Fantasy Football Today - 07/30: Everyone is a Bust! Plus Auction Talk and Big News (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: July 30, 2019

What's the biggest headline from yesterday? Alfred Morris to DAL (2:24)? Damien Williams' injury? Jordan Howard's role in PHI (5:03)? We start the show with big news before we make the case against the elite players in Fantasy Football ... Adam makes a bust case for each of the top 8 players in ADP beginning with the top RBs (12:14). Is Saquon Barkley in trouble without Odell Beckham? Ezekiel Elliott is in Cabo! Alvin Kamara will split carries and Christian McCaffrey could see his workload get scaled back. Then we discuss the next four picks (20:30) in ADP and why they are risky ... News and notes (27:30), our thoughts on strength of schedule and if it matters (33:55), and then we've got a lot of auction talk (41:30)! Strategies that worked and strategies that failed. Can you spend a big chunk of your budget on two or three players? How important is patience? ... 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. Today on the show, what's the most fun way to do a fantasy draft?

Of course, it's an auction, and so we're going to talk about yesterday's auction. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. Also, a little bit less fun of a topic. I'm going to tell you why each of the top 15 picks in fantasy could be busts this year. It is almost August, man. It's July 30th. Welcome to Tuesday's show of Fantasy Football Today. Adam Azer with Jamie Isenberg.

And Jamie, we got a nice little surprise today. Apparently, the Heath is on. Heath, welcome to the show. A nice surprise for all of us. Yes, it's great. We're very excited. Yes. We were not expecting Heath. He has graced us with his presence. We are very appreciative of that. I was yelling at Heath as he walked in the building, get in here. Well, thank you for coming on, Heath. I'm really happy to be here.

I came in a little bit sad because I thought I didn't get to talk to you today for the first day in like 17 months. But I do, so I'm happy. Yeah, I was almost going to call you last night. Then I said, you know what? I don't think he wants to hear from me. So this will suffice. How did the auction go yesterday? Actually, I really like both of your teams.

I liked a lot of the teams. Will Brinson took a really interesting approach to the auction. He spent 68% of his budget on two players in a PPR league. So we're going to talk about that. But from your perspective, how did the auction go? It was really weird. Weird? Really, really weird auction.

Partially because of what Will did. It seemed like there were like two copies of every wide receiver in this auction because every team I looked at had five wide receivers that were awesome. Now, I only ended up with three, but they're the best part of my team. It was really weird. Kyler Murray was like the second most expensive quarterback. It was really weird. Kyler Murray was like the second most expensive quarterback. It was really weird.

Kyler Murray was the second most expensive. Okay. That's why auctions are fun. And that's why they're tough to talk about because they're all so, so different. But we will answer some auction questions and kind of go over some strategies and see how the team's shaped up later on in the show. Guys, what is the most important news item from yesterday or early this morning?

I think it's Alfred Morris signing with the Cowboys. You know, following up what Jerry Jones said about not wanting or needing a running back to be a Super Bowl team or needing a leading rusher to win the Super Bowl, however he phrased it. Morris was one of the guys who helped replace Zeke when he was suspended a couple of seasons ago for six games. And so the thought would be is that they're making their plans in case this is going to linger, bringing in somebody who knows their offense, knows their personnel, and they're comfortable with.

I don't think this is an indication that Zeke is going to hold out during the season, but it's just, you know, the Cowboys making plans and probably not being a hundred percent comfortable with the guys who are behind Zeke. You know, um,

the, the thought right now is Darius Jackson is, uh, competing with Mike Weber to be the running downs guy. And then Tony Pollard will kind of, you know, carve out this, this role of the pass catcher.

But it's going to be messy, I think, if Elliott's out for an extended period of time. Heath, is that also, in your mind, the most important news item? I guess. I would say, if it's not, a close second would be Damian Williams missing a second day with a hamstring injury. Because he is one of the guys that we had the biggest concern about, having never him with any sort of workload in the past and we were hoping he could and the chiefs gave every indication this is our feature back and then a week into camp and he's got a hamstring issue and now he's missed two days of practice in a row if this gets to a week i start downgrading damian william just when i go back in so let me go back to the cowboys running

back situation here how are you drafting them right now? Are you drafting Zeke still where you had him? And then are you drafting Alfred Morris? Is there a different running back that you draft? Like who would you handcuff with Zeke? How would you approach it? I wouldn't handcuff him now. You know, I think when we get to preseason action, first off, August 6th is the day we've been working off of, you know, if he doesn't show up by August 6th, then we know he's going to drag this out because if he doesn't show up by that day, he loses the year of

free agency that he would be. He uses the time that he would become a free agency. I always phrase that the wrong way. He has to report by August 6th to earn his year of service to become a free agent when his contract is over. If he's back by that day, he's top four overall pick,

however you want to put him in those first four guys, regardless of format. But if we get past August 6th, then it's going to be, okay, what happens in the preseason? Who's the guy that's going to get the touches there?

Is it Jackson? Is it Morris? Is it Pollard? Is it Weber? And then I think you just have to act accordingly. All right, here's my nomination for the most important news item of yesterday or earlier this morning. Jordan Howard getting a lot of first-team reps.

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise, but going back over the last couple of seasons with Doug Peterson and with the Philadelphia Eagles, did they feature any running backs? It's easy to look at the stats and say, no, they didn't. No running backs had more than 173 carries in any season in the last three seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles. But LeGarrette Blount was getting about 15 carries per game before the Jay Ajayi trade.

In most games, it wasn't entirely consistent. Jay Ajayi then came in, I think, six of his last eight games, including the postseason. He had, you know, about 14 to 18 carries, actually four of his last six games. And then last year, Jay Ajayi, week one, 15 carries. Week two, has seven carries, but gets hurt in the game. Sits week three, week four, he gets 15 carries. Then week five, he gets eight carries, and that was his last game of the season. So I think you look at LeGarrette Blount, you look at J.H.I. over the last two seasons. Forget about

Josh Adams, who did have two consecutive 20-carry games. I think it's reasonable to think that the lead running back for Philadelphia could get 15-ish carries a game. And if Jordan Howard is getting that, should he not be such an afterthought on draft day, guys? What do you think? Jordan Howard, I'm looking at the consensus

rankings, and he's the number 42 running back behind the Sean McCoy Royce Freeman Kalen Balazs Ronald Jones the problem is at least for me and I think when Ben was on on Friday he talked about his strategy of taking running backs not in that dead zone but later in the draft because if something happens they could they have that of being like, you think Balazs, Jones, Freeman, those guys, Deontay Foreman, Justin Jackson, those guys all have kind of like a feature workload upside. I think this 15 touches a game you're talking about for Jordan Howard is his upside.

