Fantasy Football Today - 06/10: Debating the Top 4 RBs and More! (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 10, 2019

Resuming where we left off last week, we dig deep on the Top 4 RBs (4:00) with the cases for and against each (McCaffrey, Kamara, Zeke, Barkley). We mostly talk PPR but also discuss non-PPR. Will Zeke be a force in the passing game again? Will Kamara get more goal line carries? Will McCaffrey get fewer goal line carries? And will Barkley be a victim of a bad offense? ... News and notes (26:20) as we discuss what kind of suspension we expect for Tyreek Hill and if he should go ahead of Sammy Watkins in drafts. Plus a note on GB WRs ... Our Ben Gretch joins us to tell us what he would change in the Top 150 rankings (33:00). He's very high on Kyler Murray and not so high on Derrick Henry. He also discusses young WRs and plenty more ... 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! If you still draft quarterbacks in round one, we're here to help. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. We're picking up where we left off last week after a successful week of counting down the top 150 players in our PPR rankings.

We're going to get to numbers 4, 3, 2, and 1. Those elite running backs in PPR, McCaffrey, Kamara, Zeke, and Barkley. Pros and cons for each guy, a little bit of analysis. And then later on in the show, our Ben Gretsch will join us to dissect the top 150 and say what he would have done a little bit differently. I'm Adam Azer. Good afternoon to Jamie and Dave. My name is Dave. Thank you. Adam, would you say that

this is the final four of the rankings? I would say that. I'm not speaking to you, sir. To me? To you. I know. I said I was going to kill Jamie on the baseball podcast, and I'm going to kill? Yeah, I did say kill.

Two public apologies, one here and then one on the baseball show. Okay, I apologize. But I said if Jamie messed up, but he didn't mess up. I thought he forgot to put in a claim for a player. It turns out he didn't. I said if he messed up, in a claim for a player. It turns out he didn't. I said, if he messed up. But you are in the clear. So today we have some other results.

Congratulations, Jamie. You're going to live. By default, dragging me into your mess of screwing up how the process usually works in that league on Mondays. I didn't do anything of the sort. But it is a question of should waivers reset every week? What do you guys think? No.

It's more of a baseball question than a football question, I think. Baseball, yes. Baseball, no. Why not in football? If you start with that terrible team and you don't use your waiver claim, I guess, yeah, it should be fine. Why shouldn't you be allowed to sit and sit and sit until the player you really, until that

Wendell Smallwood comes off the waiver wire gotta have them yeah I mean that's why fab is the best I guess but it gets a little frustrating in those fantasy football leagues where waivers reset every week and what I mean by that is worst record has number one waiver

waiver wire priority on Tuesday morning and then like you know throughout the week, if that worst record makes a claim and somebody else doesn't, okay, well now on Thursday or Friday or whenever, that somebody who didn't, it jumps ahead and has priority.

But as soon as the next week rolls around, the standings are updated and the waiver wire priority is updated. And again, worst record has best priority. It gets a little frustrating that if you have a good team, you can pretty much never get that running back or whoever it is that everybody

wants. I guess the only thing that works is that football's season is so short that if you stink, you have a chance to rebound. Yeah. Baseball, it's such a long season that I almost think like to Dave's point,

if you want to sit and wait for a guy, you have a little bit more of an option to do that. In baseball, you do not get the one-player impact nearly as frequently as you do for football. Sure. But pitchers, you can. You can. Prospects, you can. Like Jordan Alvarez, this guy got called up today. But I think football the waiver

having the number one waiver priority in football means a lot more than in baseball right yes depends on the time of year i i think no matter what why why would it depend because if it's later on in the season i'll just give you an example just from my experience in our al only league when that trade deadline comes around and a big time player moves from the nl to the al you want to be first on that waiver list to get that player now there could be a player like that off the waiver wire every week in the nfl we sit in this podcast studio every week and we talk about who's the number one guy to go add off of waivers yeah how many times during the season was there a slam dunk,

got to get them number one guy? A handful. Yeah, several. Not none. It's usually when a running back gets injured. Yeah. Yeah. But the AL only, NL only thing is a little bit different.

But okay, anyway, back to football. I like that. It was a fun discussion. Let's debate the top four. I still hate you. I think we can go one through four now. Saquon, Zeke, Kamara. Are you sure you know the order?

And McCaffrey. I don't mean the players. I mean how to count. You did it just a minute ago. I don't know that I got that right. You did. Saquon, Zeke. No, you know what? I changed my mind. Let's go four to one. Let's do the case four and the case against Christian McCaffrey.

Dave, make the case for McCaffrey. He's number four in our consensus PPR rankings. Well, he was outstanding last year. He had 326 touches. 107 of them were receptions. He had almost 2,000 total yards, 13 touchdowns. A third of his total touches obviously were receptions. 23.3 fantasy points per game in ppr 16.6 and non he was uh he was

really really good and i think he's just going to continue to get better he's put on muscle this offseason if you've seen photos of him he looks like the incredible hulk just a little bit shorter and uh i think he's there to also help take some pressure off of Cam Newton. Yeah, and McCaffrey was the number one running back in this format last year. He was third in non-PPR. He was first in PPR. Now, he played 17 games but really barely played in Week 17. He had five touches and 40 total yards.

Jamie, the case against Christian McCaffrey, and by the way, I don't think that Jamie's down. Anybody making the case against, we're not down on these the way, I don't think that Jamie's down. Anybody making the case against, we're not down on these guys, but just to bring it up. Go ahead. Cam Newton blows out his shoulder. Well, they've got Will Greer. There's got to be more than that against Christian McCaffrey.

Cam Newton blows out his shoulder. So let's say that happens before the season starts. Christian McCaffrey hurts his hamstring. No, I can give a real one. Christian McCaffrey twists his ankle. So let's say that happens before the season starts. Christian McCaffrey hurts his hamstring. I can give a real one. Christian McCaffrey twists his ankle. Come on. Do you want to give a real one? The offensive line is not exactly great, and the passing game is missing

a significant impact receiver. Not that they had one a year ago, but still it's something that you can just say they're going to focus on stopping the run. But I mean, McCaffrey, again, like you said, Adam, we're nitpicking here. So there's not a lot to nitpick with this guy. If there's one thing that, yeah, we'll be nitpicking. I mean, he caught 107 passes.

