Fantasy Football Daily - Fantasy Points Podcast | Training Camp Storylines + Lessons Learned + Pros Vs Joes Draft Recap

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

In this episode of The Fantasy Points Podcast, "The Guru" John Hansen and co-host Brian Drake dive NFL training camp storylines and recap the massive Pros Vs Joes draft. Where to find us: httpp//twitter.com/Fantasy_Guru http://twitter.com/DrakeFantasy http://twitter.com/FantasyPts 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

Hey, what's up? It's John Hansen. And coming up on this week's edition of the Fantasy Points podcast, Brian Drake and I will go around the league and we'll talk about some of the bigger stories in the National Football League. I'll give my fantasy spin. We are in preparation for the release of my draft plan article at FantasyPoint.com. And in preparation for that, I always like to review the lessons learned from last year. So we'll do just that and we'll apply it to current situations here in 2024. And then last but not least, Brian Drake and I will go over a team I drafted in the 12 team, pros versus Joe's best ball, PPR league and draft that I participated in this

past week. I drew the seventh pick and I took a player I was not expecting to take or have a chance to take at seven. So sit back and get ready for an hour-long plus edition of the podcast here. Make sure you keep liking and subscribing. We thank you for your good comments. And as always, you're welcome. All across the fantasy universe, welcome in to the Fantasy Points podcast.

I'm your host, Brian Drake, alongside the publisher of FantasyPoints.com, the guru, John Hanson. John, what's going on, man? I'm seeing you here in the podcast studio. You've got a brand new get up here. You're all moved into your new home. I love what you've done with the place behind you. How are you feeling in your new digs? Oh, I'm doing well. Not too shabby. I did work this up today. A little background here. I got all my

press credentials over the years, nice little. It's pretty good background, I thought. We got the Fantasy Points logo. We got the Vikings helmet. We got the on the air deal. I got a beautiful view here, although we're recording here at night. But of course, there's always some sort of drama. As my wife always says, when people ask her about, you know, what it's like being married to me for 30 years, she's like, well, it's always interesting. And we do have a hurricane here, forthcoming, well, tropical storm, a tropical storm that ironically is pretty much going to go right through where I'm out here in southeastern Georgia. But I'm like Lieutenant Dan on the mass of the boat here screaming to the gods. Like, bring it on, guys. We're ready.

Bring it on. That's what insurance is for. That's what I've learned over the years. I'm using the insurance right now. We had a big storm blow through Syracuse, New York, where I live, and we never get tornadoes or anything up here. It's just kind of cold in its nose and whatever. Literally a tree fell down, hit my house.

So it broke a bunch of stuff on my patio, propane grill, all the fun stuff. Yeah. No major, major damage. But let's see what the insurance comes through and pays me for. Well, if you guys want to pay yourself back, here's what you do. You go over to fantasy points.com. Use code score more. Save yourself 10% off our already low season prices.

And you're going to get in to get John's rankings. You're going to get access to our, you know, cheat sheets because I know when these drafts come, you're going to want to print these out. You're going to want to go to your draft, check things off. All the great content people like Brett Whitefield, Joe Dolan, Graham Barfield, Scott Barrett, they're all there. They're all putting out amazing content, John. And I know as someone who subscribe to your websites over the years, there really is an advantage to signing up to these websites and like being part of the community and now with like Discord channels where people can talk directly to the, the writers.

It's such a great community. And what we're building at fantasy points is just incredible. Anybody who loves fantasy football and they're a diehard fan and, you know, they love you from all the work you've done, they should get on board with us at fantasy points. And right now, early August, this is the time to do it. And I do feel bad. So a shout out to all those people who I have not had a chance to reach out to or reply to. But, you know, that's one of the things I kind of mentioned when I essentially retired from hosting the radio show. It's just like I just can't do all the things I've been doing continually in my advanced years.

I had a birthday last week. Happy birthday. Mid-50s over here. So, you know, that's one of the reasons why I stopped doing the radio show to focus more on just fantasy points. That's it. That's my only employer right now. I've got, I've had four or five. I've actually had maybe 12 different W-9s come through my way, you know, various stages of my, you know, work career, if you will.

But now I'm down to just basically one employer, FantasyPoint.com. So I'm going to try to catch up on all the Discord stuff and then be a little bit more engaged during the season. It's going to be a lot of fun. On today's episode, what we're going to do here is look at some of the news of the day. Training camps are open. I got a couple of hot stories. I want to get John's take on. We're going to look back at John's lessons learned also from 2023 and how we can apply them going forward to 2024. And John and I both competed in the FFPC Pros versus Joe's drafts. And we're going to look at John's team and go through some of his selections, see some of the folks that he's selected. and kind of how that roster came together. He's got a nice stack with an elite quarterback and wide receiver. You guys are going to want to stick around and hear about that. And also, he took the tight end that he said he would. He's putting his money where his mouth is.

You know, I don't even have to tease this, John. Tyler Conklin's on this team as your tight end one. So this is going to be a really good year to kind of hold our feet to the fire on Tyler Conklin. I think we're going to come out looking good on the other side. Yeah, going zero tight end in FFPC. is ballsy to say the least, but I did get three tight ends that I think, let's just say, I believe 1.75 of the three will come through this year.

So at least one player and maybe a half a season from another, like a Luke Musgrave, not to spill the beans there. But yeah, I like my team. We'll take a look at it. All right. Let's get into some of the news of the week here. And this week saw three wide receivers get paydays. Tyreek Hill, Amari Cooper, and Cortland Sutton.

The funny thing, John, none of these deals added any new years. It was just more money. And I like all of these guys this year. Obviously, Hill's a no-brainer top five pick. We don't really have to discuss much of him. But Amari Cooper, he's coming off another one of these 70-catch, 1,200-yard seasons, and Sutton might be the cheapest of all three of in terms of ADP. He's got a new quarterback and not much competition around him.

I pulled up the, you know, the roster here. And it's like Marvin Mims and Tim Patrick, who's always hurt and got a rookie and Troy Franklin. Josh. Yeah, I mean, the king of the Jags, Josh Reynolds. So I'm kind of in on those guys. So the three guys getting money here. Any thoughts on any of those guys for fantasy this year?

You know, Sutton, I've got him priced on my cheat sheets on the website right at his ADP of wide receiver 49. I'm kind of waiting around because, you know, he's been looking to get. a new deal and or maybe traded. You said it didn't add any years. I mean, he is the default quarterback or a wide receiver, but who is the quarterback? Because early on, it looks like Jared Stidham has got a little bit of a leg up here

on the rookie. So I don't know if that's necessarily good for Cortland Sutton. I think at this point we know what Jared Stidham is. Not overly excited, but certainly he is their number one receiver. end they don't use the tight end much i know greg dulcich i haven't checked in the last 24 hours or so but he's actually practicing and there's some optimism about him could be a little bit of a committee there at tight end but yeah i'm more into morvin mims honestly i think when we look at it troy franklin is a pretty smart kid i did sit down with him at the combine but yeah he seems like

kind of like what Jalen Hyatt was for the Giants last year. Like he'll get some opportunities, ramp them up as the season progresses, but probably not going to be much of a needle mover. Of course, little Jordan Humphrey is out there bawling, apparently having a pretty good camp. But for me, it's all Marvin Mims. Can he ascend to, you know, the second option in the passing game? That's a big ask, but not as big as it would be on some other teams

with better receiving cores because they really don't have it clear. second option it may even default to josh reynolds the veteran but you know he's also new to the team at least marvin mims has been in sean peyton's offense for a full year tim patrick is one of those guys who when he's healthy always seems to be around the lineup it wouldn't shock me at all if he was healthy if all of a sudden tim patrick became a thing as you know he's just starting an 11 personnel groupings and getting a little work outside he's just he'll be those annoying guys where you're like But now we're not feeding Sutton who we paid all this money to. And we can't get Marvin Mims to do anything more than wind sprints down the field.

