Fantasy Football Daily - NFL Training Camp News and Players Updates | Two-Point Stance

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

The Two-Point Stance fellas are back and breaking down the latest NFL Training Camp news before this weekend's preseason games. Joe Dolan and Brian Drake go around the league hitting on topics you'll need to know before drafting your fantasy football teams. - James Cook hype is for real in Buffalo - Alvin Kamara suspension fallout - Why does Drake love drafting James Conner? - Skyy is his name and starting is his game - Do we care about Kareem Hunt anymore? - Miles Sanders stinks at catching the football Follow the show on Twitter (never calling it X) https://twitter.com/FantasyPTS https://twitter.com/FG_Dolan https://twitter.com/DrakeFantasy Use our code "FantasyPTS" at Underdog Fantasy for a $100 first-time deposit bonus. Use our code "FantasyPTS" and we'll match your initial deposit up to $100. When you do, we'll even throw in a FantasyPoints.com subscription for just $5. FantasyPoints.com is your home for the best season-long, DFS, betting, data, and NFL analysis on the planet. Sign-up today and dominate your fantasy league. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. All across the fantasy universe, welcome back everybody to the two-point stance, powered by FantasyPoint.com. I'm your host, Brian Drake, on Twitter at Drake Fantasy. joined every single episode by my main man, Mr. Joe Dolan, the managing editor of Fantasy Points.com.

He is at FG underscore Dolan on the Twitter machine. The two point stance is back, baby. So is NFL training camps. Joe, we're going to go through some of the news of the day and some of the hot headlines as we head into the first real meat and potatoes week of the NFL preseason. I can't believe we're at this point. But, man, the news is coming hot and heavy. We've got to be ready because there are drafts that are going to be starting up

for leagues around the country before we can blink an eye. Yeah, you're in a draft this weekend, Drake, aren't you? You're going to the King's Classic up in Canton, and I will not be attending this year. I hope you have fun, and I hope you get an opportunity to actually win one of those belts this year. I know you had it snatched from your hands by Graham last year. So I'm sorry about that, Drake, to bring that up.

Kick me in the balls. You're drafting this weekend, though, ma'am. And it's a, it's, it's, is it what? I mean, you know what's funny about it? The King's Classic. Is there a buy-in for that league? Yes, there is. Okay, okay.

All right, because sometimes, like, my Flex League drafts that I have, I've won three of the last four, and I've got, actually still have my belts out in the hallway. So my wife is reminded of my greatness every time she walks down the hallway from her office. That's the only prize in that league is just the belts. And I don't know, I still try to win them because it's cool, you know? I mean, I have enough leagues where I have a buy-in. in. And then there's, you know, there's other leagues where, you know, if I'm doing a charity

league or something like that, I, I donate to the charity. But like, when it comes to the league itself, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to quit, but it's not my biggest priority in terms of like making sure I get heavy into the waivers on, you know, a Tuesday night. But, man, the belt, I don't know what it is. That Flex League, I try my ass off every year. And I'm sure you're going to do the same at the King's Classic. Maybe we'll talk about that next week, your draft. Maybe I'll roast you. We can go through your draft from the Kings Classic. Anyway, I hope you have fun this weekend. Sorry, I won't be there, but that's why we're chatting right now. Yeah, and it'll be a blast. I'll be drafting in the Jim Brown division against some guys you may have heard of,

Brad Evans and let's see. Mike Clay is in that league, Mr. Bob Harris. So all the big hitters. And then your boy, Brian Drake, representing the two-point stance and fantasy points.com. So proud to be there. Now, are you doing the auction and the redraft again? Is that because that's how everything goes with that, right? Yeah, there's two drafts out there. I technically split it with another buddy of mine. So I let him do the auction. I do the snake.

I'd love to do both. I've done them in the past, but just the setup he and I have. Like a Graham was that way last year where I think there was another guy that did the auction for him. So either way, you know, we'll have fun with it and report back next week.

But when you go out there and you're doing, especially a 14 team draft, and some of you guys listening, I guarantee you've got drafts coming up before you know it. You've got to follow these injury situations because you're at work. You've got kids, you know, they're playing soccer and baseball and you're going to the pool and you've got to vacation. You can miss a ton of camp news. Trust me, this is what Joe and I do for a living and we can miss camp news.

You've got to grind it every day. We're going to do our best on this pot, catch you up to speed on a bunch of things going on around the NFL. Let's start in the Pacific Northwest with the Seattle Seahawks and they're running back situation. because Kenneth Walker hasn't practiced since the first few days of camp. That's a problem, folks, as now games are kicking off this weekend in the preseason. Pete Carroll, you can't trust anything he says. But he did come out and say today, it's not a serious injury that Ken Walker is running full speed in a straight line, and he's going to then begin cutting.

I mean, that sounds like a pretty serious injury to me. I mean, geez, Louise, if you can't go laterally and now we're just going to try to get some cuts going on here. That's worrisome. And Zach Charbonnet was banged up for a while where he said he's out indefinitely. And then Zach comes back to practice. But what do you make of this Ken Walker injury and just this backfield as a

whole as we heading to drafts? So we have an injury expert on staff, obviously. If you listen to the podcast, you're well aware of Dr. Edwin Porras. And I actually asked his opinion about this today. And he put out a tweet as he has wanted to do. Average missed time with a groin strain is one to three weeks. So, all right. Walker got injured, what, a week and a half to two weeks ago? So that's right in the,

that's right in the time frame. The median mistime is 18 days. So again, well within that time frame. Here's what Edwin opine. If we don't see Ken Walker back on the field by the end of next week and hear no developments, this could be bad and potentially require surgery. Barring that, there's no reason to panic right now. Now, Pete Carroll has no reason to tell us the truth. He also has no reason to lie to us. It gives them no competitive advantage to lie to us. But at this point, Edwin thinks it could just be a minor groin strain that they're taking day by day. But for somebody who probably would have been on the cusp of a first round draft pick, I think he probably would be going in that second round range where, you know,

Sequin's going, Tony Pollard's going. Before the Zach Charbonnet draft pick, the fact that Zach Charbonnet is now in this backfield, the fact that can't. Ken Walker is dealing with a groin injury for the second consecutive year. Now, last year was an inguinal hernia, which was not a sports hernia, but the kind of hernia that I had when I was three years old where you're literally your intestines ripped through your abdominal wall, not a fun injury. Drake, yeah. When you hear somebody has a hernia, that's what that means.

