Fantasy Football Daily - Jayden Reed, Sean Tucker, Michael Mayer with Daniel Harms | On the Clock! NFL Draft Podcast

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Daniel Harms (@InHarmsWay19) of @FF_Astronauts take a look at three under-the-radar skill position prospects for dynasty players: Michigan State WR Jayden Reed, Syracuse RB Sean Tucker, and Notre Dame TE Michael Mayer. BRETT WHITEFIELD'S 2023 NFL DRAFT PROSPECT GUIDE IS FREE TO READ WITH A NO-CHARGE LOGIN AT FANTASY POINTS. Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Welcome in to another episode of On the Clock. I am your host, Brett Whitefield. Today we are joined by Daniel Harms of the FF astronauts. You can find them on Twitter at In Harmsway 19.

Again, that was at In Harmsway 19. Daniel, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, man. I've been Pauline you for a while. We finally got to meet up at the Senior Bowl. That was awesome to get to chat with you for a little bit before you had to skedaddle. But it was great. I'm happy to be here.

Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. I loved meeting you in Mobile. One thing that really impressed me about you, Daniel, is you brought your daughter with you. Yeah. You know, I've gotten a lot of talk about that. Yeah, you should. It's commendable.

And you know what? I love the fact that you're modeling this never say never attitude to your daughter, this mentality. You're just going to go get it no matter what. Whatever the circumstances are, nothing's going to stop you from doing what you love and what you want to do. So I love modeling that for your daughter. That's amazing. Thank you.

I appreciate it. You know, I can't thank anybody, everybody, the amount of support I've gotten from tons of people who don't even really know me, reaching out to me on Twitter. talk to me about this. Like it's, I didn't really think about the impact that it would have. I was just like, I need to go do this. My mom and wife's not here. So my daughter, you're going to come with me. We're going to figure this out. So yeah, it's been, it's been a great couple of months. And she's, you know, a firecracker. But you couldn't tell any different by the way she acted in Mobile. So it's pretty, it's pretty awesome to share that experience

with her. Awesome. Good stuff. All right. Before we dive in, I do have to take care of some business. First order of business is if you are, if you have not checked it out yet. The 2023 prospect guide on fantasy points.com has been launched. All of the prospect profiles in there have been written by me. Right now we're at, I think 85 profiles are in the system. They're all on the offensive side of the ball. We'll be adding another 75 to 80 over the next couple weeks on the defensive side of the ball. In the end, we're hoping to get to around 200. But if you haven't checked that out, it's completely free to read as well. All you need is a fantasy Points login, which is free to make, go on the website. All it requires is an email and a password,

and you can read the prospect guide. Super simple. We'll also be launching an app sometime in April right before the draft that features just a prospect guide. So that is cool. And we also need to take a moment to hear from our sponsor, Underdog Fantasy Football. The 2022 NFL season is over, but the fantasy football season never stops an Underdog. The easiest place to play fantasy football. Right now you can draft an underdog's the big board tournament with $1 million in total prizes and 200k to first place. Think you know which incoming rookies will burst onto the scene in 2023? If so,

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If you sign up using code fantasy PTSD PTSD at Underdog, you get a fantasy point standard subscription for just five bucks. That's Underdog Fantasy promo code, FETA, Fantasy PTS. And remember, new underdog users who sign up with our code, get a fantasy point sub for just five bucks. You know, it's funny. I flubbed that because I've read that so many times that I stopped actually reading it. Started by reading it.

Then I kind of clicked off the screen. Like I didn't need this anymore. Sure enough, my brain is not that quick. Always works that way. Always works that way. But yeah, do you play best ball, Dan? I do. I really got into it more last year.

It was my first time actually like going, doing multiple drafts for right after the season, after the draft right before the season. Like just trying to get as much content in terms of developing it from myself having people on the fantasy football astronaut's podcast to talk about it. So underdog's great. I love what they do, how they have really spread themselves across over the fantasy football landscape. And what they're doing is incredible,

how they've grown. So I love best ball and everything that they're really bringing in over there, Underdog. Yeah, I like it too, especially because I'm pretty short on time in season. Yeah. So having, like, I don't have to set a lineup, but there's no trades or waivers.

