data okay uh into my stuff because I love fantasy points data it's the best about by the way best value in fantasy football I think is fantasy fantasy points data yeah but and that's the way that I would approach it my whole approach was just let's keep it funny let's keep it light but at the same time the information that you got was not just like it wasn't just you know off-the-cuff stupid information it was actually deeply researched takes. And that's my whole approach to fantasy football. If you watch me, if you've watched me for, you know, I've been, and I've been doing,

you know, fantasy football media for 10 plus years now. If you consume any of my content, that's how I write. That's how I present. That's how everything that I do is all about let's keep it light. Let's keep it funny. Right. But at the same time, understand. Don't fuck with me on the info.

Okay. because I'm coming for people's necks when we're talking about info, all right? Because the info is deeply researched. I come in and I've done my homework, but I sneak that into this whole packaging of just like stupid skits that I do week in and week out. And how can people find those skits? I know you have your YouTube page. Do you have all those sketches from DirecTV on there? Yeah. Yeah, because people again, I would retweet a lot of them. They were awesome.

Great actor, Brian. Unbelievable actor. And I can say that because my ad is rating on IMDB is 8.6 for all the work that I've done. So, you know, I'm qualified. But no, seriously, where can we find that, James? Yeah, it's on the YouTube page. You can go YouTube.com slash James Decoe. It's James Decoe on all the socials, right?

But yeah, I haven't posted one in a bit now. I took obviously a year off to kind of focus on my reception, perception, business. owner there of that site to really kind of build up that social platform there for for RP and really just build up our website as much as we can. So took a little bit of a year off. I really want to get back into it this year. I don't, we'll see. If I could convince our guy, DJ Spar, to jump in with me and make a couple skits, man, we'll get after it for sure. You guys were great. Man, man. And you're also helping out a lot of young up-and-coming journalists and content

creator. So I respect the hell out of that. If you go over, you know, to James's Twitter and You see that you're moderating, you know, different forums for, you know, people that want to come up in the business. So that's important because there's no gatekeepers anymore in media. You can come in and just get any kid can get a YouTube page and say, hey, look, now I'm creating content. You know, we spoke to a guy last week, Theo Ash. He's a young kid and he's got hundreds of millions of, of, you know, people following on TikTok and views. So I really respect that, man. It's great work you're doing.

Oh, thank you, man. Yeah, no, I, I get a lot out of working with young people. and trying to help people smaller accounts, smaller brands, smaller people try to grow a little bit, you know, because I get it, you know, I understand. I was there at one point too, you know, although I'm a little bit older, as you mentioned, you know, I didn't have to come up in this crazy ass social media world, you know. But I get it, man. Like I understand the thirst. I understand the hunger of trying to get after it. And, and honestly, talking with them, it really helps me too because it helps me get after it, man. Like I find that motivation and, and, you know, Listen, man, guru will tell you, man, it's like, listen, once you get those kids out, you know, it's like your motivation just changes, you know, some, a lot of times, especially when you got young kids, it's hard to find that, that drive and that will, that hunger that you had when you were in your 20s and early 30s, you know what I mean? But yeah, so yeah, no, I get it, man. And I really get a lot out of helping young people. So it's funny, like, when younger or, yeah, when smaller accounts reach out to me for like a podcast appearance, I generally will say yes. I try like 95% of the time I'll say yes, I'll do it.

Just because like I understand reaching out is a big thing and you know, trying to help people grow. It's a big thing. And, and I'm all about it. Yeah, I've tried to do that myself. Maybe not as much last year, but I went on a little run there where I was like trying to kind of give back and going on any pod that I could.

James, before we get into actual football talk for 2024 here, as we get to know James Coe a little bit better here on this. brand new podcast by the way by the way uh very illustrious uh list of guests so far you're you're among you know adam schaefter uh jeffer uh yeah it's like you're right there baby in that company but who doesn't belong in that group good lord oh stop you're a superstar uh you know i do think it is a little interesting uh brian and and james of course and anyone else listening or watching that we do have similar but completely opposite paths And what I mean by that is, you know, I wanted to be in broadcasting.

I became a father. Let's just say a little sooner, a little earlier than I thought, which made me have to kind of reset. And I was like, oh, I don't know if I could pay my dues at this point because I have a kid and a wife. But I found a backdoor into broadcasting thanks to fantasy football. So I'll be forever grateful and indebted to the industry and the whole entity. But James, you're kind of the opposite. You found a path to fantasy analysis dumb because you were already in broadcasting. So let's hear a little bit about your, your start in, in this industry.

Because you know, multiple Emmys, okay? You got a multiple Emmy winner before you even step onto the field over here. Listen, I, if I can shoot my own horn a little bit. Yeah. So I've won four local Emmys, two in sports, two, two in news. So it's not, I've not, I haven't been a, a sports. guy my entire career either right I actually at one point in my career was considered a pretty hardcore journalist and really at the top of my game in regards to being

a reporter in television news I had won a bunch of awards I wanted to associate press Mark Twain award I won an Edward R. Murrow award for for journalism so again I lean on my journalism background for fantasy football because when you're a journalist you have to take complex issues and complex matters and simply simplify them into very digestible pieces for people for everyone to understand right right tell me that's not what fantasy football is right fantasy football is taking very complex ideas melting it down and making it digestible and making it readable making it watchable for people to consume very easily that's my whole approach uh in regards to fantasy football that's why again that's why i come in well researched and doing all those things too okay so yeah i i did local news for a long time i did television uh like i said i've been working in TV for about 15 years, 15, 16 years. And then when I interviewed at NFL Network, I just, look, I told the guy, I'm like, hey, man, I'm a huge fantasy football nerd.

Like, I am ridiculously, ridiculously huge into fantasy football. Like, I consider, you know, draft day of my primary league to be like a holiday for me. I'm taking that day off. Yeah. Okay. We're firing up the 40s. Okay, we're getting the grill going. Fodian, you got a little paper bag there?

You know, yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Okay. We're going to get that bucket of fried chicken and we're going to town, baby. We're going to town. Okay. That's what it was like for me for like, I don't know, like probably like 15 years before I step foot into NFL network.

And then obviously NFL network, I just, you know, we just, we just go crazy with it. Right. So that's kind of how I got into it. I've been, I've been playing fantasy. I'm playing fantasy sports. since 1995. Okay, I've been playing fantasy football since 1998, right?

So it's been a while. That's been a while. Okay, like, as, I got a Yahoo email account just so I could play on the Yahoo platform. All right. I still got that Yahoo email, baby. You do. All right. So we're, uh, so yeah, we've been, we've been in this game for a long, long time, man.

