Fantasy Football Daily - NFL First Read | Bold Takes + Way Too Early 2025 NFL Draft Talk

Episode Date: September 3, 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 give some bold predictions and start talking way too early about the 2025 draft class. 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 Use promo code - SCOREMORE for 10% off of your subscriptions Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Read Tom Brolleys Best Bets For Week 1 here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/brolleys-best-bets-week-1#/ FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Joe, football's back. College football week one in the books. We're staring down the barrel of NFL week one. We made it. It's freaking here. Let's freaking go. Yes, sir. We have made it.

Boy, I'm excited, man. Like, week one of the NFL season, I'm not sure there's much better than that. Because hope springs eternal, man. Everybody's O and O. And as you know, every fan base thinks their team's going to win at least 10 games and go to the playoffs. Sad reality. That's not going to happen.

for a lot of you. But the optimism that exists and then the fact that you know that week one can be a liar and then you still go through it and you overreact to it, which we'll do next week, which we will absolutely do next week. But man, it's, it's that. And then it's, I always love the opening week of college football because it just gets its own showcase, right? Like no NFL to think about they, and they do it well. It's like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. It's like this marathon. And I can't get enough of it, man. It's back football's here. I love it. And It's going to be even more excited because I get to navigate this season with you, Brett Whitefield. I'm the NFL First Read podcast.

Let's go. And for those who have, you know, been loyally following us through this off season, a fun announcement we have, which shouldn't really be announced. This has been the plan the whole time. But now that we are in season, Joe and I are going to two, two episodes a week. So you'll be getting this episode on Tuesday of this week. And there's another one on Thursday. So Thursday's episode is where we're really going to dive into previewing NFL week one of the season. season this episode however joe we figured we could spend a little since there's really only been some

cfb games played spend a little extra time getting into some of the cfb you know landscape maybe talk some quarterbacks some impressive performances hand out some game balls but before we do that i think you know you and i talk pre show we kind of want to lay down some bold takes for the nfl season here maybe something we want to really hang our hat on get on record before the season starts you know that way we can, you know, take our victory laps as needed down the road. Things that most people aren't thinking, I guess, is the way to look at it. So I'm going to start us off with this, Joe. I have a bold take for you.

This one's really bold. I think it's really bold. Because I've seen, you know, the NFC South is a really hotly contested division. There's not like a great team in the division. So I think you mentioned it's oh and no. Every fan base thinks they can win. I think Saints fans think the Saints can win that division this year. But I think the opposite is going to happen.

In fact, my bold take right now is that the New Orleans Saints start 0 and 6. And in order to try to save his job, Dennis Allen is forced to change quarterbacks. Derek Carr gets benched in favor for either Jake Hainer or Spencer Rattler. But when you look at the schedule, Joe, it's not pretty. They start with the home game against the Panthers, obviously winnable game to create this take. I have to say they're losing that game. I think they're going to lose that game. The Dallas Cowboys next, followed by the Eagles.

the Falcons, the Chiefs, and the Bucks, all of those teams, in my opinion, are significantly better the New Orleans Saints are right now. And I think 0 and 6 is happening, dude. And I think this is the short track to Dennis Allen being unemployed, to be quite honest with you, Joe. They get past Carolina. It could be smooth sailing.

You know, Carolina week one, that could be tough. That's a new coaching staff. A lot of turnover on that roster. But if Carolina starts that season one and up, Oh, yeah, I think it's smooth sailing the rest of the way to rack up the rest of the losses. Now, do you think this is more about the schedule or more about what you think of the Saints this year? Because you got to think, whatever you want to think about the Saints and Derrick Carr, defensively, they should be decent. Yeah, and like go back on the last podcast, we did.

We broke down every division outcome. We talked Saints a little bit in there. And one of the things we've mentioned was that defense that is pretty solid year over year. They seem to be really good. They have a good secondary. They're lacking D-line talent, though. I think the defense keeps them, like, in games for the most part. But, man, it's both for me.

The roster is just not in a good spot. This is, like, the third offseason in row where they really haven't had an offseason. Other than the rookie class coming in, there's no notable upgrades anywhere. And then you look at this. This schedule sucks. Like, yeah, Carolina, they very well might win. They might go one in five. But, man, even if they get past Carolina, the Cowboys, a much better team.

And you and I don't even really love the Cowboys. We think they got issues. The Eagles, I think they're one of the cream of the crop and the NFC. And then the Falcons, probably the Falcons are the Bucks are favorite to win that division. And they're playing both of them. And then they get the Chiefs. Like this is really tough. Three of those are road games.

I really do think this is a murderer's row of a start to a season for a schedule. And honestly, this might be the best thing for the Saints. I think they need a hard reset. I think they need to embrace a rebuild. and letting it play out. They got to get their cap right. They got to get some talent. And they can continue to try to put band-aids over things and win seven or eight games.

But what's the point? Get the reset. It's time to move on for Mickey Loomis. I think he's expired as a general manager. And this whole idea that he never is willing to trade back is insane to me. Right? He's just got weird. Everything he does is weird.

