Fantasy Football Today - 08/26: Preseason Winners and Losers (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

We've got winners like Deshaun Watson and Damien Williams and losers like Darrell Henderson and the TB RBs, but first we start with some rankings of T.Y. Hilton, Marlon Mack, Duke Johnson and some more very relevant players ... Big news (18:50) on the NE WRs, SF RBs and more. Then we get into the full list of winners (31:00) and losers (42:00) from our analysts. Is Kerryon Johnson a loser? What do we think about the ARI WRs? Dalvin Cook is awesome! ... Debating the importance of GB's difficult schedule (53:00) and then reading your tweets about Fantasy winners and Fantasy losers (57:30) ... 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

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Man, what a weekend! And welcome to the show, everybody. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. It's Monday. And yeah, you guys already stole the thunder. You reacted to the big news on Saturday night slash Sunday morning. Thank you, Dave and Heath, for doing that emergency podcast.

I listened to it. It was very helpful. Good job. I appreciate you guys stepping up. Thank you. I appreciate that little golf clap. Yes. That makes it worth all the while. I hope you enjoyed your vacation. Thank you. I appreciate that little golf clap. Yes. That makes it worth all the while.

I hope you enjoyed your vacation. Everyone deserves time off. I mean, it's weird to take time off in the preseason in the NFL, but I understand. Time off. Time off. No, I'm back here fighting a lost voice from being at a football game, but we're pumped up to talk about preseason week three, winners and losers. Big winner today is Ben Gretsch.

Ben, what's going on? How's it going, guys's up ben uh ben informed us before the podcast that he's been up for five hours we record this at 8 30 a.m eastern time and ben lives on the west coast so it's pretty incredible that you've already been up for like five hours and it's only 5 a.m you can do the math and realize what time ben woke up to get ready for this podcast we appreciate that kind of dedication instead of you know other people's dedication yeah it's more about dad life than anything i fell asleep with my my youngest daughter at about seven last night so and then just never woke back up and then you know you don't sleep a lot when you're a dad so when you you do that, you wake up at 1 and you're wide awake. I like to think of it as you actually, like, put in five hours of prep time for the podcast.

Yeah, you did. Yeah, exactly. I had my alarm set for 1 o'clock so I could get in on the work again. All right, well, we're ready to go. So here's what I learned from the emergency podcast on Saturday night slash Sunday morning, which was recorded after the Ion Fantasy Football Radio Show. So they did that at like 12, 15 in the morning. So good stuff.

Obviously, T.Y. Hilton down, but you still have him ahead of Curtis Samuel, right? That's what we established? Yeah, I do. I do, but I think I'm the lowest guy on Curtis Samuel. I'm also the lowest guy on T.Y. Hilton. Okay, so he's number three-ish, number three wide receiver? Yes.

For me, yes. Okay, I want to talk more about Marlon Mack and Duke Johnson and a Twitter poll that you ran comparing the two. I was a little surprised by the results. But Ben, why don't we get your take on the Andrew Luck retirement, which just sucks. And basically, let's start with T.Y. Hilton and when you would draft T.Y. Hilton, Ben. Yeah, the retirement, shocking, obviously. I don't think I have anything that insightful

that we haven't all kind of thought and heard already. But as far as where I'm ranking T.Y. Hilton, he's not outside the wide receiver twos for me. Jacoby Brissett was traded on September 2nd or September 3rd in 2017 for Philip Dorsett eight days before their week one game he played in that game he then started the next 15 games that was all under chuck pagano and offensive coordinator uh rob chudzinski that that's i mean i don't know how relevant any of

that is he didn't get a lot of time to learn the offense it was a completely different offense and i think frank reich is uh has shown that he's a very good uh head coach and previously offensive coordinator thus far in his coaching career i think things can be a lot different for jacoby brissett in 2019 than they were in 2017 i'm not knocking hilton quite as much i do think they'll be more run heavy i think they'll definitely change their offensive look um but i i have brissett as not being nearly as bad as he was in 2017 i I see Hilton's floor as basically being what he did in 2017. And I actually have him at, I just updated my projections. I have him at wide receiver 22 in my projections.

That's about where I'd take him. I mean, there's not quite as much upside, obviously. Yeah, my only, and I don't think we're probably too far apart in terms of projections for what we have for T.Y. Hilton. The thing that I struggled with, I agree with what Ben said. I don't think Jacoby Brissett will be as bad as he was in 2017. It's just that T.Y. Hilton is kind of a weird wide receiver when it comes to the borderline number ones before

because he never catches a ton of passes. He's never scored a ton of touchdowns. And this Indianapolis offense, last year, you look at Hilton's share of the targets he was really only on pace for about 21 that's very low for a team's number one wide receiver it's just that they threw the ball 645 times or 644 times when i take away some of those pass attempts and i don't think it's quite as like i don't think it's very likely he's having a career year in terms of touchdowns this year, so I've got him for five.

I've got him ranked at wide receiver 29. If he plays 16 games and puts up the exact numbers that I have him projected for, he'll probably finish closer to where Ben has him ranked than where I have him ranked because five or six guys in front of him are going to get hurt, but I don't know which guys those are. Right. So I'm with you guys on just about all of this, especially the part about the offense being a lot better. We've already seen evidence of Brissette playing well this preseason.

He did it in the game against Cleveland. He missed on one throw in that game. And I went back and I watched the game against Buffalo. This is their first preseason game. He didn't play well. He did. Well, he had one pass knocked down. He had to throw another one out of bounds because he was getting pressured.

It wasn't great. It wasn't as good as the Cleveland game but he he can throw in the short area very well so you're going to see this offense look a lot different than what you expect and so giving him big targets in the short and mid range is going to be very important and that's why i didn't move down eric ebron it's an unpopular opinion eric ebron still should be drafted as a top 12 fantasy tight end. You just do it later than you would have with Andrew Luck as his quarterback.

Okay, and so just I know Heath gave some of these numbers on the previous show, but T.Y. Hilton was wide receiver 25 and non-PPR, wide receiver 28 and PPR in 2017 without Luck, but he had seven games with fewer than 30 yards.

I think that was the really frustrating thing is, you know, it's not like he was a consistent number two, number three wide receiver. He was either really, really good in great matchups, or he was completely useless. He had 10 games where his wide receivers were 45 or worse. Yeah, I mean, that was a great stat. And then that wasn't the only time we've seen him without Andrew Luck. In 2015, he played nine games without Luck, and his 16-game pace was not that bad, but the touchdowns were low. It was 68 catches,

1,024 yards, and three touchdowns. That was his 16-game pace without Luck in 2015. Again, none of that's with Frank Reich. I mean, I think it's a huge difference to look at Frank Reich as the head coach, but the offensive leader compared to the coordinators they've had in the past. The offensive line, too, is much better. It is a much better line, but also a deeper receiving core. So, all right, so let's do some rankings here. T.Y. Hilton or Emmanuel Sanders, guys? I still have Hilton ahead of Emmanuel Sanders.

Yeah, by a pretty fair margin. Yeah, it's not close. All right, T.Y. Hilton or Alshon Jeffrey? Hilton. I have Hilton higher than Alshon, but it's by literally two spots. Hilton over Alshon, yeah. A.J. Green or Hilton? Green.

Green. Not particularly close for me. Green, and it's extremely close for me. I have him neck and neck, but, I, but that's knocking Green down with his injury. I think I'd rather take Green because when he's healthy, I would expect him to be a lot better. It's a matter of how healthy he'll be. Robbie Anderson.

