Fantasy Football Daily - Seattle's Storm and AFC Coaching Changes

Episode Date: February 25, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) are back to break down the deepening divide between Russell Wilson and the Seahawks before jumping into the AFC coaching carousel. The guys start the pod by breaking down the latest details of Seattle's current conundrum with a disgruntled Wilson before jumping into the fantasy implications from the coaching changes in the AFC (21:30). --- 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 for 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 to everybody to another edition of the Fantasy Points podcast here. FantasyPoint.com. My name is Joe Dolan, managing editor of the aforementioned website, and I'm with Tom Brawley, who heads up our betting content and has been grinding away at some of our bigger offseason articles with which I am helping. I've got to catch up on that, Tom. I had a really

interesting day at the account yesterday. Moving to a different state around tax time is super freaking stressful. I'm sick of it. It's just unbelievable what's going on. But yeah, tax time is a stressful time for all of us this year, especially, I think, for a lot of us. And Tom, we're late recording again. Number one, my wife continues to dilly dally getting out of the house and the dogs get whipped up into a frenzy. And that's why I got to give them time to calm down. They're right here with me in my office. My office has a couch in here.

Maybe I should take a therapy appointments on the side with a couch in my office. But here's the thing. My wife and I, when we got these two dogs who are lunatics, one of the first things we did was invest in a fence. for our backyard. But $5,000 put a fence in the backyard. Okay. It's great because like you could just let the dogs out and you don't have to walk them up and down the street for them to do their business. Here's the problem. Whenever it's nice out, I let them out back and they just lay down. They don't use the yard for its purpose for them, which is to do their business. So I still had to walk them up and down the street, I'm just out $5,000.

That's, that, that, that is, uh, the problem when it's nice out. And I'd much rather it be nice out, but, uh, but yeah, Tom, when it's nice out, they just decide it's their time to go out and lay down in the sun. So that's why I'm a little late recording today. Yeah, it sounds like it's just like a big beach there. You should get like a little pond out there, get some beach towels out for them. They're just getting some sun there. They're just sunbathing there.

It sounds like a nice setup for them. So, it sounds like they just like to do the walking with you, though, Joe. They like your companionship. Oh, yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what it is. By the way, I do have a pond in my backyard because even though it's nice today, it's been like the rainiest year on record in the upstate South Carolina. So like my backyard looks like the damn Everglades. It really is pissing me off.

And we have that Bermuda grass, which goes dormant in the winter, but it's all like gray and brown when it's dormant in the winter. And it's kind of depressing. So I'm really looking forward to. the Bermuda grass to come back to life here anyway. Those are tales of homeownership from the Dolan family. And Tom, it's good to be with you here. And I think we're going to kick off today's podcast.

We are going to broach the subject we were planning on talking about last week. But this time last week, the Carson Wrench trade broke. So we basically did an entire podcast on that. We don't have a trade breaking now. But there are rumors, not that we know of. Yeah, as soon as we get off this podcast, something big will probably happen. It feels like that. Yeah, I really, that's why I kind of want to finish it quick.

So just in case, so at least we get two hours of freshness. So there are rumors kind of curdling now. And it's been on both sides regarding Russell Wilson. And we have a new article from the athletic out today. Let me just make sure it was a three-man byline. So I want to make sure I get everybody's name right here. I know Michael Sean Dugger, who does a great job covering the Seahawks for the Athletic was on here. Mike Sando as well.

Like Sando and Jason. Jason Jenks. This is a triple byline kind of deep dive into what's going on between Russell Wilson and the Seahawks. And you saw Russell Wilson do kind of his media blitz, right? A couple of weeks ago, he goes on Dan Patrick's show. And he says, I think I should have more control over personnel decisions or at least some insolns. into personnel decisions. And then he leaks to Jason Lockhand Forra that, you know,

the offensive line wasn't good enough. And beginning to wonder if this relationship with the Seahawks has kind of deteriorated. And Tom, normally you could say this, oh, it's angling for a new contract. It's angling for this. It's angling for that. The problem is this kind of happened like two years ago. This exact same scenario. And then it went down to the deadline.

I think it was the deadline for an extension, and he signed the deal. And it was the four-year $140 million deal. And he signed that, and Adam Schaefter broke that. And what looked like a situation that was coming to a head ended up, cooler heads prevailed, and the Seahawks got Russell Wilson extended. Now it's the same kind of situation. Now, this article, not to say that the boys at the athletic didn't do a good job kind of getting comments from both sides in the article.

But this article seems more from the Seattle Seahawks perspective of what they saw with Russell Wilson. And I guess the Seahawks argument was Wilson got too into the Let Russ Cook movement. He started taking sacks that were his fault. Wilson believes they're on the offensive line. He was turning the ball over too much, which really pisses Pete Carroll off. Like Pete Carroll's entire philosophy, it's not changing folks. It's you control the ball, you play defense.

You can argue with that philosophy, but it is Pete Carroll's philosophy. That's not changing. And the Seahawks are beginning to wonder as well if Russell Wilson has almost, in a way, bought into his own legend a little bit too much. And there was a scenario painted in the article, which I very much recommend you go to The Athletic and read. If you don't subscribe to the Athletic, you're doing something wrong. And that's not a paid advertisement.

