Fantasy Football Today - 01/05 Fantasy Football Podcast: Pats Problems, Twitter Polls & Playoff Lineups

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

We react to ESPN.com's report about friction in New England and wonder if Tom Brady is on the decline (2:00) and when he'll be drafted next year ... What can we learn from the rookie seasons of Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara (9:30)? And let's have some fun with Twitter polls! We asked our listeners to rank some RBs (16:50) and WRs (21:10) for 2018 ... Dave gives you some interesting numbers revealing how the Top 12 at each position performed in 2017 (27:50). Then we preview the playoff games (42:40) and give FanDuel (51:35), DraftKings (53:44) and NFL.com Playoff Challenge (54:43) lineups ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's Adam, Dave, and Jamie. Need a playoff challenge lineup, or a FanDuel lineup, or a DraftKings lineup?

Are you ready for some playoff football? We are ready as well. And, of course, we'll talk a little bit more about the 2017 season and leading into 2018. We welcome you to Fantasy Football Today, our Friday, January 5th edition. Is there friction in New England? Is your mind blown right now, Dave Richard slash Jamie Isenberg?

No. It's typical speculation and you know. It's coming to an end. It's not coming to an end. It's coming to an end. McDaniel's gone. Patricia gone. Well that might come to an end. Belichick gone. What? That's not good. Brady

retired. That's not. No. I don't think that's all. Done. Done. Done. Done. What are you predicting for Robert Kraft? Billions and billions and billions of dollars. Yeah. That's the safest bet that you've made. Yeah, well, I mean we could start talking about this because this interesting article on ESPN.com about all the friction in the organization

and how some people in the organization think that this might be the last year of the Brady-Belichick combo. Dave, there was a follow-up article to this? Yes, there's a follow-up story from Tom Curran, who has been covering the Patriots for as long as I can remember, who read the article, matched it with what he knows about the Patriots, and basically said at the end of the line that there's definitely frustration with Belichick about the whole Garoppolo thing, but he still expects Belichick to stay with the Patriots. He expects Brady back with the Patriots and everything to continue on just as it has been for the last 18-ish seasons.

Do you guys have any concerns about Tom Brady next season? Because he's probably going to win the MVP this year, and he had another amazing year. His last five games for fantasy were all disappointing. Does that mean—it's not like he hasn't had bad five-game stretches before. I don't know the last time he had a bad five-game stretch. I remember a bad four-game stretch. Four-game stretch? All right, I'll look stretch? Long time ago.

He didn't score 20 fantasy points in any of his last five games. He scored 17, 18, and 19 in his last three. It's not terrible. But what do you think? Are we seeing red flags here going into 2018? Well, if he has a new coordinator, as expected, I think that's something you've got to take a little bit of

a look at. We've got to see who his receiving core is. If Edelman's healthy, if Chris H hogan's healthy he's had a hard time staying on the field this year um but he should have gronk back you know i would assume edelman will be 100 just based on what acl injuries have been and cooks you know second year with him that should help he's still a top 10 quarterback i mean if you want to downgrade him a little bit i surely can understand that because we we do know that when these guys fall off a cliff and it happens to the the great ones i mean i i saw it firsthand with dan marino you saw it with brett farb you saw it with peyton manning you know these guys just hit an age that they they their bodies just can't do what is uh

they're used to doing you know and and i think that that's the thing that uh stood out to me with the story on espn was not the fighting with uh with mcdaniels on the sideline was the fact that you know he had cooks open on the play and and through short time hogan that's the play that hogan got hurt and that you know from what people around him are seeing that he's not as typically confident as you would expect from tom brady on the field and so you know that he's not as typically confident as you would expect from Tom Brady on the field. And so you know that he's starting to get a little skittish in the pocket maybe. Again, you have to go back and watch that to make sure that's the case. But at some point, there's going to be a decline. And you just don't want to be, from a fantasy perspective,

you just don't want to have him on your team when that happens. So isn't the safe thing to do just go and get a second quarterback if you draft Brady this year? I don't want to draft two quarterbacks, though. I'd rather just pick up somebody off waiver. I don't want to either. So that means you're not going to draft Brady. I don't typically draft quarterbacks early, so I never get Brady. I had Tom Brady in one league this year. It was a two-quarterback league, so I took him early.

But that's the only format where I would consider it or super flex. But I'm never going to end up with one of the guys I have ranked high just because that's not how I typically will draft. And I'm just thinking about it now. He'll probably be third at best. Third round or third? Third quarterback at best for me, and that's just totally off the top of my head. Rodgers will be one.

Wilson will be two. After that, I don't really know. I mean, Wentz will be up there. Watson will be up there. Whether they're better than Brady, I don't know. Garoppolo. Garoppolo. We have to see. We really have to see

if this does come to a point where they start to shake things up, then you've got to be concerned about what's happening with him. Let's see how he looks in the postseason too. There are probably I'm guessing three more Patriots games to talk about. But we'll see. And yesterday, last night, I set three lineups.

I set a FanDuel lineup, a DraftKings lineup, and the NFL.com Playoff Challenge Week 1 lineup, which I definitely will not be leading after Week 1. I have a lot of players who are not playing this week. I will explain all the details. But you know how it works, right? I do know how it works. Then why would you put guys that aren't going to play? Because I get double the points for Tom Brady next week. We'll explain all the details. You know how it works, right? I do know how it works. Then why would you put guys that aren't going to play?

Because I get double the points for Tom Brady next week. And double the points for any Viking. You get double the points for guys that play this week, too. No, you don't. If they win next week. But if they don't... If they win on this weekend.

I basically determined last night that I think it's going to be Patriots-Vikings. And I set my lineup accordingly. So, you know. But why wouldn't you just not change it next week? What do you mean? Okay, all right, so here's how it works. Sneak peek. We're going to talk about this later.

But NFL.com, if you play on their playoff challenge, you set a lineup of eight players every week. Quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, tight end, kicker, DST, four point per passing touchdown. I believe it's standard scoring. I didn't see any PPR notifications in there, so I think it's standard scoring. If you have, I have Tom Brady at quarterback, so I will get a zero this week. Whatever he does in week two, since I have him in my lineup for two consecutive weeks, I get double the points. If he plays in the AFC Championship game the following week, I get triple the points.

If he plays in the Super Bowl, if he scores 20 points, I get 80 points that week for Tom Brady. I get quadruple the points in his fourth week in the lineup. I guess my point would be, why would you not gamble on someone that you think is going to win from the wildcard round? Because I don't think they will. I think it's going to be the Minnesota-New England. And you want to have as many of those players as you can so you get four times value if they make it that far. The alternative would be I get Drew Brees this week. If he loses, I get Tom Brady next week.