That's a ton. He had the most targets, the most catches among running backs. He had the 10th most carries. Did they add anyone? Because he had almost all of the carries for Carolina. Did they have anyone that's going to take some of the workload off? Let's start with that. No. It's actually not true because at the beginning of the year,

they used C.J. Anderson. C.J. Anderson, I think, had 24 carries. It was enough. I feel like it was more than that. I'll confirm. They used him, and those short yardage opportunities weren't quite there, I don't believe, early on. He had nine touchdowns from inside of 10 yards.

This is McCaffrey, obviously not Anderson. Nine touchdowns from inside of 10 yards, four from the goal line. And he only averaged 13.7 carries per game. And I think the addition of muscle was meant to boost that number a little bit more, give him a little bit more work off of handoffs and, you know, carries. Yeah, no running back had more than 24 carries other than McCaffrey. Now, Cam Newton obviously carried quite a bit. And this is also a way to get a little bit less off of Newton's plate by letting McCaffrey

run between the tackles and take pitches and the like. Okay, the other thing is the touchdowns. He did get a decent amount of goal line work, Christian McCaffrey, and targets, by the way. He doesn't just carry the ball inside the 10, inside the 5. He gets carries there as well. He led the team in red zone targets. He was second on the team in targets inside the 10-yard line.

But Cam had, I think, four rushing touchdowns last year. That's a little bit low. He's usually, honestly, he's usually like five. But McCaffrey had four one-yard touchdown runs. Overall, he had six rushing touchdowns from inside the five. Maybe Cam Newton gets more of those. We are nitpicking. Let's go to number three.

Then we'll kind of debate everybody. But number three is Alvin Kamara. Jamie, make the case is Alvin Kamara. Jamie, make the case for Alvin Kamara, who was fourth in both formats, PPR and non-PPR last year. Latavius Murray stinks, and he's not close to what Mark Ingram

was, and you get the production he got from Kamara in the first four games of the season last year, where he had at least 33 or more PPR points in three of the four games. And he gets more work. So he's in a great spot in an offense that's going to feature him to the level that they do. I mean, I don't think he's ever going to be a 25-touch guy consistently,

but he has the chance to be 18 to 20 on a week-to-week basis. And even without Max Unger being there, I still think this is a good offensive line with a great quarterback and a great system. So there's a lot to love about Alvin Kamara. And Dave, the case against Kamara. First of all, it's tough for me to make this case. He's my number one running back in PPR.

I would take him at number one overall. Now, in saying that, he had 18 touchdowns last year. Hashtag Heath Cummings regression argument. That number is sure to come down. Of course, we were talking about Kamara regressing at this time last year after his big rookie season when he had 13 touchdowns, and he made us look foolish. Oh, I'm sorry.

I thought you were done. I thought you were still going. It's very hard. What else do you want me to say no that's fine uh he he could get hurt because he's not as big as saquon barkley or ezekiel elliott or latavius murray is going to do exactly what mark ingram did i know what it is it's jared cook does the addition of Jared Cook, maybe the emergence of some young wide receivers, does that take away from the catches? Kamara had 81 catches last year. In fact, two straight years with 81 catches. Whereas, as I said, McCaffrey had 107.

So that's a pretty big difference in PPR. Does Kamara catch fewer passes? It is interesting, though, how touchdown dependent he was. For a guy that you would think the receiving numbers kind of boost him a little bit more than they do. And again, 18 touchdowns is a lot to replicate.

I think if you give him the 13 from a year ago, that's kind of where he'll be. But just going at his game log from week 10 on, it was 16 touches, 14 touches, 15 touches, 19 touches. That includes an 8-catch game. 17 touches with a 5-catch

game. 21 touches with a 7-catch game. And then 11 touches in week 17. Week 16, excuse me. He didn't play in week 17. Can he be sustainable on basically 16 touches per game? If that's kind of where he's going to average. That could be a little rough. And I think he'll be north of that,

not very much north of that, but still, it's... I don't think Latavius Murray is Mark Ingram 2017. I think he's better than Mark Ingram 2018. But it's also throwing those four games into play where Ingram didn't play in those four games. And it was in those four games for Kamara, just in terms of touches,

it was 17, 19, 31, 24, and then Ingram comes back. And the first game with Ingram back, it's nine touches for Kamara. And one other thing about that, Alvin Kamara had the fourth most carries inside the five-yard line, but he only had like 35% of his team's carries inside the five-yard line

because he had 13 such carries and Mark Ingram himself had 12. The leader was Todd Gurley with 18 carries inside the five. Kamara and Ingram combined for 25. So if Murray doesn't have quite the same role as Ingram and they increase Kamara's workload near the goal line, he might score 18 touchdowns total again. You never know. All right, Ezekiel Elliott, number two overall.

Jamie, the case for Ezekiel Elliott. I mean, he's just been so consistent and such a beast in an offense that's going to still be run dominant. Hopefully the return, I hope the return of Travis Frederick first off. But if he does get Frederick back, that just adds another piece to the offensive line, which would be fantastic. What he did in the passing game last year, please carry over to this year where he had 70-plus catches.

If he does that again, he could easily be. I struggle between Barkley and Zeke. Zeke's number one for me in non-PPR. I struggle with him not being number one in PPR just because of what, you know, potential downfall Barkley may have. But I think Barkley's role in the passing game kind of gives him a little bit of an edge. And that's again, saying that with Elliot coming off a 70 plus cash game, but I think they're easily one in one a, um, uh, not that Camara and McAfee are bad players. And if you want to take one of them first overall, I get it game but I think they're easily one and one a um uh not that Camara and McAfee are bad players and if you want to take one of them first overall I get it but I I just think what Barkley and Zeke should be able to do what they were able to do a year ago uh but Elliot in particular with

the offense around him um I think it's just special in Dallas did you mention and I know I'm about to argue against Ezekiel Elliott for some reason but did you mention the touchdowns that he had last year and how it seems weird? Yeah, ridiculous. Or to expect him to have... Only six rushing. Single digit. Forget about six. Single digit rushing touchdowns. Yeah, crazy. Yeah, you

gotta expect more. No explanation for it. I mean, it's not like Dak Prescott had more touchdowns than he usually does rushing. He had six, which is what he always gets. So, Ezekiel Elliott had nine total touchdowns, only six on the ground. I mean, just weird. And in fact, he scored a rushing touchdown in both of his postseason games. What's the case against Zeke? The only thing that I can say against Zeke, and he's my number one in non-PPR, is that throughout his NFL career, three years, he has 936 career carries.

