Fantasy Football Daily - NFL First Read | All-Time Preseason Dupes + Rookie Breakdown

Episode Date: August 22, 2024

Welcome to First Read, your go-to podcast for the latest in NFL analysis and insights. Join hosts Brett Whitefield and Joe Marino as they think back on all-time preseason dupes and give a rookie breakdown from the preseason action. Whether you're a fantasy football enthusiast, a die-hard fan, or just looking to stay informed on all things NFL, "First Read" has you covered. Tune in for expert opinions, detailed breakdowns, and engaging discussions every week. Don't miss out on the ultimate NFL podcast experience! Where to find us: http://twitter.com/BGWhitefield http://twitter.com/TheJoeMarino Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ 2024 Dynasty Video Playlist - https://youtu.be/KthPmbCI0PA?si=wzNG-dm6vfPojE68 Age Curves Article By Ryan Heath - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/age-curves-when-nfl-players-break-out#/ Use promo code - SCOREMORE for 10% off of your subscriptions Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First read, we are your first read, the film and analytics podcast featuring Joe Marino of Locked on and myself, Brett Whitefield, the C-O-O of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after. Joseph, welcome, my friend. I love these days where we get to talk football together. How are you, sir? Brett Whitefield, I'm doing great, thrilled for the opportunity that's coming on Saturday for me to watch. watch Ben Danucci and Anthony Brown carry the Buffalo Bill's offense and get out of the preseason

against the Carolina Panthers. Oh, man, is there a more painful experience than week three preseason right now? It's tough, man. And for as much as we joke about it, right? Like, the football's not going to be super clean, but it's meaningful for a handful of guys on the roster that are trying to vie for those spots, right? So last competitive opportunity for these players ahead of the cuts. So it's tough to watch, but still valuable for those players. For sure. And that's a that brings up a good point here. And in the value that the preseason brings, it is for sure. I promise you this. It's more for the guys trying to make a roster, the, you know, those last five or six roster spots. And it usually happens on special teams, too, Joe.

It's not always what happens on offense or defense. It's what happens on a special team. So to the, to the fan who is, I mean, unless you're a big fan of a specific team, obviously, there's value in it for you. But if you're a fantasy football guy, some opportunities to get duped here, right? And preseason can be a little misleading in that regard. Oh, yeah. That's for sure. Yeah, that is very for sure. I have some dupes that I'm, I guess I'm looking forward to sharing with you,

although I'm admitting some major Ls that I took along the way. But that'll be fun. I think it is important. Yeah, you got to contextualize it correctly. I think one of the most important things to pay attention to during preseason is when players are playing and who they're playing with. And so if a starting quarterback gets run, all of the players that are on the field for those reps pay attention. On the contrary, if there's a player that you think has a chance to be a meaningful player in an offense in the starter plays, and that player is not on the field for those plays, also a bit of a red flag.

Yeah. You know what, though? Even that, I do generally agree with that sentiment. Even that can be misleading because if you're, if you're starting offense is going to get 10 snaps, 10 reps, brother, they're not running out every package they got. And they're probably working on things that they feel like they need to work on. So maybe that week they're like, you know what? We feel a little light with our 12 personnel. Let's see how that looks on the field right now against another team. So we're going to go eight snaps of 10 in 12 personnel. Even that can be misleading. Right. So we got to be very careful. careful. I see I know and I know the fantasy guys, the fantasy listeners, you're, you're grinding snap counts and checking who played with who and oh my gosh. You know, Christian Kirk was only on the field for for one snap and 12 personnel. That's, that's a thing, huh? And I'm a Christian Kirk owner. I traded for him. I traded for Christian Kirk. Should I be worried about this?

No, no, no, no, no. His first of all, they don't run 12 personnel enough for it to dramatically kill his stock. Like, I think his ADP is fine, even knowing what we know about the 12 personnel. Secondly, he only, like the season he had last year, Joe, he only had, I think like 11 of his targets came in 12 personnel anyways. So even if he's completely removed from that package, which he won't be. Yeah. It's not that worrisome. But these are the types of things that can get misleading when we're really, you know, busting down personnel walls. Like the thing, teams have packages on packages. They have, you know, it's not just simply 12 personnel. They've got packages within that 12 personnel and certain combos of receivers and tight ends and running backs.

And it is what it is. We will never get a full glimpse of what the team's planning to do in the preseason is my point. I think you can take a lot out of what you said, though. See who's on the field with the starting quarterback. And that's a pretty good example of what you're going to get on Sundays. Listen, I take a lot of comfort from the Christian Kirk angle in that Trevor Lawrence does have some new weapons around him. And I think when that's the case, I think he probably is going to lean into the guys he's

most familiar with, which is Evan Ingram. and Christian Kirk. So while Gabe Davis was, you know, a decent free agent signing, they drafted Brian Thomas Jr. in the first round, I would, barring injury, I would, I would guess that Ingram and Kirk are one too comfortably on that team and targets this year. Yep. I think you're for sure, right. Brian Thomas Jr., sounds like he's having a great camp, maybe towards, you know, the back half of the year, he starts to ramp up a bit. But I do think for sure, from a whole season lens, I do think Ingram and Kirk will still be the top two target getters there. Ingram's one of my favorite buys, by the way.

I know we don't typically talk fantasy, but I love just punting. In fact, I've been punting quarterback and tight end Joe. I'll go eight rounds, nine rounds straight of just running backs and wide receivers. And then like at the eighth, eighth or ninth round, I'll grab Trevor Lawrence and Evan Ingram back to back. Really? Stack in those guys. I think Trevor's going to have a good year.

And the reality is in single QB leagues, you don't need. need to have to stud. You don't need to spend a fourth round pick on a quarterback. You can, wait, and there's so many good ones now. So you can see, so I ended up with, I just did this the other night, actually. I got Lawrence and Ingram, and then by the last pick, I took Tua. So two is my backup. I feel really interesting. So you're, after all of that, you came away with Trevor Lawrence and Doa. Yes. That feels pretty good to me. I agree. And you can play matchups with those guys to get good results. There's a lot of research out there. J.J. Zacharison does a great job talking about the streaming quarterback phenomenon.

you can actually, if you just stream quarterbacks, you can still get top five production if you play the right guys every week. And it's not that hard to figure out. And most single QB leagues, guys don't carry two. So you've, the waiver wire is always chalked full of good options. So I prefer. Fascinating strategy. I'm more of a dynasty guy. So that doesn't, you know, it doesn't really work in my world. But if I had like 30 redraft leagues like I know a lot of people do, that's a, that's a fun strategy. Yeah, for sure. All right. Let's keep the main thing, the main thing, though. We're talking preseason, Joe.