Dennis Allen's not a serious coach. So, as much as you hate to think about that as a same. fans fan may be entering in a season knowing that we don't think much of what's going to happen. This might be the best opportunity for you. So that way in three, four years, we can once again talk about you as a team that's legitimate in the NFC. That's a great way of looking at Joe. All right, Brett, I'm going to stay on brand here and talk about the Buffalo Bills. And this is really kind of something that you've been stirring a little bit in my mind, but I'm ready to kind of go in.

And this has to do with the bill's running back situation. And I know we got a lot of fantasy listeners. and maybe James Cook as the bell cow running back for the Buffalo Bills is something that excites you, right? A guy that had 281 touches in a good offense last year. Folks, I'm very concerned about him replicating that level of volume. I don't think the bills wanted to give James Cook the ball that much. I think Latavius Murray last year, really the tires fell off there. And Damian Harris, I think was going to be a big part of what they wanted to do.

He got injured with the neck injury fairly early in the season. Now, to James Cook's credit, he got the ball a lot. and he had a lot of yards. But I don't think that tells the story of James Cook. James Cook benefits from a lot of yards before contact, which you could give James Cook some credit for, right? Like he can make some people miss and make those metrics a little bit better. I don't think it's as much that. I think he gets a lot of displacement, a lot of space. And boy, oh, boy, he doesn't get anything after contact. And here's the reality of James Cook. He's a very limited football player. Okay. He's a guy that is a slashing agile style runner that,

that has some speed and big playability, make you miss ability in space. But in terms of grinding out yards and being a physical, tough runner between the tackles that you can field his pads, you know, and really just be assertive, you don't get that. I sometimes I call him twinkle toes James Cook. And that's because that's the way he presses the line of scrimmage and navigates tight quarters. And then doesn't pass block, drops the ball like crazy. He's supposed to be his great receiving back. So he's just a very limited football player.

And the bill is drafted Ray Davis in the fourth round. And the more I think about this season, the more I think that Ray Davis is going to significantly eat into James Cook's workload. Just a more complete player. More physical runner between the tackles, probably a better player in terms of hands as a receiver. Maybe he's not the rot runner James Cook can be. But if he's going to drop the ball like he did last year, Josh Allen didn't want to throw in the ball. So I think that you're going to see James Cook go from like a guy that got 281 touch. touches top 10 in the league. I think it's going to come down, 240, 2.30, kind of in that,

still a lot of opportunity. But I think Ray Davis is looking at 150 or more touches this year for the bills. And I think you're going to see that backfield shift more and more to Ray Davis as James Cook will enter a contract year next year. And Ray Davis, you can like them all you want. He's a little bit older for a prospect. You got to get what you can out of him right now if you're the bills. I think Ray Davis is going to really, really eat away at James Cook's touches in 2024. Oh my gosh. I love it. I've been saying it. I'm glad you're on board. I will one thing I want to you said he might not be as good of a route runner as James Cook. I think Ray is a fantastic route runner. There's a little bit different though, right?

A little different, but there's a clip I posted on Twitter. If you just, you know, at my handle at BG Whitefield, Ray Davis, you'll find it. It's a, it's a compilation of Davis being targeted downfield. He had like seven or eight catches of downfield targets last year. That's 20 yards or more downfield. That's insane for a college running back. That literally never happens. You might see one.

And generally speaking, it doesn't matter how good a running back is. He's coming out in college. You always say, oh, I wish we had more tape of him catching the ball. But no, Kentucky found a way to get him the ball downfield. And he's got a couple reps where he's just absolutely cooking a safety or a linebacker one-on-one.

on with the route running. Impressive stuff. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live, bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple.

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggetcassino.com for details. Please play responsibly. How do you feel about James Cook and pass pro? Because I think this could be something that tilts the... He's terrible. Right. Yeah, yeah, he's not.

He doesn't offer anything in pass protection. Where Ray Davis, I think what I liked about Ray Davis at Kentucky was I thought he was at a minimum, a very good processor in terms of pass pro and where he's supposed to help. I thought he had some technique stuff to cleaned up. He's a guy that likes to throw his shoulder. Just square, get yourself square, buddy, get your hands fit, leverage your hips, you're going to be fine. And I think you saw a couple of encouraging reps in preseason of him doing that. Meanwhile, James Cook blunder in the preseason that led to an interception.

So, right. Man, I don't, I just, I see Ray Davis as a more complete player. And the redeeming quality for James Cook has always been receiving ability. Yep. Got to stop dropping the ball, man. Right. And now you got a guy who's better in pass pro and maybe as good as a receiver. then that's the thing. Like if it comes down to who Josh trusts more, it Ray's definitely got a long runway to earn that because he does a lot of the little things well. And so, you know,

the guy who's playing most of the third downs is probably the guy you want on your fantasy team. I'm just saying. Well, and I think that the bills are going to lean even more heavily into being a gap run scheme this year, which favors a guy like Ray Davis. And they love to pull their tackles, man.