It's just where pretty much most of the great sports. journalism is being done these days. Tom, it was just an article of, and it painted the scenario, rather, of Russell Wilson watching the Super Bowl and essentially seething during the entire game. Like, how have I not been to this game in six, seven years? We haven't been to the A NFC championship in six, seven years. Russell Wilson is pissed off and he blames the franchise. The franchise is like, all right, Russ, maybe you should take some of the blame yourself. And I wonder if this situation is coming to a little bit of a head here. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this kind of has like a bit of a whiff of like the Bill Belichick

Tom Brady dynamic where, you know, you know, these two guys are there for so long now over a decade for Pete Carroll and, you know, Russell Wilson is quickly approaching a decade here. And, you know, it's a guy that feels like, you know, I should have a bigger say in what's going on, you know, Pete's, Pete gets, you know, he has this way of playing. He wants to ball control, you know, no turnovers, play smart, you know, rely on your defense. But it's not really a formula that's worked for them recently. I mean, this defense has deteriorated over the years. You know, it was a top unit in the mid-2010s, but, you know, last year they were getting gashed in. They were the fantasy defense that you wanted to go against with your passing game. And, you know, it's, it's, it's,

Russell Wilson is ready. He wants to take more control of this offense. He thinks he is with those top guys at the position. But Pete Carroll has always used this formula. It's what he knows. Pete Carroll is one of the oldest coaches in the leg. I know he's close to 70 years old. So it's not like he's going to just change his ways here in the final years of his coaching career.

So it's very much a power struggle here, the athletic article was almost, it felt like just basically Seattle's rebuttal to the whole, you know, Russell Wilson going out there and telling his side of the story. And, you know, it doesn't look great Russell Wilson storming out of the meeting. And, you know, Pete Carroll's pissed, you know, you know, he throws seven interceptions and a two games fan against the, you know, I know the bills and I think it was the Rams there. So it's just a bit of a struggle here. We'll see if it comes to a head. everybody's airing out their grievances here. I think at the end of the day, probably cooler heads will prevail,

but maybe not. Maybe this has been kind of simmering under the surface here for a few years. You know, we've seen other quarterbacks already get moved this offseason with Matthew Stafford and Carson Wentz. We know there's a lot of teams, you know, looking at the top of the draft. We have four very good quarterbacks, and everybody's kind of angling for their guy here. So, you know, if he does hit the open market here, it should be interesting here. You know, we have Watson, who's, you know, the Texans continue to say isn't available.

But, you know, that's, you know, they want to say that. They want people to break the bank to get Deshawn Watson. So, you know, it throws potentially another hat in the ring. And you have to think of like a team like the Carolina Panthers. You know, if Russell Wilson played at NC State, he's from the Richmond, Virginia area. you know, David Tepper has been kind of a guy that's looking to make a splash here. You know, they don't really have much of a high ceiling with Teddy Bridgewater, but it's definitely a roster that's quickly improving.

And, you know, they're looking for a guy that can really put them over the top. So we'll see if it deteriorates any farther. But, you know, definitely, yeah, this article just felt like, hey, we want to tell our side of the story here as well. So we'll see if this kind of is the end of it or things get a little bit worse and a little chippier here, especially with free agency and, you know, the draft coming up. Those are usually deadlines for, you know, big moves here in the NFL. So we'll see if it's, you know, what happens here over the next couple of weeks. So here's then the big question. Like, Russell Wilson just signed this big extension a couple of years ago, four years, 140 million.

He's overwhelmingly wealthy. Now, that doesn't mean that maybe you can sweeten the pot a little bit for them, but it just feels different, Tom. It doesn't feel like this is a new contract kind of dispute. It doesn't feel like with Carson Wentz in Philly. It wasn't a new contract type of dispute. With Deshawn Watson in Houston, it's not a new contract kind of dispute. It's Russell Wilson very differently that this is, I want more influence over this organization. I want to be Drew Breeze.

I want to be Brady. I want to be putting up these huge numbers. I think that's the situation here. And I'm just not sure that Seattle is going to acquiesce on that. And that's the thing here. Can Seattle acquiesce? Like, I don't think this is something where you're going to be like, all right, Russ, let's tear up your contract and write your new one.

And we're going to play the exact same way, but you're going to be happy with more money in your pocket. I just don't know if that's the case. And, you know, it's funny that we're now entering this age of kind of quarterback empowerment in the NFL where these quarterbacks are getting moved. I mean, Tom, even five years ago, the notion of franchise quarterbacks getting traded multiple ones in the same offseason would have been ludicrous.

It was you draft these guys, they're your quarterback for, you're hoping for a decade plus when you draft one of these guys. And now teams are getting more aggressive in the trade market. And quarterbacks are getting more aggressive being able to go to the media and say, look, this isn't working out the way Deshawn Watson is or, you know, kind of under the radar the way Carson Wentz did. He hasn't set up word publicly in months. It's fascinating. And, you know, so I look at this from a couple of different angles when it comes to Wilson. Number one, you mentioned it. But let's get the exact report out. Diana Rossini just today, this is Thursday,

February 25th of ESPN, said flat out, Houston is refusing to trade Deshawn Watson. Again, it could be hard ball. But DeShon Watson, Tom, I mean, he might be one of the two or three most valuable assets in the entire NFL right now alongside like Mahomes and Josh Allen. Like he is a young franchise, proven franchise quarterback. And, you know, his track record is longer than that of Josh Allen. So like, I mean, you could argue he's like number two in the NFL in terms of, in terms of an asset right now and a player. So Houston being reluctant to trade that, is understandable. But now, this is Russell Wilson's second public spat with the Seahawks.

And the first one, as we mentioned, was cooled down with the contract extension. This one feels different to me. And if Russell Wilson is now in the ring, he's in the trade market, you have to wonder, somebody like the Miami Dolphins who might have been interested in Deshawn Watson, you mentioned Carolina, the New York Jets, this is all of a sudden somebody, who can, I actually think would be cheaper than Deshawn Watson, Tom, just because of age factors. But, I mean, it's somebody who now can really shake that thing up. And a team like that who wants to aggressively pursue Russell Wilson, I think there will be no shortage of suitors for Russell Wilson.

Oh, absolutely. I think the market is robust here at this point. You know, we, you know, not just those teams. You have a team like Washington who feels like they're kind of close. and, you know, there's just, you know, it feels like unlimited teams. You know, there's probably, you know, six to ten teams that would give up a quite a bit here just to get him. And, you know, it will be interesting to see, you know, just who Seattle sides with here. You know, we saw it didn't work out well for New England last year. They went with, you know, Bill Belichick, the guy that, yeah, hey, he could stay.

