Fantasy Football Today - 02/06: 2018 Surprises; More 2019 Free Agents (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 6, 2019

2018 was a big year for WRs, but the production of Michael Thomas and Juju Smith-Schuster was surprising in different ways. We talk about 2018 surprises (4:53) including the aforementioned WRs plus two stud RBs (11:10) and a disappointing TE (19:15)  ... News and notes (22:30) on Antonio Brown, Aaron Rodgers, Todd Gurley, Derrick Henry and more ... NFL teams with terrible Fantasy options (28:20) plus free agent WRs (32:30) and TEs (35:00) that matter ... 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 fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. National Signing Day. It is, for us, National Fantasy Football Day.

Welcome. It is Wednesday, February 6th. Adam, Dave, and Heath. Jamie's going to be on a little bit of a vacation, by the way. You won't hear him for a couple weeks. But we're here to hold down the fort. And we welcome you back to Fantasy Football today. If you've got a question, send us an email at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Hello. Happy hump day, guys.

Happy hump day. Happy National Signing Day. Happy hump day, happy national signing day, and just an official welcome to the offseason for everyone listening. I appreciate each and every one of you. You are caring about your fantasy football teams. You want to win a championship. This is where the foundation for 2019 will be laid down. Yeah, I like that. Dave laying it down. I like that hype. I'm laying it down.

I like that. Dave laying it down. I like that hype. I'm laying it down. I like that hype. All right, let's get into it. So today I'm going to talk about six things that surprised me a little bit in 2018 and get your reactions to it. We will look at free agent wide receivers and tight ends. We did quarterbacks and running backs on the previous show. And we've got news and notes about Antonio Brown, Aaron Rodgers, Todd Gurley, Derek Henry, and more. Here's a quick stat, not quite good enough to be the stat of the day.

Or is it? I don't know. It felt better to me after I wrote it down. But here we go. Eight wide receivers had 100 or more catches in 2018. That's as many as 2016 and 2017 combined. Eight receivers with 100 or more catches last year. I didn't think that was strong enough to be the stat of the day, but I kept digging.

I really think that's an NFL record because I went all the way back to 2001 and could not find a year with eight receivers with 100 or more catches. So I'm going to go ahead and say NFL record. It might be. Do you remember when there was some concern about wide receivers kind of dying out a little bit and that offenses were starting to spread it around a little bit too much and lean on their running backs and tight ends a little bit more and kind of take away from wide receivers being huge factors in their offense? Do you remember when we talked about that?

We talked about that, you know. I think I yelled snips when we started talking about that. That was a while ago. It didn't quite happen. Do you know how many wide receivers had over 1,000 yards? 12. 18. Do you know how many running backs ran for over 1,000 yards?

Seven. I believe the answer is nine. I don't have it exactly in front of me, but I remember there was somebody I was researching, and Heath, I'm pointing to you at this because I think you could help me dig myself out of the teeny tiny hole that I just dug myself into. I think it's nine. Nine 1,000-yard rushers in 2018. So twice as many receivers had 1,000 yards. So do we think that's something that's just going to fluctuate year after year? One year is going to be a running back year. One year is going to be a wide receiver year. Depends on who stays healthy, this and that. Well, hold on. I just want to make it clear.

Last year was definitively a running back year. Running back numbers in fantasy were way up. Receiver numbers were up too. It was great for everything last year. But I don't think it's fair to say that last year was a wide receiver year and running backs just didn't do anything. They both did very well in 2018 yeah yeah good point certainly was a running back here we have an influx of young running

back talent that we haven't really gotten at least in the first round of the nfl drafts uh at wide receiver like the best young wide receivers are probably michael thomas juju smith schuster tyree kill None of them were first-round picks. Whereas Barkley, Zeke, Gurley, Fournette, McCaffrey, these guys, where did Gurley go? Like 11th? I believe he was the 10th overall. Okay, they were all top 10 then. Gurley was the latest pick of that whole group because he had the knee injury.

It's just kind of interesting, I guess, how those two positions have gone about restocking in terms of fantasy. Right, and we haven't really seen it from the receiver position. We're hoping to see it. Calvin Ridley had a pretty good year when you take his numbers cumulatively, but from week to week he was very, very up and down. DJ Moore should take a step forward. I'm hoping Anthony Miller takes a step forward. Gallup should take a step forward. Dante Pett Anthony Miller takes a step forward. Gallup should take a step forward.

Dante Pettis might take the biggest step forward of them all. So there's a lot of promise with the second-year receiver crowd. Okay, so let's talk about things that surprised me in 2018. Heath, I'd like a little more chatter out of you in this segment. Oh, okay. Okay, here we go. I was surprised that Michael Thomas finishes the number eight receiver in non-PPR, number six in PPR, despite playing 16 games.

