Fantasy Football Today - 12/31: Fournette, Rodgers, Canned Coaches and More (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 31, 2018

Jamey Eisenberg and Will Brinson wrap up Week 17 and catch you up on everything you may have missed around the NFL. Is Leonard Fournette really on his way out in JAC? Can you get Aaron Rodgers at a discount next season? ... The guys go over all of the coaching news and discuss the Fantasy impact ... Debating Barkley vs. Zeke at #2 overall and who is the best PIT WR next season? Plus a lot more Fantasy talk on a busy day in the NFL ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It's the Monday after the regular season, and while most of my colleagues are taking some time off i am not i'm jamie eisenberg here on fantasy football today podcast and i am pleased

honored thrilled to be joined by the hardest working man in cbs sports will brinson will how many uh how many blog posts have you written on on today today's the day when a lot of the coaches are being fired uh we recorded this on black monday i think it's really i told you 14 before the show it's probably like four, Jamie. But I am running, as we speak, a live blog where we're keeping up with all the rumors and all of that. I'm going to rank the head coaching openings this evening. I did a recap of the full week before. And what else am I doing?

I've got to make some picks, and I've got to do a playoff bracket before I go to this New Year's party. So that's exciting. Of course, it all comes down, more importantly, to NC State's bowl game tonight. Okay, well, I wish you good luck. And for those of you listening, you'll know if NC State won or not. I got my bowl game out of the way. The Gators beat Michigan, so I am happy about that.

I can relax and enjoy college football. Will will sweat out his alma mater on Monday night. As Will told you, we're recording this on Monday, the day after the regular season ended when all the coaches have been fired, at least the ones that we were expecting to be let go. We'll talk about that. We'll get into what happened in Week 17, kind of spin it forward, looking ahead to the 2019 season.

As we've told you, we've been kind of slowly going through our rankings process of quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, top 12 overall. You can find that on the site on CBSSports.com. Adam Azer is enjoying his time off with his beautiful family. Heath Cummings and Dave Richard are just taking a few days off. They will be back when we record, hopefully, at least

one of them later this week. As Adam has told you, we'll be doing two shows per week for at least the next month and a half or so. And then we'll kind of reevaluate where we're at going in throughout the offseason. By the way, Jamie, we got such a nice bump the last time I made a guest appearance. The Pick 6 podcast got such a nice bump on iTunes. People jumped it out and checked it out from this show that I'm more than willing to join you for a second show this week. If you're desperate.

I would love for you to join. I was just going to say you can listen to Will on the Pick 6 podcast. And I'm finding out as we're going through the offseason that not only is Will going to continue to record his podcast, I think there may be some live appearances maybe during Super Bowl week. Am I understanding that correctly? I think that's the case. We're going to do – so like this thing was hatched by our boss, Eric K. I don't know how the – I have like 25 bosses.

So yeah, I'm sure. Right, right, right. So do I. Yeah. Anybody can fire me at any moment. But – Probably have to listen to the store both. Right.

Yeah. I was very surprised. I keep getting – like I'll hear like secondhand feedback from like upper echelon bosses about my podcast. I'm like, oh, they listen hear, like, secondhand feedback from, like, upper echelon bosses about my podcast. I'm like, oh, they listen to that specific show at that specific time. Interesting, because something I said, or like Brady Quinn said something about the things being thrown in the field in Buffalo. Anyway, yeah, Eric actually, EK, we started it last year before the draft, which was cool, except then we had to fill a daily show June, July, and August.

So this kind of feels easy. We're going to do some live shows from the Super Bowl Radio Row. Pretty excited about that. I'm looking forward to maybe joining you, if you'll allow me. Of course. Certainly watching from afar from the team's Radio Row. All right, let's get into, first off, the news of the day, the coaches that were fired.

There were six coaches let go between Sunday night and Monday. We know there are two coaches coaching vacancies already at hand with the Packers and Browns. By the time you may be listening to this, there may have been a hire or two. Who knows with some of the interview process, the Packers already started bringing guys that they're talking to. But let's start with the ones that happened Sunday night and Monday. The Jets let go of Todd Bowles. The Buccane jets let go of todd bowles the buccaneers let go of der cutter the bangles let go of marvin lewis dolphins got rid of adam gaze the cardinals let go of steve wilkes and the broncos let go of vance joseph any of those surprise you will i think adam gaze may be a little bit surprising three years in in miami

um you know he had he won 10 games his first year in 2016, won 6 games in 2017 and 7 games this year last year, it was a running joke, but last year he had Jay Cutler the whole time it's not easy, the guy's freaking 40 years old and coming out of retirement and then this year he had a whole lot of Brock Osweiler and he was always sort of saddled with Ryan Tannehill I think the lesson, by the way, Jamie, is stop taking jobs in the AFC East, everybody. Just don't do it. Gase is actually the 18th coach fired since Bill Belichick took over.

I think Belichick's been there 18 years now. So good for you because the coach fired at least one every single year. That one caught me a little bit off guard. I knew it was certainly a possibility, but I would say that's the only one I was truly surprised by. Steve Wilkes has gone after one season in Arizona, another set of unfortunate circumstances with the GM situation, you know, paying Sam Bradford, offensive lineman issues, offense coordinator getting fired, you know, just a whole host of scenarios there. So he's one and done. Was that a surprise as well? No. Well, no, I didn't think so.

I had been sort of not championing Steve Wilkes to get fired because you don't ever want somebody to get fired. And I actually have – I don't know if you ever read this story or not, but my cousin, Bryant Graber, who's a special needs kid in Charlotte, Steve Wilkes befriended him at the local Charlotte Y. He became one of his good friends. Joe Parson wrote a cool story about it for the Charlotte Observer. So, like, I have a real, like, high level of sympathy or empathy

or whatever it is for Steve Wilkes. But I just thought that this Cardinals team looks so lifeless throughout the season and that the lack of creativity with David Johnson, the inability to really develop other weapons, the inability to keep Josh Rosen healthy. You have Patrick Peterson demanding a trade. I mean, this is your best defensive player being utilized outside of what he does best, which is press man coverage, being put in the Steve Wilks scheme.