Right. They pull Brown. They pull Dawkins, the time. They run dart over and over again. Surprise the NFL, can't figure out to stop it. But that favors Ray Davis and the style of runner that he is, I just feel like the opportunity is going to be there. Awesome. One other one is very similar to what you just talked about,

Chase Brown versus Zach Moss. I was going to do a full rant on this, but it's just the situation reminds me of each other where I think a lot of people are assuming Zach Moss is the lead guy there. The Bengals drafted Chase Brown last year, and I think he is a much better scheme fit for this team. And everything I've seen from him is really impressive. He's, you know, obviously he's got legit, you know, zero to 60 acceleration. He's an awesome straight line sprinter. But he works really well on outside zone run. And Zach Taylor is stubborn of the head coach as he is. He doesn't deviate from the fact that they're going to be an outside zone heavy team and

65 to 75% of their carries are going to be outside zone plays. And so, you know, I think Chase Brown is just a much better fit for what they do. Zach Moss is another one. of these guys who has been better in more of a downhill run scheme. When he did pop last year as a runner, it was in a Colts offense that was, you know, duo and inside zone with read option attached to it. And he could get downhill, get his pad square. He just doesn't have the juice to really thrive in the outside zone stuff. So I think it's another situation similar to the bills where I think Brown is a better receiver. He's better in pass pro. And he's a better scheme fit. I think over time, he slowly overtakes Zach Moss as the starter there.

Well, so interesting about the Sincere running back situation. Say what you want about Joe Mixon. He was the Belkow, right? He was really the guy that you thought every year, whether it was Chris Evans or Samajap, that they were meaningfully going to eat into the workload of Joe Mixon. Never really happened. And so I'm kind of at least interested in how they approach this to start the year. I think you're right.

I think Chase Brown is going to be the guy eventually there. But certainly they're going to give Moss's chance. what does this look like early on as an offense bet it's been really accustomed to kind of feeding one guy yeah something about chase brown that people forget he had a 1600 yard rushing season in the big 10 yeah i don't know right right i mean yeah like what the heck yeah yeah all right dude let's move on to some college football topics man first week we had a lot of i think all of the top 25 played right this week um it was but they usually played cupcakes and the scores were often 49 to zero. We did get some meaningful football games, Joe, so I wanted to start there.

What had your attention this week? We have a two-minute warning in college football now, but for some reason, I don't want to call it that. Can we start there? It's a two-minute warning. It's a two-minute warning. It just is. So with that out of the way, man, a lot of things stand out to me. I kind of want to start with Colorado. This is obviously a fascinating situation with Dion Sanders and year two and just kind of the natural conversations that exist. But I always, like, when I talk college football, a lot of it's through the lens of prospects.

Yeah. They've got two of the more fascinating prospects. Oh, ever? Right. And Chadir Sanders, a quarterback and Travis Hunter, the player. Like, can we start there with, can we start with Travis Hunter? Because I'd love to get your takes on this. He's a rare guy, man.

Like, just extremely rare in terms of this blend of unbelievable athleticism, unbelievable skill and unbelievable football instincts, right? Like just a rare, rare, rare player. And for Colorado, he plays corner and he plays receiver. And of course, that's going to lead to a lot of different debates. And you're seeing it all over the place already. I mean, I'm on X. And we've got Robert Griffin III, Antonio Brown and Johnson Gardner Johnson,

debating this, right? It's week one. Imagine what this is going to look like when this guy declares for the draft and this is all we talk about for three, four, five months. And so we know the money is that wide receiver. I'm inclined to believe this, Brett. I think that the NFL is too advanced of football, that you have to specialize in something.

Now, do I think there's a world where he can play corner and then moonlight at receiver and kind of get some opportunities? I feel like that makes the most sense. But are you going to tell the guy that he's going to, if he peaks out as a player, he's going to make $15 million less a year for playing corner or like do you just say, hey, we want the big plays on offense. The point, no matter where you play him,

I think he's going to give you big plays. He's going to give you game changing plays. But what are you doing, man? What's your thoughts? What's your plan here for Travis? So I never considered the fact that maybe he does try to play both in the NFL. Oh, so you've nixed that. You never thought that was a reality.

Well, like I haven't even gone. I haven't even thought that that could be a reality. So I haven't even, I haven't mixed it because I haven't even, Dovinda if that's a possibility. We haven't seen anything like this since what Charles Woodson, and he was a part-time offensive player, not a full-time offensive player. I think his best offensive season was like a 700 total yard season, which is good if you're a full-time corner who won a Heisman,

but it's not, you know, it's not what Travis Hunter is doing right now. So I think for me it's going to come down to what is more valuable, what helps the team most from a roster construction standpoint. And I think he's a good enough wide receiver. that I would put him there. You know, giving your quarterback a weapon is the most valuable thing you can do in my opinion. Protecting him or giving him a weapon. So I'm

playing him at wide receiver, I think. He's won me over. I know the consensus coming into the year was that he's a better corner than he is wide receiver. I don't think that necessarily matters, right? I don't. What's his best thing as a corner? The ball skills, right? Ball skills and instinct. The guy makes plays in a ball that you don't think he should make. Over

and over. He like runs routes for the receivers. It's insane. It's absolutely insane. Yeah, he's special, man. Like, he's a ton of fun. I am curious to see what happens when they play a little bit tough. I know in North Dakota State's no slouch. Like, they're, I know they're getting made fun of Colorado for struggling to beat them,

but that team is, you know, national champion year over year in the division they play or a conference they play on, whatever we call it. Is it a division? No, it's a whole separate league, whole separate league. Whole other league. Yeah, yeah, whole other league. FCS. So I am curious to see what happens when.