Like if everything goes right, he might be able to be the Garrett Blunt or JHA. Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with that, though. But that's not what I expect. They didn't have Miles Sanders there the last two years either. Yeah, right. But they've had guys that they seem to like maybe on par with Miles Sanders. I mean, they like Corey Clement.

They like Wendell Smallwood. They've used those guys in different capacities. I've moved Howard ahead of Sanders. It's hard to justify drafting Sanders ahead of him, given what we know, that he's missed time with the hamstring problem, that he's not going to be a three-down guy because they brought Sproles back.

And so who's the most likely guy to lead them in scoring, scoring the most touchdowns? Probably Howard. Who has the best chance to lead them in rushing yards? It's probably Howard. And the receiving numbers are going to get chopped up to a point where it just really doesn't matter. Now, that may lead you to say,

why draft any of the Eagles running backs, which I'm sure is the way you're approaching it, Heath. I think you've said that many times. Right. And that's certainly a way to go. But once you get past, I think, the first 30-plus running backs, if you want to show that list again of the guys that we were just referencing,

it's kind of like, okay, who can get me maybe 1,000 yards rushing? I don't know if Howard has that type of upside, but maybe 806, 808? It's a great offense. It could be one of the best offenses in football. Yeah, I mean, I don't think any of us think Jordan Howard's all that good, but he was really good as a rookie. I agree with you. He's a top 10 running back, or top

12 in non-PPR two straight years. This is where metrics and spark and all those things and production, you sort of have to not necessarily look at the two. He's not a very talented player, but he ends up with talented production.

He was a top 10 back with, what, 290 touches? Yeah. He's a volume guy. I mean, he's clearly a volume guy. I just don't think the volume is available. Right. But again, going from where he was in Chicago to what he could be now in Philadelphia, based on the count, we were taking him to the second round in Chicago in non-PPR leagues.

Two years ago. Even last year, he was a third-round pick. So you're talking about a guy that you're getting round six, round seven, round eight, depending on format. It's not a bad situation. And Dave has talked about this quite a bit. Give him credit that if you just look at it from who can get you off to a hot start, it could be somebody like Howard because we don't know at what point

they may make the switch to Miles Sanders to give him not necessarily the quote-unquote starting job, but a 50-50 timeshare. And so, you know, Howard's not a bad guy to give you some good games early in the season. Again, great offensive line. Right now Wentz is healthy, so great quarterback. Very good weapons, good defense.

I mean, they're one of the better teams in the NFC. They're one of the odds-on favorites to win the Super Bowl. And they start with Washington at home and then at Atlanta, and maybe you go 0RB. Jordan Howard's the kind of guy you could be looking at. All right, so some things to announce. I think, wait, just stop there one second because Dave said this a lot too. I think we just need to clarify. This isn't the first a lot, too. I think we just need to clarify.

This isn't the first running back you want to take if you go to your. It's a it's part of a group of guys that you take if he goes your. Yeah. OK, so if you Jamie mentioned and I mentioned that graphic of the running backs that I would that we were looking at. Well, you can see the show YouTube dot com slash fantasy football today. That's really the best way to go. You don't want to search for anything on YouTube. Just go directly to that URL, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. And I don't know if we're going to have the whole show up yet. That, I think, is coming eventually,

but at least clips should be up. youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. We have a sponsor today. It is FanDuel. I absolutely love FanDuel. I truly, truly do. Go to FanDuel.com slash FFT. Get a $5 bonus on your first deposit. If you want to gamble a little bit, put some wagers down, go to Sportsline. Sportsline is going to give you some good gambling tips and some fantasy tips as well. Sportsline.com. It's $10 a month or $9.99 a month, but your first month, you can get it for just $1 if you go to Sportsline.com and you use the promo code HUDDLE. And if you are a real fantasy football player, you listen to this show, you love fantasy football, you want to be playing on the best website, that is CBS. No, they don't pay me to say that.

I really do think the CBS website is the best. And if you go to CBSSports.com slash FFT, you can sign up and you can let them know that you got there via the podcast. CBSSports.com slash FFT. Great for Dynasty Leagues. You can trade picks up to three years in advance. The commissioner tools are better.

The app is better. You're going to love it. CBSSports.com slash FFT. All right. General question for you guys. Do you find it easier when you're researching players

to find negatives rather than positives? No. Both, I guess. You know what? I think it is. With the higher end guys, since they're already so high, I think it's easier for me to find negatives. And for the later round

picks, the mid-round to late round picks, then I'm like, oh, well, actually, the standards are lower, obviously, so I find some more positives. But when I'm looking at all these top picks, the mid-round to late-round picks, then I'm like, oh, well, actually, the standards are lower, obviously, so I find some more positives. But when I'm looking at all these top picks, I can make a bus case for just about all of them. The hardest one is probably Ezekiel Elliott, and now all I have to do is say, well, he might be holding out. So let's go through, here's our top 15 picks in CBS Sports ADP, excluding Melvin Gordon, who's going to keep falling, and excluding Patrick Mahomes, who we will never, ever take with a top 15 pick. So I'm going to give you a reason

why each player is a bust. And you just tell me if you buy it at all, or if I'm stupid. And by the way, I don't think all of them are busts, obviously. But Heath, this is your chance to call me stupid. So let's start with Saquon Barkley. In his last four games without Odell Beckham, yeah, he had some good games, but he also had two games with 43 or fewer rushing yards in two out of four games. And he was also on pace for just 68 catches without Beckham, which would have been seventh most amongst running backs. And by the way, he's very reliant on the big play.

He had the second most carries of two or fewer yards behind Ezekiel Elliott, two fewer than Zeke with 43 fewer carries. So anyway, Saquon Barkley, not quite as good without Beckham, you could say. Bust potential. Well, and to your point of being reliant on the big play, he had six carries last year of 50 yards or more. Nobody else in the NFL had more than three. I would not expect him to have six again this year. His rushing average is probably going to come down just a little bit. He might fall all the way to number two.

You know, it's funny because one of those games without Beckham, he did something according to next-gen stats that's never been done before since they've been tracking this number against Washington. And this is something I think a lot of people look at with Beckham is that he's going to face a lot of stack line of scrimmages.

He had the most yards against eight-plus defenders in the box since they've been doing this since 2016. Yeah, but he is going to get a lot of eight defenders in the box. Right, but what I'm saying is he's amazing. It's just one game, but in that game against Washington, take it for what it's worth, how Washington was at the end of the season, what their mindset

was, and a lot of it was based on, like you said, one big run, but he went for eight carries for 141 yards against eight defenders at the line of scrimmage, just in that game alone.

For the game, he had 14 carries for 170 yards. It's just pretty incredible. And actually, the Giants, in the four games last year without Beckham, which kind of doesn't necessarily match with what Barkley did, their scoring was up. It was their highest scoring stretch of the season, those four games. He's going to catch a lot of passes.

