Fantasy Football Daily - Free Agency Fallout! 2025 Fantasy Football Winners & Losers with Sigmund Bloom

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Theo Gremminger sits down with fantasy football legend Sigmund Bloom, co-owner of Footballguys.com to discuss the fantasy football implications of the first week of the NFL Free Agency Period. Where to find us: http://twitter.com/TheOGFantasy http://twitter.com/SigmundBloom Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ 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

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I'm Theo Greminger over here at Fantasy Points. A lot to talk about this week, Sig. We finally have like a dump of news coming in seemingly all at all like one time. It was like a really fun eight, nine day period. Debo Samuel gets traded to Washington. And then after that, it's just like news dump every single day. Legal tampering was a lot of fun. How are you doing those, Sig?

good it's stimulating you know now we have actual actionable moves although there's still other shoes to drop but what i love about this time of year much like the draft theo teams can't lie to us teams are showing us what they value teams are by implication showing us what they think of their current roster how you win football games how you improve your team what areas of the team need attention so we have a lot it's almost a personality test, especially for some of these new teams, the bears come to mind right away, the Patriots, teams with new regimes. What are they prioritizing? There's a lot to go through.

And it's exciting because it gets us excited for the upcoming season. Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. I mean, we get told the truth only a few times a year now. It's draft capital. It's trades. It's the money they spend on free agents. And then after that, it's sort of like the big like everything's behind a shroud. Right.

There's always a little bit of mystery, a lot of coach speak and stuff for us to sort out. So I love it. You know, we often talk about coaches and offensive coordinators and regime change. I love how you sort of see the big picture, Sig, and are able to kind of shift through that. Just your thoughts on the early Ben Johnson spending spree. You got to like it if you're a Bears fan or an enthusiast. Well, what you like about it is a sense of urgency, you know, Joe Thuny, Jonah Jackson, they may not be improving the line two or three years down the line,

but they're going to get those guard positions under control. Of course, Ben Johnson knows Jonah Jackson from their time together in Detroit. And then through Dalman, you go out and get probably the best center in free agency, and you shore up that interior offensive line. And what I like about it is, first of all, you're accurately seeing where the critical point of failure was last year. It was an offensive line. And you're sending a signal to your quarterback to Caleb Williams.

we're going to get you fixed. And this worked for Bryce Young last year. Remember, the Panthers came out and they spent big on Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt to shore up their interior line. And it took a little while, but it did eventually bear fruit. And that is something that is exciting, not just from a perspective, Theo, of, oh, are they accurately seeing the team? Are they allotting their assets where they need those assets to be allotted? but just in general, you believe that they are going to be a rational team doing rational things. You know, this is the first test.

And also maybe, you know, this is a change. Even though Ryan Poles is still the GM, this feels like a change. It does feel like Ben Johnson has his hands on the steering wheel and he's steering them in a good direction. Yeah, no, I'm completely with you on that. And a lot more excitement, I think, in the offseason for Chicago, one of the teams that's been connected, with Ashton Genty. I think that might go down this draft. Certainly Vegas thinks that right now.

But I actually put this question like end of the show sheet, but we might as well do a professional segue into Romadunze. You're just your vibes with the dunzae because this is like if you ask pretty much anybody in fantasy to list a couple of players who could take big leaps forward in year two, you're hearing Roma Dunzee sort of as like the given one. And the markets reflected it. He's steamed up. Where are you at?

on sort of your expectations for him in the Ben Johnson offense and the potential to take a really big step in year two like we thought he would is potentially as a rookie with that sort of draft capital and prospect profile. Yeah, there's a lot of tailwinds at his back at this point because you have the improvement in the offensive line. You have the improvement in play calling, play design. You have Keenan Allen. We'll see where he lands.

It's not going to be back with Chicago. And I know vacated targets it's kind of dubious to just automatically allot those elsewhere. And you also have development as a player. Nobody would say going into a second year. So all these things. I mean, look at what losing Shane Waldron

did for Jackson Smith and Jigba. So all of these things are, I would like to call them unknown upside players, Theo. I love drafting unknown upside. players. Even DJ Moore applies in this category. We don't know how good he can be. We don't know what the ceiling is for DJ Moore

with a better passing quarterback than Justin Fields in an actual functional offense. We don't know what the upside is for Roma Dunesay developing as part of a two wide receiver attack instead of a three wide receiver attack again with a functional maybe even innovative offense. So the bears sometimes Theo sometimes this isn't really that complicated. Sometimes it isn't rocket science. And it can be just as simple as which offenses are going to improve the most or improve the most compared to how the fantasy football market is pricing them