he has to go against better corners, but I don't know that he really faces any of this year, does he? I don't know. I mean, he did well last year. So and Shadur is the man, too. Like, we haven't talked about him yet, but I think Shadur is firmly, you know, making the case for QB1 right now. He was my QB1 in my summer scouting. I wasn't moved off of that one bit watching all the quarterbacks this week. I think he is awesome. He does a lot of things really well. Go in there. I've, I've watched some of Shadur to have an idea. but you sound like you love them. Yeah, so I preach this all the time on whatever show I'm on,

whether this show or anyone else's show, I love quarterback-centric qualities, things that make you good at playing the position of quarterback. So typically I favor guys that, you know, they have a really good lower half mechanics, really good throwing mechanics, you know, accurate throwers. They can get through progressions and read defenses. is they want to stick in the pocket to, you know, deliver the ball in as the play's designed,

in structure, in rhythm. They're willing to stand in the pocket and take hits and throw the ball. There's no one in this class that even comes close to Shedur's willingness to stand there and get absolutely mollywop while delivering an absolute dime downfield. I mean, the show he put on the other night was unbelievable. But for me, it's all those things he does really well. The lower half mechanics, he actually is getting through. progressions he's you know getting to a second and third read and throwing the ball to them it's not

just a one and done situation like like a guy like jackson dartnell miss ton of talent awesome you know accurate thrower creative ability but it's one it's that offense is one and done it's basically rpo centric first read not there cool improvise we're sure doer's like no one not there i'll go to two not there go to three deliver the ball while taking a shot it's it's awesome stuff like it's rare to see a quarterback getting through progressions the way Shadur does. So and then for me, the lower half mechanics, that consistency in his base, his ability to move and reset, to slide and reset, I love all of that. It's going to lead to consistent accuracy in the NFL.

And then I think like, I just want this on record too. Like, I think people discredit him because of who his father is. And his father has kind of made a spectacle of the whole thing. Right. And I think the instinct is, oh, Shadur is getting hyped because Dion is the one hyping him. But I'm like, if you actually watch the tape, Shadur, I think he's actually playing better than the hype surrounding him right now. And I don't think we should penalize him for his dad making a spectacle of it. His dad being this goofy coach who has all these weird habits and recruiting habits and, you know, favor certain players.

Whatever you got with Dion, I just don't think we should put that on Shadur. I think Dion hurts him. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, more than anything. He's a fascinating player. He's a guy that I've seen enough of to be from. familiar, but like I don't, I don't want to go in on really where I feel about him. I just know that there's a lot of high level stuff.

Yeah. And I think one of the interesting things about Shadir is how experience he is, right? He's been like a four-year starter. Like, you're not going to have any questions about the amount of reps that he has going into the NFL. I think it's going to be interesting to see what type of market he goes to. Yeah. And how it's dealt with, right?

Like, it's going to be, that's just going to be, there's going to be a little bit of a circus. That's going to come with him. And I feel like that's a little unfair because it feels like he's a very skilled player. I wanted to be able to write his own story. It doesn't have to be always about him being Dion's son. Yeah, and I didn't even, dude, I didn't even get into the high level traits. I just went with the safe traits that make him, you know, make his game translate to the NFL. We can talk about armed talent and creative ability.

He has all that in his bag, too. I just really wanted to focus on those, you know, the consistent traits I like. The things I liked about J.J. McCarthy, for example. The things I liked about Pat Mahomes when he was coming out. Should do or does all that stuff really well. What are the thoughts you have on quarterbacks? I know this is something you definitely wanted to get into today. We've scratched the surface with Sanders.

But last year was Caleb Williams, Drake May, right? Like we kind of had this thought of, okay, those are your top guys. And we, Jaden Daniels entered the chat. And so did J.J. McCarthy. And Bo Nix did his thing. And we got, we wound up getting there with a lot of quarterbacks. Where do you feel like this class stands at this point? Yeah, so I know a lot of, especially your dynasty fantasy players are a little antsy because we don't have like Caleb and Drake were basically penciled in as one, two.

Drake ends up going third and Daniel slipped in, but we knew we had two studs. I don't think people are very comfortable right now with the QB landscape. But let me let me talk you off a ledge real quick. I think there's eight guys in this draft, or potentially in this draft. I guess some of them might not declare, right? Eight guys that could really step up to be dudes. I mentioned Shudu already. I'm going to give you some other names.

Connor Wegman from Texas A&M, Cam Ward from Miami, Carson Beck from Georgia, Jackson Dart from Ole Miss, Quinn Ewers from Texas, Drew Aller from Penn State, and Jalen Milrow from Alabama. And I didn't list them in any specific order.