Like let's get rid of him and let's just focus on the two main guys here. But alas. Yeah. I mean, spoiler alert. You hit those scrappy and owing overachiever types because they dilute the waters for us. I mean, they're like Mack Hollins. That's why I started that segment.

Go away. It's like, go away, dude. You're ruining it for everybody else. Mac Hollins. Matt kind of those great hair, by the way. If I could have a sick afro or some dreadlocks like that, I'd be going with it too. Speaking of crowded wide receiver rooms, when we come back on the other side, the Green Bay Packers had a big practice, and we got to look at some of the snap counts

with the first team offense, and the number one player in terms of ADP out of that group is nowhere to be found. Stick and stay right here, Fantasy Points Podcast. All right, welcome back. Drake Hansen talking about all things fantasy football as we roll through training camp. And John, this kind of made some news on Twitter over the weekend. So the Packers had this family night. It's big practice.

A lot of these teams do this where you can go and everybody can watch the practice. And someone charted the snaps with the first string offense. Romeo Dobbs, he led all the Packers receivers with 21 snaps. Christian Watson right there with him with 19. and then Jaden Reed, the first Packer off the board in terms of ADP, only 16 snaps. So he's getting the third most and then way down the board, Dantavian Wicks. I'm so over this Dontavian Wicks thing, by the way. Everyone's hyping him up.

He's not going to make it. He's good. He's good, but he's not going to start. No, there's a lot of guys there. So here's my question to you. Is the answer to this Packers receiving room or Packers? fantasy in general just draft jordan love because i don't know week to week it's going to be so hard to figure out is it watson week is it wicks is it dubs i mean dodds had like seven touchdowns last

year he can get in the end zone and then jaden reed kind of you know taking handoffs do a little debo samuel impression out there yeah i don't know where to go with this this wide receiver group but i know i like jordan love yeah i mean that's uh easy thing to default to for sure let's not forget uh Tucker Kraft, the second tight end. I think he opened on the NFI list, but I don't think that's going to be real serious. So they got two very viable tight ends. And we haven't even brought up our friend, Bo Melton, who scored a touchdown in the NFC title game from Jordan Love last year.

You know, oftentimes I default to the cheapest option. But while I do respect Romeo Dobbs, I mean, two years ago, I guess, when, you know, Maybe he was three at this point. I was all over Romeo Dobbs in the May of that year. And he was impactful. I watched him at the Senior Bowl. We actually comped him a little bit to Devante Adams, which I know was a little bit of a stretch.

But hey, Devante Adams was never a burner to begin with inside, outside guy. But I will say, while he really did click with Jordan Love, like they've got a nice chemistry there. He is boring. Like if he doesn't score, you know, he's just not going to pile the catches of the yard. So I look at it and I like kind of the best of both worlds with Watson. I mean, he's clearly not the most expensive. And, you know, well, he's second.

He's second. But I like him the most. You know, when you look at Jaden Reed, let's call his ADP 72. Christian Watson is 102. And then let's call Dobbs 1.8. I'm going Watson there. Jaden Reed might be a little overpriced, but I'd probably say he's the safest guy.

And then Dobbs is just kind of there. Like, I feel like Dobbs will get hurt the most by a guy like Wix or Bow Mountain. Because, you know, Watson is that big prototypical guy commands a ball. You know, he's a unicorn,

really. I mean, physical marvel. And then Jaden Reed's got that inside, an outside versatility, that that Debo stuff. I think Wicks, if he plays, will play likely over Dobbs. A lot of these guys are interchangeable, but when I look at the receiving core, I probably, and I am over the markets on Jane Reed,

but I am absolutely targeting Christian Watson. That's my guy here for the Packers in terms of receivers. And he went out and made a big play in practice. And again, we're watching highlights on Twitter of one, singular play, but he made a big spectacular catch on a deep fade down the sideline. And that's what you expect from a guy like Christian Watson. So I love that call. If you can get Christian Watson, maybe he's like your wide receiver three.

You can probably get him as a wide receiver four at this point in your home league. I think he's going to pay dividends and he's going to be in your lineup a lot. Let's go over to the LA Chargers. Justin Herbert sustained a foot injury in practice. That's going to keep on a training camp for a couple of weeks. so they hope they can ramp them up, get him ready for the season opener. They also had an injury to Ladd-McConkie. Now, he's had several foot issues over his career.

I was kind of searching through the inner webs to find out more about Ladd-McConkey. And he's a little injury prone, and especially on this right foot. So it's giving me a little pause here. So, all right, we know the offense is not going to be very dynamic, John. But it's still Justin Herbert. It's still, you know, a Greg Roman offense. They are going to hopefully put up some points here. Do you have any interest in Herbert at all?

And between McConkey and our guy, Josh Palmer, who would you rather pull the trigger on? Not very interested in Herbert. You know, we're still not sure what he is in terms of the running. Like that's completely random. Like there are obviously no design runs or very, very few of those. And oftentimes, you know, he goes, you know, a month without really running much over the course of the last two or three. a year. So that's still to be decided. We know they're going to be run heavy. We know that Greg Roman has got some limitations. I mean, just look at the comments from some of the people who've left

Greg Roman, like Hollywood Brown, not really complimentary of the creativity and the rap combinations that oftentimes help scheme receivers open, doesn't really do all that. So yeah, I'm not expecting all that much. Now, that said, they are going to be a professional offense. They have an excellent offensive line. And, you know, Harbaugh was a quarterback for, for God's sakes. Not like, you know, the head coach is not about throwing the ball. So I do like Josh Palmer. You know, I have been right around with the markets on Ladd-McConkie.

I certainly like him as a prospect, but not like gung-ho for Ladd-McCocky. Because, again, he's a little pricey. But I've been way, way, way over the market on Josh Palmer from, like, May, April, even before that. I currently have them with 66 grabs as my wide receiver 46. ADP is wide receiver 60, so that's about right. Like that's a pretty good distance, a really good distance, honestly. 140 overall, I would submit that Josh Palmer is one of my favorite picks on the board, period.

What's that? 12th round? Come on now. I mean, he has the only receiver here who really, truly has a pretty established history with Justin Herbert. And, you know, he's this kind of a big year for him, too, going into year four. He's got inside, outside versatility. If, if lad is inside, which I think he will be, I think Josh Palmer is your top outside receiver. Yeah. And see a little DJ Shark also. We hear about him. Yeah. You've got him, as you mentioned, on the guru cheat sheet.

And again, folks, if you want just the guru's chichi, you've been living and dying with that for years. You can go to fantasy points, use code score more, and get John's only cheat sheet. I got it pulled up right in front of me. You've got Josh Palmer one spot ahead of DeAndre Hopkins. And Hopkins is going to be out several weeks with a knee injury. That could bleed into the regular season. So at age 32, it doesn't bode great for D.Hop. He's coming off a thousand-yard season.