I haven't bothered to add up his catches yet, but if you give me a minute, I can do it. 135 plus 7. Okay, I'm going to need another hour to figure that out. But he's got well over 1,000 touches over the course of his career. It's not great. You'd like him to have a little bit less work on him, given the circumstances,

but at least he's used to it. I think there's a question about the catches, as Jamie was mentioning, because he had 26 catches. How many games did he play in 2017? 10? 10. 26 catches in 10 games in 2017,

jumped up to 77 last year. So we are speaking about PPR today. And to me, that's, you know, if we're making the case against, as Jamie just said, you know, Barkley appears to have more of a role in the passing game.

I think the one thing like, you know, people may think is his catches decrease when Amari Cooper joined the team. And the answer is no, it actually went up. Will his catches decrease with, and this might make you laugh, Randall Cobb and Jason Witten joining the team. It might answer is no. They actually went up. Will his catches decrease with, and this might make you laugh, Randall Cobb and Jason Witten joining

the team? It might. Again, that's the first year without Witten. So the security blanket for Dak Prescott was gone, and now he's back. Alright, so let's go to Saquon Barkley, number one in our PPR rankings, and he, in his last eight games of the season, was on pace for just 66 catches. Overall in the season,

91 catches. He was on pace for just 66 catches overall in the season 91 catches he was on pace in his first eight games for 116 catches and then he started running the ball more second half of the year and catching the ball less but i still i mean we expect 80 catches from barkley yeah yes okay uh the k and and he told us last week his projections. He has him as the reception leader for the Giants. What's the case for Saquon Barkley, number one overall, Dave? Well, we're talking about the running back that finished number one in PPR last year, number two in non and half PPR. Super consistent.

Lots of big point totals. And he is the New Yorkork giants offense until further notice offensive line has gotten better the receiving game has not necessarily gotten better if anything it's gotten worse so their focus will be very much on having saquon shoulder the load he's young he's strong and uh he's he's he's going to get a lot of touchdown opportunities. He's going to get a lot of opportunities in general. Jamie, the case against Saquon Barkley. Todd Gurley, sophomore season.

Leonard Fournette, sophomore season. Ezekiel Elliott, sophomore season. They've all struggled. The last three prominent running backs taken in the top five of the draft, NFL draft, NFL draft. Their second years have been bad. Really? But you're going to include Zeke in that?

Because it was really the suspension, right? It's a part of it. There's been a downturn in production. However it happened, there's been a downturn in production. I agree with you. Obviously, it's circumstantial with him. But still, taking Odell Beckham off the field, does that make this offense just that much more predictable? The hope would be no, you know, that the combination of Tate, Ingram, and Shepard make up the difference.

And when I say that, it's Shepard and Ingram's numbers get elevated along with Tate that it replaces the threat of Beckham. So there's not a threat of Odell Beckham on the field, but if collectively the group is better. Look, the thing that you like about Barkley, or you should, is Manning doesn't like to throw interceptions, and he doesn't like to take sacks. So he likes to get the ball out of his hand as quickly as possible and save throws.

And so that's where Schermer will put Barkley in some good spots. But I think the biggest thing for me is, you know, it started last year with soldier and Hernandez and getting Zeitler and, and Remmers, you know, those, that group collectively should be better. And, and Zeitler, I think is the biggest addition for Saquon Barkley's fantasy value by far. So if that run game is better, not that it's hard to say he's going to do more than five yards per carry, but just overall, 80 catches, I think 2,000 total yards is within reach again, and can he still be 15-plus touchdowns?

I've got to do a little research on something here if we're just making the case against Saquon Barkley. Dave said he finished number one last year in PPR. I had him at number two, one point behind McCaffrey. But let's just say they tied. And since McCaffrey barely played in Week 17, McCaffrey probably was better. But both of them were on offenses that were just average last year.

So I think the argument against Barkley is like the Giants could be terrible and it's hard to be a great fantasy running back on a bad offense. Do you think they'll be worse than they were a year ago? Right. Do I? Yeah,

kind of because I know that they didn't really struggle that much offensively without Beckham. It was only four games. But taking him off the field is a big deal. I would probably predict them to be somewhere around that. They were like 17th or something in scoring. I think they'll be okay.

They scored more without Beckham in those four games. They had that one game against the Redskins, I think. Still, I mean, again, you gotta go with the averages. But you don't really because we don't really think they're a better offense without Beckham.

No, but statistically, it's not like they lost a lot. They had a great game against the Cowboys in Week 17. Yeah, I mean, and the offensive line is better, but I'm just,

again, it's the case against Barkley. Oh, sure, sure. That's why, I mean, I talked about this before. I have trouble taking him over Kamara in PPR because the Saints offense is just so much better than the Giants offense.

No matter what, best case scenario for the Giants, I still think they're a much worse offense than the Saints. And last year again, you know, if you're just looking at it, the Saints offense was better. Barkley averaged more points per game. He did. Yeah, I know. He's amazing. He's probably the most gifted.

Okay, it was really close, though. He averaged half a point more per game than Kamara. I mean, again, you're talking nitpicking when you get into these guys at the top. Right, but I still think Kamara did well enough where I can justify taking him over Barkley, right? You can justify any of these guys? Sure.

You can absolutely justify it, but who has the higher ceiling? I think Kamara has reached the ceiling. I don't know if Barkley has. I agree with that. Barkley, is he the most talented running back in football right now? It's hard to argue against it. He's pretty amazing.

I mean, when you start to just, you know, you kind of alluded to this about the team and the talent around him. imagine if you've had the cowboys offensive line or the saints offense oh yeah no and i'm worried i'm a little worried not very worried i'm a little worried that we might say that about saquon by week four imagine what he'd be able to do if he had odell but this was the top off the defense this was the argument last year you know remember week one, how's he going to play well against Jacksonville? This team's going to be bad. Yeah, and he broke off like a 60-yard touchdown, whatever it was. That's what great players do.

Yeah. No, it's true. I mean, Isaiah Crowell did that once. So, Dave, you would take Kamara number one in PPR, right? I would. The concern I have is how he will do without Odell Beckham there because there is a noticeable point per game drop off.

In PPR, it was like five points per game, and in non, it was three points per game. Also take into account Odell Beckham. He's never had that many games to play. So guys, there's a rookie wall for a reason. Oh, sure. And the Ppr aspect was

part of that was he just like i said wasn't cashing the ball as much because they were giving him more carries um they also had 30 targets though in his last four games you will not get somebody stealing stealing goal line carries from barkley you will get that occasionally stealing goal line carries from camara you will get it stealing goal line carries from Kamara. You will get it stealing goal line carries from McCaffrey, but that's Cam Newton. If Cam is going to be allowed to do that. He'll still do it occasionally.