Um, so no, I'm not a Johnny come lately, uh, to this game. Dude, I've been playing fantasy football, like I said, since 1999. so and loved every minute of it. And Brian, one of the just smoothest broadcaster dudes in the business, he, I don't know if I've seen anyone be more comfortable in front of a mic

or a camera than James Coe. I mean, Brian, you're coming a long way in your broadcasting endeavors, getting more reps and all that. But this guy, man, like, it's like, yo, James, you're on. Like, oh, oh, hello, America. And you just start talking like it's nothing.

It's beautiful, man. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I said. Our paths are kind of parallel where, you know, I graduated high school, 98, went off and went to, you know, school for journalism and broadcasting the same route, you know, early 2000s. When I got out and I quickly realized, I can't make any money doing this. So I was in radio and then I turned around. I went in radio sales thinking, oh, of course, I'll do radio sales on the side, then back door my way back on air. That never happens, folks.

It doesn't. Once you become the sales guy, you're the sales guy. Really? But yeah, they're not letting you back on there once you're the guy wearing the suit. But it's interesting. I'm sure a lot of guys out there who were listening to this, they had that dream. I want to be the next Bob Costas. I want to be, you know, Marv Alba.

I grew up. I live in Syracuse. That's everybody who comes through here is, you know, a huge sports guy. So I respect, man, that you got, you followed the dreams and you followed it all the way up the ladder to NFL network. And that's where my next question is going to come from. I know you're not there at the moment, but it doesn't seem like anybody's there. Although shout out my boy Marcus Grant. What the hell's going on with NFL network these days, man?

I don't know. I mean, if you think about it, and this is no shade over there, but this is the truth. The truth of the matter is it is a television station dedicated to the most popular sport in America, by far, right? It crushes everything else, right? For whatever reason, and again, these are just straight facts. Okay. For whatever reason, that product cannot be sold because people look at that product and say, no, this, we can't buy this. Amazon wouldn't buy it. Apple wouldn't buy it. I mean, it's just, again, they're trying to sell it. They're trying to. Why? And people won't buy. Why are they trying to sell it?

See, again, so it makes you wonder what is going on financially with that station in terms of content and production and all those kind of things. I'm not sure, man. you know, I'm not 100% sure. And they keep slashing. They keep cutting. You know, middle managers get released. A bunch of producers get really behind the camera guys get released. Now in front of the camera guys are getting released. I mean, so I don't know, man.

Like I really don't understand. They're doing all the shaving and cutting to make it more appetizing to sell. And again, people won't buy. So it's very interesting to me. What's going on there? So I don't know. It's, it should be a great product. And at times, I think it is a great product.

You know, I really like their draft coverage. I think their draft coverage team is, is great. You know, I watch them over ESPN. But I don't know. I think there's still some real big holes in regards to how they produce their shows. I think it's a little dated. Everything feels a little old in regards to their production. More vanilla, low generic kind of like.

Yeah, yeah. Not bad. And by the way, yeah. No controversial take. really exactly you of exactly few of those right right right exactly it's not bad it's just not it's not cutting through the noise i think that's probably the best way to put it i would ask though why would another network or media conglomerate want NFL network and i say that because the nfl is still going to do whatever the hell they want so you're kind of like powerless i would think because if you own

the network and then you want to make changes. I'm sure the NFL, like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know. Like, that's just, I don't understand why they would even want to sell it. John, I think you hit it exactly on the head. And I think that right there, and again, I'm just speculating here, but I think that right there is exactly why it's not attractive to buy that product, despite the fact that it is a station dedicated to the most popular sport in America. Okay. I think that is why it's not attractive because you can't make changes without the league coming down on you without literally Roger Goodell coming down on you and saying, no, you cannot do

that. Or, hey, listen, I don't like what you did right there. That's a problem, you know. So I don't know. We'll see how it all turns out. I think it's been a very controversial within the league as well in regards to coverage and, you know, how they approach things and the delicate balance between journalism and PR. I know my time there was that that conversation happened almost every single day. So and it's tough. You know, it's really tough because what they do or what they did, I don't think this true now, but what they did is they used to just hire just straight up journalists.

You had to have a real good journalism background to work there. Shefter, which is interesting, you know, which is really interesting if you think about it because again, a lot of the owners would prefer NFL network to be a PR arm of the, of, of the league. And when you hire a bunch of journalists, it doesn't really, you know, that's why there's that clash. Okay. That's where that friction comes in. Now, again, I go back to, I don't necessarily think that, uh, there are more recent

hires have been reflective of that. But, you know, again, I think that also comes with, with, uh, the age. I think they're they're hiring younger the the media landscape has completely changed the the line between media and commercialization has certainly changed so so yeah man I just think you know with where NFL network is at right now I'm very curious to see if they do end up getting sold what does content look like moving forward so and by the way last thing I'll say on that they're one of their most popular shows and certainly the show that cut through all the all the noise I won't

get into the ratings of it because I think the ratings weren't that great but GMFB good morning football right cut through the noise right a lot of really you know digestible shareable social clips come out of GMFB and I think everyone in the football world especially the first couple of few seasons that it was on loved GMFB yeah GMFB was not produced by NFL network right right it was produced by an outside production company correct and that is why to me the show took off, you know? They did things differently. They hired differently.

They thought about production in a more modern way. That's why I say a lot of the, a lot of the shows on the network right now, it feels a little dated. It feels a little old. Because again, they're using the same approach that they used when the, when the freaking NFL network started,

they're using the exact same approach. And a lot of it is because from the production side, you don't want to take risks because so many of these production side guys have pensions from the NFL. Play it safe. The game of the game is to play it safe, as John mentioned, and basically just get to your pension age and get out. Wow. You know, so, so that's why I think there are such little risk taking there at NFL network. And, you know, to bring it full circle, another connection that James Coe and I have, I believe,

James this fall would be the 20th anniversary of NFL network or was that last fall I'm pretty sure I don't remember I think you're right though yeah well I was on the first day of the NFL network yeah yeah yeah Kaplan and I the year before the NFL network launched it was a little bit of a precursor did NFL Fantasy Live ironically Ron Jaworski was the host we should get Jaws here although he's always tough to pin down but and then James we were both on that show basically. James, of course, took over as it emerged and all that. And by the way, you know, at that time, it was run by Steve Bornstein, who was, was a guy who kind of was big at ESPN. I was told that me and Kapler were going to do NFL Fantasy Live in, oh, maybe it was last fall. I think the network launched in 03. And we were told me. I remember seeing some clips of the 20th anniversary in the first, you know, right. It was.

total access that they did and all that stuff so kaplan and i did the show with jaws on nfl dot com and they read aired it on direct tv that would have been oh two and then oh three the network launch midseason mind you and kaplan and i did the last two months there and then at the end of o three you know at like a rap party i had a conversation with steve borenstein and i'm like all right well guess we'll see you next year because mount laurel new jersey it's 10 minutes from my house yeah it's fantastic And then they just, I never heard back from them. That was it. They just brought everybody in LA.