He could still be coaching five or ten more years. You know, Tom Brady, he showed signs of decline last year. What's he got? One or two more years left. you know, he goes down to Tampa Bay and wins a Super Bowl. It's a bit of a different dynamic here in Seattle. Russell Wilson, you know, just the way he play. You know, he doesn't take huge hits.

He does take sacks, but, you know, he doesn't north. You know, he gets down. He doesn't take huge hits. You know, he probably is a guy that has another probably 10 years, you know, left in his career. You know, how much longer does Pete Carroll have? He's, you know, close to, he'll be 70 years old this year. So, you know, how much longer is Pete Carroll going to coach? So, but we.

we've seen Pete Carroll has, you know, the power here. He can Schottenheimer. You know, he has ultimate control of his staff here. He makes all the decisions up there. So it's a very interesting power dynamic. And, you know, the Watson stuff, I think it isn't the Texans best interest here to say that they're not trading them. Hey, we can work internally, maybe try to build some bridges back up with Watson while at the same time, hey, we'll listen to, we'll listen to calls. but he's not actively on the market. Maybe that gets teams to up their offers to the offer they can't refuse. So we'll see how the Watson thing plays out, how the Wilson things plays out.

But I would not, you know, we saw Stafford get moved very quickly this year, Wentz did too. These situations seem to be deteriorating a lot quicker than they have in the past. And teams are more willing to acquiesce and, you know, move these guys, you know, in shorter situations here. So it's, it's going to be fascinating to see, you know, once free agency starts to roll around here, it's, this truly has become a 24-7, 365, you know, sport. It always felt like it before. This is probably the deadest time of the year outside of maybe June, but, you know, every day we're getting more and more stories and more headlines about these

quarterbacks. So also from the athletic, Russell Wilson has included, or his people have included some, this got into the point where they apparently have come to the Seahawks with some trade destinations that Russell Wilson would approve. By the way, he has a no trade clause. So he has to approve the trade. Just like Watson. Watson's the same situation. Right. You know, the Watson with the Jets, that was always kind of a thing like he might not necessarily want to go there. So, yeah, that's, you know, these quarterbacks also have that bit of control as well, which makes it just a little bit, even more, a little bit more interesting there. Here are the teams included, and this does not, there's no indication that this is all the teams

Russell Wilson would approve a trade to, but here are some of the teams that are interesting to him via the athletic, the Dolphins, which we just talked about, the Jets, the Saints, and the Raiders. Now, you also have to talk cap implications. And Tom, as a tweet I put out earlier today, completely indicates, I am not a cap expert. You know, because the Seahawks would save a lot of money relatively if they were to trade Russell Wilson after June 1st. Now, we always say, oh, teams can cut a guy and designate them as opposed June 1st cut. Apparently, you cannot do that with a trade. So if that were to happen, the Seahawks and whichever team would be

training for Russell Wilson, in order for the Seahawks to save the optimal amount of money for themselves would actually have to execute the trade post-June 1st. So that would lead to the team that maybe the dolphins are picking number three overall, and the Seahawks are like, pick this guy. That's illegal, by the way. As Ernie O'Corsi has said multiple times, Ernie Echorsi said multiple times when he was discussing the eventual Eli Manning trade from the Chargers to the Giants on draft day in 2004, by the NFL's rules, you are not allowed to pick a team for another player. So it would have to be

some sort of winked nod and they, and they would have to, and they would have to like essentially get around an investigation of that. Like, hey, you know, you're making this trade to, to save some money. But that player was included in the trade that you pick number three. Oh, the dolphins pick Justin Fields at number three overall, and now he's a Seahawk, you know, they would have to get around that. So there's a lot of financials that are in play here, which you would think rules out the Saints who are in Cap Hell. But there's always the chance Russell Wilson once gone so much that he's able to restructure

his deal to make it easier for the Seahawks to trade him, to make it easier for the new team to take him on. I guess those are all possibilities. But of those teams that I just listed, Tom, because I mean, we could go forever, because I would think most teams in the NFL would have an interest in at least calling on Russell Wilson of the Jets, Dolphin Saints, Raiders. Which one of those really interests you? Well, I mean, the Saints, you know, that fascinates me, that whole situation. And maybe that's the better situation. Maybe they can work some sort of deal where, you know, if Pete Carroll really wants to

be this run-centric offense, you know, where Taysam Hill is potentially in the deal and, you know, The Saints have, you know, more, you know, player ready. You know, they have guys that, you know, Pete Carroll, I've said it twice already. He's 70 years old. He's not interested in a rebuild here. He just has a couple more years left probably. He's not looking to tear it down, start with a rookie. He wants to win now.

Like, so, you know, it has to be with some ready made parts, I think, included in this trade. So, you know, maybe you throw a Taysam Hill and, you know, you get some. defensive pieces to help that unit that's kind of struggled for most of the year until towards the end of the year. So that one is the most intriguing to me because I just don't see Pete Carroll as a guy that's, you know, ready for rebuild. Maybe that involves the dolphins. Maybe you get a two-it involved. But, you know, I think Pete wants pieces that are ready to play and ready to compete this year. And I mean, I think it's really funny, Tom, because as we stand right now, Chris Carson, who's been the Seahawks lead back the last number of years as a free agent.

So you have this dynamic goal. Pete is not changing. Like that article was adamant. Like his philosophy is not going to change. They want he wants to run the ball and he wants to avoid turnovers. Well, they're top running back is a free agent right now. So, you know, you say if they trade Russell Wilson, it's not going to be a rebuild. It's going to be fascinating to see what direction they go in.