That's not how I have them ranked or anything. Just how I wrote them down. These eight guys all have the stuff to be a top five pick in the NFL. Now, they all need to take that next step, right? But I think we're in a really good spot with Shudor-Sanders. You know, I want to talk a little Cam Ward. He, I tweeted yesterday that he was my biggest, you know, coming out of summer scouting to see what he did on Saturday.

This guy has a chance to just shoot up people's, you know, boards and improve opinion of him because he has all the tools. Look at a Carson Beck with Georgia and the experience he's getting playing for that top franchise, or I said franchise, that top program where they're always competitive. They're the number one seed this year. It took a little while to settle in on Saturday, but once he got going, he looked good. he's the most comfortable quarterback in the class throwing into tight windows, which is something you don't get a lot of in college because everything is so wide open, see it and throw it kind of stuff. I mentioned Jackson, Dart,

and Ole Miss. He'll have scheme concerns coming out, but he has all the tools. Quinn Ewers, Texas, a little bit of a lollipop arm, but from a game management standpoint and experience and, you know, he's got this weird, he's got,

it's weird to say he has arm talent because he doesn't have a cannon for an arm, but he has all these different platforms you can throw to and little flicks and he's got this creative element to him but he doesn't have a monster arm it's kind of it's a really strange composition of talent there and then drew aller and penn state he's kind of your big drake may type of quarterback and then jalen milro like if you're looking for that next elite runner of the football like this guy this guy's awesome as a quarterback runner he's got an absolute missile for an arm he just has to clean up all the margins right like you know what 12 interceptions last year 10 fumbles like he's got to clean all that up single-handedly cost him a uh uh

national title run last year. So can he clean that stuff up? Well, I guess we'll see. But I think we're in a really good spot, Joe. I think at the end of the day, if four or five of these guys declare, you're going to have four or five first round picks. So I'm pretty excited about this class, actually. And I think monitoring them as they go through the season is going to be a lot of fun

because we don't already have that number one guy, that number two guy. Yeah. You know, last year I was really early on J.J. McCarthy coming up as one of the guys. And then you had the vets like Knicks and Pennix, where everyone knew they were pretty good, but didn't know how the NFL would feel about them. So I'm just, dude, we got eight guys. And there's even more than that, too. Like, a Kyron drones from Virginia Tech.

Like nobody's talking about him, but he's like a Cam Newton type, 6-5-2-45, absolute just piss missile for an arm. And he's big and physical, and you can dial up QB run with him. He'll just truck linebackers, like really, really fun player there. Garrett Nussmire, LSU. He didn't, you know, didn't, I would say, kind of fell apart in the second half yesterday. But, I mean, he's another quarterback who, that's one game. We're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater for one game, right?

He's got a chance to really elevate himself this year. So there's a lot of 10 quarterbacks right there. I had two in my holster, and you spoiled one of them there with Nussmeyer. Because I really liked Nussmeyer watching him on Monday. It was a Sunday night. We're watching him against USC. I know that maybe the game didn't finish that well. But I mean, I'm looking for traits, right?

And I thought he showed a lot in that game that gets me excited. And the guy on the other side, Miller Moss, right? had the big, was it the big bowl game last year? And it was funny about both those quarterbacks, Miller Moss and Garrett Nussmeyer, well, they played behind the number one and the number two pick of the draft last year. Right. So like you mentioned about the volume of quarterbacks that are in, in the conversation, these are the types of guys that could certainly emerge. And I thought both of those guys honestly showcase themselves well under those circumstances, you know, neutral sight and all that. But it's encouraging. And I think

it is fun that we're not going into this with Trevor Lawrence or like last year we knew Caleb Williams, whoever that guy is. This will kind of write itself out. And I think that should make for a very competitive environment and probably a lot of opinions. And that's okay, right? Like the worst thing you can have is just a bunch of group think around quarterbacks. Like check them out, see how they speak to you and let's talk about it. But it's it's going to be one of those fun years to sort out this quarterback class. And some of those guys didn't even play well. in week one. Like I was, you know, the Wigman guy from. Oh my gosh. Texas A&M, that was a tough scene, man. That was, that was tough to watch.

But I kind of figured that was going to be a defensive struggle between Texas A&M in Notre Dame. Like both of those teams, defensive-minded coaches and Freeman and Mike Alcoe and new starting quarterbacks. The over under on that game was 46.5. Brett, I put a few bucks on the under there and I comfortably hit on that. Yeah, smart man. I didn't expect Connor to be, to struggle as much as he did, though. I know Notre Dame's got a good defense. For me, you know, making a couple ill-advised throws, a couple inaccurate throws is one thing. But when you're routinely not feeling it, not seeing it, hitting your back foot, you got guys open, but you're not letting the ball go.

Like, there's something going on there between the ears that's bugging me with him. I know he doesn't have a ton of experience, right? I think what do you have, 100 dropbacks last year? So little experienced guy, the turnover really plays are one thing. He'll clean that up. but just the speed in which he's processing and playing at was not good enough. You know, if I had to guess his time to throw last night or two nights ago, whatever it was, was near four seconds.