It just seems like the whole hire of Steve Wilks was very short-sighted in that it was sort of like, all right, we waited too long, we need to get a coach, and this guy didn't have the experience, but we'll give him a shot. And it clearly didn't work out. For whatever horrible reason, Jamie, I watched a lot of Cardinals games down the stretch. And that is the most lifeless team I have ever seen. The only time I've ever seen a team look worse or that bad was the Panthers in 2010 when they had Jimmy Clawson before they drafted Cam Newton. And I just thought it was time to make a change in Arizona. Yeah, it does seem unfortunate.

You had guys like Peanut Tillman come out and say he's a good guy, give him a chance. Larry Fitzgerald, I think, said he wouldn't be opposed to him coming back. But what you said is basically what Michael Bidwell said as well. It didn't feel like they were in a lot of games. And that, unfortunately, leads to Steve Wilkes being fired. Todd Bowles, probably not a surprise as well. Same thing with Marvin Lewis. Two guys that were just kind of, I think, end of their tenures.

Obviously, Marvin Lewis, 16 years. Todd Bowles, I think it was four years for him. Pete Prisco and I were talking about the Jets job. Does that feel to be the most attractive to you, just given what the market is, what the salary cap situation is, and the fact that they do have their quarterback in place? I think it is a very attractive job. I would not name it the most attractive job.

Are we talking about the ones who just were vacated, or are we including Cleveland and Green Bay in there as well? No, I mean, this is just, again, Pete's perspective, just from the standpoint of the market. Just being able to say you can work in New York, and if you get that right, you know what that means. Yeah, I get that. I don't want to work in New York. I'd rather work, I mean, not like I want to be in Cleveland over New York or Green Bay over New York. But I think that there's, I think Christopher Johnson has done a good job in terms of building stability for the Jets that they didn't have when Woody Johnson was running things.

But I do worry, especially when you look at Arizona and New York, that you're talking about two coaching jobs where the GM is on thin ice. I mean, Steve Keim is on thin ice in Arizona now that he's had to fire or let go of a second coach, however you want to describe what happened to Bruce Arians. I mean, it's clear that Mike McCagnin is on thin ice. He has to find somebody who can develop Sam Darnold. And I think that the pressure that comes with having a GM who's a little worried about his ability to stay employed, the same thing applies to Tampa Bay, makes it a little bit more difficult to take the job. For instance, Cleveland and Green Bay, I think those GMs are firmly secure in their position. And so if you take that job, you

are, especially in Cleveland with Dorsey just being hired, ditching Hugh Jackson, you're going to be linked with Dorsey if you get hired by him in Cleveland. And you've got Baker Mayfield there. So I would say Cleveland 1, Green Bay 2, New York 3 for me. And Pete's argument against

the Packers, which I understand it. He doesn't like Aaron Rodgers. It's understandable. He hates Aaron Rodgers. But he did say, you know, Rodgers being older is something to consider when you're looking at these jobs that have these younger quarterbacks. And so I think that's something to take into account. But I guess the one person who's in this position would probably be Josh McDaniels because he

seems to be the one who's going to be the most sought after of the coaching candidates now there is a report you mentioned this about adam gaze being fired he's the one i think that is already getting job offers or job interest from these available teams cleveland being one of them so that could be a fun fit to see how he would do with a stable quarterback situation the guy actually has the potential to improve as opposed to somebody like ryan tannehill who probably maxed out even before adam gaze got there uh what do you think the bangles do to replace marvin lewis given their track record of just staying sort of with guys that the ownership group knows you know exactly

what they're gonna do they're gonna hire hugh jackson it's so bad it's so bad i mean you're begging baker mayfield to paddle your fanny twice a year that's a something well everybody to paddle a fanny twice a year but i know what you're saying right right but you're like literally begging baker to just beat the tar out of you twice a year um i think the other name that was um that was linked with the the bingles was vance joseph who could be a possibility there look i thought the vance joseph was a hyper conservative coach who did made a lot of mistakes in his first run with Denver, but probably had an unfair setup there and could do maybe a better job. I mean, that Denver team was on the decline.

John Elway hasn't stocked the roster. They don't have the quarterback situation figured out. They added Bradley Chubb to Von Miller, which is great. They have Chris Harris and Justin Simmons and some pieces on the back end, Bradley Roby. But, I mean, it's not a great Denver team. It's not the Super Bowl-winning Denver team that I think they believe in their minds that they are. So I can see – I mean, I would rather have Vance Joseph than certainly I would rather have Hugh Jackson in Cincinnati.

The other thing that was interesting, and it's not going to happen now, but I just thought it was fascinating. There was rumors about Mike Zimmer potentially departing Minnesota based on the way things ended. And then he would, in theory, go to Cincinnati. That's clearly not the case anymore. The Vikings have said he will stay. Yeah, I think Cincinnati is going to do exactly what you described. They're going to go with something familiar, something boring. And it's probably going to be Hugh Jackson or Vance Joseph.

