Fantasy Football Today - 01/06: McCarthy Reaction; Playoff Thoughts and 2020 Rankings (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

Mike McCarthy didn't run the ball much toward the end of his GB tenure, will that change with Ezekiel Elliott? Can he take Dak Prescott to new heights? We react to the McCarthy hire to start the show (2:51) ... Players who impressed us (10:30) and players who did not impress us (19:40) in the first round of the playoffs. Adam Thielen and D.K. Metcalf were great. Josh Allen and Julian Edelman were not ... We discuss the importance of pass attempts (35:00), review the latest news and notes (36:58) with Eric Ebron seemingly on his way out of IND and the Kyle Rudolph TD catch sparking controversy! Then we're ranking the QBs, RBs and WRs from the four teams who were eliminated this weekend (40:00). Drew Brees vs. Carson Wentz vs. Josh Allen is tough! And where is the love for Devin Singletary? ... Email us 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

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome back from an amazing weekend of NFL football. Awesome games. Hope you enjoyed them. I certainly did. And we'll talk about the fantasy implications for the teams that have been eliminated, like the New Orleans Saints, who we all thought were going to the Super Bowl. This is Monday, January 6th.

This is Fantasy Football Today. I'm Adam Azer. I got three people with me today, including back from Hawaii. Aloha, Dave. Aloha. Really? The music? Yeah. You were there around Christmas time, right? Yes. You heard this nowhere in Maui. Nowhere.

How was your trip? It was fine. It was great. Family reunion type thing and lots of sunshine and palm trees. You don't get a lot of that in South Florida. Well, we're happy to have you back. Did you get to watch the playoff games? I did. I spent week 17 in a

Hawaiian sports bar. It was very divish, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. And then watched all the playoff games. I was back in the continental United States by then. Excellent, excellent. Jamie Eisenberg is here. Jamie, hello. Hey, bud.

What's up, man? I miss you already. What happened to the Saints? The Saints suck. Oh my god. It was so bad. Oh man, it's a good thing I've been a playoff challenge. And they got screwed by the refere man. It's a good thing. I've been a playoff challenge. And they got screwed by the referees again? Possibly, yeah. I've been a playoff challenge with only two other people,

and everybody went heavy on the Saints, so I might be able to win that one. And Ben Schrager is back. What's up, Adam? What's up, Ben? How you doing, man? I'm great. I'm even better now that the Patriots are done.

Oh, ooh. Wow, that's not how you make friends on this show. All right, so we're going to talk about Dallas hiring Mike McCarthy. Patriots are done. Oh, ooh. Wow, that's not how you make friends on this show. All right, so we're going to talk about Dallas hiring Mike McCarthy. We're going to talk about players who impressed us and did not impress us in the playoff games. Were you impressed by Josh Allen? I was for a half. He looked a lot better than Deshaun Watson.

I got to tell you, so I get after he catches a touchdown, I get a text message from Adam with just a star. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. And I said, yeah he catches a touchdown, I get a text message from Adam with just a star. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. And I said, yeah, great opening drive. And then I don't hear anything from him the rest of the day. Well, you know, I was going to text you when he lateraled the ball. What a great decision that was at the end of the first half.

That's what stars do. Yeah, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about, really, we're going to focus on the teams as they get eliminated. We're going to do some rankings. We're going to rank the four quarterbacks who were eliminated, the running backs who were eliminated, the wide receivers. You don't have to rank the tight ends because it's Ertz 1, Jared Cook 2, and probably Goddard 3. So let's go to the big news here.

Dallas hiring Mike McCarthy. Trying to look up, this happened not long before we started recording, so trying to look up the Green Bay running game under Mike McCarthy. And what I can tell you, the last three seasons, here's where they ranked in rush attempts per game. Last three seasons with McCarthy, not 2019, obviously. They were 20th, 27th, and 32nd in the NFL. Dallas in those three seasons in attempts per game,

rush attempts per game was 2nd, 5th, and 10th. So, you know, Jamie, I'll throw it to you first. Do you think this hurts or helps Ezekiel Elliott? The overall impact of Mike McCarthy taking over Dallas head coach, which is expected, not official, but expected. I'm not worried about Zeke. When you have a player of his caliber, especially with Jerry Jones still as the general manager and what they paid him,

he's going to be fine. You know, he'll get his touches. I can't imagine McCarthy's walking and saying, you know, let's get away from the run. I'm just going to, you know, lean on whoever the quarterback may be because Dak is a free agent. So assuming Dak is back and everything is status quo, I think it's a similar sense of production that you're going to get from these guys. You know, Zeke's still going to be a top five running back wherever you want to rank him. You know, maybe now he falls behind. Dalvin Cook was the guy that I think our overall rankings were sort of mixed on.

Saquon, you know, if you want to put him in that category too. But it's going to be a key if they keep Prescott and what that scenario is. And if they keep Prescott and what that scenario is, and if they keep Amari Cooper, too. Those two guys are the next dominoes to fall for what the Cowboys are going to do. Dak is obviously staying. There's going to be a franchise tag or a contract extension. Cooper's the one that I think we have to keep an eye on. Ben Schrager, you like this move? McCarthy to the Cowboys?

I like the move for the Cowboys. I don't think it matters for Zeke at all. McCarthy never had Zeke or a Zeke caliber running back with the Packers. I really don't care about those stats. Maybe it's a touchdown for Zeke, but at the end of the day, he wasn't perfect this year, and Zeke's going to be a top five running back next year no matter what. Dave, your thoughts? I agree with Ben for sure.

Who was his best running back in green back? Eddie Lacy. Eddie Lacy? Eddie Lacy for a year. Okay, and then... Was it the tail end of Amon Green? Yes. So I actually went back. I looked at every year of Mike McCarthy

and running backs that got big work. Amon Green, 2006. His first year. McCarthy's first year. 266 carries. 1,059 yards. 5 touchdowns. 2008, Ryan Grant had 312 carries. Just over 1,059 yards, 5 touchdowns. 2008, Ryan Grant had 312 carries, just over 1,200 yards. The following year, he had, again, 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Ryan Grant, 282 carries. Eddie Lacy had 284 carries in 2013 and about 1,200 yards and 11 touchdowns. Very similar. So he has a guy using him. Yeah, he uses him. Now, I think 284 would be a little on the low end for Zeke, but the other thing is that as we got further in time with Mike McCarthy, he did run the ball less.

So that's what it seemed anyway. That's also Aaron taking more control. Aaron Rodgers taking more control of the offense too. Yeah. You know what? Play to your personnel. They have Zeke. They're going to use Zeke. Do you like it for Dak?

Do you think McCarthy is someone who can take Dak Prescott to yet another level? I'm not sure. I'm not sure if he can do that. There is going to be a scheme change. They're going to move to the West Coast offense because I don't think McCarthy is going to blow up his playbook to try and fit what Dallas

has done because they ran like the Coriel system with Jason Garrett. But what I'm what I'm interested to see is if it's going to be a lot like what it was in Green Bay with the ISO routes over and over and over again. That wasn't. No, you see at the end of the Packer season how their offense has gone back to looking very much the same. It's like very similar.

I thought that way too. In the beginning of the season, it was a little bit more bunched on some formations. It was guys doing a little pre-snap movement. It was thrown to the running backs. They got completely away from that toward the end of the year. They got a little bit back to it in Week 17. It's hard. Taking the play clock down all the way to zero, that's an Aaron Rodgers thing.