Who knows? They may tell him no because of shoulder. I bet he does it a couple times at home during the year. And you will not get that from Zeke. All right. So who's number one in non-PPR? at home during the year. And you will not get that from Zeke. All right, so who's number one in non-PPR? Zeke. Zeke.

Final thoughts on this group? Try and get a pick in the top four on draft day. Does McCaffrey... All four of these guys are awesome. Does McCaffrey scare you at all? No. None of these guys should scare you. He doesn't scare me at all? No. None of these guys should scare you. He doesn't scare me in PPR. He's going to catch so many passes.

In non-PPR, McCaffrey, I feel like I don't know that I would take him fourth in non-PPR. Who would you look at instead? Melvin Gordon? Of all the elite players, the one guy that I feel like I need to really analyze, dig into the stats, check out the game laws a little bit more is James Conner. I think Gordon and Conner may be ahead of McCaffrey, but Conner scares me a little bit too.

Maybe I'd go receiver there just to be safe. I don't know. I don't know what it is about McCaffrey. I guess I'm not necessarily sure that he is that five yards per carry on a ton of carries in between the tackles rusher. I'm not sure.

He's a different type of running back and you have to understand that when you draft him. He will not get you to 300 carries or even 250 carries. How many carries per game you said? He's not traditional. That's it. Forget many per game? 13.6. So that's it.

Forget about what I just said about the, you know, that's it right there. Does he get enough carries? If he's catching four or five balls a game. He has to score. And receiving touchdowns are hard to predict. So he is a top four pick for you? Yeah, but if he goes from six to four and scores nine,

I mean, it'll average out. He'll still get 12-plus touchdown. I think getting any of these guys at fourth overall is a win for your fantasy squad. It's the perfect spot to be in on draft day. I think no matter what, though, he's clearly fourth. You're going to find a hard time. Anybody make an argument.

I can't do it in PPR. I would take him over Zeke in PPR because I think Zeke's catches are going to go down. Jamie, you think McCaffrey's clearly for in PPR also? Yeah. See, if you could tell me that Melvin Gordon was going to play the same amount of games as McCaffrey, I would definitely take Gordon over McCaffrey in non-PPR.

I would take McCaffrey in PPR. And in half, it'd be close. So right now on Fantasy Football Calculator, non-PPR, it's Elliott, Barkley, Kamara, McCaffrey. And in PPR, it is Barkley, McCaffrey, Elliott, Kamara. Wow. Kamara fourth. I want that fourth pick.

Yeah. Fourth pick in PPR. That's what I want. Fourth pick in PBR is outstanding. It really is. All right, we'll take a quick break here on Fantasy Football today. When we come back, we've got some news and notes, including Tyreek Hill update,

and then we'll get Ben Gretch on to talk about his take on our Top 150. 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, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action.

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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. Tyreek Hill making the headlines. This was last week, but we didn't get to talk about it. Also, just to let everyone know, no emails today. Definitely emails later in the week.

And we're going to review our Superflex draft on Wednesday. Wednesday will be our second show. Tyreek Hill should be back for training camp, barring any further developments, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. All right, what's your take on the Chiefs wide receivers right now? I think we're going with the assumption, this is the three of us, myself, Dave, and Heath, that he could be looking at a six-game suspension.

We're just kind of using the Ezekiel Elliott suspension as a guide. There's not clearly any indication of if he will be suspended at a six-game suspension. We're just kind of using the Ezekiel Elliott suspension as a guide. There's not clearly any indication of if he will be suspended at all, if he will get less than or more than six games. It could be eight games. But I think if you look at our rankings, he's somewhere in the low 20s to early 30s collectively in our top 200, I think, on both formats. So that would put him in the round five to seven range.

So round six on average. For those of you who have done best ball drafts, you've gotten somewhat of a steal. It makes Mahomes better. It makes his offense better. The guys who get ruined by this, and we spend a lot of time talking about it, Sammy Watkins, Mikko Hardman, Demarcus Robinson. Again,

it's still an unknown. We're going to do our first draft that we're actually going to play out as a site on Wednesday for our second edition of our magazine. It'll be interesting to see where Tyreek goes there when there's a little bit more at stake, I guess. Oh, man. yeah, right.

We're playing that out. Crap. So I think, you know, again, if you've done any best ball drafts, you know, made any moves in your dynasty leagues, you know, the situation that we were dealing with initially could be swayed. You know, your value could be swayed on Tyreek Hill.

Whatever happens in terms of the legal proceedings with him, that's another conversation. But in terms of what he brings to the football field, you know what he's capable of doing. He was amazing last year, and he changes his Chiefs offense. I actually think this is a fair question. You guys might not. But let's say, hypothetically, he suspended six games,

the first six games of the season. Who are you drafting first, Sammy Watkins or Tyreek Hill? I'm still drafting Sammy Watkins first right now. I'll take Tyreek. And what round are we talking here? I've got him as a sixth-round pick right now, and I might move him up. And I'm that guy that doesn't want to take suspended

players I've always been that guy because I don't want to waste that spot but I think it would be worth it for Tyree Kill he's gonna participate let's sling out a scenario don't know if this is gonna be it he's gonna participate in training camp in the preseason then he's gonna go away for a month and a half comes back week seven I think it's at denver and when wouldn't you start him if you had him of course and you're going to be able to draft him right amongst the range of number two to number three receivers on draft day and you can find there are so many receivers that we talked about over the case or over the course rather of the top 150 that we see potential in upside in we'd love in, upside in.

We'd love to get them in round eight plus. You can have one of those guys fill in for the first six weeks of the season. Tyreek Hill is a guy that makes a huge difference on your fantasy team. He's a league winner. So finding him, I don't know if I can wait until round six actually. I might have to move him up and take him in round five. Okay. So round five, that's a 12-team league we're talking about,

so that's 49th or later. And he was the number one wide receiver in non-PPR, number three in PPR. And we'll see where Patrick Mahomes goes. We'll see where Watkins goes and if Hardman gets drafted at this point. Philadelphia signed Carson Wentz to a four-year $128 million extension.

Just needs to stay healthy, but should be without the knee brace this year. Hopefully a little bit more mobile and a little bit better. A lot better. He played well last year. Cam Newton, though, he's going to throw in all the quarterback drills at Carolina camp this week. That's great. The Jets hired Joe Douglas to be their GM.

According to Adam Schefter, Douglas kind of kept turning it down, and the Jets just wanted him more and more and more and he finally said yes. Douglas is interesting. Even though he comes from the Eagles, not an analytics guy, but he's a more traditional scout.

