Fantasy Football Today - 06/18: Talking Fantasy Football with Mike Tagliere (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: June 18, 2018

Mike Tagliere of FantasyPros joins us today! We'll take a look at Mike's rankings and get his favorite breakout and biggest bust, but first we'll talk upside and downside of a group of 3 RBs (2:15) and 3 WRs (11:33). Find out how we feel about Jay Ajayi, Ronald Jones, Brandin Cooks and more ... Mike's Top 3 rookie RBs (25:00) may surprise you. He'll also tell us his favorite breakout (28:33) and why Evan Engram could be a bust (33:33). Also talking QB and TE strategy (37:02) and getting personal as we discuss sports, pizza and Die Hard ... Mike has DeAndre Hopkins as his #5 WR! He'll explain his thinking (44:51) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. All right, welcome to the Fantasy Football Today podcast.

Here on Monday, June 18th, I'm Adam Azer with Dave Richard. Dave, happy Father's Day, big man. Thank you so much, Adam. It truly is my favorite day of the year every year. Is it really? It is. Oh, okay. Well, happy Father's Day.

Hope it was great. We got a special guest today. We got Mike Tagliera from Fantasy Pros. Mike, I don't know if you're a father, but if you are, happy Father's Day. Yes, Adam. I am a father of two, and it was a beautiful day, man. The wife worked. I watched the U.S. Open.

Brooks Koepka, the guy I picked to win, he took down the U.S. Open. So it was a good day spending it with the two kids and just relaxing. I like how Mike starts by saying, it was a great day. My wife worked. I know. I know. I noticed that. That was awesome.

The reason why I'm a father was out of the house, nowhere to be seen. I could watch my golf unencumbered. Actually, I did know you were a father because I now follow you on Twitter, at MikeTagliereNFL, and you have a very cute profile. Very cute child in that picture. Appreciate it, man. Happy Father's Day. And that is spelled T-A-G-L-I-E-R-E.

I will not ask you how many people say Taglieri. I'm sure you've lost count at this point. Yes, yes. Among other ways, they pronounce it as well. But you got it right on the first time, man, so I've got to give you props. My pleasure. And thank you so much for coming on. So you are a co-host of the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast.

It's a great show. Give it a listen on iTunes or anywhere, Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. Mike is going to hang out with us for a while. I've got some Twitter polls to go through. We're going to talk about the news and notes. Andrew Luck says he's pain-free. Green Bay may be going running back by committee. And then we're going to take a look at Mike's rankings.

DeAndre Hopkins is his fifth-ranked wide receiver in standard and sixth in PPR. He seems to be a little low on Adam Thielen, Julian Edelman. So we will talk about that kind of stuff. It's going to be awesome. And here we go. Let's look at the Twitter polls. We're going to do the upside versus downside game again with a group of three running backs and a group of three wide receivers.

So the question was, which of these three running backs has the most upside? And these guys are being drafted similarly. Darius Geis, Jay Ajayi, and Ronald Jones. Of this group of running backs, who has the most upside? Darius Geis, Jay Ajayi, Ronald Jones. Mike, what would your answer be? Who has the most upside there? I'm going to go with Ronald Jones.

When you talk about his draft capital and the fact that he was taken at the top of the second round, it's obviously big in his outlook. You know, the Bucs have a chance to be a top six scoring NFL offense. And one of the stats that I typically use when I do my research in the offseason and generate rankings and trying to find out which player is going has a chance to break out. If you look at it, the last six years, 75 percent of top six running backs have come from a top six scoring offense. So, you know, we obviously know the more a team scores, the better that they are. 75% of top six running backs have come from a top six scoring offense. So, you know, we obviously know the more a team scores, the better that they are. But I don't think anybody knows it's to that degree.

You know, we're talking about a six-year sample size. So you essentially want to find a running back that's tied to a high-scoring offense. And if we project Jameis Winston to take a step forward in his career, Mike Evans to get back on track, Chris Godwin's expected to come forward, O.J. Howard, there's just so many pieces in this offense that I could definitely seeing it as a top six scoring NFL offense, whereas Jay Ajayi, you know, we're going to talk about him in a second because he's part of this poll as well. And then Darius Geis. Darius Geis, I think he has the talent to do so, but Chris Thompson's not going away. And if you're not contributing at all three downs, you don't have the most upside. Okay, that's pretty interesting. And I have always harped on that, being in a good scoring offense is extremely important,

which is kind of my big issue with David Johnson. I'll get your thoughts on that. We can kind of piggyback on that discussion. But, Dave, what would your answer be, most upside out of Geis, Ajayi, and Ronald Jones? I came to the same conclusion as Mike, but I got there a different way. I don't see any competition for Ronald Jones, or at least significant competition, Peyton Barber, Charles Sims. It's pretty much the best situation that any running back other than Saquon Barkley

and maybe even Rashad Penny, maybe even not, fell into. But obviously a great situation. How about this? Tampa Bay has finished in the top ten in rush attempts over the course of a season, two of the last three seasons. So the opportunity should be there for Jones. I also think that the Tampa Bay defense is going to be better. And one of the things that I'm focusing in on more than ever are running backs on teams with good defenses.

Think about how Leonard Fournette and Todd Gurley put together their big seasons last year and how they could do it again this year. And I think Jones fits in. I think Tampa Bay did a great job improving their defensive line to pair it with their great linebackers. I wouldn't be surprised if Tampa Bay once again finishes the top 10 team in rush attempts. And Ronald Jones was their best guy to get it done. I think he does have upside of 1,500 yards and eight touchdowns. Well, let me tell you guys something. My Twitter followers think you are crazy because they have Ronald Jones last in this poll. They have Darius Geis number one at 51% of the vote with most upside,

Jay Ajayi number two at 28%, and Ronald Jones third at 21%. So what is your reaction to that, Mike? I mean, it's all fair, and i understand why they want to say that you know darius geis is the guy that's pumped up as the 102 pick in dynasty drafts even though i'm not quite there when you look at all these top running backs the ones that finish in the top 10 at the end of the year you're looking at guys who can catch passes out of the backfield and again chris thompson i have a little bit of concerns about him coming off a broken leg at his advanced age but at at the same time, he's not going to simply go away. Samaj P. Ryan's still running back that they grabbed semi-early last year.

He doesn't concern me. He's more of like a handcuff. But at the same time, Darius Geis wasn't someone who caught passes at LSU. So, again, if I'm looking for someone to truly break out, and you're talking about true upside, unless Chris Thompson doesn't return to the lineup at all, Darius Geist loses a lot of that upside, whereas Charles Sims is an easy hurdle to get over for Ronald Jones. And then Jay Ajayi. I'm sorry, but he comes with bust potential written all over him.

He's like someone that I will not draft on any single one of my teams. I can tell you that. It doesn't even matter how far he falls. I'm not taking him. I just drafted him. You're not going to take him in round 10? I just drafted him 10 minutes ago in a draft we were just doing. Oh, God, I feel terrible.

Realistically, I won't own him on any teams. I think everybody does have value at a certain point in a draft. I think I have Jay Ajayi around my number 27, 28 running back, which means I'm not going to own him in any leagues. All right, so then, you know what? Let's look at the next question. Same group, different question. Which of these three running backs has the most downside, Darius Geis, Jay Ajayi, or Ronald Jones?