and just getting in on those offenses and the bears, if not at the top of the list, are near. Yeah, we've talked about this and I hope that we do it again this offseason where we specifically look at which teams are being underpriced, you know, because the offense is not really being baked in. teams like that in the past, we've been able to find four players, three players, who crush their ADP collectively. Right. If you can identify one of them. So I think that as fantasy analysts and as fantasy managers, people are baking in upside

more into ADP and taking a little bit of a more of a pragmatic risk, but a calculated one when they select these guys. But with the bears, there could still be a lot of meat left on the bone if we see sort of a real, real full Ben Johnson offense this year. And I love that you talked about Carolina. It seems like that's sort of an invoked thing when you have the quarterback that's a little bit on the shorter side. Yeah.

Really, it's like guard, guard becomes even more important. So I think they're doing the right thing for sure there. Yeah. And again, it's just, are you accurately looking at your team and saying, what do we need? What's going to actually improve things? And it isn't even just the gains of those improvements. It's a good indicator for overall how they're going to manage things. The rational management, rational game planning, playing to player's strengths,

seeing things accurately. So dare we say it, Theo, but maybe, just maybe it's safe for Bears fans to get optimistic. Yeah, I think it's time sick. They deserve it. They deserve it for sure. Let's talk about another fan base that's actually, that's extremely optimistic. Jaden Daniels, the savior of the franchise. Jaden Daniels makes it all the way of the end.

NFC championship game as a rookie second best fantasy season all time to cam newton i mean just couldn't have had a better rookie season when it comes to daniels scott barrett and i have both said jaden daniels mbp this year that's got to be the bar for him uh but what it's the bar pressure no pressure at all but you know it's sort of like the patrick mahomes year two lamar jackson year two MVP MVP jaden daniels year two MVP it's almost poetic at this point that there'll be a third heard year two quarterback that gets that. But when we look at Washington, Laramie Tunsell, we could have a whole show about that one.

Sure. They go out and they get a great offensive tackle. Huge, huge. I mean, from the flexibility that now gives them in the first round of the draft, down to just protecting your investment in Jaden Daniels win, win. But the Debo Samuel trade, this is one Cigware kind of was really down on Debo at the end of last year. But now we can sort of paint a picture that there is a potential turnaround here. Now, the shape he needs to get into, his age, all those things will factor in. But Debo joins

a team where they have a great quarterback. We can all agree on that. They now have a better offensive line. Terry McLaurin is established, but there's this huge void at wide receiver two, which was like an assembly line of veteran journeyman last year, Noah Brown, Olamidi's Zechas, now we see Diami Brown elsewhere, sort of rotating there. And they had no yak ability whatsoever as a team, nothing after the catch. So they made a great addition, in my opinion, in Debo. What are your expectations for him? Do you agree with me?

Where are you out on Debo in Washington? Yeah, you could not have picked a better spot, truly. I know it sounds like a cliche or some sort of platitude to say that. But really, you could not have picked a better spot. And again, for Washington fans, what's exciting about this is, they're looking at Cliff King's Berry's offense. There is not an offense that's going to set a player up for more wide receiver screens, for more yak opportunity,

and Jaden Daniels is a hyper-accurate passer. So that's important because there's accuracy. Matt Waldman only made it less than 10 minutes, Cynthia, before I mentioned the illustrious Matt Waldman. There's accuracy based on completion percentage, but that is really a very broad picture of accuracy. Accuracy also comes to. down to the windows that you put the ball into.

And when it comes to yards after catch, it's really if you're leading the receiver into the yards after catch opportunity or if they're having to adjust or having to slow down and then losing their momentum or losing that flow. And Jaden Daniels and Clip King's offense is going to set Debo Samuel up to do

exactly what Debo Samuel can do. And this was a big question. And this is why I'm honestly, I think the league was surprised that they found a trade partner, the 49ers, that is. Because Debo Samuel is not a traditional wide receiver. You can't just plug Debo Samuel into traditional wide receiver roles.

You have to create a Debo Samuel-shaped role for him. And we could get into a larger discussion here. The good offensive coordinators do that. But most teams don't have an offensive coordinator that is willing to do that. So this is an offense that has that ready-made role for him. I think if you want to put the best positive spin, you would say before he got pneumonia last year, it looked like Debo Samuel maybe wasn't at peak performance, peak production, but was going to be a consequential player in the offense. And then his impact really lessened after that.