But then I get only single, double, and triple the points instead of double, triple, and quadruple the points in the three Brady weeks. Yeah, no, I get it. Yeah. So it's really – that's the trick about the playoff challenges, at least the ones that are like this, is that you really have to pick the games, not just the players. So it's fun. So we'll give some lineups, and we'll talk about that. DeMarco Murray's not going to play this week. I'm sure Derek Henry will be very popular in daily.

He's pretty inexpensive. LeSean McCoy's status is unclear. If he's out, what would your interest be in Mike Tolbert and Marcus Murphy? Both of them had seven carries for right around 40 yards last week at Miami. I mean, if you build a lineup that you really love on in daily, they'll be cheap. I would lean toward Murphy over Tolbert. Have you guys built your lineups yet? Yeah, I have for the site.

For on FanDuel or DraftKings? Yeah. I mean, I'm going to do an article every week on my lineups. It's out there. I can tell you whenever you want it. I've got a FanDuel and I've got an NFL.com. Did you guys find it as difficult as I did? Well, I wanted Kelsey in there.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't get Kelsey in there. You've got to sacrifice one running back or one receiver to get Kelsey in. I'm interested to see how you guys did it because I didn't love my final lineups because the quarterbacks are all kind of even. The quarterbacks

are bad and the tight ends stink outside of Kelsey. Right, they stink outside of Kelsey. I had too much trouble getting Kelsey in. Alright, we'll find out. DraftKings is even worse. Yep, 100% agree. So I have Delaney Walker in both my teams. You did better than I did.

Well, I went back and forth between Clay and Walker and Fandle. And I went with Clay just because of his targets and figuring out how they'll try to attack Jacksonville. I totally punted on DraftKings on tight end. I went with Austin Hooper. But I really love the running backs this week. I totally punted on DraftKings on tight end. I went with Austin Hooper. I mean – But I really love the running backs this week. Yeah, but I don't have any of the elite ones. I think Derrick Henry is going to –

I think Derrick Henry is a must play this week in D.A. Derrick Henry is going to be in everybody's lineup just because of his price and his workload. Yeah, exactly. But I think Fournette should be in everybody's lineup too. He is in one of mine. Yeah, I know you love Fournette, And you love him in the playoff challenges as well Alright guys, let's talk a little bit about Some 2017 fantasy football

Here's an email of the day From Mike Diaz To the greatest analyst Oh, the great analyst, excuse me, of fantasy football today Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara Were in very similar situations to start the year Both rookies had exciting prospects But would be splitting carries Limiting their ceiling at least to start the season.

McCaffrey, however, held the consensus as superior fantasy prospect. Kamara was most likely in a better offense, but he had to compete not only with others in the backfield, but Michael Thomas and Willie Sneed. Anyway, I'm sure you remember it as well as I do. McCaffrey was going in round two or three. Kamara in eight, nine? I don't even remember where as well as I do. McCaffrey was going in round two or three. Kamara in eight, nine? I don't even remember where Kamara was going. It was later than that. And then he was probably dropped as well.

What can we learn from this? What did I miss about Kamara that'll help me draft rookies in 2018? The one thing I know for sure is that I'm definitely staying away from wide receivers. Sigh. I don't know if he means rookie wide receivers. They were kind of a bust. I'm definitely staying away from wide receivers. Sigh. I don't know if he means rookie wide receivers. They were kind of a bust.

I'm sure he means rookie wide receivers. Yeah. So is there a lesson to be learned? It's kind of interesting. Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara had nearly the same amount of touches. Kamara had four more touches than McCaffrey. Three more carries, one more catch. And Kamara obviously had a much better season, finishing fourth in standard.

McCaffrey was 17th in standard. Kamara was third in PPR. McCaffrey was 10th. Do you see a lesson to be learned? Kamara also lost basically a full game. Yeah, I know. That's crazy. Do you see a lesson, though, to be learned there in this? Well, the first

key thing that I can take away and the first stark difference between their situations is coaching. And you look at what happened. We thought Carolina's offense was going to be revamped. We thought it would be focused on short area passing that would seemingly fit Christian McCaffrey. We thought there'd be less running from Cam Newton. All of that went out the window by October. Carolina realized, you know what?

Cam just does what he does. We should just let him do it. And the offense kind of changed a little bit. And it hurt McCaffrey. Whereas Kamara showed flashes early on. He didn't have a lot of great numbers. He had eight fantasy points in his first two games. Yeah, but Kamara wasn't really a byproduct of anything more than Peterson being there, too.

I mean, there were two guys in front of him. And then when that happened, playing time opened up, and the combination of Kamara getting more work and just, he shed tacklers like they were scarves. Yeah. And you know, the speed is great,

the hands are great. The fact that he could just break tackles like they were nothing, and he found the end zone so many times, that's what made a huge difference. That's the difference. And how he was used because he was used in a way that we thought McCaffrey would end up being used. Kamara had like 80 catches this year. Like I said, they had very similar workloads.

How many catches did McCaffrey have? Eighty-one for Kamara, 80 for McCaffrey. Wow, okay, so I didn't even realize that McCaffrey had as many catches. There was that three, four-game sample size of where Kamara wasn't playing as much. Right, so that's the thing. I mean, everything changed. That's the biggest thing. I don't really care about anything else more so than the Saints tried to make this Adrian Peterson thing work,

and when they realized it didn't, smart on their part to get him out of there, an open playing time for their guy. Right, so there's a few things, right? Kamara wasn't that good in fantasy before the Peterson trade. After the Peterson trade, he had only one game with more than 54 total yards in four games with Peterson. In his last 11 games,

I took away the Atlanta game, just throw that out, pretend he played 15 games. The last 11 games, Kamara averaged 118 total yards per game, with 11 touchdowns, by the way. So there's that. The Peterson trade changed things. And then there's like, we don't know. You have to figure that the guy who went eighth overall in the draft, compared to the guy who went 67th overall in the draft, you've got to figure that the eighth overall pick is a better player, right? We can't sit here and say Alvin Kamara is a better player than Christian

McCaffrey, but that's part of sports. Well, I mean, McCaffrey certainly had more hype. Yeah. I mean, he was the eighth pick in the draft. You had to think he was a better player. To me, that doesn't matter as much for fantasy. It's about opportunity first. But they both got the same.

And we thought the opportunity was better for McCaffrey. We did. And it was before the Peterson trade. That's why he was drafted where he was drafted. I think it goes to what Dave was talking about. It's the coach recognizing what they have. And you get to your point, Dave, about the Panthers recognizing

okay, for us to be as good as we've been, we have to let Cam be Cam. And so that's going to hurt McCaffrey and hurt his skill set. But I also think For us to be as good as we've been, we have to let Cam be Cam. That's going to hurt McCaffrey and hurt his skill set. But I also think you've got to give credit to Sean Payton, who realizes that, okay, I know what I have here, and this is Reggie Bush on steroids. So let me feature him as much as I potentially need to without maybe putting him in some circumstances. You talked about this, Adam.

