Fantasy Football Today - 03/14: Bell and Beckham! So Much to Discuss! (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: March 13, 2019

What a wild day around the NFL! Le'Veon Bell is on the Jets and Odell Beckham Jr. is on the Browns. We'll discuss all angles of these two news items as we bring on Browns Senior Media Broadcaster Nathan Zegura (6:00) to tell us how Cleveland is feeling, how Baker Mayfield will distribute the ball, how the running game will look with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt (21:50) and more ... A lot of rankings discussed: Is Mayfield a Top 5 QB? Is Bell a Top 12 overall player? What happens to Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram? And does Saquon Barkley actually lose value without Beckham? We discuss the impact on NYG (25:34) and NYJ (27:30) ... Thoughts on Latavius Murray's signing (42:00) to finish the show ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. 2019 NFL Free Agency, you are awesome!

If you include the trades. If you include the trades, you're awesome. If there was a freezing cold takes podcast, you'd be in trouble. I'm glad. I'm glad. What a wild day in the NFL. How are you taking it? Well, we'll get to that.

We have had two probable Hall of Fame. I'm sorry. I think Odell Beckham is going to the Hall of Fame. Traded. Within just a few days of each other. Very, very unusual stuff. And we have a special guest joining us today, Nathan Zagura. He joined us last year to talk about the Browns. He covers the Browns. He'll come on today. He's a former Fantasy Football Today co-host, I guess. Well, the video show. Former CBS Sports employee and a friend of ours. So he's

going to join us soon. So that's the. So that's part of the big news. The other is Le'Veon Bell and, of course, Latavius Murray. How are you guys doing today, Dave and Jamie? How are you feeling? I like how Latavius Murray worked his way into that. Is he a future Hall of Famer too? No, but Alvin Kamara might be. You never know.

That's fair. I'm tired. That was a long night last night. Yeah, I'm sure it was And I'm doing fine I've accepted the trade It's a bad trade Have you burned your Odell Beckham jersey?

It's too big It would take a really long time to burn Somebody tweeted yesterday That they would like to buy a Dave Gettleman jersey Just to burn it Yeah, he's too good to get traded. I mean, everybody, yeah, you should get at least two first-rounders. I mean, they did.

One of the players they got was a first-round pick, if you think of it that way. Would you like to share the analysis I gave you on Peppers yesterday when you asked me about him? I said, what did I say? Like, how is, I don't know. I mean, I don't really know. You said, what do we think of Peppers He said, what do we think of Peppers? What do we think of Peppers?

Jamie is so into GIFs now. All he did was just text me a bunch of, like, dancing Peppers. Like, he just, all these Pepper GIFs. It was crazy. Can we get a fantasy take, guys? Like, what is the biggest, out of the Le'Veon Bell and Odell Beckham news, what's the big fantasy take right now? I think Beckham doesn't lose anything.

He may gain a little bit just by getting what should be an upgraded quarterback. So he's solidified as a top five wide receiver. Whether you want to call him one through five, I think you're going to get a lot of different top fives at that position. But he's in a really good spot with a quarterback on the rise. Remember, not only does Freddie Kitchens take over the head coaching job, but they also have Todd Monken as the offensive coordinator. And I know we're going to get into a lot of that with Nathan,

but those are two pretty good offensive minds that they have. If you just look at what they were able to accomplish last season in their respective positions on their respective teams with the Browns and Monken with the Bucs. Baker Mayfield obviously benefits. He's going to be in consideration as a top five quarterback. We were having a conversation

with Heath about his projections. He said he has him at number five right now. I also have our CBS sports line projections. You ready for this for Baker Mayfield? Oh, okay. 5,107 yards, 34 touchdowns, 16 interceptions. They currently have him as the number three quarterback.

So if you want the rest, I have all the rest of the guys that are impacted by the trade. We can talk about that. Oh, we will talk about it for sure. But in any event, Baker clearly benefits. And I think you look at Le'Veon Bell, I'm just nervous for a guy that's taken a year off of football and is going to a new team. I think he'll be good, but I've seen some projections for him too

that just make me very, very nervous. I do not plan on drafting him in the first round. I understand that's going to be his average opposition, and I hope he lives up to it, but I'm skeptical of him being the same exact type of guy. 1,800 yards, nine touchdowns, 75 catches. That's what he averaged. I'm sorry, that's the bare minimum. That was the floor three of the four years prior to sitting out last season. Dave, you got a red hot fantasy take. So we've got Nathan coming on in about a minute, and we'll talk about the Giants and Browns trade. There's a lot of fantasy impact on the Giants too.

I mean, this trade may have given us a top five tight end. Yes. Right? It did. Okay. But I think it also eliminated a potential top five tight end because I can't – Mayfield's going to have to have an amazing year for Njoku to get there, I think. Well, they added another tight end because I can't... Mayfield's going to have to have an amazing year

for Njoku to get there, I think. He's going to have to throw for 5,000 yards. They added another tight end, too, that's going to take a little bit away from... By the way, Evan Ingram's projections, 91 catches, 1,289 yards, 7 touchdowns. He has them as the number two tight end. And if you go back and look at how Evan Ingram did...

That's a lot. In 16 games without Odell Beckham in his career, Ingram's given you at least seven non-PPR points, I think in 11 of them. Well, the last four games of last season, which is the current regime, he had at least 75 yards in all four games. He had one touchdown.