That was it. But that year, Sirius XM launched and we started doing that, the fantasy show. So I didn't really feel like I missed much of a beat. But yeah, it's crazy. 20 years, James. Of course, you and I, you mentioned good morning football. You and I used to work with Kay Adams. Sure.

The original host of that. I was there when that year one started. We had Nate Burleson on. we had Kyle Brandt you know I know Peter Schrager all all good dudes uh it's it's a little surreal here we are getting old like thinking back to these things that like oh yeah how long was that oh wait that was 20 fucking years ago damn dude we don't need we don't need to we don't need to age ourselves bro it's all good you know you know what you're gonna get to maybe my i don't give a shit anymore oh my god you know i do not give a shit i'm the same age as will you don't know you don't okay

and i'm much more better behaved all right if you think will smith's old fine then i'm I'm old too, but I don't go around smacking people, you know. Yeah, I know. Drake, this is why I was saying, we, I can't give the full unadulterated, unfiltered version of what, because these, these are the conversations that we're having over beers, man, you know, we can't be talking about this on air. Oh, DGAP guru is the best. DGaf guru is hands down the best.

John and I've had some, some late night phone calls talking about, you know, coming to work together. And I, like, these are the greatest calls of all time, like, because, you know, I hear him on the radio all the time. And then, you know, DGAF guru, his vocabulary, let's say expands a little bit on the telephone. So it's phenomenal. But folks, we got to go. We are getting old. So we got to go take our geritol and, you know, the rest of our pills here.

We'll be back on the other side. I promise we'll actually talk fantasy football where our guest James go. Yeah. All right, guys. Welcome back in. It's the Fantasy Points podcast, Brian Drake, John Hansen. And our guest this week, James. Co of reception, again, follow them on all the social platforms at James D. Co.

All right. So let's talk a little fantasy here, James. And I'm going to start with what guru is maybe going against the grain with. And years ago, we talked about how old we all are. And back in the day, it was a no-brainer. First round of a fantasy draft, you're taking a running back. Second round, you're taking a running back. When you're thinking of taking another position, F that, you're taking another running back.

It's kind of switched these days. If you play on underdog, everyone's wide receiver drunk. They're taking, you know, fifth string wide receivers, you know, before they're taking their second running back. But guru, John, you're talking about taking a running back in the first round. You're back, baby. You got four guys, Bijan, Breast, Jemir Gibbs, and J.T, who you're willing to take in the first round. So I want to get, I want to bounce this off you guys here.

You know, see what our guest James thinks about going R.B. in round one. Well, James, do you want to comment on that? Because I mean, I've talked about that quite a bit here on this pod. I just see an opportunity. And by the way, for the record, you and I didn't work together last summer. I was more into the whiteouts and more against the running backs in round one than I ever have been in my entire life. And that, by the way, was a pretty good call overall. But I just see such an opportunity.

The way the board lands and all that, I understand we want that number one alpha. wide out but you know i think we can still form a really good receiver group uh if we go running back in round one and i just think simply that uh forget about cmc never no no chance no how i'm taking him at his age but i mean come on be john robinson breeze hall johnny taylor jimere gives i know taylor's had you know a little bit of a rough you know a couple of years here but i'm calling those the flawless four and i want i'm going for it as my anchor or running back. Most likely in Jemir Gibbs,

you know, I think I mentioned him. He's like the last man standing there if I'm at the end of round one. I'm not saying I'll do it 100% of the time, but probably 80% of the time this shit, James, I'm going to go running back in round one. So it's interesting to me,

when you said the big four, and I'm thinking, okay, I'm throwing CMC into the mix and I'm kicking Jamir Gibbs to the curb out of the four. You could easily be right. You probably will be right, but I am a major agency.

and even that injury that McAfrey suffered last year, it did kind of scare me a little bit. He was good in the Super Bowl in the playoffs, but he did have three weeks to rest. So I think for CMC, I hear what you're saying. I won't take them 1.1 for a very stupid reason. Okay, I know I just got done saying,

oh, I'm very well researched. This is a stupid take, but I'm going to stick by it. He's the one dot. He's the consensus overall 1.1. Okay. When was the last time the consensus 1.1 actually was the 1.1? There's a good point. John Taylor a couple years ago. I mean, exactly, right?

So it just, to me, when you say CMC is the consensus 1.1, and it never happens, right? It never happens. Yeah. Why do we continue to then say, well, if I got the number one pair, I'm going to take CMC 1.1? And again, I understand there's, you know, position flexibility and all those kind of things. You could get some really good wide receivers late, which is what John's saying, which I totally agree with. But still, though, let's say CMC fell to you at three. You're taking them there.

You know, if he falls to you at four, you're auto picking. Five, auto picking. It's the best pick of the draft CMC at five. Okay. So I still see, I still see him as a top pick, as a top five pick. I just, I just won't take him one. Okay. I mean, and maybe I'm splitting hairs here by saying, yeah, I'll take him at one dot three.

Okay. I don't know. Anyways, the reason, so when I look at the big four and I'm going to throw CMC into the mix, okay, and the reason I love what you're saying here, right, CMC, Brees, Bijon, J. T, Sequin. Okay, those are the four, five top guys for me. All right. Outside of those top five and I understand the appeal,

there's a huge drop off in anticipated usage and guys that are challenging for touches, right? And yet their ADPs are still bundled. Like, that's the problem for me. Even though there's a huge drop off in security, there's not a huge drop off in ADP. Right. When we're talking about Kyron Williams, the same people that are telling you that running backs are,

are disposable, that running backs don't matter. They're the same people telling you that Kyron Williams is a great player. That to me is insane. Yeah. Kyron Williams is a good player in a great system. He's in a great system. I think Blake Quorum is going to challenge for touches. I think Blake Quorum could legitimately outplay.

Yeah. And it could be a really murky 50-50 situation as the year wears on. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Kyron Williams is a one. hit wonderer not at all yeah right derrick henry the age the usage i'm scared travi's et n is a good player and probably i i like his you know overall safety net devon a chan is right in that adp group too it's like wait did we just forget about rahim most right what what's going on here again isaiah pacheco uh the games that andy reed plays with his running backs and usage it's like look i like isaiah pacheco but i don't love them you know what's his usage in the past

game. I don't think it's going to be very high, right? So you're, you're starting to really look at ADP and say, well, wait a second, all these guys are still bundled tightly. And yet, when you get outside of Sequin Barkley, Jonathan Taylor, usage and talent really starts to drop off quite a bit, man. And so that's why I really like what you're saying in regards to those five, maybe six guys in the first round. Go get those guys because guys are going to be so thirsty. Your draft mates are going to be so thirsty for wide receivers. I like the idea of taking a power running back there in the first round. All right. There you go. We're on the same page. How about another little phenomenon going on? I don't know how much of it you've noticed. And it's ironic because again,

I am a guy who when I make mistakes, I'm overrating young players, rookies. I'm always looking chasing that breakout. Yet I find myself like an old man scream and get off my lawn. to these people with their ADPs with some of these rookies. It's like, guys, have you, have you a, what are you in a two ball league? You know, where there's two footballs on the field. Like, you know, there's Chicago Bears guys like Roma Dunesay, Keenan Allen and DJ Moore. They can't possibly all be top 30 wide receivers in Chicago this year. Yet they are ADP wise.