I want to hear about some of these stories where you've been duped and had to take some else. I've got some myself and I'll get into those as well. All right, Brett. I'll embarrass myself here on this podcast with my biggest doping moment, potentially of my professional career. How about we do that here on the other side of it, folks? Be sure to stick with us. All right, Bright Whitefield, I told you that I was going to tell on myself, here it is. I'm going to say this out loud because I've tried to bury this.

deep into the archives, Brett, but I was a fan of Nathan Peterman coming out of pit. Oh, no. Yeah. And I, from a scouting perspective, he's a guy that I've learned a lot from. So can we start there so I can justify my duping here? Came out in 2017. That's before Pat Mahomes. That's before Josh Allen.

That's before Lamar Jackson. The NFL was dominated by pocket passers, right? Brady, Breeze, Rivers, Manning, Matt Ryan, Kirk Cousins was becoming a thing. And I was very much convinced that winning from the pocket was the end all be all with quarterback play. And I was also very convinced that not every team was going to have a superstar quarterback. And so you needed to be able to figure it out absent of that. So build up the remainder of the team and have a quarterback that can keep an offense on schedule and give yourself a chance, right? Give yourself a chance. And so Peterman had

very modest physical tools. But I thought he was such an efficient player from the pocket at Pitt. He had some big moments, right? The win over Clemson is something that people still talk about and had a strong senior bowl. He's got good size. I think he's a pretty underrated athlete. And then the 2018 preseason happens and he was awesome, like literally awesome.

Completed 81% of his passes, three touchdowns, 10.5 yards per attempt, pass the rating of 1.24.7. He threw one interception. I think it was a tip ball that really kind of took those numbers down. He was phenomenal. Now, obviously things turned out very, very poorly. But I will say this, I feel somewhat validated in liking him as a prospect. And let's not get carried away.

I had like a third round grade on him. And I thought that maybe in time he could be a reasonable starting quarterback that can keep an offense on schedule, right? That's what I thought of them. But after that preseason, brother, I was in. I was in. And the reason that I feel validated about liking him as a prospect is because there's been two times in his career where it's been a coach's decision for him to play.

Once was the bills in 2017, they were on a playoff run. They wind up going to the playoffs. They bench Tyrod Taylor, 4 and 8th and Peterman. And the bills are like bottom two in the league in passing production. You're like, okay, well, maybe if this guy could be more dynamic in the passing game, that you can be a better team. Obviously, that fell on its face, right? The Chargers game, everybody remembers it.

Then he did. He parlayed that preseason into being the week one starter in 2018, which was Josh Allen's rookie year. And of course, that lasted a half against Baltimore, where he fell on his face once again. But also this dude sensed that, since that he's been a rostered player in the NFL. Like, it's not like that he was kick to the curve.

So for as silly as it is to sound like I like Nathan Peterman, I feel a little bit justified, but obviously I learned a lot. He's probably exactly what you expect out of a fifth round QB pick, right? You know, team that drafts him views him as a potential developmental starter. Doesn't work out, but then he's a backup for the next five, six years. He's currently on the Las Vegas Raiders. Geez, I fumbled that name about as bad as Keon Cumble.

Keon Coleman can't catch the ball in the red zone, but we'll get to that later. Boy, oh, boy. All right, that's a good tease. Who's your dupes? Who's your top dude? I got a couple. So one of them, do you remember Chris Smith, defensive end? Shoot, where did he play his college ball at?

Arkansas. Arkansas. Yeah, I know him. Yep. Toolsie. tool tool yes tools a guy Jacksonville draft picked and was with the bengles and the browns well right around the time he was coming to the league i was i was new full-time guy at pf you know at pff we had all of our advanced metrics year our win rate and our pass rush productivity and and uh pass rush grade and this dude like three pre-seasons in a row bro was well into the 90s win rate in the 20 percent i mean just dominate he pre-seasoned he pre-seasoned he pre-seasoned he was well into the 90s was well into the 90s win rate in the 20 percent's i mean just dominant he pre-seasoned he pre- season was made for this dude. If you have a crappy backup offensive tackle,

just Chris Smith will whip him. Doesn't matter. I fell for it three years in a row, bro, where I thought this dude was the, I, I think I may have even advocated for the Browns not to draft Miles Garrett because they had Chris Smith at one. You didn't have to say that part. You could have kept that to yourself. That's fair. That's fair.

I was all in on Chris Smith, though. I thought this dude was going to be a baller. And he never parlayed any of that preseason. I mean, he made rosters, right? But he never became a starter. I think at best he was a rotational player. I think he's playing in the XFL most recently. I mean, he's, it's just, it's funny, though, how deceiving preseason can be

because the difference between a starting offensive tackle and a second and third string offensive tackle, it is in extreme how difference the talent is there. And so a guy, a toolie guy like Chris Smith can come in and whoop you, and then never play a meaningful role in the NFL. It is wild. I had a defensive lineman that I got dup by. And I'm curious if you remember this name is it's Landon Cohen. It's a seventh round pick out of Ohio by the Lions.

Yep. His 2014 preseason with the bills, this guy looked like Aaron Donald. He wrecked everything. And it was a year where the bills had five preseason games because they were in the Hall of Fame game that year. So he's destroying everybody. He winds up not making the bill's roster in 2014. And he never played a regular season snap after that.

But he did sign to the Seattle Seahawks active roster in the divisional round in 2015. So almost two years later. And he played in the NFC championship game win over the Packers, played 14 snaps and 16 snaps in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. All I can say is that maybe that Seattle would have won the game if they had Landon playing more snaps against the Patriots. I think that could have been the difference. That's a very similar Chris Smith story, too.

Right. Same deal. Late round pick, it dominates preseason. And then it sticks around in the league for eight, nine years plus, but never. Practice squads, right. On practice squad. I mean, I think he made a few 53 men's, but just ultimately just never really carved out a role.

He obviously got a few opportunities here and there to play some snaps. But it's kind of funny how a guy that like that can last so long. People just adding on the tools, right? And just never. I got another one. It was last year, actually. I was lower on C.J. Stroud than consensus. C.J. Stroud plays than what he played in one preseason game, right?

Right. And it was ugly. It was bad. You got duped in the wrong way. I got duped in the wrong way. I was just confirming my biases. Oh, look at that. He stinks. I told you guys he stinks. Right, right, right. The interception he threw in that one prison game was of this ugly variety, you know, just completely duped on a coverage that he didn't read out, just threw a ball out into willy-nilly land, gets picked up.

off and house for six and I did he had a couple really bad misses that game a couple another near interception and I was just thinking oh my gosh I'm so right about c. j stroud this is great this is great what's funny is i still had cdraud as like a top five player in the class but he was like my cuby he was my cuby too but i wanted richardson to be the guy you know and so sometimes you let your biases affect your mind like that and so i remember you know feeling real good about that like oh i knew richardson was going to be better in stroud and then stroud just annihilates every everybody is rookie season. So I got duped in the wrong way. I got one more dupe. And I'm pretty sure you and I just broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the amount of times the word dupe was

said on a podcast. So a big, big congratulations to us here on NFL first read. But the last last guy that I got dup by was a fairly recent one, 2021 wide receiver Marquez Calloway. Oh, with the saints. Do you remember this, brother? You too. Me too. Eight for a buck, 65 and two touchdowns across two games. And you had seen like this kind of work for the Saints. They've uncovered some receivers throughout their time. And I thought that he was going to be the next one. Not in one of my fantasy leagues.

