Josh Jacobs Lands on Commissioner Exempt List: 2026 Fantasy Football Strategy + Preseason Takeaways
00:00 Josh Jacobs has been placed on the commissioner exempt list. What does this mean for fantasy? Can we bank on Marshawn Lloyd? What impact does the Caleb Johnson trade have on the situation? That and more on a jam-packed pre-season recap edition of Fantasy Football Daily with Brett Whitefield and Scott Barrett. If you're a returning subscriber, you already know what makes this the best fantasy football channel on the planet. So hit that like button. If you're new here, subscribe, click the bell, turn notifications on, so you're you.
00:36 You do not miss a video. We're helping thousands of people win their fantasy football leagues every year. And let's go. All right, Scott, I gotta start this by just saying one thing. I'm no pleasant trees today. I told you so. I told you so.
00:54 No one wanted to believe me. Scott Barrett, Chris Wecht, Graham Barfield. Oh, look at he's sipping coffee. He's comfortable with his mistake, apparently. But I told you so. I knew Josh Jacobs was going down. I knew the league was going to hit him with the hammer, as I said. It was so obvious to me.
01:13 I don't know how we missed it. They had a freaking video. They told you they had the video. I don't know. Anyways, I actually don't want to like trample on your grave too much. I actually want to give you props. I think you're 100% right.
01:26 You know, I take L's and this is certainly an L to take. You nailed it. You said the precedent is if there's a video, you are effed. If there's no video, they don't really care. And that's exactly the case. And yeah, you absolutely nailed it.
01:42 You were right. And yeah, we only had Jacobs docked for, I don't know, a couple of games. One game, one game until today. Yeah. And so in my defense, I'll say like a lot of the best high stakes players in the world I talked to were all overweight Josh Jacobs. They were all like, no, it was a great value proposition. until you know we got we got news last week about this this video that the police had access to
02:10 I'm sure Roger Goodell looked at and was like ye yeah that's that's that's rough yeah your your season's over your career is potentially over and so it's rough like I legitimately feel really bad for anyone out there who who had exposure to Josh Jacobs and well yeah it's not looking great right now let's do this there's two ways we can we can still help right one And if you haven't drafted yet, let's go with that. What does this mean for the guys who haven't drafted yet? What does it mean for the Packers' offense? How high are you on Marshawn Lloyd?
02:43 I think there's a sneaky secret here, I guess not even a secret, that you and I kind of feel about this. It's that the past game is probably going to go up a little bit, right? I think this is probably big for Christian Watson. It's big for Tucker Kraft. I've long been a believer that Josh Jacobs was the worst thing that could have possibly happened for Matt LaFleur's play calling. I talk about this with Eli D.
03:04 Danson, one of my charters all the time. I think LeFleur's willingness to just lean on Jacobs to be a hammer has actually been detrimental to the offense over the last two years. And we're going to find out that theories be put to the test, right? But for those who haven't drafted yet, what does this mean? What do you think about the Green Bay Packers offense, Lloyd, the whole thing. Give me your take. Yeah, I actually think the Marshaun Lloyd component is the most important, most interesting.
03:29 But I'll start with, yeah, I think this is a massive upgrade to the, past catchers. You've said this many times. You believe that Matt LaFleur is a top five play caller in the NFL. You really see that in the per route or per dropback efficiency metrics. Jordan Love ranks tied for fifth in fantasy points per dropback over the last three seasons, including the playoffs. The only quarterbacks with more than his 0.50 are Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Brock Purdy, and Drake May. He's fifth. Over that sample, he ranks just 18th in fantasy points per game. Why? Why the discrepancy?
04:09 Because Green Bay ranks 31st of 32 teams in dropbacks per game over the last three years. Patrick Mahomes averages over 25% more dropbacks per game. Basically what that means is Jordan Love has been playing three quarters of football per game to Patrick Mahomes four. And so, yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head is Josh Jacobs. yeah, that has not been good to this offense. And so you remove him from the equation. Maybe now Green Bay is just going to be league average in dropback volume. Maybe they're going to be in the top 33rd percentile.
04:48 And there's tremendous efficiency there because, again, the guy is fifth in fantasy points per dropback. And so I said, like, congratulations to any best ball drafters who went heavy on Jordan Lovestacks. I think looking at it today, that was the plus EV most optimal stack you can make at cost because it's not just Jordan Love. Like, I'm still na on Jordan Love. He's not a player on drafting, but it's the trickle-down effect specifically to the receivers. Tucker Kraft was top two in every tight-end metric by the time he went down last year. He's George Kittle reincarnated to me, but the wide receivers, right?
05:25 So every year the Packers are like middle of the pack in wide receiver fantasy points scored. But again, they're bottom three and dropbacks per game. So fantasy points per route run, yards per route run. They're always top five every single year. There's not a ton of fantasy points. Why, again, it's the lower pass volume. But even more than that, we've always seen a four or even five way really gross, wide receiver rotation.
05:52 Sometimes six and seven, Scott. Exactly. And so now without Romeo Dobbs, without Dontevi and Wicks, I think we're looking at, yeah Christian Watson gonna see a career best route share Matthew Golden you know a player I I shit all over you know since he announced for the draft I'm bullish on I like him at cost Jane Reed he's not gonna play in heavy personnel but like one of the top 12 most efficient wide receivers by fantasy points for route run
06:23 crazy stat I just pulled it was so insane it's like the first time in a month I'm like this can't be right this has to be a glitch this Christian Watson over the last two years ranks tied for third in yards per route run. He ranks 58th in target share. There is just so much upside for him, especially now with those two wide receivers out of the picture, Josh Jacobs on the exempt list. And so this, yeah, all these guys went up in our projections. All these guys went up in my rankings.
06:52 Check out the Scott Barrett draft guide. And so, yeah, now we have a temporary, temporary exonerated. You know, I'm only allowed five, but if you can get, if you can get Marshaun Lloyd anywhere close to his ADP, like he has to be an exodia. So I moved Marshaun Lloyd to RB 26 in my rankings. He is, as of today, RB 56 on Sleeper, RB 47 on ESPN, RB 48 on Yahoo. That's going to skyrocket. That's going to rise. But basically, if you can get him within fortify rounds of that, that's an easy exodia. Certainly, he's no sure thing.
07:42 He's not without his wrists. You know, this is literally rivaling J.K. Dobbins as the most injury-prone running back of all time, potentially. He's played one game in two years, and he couldn't even make it past 10 snaps in that one game. I want to show it on the screen here. Marshawn Lloyd's body needs to be studied by science. He's missed, this might have been more than 30, 30, it's, what is it, 17 times two minus one. And then only one game played,
08:17 what does he miss time with? A hamstring strain, a hip injury, a hamstring strain, ankle sprain, hamstring strain, appendicitis and hamstring 2025, groin pull, hamstring strain, hamstring strain. Bro, this is Mr. Glass. This is like straight out of the comic books. But that's the downside.