So hopefully a whole offseason putting that behind him and getting back into shape, as you say, not necessarily physical fitness, but just not having to play in the wake of something debilitating like that. So yeah, this is really exciting for watching fans. And then real quick on the Larry and Me Tonsul thing. So we'll handle these both together. Sounds like the Texans and two teams seem to have gone on tilt because of offensive line woes. Seattle and the Texans. And a lot of people got fired. A lot of players now are finding new jobs because of critical offensive line failures for both these offenses.

Now with the Texans, what it sounds like is in Lance Zero line is peerless. If you're not going to NFL.com and reading his draft write-ups, there's so much football knowledge in there. Also, there's some of his sense of humor if you're looking closely. But he's also in the Houston market. I think he just got inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. That's how long he's been doing where his dad was an offensive line coach, Larry. And he said that this is a culture move for the Texans.

Now he said, hey, this isn't a great left tackle draft. And you're setting yourself back in the short term, but this is a culture move. And they also, Shaq Mason is not going to be back. Kenyon Green traded to the Eagles. So it's kind of odd to say the offensive line was a problem and we're tearing it down and rebuilding it. So we'll see what that does for the Texans. But what's more interesting on the Washington side is look at what Adam Peters is doing. Oh, unbelievable.

And meanwhile, the team that Adam Peters left, how are things going for? San Francisco. How are things going for their roster management? I saw what you put out on X the other day about sort of like this could be a sort of a sobering experience for 49ers fans. They suffered a losing year last year, but it was sort of viewed as an aberration and they'll just be right back. But I think you have a little hesitation there, Sig.

They're turning into the skid. And that's okay. That's what we're all supposed to do, right? If you feel your wheels, your tires don't have purchase with the road anymore, you turn into the skid. You don't try to break out of the skid. That's how things get worse, right? So yeah, they were 6 and 11 last year. Had some bad breaks in games, but you're 6 and 11 and your roster is, and 49ers fans, and look, 49ers fans, it's funny, Theo, because the Eagles are coming off a Super Bowl win, because normally I would say the fan base that most needs therapy

in the NFL are the Eagles, although now I think the Jets and the Giants are probably right behind them. The bears, you know, maybe they don't need therapy. Maybe they're getting a therapy. Forty Ironers fans do seem to be taking this in stride and saying this was all part of the plan. It's actually good that they're doing this because it's embracing reality instead of doing a Saints approach and trying to be in denial and kick it into the future, into the future. And perhaps none of the players, maybe Drake Greenlaw, but he didn't really contribute much last year, none of the players they lost were crucial pieces, but they are going to be asking a lot of younger players, a lot of draft picks to come through for them in the short term, not just the long,

not the long term, but the short term. And of course, this all revolves around Brock Purdy. And maybe it's going to be interesting to see if the 49ers signed Brock Purdy to the big extension before the season, because you might argue that this is a good test to see if Brock Purdy was elevated by the roster, elevated by the momentum of, you know, a Super Bowl window period for Kyle Shanahan, or if Brock Purdy is not going to be that quarterback that can elevate the players around him and maybe isn't worth that money. So 49ers are at a crossroads. However, it does seem like they're realistic.

John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan are being realistic about where they are instead of being in denial. Yeah, a lot to unpack with San Francisco this offseason, a team, a really an interesting team to watch. Another team that's been super interesting in the early portion of trades in free agency has been the Pittsburgh Steelers. Steelers are on the move. They have new Steelers coming in. We're going to talk about that after a quick break. Welcome back to Fantasy Points. Theo Greminger with Sidman Bloom of football guys.

Let's talk about, big shout out to the Jensers of Pittsburgh. You know, this is one of the number one Pittsburgh Steelers enthusiast. know if that's the right word sort of a they give you a lot of emotions sick don't they well sure Pittsburgh Steelers western Pennsylvania born and bred and I'm not rational about my Steelers analysis so much more emotional about it but the Steelers moves okay we can step through this I would rather they have given up a second round pick and paid D.K. Metcalfe than Brandon Ayuk so that worked out okay. We'll see about the quarterback.

As of this moment, in March, at this time of year, Theo, we can be recording and then by the time we're done recording, whatever we said is pointless. But it does seem like they are the favorite to get Aaron Rogers. And Aaron Rogers won't be worse than Russell Wilson, but he might not be better than Russell Wilson. And it does sound like it's Russell Wilson if they don't get Aaron Rogers. but Theo, we talk about in fantasy football the pie, the production pie, and dividing that up. For the Steelers, that's like a tart. You know, it's not even a pie. It's Arthur Smith.

Now, from a tactical point of view, when you have George Pickens, and it doesn't sound like George Pickens is going anywhere. I know that there's some hope or idea that, well, if they traded for Metcalf, then they're going to send George Pickens off. I don't think that's going to happen. And I think the idea here is when you have two. vertical threats. Now that's going to open things up for the running game. Now that's going to make life easier for the offense because you can't stack the box.

