Fantasy Football Daily - On the Clock S2 E3

Episode Date: September 23, 2023

Is Shadeur Sanders QB1? I also talked CJ Stroud, Jalin Hyatt and Zay Flowers. --- 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 FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Welcome everybody to another episode of On the Clock. I'm your host, Brett Whitefield. And as you can see, I'm Solo Dolo. We had a guest, Bail, literally last second. as we were clicking the record button, it's okay.

It's okay, guys. We got a lot of time here. I don't mind doing these solo. I don't mind talking to you, the people, just get information out there. And there's a lot going on to where I can probably just ramble for 20 minutes, and it's going to be a great podcast. So here we go.

We're just going to do it. First things, first, let's take care of some business. FantasyPoint.com. There is a ton, a ton of incredible content coming out. If you go to the site right now, in the last two days, we have dropped. Scott Barrett's Everything Report. The Famacy Football Start Sit column by Graham Barfield.

We also got Graham's best bets. We got Tom Brawley's Game Hub. We got Tom Brawley's best bets. We got the matchup report from Joe Dolan. We have the DFS breakdown from Football Insights. We've got the CFB stuff. Like if you guys are CFB junkies, team CFB is absolutely killing it. Josh dropped his week four draft king CFF main slate plays.

There is a ton of stuff to check out. A ton of stuff. Jake Tribby dropped his 2023 week three top DFS values. So like there's literally a ton of stuff. If you're an IDP guy, we got fresh IDP content on there. I can't even comprehend the amount of content we're churning out right now. Some of it's behind the paywall. Some of it's not.

Just please go to fantasy points.com, check it out. And also check out the data suite. If you haven't done it yet, there is a free trial on there. right now. The data suite only costs $50, so I'm not sure why you would need a free trial, but go to the data suite, data.com, and please check out what we got going on over there. All the amazing data points that you see in the articles that we're writing, they all come from there. It's pretty remarkable. That's the team I run over here at fantasy points.com, if you weren't aware. We have just tons of amazing stuff going on. I think,

750 data points per NFL play. And we're giving it to you, the people, in the consumer-driven product, the fantasy points data suite. So please go check that out. All right. We're going to do some rookie review really quick. I want to note a couple guys that I just think look just really,

really freaking good. We're going to do this every week, obviously. But on the wide receiver side of the ball, I want to talk about Jalen Hyatt for a second. And I know he didn't do a dang thing on Thursday football this week, but that's okay. The Sunday before, because I haven't talked to you guys since then,

my man got loose for a big one. And he, I just want you guys to go watch that play. Watch how when you have the speed and the fluidness that he has, like he is a very fluid mover. When he's running full speed, it doesn't look like he's running full speed. Because usually when guys are running full speed,

it's sort of labored. Their shoulders are dropping back and forth. He's just steady eddy. It just, it almost looks fake like it's photoshopped onto the field, you know, like an after effects or something. And like, but go watch, go watch those plays from the Giants game on Sunday. The dude is so, so smooth and so fast.

But he, he had the one post route where he kind of threatens the outside shoulder of the corner, just a little bit. And that speed is enough. He's going to cause that, that half second delay in the corner's reaction time. He hits the post and then just glides right by him and the safety, no chance. And dimes puts it on him. I'll slightly better throw. Maybe he, he houses it for a touchdown there. But it's just really impressive stuff.

that's exactly what I thought he would bring to the NFL. And as the Giants work him into the offense, more the offense should get exponentially better just from his presence alone, whether he's catching passes or not. So another rookie, talk about Anthony Richardson again. He's looked really, really good. I know he got the concussion on Sunday, but man, I was really impressed with what I saw.

He, just like week one, he's getting through his progressions, throwing the ball in time, rhythm, anticipation. They're scheming it up really good for him with the design QB run type stuff. some of the other ways they're getting the ball in the playmaker's hands. I like what they're doing there. He looks good. CJ Stroud, though, guys. Woo.