08:37 And, you know, hey, Christian Watson's another guy with hamstrings, but has access to the best medical science, sports scientists. And they really believe that they fixed the hamstring injuries that were plaguing him. And so that was the down. The upside, though, is he's competing for touches with absolutely no one. There's no one behind him on the depth chart. We should worry you. Chris Brooks,
09:03 Caleb Johnson, who has looked like a bust and you kind of called it. You kind of called him a bust. But what you didn't call a bust was Marshaun Lloyd coming out of the 2024 class. No one was higher on him than you. That was your, you said he was the second best running back in this. Oh, and if you could give me a detour for a second,
09:22 hey, a little interesting stat for you is on the YouTube channel, over 70% of our viewers are first-time viewers. That means they don't know who Scott Barrett is. You don't know who Brett Whitefield is. They don't know who fantasy points is. So they think we're just like the same as every other Joe Schmo AI Slop YouTube account,
09:43 fantasy football YouTube account. So we had a comment last week that was, hey, why should I care about this fantasy nerds prospect model? Why should I care about this bald, jerk-off's prospect rates. Let me tell you why, because Brett was the Puka Nakuwa guy. Brett said Puka Nakuwa, it reminds me of Justin Jefferson.
10:08 He said that pre-draft. He got laughed out of the room. Lo and behold, best, most valuable wide receiver and fantasy right now is Puka Nakua. Went round five. You had a much higher grade on him. Me, look at my pin tweet on Twitter right now. Literally last week, a former NFL coach, former NFL director of analytics said,
10:29 I'm better at this, prospect evaluation. I'm better at this than many sitting NFL GMs. Okay, so put some respect on our names, and shout out to the Warriors in YouTube comments, battling it out, defending our honor, saying, no, no, listen, guys, you don't know. This is a little different. So, and yeah, I'd say keep it up,
10:52 you know, battle it out against the 70% who don't know what they're talking about, Maybe the tray fairy will come bless you with a free subscription, a free upgrade, a free shirt, a free hat, because that's something we're doing is if you're leaving a five-star review, if you're super active commenting on our stuff on Twitter or YouTube comments, every couple of days we're going to hit you up via private message and give a little gift for you. So shout out to everyone who's doing that. But yeah, go ahead.
11:24 Let me jump in here real quick. So yeah, that I think you nailed it with the package discussion, Marshaun Lloyd being like a temporary exodia. But officially, you know, via Chris Weck, our projections guy, he has moved their pass rate up from about 55%, which is below league average to around 58%, which gave Christian Watson a slight bump. He's now projecting his wide receiver 23,
11:48 Jaden Reed, wide receiver 39, Tucker Kraft, up to tight end 12. And we're still given a pretty big injury discount there. So officially that's what we, done with the news of Josh Jacobs. I'm probably even a little more bullish on the past game than that even. Those are just slight upgrades, right? I've always, this whole off season, I've liked all three of those receivers already at ADP. So I think I'm just even more bullish than I already was. Yeah, for those that did draft Josh Jacobs, you have any advice on what they can do to kind of try to arbitrage the situation here? I wouldn't, I wouldn't try and overreact and panic and feel
12:26 like you need to buy extremely high on Marshall and Lloyd. I don't think I would do that. I think you just need to be really active on waivers and, you know, really monitor that. Know that might be a weak spot for you. There's also, you know, a world where he comes back in time for the fantasy playoffs, in which case, like, yeah, obviously his price drops,
12:47 but, you know, could still return value in a significant way. If you're in a home league, though, and you're drafting tomorrow the next week, I kind of don't want to be touching Josh Jacobs. I am the upside wins championships guy. He does have more upside than, I don't know, Aaron Jones and probably Rashad White and whatnot. But I'm probably never drafting him.
13:09 In an FFPC, I do want to take that gamble. Like wherever he falls, I want to hammer that in a best ball mania with a $1 million grand prize where, let's say you have around 14 Josh Jacobs. You're competing against all these teams that had around three Josh Jacobs. to me if he if he hits if he finds his way back that gives you a substantial edge um but yeah i you know
13:32 obviously it's you know it's it's not looking great it's it's basically like akin to you know you're you're running back pulls uh a serious injury uh in the last game of preseason so you're you're a little behind the eight ball but don't panic don't overreact uh this stuff happens it's a marathon not a sprint etc etc awesome let's pivot a little bit let's move over to the chargers. No, no, no, can you, can you, you, you loved Marshawn Lloyd. Tell me how amazing. It's a two year old evaluation.
14:02 He's dealt with 19 hamstring injuries. That's, it's, who cares? Who cares? I mean, honestly, like, like I, I love me some me, man, but like, my evaluation is. I mean, the people want to know like, what is. What is Marshall Lloyd's upside? Like, could he be like prime Aaron Jones out of nowhere? Because when they drafted him within, that was kind of our comp.
14:22 Yeah, that was kind of our comp was Aaron Jones. Yeah. So people need to know the range of outcomes. I laid out the downside argument, which is, yeah, he gets hurt because he's always hurt. What is the upside argument? Like if he, if this were two years ago, what would you say? Because there's a very good, go ahead. Yeah, the upside argument is he's a phenomenal pass down player. And so in a role, like if he gets what, 70% of the backfield with Jacobs gone,
14:48 but because he's such a better receiver, he ends up getting 50 plus catches because he's, you know, He's that dynamic as a pat. He's a legit one-on-one weapon as a receiver. We saw this down to Mobile to Senior Bowl. They had to change the drills to accommodate his success. He was dominating the linebacker so bad. They had to go get DBs to come over to guard him in the one-on-one drills. So, like, that's what he has in the tank.
15:14 I think the injury stuff, in hindsight, shouldn't be too surprising. This guy never had more than 129 touches in any season of college football. So it's like he was never like that featured of a player. Now that last year at USC was super dynamic. I think he averaged like over seven yards of carry and over 15 yards of reception or something ridiculous like that. But it was mainly just efficiency.
15:37 But he has, he's got juice for days and he's a phenomenal passdown player. So you're going to get a lot of explosive runs and a lot of a lot of receptions with him if he stays healthy. Yeah, I think the most likely scenario is this is going to be a committee backfield, which pre-20204 it was always like a 55-45 split that said it's like i mean Caleb johnson you know looks like a complete total bust right oh he's terrible yeah so yeah the Steelers were going to cut him they gave him away for free just so they didn't have to cut him you know shout out to my guy elin elin elin elie hyden rake looks like he's going to make the roster yeah all right can we move on now sure all right it's only the most important news that has dropped in too much
16:20 months. So yeah, but yeah, let's talk about, let's talk about Charlie Kohler. Yeah, let's really want to. Hey, I do. I was excited to talk about Charlie Coler. I know you Scott. So yeah, um, yeah, you, you fought me on the show sheet today in several regards. We'll get to that. Justin Herbert connects with Quentin Johnson for a 65 yard touchdown in the preseason finale. I was, I know this is like one play scouting, but there is value to it, right? Quentin Johnston, From everything people have told you, there's so many haters out there that this is Ladd McConkey's, you know, he's the wide receiver one. I know our guy Ryan Heath loves Ladd. I've been a huge QJ guy. And I, everything I've seen from QJ just shows me a really good developmental track from his rookie season to now to even this play. I just feel really comfy with QJ's skill set right now. I really like his fit in the offense.