We were going over our first rounds on the last show. Can he be somebody that can run between the tackles and be a 20-touch guy? That'll be the next step of him going from good as a rookie to great over his career. But I would hope that he's capable of doing that based on what he did in college and the comparisons. When he came out, he was compared to Marshall Falk. And so if he can add a little bit of weight, healthy weight, he could be that type of guy. But I think this year made it pretty clear that he doesn't have to do that in order to be – Well, if he's just getting the type of touch that he's getting, his fantasy production won't be sustainable.

Yeah, and the last thing is just the averages. I mean, Christian McCaffrey averaged 3.7 yards per carry. Alvin Kamara averaged 6.1 yards per carry. And McCaffrey averaged a respectable 8.1 yards per catch. Kamara averaged 10.2 yards per catch. Right. So when Jamie says unsustainable, those kinds of numbers over the course of NFL history have been unsustainable. Like Jamal Charles over his career, I i think averaged five yards per carry that's amazing so to say that alvin camara is going to average over six yards per carry over the course of his career

you you might be high on something to suggest that that's going to happen right but i think the lesson to be learned here as far as rookies go is you've got to really consider the coaching staffs around them. Like, why weren't we high on Tariq Cohen? He's a similar type of player to these guys. Look at his coaches in Chicago. Why weren't we colder on Joe Mixon? Now, what I said all along about Mixon back in the offseason was there's no way he's going to be the starter out of the gate because the coaching staff in Cincinnati, which the

head coach is still going to be there in Cincinnati, by the way, that coaching staff is slow to give rookies a chance. And even when they came around to Mixon, he wasn't that great. So I think coaching really matters, and we've got to take that into consideration much more with the 2018 class. Yeah, and offensive line matters too if you want to talk about Mixon. That's obviously a reason why she didn't do well. Yes, and I'll tell you what.

I think that mattered with McCaffrey's rushing average. I wouldn't doubt that at all. They had injuries on their offensive line all year. Absolutely. All right, good stuff. Thank you for the email, Mike. Okay, let's go do some Twitter polls that I posted last night. I just wanted to throw out some players, get a gauge on what people were thinking.

Who from this group is your favorite running back in fantasy football in 2018? Now, obviously, I know that circumstances are going to change and whatnot, maybe more so with the wide receivers in the next Twitter poll, but just let's take a poll. Let's see what people are thinking. Who's your favorite running back next year? Alex Collins, Jordan Howard, Kenyon Drake. Who do you think won?

Collins. I will say Drake won. Drake won with 39% of the vote. Jordan Howard had 38% of the vote, so they're pretty much tied. And Alex Collins had just 23%

of the vote. He might be my favorite running back of the three my favorite to watch just because of of how he looks and how hard he runs and you were an irish dancer when you grew up it's true but drake to me is the one with the most upside i mean we always say most upside but sometimes we don't factor in downside. Not to say that Drake has a lot of downside. Well, the downside is that Adam Gase made a big stink before Drake actually went off about not liking the concept of a feature running back. And now I think he has to like it because of what Drake did to close the season. Well, he really had no choice, though.

I mean, the guy's behind. Right, but now he does have a choice, and I'd be stunned if he goes away from it. I don't know if i agree with that because i think if they're gonna they have to add guys to that position because they're not going into the season with uh drake damian williams norris perry as their top three guys they're gonna certainly draft someone or sign someone it may not be as a starter but they're gonna add depth to that position and so what they do by adding depth will certainly speak volumes to how they feel about kenyan drake as a featured guy so remember adam adam gaze even though they drafted him in the third round adam gaze didn't draft him that was the year before gaze became the head coach so we'll see what drake's value means to gaze and what they do with that spot who's got the best play caller

the three of those running backs i don't know if initially i agree but i don't know if that matters so much because of the type of running backs that the other two guys are. First of all, we don't know who the play caller is in Chicago, so that's going to be something we have to keep an eye on. Second of all, I think the offensive line will probably end up being the best in Baltimore if they can address it this offseason because they have a pretty strong base of guys there. Their philosophy is still going to be to run the ball. We'll see. I think they're all kind of similar.

It was a good choice by you, those three guys, to put them together. All right, so give me a ranking for you guys. It was Collins, Jordan Howard, and Kenyon Drake. I don't think it's fair to answer that without knowing who the guys in Chicago are going to be. Yeah, I understand that. But I guess if somebody forced you, if your boss forced you to do rankings right now, what do you think you'd do? I would go in the order in which the voting went. Drake 1, Howard 2, Collins 3.

I'll go Collins 1, Drake 2, Howard 3. What do you think about Trubisky? Because with Howard, Howard is a guy who, as a rookie, he was outstanding. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry. That went down to 4.1 this year. But, you know, we see Goff looked terrible, right? And then Goff gets a new head coach. All of a sudden, the offense is the best in the NFL.

It's not going to happen for Chicago, but it could be a lot better in Trubisky's second year. And Jordan Howard could benefit similarly to Todd Gurley. He won't catch as many passes, but he could certainly benefit. So what do you think about Trubisky? What's your take on him? Do you think he has the potential to have a significant year two turnaround, one that would really benefit Howard probably more so than Trubisky himself? I think it's possible, but there are so many.

Like this is where I think it's fair to say, well, we don't know who his play caller is going to be. We also don't know who his receivers are going to be. It's almost an identical situation to where Jared Goff was this year. You know what? His receivers. Meredith? Yeah. Maybe.

Why maybe? Because who knows if they'll keep him. Why wouldn't they? Because he might not be as good as the other guys that they get. All right. Well, whatever. Yeah, but he's cheap. We don't know enough about the Bears, but...

Meredith will be there. Fair enough. But I don't think he'll be the number one guy. Let's put it this way. If he is the number one guy, then I'm already ready to let Trubisky go on draft day. Yeah, no, for sure. But I can't see them going away from him.

I want to know if he showed you enough to have confidence in him. How are Bears fans feeling about Trubisky? They hate him. It's got to be a total coaching situation because the Rams fans hated Jared Goff. Right, exactly. All right, cool. Second Twitter poll, wide receivers. Of this group, who's your favorite wide receiver in fantasy football in 2018?

The first two were kind of easy for me. I went Robert Woods and Corey Davis. Robert Woods, Corey Davis. I'm thinking I need a veteran, someone that's been good, maybe people are down on. Who am I going to go with? Jordy Nelson. So who's your favorite? Robert Woods, Corey Davis, or Jordy Nelson? Who do you guys think won? Woods. I'm going to say Woods won. Yeah, he did. 42% of the vote, followed by 30% Jordy Nelson, 28% Corey Davis. Who would you have voted for, Robert Woods, Corey Davis, or Jordy Nelson?

Woods. Woods. Because I feel like he's the safest. Yeah. Maybe they knew something when they signed Robert Woods. I thought that was the worst contract. Yeah. For sure.