He had that last year. I doubt this is related. Maybe it is, but we'll see about Kenneth Walker. It's the end of next week where we have to worry about him. And I feel like drafts going on this weekend, he's probably just going to fall farther down the draft boards. You know, I was in a best ball. I do my underdog drafts, slow drafts that I'm in. I've seen them available in the fifth round on the regular at this point.

I wouldn't be surprised if he slips into the sixth. If you want to do an underdog draft, we have the code, fantasy PTSD. We're going to match your first deposit up to $100. We'll talk more about that in a minute. I just got done doing a slow puppy draft. When you say slow, my God, this one took a. two weeks. They are slow drafts. If you start one today, maybe you'll get it in by the start of the season. You know, I will say that I'm in so many of them that I don't really recognize

which ones of my drafts are going extra slow. Because like, if you're in as many as I'm in, I don't even remember which players. I have to look at which players I have on the team when I go in, which is smart anyway, be like, all right, I need this stack. I need that stack. Oh, I need to attack that position. But yeah, I don't really realize when I'm in so many of them. But that's why I do the slow ones. It just gives me something to do. And, you know, you're able to react to news in real time almost. Well, everybody reacts in real time to this Kansas City backfield.

It seems every year there's somebody new popping up. There's Darwin Thompson. And then last year we started hearing about Isaiah Pacheco. This year it's Deneric Prince because Isaiah Pacheco, although he avoided the pup, he's having issues with his shoulder. And he has yet to be clear for contact. They're saying he could do so by August 20th. Why is August 20th an important day?

Because it's my birthday. That's why. Congratulations. Yeah, there you go. So they hope that he's ready for the season opener on September the 7th. This backfield's kind of muddled, though, Joe. You have Pacheco, who's kind of this just between the 20s grinder. You've still got CEH somehow kicking around this roster.

You got Jerich McKinnon, who was a savior to too many people at the end of last season. And then you got this generic prince guy who could make. the roster and people are hyping up. What do you make of this whole backfield? The reason people like this backfield is because the Chiefs score points. So there's always going to be somebody who's putting up numbers. I think my favorite one to draft right now is Jerich McKinnon. But I think it could be just like last year.

The Chiefs understand that Jerich McKinnon has had injury problems in his career. And because of that, the Chiefs might take it easy on him early in the season. so he's ready for later in the season. So, yeah, Deneerick Prince out of Tulsa, he is the undrafted rookie. Look, it's an undrafted running back. We've seen these guys make impacts. And I wouldn't be surprised if Deneerick Prince makes this team and does a great job. We're sitting here August 9th, and we haven't seen him in the preseason yet, though, Drake.

He might get cut. He might not make the team at all. So, you know, I saw his ADP rise significantly. A lot of folks are drafting him in the 18th round. on on underdog and other drafts, which is I think completely defensible because the chiefs are going to score points no matter who the running back is.

And if that's to Derek Prince, then he's going to get an opportunity to score touchdowns. I'm sorry, my dog is shaking in the background. This is just one of those things that happens when you do live radio. It's all right. We're not, we're not mad at it. When you said you're going to draft Derek McKinnon,

your dog just took a beeline out of the door. He's like, I'm out of here. See you later. No, I mean, look, he was like an RB1 down the stretch last year, and he's RB 42. I mean, could it be annoying in redraft? For sure. Like, redraft, he might end up being a type of guy who gets dropped and then still becomes relevant around November. But Jerich McKinnon is my favorite of these backs to draft.

I'm fine with Pacheco. Look, Brett Veach still says he thinks he's going to be ready for week one, in which case all this talk about Deneric Prince is going to be all for moot. But look, he's a big guy, six foot, 215 pounds. and if the Chiefs want to run the ball at the goal line, he could be the guy who gets those carries. And that will be an important role. It always is for a team that scores as many points as the Chiefs do. Somebody that I'm interested in in the King's Classic in the first round is Cooper Cup.

There are many times in drafts. You'll see him go fourth overall. But with this injury concern about the hamstring, you're starting to see some drafters let him slide a little bit. I saw Twitter today, and again, never call it X. It's the dumbest thing in the world. On Twitter, he was back at practice today. He was doing some drills running around.

It seems like whenever someone has one injury, be it a knee and ACL, he had the ankle, there's always a follow-up the next year with some sort of hamstring, right? And he's getting older. He's 30 years old now. I love Cooper Cup. I put a video out for fantasy points where I said, I think Cooper Cup could be in the running for the 101 overall in drafts.

And is that some, you know, a little hot takeish, sure. But it's not that far off. If the guy stays healthy and so does Matthew Stafford. He's going to see eight bazillion targets this year. With him returning to practice today, do you like Cooper Cup in that top five in your fantasy draft or are you passing him by and maybe looking at Tyreek? Maybe somebody else. Or is Cooper Cup okay with you?

