Fantasy Football Today - 05/10: Seahawks Radio Host Dick Fain Joins the Show (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: May 10, 2019

We're joined by Dick Fain - host of Softy and Fain on Sports Radio 950 KJR Seattle - to talk Seahawks. With Doug Baldwin's contract being terminated, what kind of role will rookie D.K. Metcalf play (2:15)? Will the offense continue to be run-heavy or will things change this season (7:32)? Can Rashaad Penny actually lead the team in rushing (9:25)? And without his favorite receiver, is Russell Wilson still a Top 12 Fantasy QB (10:50)? Finally we touch on Tyler Lockett (17:00) and which "Baldwin" would you rather have dinner with: Doug or Alec (20:30)?  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. The Doug Baldwin era is over in Seattle, which is really a shame,

because I always enjoyed watching that guy play. A top 12 fantasy wide receiver three straight years before 2018. And Seattle has terminated his contracts and Cam Chancellor's too. So how is this going to affect Russell Wilson? Is Tyler Lockett a stud receiver? Let's talk about it. I'm Adam Azer. Here's Dave Richard. Dave, is Tyler Lockett a stud receiver? Top 20? I think he's right about there. I'm not a mazer. Here's Dave Richard. Dave, is Tyler Lockett a stud receiver? Top 20? I think he's right about there. I think you're going to take him in round six as someone

that you have either as a desperation number two receiver or a really solid number three guy. Let's call him top 30 because I think he's really close to being top 24. Just not quite there. A little concerned about him replicating nearly 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns. Well, he was wide receiver 12 in non-PPR, wide receiver 17 in PPR.

And, of course, I want to know what Dave thinks, and I want to welcome everybody of our listeners to this special edition of Fantasy Football today. But we've got something even better. We're going right to Seattle to get some Seattle insight. We've got a great guest today. His name is Dick Fane. He is the host of Softie and Fane on Sports Radio 950 KJR Seattle. You can follow him on Twitter

at Dick Fane. That's F-A-I-N. Dick, thank you so much. Welcome to Fantasy Football today. It's great to be on, guys. I've been listening to you guys for years. You help me set my lineups every week, so it's good to be able to help you guys out. Are you going to you guys for years. You help me set my lineups every week so it's good to be able to help you guys out. Yeah, are you going to pile

on? I know you know that they give me a hard time on the show. Are you going to be doing that today? No, I am not nearly a veteran enough of this show to start making fun of the host. I'm saving that for Jamie and Dave. We will definitely bring

you back on for that. Cause I know you will be good at that. And I know that, you know, the Seahawks like the back of your hand. And so I spent time yesterday thinking about how they go about replacing Doug Baldwin. And the answer I came up with is they can't,

he's just, he was such a great slot receiver for them. Such a trustee security blanket for Russell Wilson, did great with the volume that he had. This is a team that doesn't throw the ball a ton anyway. I'm thinking that DK Metcalf is going to end up taking one of the outside receiver spots and Lockett will be in and out of the slot, assuming that one of the rookies that they drafted, Gary Jennings, John Ursua, don't end up bumping Lockett to the outside. But I guess I think I just want to start with Metcalf because I think that's where the natural direction is going to be for fantasy owners.

They're going to think, well, Doug Baldwin's gone. Who's going to pick up the slack? They just got Metcalf. He's real big. He's real fast. Tell me about what you saw from him during rookie minicamp and what you think his potential is in the Seattle offense? Well, the hype coming in was probably as big or bigger than any Seahawks draft pick in, in recent memory,

because, you know, keep in mind that John Schneider and Pete Carroll, a lot of times don't even have some draft picks. And this year they only had before the Frank Clark trade, they only had four draft picks total. And miraculously they turned four draft picks into 11 picks. It was just unbelievably done by—it was masterful.

I mean, they let Frank Clark go, but they got all those picks, they got a pick next year, and they were able to sign Viggy Anta, who's going to give you 75% of Frank Clark, 80% of Frank Clark if he can get you healthy. So they did a fantastic job of continuing to reboot this team while still staying competitive. So DK Metcalf, it was funny. We were in the draft media room right next door to the Seahawks' war room, and we sit there with our NFL expert, Hugh Millen, who was a longtime quarterback in the league,

and he is just pounding the table, pick after pick after pick. Metcalf hasn't gone yet. He's my guy. He's my guy. And then the Seahawks trade out of their first pick, and he's just going crazy. He's like, you could have had DK Metcalf at 21, and you decided to trade down.