So good. And was just great. Sterling Shepard, not as good, but still he gets a bump also. 10 of 16 for Ingram, not 11. Yeah, and then 7 in non-PPR is pretty good. 75 yards per game. I mean, Evan Ingram, based on those last four games, his 16-game pace was 1,280 yards.

He won't get that on 88 catches. But I think that projection that you gave was high, but at least we do get some good news with the tight end position. And we'll see what the Giants do. There's a good chance they are drafting a wide receiver. There's also a good chance they're just completely terrible. They will be completely terrible next year. But enough about them.

Let's talk about a team that everybody's excited about. Let's talk about the Cleveland Browns. Let's do it with Nathan Zagura right now. Nathan is the senior media broadcaster for the Cleveland Browns, and he's probably very happy. I mean, it's exciting. Hey, question for you, Nathan. Which Giants-Browns trade are they buzzing more about, the Zeitler one or the Beckham one? Well, I think it's probably pretty close, but Odell Beckham probably gets the slight edge there. And I got to tell you, what's so incredible about this whole scenario to me is that just the reaction in Cleveland, you would think it's the closest thing that I've seen to it

in my time here is when LeBron announced that he was coming back. And I mean that seriously. People have just lost their minds. It's total pandemonium. Everybody's loving it. And it's just for a city and for a team that has gone through what this is a year ago if i was talking to you guys wouldn't have been talking to me other than the fact that we're friends because there wasn't going to really be anybody fantasy relevant

at least we thought maybe going into the season and then after that you know we were coming off of a winless season and now odell beckham's here jarvis Landry's here. It's Baker Mayfield's here. And that's real. That's our real lives. It's quite the turn of events. More upset right now, Jabril Peppers or Hugh Jackson? I would probably go with Hugh Jackson. I think Jabril Peppers is obviously bummed that he doesn't get to be a part of this. But I also think for Jabril Peppers. He's pretty pumped. You know, he's from New Jersey, so he gets to go home, and I think that probably is pretty appealing to him. So he obviously wants to be a part of this, and Jabril, I've gotten to know him, a fiery personality, great competitor. But I would imagine that anybody who was here before, even Sashi, because Sashi deserves a lot of credit for setting up what John Dorsey has

knocked out of the park. But anybody who was with the Browns during those periods and is no longer with the Browns is probably like, man, I just want to be a part of it. Now I feel like I'm happy I paid my dues, and now we're going to have a lot of fun. Nathan, I'm wondering if you've caught on to any trends involving Baker. Last year, he averaged 266 passing yards a game,

27 touchdowns in 14 games, and now he's – I felt like he was spreading the ball around very nicely to all of his past catchers and now with odell coming in you've got to figure that there's going to be a huge tilt toward odell taking less work away from everybody else i'm wondering if that's the sense that you have to uh you know i think baker is is honestly at his best as a distributor playing that point guard role, and I would imagine for Baker Mayfield, that's who he is. I think he looks at his role, his job, is to find the open guy and to get him the football.

And even if you were to look last year at Jarvis Landry's target share prior, while Podhaly was there and then once Freddie Kitchens took over, it kind of went down as they kind of went to that more spread it around offense. And now look, Todd Munkins here obviously when you take a look back historically at what say Tampa Bay did Mike Evans is going to get the ball when you have a guy like Odell Beckham you want to get him the ball but I think it's not only is Baker Mayfield going to continue to distribute the football Beckham will be the number one but you got to think about all the matchups now everybody else is going to be able to win Jarvis is now going to be in one-on-ones exclusively. That's great news for

the Browns. Then you turn it around and you think about a guy like David Njoku down the seam, one-on-ones. Antonio Callaway, one-on-ones. So when you have a quarterback like Baker Mayfield, whose natural inclination is to distribute the football, and now all of a sudden you've got a guy that the defense has to give so much attention to. I think it's only going to be good things for Odell and really for everybody else, and ultimately from fantasy for Baker Mayfield. Baker should be a pretty darn good fantasy quarterback this year. I got the projections here from Sportsline. I want to see if you agree, Nathan, and obviously everybody can chime in.

So these are our early projections by our sports line model. So Odell Beckham, 104 catches, 1,577 yards, and 11 touchdowns. They have him projected to be the number two fantasy receiver. This is, I'm assuming, in PPR. It's PPR, yes. Jarvis Landry, 101 catches, 1,245 yards, and six touchdowns. They have him as the number 13 wide receiver. And, Nathan, you weren't with us to start the show. They have Baker projected right now to be the number two quarterback now again these are just

the raw wow uh but that's how too high for over 5 000 yards and 34 touchdowns 5 000 yards oh my too high way too high ridiculous again i mean i think that these are just the early raw numbers so i'm sure they will settle down a little bit as they get close to us. It does. It sounds a little ambitious to me, but listen, it's an exciting time, obviously, if you are a Browns fan, and you've got to think this offense should be pretty prolific. And the biggest question mark, I think, certainly from a fantasy standpoint is, okay, what does this mean for Nick Chubb, and what does it mean for Kareem Hunt when we find out what his punishment is when he comes back? What does this all mean for those guys? Because I think that is probably the toughest thing to figure out.