Brian Urlacher talked about that in an interview either this offseason or a previous offseason, that Aaron likes to see everything that he's going to be facing right before he hikes the ball. And it looks very similar to what was McCarthy's offense at the end, which got stagnant. So I think it's going to be interesting to see. One of the things that was talked about with this hire was Jerry wanted somebody who was going to potentially keep the assistant coaches in place, at least the ones that he likes. So does Kellen Moore stay?

And that's going to be an interesting one. Does the offensive staff, more importantly for what we talk about, stay intact? And if that's the case, then you wonder, is McCarthy coming in to be the play caller? Is he coming in to be more? How can they hire him and not make him the play? Well, I mean, if you want a head coach with experience is what Jerry was saying that,

you know, he has an influence on the, on the play calling, but maybe he's not calling every play, you know? And so that there could be something that McCarthy maybe learned in his time off is that, okay,

I can still have an influence on the offense, but I need to be more of an overseer of the entire team. And so that's something I think that we're going to find out. We've also learned that McCarthy has changed, or he's going to try and change his habits from what he was in Green Bay and use more RPOs and stuff like that and try and add a bunch of new wrinkles to his playbook. We're just going to have to wait and see.

But I think Dak can handle it. I don't think it turns Dak into a fantasy superstar. But I'm not worried about Zeke. I wouldn't be worried about Cooper assuming he stays. It could be good for Gallup, especially if McCarthy doesn't change because Gallup can win one-on-one matches. If Cooper leaves, it could help Randall Cobb. They have a history together.

The one thing I think with Dak is this feels like his ceiling fantasy wise. He may have a few more touchdowns in his arsenal. He may have opportunity to run a little bit more, but we know as quarterbacks tend to get older, that goes away. Not that he's old, but... He's got plenty of good running years left in him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, it's not like he's Lamar Jackson at the start of his career. I think, you know, you're talking about a guy that's maybe he has a 5,000 season in him as the NFL continues to develop. And the rules continue to change with what they allow. But if he loses Cooper, he's not going to be as attractive by far.

He threw for more than 1,000 yards more than he had ever thrown in his career. I mean, that is a huge jump to go from 3,885 yards passing in 2018 to 4,902. That is just a huge, huge jump and hard to throw for 4,900 yards. Not very many quarterbacks can do it. Final thoughts on this. I don't know how I feel about Mike McCarthy. Who knows how good of a coach he really is. He's probably a pretty good coach.

I didn't really want him to be the Giants coach, but I think it's a good fit for the Cowboys because they're ready to win. They're made to win. I think he can take over and use that experience. I think it's a good fit for the Cowboys. I don't think he would have been a good fit for a rebuilding team that needed a lot of help. No, no, no. Ron Rivera would have been fine.

McCarthy would have been fine. Lincoln Riley would have been a little weird, just given what the Oklahoma team looks like. Their offense is obviously fun, but they can't stop anybody. And so does that help the Cowboys situation? Matt Rule, who knows how he'll do. Right, right. That's the whole thing.

But again, that goes back to the assistants. Jerry won somebody who's got experience. He's got a Super Bowl victory on his resume. And will he be happy to bring in his own staff, guys that he's worked with, or will he be happy to just keep guys in place who are there? All right, let's talk about some football. Ben, remember when we didn't really – well, football games.

Ben, remember when we didn't really – weren't looking forward to the games? Oh, this was going to be a terrible slate. I didn't really want to watch the games. Did this happen? What? You guys thought this was going to be a bad slate of games? Yeah, kind of. I wasn't really that excited about it.

Oh, Adam. And maybe Ben agreed. Ben agreed. I don't think Jamie opined. I'm not going to say... Jamie definitely did not say, this is going to be a great slate of games. So I'm not giving you credit for that.

I thought that the AFC games were going to be good and the NFC games were going to be kind of ho-hum. And instead, we got three great games and one bad one. With the Seahawks game? Yeah, it was bad, but at least it was close. Probably didn't help. All right, so let's talk about a player who impressed you and a player

who didn't. Ben Schrager, I'll start with you. Give me a player who impressed you this weekend. Adam Thielen completely impressed me. You know, 129 yards. He looked like that Adam Thielen we got in 2018 starting off the year with how many straight games of 19 plus points? Eight straight games. Yeah.

And so Adam Thielen, we were not confident with him. He put up a couple of goose eggs to end the year, even though we thought he was healthy. He looks to be back. And I'm really excited about his prospects for next year. What did you think when he fumbled early on in the game? Did you were you you at a 180 from what you just said? Completely. No, I wasn't. Isn't it crazy how

just a big play in overtime plus a couple other key catches throughout the game. It changes the way you look at the whole thing. It's weird. It's weird how that happens. This was my guy too because I debated a little bit with Jamie about James White versus Adam Thielen and DFS

because they were the same price on FanDuel, and I went with Thielen, and my theory wasn't exactly right. It was, you know, they're going to be chasing points, and he wouldn't see the tougher coverage. We didn't see the tougher coverage. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, that's – I think he saw both. He saw Lattimore.

He saw Jenkins. Not in the beginning of the game, though. No, but who did he beat on the deep ball? Yeah, yeah. He beat Lattimore. He saw Jenkins. Not in the beginning of the game, though. No, but who did he beat on the deep ball? Yeah, yeah. He beat Lattimore. I don't think they shadowed anyone. No, they were playing sides. Here's the thing.

He had gone two and a half years of being one of the best receivers in football. I wasn't going to forget about that because two bad games coming back from injury. So that's why I was excited about Thielen and seven catches, 129 yards. And Diggs was invisible again. That's three games in a row of nothing really for Diggs. We had no targets at that. Right. Look at where they rank.

If you want to spin it forward to fantasy, right? Where they've ranked in past attempts the last three seasons. 21st, and Thielen was a top 12 receiver. They were sixth in past attempts last year, 2018. And Thielen was, what was he, like 5th last year? I don't remember. And then this

year, they were 30th. So that concerns you a little bit. I mean, being 30th in pass attempts. Well, can all these guys be good for fantasy? Diggs, Thielen, Cook. Good, yes. know good yes great no right but on a week to week basis they're almost never going to be all great well i mean two of them are great this weekend yeah but it's usually that it's usually exactly that but that's most teams i mean that's

that's how most teams tend to operate right so you know the cook will be that one guy most of the time like you get the receivers like you know i. And again, nobody's going to hold anybody to this, but we did our top 10 at each position this past week, and Ben Gretsch had Stefan Diggs at 10th in his PPR rankings. And so I explained it for everybody. If anybody wants to have a different take on my explanation of it, I just gave my opinion on everybody's rank list, and I said Diggs is the one of all explanation of it. I just gave my opinion on everybody's rank list. And I said, you know, digs is the one of all five of us, you know, so there was, I think seven receivers

consistently for every person. Um, there was like three that differed, not for everybody, but there was, uh, you know, uh, uh, the same seven and everybody's ranking. And so digs was the one that stood out to me the most by far of the 50 players that were there. You know, again, crossover. But that, I don't know if I can rank him in the top 20 wide receivers. Well, I just don't know how you can rank him out of Thielen. I mean, I think it's, like, that's what I was all about in 2018. Well, if you did it this year, you'd be happy about it.