He'll catch more than 68 this year, and the offensive line actually could be very good bringing on Kevin Zeitler and second year for Will Hernandez. Okay, Ezekiel Elliott. Dude's in Cabo. That's all I got to say. Sure.

He's the hardest person to make a bus case for he's so good and he's so consistent i think the one thing would be is if his touchdowns stay the same where they were a year ago yeah and the receptions come down i wrote yesterday about uh running backs who could regress one direction or the other i really don't think it's very likely that the touchdowns stay the same. Agreed. But yeah, just the same number of carries inside the five and inside the 10 last year.

He's had the two previous years. Oddly enough, he only scored two touchdowns inside the five last year instead of five or seven, the two years before. So you only, I don't have any best concern with Ezekiel Elliott until August 7th. And I guess the only thing would be is if they get multiple injuries on the offensive line.

Now, you could say that about obviously any running back, and I don't think he's so reliant on the offensive line to make him a great player. But when you run behind arguably the best line in football, it certainly helps. And we saw last year, you know, maybe part of the reason why those short yard situations weren't as good was because Frederick wasn't in there. Yep. That's exactly what I was going to say. Gets Travis Frederick, his center back.

Okay. Alvin Camara. Why could he be a bus? Well, he had the second most rushing touchdowns in the NFL with the 16th most carries. So that's a pretty good rate. He averaged 14 carries per game without Mark Ingram,

12 and a half carries per game with Mark Ingram. And just based on the games he played with Ingram, I think it was 11 games total. He wasn't deserving of, let's say, the number one overall pick if you're considering him there. So Kamara, that's his bust potential, I suppose. I think it's going to be really interesting if they end up

signing Theo Riddick. Because that's one of the places that Riddick visited. Where would he cut into? Not going to be rushing downs. Going to be receiving downs. And so, I think you may where would he cut into? Not going to be rushing downs. Going to be receiving downs. Excuse me. I think you may be a little bit nervous about that.

They worked out another running back, too. I forget who it was. I saw it yesterday. I think it was Alf, wasn't it? Maybe you're right. Yeah, maybe it was Morse. But if Riddick does end up going to New Orleans, I'd be a little bit cautious about Kamara as the number one pick in PPR.

I would not downgrade him, though, from the top four picks, even if Riddick is there. All right, let's go to our next one. Christian McCaffrey. Other than the terrific email we got from Cooper Doug a few weeks ago explaining that his production was much better before Cam really seriously got hurt by TJ Watt. He could have his snaps reduced, we heard yesterday. No other Panthers running back had more than 24 carries last season.

So it's just the amount of snaps he played, the amount of touches he got, really could come down for Christian McCaffrey. And, you know, if Cam Newton is throwing the ball downfield a little bit more, maybe it hurts his production. I think the fact that both DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel could have a breakout this season and we like both of them, that could...

Maybe only McCaffrey leads the team with 20% of the targets instead of 25% of the targets. We do have the production not being quite as good when Newton was healthy. And I, in my projections, even now, have him projected kind of in a tier below those first three running backs.

So if there are some guys like Kerryon Johnson, like Dalvin Cook, like Leonard Fournette that really make the leap this year, McCaffrey might be the guy they make the leap over. It might, but I still think, you know, while we hear he may not have as many carries, it's

hard to expect them to go away from him. And maybe we see a little bit better rushing production, not that five yards per carry is obviously something that can improve dramatically, but I think the offense as a whole has a chance to be better, certainly for 16 games. If you get 16 games a cam based on where he was through the start of the season,

another year in North Turner's system, I think the offensive line will be better. I'm excited, you know, about McCaffrey. So, you know, I mean, we don't really talk about him very much. I know Cooper Doug sort of gave us an outline of why maybe he can fail, but he also could be the number one running back in PPR. Absolutely. He was last year. He was basically tied with Saquon Barkley. All right. So of the top four running backs,

who has the most bust potential? McGaffrey. Kamara. All right. We're going to talk about DeAndre Hopkins, Devontae Adams, and the rest of the top 15 after a very quick break on Fantasy Football today.

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Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario Helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. DeAndre Hopkins, fifth pick off the board in CBS Sports Leagues in our average draft position.

He has had more than 31% or more of the targets in three of his last four seasons. But when Will Fuller and Kiki Kuti were both healthy, it went all the way down to 28.8% of the targets. And he was only on pace for 1,700 yards and 12 touchdowns in those four games. But no, seriously, he didn't get quite as much of the target share

when Kuti and Fuller were both healthy. Bust potential for Hopkins. I think he actually drops a pass this year. Yeah, I'm less concerned about Hopkins, I think, than I am the four running backs you just went over. I just think that if the other guys produce a little bit better, stay healthy, we could see a slight, slight downturn in production. Devontae Adams. The bust potential. Devontae Adams.

The bust potential for Devontae Adams, he averaged 71.25 receiving yards per game in the first four games of the season. That was when Geronimo Allison was playing very well. 71.25 per game, that's 1,140. That'd be pretty low. Those games were against Chicago, Minnesota, Washington, and Buffalo,

three teams that did very well against wide receivers. You also have a new system in there. Maybe some growing pains. Devontae Adams, any bust potential? Starts the season with the Vikings and Bears. Ends the season with the Vikings and Bears. It's not a great schedule. We've never

seen him do what he did last year in terms of yardage and catches. Sure, there's some bust potential. Yeah, I guess it would be if the other guys step up. Similar to Hopkins, if you get what you're getting from, or potentially getting from Fuller and Cutie, you're getting it from Allison and Valdez-Gantling. Demi Graham turns back the clock a little bit. Run game is better.

But I just look at what Aaron Rod rogers track record is with his number one guy and i'll buy into that all day long all right number seven in adp is david johnson putting him number seven after look he had a good year in terms of where he finished but he didn't really have that much of a fantasy he didn't have a huge fantasy impact i'll say david johnson we're putting a lot of stock in a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach. We are, for sure. And we heard this last year, oh, David Johnson's going to be back to the 2016 form again. And it wasn't the case with a new head coach, a rookie head coach, and a rookie quarterback. I mean, that was essentially the same setup with Steve Wilks and Josh Rosen. But I think the hope would be is that the amount of plays

that Cliff Kingsbury's offense ran in college, if they play at that pace in the NFL, then David Johnson has a chance to get a lot more opportunities and smarter touches than what we saw last year, not just run up the middle, which is not what he's suited for, get him the ball in space, you know, get him the ball in the passing game.