We'll see how that works out for the Jets. Houston fired their GM, Brian Gain. Oh, hey guys, Devontae Parker's having a great camp. Ooh. How exciting. For the 15th time. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know who's buying it at this point. This is like the boy who cried wolf. Sonny Michel, we talked about this last week. He missed some time at camp. Was it personal reasons? Did we know? We don't know. No, but

ESPN, their Patriots guy, Mike Reese, seems to think it's not a big deal. It'll be a big deal come training camp if he's missing time. Aaron Rodgers said two things about his wide receivers, that he needs to get Devontae Adams more targets, and that Marquez Valdez-Scantling has had

a fantastic spring. We obviously like Geronimo Allison a lot more than Marquez Valdez Scantling right now. Could it be the opposite? I could. Yeah. I mean, look,

he got an opportunity to take advantage of Allison being gone. I think we'll end up happening though, is MVS will end up spending a lot more time on the outside, whereas Adams and Allison will mix and match as the slot receivers. So that will help, I think, Allison a little bit more than Valdez-Gantling.

He's a great late-round pick. Philip Lindsay is expected to be ready for training camp as he recovers from wrist surgery. We have a lot of other podcasts that you should be listening to. The Pick 6 podcast is great. I just heard Will Brinson tell a great story about George Clinton and P-Funk

at his high school. That was with him and Jason Lock and Fora. But they talk a lot of football, I promise. But it's the offseason. Anyway, Pick 6 is great. State of Combat is great. That's a wrestling, MMA, boxing podcast. We've got The First Cut, which is a three times a week golf podcast. It's really good.

Go to CBS sports.com slash podcasts for all of our shows and ways to subscribe. Make sure you're watching CBS sports HQ. I'm hosting now a, uh, a live show on Sundays for fantasy baseball. Call fantasy baseball today. Same name as the podcast from three to 6 PM Eastern, but there are so many reasons to watch HQ. I mean, we got Stanley cup. We got the NBA finals. We call it Fantasy Baseball today. Same name as the podcast from 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern. But there are so many reasons to watch HQ. I mean, we got Stanley Cup.

We got the NBA Finals. We got big golf coming up. We got football always. It's free. It's 24-7 streaming. Download the CBS Sports app. And download the CBS app or go to cbs.com slash poker and watch the World Series of Poker.

Bracelet events that you can't see anywhere else on the CBS app or on cbs.com slash poker. Bringing in Ben Gretsch now. Ben's on our fantasy staff. You can follow his Twitter handle. It's amazing. At Yards for Gretsch. It's probably my favorite Twitter handle out there. We're going to bring him in now to give his thoughts on the top 150.

What's up, Ben Gretsch? How you doing, man? Not too bad. Thanks for having me on, guys. Oh, always a pleasure. Ben does some great work on our fantasy staff, and let's get some of his takes. So if you looked at that top 150, and there was one player that you were either a lot higher on or a lot lower on than Dave, Jamie, and Heath, who would that one player be, and higher or lower? I mean, it kind of depends, position and area. I'll say Ezekiel Elliott right off the top of my head, because I think he's a tier down from the top three running backs. And work but uh i do think it's notable that they were they went a little higher than uh probably projected on

this player who profiles as kind of like a lance dumbar type who dallas has had before more of a pass catching back zeke had a huge spike in receptions last year over his first two seasons i think he had about 20 more than his first two seasons combined and in particular particular, his receptions almost cut in half after the team acquired Amari Cooper. He really racked up receptions in the first half of the year when they had no one else to throw to. They've added a lot more firepower in the passing game. Obviously, Amari Cooper will be back. They brought in Randall Cobb and Jason Witten. And if this draft pick of Tony Pollard is any indication that maybe they want to spell Zeke a little bit more

or if they do want to do that it looks like it will probably be in the passing game so if his receptions don't maintain from last year I think he's going to have a really hard time being as productive as Saquon and Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara I don't, the only thing, I'm sorry to correct you

I don't think his receptions did drop with Amari Cooper. Is that what you had said? Yeah, they definitely did. All right. We'll have to double check on that because I don't think they did. I'm looking at his game log right now. But bringing in Pollard is a good point, guys.

What do you think about that? I don't think Pollard is going to take so much away that it's going to ruin Zeke's reception totals. But it's like we said earlier. It's all the additions that they made. We didn't bring up Pollard's name, but he could be included in this list. He could take, by the time the season ends, 25 catches. I don't think that that's out of line. So between him, Cobb, Witten, these are all short area targets

that the Cowboys are going to use creatively. But I don't expect, I don't think Zeke falls all the way back to like 30 catches where he was prior to 2018. Ben, you still have him as your RB4, right? You just have him. Yeah. But I think you're, I mean, looking at his game long,

I think you're right too. I might've been looking at the splits thing backwards. Maybe his receptions doubled. Yeah, he had think you're right. I mean, looking at this game long, I think you're right, too. I might have been looking at the splits thing backwards. Maybe his receptions doubled. Yeah, he had 51 with Cooper. Okay, so his receptions doubled with Cooper. I must have been looking at the splits thing backward and just kind of assuming that they had gone down, but not reading it carefully.

All right, I do that all the time. Don't worry about it. Part of that is he had a 12-catch game against Philadelphia. I don't know how many times he's going to have 13 targets and 12 catches. He also didn't play Week 17 against the Giants. So take that into account as well. Okay. So I think the Pollard angle is pretty interesting there with Ezekiel Elliott.

I know you're also very high on Kyler Murray. You have Kyler Murray as your QB7, and you have Matt Ryan QB12. But let's talk about Kyler Murray. That's pretty – QB7, Kyler Murray. That's pretty... QB 7, I like it. That's bold. Before you answer, Ben, are you going on 6 points for passing touchdowns or 4?

4. 4 on this one. And so definitely the rushing becomes a big element. I was looking through my projections where they came out. He comes out really high because of his rushing value. But so do a lot of the other rushing quarterbacks when you're looking at four point per passing touchdown scoring. Now, where would he be in six points for passing touchdowns? Because that's usually what we go by on CBS.

Yeah, I would probably knock him down a little bit, but I am really high on him. I'm on the whole offense. I mean, I think two things. Number one, they're going to be faster paced. They're going to run a lot more plays. And so it doesn't even necessarily mean that they have to be very, very good. We just know they're going to run a lot more plays and they're going to throw a lot more. And then the second thing is they were so inefficient last year.