You can't play a single high safety. And you're going to then hopefully, and also the second move here is, Najee Harris is with the Chargers and Jalen Warren got a second round tender. They also signed Kenneth Gainwell, who's not going to be consequential for limiting the bump that Jalen Warren is going to get.

They may still draft a running back. Can't we just say that about every single team right now, Theo? They may still draft to run. And with this running back class, every team might end up with a running back. There's so many of them, say, yeah. And it's just a one-year commitment,

and that goes for Najee Harris, too. So remember this, the teams, the good teams, and the Steelers are still rational when it comes drafting. They're looking at their depth chart two or three years down the line. They're not looking at their depth chart this year. They're looking at their chapter chart in 2026 and 27. So Jalen Warren's on our contract in 2026. So don't be surprised if both Harris and Warren are joined by another running back.

So I think bottom line as a Steelers fan is, it's kind of more of the same. Aaron Rogers at least makes it more interesting. It's not a rerun. It's a more interesting story to unfold. But we'll probably end up at the same place. And for fantasy football, we will be very frustrated. So let's go a little deeper into the frustration level. So I, you know, the George Pickens being on the move is something where I think a lot of us in fantasy are hopeful for because the idea of two wide receivers coexisting in an Arthur Smith offense is a scary thought.

The wide receiver, the top target on an Arthur Smith team going back to AJ Brown has never had more than like 115 targets. And the number two target has never had more than 90s. You've never had a 90 and you've never had more than 115. That's scary stuff when we're talking about wide receiver play this day and age in fantasy football. So are you in on D.K. Metcalf at all if Pickens is still there? Do you think there's something where it's like a they're paying him all this money? He's going to be treated as the de facto alpha? Or is this more of just a stylistic spending where this could get us in trouble for fantasy?

Yeah, I think they, for best ball, both pickens and metcalf will have their spikes for best ball but they're going to be extremely frustrating you know they're going to go from three catches for 140 yards in a touchdown to one catch for 18 yards and gosh and they're going to trade off weeks where they do that probably again from a game planning standpoint and where the steelers offense was not able to make things happen it makes sense but from a fantasy football production consistency standpoint As you said, we already know the blueprint for the Arthur Smith offense. And remember, the Steelers have Pat Firmouth and Darnell Washington and Connor Hayward. So they've got the tight ends. You know those tight ends. Remember Johnny Smith and Kyle Pitts. So we're going to see tight ends get theirs.

And this is a defense-led team. So we're not going to get into shootouts. We're not going to get into high-scoring games. These are all limiting factors for the passing game. So I think that this is one of those situations where the spending is more for the tactical value of D.K. Metcalf and particularly how the tactical value of the Metcalf and Pickens multiplies each other. You know, it's when you just have to deal with one vertical threat, then you can scheme for that. But when you have to deal with two vertical threats, it's much more difficult to contain the big play and still play the run straight up.

So we'll see how it works out for the Steelers. But really the reality TV angle is probably the more interesting angle, Theo, because people are already writing the stories. they just haven't filed them yet of how is Mike Tomlin going to hold this locker room together? Are D.K. Metcalf and George Pickens are going to put up with Aaron Rogers? What's the city going to think of a player, a character like Aaron Rogers? And for Mike Tomlin, this is probably his largest challenge yet, but one that if he can somehow thread the needle and convince Aaron Rogers to be more of an employee and show DK Metcalf and George Pickens, hey, this is the Steelers way. We all pitch in. It's not about the number of targets.

It's not about your stats. It's about the way we win football games and impose our will. We'll see if Mike Tomlin can rise to the occasion. I think as far as the popcorn angle, there's going to be a lot there. Yeah, it's always interesting with the Steelers in the offseason. This offseason is especially interesting. We mentioned Jalen Warren. He's certainly a player that if he survives the carnage could be a valuable player for you to roster this year.

A very talented player. we've sort of been waiting for him to have his turn. But again, he's got to survive a very scary NFL draft there. Let's talk about Najee briefly. Najee gets 9.25 million. There's a pretty cool parallel here where Jim Harbaugh actually has been trying to get Najee since like 2016. He's been recruiting the guy, tried to get him to Michigan.