Yeah. You know, Roma Dunezay is an interesting one. He's wider super 40-ish pick 90-ish, you know, aggregate. it underdog he's just going too high that's just you know yeah that that's crazy i'm talking to underdog here yeah yeah cbs has him at 176 overall that by the way that's too low cbs has him at 170 that's too low guys all right he's an uh he can be a dominant outside ex receiver i think touchdown upside is really really good and and for me i just think oh dunzae is a player that if we're just playing it right down the middle my my my projections and i'm calling my cojections here for 2024 have

got romo dunes at 722 yards up to a thousand yards and five to seven touchdowns i think that's a very fair projection for him um it's higher than what vegas has for him by the way too um and so and part of the problem is how much are they going to throw the football in 2020 they threw to wide receivers the second fewest times in the NFL the fifth fewest overall right this number's obviously going to come up, guys. I get it. They've got three good to great wide receivers. They've drafted a quarterback that can actually like legitimately throw the football.

He's not a project, um, as much of a project pastor as Justin Field. So they're going to throw it. But they go from the second fewest targets to wide receivers in the NFL to what? The second most. No, that doesn't make sense. Right. They're still, right. Middle of the pack to me.

That's exactly what I've projected them as as somewhere in the, middle of the pack there. And so for that reason, I think there's just not enough volume to sustain to John's point. I don't think there's enough volume to sustain three top 30 wide receivers. I think O'Dunzee is going to be the odd man out. DJ Moore should by years end be the top wide receiver should be. But I'm telling you, do not be surprised if early on Keenan Allen dominates the touches early on at least before DJ Moore takes it takes over in the second half. That's the quarterback best friend phenomenon there, James. I think so. I think so. When we're talking short to intermediate area of the field,

especially if they're going to kick Keenan Allen inside. If O'Donze is playing X and DJ Moore is playing flanker slot and then you know you've really got Keenan Allen there playing slot flanker. I just, I think early on, I think Keenan Allen's going to still separate at a high level and become a big target for Caleb Williams, at least early on. We talked about taking a running back early to get him in the first round. Let's say you don't, okay? You go receiver, receiver, you come back in a third round. Well, there's a big man waiting for you in the middle of the third round.

His name's Derek Henry. RB9 coming off the board right now in underdog, ADP of 32. Again, like I said, middle of round three. Last year, he quietly ran for the second most yards in the league on a terrible Titans team behind a horrendous line. He hit over 1,100 yards rushing, 12 rushing touchdowns. tied for fifth best. So now James, he's moving to Baltimore where he could see the lightest boxes he's probably ever gone against.

They have a legitimate offensive line in front of him. And he's got Lamar Jackson, so you can't just key on Derek Henry. We say it every year. Okay, this is the year Derek Henry falls off the cliff. This is the year I'm out on Derek Henry. But now, as he's a grandfather out there, it's like, I want to be in on Derek Henry more than I ever have. But it doesn't make sense.

Make it make sense to me. Mr. Coe. Look, it's an interesting, it's an interesting thought process. He's been double-digit touchdowns for, you know, six seasons in a row. And that's what you love. And I think that that part of his game, though, to me, when you're talking about having Lamar Jackson there, I would be surprised if he gets a double-digit touchdowns. I really would. He's never really been a big on checkdowns or targets, right? So like that part of his game should stay about the same. I think he's going to see, you know, probably 30-ish, 30 to 40. targets and it's not a big number but it should be like it's normal for derrick henry um last year we did

see a drop off in in regards to i think efficiency 4.2 yards per attempt last year um that was the lowest that he's had uh pretty much his entire career um so i think we're seeing a little bit of drop off in efficiency he's obviously going to be 30 years old as we go into 2024 so that's a big time age cliff as well last year he had 280 you know, carries, which is actually a pretty light load for him overall. I just, man, I can't do it. At that price, it's just, I don't know, man. Like even if you go wide receiver heavy off the top, that probably means you're someone like John who's like a little bit of an ageist and you're going to look at Derek at 30 and say, no, I'm not doing it. You know, so listen, if he falls to the fifth round,

I'm a little bit more intrigued. But gosh, man, it's just, it is so hard for me to pull the Trigger on a 30-year-old running back right now, especially when we're talking somewhere in the top five, top five rounds of a fantasy draft. In the fifth round, I'm considering it. And, but in the third, I'm probably not. Believe it or not, James, somehow I have compartmentalized his age and I'm just, and the wear and tear. And I'm kind of like looking at him like, will this work, Derek Henry with Lamar Jackson for the Ravens and I do think it will I know there are old lines a little suss these days as the kids say but I actually I'm I'm more than fine with Henry this year much to my surprise I was actually a couple weekends ago I was actually in this hometown I was driving down in near Jacksonville and I see a town I think it's Yuley Florida I'm like oh home with Derek Henry like oh there you go there's a guy I uh underrated like three years in a row shout out to Derek Henry but uh I wanted to move on and ask you another question here uh things that

are pressing that uh things I'm most excited about we're bouncing around just a little bit here with James Coe uh but how about my quarterback pick this year and I was pretty pretty high on him last year I probably give him a little bit more love than I think most people I did a video on I'm Mr. Jordan Love in Green Bay. What do you think? Was he for reals? I mean, I'm a yes on that. Of course, you probably remember Bo Melton.

We had his father on the podcast two weeks ago, by the way, in this very podcast, Gary. And by the way, Gary, who I grew up with and, you know, play a lot of sports with growing up, he fully signs off on Jordan Love being for reals. and the NFC's Mahomes and an absolute baller. But what's say James Cole? I think he's got all the tools in the world to be a special player. He's got a great group of wide receivers. Maybe great is a little bit of an overstatement.

Great depth. Great depth. And so overall, I think it's a very good group. You know, I think Jaden Reed's great. Don Tavia, which is a very interesting young player. If Christian Watson can figure out his hamstrings, which I think is a big ask. He's certainly a weapon on the outset. and a certified touchdown maker.

And Romeo Dubs is kind of a little bit of a, you know, rugged possession type of receiver, a player that I think a lot of teams would love to have just in terms of toughness, you know? So I think that part of it is good, you know? Okay. Now, that being said, is Jordan Love for real? When I hear that question, I think yes and no.