It's just you draft a team. then you either win money or you don't. I love the simplicity of it, man. All right, we're going to jump in for the listeners. You know the usual format. We're going a player, Dan is higher on the most, a player he's lower on the most, and then he's going to pound the table for a team player fit. We're going to start it off with Michigan State wide receiver. Jaden Reed. Talk to me. Oh, man. You know, it was somebody who wasn't really on my radar a ton until the senior ball. I liked him in 2021. I was like, this guy could have a really nice season next year as a senior. And then Michigan State said we were just going to play offense this year. We're just not going to do it. And so that really kind of takes him off of your radar initially. But that's why, you know, we get into the film. We do the dives and stuff like that.

So getting to see him at the senior bowl was probably the tipping point for me. I know I have to get into this guy's tape because he was just, he was always open. And he was not just always open. He was dunking on fools down the field. And that was what I love to see. when you have a 5-10-5-11 receiver who's not he's a little more slight build what 185 I think something like that when you have huh 187 yep 187 yeah so yeah close I was in the ballpark uh so he's got all of the ability to go make plays down the field but all the also the short area quickness on tape to get

open against press he's got the hand usage in the stem all of that stuff that translates to the next level with getting open and that's really what this comes down to because You have these guys that play on the outside in college. Everyone's like, yeah, they play on the outside there. But if they don't have the requisite footwork, hand usage in the stem that will not translate to the NFL. Jaden Reed has all of that to be able to get open at the next level because he's already doing it routinely. Every single game I've watched of him, he faces some form of press coverage. And he just continuously stacks, corners, gets open, and gets by them.

He is not going to blow you away with like four, three speed, but he can still separate down. down the field because of that short area quickness. So everything that he does, he has really nice hands down the field, that tracks the ball well, getting open in zone, and when the play breaks down, that's when the NFL, you have to be able to get open early, and then when the play breaks down, find where your quarterback's going, and the spots in your defense that are going to be open.

And he does that very well. You see multiple times, quarterback's getting out to the right. He's looking ahead. He's looking at where those linebackers are going. Are they coming downhill to run to him? If they are, he stops in that zone and waits. Like, I'm open. Be a reliable.

Just get open for your quarterback. Be a reliable player. And that stuff all translates. So I think coming into this, he was probably viewed as a day three guy. Day three guy. I think right now I have a second round grade on him. Like I legitimately have a second round grade than Jaden Reed. So it's going to be much higher than consensus.

And honestly, I don't really care. That's what I love about this whole process is that we get to evaluate the film. And at the end of the day, I'll learn from this. if it doesn't translate, we'll see in a few years, two, three years, if it doesn't, and I get to take back to my notes and see what didn't translate. Maybe he just gets injured a bunch and doesn't really get to perform that way. But I love, I love Jaden Reed, and I think he's going to be able to play X, some, probably more of a Z, like a starting Z in the NFL.

He's not going to be a number one receiver. He's going to be more of a number two to complement a number one like, you know, Justin Jefferson, someone like that who can play all of them at an elite level. but I really think he's going to be a reliable player in the NFL for a long time. He's a score a ton of points. Yeah, I love it. To reiterate a couple of things you said, too, I was in the same boat as you, where I was aware of him.

I live in Michigan as well, so I've seen a lot of Michigan State football. So I was pretty aware of him. You know, I didn't think he'd score super high for me. We go to the Senior Bowl, and I did a preliminary watch of him before the Senior Bowl, but he blew me away. One of the things that really stood out to me is when he was at Michigan State, he was not asked to do much in the slot. And most of his slot reps, which were rare,

they were hiding him in like bunch formations a little bit. And Michigan State doesn't even use bunched that much. So he wasn't, he never really had true reps as a slot receiver. And then he goes to Mobile and basically only plays in the slot in 11s or 7 on 7. And I thought that was incredible. And he did, he looked natural.