Devontae Adams and Antonio Brown finished ahead of Thomas. They played only 15 games apiece. For a guy that got off to such a great start, it was, I think, a disappointing finish for Michael Thomas. And he just didn't feel... Because some people are talking about, hey, maybe we'll take him as the number one wide receiver. Well, he was eighth in non-PPR, sixth in PPR.

That surprised me. I think there are a couple things to this. One, the Saints, as we all know, as Drew Brees owners, really stopped throwing the ball as much in the second half. And their pass percentage last year declined for the second straight year down to 51%. Now, he still had 147 targets, but the other thing with him, two things. He hasn't scored double-digit touchdowns in a season yet, and he doesn't average. Like, Julio averages 15 yards per catch. Juju, Antonio Brown, they're probably going to be 13, 14 yards per catch.

He's been 12.4, 12, and 11 11.2 so his catches aren't worth quite as much that being said i think there's still an argument for him as the number one wide receiver in a ppr league and non-ppr though it's going to be difficult for him to be number one with a low yards per reception for an elite receiver and without double digit touchdowns yeah and also we know that he's already he gets like 145 targets a year, and I believe that is the most for any wide receiver in the Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints era. It just seems so unlikely that Drew Brees is going to throw to a guy 170 times,

which is a ton, but that's what you're probably going to— Well, he's certainly not going to do it if he throws 489 passes. Yeah, you're right. I guess if he throws it more, but it just has never happened where a wide receiver's gotten that kind of target volume from Drew Brees. In fact, 145 targets is

really a lot, and Thomas has done that two years in a row right around 145. So that surprised me. I think Juju Smith-Schuster having a monster season certainly surprised me. I don't know where he was in ADP, but I just looked at our podcast league, PPR league. He was the 21st wide receiver off the board. And he was just behind Michael Thomas.

He was 9th in non-PPR, 8th in PPR. So Dave, yeah, certainly was surprised. I know this is something you brought up in the preseason, something I certainly brought up. There has never been a number two wide receiver since Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger got going with Pittsburgh. There's never been a great number two. It's been Spurts, Martavis Bryant maybe, but not sustained like this, like what we saw from Juju Smith-Schuster. And when we judged Juju during last preseason, and I certainly poo-pooed Juju, I didn't think that he would be able to come close to finishing as a top 12 receiver what ended up happening was that levion bell didn't

play and james connor had a decent amount of catches last season but someone needed to pick up that slack in the short area passing game and juju did that and was, I wouldn't say he was an extension of the run game. I don't think that's fair to say for Juju. I think that they just started to get him involved more in what they were doing. And the end result is what fantasy owners saw. He had 166 targets, averaged over 10 targets per game, 67% catch rate, over 1,400 total yards. Had a lot of games with 9, 10, 11 fantasy points, but he had a lot of, not a lot, but 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 games with over 15 plus. Pretty consistent, just as consistent as Michael Thomas was last year, just as consistent as Keenan Allen.

I don't think anybody's going to shy away from him. Yeah, and the thing is, he was probably a little bit unlucky last year. You'd think he was unlucky. He scored seven touchdowns his rookie year on 79 targets. He got more than double the targets last year and scored seven touchdowns. On a per-target basis,

he caught a higher percentage of his targets than Antonio Brown. He averaged more yards per reception than Antonio Brown. And Brown had 15 touchdowns to Juju's side. All right, so let's just talk about it. Antonio Brown on the outs in Pittsburgh. I don't think he's going to be—I go back and forth on this. I've got him ranked like he's going to be in Pittsburgh, but then I keep seeing the report on Super Bowl Sunday from Jason Lacopora saying that they're farther apart. There's another report,

I think it was Jason that had it, that the Steelers weren't getting a first-round pick for Antonio Brown. If Juju is the number one guy, if there's no Antonio Brown in Pittsburgh, could we make the case that he could be maybe even the number crazy to say the number one

receiver in fantasy? That's not crazy. Top five. Do we all have them ranked too low right out of the gate already? I think I have him sixth right now. If, if Antonio Brown's not there, it's going to be very tempting to put him in the top two or three. And some people might say,

yeah, but he, they really struggled without Antonio Brown in Week 17. I mean, look what happens when Brown doesn't get the double teams. It's not a bad point because he did catch a touchdown in that game. Week 17 without Antonio Brown, he had five catches, 37 yards, and a touchdown on 10 targets. That was bad. However, he played two games without Antonio Brown in 2006-17, and he had six catches, 75 yards and a touchdown at Houston, and nine catches, 143 yards and a touchdown against Cleveland. And I believe that was with Landry Jones at quarterback. So that means three games for Juju without Antonio Brown.

He's caught a touchdown in all three. That's pretty good. Okay. And then one last thing on the unluckiness he actually led the team in red zone targets and targets inside the 10 yard line so um he was second in the nfl on red zone targets fourth in targets inside the 10 yard line for juju and he only had seven touchdowns my favorite juju stat is that he had a 97-yard touchdown reception in each of his first two years. Oh, that is actually pretty cool.