And I'll tell you this, Jamie, watch the timing of the contract for the new Bengals coach because Mike Brown is as cheap as they get. And I would not be surprised if he lined up that coaching contract with the expiration of the new CBA to avoid paying if there's a potential work stoppage. Wow, that's interesting. Yeah, frugal and Mike Brown,

two words that definitely go together, and Hugh interesting. Yeah. Frugal and Mike Brown, two words that definitely go together and Hugh Jackson and losing. Another thing that go together. The Bucs, you know, letting go of Dirk Cutter again, probably not a big surprise there. Do you think they give any consideration to Todd Motkin? to be a head coach. And I really do think it goes underrated, just like the differences in being a great coordinator versus being a great coach. It's like going from being an OC in college to being a head coach in college. All of a sudden, you have to deal with boosters and you have to deal with budgets and you have to deal with fans and coaching. There's so many other things that go on.

And so I think from that perspective, you're taking a leap of faith with a guy like Todd Munkin, but he's already generating interest from the Jets, which would be a smart hire. And if you look at the success of his offenses over the course of his career, wherever he's been in college and in the pros, whether it was with Ryan Fitzpatrick or Jameis Winston last year, he's created offense. And I think if you're a team that has a young quarterback, Todd Munkin is a guy you should look at. Yeah, it's funny because I don't see why –

you see it in baseball, giving younger – and even basketball too, younger coaches that work with Sean McVay, who's still very young, opportunities and just to see what happens. There's a report as we're talking. The St. Paul Pioneer Press is saying that Kevin Stefanski is a potential candidate to interview for the Browns head coaching job. And he is 36 years old. Yeah. So Todd Mock and I think Freddie Kitchens, too.

I know he's never done it before, but you see what he's done with with Baker. Why not give him an opportunity to maybe get the Browns job, too? You know, so guys that have, you know, maybe not coaching experience, but give them a chance to see if, in fact, the rapport that you see or the relationships that they can maybe move on. So just to recap, Bengals fire Marvin Lewis. Dolphins move on from Adam Gase. Cardinals get rid of Steve Wilks. Jets move on from Todd Bowles. Broncos get rid of Vance Joseph.

The Bucks fire Dirk Cutter. And the Packers and Browns are also looking for new head coaches. Just real quick on Todd Munkin, too. His only head coaching experience at any level, I believe, is with Southern Miss. He took over. So Larry Fedora left in 2011 Southern Miss and went to Carolina. And when Larry Fedora left, that program bottomed out. I mean, it cannot get any worse.

They went 0-12 the following year with Ellis Johnson, who got fired after one season. Munkin came. He went 1-11 and then 3-9, but in three years had them at 9-5, which is just a really impressive move to me considering the state of where that program was. Yeah, no. I mean, sometimes you just got to give a guy an opportunity. And when they prove themselves, you're like, oh, smart hire. Rams did that with McVay. Smart hire. And you see how it could potentially go. So we'll see. Worst case scenario, he's getting an offense coordinator job somewhere in the NFL,

and I would hope it's somewhere that could make his guys a little bit more fantasy relevant. A couple, or at least one other coaching news that for me is troubling for the Falcons guys. They fire all three of their coordinators, offense coordinator, defense coordinator, and special teams coordinator. Steve Sarkeesian being the name that most fantasy owners probably know. Matt Ryan has proven that in year two of an offense coordinator, he can be great. In year one, however, he tends to struggle. Are you surprised by this move that they keep Dan Quinn but fire all three of their coordinators?

And how do you think that the Sarkeesian move will impact Matt Ryan, obviously contingent on who they're going to hire in that spot? I mean, I would say I'm surprised at what they did in terms of cleaning out the coordinators, but I am not surprised given that the Super Bowl is in Atlanta this year. Arthur Blank clearly embarrassed and upset that his team, which he thought might be playing for a Super Bowl in their home stadium, is 7-9, not even close to the playoffs, eliminated weeks ago.

I think he thought long and hard about firing Dan Quinn and ultimately said, you need to make some changes now and they need to work out next year or else there's going to be potentially more changes in the future. What I don't get, Jamie, is when you go back and look at the history of Matt Ryan, this next guy hired will be his fifth offensive coordinator. Jason Lock and Forer reported that Darryl Bevel might interview for that job, which, I mean, I guess that's something.

I mean, Bevel – He's a damn quick guy. Yeah, he's a damn quick – I mean, but it's just – to me that doesn't make any sense to take a quarterback who has shown continually that he is much better when he has continuity through a second year and to to change up the offensive coordinator in what is a critical season especially when matt ryan threw for 4 924 yards second career high 35 touchdown passes second career high um had 69.4 completion

second career high and 8.1 yards per attempt i know a lot of it was garbage time i know they had a terrible defense so he had to throw more often, but they lost Devontae Freeman. And if it's me, I would have let Steve Sarkeesian have one more year. And so that's a little bit surprising. And I do wonder what this offense will look like if Daryl Bevel is running it instead. Yeah, it's not good. This was the numbers you listed, second best year for him behind his MVP season, which was his second year with kyle shanahan so um we we had this conversation about our quarterback rankings and one thing that i pointed out and i think dave agreed with dave richard agreed with is we both have matt ryan in the top 10 i think he's still worth that back end of that group but it's just you see the numbers in his first year's first year with steve sarkisian after an MVP season. Not very good at all.

The other news I want to ask you about, the Jaguars are talking about removing the guarantees from Leonard Fournette's contract. We know about the statement that Tom Coughlin made, being disappointed in the behavior on the bench between Leonard Fournette and TJ Eldon. If you haven't seen that, both guys, Fournette being inactive, TJ Eldon not playing, sitting on the bench looking very disinterested in watching their team lose once again in a Week 17 finale to the Houston Texans. What do you make of Leonard Fournette's future in Jacksonville or maybe not in Jacksonville moving forward in 2019?