He scored seven touchdowns, caught 75. balls. We've got this new look Titans team with Brian Callahan now as the head coach. They also brought in Calvin Ridley. But here's the thing. We're going to talk about your lessons learned later. One of your lessons in that is

don't draft aging wide receivers unless they're Hall of Famers. I mean, is Hopkins maybe a borderline Hall of Fame guy? But with this injury now, are you taking the risk on him on a draft in early August when you might not see him for

weeks. No, I'm not. I was on the serious XM show on Friday before this news truly came down in terms of time missed. And I was like, that's it. Goodbye. I'm out already. I had heard from a little birdie maybe a month or two ago about, you know, offseason talk that, you know, maybe DeHap was starting slowed down a little bit like some people started to notice that so yeah it's a little bit of the hedge we're like oh yeah avoid a 30 year old receiver unless he's a future hall of famer and a lot of these guys we're talking about we care about them because they are maybe on the cusp like keen and allen but i would say de hop probably no in terms of the hall and correspondingly i mean it's kind of a joke to say it this way, but I'm not in.

Like, if he had a little bit better body of work leading up to this injury and he was on track for Canton, you know, maybe I'd look at him, oh, maybe he'll be a value. But they'll probably start to move on from Hopkins with Calvin Ridley added as their new number one wide receiver. So he's not going to be peppered with targets even when he does return, I don't think. This is an old wide receiver group. You're starting over here. you got this new young buck and Will Levis throwing a ball and you get two 30 plus year old wide receivers in

Ridley and D. Hop out here. It'll be interested to see how they kind of evolve over the years and maybe, you know, next year bringing some young, fresh blood. But yeah, I've always been a Calvin Ridley guy. I remember they were going to bring him to Philly and they wanted to trade for him. And then, you know, he got that injury or that injury that he got suspended for the gambling issue and stuff. And then it actually turned into, oh, now Philadelphia, he gets A.J. Brown. So I think Philly kind of lucked out in that regard.

All right. Let's keep it rolling here. We're talking wide receivers with the guru, Jordan Roderick of the Athletic, who is a tremendous follow. She does a fantastic job with the Rams. She noted that Pukunakua left practice on Sunday and was spotted with a bag of ice on his right knee. So at the time of recording this, we have no idea what that means, folks.

He could be totally fine or he could be dead. Either way. You heard it here first, okay? But what I wanted to ask you about John is Cooper Cup because these camp reports are saying he looks back to 100%. He's killing it in practice. He's a guy you have a wide receiver 28 in your rankings. The ADP on him is like end around three. What are your realistic expectations for Cup?

Another kind of aging wide receiver here who is Cooper Cup a Hall of Famer. That's another question. Yeah. I think he's just going to miss it right now unless he. he can somehow log a number of highly impactful seasons, which I really don't really see that. I am very worried about the fact that he's got this pedal ankle issue that really dates back to 2022. And then it was an issue in 2023 last year, which maybe also had something to do with the ankle sprain.

I had heard that, you know, this looks like it's going to be a potential chronic issue for the rest of his career. So when I heard that, I was like, you know, I'm done. This was last summer. And, you know, while he did have some really good moments, I was like, oh, hold on a second. Maybe he's going to be fine. Do you think the people who took him last year were pleased that they did? I don't think they were. Now he's a little cheaper this year.

if puka is going to miss some time maybe he's got like a grade 2 mcel sprain or hyper extended knee or something uh maybe that helps just a little bit but it doesn't shave off any of the years or the wear and tear that cooper cup has dealt with you know he's had a very busy career man i mean 191 targets in 2021 i said that off season that it was the busiest season by a wide receiver in league history and then he ended up missing eight games the next year so 31 years old now you know i just don't see myself taking him because even though he's dropped down the board a little bit there there will be younger dudes available when he's going off the board i'll even look it up right now in terms of who i'd rather take right where cooper cup is going off the board let's take a look i mean maybe

even the aforementioned calvin ridley but no what is his ADP right now was it about 30 oh what we got his ADP he's like yeah he's 41 42 yeah 38 48 40 let's call it 40 I'll take skinny Batman over him I like obviously Pittman over him I like um Christian Kirk over him I love Christian Kirk this year here's the guy let me throw this action because you got them back to back in your rankings how about Malik neighbors of the giants hearing a lot of talk about him being the guy in New York getting peppered with targets and They don't have much else. It's him.

It's Wondell Robinson, who I love late. But what do you think between those? If you got, you're on the board, you know, third round, cup and neighbor staring at you. You need a receiver. I probably have to go with the young guy because that's, you know, I feel like we've seen it over and over again. Like the wheels fall off wide receivers for the most part,

unless you're a future All of Famer. I mean, it's not like a hedge. By the way, there is a guy that might buck the truck. a little bit we'll get into brandon cooks but i'd have to go to answer the question i am look i am paranoid about drafting an old guy who falls off a cliff i mean that's the bottom line i think that's the biggest mistake that i could make and and that that all started by the way way way back in 1987 back in 1987 uh when my first pick and i actually forgot about this for like a decade and a half. But my first pick of all time was a bad pick, a washed up Walter Payton. In my defense,

I had just learned of the draft and this thing called fantasy football one hour beforehand. So I went in there and I think I had like the ninth pick. I'm like, yeah, give me Walter Payton because he's good, but that didn't work out. And I honestly have kind of overcorrected ever since becoming an Ageist. All right. Speaking to Aegist, there's a hot young rookie in Carolina at running back, Jonathan Brooks. He's not going to play in the pre-season. season and it sounds like head coach Dave Canales could be leaning towards not really playing him much the first few games of the season. So John, let's say he doesn't have an early season role. Is he still somebody in our drafts we want to maybe later on just get him, put him on a bench,

we're going to stash him there because the competition to leapfrog to get into the starting lineup is Chuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders. So it's not exactly a bunch of world beaters here. So what are your thoughts on kind of redshirting him, maybe for the first half of your fantasy season, but he's going to be eating up a roster spot. Yeah, yeah. I mean, hell, uh, Jemir Gibbs was like a third round pick last year. Then through, I think week six, he was like RB 34. So it was almost like he, he was redshirted.

People were frustrated at least with Jonathan Brooks. You're not going to be considering him and, and, you know, unsuccessfully starting him. I, I am still in because, you know, I am, I've looked at the landscape here. this year the trend this year is that there are no trends and when when that seems to be the case i strive a little bit more toward balance and i think that's a safe steady route to go and so i'm a little bit more into the running backs but they are spread throughout the draft pretty well uh so you don't have to go like gaga over it but a jonathan brook seventh round i will say if you're in a really competitive competitive league you you better be feeling really good about the your picks that you've made up until that point

but generally speaking taking a guy with jonathan brooks's pedigree you know and talent and you know potential upside in the second half of the season when it really matters i'll sign off on that i i think that's a winning move even if it doesn't totally work out it isn't going to crush you so it's not going to be a league losing move and it could be a league winning move down down the stretch. You've got Jonathan Brooks as you're running back 27. He's sandwiched in between Taj Spears and Brian Robinson, Jr. So, hey, you know, you're in on this kid.