Okay, I think I know what Mike's answer is there, Jay Ajayi. And, Dave, the Twitter followers agree. Fifty-one percent say Jay Ajayi. My guess is they're thinking shared touch is not going to be a feature. It doesn't have as good a chance as Geis and Jones to be a featured back. Who, to you, Dave, has the most downside between Geis, Ajayi, and Jones? I agree with Twitter. I think it's Jay Ajayi.

Never mind the fact that Ajayi is on a team whose identity, plain and simple, is in its quarterbacking, which you'd come to expect from a team that's got a former quarterback as its head coach. Whether it was Wentz or Foles, coach went with him. You know they're going to share carries. He's not going to be the only guy there. Corey Clement could end up being the best running back by the end of the year. He's a great value later in drafts.

And we've seen Ajayi bust before, which is why – that's a big reason why I think he finished where he did in the poll at 51%, the highest vote getter. I just see him – I see him as very, very shaky, very boom or bust. He could have a bunch of games where he scores and only gets you 20 or 30 yards on top of it, eight, nine carries per game. I don't see him in quite the same light as these other running backs that are on teams with great defenses. Philadelphia's got a great defense. I'm not sure there's going to be a lot of games where Ajayi is going to be the one to salt it away in the fourth quarter or is the reason why they're ahead in the fourth quarter. Wow. Okay, so let's hear why Mike despises Jay Ajayi with such a

passion. All right, well, as you mentioned, I think Dave hit on the head saying that, you know, not only has he already busted before, a stat I have for you guys is that going back to 2014, there have been 69 running backs who have totaled at least 200 carries. Just three of them have failed to finish as a top 24 running back. Isaiah Crowell last year, Jay Ajayi last year and Alfred Morris in 2015. So, you know,

you're part of a group of three of just 69 running backs who failed to do it. So volume, that's, that's a concern as well. So the efficiency standpoint, some people are like, well, his efficiency is going to go up in year two. Well, the issue is here. Doug Peterson has now coached the team for two years. There has been four occasions where a running back has played more than 43 snaps. Every single one of those occasions was Darren Sproles because he can

contribute on passing downs. You know, you go through Wendell Smallwood, Jay Ajayi, Ryan Matthews, LeGarrette Blunt, Corey Clement. these are a lot of different variations of running backs and they all have different skill sets jay ajayi when people say well mike you know his snap counts were down last year because he was still learning the offense and as the year went on his role increased that's not really true either because when you go to the playoffs he played 30 snaps in each of the the uh the conference championship in the divisional game and then 25 25 snaps in the Super Bowl. Do you know that these top running backs that we talk about, the Le'Veon Bells, the Todd Gurleys, these guys play at least 50 snaps a game, if not in the 60s.

So the fact that Jay Ajayi is stuck around this 30 to 35 snap mark, it's going to limit his potential and on top of his efficiency. So that's my concern with him. He's not safe at all. So the only counter that I would have with him he's not safe at all so the only counter that i would have to that argument is to look at the carries because it's one thing in fantasy we just don't get points for snaps played right and i feel like we we have to take that extra step whenever we talk about anybody with snaps to see if the if the carries match it

so you mentioned there was a game in the playoffs where he – the game against Minnesota. Do you know how many snaps he played in that one off the top of your head? 30 snaps. He had carries on 18 of those 30 snaps. Yeah. Now, he didn't do a whole hell of a lot with them. Yeah, he did. 4.06 yards per carry. That's pretty good against Minnesota.

So in the postseason, he had 15 carries, 18 carries, and then only nine. And then nine in the Super Bowl. And that's the one that bothers me because, you know, you could paint this narrative that, well, when the games really mattered, they were leaning on Jay Ajayi. And they were until the Super Bowl when the Garrett Blunt had five more carries than Jay Ajayi. So, yeah, I mean, I get it. I understand why he finished last. I drafted him because I think he will be on a great offense.

I think with the Garrett Blunt gone, he's got a chance. Look, he scored one touchdown, one rushing touchdown last year, one receiving touchdown. So that's why Jay Ajayi didn't finish with 200 carries. What did you say, Mike? A top what running back? A top 24. And the thing is, like, I love the narrative that people were spinning about Jay Ajayi because the reason for his struggles in Miami was it

had nothing to do with volume because he was getting 20-plus touches a game. But it came down to the team. And then Kenyon Drake walks in and does some production in the same team like lagarrette blunt produced better than jay ajayi on the ground in philly so again i just don't know if the talent is of the level that people are remembering i know he had three 200 yard games two were against buffalo uh but let's also not forget that jay ajayi has some serious serious knee injuries like the whole bone on bow thing it may have been a bit overblown in the draft, but it's still something to remember. Yep, and he has seven fumbles in the regular season his last two years,

and he fumbled once in the postseason, I believe. So that's another strike against him. All right, let's talk about some wide receivers. Upside and downside in this group. Which of these three wide receivers has the most upside? We've got Brandon Cooks, Chris Hogan, and Adam Thielen. Brandon Cooks, Chris Hogan, and Adam Thielen. Brandon Cooks, Chris Hogan, and Adam Thielen. Mike, who has the most upside there?

It's got to be Brandon Cooks. We've seen him finish as a top 12 receiver each of the last three years, so it's tough to say that it's not Brandon Cooks because I don't think that Adam Thielen or Chris Hogan have the true potential upside that Cooks does. All right, Dave, most upside, Cooks, Hogan, Thielen. It's definitely not Hogan. That's true.

What's up? The Twitter followers would agree. It was very close between Cooks and Thielen. I'll just tell you they took Thielen 45%, Cooks 39%. I think if it's pure upside, you have to say Cooks. I think Mike is right about that. But I don't know if there's anybody in this podcast right now speaking or listening that really believes that Brandon Cooks can have a better year than Adam Thielen.

Well, I know that Thielen's a little low in Mike's rankings. Well, I don't know in terms of industry, but he's like 20th, right? Yeah, Thielen and Cooks are actually right next to each other in my rankings. Who's higher? I actually have Cooks one spot higher, and it's only because of the upside that he presents. If you want to play a safe team, draft Adam Thielen over Brandon Cooks. You just kind of have to weigh the pros and cons of each player,

but I'm actually super down on Cooks. I know I'm much lower than the industry, having him at 20th. I know I'm just as down on cooks i know i'm i'm much lower than the industry having him at 20th i know i'm just as low on adam thielen but cooks like we talked through this because like think about it sammy watkins people are like well sammy watkins you know 70 70 targets last year well mike you know they didn't they didn't go trade for brandon cooks just to give him 70 targets well if you remember they actually did trade for sammy watkins granted it was right before the season he didn't have much time to learn the offense. But they also had some injuries to Robert Woods.