Yeah, I think recently, later on Monday, Tom Coughlin confirmed that they did remove the guarantees from his contract. First of all, if I'm Leonard Fournette, I'm furious. Like, you just took my guarantee. Like, the only thing you get as a rookie when you get your deal is that fully guaranteed contract. And I understand that the Jaguars have the right to do that based on the contractual agreement they had. Leonard Fournette, first of all, what a disaster of a pick if you're the Jaguars. You could have had Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson and Pete Prisco, or Drink, Prisco Drink, sorry,

reported leading up to the draft, the 2017 NFL draft, that the Jaguars and Tom Coughlin really liked Deshaun Watson, and they decided to go with Fournette instead. Now, it got to an AFC championship game. I get it. They were very close to making the Super Bowl. But to do this, they have now, Jamie, taken all of their assets and shoved them into one spot where they said, we're going to be a ball control running team with Leonard Fournette that allows Blake Bortles to manage the game and to make some occasional plays.

And they're going to cut Blake Bortles. And it looks like they could cut or trade Leonard Fournette. Maybe removing the guarantees from his contract, I assume that follows him if he's traded. I don't know who would trade for Leonard Fournette given his contract status and given what they would have to deal with and his lack of productivity and his injury history.

So to me, I think Leonard Fournette stays on the Jaguars, but I wouldn't be surprised if he became a free agent and had to sign somewhere else. I don't think they can trade him. I mean, fifth round picker later at this point i don't think anybody's given a first through fourth i just don't know if he's like you have to take on a top 10 running back salary for a guy who's going to demand a contract in a year and has never really been productive and doesn't stay healthy i can't see why anybody would give up a fifth for him so if

he does stay in jacks, which is probably the logical situation just given what this team looks like, can you trust him as a No. 2 running back? Because he's definitely not going to be a No. 1 guy. Yeah, I think Leonard Fournette would be... So this is where I humblebrag and point out that I won the June Magazine League. Congratulations.

Twice in a row, two years in a row. I should follow what I do in June more often. But I do think that Leonard Fournette would be a good draft value in terms of a potential bounce back because we know he does have the talent. He's shown that. If you can string together a healthy season behind a good offensive line

with a team that is going to dedicate some resources to him and make sure to give him the rock and get the volume, I would absolutely take Leonard Fournette in the third round third round i guess is probably where i would take him third or fourth round depending on his situation and then hope that he could turn into an rb1 and have a bounce back here that's how you win a league absolutely if he stays healthy they're going to get norwell back healthy they're going to get robinson back healthy and the quarterback situation most likely draft a young guy and pair him with a veteran, whoever that may be, Joe Flacco,

somebody of that ilk. There's a lot to like about Fournette in a bounce-back situation. We'll start with this game. The Texans beat the Jaguars 20-3. The Texans lock up the AFC South title. Is there anybody besides Fournette, just looking at this current Jaguars roster, that maybe you can see having a step for i don't want to say breakout but step forward performance and they have a young receiving core with dd westbrook and dj charke and you know we'll see if they bring

back dante moncrief keelan cole's been a i would say a bust just based on some moderate expectations for him but is it just really at this point looking at it for net or bust i think westbrook is a guy you could take as a as a bench wide receiver and hope that he gives you some you know eventually it could be a wide receiver three maybe i mean he has the upside of being a wide receiver too if this team runs more i mean passes more i don't know that's going to happen you know you i mean you know we're talking about here a ceiling westbrook had 717 yards he's only 25 years old though by the way it's crazy that he's the same age as dd as dante moncrief how is that even possible yeah keelan cole 25 um yeah i don't think that there's anybody you can really trust in terms of a long-term basis with

these guys uh but i think you know if moncrief walks then westbrook is a guy that you could you know snare late in drafts and hope i don't think you want to trust him as a starting guy whether it's a wide receiver three or flex but i think if he's on your bench he can give you a little bit of upside depending on who the quarterback is moving forward if this is cody kessler and blake portals again i just don't think you can trust anybody uh maybe if they upgrade to joe flacco i like i don't i don't what's the upgrade here i don't know you know i I think you look at it again. It's a receiving core that's very uninspiring. Now, I will say

this. Marquise Lee could come back and be the number one guy coming off last year's torn ACL. We'll see how that impacts things for this receiving core. They were kind of in a little bit of a scramble mode when they lost Lee in the preseason, but Keelan Cole, for what it's worth, in Week 17, led them in targets, four catches for 45 yards, but

quarterback will have to be i think the biggest issue when evaluating jacksville and their receiving core miami and buffalo uh we'll kind of skip around here to some games so uh miami and buffalo they finished off the season 42 to 17 a bill's victory um the dolphins again they're going to move on from ryan tannahill we'll find out who's going to be in in charge of the dolphins we'll talk a lot about them more in depth as the offseason moves on. But Buffalo, you've got to be impressed with what Josh Allen did as a fantasy quarterback to close the season.

20 or more fantasy points in three of his final six games, over 90 yards rushing in four of those six games. What did you see from Josh Allen to close the year, Will, that maybe makes you encouraged about what he can do as a sophomore in 2019? He's an alpha male. This guy's an alpha. He's a dog. Whatever Pete used to

say um drink uh he um i i thought i look i think he was historically great running the ball he's like the only guy who has the stats that josh allen had in his first year or cam newton which is nuts the weird thing about the bills and what they did here jamie is that they didn't mean to run him so they basically and this is what I worry about a little bit with Josh Allen's value in terms of being a fantasy guy moving forward, is that if the Bills actually get some weapons and they try to make him be a quarterback, and I'm doing the air quotes here since people can't see me, does it reduce the value of his running? I know Heath has talked ad nauseum on this

podcast about how it's not sustainable and it's not like he's not going to run for eight yards of carry over his career he's a great scrambler he can take hits because he's a big strapping young alpha male lad but i don't know that the the value there is sustainable in terms of his rushing skill set having said all that uh i would rather have Josh Allen than Matt Ryan next year, I think. I think where you draft them and the value you can get for them, when you can add rushing stats to a fantasy quarterback's arsenal, that's why he was the number one fantasy quarterback over the final 10 weeks of the season, 12 weeks of the season, or whatever it was.