I like Tyreek more. But the fact that he's back at practice so. quick after this injury. I think it's a phenomenal sign because maybe, look, that would seem to indicate to me that he was not seriously hurt at all, obviously, but also that it's such, so little a concern that they're letting him practice like a week after, even though there's probably no reason for Cooper Cup to have to practice at this stage. So I think that's a phenomenal sign. Lock them in to the top five, top six, depending on how you feel about Kelsey and or Echler. I still like Tyree Kill a little bit more, but I'm totally fine with Cooper Cup.

I will say this, though. You know, one of my favorite receivers to draft has been Van Jefferson. Three. He's wide receiver 60, somewhere around there. They need him so badly. Look at their receiving depth chart outside of Cooper Cup and Van Jefferson. Their number three is a guy I lovingly, and I'm sure he's a lovely individual, but I lovingly call him Cooper. crap, that's Ben Scoronic, because it's when you see the white guy on the, on the,

on the Rams, try to catch a pass and he drops it. And you're like, what the heck, Cooper Cup? And then you're like, oh, yeah, that's not Cooper Cup. It's the other one. Cooper crap, Ben Scoronic. You have Puka Nakua, who I haven't heard, like, he was getting mini camp buzz. I haven't heard a ton about him so far, but I think he's got a shot. The youngster out of BYU, he, you could comp him to Robert Woods if you like him.

Tutu Atwell's a rotational player at best. he's not big enough to be anything more than that. And they have DeMarcus Robinson who's been on every team in the NFL. So they need Van Jefferson badly. The fact that Cooper Cup was already banged up is a concern to me. So Van Jefferson's becoming one of those guys. I'm snapping up as my fifth receiver in bestball. And I think it's really a defensible take.

He's not somebody who's put up big numbers in his career, but he's one of those receivers receiver. Oh, you know, he was one of the best route runners. He was really good at getting open Van Jefferson. but he doesn't put up the big numbers. Last year he had some injuries. This year, Stafford's back. I think Van Jefferson could be in for a big year.

He's a great guy to have as like your wide receiver six. You just kind of put him on the roster at the end. You're like, I'm never going to start this guy. Let's see what happens. And who knows, maybe in a buy week or if something happens to the cup. Look, Drake. Speaking of the defense is going to suck, by the way. Oh, terrible.

It's Aaron Donald and a bunch of guys. So, I mean, like, they're going to have to throw the ball. Somebody's got to catch it. one other aside about the Rams. You ever noticed nobody ever calls Cooper Cup. It's always Cooper Cup. It's always the full name. I think it's the only player on whom that we do that.

Anyway, that's just the side. My wife would always say that with me with the guys from college. You would say like, you know, you're Drake and this other guys, whatever their names are. But then there was like a guy's names Wayne. So we just call him Wayne. No one, you know, his last name is actually Frick. So you figure, well, you're not going to call you a frick all the time. but we had a buddy his name was Rob Barone so two different names but I combined it basically

to one name it was just Rob Barone he's like is that's his full name like I've never heard of that before but it's in like Iambic intameter or something like that even though Cooper Cooper Cup is only three syllables but it just you know it just uh it just flows together the right way I guess you know Rob Barone is only three syllables too but so if you have a unique name people are going to call you by that name like if your name is Scott like Sky Moore. Now, if you listen to our good friend, the guru, John Hanson,

especially in the mornings on Sirius XM, and why wouldn't you be? He loves Skymore. He loved him last year. Loves him again this year. Underdog ADP of 92. That's an eighth round pick. But Joe, I got a feeling this thing's going to start shooting up here.

Reports out of camp are as it Skymore. He's locked in. He's playing in the slot. He's going to be on the field, basically in all wide receiver sets for the chiefs. Cadarius Tony just can't get on the field. GM Brett Veach is saying the organization expects him to be ready for the opener on September 7th, but he had another surgery to clean up his injured knee on the 25th of July.

He's always got something going on. He can't get on the field. Their ADPs are right next to each other at 92 and 94. I'm hammering Sky Moore in drafts left and right. I'll take him around early. I don't care. I want him on the roster. He's part of this tier of wide receivers.

that I'm kind of considering the give me one more chance tier. I love it. And they're all going in kind of the same range. That being guys who have had some hype, guys who never lived up to the hype, Gabe Davis is going in this range. And there's George Pickens is going in this range. Guys who had a lot of hype.

Elijah Moore. All of these guys are getting drafted around each other. All of these guys, for one reason or the other, failed last year. George Pickens didn't get enough volume, owing that maybe to the fact that the Steelers' offense was broken. Gabe Davis had the high ankle sprain early in the season. And one of the things that happens is I think we penalize guys

if they play through injuries and don't play well, vis-a-vis if they were to sit out three games, get healthy, and then play well. Sky Moore, it's a difficult offense to learn, I think, Andy Reid's offense. you need to get on the same page as Patrick Mahomes. Additionally, they put Sky Moore on punt returns last year. Do you remember that?

He had never really done it in college. It showed. Right. He muffed a bunch of punts. And, you know, it might just not be a skill set that he has. And maybe he gets into his head, oh, man, I'm trying to learn how to be a punt returner. And I'm obviously going to do that because my team is asking me to do it. and that's an incredible opportunity.

I get to be the punt returner for the Kansas City Chiefs. And maybe it's just not in his repertoire. So it's hurting his game. It's hurting his mental focus. It's hurting his concentration. It's hurting his confidence. And then maybe he just needed to take a step back. And this year is going to be the year he's going to be able to come out and contribute.