And it's one of those things in fantasy where early in the season you look at it and you're like, oh my God, this guy's not going to help me and blah, blah, blah. Down the stretch when half the running backs in the NFL are hurt and people are dying to put anybody with a pulse in their lineup, if you can bring this kid out of the bullpen and, you know, he's going to be the future of the Panthers offense more than likely for the next few years. I think that's a savvy move. Let's take a time out right here. There are seasons within the season.

There are always seasons within the season. So I'm thinking Jonathan Brooks, love him for season three, four, and five of 2024. But do not use them seasons one and two. Yes. Keep them in your back pocket, you know, just like fantasy points.com. We're that ace in the whole. with the rankings, the articles, the discord that's going to help get you over the finish line. All right. Quick time out right here. When we come back, I'm going to circle back to some of those

lessons learned from a year ago and how we apply them to 2024. The Fantasy Points Podcast. All right, John, welcome back in, having a lot of fun talking about our lessons learned for 24. And this is an article that you've penned for years on the website. And I'm always a fan of it. And it does pay as you get into draft season to go back and reread this. So it's really nice of us to kind of thumb through it now as you're getting ready to drop your draft plan for 2024, which I'm sure we'll talk about, you know, one of our next podcasts here. So let's start the quarterback position. You talked about how hard it was to predict last season.

A lot of these consensus guys didn't live up to the hype. Everybody was in on the running quarterbacks, these quote unquote cheap code guys. but it really only paid off with Hertz and Allen, but you had to pay a premium pick for those guys. So what else do you learn about the quarterback position and how are you going to apply it to this year's draft? Before I answer that, Brian, I'm going to turn this damn fan that I just turned on

because I didn't realize how loud the damn thing was and I could barely hear you. So I'll be right back. If there's anyone out there with a fan sponsorship, you got a nice quiet fan and you want to get in, you know, slide into the DMs here, Drake Fantasy. Oh, right, here we go. Yeah, nice.

Now I'm good. I record my basement, John. It's like negative 40 down here. I got a jacket on. It's 90 degrees outside right now. And I've got a hoodie on. Yeah, well, that's good. I'm, I'm up.

I'm the opposite there. So I got the hot lights on me. So it does get a little hot here down in the deep south, if you will. But I would say, you know, looking back at the year, as you mentioned, it was brutal. I mean, it was an absolute brutal year for, I guess, high-end quarterback evaluations. And that was on the heels of the year before, which was unbelievable. Like, it was like, all my guys came through.

But between Burrow and I liked Herbert, I liked Lawrence. You know, one of the things real, real easy is I kind of ignored strength of schedule for a while. But talking about these seasons within the season, you know, especially when you have a quarterback who has got maybe a smaller margin for error, who is a little inexperienced, may not have the greatest coaching, may not have the greatest supporting cast. You know, a bad matchup or two or three early in the season can be crushing as we saw with freaking Daniel Jones and even Kenny Pickett.

I mean, what I don't think I've ever seen such a disparity, I guess, between the preseason vibes and performance and the actual season. Maybe Kenny Pickett stinks. I still would argue that the offense was pretty bad with Matt Canada, which is another lesson learned. Check your play callers and all that. But, you know, the one thing that before I came up with my group of quarterbacks and I'm trying to be very selective is simply look at the schedule.

I know it's kind of elementary, but just look out for trends in terms of potential trends, trouble spots, you know, two or three bad matchups in a row. Like, so that's, that's it. So going forward, at least for now, if I'm endorsing a quarterback strongly, it probably means that he's got a schedule that I think is conducive to produce. And of course, the best example was a guy that I talked about,

his schedule last year. Jordan Love. Well, I mean, it looks good again. Let's just go right through week nine and, you know, leading up to their week 10 by at Philly. Look, Vic Fangio's a genius, but he's probably going to need a month or so to get that defense situated. Indy Colts, Tennessee at Tennessee, Minnesota, at the L.A. Rams, Arizona, Houston, at Jacksonville, and then Detroit.

Like, that is a schedule. That's a dream schedule. So, I mean, that's, that's it. That's one of my biggest takeaways is you got to look specifically, like, deep in the hood and check out the actual matchups here. And just look for any trouble areas, like to open the season or even, of course, you know, down the stretch. Yeah. And look at Jordan Love's playoff schedule. So he's at Seattle.

You know, they're changing over a lot of things there. But, you know, Mike McDonald, the new head coach, you know, he came in. He's like, they brought him in basically just to beat Sean. McVeigh and the Rams. Then he's home against New Orleans. God knows what the Saints look like at that point. And in the fantasy championship game in a dome at the Vikings. So two of his last three games there against Vikings and Saints. I like those two. And he got a Monday night flavor there with that New Orleans game. Well, let me talk to you about some of these quarterbacks that are in here for this year. We didn't see a lot of Anthony Richardson last year. But boy, what we saw

was so tantalizing. I mean, this guy on a, like, fantasy points per play is like off the charts because Indianapolis runs so many plays. Shane Steichen is so good. This kid is just like a firecracker waiting to happen. When I think of the players that you kind of put on pedestals and said, like, these are my guys I'm going after. Like Anthony Richardson like shines like a, you know, I don't know, beacon in the valley

or something. You're just sitting to go, this guy is going to be the freaking dude this year. And you can still get them, I think, kind of a discount. You got them on your guru rankings here at six overall. Like, I'm tripping over myself trying to get to the board to draft Anthony Richardson. Yeah, because, you know, you can get them, I mean, I guess fifth round, right? I mean, fifth round, maybe even the sixth, maybe. Right at that time, I feel like the skill players at the non-quarterback positions dry up.

So that's right around the optimal time, I think, right now. Say, okay, let's take a look at the quarterbacks. And here we go. Here are some of good examples. T. Higgins, not a must have. Amari Cooper, hey, the guy's bawling on the regular. But Deshawn Watson probably sucks. And Joe Flacco is not there to bail out Amari Cooper.

Keenan Allen, old. George Kittle, hey, did it again last year. but he does drive you a little nuts. Aaron Jones, James Connor, I mean, aging running backs. That's it. That's when you pull that trigger. So you can open up the draft. Let's say you get your anchor running back.

You get Bejohn Robinson. All right. Proud of myself. I'm going to come back. I'm going to get Drake London or, you know, well, that would be redundant. Let's go Chris Oliva, a legitimate. a legit one. I'm like, okay, now we're talking.

Next round, you're not looking at a quarterback. That's a little early in my opinion. I don't love a lot of the picks here in round number three. I'd probably default to the safe, steady play, a wide receiver because we do have that anchor running back. Okay, now we move on to round four. Maybe I do consider Trey McBride there. Or maybe I'd opt for James Cook,

like both players quite a bit. I could get a third receiver there, like Skinny Batman, Devante Smith. Then you go to round five. And again, it's those other names that I mentioned. I'm not in love with Zay Flowers this year. Alvin Camara is old. I'm not going to take them.

Tank Dell, too many mouths to feed there. I do like George Pickett. So there you go. That's why he's on the list. He's dropped a little bit. Well, not really dropped from. last year, but it's down from where he would have been if he played 14 games. I mean, I think if Anthony Richardson was able to play 14 games, he'd be, you know, he'd be going at least

one round earlier, maybe two. And hey, that's enough for me to look at it as a buying opportunity. You did this FFPC, Pros versus Joe's draft. In it, Anthony Richardson went in the six round, Doug Orth. Doug, by the way, did a really nice article. uh, included a bunch of stats from fantasy points data, uh, Scott Barrett retweeted it. Go check that out if you can. But so he took Richardson in the sixth. The next quarterback to go off the board was Kyler Murray. I'm kind of in on Kyler this year. Healthy. He's got a couple of really talented weapons on the outside who are young.