So, yeah, I like Josh Allen. I think he is going to develop as he gets some weapons. He can throw deep. He can throw the bomb. He can he can rush to pick up yards. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if he finished in the top 12 of fantasy quarterbacks next year. But I don't think you want to go out and pay a premium for a guy with his accuracy issues. No, totally. And I think as as they like you said increase the the weapons around him or upgrade their weapons around him the passing sort of offsets what the rushing decline will come from you know so his passing stats will improve uh they have an interesting receiving core i think there needs to be you know using the the term where you're making fun of pete

they need an alpha male at the receiving core uh because zay jones and robert foster i think are good complementary pieces but they're not a lead guy now zay j, he would love to play Miami, I'm sure, every time. He scored four touchdowns in the two meetings against them, finished his week 17 with six catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns on nine targets. Robert Foster, who was the guy that we were talking a lot about for week 17, four catches for 21 yards and a touchdown on five targets. And then we look at the running back situation. Do you anticipate LeSean McCoy being back in Buffalo for one more year? It's his final year of his contract there for the bills uh no if it's his final year of his contract i think they'll move on this is a bills team that's it's so weird how they're doing this rebuild and i think credit to sean mcdermott for getting them six wins this year

this is not a six win roster at all um they've slowly been sort of purging they've been purging through actually i don't know. Yeah, no, I don't think McCoy's back because he's got a $9 million cap hit and they can save over $6.3 million and change in cap space by releasing McCoy. I think they would be better off going out and getting a running back later in the draft. And look, Josh Allen had more rushing guards than LaShawn McCoy this year. So it wouldn't be surprising at all to see them leave. But it is a weird rebuild. They keep tearing down pieces and trying to get some younger players,

but they're not there. And yet they keep winning more games than they should be. It's hard to figure out where they are. But I would anticipate that if they can get rid of a veteran running back contract, that they will probably do that. Yeah, and he did not play well at all this season. It was a big concern for us, just getting older and the talent around him not being as good, the offensive line, and a total rebuild. You guys nailed it coming into the season.

I mean, stay away from him even in the third and fourth round, and it worked out. Yeah, he had some good moments, but injuries toward the end of the season as well, and just Josh Allen stealing his production. Usually running quarterbacks help the running game, but in this case it was just Josh Allen stealing all of those rushing production, rushing touchdowns. So, yeah, we'll see. The Bills are definitely going to be one of those teams that we keep an eye on moving forward. The Cowboys beat the Giants 36-35.

It was a very entertaining game. Again, I don't want to get in too much with the playoff teams, but how surprised were you that Dak Prescott played as much as he did? I was very surprised and very annoyed. I had a teaser, Texans minus a half a point, Giants at a pick'em. That should have hit, really should have hit. And it didn't because Jason Garrett is a clown shoe wearing goofball who needed to get 10 wins and pass Chan Gailey for the count.

Get momentum going into the playoffs. I didn't think it was smart at all. I understand that you're trying to build confidence for Dak. You had the confidence there at halftime. Get Cooper Rush in there. Make sure Dak stays healthy. It worked out fine for them. Leighton Van Der Esch suffered an injury at some point, but he came back out and was blocking

on extra points. To me, it's wild. I was very surprised they left them out there, but I understand that they are now enthusiastic going into the matchup against Seattle at home, one of which I think they will ultimately lose, but that's for another discussion down the road. You were on the same page with that in every accord with what you just said because if you're going to bench Ezekiel Elliott, you should not be playing back.

Right, and Zach Martin too. What are we doing here? We went in length on this on CBS Sports HQ yesterday. It was just very, very puzzling. These two teams are interesting because I've gone back and forth at my number two overall pick for 2019 at the two running backs. Now, Saquon Barkley put on another show, 17 from 109 in the touchdown, was again involved in the passing game, as he usually is,

four catches for 33 yards on eight targets. He sets the rookie record for receptions in a season, passing Reggie Bush. So he's a star. Who would you take in number two overall, regardless of format? Ezekiel Elliott or Saquon Barkley in 2019? I would take Barkley. I want the younger guy. Zeke Elliott's right there, too.

And the Cowboys did a really good job of involving him in the passing game. And his production didn't go down when Amari Cooper got traded. You know what I mean? That's when he – oh, it spiked. Yeah, it spiked like crazy because they were able to really kind of get the attention off of Zeke in the passing game and to open it up. And they converted – they saw a massive spike in terms of first downs per game. And that resulted in more carries for Zeke and more yards. And his yards per carry went up.

So I don't think you could go wrong with Zeke. And I think that Zeke probably – see, here's the thing, Jamie. R.J. White and I talked before the season, and he was sort of caught – we were having just a debate about whether Saquon Barkley could live up to the hype. Everything went wrong for Saquon. The offensive line stunk. Eli Manning was trash. They force-fed it didn't it didn't work out a lot of

the times and he still exceeded expectations in terms of his fantasy production so i think i would go with the younger barkley but i would have no problem if somebody went elliot at number two uh you're talking to somebody because i i the one thing that stands out between the two of them and and they're both and and for all of us and when i say that myself dave and heath they're two three in in some order dave and heath both have barkley over elliot and i've gone back and forth i've done it you know probably 50 times i've only done this one one exercise of doing the rankings is because zeke scored nine total touchdowns barkley scored 15 I don't see there's any scenario of him scoring fewer than 12 rushing touchdowns and probably another three or four receiving touchdowns based on how he was using the passing game

this year. Do you think, sorry not to interrupt, but do you definitively think that Zeke Elliott, because Zeke went from 39 targets to 38 targets in 2017 to 95 targets this year. That is a wild disparity in terms of a jump in volume do you think that he can equal that because because if if Zeke Elliott's getting 90 targets and over 300 carries then he I in fact he shouldn't be number two he should be number one yeah again yeah I think that's kind of in the neighborhood that he lives it's just that Todd Gurley's just on a different level because of what he does scoring touchdowns as well and what his involvement has been in the passing game since

