Fantasy Football Today - 02/21: Big RB News, Teammate Combos, Free Agency Talk (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: February 21, 2019

Some insight on Todd Gurley's knee leads to more debate about when to draft him, and then we get into the best teams for Le'Veon Bell (9:30) and if his conditioning is an issue ... Teammate combos (12:50)! Would you rather have Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce or Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper? Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin or Ben Roethlisberger and Juju Smith-Schuster? We've got those combos and more to discuss ... Jamey's takeaways from his recent conversations (20:15) with Jameis Winston, Tarik Cohen, Kelce and Alvin Kamara, and we give you more NFL news (34:10) and take a look at key free agents (38:10) and their Fantasy values ... 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. Time to talk fantasy football here on Thursday, February 21st.

And that means it's time to talk about the Steelers. That's what we talk about on Fantasy Football today. Welcome everybody, Adam Azer with Jamie Eisenberg, hoping to get Dave Richard on in a little bit. And we got some Le'Veon Bell news, some Antonio Brown news, and we got Jamie Eisenberg. What's up? How are you? Good.

Pretty good. I don't know. I would like to correct something I said in the last show. Oh. all right. What do you got? I think I made it sound as if I like Kareem Hunt better than Nick Chubb. Oh, did the Twitter verse tell you? I got a few critiques about that.

I think that Nick Chubb is the better fantasy running back. I think that Nick Chubb is just as good of a running back, I think, as a complete running back. I think Kareem Hunt might be a little bit better just from what we've seen from him as a pass catcher. But I think it came across that I don't like Nick Chubb, and I don't think that... I know that's not the case.

So I apologize for any misconceptions or misconstruing my take on Nick Chubb and the situation. I just think he loses. That was what you asked us, which your two running backs lose. I think he loses if Kareem Hunt plays 10 games. Well, you really should be apologizing to Nick Chubb, not to me, not to the listeners. I'm sorry, Nick Chubb. I apologize. How are you doing working on that Gronkowski news?

Oh, I'm on it. Okay, good. Yeah. Just say he's going to – I'm actually leaving from the Combine to go to the New England area. I'm just going to follow him around. Just break the – just say right now Gronkowski's going to retire because you're probably going to be right. And if you're wrong, it doesn't matter.

People forgive you. All right, so let's get to some big news. We got some teammate combos. Bringing that back so let's get to some big news. We've got some teammate combos. Bringing that back. I'm trying to answer the question. I'm going to at least ask the question. Are running backs riskier than wide receivers? What have the last two years told us about that one?

We've got your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. A little free agency talk. And when Dave moseys on into our show, he's going to talk about offensive coordinators, new ones, and their tendencies. All right, so even ahead of the Steelers news, this is really something that jumped out to me. C.J. Anderson believes that Todd Gurley's late-season knee injury was, quote, a little bit more than what everybody in the building thought, including himself, end quote. And that is from Cameron DeSilva of USA Today.

This report coming from Rotowire. It's actually on CBSSports.com, though. It's on Todd Gurley's player page. But Anderson said, quote, obviously it's the same knee injury he's had before in his career. Obviously I had surgery on my meniscus, and once you have a knee, you always have a knee, end quote. I always have a knee.

I always have a knee, too. I'm very thankful for that. Yes, I'm thankful to have two of them. He lied to my face, C.J. Anderson, because during media night for the Super Bowl, my job was to run around with one of our cameramen, Dane Clavin, who's fantastic, and one of our producers, Andy Hecht. And we were just grabbing guys for our CBS Sports HQ programming. And so one of the guys we got was CJ Anderson. You're just going to go up and grab him.

He's not going to... Well... You're not going to carry a favor. You have to understand that, and I've been on the other side of this, so it was a little strange for me to be on the camera side of things, but there are a lot of reporters waiting to talk to these guys, especially the prominent ones that aren't at podiums. So C.J. Anderson is one of the more prominent Rams that was not at a podium.

And so we had to physically grab him and say, C.J., we're going live right now. Would you want to come on CBS and answer a couple questions? Sure. So he turns around away from the scrum that he's talking to and then lied. Then he lied. He lied. It does teach you, I mean, not a lesson that you needed to learn, but it tells us, can't always believe what people say.

And you get, I think, more candor after the season's over for sure. But there are two things here. Well, he's also not part of the team anymore. He's a free agent. That's right. He disposed a little. He could be. Yeah, that's also, that's a great anymore. He's a free agent. That's right. He disposed a little. Yeah, that's also a great point.

There's two things here. One, the knee injury more serious than anyone thought, including himself, according to C.J. Anderson. He's not a doctor. And two, once you have a knee, you always have a knee, which in this context is actually a bad thing. So do you have any reaction to this Todd Gurley item? I mean, I think you have to look at it as going into 2019 fantasy drafts as of now.

I know you guys have this discussion. It feels a little hard to take Gurley ahead of Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon Barkley. And you can, and I certainly don't have a problem with that. If we find out training camp, he's fine. Hopefully there's nothing more than just some maintenance if there is a surgery. You know, nothing that he tore or is dealing with anything that he was trying to play through because of what the circumstances were for the Rams as a team. But something was up.