And you know, they play in the dome. He's got that cheat code aspect to him. I think that Kyler Murray, if you miss out on Richardson is kind of a nice consolation. price and you're not paying a premium for that Konami code quarterback you're getting them in like six seventh round eighth round maybe in your home league i think that's a great bargain for a kid that can run like he can yeah i mean the real problem i've had with the cheat code quarterbacks over the last couple of years is when they get too pricey i thought justin fields last year was what was he like kb six yeah probably around no sure i mean that that was too much so look i mean all my top 12 guys almost all of them are cheat codey.

Uh, the only guys who aren't are Mahomes, Stroud and, you know, Dack, I guess, but it's, but see, those guys are their cheat codey. They're not the cheat code like, um, Lamar, but that's really the problem. You know, am I taking a cheat code quarterback like Lamar Jackson or Jalen Hertz over a really, really good non-quarterback skill guy the answer is yes then i'm i'm not doing it basically but once we get to basically where richardson's going at 60 overall it's a moot point because there's a lot of sameness and i believe the quality drops off at all skill positions so why why not yeah so i i am kind of in on kyle i don't have them as officially as a target i'm trying to be like really selective

I guess this year. But you could argue he is a target. I probably have him a little bit over his overall ADP, and I do have him at QB9, which is his actual ADP. On your cheat sheet, also, you've got a couple of rookies back to back at 11 and 12. So you've got him as starters in 12th team league, and it's Caleb Williams, the number one overall pick, and Jaden Daniels, the Heisman Trophy winner.

I love, love, love, love getting Jaden Daniels on teams. You can get him for nothing later in draft. I don't know how this is still a thing. People haven't figured out that he's really good. He can run and throw. And I think the offense with Kingsbury in Washington is going to be a lot better than the B-enemy days from a year ago. So Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams, you got them as fantasy starters.

What realistically is the ceiling for these guys in year one? Can they be league winners for you because you don't have to pay a premium to get them? Yeah. I would say that's probably a stretch for Jaden Daniels because number one he does have a pretty bad O line he doesn't have a great receiving core and he's an injury risk we all know he runs a lot and that's a huge part of the appeal but he's also kind of like a cartoon in that he gets jacked up really badly so I would have to look at Caleb Williams as you know someone who could potentially be kind of a league

winner it wouldn't shock me if the touchdowns came and he ran you know five six times a game it wouldn't shock me if he finished it like qb seven on the season something like that it's not going to be incredible but you know there is a lot to like about Caleb williams i mean he throws the ball very well he he controls the ball controls the field strong pretty strong arm you know yeah i mean he might have some processing issues but you know at the very least that'll likely make him take off and run a little bit more so you look at the weapons the offense i know it's going to probably be a little slow out of the gate but i could see caleb williams heating up by midseason and you know kind of being a regular starter uh by midseason got have you seen the bear schedule by the way it's a joke so

i mean you just look out of the gate home for the titans then he's at Houston. All right, then at indie. So you get a couple of dome games here. The Rams. And here's where it gets fun. Carolina, Jacksonville, Washington, Arizona, New England. There's a five game stretch for you. Holy smokes. Trade for or just have him ready to go. If he's on the waiver wire, somebody drops him after the first couple weeks because once those buy weeks hit, holy smokes, I'd love to have Caleb Williams in there, you know, getting ready to go against Arizona or Washington or Jacksonville. So like you said, schedule is mad.

Get ready for, uh, is great. Get ready for Roma Dunzee to be dropped after week three. And then you go ahead and pick him up. And then when Keenan Allen gets hurt in week nine, you'll be good to go. Oh, man. Talking about lessons learned here with the guru. Let me swing over to running back. And for decades, I don't mean to age you here, my friend.

I mean, we're both. I'm getting up there too. You know, I got a birthday coming up. That'd be 44 later this month. So happy birthday to me. You've been preaching, though, about getting these guys at the running back position who are young, they're durable, and they're versatile, all right? And I don't think you're going to deviate from that much this year.

And you've got a couple of guys, your fearless four, I believe you call them, in the first round, you're targeting. You're kind of going old school, my friend. You're saying, I want these impact running backs in the first round this year, where everyone's going receiver crazy. the guru's back on the running back train. Yeah, I am. Because while, you know, the quality at the top is still pretty high quality,

you know, we do have a clifffall after, you know, Garrett Wilson or A.J. Brown, as far as I'm concerned, I mean, obviously Puka got hurt. We'll see about that. Drake London, Marvin Harrison. Good, good options, good second round picks, but not. I don't know if they're elite just yet. So yeah, I mean, I would love to have Tyreek or something like that. But I'm just looking at a small advantage when you can get that lockdown RB1, who is just money in the bank. Think about the year that Jonathan Taylor had a couple of years ago.

I mean, that's what we're always looking for. You're looking for that running back dream breakout season. This could be it for Brise Hall. This could be it for Bejohn. Jonathan Taylor could return to that realm. I know our guy Ladinian is worried about AR, usurping him a little bit at the goal, but overall good offense, good O'Line, good environment, all good stuff with Johnny Taylor. Then the other guy is Jemir Gibbs, who, look, I mean, pretty special.

You know, he really looked good down the stretch. He's a potential superstar. He really is Alvin Camara-like. So I know David Montgomery's there. I also like him. It might be a little bit of an overpay, but just generally speaking, like someone with this talent level and this environment,

I'm in. Again, I don't want to take them too early, but back half a round one, I would love it if I could get, let's say Taylor goes a little earlier than expected. Jemir Gibbs and Garrett Wilson. I mean, that is horrific as hell right there, Brian. You're preaching to the choir here, brother.

I, in my big home league, I have the 11th pick of a 12-team league. I've done a zillion mock drafts looking at who you can get at the end of the first round. And there is almost something to be said for going RBRB, you know, throwing at old school. Imagine you start up and you can go, hey, I can get on that one-two turn at 11 and was at 14. you can get like Gibbs and Barclay, Gibbs and Johnny Taylor, these kind of guys. And then you just,

you hammer receiver after that for the next few rounds. I mean, that is a major advantage. When you're rolling out, let's say Gibbs and Sequin over the guy who has, you know, he's starting, you know,

I don't know, Ramondre and, I don't know, Gus Edwards or something like that, because he went receiver drunk to start his draft. So it's a possibility out there. Are you, is there any part of,

the guru that still wants to go old school r b rb to start wow that's a good one you know if taylor slipped i mean that would have to seriously consider it but i just don't know i guess it would have to be gibbs slipping uh because i i do i do have taylor over gibbs uh but if gibbs slipped and let's say i get i mean let's say i get taylor at 12 and gibbs at 13 the question then would be What am I looking at in rounds three and four? The answers would be, I mean, not amazing, but it could be like a Jalen Waddle, Michael Pittman. Michael Pittman would be one of the picks.

I'm going to say no. I don't think that's ideal. As much as I'm a little bit more into the running backs, I am reverting a little bit to my balanced approach, and I do like that to be balanced. Yeah, I think it's a little lopsided going, running back running back because again the only way i could see that playing out is if you did that at the end of round one and it was taylor and gibbs maybe barclay to your point but i don't love what you're

looking at it wide receiver on in the next round like michael pitman like i like michael pitman a lot as a one though i don't know about that so i think i'd be inclined to grab even a devante adams Drake London, you know, Marvin Harrison, or a lavee. Yeah, Pittman's great if he's your two.