And then they didn't select him at the end of the first round either. They took LJ Collier, and he's going absolutely crazy. And yet the Seahawks were able to grab him in the second round. He goes nuts. The city goes nuts. And then it's a matter of, okay, what is this guy going to actually look like when we're not just watching highlight tapes? And he was everything we could have hoped for.

I mean, he is fast. He's got soft hands. The question mark was, could he run out? And at least in non-contact drills against, let's face it, rookie cornerbacks and safeties, he was looking fantastic.

Climbed the ladder for a great ball. Had many shots downfield where he was making catches. And I think he's going to translate right away. But as you know, guys, and you guys have mentioned many times on the, on the show to count on a rookie wide receiver, there'll be a thousand yard double digit touchdown guy. I mean, that, that happens very, very rarely.

So that's probably the utmost, utmost ceiling for this guy. I would say much more into the lines of, you know, 700 yards and a handful of touchdowns. But all of his highlight plays, there's no question about it. Yeah, and I think the touchdowns are really what are interesting to me because you look at the red zone targets the last four seasons, 2015, 16, 17, 18, your leaders have been Doug Baldwin, Jimmy Graham, Jimmy Graham, and Doug Baldwin.

And Tyler Lockett has never really been a guy that's got targeted into the red zone. In fact, I gave this stat a few maybe like a couple weeks ago. He has 19 career touchdowns and only six of them were from inside 20 yards. And that's where I think Metcalf, and you tell me if you agree or disagree, Dick, but that's where I think

Metcalf seems like such a great fit. I feel like he, I made the prediction that he will lead the team in touchdown catches, and I just think it makes sense for him to fill that role and be a red zone target because he's so big. We had him on the website listed at 6'3", 228. He's the biggest, freakiest-looking wide receiver I've ever seen. Well, physically, he is the freakiest-looking wide receiver that's ever been put on a

field doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be calvin johnson but uh he certainly looks the part and i think he's going to be right up there uh atop the list with tyler lockett i've heard guy will disley coming back is going to be a guy that remember he's got three touchdowns in the first month of the season before he went down they They really like Will, and he's going to be back ready to go in training camp. So he's kind of a sleeper tight end to keep an eye on there. But, yeah, I mean, they're going to try to get Metcalf open in the end zone. The question is, you know, is he going to be a guy that's going to be able to run fade route?

Is he going to be able to post up guys in the corner of the end zone? Because that really wasn't his thing at Mississippi. It doesn't mean he can't do it. It just means he wasn't really asked to do it. I mean, all he did at Mississippi was run fast and beat corners down the field with deep posts and go routes. He didn't have to do much else than that, but they're going to have to run him through a complete route tree

if he's going to be a more valuable receiver than just a Ted Ginn type guy that's just, hey, go run fast and I'm going to throw a bomb to you. Any more than that out of D.J. Metcalf. The Seahawks averaged 33.4 rush attempts per game. That was second most in the NFL. Do you think that that is going to continue, or do you think that the coaching staff is trying to be a little bit more multi-dimensional and and trying to scare defenses by creating a passing game with the these downfield

threats that they have acquired they're going to run first to set up the downfield throws i mean what they did last year offensively is exactly what pete carroll wanted to do and they were unable to do it in 2017. Remember, that was the year that Russell Wilson had basically every touchdown rushing and passing for this team. And I think he had like 80% or 85% of the total offense for the team because there was absolutely no running game whatsoever. They fixed that offensive line, particularly run blocking.

Pass blocking's still okay, probably slightly below average, but a much above average offensive line running led by DJ Fluker. What a tremendous pickup DJ was. And then Chris Carson is healthy, and he was mashing. Rashad Penny, remember, he missed most of training camp with a hand injury last year. And so people here in Seattle are like, like oh richard penny's kind of a bust why'd you use the first round draft pick on him when you're not even using him well he was a month behind the timeline already and being a rookie you're already behind so i really expect a bounce back from richard penny this year and i think the seahawks run just as much this year as they do last did last year except now the bombs they're gonna throw

on the bombs to dk metcalf and some to to Tyler Lockett instead of always just to Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin. Yeah, I actually have a Twitter poll about Russell Wilson that I want to read. It's from Jamie. And I have two Twitter polls I want to read. And I think to no surprise, I voted on both of them and my vote is losing on both of them. So that's pretty much how it goes. But a quick follow up on what you were talking about with the running game. Who leads the team in rushing this year? I mean, I think the easy answer is Chris Carson, but I want to know if you think Penny overtakes him.