Woo. C.J. Stroud. He's, you know, I wouldn't call my, I wouldn't say I'm a C.J. Stroud hater. I still had him as a top five-ish, seven-ish player in the draft. But I definitely had him as the clear number three in this class behind Bryce and Anthony Richardson and C.J. Stroud is trying to show me what's up because holy cow he looked phenomenal on sunday no obviously he's a rookie there's there's up and down moments

and those down moments for sure rear their head they do with richardson as well but with stroud he's doing things i never saw him do at ohio state throwing with anticipation as consistently as he's been doing it through two weeks so far was not on my bingo card of things i would expect to see from shroud in year one and it's it's really really cool to see like his connection with nico collins i don't know if you listen to Take Talk my other podcast, but we went into depth about that. But his connection with Nico Collins is special. There is there's something there that's just like they're feeling it. I'm not going to say it's Mahomes Kelsey-esque, but it's really good where there's just a trust

factor with Nico over the middle of the field where Stroud's putting it on him. And go back and watch that game. He had seven-ish throws to Nico over the middle of the field that, I mean, he's throwing that ball before Nico's in his break or out of his break, I should say. really, really cool stuff. The rhythm, the timing. When he's throwing the ball to Nico, he looks like a veteran quarterback. It's really cool.

And then I love the way they're getting Tank Dell, a fellow rookie involved, too. They're scheming up some touches to him. He's actually playing on the outside a lot, which is really cool. Smaller guy, you wouldn't expect that. But he's lining up on the outside, a good bit. And he's got the speed to threaten. So I think it makes sense to keep him out there. He's in motion all the time as well.

They're hitting them with some pop passes, some screens, just getting them involved in the game plan. Between those two guys in Tank and Nico, I really like Stroud's future weapons he's going to have to work with. Robert Woods is obviously a great veteran to have for this year. I don't see him being a long-term plan there, but I love what they're doing with Nico and Tank, and I think that's just going to build Stroud's confidence. He's going to get even better, and he's doing it too, guys, doing it with a makeshift offensive line. that, you know, we praise them for how they've been aggressively attacking the O-line. They were set to put out a really good starting five.

They had traded for good backups, like quality backups, and then everybody got hurt. And now they're basically starting five guys. They didn't anticipate starting, like five different, you know, a different player at each position, which is mind-blowing. So that, he's doing it despite that. So good for him, man, good on him. Zay Flowers, another guy. I want to talk about this dude.

He looks like the number one already in Baltimore. Obviously with Mark Andrews being the true number one, but as far as receivers go, Flowers is the, he's the dude. Bateman's basically been out of the picture, splitting time with Nelson Aguilar. OBJ has just kind of been, he's been steady, but he's not special. And he's hurt now as well.

That obviously opens the door for Bateman to get back into the fold. But point being is like, Zay is the clear dude there. I think Lamar has already developed a rapport with him. That's special. Lamar guys is throwing the ball better than he's ever thrown the ball. We kind of anticipated that can happen with the Todd Monk in offense coming to Baltimore.

That's going to bode well for Zay Flowers. For you dynasty guys out there, I think Zay is a dude. I mean, the window might already be shut, to be honest with you, but if you can still get Zay for a reasonable deal, I'm probably doing it. So any other rookies that impressed, let me think really quick. Well, should we talk about Bejan Robinson? Oh, man. So he might already be the best running back in the NFL.

actually no i'm just going to plant my flag there he is already the best running back in the NFL everything he can do from a a versatility standpoint you know lining up at receiver catching passes the power game the agility the ability to make guys missed the open field speed it's it's all there we knew it was all there but like he's put it together very fast obviously the only issue is like is arthur smith's going to continue arthur smithing and even like bejohn's usage has been okay it's been it's been high but like situationally I hate it like alger and algear's a good player like don't get me wrong he definitely needs to be involved with the offense but there was a sequence in sunday's game where i think atlena got the ball down to the 11 yard line opposing team's 11 yard line so

that's that's a snap basically on the 10 we'll just call it the 10 for for my bias sake and bjohn's not on the field they immediately get a penalty or not them the other team gets a penalty pass interference moves the ball to like the three-yard line or something in its first down. Basically, long story short, they run six plays from the 10 or inside the 10, and Bijon was only on the field for one of them, and they settled for a field goal. It's just embarrassing. I like Tyler. Don't get me wrong.