Todd Gurley, they pulled him a few times from games. And he still wound up with 70 targets. Where are you going to take targets from to get Brandon Cooks to this 100-target mark? Because wide receivers, they really just don't finish as a top-20 receiver if you don't get more than 100 targets. And are you going to take him away from Robert Woods? Are you going to take him away from Cooper Cupp? Todd Gur to take him away from cooper cup you know todd girley defense i think girly defense there is the defense there is ridiculous like i just don't see the pass attempts

rising much for the rams and that's why brandon cooks it's like even if he reaches 100 targets i'd be surprised i got another issue with cooks too take a look at their schedule week one at oakland could be great for Cooks. Week two, he's got Arizona. Who do you think he'll see? They said Patrick Peterson's not going to shadow guys. Yeah, I call BS on that. I kind of agree with you there. Week three against

the Chargers. Two really good corners on that team. Week four is Minnesota. A couple good corners there. That's Seattle in week five. I know they don't have Richard Sherman anymore. I don't know if that necessarily matters. I think that scheme is still good. At Denver in week six, after week one, I think you're going to see Brandon Cooks vanish. And I agree with Mike about the defense in Los Angeles as well. I think that that defense is so good that it's going to be hard for Cooks to be in a bunch

of situations where the Rams are playing from behind. I think they're going to try and manage this offense a little bit more. They were 24th in pass attempts last year. That's the number that sticks out to me. They've given up a lot now for Watkins and for Cooks. They get nothing out of Watkins, and they lose him after one year. I really feel like they need to make Brandon Cooks work. That's kind of how I'm feeling. You kind of mentioned it, Mike. They got Watkins just before training camp.

It was a terrible time to get a guy into a new offense. Cooks obviously has a lot more time than that. I think he'll do better than Watkins. I think he'll get definitely more than 70. Will he get to 100? I don't know. I'm hoping he gets to 110, and I feel like most people don't think that's realistic. That's not even a number that excites me.

The number of targets that excites me is 120. Yeah, that's going to be tough. That's been kind of the consistent mark for receiver success in fantasy. Well, for him, yeah. Well, for anybody. Like Mike said, he's been top 12 three years in a row at least in non-ppr cooks right so and you know how he's gotten there is playing with two of the 10 best quarterbacks of all time that'll help but he also has done it on inconsistent basis where one week he's hot one week he's down one week he's up one week he's down

i i think that at best that's like the best case scenario for cooks this year is that he will give you 12 or 13 fantasy points one week and then for the next okay so if you want to take a chance on him on your team i don't mind doing it if he's your number three receiver but i wouldn't i've got him ranked as a top 24 guy but but at 21, I don't know if I really feel that great about it. Just the guys below him, I don't feel that good about either. Landry Tate, Marvin Jones, Crabtree. I think it speaks to just the receiver position in general this year. And in the downside part of this poll, of the three who has the most downside,

Brandon Cooks, 39%, Chris Hogan, 53%. Adam Thielen, 8%. So I guess, Mike, the question is, does Chris Hogan even belong in the same discussion as Brandon Cooks and Adam Thielen? I think it's fair, especially for the first four weeks of the season. I mean, if you remember, Chris Hogan was actually a better fantasy receiver than Brandon Cooks before he got hurt last year with the Patriots. So I think Chris Hogan actually presents, I would almost say, a safer floor. I mean, Brandon Cooks, I think his floor is the 70 targets that Sammy Watkins saw last year. So I think Cooks actually, he might offer the most downside. I think Thielen's the safest. Hogan is definitely going to be safer for the first four weeks while Edelman's suspended.

And we can't forget Julian Edelman's 32 years old coming off a bad knee injury. And it's not that ACLs are like the worst thing anymore, but for someone who's 32, believe me, as a guy who's aging myself, we feel these things a little bit more every single year so um i think brandon cooks actually presents the most downside oh okay dave let's see if we can figure out is the age of of mike is he older than me he's probably younger than you i'm guessing you're what you're 40 dave i'm 41 You're 41. I'm going to be 34 tomorrow. He sounds too youthful to be in his 40s. No, yeah.

I'm thinking he's 30. He's either like 33 or 35. I'm going to put it at 35. Wow. Well, that's spot on, actually. I'll be 35 for another three months. Okay. Well, there you go.

There's a reason why we do what we do around here, Mike. Right? This is what we're here for. Which other podcast guests the ages of their guests? Very polite. All right. We've got more questions. We're going to find out more about Mike Taglier. I've got some questions.

He's from Chicago. So Dave and Mike can talk about Chicago stuff. We're basically cousins. Yeah. That's how you knew how old he was. But let's go through the news and notes quickly here. Odell Beckham's not going to hold out. That's great.

Mike McCarthy said Green Bay will have a running back by committee. Mike, that's not great in Green Bay. No, it's definitely not great at all. And the people that are telling you out there that they know that Aaron Jones is going to be the guy to have that job, don't listen to them because nobody's won the job. Seriously, they want everybody involved. And until someone runs away with that job, it's going to be a mess. Dave, did you see the genius move I pulled off in the draft we just did?

I did not. What did you do? You take Jones and Montgomery? Yes, I did. In rounds like six and eight or something like that. Whoa! That's early. It is a little early. I will give you that. Maybe it was round nine for one of them. Also, I'm not sure if we're allowed to talk about the draft, but I just did anyway.

You can do little bits and pieces. Yeah, it did feel a little bit early. Jones, I took with the second pick of round seven. And Montgomery, I took with the second pick of round nine. Early. Yeah, feels pretty early. But I took the other packer back when did you take him jamal williams second pick of round six okay so he was the first to go

yeah all right i think he's gonna be the guy andrew luck is pain-free i'm tired of talking but mike are you tired talking about andrew luck i just want to see him play in preseason because like my worst nightmare is that andrew luck comes comes out and does one dump off and they pull him out of the game. And we never get to see him throw in the preseason, which would totally just screw everything up. Yes, that would be very annoying. But I also took T.Y. Hilton in this recent draft, so fingers crossed there. Carolina wide receiver DJ Moore, he looks good according to Albert Breer. Dave, excited about that?

DJ Moore? No. Okay. Not excited. Kind of expect it. He was a good receiver at Maryland, and we'll see what he can do when training camp and the preseason rolls around. He's going to be just like all the other rookie receivers this year. If they look good in the preseason, fantasy fans will flock to them.

And Mike, we got Martavis Bryant now on the Raiders. Apparently they are fearing a possible suspension for Martavis Bryant. Is there a big fantasy impact there? No, I mean Martavis, he was on the border of somebody that you'd want to draft anyway as like a top 50 guy. But where there's smoke, there's fire, and this seems to be a problem with Martavis. And if he, in fact, is in trouble, this is like a lifelong suspension because he's not going to be brought back to any team.

An apropos statement there, where there's smoke, there's fire, when it comes to Martavis. By the way, if Martavis is suspended for the year, you can't say that that's good for Derek Carr. No. Is it good for Amari Cooper? Sure. I actually think it hurts Jordy Nelson more than anything.

I know some people will say it'll give Jordy more targets, but I hated the move for Jordy Nelson when they made that. And then when they traded for Martavis, it kind of made sense because he was going to go slide into the slot and play that older Larry Fitzgerald-esque role, which was fine for Jordy because he's having trouble. He doesn't have the speed to get separation on the outside anymore. So losing Martavis would be bad for Jordy Nelson as far as I'm concerned. And Amari, I think it actually helps. Who do you think could replace him, Mike, in that offense? Who do you think would be that next outside receiver? It's got to be Johnny Holton, right?

Maybe. I was thinking it could be him. I wonder if Aitman has shown enough or will show enough to push his way up there. I don't think it's going to be Seth Roberts, though. I think the architect, as Nick Costas called him, I think he's going to be Dunzo. I don't think he's going to make it. Yeah. No, it's looking shady with Martavis.