They were dead last in yards per play that if Kingsbury's system does provide any kind of volume or efficiency boost as well. I mean, I just think there's a lot of opportunity for this whole Arizona offense to be a lot better than last year, not just a little bit better, but a huge, a huge boost for, for fantasy. I mean, I don't think they're going to be necessarily good. I kind of think of it like Tampa Bay last year, uh, who was a bad team that was behind and throwing a ton and put up a lot of fantasy numbers for a lot of guys across the offense. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you. I don't have him ranked as high, but I think, again, you look at what the upside could be.

It's a position that if you swing and miss, you can find somebody to easily replace him unless you're in a league that everybody drafts two quarterbacks. That's a little bit harder, but as we have come to find out in 15-round drafts, it's not easy to carry two quarterbacks when you're not going to play a second guy, and there should be somebody available to you at some point that can replace him if murray does think right and i and i would say yeah i'm not going to go reaching for him he's that's where he comes into my ranks but you know the the general late round quarterback you know

philosophy should still outweigh this i mean i think there's plenty of guys even matt ryan like i have him down at qb12 part of that's just because i like some of the other quarterbacks a little better i don't have uh you know matt Ryan's a tough, a tough read because his touchdown rate has swung around so much the last few years, two out of the last three years, he's had really high touchdown rates, the middle season, 2017, he only threw 20 TDs. So you don't really know where he's going to go. There's not a lot of consistency there. I do have him coming down a little bit in terms of touchdown rate, um, and not being quite as effective and throwing less overall because their defense was so banged up last year

that led to a lot more passing attempts. So I probably won't be getting him a lot, but I still think he's basically in the same tier as a Kyler Murray. Let me ask you about some running back rankings, and then I also want you to give your top three wide receivers because they're pretty interesting. But you have Ronald Jones pretty far ahead of mark ingram huh that's that's that is shocking rb 29 ronald jones mark ingram rb 36 yeah jones i mean it's kind of a an upside swing

for for that ranking and and i think that he'll lead the bucks backfield in in touches by the end of the season i think the fact that they didn't go out and get any real running back help this offseason is a pretty good indication that they like Jones, because I don't think you would do that if Peyton Barber was your lead back. He wasn't good. Peyton Barber wasn't good last year. Jones barely played. He barely touched the ball.

So I don't think that was some vote of confidence in Peyton Barber, because I don't think there's any way that it could have been interpreted as that. I think it was a vote of confidence that they still think Ron Jones, who was the youngest running back in the 2018 running back class and was a vote of confidence that they still think Ron Jones, who was the youngest running back in the 2018 running back class and was a second round pick, is still going to be their guy long term. And he was just a little bit banged up.

His hamstring injury lingered all throughout the year last year and that they still think that he's going to be their guy going forward. So I think he leads their team running back 29. If you think that running back 29 is still a really low ranking in terms of like the lead running back for a team.

It's basically, you know, at the back end of the 32 teams back 29 is still a really low uh ranking in terms of like the lead running back for a team it's it's basically you know at the at the back end of the 32 teams as the you know the worst one of the worst running back ones but i do think he's going to be their lead back so that's where he falls in i also think ingram's going to be baltimore's lead back but i think that's going to be a lot more split and i don't love his pass catching upside running quarterbacks tend to don't tend to not throw to to running backs as much we know know Lamar Jackson, when he drops back, if he doesn't get his first or second read, he's probably going to scramble. I think Ingram's receptions are going to completely fall off,

going from probably the greatest passer to running backs in NFL history, Andrew Brees, over to Lamar Jackson, who I just don't think will throw to the running backs a ton. Plus you have Justin Hill there. Plus you still have Kenneth Dixon there. I think they'll rotate the backs. And I didn't i didn't give ingram a huge work share i think there's going to be enough rotation there and that lamar jackson doesn't really work well for what um what ingram needs to to maintain in terms of the the catches that he had in new

orleans and the and the russia the goal line work as well is just probably not going to be there as much in baltimore so i'm just a lot lower on him. Heath just threw something at our podcast studio when you said the Bucs didn't add anybody of significance because of Bruce Anderson. Yeah. But I like what he says because, yeah, he likes Bruce Anderson. But seriously, like Ronald Jones, I mean, I just don't know that Peyton Barber, even if he's going to be in a much better offensive system and gets this opportunity, I don't know that he can really be that good.

I like what Ben is saying about Ronald Jones. I think he has major, major steal potential. Because you don't have to, I mean, his ADP cannot be RB29, right? I mean, he's got to be going later than that. It's not going to be that far off, though. I think the reports continue to be glowing. You know, I think collectively we have Barber in the high 30s, 35 or above.

It's not like Jones, you just swap him out. I struggle keeping Barber ahead of Jones myself just because I do think that there's a little bit of a safety factor with Barber, but Jones' ceiling is so much higher. I don't think I want to draft any Bucs running backs. Why?

Because this is a team that is going to play catch-up most weeks. Their defense is at much higher. I don't think I want to draft any Bucs running backs. Why? Because this is a team that is going to play catch-up most weeks. Their defense is atrocious. They're tomatoes? They're tomatoes, which is what he was throwing at the studio because we weren't talking about his boy B.A. It's a fair point, though, about the Bucs backs. I mean, as a team

unit, they were not over the last couple years, because of how much they throw, because of how downfield they've been throwing, they have not been very productive. But obviously, Bruce Arians might change things a little bit. That's kind of my hope for the upside for Ronald Jones. 100%. If he's got a guy that he

believes in. Sure. We have absolutely no idea just how much they believe in any of these stuff. But if they are playing from behind, you want the guy who can catch passes. I don't know who that would be. I don't really think it's Peyton Barlow. We don't know if Ronald Jones can do anything

anymore. Right. I said it before. Their best running back might not be on the roster right now. Or it could be Bruce Anderson. Yeah, I mean, those are all true things. Again, I would just say with Ronald Jones, we don't know, and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I mean, I think we talk about the uncertainty, and we think about that.

I think we still should default to the fact that they used a second-round pick on the guy, and they didn't really add much this offseason, which, again, I know Heath doesn't really necessarily agree with. But in my opinion, I still think that Ron Jones is probably going to be the pass catcher because I just don't – I think we have enough of a sample on Peyton Barber to know that he can't do that. So I think Ron Jones is going to get every opportunity to succeed. I think the fact that they're already talking them up is very clear evidence that they want him to be that guy. All right, let's keep up with the polarizing

running backs, Ben. Derrick Henry, where do you come out on him? So he's a great example of the stuff that I look at at running backs, which is a little bit of a broader thing. I mean, I think when you're looking for edges in an AP, I think the whole industry does a really good job of analyzing where the touches might go and who who's projected for a certain amount of touches. The one kind of edge or leverage point that I really like to target is to basically devalue empty carries, carries between the 20s. The two things that are so much more valuable, especially in PPR leagues to fancy production, are receptions and red zone work.