Somebody traded him straight. It wasn't me. I promise you. It wasn't me. Traded him straight up. They said traded Marquez Calaway for David Montgomery straight up. Oh my goodness. So yeah.

That was me. I was duped by Marquez. Oh, but yeah. Like, Chris, you could ask Chris Weck this. Our projections got fantasy points. You know, him and I are very close. And I remember in all my redraft things that year, I was just, I was drafted Callaway, you know, probably like a round before ADP.

The thing is the Saints had no one at receiver too. That was the other part of it. It was like, oh, wow, this guy's tearing up preseason. And he's going to have this opportunity. No, listen, it wasn't all for not. I think he did have like 700 yards that year, caught nearly 50 balls. It wasn't terrible. but it definitely didn't amount to the amount of hype I was given man.

Oh, the other thing, Tennessee had been putting out a pretty steady, you know, a pretty steady receiver leak into the draft. You know, it was like Juan Johnson and then Josh Palmer and then Marcus Calloway, Veles Jones was the same year, I think. So it was like, or maybe who's the year after? All that said, I was like, see, they're, they kind of turn into a little bit of a pipeline here. You know, we can work with this. So anyways, all those guys.

How it goes. So we'll see. Who's the, who's the, the dupe guy this year? Is there somebody that we got to be, is there a pump the brakes guy that's been blowing it up? I don't know. This is the reason I wanted to bring it up to because like, we're going to spend the next part of the show breaking down tape on some of these guys, right? And we're going to shout some out and maybe even, you know, tear some guys down a little bit and criticize the performance. And the reality is like, it doesn't define who these guys are.

So I wanted to, it would be a cool way to get into that conversation. It's like, we're, we're not necessarily planting. flags on these guys's future. We're just simply breaking down what we're seeing on tape right now and how this could translate to the season that we're about to enter into. I don't know. There's a lot. I mean,

Brett Rippin. Don't get dup by Brett Rippin. Bears have like three backup quarterbacks that are balling out right now. I think TFF tweeted the other day all three of the backups have graded higher than Caleb Williams, which is funny. We'll talk about that. Chris Blair,

Christian Jackson, these guys aren't going to be the new thing in the NFL in terms of big play receivers probably not. A.T. Perry, we shot him out last week for good performance, but it's pretty clear the Saints don't feel that way about him. So it's like, we might love what he might be the Chris Smith of wide receivers, you know, because he did this last preseason two. Right. Is, is, uh, is this going to be the, has Xavier Thomas arrived? Is he going to be a good pass rush for the league? I mean, we'll, we'll see. We'll see. It'll define itself. All right, Brett Whitefield, coming up here in just a moment. Let's get into these rookie

quarterback performances, talk about what we saw, what we like, what we didn't. Folks, be sure to stick with us. All right, Brett. Boom. It happened. I'm glad we're doing this because I feel like this is the last big, like, meaningful sample size that we're going to get from these quarterbacks. We talked about them all last week, so it'll kind of be fun to measure the growth in

some of the things that we saw. And let's do start with number one overall pick Caleb Williams against the Cincinnati Bengals. I think that Caleb, obviously the big thing that everyone's talking about is a big throw down the field to Roman Dunze. But I feel like there's a lot to get into. This was a very slow start for that Bears offense. And Caleb goes six of 13 for 75 yards. They go three drives to start the game, three, and outs, a total of eight yards on those three drives.

They were trying to move the pocket, get some completions. It was the offense wasn't really moving. And then they wind up getting the big pass interference call, 43 yards. they wind up getting a field goal out of that drive. And then finally, you end on the high note, which is the touchdown drive, which I think is probably better result than process. And we haven't talked about this. I don't know where you really fall on this, on this situation, but be happy.

Like, be happy that Caleb Williams made that big throw down there to Roma Dunze. Be happy that he had the rushing touchdown. But like, I don't know that the process was very good here. He's just before on that drive. He's first and 10 midfield. I think this might be the play before the Roma Dunzee throw. First and 10 from midfield, from midfield. There's pressure.

He gets out of the pressure, steps up in the pocket, resets his feet, had plenty of time, and then he airmails one to Gerald Everett. Then you get the play to Roma Dunzee, spectacular highlight, but it's an unnecessary parquet in the pocket, a clean pocket. He's spinning around, gets outside and launches one to Odunzee, he makes the play, and then he gets down there, and he winds up having a rushing touchdown. But like there was a lot of running backwards for multiple plays in a row before he was able to get in the end zone.

So you saw the creativity in some of the high moments. But I think you also saw some of the variants that concerns me with the Caleb Williams. Joe, I'm going to call you Michelangelo. You painted this beautifully. The setup here was, was awesome because I think you uncovered the big issue with Caleb Williams without maybe doing it on purpose. You mentioned the three drives, the three and outs amounted for eight years. yards. So what immediately happened when he started getting frustrated? Put his cape on and turns into hero ball and you got some good results, but the process was bad.

I counted four different plays where he had a clear-as-day turn down, hits his back foot, doesn't even need to hitch or move. There's an open receiver and he decided not to throw the ball and decided to invite chaos into his life. And I mean, the throw to Adunze was the perfect microcosm of his college tape, which was bails from a clean pocket, invites chaos into his life, and then throws obviously an amazing pass down field that gets caught. You'll see a lot of that this year, but there's moments where he misses those. There's moments where he gets sacked where, I mean, fumbles were a huge issue for my USC. It's just not good process. You want to see, like, you love that he can do that. That's his ace in the hole. Things get, things are going rough. I'd like to see him

save it for when he's actually pressured, though, for when. for when there's not open receivers even if you go watch that play when he hits his back foot his second read is standing there wide open in the middle of the field on a hitch it's like just hit the ball and just play with within structure play the play the way it's designed throw in time and rhythm and he just he won't do that or there's times i should say he won't do that so yeah great great result we can u and ah over it um process though wasn't good even joe even the last throw of the game which i think it was two minutes left the second quarter right before the touchdown run they run the rollout yeah he turns down one guy who's open for a touchdown and then if he if he wants rome on that back line throw he's got it he just needs to throw it he's got to put a little air on it he's got to get it up and down quick but you throw it high leave it to where only rome can get it he's got it but instead he waits to the last possible second and we can criticize rome and say yeah he probably should have got his feet down right because the throw was ridiculous he put it right on the back line right dude we're

eight seconds into the play at that point. Like you, you got to get rid of the ball a little faster. And I know he had a guy bearing down on him. It's just these are the things that could be a little frustrating. The he's making it harder on himself than it needs to be. So, but you still, I mean, all that said, you still some of the stuff he can do with his body is just jaw dropping, whether that's throwing or running or whatever. It's, it's, it's, it's, you know, he's got so much talent.