Sean McVay took over but I think all three of those guys you can make a case are the number one guy and and this isn't and I'm sure they would say the same thing this isn't a anti and you illustrated this as well this isn't an anti-Zeke or an anti-Barkley it's just which of the guys you feel is better than the other I just look at the return of Travis Frederick, which seems like it's going to happen, still having that offensive line, and if Eli just continues to decline a little bit. Now, he played very well. Despite everything that's happened to him,

his numbers haven't exactly been awful given what the perception is of Eli Manning. But I just look at what Elliott did as a pass catcher and the touchdown spike that should be coming or as heath would say the regression that should be coming positive regression um i think that's going to make him just a slightly little bit of a better player fantasy player than what barkley is but if you tell and dave said this yesterday it's almost like you want to pick third because you get the better pick in the second round and you still may end up with the better player if in fact

somebody passes on maybe girlier passes on elliot or barkley and you end up with the better player if, in fact, somebody passes on maybe Gurley or passes on Elliott or Barkley and you end up with that guy. By the way, with Barkley too, one thing that is interesting to watch is if Odell Beckham is healthy and it's not Saquon's rookie year where they drafted him number two and the heat is on them because of these other quarterbacks, does the volume come down a little bit for Saquon? Because if he got 121 targets, that's obscene. That is obscene for a running back yeah something you have to be concerned about one more quick note on the Giants can you see a

scenario where Evan Ingram can can play well with Odell Beckham and Stoney Shepard because that's been very frustrating when all those guys have been healthy no um and I think that next year is going to be another you know look this is it's January it's December 31st or January 1st depending on when you're listening to this. So it's a little early to say you need to draft a tight end early. But it made a world of difference this year to have Zach Ertz, Travis Kelsey, or George Kittle. And I think you're going to see Kelsey and Ertz in the 2-3 range next year. You're going to see Kittle probably in the 4-5 range, if not maybe even higher, depending on what people are doing in their drafts. And I think that that elite tight end is going to be somebody that makes a world of difference because the next tier of guys, Evan Ingram, Jimmy Graham, Trey Burton, you know, whoever

else you want to include in that, they're just not, I mean, Gronk even is in the second tier. I think they're just not reliable at this stage of the game. Oh, for sure. And the one argument against that would be is where you got Kittle, because there's going to be one or two guys, and I'm hoping that Hunter Henry's return to health, OJ Howard's return to health,

those two guys can take that next step, and then maybe David Njoku as well, depending on who the coach is there. So there are some young tight ends you could point to, but yeah, the old retread guys, especially with Greg Wilson maybe being done, Delaney Walker falling apart, there will be some new blood coming along the way. And finding that next George Kill I think is going to be fun.

What do you think about doing leagues where you have a tight end, wide receiver hybrid spot instead of just like a strict tight end spot? Are you pro or against that? I'm against it just from the standpoint of I like the strategy of trying to find the next tight end. But I'm more always of the inclination to try and find the next guy at whatever position it may be. So I like that challenge. But I understand why leagues are doing it because if you do hit on Kelsey and Ertz and you kind of alluded to this, it gives you such a difference at that spot.

You know, you're talking four or five fantasy points in some leagues depending on scoring that it's unfair just because you may have either picked that guy because you picked at the swing and one, two, or in this case this past year, two, three, and you didn't give anybody else the advantage of doing that. And just somebody got lucky with, with picking up George Kittle where they did,

who had an amazing season. Let's go now to that 49ers game. I'm going to skip around a little bit again, just because of the playoff games. I don't think we need to talk about Atlanta and Tampa Bay because you do whatever you want. It's your podcast. No,

I'm just talking for the listener. You know, I don't think we need to talk about Atlanta and Tampa Bay because we're going to get into that with the coaching changes. But the 49ers, a lot is going to change with their roster based on the return to health of Jimmy Garoppolo, Derek McKinnon. The receiving core was just completely beaten up, certainly going into Week 17.

No Dante Pettis, no Marquise Goodwin. Pierre Garçon has been placed on injury reserve. George Kittle, like you said, was a star. Set the record for what? Most receptions for tight end? Most receiving yards? Was it both? Most receiving yards. I don't know about receptions. Definitely most receiving yards.

No, Ertz had set the record for most receptions, so he did that two weeks ago. That's right. In any event, George Kittle was a star. 9 for 1, 49 and 1. You said this. He's going to be the number 3 tight end. Heath hasn't ranked as the second tight end ahead of Zach Ertz. Would you consider doing that? taking Kelsey one, Kittle two, Ertz three? Or is Kittle firmly at number three for you?

I think one of the things you have to consider with – Heath would have Kelsey, Kittle, Ertz. Yes. Dave and I have Kittle at three behind the other two. No, I think you have to go Ertz at two. Ertz has a – Kittle's a stud, and Kittle's going to be very good. One of the things that I think will be different, though, about what you'll see, we're presuming here the health of Carson Wentz and the health of Jimmy Garoppolo. When Wentz was in there, and I get that Ertz had a monster week 16 with Foles,

and won me a title with Foles there, but Ertz was a monster because Wentz was healthy most of the year, and he dropped off a little bit at the beginning. He didn't come out of the gate scorching hot, and he dropped off a little bit at first with Foles. So I would be worried about that fading Ertz if Wentz is healthy for the full year. And then the other thing I think, too, when you have Jimmy Garoppolo under center instead of C.J. Beathard or Nick Mullins, it's going to give so many other weapons the opportunity to flourish. Jimmy Garoppolo was developing a rapport with Marquise Goodwin.