Maybe they knew something But I guess My concern for Woods would be If they re-sign Sammy Watkins I'm pretty sure Sammy Watkins Is a better player than Robert Woods Second year in the system he could take off But yeah

I thought that was an interesting Twitter poll What do you guys make of the results there? Not surprising People are going to gravitate toward Who is the safest I thought that was an interesting Twitter poll. What do you guys make of the results there? Not surprising. People are going to gravitate toward who is the safest. I don't think Corey Davis – we can talk about Corey Davis' upside all we want to. The fact that he didn't come through really even once this past year is going to make people shy away. The fact that Mariota didn't have a good year will make people shy away. It'll be a great late-round

target, though. Who would you rather have, Jordy Nelson or Corey Davis? Where's Jordy Nelson playing? He's on Green Bay. Then Jordy will be the best of this trio. Oh, you think so? Yeah. If Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson played 16 games, he's not

going to be good Jordy Nelson. He's not going to be great Jordy Nelson, but he'll be at least as good as Robert Woods. He'll be touchdown-dependent Jordy Nelson. He's not going to be great Jordy Nelson, but he'll be at least as good as Robert Woods. He'll be touchdown-dependent Jordy Nelson. He does that a lot. Not to say that Robert Woods is all of a sudden a yardage beast who's good for 80 yards minimum a game. I think there are a lot of people who are going to shy away from Jordy for obvious reasons. Yeah. All right, so I got some stuff here in the rundown.

Let's see what we're going to do. I've got some Week 17 developments that I thought were interesting. Some interesting numbers. Dave has the top 12 averages at each position that show you what we saw in fantasy this year compared to years past. But really, I wanted to spend at least 20 minutes talking about lineups for this week. So, you know what? Let's go through the Week 17 developments real quick here. I want to see what happens with Devontae Freeman in the playoff game this weekend because the receiving total, I mean, he had nine catches for 85 yards

and a touchdown against Carolina. And they have now given him significant workload in the passing game in two of the last three games, which is great to see. But that was something that's been really absent from Freeman's game this year. So that was nice to see. But more importantly, how about Duke Johnson, guys? Duke Johnson had six carries for 20 yards and a touchdown and six catches for 75 yards at Pittsburgh in Week 17. And he finished as the No. 15 running back in standard, number 12 in PPR.

He's had four games in his career now, three seasons for Johnson, four games with more than 10 carries. And that obviously limits his value. Do you think we'll ever see anything different from Duke Johnson in fantasy? Can he be more of a feature back? No. He's the new Danny Woodhead. Might even be a little bit better than Danny Woodhead.

That's what he is. He's not going to be a great traditional running back. If there's one thing that this Alvin Kamara success did, it's going to make teams look at pass catching running backs even more. In this way...

What? That doesn't do it, Kam way, people are going to see what Kamara did, and they're going to try and find the next one. They've been trying to find these guys forever. It just accentuates it. You could say Cleveland's ahead of the curve by having Duke Johnson in this role. Remember in week one, he was in the slot, and after that

he wasn't. We're going to open the year with Duke Johnson as our slot receiver, and he did it in the first week. He played a ton on the year with Duke Johnson as our slot receiver, and he did it in the first week. Played a ton on the slot. And then every game after that, he would a little bit, but he was lining up in the backfield much more. Yeah. All right.

Well, on a per-touch basis, Duke Johnson's very good. We need more touches. Okay. So other Week 17 developments. Eric Ebron. Oh, up and down. You've got to put Eric Ebron! Oh, up and down. You gotta put Eric Ebron in your daily fantasy lineups. You gotta start Eric Ebron

over every tight end, not named Rob Gronkowski. Ebron actually did better than Gronkowski in Week 17. But he was terrible. One for nine. One catch for nine yards on six targets. Does that remove some of the shine that Ebron could have had this offseason

as a potential breakout next year where we could do the same dance again that we did in 2017 preseason? What do you think? No, I think you kind of know who he is. Okay. But he was breaking out three games before that. Yeah, great stretch. Hopefully he carries.

He wasn't going to come in next year, even if he finished this year playing well, with 16 games of eight or more points or seven or more points. I mean, that's just not who he is. George Kittle, four catches for 100 yards against the Rams. His final three games, he had four catches for 52 yards, three for 42 in a touchdown, and then four for 100. And really, we saw Garoppolo throw to the tight end a lot. So is George Kittle a sleeper entering 2018?

Yes, of course. Yeah. Okay. You also have to factor in Garçon. You'll take him over Ebron. You should. Oh, okay. But you also have to factor in Garçon, right?

I mean, like that mean Garcon will be back And they're going to add a receiver Yeah But it was nice to see Garoppolo use the tight ends Juju Smith-Schuster had a huge game He had nine catches for 143 yards and a touchdown And a kickoff return for a touchdown against the Browns And we can talk about him more when we see them play in the postseason

But that was without Antonio Brown. That was pretty encouraging. That was a huge game. And without Roethlisberger. And then Tyler Boyd and Chris Godwin. Do you care about them and the big weeks they had in Week 17? I would like to see

Tampa Bay move on from Deshaun Jackson. They won't, but I'd like to see them do it. And make room for Godwin? Yep. Those are your Week 17 storylines. Very exciting stuff. Some interesting numbers. Dave, why don't you tell us about the data that you got for the top 12 players in each position?

Sure. Well, let's start at quarterback where for the second year in a row, the average top 12 fantasy points fell again. 20.3. That was good enough to be considered a top 12 fantasy quarterback on a per-game basis. That's what the top 12 quarterbacks at the end of the season, if you averaged all their fantasy points and divided by 16 for 16 games, that's the average. So 20 fantasy points was good for a quarterback last year. Running back, you'd think, oh, well, it went up because Gurley had a big year

and Kamara came out of woodwork and Ingram had a monster year. The numbers were down by a full point. But the top 12 running backs averaged 12.7 fantasy points per game in standard, 14.4 in half PPR, and 16.2 in full point PPR. So those numbers are still pretty good, and you'll realize how good they are in a minute. The number two running backs were 8.3 in standard, and number three running backs were at 6.5.

So pretty good numbers year over year for running backs. They were down a point or less, but you'll take it because of how successful they were and just how many points they contributed. Wide receiver was a pretty big disaster. As you guys know, there weren't a lot of great ones this year. Consistency was a real problem for wide receivers. You were a top 12 wide receiver if you averaged 9.96 fantasy points per game in standard. So basically 10 points

meant that was great. Half point PPR, 12.8. Full point PPR, 15.6. So those numbers are down a little bit from last year, but they didn't go up at all, and it's because of the continued spreading of the

ball and how teams like to use a lot of different wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, catching passes. We just talked about two rookie running backs that had 80 catches that's taking targets and work away from wide receivers on their respective teams. The number two wide receivers averaged 7.9 fantasy points per game in a standard league, so they were only off by two points over the course of the season. Number three wide receivers were at 6.5, so the difference between a number two and a number three wide receiver was negligible. Tight end.