You know, I mean, Pete Prisco drank and several media members thought that it may have been something in his head that the moment got too big for him. I find that hard to believe. He still has, you know, for the next-gen stats, he had the fastest time in the Super Bowl in terms of when he had that 16-yard run. You know, so where they track your speed. He was the fastest guy in the game,

or at least at the point that they showed it. I don't remember if he finished as the fastest guy in the game, but I think he had the fastest time, I believe. So it just was weird. The whole thing was weird. You know, he had 100 yards rushing against the Cowboys and then just completely faded away.

45 total yards on the ground against the Saints and Cowboys, the Saints and Patriots, which was a little hard to stomach given what the circumstances were for the Rams. And you wonder if he was 100% healthy if they win that game.

I mean, they lose by 10 points with their best player arguably not doing much at all. I've evolved a circumstances were for the Rams. You wonder if he was 100% healthy if they win that game. They lose by 10 points with their best player arguably not doing much at all. I've evolved a little bit on the issue. I think I'm more open to taking Barkley number one overall in PPR. But I firmly believe that

come July and August, everyone's going to be back on Todd Gurley at number one overall. I don't know. Quasi-bold prediction. He'll be number – he'll have the number one ADP. He won't be consensus number one, but he'll have the highest ADP. I would disagree with you just from the standpoint of there's a flashy new toy.

Yeah, but the difference to me is the quality of the offense. I can't get over – Well, we still have to see how the finished products look the touchdowns that girl right and you know what in free agency we're going to talk about uh a rams offensive lineman who's a free agent you couple that with do we have any news on um on their left tackle yeah on andrew whitworth i don't even considering it right so if they lose saffold and whitworth okay then maybe we start, we reopen the conversation. Well, it's also if they keep Anderson. You know, if there is some level of competition, you know, Gurley hasn't had that.

Yeah, he won't have it. They'll feed him. Well, I know people don't disagree. It's funny. Once teams get to a certain point in the postseason, they realize what it takes to get back there and what you need to have when you're there. Don't you think the fact that

C.J. Anderson was so bad in both the NFC Championship game and the Super Bowl says, hey, we need Todd Gurley to be our guy? I think that goes without saying, but that's kind of my point is that they want to have him fresh then. And so some of these

fourth quarter, second half scenarios where they're up, he's not the clock killer. Yeah, for the sake of our listeners all in this discussion, I wanted to have this discussion with Jamie because he missed those conversations. But I think people have heard enough. I just think the interesting point is where I'm going to disagree with you, and I don't think Early has the number one ADP. I think it will be Elliott and Barkley in some fashion ahead of him.

The other thing will be is can Kamara jump him as well if Mark Ingram leaves and they don't add anybody of significance? Kamara averaged 33 PPR points per game in the first four games without Ingram last season. He was just a monster. Amazing. Antonio Brown say he and the Steelers president Art Rooney met and Brown said both sides agree it's time to move on. The Steelers have been like, hey, we might

try to trade you, but we're not taking anything cheap and you might still be with the team. We'll certainly keep an eye on that. What would you give up to get Brown if you're an NFL GM right now? I'd have to be pretty close to championship level. It wouldn't make sense for the Jets to give up a second-round pick for Brown.

Now, the Jets have a ton of money. Maybe they upgrade their team. But still, they're clearly a little ways away. I believe either sports line odds or Vegas odds have the Cardinals as the number one team. Really? Yes. Yeah, I think that'd be a mistake if they gave up anything more than a third round pick, which won't get it done.

Yeah, I think if you're the Colts, it makes sense to trade maybe something, I don't know, first round pick, but it might have to be. The Packers also. Yeah, I could see that. I think the 49ers are a playoff team with him, or certainly in the discussion with healthy Garoppolo, Antonio Brown. I think that puts them in the mix. Yep.

And the Steelers will not use the franchise or the transition tag on Le'Veon Bell. He will not be on the Steelers. He apparently could be on the offensive line. 260, man. I just spoke to... I think I just did this on CBS Sports HQ today. They asked me to rank or give my favorite destinations for a lot of the free agents. Just to be fun,

I said the Ravens. I thought it would be kind of cool to see what he would look like in Baltimore. They have a need and they clearly had a lot of success running the ball. Yeah, he looked like Barney, apparently, at his weight, wearing those jerseys. He might. And so I was just talking to a Ravens fan in our office, and he said, I'd love to get Le'Veon Bell, just not that 260 version of him.

So if he gets down to his playing weight, I think that would be a fun destination for him. That is – I wonder how the fan base would feel about that because, man, they hate the Steelers. But Baltimore is actually the number one destination for Dave in his column of his favorite landing spots. Oh, that's funny. Yeah, for Le'Veon Bell. And I wish Dave were here. He might be on the show within the next 10 minutes or so. But I think we should talk about this.

And what do you think – Most likely he's going to end up, I would think, one of three spots for me. Because I don't know if Baltimore is realistic. But I think you look at Tampa Bay. That's number two on Dave's list. You look at the Raiders and you look at the Jets. Because I think those two teams are going to have the money to get him. Oakland's number four.

Houston's number three. They have $70 million in cap space, according to Dave's story here. So Houston's certainly in the mix. That would be a fun one, too. Tampa Bay, yeah. I mean, you would love him with Bruce Arians, right? I mean, PPR, Cha-Ching.