I've got Hilton ahead of Robbie. That's the perfect... I think you look at projections, and they're projected for almost the same thing in terms of like catch rate, almost everything. I've got Hilton a couple of spots ahead. If I thought that Jacoby Brissett was going to be what he was in 2017, I'd have Robbie Anderson ahead. But they're right in the same range. Flip a coin.

Yeah, I'll take Hilton and same as Heath. I think that's a great comparison. All right. Let's go to Marlon Mack. Marlon Mack or Tevin Coleman? I think it was kind of a bad weekend for Tevin Coleman, right? I agree. Who would we rather have, Marlon Mack or Tevin Coleman? Ben, I'll start with you.

I'll take Mack. I don't think he really loses a lot here. I think they're going to be more run heavy. He's the running back on the team. I think this really hurts naheem hines but marlon mack is i did he didn't move down my ranks when i updated my projections uh yeah he still had a technical the offense though it's going to be so much worse yeah huge absolutely and that was one thing and i i wanted to get ben's opinion on this because i know we do projections in a similar

way i do think they're more run heavy but i had them projected to be one of the fastest paced offense in the nfl and i still think they'll have that intention but i don't believe they'll be able to sustain drives like they would have with andrew luck so i did actually knock down their pace a little bit in their total plays 40 what's that plays 40 plays i took off their offense yeah um and then i also knocked down their touchdowns. So I did downgrade Marlon Mack, and I'd take Tevin Coleman over him. I'm not even impressed with Marlon Mack this preseason. I don't think he's been that great or he's looked that great.

I wasn't that impressed last year. They're not going to be afraid of the deep ball now with Brissette under center. You bet I knocked him down. He's behind Phillip Lindsey for me. I was never convinced that he's a great player. I'm not convinced that he isn't, but I think the jury's still out. But I just thought the situation could not have been much better for Marlon Mack. Best offensive line, great offense, going to get the goal line work.

And two of those things are still true. So what did you say, Coleman or Mack? I'll take Tevin Coleman. All right, and you're still on Mack, Ben, and Heath has Tevin Coleman. Go ahead. You want to get in, Ben? Yeah, the only comment I want to make is I was a lot lower than any of you guys on Mac, it sounds like, and I think we already kind of knew that.

So I didn't knock him down a bunch, but it sounds like you guys are coming back down to a lot closer to where I already was. Is he in your top 24 at running back, Ben? In my projections, yeah. In my rankings, yeah, I think so. Yes, he's still there. He is in non-PPR still for me. In PPR, I don't think so. Yes. He's still there. Uh, he is in P he is in non PPR still for me and PPR. I don't think he's going to catch very many passes. He's,

uh, he's out of the top 24. Yeah. He's out of my top 24 in PPR for sure. And he is exactly 24th and non Marlon, Mac or Phillip Lindsay. I just told you PPR matters here. Lindsay is ahead of him in PPR.

I'll take Mac and non same. Okay. Back for me. Um, uh, Marlon, Mac or Duke Johnson, Ben, PPR matters here. Lindsey is ahead of him in PPR. I'll take Mack and non. Same. Mack for me. Marlon Mack or Duke Johnson? Ben, we'll start with you. What do you got? This could be format dependent too. Yeah, it is.

In non, I'll take Mack. In PPR, I'll definitely take Duke. I'm the same way. We're going to get into Duke, I assume, a lot more. We don't get into Duke. Right now. Right now. I don't think there's much chance they're just going to make Duke Johnson a feature back. But all I did was give him like 35% of the team's rush attempts and 13% of the team's targets.

And it puts him right about 200 touches. And I lowered his efficiency from what he did in Cleveland just because, you know, volume is going up. Maybe the efficiency goes down a little bit. And I got him into my top 24 in PPR. I've ranked him just a little below that because I want to see who they bring in. They're going to bring someone in. Carlos Hyde. It could very well be Carlos Hyde. I guess it could be Jay Ajayi.

Yeah, we have an email from Dale who said he's picking up Jay Ajayi. If it's one of those slugs, I'm probably going to be here with Sportsline and have him in the top 20 running back in PPR. I don't know where this goes. I don't know where this goes with Duke Johnson. He's never had a big workload. And in college, he got dinged up a lot. He broke his leg.

I did not think he could be an every-down running back. I don't care if he broke his leg. I do because he would come off the field a lot. I would see him get hurt a lot and I never thought going in, I didn't think he was going to be great in fantasy. I never thought he would be able to stay healthy. He hasn't missed a game in four seasons,

but I think part of that is because he just doesn't get a lot of work. He played 13 games in 2014 and had 280 touches. This is college. Yes. 280 touches. He was the king of limping off the field is what I'm trying to say.

That's okay. He's a small guy. He's not big. But I'm obviously excited about him. How about this? Are we more excited about Duke Johnson now than we were about Lamar Miller before the injury? Yes. Because we don't see Lamar Miller around.

Duke Johnson's better than Lamar Miller. We haven't seen him get to work, so we don't know that. He's a better fit lamar miller he's we haven't seen him get a better he's a better fit in ppr because he's going to catch the ball more and i think that that's i think this offense is going to fall on deshaun watson's shoulders more now than ever before this could be good for duke yeah don't find another running back just go with duke just throw the ball 45 times a game if you're houston but and let deshaun be your leading rusher knowing that they are they have to go wrong they are, they have to bring someone. They're probably going to bring someone in.

All right, so next one. By the way, if he gets 200 touches over 16 games, it's only 12 and a half per game. Is he a top 60 pick? Is he a round five pick? I say no. Yes. In PPR, yes. In non-PPR, no.

I'm not going to get him. No. I mean, he might be right outside the top 60 for me. I just want to jump in real quick. You were saying he limped off a lot in in college but over his final two years and he only played three years his true sophomore true junior year he averaged 18 carries 122 rushing yards that's just on the rushing side per game so yeah he missed a little bit of time in his true sophomore year but he did play 12 games as a true freshman and carry 139 times 145 carries the second year

and only eight games that's when he missed some time and then 242 carries in 13 games he actually was kind of a workhorse at miami i know um i think he can handle a lot more work than people think if they do bring in someone like carlos hyde who was that's where i'm going with it i think and we can get into this a little bit later i I think Carlos Hyde, the writing is on the wall. He's definitely going to get cut. I mean, I'm firmly believing that buzz. And I think if somebody like that lands there, yeah, they're going to take some early down work. They might take some goal line work. But Duke Johnson, the reason you like him more than you like Lamar Miller is he starts with a lot of receiving work.

He's going to get more than Miller got. And there is not as much of competition for Duke Johnson as there was for Miller in Duke Johnson being there Houston's not going to be able to run the ball well in like the first six games of the season anyway at New Orleans Jacksonville at home at the Chargers Panthers at home Falcons at home at Kansas City that's week six so the first six weeks of the season I don't think they even need Carlos Hyde or any other running back. It would make sense to use Duke Johnson more in those games to catch a lot of passes. I can see the appeal in PPR. I just don't know if I'm ready to go round five

with it. Do you want me to release the results of the Twitter poll? Yeah. Yes. I pick a running back in PPR. 4,000 votes. Duke Johnson got 46% against Marlon Mack, Derrick Henry, and Tariq Cohen. Mack was just 27%. Derrick Henry only at 11%. And Cohen at 16%. That seems like a bit of an overreaction. That's a Twitter poll recency bias right there.