Let me jump in just to further something you were saying, running backs taking away targets from wide receivers. Look at this three-year trend. 2015, eight running backs had 50 or more catches. Eight running backs, 50 or more catches three years ago, three seasons ago. Two seasons ago, 2016, 11 running backs had 50 or more catches. So we went from eight to 11. This past year, 14 running backs had 50 or more catches. So next year, it'll obviously be 17 if you're good at math. But yeah, 14 running backs with 50 or more catches.

I mean, that has to be an NFL record, right? I mean, you figure that's one that just keeps getting remade every year. Probably. And this is that trend exploding. And it's not new, but it's certainly something that is going to be – the teams that weren't using their running backs to catch passes are going to start trying to do that more. That's just what's going to happen. And running backs are very good in fantasy. Go ahead, Dave. Tight end. Yeah, running backs to catch passes are going to start trying to do that more. That's just what's going to happen. And running backs are very good in fantasy.

Go ahead, Dave. Tight end. Yeah, running backs were amazing in fantasy, and we're going back five years in our analysis now with what to do in the first round. It's going to be a lot of running backs in round one next year. Okay, tight end. We said all year it was great if your tight end gave you seven fantasy points in a given week.

The average for the top 12 tight ends, fantasy points per game, was 6.3 fantasy points in a standard scoring league. So six points was actually good enough. If you got six out of your tight end, you really shouldn't complain that much about it. Consistency was just as much of a problem for tight ends as it was for wide receivers. Half-point PPR, the number was 8.3. Full-point PPR, 10.3. That includes Gronk getting 143, 150 points, somewhere in that range, in a standard league, and over 200 in a full-point PPR.

So the position, very top-heavy. You know who the studs are. And then once you get past them, it was messy. It's just something to keep in mind next year. I think drafting a tight end early is something that should be considered for everybody. Unfortunately, there are only three. How many tight ends are you going to feel good taking early? Three?

At least three. You can make the case for Evan Ingram. No. Not in round three, but round six. That's not early. Early middle. I think round five. I was targeting.

I took a lot of Jimmy Graham in round five. That was my big thing. It actually worked out pretty well for me for most of the year. That felt kind of early for me because I was always someone who waited until the very end. Not every draft, but often waited until the very, very end to take a tight end and just streamed and knew that I was going to suck at the position. But whatever, a lot of people were going to suck at the position. Last year I said, I'm actually going to take a lot of Jimmy Graham, see what happens here. So I did, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Right.

He ended with a thud, but there was that big stretch in the middle of the season where he was good for nine or more pretty much every single week. I think the fun thing with tight ends going to be this year is you're going to have the three guys at the top, and then it's going to be where some of these veteran guys fall. Where is Olsen going to fall? Where is Jimmy Graham going to fall? Obviously where he plays. Where is Jordan Reed going to shake out?

Because you know he'll be healthy to start camp, and I'm sure he'll look good. Kyle Rudolph, where is his draft value going to lie? You know who's the quarterback there. And then if Antonio Gates does retire or is kicked off the Chargers roster, I would kind of link Henry and Evan Ingram and Hunter Henry together because of their upside if in fact Henry

is the starter there. But Delaney Walker is going to be somebody that is going to slip in drafts and those guys I think are going to end up being very good value picks because they still play and they still put up good numbers. Only five tight ends this past year gave you seven or more fantasy points in 50% of their games.

So consistency was a real problem. And you'll have the, you know, if Cameron Brate's gone from the Bucs, you'll have O.J. Howard getting a lot of hype. You'll have potentially David. Well, Kittle I think you kind of will see still at the back end of that, but the Joker will kind of creep his way into that group as well, somebody that will get a lot of hype. Yeah.

And I do think with Trey Burton signs with the right team, he could be really good. I'll be pretty excited about O.J. Howard. Definitely. Yeah, I think I did a radio interview on Sirius last night, and they were talking about this as well, where the teams that kind of invest in a tight end early, it's the same argument you have all the time, that you end up chasing other positions, and if it doesn't work out, how bad your teams could potentially be.

But I think, and I told them this, we say this every year, but it does feel like this could be a very good year for depth of the position with some of these young guys coming into their own, you know, relatively good situations. Yeah, maybe. Man, I don't know. We do say that every year. No, but, you know, look, it took Zach Ertz a couple seasons before we, you know, we kind of can, I think, safely say he's among the top three to five.

Yeah. Without hesitation. It took Kelsey two or three years before we now can say that. He's done it two years in a row. I think there's a huge red flag with Travis Kelsey, and that's quarterback. Why? Because I don't know that Mahomes is going to be good next year. And I don't know that Mahomes is going to look for him the way Alex Smith did.

Well, I mean, you're banking on Andy Reid, though, too. Look, I just think it's reasonable that there could be a downturn in production. I mean, you would basically know what you're getting if it's Alex Smith throwing to Travis Kelsey. Unless they add another receiver. Even if they do. That concerns me more than Mahomes under center at this point. I guess it would depend how good the

receiver is, but it'd be hard for him to be better than Travis Kelsey. Kelsey's obviously incredible. They keep trying year after year to find the second guy, and they just haven't done it yet. DeMarcus Robinson, Albert Wilson, they just keep getting these...

Chris Conley was supposed to be it. Macklin. Macklin was kind of the first guy when he was there. No, I mean Macklin was supposed to be the lead guy. They keep trying to find a second guy. Yeah, that's what I said. All right, there's some coordinator news. Adam Gase, not in coordinator news, but there's also that.

But first of all, he was not pleased with Jarvis Landry's ejection, and it's possible Jarvis Landry is not back next year, and he led the NFL in receptions. The Dolphins hired Dowell Loggins to be their offensive coordinator, and he's coming off of two stellar seasons coordinating the Bears' offense. He's got a good friend in Adam Gase. He does. That's why he's got the job, but he's not going to call the plays for Miami.

No, Gase will. Green Bay fired offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett. Cincinnati is bringing back offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. And here are the six teams, the only six teams in the NFL that the league can force to do hard knocks. Tell me who you'd want to see on hard knocks. Baltimore, San Francisco, Washington, Denver, Cleveland, or the Chargers? The Chargers or the 49ers. I want a camera in Phillip Rivers' whatever he drives from to and fro.

Oh, yeah, that's true. I'm into the Browns. I would not mind a Browns Hard Knocks. They're so boring after the first episode, you would hate it. Well, I don't watch it anyway. Let's see what Hugh Jackson ordered for lunch on Thursday. I want to see

how they're going to build the 49ers around Garoppolo. And there's so many interesting people on that team beyond the players. You've got the coach. You've got John Lynch.