But I've long held the belief here this offseason that the dolphins, with all their draft capital, I don't think you can look at what Tua did like, not to say Tua is, you know, he's doomed forever, but I don't know how the dolphins can look at what he did last year and say, ah, we're going to stay put right now. With all this draft capital, if they think they're in a position to go and win, I think that's going to be interesting now. The other thing that isn't fascinating to me, though, is Russell Wilson, one of the big things in this article that he was breaking down, Tom, was how dissatisfied he is with the Seahawks

past protection. Well, if you look at pro football focuses past block grades from, and this is obviously just one measure, but from from 2020, the dolphins were last in that category. So like you go to Miami and they're going to trade all these draft picks for you. Well, Miami's going to have to work on that offensive line in some other ways. So I found that fascinating, Tom. The Raiders have a good offensive line, but Tom Cable is the line coach there and he was a disaster in Seattle. So, I mean, just a million, million ways this can go. But let's kind of circle this around to fantasy right now.

You're doing drafts right now. And obviously, you and I, we're going to step up big on best ball post draft. That's when I feel like I do my best drafting. Yes. I know there's a lot of people right now. We actually did one with our staff, a best ball to end that John Hanson reviewed up at FantasyPoint.com. But I'm looking at the situation here.

And if you're drafting some of these Seahawks, not just Wilson. But D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, I mean, Tom, are they dropping on your board right now? Especially somebody like Metcalfe, we know he's a dominant kind of receiver. But, I mean, Russell Wilson might be the best deep ball thrower in the entire league. That's a big, that's a big knock for Metcalf if Russell Wilson's not the quarterback here. Yeah, I initially had Metcalf probably in the teens here. I've knocked them down to 29 overall. That's like middle third round.

So definitely knock them there just because, yeah, the uncertainty of it all. And even if Russell Wilson does come back and play, we saw how limited this offense looked toward the end of the last season whenever they decided to go back to this run-heavy style. And, you know, Russell Wilson, you know, just look miserable playing at the end of last season, especially in that playoff game. So definitely I'm knocking this passing game. Metcalf was a guy.

I initially thought I'd have, you know, in the middle to end of the second round, but a guy that I've slid down my draft boards, I've done the same thing with Russell Wilson. He was a guy. It was probably QB7, QB8, my rankings last year. I have him below, like a guy like Tom Brady, who's coming off a really strong conclusion to last year. You know, I have him right around like with Ryan Tannahill. So he's he's writing that QB10 to QB12 range. But right now as it kind of stands, if he's going to stay in Seattle, you know, he'll probably be pretty high on my, just a guy that I'm just not going to draft very much,

just given all the indications that we're getting right now from what Pete Carroll wants to do with his offense. So maybe he's unlocked if he goes somewhere else. And I would think whatever team would trade for him, they're not going to bring him in to be like, okay, Russell, you're ready to hand the ball off, you know, 30-some times a game. I would think that they would let Russ Cook wherever he lands. But as things stand right now, you know, I'm just kind of avoiding the Seattle passing game. Oh, and by the way, we're going to actually talk AFC coaching changes on this podcast, Tom. But let's not forget the Seahawks have a new offensive coordinator.

They fired Brian Schottenheimer. Shane Waldron is the new offensive coordinator in Seattle, and his background is Sean McVeigh. And, you know, we talk about Sean McVeigh as an offensive wonderkind, and he is. to some degree, Tom. But what is the foundation of Sean McVeigh's offense? Outside zone, run game, passing concepts built off of that. Don't think for one second Pete Carroll doesn't know what the foundation of Sean McVe's offense is watching Sean McVeigh from across the field in the same division two times a year.

He knows exactly, they played three times a year. I was going to say three times a year and we saw Cam Acres eat them alive in that playoff game. I'm sure that did not sit well with Pete Carroll, that they were just gashing them with the KMakers all game long. And listen to this. Shane Waldron, in his introductory press conference with the Seattle media, said, quote, his offensive approach, and now the quote starts,

is always going to be all about the ball. It starts there from an offensive perspective. There is no greater statistic that leads to wins and losses than turnover differential. That is a staggering comment, Tom, because it is basically, I mean, if Pete Carroll said that exact quote in that exact order five times in his life, I would not be surprised. So like, this is lockstep here, Tom. This offense is starting with the run game and the play action pass game. This is Pete Carroll planting his flag.

And I think, by the way, Russell Wilson could function very well in this offense. And I broke that down in our coach carousel article for Seattle. but maybe Russell Wilson believes it is time for him to kind of spread his wings and fly a little bit more. And if they are not aligned on the same philosophy, again, here is just another example of Pete Carroll putting his foot down and saying, we are going to run the ball, love it or leave it. Yeah. Who is going to be running the ball? I mean, that's another massive question in this offense right now.

Chris Carson, you said, is a free agent here where Sean Penny's coming off basically a basically, last season had the, you know, devastating ACL injury towards the end of the 2019 season, really kept them off the field. And, you know, but he's clearly talented first round pick from a couple of years ago. Do they get interested in the free agency market? You know, a guy like Leonard Fournett would seem to fit like, you know, what they want to do out there. So, you know, it's going to be fascinating to see just how that, even that running game starts

to take shape here. So many, many, many, many, many, many questions in Seattle right now. Tom, we're going to go to our guy, Ben Kucanis here. And we're going to take an ad break. And then we're going to talk some AFC coaching changes here and some of the interesting moves around the AFC. So I'm excited to do that here. But first, let's get Ben Kukanis in with his wonderful, wonderful sounding microphone as he reads an ad from our sponsors. Thank you very much, Ben.