Obviously, it didn't work out, went to Alabama. But he's always had sort of a seems like a place in his heart for Najee. Najee does things that NFL coaches like. plays hurt, plays every game, gets 1,000 yards every year. In the fantasy community, he's seeing a little bit of a bump here. Now people are enthusiastic for this role, this potentially run heavy team, year two with Greg Roman, all the narratives, Sig. Are you in on Najee Harris providing us fantasy value in this new role,

or are you a little apprehensive? Well, and let me go back, by the way, and just touch on, I think Metcalf was around 48 and, George Pickens was around 60 in underdog early drafts. I don't expect that to go up. I expect that to go down. Now, Jalen Warren was in the 80s. That's going to go up.

For now, remember, the Steelers and the Chargers are both picking around pick number 20, which is prime position to take a running back, Marry and Hampton in the first round. Yeah, it's Hampton time. So don't be surprised if one of these two guys is joined by Hampton. Again, they're just on one-year contracts. Naugie Harris was actually going in 110, range. That's certainly going to go up. And it should. And this is a division again, Theo, the theme here being fantasy football, it's not going to be exciting because every team in the AFC West now is

built to win 1310, right? We just need the Raiders to get a running back. Once the Raiders get a running back, every one of these teams is conservative. Every one of these teams is playing it more close to the vest. And the chargers are set up well to win those kinds of games with like you said, a reliable running back as far as being on the field, getting that three or four yards of carry running the play the way it's meant to be run. But I think that this is a

sell high window for Najee Harris. So even if they don't draft a running back, Kamani Vidal provides some explosiveness that Naji Harris just doesn't. As, you know, watching the Steelers for the last four years, three years if we're talking about

Jalen Warren's era, you just see the difference in explosiveness. You just see the difference in burst. And that's something that will surely not be lost on Jim Harbaugh. So I do think you could see Najee Harris get in at 12, 15 rushing touchdowns and be a win. Even if he moves up into the 60s, 70s, maybe even the 50s, he could still be a hit. But that one year contract, and by the way, the actual terms, and this is the time of year that agents, so we get to know the truth except agents like to put their little spin on it. because I think the actual terms of Nodia Harris's the deal were $5.25 million with $4 million in incentives.

I don't know if those are likely to be earned incentives or not, but that means he's getting paid the same as Warren. I mean, that's basically the second round tender for RFA's and Jordan Mason, by the way. That's another interesting side conversation. So I think that Harris rightfully will go up, but I want to get off the elevator and cash in. Yeah, and let's stay on Mason because I saw your take on Mesa. We'll get back to former Steelers in a second. We've got to talk about Justin Fields.

But briefly, like the, what's the narrative here for Jordan Mason? This seems like a window to make a bylaw in dynasty or at least take him in best ball drafts because there's potential for the role to move up. Either it's a split backfield, not quite a split, but enough juice there for Mason on that with mixing in with the CMC. But you brought up, you think he could end up starting for somebody this year. Right, David Lombardi, and who knows, okay, beat writers, one of the things that you understand the longer you do this, Theo, is that beat writers will try to tell us stuff without coming right out and telling us because they can't always divulge the information that they know because they have to protect their access, they have to protect their sources. Sometimes they have to not mess it up for the team. David Lombardi might be coming close to doing that because he's been making noise for about a week that, that they've been. There is trade interest around the league in Jordan Mason.

And what folks need to understand is a second round tender at $5.2 million. That is a significant amount of money for a team that is going through their weight loss period. The 49ers are not in a good situation money-wise. If you look at their moves, you can see they're not making moves based on optimally building their team. They're going through some short-term pain for some long-term gain. And they could have signed Mason to the original round tender as an undrafted free agent that means they would just have the right of first refusal. Okay. And they would have saved $2 million.

They chose to spend $2 million more dollars. And David Lombardi thinks it's to create a market, a trade market, that they won't get a second round pick, which is what a team would have to give up if they sign him to an offer sheet. But they may get a third or fourth round pick. And they did something very similar with Matt Breda in the past. They still have Isaac Garendo, who did get hurt twice last. year. So you can't read this as, well, they really want to make sure they have Mason because the running game is so crucial to how they win. And Garendo, even though he showed that athleticism also got hurt, McCaffrey, we already see the potential for him to not be available. But this other angle of

potentially trading Jordan Mason does make sense. Now, will a team give up a third or fourth round pick on Jordan Mason when they can use a third or fourth round pick to get a pretty good back this year, locked in at a rookie contract, that's where the rest of the league might blink. And the 49ers just end up stuck with Mason anyway. But from a standpoint of overall big picture takes, Jordan Mason was going after Isaac Garando in Earth. What? Yeah.