And that's what I'm saying is that I'm just, I'm expecting a suspension. Usually when we hear about this stuff, it definitely leads to it. Uh, and someone said about a, where he didn't show up to a test. I'll,

uh, love you on bell. Uh, so, I mean, there's, there's so many rumors out there, but like I said,

when you hear stuff about this, it usually happens. So, uh, be prepared to be without Martavis. If you did draft him in an early draft. Didn't show up to a test, Dave. Did you know I almost skipped my SATs because I didn't want to miss a Miami-Florida State game?

No, I didn't know that. It was the second time I was going to take the SATs, and I was like, no, I don't want to do this. But then I relented, and I took that. Now we know why you're a podcaster instead of a doctor. Yeah, exactly I took that. Now we know why you're a podcaster instead of a doctor. Yeah, exactly. All right, some more boring things. News and notes are boring right now. Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times expects Ronald Jones to get 15 to 20 touches per game.

Excellent report. That's not boring. That's exciting. Okay. It is. It's exciting. I'm big on the Ronald Jones bandwagon. I don't care.

It means nothing right now. It's June. Of course, but, you know. That is nice. Eric Ebron looking good, according to Stephen Holder of the Indianapolis Star. Mike, could you see yourself putting Eric Ebron ahead of Jack Doyle? No, no. It's like a wide receiver going into an offense that he doesn't really know that well.

Jack Doyle has built some rapport with Andrew Luck. I mean, if you remember, Dwayne Allen was the tight end being drafted ahead of Jack Doyle a couple years ago, and he worked his way up the depth chart, and he even played well with Jacoby Brissett. So I actually think that Jack Doyle is better than people think he is. And Eric Ebron, when you're on a rookie contract with a team that drafts you in the top 10 overall, and they let you go off that rookie contract contract it kind of says a lot about the player i think he just fell out of favor in detroit and i wonder if i wonder if the quarterback had anything to do with it uh i read that they're impressed

with ebron's intelligence his football intelligence and that he's adapted pretty well but i'm with you i i'm not ready to draft eric ebron and make him a regular starter on my fantasy team. I've already been fooled doing that once in the last four years. Carson Wentz is throwing and running, which is nice. He's making good progress. He'll be ready. He's going to be ready to rock. Nathan Peterman is a serious contender to be the Buffalo starting quarterback. All right.

What? Yeah. What? That's a thing. That's a thing, Dave. And David Irving for the Cowboys. He suspended four games, defensive end. Cleveland offensive tackle Donald Stephenson suspended two games for violating the substance abuse policy.

And his role is unclear, not even necessarily a starter. All right, so let's get to know Mike a little bit more. Should we start with the personal questions or the fantasy football questions? Whatever you guys want, man. I'm open to anything. I'm always game for whatever. Let's do two football questions followed by one personal question and then rotate as needed. Okay.

I think we'll do two and two. The personal ones will be quick. Fantasy football question from Mike Tagliere. Top three rookie running backs. Saquon Barkley is number one obviously uh sony michelle is two and number three i will go with ronald jones because i obviously talked him up over geis so uh the fact that he's he could be in line for a three down roll in a high scoring offense those are my top three there sony michelle not many people uh will understand that so i'll explain

uh so many people are telling me he's a patriots running back you don't do that the patriots literally broke their mold by drafting sony michelle in the first round like they don't spend money on running backs they don't draft them with high equity but they did with him why well their offensive line is a bit shaky right now um when you when you talk about everything sony michelle is a three down back who excels in pass protection he may have been the best pass blocker in this entire draft so he can stay on the field for all three downs. He's someone that I compared to LaShawn McCoy before the draft. And as I mentioned, 75% of top six running backs come from top six scoring offenses.

You know, we had three rookie running backs last year finish in the top eight running backs. You combine the high scoring offense with the high draft pick, which, by the way, first round running backs over the last six years have averaged 264 touches per year in their rookie year. So that's plenty combined with the high-scoring offense. I picked him 102 in my drafts that I had, my dynasty drafts that I had, so I definitely backed that up with what I do. But I could definitely see a tier with Ronald Jones, Darius Geis, and Rashad Penny right after those two. Dave, what's your top three after Barkley? Who's next? I've got Barkley, then Jones, and then I think I have Geis before I get to Michelle.

I think the key to Michelle is that anybody who drafts him has to be patient with him because knowing the Patriot way, I would be shocked if Sony's out there getting 15 touches per week right from the jump when they play against houston i think that they'll try and ease him in a little bit make sure he's comfortable make sure he doesn't fumble but i i see what you see in terms of what they spent to get him they had their chance at getting i believe any other running back other than barkley and penny when they drafted sony michelle so clearly they had designs on him being in a specific and a special role in that offense and I think he does have three down potential I think he can get there maybe by the midpoint of the season and Patriots

running backs tend to put up a lot of touchdowns if you can figure out who's going to do it I think Sonny's got their best bet to get a lot of touchdowns and a lot figure out who's going to do it i think sony's got their best bet to get a lot of touchdowns and a lot of yards there might be a guy that gets as many touchdowns um you know because they'll have a goal line guy right that's the concern third of the season that's not going to last all year well but it did last year i mean with burkhead was stealing touchdowns from deon lewis but we were still we were still confident in starting both of those guys. Maybe that situation plays out. I don't know if I agree.

I was. I was fine starting Burkhead and Deion from week two. I was not fine starting Deion Lewis in a PPR league week to week. He wasn't catching passes, and he wasn't scoring touchdowns until Burkhead and James White got hurt. And then, of course, James White was getting the catches. I mean, he caught 32 balls, Deion Lewis, all year, and 11 of them were in the final two weeks when he basically had the backfield to himself.

But, you know, I was just looking right now. 2006, the Patriots did draft a running back in the first round. It's been a long time. It was Lawrence Maroney. He got 175 carries that year, and he didn't even lead the team in carries. Corey Dillon at 199. Times have changed. I don't know if we can take anything out of that.

All right, let me get another question here for Mike. Favorite breakout this year? Oh, man, there's a few. But one I've kind of attached my name to, Jameis Winston. If you were to, you know, last year a lot of people expected him to break out. He was being taken in the same neighborhood as mariotta um and when you look it extrapolate the 11 full games that he played last year over a 16 game season because there was two games where he left uh really early on um so you don't i don't want to count those but if you take those put them over a 16 game

season he would have totaled 4911 yards 28, 16 interceptions, 185 rushing yards, and two rushing touchdowns. That's what people are considering a bad season for Jameis Winston. By the way, if you take those numbers over 16 games, that would have been enough to finish as the number two fantasy quarterback. And I tell people, even if you were to say, we're going to take Jameis Winston, combine it with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and mold them into one quarterback last year, they would have thrown for more yards than Tom Brady and led the NFL so uh the the offense there is catching on Dirk Cutter you know I think it's his third year there I believe that that there's

enough momentum with this team where if Jameis Winston takes a slight step forward he's going to finish as a top 10 quarterback and you're able to get him for dirt cheap right now I think his his ADP was around the 20th quarterback not long ago. I've noticed it starting to creep up a little bit, but Winston is for sure one of my favorite breakout candidates. Yeah, that's a great stat. We've been talking about that. I haven't given out the full numbers and the fact that he would have been the number two quarterback. That's great stuff. We had mentioned that 4,910 or 911 yards. That's impressive, and that's taking out the two games in which he got hurt.