I need Bijon on the field for all six of those plays. There's no excuse for him not to be. That's how you scored. You got to have your best players on the field to score touchdowns. So even when you're good like some some of those plays they went with like a heavy run personnel look great. That's better like put Bijat on the field then I don't I don't get it. So it's going to need to see some usage switch up there for me to really jump on the Bijan board. But pivot a little bit here.

We're going to do I know you guys are probably sick of me talking quarterbacks, but I'm fascinated by this year's draft class. I've never seen 12 guys in one class being talked about. I've never seen it. It's crazy. There's good QBs all over the place. And they're not all going to enter the draft. I've obviously talked about that as well. But if they did, I mean, it's crazy.

Like, you know, more than one third of NFL teams could get an upgrade at either their backup spot or their starter spot. So anyways, we're going to keep talking QBs for a little bit just because it's fascinating to me. One thing I want to talk about is Shadur Sanders. And I have a hot take for you guys. I think throw for throw, down for down. so far this season, I like what I've seen from Shadur Sanders more than Caleb Williams. And if the draft were today, oh, I'm starting to sweat. This is making me nervous saying this publicly.

If the draft were today, I think I would take Shadur Sanders number one overall. I think Caleb Williams is an incredible talent. He's got some Mahomesian elements to his games. The one thing that he doesn't have that Mahomes had, though, is the field vision. And when I watch Caleb Williams, I see a lot of really bad, process that still gets to good results, you'll live with it. And when you're that talented, I think it works out in the end. So I'm not saying Caleb's a bust. Don't hear me wrong. I'm just saying for my money, I like what Shadoor is bringing to the table right now. I think he's

been better coached. I think he he has got the discipline needed to be an effective quarterback running an offense consistently. Yeah, the arm talent, he's got great arm talent. It's not Caleb Williams level, but that's okay. Very accurate thrower. He has the mobility aspect to his game. I just like what I've seen more. And we're going to get into detail about that in next week's episode. I'm going to have a guest on John Costco from PFF, who's also in my camp that I think Shadur Sanders is better than Caleb Williams right now. Now, there's a lot of season to be played. Caleb could completely turn it around. But when I watch Caleb, I'm seeing some of the same issues I had with Justin Fields. Some of the same issues I had with Baker Mayfield back when he came out, actually,

Kyler Murray and C.J. Stroud. And it all kind of comes back to like this really slow trigger where it's like they don't want to get through their progression. And when I watch Caleb, I see a guy who's like, well, screw the progression. I'm just going to dance back here and make something happen. And it's going to be a big play. He does that a lot. And it does work a lot. But it's college football.

You can't do that. That stuff will not fly in the NFL. So don't want to be super hot-takey, but for my money right now, I think Shadour Sanders has put a better season on tape. We'll wrap it up with a prospect look ahead. We're finally to the point of the college season where there's a lot of good matchups going on. Conference play started for just about everybody.

I think, yeah, I think as of this week, every team in college football will be into conference play. Like J.J. McCarthy, you know, he gets his first big 10 game, albeit Rutgers. And I'm really upset with the man. I touted him a week ago today about how great he's looked and he's the guy that's rising up the boards. And then he just, he had an absolutely terrible game last week. So I'm not out on JJ by any means, but like you have to, you know,

you're going to have to rectify that game at some point. And, you know, we're only working with three, four game samples right now for this class, for this year anyways. So Jordan Travis and Keon Coleman, they take on Clemson today. And I know Florida State beat LSU and that thrilling game to open the season, but this is their next, they're their first, I would say, good team. Clemson's not great. They're not normal Clemson, but they're still a pretty good team.

One of the better teams Florida State will play this year. So looking forward to seeing Travis and Keon to take on Clemson. Keon was a complete zero last week. I don't know if he was hurt. Somebody will have to, if you know anything about a situation, please DM me on Twitter. but he didn't do anything last week after dominating the first two weeks of the season. That was a very big surprise. Jordan Travis has got to be the biggest roller coaster in college football quarterback.