That's ridiculous. Yeah, no doubt about it, dude. And like, I think it's important for the listeners to understand that we're not defining this man's career or talking about. what he showed us on these, you know, the half of football that he played in this game. And for, for Caleb, I feel like figuring out how to thread the needle between when to lean into playing off script and being dynamic and just running the offense and doing the smart right thing with the ball. It's going to be, like you mentioned, I didn't even think about that,

transitioning from, hey, we're not going anywhere to, okay, let's open this up. I think that patience is going to be important. Like sometimes you got to win a game 14 to 10. Yep. 17 to 13 something like that. Those games are okay. And he'll he'll figure this out. I mean, he's going to have the opportunity to figure this out. But if your only thing you're thinking about coming out of that performance against Caleb for Caleb Williams was the deep shot to Odunzee and the crazy touchdown run, I think you're, I think you're missing the most meaningful things that he put on tape.

Yep. Agreed, man. Agreed. And then, you know, it's a, Just to throw this in there, too, and I'm by no means saying there's a QB competition, but Tyson Bejant comes in. He's looked awesome this preseason show. All the footwork issues he had in college, and even last year as a rookie, they've kind of cleaned it up. They're trusting him to throw the ball downfield more. So it's refreshing to go from Caleb and then watch Tyson run the offense.

And it looks, obviously, he's playing against twos and threes. It's not the same thing. I get it. He's not playing against starter level players. But I was just really impressive. with Tyson and they might have something there where like he's put enough good tape out this preseason show where I could see a team flipping a pick for him like now you know if you get into a situation where you need a QB hey we'll give you a third or fourth round pick for that guy he's

he looks good yeah and I think I think for the bears they they might be reluctant to do that although Brett Rippins also had a pretty decent preseason but I think quarterback depth is just feels like it's so important to me I know that a lot of people talk about hey if your starter goes down like it's that's over but that's not really true not every scene sees ever not every injury is a seasonetting injury and we've seen the last two years the NFL has used more starting quarterbacks than ever before like year over year they broke their own records uh it's oh it's over a two two per team and so I feel like some of this quarterback depth especially now with the new qb3 rule um it might be pretty valuable so yes and no I think a lot of teams would like to have

Tyson Bayesian, but why wouldn't the bears like to have them as their backup quarterback? It's all about value, right? Undrafted player. They brought into camp last year. It makes a team, obviously, looks good. So if you're flipping an undrafted guy for it, let's say it's a third round pick. That seems. Oh, you think they get it.

I think that's crazy. I'm not saying they do or don't. I'm just saying if that's the kind of offer they're getting, I think they have to consider it at least. If it's a fit or something, everybody's got a price. Yeah. But, yeah. And I think that's a good argument. hey, you take a UDFA and turn that into a draft pick.

Like you've done well with that investment. But is he most valuable just being your backup quarterback knowing that you can be a play away from this guy stepping in? It's not like the bear's remainder of team is not good where you're like, okay, we'll just live with this. Like, it's a pretty good football team that is playing at a bad conference that feels like they probably should have a chance. Yeah.

The flip side is they do have them cost controlled for two years. So you got a really solid backup making less than a million dollars a year. Right. So I think there's a strong case to keep him around. Yep. All right, I feel like I kind of took the lead on the Caleb Williams conversation. Set the tone here for us on Jaden Daniels. Yeah, Jaden Daniels, I mean, he got a lot more snaps this week.

I liked what I saw. I will say that, like, they made a concerted effort just to keep him in rhythm and keep him clean. No, I mean, I don't think he had maybe he had one throwdown, field this week, but it was like ball was just coming out lightning fast. You know, like, gosh, three or four screen pass. I think he had 12 dropbacks as well, right? Three or four screen passes. He had a, and then a bunch of like locked hitches where they're just running spot or

spacing and he's just driving on a hitch route. I think he literally threw a hitch concept on three dropbacks in a row. I think two to McLaurin, one to Diami Brown. So it was like they were just trying to keep him, like get him some reps, but not make it crazy where you're putting yourself at risk. I don't even think he took off and ran once, did he? They had the one design run, which is good-looking play, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, the one-design run.

But ultimately it looked good. He looked sharp, accurate. Ball came out on time. He didn't have some, I mean, some of those windows he threw into as well, weren't super clean. Like his Brown and McLaurin weren't winning cleanly on those hitches. I think the defense kind of knew it was coming, and he still delivered the ball in time and made plays out of it.

I don't think, just like last week, we didn't have a lot to take away. I kind of feel the same, even though the volume was a lot bigger. Yeah, I think ball coming out quick was definitely a theme here. I had him under two seconds, average time to throw when I had Caleb pushing four seconds, average time to throw. So interesting contrast with these top two picks. And like you said, I mean, taking a lot of free access, getting the ball out in rhythm,

which is good to see. I think for Jaden, there's a lot of different layers to his game, but you mostly think about running the ball and down the field throws. So I think it's great for him to put this out there. how he can operate in the quick game. I think that's very helpful. Two moments that stood out to me from his performance. The first one was a high leverage moment.

So I think everything like we talked about is very quick, get the ball out. The high leverage moment to me was a third and six from the plus 32. And Miami's showing a pressure look. It winds up being a simulated pressure. But there was like definitely the threat of pressure at the snap. And I'm confident that Jaden Daniels predetermined that he was going to throw that fade route. and he sailed the ball out of bounds. And it's like, man, that would be a great opportunity for you to kind of showcase some of that pre-snap with,

hey, here's a pressure look. Let's find my hot. Let's give ourselves a chance to convert here as opposed to just within, you know, hit your, get the ball and just launch it out of bounds and even give yourself a chance. So that stood out to me. My favorite moment, though, it was a play action pass to John Bates in the middle of the field. I did a good job of riding that fake, set the base, very smooth ball hand, handling transition from the fake to the throw, very smooth, efficient release.

And then that middle linebackers in a real bind, which that's NFL offense now. Like, no matter what you do, you're wrong on defense. And I thought Jaden did a good job of kind of taking advantage of that and delivered the football to Bates down the middle of the field. So I thought those were the outside of, hey, just dink and dunk, a good scheme run. It's that high leverage throw. And then that play action pass. And I thought were the most standout moments.