I love it. I would take Duke Johnson in PPR over Mack. I would take him over Derek Henry. The one I actually disagree with is I still might take Tariq Cohen in PPR. But just because while I do think Duke's going to catch

more passes than Lamar Miller, I don't know that Deshaun Watson's going to dump balls off to the running back from what we've seen from him in the past at the same rate that the Bears offense is going to. Dave, do you think Duke Johnson gets goal line work and who else would it be as of right now? Deshaun Watson is going to get the goal line work. The guys who they have on their roster behind him, and this is another reason why I'm a little nervous about going all in on Duke Johnson. Immediately after the game, Bill O'Brien is talking about his run game as a package deal.

And as soon as he's asked about Duke Johnson, he's bringing up Taiwan Jones's name. Taiwan Jones has been in the NFL for eight years. Doesn't look good at all. He was the one who came right in when Lamar Miller got hurt. He was in for one snap in that third preseason game. And then they got him off the field. So they obviously value him. Demarier Crockett,

Karan Higdon. These are undrafted running backs that they have. Crockett could be that short yardage guy because he's 225 pounds. He's physical. He's got some quickness to him. That's if they don't add anybody else. But we're talking about Carlos Hyde as an option. I think if the Texans are willing to give up another

pick, they should call the Redskins and see what they want for Adrian Peterson. I think that would be a good fit for Houston's offense. That would be great for Darius Geis too. Yeah. All right. We have to take a break here. When we come back, more big news and preseason winners and losers. You've pretty much figured out at this point, we're going to be talking a lot about preseason week three and basically who's been rising, who's been falling throughout the preseason. Let's take our first break on fantasy football today, and we'll be right back. 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 a lot to talk about today we kind of alluded to it earlier tevin coleman maybe not a

great weekend for him because matt brita was terrific and that's going to be one of the winners that we're talking about matt br Brita, and just so much more. Tampa Bay running backs, Arizona's offense, Kyler Murray looked a little bit better. The Jets' offense wasn't very good, so we'll get to it. We do have some sponsors. We have Head & Shoulders. We have FanDuel. Go to fanduel.com slash FFT, get a $5 bonus, and we have Lightstream, and that's lightstream.com

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I will have a podcast league announcement and an entry in a little bit. But the other big news, all right, luck retiring. Lamar Miller torn ACL and MCL. Cam Newton mid-foot sprain. We think he's going to be ready for practice this week. We're good. Okay. Antonio Brown going to have a helmet soon.

We're good. And getting an endorsement deal out of it. Round three. Yes. What a brilliant move by him. That's Rosenhaus all the way. That is Drew Rosenhaus. The Patriots activated Josh Gordon.

They released Maurice Harris. Nikhil Harry may not be ready for week one. They have a lot of receiver news. Ben, Josh Gordon or T.Y. Hilton? I will take him. This is so easy for me. Oh, this is so easily Gordon for me. That was a Ben sigh.

Yeah, Ben sigh. I will take Gordon. Gordon's got more upside. Wow, Ben, you know what? You're going to be the T.Y. That was a Ben sigh. Yeah, Ben sigh. I'll take Gordon. Gordon's got more upside. Wow, Ben, you know what? You're going to be the T.Y. Hilton guy, man. You're going to have a lot of T.Y. Hilton. I get it. Dante Pettis needs to earn a role.

Stop this. But they keep playing him with the starters. Yeah, him and Marquis Goodwin with the starters, and they're like, we're going to make you play a little more. You need to earn something. So what does that mean to you? I think that he's just trying to motivate him. I kind of feel that way too.

When would you take Dante Pettis? Round 7, round 8. So he's still a top 100 pick for you? Yeah, he deserves to be in the top 100. I'll have to check my rankings to make sure it says that, but that's what I think. I've got him 101. Okay.

Ben, who's the best Niners receiver? I don't want any of the niners receivers it looks like they're gonna play them all and i just i mean kittle's the guy and they throw to their running backs it's i'm that was one of my big takeaways from week three was they just have so many receivers debo samuel was in there uh you know marquis goodwin's still gonna be running around they got like a bunch more i i don't want any of them. Debo continues to look good to me. I just don't know if he's – it's the James Washington curse. You look good in the preseason, but there's nothing that guarantees regular playing time once this game starts.

So who knows? Also big news here is that Jarek McKinnon could return to practice this week. I like what you actually wrote in the notes. Because I think that's more accurate. Jarek McKinnon could return to practice this season. It was what I wrote in the notes, but I did not anchor man it. I actually read what I meant to write. But, yeah, what do we think about that?

I don't like it. I don't like it, yeah. Muddies the situation even further in San Francisco. I don't think there's a very good chance, and this could be wrong. He can prove me wrong. I don't think there's a very good chance that Jarek McKinnon is actually good enough to get touches if Tevin Coleman and Matt Breida are healthy. You know I agree with that.

Is anyone backing off on Tevin Coleman right now? Ben, start with you. I mean, a little bit. And the reason why is I think Matt Breida might be better than him, too. I've been saying all offseason that I think Breida's a better player than McKinnon for the number two role. And watching their week three preseason game, just a reminder, I really like Tevin Coleman. I always have been a big fan. I drafted him a ton in Atlanta pretty much every year, thinking that if something ever happened to Devontae Freeman, he'd be a star. He wasn't last year. And it's kind of a reminder to

me that he is a big play threat. He can break plays, but he's not particularly good at getting those little extra yards. He's kind of an upright runner as fast as he plays, but he's not particularly good at getting those little extra yards. He's kind of an upright runner as fast as he is, but he's just kind of a boomer bust runner. And then you watch Brita and he's a little lower to the ground. He leans forward, he fights through contact, he gains extra yards. Brita is a really good running back, equally as explosive as Tevin Coleman or Jarek McKinnon, has all the measurables. I mean, I just think he's the best running back on the team. I just really like him. I don't think he's as good as

a pass catcher as Tevin Coleman is. I think Coleman's better in the passing game and I'm gonna have to double check my believe or not article when it gets published this morning. Cause I think Ben might change some of the words in it. Cause I, this was actually one of the things that I touched on. It is Matt Brady going to take the job away from Tevin Coleman? It's going to be a committee. We knew it was always going to be a committee. I think both of these guys can be useful as long as McKinnon's not involved. I do think Coleman is better in the passing game, and I am more concerned about Breida's injuries than I am Coleman's.

Right, and that's why Coleman is going to be ranked higher than Breida. There was a point very recently where I was willing to take Coleman in round four, and I'm not going to do that anymore. I still will. Round five, probably, but Brita in round nine, maybe even round eight. I think I'd probably have to go round eight if I'm drafting with Ben. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'd like to think.

I do like that value. I do like that value more than I did before the preseason started. The thing is, I think there's 450 500 touches available for these running backs in san francisco and tevin coleman's been a top 24 running back the last three years with fewer than 200 touches every year yeah i want to clarify i still have coleman way above brita in my rankings i mean he played a lot more with the first team in preseason week three he looks clearly like their lead back so he's definitely someone still the target but for me i just keep loading up more and more on brita so that's why i'm backing off coleman just a little do you happen

to have the snap counts for these guys with the start i didn't you know i don't have the number right in front of me but i know it was it was probably double the snaps for coleman i would guess i i might disagree i'm not sure if it was like that i thought they mixed and matched a lot more than they did in the second preseason. I know it was more for Coleman. Yeah, but not by a lot, I don't think. I didn't count. I counted the Lions running backs, and that's a whole different story.