All right, here's a non-fantasy question. Best sporting event you've ever been to? We talked about this in the Fantasy Pros contest the other day. I went to some Jordan playoff games and all this stuff, but the one that I remember most is that, so I'm from Chicago in the White Sox. Every time you see a White Sox commercial, you will see Robin Ventura hitting a walk-off Grand Slam to win the game.

I was at that game in which my dad wanted to leave to beat traffic because the Sox were down. I think it was like seven or eight runs going into the seventh or eighth inning. So we left, and we seen the fireworks on the way home. And it's a game that I'll never forget just because, I mean, I see it every time there's a commercial about the White Sox. Dave, were you at that game? I was not. Do you remember that game? I've been to my fair share of White Sox games where I did beat the traffic home without missing anything, that's for sure.

That's great. What's the best sporting event you've ever been to, Dave? I've been to a lot of really good ones. I was there when Mark McGuire tied and then the next night exceeded Roger Maris' home run record that was in St. Louis. Really? I was at Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter. Wow. I was there when the Miami Hurricanes won the Big East Championship in, I think it was like 2000 basketball. I mean, that's right up there when you think about amazing sports moments. I've stormed the court a couple of times at Miami games. I was at Super Bowl XLI where Devin Hester returned the opening kick for the touchdown.

Yeah, that's not the best sporting event you've ever been to. That was a terrible game. Yeah. The first half, I think the first half of that game was tons of fun. And the historical relevance of that game is good. Well, I hope you left it half dead. It's not anywhere close to even a very good Super Bowl. So you can't pick one, Dave?

Can you pick one? I'll take the Maguire. Oh, yeah. That's pretty damn good. I went to game seven, Marlins-Indians. I think it's funny that— Oh, I was there. I was there for that.

How is that not your answer? I guess that's it then. Isn't it great that the three of us all picked a baseball game as the best game we've ever been to? That is so odd, but I prefer watching football on TV, actually. I've been to Bears games. I've been to Packers games and stuff, and I just prefer watching it on TV, to be honest. I love going to college football games. Those are different, different level.

I don't know about you, Mike. I like watching college football games from up high and pro football games any football game from up high i don't need to be front row 50 yard line or anything like that i like seeing all the action i'm with you i actually think that the like the third tier and seating is actually people underrate that all the time i think it's great if you i mean if you can get close to the 50 yard line up high it's ideal because you can see everything that's taking place in the field. Oh, my gosh. Kill me if I'm up there. I need to be amongst the crazy fans in the end zone, just the nut.

I love to go crazy at games. It's my outlet. Can I put a disclaimer in here, though? Because if you come and visit Soldier Field, do not get the third level and up towards the top. Because the stairs that they put in that spaceship of a field, I kid you not. Unless you are literally training to go up all these stairs nonstop, it's a bad time. Especially if you're drinking and you've got to walk to go to the bathroom. Every time you go up and down. I'm not kidding.

The incline should not be legal. I don't know what the heck happened. There's no escalator? No. Oh, come on. Absolutely not. All right. How about the biggest bust?

We'll get back to fantasy now. Biggest bust. All right. So we talked about Cooks. I think he's going to be considered a bust by many, but I'm going to go with Evan Ingram here. And the reason I say that, Ingram, he finished as a tight end five last year. That was with everything that possibly could have gone his way went his way.

Odell Beckham got hurt. Brandon Marshall got hurt. Sterling Shepard was in and out of the lineup. You know, there was no pass-catching running backs for the majority of the season. Wayne Gallman started catching on at the end. But now you're adding Odell back to the lineup. Now you're adding Saquon Barkley into the offense. Sterling Shepard is going to be healthy. You know, when you you look at pat schirmer's offense part of the reason that i'm down

on adam dealin is because pat schirmer left pat schirmer what he brings to an offense and and how often he utilizes the slot receiver is huge huge for sterling shepherd with that being said evan ingram played the fewest amount of snaps at snaps out of the slot among tight ends who played at least 50% of snaps. So a lot of people think Evan Ingram's a slot receiver. He's actually not, not with the way that they were using him last year. So to see him being drafted with all that stuff that happened last year and he finished the tight end five, I think that's his absolute ceiling. So when you're drafting, you're looking to take players with equity built in. When you draft them as a fourth or fifth tight end, you are not taking that.

And I would actually, if I got some good odds, I would take odds that Trey Burton will finish as a better fantasy tight end than Evan Ingram. Wow. I think Burton has more upside than Ingram. Yep. I don't know. I mean, the only thing is Ingram is a really good player. He's a really good player. And I agree.

I've been saying basically not all of that, but much of what Mike just said. I mean, yes, it was a great scenario, and I do see him being a bust, and I haven't taken him. And I also think that the Hunter Henry injury has sort of pushed his draft value up a little bit more, because that's one less breakout

tight end available in the mid-round, so people are even more eager to get Evan Ingram, and it's a mistake. But as Heath has sort of mentioned, the one thing that kind of holds me back from dissing Evan Ingram, it's like, man, he does look the part. He looks really good. And, yeah, I could see him playing more in the slot this year since they're going to have a better receiving core than they had last year. The Giants led the NFL in pass attempts.

That's another strike against Evan Ingram. That's not going to happen this year if they have any semblance of a ground game, which they should have. Go ahead, Dave. I know I cut you off. I think he's going to be a lot closer to six targets per game, which is where he was last year in the first three games of the season. Odell played in those games.

He averaged about eight targets per game after Odell was out. And, yeah, the pass attempts are going to go down. But I see him as a big matchup problem for the defenses that they're going to go up against. I don't know how defenses are going to play against the Giants. Oh, the Giants are the best. Jacksonville is a good one in week one. But after that, I don't know if they're going to set a blueprint that the other, you know, whatever it is, 12 teams that they're going to play are going to copy over the course of the season.

When's he going to get double covered? What are they going to do against him in the red zone? Yeah, when's he going to get double covered? What are they going to do against him in the red zone? Yeah, it's a touchdown and touchdown. I think the Giants know that, and I think it's going to lead to a lot of touchdown production for Evan Ingram. So how many touchdowns did he end up having last year? Six? I think it was six, yeah.

I think he can go better than that this year. Okay. By the way, Gummys is going to be the Giants' homer right now. Odell Beckham is going to smoke Jalen Ramsey week one. 120 yards and a touchdown. He's just going to smoke him. Well, no one's sitting Odell ever in fantasy. Yeah.