No, because you got lucky. It was injury-based. When they were both healthy, Thielen was better. But Diggs has also suffered some injuries over the last several years too. So, you know, if you're going to play the injury card, you've got to play both ways. No, I'm not playing any card. I was injury-based. When they were both healthy, Thielen was better. But Diggs has also suffered some injuries over the last several years, too. So, you know, if you're going to play the injury card, you've got to play both ways. No, I'm not playing any card. I'm playing this card. When they're both healthy, Thielen is consistently better than Diggs.

And it's that simple. I just don't see how you can rank Diggs over Thielen. Thielen's better. How can I not argue that? I'm with you. But, you know, again, Diggs certainly has his share of moments where he's been good. Absolutely. But I just don't see how you can rank him ahead of Thielen.

I'll go back to something I said about Diggs. I think it was two years ago. I think he's going to end up one of those receivers that his talent and his stats are never going to be equal. He has the ability to be such a better wide receiver statistically, but it's never going to show up on the team that he plays with. Yeah. All right.

So if Dave, Ben, and I all said Adam Thielen. I can give you another name. Okay. Go ahead. Taysom Hill. Yeah. He right, so if Dave, Ben, and I all said Adam Thielen. I can give you another name. Okay, go ahead. Taysom Hill. Yeah, he's good. Who continues to steal precious stats away from the St. Studs that we love, but he continues to be a small part of this offense, but he's making big plays.

And I'm kind of fearing slash hoping in a weird way that it continues. I almost wish that there was a way that we could use him as a flex in fantasy because I want to use him as a flex in fantasy.

For the one touchdown he scores every six games? No, because I think he could get more usage as 2020 comes along. He could end up being their number two receiver. He could end up being their number two receiver. He could end up being their starting quarterback if they let Breeze walk as a free agent, and they don't bring back Bridgewater.

So there you go. And then things get really crazy. Sean Payton loves him. It's the worst thing for fantasy. Yeah, it's annoying. Oh, he's a good player for what he does, but he's terrible for what we do. So, okay. Jamie, who was the player who impressed you?

Oh, DK Metcalf. Give yourself some credit, buddy. Pat yourself on the back. I gave you a hard time about a lot of stuff, but you've been all over DK Metcalf from the beginning when it was, oh, is he just a combine freak and this physical specimen? And you loved it from the start where he ended up with Seattle. And if anybody just saw Combine to now. And that's all you, you know, just the way that he looked, the way that he ran. And what he did in this playoff game.

You're pretty impressed with DK Metcalf. It was a strong performance, you know, for him taking the step of I'm the guy next year. And, you know, Tyler Locke, it's going to be probably like a Viking situation. Where there's going to be one guy great one week, one guy disappointing. And we've seen that time and time again this year as well. But week 17, in a big game for them, he led them in targets. And then you come back this week, and

what he was able to do against Philadelphia, we know that the evil secondary is not very good, but he had just some monster plays. And as he continues to get better, it's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, do you think Metcalf's going to be a consistent wide receiver, or do you think he's going to be kind to watch. Yeah. Do you think Metcalf's going to be a consistent wide receiver, or do you think he's going to be kind of a boomer bust wide receiver? He could be Will Fuller.

I think he could be better than Will Fuller. I would agree. But just to what Adam was talking about, I think if you've got a healthy Will Fuller, you love it. That's the kind of player that he's been. When he's been on the field, he's put up a lot of big numbers. I think there's a chance that he shells Lockett and becomes the number one guy for seattle next year lockett lockett never really profiled though as a number one guy like he's but he had a lot of targets well i don't know if he had the

most targets i'd have to go back and double check because he only had 70 he led them in targets but i i think you look at it as he never really profiled as this is a number one wide receiver you know he's always been he's been a Will Fuller type of guy. You know, a boomer bust type of receiver. You know, I don't know if Metcalf is a true number one receiver. He looks the part, you know, physically, but can he do it? That's the question. And is the team's philosophy going to change? No.

They've been run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, and now all of a sudden they've got two really dangerous receivers. You know, you're talking about a Vikings team that ranked, what, 30th in pass attempts, Adam? 30, yes. Okay, so you see how hard it is for two receivers to have good numbers there. You're going to

expect that from Seattle moving forward when they're not going to throw the ball. And the big games that the two of them have had have come when they have these double-digit targets. So how often is that going to happen? Right. But even they haven't really had big... I mean, you know, week 17, they played well. I don't think, yeah, Metcalf scored again. Plus, you know, you're factoring in, they use the tight end, whether it's going to be a healthy Will Disley or Jacob Hollister next year, you know,

they'll use that position. They tried to, you know, add another piece with Josh Gordon. It didn't work. So are they done tinkering with that spot too? You know, you had Doug Baldwin's unexpected retirement. I don't think that's something they were counting on two years ago when they signed him. So we'll see. We'll see what they do this offseason. But there's a lot to like about Metcalf. It's going to be fun to debate those rookie receivers. You know, the class of

2019 receivers with McLaurin and A.J. Brown and Debo. I think we talked about this last week, Adam. We sort of overlook Metcalf a little bit. And he continues to remind us that he could be maybe the best. I don't think he's better than A.J. Brown, but he could be in that conversation.

He's not better than A.J. Brown. However, A.J. Brown's quarterback just threw 15 passes in a win. So that scares me a little bit. They were playing a bad team, though. All right, who's a player in a place where they always lose? Who did not impress you? A player who did not impress you this weekend? I'll just start.

Let's go back to Ben Schrager. It was Julian Edelman. He had the rushing touchdown. Whoopie. But he's three for 30 on five targets and the biggest drop of the game. A guy who led the league in drops this year. He really disappointed. I mean, over the past four games, 34 yards a a game it's obviously he wasn't 100 healthy but he was a big letdown this

week that's pretty interesting yeah we're gonna rank the wide receivers who have been eliminated he's gonna he's not gonna be number one because michael thomas will be number one i can't imagine he like john brown or julian edelman edelman edelman? Edelman. Edelman. I'll still go Edelman. Well, let's see who the quarterback is. All right, Dave, who disappointed you? Who did not impress you? Edelman's quarterback, Tom Brady.

You know, you talk about the playoffs, and the greats tend to rise up and play to the high level that you expect in these big games, and Brady didn't do it. This offense in general really didn't do it. They did not look like typical Patriots playoff offenses, and Brady really hasn't looked good all season long. Would it really be that shocking if the Patriots let Brady walk? It wouldn't, but who are they going to replace him with? If they let him walk or he walks, because I think those are two different things.

It depends on what they're offering. Robert Kraft said he hopes and prays he comes back or retires. They don't want to see him go anywhere else. Right. Do they want to make him one of the top five highest paid quarterbacks in the league? On a one-year deal, I wouldn't be surprised if they did that. I mean, you know, it's a Kobe Bryant, you know, thank you for your service, plus what you can still do for us. But then what if he decides he wants to play three more years and you've got to pay him that much money over three years?

As the cap continues to increase, the one thing about the Patriots, they're so good at managing salaries with young players and getting the most out of those guys. I think if you're looking at it from the Patriots' standpoint, this defense can still win now. It's very clear that they're still a very good unit. You get another year in to kill Harry. You get Edelman still

playing at a high level. They can restock the line. That's the biggest thing. If they can find an offense, because look, you know, Sonny Michel did not play great this year at all. He closed the year looking a lot better, given what the blocking was in front of him. And you still get that group. You know, White, Burkhead, Michel, it's still a very good group for what this offense can be. They need better blocking than any other receiver. You know, the Mohammed's a new trade.