And then, of course, he's named the starting quarterback for Washington, which I never really thought was in question. Right. The note on the Bates play, that's actually, I actually wrote something out about that play. I did note the ball handling because he held the fake. He actually, it was a legitimate fake. A lot of times with these rookie QBs,

they're so eager to get their eyes back up. That they barely do the fake. I mean, we saw this actually with J.J. McCarthy. We didn't hit on it last week. But he had a couple of those boot play action plays where he's not really faking it. He's just sticking it out for a second, you know. So I give Jaden a little. It's a funny thing to note because you don't think about these little details for QB play.

But yeah, it was actually a legit fake. He took a good second and then got his eyes on. You kind of have to balance that urgency with that we have to sell the fake here. And I thought he did a good job with that. The play to McLaren that fade that was basically just a glorified throwaway, right? He was off the back foot. He had a flusher in his face. You would like to see a different plan there.

Like how are we addressing this hot situation rather than just throwing a fade ball out of bounds? Which when it's game planned, I'm sure that'll be different, right? Hopefully. Hopefully. I mean, we saw the Eagles play an entire season without that game. Well, yeah. So that said, I don't mind the decision. I like the,

I like the fact that we're not taking sacks there. Right, because it takes you out of range, right? It's got a range. So it's like, you know what? This plays dead. I'm just going to kill it. And then we're good. We're kicking for three.

So I think it's good decision making. Did you have a comment you wanted to make here about these receivers? I mean, I think it's kind of interesting with John Dotson and what's going to happen there. I know you probably want to spike the ball there potentially, but Diami Brown. what's going to happen here? Luke McCaffrey. I've already cautioned people on reading too much into snap counts for preseason.

So I'm not going to dunk on you yet for Johan Dotson. But I will say, Diami Brown, you know, was a guy I kind of liked when he came out. I think I did too. Yeah, I did too. Downfield stuff is so important in the NFL and he does it really well.

And you're seeing it start to pop. He even had a couple routes, what was it, Saturday they played, where he won clean on like an outside release go ball. And he just, wasn't the play design. He was more of a, more of a third option there. But like, he's winning these routes. He's physical at the catch point. I just think he looks great. I think he looks a lot better than he did last preseason and even during the season when he did get reps. I'm kind of,

I'm kind of thinking he's going to set up as their number two guy here, Joe. That'd be fun. I like the Army Brown. And unfortunately, his career has been slow to start. And the only thing I can think about with Yami Brown now is Amun Ross St. Brown. After that one game, did you remember? He was like going off about how Brown was drafted ahead of him and he's like, I didn't see him make too many plays. So say Rob was, was dishing out the goods. Brett, we finally got a chance to see some Drake May against the Eagles. We saw a good amount of Drake May against the Eagles. And what really stands out to me about his performance was how he functioned on possession downs, third downs. I thought he really had a great approach. Let me kind of work through some of these third

downs. First third down is a third and five, seeing middle of the field closed coverage. And so he gets the ball at the snap, and he moves that safety to the right to kind of vacate the middle of the field, comes back to his left and hits Polk on the dig route for a nice completion for a first down. Then we get to our next third down. It's a third and seven. It's a goal ball to Johnlin Polk that I think he probably should have caught. Good throw. third and 11 they run the screen to hasty for the big game good execution in terms of selling that selling that that screen play then we get a third and goal from the four it's a zone read touchdown run for drake may good decision execution then we have a third down in 10 a dime down the field of

giovann baker that baker dropped so great execution by drake may hold on not to interrupt you thought that was a dime thought there was a good throw yeah well dime implies a great throw to me i thought it was a little far out there. But anyway, sir. Okay, all right. We'll have to clarify the terminology here. Third and eight, he had to miss to Jemann Baker, but I thought it was a good decision.

And then third and ten, he was sacked while climbing the pocket. But bottom line here, this is the first extended run of play for Drake May. And one, two, three, four, five, I think five times he really put his team in position to maintain the possession, even though the last couple weren't as good. but I thought that was what really spoke to me about watching Drake May. Yeah, and he had a similar to Caleb. It was kind of a quicker start. I think he completed his first three balls and then went three for nine the rest of the way, right?

So had some up and down. You mentioned the third and seven of Javon Baker on the sideline there. Joe, I'm, I'm cautious about Javon Baker right now. Not to get sidetracked here, but like I just don't like these routes. He's running these outside release go balls. like this cornerback is playing outside leverage and he doesn't even attempt to fake him inside and just gets ran out of bounds this was the third time this happened in the game i don't blame may for missing this throw this isn't something i would chart as uh as his issue this is a hundred i mean

bro he's on the white when the ball gets to him right it's not ran out of bounds you got to leave space right yeah that said may could have came to the underneath route i think it was was a joll and pole coming underneath there on a drag or a shallow it's third and eight he's going for the first down i get it but let's let's give our playmaker a chance to make make a play with the ball in his hands um that's my only real critique on that play but i like jvonne baker's was kind of a mess this whole game had the weird drop over the middle of the field um i'm not talking about the bomb either like he had another one was it just a like a slant right where ball just hits him right in the face doesn't catch it then the the dime that that you mentioned down the

the field you know that that's when you got to see jvon not a dime more of more of like a nickel you know yeah more of a nickel definitely wasn't a penny yeah good good throw good throw just let him a little too far you know baker had to to fully extend like superman to to get it that's kind of why i was thinking you know wasn't necessarily a dime if it was a dime maybe hits him a little more in stride but still you want to see your receiver haul that in it's just too many errors from javon baker so i'm kind of i'm having issues with him right now i think he if he plays a little bit better Drake May, his day looks awesome. Because like you, I was very impressed in aggregate by,

by Drake's performance here. And Javon Baker's created his own hype train too, right? Like with kind of his energy that he's had through this point and the social media stuff. It's like, well, all right, bud. You got back that up. You got to back that up. So good, good coachable reps.

But I think I'm definitely back thinking that Polk is going to be the, the more productive rookie player. I think you'll see Polk, KJ Osborne, Pop Douglas will be the main three. And then I think they're going to work in Taekwon Thornton quite a bit, too. It seems like they really trust him now. So you think Baker's a five. I think bigger. We'll start as a five, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then certainly Hunter Henry's going to be healthy within the target share of that offense. For sure. That's going to be interesting to see how much, how much 12 they lean into with Alex Van Pelt and kind of believing that. I mean, didn't this, who was it? Was it Ramandre Stevenson came out and said,

we're going to run the Browns offense? I'm pretty sure he said that out loud. So which means a good amount of tight end utilization. So that could be good news for Hunter Henry. Real quick other point on me, speaking of Ramandre and this whole offense, the O line, dude, it's, I mean, we know it's bad, but it just looks awful. Well, and I think part of what encourages me about Drake May in that game is, I feel like the practice reports have just been so discouraging.