Now, Tom, let's get into some of these AFC coaching changes. And what we did for our coaching carousel, coach carousel, whatever the hell we wanted to call them articles up at FantasyPoint.com, by the way, which are free to read, just go to Fantasypoints.com. And you can see that there's a banner

and all of them have a landing page for our Coach Carousel articles. What we did for these, Tom, was basically any team that made a major offensive move, like hiring a new head coach, any team that hired a new head coach we covered, but any team that hired like a new offensive coordinator or kind of a passing game coordinator,

we broke those down, and that includes certainly some AFC teams. But I want to focus here for the purpose of this podcast on the teams in the AFC that hired a new head coach. And that starts with the New York Jets, which apparently Tom, Robert Sala, is super well respected around the NFL because now all of a sudden,

the Jets, the laughing stock of the league, the last couple of years under Adam Gacer, an appealing landing spot for like Deshawn Watson and Russell Wilson. They've said, hey, we'll go to the Jets. And Robert Sala is all about culture here. Jets fans are super excited about this hire. And Tom, based on his staff, based on his introductory press conference, and that's, you know, what we can know about him as a head coach right now.

We know his defenses were good in San Francisco. I would be excited if I were a Jets fan as well about Robert Sala and what he's going to do here. Yeah, he seems like, you know, he's always fired up on the sidelines. He's the motivator type. But he's also produced results with his defense. I know that they were pretty loaded during their Super Bowl run back in 2019. Almost, you know, they were just, you know, seven minutes away from beating the chiefs there before Patrick Mahomes flipped the switch on.

But, you know, he's, you know, last year they were, they got pummeled with injuries last year. and, you know, they still were a top five unit by DVOA. So, you know, he's, you know, he backed up his performance as a defensive coordinator in 2019 with another strong showing in 2020. You know, just the way the coaching process kind of works, these guys that go to the Super Bowl as coordinators, you know, they're really kind of screwed, basically, with getting head coaching jobs because these franchises want to walk in, you know, who they have, get the plans going for the upcoming season as soon as they can. So, you know, he was a hot commodity last

year, didn't really get a job because of, you know, their run to the Super Bowl, but didn't last too long this time around. And, you know, he kind of plucked, you know, some guys away from Kyle Shanahan's, you know, his coaching staff with LaFleur and I think it was John Benton as the offensive line coach as well from San Francisco. You'll be the run game coordinator as well Yeah, so, yeah, it's going to have a bit of that San Francisco feel out there in New York. And, you know, we'll see, you know, a guy like Kyle Eusechek is going to be interesting. He's a free agent. He was kind of the key to the San Francisco running game and just a lot of their offensive schemes last year.

He's a free agent. He, you know, he has a home out in Long Island. I could see LaFleur and, you know, the guys trying to make a big run at him to help out this running game and just the entire offense altogether. So, you know, it's, it's, you know, if I was a Jets fan, I'd be feeling pretty good after what I just went through with Adam Gase and just to see a bunch of guys. Winning those two games. That part, that part really sucked. But you know, you saw, you know, Sam Darnold and Chris Herndon and just, just guy after guy deteriorate under Adam Gase here the last couple of years. So change of face, upcoming coach. And,

we'll see if LaFleur can kind of replicate what his brother's done in Green Bay, who was also Kyle Shanahan disciple and what he did out in San Francisco the last couple of years. They're going to probably be more of a run-based offense, a lot of motion, you know, trying to cause, you know, confusion for opposing defenses. So we'll see if he can kind of, you know, do what those guys did in previous years in Green Bay and in San Francisco. So Robert Salah, by the way, is going to be, flat out admitted he's going to be a CEO head coach. He is not calling the defense. His defensive coordinator is Jeff Ulbrick.

He will call the defense. And now that doesn't. Yeah, good question. I don't know. He's a pretty hands-on guy. Yeah. Mike LaFleur is the offensive coordinator, as you mentioned, younger brother of Matt and a Kyle Shanahan disciple.

He comes over from San Francisco. but Robert Salo's thumbprint will be on the offense, and you said it's probably going to be kind of a run-based offense as Shanahan's system is. And I think it's fascinating, Tom, here because it's hard to get a good feel for fantasy impact here. We don't know who the quarterback's going to be. We don't know who the running back's going to be. We don't know what James and Crowder. They're talking about cutting him. He could be cut.

I guess Denzel Mims and Chris Herndon in theory fit the offense. You know, obviously Herndon had a miserable. bowl season, but he came on late, and they know how to use a tight end in San Francisco for sure. But I think it's fascinating that some guys at the running back position who have thrived in San Francisco are guys like Rahim Moster and Jeff Wilson, who are undrafted type guys. And maybe they don't feel the need at this stage of the Jets rebuild to invest heavily in the running back position. And if that's the case, I just want to point out a side note for dynasty players.

looking at Ty Johnson, who came on late for the Jets at the end of last season, his athletic measurables are very similar to those of Kevin Coleman, who has had success in the Shanahan offense, in both, less so in San Francisco because of injuries, but obviously in Atlanta. So just keep an eye on Ty Johnson. Those of you in Dynasty leagues might be kind of an interesting player to target. It should be pointed out, they got burned pretty bad the last time they dipped their toe heavily into the running back market.

I know it wasn't a lot of the same guys, but Joe Douglas certainly seen, you know, they saw the ramifications of that move last year whenever they had to cut them. So, you know, maybe they are a little hesitant. Maybe they, you know, go the rookie route. I know Aaron Jones's name has been floated around quite a bit here,

but, you know, maybe they go more of a passive route and go just go to a running back in the draft here instead of the free agency way. The Los Angeles Chargers, Tom, I mean, if you were to tell me, before the season that Justin Herbert would have the greatest rookie season for a quarterback ever and would win rookie of the year, I would probably have asked you how long was Anthony Lynn extended for?

It just probably goes to show you how little confidence that front office had in Lynn's in-game decision-making, that they fired him and his entire staff, by the way. Justin Herbert credited offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who is now the Eagles offensive coordinator and quarterbacks, especially quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton, who is now in the same role with the Texans with his development. They are gone. They are now gone. That is how little confidence they had in the in-game decision making of Anthony Lynn.