What's the highest you could realistically rank Le'Veon Bell? Well, if he's with the team that has a lot of weapons and or good coaching system, good scenario for him, I would put him toward the back end of the

first round. But if he goes to a team like the Raiders or the Jets, it's hands off for me. He'll be a third round pick at best. If he goes to the Colts, I think. I don't see that though. That's part of the problem. He'll be a third-round pick at best. If he goes to the Colts, I think. I don't see that, though. That's part of the problem. Yeah, Dave does not really either. But in this beautiful world where Le'Veon Bell's on the Colts,

I feel like top six pick. I'm just worried about missing a year, what the weight is, what the conditioning is going to be. It's just everything for this scenario. And again, I'll say something that I said throughout the course of last season and the offseason, and I say it everywhere we have these conversations. I think he's a great player that was in a great system, and now he's losing that great system.

And so we'll see if the grass is greener when he goes somewhere else. Yeah, and Le'Veon Bell is sort of the Julio Jones of running backs. He's just allergic to touchdowns. He scores them, but not as many as you would think based on his touches. But he's great with total yards. Yeah, Connor scored 12. What, 12 rushing or 12 total? Yeah, 13 total, 12 rushing.

Yeah, has Le'Veon Bell ever had a double-digit rushing touchdown? No. Yeah, I don't think so. Alright, so those are your news and notes. Not much. We have a few more minor items later. FantasyFootball at CBSi.com is our email address. Please send us an email. Let's do some teammate

combos, Jamie. Who do you like better? Which combo do you like better? We got a Colts combo and a Bengals combo. Do you like Marlon Mack and T.Y. Hilton or Joe Mixon and A.J. Green? Mixon and Green. Who do you like better,

Hilton or Green? Hilton, slightly. But Green was on pace last year before his injury to be the number nine wide receiver in PPR. Really? I actually would have thought it was better because he was on pace. So would I. That's taking out the game where he came back and hurt the toe.

Yeah, I got green in his first eight games. He was on pace for 90 catches. Yeah, I guess this could be top 10 for sure. 1,374 yards and 12 touchdowns. I had him as number five in non-PPR, number seven in PPR. So I'll trust you. Let's just compromise and say number eight. I'm top ten.

I mean, I think he can get to a place I don't think T.Y. Hilton will get to, especially if they add something. Tyler Boyd, I think, is locked in as the number two receiver for the Bengals. Maybe they find a tight end, or Tyler Eifert somehow gets cured of all his woes. But I think you just look at what the scenarios are around them. The Bengals need A.J. Green to do more than the Colts need T.Y. Hilton to do. I think that was somewhat of an easy one.

I think they get harder because the running back upgrade is pretty significant, Mixon over Mack, at least on draft day. Mixon had the fourth most rushing yards in the NFL with the eighth most carries. And he had seven games with 14 or fewer carries out of 14 games. And all seven of those games were losses. If the Bengals are better next year, the game script will be better for Mixon. All right, second teammate combo. Chiefs and Cowboys.

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey. Or Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper. This one's different here. So we got the running back wide receiver for the Cowboys, Elliott and Cooper. Or Mahomes and Kelsey. I'll take the Cowboys. I'm thinking about how I would draft them. I like Elliott as the number one overall pick.

Okay. And Cooper is going to be right around the swing for me. Okay. The round two, three swing. Kelsey in between. Kelsey would be in between them and then Mahomes slightly behind them. But I would take Zeke over Kelsey and I would take Cooper over Mahomes. I should have done some Twitter polls with these.

I'll do a Twitter poll. You would take the Chiefs? No. I would take – No, I guess I'd take the Cowboys for Zeke. I think Cooper, if he stays healthy, could have just a monster season. Did I tell you, or did you hear what happened with him and with Prisco at Radio Row? No, but I'm running out of water, so you've got to stop saying Prisco's name. Pete mentioned to him about his contract during a segment that they were doing on CBS Sports HQ.

And then after they were done, Cooper went over and shook his hand. Thanks for bringing it up. So it's on his mind. Good. Yeah, he's exciting. It's a little up and down but um i i wish i wish i could have taken a picture of his face when i asked him at the pro bowl john gruden said to anybody who would listen you're the main vein of the passing game for the raiders and then you don't get used and you go to the cowboys and they finally used you the right way. And I said, what was the difference? He goes,

I don't know what was going on in that guy's head. Yeah. It's terrific. Nobody knows. All right. Teammate combo number three, Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin or Ben Roethlisberger and Juju Smith-Schuster? Wow.

I'll take the Steelers, but slightly just because i think juju's got a much higher ceiling than baldwin does i like russell wilson better than roethlisberger now with brown gone right this is kind of a question about how much you like roethlisberger and how much you like wilson because he was only the number nine quarterback in fantasy last year ninth and four point per passing touchdown leagues eighth and six point per passing touchdown leagues, eighth and sixth point per passing touchdown leagues. It's amazing that he has thrown 34 or 35 touchdown passes in three of his last four seasons. And he had a great year. Second best completion percentage, third best yards of attempt in his career. But Russell Wilson did not throw it much and did not run it much. They just handed the ball off so much in that last season. But he played great. For example, in 2017,

Wilson was the number one quarterback in fantasy. 2018, he was eighth, ninth, and four points for passing touchdowns. And he averaged more fantasy points per pass attempt in 2018 than 2017. It was a usage thing for him. It was kind of interesting. All right, so Jamie's going to take Roethlisberger and Juju over Wilson and Baldwin.