You know, I know they looked at it as they getting two years of a guy who they thought could fit their system and maybe be their Amendola. You know, somebody who can be the second slot guy and play outside, do some different things. It didn't look great, but it doesn't mean that it can't look great. Oh,

a hundred percent. And getting a young tight end to, you know, I think that's something that, you know, with Ben Watson retiring, Matt Lacoste is not the answer. So there's still a lot to like for Brady to bounce back and be a good NFL quarterback.

He's never going to be a great fantasy quarterback again, though. Well, I'll just break down the stats for you here for Brady because it's easy to forget. His first eight games of the season, he was on pace for 4,500 yards, 26 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. Playing against two, though. He had six good games in those eight. Pittsburgh in week one, that was before the Fitzpatrick trade. Miami, Jets, Redskins, Giants, Browns. And the Miami game, he had Antonio Brown.

Yep, he completed 64% of his passes, 7.5 yards per attempt. And for what it's worth, he did have Josh Gordon for a few of those games. His last eight games, he was on pace for 3,600 yards, only 22 touchdowns, eight interceptions. He was awful. And that's really

last nine games, if you can include the playoffs. So yeah, I mean, Brady's an unexciting fantasy quarterback. He does finish 12th overall, but that's not on a per-game basis. On a per-game basis, he was closer to 20. I heard some good theories about where he could go if he decides to play. The Los Angeles rumor is the one that's been talked about all season long.

If he ended up with the Chargers, and that offense, I mean, let's say Melvin Gordon walks, but you have Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Hunter Henry, and Austin Eckler, that's a pretty good group. Still is an offensive line issue. Agreed, agreed, but that's still a pretty good group of skill players.

The other one that's interesting, which I heard today was the Colts. You know, they're not sold on Jacoby Brissett. He walks into one of the best offensive lines of football. Great play caller. Some pretty decent weapons. You know, if they can develop one of the young guys, Paris Campbell, you know, would be the logical one. But, you know, that'd be an interesting setup for him to still still win you know i mean you can you can probably give chris ballard a hall of fame quarterback and frank reich up uh

you know a mind like tom brady behind that line and and and they they could be a serious contender in the afc south that would be fun yeah do you think that there's like a combo deal maybe with mcdaniels and brady where if brave it It sounds like McDaniels wants to go to Cleveland because he's from the area. I don't think McDaniels is going to go to the Colts. No, that's not going to happen. All right, let's move on here. Okay, so we got Edelman from Ben.

We got Brady from Dave. Jamie, who did not impress you this weekend? The other 40-year-old, Breeze, did not look good. You look at the way he finished the season. He was a monster. Absolute statistical star like he usually is. I just got finished writing the win percentage for quarterbacks. He's not

in the top five, but a lot of it has to do with the fact of how his season went to start the year. Adam, we talked about this. He was three, two or three in points per game. It just depends on how you look at Stafford. But he was very good.

And to see the way he finished, give Minnesota's defense credit. Obviously, they did a great job. I don't know if it was a broadcast or something I read said that the Vikings took a page out of the Falcons playbook and what they did to them in their two meetings at the end of the season. They kept everything in front of them. And Brees just – you see the lack of arm strength on the interception that he threw trying to get the ball to Ted Ginn in the seam. He just doesn't have it anymore, at least consistently.

And that was a really, really bad throw. And you realize – I forget who was saying this. Some receiver was talking about this, but Michael Thomas just saves a lot of bad Drew Brees throws because he just doesn't drop anything. So you just wonder, like, you know, Brady looked like he fell off a cliff a little bit at 42. Brees is going to be 41, and so he's a free agent.

It'd be shocking if he left New Orleans, but, you know, he's just not the same. He's still going to put up a lot of numbers, obviously, if he's with Sean Payton and the Saints, but he just doesn't look the same guy. Didn't look the same guy in that game for sure. Yeah, right. I think I got to push back on that a little because I think a bad game

is leaving a sour taste in your mouth because I'm willing to overlook it. He was so good, and he has still been statistically elite year after year after year. Oh, he's going to put up numbers. Yeah, he's awesome. Some throws, when he's facing some tough defenses, just don't look the same. It's hard to draft a quarterback when you see him not necessarily missing throws, but not having the arm strength that you want.

It's more the arm strength. He doesn't miss throws. I mean, he's the most accurate passer in the NFL, and he just had another big season of, you know, his completion percentage. But again, I think Michael Thomas makes a lot of big, big catches for him. And Sean Payton opens up a lot of things for him. You just have to wonder at some point, when's it going to be where he hits the wall? And was this an indication of, okay, they did what the Falcons did. It was the next team going to do what the Vikings did. And this

is going to be, you know be sort of a continual pattern. Remember what happened to the Rams? Tom, Bill Belichick and the Patriots exposed the Rams in the Super Bowl, and we saw what happened this year. I don't buy that. It was so great. I don't buy that. I don't buy that entirely because the Rams' offense had struggled

for like six or seven weeks before that. Belichick's getting a little bit too much credit there. That offense had not been good basically once Cooper Cup got hurt and Todd Gurley got hurt. They haven't had a healthy Gurley and their offensive line got worse. I'm still pretty confident in Drew Brees because like you said,

he was great. He was great as the number two or number three quarterback on a per game basis this year. The thing that concerns me with Brees is that his past attempts went way up and I don't know that they want to do that. Kamara didn't really, wasn't that involved. I think once Kamara got hurt, he came back. He didn't really get the touches that you're used to seeing from Alvin Kamara. His last seven games, now he played eight games, not including the playoff game, after returning from an injury. I kind of eliminated the first game because he had four carries.

You look at the seven games after that. He was on pace for 185 carries. That's like really, really low. So Brees was just throwing the ball more. One thing that could really stop him is he goes back to throwing 33 times a game instead of about 38 times a game. He was at 37.5

this year. That could hurt Drew Brees. And I imagine he won't throw 37.5 times per game next year. Well, their defense fell apart. They had a lot of injuries. They just didn't run the ball as much or as well. And they didn't run the ball well. I forget who their center is, but losing Max Unger last year,

that changed some things. They had beat in and out of the lineup due to injury. Armstead, too. Yeah, was banged up. So they've had their share of injuries on the line, and so there were some changes. You had Jared Cook miss a couple games, too. That factored in, and obviously Breeze had to work his way back

from the thumb injury after missing five games. Not that he missed a beat, but it's just a matter of we're trying to project forward here. And so for a guy that is going to be 41, you just wonder, is he going to be the same guy? that is going to be 41, you just wonder, is he going to be the same guy? He's going to be still very good. Is he going to be great? And he's going to lose a couple passes

per game to taste some hell. There's a bunch of little things that are going to take him away. I don't think he's a top 10 fantasy quarterback next year. But how much does the arm strength matter to you guys when his top two targets aren't deep ball guys? That's what they really need to add. They need to add a deep threat.

Could Michael Thomas... Well, I mean, they have two guys that stretch the field. They just don't use them very well. They don't use them. And they're not very good. Ginn's not very good. Ted Ginn was good 10 years ago. Okay.

Well, he had one good year. He had the one great year with Cam. Moving on. One player who did not impress me was Josh Allen. Guys. Yeah. Well, he was great as a receiver and as a rusher. What a terrible throw by John Brown, by the way.