All right. Next thing that surprised me. Same team. James Conner was a stud. Let's go back in time and pretend that Le'Veon Bell, we knew he was going to be out for the year. And we knew James Conner was going to be the running back. Let's say we didn't know exactly what the workload was. But where would you have taken James Conner was going to be the running back. Let's say we didn't know exactly what the workload was, but where would you have taken James Conner?

Because when he was healthy, first 13 weeks of the season, he was the number eight running back in non-PPR, number six in PPR. But that may sound low, but that was like right in there with Zeke and Gordon and Kamara. It was a top eight that was just terrific. And then I think after that it was like Philip Lindsay, which was very good but not quite that level. do you think you would have taken james connor i don't know that anybody could have expected him to put up the fantasy production that he did without levion bell like knowing that levion bell wasn't going to play yeah

i think i would have recommended taking him goodness probably no later than round three if i'm being honest yeah i think two right but we're in round two like i'm not looking for him in top 15 i know it sounds so stupid you mean you mean right now i'm being completely honest no oh he's a first-round pick next yeah yeah but we're talking about where we would have taken him this year probably 18 i think we would have ended up taking him after then i really do i think there would have been a lot of other receivers that we say well they're safer james connor's good not great we didn't i don't know if we would have bought into him thriving to levy on bell like levels he definitely

he he blew expectations away i know that he was a great running back at pit i didn't think he was capable of doing what he did this year. And I love that the Steelers fed him. They gave him a ton of work, 215 carries, 55 catches, almost 1,500 total yards, and all those touchdowns. And he's going to be the main guy there this year. That's why we're taking him with a first-round pick. Yeah.

Do you make anything of the fact that he – most of his production was against terrible teams? He only had, I'd say, one good game against a good team. That was against the Ravens. It was kind of strange. When he had a tough matchup, he barely got any work. Out of 13 games, he had five games with 19 or more carries, and he was a monster in all five of those games. James Conner, we're talking about 21 or more fantasy points in non-PPR,

28 or more in PPR in each of those five games. In his other eight games, he had 15 or fewer carries and just didn't really produce that much. Does that matter at all? I'm not concerned about him at all. Are you concerned about how defenses will play the steelers if antonio brown isn't there no i would be i think that that could be a factor that we could overlook a little bit not that you know on a typical running play first and 10 that offensive line is good enough to

move defenders and give connor opportunities to make plays. But I just think when it's a third and short type of player, really, second down, almost any second down, it'll be a different look if they don't have that dangerous outside threat that Antonio Brown offers. All right. Next surprise for me was that Alvin Kamara was second in the NFL in rushing touchdowns. He had 14 of them. Yeah. in the NFL in rushing touchdowns. He had 14 of them. Yeah, so that was with Mark Ingram missing four games. But Kamara with 14 rushing touchdowns,

a big jump from his previous season. What did he have in his rookie year? He had, I think, seven rushing touchdowns. He had eight. Eight rushing touchdowns. And five receiving. Yeah, and this year he had four receiving. But, okay, Alvin Kamara finishes the number four running back in fantasy.

Is he a top four running back going into 2019? I feel safe for calling him a top five. Splitting hairs. Really close. But I think that's where he is. And do you remember when we talked about how it would be unlikely for him to replicate his rushing and receiving averages? Yep. You remember that?

Mm-hmm. Remember? He didn't. But do you remember what we predicted? You and I especially, Heath, did a lot of this, predicting what his new rushing and receiving averages would be. Yeah, I think he was actually maybe a step below what I projected for last year. He finished at 4.6. I think we suggested a 4.8 rushing average.

And I think we were right around 8 yards per catch. I think I was at 9, but yeah, he was 8.8. 4.6. I think we suggested a 4.8 rushing average. And I think we were right around 8 yards per catch. I think I was at 9, but yeah, he was 8.8. 8.8, so right in between there. The touchdowns were vital for him. Do you think he can score 18 times again next year? No, I would predict 13. But I think that the rushing and receiving yards are probably going to be right in line. So another 1,500 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Okay. Let's split the difference, Heath, and call it 14. 1,500 total yards, 14 touchdowns. That's what you're expecting with Alvin Kamara. Yeah, I would actually. I mean, it's going to depend a lot on whether they bring back Mark Ingram or they bring back somebody like Mark Ingram. Because he was a different animal those first four weeks than he was the rest of the year.

Those first four weeks, he was the best player in fantasy football. No, he was not. Okay. He was basically the best player. Todd Gurley, that's – I'll tell you what he was. He was number – he was – in PPR, he was. Okay, so he was. In non-PPR, he was not as good as Gurley.

But he was still pretty dang good. I can give you the numbers. Seven total touchdowns. Here we go. I broke it down. I broke it down a lot of things here. He had at least 99 total yards in every game. I can do it, Dave.