17:16 And I'm pretty excited to see him and Herbert Connect on a bomb here against. you know, the presumed Super Bowl favorites at that. But it goes deeper than that for the Chargers. I think the biggest takeaway we have is that Charlie Kohler is putting Arronday Gadsden out of a job. In the preseason, Charlie Kohler played every single snap with the starters. You know who the number two tight end was? David and Joku played like 50% of the snaps of the starters.
17:43 Arronday Gadsen played almost 0% of the snaps of the starters, like three reps. It's, I think this is, dude, when we did our free agency show, our live show back during, on opening day of free agency, when they signed Charlie Kohler, I was pounding the table for him then. I put Arrondi Gadsden in the body bag. Back then, people told me I was crazy. I've been fighting the good fight along with motion man all off season. And now it finally looks like Charlie Kohler has officially ended Aranda Gadsden. So I wanted to bring this out. I think this is big for fantasy.
18:15 I think Charlie Kohler is a really dynamic pass catcher. and he's in every down tight end. He will not leave the field as the Chargers tight end. Scott, what do you think about Charlie Kohler? I think he's not really fantasy relevant outside of best ball. He is going to be, he's a blocking tight end first and foremost. No, he's not. He's in a three-way tight-end committee alongside David and Joku.
18:41 He played every snap with the starters in preseason. Yeah, and there are two tight ends on this team who are better pass catchers than him who will also be getting playing time. Wrong. Charlie Kohler is the best pass catcher on this team. Then why was he behind? Mark Andrews, one of the best receiving tight ends of this generation.
18:58 What you mean? Wash last year and Isaiah likely as well. Okay. You've been pounding the table for likely since the day they drafted him. What are you talking about? Yeah, I got new sources on that. Maybe we'll talk about that later.
19:11 Yeah, and then even the Quinn Johnson thing. So you were expecting me to agree with you because I agreed with you the last time this was brought up. And if anyone wants to hear my pro QJ argument, you could watch my debate with Ryan Heath, where he argued for Ladd-McConkey. I argued for QJ at cost. But one thing I said was,
19:30 my whole thing is just like, Ladd-McConkey was awful last year. Quentin Johnson was legitimately better than him. And I don't have an excuse for that. If I had an excuse for it, it'd be different. Well, we got the excuse. Greg Rosenthal was on Sigmund Blum's podcast. He was on ours. He talked about this.
19:48 He played hurt all last year. He got hurt in August. And the Chargers knew he was going to be close to 100% all year, but he printed it out, played anyway. And so now the upside argument is far more compelling, which was as a rookie in the second half, the final eight games of his rookie season, he averaged 106.8 yards per game. That is the most by a rookie in NFL history. We all remember Puka's second half.
20:10 We all remember Amun Ross St. Brown's second half. Jamar Chase's second half. Guess what? Ladd McConkey's rookie season was better. So I'm no longer with you on this. Let's not overreact to one catch in preseason. And so yeah, I mean, I'm not really going out of my way. I wouldn't say either guy is a target right now, but yeah. It's not overreacting to one catch.
20:38 You've completely just, what, you just given over to Ryan Heath's argument? after what for what reason because of some some erroneous report from a beatwriter who didn't do his job last year by the way but i mean basically he's up the charger's ass constantly i mean come on it's an erroneous report if he was doing his job last year he could have reported this right why why did this come out you need to calm down do you what do you double up your dose of tea or t today maybe uh no this stuff drives me and yet i can still bench twice as much as you yeah sure we've established that This stuff drives me insane because Quentin Johnson was hurt for a long stretch of the season last year, too. Why don't we give him a free pass?
21:18 Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I mean, every player in the NFL, Scott, breaking news, it's the most physical sport you can play, not named UFC. Like, guys are hurt from the day they step into camp till the day the season ends. Every single one of them. I've said this time and time again, if you actually got a glimpse at every player's body report, you would be horrified. You get very small glimpses into what that looks like. Taylor Decker is a great example last year. Literally couldn't get out of bed until Thursdays after a game day.
21:47 Yep. And it would play on Sunday. It's insane. That's a great argument. That's really important is the fact that all of these guys are always hurt, always. And it really matters how these guys do when hurt. This was like a great Ryan Heathstatt that came out was over the past two seasons. listed on the injury report with an injury, here's Mike Evans fantasy points per game.
22:13 With a knee injury, he averages 23.3 fantasy points per game with a collarbone 16.7 with a hamstring 15.8. That's like better than almost any other wide receiver with no injury designation. And so yeah, you want to you want to check that box. It's like, hey, this guy is proven he could, Josh Allen plays through anything and plays well. And Ladd McConkey has had injury issues dating back to college. It's no sure thing he stays healthy this year. Yeah. Yeah, I get the QJ argument because I was making it a month ago. It's just like I don't see the league wrecking potential that that Ladd-McConkey offers. So he-
22:51 Explain that. How does Ladd-McConkey have more league-wrecking potential? Because he averaged 107 yards per game over an entire second half, whereas QJ has never really done much of anything. It's still a tiny sample that was well over a year ago. I mean, in an offense that's completely different, by the way. It's not like Ladd-McConkey's, he's not playing the same role he did back then. And it's an offense designed for players like QJ, not players like Ladd-McConkey.
23:18 You have Greg Rosenthal disagreeing with you saying he's the motion guy. He's the, oh, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure Rosenthal knows more about that than I do. You were coming in so hot. I mean, I just, because these reports drive me insane. I already hate reporters, right? I already hate them. Yeah, we can move on.
23:37 Can we please talk about anything. else i'm so i'm so done with the charges okay let's let's talk let's talk uh i got a fun one for you scott yeah no i'm i'm gonna say we can't do the bears again i'm gonna say a statement and then you you buy or sell oh god luther burden would be worth an exodia tag if tyson be agent was the starting quarterback in chicago well he's already an exodia with keel of kela you weren't supposed to give that away come on i yeah so i hate that you're doing this to me and i want the listeners to know Like I am on your side here. And there's a very real scenario where Brett and I stop being friends after this year.
24:15 Where we have an opium Anthony-esque split where we just, we just record separate podcasts and we just talk trash about each other. And that's all we talk about because I love Ben Johnson. I love these past catchers. Ben Johnson saying, Hey, I want to this year break the Denver Broncos record for most points per game. And there's a world he does that. And there's a world where the answer to the.
24:38 the test was draft as many bears as you can. You want all the Caleb Williams, all the Luther Burden, all the Colston Loveland, all the DeAndre Swift. And then that's not my recommendation. I love Luther Burden. Not all in on everyone else. Why? Because of you. Because you keep making this argument. And so I hate that you're doing this to me, but I will say, I love Tyson Baygent. I've always been a Tyson Bayesian guy. I'll let you go and then I'll chime in. I just on a serious note, Tyson does everything Ben Johnson wants his quarterback to do. He runs the offense. He throws accurate passes in time, in rhythm.