You're just like reading from their beat reporters. It's like, oh, he's sacked five times in a row or he threw three interceptions and seven throws, something like that. And so to see him come out and be able to like make plays, like, yeah, I feel like they were, they were, the messaging was that this was going to be a dysfunctional player. And he was anything but that. It's one, dude, you, you, you went down the list of third down plays. None of them were third and short.

They can't run the ball. They're struggling. That's not going to make it easy on Drake for sure. So considering that, I thought it was really poised. Hopefully, though, that O-Line gets it together a little bit because- Well, what's the path there? Cole Strange is banged up, right? We don't know what the situation is there.

They rolled the dice at left tackle completely. Like, yeah, the Patriots had Raff Capital and Cap-SPACE. Okay, they had the resources to have a better situation. And come on, like, what is this? They brought back on Wayne U. Andrews, Andrews is there. The one guard's, not bad. Is it city so? Yeah, city.

City and opening you are good. Right, but then you have two spots that are like unserious positions right now. Yeah. And yeah, there's guys in the free agent market right now that are better than what they're starting. So like go get him. Charles Leno, right? He's still out there? Yeah. Exactly. It's a hundred percent of great call out. Just signed Charles Leno. And that would stabilize your left tackle position for this year. And you got to.

You got to give yourself a chance here. If you want Drake to touch the field, yeah. Because as of right now, I'm still in the camp that I think Jacoby needs to be the meat shield for at least the better part of the year. So the pathway for me for the O-Line getting better, by the way, is just cohesion. Maybe. Maybe if they play together for four or five games, they'll tighten it up a little bit. I mean, obviously the ceiling is not very high, but like we got to get off the bottom floor here. Yeah.

All right. We got Bo Nix to discuss here on the other side of it. Folks, be sure to stick with us. All right, Brett. Bo Nix. We had some healthy criticism for him last week. Yeah. Feeling better?

Yeah. Yes, this was a polar opposite performance. He looked, uh, looked calm, cool, collected. The feet weren't mess as messy. He still had a couple of issues. He still, he loved, that boy loves thrown on the run, man. Like sure does. He would rather throw in motion than from a set base, but he did clean it up a little bit.

This man loves throwing the, the intermediate out route more than any quarterback I've ever seen. And, and Sean Peyton's. realizing that he's just calling it he's dialing it up now like all the time right right he had a huge moments in this game i'm going to mention i think it was a second to last throw second and 10 post route to sutton sutton yep and nix wasn't a guy at oregon who really threw with a lot of anticipation but he uncorked this thing before sutton was i don't know three yards from his break and the best part about that anticipation too he was using his eyes and his posture to to hold that single high safety was a cover three look kind of a sagged back

cover three he froze that single high safety and then quickly reset his base lined up on Sutton and just let it rip i i thought this was uh this would have been one of bow nicks's best college throws and it was it's funny because it wasn't that tight of a window but just the anticipation you had to put behind it the the velocity the manipulation these are just things i didn't even really see him do at organ as much as i liked him um and then last note on nix the ball location this week much better. Everything was on the money. I mean, I don't, I'm not even sure he missed the throw. I think his one in completion wasn't, uh, is a throwaway or a killed screen pass, I think. Um, I mean, he was just, everything was right on the hands, right on the face. Yeah, I, I thought he was really comfortable. Um,

that was the word I had comfortable. I mean, and, and really that second and 10 post is Sutton, a lot of confidence in being able to, to rip that throw in that moment. And of course, he winds up having, I thought the third and nine strike to Tim Patrick in the middle of the field was another good throw. Of course, the touchdown. I felt like you kind of saw a good blend of the skill set for Bo Nix and what he brings to the table. Seeing some athleticism,

seeing some accuracy, being able to work on the move, deliver it from the pocket, and just be confident. And I, it was, I thought he was much more calm as well, just a lot more comfortable in running the offense. And so I think he was definitely a great story of a player that we got a meaningful sample size now twice. And week to week growth was pretty evident, in my opinion, from him where I don't, like,

I don't know if Kay, I don't think Caleb Williams was actually better week over week. Jane Daniels, we got more of a sample size. He threw two passes the other time. You know, like we finally get a chance to see Drake May. But like, this was definitely, to me, the player that showed the most progress. in a short period of time. Yeah, I think I agree with all that. Man, Nick's, you mentioned the athleticism.

That's, that's really sticking out to me. I mean, he, like, he had a scramble for a first down where he just, it looked effortless, man. Like, he read it out perfectly and just got out of the pocket and easily move the chains for like a 12-yard run. It just, I mean, that's a weapon that I don't think, just going back to, like, all the talking points on Knicks. Because Caleb was so athletic, because Daniels was so athletic,

because you saw that upside with McCarthy. I think everyone missed the fact that Nix is also a great athlete, right? Yeah, he is. He's not physically deficient. Like if you think that he doesn't have enough arm or he's not athletic or like, right. He's got the stuff. Yeah, he does.

And he's got a heck of a coach and Sean Peyton, I think that's going to align with him. And you saw even some of those like rollouts and then throwing kind of back a little bit to, yeah, like that's a play he did all the time at Oregon and through the touchdown pass. And he did it earlier in the game as well to convert on a, third down if I'm not mistaken. The zip on those throws is nice too. He had one thrown away from his body too

where he had to kind of flip his hips. The arm slot, I was actually, I wrote these notes down to mention arm slot and off platform stuff. He had a couple of those in this game that just looked really nice, really effortless. Feels good to be a dynasty owner of Bowenicks right now. Brett Whitefield. What do you think about, what do you think about the Falcons

not playing Michael Pennix? This is, this has got my tin foil hat in full arrangement right now. I'm like, Is Kurt Cousins dead? Has anyone seen Kurt Cousins? Is he around? What is going on?

Bro, this is weird. They're treating Michael Penex Jr. Like the starting quarterback. And I'm guessing that's not because he won the job. I'm guessing because Kirk Cousins ain't going to be ready. And they're just not telling anybody that. Wow. I'm completely guessing right now.

This is not. I'm not breaking news right now. Completely guessing. But it seems that way. Why else would they act this way? Boy, you drafted Michael Pennix to incubate for a while. the most meaningful opportunities he's going to have to play is going to be preseason and week two. You don't play him?

Unless the most meaningful opportunities going to get to play are week one. Boy, that way. And here's the thing. What if he's awesome? Right. What if he's awesome? Like, like, talk about being in the bind. Bro, it's like driving a brink truck off a bridge into a river.