His ADP is virtually identical, I think, to what it was last year. I got to be honest. I know it's easy to make fun of John. And look, I've definitely poised. at John about Skymore last year. I'm in, man. I'm in. Juju's gone. Tony, cadaverous Tony, which is a John Hanson special. Can't get on the field. NBS is a guy. I'm in, man. I'm in on Skymore. Rishie Rice, by the way, I think limped off in practice this week. So he's another guy. He's the rookie second rounder who I've been drafting

just because I like talented players in the Chiefs offense. But Sky's the guy I want right now. When we review my King's Classic team next week, I will be shocked if Sky Moore is not on that redraft team. Let's pop over and talk about a couple of running backs here. Kareem Hunt, this is an interesting situation. So it's kind of these NFL insiders, the Shepters of the world and Ian Rappaport, they get all their information from agents. It's just agents feeding them things. Of course.

And so now he went and visited the Colts and he left there without a contract. you know, the Colts are trying to play something up here with Jonathan Taylor because he's either injured or holding out because of his contract. You kind of can't get a story straight either way. But he was also a few days ago, he was, where did the, now it escapes me. Where was Karim Hunt this the other day? And they're like, oh, he had a great visit. The Saints. The Saints, that's right.

Thank you. So he's with the Saints. And they're saying, oh, he had a great visit. Then they were saying, oh, wait, he never even warmed up and got out on the field. with them. So it's like, come on, Insiders, get your, your stuff straight. You got Diana Rossini saying, oh, he just left there without doing anything. And other people are saying, he had a great meeting and work out with the team. I mean, come on. But anyways, Kareem Hunt, so he leaves the Colts, Joe, no contract. So he theoretically could go back and

sign with the Colts, could sign with the Saints. They're going to need somebody. And we can parlay this into some Elvin Kamara talk because he's suspended for three games now. What are we going to, if Kareem Hunt signs anywhere. there's a lot of talk that he's shot. If he went to the Colts, I think they're going to figure it out with Jonathan Taylor. He's not going to miss games this season. I don't care where Karim Hunt goes at this point.

So Kareem Hunt, let me dig into the numbers. By our fantasy points data metrics, of course, across the board he was worse than Nick Chubb and everything. That in and of itself is not really descriptive, Drake, because everybody's worse across the board than Nick Chub at everything because Nick Chub is awesome. But here is the one thing that,

about Kareem Hunt that surprised even me when I dug into the numbers. Among running backs with 200 or more routes run, Kareem Hunt was fifth worst in the NFL and yards per outrun at 0.89. So even the one thing that he did reasonably well, or at least the team thought he was doing reasonably well, he was not good at. And Nick Chub was actually a lot better than him in that regard. Meanwhile, Alvin Kamara, even in a down year,

was fourth best in that category. year. So let's just say he goes to the Saints. I think it's just more an indictment or at least an indication that they plan on red shirting Kendrae Miller a little bit than it is that he's going to take a huge role away from Kamara or Jamal Williams. For the Colts, it's a little different because the Colts running back depth chart is not, on paper is not good beyond beyond Jonathan Taylor. And I mean, Jonathan Taylor isn't even there right now. Obviously, Zach Moss got injured. Zach Moss could miss time into the regular season. Right now they have Evan Hall, who's the rookie out of, out of Northwestern, Dion Jackson, who got some run last year, but was

decent with volume, but really little else. And they have Kenyon Drake, who's been around the block a couple of times. That's a terrible running back Deptjar. I mean, you could make an argument that if Kareem Hunt were to go there, Kareem Hunt could play his way into a starting role. But I'm just not sure he's very good anymore. And I wish I had more insight into the Jonathan Taylor situation? I don't. It's, I mean, it seems like he's holding in. Let me read what Edwin Porris wrote

for us in our company discord today. Here's what he said about Jonathan Taylor, who the report was what, he got permission to go away from the team to get treatment on his ankle in a different way. Well, here is what Edwin said to me today, said it smells like a holden. If he claims the ankle,

they'll either have to reopen that event in the medical record if it was closed or they haven't closed it. So as long as he claims to be rehabbing, they have to keep it open and document on it every day legally, which means legally he can still claim workman's comp, which means legally they can't put him on the non-football injury list. If you remember, they wanted to do that and they reference his back. And then JT went to Twitter saying, like, I don't have a back injury. I've never reported a back injury. You can't do this. So this could just be the workaround.

Right. So like literally if they were to say, we want to put you on the NFI list because of your ankle, well, they can't. That was a football injury that was documented. So it does sound like this is kind of a tactic from Jonathan Taylor. I wish I had some insight here, Drake. Kareem Hunt floating around out there isn't great. But like, look, if Jonathan Taylor signs with the Colts, we're going to forget about Kareem Hunt, even if Kareem Hunt does sign with the Colts. So if Jonathan Taylor returns, I hope they give them an extension. But this is. this is an ugly situation right now, and that's why Kareem Hunt's taking visits. Let's touch on Elevin Kamara in that situation, because Kareem Hunt did technically visit with the Saints, I guess you could say. Hunt's going to be out for three games. We've got the rookie Kendrae Miller down there, but we've also got last year's touchdown leader in Jamal Williams.

So Williams could be a screaming steal in drafts and help you win some games the first few weeks. Kamara still has an ADP inside the top 90. So, you know, you can get Alvin Kamara. You're going to have to spend probably a seventh round pick at the latest right now to get him. I feel like now that people know the dust is clear and it's three games, they're kind of like, okay, I get what Alvin Kamara is. But everyone's now working up like, oh, he's going to return to his Drew Breeze numbers with Derek Carr. Derek Carr has never proven to be that accurate of a quarterback or someone who likes to feed his running backs anyway. So I kind of, I don't get that narrative.

Let me push back on that a little bit. Over the last, I think, five seasons, he's actually checked down at the fourth highest rate in the NFL. So that could be a boost for Alvin Camara. And quite frankly, three games was less than I was anticipating. As a matter of fact, I think it's less than a lot of Saints fans were anticipating for Alvin Camara. So this really creates a really interesting opportunity here. I don't think I'm in on Camara, but like, I got to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised that there's a little bit of a renaissance here.