So he's got the tools. He's got the weapons. I'm not a big Matla floor guy, but whatever. That's neither here nor there. I think he is a front line starter. I think he's probably a top 12 quarterback in this league. And that might sound a little low to some people who are real Jordan love lovers, okay? But can I just say for the last 11 games of the season where he went absolutely just freaking banana pants, all right?

We're talking 67% completion rate, 22 freaking touchdowns in 11 games, just four interceptions. He was awesome, bro. You know, 263 passing yards per game as well. If you stretch that out into a season long, that's 4,500 yards, 37 total touchdowns. That's freaking amazing. Yeah. It's incredible numbers, right? Okay, now that being said, look at his schedule, guys.

Okay, there was almost no tough teams from a past defense standpoint on his schedule the last 11 games of the season, man. It was crazy. Minnesota, he saw twice. That's a bottom 12 unit. Their past defense was not good. Detroit, one of the worst in the league. Chargers, one of the worst in the league.

Tampa Bay, one of the worst in the league. Chicago, not that great either. Carolina was statistically good against the past. But as we know, that's just because you could run on them all day long. I don't think they were good from a talent standpoint at all. Okay, so that's a lot of teams that are some of the worst past defenses that we've seen in the league on the back end of his, the last 11 games of the season. So I think his numbers were a little bit inflated.

And so I'm a little bit torn, you know? I'm not, I'm not going 10 toes in on Jordan Lovers. You're torn between two lovers is what you are. And you're feeling like a fool. You know, listen, I, I like him. I like him. I think, like I said, I like him a lot. But LaFleur is a guy, a guy that's going to run that rock, man.

You know, he's got three freaking running backs in that backfield. now and he's just to me I think going to try to establish the hell out the run and so that will put some clampers I think on Jordan Love too so if you're anticipating a top five finish for for Jordan Love at the position I'm not in on that okay I am just not in on that's fair okay I got sevenish about top seven top seven top seven I'd have to analyze a little bit that's still a little aggressive but I think top 10's very fair so top seven we're not we're in the same ballpark Yeah, to your point. And again, I keep referencing this damn video, uh, because I only did one like long form video in the preseason.

It was on Georgia Love and I ended up all the positives and all that. Oh, you could be damn sure that the schedule was a huge part of it. Uh, and you see the video. Well, guess what? It's still good. That's the thing. It's still good. Okay. You got Philly. You got Philly. Now, their secondaries been completely revamped in Vic Fangio. So that could be a tough one. Indie secondaries was there. weakness last year i agree tennessee minnesota l a rams no aaron doll rheim morris gone i think it's still

bad yeah arizona houston could be a challenge jacksonville detroit chicago san fran at least that's in green bay uh miami you know they lost some guys detroit at detroit seattle new orleans minnesota chicago it's it's good again though it is especially in the back end as you mentioned a lot of those a lot of those teams in the back end again looking pretty good so i don't know um man Like I said, he's a, I think he's a polarizing player in fantasy. And, and I, it sounds such like a cop out, but I'm like right down the middle of Jordan Love. You know, I know. I think the talents there.

I think the talent's there. I think the schedule looks nice and special in the back end. But again, as you know in fantasy football, man, you got to win those first five, six weeks, man. That it's true. Like, you can't sit back on these quarterbacks that late. Like you can't wait for these guys. You have to win the first six weeks. Right.

And then you got to play from a, like, from a position. of power. So real quick. Yeah, go ahead. What do you think about comparing love situation, everything we just said to Stroud because it's similar. Stroud was probably better on film, you know, for the course of the season. But he's also getting a lot more love and fantasy. So there's that the decision. Like is he totally for real? If so, I'll pay this premium. But if I pay this premium and it turns out maybe a little bit of a step back in the sophomore year, with all the tape on them you could regret that and love could be the better pick i'm confused by the adp for stroud and especially the the the adp difference between stroud and jordan love i think

they're very similar um the the the the the the conglomerate adp right now for jrond love is qb7 and the conglomerate adp for cj strad is qb 13 that makes absolutely no damn sense whatsoever at all. So I don't know. We'll see. And it all depends on what site you go to. But I think overall, I think Stroud's a better prospect for fantasy and in real life than Jordan Love.

And I would absolutely have C.J. Stroud as a top five quarterback this season. And I think, you know, again, when we get outside of the Josh Allen's, Patrick Mahomes and kind of frankly, I think that's it. Like, I don't know. Where are we at with Jalen Hertz? Where are we at with Lamar Jackson? Lamar Jackson is seemingly running less and less as the years go on.

Joe Burrow can't seem to stay healthy. I don't like the setup in Dallas for Dak Prescott. I don't know. I really like the upside here for C.J. Stroud as a matter of, I haven't done rankings yet for quarterbacks, but I don't know. CJ Stroud's definitely going to be in my top five for sure. He's in mine and he is up at FantasyPoint.com. But again, you're looking at a bunch of different ADPs.

I'm focusing maybe a little bit on Underdog. and Brian can promote Underdog too for people who want to get like basically a free subscription to fantasy points on Underdog but Stroud is going off the board like three plus rounds before love which okay at that point I prefer love I think that's fair too

I think if we're talking about a three round 80p difference I think that oh God but you know what and I mean these are going to be two big decisions that really are going to affect fantasy drafts and seasons this year. Let me ask you this, John. Who's got more five touchdown games this season? Stroud or Love?

And it might be neither. But I'm saying if we're talking about just chasing that underdog upside of like, give me that five touchdown game, who's it going to be? I think you have to say it's going to be C.J. Stroud. I think with the with the running mentality there that that they have there in Green Bay and with LaFleur, I just, yeah, I don't know, man. You add digs to that mix, bro. like and Nico Collins is a certified baller bro it's just come on man C.J. Stroud could go absolutely

ham sandwich this year. I mean the fact that he led the NFL interception rate as a rookie is ridiculous. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, again, it's and it's just going to be I don't know. I think it's all wheels up for C.J. man. Like I'm, I'm in. You know, I think he's going to prove. Well, if you guys are out there debating who to choose and you want to jump over to underdog and make that selection and put your money where your mouth is, well, how does free money sound? Use our code. Fantasy PTSD over at Underdog Fantasy. You're going to get a 50% deposit match up to $250 at Underdog to use on best ball drafts, pick them contests and more.