The owner. It's kind of, I would say. All right, it'll be the Niners. I'm just going to say that. Here's a team name Tuesday. Oh, who sent this to me? I think it was Noah. He wants me to sing it.

What am I supposed to do, say no? Yes. For next year, draft related. Oh, Saquon, you see. Saquon Barkley, Penn State running back. Hopefully that'll be great. All right, playoff challenge and daily fantasy. So let's start with NFL.com playoff challenge.

There are many of them out there. But I guess give me, we talked about this on Tuesday's show, but give me your thoughts on who you think is going to make the longest run in the postseason, whether that be a wild card team or a team that's off this week. I think the Saints have the best chance to play four games. I agree. Because if they win, they're playing a team they've already beaten twice this year,

and if they win this week, then theoretically they're moving on to take on Philadelphia. Not if Atlanta wins. Huh? Not if Atlanta wins, though. Right. Not if Atlanta wins. That's been so tough for me. But I don't think Atlanta wins.

But I can't—I'm having trouble predicting that game. Me too. Because Atlanta's got this experience, and I think that really matters. There are three players on the Rams who have been to the postseason. So I don't know. That does matter to me. I think that's going to be kind of a dogfight. And that would really change things for me because I don't – like Drew Brees, sure, you get a win this week.

If he has to go face Minnesota next week, I don't think he's going to have that good of a game to begin with. And I don't think he's going to win. So that kind of dampens my prospects there. I mean, look, we talked about this. The NFC is a more wide-open conference just based on the lack of Carson Wentz being there. Yeah. To have a solid number one seed having some confidence in them. I think if you were to ask most people, and I think we probably have the same opinion, of Saints-Vikings as the next two teams that people look at

because of the Rams' inexperience and what the other paths could be. The unfortunate thing would be is if the Falcons win this game in the first round, they have to play each other in the second round if the Saints advance. And that is kind of the sucky part of it is that whichever side you're on, Vikings or Saints, you're going to lose one of those two teams. Yeah, I know. It's tough. It's tough.

Who do you guys think would win that game, Vikings hosting the Saints? Vikings. Vikings, second round, Saints, NFC Championship game. Why? I think they would build momentum going into that game. Okay. So anyway, the Saints are a team that has the best chance to win four,

to play four games. We obviously like the Patriots are the clear favorite in the AFC. I think the AFC is fairly wide open too. There just aren't as many teams as you can make the case for. You really can make a case for two. In the AFC? Yeah.

I think you can make a case for. You really can make the case for two. In the AFC? Yeah. You know what? I think you can make a case for Jacksonville. I actually, oh, I see, I feel crazy. I think you can make the case for two, and I think they're different. Obviously, the Patriots are one. I think the Chiefs have a chance. I really do.

Their defense is going to have to really get hot. They're playing well right now, their defense. They're playing better, but they've had a stretch of home games where part of that factor in the equation, and they're always good at home. I think they're better than Pittsburgh without Shazier. Pittsburgh's defense is a joke. I don't know who wins that game because it's in Pittsburgh, but I think they're better than Pittsburgh.

But they would have to play each other in a championship game without that. Unless the Bills win. I still think the Bills have a chance. Do you? But you can't make a case for the Bills to go to the Super Bowl. No, but I think that could set up a Chiefs-Steelers second round. That's all. Yeah, see, I'm with Dave.

If there's a team in the AFC, I think that can just annoy everybody. It's Jacksonville because of their defense. And they have the formula to go into Pittsburgh and win because they can slow down the Steelers' offense, not stop, but slow down, and they can run on Pittsburgh, which has been the problem since Jazeera got rid of them. I think they've got that formula in New England, too. I think they can do it anywhere. It doesn't mean that they're going to win, but as good as that defense is,

Brady would pick them apart. Oh, yeah. So here's the last thing. Let's go through every game this weekend and give a quick thought. This is not going to be like start or sit Thursday-Friday shows. Let's just give quick thoughts on who you like in each game, and then we'll give our lineups, and then we'll finish the show with some emails. Atlanta at Los Angeles. Matt Ryan or Jared Goff?

Goff. Is there like a 20-point ceiling on both of these guys, you think? Or is there huge game potential? I think Goff has more upside. Yeah, I would take the under on 20 for both guys. So we don't really like the quarterbacks in this game? No. Okay.

We love Todd Gurley. How do you feel about Devontae Freeman? Because he still is getting like 11 carries a game, but will he catch passes? And it's a little bit tricky to judge how good the Rams have been against pass catching running backs. They haven't faced that many good ones. Chris Ivory had nine catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. Alvin Kamara had six for 101 and a touchdown. But also I think Chris Thompson had a bad game receiving. So it's a mixed bag. But what do you think about Devontae Freeman this week?

I don't think he's 100%. I know he's not in the injury report, but he was limping on and off the field in that game last week. And so I'm glad he's not in the injury report, but something just doesn't seem right with him. It feels like he's at best an interesting contrarian play. Oh, okay. How about the receivers in this game?

So who's the best Rams receiver? Probably Woods. Yeah, I'll take a little, just based on what his upside could be. No, I'm sorry. Rams receiver. Huh? Best Rams receiver. Oh, be. No, I'm sorry, Rams receiver. Huh? Best Rams receiver. Oh, best Rams receiver.

I'm sorry, I thought you said in this game. Yeah, Woods. Yeah, Woods is a little pricey on daily, on Bando and DraftKings. So I don't think I have him in my lineups. And then is Julio, you know, good or great Julio? Good. Okay. Any interest in Sanu?

Like Sanu or Watkins? Watkins. I'll take Sanu. All right. Tennessee or Kansas City? Let's do this game. Mariota or Alex Smith? Who do you like?

Smith. Same. Yeah, I kind of like Smith. I'm worried about the weather. Smith has a terrible track record against Dick LeBeau as well. He does? Like, terrible. He's one and three against him, no more than one touchdown,

and in four career games against LeBeau defenses, he's been over 60% passing once. That's pretty interesting. Okay, so Smith or Goff or Ryan? Smith. I'll probably take Smith ahead of those guys, but not with a lot of confidence. I think Goff is more upset. The nice thing about Smith is I believe he's the fourth most expensive quarterback,

and he has averaged the most Fandle points. So I think all the quarterbacks suck, so I'll take the one who's played the best in arguably the best matchup. That's exactly how I feel. The one guy of all the quarterbacks, you can't start Tyrod Taylor, even though he's so cheap. I'm just worried. I think the weather is the big story here.

Because this game is the only one. It could be colder than Jacksonville. I don't actually know. But I know it's cold everywhere on the East Coast. And I feel like Kansas City might just be awful this weekend. But I don't know if that affects anything for you. Derek Henry is going to be a great value. But who do you think is a better play this week, value aside?