Stay tuned on that situation. That's pretty fascinating. Oh man. What if he starts the season like four and oh and he's like top five passing urge or something? You can't take him out of the lineup, can you? The crazy thing is that is now. I know from sources familiar with the situation that cousins was salty when they drafted

him. Like this was actually a big issue too. So this whole thing has a chance to just go weird, super weird. I mean, it's already weird. But like, whenever I'm trying to figure out complex things, I always remind myself of this phrase, the most simple explanation is always the truth. And I'm inclined to believe you could see.

They're not resting penics, okay? The guy's not supposed to play this year. Yep. I think you, dude, you might be, you might be on, on the trail. You might be on the trail with this one. Yeah, I even asked our doctor that works for fantasy points. You know, he specializes in injuries. Like, is there a chance?

Kirk's not ready. He's like, yeah, he could have severe like calf stiffness and atrophicness. from not doing anything coming off the Achilles tear. It's like, yeah, he's like, yeah, that's a real thing for sure. Pour one out for J.G. McCarthy. Oh, yeah, devastated. I actually, I said this on, I was on the Ross Tucker podcast yesterday, and I said this. It's very rare.

I've been in the business for so long. That's very rare that football incurs emotions out of me, unless I'm watching the lines, of course. But I actually felt devastated when I got the news, McCarthy was going to miss the year. Like, that actually heard. hurt me. The good news is he's young. Yeah. He's super young. 20. Yeah. Is he?

21 now, yeah. He turns 22, I think, in January. So there's there's quarterbacks that are drafted after they're 22 years old. But obviously, you hate to waste a year that he can't play. There's still a lot of meaningful opportunity. I think there's a lot of value in being able to be observing and seeing, yeah, seeing, yeah, exactly, seeing what it's like to have an install of a game plan and the execution, the film process afterwards, seeing somebody get coached through his position, all of that's going to be really meaningful for JJ, but nothing's more meaningful than playing, right?

So we'll pick that up next year when it comes to Mr. J.J. McCarthy. Yes, sir. We got just a few minutes left, Joe. You want to roll through some of our top guys here so far in the preseason? We got to. Well, this is our preseason shout-out section, right? So just random players that stood out.

Let's do it. Let's talk about. Let's talk about your guy. Which one? Ray Davis. We're starting with Ray Davis. Ray Davis. How good was he?

Dude, he looks awesome. I've been telling people all offseason, man. I think he's got a shot to carve out a role. For one, he's already playing with the ones a little bit. Now, not full time or anything, but he's getting reps with the ones in games. That means a lot to me. Because the goal always was for him to have a role.

Obviously, it's taking over the starting job isn't necessarily realistic. But he's already proven he deserves to be. out there with the ones. And when you watch the tape, it's so good. So he's got a lot of wiggle. I saw a decisive runner with good vision, patience, burst, making guys miss, Joe. He had that what, like a 20 yard run the other day. That was awesome. Yo, can we pause and talk about that run? Yeah. So he good job pressing the line of scrimmage, runs to daylight, cuts back across the field. The move that he made on that safety while getting tackled was disgusting. I'm like, okay, okay, Ray.

Interesting, the gap zone distribution, right? He ran the ball eight times seven gap runs. Yeah. Which I think, I think that unlocks the best of Ray Davis. I think that's his best and the bills will run a lot of like, they'll run a lot of dart. They'll run a lot of duo. And so those will be good runs for.

Yeah, those will be great runs for James like, or for Ray. I think the question here is like, how much workload does he take away from James Cook who was, I mean, 281 touches. last year. And James Cook slowed down towards the end of the season. And like he winds up having over 300 touches last year, which is foreign for James Cook, whether his time in Georgia or his rookie season in Buffalo. It was, I would even maybe argue that it was an irresponsible jump in touches year over year. And I don't think the bills want a running back to touch the ball that many times. And so I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity for Ray Davis, especially because the one,

I mean, I have a lot of criticism for James Cook. But one of them is that like, he, just doesn't always run behind his pads. You can't always feel him, right? He's kind of a slashing style of runner. And that's frustrating for an offense that runs a lot of gap. And like, and for Ray Davis and to listen to Sean McDermott talking about, hey, you can almost sense that he's like looking for contact. And Joe Brady after the game's talking about, I love that he didn't go out of bounds, right? I think they want that physical element to how they're going to run the football. I don't think James Cook's going to bring that. I think Ray Davis is going to. Now, I'm not saying that he's going to supplant James Cook as the lead running back. But,

I think that you could see 150 touches around there for Ray Davis this year, which is obviously then going to bleed a lot away from James Cook, which I think in turn means that you're going to have two backs healthier for longer and you won't maybe have the late season decline from James Cook. And literally every meaningful metric, in particular, like yards after contact is where you could really see those numbers start to dwindle, one of the bills needed in the most. for sure the finishing runs was definitely something that stood out

you mentioned not going out of bounds there was one play where he did get to the right sideline and he was naturally getting cut off it's not like he didn't run out of bounds voluntarily he was getting cut off that was the only way to go but he was like hey if I'm going out right now I'm taking you down with me

and he just leveled the defensive back that was running him out of bounds I mean it was you know drop the hat dropped the shoulders and the defensive bag was a little a little sore getting up after that, you know, and I love that. I think that's great. This is for fantasy now, this kind of stinks, right? Because James Cook was reliable in fantasy. Touchdowns aren't there, right, though. And then now this might be a timeshare at some point this year. But for NFL purposes, especially if you're a Bill's fan, this is a great development. I mean, just having two guys that can do

it. Davis is more of that power runner. Cook has a little more speed. Both great in the past game, too. That's worth noting. I think a lot of people think Cook will be the automatic third down guy. I'm not sure that's automatic. Yeah, I'm not sure either. Cook dropped what, like six touchdown passes last year. Right. It was kind of insane. And had a couple fumbles in the red zone too, right? You know?

Yeah. You know, elephant doesn't forget. You had made a comment to me about Ray Davis in his size. What do you think? Like, the bills are listing him at 5-8, 220. Yeah. He had the combine. He's 5-8 and 3-8's 2-11. At the senior boy, he was like, 226. What, what do you think? I mean,

You said that to me, and I'm convinced to believe that he looks trim. I think he's a little lighter than senior ball weight. I think he cut down at the combine to run fast or look fast in the drills. Right. But the way he's finishing runs, I think he looks 215, 220, though, for sure. 215 was the number in my head. Yeah. But he's got the, he's under 5'9, so he's got that dense build about him.

So he's, dude, yeah. It's like, do you think about Darren Sprouls? Darren Sprouls wasn't small. He was just short. You know what I? mean. Dude, his thighs were as big as mine. I'm 250 pounds,

you know, like, yeah. All right, that was a lot of Ray Davis talk, but needed to happen, needed to happen. What you got? Let me do, let me do Sione Vaki. Now, what, third string running back for the lion slash special teams ace. Dude, he looked awesome.