Oh, by the way, when you use Code Fantasy PTSD PTSD at Underdog Fantasy, we're going to throw you a subscription to FantasyPoint.com for just five bucks. It's a $60 value, folks. You're going to get the rankings, the projections, all the articles, everything you need to dominate in fantasy football in 2024, simply for you. using our code fantasy PTSD over an underdog fantasy. Again, download the app, use code fantasy PTSD. And when we come back on the other side, I want to ask our guest, James Coe,

about an offense that nobody in America wanted to invest in and a quarterback that absolutely no one cares about, but maybe they should back after this. All right, guys, welcome back in. Rock and rolling here, almost an hour strong with our guest James Coe, reception, listen to the incredible podcast he does with Matt Harmon, the guru, and I just going strong, man, building this podcast. We appreciate you guys listening, giving us those five-star reviews on iTunes and, you know, liking all the videos on YouTube.

I want to ask you guys right now about the Tennessee Titans. Now, this is an offense who stunk a year ago. We've got a brand new head coach, offensive coordinator, play caller here in Brian Callahan, okay? He'll take over a Titans offense who last year ranked dead last in plays per game. and they were 27th in pass rate. Conversely, the Bengals, where he came from, they were 17th in plays per game,

fourth in pass rate at 64% second to last in rush rate. So, gentlemen, I'll start with you, James. Where are we with this Will Levis sled offense? Tage Spears, a guy I know guru's big on. Tony Pollard's new to Nashville. And now we've got Calvin Ridley in the mix. D. Hop, the ageless wonder, is still there on the outside, and Tyler Boyd in the slot.

a lot to like theoretically for Tennessee James, but do we trust number one, the play caller, and how the hell do we trust anything led by Will Levis? I, first of all, let me just say this. I love Tennessee in terms of fantasy, because I think you're getting discounts on all these guys, which is great. And again, you talk about, forget about Brian Callahan.

Let's talk about his dad, right? The fact that his dad has come over, that offensive line is going to play a lot better, and I think we know this, right? from that standpoint alone, I like the running backs at cost, right? So give me Tai J Spears. I'm with Guru. I love the explosiveness.

And to me, I don't, I mean, you want to come in with a pretty, a good, decent depth at running back, you know, and I don't think they overspent, you know, to bring in depth either. But I think that Spears will be the leader in the clubhouse when season comes to close here. Um, maybe it's Pollard early, but I'm not, I'm, I'm, I'm out on Pollard, man. I didn't, I was never that big on Pollard to begin to begin with. And, you know, it's just to me, I think he profiles as a really good backup running back. Um, and I think we've seen that as the lead guy. Eh, not so much. Spears on the other hand, I think he can be an absolute guy, you know. So you're asking me like, do I like the Titans? Yeah, I freaking love the Titans because you're getting good discounts, I think, on ADP across the

board. This is going to be a highly hyper concentrated target share between Ridley and nuke because other than and again, I know Tyler Boyd is going to work out of the slot. I don't care. I don't care about Tyler Boyd. I think he's, uh, I think he has aged badly. Um, I did not like what I saw on tape with Tyler Boyd last year. Um, and I think Ridley and nuke, I think they're going to see serious target share. Highly concentrated. it and that is what we love in fantasy. This is the thing I like about Will Levis too. Am I going to take him in fantasy?

Probably not. He's a backup. I think he profiles is a backup quarterback in fantasy football. But the one thing, and again, we've got the Will Levis profile up on the reception perceptions site as well. He rarely throws it away.

He almost never throws it away. And he's forcing a lot of throws. Is that good in real life? No, of course not. That's terrible in real life. But for fantasy. He doesn't run a lot either, by the way. He doesn't run.

He doesn't run a lot. He doesn't run a lot. He doesn't throw it away. So what does I tell you? He's forcing throws all day long. And if we know that the ball is going to Ridley or nuke, you love that. You know, you absolutely love that. Give these guys more opportunities to make plays.

And more often than not, they're going to make them. You know, I don't love Ridley. I still think he's, you know, I don't think he found what he needed to find after being away from the game for two years. But he's a considerable step up as a wide receiver two for for Tennessee right now. So yeah, I really like that combination of Ridley and Nuke. And I think both of those guys are going to eat. And similarly, I think Taijay Spears is a really good value running back to. They're a lot more interesting this year that that's for sure. I was a massive Spears guy last year, James. I don't know if you knew that. But man, major major man crush.

They don't always work out as we know it's Sky Moore. I got a whole lot of Skymore talk we could save for never. But I will say I'm a little worried about Brian Callahan and his father of, you know, of course, Callahan auto parts. They did a great job with that company. But he's never called plays. I'm glad you got that reference. There's a man over 40.

But they never called plays. I do have some questions about, you know, holes in will levis's game chiggy you know we overrated chiggy last year these these hybrid guys man they just they just don't do it and i am a little worried about de hop testing positive for geratol but they are a lot more interesting no i hear i think overall i think the offense would be better than last year i don't think that's very hard to say uh because this offense was absolute trash last year uh but again you know again you know rising tide lifts all boats you know will they be a top by the way and again this is all based off of adp you know

like you're getting a huge discount on spears you're getting a huge discount on pollard on nuke on ridley um and so you're not spending big capital on these guys and for me you know when you're talking to you know i'm the sleeper king over here it's like this taj spears is one of these guys that i really like to target um in the middle portions of these drafts you know maybe after round nine i love spears you know what my cop was and it just came to me and you know maybe you want to nitpick it go right ahead but when I watched Spears and I saw him at the senior bowl for a week I set up an interview with him you know my combine interviews uh I know I annoy people with that but hey what the hell I'm just trying to get information and he was awesome poor man's levi on bell I mean a contact balance is

unbelievable man and he's just he just got it man he's just got that certain genusay qua and he talked about it to me he's like yeah man I have these these really good plays and then we watched the film after word and the coaches always asked me what was i thinking at this point he's like i'm not thinking out there i'm just reacting so you love that um i love the comp once he gets past the line of scrimmage i think he runs very similar to levi on bill i think the thing that made levi on interesting and a more special player was his patience behind the line and finding that hole and then bursting through uh and then also the hands i mean you just can't get past i mean the guy was literally ladani and 2.0 when you threw him the ball.

You know, so. By the way, Ladinian Thomason, thanks for mentioning him. Sorry to cut you off here. But James Coe is superstar. Ledanyan is committed to do this podcast in June. So stay tuned for running back talk with LT. Sorry. Ladenian's the best, bro.

Like, again, of all the guys, of all the athletes and all the, you know, the on-air people I met over NFL network, Ladanian, hands down, nicest dude. He is incredibly nice. One of my all-time favorite human beings. And one of my all-time favorite players, period. Period. Actually, I think he's my favorite running back of all time is Lillian Tomlinson.

Me too. He was great. I loved him. He changed fantasy football. He created third round reversal, you know, because if you got Lidania Tomlinson, you won the league. Yeah, it was really important. I know what?

I told him that, by the way. He had no idea. One year I did a show with them once a week, two hour show on serious. And I'm like, you do know you've freaking changed the whole game, dude. He's like, really? What the hell are you talking about it? I was like, oh, wow, I did not know that. Yeah, especially for people playing in PPR back then.