25:19 And he like Ben, like you've said it so many times. Ben Johnson is one of the, if not the best, play designer, architect and more importantly, play sequencer. That's where I think like Kyle Shanahan actually gets beat by Ben John. I think Ben Johnson is a better play sequencer. And so if you're going to spend that much time creating this amazing, structure and system, you just want your quarterback to run the damn system, right? And that's what Tyson Bejant does. So just on a serious note, I love Tyson Bejant. I think if he ever did get the chance to play with the ones in a regular season game, I think people would be completely blown away.
25:55 Yeah. So I love Tyson. I've always loved Tyson. If we can pull it up on the screen, let's not forget he got a contract extension last off season. I think Ben Johnson really likes him. Here's the stat. PFF's highest graded quarterback in preseason of 75 plus qualifiers in each year. So that's a pretty big sample of quarterbacks. 2025, if we could pull it up on screen, 2025, the highest graded quarterback. Do you want to guess who it was, Brett? Tyson, Bejian. Yeah. In 2024, in 2024, you want to guess who it was?
26:32 Tyson Bayesian. It was Tyson. In 2023, do you want to guess who it was? Tyson agent wasn't in the league. Yeah, it was, yeah, no. It was Patrick Mahomes. And so, Gino Smith the year before that. And so, yeah, like, we talk about, like, what if Caleb Williams' accuracy doesn't improve?
26:52 My favorite, I think the funniest thing on Tyson, Tyson, Bajent is he is better right arm genetics than probably even, probably even Arch Manning. I say if he becomes a starter and is really good he is yes he is proving Lamarck right and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution wrong because those who don't know uh his dad is a 28 time arm wrestling champion you see you see the video on the screen here but yeah so listen I don't want to shit all over the Browns because you know you Browns the Bears whoa are the Browns Bears this this year's Browns that would listen the the Browns at least play in Ohio they don't play in Indiana like the Bears so I mean that's damn damn you know you are gonna get so many mean tweets that I can't wait to show on screen yeah I
27:44 actually had the pleasure of meeting mr. what's his name Travis Trat yeah Travis Bajette yeah I got I got to meet him a mobile that was fun great dude yeah go ahead so so Bajon you know looked awesome this preseason last preseason but there was another standout on the bears yeah who could maybe spell trouble for luther burton drafters close to level and draught or he could just be another like shiny new corvette for ben jonson the goad at scheming wide receivers open yeah i think this is good for luther burton actually savion thomas is who you're talking about the wide receiver from lsu who ran like a four to eight 40 you know his college tape was really hit or miss uninspiring but he does have that
28:29 vertical juice. And I've often said that I think Luther Burton kind of sticks more in that JMO role. That's kind of how they used them last year, more than Amun Ra. But if they got this dude out there who can fill that JMO role, I think that might be good for Luther. Luther gets to play in the slot a little bit more, gets some, you know, even more of those easy button targets where he's not having to get schemed up on a lot of those deep crossers. And, you know, because Ben spams concepts like dagger and Yankee and Y-cross. And,
28:56 you know, he needs that speed element. basically to run all those routes. So I you know, I think this could be good. But what's really interesting about Savian Thomas is they had him playing in the backfield and OTAs and Ricky mini camp like 50 50. And I know like Dandre Swift and Kyle Monongai, there's nothing like super inspiring about those guys. It's like what if he was out like a combo role like he was the third receiver and got some backfield reps? Like this guy has any fantasy relevant this year. He has to beat out Caleb Raymond to get playing time. That's it. Like a quarter old Patterson-esque role, maybe.
29:33 Yeah, something like that. Interesting. Yeah, I mean, certainly something to monitor. Where were you at on him coming out? I didn't write him up. I did get through the tape. Day three guy, like he got drafted where I thought he should, fifth round. So I wasn't like surprised one way or the other.
29:50 Certainly freakish athleticism, which can help Ben Johnson threaten defenses and blah, blah, blah. Well, it's the deceleration is crazy. That route that motion man showed earlier with him, that double move or whatever, that stutter and go, that was disgusting. Disgusting. So he's got that in the back for sure. At Volvo, safety is not a feature.
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30:31 because safety is about helping to keep you and everyone around you safe for life. Learn more at bolvocars.ca slash safety. All right, let's move on. New York Giants, your team, and I wanted to bring this up because I've been really high in Malachi Fields. I was high on him in the draft process.
30:49 I went down to Mobile, saw him tear it up, basically fell in love with the dude. And then he goes to your Giants and you got a Malik neighbor who's just coming back from an injury. And then you have really no one else. And they're kind of desperate for that second pass catcher to kind of elevate. And I feel like Fields has acquitted himself very well in the preseason so far.
31:08 He clearly has a connection with Jackson Dart. You saw the touchdown in preseason week one. But also you kind of follow the breadcrumbs from the beats. That's been a thing that's been happening in practice a lot. And so I'm pretty bullish on Fields being one of these surprise rookies where I think like earlier in the rookie draft season, we were talking, you know, the Carnell Tate and the Mackay lemons of the world. But now it's like Malachi Fields and Dizan stribbling.
31:33 Like those are the guys I'm interested in. How do you feel about Malachi Fields? So I hated him. I know you did. I said he was like for for Giants fans out there. I said he was like an unathletic Ramsey's Barden. I said he was like plaquesigo Burris after he shot himself in the leg. I said he was like on the JJ Arsego white side spectrum.
31:56 Yeah, he I mean like contested tar. target rate really concerning. He ran what a 4.65, something like that. Forced 461. Oh, sorry. But you know what's crazy though? Because like you, you hear anecdotes that teams are using GPS tracking more than 40. His GPS times are unbelievable. Hey, that matters way more to me than the 40 times. I just don't have access to it. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. So I was working my sources actually and you know, someone who's like BFFs with, uh, a former head coach, on the staff said that said that um you know i asked him about is isaiah likely i'm like hey every
32:37 beat is like this is the number two receiver at worst um and you know like dan dougan tweeted out target shares and he was at like 50 percent um next closest at like 15 percent and he was like yeah you know it's funny every time i brought up Isaiah likely to to him uh he just seemed really cool on him He seemed like, you know, he's just a tight end on the roster. And you saw the snapshot. He had like a part-time 63% snapshot share in preseason, which was a little concerning. I've been really high on Isaiah likely, but now the Ryan Heath counter arguments, you know,
33:12 maybe a little bit more persuasive. But the one thing he said was, but Malachi Fields. No, no, no, no. That's for sure, I think, the number two receiver on this team. The coaches love him. They're really impressed by him in camp. and Jackson Dart loves him. This is Jackson Dart's guy,
33:29 and it's a play style that fits Jackson Dart perfectly. And so, yeah, again, like, I don't know that he's anyone who's going to help you win your league. But in a dynasty, a deep dynasty league and a best ball and something like that, just, you know, just guaranteed target volume. I think he's interesting, but yeah, just a mean to monitor, not draft.