I don't know if you saw his, his tape. I didn't see anything. So I'm excited to learn from you right now about what he looked like. Everything we said about Ray Davis was also true for Sione, ran with authority, decisiveness vision. Dan Campbell made a comment yesterday is like, we did not expect him to be where he's at as far as like actually understanding running back nuance because he didn't really do it at Utah. He was like everyone's hurt, everyone's dead. Let's throw Sione out there. And it worked, but it was like, it was sloppy. It was a lot of improv, a lot of weird cutbacks. No, dude, he looks awesome. You know, the run keys are there. He's understanding how to peak gaps to force defenders into the wrong space. Really, really advanced. stuff from a guy who's got so little reps at running back and then just the authority behind his pads making guys miss a couple juke moves and then in the past game he caught what four

passes for 80 yards or something ridiculous like that i mean just looked really comfortable they even motioned him out to the slot for a play and threw him a little slant behind the behind the linebacker really nice stuff i mean just looks you know i don't want to be too too declarative and prophetic about it but david montgomery makes a lot of money maybe after the season they're thinking sione might replace this guy. I don't know. That's, that's kind of where my head's at right now. Am I dreaming, or is he getting some kick return opportunity as well? Absolutely. Yeah, he's, that's what, that's actually the main reason they drafted him. They were like, oh, new kick return rules. There's an opportunity for us to find an edge. And so they drafted him basically to be the guy

there. Now, I don't think he'll be the only guy back there, but they like what he brings to that for sure. How about Xavier worthy with the chiefs? Those overrouts are going to be lethal, right? Two big plays. One from, one was from Wentz, the other from a home. But you think about overroutes, it's one of my favorite, it's one of my favorite routes that I see in the NFL, because it's, especially for a guy like Xavier Worthy, nobody's going to carry Xavier Worthy, right? Nobody can run with them. But then also, so it stresses man, but also against Zone, it's a guy that's, there's going to have to be good communication and squeezing routes and being able to deal with that. And now you have Pat Mahomes throwing over routes to Xavier Worthy. It's tough, right?

That's a tough scene. very tough scene I think in his short sample size he forced three busted coverages for the lines secondary and it was simply what you just said when you're running those overrouts against zone there's got to be great communication

and when there's not that's a touchdown and that's what happened he's so fast he transitions from zone to zone so fast from no one's carrying him and drop him and drop him off to the next defender so it creates a lot of stress on the defense and there was three different busts I think he

caught two of them, but there was three different busts there that he forced the line secondary into. That level of verticality that is going to be restored in this chief's offense, boy, they just feel inevitable. You're not smother worthy at the line of scrimmage. We know that that's his weakness, right? You get him. You can scheme around this, switch releases and putting him in the slot. I would just suggest you get overly physical. What's that, what's that, the dolphins motion? What is it called that they fast for? whatever it is, that motion. Do you do that with Worthy, right?

Yeah, they will. Don't worry. They're not showing you that in the preseason, that's for sure. Boy. So I still think this is going to be Rashi's offense. I think he'll be the target hog. But man, the combo of him

and Rashi's such a good zone beater and so good after the catch. It kind of reminds me of a little bit of Debo Iyuk going here, but with a, you know, souped up quarterback in Mahomes. This could be scary, dude. I'm like, I think Mahomes is going to go on a revenge tour this year. God help us.

all. Anybody else you want to get to? No, I think I'm good. What about you? I'd love to mention Malik neighbors, right? Because it, it felt like in the first game, you know, he's putting up the mailbag and wants a ball. Yeah. They definitely got him the ball. Certainly, certainly some ball placement issues that made things a little bit tougher for him. But I think you got a little taste of the playmaking ability. Obviously, the big catch along the sideline where he elevated for it was a big moment. But

they handed him the ball one time and you saw, I thought it was a good carry as well. So someone's got to make place in this offense, right? Like someone's got to do it. And I think there's going to be so much opportunity for Malik neighbors this year. And I thought we saw a little bit of a taste of what that can look like. Now, hopefully the quarterback play can be reasonable enough for him to have a chance. But think about some of the ways that they try to get Darius Slayton going.

I think people forget that like over the last two years, Darius Slayton has been one of the best yards after catch receivers in the NFL. I think he's like over six yards after catch per reception, each of the last two seats. seasons. He's been like, I'm pretty sure the leading receiver for the for the Giants. And so he's a little bit overlooked. But I think imagine what they asked Slayton to do and giving that to neighbors with more volume. You know, I think there's going to be a lot on this plate in year one. And they, I mean, the Giants, I think are the biggest role of the Dice team going right now with it being year three for dayball and Shane and, you know, living and dying with Daniel Jones and some of their roster decisions that they've made. I think there's a lot riding on on this. year. But if they're going to have any level of success, I think Malik Neighbors is going to be at the front of that. Yeah, Malik Neighbors has been both impressive and disappointing at the same time for me. First of all, I'll acknowledge the opportunity he has. He is definitely a candidate to be a rookie that gets 140 targets for the fantasy listeners. Each of the last three years, we've had a

rookie wide receiver finish in the top six among all receivers. So Neighbors is probably my first or second pick to be that guy this year. Stud. That said, it's been relatively sloppy at times. I don't think his get-off has been great, get off the line of scrimmage, and the route running just, this was an issue in college for me.

This is why I had Rome cleanly ahead of him in my pre-draft rankings. I just thought there's a little nuance to be developed there with his route running. He improvs a little bit, and so that's my only thing. I think he just needs to clean up some of what he's doing and he'll be fine.

Well, the explosiveness and talents obviously there. I agree with you on that. I don't think I don't look at the league neighbors at all as a very polished route runner. But I know that day ball is going to give guys a lot of freedom, right? Like when he was in Buffalo, the big, the big thing was get open catch the ball. Like, and I think Diggs and Allen had like wristbands that had whatever, I'm not going to try to do it, but whatever the acronym for get open catch the ball is, they had that on their wristbands. Like that's what they wanted to do.

And so I'm wondering if they're going to try to extend some of that latitude to, Malik neighbors to, hey, maybe you're not the most crafty route runner at this point in time. You can just win with athleticism. Just get open and catch a ball. For sure. All right, Joe, that's going to do it. This is probably going to conclude our preseason talk because next week, I'm out of town. We're going to pre-record the show.

Not expecting a lot of starters to play. So we're going to get into some more season preview type conversations, which I think will be fun. Definitely be sure to check that out. Hey, if you're listening right now, on Spotify or Apple, make sure you go to YouTube. go to the Fantasy Points YouTube page, click like, click subscribe. I think the video element of the show is the best way to take it in. Usually like the first segment or so goes up on YouTube.

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