Last one. Would you rather have the Vikings or the Rams, Diggs and Dalvin Cook, or Gurley and Brandon Cooks? Diggs and Dalvin or Gurley and Brandon Cooks? That's a close one. I'll probably lean toward the Rams because I do hope Gurley is right. But I think Dalvin Cooks could have a monster season. Yeah. I'll probably lean toward the Rams because I do hope Gurley is right. But I think Dalvin Cook could have a monster season. I really do. I think just with Stefanski,

Kevin Stefanski as the offense coordinator with Gary Kubiak also in the fold, calling plays. They're going to lean on the run based on what Mike Zimmer wants to do. I think the offensive line will be better. I think a year with Kirk Cousins getting fully acclimated even more to Minnesota and this team.

And it's close. I mean, I like Diggs better than Cooks, not by much, but I think, again, if Gurley's right, you can't compare the two running backs. So, Jamie, we were going to talk about some of your Pro Bowl takeaways. Is that right? Sure. Or was it Pro Bowl or it was Radio Row?

It was Super Bowl because I gave you some of the Pro Bowl stuff. That's what I thought. All right, so from the Super Bowl, we're going to talk about some of Jamie's takeaways from the Super Bowl, and then we have some other segments after that, and, of course, your emails. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, what did Jamie find out?

What was this awesome Travis Kelsey story that we need to know? We'll be back right after this. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. We'll be back 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. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL,

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as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Alright, Jamie, what's that awesome Travis Kelsey story?

So Kelsey was part of our, I think it was the Pick 6 show that we did at the Super Bowl for CBS Sports HQ, which we will be doing again at the NFL Combine. It's a fun show with Will Brinson, kind of piggybacking off the Pick 6 podcast, which I highly recommend downloading.

In any event, so I asked Kelsey, you got the chance to have a, you had a successful season with Alex Smith in 2017, and then Patrick Mahomes in 2018, and I spoke to him in between seasons, and he said he was cautiously optimistic about Mahomes taking over for Smith because Smith was so good for him. And so he said the offense with Alex Smith was like you're driving along in the car

and you have a really good song on and you're enjoying it. It's really good. You're bobbing your head. It's just a really fun situation. And then Mahomes comes on and it's just like this different song. And it's a great song. It's just a little bit faster,

a little bit more upbeat. You're trying to figure out who's singing it and you just really can't turn it off. And so I thought it was just really fun to hear him say, he wasn't going to say anything bad about Smith, understandably so. But just the whole, you had to really kind of picture him like he's almost pretending like he was driving. It was just one of those things like you could see him just kind of light up a little bit with what Mahomes meant to him.

I'm trying to think of what songs would be Alex Smith and which one would be Patrick Mahomes. Well, for you, it would probably like, Alex Smith would be Brian Adams. And Mahomes would be the Chili Pepper. Well, no, we'll keep it in the Brian Adams family. Alex Smith would be like everything I do. You know, you're just listening to it. You're probably singing along.

You're enjoying it. It's nice. And then all of a sudden, Cuts Like a Knife comes on and it's Mahomes and you're just like, yeah! Let's rock! And a lot of these things, if you just want to find the Cuts like a knife comes on, and it's Mahomes, and just like, yeah, let's rock. All right, good. And a lot of these things, if you just want to find the full interview, and you can see what Kelsey said word for word, if you just Google their names and CBS Sports HQ, the full interview will come up. All right, some other stuff.

What did Juju Smith-Schuster have to say about being the number one guy? So at the time, obviously Brown and the trade demands had not been necessarily met. Not that they've been met yet, but I think you know where I'm going with that, that the Steelers weren't indicating that they were going to trade him. So he was pretty adamant that at that point, early February, that Brown would be back. But I asked him, I said, OK, let's assume Brown's gone. How do you feel about being the number one guy? And he said, and this is a direct quote, obviously being the number one guy, I'm going to embrace that, taking that role.

It's going to be unbelievable. It's going to be an honor. I just finished writing about Juju and James Conner taking over the lead roles for Pittsburgh fully now, embracing that. It's going to be interesting to see how Juju operates as the number one guy. You know, he's entering his third season. I don't know how much better he'll be production-wise. You know, when you go from 111 catches, you know, leads the team, 1, He's entering his third season. I don't know how much better he'll be production-wise. When you go from 111 catches, leads the team, 1,400 yards, leads the team,

seven touchdowns, second on the team behind Brown. He's now gone from a 58-catch guy. He almost doubled his reception total from his rookie season. His yards go up by over 500. He had seven touchdowns as a rookie. I don't know if there's a higher ceiling he can get production-wise, but he may be looking at 150 targets. And so it's hard to overlook that from what Roethlisberger does. I think who they get as the second guy is going to be really key. If it's James Washington or an upgrade, I think Washington has a long way to go, clearly, to assume that

successful number two role. But I think his ADP is going to be interesting. He was clearly great, number eight PPR receiver last year. Can he get into that top five? That's, I think, what people have to really evaluate if you're going to draft him back into the first round, beginning of the second round, depending on format. I know we talked about Jalen Samuels on our previous show. I wonder who picks up the slack. You just mentioned James Washington. James Conner himself had

55 catches in 13 games. That's pretty good. This was the first time a number two receiver had an amazing year with Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger. Who is it? You know, because previously it was pretty much Le'Veon Bell was their number two wide receiver.