Derek Henry or Kareem Hunt? Better play? Hunt. Better value? Henry might be the best value of any position this week. Yeah. Okay, wide receivers. As well as Rashard Matthews, if the weather is okay. Rashard Matthews, only three catches for 55 yards on six targets in his last two games.

But, yeah, he is a pretty good value. And then Delaney Walker. I think it's really hard to judge how the Chiefs are against tight ends. They just haven't faced that many good ones. They give up a lot of catches and a lot of yards. There's not a lot of touchdowns. Okay. So I'm satisfied with that preview.

Buffalo at Jacksonville. This is really the question of the week for me in terms of – The game for Kansas City right now, the high of 32, low of 28, mostly sunny, zero precipitation, 0% participation, and 10 mile per hour winds. That's great, actually. That's just a relief. Just cold. But not even that cold because it's 8 degrees in New York today.

So it's like if Philly or Pittsburgh were hosting a game this weekend, it would be awful. So let's just be thankful there's none of that. Here's the biggest question for me as I look for FanDuel and DraftKings values. How do you feel about the Jaguars' wide receivers? We don't know about Marquise Lee's status. Hate them all. Yeah, that's the thing.

Buffalo's really good. Keelan Cole is the best one. Keelan Cole on DraftKings is a very good price. What is it? Do you know off the top of your head? I do because I have it in my lineup. It is $5,400. He's $400 more on FanDuel, which is kind of annoying because you don't get points for every catch.

It's half-point PPR on FanDuel. So you get more bang for your buck on DraftKings with Cole. Sean McCoy limited in practice today. So what are you thinking about McCoy if he plays? Stay far away. Right? You have to. Anybody you like in this game?

This figures to be a pretty low-scoring game, but anybody you like? I mean, I can't love Fournette enough. Right. It sets up perfectly for him. But he has really struggled. I mean, you know't love Fournette enough. Right. It sets up perfectly for him. But he has really struggled. I mean, you know he's playing hurt. The thing is, he's really faced good defense after good defense after good defense. So this is a respite from that.

That's nice. All right, yeah, Jamie loves Fournette. He's 8,100 on FanDuel. He's in my FanDuel lineup. Now, he's not that great in DraftKings because of the full PPR. Right. But he's still very good. The interesting play would be maybe the Bills DST.

If you're looking to save money, they're a lot cheaper than the other DSTs. And maybe get some Bortles turnovers. But keep in mind, the Bills have been great all year against quarterbacks and wide receivers. They're the same price as Carolina's DST. They're 100 less than Atlanta's. They're 200 less than Tennessee's. So, I don't think they're so cheap that you

can squeeze a minute to deal with it. I'd spend the money on Jacksonville's defense. I use the Chiefs. Jacksonville's defense is 5,600 on FanDuel, 800 more than any other defense on the board, and they'll be worth it. They might be. I just couldn't figure it out out of the way.

All right, Carolina's at New Orleans. The Saints won 34-13 at Carolina and 31-21 at home in Week 13. We've had a good game and a bad game from Breeze, a good game and a bad game from Newton. Christian McCaffrey's been good as a receiver in both games. Kamara had two big games. Mark Ingram did well at home, did not do well on the road. I gave you what their DraftKings points were if you wanted.

That's okay. I think we'll try to speed it up. We'll just average. I have both for him and Kamara. All right, fine. Go ahead. He averaged 19.8 points over the two games for McCaffrey. Oh, McCaffrey.

Okay. That's good. And 21.4 for Kamara. Yeah, McCaffrey's pretty sneaky because he's a lot cheaper than Kamara. Yeah, in that format, I use both. That was my starting running backfield. How do you feel about Cam? Can't trust him.

Don't want to use him. How do you feel about Funchess? Can't trust him. Don't want to use him. How do you feel about Funchess? Can't trust him. How do you feel about Olsen? Can't trust him. I'm waiting for David to go, I don't want to use him. And let's see. How do you feel about...

Can't trust him. McCaffrey averaged about 15 fan duel points per game. Jonathan Stewart. Just to compare it with what he did on DraftKings. How do you feel about Jonathan Stewart? Love him. Can't get enough of him. Liar.

No way. So it's like the chalk plays here. How do you feel about Breeze? I just tried to switch it up for the story purposes. So I used Breeze as the DraftKings quarterback. I think he's the second-best quarterback to trust this week. Behind? That secondary for Carolina has just been so bad lately.

Behind who? Smith. Smith? Okay. I think the one thing to consider is that Carolina does have a very good run defense. Now the Saints have been able to run against almost everybody except one game at Carolina. They struggled. But oftentimes that does

lead to quarterbacks putting up bigger numbers. We were expecting a huge game or hoping for a big game from Matt Ryan in Week 17. He threw for over 300 yards. He's only got the one touchdown. So maybe Breeze has kind of a throwback Breeze game. It looked so good for Ryan early too. It did. He played really well.

He moved the offense a decent bunch, but when he got closer to the red zone, it was sputter city. Okay, it's time for lineups, guys. Dave, why don't you give me... We'll do FanDuel first, then DraftKings. Give me your FanDuel lineup. So, I went a little contrarian.

FanDuel has a tournament this week where you can win a Bitcoin. So I'm going for it. Here's the lineup. Jared Goff is the quarterback, figuring that at $8,500 and the highest-priced quarterback on FanDuel, no one's going to use him. So I took Goff, and I paired him with Watkins and Woods, figuring no one's going to bother. So that's the shot I'm taking to win a Bitcoin, is to stack the Rams passing game against the Falcons.

Kamara and Fournette at running back, they're going to be super popular. Rashard Matthews, who I jammed in at wide receiver. Charles Clay at tight end. Ryan Suckup at kicker. And I went with the Rams defense just to kind of parlay the Rams factor that I've got going with this lineup. So it's definitely contrarian. It's a little bit out there, but it's the kind of wacky crap you have to do if you want to try and win a Bitcoin these days. Okay.

Works for me. Jamie, your FanDuel lineup? I went with Alex Smith at quarterback. Leonard Fournette and Derek Henry at running back. Me too. Michael Thomas, Tyreenette and Derrick Henry at running back. Me too. Michael Thomas, Tyree Kill, and Rashard Matthews at receiver. Charles Clay at tight end, Butker at kicker, and the Jaguars defense. So it was Smith, Henry, Fournette, Michael Thomas, Tyree Kill, Rashard Matthews, Charles Clay, Butker, and the Jags.

And I have Matt Ryan Derek Henry, Leonard Fournette Same running backs as Jamie Julio Jones Michael Thomas, and Keelan Cole So I got the two most expensive wide receivers And I went with Cole Over Rashard Matthews, he's $300 more

Delaney Walker's my tight end Graham Gonneau And the Chiefs DST So in other words Henry and Fournette, two of the three of us Delaney Walker's my tight end, Graham Gonneau, and the Chiefs DST. So, in other words, Henry and Fournette, two of the three of us, have those two in our Vanduul lineups. We all have Fournette. We all have Fournette.