He has moments where you're like, this guy's a top five pick for sure, that he's got moments where you're like, oh, and that's why nobody was talking about you coming into the season. So I don't know. I don't know what to think of him yet. I think the tape is really sloppy, but ultimately NFL tends to bet on tools. Soudure Sanders versus Bo Nix. head to head today. That is the matchup of the week, in my opinion. Bo Nix, another guy with a lot of

first round hype. Shadur, not getting first round hype yet, actually. In fact, somebody on Twitter just recently pulled all the mock drafts over the last few weeks, 70 different mock drafts. The average draft position for Shadur Sanders was number 59. What are we doing, guys? How you haven't seen enough? Like, number 59. There was five QBs getting drafted ahead of him on average. J.J. McCarthy right behind Shadour Sanders at number 60. That's wrong, guys, that's wrong. Shadur Sanders versus Bo Nix today. Bo is, I think he's a first round pick for sure.

He's for sure coming out as well. He has to. Shadur, I've already talked about his rise, but like I'm excited to see him in an actual duel with a really good quarterback across from him. We know Oregon can score points in bunches. We also know that they can play slow too if they want to. They like to run the ball a little bit, eat some clock.

I mean, they always have the tempo, but you know what I mean? They're not always gunning it. So then we get Ohio State, number six, Ohio State versus number nine, Notre Dame today. And that game is littered with NFL prospects. Obviously, Ohio State's got Marvin Harrison Jr. The Travion Williams running back. Like they've got legit prospects all over the place. Notre Dame led by Sam Hartman also has legit prospects all over the place.

But I'm just curious to see Marvin Harrison Jr. in an actual football game. They haven't really played one yet. And he's dominated. He had last season, of course, where he dominated as well. But just excited to see him against an actual team that's going to put up decent corners this week. So that's basically it, though. I mean, that's what we're looking at.

Let me see if there's any other good matchups this week. UCLA, Utah, there's definitely. some stuff going on there. Michael Pennix Jr. Number eight ranked Washington Huskies will take on California. Romeo Adunze is the leading receiver in the FBS right now. He's a guy, I think he's a top 20-ish pick for sure. Pennix Jr., another quarterback that's kind of rising to the top of the class. I think based on tape and what I've seen,

like ceiling-wise, I think my top four right now are probably Shadur Sanders, Caleb Williams, Michael Pennix Jr. and Drake May. Pennix is up there, though. His arm is ridiculous. I know we've talked about the disjointed mechanics, but that stuff is fixable, and he's still playing tremendously good despite the disjointed mechanics. So was he got 12 touchdown, 12 passing touchdowns to one interception right now? Pretty remarkable stuff.

This will be a little bit tougher game than Michigan State last week. Michigan State's a boob of an organization or a boob of a program. So, yeah, Pennix Jr. is also completing 74% of his passes. What? That's crazy. That is literally insane. Yeah, and he looks really good running the ball as well. Very athletic guy.

We'll see what the NFL thinks about him with his injury, history, and age concerns, because he is, what, a sixth year senior or something. So don't believe he's as old as Hendon Hooker, but NFL seems to care about that stuff. So anyways, that's going to do it. Look forward to next week's episode. We will be breaking down Shadur Sanders versus Caleb Williams, maybe even a little bit of verse Drake May as well.

Because I know there's some people I don't even think Shadur is worth the number two spot yet. And I think maybe that's the conversation we can win. That's the debate we can win is if he should be number two. We're going to make the argument, though, that he's the number one guy in this class so far on tape. So stay tuned for that episode next Saturday. It will also do a college football look ahead.

All right, guys, that's going to do it for today. Thank you so much for listening. The support has been awesome. I get DM streaming guys all the time. It's really amazing. I know our listenership has gone through the roof. So really appreciate you guys. We'll be back next week.

Thanks. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform and come join the roster at fantasy points.com.