I mean, it was, it was, dude, it was rough. And yeah, Notre Dame's defense is good. They were smothering some of the receipts. There were dropbacks for no one was open for sure. But there were also plenty where the concept he's working is literally open right in front of his eyes. And he's not, he's not hitting his back foot and letting it rip. There was a third down. He took a sack on where he has, it's like a, it's a, it's a, it's a,

drive concept. He's got the drive wide open in front of his face and doesn't throw the ball and then takes a 12 yard sack. I just, that stuff's not for me. So he, he's the one that, you know, and like I said, we're not going to throw it all out because of one week, right? But he's the one I left feeling really concerned about. And I know a lot of guys are really high on him. The arm talent with him is, is allegedly insane, even though we, we've only seen it for like 100 dropbacks. But yeah, I know, like Trevor sick him over at PFF. Like he's, I think Connor's his guy. And so I'm going to give Connor every chance in the world to prove you know to come to come back and and and reprove himself but uh yeah that was that was the one guy i kind of had concerns about this week i definitely don't have a guy yet but the one that really

speaks to me every time i watch him is cam lord you brought him up he's now at miami and man this think about these creative playmakers that have been going high in the draft he's kind of got that stuff right really really instinctive guy and creative with how he executes and you know it's not always between the lines, but boy, man, when he rips it, he can fit the ball into some tight windows. He's got athleticism. He's a player that I'm very excited to watch this season at Miami. And Miami absolutely destroyed Florida, which brings me to my question, is Florida ever going to be good again, man? Like, you talk about a Blue Broad program that just has just been going through coaches and you just don't feel like they've been on the right track in a long time.

I don't, it's sad too, because the recruiting is still not bad, right? They have talent. Right. We're still getting talent there. I don't know what is going on. I thought it was really funny. The way Florida positioned all of the recruits visiting was like right at the tunnel Miami walks out on and off on. And so when the gate, did you see this, Joe?

I'm familiar. I'm familiar with this, yes. So when the game was over and Miami's walking off the field, they have to walk by all of the recruits Florida's hosting. And all of them go up to the recruits, start shaking hands, high five, and tell them, hey man don't commit to this sorry place come play for the you like we run florida and you could just like all the play all the recruits are getting hype the staff the florida staffers were trying so hard to push him along like but man that's that's that's i brought that up because it's kind of like a microcosm

of what's going on in florida right now florida's fallen behind both florida state and miami like now i think miami might be back their head coach mario christobal i know a lot of people think he's a goofball. Would you not run through a wall for that dude? The dude is getting me fired up every time. I'm like, I want to go to war with this guy. I think they're the team to watch, obviously, in Florida right now. And I know Florida State's been good the last couple of years, but I think Miami, man, with the foundation he's laying there is a really good program. And Cam Ward, you know, not much left to say about him after that performance. He was awesome. If you like what Caleb Williams brought to the table last year, you'll like Cam Ward, the off platform.

you know, out of structure stuff. He's, dude, he made some throws with weird arm angles the other day that were just absolutely jaw-dropping. Even the interception he threw was one of the craziest throws I've ever seen. But it got intercepted. But it was just like, you know, running one way, throwing back behind his body with like a sidearm throw, bending it around a linebacker's helmet. It was ridiculous.

I, my concerns for Florida accelerated at this moment in the game. I think it was 17 to 3, somewhere in the, like the middle of the. second quarter. And then Florida gets this was like a is a very long touchdown run by Montrell Johnson. Yeah. Right. 17 to 10. They give the ball back to Miami two minutes left in the half. And I'm watching this drive. And Florida has this defensive tackle number 21. It's got to be 500 pounds, Brett. Yeah. Got to be 500 pounds. It's a two minute end a half situation. And I'm like, this is really a guy that Florida is putting out there right now to rush the passer. Like this is where we're at. this is where we're at.

Can't do it. Well, the lack of foresight to know that Miami would be in a hurry up style offense, too, and they would basically trap that guy on the field is another. Even if you're 500 pounds, doesn't mean you're inherently bad at rushing the passer. Maybe he was a really good passenger, but you got to know he can't rush the pastor all out, 10 snaps in a row.

And you know Miami was going to trap him out there. So like, wow, weird lack of foresight there from that. I mean, I know that that's a very like specific thing, But I'm just like, can't do it. Can't do it. Yeah. It just shows you that they're, they're so in over their head that they're forgetting all the things in the margins.

Like that's, that's a margin that you can win in, right? Hey, we like this kid, but we got to, you know, they're running two minute hurry up, we probably can't have them on the field. Just speaking of margins, how about, how about Clemson? How about Clemson? It's like three minutes left in the third quarter. They're down three scores against Georgia. You feel like the defense is getting away from you, right?

Clemson was going to ride their defense in that game. They were no longer getting stops. Dabo punts. And Dabo is not a serious coach anymore. He's just not. He lost his coordinators. And boy, he just, they don't have a prayer. And on top of that, right, weird standards for players.

They don't use the portal. Like just modern college football has passed Dabo Sweeney by. Are we at the point where we got to wonder how much of his success was because of Brent Venables? Oh, are you kidding? 100% something we should be talking about. And the OCs that he had in the past. And obviously he had the Sean Watson and Trevor Lawrence. And that certainly helps.