Like really, really good against zone. I mean, the man stuff is great. Like the one on one drills, he was crushing people. So he really opened my mind there. When I watched his film, he ended up scoring as a day two pick for me.

I don't know that I'd go all the way to round. But I'm definitely higher on him than most as well. So I agree there. You talked about how he's not going to blow you away with that four three speed. Yeah, he was very productive when given the opportunity downfield and call it, even when facing press. The nuance in his route running and the way he can alter speeds and attack outside shoulder, like, I do think it translates to the NFL. I'm not saying he's going to be a bonafide deep threat. I don't think that necessarily just goes away.

Yeah. I think that that option is still going to be there for him. Did you have a player comp for him by any chance? I don't, I try to stay away from comps. I'll be honest with you guys. And that's not because I am just don't like to do it. I'm not one, I'm a person who likes to look in the mirror. I'm not good at player comps.

But also, I like to just take a player and say, look, this is what they are. And I don't want to give them expectations. Like sometimes if it's really, really obvious to me, I'll tweet it out or something like that. But for the most part, I like to just take a player at face value. And I don't want to assign expectations to a player. But that's why I like to do what I do in terms of the film breakdowns and trying to get through everything.

Because when you put it down on your notes, you can go back to that. And you can say, well, maybe he didn't turn out the best as the most optimistic point value that you thought he was going to get to. But all these things that he has are just really, they're nice translatable traits and I don't I don't tend to give guys too many expectations to meet early on in their careers yeah I get that when I do comps I don't do ceiling floor comps I just away from that I'll do style comps and I'll even be ridiculous with it if I have to like he reminds me like who who was it uh I give comps like hey he reminds me of Captain America if he didn't get to see oh I like that see but like so read like I'll do stylistic comps like I'll do stylistic comps like I'll do stylistic comps like guess is what I'm saying. So that's cool.

I totally understand that. One other area of Reed's game that I do think matters is he might be the best return guy in the class as well. Absolutely. Teams are going to love that about him. Like if you need some extra juice in the return game, he's your man. And you're going to get a good receiver out of it too. So it's a really good package deal there.

Yeah, I love what he, like I said, he's the complete package. He's going to play special teams early and he's going to work his way into the field because he's just that good. He's not going to be a number one for a team. I mean, maybe he turns into that. I don't know. I don't want to just say he won't ever be that because you never really do know with these players. But he's already going to be someone that's on the teams right off for special teams.

And then everything that he brings as a receiver, honestly, is just icing on the cake. Because a lot of these guys early on, like January probably was viewed as a day three guy, but a core special teams player. I think right now for all of us that are finally getting to the tape, we're saying, well, yeah, he could do that. But he's also going to be very, very valuable to an officer. offense and the teams have been writing this down ever since they were watching him. So that's what you love to see as you go back through and you're like, yeah, he's going to get

on the field early, but he's going to be a core kind of glue guy for a team. And that's really, really important, especially in the NFL. 100% agree there. You did mention his size too and him being undersized. But it's funny, when you actually compare him to this class, he's actually not small. He's the bigger. It's funny. Which is crazy.

So, all right, we're going to move on. We're going to go to a player you're lower on than most. And I give this preface before we get into this segment because people inevitably think if you're lower on a guy, that means you hate him. None of that is true. We don't hate any players. We don't root for people to fail. This is just an honest evaluation. We're talking about Syracuse running back Sean Tucker.

I tend to agree with this take, by the way. So I'm interested to hear what you have to say. All right. And I always do the same thing too. I always want players to prove me wrong. Every time I say I don't like someone's film, I will say it like right. after. I hope they prove me wrong because at the end of the day, I don't want any of these guys to fail. I want all of them to get not only to the NFL, but to make the most money possible.