We saw Dante Pettis come along strong. And Kittle, to me, really felt like – of course, you know McKinnon there as well. Kittle felt like a guy who was getting fed the ball a ton, especially because those quarterbacks who were tiered down were getting in spots where they really had to check down and had to go to the tight end. Kittle's a superstar, don't get me wrong, and I think he's a stud, but I would easily take Ertz over him next year. I think, and I don't want to speak for Heath, the one concern could be Dallas Goddard getting more reps and maybe getting a little bit more production taking away from Ertz, but I think you're splitting hairs because like you just said, they're going to take

away a little bit from Kittle with the addition of some of the weapons back there. Would you consider going Ertz or would you consider putting Kelsey as the third guy in that? You can. I would just take him because I think you see what this offense has been. Andy Reid's track record with using the tight end. One thing we were talking about, I'm curious your take on this, is at what point do you see the three tight ends coming off the board? Dave thinks, which I don't agree with, that you could still get maybe Kelsey or Ertz at the back end of round two. I think you're going to see those guys, the first

two, Kelsey and Ertz, maybe as early as the swing at one-two, just based on what the difference they make at that position, and maybe you get Kittle at the two-three turn. But at this point for me, I haven't gone through my top 20 you know we're just doing top 12s at this point i could see kittle and urts in the top 15 and maybe going ahead of guys at the receiver position like beckham like juju like ty hilton guys in that second tier of the first group of wide receivers uh just looking back at like my main league uh which was a 12 team dudes get some friends of mine from college so it's's like a pretty generic league, right? Like you've got an average group.

Kelsey went with the first pick of round three. I would not be surprised at all if Kelsey was a first-round pick by somebody at 11 or 12 this year, if they didn't like the running backs or the wide receivers. I don't think he'll make it to that. Like if you're the first pick, I don't think you're getting Kelsey in the second round. And then Ertz was a fourth-round pick this year.

I think he probably goes in the second round. Maybe you could get him on the wrap at two and three with Ertz. It just depends on where the wide receivers are. And like you said, with Hunter Henry, what else is going on at that position? But I would be very surprised if either of those guys make it to the third round, and I wouldn't be stunned at all those guys make it to the third round, and I wouldn't be stunned at all if Kittle went in the third round. Yeah, it's just one of those situations where you get that stud player.

Like Travis Kelsey's numbers were very comparable to Devontae Adams this year. And he was the number one receiver. It just goes to show you what those guys are doing as they're entering their prime. They're basically Rob Gronkowski, what we used to talk about him year after year after year. Are the 49ers one of those teams that you're going to try and maybe target some guys off of next year? It sounds like you are based on what you're talking about. Now, Adam has said one of his favorite targets next year will be Dante Pettis just based on what he showed us towards the end of the season. But are you going to buy back into maybe Jarek McKinnon if you were buying it to begin with?

Are you going to buy Jimmy Garoppolo and any of the other receivers besides George Kittle. I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing on Kittle because I read about this previously. No, not on Kittle. Excuse me, on McKinnon. But they have an out where they could cut him and they could move on and it would be a $6 million dead cap hit, but it wouldn't be anything insane. I don't know if they're going to do that, but you do have a smaller running back coming off an ACL tear. Maybe the 49ers would

rather go out and spin big on Le'Veon Bell to put next to Jimmy Garoppolo. I don't think that would be entirely shocking. Somebody's going to pay Bell. I think they're a good buyback team. I think it's more of a phrase for baseball, fantasy baseball, but post-hype sleeper.

It's like the 49ers where people are picking Jimmy Garoppolo to win MVP. We're picking the 49ers to win 10 games and win the division. That turned out to be comically incorrect, and they crushed their under in terms of Vegas' total. So I think people will be a little bit down on him. The hype won't be there. And so, yeah, Garoppolo would be a later round quarterback for me to buy. Dante Pettis is absolutely somebody I'll target because I think he's an excellent route runner

who also has good hands and blazing speed. I think Marquis Goodwin was someone that I liked to maybe perform as a wide receiver one this year, and clearly that didn't happen. But I think he has the upside of a – you can get him as a wide receiver two or wide receiver three next year, and he has that wide receiver one upside. Oh, you can get him as a wide receiver two or wide receiver three next year and he has that wide receiver one upside so yeah you get him as a five next year that's what you think so yeah because anytime somebody burns you to this level yeah there's still some uncertainty plus i would imagine they move on from pierre garcon and they bring in someone of it may be name value or someone with some upside whether it's the draft or free agency so i think there's going to be a little bit of you can take him with one of your late-round picks and certainly get by with that.

I want to move on to the Lions and the Packers. Embarrassing loss for Green Bay, 31-0, the Lions win. So these two teams are going to have some changes, but at least you know the coaches are somewhat intact again, so we're jumping around a little bit, just getting away from the coaching changes and the playoff teams. With the Packers, you want to hear about a daily mistake that I made in several of my

daily um lineups yesterday i had zay jones and chris godwin in several lineups and then when they ruled davante adams inactive i replaced all those guys with marcos valdez scantling oh no single one not that i didn't like those guys i just thought okay here's mvs's time at home against detroit uh aaron rogers and then rogers as we know suffers the concussion Not that I didn't like those guys. I just thought, okay, here's MVS's time at home against Detroit, Aaron Rodgers, and then Rodgers, as we know, suffers the concussion. How are you viewing Aaron Rodgers in 2019? I'll be honest. Look, I mean, Aaron Rodgers is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time,

most talented physical quarterback of all time. I haven't drafted Aaron – I've drafted Aaron Rodgers, I think, once in four or five years. The price is too much to buy Aaron Rodgers. It may not be, though, now. That's what I was going to say. I think that if you saw him fall to the fourth or fifth round, then maybe you swoop in and scoop him up. Patrick Mahomes is probably going to be a first-round pick.