But he is so inaccurate. But I think if you want to be encouraged about Josh Allen, because last week I'm talking about him as the next superstar in the NFL, if he can fix his mechanics and become a little bit more accurate, he was the number seven quarterback in fantasy this year. He threw for 3,100 yards. That's terrible. And he completes 58 3,100 yards. That's terrible. And he completes 58% of his passes. That's terrible.

Yeah. Pete Prisco drink has, you know, he's, he's shares your love of Josh Allen. He would like to see him improve as a passer, not necessarily as a rusher for our purposes. His rushing is great.

He thinks they need a big receiver. They do. That's what I said. And, and, and that's, you know, huge part of what I think this offseason is going to be about. Remember, they were the ones that first made the move to get Antonio Brown, and Brown said no. And so will they be aggressive and let's say try and get an A.J. Green,

which I think would be a great fit? Will they just sit back in the draft? It's a great receiver draft. And our Ryan Wilson, who does a great job with our NFL draft coverage, one of his mock drafts. I forget which receiver he has going to them, but he says they're taking a receiver in the first round. And it makes so much sense. You know, just continue to add pieces to this offense. They did it with the offensive line last year.

Free agency in the draft. You know, I think they'll continue to do that as well. You know, at the receiver spot. And that's, you know, a big thing. Dawson Knox will get better. You know, if you say John Brown's the two, Cole Beasley's the slot, and you add, you know, what should be a number one guy, that's going to be a pretty lethal offense with Devin Singletary back there.

Yeah, so Cam Newton, you know, early in his career was his second year. He completed 57.7% of his passes. He was pretty bad until he got North Turner. So there's hope, I guess, but something's going to have to change. I do think that if Josh Allen can become a better passer, he could be a great player. If he runs as much?

He won't have to run quite as much if he throws better. But you do see plays that he makes great throws that he makes. He obviously has the arm strength. He's going to run the football. Maybe not this much, but he's going to be a rusher. I do think that he just has to figure out how to, like,

whatever it is, mechanics or whatever, become more accurate. Don't have to be super accurate. You don't have to be Drew Brees, but complete low 60s of your passes, 62, 63%. And we could be talking about a great player here. He was, you know, for win percentage, and what we talked about, win percentage is the players that impacted fantasy leagues

in terms of what teams they were on, fantasy teams they were on. So it's not an exact science of how they are in terms of their fantasy production. But he and Kyler Murray were 11 and 12 in their win percentage. If you recall our rankings conversation, they were basically 6 through 8 for almost everybody. I don't remember Dave's exactly, but I know Heath, me, Adam, I think for sure. Ben, Kyler and Josh Allen were almost back to back. And it feels like they're going to be linked together very much in 2020. But they were the number two and three Russian quarterbacks in 2019.

And people are going to chase those guys. Well, Kyler is going to be everybody's breakout quarterback, and understandably so. And, you know, Allen's going to be somebody I think that a lot of people hope takes the next step. I think he's got the chance to do it. Adam, you're the only one, though, that had Allen over Kyler. Yeah, doesn't really make a lot of sense.

You still taking Allen over Deshaun Watson if you're starting a team? Oh, my goodness. That was a pretty good performance by Deshaun Watson. I think that Allen has a higher ceiling. I really do. I mean, it's hard to justify saying that now. But what am I going to do? It was hard to justify saying it last week.

I'm going to change my mind after every game. I mean, no. So, sure, I'll take Josh Allen. I do think he could be a star. I really do. It's hard to justify taking him over Kyler Murray, though, because Murray threw for like 800 more yards. Because Murray's just going to throw the ball more.

He's a better passer. They play in an up-tempo offense. The Bills are a low-pass volume team, so I'd have to change that ranking in fantasy. Josh Allen ahead of Murray. I had them 6-7. I'd have to make that switch. Of course, it doesn't really matter right now.

But, okay, let's move on. Let's talk about some of the games, the other players involved and do some rankings. We have three episodes per week this offseason. Remember, we got our award show tomorrow and our all-decade team being announced tomorrow. Well, teams, I guess. All-decade teams announced tomorrow on the show and our awards that we told you about beginning at the end of week 17. Biggest bust, MVP, waiver wire player of the year, waiver wire bust of the year, that kind of stuff. We also have a Fantasy Football Today newsletter. It's really cool.

Sign up at cbssports.com slash newsletter. Stay up to date with fantasy football content all off season long. You got your news of the day, podcast content, the editorial pieces, the prospect profiles, the rankings, and more. So anytime there's anything you need to know about, you'll see it in the newsletter, cbssports.com slash newsletter. Sign up there. All right. So I like to focus on the players who have been eliminated. But first, let me give you a couple of stats of the day. Remember, Jamie? I think it was just me and you. It was last Tuesday.

I said there was a stat about Carson Wentz that was really impressive and I couldn't remember. Well, loyal listener Scott Sheriff texted me. He knew the stat. He knew what I was talking about. Carson Wentz is the first quarterback in NFL history with 4,000 passing yards without a wide receiver gaining 500 receiving yards. So that's historic.

And that's the stat. Here's your quirky stat of the day. The top five quarterbacks in pass attempts this year finished as QB 5, 8, 11, 12, and 17. Volume did not mean success.

No, it did for Jameis. Jameis was the only one. He was fifth. Jared Goff and Jameis, I believe, were tied most pass attempts in the NFL. Winston finished fifth. Goff was QB 17. But Brady, Wentz, and Ryan were, well, Wentz was eight. Ryan was 11.

Brady was 12. They were all top five in pass attempts. It's interesting for Ryan because he missed a game. Yeah, it's true. And you compare that to last year where there were three quarterbacks who were top five in pass attempts and also top five in fantasy. Two, three, and four, Ryan, Roethlisberger, and Luck. And it was interesting because I looked at passing volume as a buy low.

And I made two mistakes. I said buy low on Jared Goff. He's throwing the ball a ton. He's got to get better. And I said buy low on Tom Brady. He's throwing the ball a ton. He's got an easy schedule. He's got to get better. And neither worked out. So I don't know what to make of that. If it was just a fluke or

we should just be looking at other metrics now. I guess it depends, because Goff actually wasn't horrible to finish the season. Yeah, I wouldn't say he was a good by-low, though, because he would have had to really wait it out until the championship. There were a lot of leagues where he got dropped. You know, when he had that stretch of single-digit

fantasy points, it was like a six-game stretch. Or four of those, he was four points or less. Three in a row, he combined for 11 points. It took him until the end of the year to... His final four games,

he was 21 or more in three of his final four. But it took him until the end of the year to do that. He had back-to-back games with 20 fantasy points or more once until that,

which was in the middle of that single-digit stretch. Yep. All right. So just wanted to throw that out there. Some news and notes. Jamie kind of mentioned this,

but the Colts did not commit to Jacoby Brissett. Also seems like Eric Ebron is going to walk. Yeah, they don't to throw that out there. Some news and notes. Jamie kind of mentioned this, but the Colts did not commit to Jacoby Brissett. Also seems like Eric Ebron's going to walk. Yeah, they don't want Ebron back. So are we going to fall for Jack Doyle again? If Tom Brady's their quarterback. I think he's in the conversation with, I'm just thinking again,

where we had the guys ranked at 8 through 10 you have to consider him with Noah Fant and TJ Hawkinson and Mike Kisecki in that group he's not better than them but or has as much upside as those guys do but he's like the old maid of that group but you know

you just talk about the floor and the floor is probably safer for him I don't think I could have picked a less timely reference than calling him the old maid of that group. You're welcome. You're the old maid of our group, Dave. Ben, would you take Dallas Goddard or Jack Doyle? Let's assume Jacoby Brissett is back and Eric Ebron isn't.