And I've said this a lot too. I want every player to get his most money possible that they possibly can in their careers. You hold out if you have to hold out. Get your money. This doesn't last long. Like on average three years, do what you got to do, man. I don't care. So, Sean Tucker was huge, like probably two months ago. Everyone in the first, fantasy community was like this guy out of Syracuse. He's big. He's fast. He can catch the football. He takes it to the house. And, you know, I'm like, yeah, I see the highlights. I understand. I get more into the tape on him. And all that stuff is there. He really more of it is a catching a dump off player. He's not going to run very good routes. I don't think he's got great ball skills either.

He's kind of has to hit him in the hands close to the chest and he'll just like loftly catch it. But he's not going to blow you away with what Bijon does. Bejon is that, you know, know, catch the ball everywhere, catch radius kind of guy. I don't believe that Sean Tucker is that level of a wide receiver in terms of running back play. But what he offers up front is a very huge one-cut lane runner. He gets a lane, he can one-cut, and he can just really gouge defenses. I think in today's NFL, that's valuable, specifically with the way that teams are playing

more nickel, more light packages, and more less boxes, especially with the way offenses are throwing the football around. So what he does bring is a valuable in a committee back role, which is what the NFL is also leaning more to. But I think what the biggest takeaway for me is that he's not a three-down player. He's off. I'll say he's very awful. He's pretty bad in pass protection.

He's not going to be asked to do that because he really can't do it. Technically, he's not to the point where he can get his hands to the chest of a blitzer. He can get underneath. He kind of just lets guys run into it. him and he falls off of him. And then as a pure running back, he reminds me a little bit of Rashad White in the sense that he plays much smaller than he is. He does not have the power that he looks like he has. He doesn't run guys over. He doesn't have that contact balance. Or not to suit me not the contact balance. He doesn't make guys miss all the time. Like you would think

he'd want him to with that ankle flexion and the hip ability, the hip fluidity. He doesn't have that in space. And then when we're looking at what he does behind an offensive line, even a bad offensive line. When you have a good run structure, whether it's zone, whether it's power, he's often looking to freelance. I see this all the time on his tape. He just looks the other way. If he's got a lane to his left and they're running outside zone,

a lot of times I see him stop and try to get back to the outside right because he's like, well, the defense is flowing to the left. So I'm going to try and get back to the right. Sometimes it works. And Syracuse is going to work quite a bit. And that's why you see him backtrack to the right and outrun again. I outflank a guy because he's got that speed. And that's not going to work in the NFL.

These linebackers are faster. They take better angles. They wrap up better than a lot of these defenses that you're playing against the Syracuse. So when I evaluate him on a running back structure, he's not a guy that I'm taking on day two. I view him as a day three running back prospect that has dump off ability, but he needs to learn structure to run behind the tackles and to find those zones, those gaps in between the tackles, manipulate the second level. And that's where he really does struggle, in my opinion.

And he's going to be a really nice compliment to a backfield as a change of pace early on with a one-cut, home-run hitting ability. But everything else is really lacking in his game. And that's why I'm not huge, I'm not really high on him in terms of what he's going to be like a three-down back in the NFL. I just don't see that yet.

Yeah, I don't discreet anything you said. One of the notes I put in his prospect profile and our draft guide is he has an awkward playstyle as a runner. That's 205 pounds. Like you said, he does sometimes search for the wrong crease. And then there's other times, especially like in his 21 tape,

where he just looks like a hammer in search of a nail. And he almost goes out of his way to make contact with defenders, and he's not good at that. So it doesn't sense. He doesn't generate a ton of movement or yards after contact in that regard. He's not breaking a ton of tackle. So I don't, it almost seems like he lacks confidence when he gets past his initial point of attack.