Yeah, we've got to talk about that too. Le'Veon Bell may share the workload with Ty Montgomery early in the season. Are you kidding? According to ESPN, I don't know how. I mean, early in the season, that was the story. The guy kind of get the rust off. This is like your mom tells you to share your cookie with your little brother, and you tear off a tenth of it and hand it to him and say,

Mom, I'm sharing. All running backs share. It's not going to be a San Francisco situation. But it's not going to be what it was in Pittsburgh. Well, no, it never was. It never was, and we said that all along, and it's why I don't think Bell is – I'm not comfortable taking Bell in round one. Hopefully you guys didn't take him in round one.

I think Montgomery is a handcuff for sure, right? But that's the only way I'd draft him. I'm not drafting Ty Montgomery if I don't have Le'Veon. Sterling Shepard's going to play week one, according to ESPN. You could make—the first four weeks are exciting because he doesn't have Golden Tate on the field, but you could make the case he only has one good matchup here. At the Cowboys, not a good matchup. Buffalo, they've been good against receivers because they're always so bad against the run.

See how healthy Tredavis White is. That's true. But that's going to be a zone defense no matter what. Tampa Bay, that's a good matchup. And then Washington, they could put Josh Norman on him, so I don't know how enthused. Those are all within the range of I don't care. Except for Tampa Bay. I don't know about the Cowboys. Cowboys have good corners.

They're going to have to throw in all these games. They're good, but Tampa Bay is the only one where I would adjust my projections because of the matchup. I'm not adjusting down because of those other ones. Hakeem Butler, Arizona's wide receiver, he is out for the season with a finger injury.

Meanwhile, rookie Andy Isabella is a work in progress, according to ArizonaCardinals.com. Did you notice Demir Bird made two nice catches on Xavier Rhodes? Well, and one of my losers was Christian Kirk. And what Ben said about San Francisco, take what he said and then multiply that by like a billion. Because Christian Kirk wasn't even playing on the first drive we've seen surefield we've seen demir bird we see keshaun johnson getting rotated in with the first team and that's kind of what kingsbury did i went back and looked

at patrick mahomes best year at texas tech he threw like 600 passes nobody had more than 69 catches that season last year i believe they had one guy that went over 80 catches, seven guys with at least 20 catches. I'm a little bit worried about both Kirk and Fitzgerald even playing all the snaps. I think that has more to do with evaluating that young talent that they have. I think they know what they have in Fitzgerald and Kirk. Kirk had an end zone target.

He almost had a touchdown in the game against me. I'm not ready to quote quite there. I still think he's got 900 yards, in the game. Yeah. So I'm not ready to quote quite there. I still think he's got 900 yards, six touchdown potential. Sure. But I'm not going crazy. I've moved Kirk down a little bit because of his concerns, like the same concerns that Heath mentioned, but I'm not going as far as he is.

And I do think he's going to be out for it. Well, you compared him to the Niners, and you said multiply it by 1,000, and I would say it the exact opposite way. I have a small concern about the Cardinals, and I would multiply the Niners' concern by a lot. So that's the way I'd phrase that. Emmanuel Sanders or Christian Kirk?

Kirk. Awesome. They scamper to check their rankings. I have Kirk because I wanted to tell you how many spots I have of them. I've got Kirk, Shepard, Sanders in my PPR rankings, and they're number three receivers. All right. And they're all behind Didi. Kirk by Shepard, Sanders in my PPR rankings. And they're number three receivers. All right. And they're all behind Didi.

Kirk by a decent amount, yeah. Oakland released Doug Martin. No, they put him on IR. Oh, they put him on IR. Does that make you more confident in Josh Jacobs? Oh, they released him too. No. From what I read, they put him on injured reserve.

All right, let's go settle the debate. What happened to Doug Martin? Does it matter for Josh Jacobs? No. No, because Jalen Shard is his threat Martin? Does it matter for Josh Jacobs? No. No, because Jalen Shard is his threat. I think it matters for Shard, but we're going to get into that. Oh, yeah. This is a winner.

This is awesome. So we have NFL.com saying he's been released and Pro Football Talk saying he's on injured reserve. Go to the Raiders website. It doesn't really matter to me. I have two announcements. You must know where Doug Martin will be. The podcast league.

The announcements. All right. Announcement number one Martin will be. The podcast league, the announcements. All right, announcement number one. We will have a military league. So that is awesome. Yes, we have enough servicemen and women emailed. More than enough. We might have two military leagues. I will figure that out.

We're going to have to come up with a date, maybe do an untimed draft. I don't know, but we'll have a military league. I'll try to figure that out. I will email the winners hopefully today. I will announce the winner. I will email the winners hopefully today. I will announce the winners tomorrow. The draft is on Wednesday, so I apologize for the late notice. But I've got about 30 people that I'm trying to get into two leagues.

And we're going to take a break. Before we go to break, let's listen to one of our podcast league entries. This guy is going to be in one of the leagues. His name is Pierre. We don't get a lot of cool, fun raps. We get a lot of rock song covers. But here's a rap,

a diss track, about all the guys on Fantasy Football Today from Pierre. Can we roll it? CBS, Fantasy Football Today. I'm trying to get into this podcast to draft that team

and live that dream. Then replace all these jokers up on the screen. I'm trying to get into this podcast to draft that team and live that dream. Then replace all these jokers up on the screen. I'm about to go crazy. Start with you, Jamie. I know you's a gator and a hater, but don't try to play me. You're all a famer to me like Champ Bailey. But you can't teach an old dog new tricks unless you're Tom Brady. And only you, Davey.

I listen to you daily, but you an elderly hurricane. Willis McGahee. Listen up, everyone. I got a treat. You see, I got bars, but I but you an elderly hurricane. Willis McGahee. Listen up, everyone. I got a treat. You see, I got bars, but I ain't messing with heat. All these hot takes. Give me a break for goodness sake. Everyone here know you tripping more than the suitcase.

Should I mention Ben? Up in this. You serious? This kid only been on the pile for five minutes. It's all good. I show respect, but believe in this fantasy league. I'ma be coming for your neck. Sharp, correct, like a Gillette razor.

Super duper dork, Adam Azer. There you go. You're in the league. I mean, that's really good, man. Great stuff here. As soon as you heard razor, you knew that Azer was coming. Super duper dork, Adam Azer. I loved it, man.

So thank you for that. And winners and losers right after this. All right, winners and losers. By the way, I asked you on Twitter. You gave me some winners and losers right after this. All right, winners and losers. By the way, I asked you on Twitter. You gave me some winners and losers. I disagree with some of them. We'll talk about later. Dave, let's start with you.

Who are your winners? Talked about Deshaun Watson and what Lamar Miller's injury means. Assuming that they don't replace Lamar Miller with somebody really good, this team's going to throw a lot. I think he's got a chance to have an MVP-type season. I moved him to number two in my quarterback. Welcome aboard. It's great to be here.