Would you take Goddard? I'll take Goddard. Unless the Eagles add a huge piece to their pass offense, I'll still take Goddard. He's going to be their number two target Anybody else? No, not if they're healthy you think I don't know if Alshon will be healthy I don't know that he will know but if he's healthy, I mean, you know and if Deshaun's healthy, you know Those are still two significant pieces and and I looked at it today

I'll Sean's cap hit is pretty huge if they let him go So he's he's gonna be an eagle for 2020. He'll be there no matter what. Just a matter of how effective he'll be or when he'll even get the chance to play. Okay, Robert Kraft wants Brady back with the Patriots or he wants him to retire. There was no pass interference on Kyle Rudolph's game-winning touchdown, according to the NFL. Agreed.

Agreed? Wrong. Ben? Oh, no. That was totally interference. If you call that, then you missed 100 calls during the season just like it. I agree, 100%. But it should have been both guys hand-fighting and offsetting penalties. He clearly pushed off.

They rarely call the offset. Right. Oh, I understand what they call and what they don't call. Was there pass interference? If you're just isolating one play, it was pass interference. Was there pass interference? Yeah. I think there was.

I think that was a crappy call. But it seems like we're split here. It happens so often. If you're going to call it, then you've got to call it in the other 256 games during the year. I don't know. It seems like a little more egregious than that.

I know it stinks for Saints fans. The last three years have been so terrible for Saints fans. Really? Just awful. Yeah, really, really bad. I feel terrible for them, but I don't think it was blatant offensive pass interference. DK Metcalf set a Seahawks record

for most receiving yards in a playoff game. Derek Henry had the most rushing yards against a Bill Belichick coach team in the playoffs. I didn't know this. Tennessee has made only eight field goals this season. I heard that on the broadcast. I could not believe that. They have made eight field goals in 17 games, 18 attempts.

Drew Brees lost his first fumble of the season, and you all probably remember the play. It was a crucial play. He said there was miscommunication. He basically said a wide receiver ran the wrong route. The ball, quote, the ball should have been out of my hands, and all of a sudden that wasn't the route that was run, so now I'm just trying to throw the ball into the dirt to avoid a sack.

Interesting. All right, let's rank some players going into 2020. We're going to basically assume situations mostly stay the same here. Rank them. Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Josh Allen, and Carson Wentz. We know Brady's last, so how would you rank Brees, Allen, and Wentz? I'm

still going to take Wentz first. I'm going to take Brees next, Allen after that. Allen, Brees, Wentz. Brees, Allen, Wentz. Okay. What were you, Dave? I was Wentz, Breeze, Allen. Totally mixed here.

So Jamie had Allen first, right? Yeah, his rushing is going to make him a better fantasy quarterback. And Ben had Breeze first, right? Yep. Now, granted, you just said we're going to assume everything stays the same. If everything stays the same, then there's no doubt that Wentz would be third on the list. But I'm assuming that the Eagles are going to get aggressive about adding pieces around Carson Wentz.

Well, what if they just have Alshon Jeffrey and Deshaun Jackson come back? You know, I mean, that's that's probably won't have him at the top of this list. And if Buffalo really add somebody else, then Allen will probably be at the top of this list. I think we can assume I think for this exercise, we can safely assume the Bills are going to add a wide receiver. And Philadelphia's not? No, no, no. But I think you're underrating Alshon and Jackson. I think that would be a good thing.

You're like, oh, if they bring them back, that would be bad for Wentz. I think they'd be good for Wentz. I'd be surprised if Alshon's all ready to go. Okay, fair enough. Boy, Wentz threw the ball so much this year. So that, I don't know, would continue. But this is really tough. Of all the rankings we're going to do,

I think this is the toughest. These three guys. Adam, here's the Wentz stat that scares me. How many games do you think he's scored 25-plus fantasy points in four-point-per-touchdown leagues since 2017? Well, that's a lot of points, isn't it? it's a lot of points in four that's a big game uh since 2017 his mbp season basically where he would have been the mvp uh five one time really yeah so it just surprised me too it was

really surprising but we talk about josh allen not having a ton of upside, having a high floor, but Wentz doesn't have the ton of upside either if he'll last two years. That's amazing. That's a great stat. Yeah, Breeze is so different because Allen is not thrown for more than 266 yards in any game so far. Breeze is a huge upside play on a week-to-week basis, but I think Wentz and Allen, I guess,

are just a little bit more steady- and Allen, I guess, are just a little bit more steady Eddie. I guess, right? Sure. Yes, Breeze has the most upside of the group. On a weekly basis. But on the road, he's usually not that good. He was this year, though.

All right. Well, that's an interesting group. Rank these guys. Alvin Kamara, Devin Singletary, Miles Sanders, James White, Sonny Michel, and any other running back you'd want to rank from the teams who have been eliminated.

Well, Frank Gore, I'll still be playing. Yeah, Frank Gore. That's it, right? We got the Saints, we got the Bills, the Eagles, and the Pats. So Kamara's going to be at the top. Right. Sanders is second for me.

Singletary would be third. And then after that, if it's PPR, James White would be next. And then Sony would be after that. Jordan Howard would probably be after that. I'm the same way. Exact same. Yeah. We'll see where Howard goes.

Right. I wonder the same way. Exact same. Yeah. We'll see where Howard goes. Right. I wonder if Sony stays. I wonder if they try and they get the Brady situation cleared up. They want to try and get something better at running back. And I wonder if they make a move again. They did it in the last draft to get Damian Harris. He obviously wasn't what

I thought. Why would you get rid of Sony? Because he's not they could keep him, but they could replace him. I guess that's probably the better way to put it. I think they're really content with the group that they have now and the way their running game works. I don't know. It goes back to the offensive line.

Their running game stunk this year, the Patriots. Now, we don't talk enough about Singletary, by the way, because he obviously didn't crack anybody's top 10 list, and I get that. I just wonder how much farther down he'd be. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry. He was really, really good against the Texans. Very elusive.

His 16-game pace, because he only played 12 games this year in the regular season, his 16-game pace was about 1,300 total yards and unfortunately only six touchdowns. That was a problem for him. He just barely ever scored. But I was pretty impressed with him. He also didn't play over 70% of snaps until Week 11,

so we really only got that real sample size towards the end. Sure, but the same thing with Miles Sanders. It's not like he was playing a lot of snaps until Jordan Howard got end. Sure, but the same thing with Miles Sanders. It's not like he was playing a lot of snaps until Jordan Howard got hurt, and so everybody's all gaga over Sanders. They're kind of the same, right? Yeah, I mean, they're similar. I think you probably feel a little bit more comfortable with Doug Peterson helping Miles Sanders, except for the fact of what's the second guy going to be.

Is the second guy going to be Boston Scott? Is the second guy going to be somebody like Jordan Howard who comes in and takes too many carries away? Whereas Singletary, look, we don't know what they're going to do with Frank Gore. Are they going to bring back somebody like TJ Eldon? Are they going to add another piece to the backfield? But if you look at Buffalo's offense trending in the right direction and probably favors a running game a little bit more so maybe than Philadelphia's does.