Yep. So how does it get spread out? I guess we'll find out. We'll see what they do in free agency in the draft. So Jameis Winston, you had a chance to talk to him, and he talked about playing for Bruce Arians. This interview I highly recommend checking out because this was one of the more candid interviews I've ever had with a football player. He was honest.

He said last year was frustrating for him. He talked about the disappointment of the suspension, of being benched, how he had to earn his job back, the respect he has and had for Ryan Fitzpatrick and why he didn't necessarily make us think about being benched because he said Fitzpatrick was playing great. It was hard to justify him getting back on the field until he proved himself. He also talked about, which I think a lot of us are excited about, the idea of playing for Bruce Arians and Byron Lefkowitz.

He said he's making a sales pitch to Deshaun Jackson to keep him. He said, I've been a disappointment to Deshaun Jackson, and I'm trying to tell him that I can help him get to where he wants to go. So it was very candid to hear him talk about some of the things that have plagued him in his career. And I don't think it was, you know, we kind of joked about CJ Anderson and how he lied, essentially. I don't think that this was the case of a player just talking. I think this was actually somebody who has come to grips with he's been a disappointment

on and off the field in his NFL career. This is probably his last chance. And the fact that Arians is saying that he wants him to be NFL career, this is probably his last chance. And the fact that Arians is saying that he wants him to be the guy, this is a perfect situation for Jameis because if you know Bruce Arians' catchphrase about quarterbacks, no risk it, no biscuit. No biscuit, no risk.

No risk it, no biscuit. Right. In terms of you can be aggressive, and that's kind of what Jameis is. And he said, he goes, at the end of the day, I have to be the guy that is the reason we won the game not the reason we lost the game so he was very you know forthcoming about what his career has been what his season was last year and I think what his outlook could be for Bruce Arians I'm excited about Jameis this year you know just a couple

quarterbacks we talked about I would take Russell Wilson over him but I would take Jameis over Ben I was gonna ask yeah that. That's pretty gutsy. He's been disappointing, as you mentioned, taking him over Roethlisberger. Are either of them top 12 guys for you? I'm sorry? Are either of them top 12? Jameis will be. I haven't gone through my rankings fully yet, but Jameis will be.

He'll probably be in that 10-12 range. Roethlisberger, 13-15. Again, what these receiving cores look like by the end of free agency in the draft will determine it. But right now, knowing that Ben is losing Antonio Brown and Jameis is getting Bruce Arians, Arians has been good for quarterbacks everywhere he's been. Are you trying to say Bruce Arians

is a better wide receiver than Antonio Brown? Slightly. Two guys that like each other very much, apparently. Oh, yeah? Well, he didn't exactly speak fondly of Antonio Brown. Oh, I didn't pick up on the sarcasm. He didn't speak fondly of Antonio Brown? No.

Oh, I must have missed that. Alvin Kamara, you spoke to him. What did he say about Mark Ingram and what his role would be if Mark Ingram does not return? So I think anybody that follows the NFL closely knows that Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram are great friends and they enjoy playing on the same team with each other and their company. He would like Mark Ingram very much so to return.

Ingram's a free agent. But, you know, he said, his direct quote is, if he doesn't come back, he said, I'm sure we'll find ways to get me the ball and not kill me.

So, you know, he understands that they may add another running back if Ingram does not come back he said i'm sure we'll find ways to get me the ball and not kill me uh so you know he he understands that they may add another running back if ingram does not come back but i i think he's also aware that you know what he did in those first four games is kind of an indication of where he'll be um i didn't necessarily look at what the um his total touches were and the percentage of touches that he got but i just know his production like i said he he averaged 33 ppr points in those first four games without Ingram when he was suspended.

He could be just an absolute, absolute star, not that he's not already, but just on a different level if there's no one of significance back, and that includes Ingram. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the stats right now. He had a 15-catch game. He had a 9-catch game in Week 1 and a 15-catch game in Week 3 against two teams that I think were both pretty bad covering running backs. One, Atlanta. We know Atlanta's always bad.

Tampa Bay and Atlanta. And he'll face them twice this year, too. Yeah, I did a red zone breakdown as well. I'll see if I can find that data. I'll dig into the old notes. But yeah, Kamara could be a monster, no question. But they do want to make sure he doesn't get overworked. And I think they more or less did that. I mean, his carries in weeks one through four, eight, 13, 16, and 19. Probably won't have that many 19 carry games, but he can be really good at 13 carries and six catches.

I mean, you give this guy 19, 20 touches, Kamara's going to have a big year. And I think we could get him even more than that. Okay. I think the question right now comes, if you think Gurley's still in the top three, because Barkley and Zeke are not getting out of the top three, barring an injury, can Kamara be four?