And he doesn't need a big renaissance to pay off at his ADP. He just needs to get back to being like 70% of Alvin Camara, and he'll pay off at that ADP. But so it's a really, this was a player I was planning on being completely out on, and I still might be. Like, I still think there's going to be players like, for instance, Sky Moore getting drafted around where he's getting drafted. I'm going to be more interested in that player.

I'm going to be more interested in some other guys. but Camara's situation is a lot better on August 9th than it was on July 9th, in my opinion. Yeah, you've got to take Alvin Kamari. He needs to become a space player. They need to do with him what the Eagles are looking to do with D'Andre Swift. You've got Jamal Williams now. He can do that Mark Ingram role from a few years ago. I want him, you know, banging in between the tackles from 20 to 20.

Let's get Kamar out in space. Do I think he's going to see, you know, 100 plus targets as he did when Drew Breeze was there. I don't know. I doubt it. But he's got to be a little better than the last year's 57 receptions. And I think, you know, with a three-game suspension, that's probably going to be the number that he's going to land on almost to the nuts.

But at that ADP, he's healthy. The team should be okay. They got a really good defense. I'm in on. I'm in the, you know, seventh, eighth round. I'm fine with that. There's a guy going right after him in drafts, Joe, that is getting buzz like I haven't seen before.

Well, really, it's just the buzz of the week. And it's James Cook from the Buffalo Bills. People are talking about Cook as far and away, the running back to own in Buffalo. We've got Damien Harris now. I was just reading a minute ago. It looked like he got a little beat up. He's nursing a sore knee.

So, I mean, he got Latavius Murray coming in behind him. Wheels are up for James Cook here. And now, again, ADP of 88, You're looking at getting him in the eighth round. That's going to go up. No, that's not. You're not getting him at that point anywhere near here going forward. And it's been, this isn't just fantasy guy wishcasting, okay?

This isn't like, oh, fantasy guys see that Sky Moore was a second round pick and he's playing for the chiefs. So fantasy guys love Sky Moore. No, this is Buffalo Bill's beatwriters who are like, hey, guys, you know, James Cook's getting all the first team reps here. Damien Harris is just really spelling him and he's been banged up. I think the reason people were concerned about James Cook, and this is valid, the Buffalo Bills have really not run the ball consistently well at all with Josh Allen and quarterback. And it's probably put too much of a burden on Josh Allen's body for him to basically be their top runner and their quarterback.

And I think people view James Cook is he is this scatback. He's this, he's a smaller version. He is literally Drake lower. case, Dalvin Cook. He's Dalvin Cook's little brother. But it goes down to skill set as well. But he's smaller than Dalvin, and I don't think anybody would consider Dalvin Cook a bruiser. But in the right scheme, you have opportunities to create running lanes. You're not going to run the Tennessee Titans offense with Josh Allen at quarterback and James Cook at running back. You're just not going to do that. And teams have really been starting to run a lot of

too high against, well, really against more of everybody, but they have been doing it against Buffalo Bills because teams want to prevent big plays. They don't want, they don't want the single safety to have to cover the entire middle of the field. Teams ran more too high last year than they had in any recent year. Well, what does too high mean? Well, it means the box is lighter, which means a smaller running back might be able to find bigger lanes. I'm in on James Cookman. Damien Harris, he can handle the muck in the mire when it gets to November and December, and maybe they have a wind game like they had against the Patriots last year. And Damian Harris is really good at that.

But Buffalo, while they would like to run the ball more effectively than they have with Josh Allen at quarterback, Buffalo is going to be a pass-first team. They have Josh Allen and they have Stefan Diggs. That is a pass-first team. That is a pass-first offense. James Cook can be the RB1 in a pass-first offense. And I think his ADP, you can say it's RB28 right now, 88 overall, forget about it. Like we're looking at the past.

I have to keep my eyes to the future. I like James Cook. This feels like the classic guy, though, who I'm like, oh my God, Drake, I'm going into every draft. And I'm getting James Cook in every draft this year. And you know who else is thinking that? Everybody else is the draft. And it gets juiced up. And then all of a sudden he's more expensive than DeAndre Swift.

and he's more expensive than Alexander Madison in your salary cap or auction draft. And then you're like, well, I thought I was going to get a lot of James Cook. I got none of him, though, because there was somebody who was crazier about him than me. This is that classic case. And I think it's justified. But am I going to stand here and say, I love James Cook so much that I'm going to rank him at RB15? I just can't do that, man. Because some of those caveats do apply.

I have them above markets right now. it's going to end up being in line with markets, if not below market, by the end of the summer. So this is one of those things that's advantageous for maybe you. You're going to the Keynes Classic this weekend. Now, everybody in your draft is going to know about the James Cook hype. But I still wouldn't be shocked if in that draft you're doing this weekend, we look back on it and say, wow, you got James Cook in the seventh.

You know, I feel like the hype is justified here. It's a great team. although I would argue I don't think they had a great offense last year No it's a two-man show It's Josh Allen put the Superman cape on Run around finds Stefan Diggs And when you have those two

You're going to have a good offense But I don't think they had all the parts To be a great offense Gabe Davis's injury had something to do with that Obviously they thought Dalton Kincaid Is somebody who's going to help them going forward And Dalton Kincaid's getting a lot of camp hype himself That's a guy I very much

struggled with from a fantasy perspective because, you know, the history of rookie tight ends and the fact that Stefan Diggs is still a target hound here. But going back to the point, there is plenty of opportunity for somebody to emerge here as a really good weapon. And James Cook has the talent. He's got the pedigree. He's got the opportunity. Wheels up on James Cook. I just fear that everybody has their wheels up on James Cook. So James Cook, obviously 88's going to change her in his ADP. Let me throw at you a couple of running backs that are coming off the board ahead of him. You tell me, do you want James Cook or this running back. Rashad White at 82.