No. No, you should understand how the league views him, how the 49ers view him, much closer to Harris and Warren than Garando. Yeah, definitely. That was a super interesting one. And I really, really sharp take, Sig. let's talk about a potential Jordan Mason Galaxy Brain landing spot,

Las Vegas. Why not join Las Vegas with Gino Smith and Chip Kelly and Pete Carroll and all the positive vibes with this team trying to win. Thoughts on Gino in Vegas. You like him being reunited with Pete Carroll. You like him being with an organization says, we want you. We want you. Because it sounds like for the Seahawks, and again, I think the Seahawks

as an organization are on tilt right now. I think you add up their moves and they're panicking. They're frantic. Okay. So what do they say? It sounds like Gino wants $40, $45 million a year and they're getting away Seattle with paying Sam Donald or like, what is it, the other like $35 million. Yeah, it's about $35.

But Gino Smith was doing his best to operate with the poor offensive line and the poor conditions they had for the passing game. and Sam Darnold, the last we saw him, if you are showing him pressure, that's when seeing ghosts, this offensive line, I think someone put it as a haunted house. So it's not a great fit.

Now, Clint Kubiak could reestablish the run and have the run set up the pass for Sam Darnold. But if that's the offense, then do you really need Sam Darnold? So going back to Gino Smith, I think this is great for Brock Bowers. I think this is great for Jacoby Myers, although there was some talk Albert Breer put out there

that with Tyler Lockett released from Seattle, that could be another reunion. And in that case, maybe the Raiders will try to trade Jacoby Myers. Just keep that in your back pocket. But I think either way, Jacoby Myers remains underrated. And Raiders now are a competitive team. I think, Theo, I think what people aren't ready for is that these Raiders, Chargers, Raiders,

Chargers, Raiders, Chiefs games, they're going to be competitive games. Yeah, that's, I mean, at least they're, they're absolutely going for it. I mean, a ton to unpack here. I mean, the, the ecosystem for Gino there with Bowers, with Pete Carroll, and also with Chip Kelly, I think doing interesting, somewhat innovative things and speeding the tempo, all those sort of things, is interesting.

And look, what people need to understand, and I saw this happen in real time, Theo, because we all remember the last we saw Chip Kelly kind of disgracefully, you know, whatever, they figured him out. You can't just keep doing this. And that might have been true and applied the last time we saw Chip Kelly in NFL. But especially Ohio State people are saying, no, no, no, no. Chip Kelly has updated his software, okay? Chip Kelly has learned.

Chip Kelly is, and I just want to put this out there because I think this is the universe winks at us, the football gods wink at us, right? Chip Kelly came from college to the NFL to bring college concepts into the NFL and update the NFL's approach to offense, right? Then he went back to college to learn pro offenses. He came to the pros to install college offenses and went to college to learn how to install pro offense. And I think that people are going to be surprised if they just expect Chip Kelly to do what he did the last time we saw him in the NFL. So I think this is a good thing also. And I think Raiders fans, we talk about this with Bears fans,

it is safe to be a little vulnerable. It's safe to be excited. It's safe to look forward to a season for once. Yeah, it's absolutely fun. And I think when you look at Chip Kelly, it's sort of an easy way to see the enthusiasm the new fan base should have is the collective sadness for the fan base he's leaving. Ohio State fans were devastated by Chip Kelly leaving.

not just because he won the national title, but because they thought they had the smartest guy in the room calling place for them. So it'll be very interesting to see anybody who experienced the early Chip Kelly, Philadelphia Eagles days. I mean, that was like incredible. It was like something we had never seen, the Michael Vick, Vic era there. I mean, it was a vibe, Sig.

So hopefully we see a little bit of that with specifically Brock Bowers, maybe some big time production from him. That might be nice for us in fantasy. But let's talk about another. Pittsburgh Steeler on the move. Justin Fields. Justin Fields ends up in a two-year deal playing for Aaron Glenn, playing ahead of Tyrod Taylor. That's not a not a backup that's really going to be overly threatening to him. This seems like an opportunity for Fields to come back and score fantasy points. Yes. 11 top five scoring weeks in his last 24 starts. Fields scores points in

this thing of ours, Sig. I mean, a lot of does he win a lot of NFL games? Is he going to elevate the franchise? I don't know. But fantasy points. What are your expectations there? Yeah, that's the name of the company, right? Fantasy points. That's what it's about. That's what it's all about. We're going to make some fantasy points here.

I'm excited for Justin Fields. $20 million is cheap for a starting quarterback, but he's going to get an opportunity. This is one of those situations I think where everybody's interests align, right? The Jets ownership, the Jets, ass just want some sort of return

to respectability. They just want to put the Aaron Rogers, Zach Wilson era behind them. Okay? There were Jets fans that wanted Justin Fields over Zach Wilson. So here's your chance. Justin Fields wants a chance to finally show he doesn't have to overcome

the bears. He doesn't have to overcome the lack of structure they built around him. The poor play callers they had for him. He doesn't have to overcome Russell Wilson. and in hindsight, and as a Steelers fan, I had the sugar high of the first few weeks of Russell Wilson, and then we've returned to reality.