So I think if David Johnson stays healthy, he could, you know, he, he showed us he could be the number one running back in fantasy. Yeah. Enormous, enormous upside for Johnson and this entire Cardinals defense and a floor

that we may not, may not even know what it is. Um, yeah, we saw it. It was, it was the 2017. It could be, yeah, I the 2017 it could be yeah i

mean this could be just a complete disaster in arizona and we're just gonna have to wait and see but i understand why people are excited i'm just not quite as excited he scares me at seven overall you know i i obviously melvin gordon used to be ahead of him uh i i think you know i think in non-ppr i'd take take James Conner ahead of him. In PPR, I might skip him and take Julio Jones. This is just the second half of the first round where there's about five spots in a row where I just have a hard time not going wide receiver.

I have a hard time taking him in PPR over Michael Thomas or Julio Jones or Juju. Yeah, and when I said skip David Johnson, I don't mean entirely. I just mean at seven overall. I might be looking at Julio Jones in a PPR league or something. All right, let's go to eight overall. Le'Veon Bell, there are a lot of things that we've talked about so much. He was averaging in his last four seasons.

His 16-game pace was 409 touches. So that's not going to happen. But really, guys, I'm concerned about his running style behind that. A different offensive line, one that probably won't be as good as what he played behind in Pittsburgh. And I could see a tough adjustment there with the way Le'Veon Bell patiently looks for holes, kind of sits there behind the line of scrimmage. You know, how much of a concern is that for you guys with Bell? I mean, he apologized to fantasy owners, Adam.

There's no bus potential coming. It's a definite concern. You know, it's a concern. You know, chemistry is huge with an offensive line and continuity. And he had that with the Steelers group. We've talked about this a lot. You know, is Sam Darnold going to elevate his game the way a Hall of Fame quarterback in Roethlisberger did?

Is he going to have the same touches? Is he going to have the same freedom with defenses respecting the passing game of the Steelers compared to how they respect the passing game of the Jets, who may have lost Jameson Crowder? We don't know. We'll find out today after he left practice on Monday with a hamstring problem. Excuse me.

Hamstring? Foot. His ankle. Angle or foot, yeah. So I think it's a lot of reasons why I'm afraid of Le'Veon Bell in the first round. And it's so funny. Every time I write this, I'm like, I don't want to take Le'Veon Bell in the first round,

but I'll take him in the second round. It's splitting hairs with where you're going to take him and who you're taking him over, but it's just hard not to see what the upside could be if he stays healthy for 16 games and is even just 75%, 80% of what he was before sitting out last year. One thing I'll say with Bell and David Johnson, I actually have these guys pretty close,

just a half a round back from where they're both going. I think both of them have enormous top four upside, and both of them the floor scares me. All right, guys, I'm going to tell you what. I'm going to call an audible here. I'm going to save the next eight, which would be James Conner, Odell Beckham, Julio Jones, Juju Smith-Schuster, Joe Mixon, Michael Thomas, Travis Kelsey, and then one more. I only had 15 planned.

I did eight today. I'll do eight tomorrow. But I want to make sure we save some time for auction talk. So, yeah, so the top seven were those four running backs, DeAndre Hopkins, Devontae Adams, David Johnson, and then number eight was Le'Veon Bell. And we talked about them and their bust potential. And, look, at the bottom, I don't want to scare people off here. Okay, these are great players.

There's a reason they're going in the first round. You're stupid. Yeah, I know. It's just, you feel that you sit there, you take the pick, and you're like, God, if this guy doesn't produce, my team could be wrecked. So it's important to talk about the downside and what could go wrong for these players.

And hopefully we helped you out there. Some news and notes. Yeah, Le'Veon Bell did apologize to fantasy owners. Can we get that tweet back up on the screen here? And again, go to youtube.com slash fantasy football today. This is long overdue, but I want to take a moment to apologize to all the fantasy owners who picked me last year.

I'm sorry I couldn't pull through for y'all, but trust me, this year's about to be way different with the four Ys on way. I'm bringing the trophy trophy this year. And then what is that emoji at the end? That's a purple devil, right? Purple devil? Okay, what does that mean, purple devil?

I think it means maybe he's not telling us the truth. Yeah, I've never used the Purple Devil before. My emoji game is not very good. As you know, Dallas signed Alfred Morris. Damian Williams mispracticed, as you know. Cam Newton altered his throwing motion, said that playing hurt was not the smartest thing. But we're going to do the position previews next week. We're going to start with quarterbacks.

That'll be on Monday. And there's such a good case to be made for Cam Newton because under Norv Turner last year, he really was having a very good... Do you guys agree with that premise? He was really having a really good year under Norv Turner. Absolutely. I think Heath, you said... I'm sorry, Jamie, but Heath, I think you said you wouldn't be surprised

to see Cam have his best passing season this year. No, he had a second best passing season last year, including the time after he got hurt. And really, before he went down, he was one of the best fantasy quarterbacks. I'd expect he's going to be this year. You have Olsen back.

You have two guys that could be amazing in yards after catch. Three, if you factor in McCaffrey. Better offensive line. And obviously, from a fantasy perspective, if he runs to the level that he usually does or at least close to it, it's hard to overlook that, what his potential could be.

We're talking about Saquon Barkley with Ben Gretsch a few weeks ago. I think it was during Projections Week. And he mentioned how Saquon Barkley really helped Eli Manning's passing stats. And it's just another way to think about these pass-catching running backs. Not only are they so great in fantasy,

but they really elevate quarterback production. They're easy yards. They're easy throws. They're better completion rate. And so that's what McCaffrey's going to do for Cam Newton. And really, that's why I actually think that for Jared Goff to be super successful, he probably needs Todd Gurley to stay healthy and be great in the passing game, which brings me to my next news item, guys.

The Rams, apparently, according to Charles Robinson of Yahoo, they want Daryl Henderson to play like a Chris Thompson role. Thompson, of course, being a pass catcher. Yeah, so what are you Gurley for? Well, I'd rather it be Gurley. That's bad news for Todd Gurley's PPR value. Was it, or is that an overreaction? Because that did come to mind.

That can't be good for Gurley. It's another downgrade, if that is exactly what come to mind. That can't be good for Gurley. It's another downgrade, if that is exactly what comes to pass. But I think, again, where Gurley's falling in drafts, end of the second, beginning of the third, just what his touchdown potential has been and what this offense will be,

I still think that's a fine spot for him. The problem is, and it's kind of like the tight end thing, I think, he's falling there in our drafts. But I think CBS ADP is 18th. NFFC ADP is 14th. He's going early to mid-second. I think we're actually right on.

We talked about maybe we were drafting tight ends too early. I think we're right on Gurley. I don't think he needs to go early to mid-second. All right. Norv Turner, back to the Panthers. Norv Turner said Curtis Samuel is becoming an outstanding route runner. You've heard a lot about Curtis Samuel on this show.