Weeks one through four. Number two running back in non-PPR, number one in PPR. He averaged 14 carries every game. I can do it, Dave. Weeks 1 through 4. Number 2 running back in non-PPR. Number 1 in PPR. He averaged 14 carries per game. He had 47 targets in 4 games, including 20 targets. No. Dave, 47 targets? Yeah. Okay, 20 targets in one game.

Weeks 5 through 16. I did not include Week 17. He did not play. He was the number 5 running back in Fantasy, both non-PPR and PPR. He averaged 12.5 carries per game, one and a half fewer. Now, another thing I looked at with Kamara, he was second in the NFL in red zone carries. He was sixth in the NFL in red zone targets. And he was second in the NFL in carries inside the 10, fourth in carries inside the five yard line. But there is a pretty big difference in Alvin Kamara's carries from five yards out or closer before Ingram and with Ingram.

Before Ingram, he had five carries from five yards out or closer in four games. And maybe I was wrong. Maybe there wasn't that much of a difference. A little bit. Okay, five carries in four games compared to 10 carries in 11 games. So not that much of a difference, I guess. Just listen to this.

His 16-game pace without Mark Ingram last year, 2,444 yards, 24 touchdowns. Really? Without Mark? Oh, without Mark Ingram, Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 2444 yards, 24 touchdowns. Yeah. Now that he's not going to do that again, but it, it dropped considerably after those first four weeks. Um, I think you have to assume they have somebody else there. It might not be Ingram. Well, I think it matters the quality of that person. Is it somebody that's going to take eight touches per week,

or is it somebody that's going to take 12? So figure that the role will be the same. So I think eight might be a little low, 10, 12, the occasional 14 carry game. But it's going to be some sort of a physical change of pace type of back, not like Kamara, a lot like Ingram. And it might be Ingram. Okay, let's do one more thing that surprised me. I was going to do six. I'll change it to five. I was surprised that Trey Burton was so bad. And he was the number six tight end in non-PPR, number eight in PPR, but there were only five good tight ends last year.

In his last eight regular season games, Trey Burton did not have more than 40 yards in any game. And he had one touchdown. He was inactive in the one postseason game. But he was a pretty big disappointment. And Heath, I think you were the only one that wasn't super jazzed about Trey Burton going into the season. So, yep, nice work. Yay! going into the season so uh looks yep nice work yay no i i don't like i don't even know what to make of trey burton really because he wasn't good at all but he wasn't that far from where he was

drafted amongst the tight ends where he finished and um i think he's probably going to be a top 12 tight ending in this year like i do think there's a little bit of the Eric Ebron maybe going on with him. We had so much higher expectations that we're going to act like his production was even worse than it was. In PPR, he had six games with at least nine fantasy points in his first eight. So the first half of his season, he was just fine. Fantasy owners would have been very happy with him. And then something happened in the second half of the season where I don't know if he got hurt.

I don't know if it was an anxiety issue. Something went down, and it kind of took him out of this big part of the offense in Chicago. Well, I don't know. Maybe Trubisky's injury just kind of derailed the offense. They were 21st in passing. They weren't very good, but I also think, and we talked about this a lot during the season, they spread the ball around so much, including red zone targets.

Trey Burton was tied with Tariq Cohen for most red zone targets and most targets inside the 10-yard line. But there wasn't a lot of separation between those guys, both the non-wide receivers and Robinson, Gabriel, Miller. So a lot of things, I think, worked against him. I do think that you look at that number, 21st in passing, and you would expect the Bears to be better than that next year if Trubisky takes another step. What metric are you using for passing?

Yards. Yeah, I don't know that I would. It's like their defense was the best in the NFL. That's true. But I just feel like Trubisky was getting there. Then the injury sort of stopped him. I have to look further into his stats. I'm kind of talking off the top of my head. And Trey Burton had like, in the two games

that Trubisky didn't play, did Trey Burton have a catch? Because he had 50 catches for 541 and 6 touchdowns in the 14 games with Trubisky. He had 4 catches for 28 yards at Detroit and no catches at the Giants. So like his stats look a lot better if you just add two games of production with Trubisky. Not really, though, because, I mean, like I said, his last eight games, maybe even more than that, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, last ten games, he didn't have more than 40 yards. So, all right.

No, he definitely saw fewer targets He only had two games with seven targets In the back half of the season He was never really a big target guy No he had one game all year with more than seven targets Yeah So he just Seemed to be a touchdown or bust tight end

A tight end With some potential to get some good yardage The game against New England We were expecting games like that Far more frequently tight end with some potential to get some good yardage. The game against New England, we were expecting games like that far more frequently. All right, let's do some news and notes here. Antonio Brown was involved in a domestic dispute in Hollywood, Florida. In January, he was not arrested. Do we have a reaction to this, or is it too soon?