It's very nice here, but I'm, I'm more excited to get him in round five than I was before. Like, I think that that's amazing value now for Deshaun Watson. Would you take Deshaun Watson or Tevin Coleman? How many running backs have I drafted at that point? We're at the end of round four,

beginning of round five. Maybe you could take them both, but if it's the end of round four, beginning of round five. Maybe you could take them both. If it's the end of round five, I'm picking early in round six. There will be a running back there that I'll like. I'll take Deshaun. No, end of round four, beginning of round five. Oh, so I've got to go. Okay, so if that means I've got a stud running back early,

I'm still going to take Deshaun. Okay. Damian Williams. Oh, he reminded us all of what he's capable of doing. He looked fast on that touchdown catch that he had. I like the way that he played. He was physical between the tackles. He has moved back up into my number one running back territory,

right back where he was a long time ago. It seems like years ago, but it was really just like February and March. It was nice to see. But he's back there. And we know that Carlos Hyde isn't a real thing. Darwin Thompson, Darrell Williams, those are the real threats to his playing time. I think as long as he stays healthy, he's

going to be worth it. Okay, this makes me look like the low guy on Damian Williams. These are non-PPR rankings. I am a little more concerned about him in that format, but he's absolutely right in that same range. You're referring to our video. Yeah, on the video. It shows a 24th. I don't think he's going to get 200 carries.

Okay. He will have more touches than Duke Johnson. He will have, and obviously no question about numbers. I haven't ranked. Touches wide. Right, right, right. No, there's definitely a question. If you gave Duke Johnson and Damian Williams the same number of touches,

Duke Johnson's a better running back than Damian Williams. Oh, I don't know about that anymore. I really don't. They're very similar in style and strength. I think Damian Williams can handle the beating a little bit. He's obviously going to go ahead of Duke. So Damian Williams or Josh Jacobs? Damian.

Or my dependent. So easy. Damian, Damian. So easy, it's Damian. All right, all right. Last winner. I like this one, Dave. Guy looked great for Detroit, TJ Hawkinson.

Yep, he's going to play a lot. He's fast. He's big. I'm positive he reminds that coaching staff of Rob Gronkowski, and you know it's a former Patriots coaching staff in Detroit. I love the idea of spending a late-round pick on him. I'm still taking Darren Waller out of him, but get one of those two tight ends on your bench.

Carry two tight ends at least for the first couple weeks of the season just to see what develops. It was like two weeks ago you guys were yelling at me for having TJ Hawkinson as almost a starting tight end. Now you've both got him ranked higher than I do. This isn't fair. You weren't yelling at me. I don't remember yelling at you. Heath is a winner. Yeah, I'd take

Hawkinson over Ebron. I'm not there yet. That's fine. Get them both, man. Get Ebron, get Hawkinson over Ebron. I'm not there yet. That's fine. Get them both, man. Get Ebron, get Hawkinson, wait on tight end if you don't get one of the bigs. Are you taking Hawkinson over Jordan Reed? I'd like to get more information on Jordan Reed. The seven concussions

in seven or nine years isn't enough for you? No, I'd like to know how he's feeling today. I hope he's feeling okay. I hope he's feeling great, but I don't know if he's going to play week one. Heath's winners. We talked about Duke Johnson plenty. I mean, obviously, Austin Eckler's a winner because Melvin Gordon does not look any closer to returning.

I think you can take Austin Eckler in the fifth round of a PPR draft. And in the sixth round of a non-PPR draft, he's going to be a worthy flex when Gordon returns. And he's going to be a worthy flex when gordon returns and he's going to be a starting running back until that happens and then you want to do you want to talk about just he was used a lot more than jackson yeah he's in this third preseason game but that wasn't the case in the first i did not ever believe that they were going to split touches evenly i could believe that they might split carries evenly maybe jackson Jackson scores one more rushing touchdown. But Austin Eckler has been one of the more efficient running backs in the NFL over the last two years.

He's better than Justin Jackson, and I expect him to perform better. I know there's this thing like, yes, Austin Eckler had two bad games and one good game when he was the starting running back. Justin Jackson had three bad games and one good game, and the only good game was when everybody was hurt. Yeah, and he got saved by a touchdown in that game against the Chiefs. And I just wanted to add one note on Eckler. Sorry, I knew there was something I wanted to say.

He was in on a third and one. I mean, we don't know what the goal line looks like, but he was in on a third and one. So I think at the very least, it's not going to be like Jackson is the short yardage guy. All right, sorry All right. Sorry. D.D. Westbrook. We've got time for a little confirmation bias this morning, don't we?

We already did this on Friday, Heath. You don't remember? He's a winner. He even said confirmation bias on Friday. Yeah. Go ahead. PPR, he's a top 24 wide receiver. I would take D.D. Westbrook over T.Y. Hilton.

You know, Ben, as I pointed out, I pointed out on the Fantasy Football Today video show on Friday, this time last year we were excited about dd westbrook and keelan cole so why is this year different i mean i i know there are some obvious reasons but i i just don't want to get too excited about dd westbrook because he caught a touchdown against like the worst team in football okay i'm not excited about him i've been excited about him that is true that is true okay yeah and it's it's nick foals it's john d filippo i, that's that's pretty much the short answer, right? Like it's a better quarterback. It's a better offensive coordinator for the passing game. I think he's a little bit crazy to take him over to you. I help him, but I don't think he's crazy to be as pumped about D.D. as he is. All right. how about your winners ben yeah we already talked about burrito a little bit

dalvin cook uh i mean i put him as a winner mostly because he's kind of had this latent upside or optimism for his upside that has been there all offseason but people aren't really talking about him a ton he's my rb7 one of my big takeaways from preseason week three is that i basically have a drop-off after RB7. I still have David Johnson in the top five after the big four. And then I have James Conner at RB6. And they used him a ton. And he looked like he was going to be a workhorse as well.

So Conner and Cook were two players that I basically moved from a tier below David Johnson up into that tier. And then I have a drop behind them. I'm not as high on Le'Veon Bell or Nick Chubb as I am on those guys and Cook in particular just how good of a run that was he pressed the strong side and held it long enough before he cut back and then as he's coming out wide on the weak side of the play he kind of points outside to keep the corner and then cuts right between two defenders if you go back and watch that play it's just a really good run and cook's a guy who didn't really test that well not very explosive back at the combine but this is why he still went in the second round and why he's still been very productive he's a good running back and i'm a card carrying member of running backs don't matter but

this guy is like he's a good runner and and if he stays healthy for 16 games and gets the workload we're expecting he's going to be very, very good. Probably a top five running back. I guess I'd like to know more. I mean, you've talked a lot about why you don't like Le'Veon Bell, but why not Nick Chubb? Why is Nick Chubb not in that tier for you? I'm still concerned about the passing game. I think Hilliard is going to be used a lot in the passing game.

And then the later season, Kareem Hunt return. I understand the logic that if everything's rolling and nick chubb's their workhorse at that point they'll want to continue to use him but i also believe the browns are going to be headed towards the playoffs and i think from a logical standpoint they're going to want to rest him a little bit like from a real football standpoint i think we get really caught up in does that ever happen sometimes we talk about that i that just to me doesn't happen guys coaches don't do that. They ride their guys. And we're like, why do you ride your guys?

Bill Belichick just doesn't play him. He does not play him for two years. Bill Belichick is— He would if he had Nick Chubb. And I think Nick Chubb is— I don't think he would. I think he's a great talent, and I think when the Browns are in the thick of important moments in every single one of their games, you're going to see Nick Chubb on the field.

And that'll be the case whether Kareem Hunt is suspended or not. But when there's a blowout, that's when I think you'll see Nick Chubb on the field and that'll be the case whether Kareem Hunt is suspended or not but when there's a blowout that's when I think you'll see Nick Chubb on the bench because I think they've got a running back that they're they're okay with Hilliard and I think they like Kareem Hunt Hunt has not looked good this preseason and who knows how he'll look after two months being away from the team but I still see Nick Chubb as as a guy that can help you win your league in a top 10 fantasy running back, and I will happily take him ahead of Le'Veon, ahead of David Johnson, ahead of Joe Mixon, ahead of Dalvin Cook, and many, many other well-known names at the running back position. One guy I can think of where they did scale back his workload, I think, was Melvin Gordon last year.