I want white. Okay. You know, this is one, we just did a ranking summit with John Hanson, and it was our staff. We had me and Scott and Graham and Tom, and we also had a, by the way, this is the ranking summit where Tom realized he had to buy a new computer. We were actually supposed to have Brawley on this podcast, but his computer just wouldn't run. He finally got meetinged out. And we had this, and Jake Tribby and Ryan Heath were there. And it was really a summit where John, John really is the last guy on the projections. That's always

been the case. It still is the case. But he wants to take input. And it almost felt like an intervention at times. You know, hey, John, I think we're too high on this guy. I think we're too low on this guy. And I just at one point, I sat there and said, just because, I want to, we didn't ambush him. It was completely respectful, but we're like, hey, John, we want you to change this and change that and change this and change that. And he's like trying to make his case, which was all a very healthy conversation. But the one thing I said was, by the way, John, I love your flag plant on Rashad White.

And everybody in the room was like, yes, yes, yes, I like that flag plant. He's got an opportunity to be a bell cow here. Yeah, the team could stink. But the one thing we thought Rashad White was good at coming out of Arizona State was catching catching the ball and I think he'll do that. And you can look at the efficiency metrics. All of our fantasy points data efficiency metrics, Rashad White was freaking awful last year in them.

You know what else was awful was Leonard Fournett. And what I think, now Leonard Fornett got cut. So, I mean, that tells you what they thought about them. But I think that's more of a systematic failure. That was a garbage-ass offense. I thought it was terribly close. called. The offensive line had a ton of injuries, which Byron left, which couldn't change himself. But I thought the offense was terribly uncreative. It was really just Brady dropping back three

steps, getting rid of the ball before the defense could clobber him. And I didn't think there was any viable running lanes. And there was no creativity to make up for that. The one thing that stands out to me about that Buccaneer offense and why I think any change was going to be an upgrade. I don't know if you remember this game. There was a point last year where, you know how you can get weird first down distances because of penalties? Yeah, it's like first and 13 or something. Yeah, they had a first and one.

It was like first in one or first and two. And Drake, I lost my mind when we were doing serious XM fantasy football game day because on first and one or first and two, they ran the football. And I thought that was so, just that what a perfect microcosm for what the Buccaneers offense was last year. Can you think of a better down and distance to just take a shot down the field?

It's first and one. If it's incomplete, then sneak the ball on second and one or do it again on second down. And I thought that spoke to how scared they played last year, how they had no answers for anything. And I think just having a new perspective in there with Dave Canales at offensive quarter, even if I don't know what his offense is really going to look like, I think that's going to be good for Rashad White. And then you look at the depth chart behind them.

I mean, you want to talk about maybe the thinnest running back room in the league. Kishon Vaughn, Sean Tucker, out of Syracuse. Yeah, like the Patrick Laird. Oh, boy. Like, I mean, come on, man. Like, not because I'm a Syracuse but I am. But I'm telling you, I think, I think Sean Tucker makes this team. This guy was a Heisman contender a year ago entering the year.

And he had this weird heart condition thing that scared teams off. It's fully healthy. He can catch the ball. I think he's going to make the team. I think he's going to play. He might be their second best running back. And like, no, literally he's the one I'm the most worried about. Chase Edmonds is there.

Dave Canales is singing Chase Edmonds. It's praise is okay. Okay, Dave. I mean, you know, he's the offensive coordinator. He's got to sing everybody's praises. The opportunity is there for Rashad White. No question. Who's to say he can't be like James Connor last year?

A bell cow on a bad team who ends up being completely fine for fantasy. RIP, Marlon Mack, just had an Achilles injury in Arizona, just thinning things further behind James Connor. James Connor's a guy. You just mention him. You can get him at 80th in a draft. I love drafting James Connor. He's good in every aspect of that team. Their offensive line stinks.

get it, but they're going to get Kyler back. He's never going to be your first. He's probably not even going to be your second running back. So if he's your third, maybe you throw him in at flex or whatever, I think you could do a lot worse than James Connor as your RB3. I think you can do absolutely a lot worse. The funny part is you said, you love drafting James Connor. I do. I hate drafting James Connor. But it's been a good investment, right? And I've been out the last two years. And I feel like, oh, this is definitely the year he's missing 10 games. You know, you can deal with a running back missing two or three games, you know, all running backs do. I have missed the boat on James Connor two years running. He was a guy I avoided two years ago,

like legitimately avoided, not just, oh, you know, I wasn't in on him. I didn't have an opinion. No, I've been out on him two years in a row. I refuse to be out on him again. Scott Barrett really likes him, too, by the way. It's just, he's one of these guys who, and he was in this, he was in this category last year. You know who a lot of those league winning running backs were last year, where the guys nobody wanted the draft. David Montgomery, Miles Sanders, the big one, of course, was Josh Jacobs. Nobody wanted to draft Josh Jacobs. Guilty, I didn't want to draft Josh Jacobs. And once again, this is where I see the running back market this year. Because there's so many guys nobody wants to draft, I think you can get four of these guys, hope one of them kind of

hits is like a low end RB1, and you just cobble the rest of your running back, your backfield together. Like, your guys like Connor, Rashad White, nobody wants it. Everybody's going to want to drive James Cook soon, so he's not in there. Rashad Penny, you know? Like, David Montgomery is still in that category. Like, all of these guys are viable fantasy running back so you can get rounds and rounds and rounds into your draft.