And then in the past game too, I'm not even sure I like him on dump off. Yeah, right. I was being a little generous. It's like the way he greets the football in the air is so bizarre. He often lets things get into his body for no reason. Like he's in traffic or in congested areas. I don't really see him being a clean. catcher, let alone the route running stuff.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Like even like balls aren't right on him too. He has a hard time making adjustments and kind of judging where that ball is going to end up. It's tough. I don't know. He's got a lot of work to do in the past game if he's going to get on the field in that regard. And he's like too small to be a power runner early down specific guy. It reminds me a little bit of Ronald Jones in some ways.

I can see that for sure. a guy who's really plucked off of the track field and put into the running back field, the background and say, hey, go make something happen. And then he's trying to. And he just,

he's like, you're asking me to do this. I'm trying to make something happen. I don't know. I can see what it's going on in front of me. So yeah, I can definitely see that. It's almost like a,

I wouldn't say it's a one for one play style comp because Ronald Jones is a much more powerful back than, than he is. But I can absolutely see what you're looking for, especially in terms of the awkward nature, with the catching of the football and trying to read an offensive line. Well, and Jones has put on a significant amount of weight since he hit the NFL to. He came, he hit the combine like 205 in that, you know,

hammer in search of a nail mentality he had as well. It's like there were so many plays in his college shape, you're like, dude, you could honestly just run around that guy. Lowering your head and shoulder and just blasting right into him. I didn't understand that. So I, you know, I do think like college Ronald Jones was definitely more close, to Sean Tucker than NFL college or Ronald Jones for sure so

So you have a day three grade on him I do and I'm still evaluating tape I don't have a ton of it based off of the two Plus games that I've watched That's what I have We'll see if I if something else comes up that will maybe bump him up But like early day three I think he'll be Drafted around round four

Maybe late round four ish But that's that's what I have on them right now If you get a chance Juxtapose is 21 tape to 2022 tape That's a fascinating experience meant to me. I'll make sure to get it down. Yeah.

All right, cool. So let's move on to your team player fit you want to pound the table for. And that is Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer to the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, this is, for me, the saying that always rings in my ear, what's the best course of action for your gun quarterback? They're moving on to Jordan Love this year. Yes, he's still relatively young. And I, the very first time that he was drafted, I said on my live stream moon is drafted, he's going to be a three or four years.

And that's when he'll be ready to start. I had Packer fans just like, you jawing at me. And I mean, look where we are. Granted, Aaron Rogers, being Aaron Rogers, helps keep him off the field. But at the same time, when he did get on the field, that he wasn't exactly blowing anybody away. So you now have a young quarterback taking over for Aaron Rogers, who we assume, because nothing has actually happened yet with Aaron Rogers, which is another fun conversation,

that he's not going to be in Creed Bay next year. Michael Mayer is not a blow-you-away athlete. He's just not. But everything he does is reliable. He blocks. He does not have to come off the field at all. Notre Dame likes to overuse their players. Another player, Isaiah Foskey, was overused on the defensive side.

Let him line up at defensive end. Don't put him at defense tackle. Don't put him at linebacker. Don't put him off in space all the time. They like to overuse their players. They did that with Michael Mayer as well. He lined up in the backfield. He lined up in an hback roll.

He lines up out wide. It lines up in the slot, which that's good for him. It allows him to now be a receiver as well as a blocker because you can, again, line him up as an in-line tight end. He's a very good blocker. He's not George Kittle or Rob Grancowski late in their career type. a blocker. That's not his game. But he's a good functional blocker, especially even at the

NFL level. It's going to be good for him to get on the field. Again, no, Green Bay wouldn't have to take him off the field. And when you have a young quarterback with youth around him at wide receiver, who's going to need some guys he can trust, I know that Christian Watson's there, Romeo Dobbs is there, but MBS and, you know, Alan Lazard now are both gone. They're not there. Those, you know, quote-unquote trustworthy guys that you can have in the, in the, in the, uh, wide receiver room are gone. And Christian Watson, for everything he is, is not a reliable receiver. He's not.