John Harbaugh. I said this yesterday. I was like, Norv, stop. Yeah, yeah, come on. He's our sleeper. You're killing it for me. I have to keep... He's almost in my top 30.

Wow. Is he ahead of DJ Moore? Not yet. No, DJ Moore's ceiling is higher. I want to make that clear. I think I've said it numerous times. You need to get Cam into your top five. I'm close.

Six. I'm close. I've got him six, too. No, I'm sorry. I have him seven. I'm going to move him ahead of Matt Ryan, I think, by the end of the day. I can't move him ahead of Baker, though. I've got him ahead of Baker.

Yeah. Baker Mayfield went for like $1 or $2 in the auction yesterday. Every quarterback did except for Kyler Murray John Harbaugh was asked about Lamar Jackson's carries this season he said take the over on 139 which really is not a huge news flash because he was over it last

year yeah yeah seven games seven starts he was on pace for 272 carries that would be Lamar Jackson. I shouldn't say that. He had some carries when he wasn't starting, but he had 147 carries for the season last year already. The Saints cut Cameron Meredith.

The Dolphins fired their offensive line coach, Pat Flaherty. A strange time to do it. And they replaced him with the guy who was the Colts offensive line coach last year and has been a Patriots offensive line coach in the past. A guy whose name I was trying to find out how to pronounce this morning, but every time I saw a video clip, they just called him Gooch. So I'm going to call him Gooch. Phonetically, it's Dave DeGugliarmo. But we're just calling him Gooch.

Goochliarmo. Goochliarmo. That's probably it, right? That's why they call him Gooch. Goochliarmo, right. So that's probably what it is. But he is – you don't know that for a fact, Heath, by the way. No, not at all.

But that's the thing. You just say it with confidence. No one's ever going to hear anyone else pronounce his name. You're fine. Good point. That's why the Heath is on. All right, other news items here. Jameson Crowder hurt his foot or ankle or whatever it is.

Heath, say it confidently. What did Jameson Crowder hurt his foot or ankle or whatever it is. Heath, say it confidently. What did Jamison Crowder hurt yesterday? His foot ankle area. Gotcha. John Ross could miss two weeks with a hamstring injury. So the Bengals wide receivers, they are banged up. Alfred Morris did in fact visit New Orleans, which just gives you the impression they've seen Alfred Morris.

They've seen Theo Riddick. They might want to add someone to that backfield in New Orleans. Tennessee wide receiver, AJ Brown's been out with a hamstring injury, and the NFL is going to emphasize offensive holding this year. You know, they emphasized defensive penalties last year, and it led to an amazing year for quarterbacks. Is there any fantasy relevance here with this announcement that the NFL is going to be looking more closely at offensive holding? I mean, you probably get some runs taken back that are going to piss you off. And throws.

Yeah, I don't know. In theory, if Cliff Kingsbury's system works and he brings this to the NFL, something like this would be beneficial, I would think, to him because the quarterback's not holding the ball long enough to have a bunch of holding penalties. There you go. I like that. He wasn't even supposed to come on today, folks. I mean,

what a guy. We're going to read a couple emails here, and then we're going to talk auctions. Fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. This email is from Travis. Dear Sterling, Dax, and Doc. Shepherds? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it must be.

When do you consider strength of schedule? Like Josh Jacobs, for example, is being drafted super high, and his schedule is brutal. Can you explain how you look at a player's schedule and determine how much it will affect them? First three games, maybe at most. It's just so hard to say. A lot of people get caught up in the end of season schedule,

and you can factor that in, but so much happens in the course of a season that it's hard to say that the same group that you see at the beginning of the year is going to be there at the end of the year, just how things unfold in terms of looking at defenses that your players may be facing. But Heath talked about

it with the Packers guys. It's a little cause for concern, facing the Bears and Vikings so early. And the Lions for Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones has always struck me as a guy that has maybe the toughest schedule. And I'm sorry, Jamie, but I am looking at Josh Jacobs' schedule and his first five

games. Denver, typically a good run defense when they have Doma Toppaco. Kansas City, that's a good matchup. At Minnesota, at Indianapolis, they could have a real sneaky good defense this year. And then the Bears. So that's four of his first five games could be tough matchups. Then week

six is a bye. So I think that is really worth looking at for Josh Jacobs. That's a good call by Travis Shepard. I just think he's maybe being... I think his ADP right now is 36th overall. Even the people that... You like him and you don't have him that high,

do you? No, I've dropped him from where I started, which was after the NFL draft was like 13th, 14th, and then I think he's now, depending on format, somewhere 16th, 18th. He's a fourth-round pick. I think that's safe. It's just— Wait, what's wrong with him at 36 overall?

What's wrong with— I'm sorry, 33 overall is his ADP. Because guys like Marlon Mack are still there? Yeah, but you— And as we know, Heath is the Mack guy. Yeah, right, exactly. You're not the Mack guy in PPR leagues, but— You've got to get a return to the Mack as a draft.

I know, I know, I know. I'm sorry, I don't have that. But Josh Jacobs is probably going to catch a lot more passes based on reports. Now, look, John Gruden says he has to earn it. He's going to earn it. We don't know that. He's going to earn it. You can't, at this point, looking at the two teams, take Josh Jacobs over Marlon Mack.

I can't. And I can't. Like, in terms of, I think Josh Jacobs has a possibility of catching more passes. But we've seen nothing to suggest he's a better pass catcher than Jalen Richard. No, but they drafted him in the first round. They want to feature him. Fine. Put Marlon Mack ahead of him.

That's only one spot. I don't think 36 is so crazy for Josh Jacobs. Well, I think, again, it's, you know, a lot of it is depending on where you draft. If you go receiver-receiver, you go in the back end of the third round, that's a good spot to take Jacobs as one of your first two guys. If you're comparing him

to some of the receivers in that range, I don't want to speak for you, but I know you take Brandon Cooks over him. Oh, for sure. Robert Woods over him. Format's obviously dependent here, but it just depends on how you want to build your team. It's just a matter of, you know, how much you invest in those, you know, second tier, third, wherever you want to put them

tier wise, you know, those running backs, especially somebody like Jacobs, who's unproven both at the collegiate level to a certain extent and obviously at the NFL level. Devante Freeman or Josh Jacobs? Freeman. Freeman. Okay. Josh Jacobs or Phillip Lindsey? Jacob.

Ah, Jacobs just barely, but I think they should both be at the end of the fourth. All right. That was a pretty good heat side there. Not quite clip worthy. Email of the day number two is a fun one. It's from Jordan. Hey, Ty, Asante, Devin, and Malcolm.