It doesn't really matter. All right. Let's get another fantasy question here. What is your quarterback strategy? What is your tight end strategy so i'm never really one to like pigeonhole myself into a strategy uh i know that you can make a an argument for late round quarterback every single year but if there was one year where i'd feel comfortable waiting it's this year but i i've been trying to make this a point though because i think sometimes analysts when we talk about this you know we we

get tied into these industry leagues we're in into the leagues that we're in with some highly educated people whereas you know you go into your home league draft and some people are like oh i'm gonna wait on quarterback i'm gonna play the streaming game well what happens when 20 to 25 quarterbacks are drafted because you know by after talking with a lot of people that don't play in like these industry leagues a lot of times 18 to 24 quarterbacks are drafted in these leagues a lot of teams take two quarterbacks so do you want to be left streaming joe flacco and sam bradford no you have to actually understand your league how many quarterbacks are drafted in it and be okay my ideal strategy this year is to take an upside guy like maybe like a mitch trubisky or patrick mahomes and pair him with a Matt Ryan, Phillip Rivers,

because that way I have some safety. And I've also got the upside built in because I do believe that Trubisky can break into a top 10 fantasy quarterback. Mahomes, obviously the recipe is there for both those guys to break out, but they're no sure things. I'm also on the flip side. If you play in a league with a bunch of people who listen to podcasts and read

articles all off season, quarterbacks fall in drafts making someone like aaron rogers extremely valuable in a steal i would call him at the end of the third round if he's there at the end of the third and i'm deciding between him and someone like derrick henry i'm taking rogers every time because like derrick henry is far far far from a sure a sure thing. So just understand your league, who you're playing with. But again, if it's just a league where 15 quarterbacks are drafted, wait 100%. Right, right. That's a great point. How about tight end? What do you do at tight end typically? I mentioned it. I love Trey Burton this year. I have him as my number eight or nine tight end, depending on which day you ask me. But my stat on tight ends is chase the targets. The guys you know who are going to get

targets, chase them. There have been 62 tight ends who have seen at least 85 targets over the last five years. Of those 62 tight ends, just six of them finished outside the top 15, which is over 90%. The Bears obviously acquired someone like Trey Burton. I think it was the second day of free agency. He was one of the first free agents. And if you're worried about the new team thing, he actually knows the offense better than most do. He actually said he knows 90% of the playbook coming from Doug Peterson's offense, which is the exact same as Matt Nagy's, you know, different intricacies and things like that and Andy Reid. And if you look at Peterson's and Reid's offenses over the last, I think it's three years, their tight ends combined to average 158 targets. I'm not mistaken.

So Trey Burton, he should be considered a steal in your home league just because I've been seeing him go outside the top 12 in those leagues. Dave, you like Trey Burton? Everybody seems to like Trey Burton. Trey just went 76th overall in our recent non-PPR. PPR. I'm a Bostonian all of a sudden. He just went 76th overall in our most recent non-PPR draft. And I think he'll play about as much tight end as Travis Kelsey does

and maybe even less, meaning I think you're going to see him line up in the slot and out wide and used much more as a wide receiver almost like Evan Ingram so not an inline guy not a blocking guy someone that the Bears are going to try and use as a mismatch chess piece and this offense should look a million times better than it did last year when Kendall Wright was their best receiver. That makes you want to hurl. What they've got cooking now is really good.

I do look at the position differently than Mike does, though. I would chase touchdowns. And more than that, if I can get one of those big three tight ends, Gronk, Ertz, Kelsey, you know who they are. I don't mind paying up for them with a pick between, say, 18th and 29th overall. I don't mind because I think that they save me the headache of finding tight ends later. They're going to deliver better than your typical tight end. The typical tight end will give you, in a good week, seven fantasy points.

To me, they're a cut above, and if I can get one of them on my team, I'm a happy camper. All right. So I do want to get into the DeAndre Hopkins ranking. Very interesting. Number five in non-PPR, number six in PPR. I will ask you a few more non-fantasy questions. Let's get to know Mike Tagliere. Your favorite movie is?

It depends on type of movie, but I'm going to go with Gladiator and not the Russell Crowe one. I'm going to go with the one with Tommy Riley with Cuba Gooding Jr. in that movie. It was a movie I watched when I was a kid, and I got into boxing, and I always loved that movie. It was a movie I watched when I was a kid and I got into boxing and I always loved that movie. So if you haven't seen Gladiator, the non-Russell Crowe one, Brian Dennehy's in it, Cuba Gooding Jr., it's a phenomenal movie. I dig it. Wow, I've never even heard of that. Check it out.

Seriously, it's one of my favorites. It's one of those things where when you see something as a kid, it kind of has that sentimental value and it's carried with me. I've shown my kids that movie and stuff, so it's definitely a good boxing movie for sure yeah no then it's like me my favorite movie is braveheart but not the mel gibson one not the one that everybody i was like but not the russell crowe gladiators that's that would be a pretty good call uh favorite food mike pizza 100 um you know as d Dave and I have talked about in our podcast, Chicago pizza, you can't really top it.

And I've lived in Chicago for 34 of my 35 years on this planet. So Chicago pizza, it can't be topped. I've tried New York, and it doesn't touch Chicago pizza. It doesn't touch Chicago pizza because it won't touch anything that inferior. It's very snooty. Honestly, guys, they're two different things. They are. They are.

And to each his own. I'm just ragging, but seriously, Chicago pizza. Giordano's. If you have a Giordano's by you, it's so good. I did a lot of driving from Central Florida to South Florida, and they've got not one but two Giordano's in orlando and i tried to talk my wife into stopping at one of them it's father's day it's been a long day i've been behind the wheel wife would not give in oh come on gotta watch gotta watch your weight honey that's what

i got you should have sent her to work like mike did i know i know then i would have had like i would have hit your donald's on the way up I would have bought an extra pizza for the overnight I would have hit it on the way back It would have been great and I would have been 350 pounds That's fantastic And Mike we have two pretty controversial movie Questions on the podcast One of them is you know it's all over the place

The other one it's not quite as widespread But it will be Is Jerry Maguire a sports movie I actually thought about this one I would say yes itcguire a sports movie i actually thought about this one i would i would say yes it should be considered a sports movie yes yeah i disagree there and i'm assuming that means that you think diehard is christmas movie i do not actually i wouldn't tie that one i wouldn't tie that one to christmas now you see the thing is if you take the sport out of jerry mcguire it's not a movie if you take christmas out of diehard it's still a movie

i mean i agree with you on the diehard thing that's an interesting point it's not a movie. If you take Christmas out of Die Hard, it's still a movie. I mean, I agree with you on the Die Hard thing. That's an interesting point. It's not a movie without the sports, but it really is so little sports in the movie. I understand the thing, but basically the agent wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for a sport. So I have to consider that somewhat of a sports movie. And I understand both points of that, but I still would say, yes, it's a sports movie. You are way too nice. I'm just like, you're wrong. You're an idiot if yes, it's a sports movie. You are way too nice. I'm just like, you're wrong.

You're an idiot if you think it's a sports movie. All right. So I got very interested in this DeAndre Hopkins ranking, and it's an interesting take you have. If you look at the rankings for Mike on FantasyPros.com, you get a little reasoning, a little bio on everybody. So yeah, how come DeAndre Hopkins is fifth for you in non-PPR and sixth in PPR, among wide receivers, not overall?

Well, so I want to be clear about this. I'm a fan of DeAndre Hopkins, the actual wide receiver. I think he's phenomenal. I also believe that, and I would actually probably rank him, I think he would be a top four receiver. It's tough to put him over Antonio Odell or Julio, but he's up there in that conversation he's he's elite my issue is that all of a sudden you have a talent packed room in Houston like you're talking about Hopkins you have Will Fuller out there who could be a field

stretcher similar to like a Deshaun Jackson and Kiki QT do not forget about this guy like seriously I was touting him before the draft I'm upset with the landing spot because there's just too much talent on the roster for him to break through. But Kiki QT reminds me of Tyreek Hill. Like, he has that zoom-zoom button, that on-demand speed where legitimately when you're watching him, you can see him separate with ease because he has it. So when you talk about that, you talk about Lamar Miller, the tight end position they're still lacking. So that allows for some production.