But buddy, man, you can't be excited if you're a Clemson fan about Davo. No. You cannot be. No, and it's the sad part, too, is they were hanging tough with Georgia in the first half, the number one team in the country, the team everyone's expecting to run away with it this year. And then you just, it was basically coaching that cost you the game down the stretch. So, oh, it's tough. Meanwhile, Georgia looks like they're going to be an absolute just problem, right?

Their dudes are different. Their players are different than the rest of the world, man. You just watch it. These aren't the same people. Yeah, you know, I mentioned Carson Beck. It took him a while to settle into that game. Once he did, though, he looked really good. That's going to be a thing to watch with them because, like, if their offense is human,

they're beatable, I think. Their defense is really, really good. But if their offense is human, and that's, like, going to be a consistent thing. Because, you know, they lost Ladman-Connor. Manki and Brock Bowers and it's like Carson Beck has to figure out who his new guys are. It feels like towards end of that game he found him though, right? I forget the guy who replaced Bowers looks insane. Okay, it'll be just fine.

Yeah, I forget, I forget his name. But man, they'll be, uh, if they can figure out offense, they're going to be very, very tough to beat, man. Malachi, Stark's with, it was last year, it was a couple years ago, we get the Oregon game. So it was a couple of years ago, he made that crazy interception in week one. And then he does it again against Clemson, like that dude's got some crazy ball. skills. Crazy. Any other notes here in the top like 10, I think most of the games were duds, right?

Ohio State played Akron, Oregon played Idaho and struggled, though. That actually is noteworthy. Oregon. You would point that out. You would point that out. Why? Why? You said Ohio State struggle?

No, no, no, no. Oregon. Oregon. Okay. Ohio State mopped the floor with Akron, 52 to. Oregon won 24 to 14 against Idaho, who's not a good football team. A lot of new. A lot of new in Oregon.

A lot of new in Oregon. But they're, dude, they're ranked third in the country. It doesn't matter how new, like the expectations there are still national championship. And they, it wasn't until like late in the fourth. They got a hold of that game. Like it was tied pretty much the most of the game. So that was interesting. But Texas, you know, Colorado, they just beat the breaks off Colorado State.

Alabama, Western Kentucky, no contest. Ole Miss beat Furman by 76 points. Yeah. There was a lot of non-serious games. That's typical of week one and two in college football. But I do have a question. Do you know, are you familiar with the wide receiver from? Colorado State, Tori Horton, Jr.

I'm not. He's put up gaudy numbers the last couple of years, and he's stuck at a program like Colorado State, and it makes me wonder why this man didn't transfer. When you had guys like Trey Harris go to Ole Miss, who, you know, who's a transfer who's really good, you had the dude, C.J. Daniels go from Liberty to LSU. Tori Horton, Jr. could have played for any of these Power 5 schools

and been there number one. Instead, he decided to say at Colorado State and get beat by Texas 52 to 0. I don't understand the decision there. But anyways. Well, I mean, you can talk about impressive wide receivers. How about McMillan from Arizona? This guy looks like, was he, is Mike Evans 2.0?

Just big, long dude wins down the field, crazy ball skills. Yeah. And certainly a guy that made an impression in week one. Evans actually is a great. I didn't really think about that because he's huge like Evans. And Evans was a much better route runner than his archetype suggested he should be, right? That's Ted McMillan for sure. That's what I'm going with, by the way.

Ted McMillan, I can't say his name. So I'm just going Tet McMillan. for the rest of the season. 10 catches 304 yards and four touchdowns. Andy didn't play in like most of the second half. Like what? Yeah. Yeah.

Hello, sir. Welcome to a player that I'm very interested in watching. He was already basically consensus, the top 10 pick. And then he went and did that. And now he's, bro, yeah,

he's different though, a guy who moves like that at that size. And he's, he's such a long strider too. I think his speed takes you by surprise. It's like he doesn't have short choppy steps. You know, he's not like,

Like Malik neighbors is fast, but it's evident he's fast from the second he starts running. This Ted McMillan's so big. It's like you don't realize how fast the dude's moving until he's in the open field and just sprinting by corners running full speed. It's just, it's wild. This dude is an absolute baller, though. He's got everything you could want a receiver, you know, trait-wise, including elite body control and ball skills. I know that running backs don't matter, but does Ashton Genty matter from Boise State? like yes and I'm a proud Devi owner of many Ashton jantee shares this dude oh my gosh that was some

ridiculous tape the other day I guess George side what so how did you how did you where did you pick up the scent on this guy as a Boise State running back said you're devio yeah so like what we have so at fantasy points.com we have a Devy product our guy CFF guys or whatever Josh he's awesome he does all of our Devy rankings and so I just keep up with Devy stuff like I I really struggle with all the devi guys touting freshmen like true freshman I'm like you do other than like five star guys like jeremiah smith from ohio state who went crazy you just don't know but he's been anyways Josh has been touting janty for a while so every devi draft I had the last two years I've drafted him and now that's looking really nice dude I think he had to have