And now they're going to what appears to be a pretty heavily analytical approach under the staff of Brandon Staley, the new head coach, who was a one-year defensive coordinator under Sean McVeigh. But he would actually play quarterback in college. And they're going to go with Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator, formerly of the Saints, notorious for not getting along with Matthew Stafford when he was the offensive coordinator in Detroit. And then at defensive coordinator,

they're going to go with Ronaldo Hill, former NFL defensive back. So, Tom, this is a fascinating new staff. but everything that Staley has said is he's very forward-thinking. He's an analytical type of guy, as you might expect, coming from the Sean McVey coaching tree. I liked what I heard from Staley, but it is kind of concerning that after the year Justin Herbert had, he's learning a new system. Yeah, that's never ideal for a young guy to bounce around like this. But, you know, he didn't have much of an offseason last year, didn't have much of a training

camp. But he's certainly impressed, you know, given the situation, you know, he was a guy that wasn't even expected to play at all last year, you know, obviously took the fluke, Tyrod Taylor, getting his, you know, lung punctured by a team doctor there for him to come into the lineup. So maybe he's a little more resistant to, you know, the changes than most young quarterbacks might be. But, you know, The concern for me is, you know, Joe Lombardi's obviously shaky, shaky stint there in Detroit. You know, you said it's going to be an analytics-driven kind of team here with Brandon Staley at the helm. But Lombardy's stay in Detroit was just a disaster. He butted heads with Matthew Stafford.

They had just great weapons. They had Calvin Johnson at receiver. They had Golden Tate, you know, out of the slot. They had Matthew Stafford throwing. the ball and he wanted to go run heavy. You know, he was, you know, didn't use uptempo, didn't, didn't use the weapons that were given to him to his advantage. So obviously that's a bit of a concern going into this job. But, you know, that was back in 2014 and 2015, went back to Sean Peyton's staff in New Orleans, hopefully picked up some things while he was there.

You know, I think he, from what I was reading, he played a pretty big part in Taysom Hills. kind of emergence over the last couple of years, you know, really brought him along. So, you know, that's a great sign. A guy was, you know, wasn't even a prospect. And now he's a fringe starting quarterback in the league. So hopefully that's some positive stuff. And, you know, I also got to think about Austin Echler a little bit here, you know, watching the Saints here.

You know, they've had Darren Sprouls and Alvin Kamara, you know, Sean Peyton was obviously able to use those guys really well in his offenses. decade here. So, you know, hopefully Lombardi picked up some things that he can bring over to Los Angeles and, you know, make Austin Echler, you know, have him challenge Christian McCaffrey for the, you know, the receptions lead from the running back position this year. And by the way, yeah, I think he will. But keep in mind, Lombardi, he's a big advocate of the run game. He's said that. But he's also admitted, Tom, we'll see sometimes coaches, just like players, don't change their stripes. He has admitted he was too rigid in Detroit. That was five years ago,

but he pissed off Matthew Stafford. And at that point, Stafford had a lot more, a lot more tenure built up than Justin Herbert has to this point. But keep this in mind when it comes to Echlor. I wouldn't necessarily freak out if the Chargers go out and get another running back this offseason, Tom, because we obviously have seen Alvin Kamara have success in New Orleans, despite having a bigger back with Catavius Murray and Mark Ingram, also in the mix. So you look at that, that's probably good news for the running game here. But also, in New Orleans, Michael Thomas dominated out of the slot. That's great news for Keenan.

Yeah, Keenan Al, we were talking best ball rankings. You know, he's a guy that's really risen back up the rankings. You know, I knocked him too much last year whenever I thought Tyraud Taylor was going to be the quarterback. and Anthony, you know, it was probably good process still, but the results were terrible. But now he's back up in that fringe late round second, you know, early third round pick just because of what we saw from Herbert last year. And as he said, Michael Thomas dominated targets in that offense. You know, we can see Keenan Island be a top five guy at receiver in terms of targets this year,

you know, based on what we saw from, you know, Lombardi, you know, down in New Orleans there. So very positive things for, I'm feeling pretty good about, you know, the entire Chargers offense right now. I hope Lombardi doesn't bring that down. But, you know, there are some reasons to be excited about, you know, the two big guys in Los Angeles with Eckler and Keenan Allen. It's good to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tom, who probably, I'm actually surprised more people aren't necessarily talking about this hire because it's certainly one of the most fascinating of the offseason. in Urban Meyer, who is pulled out of the broadcast booth at 56. He has 33 years of coaching experience dating back to 1985. He has coached not a single down in the NFL time.

So, I mean, you look at this and I can't find an example of a coach who spent this much time in college before making the jump to the NFL. Now, of course, Urban got his start young in college. So at 56, he's kind of in the middle of the pack there, maybe towards the older end of NFL head coaches. But even Steve Spurrier had spent time as a player in the NFL and as a coach in the USFL when Washington hired him. So he had experienced coaching professional football. Chip Kelly had no experience with NFL playing or coaching, but his tenure in college was just 22 years. Jimmy Johnson spent 23 years in college before moving to the NFL.

Urban Meyer said he's going to be reaching out to Jimmy Johnson. And then, of course, there was Barry Switzer, who also was exclusively a college coach before the Cowboys hired him, but he was a caretaker. Like, you go back and you listen to like Troy Aikman's comments on Barry Switzer. Barry Switzer essentially treated that job like a vacation. Like, hell yeah, I'm the coach of Cowboys. Yeah, cash those checks.

And he won a Super Bowl, by the way. But he won them with Jimmy's players. We know that. But Urban Meyer goes to the NFL, Tom, and he will not be calling the plays. That will be Darrell Bevel, but you know Urban Myers' thumbprint is going to be on this offense. We know he's had his most success in college with quarterbacks who can run.

Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, Raxton Miller, J.T. Barrett, even Cardale Jones to a lesser extent. He was much more of a pocket passer than those guys, but they used him on some design runs. And you know who can run, Tom? Trevor Lawrence. He can run. The designed quarterback run is going to be part of Urban Myers' offense.

Obviously, Darrell Bevel has experience coaching Russell Wilson, less so Matthew Stafford, not necessarily known for his mobility, though he has some escapeability. But the run game, are you sensing a trend here? The run game is going to be the foundation of what the Jaguars do. They're going to build the pass game, the play action pass game off of that. They're going to do it almost certainly with Trevor Lawrence. I'm just interested to see what Urban's approach in the NFL is like. He is going to be more Pete Carroll than Chip Kelly.

He is not going to be calling the offense. He's going to let Darrell Bevel do his thing, but he's going to put his thumbprint over this. Yeah, and that's something that happened towards the end of his tenure at Ohio State as well. He gave over control of the offense to Ryan Day. Obviously, he's proven to be a very good play caller over the last couple of years. So, you know, and that kind of leads to me, like the one of the most fascinating guys, you know, before free agency and before the draft. Because I have really struggled with this guy because I love him. I love what he did last year.

He helped me win some, you know, some money in some of my legs last year. And the guy's James Robinson. I mean, kind of came out of nowhere as an undrafted guy, you know, was very capable on all three down. You know, it was a good receiver, you know, showed a lot of ability as a runner as well. So, you know, how does the staff view that, if you hand right now? I kind of just found some middle ground. He's middle of the third round type guy for me right now. If I had to bet money on it, I think they do bring in somebody to at least maybe take the, you know, some passing down situations and maybe challenge him as a runner. But, you know, because it is a whole new staff here.

You know, they'll be breaking down the tape here. They'll be trying to evaluate them. Maybe they'll think highly of them. They saw the results last year. So he's the most fascinating guy here. Ohio State, obviously, has produced some big-time facts in recent years between Ezekiel Elliott, J.K. Dobbins, you know, Carlos Hyde a couple of years ago as well. Tray Sermon coming out this year.

The new guy this year. Ezekiel Elliott. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, we want running backs from an Urban Meyer offense. If, you know, if the Jaguars don't do anything here, Joe, how high would you move James Robinson in your rankings? I think he might be a little top 15 guy if they do. Yeah, I mean, I'm reticent to draft him in the second round, like if I'm drafting right now.

But like, yeah, if they don't do something, he is going to be locked into that second round here. Even, by the way, even if they add a passing down back, Chris Thompson's a free agent, I would be okay, you know, still drafting Robinson in that top 24 kind of range. There is one guy I'm really intrigued by though, Tom. And it doesn't take a genius to figure this out. But what about Leviska-Cannal? Obviously, he's one of the few skill position players on the team who's under contract, which helps his status so we can actually talk about him. But consider this. Meyer coached Percy Harvin at Florida.

Darrell Bevel coached Percy Harvin in both Minnesota and Seattle in the NFL. Harvin had 353 receptions and 146 rush attempts in his NFL career. He had 194 rush attempts and 133 receptions in his college career. Under Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Curtis Samuel had 172 rush attempts and 107 receptions. Leviska Chanel as a rookie under the old coaching staff and Doug Marone, 58 receptions and 18 rush attempts. I expect him to be utilized heavily in that Jacksonville offense this coming season. Yeah, he was kind of a Swiss Army knife back to his days at Colorado.

He wasn't just a receiver. He would line up at Wildcat down the goal line and get carries there. And, you know, they do jet sweeps with him. So he's a guy that's always kind of been used as a satellite player at times. And so, you know, he's a very intriguing guy. And I think DJ Charts also pretty interesting just because, you know, what we know from Darryl Bevel's offense is the last couple stops. You know, Matthew Stafford really had a career year last two years ago in 2019 with a deep ball.

I mean, he was phenomenal there. I mean, Russell's obviously one of the best at it. And he was, you know, excellent under Darryl Bevel as well. So maybe this gives DJ Chark a little bit of life. You know, they really, they had no downfield passing game at all last year with Gardner Minchew struggling and picking up the thumb injury and then the slop that they threw in behind them in the second half of the year when they were really going for the tanks. So maybe a guy like DJ Turk also bounces back.

But, you know, just talking this through, I think I might be a little too low on Trevor Lawrence in my best ball rankings because, you know, we're starting to work on this free agency stuff that will be out on the site. and I think they're going to make a big play for a tight end as well. I could see a guy like John O'Smith, you know, potentially being in the mix there or Hunter Henry. They want to improve these weapons around Trevor Lawrence. That is always like one of these, you know, key philosophy things. Ever since Andrew Luck really came to the league, I remember that draft they had with T.Y. Hilton,

and they just loaded up on offensive weapons to put around them. And, you know, we're going to see the same thing here in Jacksonville. I could see them being aggressive. They have the most free agency, you know, the most salary cap space here to really work free agency in their favor, maybe get a big receiver or big tight end to add to this group. So, you know, the more I'm thinking about it, I might be a little too low on Trevor Lawrence because, as he said, they will be using a him on some design runs as well. Tom, let's wrap it up with the last team in the AFC that's hired a new head coach.

That's the Houston Texans. And I'm putting this team last because, Tom, I frankly, I don't know what the hell to talk about. I mean, David Cully, I know, I know him personally. I mean, I don't think, I don't think David Cully wouldn't recognize me if we passed on the street. But I've had more than a few conversations with him from my time with the Philadelphia Eagles. He's a, he's a extremely well-respected players coach. He's a Southern guy. Just, I mean, lights up the room when he comes into the room.