Who do you think leads the team in rushing? Well, if Chris Carson is healthy, he is going to be the new running back. But I do see the carries a little bit more balanced than they were last year. And again, that's because our shot, Penny, just got out of the gate so slowly and chris carson looks so great so i think you know 65 you know 60 30 10 something like that uh you know from one two and three they don't have mike davis anymore they do like travis homer they brought him in as a draft pick out of Miami you guys know him the Miami guy and absolutely like him as a as a third round third down receiving back I think he'll probably take the role that JD McKissick has had in the past and partially that Mike Davis had last year so I think Travis Homer makes the team and is uh is a nice little third down back and

then of course there's CJ Proseis and whoever knows what's going to happen to CJ Proseis I mean I I hitched my wagon to him a couple years ago after he had the huge game against Philadelphia and the huge game against New England. I was like, oh, man, this guy's going to be great. Why can't we make him an every-down back? And, well, not only can't he be an every-down back, it doesn't appear like he can be an every-week back either, like even staying on the field every week. So I've got no expectations for CJ Bray right now

until he shows me that he can get through training camp healthy. All right, so here's the Twitter poll I wanted to talk about, and I find the results to be stunning. Is Russell Wilson a number one fantasy quarterback in 2019? He was number seven last year in leagues with six points for passing touchdowns, despite Seattle attempting the fewest passes in the NFL while having the second most rush attempts, and now no Doug Baldwin. So is Russell Wilson a number one fantasy quarterback? For us, that just means top 12, which he's been basically every year except two years ago when he

was playing hurt. I said yes, and 62% of the respondents said no, and I just feel like I know he's not going to throw the ball that much, but Russell Wilson is that good. He's going to finish as a top 12 quarterback. I can't believe Dave, I'll throw to you first, I can't believe 62% of these respondents with 2,700 votes so far said no, he will be outside the top 12. I think there's two reasons why. Number one,

they believe that Seattle will continue to run the ball heavily. You just heard Dick say that they're going to be just as run heavy as they were last year. And number two, there's no Doug Baldwin and Baldwin has been a huge component of Russell Wilson's numbers. Do you think he's a top 12 quarterback? Do you think he's top 12? I have him in there for now, but he's no longer anywhere near the top five. I think he's, he's going to be one of those guys that ends up falling in drafts because people see the upside in Baker Mayfield.

They might see the upside. If Cam Newton's healthy, I think he's an easy one to draft over him. I think it's when you get to Drew Brees, who may not be quite as prolific as he's been in the past, certainly not as consistent as he's been in the past. That's when you might start measuring up Russ against him. But if he doesn't have Doug Baldwin and you know they're going to run the ball a lot, you're counting on Russell Wilson either to start running more than he did last year, which I mean, I think there was like one game where his

rushing made a difference. Or you're hoping that DK Metcalf has a big chunk of picking up the slack. And if not him, then we're talking Will Disley or the running backs. It seems a little far-fetched for him to find 30 total touchdowns this year. So I get where those people are coming from.

Yeah, I don't know. I just have a lot of faith in him. His four games without Doug Baldwin, I'll say four because Baldwin played only 11 snaps in week one, the results weren't good. In six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues, Wilson scored 25, 18, 19, and 8 fantasy points. That said, he faced at least three, if not four, very good defenses. I mean, Denver wasn't so great last year,

but he was at Denver, at Chicago, Dallas, and Minnesota. So those could have been four of his worst games regardless. So let me ask Dick here. Dick, do you think Russell Wilson will be a top 12 fantasy quarterback this year? Absolutely. Not at the end of the table, but absolutely. He's so efficient, guys. I mean, not I'm into the tank, but absolutely. He's so efficient guys. He's just, he's not a guy that swings it around 550 times, but he completes almost 70% of his balls and he never throws interceptions. I mean, it's just when he throws the ball,

something good happens. Now he's not going to throw it that much, but I'll take a guy that's only throwing 24, 25 times, but he's giving me two touchdowns and not throwing interceptions and throwing for 240, 250 yards. And really, I think the determining factor on whether Russell is at the bottom end of the top 12 or if he's at the middle end of the top 12 is what do we have in Metcalf, Jennings, and Ursua? What can those guys bring to the table?