Maybe it would have been better in the Steelers' interest to let Justin Fields go through some turbulence and see what he could accomplish. But you have the other name we need to bring up here, Theo, is Tanner Engstrand, the new offensive coordinator for the Jets. And again, I think the analysis, we've come a long way in the 20 years I've been,

doing fantasy analysis full time, where we know the names of the play callers. We know the names of the offensive line coaches. We're paying attention to offensive line moves and things like that. We're getting down to the moves behind the moves that matter for fantasy football. But people are saying, well, Justin Fields isn't it all like Jared Gough. But I don't think that's what Tan or Engstrand learned under Ben Johnson. I don't think this is one of those situations where we look back, say, 10 or 20 years. And there are still coaches like this that they think, well, you hired me to do what I do. So I'm going to bring in my system with the circles and squares for the holes, and we're going to find pegs that fit in those holes. I think what Ben Johnson did, and I'm on

Ross St. Brown came out and really said this whenever they moved from Anthony Lynn to Ben Johnson is. He involves the players. It's a collaboration. Okay. So I think you're going to see Tanner, Angstrand, going back to talking about Ben Johnson and the Bears. See, very clearly, here's what what Justin Fields offers. Game breaking speed as a runner and the ability to throw downfield. Oh, by the way, he played with Garrett Wilson for two years at Ohio State. And the two of them have an affinity for each other. Okay. So if you have simplistic passing plays with one read and the one reads Garrett Wilson, it's probably going to work. And then if that doesn't work, teams are double covering bracketing him and you say, okay, just think of Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers.

just pull the ball down and run, man. Because they're only investing $40 million over two years. Justin Fields wants to get another big payday. Justin Fields wants to get a three-digit million contract. So he's going to let it all. So let's all just let it all hang out. So I think Justin Fields was in the 160s, you know, an underdog. It's going to shoot up exponentially.

It should be in the 70s, 60s or 70s, because that's what he justified in situations that in hindsight probably were poorer situations with the bears. And then the last thing I'll put on this is Garrett Wilson. Remember that G.J. Moore had his best season as a pro with Justin Fields. And he doesn't have the chemistry. He doesn't have the background. And he didn't have Tanner Engstrand coming from the Lions School of Coaching.

So I think that whatever your feelings are about Fields and Garrett Wilson this year, and let's throw Breece Hall in there, too. It's probably not optimistic enough. Well, the whole one, expand on that one, say, because there's a bunch of narratives going around here. Okay, so there's always the mobile quarterback is going to open up these huge rushing lanes. Explosive back is going to rip off 40-yard runs. That's the positive narrative. Then with Fields, there's data showing that he will dump down that he's, this is not a quarterback that is not going to pass to his running backs.

That's not a true narrative. But you did bring up the opportunistic scramble as well, where Garrett will say, is not open downfield. Do I take the short pass or do I rip off a seven, eight yard run? When it comes to fields, the impact on Brees Hall, you say that you're optimistic here. Like, expand on that a little bit. How do you see that playing out for a potential Brees Hall ceiling? Do you think he's underrated these days?

I think that we still, much like Justin Fields, have not seen Brees Hall in a functional, rational offense yet. And this hopefully will be the first year. So everything in the Jets offense last year was skewed by Aaron Rogers. And the other thing we had this, at least at the beginning of the season, this idea, wow, Braylin Allen is so good. He's going to turn this into one-two punch. Well, by the end of the year, no, not so much. It's still Breece Hall's backfield. The price for Breeze Hall went from, should we be taking him as the first running back off of the board?

Now he's down in the 20s. I can handle that risk for that upside. If he's going to be the first running back I take in my draft in the third round, I can handle that. So while he might lose out on the dump-offs, and certainly in PPR that takes some of the edge off of his floor and his ceiling, you have an offense that should give him opportunities to make big plays, that should give him opportunities to handle a defense that is thinking more about

Justin Fields' running threat, is thinking more about Garrett Wilson, who's finally, I just want to touch on this again for Garrett Wilson. can you come up with a worse situation for Garrett Wilson than being with a quarterback who he didn't get along with, who's very, I don't know, personality-based, let's say, with how he plays the game, so much so that he even gets the team to bring in his favorite guys, Alan Zard and Randall Cobb and whatnot.