33:54 Sorry. I think he's more than that personally. Okay. Like, it's a long season, Scott. There's going to be by weeks. There's going to be injuries. I think he definitely gives you a lot of flex upside. Especially right now while like neighbors is still not 100%.
34:07 Like that's, to me, that's really important. And I don't like the past catching group after those two. Like I've never been a likely guy. So like I'm not shocked. Likely he's going to get the exact same role he had with the same exact head coach as the last four years of his career.
34:21 That doesn't surprise me literally at all, right? So I don't know. I'm I'm pretty big on I feel I think what's really giving me a lot of like confidence is week one Preseason they gave him starter treatment when dark came off the field he came out the field week two he literally only played three snaps like we're out there ran three routes and it was done for the day and then week three they didn't even play him this guy's a rookie didn't even play him there's you're too valuable to us to risk getting injured so like he's already getting like that primo star treatment when he plays a position where you feel like you'd almost want the development of the extra reps, right? But instead they're like, no, you're too valuable to risk. So I think that's where I get like a lot of confidence that he's going to be something this season for fantasy. Now, obviously I understand what the way projections where we can't project him that way.
35:12 It's just like I would be ahead of projections. If you're taking like a last round dart throw on a guy, I love taking one on Malachi Fields. All right, let's move on. But up, we're gonna do a rapid fire round. All right, we're 35 into the show. I have a list of guys. You wanted to Vito several of them, by the way. Bro, listeners, you're gonna hear a bunch of fourth string D2 backups.
35:35 There's no four string players on here. You're gonna turn off the YouTube video. These are not guys who are gonna help you win your league. We'll actually listen to it because I put good names. I put good names. Brett's names not so good. I need to do a Trump. I felt like Trump as I was saying that.
35:51 Brett's names not so good. Scott's names the best. That was one of the worst Trump impressions I've ever done. If I had the courage to do it, I would do mine right now. Do you want to hear a Scottish Trump or, uh, Indian Trump? No, I'm like, you're not going to do that. Don't demonetize the video, please. All right.
36:06 So this is going to be a rabbit fire round. I want two minutes or less on any name we bring up from this point forward. We're because of what you just said. These are all fantasy relevant guys though for one reason or another. Let's start with Detroit Lions. Presumed RB2 Jacob Saylers comes from the UFL. Isaiah Pacheco hasn't practiced since like the second day at camp. He started with a knee injury and somehow while he's rehabbing the knee, he hurts his back.
36:29 And Dan Campbell said, it's going to hold him out for a while. And they don't have anyone else. Sione Vaki, another guy who, you know, has not played at all in the league, but he's been more of a special teams player than actual running back. Jacob Sailers is the RB2 here. And Jacob Sailor is literally said in the press conference, I'm comfortable with Jacob Sailers at the RB2. The only reason he's fantasy relevant, Scott, is because of Jemir,
36:51 Gibbs, God forbid, something happens to him. Jacob Saylars has league winning potential. Am I wrong in saying that? I mean, it's no sure thing, but I will say this. I think he's one of the best last round picks you can make. Like that's where you, like in an FFPC, right? He's going undrafted. He's been drafted in like one total league all year.
37:14 But he's an amazing last round pick. Why? Because he has a chance at standalone value. if this is like the committee like we've seen for the lions in years past, Gibbs 65% the rest going to David Montgomery. There's some standalone value on a really good team. I don't think it's that likely. I think Jemir Gibbs just rec leagues like vintage Ladanian Thominson.
37:37 But then, yeah, and he also has a pathway where if he, if Jemir Gibbs goes down, he could be thrust into a Belcal workload on a top five offense. And yeah, he could absolutely be a. league winner. I think there's also a chance. Maybe it's more of a committee with him and someone else, but James Connor maybe a trade when he gets healthy. But yeah, I think this is, you know, when you're looking at at handcuffs, I love Tank Bigsby. I love Ray Davis, only in the last rounds because all these guys are kind of the same. It's the same value proposition. But put Jacob Sailors right there, even though that's a name no one else has ever heard of. I had an asker guy Jake Tribe,
38:15 who does UFL content for us, gave me this stat. Jacob Sailors has been responsible of two of the three best seasons by fantasy points per game for a running back in UFL history. This preseason, he's averaging 6.0 yards per carry. And he said to me, yeah, yeah, he's, he's when I saw he was signed to an NFL team, I'm like, this is either an elite RB3 or a very serviceable RB2 at worst. So yeah, he's got some skills. And certainly like the landing spot and team environment is exceptional. team freaking loves him too all right atlanta's backup backup quarterback so the third string guy jack strand the undrafted rookie out of moorhead state makes the team why are we bringing them up
39:00 because two of sucks and michael pennick sucks they're both injury prone they get hurt all the time and jack strand literally just put up one of the best pre-seasonesons i've ever seen from a from a rookie quarterback whoa what what whoa say say that again he just put up one of the best preseason performances have ever seen from a rookie quarterback i'm talking the totalee of the three games he played. Legitimately unbelievable stuff. So much, I didn't even do, I didn't even watch his tape in the pre-jave process. I didn't know who he was.
39:28 I went and watched the tape and like the college tape's actually pretty good. And then you look at like the raw counting. He hit over 13,000 passing yards. Didn't you say he's like number two all time in division two passing yards or something? So he's top 10 all time in division two passing yards. And here's the stat. I'm getting this from Wikipedia. I thought it was so funny.
39:47 his 13,000 passing yards. So like a yard is what, like three feet? Yeah. Equals over seven miles. He had over seven miles of passing yards. Yeah. Another random stat on him. He had a, he had a game in like the Division 2 playoffs or whatever.
40:04 We had 140 yards rushing, which I just thought was hilarious. Like this dude's like a pocket passer, right? But then just he had just one random game. Or it's like, you know what? I got to go do this with my feet. And he had 140 yards rushing. Cracked me up. But you see.
40:17 you're seeing the clips on the screen. Just legit does what I love in a quarterback. He runs the offense. Ball out quick, live arm, quick diagnosis. We've talked at nauseam, Scott, about how important experience is in the NFL. So like all these quarterbacks coming to the league that don't have it, they're busting fast, right?
40:36 Anthony Richardson, Trey Lance, J.J. McCarthy. They're all, you know, getting knocked out of the league pretty quickly. Jack Strand has like over 2,000 career dropbacks in college. she's got a ton of experience is it at the highest level no but like you you value that so it's so important the 40 career starts or whatever that's so important for a guy's um projection to the NFL that like I do think it's important because toa and panic suck yeah good nothing else yeah so dynasty super flex jack's yeah go but that's it not helping you win your league I don't think yeah no but keep an eye on him you know flag him flag him if you if you need a streamer late in the
41:15 season. I bet you he starts a couple of games. All right. Here's a big one in my opinion. Chris Bell, wide receiver, dolphins. This is a guy I said had first round tape, late season ACL tear. He went on an absolute tear in his final year of college football where he played a ranked opponent four weeks in a row and an average over 150 yards per game against them. One of my favorite players in this draft class, I've comped them to mini A.J. Brown. Oh, he's healthy. Somehow, some way. The dude caught a pass in preseason after tearing his ACL. I think it was late, November, if I'm not mistaken. That's a really fast recovery.