If you have Garrett Wilson and then you have Pitman as your second receiver to go along with maybe Giggs or something like that. Now you're cooking with gas. Now you're good. Yeah. You mentioned how schemes matter. And maybe that is very simplistic.

And people are like, hey, no shit, guys. Schemes matter out there. But it really, really does in fantasy. You know, we can look back.

to teams that just they don't block it up very well or like a Damien Pierce where it's a square peg in a round hole and he just couldn't move with that zone scheme. You know, and then the changes now of like a Sequan Barclay coming to Philadelphia and what that's going to be with a new scheme this year. So are there any schemes that you've seen out there where you're like, I love this, I want to get behind this guy or you know what, I don't trust this coach because coaching matters as well. I want to stay away from some of these fools. Yeah, nothing earth shattering. I will say, let's keep an eye out for Marshaun Lloyd, the rookie in Green Bay.

I don't think he's a very good zone runner, so he might need to, and they run a lot of zone. But overall, I don't think there's anything of note. But yeah, we'll look into Pollard and see how he fits where, what they're doing. over there as well. But I don't think we're seeing anything quite like the Damien Pierce thing from last year. And it's a little tricky because a lot of these guys are supposed to be good at every scheme, really. But if you haven't done a lot of zone, outside zone, then you know, you might need some time as Damien Pierce as we saw play out there. But nothing really truly standing out. we are, you know, looking at some new offenses like in Seattle.

We don't know exactly, or at least I don't, right now, what they're going to look at, look like. I mean, Joe Mixon, by the way, in the same spot, I know the data with him isn't great for zone, but no, I mean, he's a very good zone runner. Like, you know, put your foot in the ground, head north-south. That's Joe Mixon's game. So I don't see anything of note jumping out here. Brian Robinson and D.C., I think these are things.

that we need to look into the rest of August because we're just now starting to get some of this information. Yeah, it's something to monitor as we go through. Sometimes we like to make sweeping definitive statements based off of one little shred of information or one clip we see on Twitter, but this is why you guys should go out and subscribe to a place like FantasyPoints.com

because you're going to get detailed breakdowns from guys like Brett Whitefield. Brett Whitefield was all over. It's Pooka and Kua last year. Nobody was giving out Pooka Nakua except Brett Whitefield. You know, Brett Whitefield's talking up. You mentioned it in the article, you know, about some of the changes in offensive schemes that you weren't really, you didn't pay him a lot of attention to it, but he was dead on.

I think it was with Damien Pierce, how he wasn't a fit for that scheme. And it turned out to be correct. So get over to FantasyPoint.com. Make yourself a smarter fantasy player. Let's talk about wide receivers here and some of the lessons learned, John. And we mentioned it earlier. And you said it very eloquently. Ultimately, the lesson is that we can still draft 30 plus year old whiteouts as long as their future Hall of Famers.

There's a lot of guys that are getting a little long in the tooth. Maybe it's time we just go, you know what? Let's sink our teeth into these young guns. And you've made a career on that. And I don't see it changing now. Yeah, I mean, I am trying to be a little more boring just because I know boring does work. in certain situations, but, you know, ultimately, it's, again, you want to call paranoia, but I just feel like, I've said this a million times, and this might be a me problem,

but I actually have horrible luck in fantasy. I always have. I was like the running joke of my local league where I made the best picks for seven years in a row, and oftentimes led the league in total points, didn't win, crap i i just felt snake bit and but that's how what that's what got me better at making picks i'm like well i'm i guess i'm not going to i'm going to have to create my own luck basically and that was just one of the things that i started noticing a long long time ago like the legs go quickly uh with wide receivers and you know as we've gone deep into the two thousand's it's got

worse and worse and worse and worse so you need in my opinion to be very special for me to take you early if you're 30 year older and again we're we're i wasn't into vanta adams last year for 40% of the time it was a good call 60% it wasn't because he is is canton bound i believe tyreek of course and then mike evans might be on that bubble but you know he he he's a different cat not many guys that big get still move that well so he'll probably make canton uh we've seen other big dudes like his size fall off quickly again this is why he's special so he might be the outlier other guys like cooper cup and keen and allen unbelievable players all pro types just not there in terms of the the hall basically and i think there's a correlation there

The players who make the hall wide receiver, number one, have really good DNA because for the most part, they've accumulated big numbers because you have to accumulate massive numbers to make the hall at wide receiver these days. Some of the guys who have accumulated massive numbers that you're talking about do so because of what you call consolidation of targets. Look at teams like Philadelphia. Look at teams like Miami. There's not a lot of guys fighting for the football here. It's Tyreek and it's Waddle. They don't throw to the tight ends. They got Odell down there now.

Who knows? He's 100 years old. He hasn't done shit in years. AJ Brown, Devante Smith. Who knows who's going to be the wide receiver three there? We got Goddard for 10 minutes while he's healthy. You know, these are the offenses to look at. We mentioned Green Bay earlier on.

There's 400 guys here trying to catch balls. So maybe it's easier just to say, who doesn't have much competition, even though there's really good players, Waddle's great, Hill's great, Brown's great, Smith. They're all awesome. But it's it. It's really concentrated. So I think that's a fantastic lesson that you're preaching to the folks out there.

Just find where there's not competition and kill that, you know. Just drive your, plant your flag right there on these guys who don't have to fight for targets. How about as a decent example, Jameson Williams? I mean, people are skeptical, but they literally do not have a great outside receiver. basically other than potentially jameson uman ra inside more often than not donovan people's jones is just a depth piece a little surprise that they traded for him and uh keep bringing them back caliph raymond a journeyman of course uh and then nothing else so that would be a situation where you could certainly see a consolidation of targets to it's all among raw then leporta and

And Jameson is a distant third, but he's third, a clear third without much of a fourth. So, yeah, it's pretty elementary, but let's not forget about that. And New Orleans as well, like, where are they going with the football outside of Chris Oliva? Maybe, you know, honestly, the one person that I actually like Rashid Shaheed last year, I still do. He's not on my list this year. And neither is Joanne Johnson, but he's on the PUP. but Joanne Johnson is a guy that you never know, like could emerge here because he is a former college-wide receiver. They are dying with quality pass targets.

I know they've got Foster Moreau and the annoying Tassum Hill, but there's another example of, you know, a consolidation of targets simply because they don't really have much else. Bob means Cedric Wilson, Equanimous, St. Brown, journeyman type guys, and A.T. Perry, who is a. a little bit of a kind of a limited player, basically, you know, like a nine-round guy right now. So, yeah, there's another example of, you know, through necessity, they're going to consolidate the targets a little bit. Maybe a guy like Joanne Johnson actually has a chance. Anything else at the tight end position? We didn't really touch on that much in this pod.

But any of the lessons about tight ends? I know we saw rookie Sam Laporta and Trey McBride shine in their first seasons in the NFL. Is that something that you learn maybe that your rookies can contribute? It's not, oh, well, they got to take three years to finally break out at the tight end position. Yeah, yeah. And I think similarly, you know, Dalton Kincaid, I thought people were going crazy last year. And then for six weeks, I was correct. And what's that?