But how much is Josh Allen's rushing in the right direction? Oh, it does hurt for sure. I think it hurts. Ben Gresh talked about this before the season. running game a little bit more so maybe than Philadelphia's does. But how much is Josh Allen's rushing in the road? It does hurt for sure. Um, I think it hurts, you know, Ben Gresh talked about this before the season. Um, I don't think it was in regard to,

it was in regard to Lamar Jackson and Mark Ingram running quarterbacks when they break containment, they run. Whereas non running quarterbacks, they look for their ally passes, you know? And so that's where you see guys like Kamara win. Maybe McCaffrey a little bit more

this year. Not that he was bad last year. And you saw the duds in the passing game with Singletary where he gets maybe one or two targets in a lot of games this year. And we talked about that going into this weekend's games. I don't remember how he catches. He finished against Texans. Six, I think. That's what you'd like to see a little bit more.

And it would help and hurt Josh Allen a little bit because it would take away some of his rushing ability. But those are the easy yak yards that you get by a player like him. So they're very close for me. Sanders wasn't in my top 10, but he's in my top 12. But Singletary's in my top 15. All right, so here's an encouraging stat for Singletary. The touchdowns, if he had scored more touchdowns,

he might be getting a little more buzz right now. You look at carries inside the five-yard line. He only had two of them. Josh Allen had five of them. Frank Gore had 11 carries inside the five. That is not going to happen

next year. So there will be a lot more opportunities for touchdowns for Devin Singletary. All right, so how about the wide receivers? You know,

ranking them is probably fairly easy. It's Michael Thomas one. Right now would be Julian Edelman two. John Brown three. Right. Yes. OK. We're also looking at Cole Beasley. I don't know.

I still like that. Again, you guys are terrible. Sean Jeffrey. Maybe Nikhil Harry has a nice year. Like what? Well, I mean, could you make the case for John Brown over Julian Edelman in a non-PPR league? Sure.

Brady leaves. End of story. Let's assume Brady comes back. I think Edelman would still be more consistent than Brown, though. They were within seven. Did John Brown sit week 17? He did, right? He actually scored, in non-PPR, he scored more points, but did John Brown sit week 17? He did, right? He actually scored in non-PPR, he scored more points per game than Julian Edelman. Barely,

but he did. Right, and he was probably more up and down than Edelman. With Edelman, you'll get the consistent 7, 8, 9, 10. They were both very consistent. Despite the fact that Edelman was a college quarterback, Brown had more passing touchdowns. Right, that was a weird thing about John Brown. At the end of the year, he really didn't do much as a receiver.

His receiving yards in his last five regular season games, 39, 26, 26, 99, 53, but he had two receiving and two passing touchdowns in those games. So from a yard standpoint, Dave Edelman was much more consistent. From a point standpoint, they both were very consistent.

And Brown was clearly one of the best draft picks of the season. So he just had a great year. Going outside the top 100, I think, he ends up being almost a top 12 wide receiver. Sure. Yeah, unless they add somebody. And I don't think he's the type of receiver that anybody's going to be excited to draft.

I still don't see him being a top 60 type pick. John Brown? John Brown. He'll be in the cusp. End of round five? He'll be in the cusp, yeah. Yeah, that'd be interesting. He's going to rank him 10.

He could fall too because of the poor end of year play. I mean, we know that he had tough matchups and he still did pretty well. But people are going to be scared. He had that hot start and didn't do so hot towards the end of the year. So he may be a good value for us, but yeah, I don't, I don't know that he cracks my top 50. It comes down to where are you comfortable taking boom or bust type of receivers in your fantasy draft? Is it round five? Some people like to start taking risks then I get it. I think round seven is usually when people start to loosen up their collar and say, okay, time to take some shots. Let's it. I think round seven is usually when people start to loosen up their collar and say, okay, time

to take some shots. Let's go. I think he'll probably fall right in between there. I could see John Brown being around six back. Yeah, I still think around five is probably the sweet spot for him. When you, well, we have a mock draft today, so we'll find out. And tomorrow when you look at the Saints, the Eagles,

the Bills, and the Patriots, do you see running backs or wide receivers that didn't do much this year that could break out next year? I mean, you look at the Patriots rookies, for example. You look at Boston Scott, maybe. Adam, we got breaking news. Oh, what do we got? Two at the NFL.

Okay, great. Oh, he's declaring. Good. Good. Do you see any players that could break out in 2020? Well, sure. Nikhil Harry could take that step, especially after basically redshirting half of his rookie year.

And that's probably going to be quarterback dependent in New England, but that's a big body that they'd probably like to try and get involved a little bit more in the offense. So he could certainly step up. If Buffalo status quo, Duke Williams. he had a great playoff game. Yeah, he got a lot of targets. There's a big receiver. Yeah, I think he's probably their number three receiver of choice right now.

By default. They kind of made that decision in the middle of the year. I wouldn't say anything. Obviously, that's a decision. He had four catches for 49 yards on 10 targets. Yeah. Wasn't that great? He did play more than four pieces this week.

No, but he got a chance. It's not somebody that you're going to say must start. He doesn't have the same upside as Nikhil Harry by any stretch. But I think if you're just talking deeper leagues, end of draft pick, if he's still their third guy, I wouldn't have a problem taking Fulham. And that four for 49 line this week was better than any Nikhil Harry game all year. It's true. Jacoby Myers?

Sure, it depends. If he gets that opportunity, yeah. I like him. Dorsett's a free agent, so he probably walks. It doesn't matter. I don't think Dorsett matters because he's got to crack the top three, and the top three are still going to be Harry, Edelman, and Sanu. Okay, guys. So before I read some emails at fantasyfootball.cbsi.com,

let me ask you this. Does Derrick Henry remind you of anyone? I feel like I've never really seen anyone quite like Derrick Henry. I mean, we can go back into the vault for me. You can think of big bruising backs. For a second, I thought you said Christian McCaffrey and that you were making a joke. But I mean, you can think of

big heavy hitters like Brandon Jacobs. No, but he's so much faster than Brandon Jacobs. I don't even think Bettis. I mean, Okoye, it's interesting. I don't really remember Akoya that well. Because your baby. Yeah, I guess so.

Well, I mean, I remember Christian Akoya. I guess I just don't remember him playing. You know, I don't know if that makes any sense. I'm amazed that Derrick Henry. I just say that. I think, you know, the comps that we talked about last week, you know, Michael Turner in his in his best years with best years with Atlanta, Marshawn Lynch in his best years with Seattle. Those are the type of guys that you look at and say, it's not going to be seven, eight years of this. But three to five, right now he's in year two of doing this because of what he did basically the last four games last year.

But he was the featured guy last year. And then what he's done all season this year, he's probably got one more year of this, and then it'll start to be the injuries start to catch up with him a little bit. Those are statistical comparisons. Yeah, yeah, not player comp. I just think he's such a unique player. It's really cool.

He and DK Metcalf are like players I've never seen before. All right. Let's read some emails. Fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go. Matt Powers is in a 12-team half PPR league. Keep two. I'm keeping A.J. Brown for an eighth round pick.

The other one is for a seventh round pick. Higby or Deontay Johnson? I know it sounds ridiculous, but I love Deontay Johnson's upside, but my other thought is I can probably draft him later than round seven. Yeah, I agree with that. Higby. Higby, for sure. Same. Yeah, I agree. Does anybody else?