What I don't think is that hard to figure out is that this team is going to score a lot of points. I mean, you've got to feel pretty good about this offense and the way that it stacks up. It's still a very good line in front of them. I mean, 5,000 yards, I don I don't know that you know you look at Freddie Kitchens he didn't throw it all over the yard that wasn't the kind of offense that the Browns ran so I don't know if that number is seems realistic to me given you know the division we play in and all that but it's going to be fun I think it will be very difficult there's no more division yeah it's your division I know but I'm just saying the weather in a second. This isn't a dome team.

We're not playing all of our games in great weather. I just think that could be potentially a very difficult number for Baker Mayfield to ultimately hit 5,000 yards. But this offense is going to be fun, and the Browns are back for fantasy football. About that, I don't think there is any question. Okay, so let's do some rankings, some fantasy rankings. Let's get everybody's take. First of all, let's start with Odell Beckham.

Where are we ranking Odell Beckham? He's never been better than fourth in fantasy at wide receiver, which is a little surprising. Now his rookie year was probably his best year, 1,300 yards, 12 touchdowns in only 12 games. He also has some injury history. Missed four games as a rookie with a hamstring, broke his ankle in 2017,

and had a quad contusion in 2018 that Missed four games as a rookie with a hamstring, broke his ankle in 2017 and had a quad contusion in 2018 that cost him four games. So I'm going to go Dave, Jamie, and Nathan. I almost called you Heath, sorry. So where is Odell Beckham going to be in your wide receiver rankings? Go ahead, Dave. I've got him fifth non-PPR,

fifth PPR. Same. I'm going to say tenth, and it goes back to the point that you guys made earlier. I really think he's a low-end number one receiver for me. Obviously, the potential there is to be big, but in terms of week after week consistency, I think he's going to have some big games. I think there are going to be other games where the ball is going to go other places. I mean, there were so many games where nine people caught passes last year from Baker Mayfield, so I don't know that he's going to get enough to be like that top five guy. I hope I'm wrong. A lot of it, I think, will ultimately come down to touchdowns. How many

touchdowns is he able to get? And if he's able to get a lot of them, then I think that'll bump him up. But a number one receiver, but beyond that, I think that it's going to be difficult given just the way that Baker plays and the way that this offense is going to be run by Freddie Kitchens. Wow. All right. So I'd like to hear Dave and Jamie react to that. Nathan thinking 10th for Beckham. I don't know if I can name nine other receivers that I would take ahead of him. I love the consistency that he brought in New York. That would not be nine more than that.

Well, no, because Nathan said 10th. So coming up with nine other guys to rank ahead of him, I just think that that's hard to do. I don't think you can do that. So I've got him fifth, and I'm excited about the consistency. I do think Baker will find him for touchdowns. And I think it's, you know, you talk about how Jarvis is going to be in single coverage and Njoku, Chubb underneath is going to have some great opportunities.

It's not like Odell's going to get double coverage every single play. And I think that there's going to be, and I think his, the opportunities for him to have some breakaway plays where he's catching a slant 10 yards off the line of scrimmage and he shakes free for a 40 yard touchdown. I think you're going to see a lot of that. I think you're going to see him have a lot of explosive plays. And I think he's going to be just an absolute set.

And I, and I agree with Jamie. I think the division is getting completely weak, especially when it comes to run defense. Baltimore's lost a lot of guys up front. Cincinnati's a huge question mark. I think that the timing is just perfect for all this, and I think Odell will pay off.

I don't think he's a number one receiver. I don't think that I'm besmirching the man's good name. No, no, no. I don't think anybody's taking that name. I look at it this way. I'm always going to draft based on what I think the ceiling can be. And I think the ceiling for him is to be top five. I like the ceiling better for Michael Thomas, for Julio Jones, for Devontae Adams, for Andrea Hopkins.

It's hard for me to find a guy after those five that has the ceiling that he has. Now, you can certainly argue Antonio Brown and his move to the Raiders, but I just look at what Odell's opportunity is here to get a quarterback upgrade. And I'm curious your take on this, Nathan, because how much is Todd Monken's hands going to be on this compared to Freddie Kitchens? Because I think that matters here because you look at what Monken's offense was last year, and a lot of it was by default because of the lack of a run game, but clearly they were throwing the ball everywhere, and everybody got a piece of it.

I think they're going to certainly want to throw the ball around the yard. I mean, I think teams know that's what they have to do in the NFL. I had an opportunity to speak with Monken earlier, and obviously I know Freddie well. I think that they are—it's a passing league. That's what you're going to do, but at the same time, the Browns with Freddie Kitchens, I think, had the highest percentage of plays run from a three tight end formation. So there's going to be a mix and a balance. I don't think it's going to be quite what the Buccaneers did where they were,

you know, on pace at one point. I think through 10 games last year, they were on pace to have the most prolific passing offense in the history of the National Football League. So I don't think the Browns are going to be in that kind of a mix. But certainly they're going to put it in the air and you baker mayfield is so good that it's going to only it he's a special player that's the other thing with odell beckham you talk about top five potential odell beckham's never played with a quarterback even close to as accurate as baker mayfield never not

even close and so baker mayfield it's true's kind of jumping out of his jerry. It's true. I mean, they did a thing. I saw on the Pro Football Focus from yesterday that Beckham received an accurate pass on, I think, 50% of his targets, which was one of the lowest rates in the entire NFL. And then on the other side of it, Baker Mayfield was one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the entire NFL. So it says to me, you know, Baker Mayfield with Odell Beckham, to your point about the slant, he's going to be hit in stride a lot more and be given a lot of opportunities to make some, I think, very, very special plays. And I think he's absolutely going to make them. I mean, that's who Odell Beckham is. He is an absolute playmaker.