I don't know if there's any reason for a reaction. I think it's just another bad story for Antonio Brown. And maybe Steelers are just like, we're tired of it, dude. But we'll see. Two players will not need surgery. Aaron Rodgers and Todd Gurley. Do we have a reaction to that? It's good. Avoiding surgery is good.

Hashtag analysis. Is Aaron Rodgers still elite? Yeah. He needs some good route runners, though. He does need better players around him, for sure. His yards per attempt his last four seasons has been between 6.7 and 7.4. Yeah, it's really troubling. I think we're going to find out this year if Aaron Rodgers is still a lead,

if it was Mike McCarthy's problem. If he averages 7.2 yards per attempt this year, then the answer is probably no. Yeah, the numbers have taken a dip, and I think we've had excuses for him in the past. And, hey, they're valid excuses. No Jordy Nelson one year, knee injury all season this year. But we'll see. It might just be we're kind of in denial. Tennessee offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said Derek Henry will be a big part of the offense.

Reaction? He's smart. That's what he's going to do is lean on the guy that finished last season strong i think he'd look goofy if he stood up in front of the media in nashville and said we're going all in on deon lewis to me what what stands out is that arthur smith is the first time play caller jumping right in cannonball style into the NFL waters with a playbook that isn't his. He's keeping Matt LaFleur's playbook. He's keeping the verbiage the same. He's going to pick up the playbook and learn it. That typically has not gone well for play callers in the history

of the NFL. Well, that is interesting. Well, then what do you make of Zach Taylor, Cincinnati's head coach, who's going to be calling plays for the first time i think the titans and the bingles are a pair of teams where we're going to go in a little bit blind this year i do agree that we've got signs that uh smith wants to i mean his dad was even talking about it in some interview really wants to get back to the run game and the offensive line uh taylor i don't i i really struggle struggle with what the Bengals are going to look like exactly this year. They have great weapons.

If you can get good Andy, then they could be a good offense again. I got a pretty good feeling on Zach Taylor. He's a West Coast offense guy. This team has been in West Coast systems for as long as Andy Dalton's been there. Dalton was lauded as a West Coast quarterback, which is a nice way of saying that he doesn't have a cannon for an arm, ever since he was drafted. And I think they'll probably be a little more aggressive than they have been. When they were under Bill Lazor, I just don't think the aggressiveness was there.

With Jay Gruden, it was. I think they'll get back to that point. The track record, I've done all the research on Zach Taylor and he's only, you know, he's called plays for five NFL games and 12 college games. Lots of slot receiver work. This is very good

for Tyler Boyd. I think it could hurt A.J. Green's target share. I don't think it hurts them. I think both of them are going to get a ton but i do think that this i think tyler boyd will be more than a one year i don't think it'll be a flash in the pan i agree not a one-year wonder and i think it's going to be good for joe mixon i think mixon is going to get roughly 20 of the catches for the team and he's going to get a lot of carries from week to week because he doesn't look like the type of running back that needs to share very much. Taylor's going to ride him.

They need to do better with the offensive line. Well, a lot of teams can say that for sure. Andy Dalton was the number 10 quarterback in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues in eight games with A.J. Green. I'm just trying to check one thing, where he ranked on a per-game basis because I do feel like he didn't have a bye week, and that may have contributed to that.

And, yeah, I think he's probably closer to 16 or so when you do per-game basis. But he's usable. I mean, he was certainly usable. Okay, Philadelphia expected to put the franchise tag on Nick Foles and then try to trade him. And the Redskins have had preliminary talks with Adrian Peterson, according to ESPN's John Kime. We'll keep an eye on that situation,

as we are hoping it's all systems go for Darius Geis in the Redskins' backfield. We got an email to read at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com, email of the day. Then a free agency preview of wide receivers and tight ends right after this. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play.

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Here's our email of the day. Again, it's FantasyFootball at CBSi.com. It comes from Paul. Paul is from the most western city in Broward County. Wouldn't that be Weston? I don't know. You think so? It's called Weston.

I'm pretty sure it's Weston. All right. You were hoping it was Coral Springs, weren't you? No, I know it's not Coral Springs. Well, no, it's not. Yeah, I guess Weston's a little bit west. Okay, anyway. Dear Ricky, Ronnie, Lamar, and Travis.

Those feel like Dolphins running backs. Those are... Who's Travis? Ricky, Ronnie, and Lamar are Dolphins running backs. Did they have a Travis running back? Travis Henry, I don't think was ever with the Dolphins. I don't know who these people are. Okay, rank the five worst teams in terms of offensive fantasy players in the upcoming season.

Teams that the fewest players you're excited about. My bottom five is Dolphins, Bills, Raiders, Redskins, Broncos, Jaguars. He gave us six, and he put number three twice. Dolphins, Bills, Raiders, Redskins, Broncos, Jaguars. He gave us six, and he put number three twice. Dolphins, Bills, Raiders, Redskins, Broncos, Jaguars. Who do you guys think are the worst teams in football for fantasy purposes? Dolphins are going to be up there. I would agree with the Raiders and the Redskins. Those are three for sure.