Your other running back was who, Dave? Alvin Kamara. Who's that guy? Yeah, we didn't really know who he was at the beginning of the year, right? Yeah. Okay, on to DraftKings. Dave, who's your DraftKings? I don't have one.

Okay, Jamie. Yeah, so again, just for the column purposes, I switched it up a little bit, so I haven't done another one since for DraftKings. Drew Brees, a quarterback. Kamara McCaffrey at running back. I think those are fairly safe and obvious. And then I went just to get a couple different receivers in there. I did Julio Jones and Keelan Cole,

just the hope that Julio Jones gets hot this postseason like he did last postseason. Cole, just based on his targets over the last several weeks. Matthews, I just think his price versus his potential is worth it. I sacrificed head-end, so I went Austin Hooper at $2,900. And then flex, I went with Tevin Coleman. Again, I don't think you're going to see a healthy Demonte Freeman out there. So his price is worth it at $4,100 as a flex. And then the Saints DST.

Great. So NFL playoff challenge, NFL.com playoff challenge. Here's what I'm doing. I told you I'm not going to be the leader after week one. So my team right now, and you can change it every week, is Tom Brady, Kareem Hunt, Latavius Murray, Michael Thomas, Adam Thielen, Gronkowski, Gostkowski, and the Jaguars DST. Everyone in there I expect to play at least two games.

Brady, Kareem Hunt, Latavius Murray, Michael Thomas, Adam Thielen, Rob Gronkowski, Stephen Gostkowski, and the Jacksonville DST. Who's the best Vikings wide receiver now? Diggs. Think so? Probably. All right, I might change that to Diggs then. Because there's no salary cap or anything like that you can choose whoever the heck you want uh so maybe i should change that to cooks who knows but he's been pretty disappointing dave uh nfl.com yeah so i

i basically followed your followed what you did i didn't follow it i did the same thing and you'll be ahead of me after the first week. See if you can catch a trend with my lineup. Case Keenum at quarterback. Latavius Murray and Todd Gurley at running back. Adam Thielen and Stephon Diggs at wide receiver. Gronk at tight end. Kai Forbath at kicker.

And the Vikings defense is the defense. So why not just go with Brady instead of Keenum? Does it be different? Because I think Keenum's going to... I feel more confident in Minnesota's chances of making the Super Bowl than the Patriots. Okay, all right. Jamie, NFL.com.

Yeah, I have a lot of Saints because I expect the Saints to make it to the Super Bowl. So I have Breeze, Kamara, Thomas, and Will Lutz to go with Fournette and the Jaguars defense, and then two Chiefs in Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. That's going to do it for our playoff challenge and Will Lutz to go with Fournette and the Jaguars defense, and then two Chiefs in Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. That's going to do it for our playoff challenge and FanDuel and DraftKings lineups, and let's do some emails from Dusty at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.

Dusty says, hey, Sharif, Mike, Bryant, and Michael. Sharif, Mike, Bryant, and Michael. Just have no idea who those people are. I already Googled them. I can't figure it out. So, is it Sharif Abdurahim, Mike Bibby? I have no idea. Okay, the question is, I got two of the four.

I hear you guys saying things about yards per carry a lot of time, and I was just curious how much of that can be attributed to the offensive line. I'm a huge Chargers fan and a Melvin Gordon fan. I think he's awesome. People knock him for his yards per carry. But at the beginning of the year, I remember Jamie saying someone said the Chargers are the worst in the league from guard to guard. Could Gordon not just be as elite as the other top-tier running backs

with Lamp back and some upgrades to the interior of the O-line? and are there other backs that could break out on a team that improves the offensive line of course because the offensive line is the first line of not i guess the first line of offense instead of defense right for for a run game and i i think it would help gordon if he had a better bunch of blockers up front. Yeah, no. Gordon's fantasy value is made by his receiving work and the touchdowns he gets. What would you say is a good yards per carry in the NFL right now? 4.1 or 2, I would guess. 4 has always been the baseline.

That's why I'm saying it. Right. What do you say, Adam? 4.2, I started looking at a guy. That's good. Okay. Adam's harder to please. How many guys do you think average more than 4.2 yards per carry that were in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, top 10 fantasy running backs last year?

Seven. Four. Really? How many average more than four? Huh? How many average more than four yards per carry? One, two, three, four, five, seven. See?

I told you it was seven. But there were Jordan Howard, which we know wasn't very good, was 4.07. Zeke was 4.06. Le'Veon struggled. Le'Veon was 4.02. Wow. Now Gurley was 4.06. Le'Veon struggled. Le'Veon was 4.02. Now Gurley was 4.68. Hunt was 4.88. Kamara, we know, 6.07.

Melvin Gordon, 3.89. Ingram, 4.89. McCoy, under 4, 3.97. Fournette, under 4, 3.88. And then once you start getting past some of those guys, it's kind of up and down. Who was the worst Fournette at 3.88? Fournette and Gordon were a tenth of a yard in McCoy. They were 3.8.

So they were pretty close to four. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Fournette was the—Take McCoy out of there. Fournette and Gordon, 3.88 and 3.89. Yeah, and offensive line is a huge part of it. There's no question. I think Jacksonville's offensive line can get better this offseason. Yeah.

Let me read an email. This will be our last one. Lance from Central Washington. Adam, I know you're dogging on my boy Jordan Howard, but I kind of have to keep him at this price, right? $200 PPR league. By the way, I don't think the answer is absolutely yes here. Melvin Gordon at 15.

Pick three to keep. Melvin Gordon at 15. Jordan Howard at 11. Dalvin Cook at 28, Marlon Mack at 5, Carson Wentz at 8, Zach Ertz at 11. So we got Gordon at – in order of price, Dalvin Cook at 28, Melvin Gordon at 15, Jordan Howard and Zach Ertz at 11, Carson Wentz at 8, and Marlon Mack at 5. 200. Keep 3 in PPR And I think Ertz and Melvin Gordon Have to be capped at those prices And Howard

I think it has to be Howard over Wentz Yeah I mean I hope we have time to decide Because if Dalvin Cook is healthy To me he's worth 17 more dollars than Howard In $200 budget. You know, he didn't catch a ton of passes when he did play.

I want to say he was on pace for maybe two and a half catches a game. Probably more than Howard, though, but not much more. But again, if he gets the right coach in there. True. Yeah, no, Howard's definitely fine at $11. Great value for him. Okay, guys. Thank you, Dave and Jamie.

Thank you all for listening. Have a great weekend. Enjoy some football. Hey, congratulations to you for being nominated for Podcast Host of the Year. Yeah. Congratulations to our podcast for being nominated for Best Podcast. For the FSTA. That's the exciting one so good for us

let's win it all right all right thank you for listening goodbye i'm done my outros suck i'm not gonna win post the year bye