Those are Patriots cornerbacks or defensive backs, right? They have to be. Yes. Yes. I had the most insane draft. I'm in a 10-team half PPR league with four point per passing touchdown, blah, blah, blah. It's a super flex league.

He drafted every relevant Jones, every relevant Jackson, including the Jacksonville DST. And he drafted, okay, Aaron Jones, Julio Jones, Marvin Jones, Kerryon Johnson, David Johnson, James White, James Washington, Deshaun Jackson, Lamar Jackson, Justin Jackson, also Ronald Jones to go with Julio Jones and Aaron Jones and Marvin Jones,

and Duke Johnson. It's very funny. He also drafted A.J. Brown and John Brown, and he ended up with a really good team. So if you go with the Jones, Jackson... Jones... What is the strategy here? Jones, Jackson, Johnson, James, Brown.

Adam? Yes? How many emails do you think we get every day at Fantasy Football Today email address? Should have made the cut. Should have made the cut. I'm not sure this was the top... For those of you who watch Fantasy Football Today on CBS Sports HQ, we will not be reading.

Not sure this was the top two of the day. Okay. Congratulations on a great team. It was funny on paper. Sorry, my mistake. And this is a bad time to be telling you this, but one more thing I'd like to ask. Can you please leave us a five-star review? I will never read an email like that again. If you leave us a five-star review? I will never read an email like that again.

If you read us a five-star review. In fact, I will tell you this. If you leave us a five-star review, and it's really important for us. It's a competitive field right now. We've been doing this podcast for 11 years. Really dedicated. We want to be the best. Your reviews would really help that. And if you could tell your friends, try to help us grow our show. We'd appreciate it. We love

our listeners. We have a great rapport with our listeners. So anything you can do can help. If you leave us a five-star review and you ask us a fantasy question within the review, pretty good chance I'm going to be reading it on the show. Oh, I got a better thing for you, Adam. Okay. I got a better one for you. All right.

Here's one podcast league entry. No, no, no. Stop. Stop giving away podcasts. I give away one. You've given away one already, Jamie. No, I didn't. You've already given away one.

Which one did I give away? Whoever's going to win your stinking contest about jinxing their rivals. No, forget about it. This is better. That one's not a contest anymore. This won't be either. If you leave us a five-star review and you send it to us, the best five-star review that we get gets an entry in the podcast.

Okay, you don't have to send it to us. I will see it. Now you probably do have to send it to us, otherwise I'll have no way of contacting you. Send it to us. Yeah, so write us a review. All right, Jamie, I'm in. I'm in on that. Thank you. That's a great idea.

Also, I'm potentially getting kicked out of the Flex League this weekend. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today to talk about our auction and some takeaways and some things that can help you with your auction right after this. Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day? That's over 4,222 incidents a year. Don't let your next dig be one that causes costly delays or safety risks before you break ground make it a point to request a locate it's not just the law it's a step to keep

your team and community safe visit ontarioonecall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report all right these are a couple of auction emails better than the last email that I read. This one just says it's from listener. He didn't put a name. She didn't put a name. Your auction values on the website appear to be based on a $100 budget. Can you explain what listeners should do for a $200 budget? Do you just simply double it?

Well, before we answer, yes, that's probably the easiest way to go about it. So we started our auction yesterday, and Ben Gretsch was unaware of what budget we were working off of. So Saquon Barkley was nominated, and it went from like $20 to $25 to $30. And all of a sudden, Ben just dropped a $50 bid. We were like, whoa, he really wants Barkley. And we had to explain to him that we're only going off $50 bid. We were like, whoa! He really wants Barkley! And we had to explain to him that we're only going off $100 budget. It would have been funny if he got him for $50 and he was

so pumped. Yeah, I think the easiest way is just to double it. Yes. Maybe even add a little bit more to the top guys because they're still going to be $1 players. Was Barkley the most expensive, by the way?

He went for $37. Probably. Yeah, I think he was. I know Kamara and McCaffrey went for $34. Right. Zeke was probably right in that range. $34 also. All right, so it was PPR League.

Two running backs, two receivers, a flex, tight end, kicker, DST, and one quarterback, and 12 teams. Oh, I can't wait for you to rip the guy you usually rip for what he did at quarterback. George? I have notes about George's team. What did I write about George's team? George ripped himself yesterday, so. Okay.

Yeah, actually, I probably, oh, George has an elite quarterback and a tight end end but he sacrificed that wide receiver too he has patrick mahomes and zach earths his wide receivers are kind of brutal but i like his team he's robert woods dk metcalf nikhil harry larry fitzgerald golden tate i think will be good you know as a flex or a wide receiver too because he he's got Mahomes, Ertz, Damian Williams, Kerryon Johnson, Robert Woods to kind of anchor his team. But he also drafted Mahomes, and then he took a $2 Baker Mayfield,

you know, just for $2. I wouldn't normally say you should get Mahomes and Mayfield, but values value. You can make a trade. Spending $18 at the quarterback position when you see the values of the other quarterbacks in this draft that i think is the is the mistake right um all right second question about auctions was jerry but george was like he even said about himself he said

uh i was the you say idiot who took who spent way too much on quarter. Like I said, oh, you got him over what, like 10 bucks? He goes, no, 16. Like, oh. Wow. Okay, so yeah, Mahomes 16, Baker Mayfield. He got great value on Baker Mayfield, two bucks. Second email about auctions is from Jerry in Annapolis, Maryland. Which players are you targeting most at their current auction value? The deepest ones?

Not necessarily. I mean, anybody you can get. I mean, for me it is. No, I think what you mean is it's not the guys that go in the first 20 players. Yeah, I don't think I nominated, or I don't think I went after a player. You know what I usually do.

I think it was like 30 players in. By the way, Andrew Luck mispracticed today with a calf injury. Just something to keep an eye on. We will talk about that. Yeah, it's a lingering calf issue for Andrew Luck. And calf issues do tend to linger. Luckily, it's July 30th, but definitely something. But this started in minicamp.

All right, guys. So, geez. All right, so something to discuss tomorrow. That second tier of wide receivers, too. Evans and Keenan Allen, Brandon Cooks, that range of guys. So, talk to me about the auction, the strategies you use. You better have a strategy when you do an auction. Sorry, Heath.

So, were you able to stick to your strategies? How did it go? Easily for me. I was, you know, very patient. The only thing that I got ruined was our buddy, Michael Kaiser, used my strategy to an extent against me because I usually will always go kicker and defense first just to get those out of the way.