41:48 He's presumably going to start for them very quickly here with Caleb Douglas. Oh, I don't know about that. No? Well, so he's coming back from a devastating injury. He missed all of training camp, which is typically a death now for the skill position. Not all of it. How much has he played?
42:06 Well, he just, I mean, he practiced enough to play in a game and understand the playbook. He caught up actual pass in an actual game. Five days. He's not at 100%. He hasn't adjusted to NFL game speed. It's kind of the same thing as Isaiah Bond to you. Like, I don't know if you remember, but he started off of like 10% SnapShare and then worked his way back up.
42:24 But then again, like they really have no one else. And this was a player you said had round one great on tape. Caleb Douglas did not have that. Malik Washington did not have that. Greg Dulcich did not have that. And so yeah, there's certainly upside here. I think in a keeper league, this is a player to draft in the last rounds.
42:42 This is like not like, not like jack strand and jacob sailors this is a legitimately useful piece of information here and certainly a name to monitor as he as he builds up to NFL speed yeah i think you misheard me i didn't say he's starting yet i said he's going to start very quickly okay all right fair yeah yeah kansas city chief's uh fifth round pick emitt johnson had a put on a show in the preseason pretty safe to say he's one of the best handcuff pick's you can make if you're into hunting handcuffs similar to what we talked about with jacob sailors you liked emma johnson as a prospect did you not yeah you you didn't i did not no i did not he reminded me
43:25 so after the landing spot he reminded me of jerrick mckinin where you just see a lot of like really impressive pass catching uh production um if i can pull it up right now yeah miss tackles force per reception is like one of the most sneaky predictive stats out there he was top five any running backs since 2014. A couple other staffs like that he smashed. My big question was like, yeah, Jerich McKinnon didn't have a lot of carries. I don't think he's that great of a runner. And then he kind of maybe proved me wrong. You see Ryan Pagnetty with the Isaiah Pacheco comp a couple of weeks ago. He forced 11 missed tackles as a runner. This preseason, only one player had more and that player had like way more carries than him. So yeah, I think that there's
44:12 something interesting here. It's a great offense that with now Eric B. enemy kind of wants to build build the ship around the running game and you have one of the most injury prone running backs in football who's maybe already hurt. I love Ryan Paganetti. I'm thinking that comp was purely based on the the production profiles because they couldn't be more different players on the field. Like legitimately, Pacheco is a big physical explosive violent player. Emma Johnson's tiny, not explosive, more of a,
44:48 like a, he's more of like a Devin Singletary, Kyron Williams. I'm just like a professional running back, you know, smaller, undersized, but,
44:56 you know, plays bigger than he is because he's got a little grit to him, but like he's, he's nothing, like physically, he's nothing spectacular. Yeah.
45:02 Just a good football player, you know? Yeah. I think that's right. I think that makes sense. But still, it's just, you know,
45:08 so much of, of the game is just being in the right situation. And certainly, looking like the RB2 in this offense behind an injury prone running back is awesome who's already dinged by the way yeah yeah and he's got the swollen ankle let's not forget he was an exodia last year and he was by all accounts the worst exodia call i've ever made uh and a big reason why is i think i think the team was really worried about him staying healthy he had Super Bowl aspirations and so he wanted to take it easy on him if things start to flare up and maybe they're already
45:38 flaring up. We could see a committee right out the gates. Again, great pass catcher. Kenneth Walker, not known for his past catching. And so you could see a real committee. So he has that. And then if the most injury prone running back gets hurt, he has the upside to take. He probably wouldn't be a full on belcow, but he'd certainly get a valuable role. So yeah, more so than Jacob's sailors even one of the best handcuffs i think take bigsby's probably my well marsham but yeah tank bigzies one of my favorites but uh emma johnson's not too far off it was it was marshan lloyd uh if you're reading the the draft guide a week ago but yeah nice all right washington commander's tight end chica quank whoa only really notably on the list here because in the three preseason games he's played
46:27 every snap with jaden daniels and he's been heavily involved in the past game i was calling him there receiver two before they brought in Stefan Diggs. Diggs obviously changes the math there a little bit, but they still need another pass catcher to be, you know, viable here. You know, is he, is he somebody you're drafting super high or even at all? Probably not, but I do think he's one to watch. I really like the skill set in this offense too with David Blau calling the plays. But just really, it's the, it's the presumed workload he's going to get. He looks like the every downtight end there, where we kind of weren't really sure about that going into the preseason. Yeah. I mean, every beat writer is saying, yeah, he's, he's going to be a focal point of the offense really matters to blouse new offense that he's running. Upside, you know, his, he had the, he set the PFF era record for yards per route run as a rookie tight end, above and beyond Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren, Colston Loveland. But you also have, you know, beat writer saying this is like probably the worst offensive line in football. The offense is really.
47:32 really struggling. He's not a good blocker. So, you know, maybe they think, you know, he could be a their number three receiver. And by the way, what is that even worth worth with a hyper mobile quarterback? Yeah. But, but yeah, I don't know. And again, you're, you're wasting, you're wasting my time here. Let's, let's get to my name. So let's start talking about the players I put on the list. I don't think, I don't think Shig O'Konkwo is, is going to be a difference maker. in a game called fantasy football Brett where upside is everything and we're all ruled by the power law effect
48:08 I don't see Chicoke O'Conkwo as a power law. I understand it, but there's still a functional component to playing fantasy where there's going to be a moment in the season you've got to grind out a win. Right? Yeah, yeah. And in those 18 team leagues, you know, Jacob Sailors and Chigo Conquo.
48:23 Get out of here. Anyways, Indianapolis, Colts, wide receiver, Keenan Allen, made his debut with a catch. and then he went out and celebrated a little too hard got got arrested afterwards um congrats on the catch button not sure it was right can i actually bring up something with keenan allen yeah my man's been going bald now for a decade oh and he hasn't found a razor yet are you kidding me you got the whole side mufflet going what is that why do you do that can we can we find a
48:52 a picture of actually you were you were one to talk look at look at the hair on your head which by the way Wait, let me take my hat off here. I'm doing good. I don't, I'm sitting pretty. I shave my head every day, brother. I don't get the side muff look. He legit has like a wrap of hair around his head and then just bald on the top. Like a like a skin Yamika or something.
49:12 Have you, have you seen a Charles Johnson's, uh, hair in the UFC? I'm a big UFs. I'm obsessive at UFC. Yeah, me too. Um, he, he has great, great, uh, great hair for a bald guy. It's like the bozo look, but like as long as possible. No, I have not seen it.