Yeah. It doesn't hurt that Baker was ranked second in the deep passing metric last year by Pro Football Focus. Oh, no, it doesn't hurt at all. Baker Mayfield is, I mean, he's the definition of the real deal. This guy brings everything and anything you want to the table as a quarterback, and I think his leadership is going to be key with his team because now we've got a lot of personalities in managing. You know, Jarvis wants the ball. Beckham wants the ball. The other thing to think about for the Browns is Adam Henry, our wide receivers coach, was

Beckham's wide receivers coach for the Giants and was Landry and Beckham's wide receivers coach at LSU prior to that. So it's kind of an amazing thing that they're all back together again. Cool. Yeah. G-E-A-U-X, Browns, right? That's right. Go Browns. You know it.

Okay, so I have a lot to say on this topic, but I won't be able to because we have to get the levy on Bell. We have to let Nathan go. But I will also say that Odell Beckham publicly complained about Eli Manning not being mobile and not being able to get the ball downfield, and he didn't want to just run slants. So a better offensive line and a better quarterback who can move around in the pocket is going to really help Odell Beckham.

What do you think, just real quick, guys, what do we think about Jarvis Landry? His first eight games, he was on pace for like 190 targets. He put up okay numbers. His last eight games, he was on pace for like 110 targets or something like that, and he did not put up good numbers at all. Nathan, what do you think about Jarvis Landry? And then Dave and Jamie, what's the fantasy ranking for him now? I think Jarvis Landry is, again, very solid in a PPR league.

I wouldn't look at him as more than a number two wide receiver just because there can only be so many balls to go around. So I look at him as a number two, especially with a little bit, give him a boost in a PPR league. But he's got a man man the middle of the field. And now you think about with Callaway, Callaway can take the top off of a defense. Beckham, vertical, Njoku, vertical. I think the underneath stuff is going to be real open for Jarvis.

I expect him to be very good after the catch in terms of his efficiency there. So I think a solid number two receiver for Jarvis. It wouldn't surprise me if Jarvis ended up around like 90 catches, you know, 900 plus to low thousand yards and six to eight touchdowns. I'm going to say under on that one, Nathan. I'm a little concerned about just how many targets he will get with Odell there and having to split with Callaway, with Najoku, with Chubb. I'm bullish on Chubb. I think Chubb really is going to have... He's a stud. He is, you know, and I wanted to ask you about the Kareem Hunt factor. Maybe we'll have time for that.

But I've got Jarvis Landry outside of my top 35 for wide receivers. I think this helps Landry to go back to being mostly an inside receiver because, like you said, you get both guys on the outside. So he's going to benefit, I think, in a big way with the Beckham trade. Fantasy-wise, though, we'll see. I think your numbers are close, Nathan Nathan to where I'll probably be as well. Um, I think he's a, he's a low end starter in, in PPR, probably a little bit outside

of that and non PPR, the touchdowns, I think sway that, but, um, 90 catches. I think if Baker gets to the level that I think he's capable of getting with, uh, with these moves, then, then Landry, I think, is going to really see his numbers get back closer to what he was in Miami than when he was last year. Okay, and who will be a better player at his position? Not overall numbers or anything, but who will be a more valuable player in fantasy?

Jarvis Landry or David Njoku? Dave, Jamie, Nathan. I'll say Landry. Landry. With more confidence in PPR than non-PPR. I think Landry also. I think Njoku loses with this deal, especially with Demetrius Harris coming on also.

Nathan, you were standing there when Dorsey said, what does Njoku have to do to improve his run blocking? So, you know, a pass-catching tight end that just got another pass catcher on the field, I think that's going to hurt Njoku, so take landry you know it's interesting with harris i think the guy that that might end up affecting the most is probably going to be set to valve uh and you wonder kind of what his future then is here with this browns franchise at that point um it's the joku has an opportunity to benefit in the sense that he's really going to be running free, I think, a lot more.

And he is very talented, very athletic. And I thought he came on nice in the second half. I just wonder about the consistent number of targets on a week-to-week basis. I think the Joku is going to be the kind of tight end where he's going to have some weeks where he's got 60 to 80 yards and a touchdown because he breaks one deep because that's what he can do. And then he's going to have some weeks where he has one catch for 15 yards. And it's not going to be because of anything he's doing right or wrong, per se. It's going to have a lot more to do with the fact that the ball is going to be spread around. And you think about it, he's probably now, I mean, best case scenario, third in line for targets.