And Henry could definitely get a high percentage of his team's red zone work, but a big way that I look at the red zone work as well is not just a percentage, but obviously the offense. I don't think the Titans are a very good team. You can look at like David Johnson last year. He got a ton, a really high percentage, a ton of the Cardinals red zone work, but there just wasn't enough touchdowns there. Right. So there's some teams that are going to score way more touchdowns. And there's and then you go and look at the receptions. I mean, you're adding a catch every single you're adding a point per catch every single time they catch a pass. You're also getting more yards per play in the passing game. Derek Henry is a great example of a guy who we can project from probably more than 20 touches per game. But a lot of those are going to be what I would consider kind of

empty touches. They still matter. You're still racking up rushing yardage, but they're going to be a lot of rushes that are not going to be in high scoring positions in places where touchdowns are more likely. Now he is a guy that can break off some long touchdown runs. And I don't think he's going to be a huge pass catching guy. I mean, I still think Dion Lewis is going to be involved and that's where he'll be involved mostly in my opinion. So for me, Derek Henry's a guy you're getting plenty of touches, but they're not the ones that rack up the most fantasy production. And because the market tends to actually look at total touches and analyze it well, he ends up a little bit higher ranked than where I'm willing to take him because I, you know, I don't think it's a bad thing that he's going to be a 20 touch guy, but

I will wind up fading those touches that are less valuable for a guy who might have a much higher rate of receptions and red zone work. Like that's like Alvin Kamara's workload. You know, he doesn't get a ton of carries between the twenties. He will get plenty of red zone touches. He will get plenty of catches. Um, obviously those two guys aren't ranked in the same area of the draft but uh that's kind of like the difference and i think why i wind up lower on guys like derrick henry i'm i'm with you 100 on henry and ppr it's like he's i almost look at henry and three cohen as like total opposites in each format like cohen is somebody that i will try to avoid in non-ppr but can't wait to get him in PPR. And Henry is the exact opposite.

Like, I don't really want Derek Henry in PPR just because I think he's – What's the upside? Exactly. It's like Michael Turner's peak. Right. At where you have to get Derek Henry, that's the problem. Like, I think, Dave, you have him like almost 15th, right? I do, yeah.

And so, like, there's no way I would take him in that range by any stretch. I just think, like, if you're going to get him, you've got to settle for him, but nobody settles for him because they drop him too soon. And what draws me back into Derek Henry is the fact that he's getting 15 to 20 touches per week with that goal line work. And when you're looking for running backs starting in round four, there aren't a lot of those guys that are out there. Yeah, he's safe.

And I think he's missed one game in three years and has never been the only time he's truly been overworked has been in the last four games of last year so i there's a lot that i like about him i'm you almost have to you know give up on the the catch factor with him in ppr and and hope that he makes up for it with touchdowns. That's really hard to buy into. He is going 38th overall based on his ADP right now.

That puts him at the beginning of round four. Again, that's too rich for me. Let's see by position. I think the upside Marshawn Lynch was a guy who never caught passes and always finished pretty high even in PPR. But he played on really good offenses.

He caught more than Henry. He caught more than Henry, and he had better, I think, a better red zone projection each season because he played on better offenses. He got all the red zone work and played on better offenses. My concern for Henry is not necessarily that he won't get the goal line carries. It's that Tennessee might not be a very good offense. Okay, I'm trying to just look at... Henry's going as the 20th running back in PPR.

Oh, well, that seems reasonable. That's really where he should be. That seems reasonable to me. I'm too high. Chris Carson last year was something like 15th in PPR. Actually, Derek Henry was right behind him. I can tell you where they finished. Okay, Ben, who are your top three wide receivers? And I will just count and see where Carson and Henry finish with very few catches.

But who are your top three wide receivers, Ben? Well, I have Hopkins one like most people do, but I have Juju number two right now. I just think he projects for such a high target volume. 166 targets last year with Brown there. I don't really have any concern about his ability to handle the number one work. I mean, I think if you go look at the games that Antonio Brown has missed, he's been very productive. Back in his rookie season, Brown left, I think it was week 15 with a strained calf in like

the second quarter. And so he played, Juju played weeks 15, 16, and 17 as kind of the number one, and he had three big games. He wasn't as great in week 17 last year when Antonio Brown was, I think, suspended for contract detrimental to the team or whatever. But he scored. I think he had like a 537 one line on like 10 targets. But the volume should be there. And I trust the talent. This guy was super productive at a super young age at USC. I mean, just he came in to USC. I think he's still 17. He came into the NFL.

He was still 20 and he was productive right away at the NFL. I'm a big buy, a big believer, a big buyer of age adjusted production guys that are really productive at younger ages. And Juju came into the league super young and was already super productive and pretty much every chance he's gotten to be productive with more opportunity and fewer people blocking him. I mean, you can go back to when Martavis Bryant was suspended in it for a game in Juju's rookie season. And I think it was Juju's first career start. And it was that Sunday night game against Detroit where he had a 95 yard touchdown and put, you know and just had a monster game. They came up with like 180, 190 yards. This guy, every time he's been thrust into a more feature role, has been very productive.

So I think the targets are going to be there, and then I think he has all the talent in the world. And then my number three guy is Odell Beckham. I think the Browns, I just really like the Browns situation. I like the Todd Monken acquisition. We just were talking about the box, how much they threw the ball around the field. And the fact that Cleveland was willing to throw it around the field quite a bit when Kitchens took over last year. I think that Kitchens-Monken connection, I think both these guys want to be really vertical with the ball.

And I'm pretty smitten on Odell with Baker. You should be. It's going to be a great combination between those two the thing that I I've started to go back and look at Juju and he's not going to be used the same way that Antonio Brown was right but just their the ability the catch rate is going to be great the opportunity is going to be humongous you already talked about that and I I just like the way that he can make plays after the catch he can break tackles you look at his 97 yard touchdown from this past season, not the one that you referred to. And he had to break tackles to get to the end zone there.