Yeah, he can. I mean... Well, would you take him four? Yeah, he can. I mean – What would you take him for? No, I would take McCaffrey over him. See, I would take him over McCaffrey. If Ingram's gone and nobody of significance is back. Now, if they add somebody or bring back Ingram, it's a different story. Yeah.

All right. Because I think McCaffrey's touchdowns might go down, and I think Kamara has shown he's going to score touchdowns, no question. So then why would you take— Yeah, so I'm thinking I probably wouldn't. I probably would take Kamara. I think McCaffrey's feels a little safer, but— It's funny because Kamara over a two-year span

has been better than McCaffrey over a two-year span to say safer. I understand where you're coming from, but— Yeah, he's safer because there's no talk about hey we have to limit christian mccaffrey's touches or anybody of significance to take away from him exactly exactly sure but i i think again it comes down to you know if the saints do what they did last year where it's a boston scott in the draft you know a sixth round pick or seventh round pick whatever he ended up being um and it's a Mike Gillis, you know, like a nondescript free agent. You know, if they go out and they sign

Tevin Coleman and they draft somebody, then no, of course you're not going to take Kamara over McCaffrey. But if it's just also ran to pair with Kamara, you know, then I think you can feel comfortable maybe about him. And maybe even him over Gurley, like I said, in PPR. You know who the free agent

signing would be? That would make me kind of scratch my head, go I said, in PPR. You know who the free agent signing would be that would make me kind of scratch my head, go, hmm, how does this affect Kamara? Golden Tate. If they added Golden Tate, it would be very interesting. They have nobody to throw the ball to other than Michael Thomas. That's great for

Kamara. If they add a slot receiver, would that drop his catches by 15? Kamara's catches? I don't think so. Yeah, I don't either. Last thing, Tariq Cohen wants more touches. He only had one game all year with double-digit carries.

Tariq Cohen wants more touches, Jamie. I think that would be interesting. He was very complimentary of Matt Nagy and how he gets the ball to all of his playmakers. And I think kind of said the obvious with what a lot of NFL players say, that everybody would like the ball. But I think it was just more, when I went back and listened to the interview, just what it could be if he ended up getting more carries. And there is some talk about maybe them moving on from Jordan Howard, who is still under contract, but not somebody I think that fits that system.

Whereas you saw what Tariq Cohen was in the limited touches that he had. He finished as the number 12 PPR running back and better than Jordan Howard in that scoring format. So it'd be fun to see if they can give him a little bit more work, obviously based on his size and I think his role, what he does at times on special teams in the return game, in the passing game, it's probably not going to change much, but just imagine what it could be. It's kind of like what we talked about for guys like Theo Riddick and Duke Johnson and players like that over the last several years,

Darren Sproles. They're better for their team than they are for fantasy, typically, but this guy showed that he could be good for fantasy also. So if they were to give him a little bit more work, it could be fun. 17th in non-PPR, 12th in PPR for Tariq Cohen. Boy, Jordan Howard is strange.

I mean, what a fall from grace. He looked like a stud. He had a great rookie year. Nobody's excited about him anymore. Do you know what's funny that you say that? Because I was thinking about this the other day. I did a startup Dynasty League with analysts from other sites, and I think I mentioned this before.

I believe I had the third overall pick or fourth overall pick. So I took Mike Evans' fourth overall. This was after his rookie season, I believe. Second round, I took Jordan Howard. Third round, I took Todd Gurley. So this was after Gurley's down year? This was after Gurley's second season. That's really funny.

Can you imagine how different that draft would go now? No. I mean, not that Gurley's going in the third round, clearly, but yeah. And this, again, other analysts from other sites, myself included, passed on Todd Gurley twice before getting him in the third round. Well, of course you passed on him. You knew you could get him in the third round. Yeah.

All right, so those are some of Jamie's takeaways from Super Bowl. And like I said, there are a lot of others. If you Google CBS Sports HQ Super Bowl, you'll see a ton of interviews, and we'll post a bunch of them throughout the course of the offseason, the fantasy-relevant ones. I'm going to go ahead and guess Dave is not joining us on today's show. So, well, all right, we have some other segments that we can get to. We don't need Dave. We don't need no stinking Dave.

Jamie, let's do a few more news items here. The Miami Herald's Adam Beasley expects the Dolphins to release Devontae Parker and maybe Danny Amendola. Your thoughts? Parker makes sense. I mean, you know, just given the failures that he's had in his first four

seasons, he you know, I think still has the talent to be a capable NFL receiver, but it's probably best that he gets a fresh start and the Dolphins move on, especially given what they're trying to accomplish in tanking for Tua or, you know, building for the 2020 season. So I don't know if he makes sense to stick around amandola would be interesting um funny amandola side note uh we have some friends who bought my kids some dolphin stuff and i don't know if it was a discount item or whatnot but they got my son a danny amandola

t-shirt when i looked at i was like i don't know if this is a long-term keeper for you buddy did you see the machado jerseys were on sale before they were allowed to be on sale? No. Some people may have actually bought them. The Padres ones? Yeah, Padres Machado jerseys, but before he signed the contract. So they had to be taken off the shelves. So I was thinking to myself, if I had rushed to buy a Machado jersey,

and then they discontinued selling them, would I secretly hope that the signing falls through rushed to buy a Machado jersey, and then they discontinued selling them. Would I secretly hope that the signing falls through and he doesn't end up on the Padres? Would I have a collector's item at that point, or would I just have a useless junk? Useless junk. Oh, okay. Then I guess I won't root for that. The Raiders close to a deal to keep them in Oakland for 2019 and maybe 2020, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Can you imagine any free agents signing there with the Raiders? Yeah, the ones that just want money. Right. Or the ones who want to live in Vegas soon. But it's such a—I mean, the way the NFL is built, unless you're quarterback at this point, who's guaranteed to still be there that long? Yeah, that's a good point. I actually think if I trusted Raiders management, call me crazy,