And, I mean, you know, the guys that we were in the room with, they knew what I was doing. I nominated the Bears, and I said, anybody wants to spend $2 on the bears? Go ahead. It ended up going for what? Four, $4, you know? So somebody in my opinion, wasted money on the bears. Now we have the bears. You have it. I have them for $2. Do you have them for more? I think I have them for two. Okay. So, um, I don't have a problem with, you know, if you want to get the best defense on paper going in for, for $2, but in my opinion that I'm, I'm forcing you now to waste a dollar that you probably didn't want to. And the same thing, if you want to get the best defense on paper going in for $2, but in my opinion, I'm forcing you now to waste a dollar that you probably didn't want to.

And the same thing if you end up doing that at kicker as well. But I think for me, it was just being patient. And when I decided to go in and get somebody, I got DeAndre Hopkins at $28, which was cheaper than I think a lot of the first round picks by comparison. Cheaper than James Conner who was $29. Cheaper than the top four running backs. I think it was cheaper than

Devontae Adams. Cheaper than Adams too. And I think maybe cheaper than Julio. Oh no, Adams was $1 less. Julio was $27. They were both $1 less. Right where he should go I think. But a $6 difference from the number four pick in the draft, basically, like McCaffrey, Zeke, Kamara, to the number five, Adams, and Hopkins,

that's pretty significant. The running backs were valued much higher than the guys right behind them, those wide receivers right behind them. And Beckham went for $26. I'll take the $2 difference there. Patience is really important in auctions. Jamie's team ended up, I think, really good. Jameis Winston for $1.

Running backs are Leonard Fournette and Marlon Mack. Two receivers in flex are DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen, and Julian Edelman. I mean, that's obviously amazing. Delaney Walker at tight end. Justin Tucker in the Rams defense. So you're even strong at DST and kicker. On your bench, Rashad Penny, Daryl Henderson, Kalen Balazs, Justice

Hill. You took a lot of bench running backs behind Fournette and Mack, and you have Deshaun Hamilton and Kenny Stills. I think your team really stood out to me as one of the better ones. Two things that happened to me. O.J. Howard was around a little bit longer or you know wasn't a bid um i probably should have gone maybe a dollar more i was bidding with

uh again michael kaiser who we had about the same amount of money at that point um i was hoping to get oj howard um another player that i wanted i don't know i know you were in on him was ingram was mark ingram did you end up with him no um after getting those two running backs i thought okay that was the one i think it was him and him? No. After getting those two running backs, I thought, okay, that was the one. I think it was him and Tevin Coleman. Those were the two guys. Maybe you got Coleman, I think. I got Coleman, yeah. There were two guys where I was like, okay, if I can get this third back, I'll be really happy about my

team. By that point, I had the three receivers. I lost on Baker. I didn't want to spend $2 on the quarterback just seeing how the quarterbacks went. I didn't realize at that point that George had already hit Mahomes. I would have really yelled at him at that point, but I thought I was going to get Baker too. So, you know, some things missed that I missed out on. I also wanted

to get Emmanuel Sanders instead of Kenny Stills. I thought, let me sort of play the friendship strategy with Hamilton and Sanders. We should probably at some point, we got a chance to sort of circle back with Pete Prisco after his four stops. He had some really good stuff about the Broncos receivers,

which I'll save for tomorrow. But Hamilton, I think you can say maybe the arrow's pointing up a little bit. Oh, all right. So Jamie likes to be patient. He sort of does it for fun. I don't think you're going to say, hey, you should sit out like the first 30 bids or whatever, but Jamie kind of likes to challenge.

Well, I'll give you an example. I think it's pretty clear how much I like Curtis Samuel. I wouldn't have spent. I think it went for $5, maybe $4. It was just a bidding up Jamie thing. It was $4. But at that point, I had already had those three receivers, and I needed to sort of focus a little bit more on my running back depth.

So I couldn't spend money on him. I honestly wasn't expecting to spend as much as I did on Hopkins. I think by the point I jumped in, and I think I was the last person to jump in, and everybody stopped. All right, Heath, how did you manage your budget? I had a pretty actual strategy, Adam. Nice. It didn't work the way that I hoped it would.

And my team's fine. It's super boring. It's a playoff team that's not great. But my plan was I wanted three very good wide receivers. I wanted Travis Kelsey or Ertz or Kittle. I ended up getting kelsey for 22 which is what i have him um for on my auction values he is my most expensive player and there is a lot of a lot of value after him i think every other player other than my quarterback who was an

end of the draft thing with chris towers being a jerk um is like three or $4 less than what I have them for my auction values. My receivers are Brandon cooks, Mike Evans and Cooper cup. My quarterback is Lamar Jackson, who I paid more for than, uh, and, um, Cam Newton, I think, but just because it was the draft and Chris threw another dollar on there and I had extra money to play with. Um, but then I've just got a ton of running back depth. Devontae Freeman, Tevin Coleman,

Lamar Miller, Latavius Murray, Justin Jackson, Deion Lewis, Deontay Foreman, Ido Smith. It's funny because I think our teams are very similar in certain regard. Your tight end is better. I would say probably my starting running backs are better, but I think we took a very similar approach of

we both got three top-end receivers. Right. And then just sort of, let's just throw a lot of money at the backfield on the bench. Your receiver strategy is interesting because I was in the same boat, essentially. Once I got my three guys, I was like, I'm not going to really focus on that position.

Well, I missed Deedee because of that. At all, right. Just because for me, like you mentioned, Adam, I had Balazs, Penny, um, Balazs, Penny and, uh, and Henderson. I, at that point I said, okay, I could probably get those three guys for about 10 bucks, which I think is what happened. Um, and so I also wanted to try and get Royce Freeman too. Um, he went maybe a dollar or two more than I was willing to spend on him. But it just was once you lock up those three receivers, and I think

if you want to look at Ben Gretsch's team, he did a reverse. He had like 11 receivers. It's an easy position, I think, to find guys. If you have stars that you feel comfortable with, and in Heath's case and mine as well, I think we both accomplished that. And then it's just the

backfields were a little bit not necessarily unsettled because I think you can make a strong case for Freeman and Coleman. I think we both accomplished that. And then it's just, you know, the backfields were a little bit not necessarily unsettled because I think you can make a strong case for Freeman and Coleman. In my case, you know, for Mack and Fournette, and this is PPR, so it's a little bit different for those guys. But you want to kind of, you know, lock up a lot of those potential guys that have a lot of upside.

I think we both did that. Yeah, and Michael Kaiser, who you keep referencing, his team's great his you don't like his team well i think the running backs have a lot of downside i guess um but yeah his team's very interesting carson wentz i'll get i'll save the running backs for last carson wentz michael th, Adam Thielen, and Amari Cooper. That's awesome. And Alan Robinson.