But he still, before his injury, was on pace for like 250 carries and a ton of catches. Right. So, I mean, he still was very involved. 250 carries was very good for like 250 carries and a ton of catches right so i mean he still was very involved 250 carries was was very good for running back last year basically every major running back was in that group except for zeke uh ben let's go back to your winners so so far dalvin cook matt brita and two more guys deeper leagues i like how you you i like you give some deep league love here um who else yeah jaylen rashard is a guy i've really liked for his pass catching ability now that they've released doug martin it looks like in my opinion he'll also be the the early

down backup or that's a spell josh jacobs i think he'll get more carries i'll project him for more carries than i was intending to so uh he's a guy i really like i like he's a similar to what we're talking about with duke johnson earlier because he already has the receiving work if something were to happen to josh jacobs and and he works into more of a rushing workload, he has the right touch mix at that point to be very, very good in fantasy. So he's one of my priority later on running back targets. And then Jerron Brown was the other one I mentioned, with DK Metcalf being banged up,

with David Moore having what sounds like a pretty significant shoulder injury. Jerron Brown, who only caught like 14 balls last year but caught five touchdowns, is probably going to be a starting receiver for the Seahawks unless they make some kind of big move. At this point, I think he's worth grabbing in the last round of drafts just to see what happens because Russell Wilson is so efficient, pretty much with whoever they stick at wide receiver i think he could be a worthwhile flex at some point this year all right we're going to talk about losers i'm going to ask you about carry on johnson is he a loser not like i mean he's probably like a cool guy he's like a winner popular but is he a fantasy loser that's coming up right after this quick break on fantasy football today

our last break of the show and we got a lot more to talk about we'll be right back all right so is carry on johnson a loser in your minds guys i hated how cj anderson just isn't going away first drive of the game there's five snaps carry on had them all second drive it was all cj anderson it was four snaps and then the third drive carry Carrion started the drive, played three snaps. He slipped on a play. He was running, slipped, and then he was gone. That was it. And then C.J. Anderson just took over, and I think he played 13 straight snaps until Ty Johnson came in

to catch a touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford. So I almost get the feeling that the Lions really don't care about our fantasy teams. They don't want to see Carron Johnson become a fantasy superstar. They actually want to win games with their philosophy of using multiple running backs. And I had to take a step back, a little step back from Kerryon Johnson. I don't feel as good about taking him

in round two as I did before. I would just say, other than one month last year, all the other evidence we have from the last couple of years is if they really want to win games, they're going to get about 15 minutes into this whole deal in the regular season, and they're going to give the ball to Kerryon Johnson more than C.J. Anderson. Yeah, so would you take Damian Williams or Kerryon Johnson?

Damian. I'm going to look at it a little closer today. I could get to a place where I took Damian and PPR, but not in on. Ben? Yeah, Damian, easy. I really want to get a comment in on damien because he was my biggest winner david already mentioned him i wanted to give him a chance to to talk about him but my biggest thought on him number one the fact that we saw daryl williams come in as their second running back he's a 225 pound back it looks like he's definitely going to beat out hyde that's why i think that hyde's probably going to get cut he He's, it looks like Williams is going to win that big back role. And it's essentially going to be

the Spencer Ware of last season, in my opinion. Then you have Darwin Thompson, who's still very clearly the running back two to draft there, even though Williams was playing ahead of him. And he's basically to Damian, what Damian was to Kareem Hunt last year in the early part of the season. And Charkandrick West was in the past a backup passing down back but he's a backup i mean every single preseason game so far damian williams has played virtually every single snap until he's come out of the game for that game each week i mean i actually don't know about preseason week one but definitely preseason week two and week three that's what we saw uh he gave a couple snaps to daryl williams on a short yardage big

back situation but he looks like the every down back for the best offense in football and i feel like we're going to see pretty much what we saw last year where williams is the kareem hunt role and is going to get plenty of work all right and let me just throw on another winners before we get into all the losers i meant to mention him but very encouraged two weeks in a row by the workload for James Conner. It just doesn't seem like Samuels is as big of a player. They've been saying it all along. They don't need to worry about that. They've got other fish to fry on that team.

One more winner, Ray Abbey's fiancée, Leslie. Ray's been a longtime fan. He's visited us before. They're getting married. Congratulations to both of them. He invented hashtag, he's our fantasy. And now we've got a little bit of a fantasy family building, I believe, in California.

But you invented the pronunciation. Congratulations, Ray. Congratulations. Condolences to Leslie. Congratulations to Ray. Yeah. Congratulations. Have a wonderful time at your wedding.

All right. Ben, let's start with your three losers here. Who do you got? Dave, Jamie, and Dave. Hey. I meant to say Jamie, and Dave. Hey. I meant to say Dave Adam and Heath. Hey. I called myself Adam and Heath.

All right, who are the losers? Yeah, I got Jordan Reed, another concussion. I think that's seven documented concussions. He's a guy that, like in Dynasty formats, I've been treating as multiple years older than he is for several years because I do think those concussions are ultimately going to probably cut his career short that's a really disappointing thing to see disappointing is maybe not the right word it's just a sad thing to see I mean he's had so many uh so many concussions and and we're definitely hoping that he gets better but this is

uh uh not great for his fantasy prospects if he has another one in season you know you could be talking about multi-week absences and And he's been one of my favorite late round tight ends, not somebody that I'm really targeting now. Mentioned Naheem Hines earlier, liked him a lot as a back, like a priority backup running back to add because of his receiving work.

I've mentioned kind of that same philosophy a couple of times to show I'm not as high on him now without Andrew Luck. It changes the offense in ways that i think affect him the most and then just cincinnati as an offense their offensive line has had so many issues in july guard clint bowling retired due to a blood clot their first round pick this year 11th overall was tackled jonah williams he tore his labrum ands. They're starting a 2019 fourth-round pick at guard. Their 2018 first-round pick, Billy Price, won't start because he's not ready.

So that's just somebody who they have talent, they invested in, and we're hoping would be ready. And even with all these injuries, they're not going to start him. They shifted Trey Hopkins over to center to let the 2019 fourth-round pick start at guard. You have left tackle Cordy Glenn with a concussion this preseason. He might not be ready for week one uh and a backup depth lineman christian westerman left the team that was thought that he might be retiring he came back apparently came back yeah he came back but uh has missed some snaps and some time and we don't really know where he's at so this line is kind of in shambles and then you're also talking about an offense that doesn't have

aj green and they just announced that they're going to start a udfa out of troy as they're starting x receiver in week one of the nfl uh season in the regular season so that's damian willis who's gonna gonna start for them john ross is gonna play elsewhere but they're starting yeah a 2019 udfa so i like what zach taylor's doing i like what i've seen in the preseason andy andy dalton's getting the ball out quickly which which is a very notable thing in terms of how they're going to survive with this offensive line. But man, it's really tough to light the Bengals with that line. So how do you feel about Joe Mixon?

I downgraded him. And like I was mentioning a little bit ago, he is like a tier below James Conner and Dalvin Cook for me where he wasn't a week ago. So you're just not drafting them because it sounds like you wouldn't take them unless he felt around three. He's going to go in around two. And that's just the way that that goes.