Which ones? Dolphins. Raiders, Redskins. I'm not so sure about the Raiders. What? What? What? What?

What? What? I think the Raiders, if they get a good running back going and they add another receiver, I think they'll be interesting. I'm not going to go as far. They might be bottom eight. If the Raiders add a good wide receiver and a good running back and good tight ends and a good quarterback,

I think they might not be bad. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a good point. I'm sorry, Dave. I was a jerk. It's okay. The Raiders don't have any good players. I'm anticipating the Raiders, not that the Dolphins are just going to sit there and do nothing. But everything we hear about the Dolphins is that they're going to punt on 2019.

Because they want to load up on getting good draft picks in 2020. They like the quarterback class in 2020. They're not going to take this year as seriously as they might previous years. That seems kind of weird to think about in football because teams don't really tank in the nfl not the raiders obviously yeah well it's it's like they the dolphins have been between 10 and 6 and 6 and 10 for like eight straight seasons uh they are mired at 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 straight seasons. Wow. Between 10 and 6 and 6 and 10. Yeah, I saw that on ESPN confirming it now.

So that's like the worst place to be. Never good enough to win anything. One playoff berth in that stretch and never good enough to have an elite pick. Never bad enough to have an elite pick. So they're probably going to draft a rookie quarterback and maybe play him and just be horrible. And they need to do that. The Raiders at least have a better quarterback than the Dolphins.

The Bills, I don't think we agree with at all. The Bills, Josh Allen will be exciting. And then I think Zay Jones has a chance to be exciting. Foster, maybe. Then get a new face in running back. At running back, we might be excited about that. Sure, but I think the Bills qualify because there probably won't be many of them drafted. They'll be bad still.

I think the Titans are a sneaky team. A sneaky bad team? It's a very sneaky bad team. Well, you know Derrick Henry will get picked. Corey Davis will get picked. Right, but I think they could be busts. But that might be it. You know, Deion Lewis will get taken late.

Yeah, but they might just be busts. Well, what if Del. You know, Deion Lewis will get taken late. Yeah, but they might just be busts. Well, what if Delaney Walker's back? Delaney will get taken late, too. Yeah. Washington, I think, could be in a lot of trouble. Washington could be, yeah, truly awful. Well, then, that's why there's free agency. So let's take a look at some of the intriguing, yeah, interesting.

Guys who are free agents. Influential. I'm going to do any word that starts with I- interesting. Guys who are free agents. I'm going to do any word that starts with I-N. Free agent wide receivers. All right, who's the free agent wide receiver that you think could have the biggest impact on a new team next year, whether that's making that team better, making himself better, making a quarterback better? Who's the big free agent wide receiver?

Are we including restricted free agents? Yeah, sure. Robbie Anderson, which kind of tells you about the free agent wide receiver are we including restricted free agents yeah sure robbie anderson which kind of tells you about the free agent class more than golden tate more than golden tate i think it's whoever i expect robbie anderson's going to stay with the jets maybe he won't um i think it's whoever signs with the patriots he'll get the first round tender and he'll stay with the jets and the jets could be stupid and try and tender him lower than that and then i think teams will come forward then i think we should only count restricted free and he'll stay with the Jets. The Jets could be stupid and try and tender him lower than that,

and then I think teams will come forward. Then I think we should only count restricted free agents that are going to change teams. We don't know for sure that the Jets are going to be smart. I think there are multiple receivers who, if they land in the right spot, could have an impact. Tyrell Williams, if you just look at his per target numbers looks like a guy who should get a lot more targets and if he goes to a situation with a lot of opportunity he could be a big surprise golden tate has obviously had huge success in the past um okay so two

well what about john brown i feel like he could be fantasy relevant. Lamar Jackson destroyed him. Yeah, but we do this dance with John Brown every year. But he was. He got off to a great start. Lamar Jackson destroyed John Brown. Maybe. The thing that stands out to me about Tyrell Williams is in 2016, he played a lot without many other mouths to feed in that Chargers offense.

He had seven touchdowns and over 1,000 yards. And since then, he's gotten about half as many targets per year, and that's because he's had to share so much. I think he could be an impact player for a new team. So how are we feeling about Geronimo Allison, specifically if he is re-signed by the Packers? I think that's one where the Packers can probably get away with a second-round tender,

and no one will come trying to sign Allison away and give up a second-round pick for him. Yeah, he was really good the first four games. Yep, he'll stay with Greenback. 64 to 80 yards in all four games and two touchdowns, and he had eight, six, four, and 11 targets in those four games. I mean, is he going to win you your league? Probably not, but that's certainly a guy worth rostering and starting in some weeks, Geronimo Allison.