James Connor among them. And I just called Tampa Bay's running back. Depchart the worst in the NFL? Yeah. Keontay Ingram, Corey Clement, and Tyson Williams is behind James Connor. Clement, I have a soft spot for for obvious reasons, Drake. Of course. But he's dealt with injuries. He had an opportunity.

I thought the year after they won the Super Bowl, trivia question, by the way, the Eagles leading receiver in Super Bowl 52 was Corey Clement. He got hurt and then he kind of fell out of favor as can happen with running backs in the NFL. like, oh, he got hurt. We're just going to turn through to the next guy. I really thought the Eagles, he was a player of the Eagles liked. He just couldn't stay on the field. But that's the problem.

He can't stay on the field. And how could you have somebody behind James Connor as his top backup who can't stay on the field? So Conner's 100% a guy that I think the fact, the status of their depth chart shows that they trust him to be their bell cow. I used to like Tyson and Williams. Remember he was the thing for a minute in Baltimore when all those guys were going down. I couldn't believe that he couldn't stick. stick and stay. He felt like a great fit there. There must, there was clearly

something they didn't like about him. He wasn't practicing well because they went out and they went, ran through a bunch of retreads in that, I think they went and signed Bam Morris again. And, you know, and they still wouldn't put Tyson Williams back on, back on the field. So there was something going on there behind the scenes, like just not

practicing well, not picking up the playbook, whatever it was. That's what would happen with him. I'd rather have Zach Morris at this point. Bam Morris. You remember Bam Morris? You remember Bam Morris? I remember Bam Morris on a Pittsburgh, right? Yeah, and then he signed with the Ravens. I think he had a,

I think he had a relatively successful marijuana emporium during his playing career. That was, I think that was, that was Bayam Morris's claim to fame. But he was the starting running back for the Steelers in that, in that Super Bowl they played against the Cowboys back in Super Bowl 30. That was the last time the Cowboys were past the NFC championship game.

Well, the starting quarter, the starting running back for the NFC squad in last year's Super Bowl was Miles Sanders for the Eagles. Now he is with the Carolina Panthers. There was a fun video that circulated this week on social media showing Frank Wright talking to Miles Sanders about catching the football. And he brought up 2019 Sanders rookie year when he caught 50 passes. And he's like, yeah, we're going to get you back to doing that. And Sanders is like, hell yeah, man, I'm for it. I want to show my whole skill set.

So Miles Sanders, again, talking about guys, nobody wants to draft going off the board, pick 63. You know, he's around a sixth round pick at this point. Nobody in fantasy, I've heard talk more about the Carolina Panthers than you, Joe. Maybe it's because I do a show with you nearly every week. But I think is sneaky, not good, but like nobody wants to draft any of these guys. There's camp hype now for Jonathan Mingo, but you've got DJ Chark. He's catching balls all over the place. you've got an underrated, I think, offensive line.

You've got the number one pick in the draft. I think Carolina could be sneaky in a terrible division. And why can't Miles Sanders just produce week and week out when healthy? So the thing about Sanders is he averaged 10 yards per catch as a rookie. And then, I mean, he just completely collapsed into being one of the worst receiving backs in the NFL. I have no clue what happened. How do you come out and catch 50 balls at over 10 yards of pop as a rookie? And then not be able to even approach that number the rest of your career.

That is so bizarre to me. Last year, Miles Sanders, as a receiver, let's see here. He caught, he had 78 receiving yards last year. Is that right? Yes. Atlanta. He caught 26 of his 20 or he caught 20 of his 26 targets for 78 yards. That's, well, that's the Kenny Gameball. That is horrific. Not one Eagles running back caught a touchdown pass last year. I got to feel that's going to change. So I don't understand this.

Among running backs with 75 or more routes run, do you know who was last in yards per route run? I'm going to say Miles Sanders. It was Miles Sanders. 0.39, just above him. 0.48, Ezekiel Elliott. 0.49, the aforementioned Zach Moss. Patrick Ricard averaged more yards per outrun than Miles Sanders. The Ravens are working Patrick Ricard on the offensive line this year.

I thought it was the guy from Star Trek. USS Enterprise. Now, that's John Luke Picard. I don't know anything about Star Trek, but I do know that. That was a YTMND.D.com meme. So that was certainly something that I remember from the early days of the weird internet. Yeah, Miles Sanders averaged 0.39 yards per route run last year. 0.39.

I need to know what happened to his juice in the receiving game. Because that is an abysmally low number. Now, you do have to keep in mind that if you're running routes out of the backfield in a Philadelphia Eagle off. defense. Very often, you're not even going to be looked at on those routes because Jalen Hertz is taking off. That is part of why Miles Sanders likely struggled in that department. But it still doesn't explain the precipitous drop off from his rookie year to this year. And if he can do that, he's going to go down as one of the just absolute hammer values at the running back position because look at the depth chart. Chuba Hubbard is less than a guy. I mean, he's he's a

body. He's less than a guy. You know what I mean, like just a guy. We call him a jag, just a guy. Chuba Hubbard. All right. I'm sure he needs to be a t-shirt. I'm sure he's a nice individual. Like, I don't want to insult these people as human beings. But I mean, we're talking about a guy like Miles Sanders who just could not do anything last year as a receiver. And I got to be honest. I don't get it. I don't get why he couldn't do that as a receiver last year. And two years ago, by the way, he was 53 of 77 running backs in that regard. So this is now two straight years by a fantasy point data where he was one of the least efficient receiving backs in the NFL, if not downright the worst. And last year he was the worst. They said he caught 50 passes as a rookie.