49:30 I want to find, I want Trey to get the, the Keenan Allen mugshot up because I need, I need the listeners. Oh, no, that's not the mug shot. No, no. Look at here. I'm sending it to Trey right now. He's going to get up there in two seconds. This is great radio. I'm sure.
49:44 I'm sure it is. They need hair reports on these guys. Like, look good, play good. Isn't that the thing? But you can even tell in this photo, he, look at this. Brother, find a razor. What are we doing? This bothers me zero.
50:00 This is not, this is, why are we talking about Jacob's sailors and Keenan Allen's hair? Can we please talk about how this impacts Josh Downs? I'm not sure it does. He just got arrested for DUI. I, no, no, no, no. This, yeah, Keenan Allen is going to play this year. This is not domestic violence with video. This is a player who's going to retire next year.
50:23 They're going to kick this can down the curb. He's going to have a trial set for November. and he's going to get a push back to February. So I don't envision a suspension or anything like that. He's not going to get cut. Why this matters to me, I think Keenan Allen still got it to some degrees. He's not a full-time player anymore,
50:43 but he could still route dudes up because why that's not really athleticism. That's more IQ and nuance and, you know, I don't know. Being a route running technician doesn't really require speed or agility as much as you think. Why this is important to me is because I love Josh Downs late. I think he's one of the best late round picks you can make. I'm very bullish on him.
51:06 And what we saw in preseason was Keenan Allen not playing in the slot. He was playing out wide. So I think that means Josh Downs plays in the slot in 11 personnel. And then in heavy personnel, Keenan Allen comes off the field. Josh Downs plays out wide. And I think that's ideal. And so I'm choosing to take this as, as a positive sign.
51:30 Okay. Alec Pierce is also back. That's not good for for downs. I mean, define back. His left hamstring is like 30% bigger than his, or calf is 30% bigger than his right calf. That'll come back fast.
51:43 I mean, so what? He's never been a target hog. Whereas Josh Downs has, over the last two years without Michael Pittman on the field, only Pooka Nakua has a higher targets per route run. Alec Pierce is a deep threat, ideally opening things open for Josh Downs.
51:58 and Tyler Warren. Downs is also an injury risk though. He's always he's always hurt. Anyways, Alec Pierce, they paid him $30 million a year, Scott. Like you don't think he's gonna get an expanded role. You think 84 targets I don't think he can when he missed basically all of training camp and his his calves are severely mismatched. Why can't why can't he because he's never done it. It's just it's it's it requires a never been asked to do it. It makes a lot more sense that the guy who's always been amazing whenever he's been given a full-time workload is amazing this year with a full-time workload. In the game of fantasy, in PPR, where
52:35 targets are really valuable, yeah, give me Josh Downs. Listen, I'm not saying Pierce is going to be more valuable than Josh Downs. I'm saying he might be valuable enough to hurt Josh Downs significantly. Bro, we've been over this. He's like wide receiver 50 by 80p, and I see a real pathway to him being like high-end wide receiver two. He's an amazing pick. Yeah, and I'm basically at the top of a flagpole getting blown around by the wind on this. I've been out on down downs all the way in on down. This is your guy. Now I'm scared.
53:05 Now I'm scared. Yeah, well. We make decisions with reason and logic and not emotion. This is longer than two minutes. Let's move on. Mackay Lemon stinks is your exact quote in the notes on the show sheet here. Scott, tell me something I didn't know. Yeah.
53:20 So this is worth repeating for those who don't know. So I was very down on Mackay Lemon. I thought he was overrated as a prospect based on the you took that like three steps forward further than that and you were just like super anti mckeye lemon and so he's only he's been heard a lot of preseason uh he's only played one preseason game in that game five targets three receiving yards zero point two one yards for route run he dropped a pass that resulted in a in a pick six or an interception uh and so yeah i wanted to give you and i also by the way i i like dontavian wicks too
53:58 So I wanted to give you the chance to kind of talk about your feelings on Mackay Lemon, maybe restate. Do you just see that? He just fell down for no reason. This is my big critique. Oh, God. Is this Trail on Burke's 2.0? Yes. Oh, no.
54:12 So I want to give out a little bit of like, you know, I need the new listeners, people that don't know me to understand me. When I come down hard on a guy like McKayleman, it's, it's because I'm juxtaposing reality with the hype. So at the time that this happened, he was being mocked. Like every mock draft had him like going in the top five. And no later than like 10th overall to the Saints, right? Or ninth of wherever they picked. And then slowly that started to fade away. So I slowly let off the gas pedal against Mackay Lemon.
54:44 I had a second round grade on him. I think he's a decent receiver prospect. And I personally love the way he plays. He's physical. He's violent. Hair on fire type of player. I just see a lot of limitations. to the way he runs routes and biomechanical issues
54:59 that will prevent him from being an elite separator, which you've already seen in the preseason, you know, several past breakups directly caused by his lack of separation, not knowing where he's supposed to be. And just because he got a spammed a million short area targets in college does not mean he's a quote unquote target earner. I actually, I charted every single reception he had or route he ran, Scott.
55:23 He had one reception lined up out wide. on a vertical route his last year of college one one that is absurd I don't think I've ever seen a player with that level of discrepancy in their tape like usually even like a who like an Elijah Moore or Wondell who played in the slot primarily they had significantly more production as an outside receiver on vertical on the vertical route tree but I don't have one reception in that situation I mean it's great so I don't want to rehash the whole pre-jraft conversation I just was a lot
55:56 lot lower on him than consensus. Yeah. And I think we're kind of seeing why he did fall to like 20 or 21 or whatever. So it's like I was I was a little vindicated where he went in the draft. Yeah. If you look at Ryan Heist rankings, he's very high and Mackay Lemon. It's just round one rookie. We do this every year. They're, they're too low. And then like league winners are typically these, you know, round one rookies. We kind of neglect. Um, that's that's valuable heuristics. But, but, but no, he's, he's a fate for me. I like Don Tontavian Wicks legitimately more. Um, um, My connections out there in Philadelphia tell me, like, they love Don Tavian Wix. Don Tavian Wix is getting peppered with targets.
56:37 And, yeah, I've always thought he was, like, really good, like sneaky good. Do you want to, so, so again, everything is relative to the hype. Do you remember my comp for Mackay Lemon? No. Do you remember mine? No, what's yours? Mine was Olomede Zekees. Mine was
56:59 My was actually Jarvis Landry Jarvis like Mine was slower Elijah Moore But you have to know Like Elijah Moore is one of my favorite players Of all time Do you want to know what my Dantavian Wix Comp was?
57:15 It's got to be something about his hands There's like Randy Moss without hands or something It was Randy Moss if he was born without arms That's too good Yeah, but what if he like hit the jugs machine really hard and like is only really bad? And he made what if he's like a lizard who grew an appendage this year and he has one arm? Then he's then he's going to be all. But yeah, it's just I don't trust McKay Lemon to play in heavy personnel over Don Tavian Wicks.