forced like 15 missed tackles the other day it was insane it was nasty yeah he's he's definitely got my attention. We'll see. We'll see if he goes in the first round, but it feels like he's got that type of makeup that makes you have these types of conversations about him at least. For sure. Did you happen to catch the Tennessee Chettony game? I'm familiar with Tennessee boat racing them, and obviously this new quarterback looks like he's pretty strong, but I mean, I didn't watch the game. Another player whose name I can't pronounce yet, I'll have to work on that. But yeah, Tennessee's quarterback, he looks to be the real deal. Joe, I know the SEC's crowded. If he is the real deal. If he's as good as we saw the other day

all year, what's the ceiling for Tennessee? Because they have a lot of talent on that team. Yeah, they got, and they got other, like you said, there's other players, James Pierce looks like he's going to be a real stud at edge rusher. Yeah, you know, some of this new stuff in college football with the way that

the conferences are and some of the matchups that you think you need to see, you won't get a chance to see him because there's like 20 teams in a conference. I think that helps a team like Tennessee. Now, I agree with you on that. So they're, Their offensive design is always really unique. And obviously their passing offense is explosive.

And I mean, this quarterback, Nico, whatever his last name is, it looks like a stud. But like, I think if their defense can come together and it seems like they have the talent to do so, I feel like Tennessee could be a player here. I mean, we've got a 12-team college football playoff. I think that helps a team like this. We haven't talked about that at all, actually, at any point on the show, the 12-team playoff. So maybe we should end the show with this. I love, I was really resistant to it at first because it's tradition and, you know,

but the CFB playoff in general wasn't tradition. So who cares, right? I'm starting to really like this because one of the things I hated about college football was the pageantry of it, the pageant aspect of, oh, we got to put on all this makeup and get our push up bras on and look like the best team. So when we're beating a team 50 to zero, you know, we wouldn't pull out of all our starters because we got to get that, you know, 70 to zero win. on tape or whatever. I like that now. It's just win the games. It's just go win the games. It doesn't

matter how you do it. It takes the pageantry element out of it. I think you're going to see a lot more real from these teams. And they're going to play not to win sexy. They're going to play just to freaking win. And I think it benefits a team like Tennessee. I think a team like Notre Dame who's going to have some ugly games, right? They're going to be a defense. Notre Dame can finish no higher than fifth. Oh, is that true? Yeah, the conference. Yeah. Right. Yeah. But they can still get in pretty comfortably without having to be a, you know, put all this makeup on. They're a defensive centric team with a running quarterback. They could be a lot of fun and make some noise where in seasons past, that's probably not, this probably isn't the year they'd get that done, right? So

I kind of, I just overall have warmed up to this idea of the 12 team playoff a lot. And I do think it helps some of these really strong teams that, you know, they're not going to win every game 70 to zero and boost their resume. My like or my enjoyment of college football has always come from the idea of watching future NFL players and getting familiar with them and scouting them. So that's always going to be my enjoyment. So as somebody who now gets more meaningful scouting reps in high leverage games, I like that. So yeah, selfishly, I like it.

I have a hot take for you. And this kind of bleeds into it. And maybe this is going to be a situation where people are going to throw tomatoes at me. Brett, I don't like the NCAA tournament, the basketball tournament. I don't like it. It's way too many teams and way too many teams that don't deserve to be in competition for a national championship. I don't like the Cinderella's.

I just want to watch the best teams play each other. There's a little bit of that with this, with college football, like a little bit, but also I'm tired of hearing the cries of the Cincinnati fans and the Houston fans. Steve. Whatever. Like, I'm tired of hearing about it.

Here's your chance. Go show the world that you can do this. So I think those are my silver lining. So we finally get to hear those cry babies stop. And we also get a chance. to see more meaningful scouting reps. Dude, you opened up a can of word just now because my brain's going all over the place.

First of all, let's just start with this. And this is not a basketball show, but I got to get this off my chest. College basketball is one of the worst sporting products ever made. Thank you. I'm going to take a lot of heat for that, I know. No, thank you.

It's terrible. It is a very hard sport to watch. It, like, dreadful. And furthermore, I'm an NFL snob. I think most of college football is terrible to watch, actually. The only enjoyment I get out of it out of watching like a Boise State kill Georgia Southern is the scouting angle. That game was not good to watch. What was good?

What was nice about that game last night? The USC LSU game was a slog for 90% of it. It was not good. Yeah. So I think the high level teams playing the high level teams is the best version of college football. And so going to a 12-team playoff, I think that you're going to get more premium games against best versus best. And I think that ultimately helps the product of college football that is tough to watch for a lot of the season. Yeah. Amen. I'm with you on that.

And I certainly with the way that the conferences have changed and NIL's influence and all the things that are going on, like I wonder about the competitive balance of college football and what it means going forward. I think that remains to be seen. but I just want to scout the football players, man. Amen to that. All right, that's going to do it for us. Be sure to go to YouTube.com. Fantasy Points, subscribe, click notifications, turn it on. Five-star reviews on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Please, please, please, let's get this done. We'll be back Thursday with our week one preview. Guys, thank you so much for listening. And remember, no matter what develops, we will always be your first read, we are.