Like damn near half the fantasy season, regular season. But then Dalton Kincaid from that point on was like the tight end 10. Or, yeah. was basically what the markets thought he would be. So not that we have a great example this year, but if there was a lesson to be learned, I would think with a very with a rookie tight end, if this happens again, it's not going to happen this year with Brock Bowers. But if it happens again, I would say, you know, probably no need to draft the guy, but get ready to trade for him on the cheap. So, you know, rookies can get it done quickly. But also the markets,

are overrating rookies basically in general i thought they were overrating dalton cancade and they were for six weeks and then they weren't you know what i mean so uh that was a small lesson but nothing nothing of note here um really jumped out at me um yeah nothing really of note i was very into jake ferguson the only reason i didn't pump him up a lot more was because of the presence of schoonmaker who they drafted in the second round but hey good is good and jake ferguson has done nothing but get better and better as the weeks months and years have progressed so he he kind of broke out last year by the way i i think uh very least he's going to replicate that and go down as a great pick by the way as the 11th tied end off the board turd ferguson maybe one of the best

skits from SNL when, you know, was that, uh, he wasn't a third though, was on jeopardy. And he goes, you know, he puts his name in his turd Ferguson. I love that. And these young kids today, they don't get it. When I say turd Ferguson on the radio, they're like, what is this guy talking about? Is that a old guy inside joke? Yes, apparently it is because nobody watches SNL now either.

But let's take a time out here. When we come back, let's hit this FFPC draft. It's pros versus Joe. You made some interesting picks here. And let's talk about the team you built here on the Fantasy Points podcast. All right, John, we're closing things out here talking about this FFPC Pros versus Joe's draft. This is a tight end premium draft. So tight ends are worth 1.5 every reception that they get.

Okay. So when you hear tight end premium out there, folks, maybe that's new to you. It's you get 1.5 points per reception. So if you see some of these guys going off the board, you know what the hell is going on here. You had the one seven. When I was in this draft earlier that week, I had the one six. So a lot of the same sort of guys were there. You took Jamar Chase with your first overall pick.

McCaffrey, Bejohn, and Brees were all off the board. So the only other one of your, you know, flawless four, you could have taken Taylor, you could have taken Gibbs. Was there any thought to go and running back there in the first round? Yeah, not really. I just thought Chase, in a, seven was, I mean, too good to pass up, Ed Y, receiver with Bejohn and Brise Hall off the board. I'm not taking McCaffrey that high. I thought it was a little early for Johnny Taylor.

And in my defense, I missed him by one pick in round two. But, you know, I actually said last year that I would go Jamar Chase over Justin Jefferson thinking that, well, Jefferson the year before had that magical third year, even though he had already broken out, that was a full on onslaught in year number three for Jefferson. I'm like, well, I mean, that's Chase this year. He's got two years in the books. He's 23 years old, ready to go with his good pocket quarterback. And, you know, it wasn't great, but Chase was, you know, close. He was in that vicinity. I mean, it's, it is best ball. And he's got three touchdown potential. And he, he's got three touchdown potential. And he, given week. And then the other thing, too, is, you know, I'm not big into stacking, but when I get

Jamar Chase gifted to me, it makes it kind of easy because now I know I can go get Joe Burrell, which I did. Which he did later in the seventh round. Through the first two rounds, you and I had the exact same team. I drafted with our buddy Matt Donnelly from Fantasy Points, the best mustache in all of fantasy. So, you know, we both started out Chase and Sequin. So coming back through, four tight ends did go off the board. Laporta, McBride, Kincaid, Kelsey. Did you have any thought here with your second pick of maybe a Mark Andrews or a Pitts or you were fine letting those guys go?

You were going to anchor yourself down to Sequin. Well, Andrews was off the board. Are you talking about in the second? In the second round here. Did you have any thought of going? Oh, okay, yeah. Getting on that. No.

Because four tight ends went before your pick. So did you have any thought of maybe going tight end with Andrews there? No, I really didn't. understand it's tight end premium. I do try to Zague another Zag. For example, in an FFPC startup dynasty draft two years ago, I freaking took Jonathan Taylor over Justin Herbert and then McCaffrey. I took in the second. People are like, what? Well, I did just miss winning the ship by four points last year in year two. So just throwing that out there. But because I am so confident in Tyler Conklin, I thought, you know what? I'm going to try and zig when they

zag and go zero tight end in an FFPC. Of course, spoiler alert. I did, of course, get Conklin. We'll talk about the other guys. I thought I did pretty well with it. But no, I actually was, I will admit, I started the draft on my phone. It was actually my birthday when we did this, I believe, on, or the day before my birthday, whatever. I was on my phone and I was trying to golf cart to dinner on the way back and I was ran a little late I got auto picked but honestly I probably would have made the same pick uh that's you're talking about Travis ETN in round three yeah yeah I mean you know talk about consolidation of targets how about consolidation of touches like they're really really thin at running back here behind ETN who has proven to be durable

he's certainly versatile tank bigsby was a train wreck of course and that's just nothing else here de ernest johnson is a you know journeyman veteran uh good good got to have around but but not a needle mover whatsoever so yeah i mean he was the rb three last year i mean it was a very unrevealing final ranking because uh nobody felt as good as you would feel if you had the rb three but he was in fact the rb three so i thought that was viable in round three your wife doesn't give you shit for going out to dinner and you're doing a draft and you're on the phone and all this? Or has she just at this point thrown her hands up and she's like, this is who I'm married. This is what I get. I've gotten I've gotten into some scuttle butts by doing that,

trying to, you know, not having the boundary. But hey, on the other hand, I've also paid for literally everything for our family. So, you know, I it's a good answer, right? It's like, I'm sorry, but I paid for every single thing we've had in 30 years. So thanks to this fantasy stuff. So you're going to have to suck it up. So you sucked it up in round four with Michael Pittman. We spoke about him a little earlier. I'm shocked.

The guy before you took Zay Flowers over Michael Pittman. That blows my mind. We mentioned Cooper Cup. He went a few picks before that. And our guy, Doug Orth, we mentioned him. He took DeVontas Smith two picks before Pittman was there. Smith is having an incredible camp. Every day, the drumbeat just gets louder to how good he's doing in camp in this new offense.

In the slot, right? If you get him in a slot, I mean, look at the numbers the last two years with Keenan Allen. And then before that, with C.D. Lamb, I mean, the target numbers are out of control. I don't think it's going to get to that level. But, you know, if Smith was there for you, would you have taken him instead of Pittman? That is a great question. I'm going to see who I have higher. I'm going to go off my own rankings. Yes, I would have. I've been a skinny Batman stand from the

beginning. This is the fourth year in a row. This is year four, right? Yes. It's the fourth year in a row. I've ranked them over as ADP. I mean, that's pretty crazy. Yeah. And I feel like the APP is down a little bit this year. That it's, it's Devontas Smith, not to be an Eagles homer here, but in your home leagues, in the fourth round, if Devante Smith's there, he's going to win you your league this year. I'm just, just letting you guys know. But I love what you did here. So your wide receiver core, Chase, Pittman, you come back in the fifth with Christian Kirk.