It was like just not fair. You know, like I remember it's like you, I went from a league that played PPR to not PPR because La Danian was just so unfair. You know, you're just like, no, we can't play PPR because La Danian is over here breaking the game. So we can't do that. You are the sleeper king. and we're already we're at an hour i don't take up your whole day there uh but let let's pop out before we let you let you let's put television with james co i'd sit there on the other side of studio and he'd go on live tv and and throw out these nans i'm like damn that's bold that's a bold

that statement right and i didn't care like that the the reason i'm the sleeper king is because i don't care if i'm wrong you know like mo alley cox deep here like we're going like real deep here james i don't if you want to go that deep here but that that's your jam going real deep but what do you have it is um my one guy that i am implanting a flag on and i just think he's going to be the bees knees man i love this player and it's javon baker there in new england this is a guy that's going to go way late. He's probably not going to get drafted in a lot of spots, but Javon Baker to me in New England is from a talent standpoint is their best receiver. And again, I know that people are saying, wait, wait, wait, hold on. What about Jalen Polk? They spent more draft capital on Jalen

Polk than they did on Javon Baker. I don't care. Like, I watch a lot of Jalen Polk and I like him. I think he's a good player, but he's a guy. To me, Jalen Polk is somebody that, can be a flanker wide receiver and a high quality flanker at that okay but when you look at the makeup of this team in new england they do not have an ex receiver other than jovan baker they don't there's no one kendrick bourne's coming off of a major knee injury and he again profiles the best as a flanker slot guy jalen poke flanker slot guy they just don't have a certified x and the only guy on this roster who is also just a certified freakazoid when it comes to winning the ball in the air john baker okay baker has a clear cut role set out for him and i think he's going to lead

the wide receivers in snaps i believe in the talent level and i think he may lead the team in targets as well now you're saying well i don't really want a piece of that new england offense And I buy that and I buy that and I get it. But that's why I'm saying this guy's going to go undrafted in some spots, man. Oh, for sure. Okay. So Javon Baker to me, if we're looking deep, double digit rounds, go ahead and give me that guy. He's an absolute dog.

And for me, I've got them projected as having the best season of all the New England wide receivers. And until somebody like takes me off of that, like I got to see some, you know, offseason reports saying otherwise. But for me, this is a player that, you know, I've got projected at 710 yards right now as a medium projection, but he can get up to 1050. And I think he leads the team in touchdowns as well, you know, anywhere between five to seven touchdown. So for me, if we're looking at like a medium high projection, I'm looking at like 800 yards and anywhere between five to eight touchdowns.

And that's what I really like in terms of a deep sleeper, a player that that you're going to say to yourself, all right, I can play this guy in the flex. And every now and again, this guy's going to pop off for either a hundred yard game or give me a touchdown. That's Javon Baker. Hey, that's a great. That's a great take. I mean, that's this is what we're talking about, Brian. Nobody is out there really saying this. But James makes a lot of great points here. I mean, Douglas is a slot. Osborne is a jag. Rager has a never been. Thornton, you know, I mean, it's, you know, Thornton was drafted by the Belichick regime. He stinks. Yeah, I like that. What else you have, James? You have another one or two that that was an interesting one.

One of the ones, another receiver that I'm kind of looking at late is A.T. Perry there in, in New Orleans. I, you know, again, they've moved on from Michael Thomas. Target share. And I think the market share is looking great because if you look at the wide receivers, they just don't have that many. Chris Olave is obviously the dominant, you know, wide receiver, and he's going to see a ton of looks, right?

I've got him having a great season. 1,200 yards for Chris Olave is my projection, anywhere between six to nine touchdowns for Olavé this year. Rashid Shaheed is, and you know me. I, listen, you know I love Rashid Shihih. Yeah, so do I. Now, that being, yeah, of course. Now, that being said, he is more of a shot,

player you know you're taking shots he's a zone beater oddly enough beautiful zone beater and you're taking shots with rishitji okay so but when we're talking about steady production um as a flanker player i think that's a t parry as a matter of fact he played he can he's going to be the outside guy so it's either flanker or x for a t perry and i think he can play there you know and i think new orleans is by the way i think new orleans is telling you he can play there because they didn't address that particular spot, either in the draft or in free agency. They brought on Cedric Wilson,

but Wilson's a guy. I think he's a depth player. I think A.T. Perry from a role standpoint and from a projected volume standpoint is really, really interesting. Again, another player that I'm projecting at 781 yards is not a huge number, but again, he can get up to 1,000 in terms of a high side projection and median projections for touchdowns anywhere between 4 to 6. So A.T. Perry is somebody who, if we're chasing upside, he's got that thousand yard ceiling and he's got about six to seven touchdowns as an upside as well.

I love this kind of player who, again, there ain't no way this duo is getting drafted before the 12th round in your normal draft. Okay. In most spots, again, undrafted is A.T. Perry. So when we're talking, when you're talking to Sleeper King, you want to get deep sleepers. These are the guys that I'm looking at. our guy brett perry right now wide receiver 96 on underdog he's going to wow it's pick two 13 really liked them brett whitefield really like at 80 perry uh and i think you're right with everything you said the one thing the question i would have is they did draft bob means um so i think i wrote somewhere so unless bob means business this year of course we had to go there it's a dad joke um but do you have any concerns about at t perry perhaps a little uh route limitation is he running the complete route tree to me kind of seemed like a nine route guy last year.

I don't know if I saw much else from A.T. Perry. I mean, I'm sure it's a projection, but any thoughts there? Again, we're hoping that he develops, right? From when he was a prospect to kind of sort of where we're at right now with A.T. Perry. But I don't think his prospect profile was really that bad, you know. To me, he, and again, we're going back to. his collegiate profile here. But on reception,

com, he had an 83% success rate on the slant. They run a lot of outside X slants there in New Orleans, right? And that number's really good. We want good players to be over 80%. At 83% success rate in college, that's really good. 77.8% success rate on the curl route. Again, an in-breaking route. That's important, I think, for somebody like Derek Carr, right?

So that's pretty good. So I think from his collegiate profile, he has enough on his tape that he can be somebody that can win as an outside X. You know, 78.6% success rate on the post route here for A.T. Perry, again, collegiate profile. So it's, and I'm not trying to make it seem like he has a pristine profile. There's a reason why A.T. Perry didn't play last year. There's a reason why he went later in the draft. Yeah, slipped a little bit.

Yeah, he really did, right? So it's not a perfect profile. at any stretch of the imagination. But he does have, I think, some tools in the bag where you're saying to yourself, you know what? He can do some things at the NFL level that I don't think people are expecting. And so I do wonder, can he just win that starting job and hold on to it, man? Because I don't see clear competition for snaps against A.T. Perry.