Yeah, I get, I get those. Well, he's my RB. He's my RB eight. So I would still take him at the end of around two. Uh, I'm just so low on guys like Chubb and Le'Veon that I'm probably closer to right in line with Mixon, but he is a tier lower than Connor and Cook for me. You guys, how do you feel about Mixon?

This is kind of what happened last year, but again, he wasn't nearly as good in losses as he was in wins. I know nobody cares about that. But that matters. I think that matters. It's a difference. Marlon Mack's the same thing. He was awful in losses. Yeah, this team's not going to win a lot of games, but I do think his usage is going to be varied and improved from last year.

Yeah, I expect the splits between fantasy points per game and wins and losses to be closer. It was like six points or something like that difference. A huge deal. And if they do trade Geo, which would make sense for them to do because they've got some nice young running backs behind Mix in any way, don't think that that means that Joe mix is going to get even more work. It just means that he's going to get the same amount of work that we're

thinking about him getting. He's a candidate for 300 touches. Losers. We talked about mine. Really? I T Y Hilton, Christian Kirk. The other one was Daryl Henderson.

I think it's like, to me, it seems pretty clear that Malcolm Brown looks like the handcuff on this team. Henderson. The comparison I made last week is Rashad Penny. He just does not look like he's ready to play quite at this speed yet. And I still think he's got talent and he may figure it out somewhere

throughout the middle of the season. But as of right now, I can't take him in the first eight rounds. Yeah, I can't either. I think he's ready as a pass catcher. I don't think he's ready as a, as a gap,

B gap type of runner. I don't think he's ready for that at all a gap b gap type of runner i don't think he's ready for that at all so yeah they the rams just don't play their starters in the preseason and they haven't played malcolm brown but they've played daryl henderson a lot john kelly but they haven't played brown uh dave's loses marlon mack i think it's pretty obvious why the bucks running back stink and if you go back and you look at peyton barber last year when it seemed like he had a better grip on things he only had five games with double digits and non-PPR he played 16 games he didn't finish as a top 24 fantasy running back so that should tell you just how bad Peyton Barber

is and then I think Ronald Jones I think he looked a little bit better uh in the preseason game but that offensive line was terrible oh awful I I don't think this team's going to run the ball very much. Javis got sacked five times. Yeah, it was brutal. It was absolutely brutal. And then one more loser, Kalen Balazs, he also looked bad. And Kenyon Drake's out of the boot. Replaced looked with is.

Drake is such a winner. He's a winner, and he's got one good foot. So that tells you exactly where the Dolphins are with their run game. All right, Ben. So I've basically decided there's no way I'm taking Peyton Barber. I just – no way. But I also was troubled by the usage of Andre Ellington. He's obviously going to have a role. No, he's not.

Open Raleigh. Yeah, Darre. Open Wallet. Darre. Lagoon. But, I mean, Ellington's like their pass-catching third down guy. But you've been high on Ronald Jones. Are you still willing to take him somewhere around pick 100?

Are you willing to take him in a fantasy draft? Because I still am, to be fair, but not as excited about it. I am still taking him. And believe me, I've actually been accused on Twitter of having take lock on this. And every time I come on the show, all I talk about is Ronald Jones. me i i've actually been accused of uh on twitter of having take lock on this and that i that every time i come on the show all i talk about is ronald jones i've definitely been reassessing that i totally agree with dave that the offensive line has looked awful in the preseason um another great stat on peyton barber though first running back last year and i think since 2013 to have 250 plus

touches and not get a thousand total yards he's it's bad enough to be under four yards per carry he was under four yards per touch uh he's not very good so uh ronald jones i think has that opportunity now agumbo all his production in the preseason is definitely concerning and there's reason to believe that he could could be uh working his way into the mix he played with the first team quite a bit in preseason week three. I still think Ronald Jones has the most upside here. I still am looking at from, I like to take a wider look at things, like a more zoomed out look.

I'm still looking at this guy as a guy who was very productive in college. We didn't see enough from him last season to be certain that he's bad, that way too many people are sure that he's awful. We thought that about Melvin Gordon after his rookie season because he didn't score any touchdowns in his rookie season the next year he started a string of double-digit TD seasons that hasn't stopped we thought that about Devante Freeman after his rookie season the next year he was the RB1 in all of fantasy I don't think Ronald Jones is going to be that either because I don't think the situation is very great here like we said but I think he's a guy we don't know enough about. He was very productive at college. He's a second round pick for a reason. He was very young coming out the youngest back in last

year's class. I still think he has the most upside. I love it because value is still falling. I'm still taking him. Yeah, I love it. I agree with everything, even the stuff I didn't know like that. He was the youngest running back of that class. I agree with that's a great point. I wish I had made that point. All right, cool, Ben. So, guys, we've got a sponsored segment here, the Head and Shoulders segment, offense versus defense. And what I want to know, I'm going to pivot a little bit,

talk about a guy that we haven't talked about at all so far in the show. Well, mostly Aaron Jones, but also Aaron Rodgers, Devontae Adams. We haven't talked about the Packers yet. So the offense versus defense argument here is how much do you care about just how great the Packers offense could be versus how good those defenses that they're facing. You've got the schedule in front of you. They are at Chicago in Week 1 versus Minnesota in Week 2

versus Denver in Week 3 versus Philly in Week 4. So it's probably the toughest three-game homestand that any NFL team will have this year. And then they hit the road to play at Dallas in week five. That's a tough matchup. Then they're back at home week six against Detroit. But even that game's not going to be easy because that Lions defensive line is much bigger,

and the Lions are going to come off a bye for that game. It's a tough slate. This is part of the backbone of my reason against drafting Aaron Jones. But it's not going to deter me from Aaron Rogers in the passing game. I think they're going to have to throw in these games. A lot of tough defensive fronts. They're going to have Rogers kind of take control of things, I'm pretty sure, in all six of those first games.

I kind of indicated earlier that there's like this peripheral where defense matters to me, but most of the ones in the middle I don't really care that much about. The problem for the packers that i hate is that they start with two defenses that i think matter at the bears and against minnesota and then you look at week 15 and 16 in the fantasy playoffs they finish with two defenses that i think matter and these are not defenses where in my opinion one guy could get hurt like if they have the falcons injury problems and they won't still be good in week 15 and week 16 it won't matter but they've they Falcons injury problems and they won't still be good in week 15 and week 16, it won't matter.

They've got enough talent and good enough coaching that I expect they're still going to be good. I do hate the fact most of the defenses on their schedule I'm just not going to ignore. They have their first two games and the last two games of the fantasy season against defenses that do matter.

For what it's worth, in week 8 they're at Kansas City. In week 9 they're at the Chargers. Week home against carolina those are those are not going to be easy games either after the bye they've got three games in a row that are really good it's a it's a reason to maybe shy a little bit away from some of the packers players like i'm not taking deshaun watson over rogers because the schedule i'm taking deshaun watson over rogers because i think watson is going to have to carry everything with the Texans at this point. Devontae Adams has a good history recently against these very difficult defenses, but his yards do typically come down.

He's still able to score touchdowns, though. So, you know, there's that. And just the last thing on this is, man, your early season schedule is bad, but Raiders, Chiefs, Chargers, Panthers, 49ers, Giants, Redskins, that's week 7 through 14. Most of those matchups are just like you should be salivating over them. I don't think so. Are you kidding?