I didn't mind the Khalil Mack trade because I sort of felt like if they had locked up Amari Cooper, locked up Khalil Mack, what would they have been? Would they have competed for a playoff spot? I really don't think so. So I like that they stockpiled all these draft picks and have a ton of money to spend,

and they're moving to a new market. I actually don't mind their path. I just don't really trust John Gruden to execute it appropriately. But they have three first-round picks. So, I mean, they could set themselves up right now. Well, yeah, they're going to have young talent. That's the key, if they do it the right way. And hopefully Mike Mayock being on that staff

will help also Le'Veon Bell to me is somebody that seems if he's just out for the money he can go there yeah that would not make sense for them that wouldn't make sense for them that's not like the position

no but it would make sense for Gruden I guess so it wouldn't make sense for the franchise. But in any event, not knowing where you're going to play, not knowing if you're going to be on the team when they move to Vegas, it just feels like a terrible, terrible situation. I agree with you. Stockpiling the picks is not a bad move, but it just feels icky.

I hope it's not the case because it would be great if the Raiders were good. According to SpotTrack, they have, I hope I'm saying that right, they have the seventh most cap space right now. So a bunch of picks in cap space and not much else. Can you name their best fantasy option right now, without thinking about it? I guess I had to think about it. No.

Jared Cook, but free agent, I know. Jordy Nelson. Well, but Jared Cook, if he's back, right? Oh, he's not going back there. You don't think so? No. You don't think it's a good destination for free agent? No, just kidding.

And then the last note was just about Greg Roman, Baltimore's offensive coordinator, wants to build his offense around Lamar Jackson from the ground up, which is just interesting to think. Jackson was not in an offense that was built for him. He came in midseason. They've got now offseason and training camp to put something together and hopefully adjust to his skills, which are mostly the legs,

both of his knees, which we have established are good to have. The theme of the show, having knees. There are going to be a lot of interesting free agents, but not too many on offense. If you take a look at Pete Prisco's top free agents, he did a top 30, and I believe only 11 of them are on offense. And let me count.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven of them are linemen. So four skill position players. I'm not even seeing four. I'm only seeing three. Le'Veon Bell. No, four. Le'Veon Bell, Nick Foles, Tyrell Williams, and Golden Tate. I did Chris Harris' podcast yesterday.

Oh, cool. And we spoke about the free agent receivers. And it's such a boring class. There are two guys that I think would be really interesting if they end up in the right spots. Because Golden Tate, I think, could still be a very good fantasy receiver

in the right situation. But John Brown and Tyrell Williams. If they can get to the right scenario. Like Tyrell, we saw 2016 when Keenan Allen had the torn ACL, he had a thousand yards and seven touchdowns, you know, he, you know, on 68 catches, he's averaged basically 15 yards per catch his, his career. So, you know, if he could be more than just a deep threat, that would be, I think something

fun. I don't necessarily value him more than John Brown. I think Brown's a little bit better as a receiver if he's right. But Brown, as we saw, you know, he got off to such a great start last season with Flacco with a more traditional quarterback. Do you know how many catches he had in the seven starts that Lamar Jackson made?

What would you guess? Honestly, I'm going to guess 10. That'd be high. He had eight catches with Lamar Jackson. I like John Brown. I like him. I think one thing that I said to Chris Harris is stay in a situation where the sickle cell trait will not be an issue. Well, how many situations would it be an issue?

Obviously, Denver. Well, I think as we saw, maybe it's just an East Coast, West Coast thing. I have no idea. I mean, Arizona was a problem. He goes to Baltimore and East Coast for the first time in his career as a full-time player and no idea. I mean, Arizona was a problem. He goes to Baltimore and East Coast for the first time in his career as a full-time player, and no issues. Yeah, that would surprise me if that were the reason. I don't know this to be factual.

I'm just putting two and two together. Whatever it is, yeah, stay healthy, stay on the field. And then Golden Tate obviously finished with a whimper when he got traded to the Eagles, which taught me a big lesson. Well, it did it because then you look at Amari Cooper. But I was pretty pumped about Golden Tate going to the Eagles. I thought he was going to be really good. It was just a bad fit.

Stafford was playing so poorly. But it was just a terrible fit because they needed an outside guy, and he's not an outside guy. I think generally speaking, I'm going to be pretty skeptical about mid-season trades for wide receivers i think it's going to be tough for them but then again mari cooper was great so i guess how many how many receivers usually get traded mid-season though it's very limited but it's happened the last two years and it might be a trend the nfl trade deadline is usually a really boring day last Last couple years, it's been exciting.