And when I say third in line for targets, I mean that in sharing that with many, many other people, most likely he's probably fourth or fifth in any given week in terms of where he shapes up for targets. Like he'll be closer to fourth than second in terms of targets in Cleveland. And listen, four red zone touchdowns last year, all of them from Baker Mayfield. He has two career games with 70 plus yards. So I hate to paint him with the touchdown or bust brush, but I think that's what type of a tight end he is. Let's get one more question here for Nathan, and it's about the running backs. So what should we think about Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb in the backfield? Well, I mean, I think you—obviously, Nick Chubb's the starter,

and we're going to find out, I would imagine, relatively soon, what exactly the league is going to do with Kareem Hunt. But Nick Chubb is the guy. I mean, you look at the production he put up. He showed that he is more than just a runner, an excellent pass catcher. In fact, a lot of guys on our team thought that his catch against the Bengals, the touchdown, was one of the best plays of the season on offense. He is a workaholic. He will run you over.

He's a game-breaker. He's a guy that, I mean, especially the first six weeks weeks should be, I think he's a top six fantasy running back. I mean, I think he's going to be that good and that productive. Now, when Hunt comes back, what does that mean for him? That I have no idea. And, you know, we haven't seen Kareem Hunt in a long time. I did have an opportunity to speak with him in our building. I know he wants to make amends and, you know, come and help this team and prove everybody right that he is rehabilitated after his awful transgression off the field. So at that point, I don't know how that works. And you would hate to see it cannibalize Nick Chubb,

but at the same point, we all know how explosive Kareem Hunt is as a dual threat. I think the guy that ultimately, at least from a Browns standpoint, if he remains with the Browns, that's going to lose out the most, is going to be Duke Johnson. But Nick Chubb's got top I mean, top five running back potential. You want to talk about upside. It's just hard to say going into draft what it's going to be, and you obviously would want to handcuff him with Hunt at some point,

but you also don't know when he comes back. Is it going to be a true 50-50? Does Hunt take over? Does Chubb take over? That's hard to say at this point. It's just the thing that I can say is this Browns backfield is immensely talented. This Browns team is immensely talented. Nathan?

It is. It's crazy, man. Yeah, it's awesome. I was looking at something. Think about this. In 2017, okay, in 2017, our quarterback was Deshaun Kizer. Our running backs were Crowe and Duke. Our wide receivers were Kenny Britt, Ricardo Lewis.

Hollywood really wasn't even playing at that point. They brought in Sammy Coates. You know, you had Najoku as a rookie. And now it's Baker, Mayfield, Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, Callaway, and Najoku. It's like, what? How is that even possible? We went from having the worst skill position groups in the national football league.

We didn't have a quarterback on our roster who would ever win a game. We only had one receiver who had ever done anything, and that was Britt. And believe me, everything he'd ever done prior to coming to Cleveland, he's done nothing since he was here or after. And now you've got Beckham and Jarvis. It's just crazy. All right. Stop gloating, okay?

Some of us are Giants fans. It's crazy. We need to stop gloating, okay? Some of us are Giants fans. It's crazy! We need to stop gloating. We finished the 2014 season 0-5. In 2015, we go 3-13. 2016, 1-15. 2017,

0-16. We have a 7-8-1 last year, and now all of a sudden we're fine. I can gloat a little bit. It's a great time to be a Browns fan. It's like I'm looking into a Giants crystal ball right now when I hear all those records. Nathan, thank you so much for coming on, man. We appreciate it. Great stuff.

Thank you, Nathan. You guys are the best. It's always a quality time when we get together. I miss you guys, and it was fun. Whenever you want me to be on, happy to be on, because, hey, the Browns are relevant, and we can talk a little shop. It'll be good.

You'll come on in early February when the Browns are down here in Miami. That's all from your mouth to God's ears, Jamie. Let's go. Nathan Zagura, the senior media broadcaster of the Cleveland Browns. Thanks a lot. Great stuff from Nathan. So, guys, Le'Veon Bell or Nick Chubb? Chubb.

Chubb. Chubb. Close call on PPR. Chubb right now. If the Hunt suspension is only six games, then I'll take Bell. Jarvis Landry or Sterling Shepard? Landry. Landry. David DiGioco or Evan Ingram?

Ingram. Ingram. That one I don't know if it's close. Yeah, now, Eli Manning or Evan Ingram? Ingram. Ingram. That one I don't know if it's close. Yeah, no. Eli Manning or Tyrod Taylor? Wow, a guy that's not even signed yet. You just... I think at this point it's...

If that's what you have to pick from in your fantasy league, your team is in some real trouble. I think at this point it's Eli Manning, Kyler Murray, or Haskins. All right, how about a Saquon Barkley or Ezekiel Elliott now? It's always been Zeke for me. I changed to Zeke. That's the question. Did Saquon Barkley lose value here?

He did for me. I think it's kind of twofold because he loses value because there's clearly more attention being focused on him, but the addition of Zeitler and the fact that he's probably going to have a few more catches is a benefit. So he's still the same for me. He's number two. If you're curious how he did in four games without Odell Beckham, not great.

Not great. Not great. Two of them were absolutely terrible games for Saquon Barkley. Well, like 14 carries for 31 yards against Tennessee, 21 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown at Indianapolis. But it wasn't uncommon for him to have games with really bad yards per carry. He still was able to get in the end zone, caught three or four passes a game, had total yards.

But, no, he wasn't great. He had three games with 13-plus non-PPR points in the four. He scored 21 carries, 43 yards, and a touchdown. Great. That counts in fantasy. I'll take it. I know, but he had his two worst – four games without Beckham, but he had his two worst, of four games without Beckham, Barkley had his two worst yards per carry games of the season. YPC for life, right?