Now, listen, he's going to work into a rotation because, again, he's not just a perfect prospect. but if we're chasing that upside, that's the kind of profile I'm looking for. And if you draft him and he doesn't do well, don't add him. Get it? Get it? Another dad joke coming at you here.

No, listen, I'm calling it. So my nickname for him is AT phone home Perry. Okay. That's what I'm going with. AT phone home. Yeah. Well, and they've got to find somebody there to.

I do my ET with Zeke Elliott. I go, Elliot. You know, that's, that's my ET reference. there. There you go. Perfect. I had a buddy of mine send me the, have you, I'm sure you've seen the the, the video of the Stone Cold Steve Austin E.T. at the McDonald's drive-thru. Where there's, if not, you have to, I'll send it to you. Okay. It's a guy doing a stone cold Steve Austin impression with an E.T. mask on in a drive-thru. Talking about E.T. Stone Cold

wants a double cheeseburger. It's a whole thing. Does he flip around though? And the other side of him is Hulk Hogan? Or is that a different commercial? I don't know. We're going to go down a great rabbit hole here. I've got to ask before we let you go, being a wrestling. fan. Were you happy with the way WrestleMania broke out, putting the strap on Cody Rhodes and, you know, where does he go from here? So I was not interested in pro wrestling for years until this whole Cody Rhodes, Roman

Raines, the Rock thing popped up on my timeline. And I'm like, what is this? This is awesome. This looks amazing. The Rock as a true villain absolutely carried so much of that, you know, and he played it. He just played it spot on. You know, Like the final boss, all that stuff, man. Like, it was great, man. Like that whole rivalry, I thought was beautiful.

It feels like it's been a little bit of a letdown after that. You know, I really want to see more of a, you know, Roman, like build out the whole villainy between Roman Raines and Cody Rhodes. And like, let's try to get Roman the strap back in like a real, you know, heel turn type of way. That would have been great. I know the Rock's got other things he's got to get done. And so but it would have been perfect from a wrestling perspective to have the rock continue on as a heel and continue that storyline for another year. That would have been freaking perfect.

But it feels like a lot of the air has been kind of sort of let out of the balloon. By the way, wasn't it like really weird? I think it was the Monday night after that where the rock gave them some secret note and said, you know what's on the, like, what is this? This is weird. Like I don't understand what's going on. Like you have this heated rivalry, perfect face, perfect heel. And then now it's like the rock's trying to become more of a face again. Like what's going on?

Like it doesn't make sense. I don't know. Yeah, but you gave him it some old dusty cufflinks is the story. It'll be great. When Cody turns and he has this phenomenal heel run in a year, it'll be outstanding. I think John is he's like, what happened to this show? We got to get a cap on here talking pro wrestling. I have a lot of friends.

this space. You guys included Paul Kelly who are really into wrestling. You know, my, my line is, you know, I used to absolutely love wrestling, but something did happen to me. I turned nine. And I realized that it was bullshit and I started watching real sports. But I respect you guys. I know it's soap operas for dudes, right? Damn. I thought you were going to say turned 18. I thought you were going to say I got kids. That's actually true. Yeah, it actually is true. Like when I turn nine, I started to understand, now I think I know what's going on on this football field here. Because for two years, I'm like, I don't know what's going on.

Honestly. No, this is, John, the problem is that you're, you're a little bit older than us. Yeah. I think you're about 10 years older than us, right? So like you missed the attitude era. That's the problem. You, and if you were a teenager growing up in the attitude era and the, and the whole NWO storyline in W. There's, yeah.

There is no way. It was a cultural phenomenon for high school boys, man. Like it's impossible to have gotten away from it. You know? Look, again, I respect a lot of people who are really into it. And again, I was really, really into it, you know, but we're talking old school here. I'm talking Bobby Backlin. I was a big Tony Garria guy.

Larry Zabiscoe, uh, meal lost. You're not even, you're not even talking WWF. You're going NWA wrestlers right now. That's right. Now, I will say I used to do television. I don't know if you guys know these guys, ECW, the Blue Meanie and Stevie Richard. Of course.

Oh, sure. You got to get Brian on the show. Yeah. We should get the Blue Meena on, maybe. Yeah. He's into big time into fantasy football for sure. Yeah, because. My graduation cap.

I have. Guy. Guy. Guy. I know your twins graduate next week from high school. My graduation cap was, you know, you have the, the cap. It's black and there's the button with the long tassel. I had Triple H doing the crotch chop and I put it perfectly on the little beanie with the

tassel there of Triple H. And then I had an NWO sticker on there as well. So yeah. And I have a winged eagle belt over my shoulder here behind me. So it's, uh, I'm waiting. Oh, I didn't see it before. I see it now. That's amazing.

Yeah. Let's go. Blue Media Philly guy. Uh, he used to come on this TV show that I actually kind of started. that we used to do this big start of the career with this big Super Bowl show was like it was kind of like public access but we're on like all the cable systems uh but they used to come on and we were wild like we would I literally drank beer live on this show and uh I have a video of the Blue Meanie doing hoagy wrestling in a kiddie pool in the studio with strippers okay it is wow blue gold okay gold so maybe we'll reach out to the Blue meaning and get him on i love it we get the whole b w o stevie richards nova it'll look at wild on here guys wow we're pulling some we're pulling some references over here stevie was stevie was cool man

stevie was kind of the man he was he he was the man i love i love me some steward what a what a weird gimmick that guy had i'm going to come on tv with with cut off booty shorts and i'm going to wrestle my ass off what it worked this is this is what we're doing here this is tip of the cap though he pulled it off. Yeah, exactly. He did pull it off. Good for you. We're going to Stevie kick our way into next week. And we just want to thank our guest, James Coe. Again, follow him on the social media platforms at James D. Co. Check out the great podcast he does with Matt Harmon, reception. John, we learned a lot today, man. What a great guest. I love hearing about your beer drinking stories. I got to get down to Georgia when you move. And you and I got to have a weekend of debauchery. Maybe we invite James. And we'll just. just, you know, the party you'll never end. But James, thanks so much for coming on the Fantasy Points podcast, man. We appreciate it, brother. All right, boys.

I can't wait to come back. And anytime you guys need to guess, please bring me back on, man. I love, I love working with John. And he's really been the best. And, uh, and yeah, man, I miss, I did. Listen, bro, I miss these, I miss these post Sunday beers, dude. Same. Your boy over here is getting a little thirsty.

I was lonely as hell. Nobody talked to me on Sunday nights around the house. I mean, very lonely. Lee. I miss my boy. But yeah, right back at, yeah, it was great to chop it up with you. And we'll do this again here right, right when we're at crunch stop. I love it, man. All right.

All right, guys. Thanks so much for hanging out with us here on the Fantasy Points podcast. We'll see you next time.