57:49 I don't think that makes sense. Even if you are a Mackay Lemon Bull. And so yeah, just not a player on I'm in and redraft. By the way, Dantean Wix is like one of our. ask gods yeah yeah that's what i'm saying great separate top 10 separator i even looked at it by role too when they line him up out of x one of the best separators in the nfl he's been great out of the slop and great out of the z as well so he's he's in everything god except for hands where he's the woe is he's a yak god he's an ask god and then just the worst drop rate you'll
58:20 know his his last year at college football he had like the highest drop rate in history didn't he yeah it wasn't just that too but it's like also if you look at xfp he was always dropping the ball in like the worst possible situation. It's like like in the end zone like end zone targets has drop rate like triples on deep targets at quadruples. The added pressure of all this is six. Yeah. With the game on the line.
58:42 Yeah. All right. Cool. We got one more to get to. Yeah. To Tennessee Titans, Cam Ward. Um,
58:48 things have not looks good. I'm, I'm starting to really buy into the idea that Brian Dable is one of the biggest fake sharp posers in the league. I've been saying, Hey, you have been. You have been.
58:57 So Danny Hyth, It's a good friend of the show, Ringer Fantasy Podcasts, best, best fantasy football podcast in the game. I love his take. His take is that the way we think about Dan Campbell should be the way we think about Brian and vice versa, where it's like you think of Brian Dable is this like amazing analytics guru kind of guy. And he is that when he's at the podium during the week. And then on Sundays, he just has this like red face and he's fuming and he is piss tripping
59:28 down his legs and then Dan Campbell you think of it as like this this dumb goofy meathead he's like anti-analytic and like during the week he is that and then on Sundays he's like a freaking genius so I love that take but yeah this is what I've been saying this is why I'm obsessed with Jackson Dart this year is is yeah we saw Daniel Jones be bottom five every single year with Brian table he goes to Shane Steichen I lead he's leading the league in EPA per play with the cold best record in football and and yeah and then and then Jackson dart with Brian dable same supporting cast except worse because Malik neighbors wasn't healthy uh balls out EPA per dropback fantasy points per game all stuff really impressive but yeah so so so so so how bad has it looked
01:00:17 for cam war and how bad does it look for carnal tate who by the way 25 routes six targets this preseason zero reception zero receiving yards. Yeah, so I'll start with Cam Ward. He's he's looked so bad that when we did our preseason week one reaction, I remember going on that show and like, I think I gave you the full 14 dropback breakdown. Like every play, it was really, really bad. We even thought about making an article on the site. We ended up not doing that. But it's, uh, it was enough for me to really get off. I was, I loved Wondell Robinson at ADP. I'm obviously a huge Cornell take guy. And I was, that scared me Crapless. Then week two, didn't get any better. Had a ridiculous turnover. Just, you know, the turn
01:01:04 downs. Do you know what the turn down is, Scott? What's that? So when I say the phrase turned down, this is what I'm talking about. Quarterback hits his back foot. The primary in his first read is open and they turn it down to extend the play. That's what a turn down is. And that's all turned down for what? Right. Exactly. This is one of my issues with Caitlin Williams. There's turn downs everywhere. but the ward stuff doesn't look comfy in the pocket, bailing from clean pockets, turning down his primaries, extending plays for literally no reason.
01:01:34 And then just the accuracy's been abysmal. So it's like, it's really concerning. I think he's actually regressed over where he ended the season last year for what we see in the preseason so far, which is really scary. The old line's terrible. As far as take goes,
01:01:48 I think he actually looks fine. Like, I think five of those six targets weren't even catchable, right? I think the route running looks great. You hear the coaching staff rave about him. They're moving them all over the formation. Looks like they have like wide receiver one plans for him this year. So that's, that's great.
01:02:05 You can't draft them though with Cam Ward as the quarterback, I feel like. Yeah. So I asked our friend Brett, I asked Easton Freeze. Love Easton. Who has the best name in sports. Also maybe the best beat writer in the game. like I want to be a Titans fan just so I can have Easton Freeze as my beatwriter. I asked him, I told him we were going to be talking about this.
01:02:29 I asked for on the record quotes. He said, yeah, I don't get it. You know, like I've been at every single practice and two of the three worst days Kim Ward has had all preseason, were those preseason games. Like he's looked so much better in practice. And yeah, so this is me as an analytic guy telling you, you know, this is what, we do every year. This is when I say like preseason so overrated preseason really doesn't matter or like the entire edge in like high stakes leagues if you're drafting August is to just fade the
01:03:01 hype and fade the overreactions because it's just this super small sample size and then it's like put under this microscope and blown up out of proportion where that's like the only sample you know we see but Easton's saying no no he's looked a lot better in practice don't overreact to this. he did say he did say uh zero improvement on the footwork which would issues that plagued cam word last year yeah and uh you know it seems like you know Brian dable doesn't really care about that that you know no no uh you know no effort to really remedy that but uh and it's like it's not like he's going to light the the world on fire but it's like he's not going to be that bad and so how i really think this is impactful and meaningful is carnell tate and really no one else on the titans i don't
01:03:47 think anyone else is worth a draft pick. We talked Wondell Robinson. It's like he used the, by the way, great beatwriter for knowing this phrase, he said PPR scam. It's like he's, yeah, he, if you, if you tallied up every single target, he led all players in practice and targets. He's going to lead the team in targets this year, but it's a total PPR scam, like a less than three yards, average depth of route. It's, it's like running back routes, not wide receiver routes. But Carnell Tate, he said, he said, I don't remember. remember the last time a player came in and it was just immediately like, wow, this, this, this is probably the best player on the team. This guy is really freaking good. He is like special,
01:04:29 special. And he, I think he even said like this was above and beyond AJ Brown's rookie season. So, you have a really special talent here, who I know you thought very highly of, but he's probably not going to leave the team in targets. And it's also probably a bottom 10 passing game this year. So take that for what it's worth. He's wide receiver 30 by ADP. Oh, no, he's wide receiver 30 in my rankings. He's like wide receiver 35 in ADP. So I'm a little higher on him, not technically a target. I told, I told Easton that was my rate. He's like, oh, I'd have him a little bit higher. So I don't know. What are your thoughts on this after the information I've just really? revealed to you today. Yeah, I mean, that doesn't surprise me at all. Like I, Tate's fantastic. Like I said,
01:05:20 the tape in the preseason actually looks pretty good when you, when you watch all the routes and aggregate, not just targets, looks pretty good. So I'm really not worried about him. He was a special talent for me coming out. Easily my wide receiver one in this class. I'm not, I'm not ready to move off that at all. So yeah, we good? We're good. All right, guys, head over to fantasy points.com. check out if you get a draft coming up it is almost Labor Day weekend all the drafts are happening right now you got to get a subscription and use our front office tool it is the best thing on the market also again I'm going to pitch the YouTube one more time if you're not currently subscriber subscribe to the channel turn notifications on don't miss a single video we're doing this every single day we're winning
01:06:06 you fantasy leagues from now until January all right that's going to do it for us today thanks for listening we are out You know,
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