YPC for life. Thank God for those touchdowns. He's going to get a lot of chances at that now. The catches did not go up, but they weren't really throwing the ball that much in the second half of the season. Let's see. What else in this? So give me your thoughts on Sterling Shepard.

I don't trust him as a team's number one wide receiver. I think he's a good slot receiver, and that's it. He's one of those 45 number three receivers that you'll take a chance on. Late round pick. And I'm sorry that it's taken us nearly a half hour to get to Le'Veon Bell, but

Jamie did a Twitter poll. Sorry, it took Le'Veon Bell a half hour, four days to get to his...Veon Bell, but Jamie did a Twitter poll. Sorry, it took Le'Veon Bell a half hour, four days to get to his... Four days? It took him over a year. His two days of free agent signing period. What round are you drafting Le'Veon Bell this year? That was Jamie's tweet. So far, 4,000 votes. Round one, round two,

or I won't draft him, and my vote is the winner right now. Round two, 42%. Round one, 35%. This is PPR, by the way. And I was very surprised by that because the consensus that I've seen from tweets of other fantasy analysts

in the business have been very positive about Le'Veon Bell, and our projections are very positive about Le'Veon Bell. So Sportsline has him right now for 298 carries, for 1,232 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, 68 catches for 572 yards and two receiving touchdowns. So 15 total touchdowns and over 1,800 total yards, which would put him as the number five PPR running back. I

think that is very aggressive, especially the touchdowns, because he's never done that before. Are the Jets like the new, are they the mini Browns? Okay, not as good, but really exciting. I made this point on one of our programs yesterday that they feel like what the Browns felt like after the draft last year, where people were like,

oh, they could make a big jump and maybe get to eight wins. And I think that's kind of where the Jets are. The Anthony Barr thing is really going to end up hurting them, I think, because they thought they had an edge rusher. And there's some talk around the league that they would have been in on Zedaria Smith, who ended up with the Packers, maybe even Preston Smith, who also ended up with the Packers.

So two guys that they may have potentially paid more for, but they thought they had bar. And so now it may change their draft strategy because now they may not have gone for an edge rusher if they stay at three. I feel like they're the fake Browns. They're not the Browns now. Because they don't have the receivers.

They might have the receivers that the Browns had last year. So what you're saying is they are where the Browns were last year after the draft. Maybe that makes some sense. I'm still in the middle of, of trying to decide just exactly how I feel about Le'Veon Bell.

I've got him as a top 12 overall pick, regardless of format. And that's going to be his ADP. I mean, he's going to be drafted. Yeah. I don't think anybody's, especially when you see these projections and where he'll be,

you know, in the draft rooms. I want to see what this line looks like. I've been doing a lot of research on Adam Gase. I think when he does have a running back that's versatile, he knows it and he leans on him. He had great success in the three seasons. No Sean back in the

day, 2013 in Denver, had huge numbers. You look at his three years in Miami. He had good production from Ajayi in 2016. He had good production from Drake at the end of 2017. Yes, he did. Not really. the combination of... Well, not really.

I mean, the combination of those two guys was over 1,800 total yards and 10 total touchdowns. And Drake, to your point about versatile running back, he had 53 catches and over 1,000 total yards. And given the fact that he didn't really carry the ball very much, I think that's pretty successful. He was the number 14 PPR running back. So Gaze can get numbers out of Le'Veon. This to me is more about

the things around Le'Veon, not necessarily the play caller. It's about what his health will be over 16 games. And you could easily make the argument for any running back. I get that. But he sat out a season. He went from one of the most perfect scenarios of Hall of Fame quarterback, arguably Hall of Fame receiver, and by the end of his tenure, two great receivers. I know Juju was a rookie at the time, but still, he's looking like he's a star. And one of the best offensive lines from that period of 2014 through 2017. So it's hard to say that he's walking into, and I keep using this reference, he's leaving a perfect bubble and getting that same thing

because Darnold has a way to go. Offensive line, like you said, Dave, even though they get assembly from the Raiders, still has a way to go. Receiving core, I don't think is going to command the same respect like what the Steelers receiving core was. It's not the same setup. Can Bell be that good? Will Gase be as patient with the tiptoeing?

A lot of coaches don't love that. That's something that you have to get used to is him not necessarily hitting a hole. It's him trying to be patient and find what he has. Is everything still the same for him? Vision, all those things? Is he still at that level? Because, again, he sat out a year and he's a year older. I got to go back.

How often did Gase's running backs have 27 plus touches per game in Miami? 27. Total running backs? Running backs? Not just one guy. have 27 plus touches per game in Miami. Oh, come on. Like, oh, total running backs? Running backs, not just one guy. Oh, okay. All the guys.

And it's total touches, not just carries, but catches as well. Yeah, I don't know. Like, out of how many games or what? Out of how many seasons did they average it? Oh, two. Zero. 2016, they had 26.5 total touches per game. Okay, round up.

2017. Round up. 24. 2018, 25. So, yeah, look, they didn't have Le'Veon. I don't know if he's going to do that. No, he's not going to get that. But he's not going to get 27 touches per game.