Yeah, but that's the thing. I think he didn't need to get Alan Robinson. He didn't need to spend eight bucks on Alan Robinson and Curtis Samuel. And D.D. Westbrook. And D.D. Westbrook. He was just stealing them from Jamie and I because he knew he wanted them. Right. So when you have Michael Thomas, Adam Thielen, and Amari Cooper,

you don't need to spend four on Samuel, three on Robinson, and three on DeeDee Westbrook. You could have used that money in addition to what you already spent on like Phillip Lindsay to get Aaron Jones. But he could have had an amazing team. His running backs are Phillip Lindsay and Tariq Cohen. Could work out great. Really could. He also has Chris Carson on the bench and Peyton Barber.

Yeah. No, he could have a really damn good team. I'm in total agreement with you. The things he could have changed. But again, if you just look at it from what his starting lineup is, he could have the best starting lineup in this league. If Lindsay and Cohen or Carson, one of those three

guys, or two of those three guys, or two of those three guys, excuse me, are a semblance of what they were a year ago? Because Thomas Thielen and Cooper as his two receivers in flex and Howard at the tight end spot with Wentz, I mean, that's sick. I think this draft, this auction is a little skewed because the quarterback values were so low. So it seems like a lot of teams were able to get three really good receivers and good running backs and a good quarterback it's just maybe you could maybe you can do that uh but i like i'm looking at jamie look at all these teams like dave's team i loved i i thought that most dave had a good team too most teams are

really good there are a couple of teams that you can see why several people have a really good team. Well, let's talk about Will's team. There are a couple of teams that have a lot of not very good players on them. Before you go to Will's team, I just want to bring up one more. So Casey Kiernan, one of our hosts here at CBS Sports HQ, it was his first auction. And a lot of people do auctions for the first time. Dave was putting together his draft,

and a couple people bailed at the last minute, so he went around asking people,, they said they'll try. And so Casey went all in on three guys early. $34 on Zeke's, $27 on Juju, $22 on Dalvin Cook. Those were his first three buys. That's what, $56 and $27 is $83? Yeah. That's his budget.

So he's done at that point. And he did it, what, within the first 20 bids? He was the one that ended up with Kyler too. Oh, and Kyler at $4. So what did I say, $83? So that's $87 on his quarterback, two running backs, and one receiver. And then $3 on Dante Moncrief, who should be a dollar player. Yeah.

So right now, if you just take his lineup as it was filled, is starting receivers and flex. He better love Ben Roethlisberger. Is Juju Smith-Schuster, Dante Moncrief, and James Washington. Like that's what his lineup as it auto-filled, you know, because the way that our system does it. But, you know, again, it's just a matter of how much do you allocate for guys early and then you got to find a matter of how much do you allocate for guys early,

and then you've got to find a lot of dollar players that you love. Yeah, I'm pretty interested in this strategy. I do think the execution could have been better. Look, if Kyler Murray's great, sure, but like Jameis Winston for $1 instead of Kyler Murray for $4. If you're going with three expensive players, Zeke, Dalvin Cook, and Juju Smith-Schuster for about, what did we say, 83% of your budget, then you probably are getting a dollar quarterback and a dollar tight end.

And I think tight end, he did great. He got Hooper and Reed. Yeah. So he's fine there. He actually got Phillip Rivers for a dollar. I don't know why, but probably just, you know, he's probably just fed up with watching all these players go and he just has to, you know, bid on somebody.

But you got to go dollar kicker defense, dollar tight end, dollar quarterback, three studs. And then you got to get some guys that you really think have sleeper potential to be starters. Like, you know, what'd you get Foreman for? Was it a dollar or two dollars? Dollar or two, yeah. Right. You know, a guy like that, a guy like, you know, Kiki QT or Deshaun Hamilton.

You know. Well, he's the guy that should have gotten DD for three. Lamar Miller and Devante Foreman. DD for three. Lamar Miller and Devante Foreman, excuse me, both went for $2. So I actually do think that you can make this work. And the other thing is like, you know, Ben talked about this last week. Don't be too obsessed with what your team looks like on draft day. It's going to look a lot different throughout

the year. If you anchor your team with three studs that are never coming out of your lineup, say for bye weeks, and you're good on waivers, I do think it could work. Will's team was a little bit different. He spent 68% of his budget on two players and nobody else was more than $7

and that was Sterling Shepard. That seems kind of expensive for Sterling Shepard. But Cam Newton is his quarterback. He is Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey. I mean, it's a PPR league, and he may have 200 catches right there from his running backs. He is Jarvis Landry at wide receiver, and Corey Davis is his other starting wide receiver.

Do we like Sterling Shepard better than Corey Davis? Yes. You know what? Corey Davis and Sterling Shepard are his wide receiver and his flex. Let's say that. And then you also have Geronimo Allison. Actually, I kind of like Will's team. Am I crazy for liking Will's team? Let me read it again.

Cam Newton, Kamara and McCaffrey, Jarvis Landry, Sterling Shepard, Corey Davis, or Geronimo Allison at flex. Vance McDonald at tight end. And then LaShawn McCoy, Antonio Callaway. The fact that, I guess you all know I like Geronimo Allison a lot, but

I think this worked. I think this is a better execution of spending a ton of money on a few players. He only did it on two. He did a different approach. He spent 68% of his budget as opposed to 83%. Now, the numbers that you'll see

on his bench, once Dave publishes the results, Sterling Shepard for $7, that was at the end when he had money to spend because he missed out on some guys throughout the course. He spent $5 on Royce Freeman. If he spends those $12 elsewhere, I think, for example, if he takes those $12 and he gets Edelman for $10 or for $12.

I got Edelman for $10. Put Edelman at the top of that receiving core. Take out Shepard, put in Edelman, put in a dollar running back. It's a much better roster. All right, guys. I'm just using Edelman as an example. I think Dave got Chris Godwin for like $9. Or you can look at Ben's roster and find like eight different receivers

that Will should have drafted. We are out of time, unfortunately. We have to vacate our podcast studio because Canel and Bell is coming up. That's an awesome podcast that you should have drafted. We are out of time, unfortunately. We have to vacate our podcast studio because Canel and Bell is coming up. That's an awesome podcast that you should be listening to. Do you have a final 10-second thought on what to do in auctions? Watch CBS Sports HQ at noon for fantasy football today.

I would say save your money for the end. You're going to get some great values. Save a portion of your budget. I like to be the bully at the end and take all the sleepers. Take all the $2 players. Don't be the wheel bully and take bad $5 and $7 players.

You got your sleepers. Make sure you get them by saving some money. Thanks a lot to Jamie and thanks so much for Heath for coming on. What a hero you are today, Heath, for coming on the show. We very much appreciate it. Just one injury note. Damian Williams is not practicing again. A lot to talk about tomorrow.

A lot to talk about on Fantasy Football Today, the video show, noon Eastern on CBS Sports HQ. Talk to you tomorrow. Fantasy Football Today.