And you have to think that was part of the reason that the Texans hired David Cully. but he's never been an offensive coordinator. By the way, he's one of Terrell Owens' favorite player of people as well. He must be a nice guy then. Perel Owens is a prickly guy. Yeah, so David Culley is just a great coach, just a really respected coach. But Tom, Tim Kelly is the holdover as the offensive coordinator here. I just don't know what to say about the Houston Texans coaching staff until I know what the hell goes on with Deshawn Watson.

And I mean, Tom, we could, I guess, talk ourselves in circles here. But if you have any interesting thoughts here, let me know. Because, I mean, Willfuler is a free agent. David Johnson was okay last year. But, I mean, he's not, to me, he's not a starting quality NFL running back anymore. Watson. I mean, I don't know what the hell to say here, Tom. Yeah, I, there's not much to say.

I will say they did. It seemed like they went out of their, you know, they were trying to build back the relationship here with Deshawn Watson. David Colley, you said he's a players coach, so I think that's part of it. They want to get Deshawn Watson around him. Make them feel like, you know, he is part of the organization. He can be a part of the city of Houston for the next 15 years. It felt like that move was kind of a relationship builder. And it also allowed them to keep Tim Kelly as the offensive coordinator. You know, he's really, you know, his star is kind of rising here. Even, even though last year was a debacle overall for the for the the Texans. You know, Deshawn Watson put up career best

numbers, you know, and he really took a liking with Tim Kelly. He's a 34-year-old guy. He coached up at Penn State with Bill O'Brien and followed him down to Houston. And he's an up-and-coming guy. He got, you know, the Detroit Lions and the Jaguars both asked for permission to interview him for their offensive coordinator positions and they were denied. So, you know, if they would have brought in a BNAMI or somebody else, you know that they would have wanted to control of the offense. And it seemed like the Texans didn't want to lose Tim Kelly. So, you know, that's about the only thing I can say. You know, they'll try to keep the offense the same. But, you know, all that is thrown out the window here if Deshaun Watson is trading. So, you know, it's tough to really make any big sweeping judgments here

about the Houston and Texans offense here going forward, you know, for the 2012 season until we see what exactly happens with Deshawn Watson. So, you know, we'll see. But Tim Kelly sticking around would be a good thing for Deshawn Watson and these receivers for fantasy. All right, Tom, that'll wrap it up here. We went over 50 minutes here talking Russell Wilson and the AFC coaching carousel. Now, if you want to check out all, we also have like breakdowns of like the Steelers who have a new offensive coordinator. And the, Dolphins who I have no for what they're doing at

offensive coordinator. And we have the Indianapolis Colts who have a new offense coordinator. All these teams at the tight ones. Oh, down again, Tennessee. Yeah, all these teams that have new offensive coordinators, new minds. We have some fantasy insight for them.

A lot of them, Tom, we didn't have a whole lot to say. It's like with Tennessee, they're trying to continue the momentum of Arthur Smith. But, you know, we just, we broke down all these major kind of coaching changes. And we'll talk NFC next week. We actually have a call with Mr. Kathleen today.

I can't wait for. to get some insight into some of those NFC coaching hires. So I'm excited for that and we'll kind of relay some of that on next week's podcast. Hell, maybe we'll have another quarterback trade to talk about next week. But Tom, it's been great talking to you today. I want to thank everybody for listening. Reminder to go to FantasyPoints.com. A lot of our content right now is free to read.

Some articles are completely public. Some of them require just a free account. You sign up with your email address and a password and you can access that. including the coach carousel articles those are free to read right now but just go to fantasy points.com and if you like what you see make sure you subscribe 20% off right now on our early bird special um our draft guide with over 100 Greg CoSell profiles is going to be available very shortly um i can't wait for that show i know you just got the first dozen this week here yeah so i mean we're gonna we're gonna wait until we have a substantial number to publish the

the draft guide, but that, that'll be mid to late March. We'll get our, our first edition of that out. That's $25. You don't even need to subscribe to the site, by the way, to buy the Greg CoSell draft guide. You can subscribe to the, you can get the free account. If you're like, you know, hell, I don't know if I'm even going to play fantasy this year, but I want to read the Greg CoSell draft guide.

You can buy that for $25 as well. So there is a lot of good stuff coming down the pipeline at fantasy points.com. And if you want to learn more about it, well, first, the easiest way is to sign up for an account at the site and you'll get the periodic emails. But I'm posting on Twitter all the time at FG underscore Dolan. Tom's on Twitter at Tom Brawley. The site is at Fantasy PTS. So if you go to those Twitter accounts,

you're going to find out what's coming down the line at FantasyPoint.com. A lot of best ball and dynasty content coming from our guy, Scott Barrett and Graham Barfield and also our new higher West Hoover. Scott has power again, so we'll have our... Yeah, yeah, it's down in Texas. He had a rough. Rough week last week. And obviously we're thinking of all of our listeners down there in Texas. Hopefully the weather and now, maybe this podcast gave you a little bit. Hopefully your wife's getting back to normal here.

Scott sent us the forecast for this week. So it's looking a little better than it was last week. I'm about to open my window here, Tom, because it is gorgeous here. Oh, my God. State College is beautiful too, man. It's like, what don't we get these like 45 degrees sunny days in February after getting three weeks of snow? Oh, it feels like 90. Exactly. I'm outside in like t-shirt and shorts right now. So, I mean, it's the time. I am, I'm literally in a t-shirt and shorts right now because it's 75 here.

I'm going to open my window. The reason I didn't do it during the podcast is, A, there's construction trucks. Construction trucks outside. And also my dogs would go absolutely psycho if I open the window right now. So I'm going to get to that. I'm going to put some golf on the TV, maybe listen to some music. I'm going to enjoy myself. Hopefully Russell Wilson doesn't get traded in the next.

30 minutes before this podcast goes live. But for Tom Broly, my name is Joe Dolan. Thank you, everybody listening to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast, and we will talk to you next week. 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 FantasyPoint.com.