And it's not saying that DeAndre Hopkins is falling out of the top 10 or anything, but we can't forget that even with his talent back in 2016, he finished outside the top 35 receivers with 151 targets. So he's not quarterback proof. Deshaun Watson, as good as he was, guys, it was really a five-game sample size. I mean, we could even say four maybe to an extent. And if you look at the competition they played in those games, it was really bad. A 9.3% touchdown rate.

Their defense in Houston was so bad. They actually were the worst defense in the NFL by the time we got to the end of the year. Where in DFS, if you saw your quarterback or your wide receivers were going against Houston, it's like stack up the points. Like seriously, put them in every lineup. And, you know, with J.J. Watt returning, with them trying to rebuild the defense a little bit through the draft and free agency, I believe this team is better overall.

And I think the pass attempts come down. I think there's some serious regression with Deshaun Watson. I don't think DeAndre Hopkins is going to average, you know, 11, 12 targets per game. I think that's all going to come down. And if you look at DeAndre Hopkins leading the NFL in fantasy points last year, over the last five years, I think he would have ranked 12th. So it wasn't a top-notch year. Wide receivers were down in general. In my argument for Hopkins, against Hopkins right now, please tell me something that he can do for your fantasy team that Devontae Adams cannot do, and you can get Devontae Adams sometimes two rounds later because he's got a better quarterback. The volume should be there.

The Packers' defense is not – they're still not great. Jordy Nelson's gone. You know, you look at – I think there's more talent on the Houston roster. So I'd rather have Aaron Rodgers, and again, you're getting Adams two rounds cheaper. So I love Hopkins the player. I really do. I don't want people to think that I don't like him, the player. He's phenomenal. But as a fantasy option, I won't own any of him because I wouldn't take him until mid-second round. Dave, reaction? Well, I think Hopkins can beat Adams on targets, catches, catches and yards i think the touchdowns is where adams might have an edge i hear what you're saying mike i i think what we saw from deshaun watson is who he is

i think he is a is a very mobile quarterback with a good arm enough to get the ball deep and they've got speed for days in this offense hopkins you you mentioned qt and of course will fuller he's probably third fastest when you're looking at all the receiving options there but he's still going to get a lot of targets i think he proved last year that he's just um an incredible professional receiver and the type of guy i don't know if he's getting 11 or 12 targets per game but nine or ten sound pretty good to me and i think that houston's going to be i don't know if he's getting 11 or 12 targets per game, but nine or 10 sound pretty good to me. And I think that Houston's going to be, I don't know how good that defense is going to be.

They're going to get their pass rushers back. Still have questions about the secondary. I think Deshaun's going to have to sling it a little bit more. And I put a lot of Hopkins bad 2016 on Brock Osweiler. I thought he came in and just wasn't even close to being a competent quarterback. There was something like 25% of the targets thrown Hopkins way that were just way uncatchable from Brock Osweiler. And I think that's why he had the year that he had. I think he's a phenomenal receiver. I can't get him in my draft. I'm not like you, Mike. I will take Hopkins in round one, but I can't get him because when I'm picking 7, 8, 9, 10, anywhere in that range, he's gone.

I'm drafting with people who are taking him ahead of Kareem Hunt, Leonard Fournette, Saquon Barkley. I don't know if I'm willing to go that far with him. I think there's a lot of running backs that I think are just better bets than him. But I still view him as the second best receiver, not by a big margin. I think Antonio Brown is number one. Then there's a gap. And then you've got Hopkins, Beckham, Julio. Devontae's close to there.

Michael Thomas has got to be in there, right? Okay, I think if you're a fantasy owner, yeah, you really have to decide where your tier ends. Honestly, T.Y. Hilton, if Andrew Luck were 100% healthy, I think T.Y. Hilton has a case to be in there. Keenan Allen certainly does. A.J. Green is always there. Mike Evans.

How many wide receivers are there, and how close is DeAndre Hopkins to the rest of the pack? And if you think that Hopkins is a cut above, then you're probably going to have to use a top six pick on him. If you think that Hopkins is kind of in the rest of the pack. And if you think that Hopkins is a cut above, then you're probably going to have to use a top six pick on him. If you think that Hopkins is kind of in the rest of that group or you just don't know how they're going to finish, then you probably shouldn't take any wide receiver other than Antonio Brown with your first pick unless you have a late pick in the first round.

Just wait until the second round and grab the last guy from that group. Sure. And the good news is this year you don't have to reach for a wide receiver in that first round. There are so many amazing running backs that you can build your fantasy team around. You can make one of those guys the crown jewel of your squad, and you shouldn't sweat it at all because round two there will be receivers that you will like.

Yeah, and I just wanted to say that the difference in opinion, I think it all comes down to Deshaun Watson. So, Dave, you're obviously a Watson believer, and it's not to say that I don't think he can be somewhat close to the quarterback that he was in 2017. It's just I'm skeptical still, whereas, like, obviously, if Deshaun Watson, if I knew he was going to go out and do the same thing, I'd have Hopkins up as number two as well.

So I think it just – your opinion on Hopkins has to come down to how do you feel about Watson Watson and are you buying that? And I'm just, it's just a little bit too small of a sample size for me to totally buy in with all the talent, you know, they have at wide receiver now, but, but I think we're in the same range though. It's, and I think Adam said it best when he talked about the tiers and how high is Deandre Hopkins above guys like Julio Jones, like Devante Adams, like Michael Thomas that you can get potentially around later. So that's the divide for me, and that's why I know that I'll probably have very, very little DeAndre Hopkins.

All right, let's finish the show with some emails here. I wanted to get more into Mike's rankings, but you can go ahead and check them out on Fantasy Pros, and make sure you listen to his podcast, Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. So we've got an email from Jimmy up the up the coast in palm beach dave say hi to jimmy for us sup jimmy uh dear herschel todd and terrell uh georgia georgia running yes georgia running backs okay 100 you know the terrell no i, I don't. Mike, do you? No, I do not. A running back from Georgia named Terrell, Terrell Davis.

Oh, he went to Georgia? Almost positive. I'm looking it up right now. Must have been. Why isn't anyone high on Calvin Ridley? He's going to tear it up. Opposite always hurt Julio. Kind of hoping it stays this way come draft day with nobody being high

on Calvin Ridley. I am high on Calvin Ridley, but I don't know how high I am because I don't find myself drafting him all that often. I kind of wanted to take him with a late round pick, but I don't know. I wouldn't, I guess, really say I'm high on him because I don't have rankings or anything, but I do have some more optimism about Ridley than I feel like a lot of other people do. How about you, Mike? I'm a huge Calvin Ridley fan. Actually, I'm an advocate of taking him at number six in rookie drafts. I'm high on Calvin Ridley. He's the number one receiver in my book, and it's not that close.