I mean, Raiders, Chiefs, 49ers, Giants, Redskins? Okay, but that's five of seven matchups. That could be terrific. Redskins were a good defense last year. They're going to crush the Redskins the last year they're gonna crush the reds since even i would imagine they will crush the red but that's a it's a home game that's by week 14 washington i don't i just i just think like it's too difficult to know with most of those teams 10 weeks from now they're not the vikings or bears right but i'm just like there's some there's that

they could really make hay in the middle of the season i do have to end this segment because we have to say goodbye to our video audience. And by the way, that is your Head & Shoulders segment. Head & Shoulders, great offense for your hair and defense for a flake-free scalp. Go visit headandshoulders.com slash NFL for more. Stick around, Ben Gretsch. I know at least you and I are going to finish up this show. We have some tweets from our listeners about winners and losers,

more quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end takeaways from week three, and hopefully time for your emails. And thank you so much for watching Fantasy Football today. Stick around for the remainder of the podcast. Well, Dave and Heath have abandoned us. So it was just Adam and Ben here to finish off the show. All right, Ben, let's read some tweets. I asked the listeners for their winners and their losers. And this was not just about week three, by the way. This was just preseason in general. So let's see what they had to say. Preseason winner from Allen, the Jets offense and the losers, Rashad Penny and Jalen Samuels. Do you agree with those takes? Because the Jets offense may be going into week three. Yeah, but they were pretty bad in preseason Week 4.

Yeah, they took a step back in their last preseason game, but I do think overall that offense is a winner. They played well enough in the other two games to show that they definitely have a little bit more upside than at least I thought coming in. Penny and Samuels, I don't really see them as huge losers, to be honest. I mean, yeah, the starters ahead of them solidified their roles, coming in penny and samuels i don't really see them as huge losers to be honest i mean yeah uh the the starters ahead of them solidified their roles but a big reason to take them was never necessarily be like we we should have expected that we should expect james connor to be the

lead back early in the season we should expect it from chris carson as well the reason to draft those guys is more that they might end up taking a larger role later in the season if something happens to the starter or in the case of penny if he just outplays carson yeah and i'll bring it up on tomorrow's show but i i do wonder if we're counting rashad penny out a little early but but clearly carson has had a very good preseason john uh in robinson winner buffalo i this one i don't really get because you know what like the one guy i felt all right about was LaShawn McCoy, and then Frank Gore comes out, and he's very involved. We didn't talk about that, but that's another annoying backfield. Yeah, I don't know why Buffalo would be a winner.

Yeah, I'm looking up Robinson, New York because I've never heard of Robinson, and I'm wondering if it's right outside Buffalo. I don't know why Buffalo would have been a winner either. That's not one that I would have guessed. Okay, yeah. What's your take on that backfield now? We shouldn't be shocked. They have Frank Gore. Obviously, he's going to have a role.

But I don't know. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, Frank Gore's going to have a role. LeSean McCoy's going to have a role. And I'm not drafting LeSean McCoy because I don't think Gore's going to have a role. LeSean McCoy's going to have a role. And I'm not drafting LeSean McCoy because I don't think he's going to have a role all season long. And it's not going to be a big enough role. I wouldn't take him in any round. Because we also know that Devin Singletary's going to have a role.

And TJ Yeldon appears likely to have some type of a passing role. And there's been some talk from the team and the beats around the team that they want Josh Allen to work on throwing shorter. And they've been working talk from the team and the beats around the team that they want Josh Allen to work on throwing shorter, and they've been working with him on getting the ball to Cole Beasley and TJ Yeldon specifically in the passing game, in the short passing game. I mean, that backfield to me is just a mess. I don't want to touch it.

If you're going to touch it, you've got to take Devin Singletary and hope that by the end of the season, he's the guy. From The Huck Show. This is so weird. Winner, Josh Allen. Loser, the entire San Francisco offense. Which, which yeah i think we've already touched on that it's not a bad point although i think you got to say that jimmy garoppolo certainly a lot better yesterday um or saturday whenever that was josh allen though i to me like i just have not a big winner no excitement to draft him yeah and i don't think you should he

still showed an act like inaccuracy in the preseason he still showed some accuracy issues and you know the big reason the big the big reason people thought that he was an overdraft or didn't think he should go there is because accuracy tends to like accuracy in college tends to predict accuracy in the nfl it's not something that's a teachable stat, or at least that's not what the data has shown. It's a tough thing to just figure out. You're either an accurate passer or you're not, and I don't believe that Josh Allen is ever going to be

a consistently accurate passer because of that. All right, how about from Ben Schrager Fantasy? That would be our producer, our podcast producer, Ben Schrager. You should follow him on Twitter, at Ben Schrag. That is B-E-N-S-C-H-R-A-G-G. That's a lot of consonants in there, you know? A lot of consonants in that name. It's very tricky.

Ben S-C-H-R-A-G-G. Follow him because he's going to be tweeting out stuff about the podcast a lot. Winner, Eman Sanders. And then he put a sack of money emoji next to Sanders. Loser, Kyler Murray. And then he put the declining stock chart emoji next to Kyler Murray. Ben Schrager's Twitter game is pretty lit, as they say. Yeah, I mean, Emanuel Sanders was a winner for me in the preseason.

He definitely moved up by getting back on the field, but he's not a sack of money emoji for me. He's not somebody that I'm drafting. That's just where I'm at on his age and the fact that he's trying to come back on such a short time frame. He's back. What do you mean trying to come back? He's back.

I just think that he's still at risk for a re-injury. Yes, he's back, but what think that he's still at risk for a re-injury like yes he's back but what do you you know i don't know it's and then i also think they're not going to be good and later in the season if he is having any kind of negative nagging you know compensation injuries or these things that pop up they'll have every reason to just let courtland sutton and dashawn hamilton and noah fant run out and and and be-catching core to see what they have there. So I just, yeah, not really on that. When would you take Emmanuel Sanders?

I don't see the point of taking him anywhere. Again, I have limited roster spots, and there's upsiders. I would take him in probably the 16th round if I needed to take a receiver. But typically in that part of the draft, I'm taking more depth running backs. Yeah, I'm probably like a round nine guy in a 12-team league on Sanders, and I fear that he's going to be more like round seven now after that one game. So I don't know that I'm going to get – I would have gotten a lot of him because I liked him all throughout the process.

But then he has that one game. He looks great. He's back, and now I think he's going to get overdrafted. Uh, and then Kyler Murray is a loser. We finished with this. Okay. Kyler Murray is, I don't think should be a huge loser. I think he actually showed a little bit more of the third preseason game. They've, they've been limiting their offense intentionally and he looked really mobile again in the third preseason game. The reason I like him is still the rushing upside. He ran twice, at least that I can remember remember, where he gained a few yards, and he looks very smooth, and it's easy for him to just pick up some yards with his legs when there's nothing open. So

I don't think he's a huge loser. I'm still drafting him. I knew there was no chance we were going to get to everything, so tomorrow we'll talk about Sam Darnold's bad game. We touched on it a little bit. We'll definitely talk about Garoppolo. 14 of 20, 188 yards and a touchdown at the Chiefs. Marcus Mariota. I mean, I think it's legit to wonder if he's even going to be the starting quarterback, man, or for how long he will be. He only threw three passes but took a safety, did not complete a pass. Yeah, other guys.

David Johnson we got to talk about. Chris Godwin, another good game. Tyler Lockett. Kenny Galladay did not have a target against Buffalo. So there are some leftovers that we do need to discuss. We'll save that for tomorrow. Ben, thank you for coming on the show, man. Definitely, man.

That was a lot of fun. That is Ben Gretch. I am Adam Azer for Dave and for Heath. I want to thank you all for listening. We will talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Football Today. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.