Deuce Daly was there, the running backs coach. He was there in Philly when Miles Sanders was a rookie. Maybe they see some untapped potential. I have been clicking Miles Sanders name. I don't feel great about it. Like, it's not one of those things where I'm like, yeah, baby, I got Miles Sanders, but it's really easy for me to talk myself into him in the sixth round

when I look at the state of that depth chart, when I look at the contract he got, and look at how he produced last year, albeit in a great offense, when nobody wanted to draft him last year, and this year he has a clear runway to opportunity in Carolina. And the offensive line is good, by the way. Yeah.

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What a steal that is. Holy smokes. Woo. All right, Joe, we've banged on a lot of players. I got a few more I want to run by you in Baltimore. Let's switch to wide receiver talk. Rashad Bateman activated off the pup list. It's a weird start to a career for a player for like Rashad Bateman.

Came in. He's a first round pick. He's got the Liz Frank injury. They shut him down. They're putting cortisone shots in his foot. They go out and they, draft Zay Flowers. They sign O'D BJ to a big, what, $14 million a year contract. So maybe Rashad's kind of lost in the sauce, but maybe they also know in Baltimore, we can't

count on this guy. And it seems like Zay Flowers is a guy they want to count on. I heard a clip today on NFL radio where Harbaugh was just extolling praises upon Zay Flower saying he's like a veteran out there. He's telling other guys where to line up. He wants to do extra reps. you know, we can't get this guy to stop making plays, basically. I think Zay Flowers is a guy who a lot of people are going to want to get behind or they're going to say, why wasn't I more behind him once season gets going? What do you think about this wide receiver group in Baltimore? This is one of those receiver groups where I don't really have a heavy preference for any of them.

I guess I haven't really been drafting a ton of Bateman because of the injury issues. But look, outside of Mark Andrews, obviously, who's tight end too. Zay Flowers, wide receivers. receiver 45 on underdog. Rashad Bateman, wide receiver 46 on underdog. O'Dell Beckham, wide receiver 52 on underdog. That tells you that nobody knows what to do with this receiving group, but also, you don't have to invest a whole lot into this receiving group to get a piece of it. So I'm comfortable drafting really any of these guys. Even Beckham. And like, you know, Odell Beckham is a guy who hasn't been great since like the Obama administration, quite literally.

But he's cheap enough. And what if he has five big games? This is a new offense under Todd Monkin that's going to spread it out more. They're going to give opportunities to all these guys. I'm fine drafting any of these receivers. And they're so easy to stack with Lamar Jackson. And that's a better strategy in best ball because I can't imagine a scenario where you're coming out in week one in a 12 or even a 14 team league. and you want to start one of these Ravens wide receivers.

But it's easy to do in a redraft league if you're like, you know what, I really believe in Zayflowers. I believe everything the Ravens are saying about him. And I think eventually he's going to be a fantasy starter this year. It's so cheap to invest in him in the league. This is a receiving group that I have drafted a lot of because there's any one of these guys, if any one of those guys led this team in receiving yards outside of Andrews, you're not surprised at all.

So I think it's a really smart group to invest in. And if you think Zay Flowers is the best because, well, you know, he's the one guy here who hasn't been seriously injured within the last 24 months, then that's the guy maybe is the best to draft here. And he was a first round pick. It's not like he's a scrub. Yeah. The same can be said by Jaden Reed in Green Bay. He was the 50th overall pick in the NFL draft and reports out of camp say he's already cracked the lineup as he's going to start in the slot. People are calling him the next Randall Cobb.

I've been scooping this kid on a bunch of teams. you know, dynasty-wise and even in best ball because, you know, they're going to be looking for some sure hands out there in Green Bay to help out our good friend Jordan Love. Christian Watson, obviously, you know, he's somebody going off the board super early. But somebody else is going to have to catch the ball. Maybe it's, it's Romeo Dobbs. I doubt it.

I think Jaden Reed's got a great shot to surprise us out here in Green Bay. So I love taking him late. And he's one of those guys. If he doesn't do anything for you, you know, you can drop him, go to the waiver wire. he's going to be on five different teams in every redraft league in America this year because someone's going to pick up in out it's going to be fun like that well and it's not like he has to climb up a depth chart right I mean it's oh he's got he's really got to work his way over devonte Adams and no there's no veterans here drake mm-hmm Christian watson I love Christian

Watson this year but he's had like what five good games in the NFL Romeo dobs has had like three good games in the NFL and Jordan love has no chemistry with any of these guys from a game standpoint. So who's to say Jaden Reed can't make a big impact as Rookiee? I love that pick, too. I love Christian Watson. And I like Dobbs at costs. Again, take advantage of the unknown.

We don't know what about Jordan. We don't know in Baltimore. We don't know which of these retrievers is going to stay healthy or which Lamar is going to prefer. We have no idea who Jordan loves is going to prefer here. So if that's Jaden Reed, well, somebody's got to catch the football. Yeah, could also be their tight end Luke Musgrave, a lot of good camp hype about him. So, Joe, we've covered so many folks who are popping off the page of NFL training camp news. I think we've given everybody a good refresher if they're going into this weekend.

Maybe they have a draft like I do. I think they'll be all caught up and ready to rock and roll. So yeah, we'll be back with the grinder, Tom Broley, talking NFL futures next week. Make sure you guys get over to fantasy points.com. The guru's draft plan just dropped over there. You're going to want to check that out. Scott Barrett's Anatomy of a League winner. that is up along with Tom's future bets.

It's just a fun time to be on FantasyPoint.com. It's draft week at FantasyPoints.com. My auction and salary cap draft plan is up. Graham Barfield Superflex draft plan is dropping. This week, we have you covered from every angle, man. It's really remarkable. And of course, the data suite, of course. Of course.

So get over there. Fantasy Points.com. Have yourself some fun. For Joe, I'm Drake. We'll see you guys next time on the two points to end. Thanks for two. tuning into this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform.

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