You can argue with me all day about that, but you're wrong. He's not a reliable receiver. And Romeo Dobbs also has dropped concerns and tendencies, unless they continue to develop, which we all expect. We're rookies last year. I expect them to get better. Michael Mayer brings a presence to that offense that's trustworthy. You're going to need somebody that you can trust to throw the ball to.

On third downs, you can throw them short, immediate in deep. He's not going to separate a ton deep down the field, but what he does with his body, his body technique and his, the way he attacks the football in the air, all those things translate really well, especially for a Green Bay offense that's going to run a ton of AJ Dylan and Aaron Jones and then they're going to run play action off of it to make it easier for guy like Jordan Love. And what Michael Mayer again brings to that is a trust factor that I really love in Green Bay because it rounds out what they don't necessarily have at wide receiver in this physicality aspect, they don't really have that.

So I think that this is a really nice fit for them. They will run the ball. It will work really well with their run game, their zone, their power, whatever they want to run. He can do all of that and just line up anywhere. And it completes, in my opinion, it completes their offense. They'd be looking for a tight end forever. And I think Michael Mayer would do that very well.

How old are you? On 30. You're 30. Did you ever play the game 500 as a kid? Yes, I did. Yeah. So when the ball is in the air, Michael Mayor looks like he's playing.

500. Always. He doesn't care who's around him. He's knocking people out. He will physically assault you at the catch point. He's an MMA fighter when that ball's in the air. And within the confines of the rules, of course, he will ensure that he comes down with that football. He is, I wrote in my notes that he's a quarterback's best friend at the catch point. What he lacks in the ability to generate separation from like man coverage or even zone carry, he's going to make up with his ball skills and build the catch point. He's going to use that frame to box guys out, keep people away from the ball. I love the fit. Paring him with the young quarterback is great.

That is great for both him and the quarterback, I believe. Where do you have him? What kind of draft grade you got on him? He's a first round grade for me. He's a lower first round grade. I think I'll have only one tight end with a true first round grade. I think it's going to be Michael Mayer because of everything that he brings. You have a lot of upside with other guys, other tight ends in this group.

But what he does and what he does and what he does, him what he consistently rounds out. You don't have to be an elite player, like a blue chip player to get a first round, great. But what he does when the run game lining up the versatility, and Notre Dame also used him on scheme touches. He was getting some touch passes out of the backfield. He was getting jet sweeps. Like, they were just getting the ball in his hands. And I love, I love seeing that because, again, trust. The offense was like, yeah, we're going to give you the ball. You're not going to fumble it. Rarely fumbled it. You're going to run guys over. You're going to get yards after the catch for us. So it was a really easy thing for me to,

look at him, look at his size, again, six, four, and change. He's not going to be huge. Like, he's not six, seven. Like, everyone's, like, wowing over Luke Musgrave, who I just didn't wow with the combine. That's surprisingly enough. So, yeah, he's going to be my only tight end right now, based on the film that I have with a true round one grade.

Right on. Yeah, I have a high second round grade on him. I think I'm only going to have 20-ish first round grade. So the reality is, like, I fully accept. expect him like if he went in the first round i'm not going to be mad about it or i i i'm for sure because as you know 20 first round grades that next tier of players is very deep you should be at the the forefront of that tier of guys to go so if he goes anywhere between 20 and you know 20 and 40 i think that's appropriate so well right on thank you so much for

joining the pod it was a pleasure having you that's going to do it for us today daniel where can the people find you yeah you guys can find me on twitter in harm's way 19 all of my film breakdowns for the fancy football astronauts will be found there they are sub you just got a sub to get those because we had some issues with catapult taking down our YouTube page so we want to make sure that they don't get close to our stuff right now I also do film breakdowns and anything and everything chiefs related on our jarfootball dot com the chiefs channel dedicated to breaking down film that's what I do over there and yeah everything I have is on Twitter, tons of clips there. You can also follow me on TikTok at Horms Way 19. I do a lot of stuff up there too. Nice. Right on. Daniel, thanks again so much. We are... Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform.

And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.