Yeah, there's a lot to like about you, John. I'm quite as high as you do. Makes me makes me wonder where you might have guys like Julio and Devante Adams and Michael. Yeah, so they come in four and five and I don't like being lower on those guys, but man, I just really love Juju's target ceiling, and I think Pittsburgh's going to throw a lot more, and I think I'm probably going to have less of Julio and Adams, and it's not because of anything I dislike about them. It's just because I want a lot of Juju Smith-Schuster this year. I really think he's going to blow up. Man, I don't know how I can argue against Devontae Adams. You know, I mean, just every argument you made for Juju Smith-Schuster

also applies to Devontae Adams. And, you know, I mean, that's the end of my sentence. I would say that target ceiling isn't as high for Devontae Adams. He had 160 last year as well basically this I think he may have had a couple fewer than Juju last year basically the same range um and that was on a team for Green Bay that didn't really have a lot more going for them obviously they've drawn them out drawn them on Allison back uh the the second year receivers we should expect to be better in year two than in year one and if you look back at Aaron Rodgers

career uh not a lot of like young receivers have been very productive, but then they've just kind of had breakout years. Devontae Adams wasn't good his first two seasons, had a breakout year in year three. If a guy like Marquez Valdez-Scantling or ESB, if either of those guys step up this year, that's going to impact Devontae Adams' target ceiling a little bit. And I do think Rebay's going to want to run a little bit more this year too.

So the one thing, I agree with you, I really like Devontae Adams, but the concern I have is the target ceiling a little bit. And I do think Rebae's going to want to run a little bit more this year, too. So the one thing, I agree with you, I really like Devonta Adams, but the concern I have is the target ceiling. I think Juju's target ceiling is literally 200 targets, which is insane. Wow. That's at the Steelers' throw as much as they did, though, which I don't think is realistic either. We want to talk about a team that wants to be a little bit more dependent on the run, and their defense will be better.

That was a huge problem for them last year. Their defense was so bad. So, Ben, let me get your final thoughts here on, okay, Calvin Ridley. You have him wide receiver 34. Some guys you have ahead of him, DJ Moore, Corey Davis, Christian Kirk. I guess if we just look at all of the year two and we'll put Davis in there as a year three guys, DJ Moore, Corey Davis, Christian Kirk ahead of Calvin Ridley and Dante

Pettis. It's a lot of guys. There's five guys I just mentioned. You don't have to talk about all of them necessarily, but a general theme there when looking at these young wide receivers, who you like and who you don't like as much as the rest of the industry, as much as Dave, Jamie, and Heath. A general theme for

some of these guys might be going back to that age-adjusted production thing and thinking back to how they were as prospects. DJ Moore, Corey Davis, Christian Kirk were all very productive players at young ages in college. Guys that I really liked as prospects, and I think they're in great situations. Davis, not as good of a situation, but I do think he's their number one.

And they threw so few pass attempts last year in tennessee that that kind of has to come up i just think uh his inconsistencies were more a result of the team's volume inconsistencies and marcus mariotta's injury and how you know their whole season was kind of wild last year i'm going to write about that coming up uh on the site so that's not something we need to get into too far but um ridley my concern i mean he's still behind julio jones and i still think julio jones going to dominate the targets there they still involve Mohamed Sanu they're still going to involve Austin Hooper they have all their pieces back and and he was so efficient with with touchdowns last year I think that's got to regress a little bit and then also I mean 8.9 yards per

target was really impressive last year but I do think that might have to regress a little the issue for me with him though is just targets I mean I haven't projected right about 100 targets and I have someone's efficiency regressing and for me that just drops him down behind Moore and Davis and Kirk who are all guys I think can be the best and I have projected to be the best receiver on their respective teams Ridley he's playing behind Julio Jones I mean that's that's kind of that simple and then as far as Pettis is concerned George Kittle I think is their star and my concern with them is that San Fran's going to rotate a lot of receivers. I mean, I think we're going to see four or five different guys play a lot of weeks and be productive throughout the year.

I don't know if they'll necessarily have a number one wide receiver. I think it's George Kittle. What do you guys think? I'm probably the high guy on both Ridley and Pettis. And I tend to rely on just what these guys do, what they're capable of, and what their offenses are. I agree that Atlanta's not going to throw as much as they did last year, but I think Ridley takes on a bigger role. I really do.

I think he gets over 100 touches this year, and not 10 touchdowns, but 7 or 8 with a big boost in yardage. I think he's really good. Over 100 touches? He takes over 110 targets. I'm sorry if I said touches. My mistake. 110 touches. Something bad happened to Julio Jones. I think he's the best wide receiver, not including Calvin Ridley.

I do agree with Ben that the 49ers are going to use a lot of wide receivers, but I think Pettis stays on the field more than anybody else. maybe by default he's their number one guy he can line up anywhere he'll get improved targets from garoppolo versus what he had last year from mullins and he did great toward the end of the season when he finally had a good idea of the playbook he's put on weight and i think he's going to also see a nice uptick in targets and and be a good number three receiver for fantasy with a chance to break into the bottom end of the top 24 cool yeah i mean i don't disagree i don't i don't like where

i'm at on pettis i think i'm a little bit too low on him if there is a guy there i do agree that i that he is the pretty clearly the guy that i would expect to to be the best receiver in san fran i'm just concerned i like marquis goodwin too and i think he's going to be productive best receiver in San Fran. I'm just concerned. I like Marquis Goodwin, too, and I think he's going to be productive. He was really good at the end of 2017 with Garoppolo. He was a sleeper last year before Garoppolo got hurt. So it's kind of a tough situation there. I mean, Pettis could be their best receiver, and maybe by a lot, not necessarily factoring Kittle,

he could be their fourth receiver. I mean, if Goodwin and Samuel and even Jalen Hurd, you know, I mean, Kendrick Warren had more receptions than him last year. Pettis just had a hard time staying healthy. So I don't necessarily love the fact that actually he put on weight. That's a little bit of a concern for me. I think he needed to do it because he's lean. That was my knock on him coming out was that he was just too lean.

So he needs to do something to try and stay on the field a little bit more. All right, Ben, thank you very much for joining us, man. It's great stuff. Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, and I'll try to learn how to read splits numbers a little bit better. I think I said that Zeke definitely had fewer, but you got me on that one. That's okay. You know what?

When I'm looking at a game log, I am very confident in my statistics. There's that. All right. Ben Gretsch, Jamie Isenberg, Dave Richard, thank you guys very much. I'm Adam Azer. We'll talk to you Wednesday reviewing Superflex and reading your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. I got them.

I got them. Dave. Na, na, na, na. Na, na, na. Yeah.