But most running backs don't. He's Le'Veon Bell. Adam Gase did not have Le'Veon Bell in Miami. And they're obviously spending a lot on him. And he's going to be better in PPR if they use him right. I don't think that taking a year off is a bad thing for a running back. I agree with that. I think it's good.

However, I wish he didn't reportedly gain so much weight and get out of shape during his time off. I have heard that that's overblown. Okay, I hope it is overblown. I think, you know, you look at what Adrian Peterson did after a year off. He came back after playing one game in 2014. 327 carries, 1,485 yards, and 11 touchdowns was a great year for him, his third best in terms of rushing yards in his career. Marshawn Lynch I think was a lot better than we thought he would be,

and he was at a much later point in his career, obviously, than Le'Veon Bell. So I don't have a problem with him missing a year. I really don't. I've been going back and forth with Jamie on that for a while now. I don't want to speak for Jamie. And then, yeah, no no it's not the Steelers It's not the same situation but here's one thing That was bad about the Steelers

For Le'Veon Bell Dave I don't Know why it makes no sense it's a strange Thing but he just Pretty much never got A lot of carries inside the five Yard line he would get carries in the red Zone he would get carries in the ten But at the goal line,

it wasn't like he was being, you know, it wasn't like there was a snake who was taking them from him. But maybe it was just Roethlisberger was throwing a lot there. I don't know. But you're talking about a guy who might get like five or six carries inside the five. And because of that, Le'Veon Bell somehow has never had double-digit rushing touchdowns. So that actually is a stat that could increase with the Jets just based on the Steelers' philosophy with Le'Veon Bell. It doesn't make sense, but it is what happened. That's the stat that I'm most worried about with Le'Veon, is total touchdowns.

Total maybe, but rushing? Can he total 10? I don't see why not, because his total touchdowns, he's never had more than 12, I don't think. I don't even know if he's had 12. I think he's never had more than 11 total touchdowns in a season. And yet he's still been the number one running back, number two running back because he rolls out of bed and gets 2,100 total yards in a 16-game season. I can't imagine that's happening.

So what do you think, 1,800 total yards? I would be nervous to say even 1,600 total yards. That's 100 yards per game. But you have him top 12, so you seem nervous about double-digit touchdowns. I'm a little nervous about double-digit touchdowns and a little nervous about the total yardage. I think if we put him at 1,508, I think that's maybe a little too conservative, but I think that's maybe a little too conservative, but I think that's attainable with the Jets. All right, Dave, we're going to take a quick break,

come back and wrap up our discussion on Le'Veon Bell and the Jets, and I think even Baker Mayfield. I'd like to rank Baker Mayfield. We'll be right back 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

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What are you waiting for? Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your

project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. All right. So Le'Veon Bell, I think there's an obvious spot where he comes into play in the rankings because nobody's going to take him, I don't think, over Saquon Barkley or Todd Gurley or Ezekiel Elliott or Christian McCaffrey or Alvin Kamara. I don't think you should take him over Melvin Gordon, do you?

No, I'm taking Melvin. So that brings us to James Conner, Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, David Johnson. That group is probably where he fits in. Again, that's James Conner, Joe Mixon, Nick Chubb, David Johnson. And where's Le'Veon Bell in that group for you? He's at the top of that group in PPR, and it's because of the catches and because even though Adam Gase's track record, at least in Miami, was ever more than around four catches per game,

I think he's going to find ways to utilize Le'Veon. I think Darnold will find ways to utilize Le'Veon out of the backfield, and I hope that that will mean five to six catches per game. You multiply that by 16, that's a heck of a lot of catches. And I think he'll be able to get a lot more, significantly more than Chubb, Connor, Mixon, Johnson, and that will make the difference in PPR. Because Connor had 55 catches in 13 games.

So he could be a 70-catch guy. He could be, but we're talking about closer to 90 okay from from levion that's that's the hope the hope is that he's got 90 catches in him i don't i i think it would be gase mismanaging him if he falls short of that so it sounds like levion bell is your number seven running back in ppr behind in some order zeke barkley Barkley, Gurley, McCaffrey, Kamara, Melvin Gordon. It's correct. And what about in non-PPR? Non-PPR, he's ninth.

I've got Chubb and Conner ahead of him. Where are you ranking Baker Mayfield? Baker Mayfield is seventh for me. And I've gone back and forth with him versus Jared Goff. And I just think that the receiving core, I think he's got the best receiver of the two quarterbacks. Maybe the receiving core is deeper in L.A. than it is for Cleveland, but I think Baker is just the type of quarterback that can make it work with other good receivers on top of an elite receiver, and I'm going to give him the nod.

Is there anything we missed from the Giants, Jets, Browns side? No, I think we know about Baker, and I think everybody's going to be on board with him being somewhere between 5th and 10th, and no one's drafting Eli. I think Sam Darnold could be an interesting late-round pick.

You should put him in the same type of boat as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and those other young quarterbacks that's got that has some serious potential i think donald belongs in there based on the addition of levy on bell and the other additions that they have at wide receiver crowder is there now i i think they're a little bit better now at receiver chris herndon can take that next step robbie anderson figures to stick around with the Jets. Yeah, you know what? Does this hurt Jamison Crowder?