We know what Lockett's going to bring to the table. And, you know, I think, you know, Dave mentioned earlier, I think he's right in Lockett's going to slide into that Doug Baldwin spot. And the slide will be used outside some too, but they're really going to try to stretch the field. And I think you're going to see that play-action game work again for Seattle this year with Russell Wilson. They established that running game, which I don't know why they shouldn't be able to. They added Mike Capote, so they've got a little bit more depth in that offensive line now with DJ Fluker.

And they're just going to pound, pound, pound. And then they're going to go play-action, and they're going to chuck the ball deep to Tyler Lockett and chuck the ball deep to DJ Metcalf. And, you know, Russell will have some big-time passing games, not attempts-wise, but he'll have some big-time results games this year. Could we make the argument that because the Seahawks' defense could be worse, that Russell Wilson will have to throw more than last year? I don't think they will be worse.

Because I think this was a rebuilt defense last year. Remember, they came out of the LOB era in 2017 where everybody got hurt. And we thought last year that the Seahawks defense, I thought they were going to be 15th, 16th. And that was just giving Pete Carroll the benefit of the doubt of being as good a defensive coach along with Belichick as there is in the NFL. And I thought, okay, they'd be around 15th, 16th in defense. They finished 11th, guys. Seattle Seahawks, with a completely new defense,

finished 11th in scoring last year. And so now everybody's back, with the exception of take out Frank Clark, put in Ziggy Ansa, and you get a healthy K.J. Wright back. Remember, K.J. Wright only played like four games last year. So I would say that the Seahawks are at least 11th, 12th in points allowed, if not sneaking into the bottom of the top 10 this year. The one last point I wanted to make on Lockett, I went back and checked. Three games last year without Doug Baldwin, he played in the slot 58% of the time, nearly 60% of the time.

And in the other games, so 13 games with Doug Baldwin on the field for at least part of the time, 48% in the slot, 52% outside. So I think at the very least, he will be close to 50-50 in the slot, out of the slot, and maybe a little bit more, depending on how the other receivers end up performing, especially those rookies. Yeah. Absolutely. Now you've got a guy in Metcalf that's so much more dynamic than, say, a David Moore is on the outside.

I mean, that's going to make Lockett even more valuable in the middle when you've got some threats that have to take those safeties away from the middle of the field. Right. So I do want to conclude witheties away from the middle of the field. Right. So I do want to conclude with your thoughts on the wide receivers in general. We've sort of focused on DK Metcalf, but Seattle drafted three receivers, Metcalf in round two, Gary Jennings out of West Virginia in round four, John Ursua round seven out of Hawaii.

It's a team that went 10-6 last year, lost at Dallas in the playoffs. I was so sure they were going to win that game. Very surprising result for me. So really, I want to know how you see it breaking down. We've already talked about it a little bit, but from a fantasy perspective, Tyler Lockett, 12th in non-PPR, 17th in PPR last year, 965 yards, 10 touchdowns on 71 targets. He had the 56th most targets among wide receivers and was a top 20 wide receiver, 12th in non-PPR.

So he's always right around 50-ish catches, 70 targets. Four straight years with 67 to 71 targets. Does he stay in that role, or does he become more of a legit number one? And second question is the other two rookies, Jennings and Ursua, do you think they're going to matter at all this year from a fantasy perspective? Well, you're asking a guy that at the beginning of last season called Tyler Lockett a run-of-the-mill receiver, basically.

He's running as far as a Seattle Seahawks. At least for one year, he proved me wrong last year, and he had a very, very good season. I think 10 touchdowns for Lockett, I would say that's probably the high end. I think Russell's really going to spread the wealth around. I think you're going to see a handful for Jennings, a handful for Disley, and Lockett will have his, you know, 8 to 10 at the

most touchdowns, and then, you know, really that wild card is Metcalf. I mean, you know, Metcalf could be injured and play six or seven games. Well, if that happens, then Lockett's numbers are definitely going to go up. If D.K. Metcalf is healthy all 16 games, and he's even 75% of the hype that he is right now, he's going to end up with 800 to 1,000 yards and eight or nine touchdowns. And that could knock Lockett down a little bit. Lockett, I think, is a pretty safe low end. I'd call him a low end number two, honestly. But a guy that you definitely want to start each and every week

because he is going to get his chances from Russell Wilson. And then, you know, DK is your sleeper guy. You don't want to reach too high for him because of the rookie wide receivers don't always pop right away. But you definitely want to have him on your roster. I don't think he's a guy that you can go undrafted because somebody's going to snag him up in the first couple weeks when he has his first, you know, six-catch 90-yard game.