It is not a great year for free agent wide receivers, no question. receivers that could be cap casualties that fantasy owners know but aren't going to necessarily be like round five or better picks okay how about tight ends tight ends jared cook cream of the crop yes so is he restricted or he's unrestricted he is unrestricted he is a 32 year old unrestricted or he's unrestricted? He is unrestricted. He is a 32-year-old unrestricted free agent. And Cook was the number five tight end in fantasy. He had 896 yards and six touchdowns on 68 catches in 16 games. I would be floored if another team paid him as much as what the Raiders could end up paying him. If he goes, if Jared Cook goes to the Packers or the Saints, what kind of an impact would that have on your rankings?

Well, he's been with the Packers before, and it wasn't great. It was good, but it wasn't great. And Matt LaFleur doesn't exactly have a long history of utilizing his tight end. Matt LaFleur doesn't really have a long history. He doesn't have a lot of even experience being on teams with good tight ends or valuing them. You know who's got a long history? Jared Cook, and it ain't pretty.

Oh, he'll be a top six or seven tight end next year as long as he lands in one of those places. He's got to stay in Oakland, and I think Oakland's got the cap space and the need and the want to keep him and give him, goodness, it could be like $6 or $7 million a year. Something that everyone's going to look at and go, ugh, really?

But I don't think there's another team out there that would overspend to get Jared Cook on their roster. Jared Cook spent one year in Green Bay. It was 2016. He caught 30 passes in 10 games, 377 yards and a touchdown, 51 targets. So he stunk.

I oversold it. Yeah, he was bad. But he had 101 targets last year. It was a career high, so he had a career season. That's definitely part of it. So I don't – I was going to say I don't see myself drafting Jared Cook, but if everybody feels that way and he keeps falling, then maybe I would draft Jared Cook.

Okay, you're in the eighth round, and you are trying to decide between Jared Cook and Trey Burton. Where's Cook, on the Raiders? I'm going with Cook all day long. I think I'm going to... I guess... Burton. I'm drafting Cook,

hoping that he can have at least one or two decent games to begin the year, so I don't have to dump him for someone else off the waiver wire. Okay, well, that's... Which is what I'm... Lowered expectations. Listen, what i'm gonna do that with just about any time yeah sure exactly any tight end that i don't take with like a pick in my first six rounds but see the problem with that with jared cook is if you wait for his bad game and dump him the good one's

coming that's true yeah but is he gonna have three good games all year and I'm just going to start them every week blindly, or am I going to try and improve on the crap that he shovels into my lineup week in and week out? The nice thing about Jared Cook last season is that when he was good, he was very good. As far as consistency goes, he finished top ten at the position, and he had one, two, three, four, five games with 11 or more fantasy points in non-PPR.

That's good for a tight end. Yeah. Other tight end would be Tyler Eifert. He has 21 touchdown catches in 43 career games over six seasons. No. No thanks? No. He's a free agent.

No guarantee he's going to stay in Cincinnati. And tight ends were not a part of the play calling for Zach Taylor in the sample that we have. Miami, Cincinnati. I'm sure that he would use – if he fell into a very good tight end, I'm sure he'd find a way to use him. But my guess is that Tyler Eifert would go back to being touchdown or bust if he returned to the Bengals. I'd take a shot on him if he went to the Saints.

Oh, yeah, sure. And then as soon as he takes a shot, he's out for eight games. They've got Dan Arnold. They don't need him. Okay, let's read some emails. Fantasyfootball at CBSi.com. This is from Cody. Dear Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Keith.

Misspelled Jamie. 12-team full PPR league. Everyone keeps one player for the round they were drafted at the previous year. We have to select our keeper before we know the draft order. Should I keep Saquon Barkley in the first round or Nick Chubb in the 13th round? PPR. Chubb. Hmm. I would lean toward Chubb in the 13th round? PPR. Chubb. I would lean toward Chubb.

All right. Josh from a town in the northeast. Hey, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Where's he from, by the way? He's from Augusta, Maine. Do you guys – are you too old to appreciate the DuckTales theme song? It's arguably one of the – it's arguably the greatest TV theme song ever. Obviously not.

We know all about it. Okay, it's very good. Two questions, one conceptual and one personal. What's your take on trading in Dynasty Leagues prior to the NFL draft? No problem. It's part of the fun of being in a dynasty league. Yeah, I understand why he's hesitant, but

I don't mind it. I don't honestly do a lot of it. And would you trade Ronald Jones for Kiki Cutie and the 26th overall pick in the 2019 rookie draft? Give up Ronald Jones, get Kiki Cutie and the 26th overall pick in the 2019 rookie draft. Give up Ronald Jones.