Does Le'Veon Bell's presence hurt his thought receiver? Yeah, I mean, there wasn't a lot of excitement for Jamison Crowder to begin with. But I think if I'm hoping that Le'Veon's catching five passes a game, we'll thank our lucky stars if Jamison Crowder gets to four. And I think that'll be hard for him to do. Well, you know, a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was last week, I told Heath that if you know anything about football, you know, it's never better to be a Jets fan than Giants fan. Just the Jets history is just so dismal.

It's definitely better to be a Jets fan than Giants fan. The Jets are looking up and they have the number three pick. And, you know, I think the things, the fantasy analysis we give might change because I see the Giants taking at least one skill position player with their two first-round picks at 6 and 17. They might take Haskins at 6 and a wide receiver at 17 or something like that. You don't think they go pass rush? I think they should. Yeah, I do too. But I don't know how that happens.

One thing I was floating stupidly, like they would trade six and 17 for number one and Josh Rosen and take Boza and get Rosen. Interesting. Gettleman's track record is typically to not trade. Yeah, Gettleman is... He doesn't like to make moves on draft day. He likes to just kind of stay where he's at.

He doesn't like good players. He does not. But I sort of get the trade. Well, we don't know what Odell was like behind closed doors there. Right. And maybe they thought that they were placating him by giving him that huge contract extension, and maybe that didn't happen.

And so they're cutting their losses, their theoretical losses. The interview he gave on ESPN early in the season was inexcusable. You cannot throw your quarterback under the bus like that. You just got a big contract. You cannot be doing that. It's inexcusable.

I think that it's okay to trade him, and I don't think the return was so bad, honestly. First-round pick, a former first-round pick who's in his third year, plays his safety. I don't think they did that. I mean, they certainly did better than the Steelers. They did do better than the Steelers, but I would like to think they could have gotten more. But maybe they didn't. Maybe that was legitimately the best offer that they had on the table.

I wish I had more faith in Sterling Shepard, but I think you're right, Dave. I just don't think he's that guy. In his history without Odell Beckham, there have been some really big games, some really good moments. But I don't know if it's him or if it's Eli, but I don't think he can consistently be a starter. I think he's a frustrating guy that has big games. Sometimes they're on your bench because you never know when to start Sterling Shepard. Agreed.

Okay. What do you want to say about Latavius Murray going to the Saints on a four-year deal? I think he's Mark Ingram-lite. I think that he can definitely run between the tackles like Ingram and be the traditional type of running back like Ingram. I don't think he's quite got the receiving skills of Ingram. And I don't know if he's quite as good as Ingram. The one thing about it is he's got less tread on the tire missing.

You know, ingram has something like 1500 total touches and latavius is i believe hovering around a thousand maybe 10 50 in terms of total touches so i'm sure that's what the saints thought they thought well this is a guy who's very similar to mark ingram who's got more gas in the tank who for all we know is going to be cheaper than mark ingram and so they're going to go with him as the replacement for Mark Ingram, but I think they'll find that they won't want to put him, they might not feel as comfortable putting him in passing type situations as they would have Ingram.

And therefore, Kamara could play more in those situations. I'll give you the one other stat that I found that I think might have swayed them. In the last two seasons, Latavius Murray has fumbled the ball once. Mark Ingram has fumbled the ball six times. And I think that might be even the biggest factor of all, is that they can't get over Mark Ingram in his fumbles, so they're going to get somebody who takes better care of the football. I think the good news is if you take Alvin Kamara in round one,

and I think he's probably a top three overall pick at this point, if you take him then and you have the desire to handcuff him, the price went down. Because with Ingram, you might have gone round six just to make sure you get him, maybe round seven. With Latavius Murray, it'll be at least round eight, if not round nine. Rank these three. Latavius Murray, Kareem Hunt, Carlos Hyde.

In non-PPR, I have Hunt, Hyde, Murray. Does that change in PPR? Probably not. Hunt, Hyde, Murray. And I think we can save. No no it doesn't change in ppr this should be our final show of the week and oh we say that but you never know what's coming we're recording this literally four hours before the league new year kicks off uh we do not know what's coming at four o'clock well we're pretty much out of big names except for mark ingram you never know about other trades though that's true so if it is we'll we'll recap everything on uh on monday so just wanted to say one more thing i need

to tell you about sports line and it is awesome especially with the brackets coming out we're gonna do a big bracket challenge by the way for for all of you that want to play against us, compete against us. But they've got optimal brackets, which were awesome. They finished in the top 5% of CBS Sports brackets last year. They have upset brackets that do a great job as well, giving you some of those double-digit seeds that can give you a first-round upset or something like that. So go to Sportsline.com, and I believe the promo code is HUDDLE.

Promo code is HUDDLE to get your first month for $1, and then after that it's just $9.99 a month. But HUDDLE is our promo code at Sportsline.com. Sign up and use the code HUDDLE and get $1 for your first month and only $9.99 after that. Great, great stuff. Take advantage of that offer. Thank you, Dave.

Thank you to Jamie. Thank you to Nathan Zagura. Thank you to all of you listeners. We'll that. Great, great stuff. Take advantage of that offer. Thank you, Dave. Thank you to Jamie. Thank you to Nathan Zagura. Thank you to all of you listeners. We'll probably talk to you on Monday. It's possible we'll be back on Thursday or Friday, but I hope this was a helpful show. And draft. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.