Christian Kirk, another guy, two years ago, a thousand yard receiver, tons of slot work. I mean, Dougie Peterson knows how to call an offense. Not sure why Press Taylor's still there with him, but that's for another day. So how do you feel about this starting receiver group? Again, it's best ball, and he took some shots later with some high upside guys

like Jameson Williams and Brandon Cooks, but Chase Pittman and Kirk's are, pretty nice trio i do i mean i really do i mean i feel like that i're number ones i mean in jackson though we could argue evan ingram is like the co-one with kirk but i i view kirk as the primary read and you know and target for trevor lawrence in terms of the white house same deal with pitman i've always loved pitman he was my guy that year i actually underrated him last year because i was a little worried about uh the new offense and anthony richardson but Shane Steichen and the coaching staff did an unbelievable job.

They peppered Pittman with targets, which makes sense. Big body, physical receiver, not too hard to get him the ball. Great dude. Yeah, I think he's the one. And of course, Chase is the one. Jameson is a really good best ball pick and a good fourth receiver. Brandon Cooks, I'm not seeing a slowdown yet with Brandon Cooks. I was actually a huge Cooks guy back in the day when he came out.

I liked them more than Mike Evans that year and Odell. So, you know, it hasn't been unbelievable. But here we are 10 years later. We might be talking about Brandon Cooks as a Hall of Famer if he does two, three more good years. And again, I don't see much of a slowdown. So I thought I did a damn good job. I also add Marvin Mims.

By the way, I took Ricky Pearsall in round 16. Why? And I wrote this on Saturday morning, but you'll read it maybe Monday. and it might be a moot point but i'm i'm thinking now iuk's being traded and i know matt mayaco tweeted that on sunday uh i heard that a couple of days earlier uh so i i went with pretty ricky out here in the twitter streets talking it up yeah how about rsha batman in the 17th round hello hello he's a number playing to win the game and what's at the quarterback position you took Joe Burrough said that nice easy stack.

You got Chase and Burrow. You took Kirkie Cousins in the 12th round and you followed it up in the 18th with J.J. McCarthy who likely won't start the season for Minnesota. By the end of the year, he's going to be the guy here. So I think between Burrough and Cousins at least, you've got a top 12, top 10 quarterback every single Sunday. Yeah, yeah. I think Kirk Cousins looking good off to a good start.

in camp it's essentially the same offense he's never been out of that offense basically so yeah i'm feeling pretty good about kirky as a pick and then the other thing that i did was the tight end stunt if you will venture experiment tyler conklin in the 12th i do have him as a top 12th tight end i thought okay i need to take another swing here let's go for some upside and i know there's only one ball Dave has got talent, pedigree, good quarterback. And then very late in round 19, I took Daniel Bellinger, who I do think will lead the giant tight ends and receptions for what it's worth. I know he's boring, but I thought that was a pretty decent group to come out going

zero tight end and tight end premium and not taking one. I took Conklin in the 10th round, not the 12th. So yeah, Conklin Musgrave in the 10th and the 11th and then a little Danny Daniel Bellinger. Again, I'll probably be one of the weakest teams at tight end, but I thought that was a pretty good, you know, route because I'm pretty loaded at wide receiver. I'm good at quarterback. I think I'm pretty good at running back with Sequin, ETN, Ramandre. I did hold off for a while there and took a couple flyers in Ray Davis and Rochon Johnson. and then I actually took another flyer on Miles Sanders.

That's all about him potentially getting traded or cut and then re-signed somewhere else. But overall, I thought the team had a lot of balance. I don't see any glaring weaknesses. So I think it'll be a top five team. Let me ask you about one last guy before we get out of here because I'm sure some of our listeners are curious about Ramandre Stevenson. You picked him up as your third running back.

And he was on a terrible New England team. But they're invested in him. He's basically the whole offense now. They're kind of reworking that whole wide receiver group around him. If you go back and look at his 2023 in a PPR league, I'm counting like seven weeks with double-digit fantasy points. Now, he didn't stay healthy and that kind of did him in, but boy, you're looking at a guy here who routinely had five or six targets a week. And in a full PPR, like that's gold. You know, who knows when he finds the end zone, but that's what's going to keep you out.

float. I mean, you're getting a guy here who I'm looking at weeks nine, 22.9, week 12, 21 points here. Like, that's weak winning stuff. And in a best ball, that's going to put you to the top of the heap. So I kind of dig Ramandre here. What's your overall outlook on him on a really crappy New England team? Yeah, no, I'm feeling pretty good about him down the board a little bit, by the way, in round number six. I know the office of line is not wonderful there. They did pay him, uh, which is, is good, but on the other hand, you know, they did pay him. But he's optimistic in training camp, by the way. I'm not sure if you saw this, but, you know, they've revised his scheme a little bit.

It's like all outside zone, which is all he ran in college. So he's feeling good. And I'm feeling good about him. I'm trying to get him right three years in a row because I was all in two years ago. He came through. Last year, I was actually worried, didn't have him on my list. He had some moments but overall that was a pretty good call now and back because again i would argue with zeke elliott i actually was worried about zeke elliott this time last year because as i said look he's good in pass pro which will get him on the field in some passing situations he's good in short yardage he was in both regards for the patriots which did i think take away from remandre i could argue that the competition got worse this year in the backfield with only antonio gibson added

So yeah, Kevin Harris hasn't shown much. 300 plus touches once again for Ramandre. Yeah, Ramandre last year was a top 25 receiver in terms of receptions. Dude played 12 games. So the role's there. There's a chance for him to score some fantasy points. And if you want to score fantasy points, go over to fantasy points.com. Use our code score more.

We're going to save you 10% off your annual subscription, John. And man, fun-filled episode. right here. We banged a lot of stuff in from, you know, the training camp news to the, you know, lessons learned and some draft recap here. Man, I need a drink after this. Yeah, me too. But, you know, really the training camp news are great, but I actually like watching all the games. And I get a lot of insight from watching the games, even just talking to beat writers or or the broadcast. on and off the record, they gather up a lot of information. So once we get a week's worth of games in, I think we'll have some good stuff to talk about.

And I'm actually thinking about doing a quick video hit for our YouTube page to review every single preseason game. I know that sounds crazy. But any thoughts on that real quick before we go away? I mean, listen, those are the kind of nuggets that maybe other people aren't doing. And if you can make that your niche kind of for this season, I think people will dig that because people are, they're searching for any nugget they can find. And if they can get your respected opinion, you're going to say, hey, we're breaking down, you know, 49ers against the, you know, dolphins preseason game. What I would just pick two teams. I think there's some nuggets that can be gleaned from there.

So that's not the craziest idea in the world. YouTube's where it's at, man. Yeah. Like it's podcast and it's YouTube. People are watching podcasts like this on YouTube. So yeah, anything you can do to keep people up on YouTube Maybe doing one big long form video for 45 minutes on week one of the preseason, everything I saw week two. You know what I mean?

That might be a little easier. But during the season, I was actually kind of thinking about doing that. I think that would probably get a lot of looks because I hate to say it, but there is a lot of people in this business who talk a lot of smack and they don't watch the games. They watch Red Zone. I've always watched the games. You can pick up a lot more when you actually watch it. You don't have to stare at it.

I normally have it kind of in the background. If there's something that happens, I rewind it. But yeah, just the wheels are turning a little bit here. I'm getting settled into my new environment here. So I got to get going with some more video. Yeah, I love it, man. So get over to the YouTube page, YouTube.com slash fantasy points. And check us out over there.

All right. For The Guru, I'm Brian Drake. We'll see you guys next time for the Fantasy Points Podcast.