Get Kiki Cutie and the 26th pick in next year's rookie draft, half PPR dynasty. I would be surprised if Ronald Jones became the feature back in Tampa Bay. New coaching staff that didn't draft him last year, they will want to bring in their own type of running back. The type of running back that Bruce Arians likes is bigger than Ronald Jones. I think you cut your losses and you trade Jones. As quick as possible.

Pause the podcast. You can listen to the rest later and accept the trade. Okay. Welcome back, Josh, from your trade. Good job. From Garrett. Half PPR Dynasty League. I was hoping to find a good deal for Kareem Hunt. Who would you offer for hunt? My players worth trading are for net Dalvin cook,

Marlon Mack, Tariq Cohen, Damian Williams, T Y Hilton, Tyler Boyd, Cooper cup, Keenan Allen, or would you rather just avoid the whole situation with Kareem hunt?

I would trade to Rico and for him. I would, you wouldn't trade Damian Williams for him? Yeah, probably. I'm down on Hunt. Is Hunt going to be as good with a different team? No. Is Hunt going to play right away, or will he have to be suspended first?

He will be suspended. How much, how longer will we have to wait for him to be a feature back in the NFL? Potentially the rest of his career, right? So it's the Dynasty League, though. I'm not giving up. Oh, his career? I don't know if Kareem Hunt's ever going to be what he has been. Okay.

Giving up Tariq Cohen might be the max of what I'd give for him. And I'd give up Damian Williams, too. I'm not. I know that Damian Williams' shelf life might not be very long. I'm not ready to give for him. And I'd give up Damian Williams too. I'm not. I know that Damian Williams' shelf life might not be very long. I'm not ready to give him up. He's got a job. And it's in a good system. Alright, this is from Kyle in Austin.

Hey Bob, Alex, and Pat. Those are game show hosts. They are. Who's Bob? Barker. Knucklehead. I was thinking Bob Saget america's funniest home videos that is that a game show yeah i mean people compete you do win prizes that's right cash prizes pat sajak great guy doesn't play fantasy football by the way um i was watching the

30 for 30 on deon sanders Did you guys see that by any chance? I did not. No. Pat O'Brien was on it. And I'm not sure if you remember this. I did not at all. When the Braves were in the World Series and Deion was going back and forth to the Falcons and Braves, Pat O'Brien got these exclusive interviews with him.

He was working for CBS at the time. And to hear Pat O'Brien describe himself was very funny. If anybody watched the 30 for 30, I was watching some of it. It was pretty good. I'd like to catch the rest of it. But I don't know. That just came to mind. I recommend it. That's all I'm saying. Okay. So I have some keeper possibilities and I'm curious, keeper value aside, which starting lineup would you choose? All right, half PPR. Pick a starting lineup. Starting lineup, okay, they all have Alvin Kamara,

so I'm not going to read this. I think we should do this on like a one versus one and then move on to one versus one, because if you give me all five of them at once, I'm not going to be able to separate it out. Okay, the first one, again, they all have Kamara, so I'm not even going to include him. Hopkins, Ertz, and Hill. Hopkins, Ertz, and Hill versus Chubb, Ertz, and Hilton.

So it's Hopkins and Hill versus Chubb and Hilton. Knowing that we have Alvin Kamara on our team. Yeah. I'm going to go Hopkins and Hill. I am too. Okay, so Kamara, Hopkins, Ertz, and Hill, or Kamara, Hopkins, Ertz, and Chubb. I'm going to go Chubb.

Yeah, Hopkins and Chubb. Kamara, Hopkins, Ertz, and Chubb, or Kamara, Chubb, Evans, and Hilton. Hopkins, Chubb, Ertz. Hopkins, Chubb, Evans, and Hilton. Hopkins, Chubb, Ertz. Hopkins, Chubb, Ertz. I feel like you would have been a good optometrist, Adam. Which one do you like better, one or two? I've only been to the eye doctor once in my life, and I loved it.

It was so calming, like in a dark room, playing games, seeing how good your eyesight is. That was just like two years ago. I had a great time. You never went to the eye doctor? I want to make another appointment. What kind of parents do you have? If you have perfect vision, you just get an eye

and I'm coming from the perspective of someone that doesn't have perfect vision and had to go to the eye doctor all the time. Yeah, I mean, I did the pediatrician, right? He gives you the eye test. Okay, we've gone off the rails. We are done for the day and for the week. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. We'll come back with two

episodes next week. Make sure you start listening to Fantasy Baseball today. We are having a lot of fun. We are getting ready for our Fantasy Baseball drafts. If you don't play Fantasy Baseball, give it a shot. If of fun. We are getting ready for our Fantasy Baseball drafts. If you don't play Fantasy Baseball, give it a shot. You're like, no, it's too much work. Well, listen, you can play in weekly leagues. Set your lineup once.

Okay, it's really easy. It's a great way to get into it. You play in a points league, just like football. Fantasy Baseball today is our show. This is Fantasy Football today. I'm Adam. He's Dave. He's Heath.

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