And then in the middle of the season, he gets the team to trade for his favorite, favorite guy. How could it possibly be worse than that for Garrett Wilson? So I think that the entire Jets, I'll tie this all together like this, Theo. What you love about Aaron Glenn is that he is very clear about coming in and cleaning up a mess. He understands that his job is to clean up a mess and the emotional bounce that the roster can get just from actually having an adult in the room, not having to deal with Aaron Rogers,

not having to deal with. Hopefully the front office is allowed to just operate, right? Not having to deal with Joe Douglas. Remember that. We've got some alignment now, much like Holmes and Campbell with the Lions. Okay. We have alignment. So you put all these things together,

and I think that what we might be underestimating is just the exhale, fresh air for everybody in the Jets organization, and what that could create as they get to put all of this behind them. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about multiple fan bases that are starving for something positive. Right. And a winning season. I mean, if Justin Fields comes out and starts the season like he did for Pittsburgh last year just goes four and two, Jets fans are going to be standing on top of their heads. That's a really, really fun one.

Briefly, let's wrap it up with this. Yeah. Devante Adams, you know, you brought him up. And, you know, certainly he had a quarterback who likes to target him. but again, 17 points per game last year, fantasy-wise, despite being traded mid-season, had a very strong run playing for the Raiders, incredible volume, 169 targets or more for like three straight years. Devante Adams ends up in the Cooper Cup role, quote unquote, in L.A.

Cup was 26% target share. This is Sean McVeigh offense. How do you like this fit for Devante? How do you like this fit for Matt Stafford and the Rams? Yeah, this is great, right? Lost in the shuffle because of so many other things happening since that signing. But isn't it interesting that the Rams are basically signing DeVante Adams for the money that Cooper Cup would have cost? Any second now will hear that Cooper Cup is getting released.

There's a lot of connection with him to the Patriots, which I don't know how I feel about that. But I think the Rams are showing us, telling us that they think that Devante Adams can do a lot more than Cooper Cup. And let's face it, for Adams going from Nathaniel Hackett offense to a Shawman. Faye offense. Like that's, I think the metaphor, he's like Baltic Avenue to Park Place as far as efficiency and quality of play. So yeah, Devante Adams, I think was around pick 50 or so. I think he was in the 50s, 40s, 50s. Cooper Cup last year was in the 30s, even in the 20s as we got closer when Pooka Nakua was banged up. So Devante Adams, a clear winner should move up at least a round. And it won't be surprising at all for him to be worth the second round pick that he caught.

last year because of the efficiency of the offense. And if Sean McVeigh is saying, I think he can still play, well, then I think he can still play. I'm completely with you. I think this is a room to run in the ADP big time. I said this out on another show this week that I think when we actually get to like, comes to the shove end of August, Devante Adams in like leagues like FFC, NFPC, NFFC, he might steam up until the end of the third round, third round type value despite his age because this could be a really consolidated target tree.

And we've seen it where if one wide receiver is sort of taken away and given too much attention from the opposing defense, McVeigh has no problem giving a guy 16, 17 targets and just leaning on him. With Devante Adams, that could be 30 point weeks for us in this offense because Pukonakua is just unbelievable opposite him. So really, really fun one with Devante Adams. This was a lot of fun, Sig. Yeah, I can't wait to chop it up again.

It flies by. It's like five minutes every time we talk. And we're here nearly 45. Let everybody know once again what you have going on this time of year. Yeah, football guys have got all kinds of great stuff going on. We've got a rookie guide, a free rookie guy that you can check out. My Blue 100 will be out mid-April and I'll update it again after the draft. Try to get it out Monday or Tuesday after the draft.

And that's the mixed IDP offense rookie rankings. And thankfully, I invite people to come and join. me over in the pool. It's kind of lonely. So that's one of the more fun puzzles to try to figure out fantasy football is what to do with our rookie draft picks when it's offense and defense mix. So that's what I'm working on right now. In addition to hanging out with all my favorite people like you, Theo, and Scott, I'm sure I'll be talking to soon. And again, this is exciting because the juices are being released. We're thinking about all these things, even though it's well often to the future that we're going to see what the significance of this is. But mostly we're just getting a chance

to hang out and have shared experience. and enjoy what there is to enjoy in this life. Yeah, no, I appreciate having you on SIG. You crush it. Make sure you're sticking with us every single week. We're dropping shows like this, helping getting you ready to crush your fantasy leagues this season. And a lot more NFL draft content coming up. Check out the recent pods with Brett Whitefield.

Thorne Nystrom is the next guest coming here. Love it. We're going to be talking about some of his favorite players in this draft class as well. We'll see you soon.