I mean, yeah, no, Deontay Johnson's got some upsides. He does. He's one of a handful of receivers that have yards after catch potential. Yeah. James Washington's got upside, too. Yeah. He's one of a handful of receivers that have yards after catch potential. Yeah. James Washington's got upside, too. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm going to look at from receivers this year,

during the offseason anyway, are who are the receivers like A.J. Brown and Debo Samuel who are good at just running great routes, getting themselves open, making plays after the catch. I think Johnson can do that. Interesting. All right, from Reed. I'm in a half-point PPR keeper league. Give me help with two keepers.

I have the 10th overall pick. Tyreek Hill and Derrick Henry, I could keep them for one more year. I can keep... It doesn't say how long you can keep the others. Dalvin Cook in round one. Hill... Okay, okay, there we go.

Dalvin Cook in round one. Hill. Okay. Okay. There we go. Dalvin Cook in round one. Tyree Kill in round three. DJ Moore in round five. Miles Sanders in round six. Kyler Murray in round eight. Derek Henry in round nine. Tyler Higbee and Jarvis Landry in round 16. It's a good team.

Very good. Now, Hill and Henry are only one year. I'm thinking the others are all you can keep for two years. How many can you keep? Two. I'm keeping

Warren Sanders. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Henry and Sanders. Henry and Sanders. I'd keep Henry and Cook. What? You'd take Cook

in round one instead of either... I've got two top five, six-ish running backs, one of whom I can keep for more than one year. And Henry was a round nine pick. Yeah, but you've got two top five, six-ish running backs, one of whom I can keep for more than one year. And Henry was a round nine pick. Yeah, but you've got Miles Sanders in round six.

I know. I've got Derek Henry in round nine. Yeah, no, that's fine. But it's not Cook in round one. It's Sanders in round six and Henry in round nine. And then Sanders for another year in round six next year. Sanders may be better than Cook in two years. From Garrison.

We're looking at starting a Dynasty League this upcoming season. Any recommendations? Fun things to talk about or to think about or keep in mind? Maybe doing a podcast or a section of the podcast on this. How about this, Garrison? This email response. Give them ideas for Startup Dynasty League. To draft or to put together?

Everything. Soup to nuts. From the ground up. Find 11 of your friends. Make sure that they're dedicated. Hopefully they have enough money in their bank account to pay you every year.

Yes. Do waivers on Wednesdays. How many rounds? How many rounds? How many positions of each? How many spots of each position? If you're going to do non-IDP, then you probably want 20 rounds. If you're going to do IDP, you want maybe 25 to 30.

Depending on how deep you want to go with your defensive players. I think when you're going to have a deeper league, you want to start more players. You don't want to have a bunch of guys on your bench. So have some, maybe have a super flex. That's always fun. Maybe have like two extra flex spots in addition to the super flex, something like that. You know, yeah. Do a taxi squad so that you can stash some rookies that you don't have to worry about playing like two extra flex spots in addition to the super flex, something like that. Do a taxi squad so that you can stash some rookies that you don't have to worry about playing.

If you put them on the taxi squad, you can't use them at all during the season. Do some IR spots as well because Dynasty Leagues, you don't want to obviously have to cut guys that are hurt. You still need to pick up players off of waivers. How many players do you keep each year? All of them. It's a Dynasty League. Yeah, you're going to have to make some decisions depending on how, like, you know,

some dynasty leagues go three rounds of rookie drafts. Some go six. You know, it depends on how many, you know, rookies you want to replace. And that's, you know, veterans that are cut as well. So those are the players that you'll end up replacing on your team, the ones that you cut, or you can just keep everybody and not pick up, not do anybody. Right. However many people you, however many people you cut, those are your open pick up, not do anybody. Right. However many people you cut,

those are your open roster spots for your rookie draft. Right. And that'll also factor in like if you have players on IR spots or have players on a taxi squad, you'll have to cut those players or activate those players and then make some decisions on your active roster. All right, cool. Good stuff.

And my league is kind of interesting. We have like, we can give players one-year contracts, three-year contracts, and seven-year contracts, I think. And then we have like kind of a franchise thing. So you can do a lot of different things, but you don't have to do all that and keep it simple. This is Mitch. He has a dynasty trade.

He's been offered David Montgomery, Michael Gallup, and the eighth pick of the 2020 draft. So David Montgomery, Michael Gallup, and the eighth pick of the 2020 draft. So David Montgomery, Michael Gallup, and the eighth pick of the draft for Leonard Fournette and a third-round draft pick. Would you give up Fournette and a third-round draft pick in a rookie draft for Montgomery, Gallup, and the eighth pick? Yes.

Yes. I would do it. Cool. Do it, man. Michael Gallup could be really interesting because, you know, Adam, we talked about this a lot. Aaron Rodgers, number one receiver. What if it's really Mike McCarthy's number one receiver?

Oh, and if Cooper walks. Oh, if Cooper walks. Yeah. I mean, there's a path there. And we we did see two receivers play very well in Green Bay under Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers back in the day. So it's possible that Gallup could be very, very good.

He could take a big jump statistically. And I think Montgomery, I know everybody's quick to write him off, but Bears are another team like the Patriots. They need offensive line help. They could end up putting together some big guys up front to help David Montgomery see clearer lanes. And that'll be a not quite as good as Derrick Henry, of course, but a physical running back that can get some good numbers there. I just don't know what to make of Fournette.

I know that he was very versatile and he put together a lot of yards. I don't know how much longer he can do it for. Well, you're just getting a good haul. I mean, that eighth pick, this is going to be a great draft. I mean, all the running backs are coming in the draft and the receiving class is going to be fantastic. There's a lot to like about these rookies. So the eighth pick is a hell of a lot better than the third round pick,

and I'm sure you have another first round pick, assuming you didn't trade that away. So two first round picks plus Montgomery may not be that far off from Fournette, even though the catches won't come close. But the combination of Gallup and Montgomery is going to offset Fournette and then the rookies going to be better. Yeah. Adam, you forgot to mention this part of the email because I'm reading the email. Adam sends us the emails. He, his receivers are Hopkins, Juju, Curtis,

Samuel, Debo, Samuel, and Devante Parker. His running backs are Dalvin cook and Chris Carson. Does that change your mind about whether or not he makes this deal? No, I'm willing to give up for net.

If he's my third running back, even more, your second running back, because you don't know what Carson's health. That's true. Then he was better than the car. Well, but reportedly Carson,

what are you going to do with surgery? You better be Carson. Well, but reportedly Carson does not need surgery. You better be ready to make a package deal with two of those receivers. Why? Gallup could be his second best receiver. Over Hopkins, Juju? We don't know what Ben's status is going to be. I don't think Gallup's better than Juju now, but he could be. He was better than this year.

Very hypothetical today. Oh, we have to be with some of these receivers. It's that time of year. But if, I mean, Gallup's his third receiver. Could be, potentially. I don't want to say that because I love Debo and I think Devante could be good, but yeah, he's got potential to be the third receiver.

Sure. Well, that is going to do it for today's show. Please keep sending your emails in at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. You don't have to put all those extra letters in, though. Fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. You don't have to put all those extra letters in, though. Fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Thanks to Dave and Jamie and Ben Schrager. Big show tomorrow.

And Tua. Yes, big show tomorrow on Tua's Day. Tua's Day. Right, yes. Award show at the All-Decade Team. Da, da, da, da,da-da-da-da.