So what did we have the last couple of seasons? Last year, we had Demaryius Thomas. Yeah, and Golden Tate. Golden Tate, flop. Cooper, good. Josh Gordon. Yeah, we had Josh Gordon. We had Jay Ajayi the year before that.

I know we had more. i know we had more i know we had more um because i remember these conversations i mean des bryant was a acquisition but never materialized oh come on who are we missing here i know we had a couple of trades in 2017 let's let's let's do some googling i'm read some emails, and I'll Google in the meantime. Keith from a college town in Connecticut. Stores. When do you keep the best player over value? 12-team non-PPR league, we keep two.

I'm keeping Nick Chubb with a late-round pick, but his other keeper, Julio with the 12th pick, Devontae Adams with the 13th pick, or T.Y. Hilton with the 36th pick. So it's Julio and Devontae Adams basically in round one, or T.Y. Hilton in round three. So the way I'm going to rank it would be Adams one, Julio two, and Hilton three. And Adams and Julio will be two top five wide receivers for me, whereas Hilton will be closer to eight.

So I think the drop-off is not as significant at that position that I would rather have my first two picks because there's a chance that you can get one of those two receivers still depending on the keepers. Kelvin Benjamin got traded. That's right. He was great. have my first two picks because there's a chance that you can get one of those two receivers still depending on the keepers. Kelvin Benjamin got traded. That's right. He was great. He was definitely not.

They got a third round pick for that. And a seventh. Good job, Pablo. Jai, Kelvin Benjamin, and Jimmy Garoppolo. Dwayne Brown also got traded left tackle. I think that's it. Next email is from Brandon.

Keeper question. Can keep these guys as long as I want without a draft pick loss? It is half PPR. It is two quarterbacks, three wide receivers, two quarterback league. Would you keep Russell Wilson or Juju Smith-Schuster? It's interesting. I'd probably – well, we don't know the quarterback scoring, right? If it's four um i'd probably well we don't know the quarterback scoring right if it's four or six points i don't know but it's half ppr i'd probably keep juju i'm surprised that was a struggle for you i thought for sure you'd go juju well i mean in 2qb league russell wilson's great russell wilson's

great if they let him throw and And I imagine that they will, because it's almost like Seattle was such an outlier last year with the way they ran the ball that I just can't expect that to happen again. That they'll be as good running the ball or that they'll be as efficient throwing the ball? That they'll be, well, probably that too, but that they'll be as good running the ball

and that they'll run the ball as often. Just 33 carries a game for a team. This is really ridiculous. I mean, it is Pete Carroll's MO, though, and Schottenheimer's. Yeah, I know, but it seemed like Schottenheimer on steroids or something. Say that 10 times fast. With Schottenheimer on steroids or something? I can't even say it twice.

From Dario. Hey there, keep your questions for me. I know it's not twice. From Dario. Hey there, Keeper question for you. I know it's not Dario. It's probably Dario. Keeper question for you. 12-team half PPR league, two receivers, one round penalty each year for keepers, cannot keep a first or a second rounder,

and I have the fifth overall pick. Keep four of these guys. Joe Mixon in round two. This is again half PPR. Mixon in round two. Sonny Michel in round six. Galladon in round two. This is again half PPR. Mixon in round two. Sonny Michel in round six. Galladay in round 12. Carson in round eight.

Rashad Penny in round four and Darius Geis in round nine. So I'm slightly confused. Yeah. Because it says no first or second rounders can be kept but you can keep Mixon in the second round. So I think Mixon is a third rounder that he's keeping for a second rounder. Okay. So there's no real value there.

I think Mixon will end up being a second round pick. Anyway, I would probably keep— I don't think he'll get back to him necessarily if he really wants him. He has the fifth overall pick, so it's seventh in round two. My guess is Mixon's off the board by then. Okay. So depending on the keepers, he could be the fifth overall pick, potentially.

Oh, yeah, right. I would keep Galladay for sure. Michelle in round six, right? And probably Sonny Michelle. So you end up with, let's just say, Mixon is the best player. Mixon, Michelle, and Galladay, that's a pretty good start. Oh, but you have failed this exercise

because, Jamie, you can keep four of these players. Oh, I'm sorry. So Michelle and Gallaudet. Okay, so keep Michelle, keep Gallaudet, keep Carson, and maybe keep Mixon just to guarantee you get him. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.

Because, I mean, Geis could be good in round nine. Well, I think the reports will certainly indicate if you're keeping. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Because, I mean, Geis could be good in round nine. Well, I think the reports will certainly indicate if you're keeping Geis. And maybe even if you're keeping Carson. See what they say about Penny in the offseason.

Certainly not keeping Penny for round four. I don't think that we're going to get any indication knowing Pete Carroll that Carson's being benched. Oh, Pete Carroll

is the most obvious. They're all starting and playing every snap according to Pete Carroll. Yeah. All right, Jamie, thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Good job there by Jamie Eisenberg. Schottenheimer on steroids something.

And we'll come back next week. We've got a show for you. I believe on Monday will be our next show. We'll have two for you next week. We're going to try to start getting some guests on, give some different fantasy perspectives. We're in a bit of a dead zone. But Jamie's also going to the Combine, so we'll have plenty

to talk about after the NFL Combine. Have a great weekend, everybody. For Jamie Eisenberg, I'm Adam Azer. We'll see you later.