But with that being said, I'm not a huge fan of redraft because Julio is still there. Julio demands targets. You're not going to take away targets from Julio Jones. I think when we saw Taylor Gabriel first come to Atlanta and the impact that he had in fantasy football, where he did a lot with a little, I think that's the kind of impact that Ridley can have. I think he's going to have some massive weeks in fantasy football. That's why I think in best ball, if you're taking Calvin Ridley around that 50th wide receiver mark, I think you'll be happy with his performances. But in redraft, it's going to be extremely difficult. Like you'll want to look to the matchups where

Julio is going to see a shutdown corner because that means that Calvin Ridley is going to see some higher target potential. And he can burn number two cornerbacks all day. He's the most pro-ready receiver coming out of the draft, 100%. His route running, he can beat you deep. He can beat you underneath. He'll beat you with technique. He's not the biggest guy, so it's not like you're going to get big touchdown numbers,

but you just need those targets to come his way, which are going to be inconsistent. So I have him right at wide receiver 51 in my overall redraft rankings, but I'm definitely higher on him in Dynasty. Okay. Man, he's lightning fast. He's going to be a fun one to watch. I think he's a tremendous

bench receiver. I'm high on him too, but I'm looking at him in round 9, round 10. I want to draft him to be my fourth or fifth receiver. That's just kind of where I'm setting expectations. Dave, this next email is from Rodney. The subject line was Dave's misinformation.

Rodney says, Dave, you absolutely can eat bear. You said you couldn't eat bear apparently, and you can. What the hell? Okay, Rodney. I want to see you eat bear. I said you couldn't eat bear apparently and you can. What the hell? Okay, Rodney. I want to see you eat bear. I challenge you. I want to see you eat bear, Dave.

I'm a little busy right now. I can't go and get bear. I got things to do. I got kids. I got this fantasy magazine that we're trying to put together. I can't go out and find bear meat at my local um bear emporium so i'm gonna ask rodney to go ahead and do it send me a picture of him eating bear

i know you could eat bear i could eat this microphone right now no and it actually it actually smells kind of sugary for some reason well that's gross okay let's get another microphone rodney let me know very strange man tim is from a town between dc and baltimore between dc and baltimore no i'm just i'm gonna put him in uh in dc okay very creative well i know listen you can't't just pin me down like that. I know cities in Maryland and in Virginia. Yeah, it's a pretty narrow. What the hell do you want from me? I'm not Remax over here.

Mike, I know you wanted to talk a little Dynasty. So Tim's question is, I'm starting a Dynasty League. I wanted to know your thoughts on drafting older players like Tom Brady, Fitzgerald, AJ Green, LaShawn McCoy? So the running, it all depends on position, right? And, you know, typically when Dynasty, too many people build for the future where it's like, you know, the Dynasty board is ever changing. Like, seriously, if you go look at a Dynasty draft board from five years ago, it'll make you sick.

CJ Spiller was like a top 10 pick. Eddie Lacy was a top 15 pick. Like, you know, these are the names that you'll see on those lists. So I'm actually for drafting some veterans however i will not draft guys that have one year left like tom brady i will not draft him i would not draft someone like um uh you mentioned laetrile mccoy i running backs after the age of 29 it's just all downhill from there so you're you're just going to end up spending more those are the type of players that were if you are in for a championship run those are the players that you trade for because it's like, okay, I have a chance

to win it this year. That's who I'm going after there. So I've actually kind of put together my own list. And if you guys are on Twitter, I have as my pin tweet, it's a dynasty trade value chart. And I kind of take that all into consideration when looking at these players and you can actually see how I have them ranked, what I have them valued at. And I also have draft picks in there, like future draft picks, because I've done research over the last few years to look at dynasty draft picks and what they are actually worth. Most people actually overvalue dynasty draft picks. So I put the values of those guys in there, too, to give you an idea.

But, yeah, it really all comes down to position. Someone like A.J. Green, I believe there's another two or three years there. So absolutely I would draft someone like A.J. Green, I believe there's another two or three years there. So, absolutely, I would draft someone like A.J. Green. But the guys that have one year, like a Brady, like a Fitzgerald, I'm probably staying away from them unless I get a massive, like a really big discount. All right, we got an email from Pudge from the Mitten State. What is the Mitten State? That's Michigan.

It is? You guys are Midwesterners. I've lived, like lived nowhere near Michigan. Give me a break. I'm not supposed to know that. But you know why it is that, right? Does it look like a glove or something? What do you mean, does it look like a glove?

I don't know. I'll look at it right now. You ever see a globe, Adam? It doesn't look like a glove. Did you ever go to school? Oh, no, you didn't. You ditched your SAT. How is that a bit?

I guess I see it a little bit. Pudge from Michigan says, hey, Leaf, Russell, Manziel, and Marinovich. I hope that's not us. I recently acquired the 1.02, the second pick of the draft. Is this a rookie draft or no? I also have the 10th pick and the third pick of the second round. Do I focus on a specific position and hope one sticks, take best available, or try to trade back for an established veteran?

12-team standard scoring league. So he's got the second pick, the 10th pick, and then he has the third pick of the second round. Dave, what would you do there? I'm going to draft a bunch of really good players. Yeah, don't limit yourself. I would prepare for Le'Veon Bell with that second overall pick, and then you're probably going to go running back receiver in some order I would prepare for Le'Veon Bell with that second overall pick.

And then you're probably going to go running back receiver in some order with those next two picks. Then what you're going to go ahead and do is win your league, grab a trophy and a beer, pour the beer over your head, kiss the trophy, go back home, march around your house, and then write us an email that doesn't involve a bunch of bust nfl quarterbacks any any beat oh and in between all that you're gonna you're gonna send adam a map of the state of michigan i just just so he can get familiar with why the mitten state is called what it is okay yeah i should have known that uh i mean no it's okay i see the bin i see the bin it also kind of looks like a monster that's eating lake huron so they could have gone with that let's call it the monster state yeah mike sorry if we're weirding you out i do want to thank you for taking an hour laughing he likes he thinks we're weird yes i'm having a blast if you guys listen to our podcast bob Bobby is more outrageous than you guys.

So I'm definitely used to it. Oh, well, I hope we can be on for that. It would be great. Thanks for coming on, man. Spending an hour, that means a lot to us. We really appreciate it. Just tell us about all your stuff, your podcast, whatever you want to plug. Go for it.

Yeah, no, guys. Check us out on FantasyPros.com. On Twitter, I'm at MikeTagliereNFL. Honestly, I'm in the midst of posting at least three articles a week, if not five. I do the Dynasty Trade Value Chart, which I update every single month. And, yeah, check out our podcast. We're doing three episodes a week now on Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. So thanks for having me on, guys.

I had a blast. And I'm sure we're going to have you guys on ours. So we'll be talking soon. All right. Thanks. That's Mike Tagliere. That's Dave Richard. I'm sure we're going to have you guys on ours. So we'll be talking soon. All right. Thanks. That's Mike Tagliere. That's Dave Richard. I'm Adam Azer.

And we will talk to you later in the week looking at Thursday for our second episode. We'll see you then. Do you think that the state of New Jersey looks like an S? Maybe we should call it the S state. Bye. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na. It's all right. I've got Le'Veon.

It's all right. Not George Le'Veon. It's all right. I've got Le'Veon. It's alright. Not George Le'Veon. It's alright. I've got Le'Veon Bell.