Oh, yeah. So you want to have him on your roster. And then Will Disley, I think you want to – I think Will Disley, you want to stash at the end of your draft because nobody's going to draft him. Stash Will Disley for two or three weeks and see if he can replicate what he did last September before he got hurt. I love it. Actually, that's a really good call.

I'm glad you brought Disley up. I'm glad you brought him up earlier when we were talking about red zone targets. Makes sense for him to fill that void. Going to end the show with some rankings. I'm going to ask you guys. Dave, you're going to answer first. Dick, you can go second. Tyler Lockett or Calvin Ridley?

I'll take Ridley. Ridley. Tyler Lockett or Robbie Anderson? I'll go Lockett over Robbie. It's close. I'll probably go Lockett. I'd lean Lockett.

Okay, last one. lockett or alan robinson lockett easy yeah this is this 2014 and then my robinson for to his credit robinson is saying that he's healthier and he he thinks he's going to be able to contribute more this year. But I'm not changing my stance on that one until I see Robinson in training camp. Okay, and this is the second Twitter poll that I'm surprised by the results. In light of recent Seahawks news and the fact that we're doing a bonus episode later today,

here's a Twitter poll for you. Which Baldwin would you rather have dinner with? A, Doug, or B, Alec? Ooh. They're both very entertaining. Yeah. I mean, Doug is probably the number one Seahawk that you could have just a great three-hour conversation

at dinner with on anything. Oh, yeah? Absolutely anything. Yeah. I might leave Doug mobile. I think Alec would be funny for about a half an hour and then I might get bored. I don't know that I want to go to dinner with would be funny for about a half an hour, and then I might get bored. I don't know that I want to go to dinner with a stranger

for more than a half an hour. We could go get a burger and say farewell, but that's good perspective, because I was originally voting Alec, but you may have put me on Team Doug. No, Doug is really interesting. I enjoyed speaking to him at a Pro Bowl a couple of years back. I was actually intimidated,

because I know that right around that time, he went on a rant against the media. So I wasn't sure how he was going to react to somebody coming up to him after a pro bowl practice, but he was very cool. And he's just so sharp when it comes to football. You can learn a lot from him. And I'm sure Dick did. Yeah.

Second best receiver in Seahawks history, guys. And we on the show yesterday had Steve Lawrence talk about Doug Baldwin. It was really, really really really cool having the number one receiver in Seahawks history talking about the number two and he was saying some of those same things. That's great. If I could ask you one more question before you go I'm sorry for keeping you so long.

Yeah. Paint the picture for me I don't know if you even get a chance to go to games anymore because you have your radio show I don't know if you cover the games live but paint a picture for me of a big game in that stadium and what it's like. Oh, man. Well, first of all, I do get to go to games because I made a deal.

My boss wanted me to do the post-game show each week, and I said, okay, fine, as long as I'm not sitting in a press box. I'm sitting in my own seat. So I sit in my own seat and I take notes on my phone, and then I go to the Barbex store and get a postgame show. But it's unlike any stadium I've been

to. I've been to a lot of NFL stadiums, and the constant din and the way that the Seahawks fans are so savvy to know exactly when they're supposed to make noise, exactly when they're supposed to be quiet, and it ramps up as they understand the magnitude of the football game as well. I mean, you're going to get 25% louder on a Monday night

or a Sunday night football game than you are on a 1 o'clock game against the Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, it's just going to be. But even in that 1 o'clock game, if it's a close game and it's going to be 7, Dalton's going to be back there giving hand signals because he's not going to be able to hear. The difference is when you get Sunday night – I mean, look at the Hawks' primetime record at home.

I mean, there's something stupid. They're like 22-2 or something like that on primetime at home. And a major reason for that is the 12th man. I would commit so many false starts. It would just be, I would just, like three in a row. Adam, you get nervous watching Game of Thrones. Of course you're going to be terrible when it comes to the snap count. Oh, man, this is great stuff.

Dick Fane, host of Softie and Fane on Sports Radio, 950 KJR in Seattle. Make sure you follow him on Twitter at Dick Fane F-A-I-N. He gives great information about the Seattle Seahawks. Thank you for coming on. It's always great to hear from a listener as well. So thanks for being on our show, man. We appreciate it. Sounds good. Anytime, Doug. Thanks.

Dave, bye to you. Bye to me. All right.