His average draft position will probably end up being round one. Anytime you see 50 touchdowns at 5,000 yards, and I think Heath said this. I haven't looked at it myself, but prior to week 17, he was like seven points on average better than Roethlisberger, who was the number two quarterback going into that scoring period. So, yes, he probably will be end of round one. Our drafts will probably be somewhere in that end of round two range. I think that you'll see just based on what happened in 2018, I think that you'll see Mahomes go early. You'll see Roethlisberger have a tick up.

I think Luck will go really early. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Andrew Luck went before Aaron Rodgers next year. I think Heath has it ranked that way. Wow. No, I think they both do. They both have Andrew Luck ranked ahead of Aaron Rodgers. I have Rodgers at two i would not be surprised if based on how because i like the way our our fantasy owners our fantasy community at least for cbs sports because i can only track our average

position that they finally got it to let quarterbacks go a little bit later rogers went in the round two range which is rare um he may be not to the same level because andrew luck fell with a lot of concern but he may be in that andrew luck type of range where you get him later than normal and then he has that huge resurgence yeah again depending on coach and i should apologize i know i said we're going to skip away from uh jump around from the coaching changes but i wanted to get into just rogers a little bit for a second yeah so to your point yeah i've never drafted in rogers it's been too expensive um i think that this is a season where I would end up targeting him depending on what goes on.

If I can get him in the late fourth round or fifth round, then I would probably take a flyer on him there because you can establish two running backs and a wide receiver, two wide receivers and a running back, grab Rodgers, build that core, and you have a quarterback who could end up leading the league in scoring and having a monster year. I do think, though, that if they get a coach in there, like a Sean McVay type who's an offensive mind and Rodgers is looking healthy and slinging the ball around, yeah, McDaniels,

that you're going to see the hype train get back going, and that might make it tough. But yeah, look, if Rodgers is a huge value value i'll buy in because that's how you win your fantasy leagues by getting guys who can be elite talents at later levels when they're discounted like drew breeze this year or uh patrick mahomes yeah and and you brought another one with leonard fournette too for for 2019 yeah um this is my june magazine draft it's uh it's it's leon Leonard Fournette and Aaron Rodgers. Right, after you take Saquon Barkley. With Jamal Williams, he was a dud in Week 17, but he was awesome in Week 16. Is this still Aaron Jones as the main guy next year coming back from the knee injury? Yeah, and I think – I mean, I just think that as long as you've got Aaron Rodgers and Devontae Adams on this team,

I mean, they're not going to bring in Brian Schottenheimer to run the offense, right? I mean, they're still going to wing it around. One would think that whoever replaces Mike McCarthy would be willing to establish a feature back, but what if it's Josh McDaniels? I mean, we say you can't trust Belichick with running backs, but it's really McDaniels who's deploying them. So if McDaniels ends up going there, I think it's a stay away situation for me from a running back perspective, unless,

you know, like if Jamal Williams and Aaron Jones are both there, I'd be worried about that. I think they would probably add a pass catching running back as well. So I think Aaron's right now, I will default to say Aaron Jones is the guy, but that's not a situation I'm going to be enthusiastically targeting. Yeah.

Coach will matter. But I think Aaron Jones, you know, Jamal Williams, I don't know, dominant game, then it'd be okay. Maybe there's going to be enthusiastically targeting. Yeah, coach will matter. But I think Aaron Jones, you know, if Jamal Williams is in a dominant game, then it'd be okay. Maybe there's going to be back to a split like we saw when they were rookies. You know, both of them obviously battled some injuries. But I think what Aaron Jones showed when he was healthy puts him in position to be in the driver's seat. That's what I would hope.

Jamal Williams going back to a little bit of a reserve role. And if that's the case, I think Aaron Jones will probably slip a little bit. Like I was originally going to put him in my top 12 running backs for the early rankings. Now he's probably in that 15-20 range. But if I can get him round four or later, that's going to be someone

I target all day long. Just again, depending on what the coaching staff looks like. For the Lions, I think a lot of this had to do with injury. Kenny Galladay did not play in week 17,

but he looks like to be a star in the making. Marvin Jones will bounce back, hopefully, and be sort of that secondary piece, number three type wide receiver with number two upside if things go right. And the same thing with Kerryon Johnson. Anything different that you see from the Lions with their skill players? Again, injury was a big factor for them, certainly how they closed the season.

No, I agree with you completely that Galladay and Johnson could be really interesting guys to add in terms of people. There was, there was hype around them. They performed at a nice level, but we're, we're all conditioned to have, you know,

this memory of what happened last and Galladay and John carry on Johnson disappointed for us, for everybody because of injuries. And so I wouldn't be surprised if they provide really nice value. I do think one of the things I'm worried about, dude, have you looked at Matthew Stafford's stats for the final seven games of the season? Awful.

It's disastrous. He threw, I think it's like seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. But I think, you know, again, part of that is losing Marvin Jones, losing Golden Tate in trade, losing Kerryon Johnson as a threat of a run game. So I don't really want to fully evaluate Matthew Stafford. Nobody's drafting him as a starter next year in one

quarterback league. So he'll be one of those Derek Carr type of guys in a two quarterback league, Eli Manning type of guys that you just kind of settle for. And maybe there is some bounce back appeal, but it's not going to be someone that you can trust and where he's been the last, you know, four or five years where he's almost, you know, defaulted to being a top 12 guy. Jamie, he had in his final seven games, this is unbelievable. Matthew Stafford once threw for five. I mean, like he's thrown for 5,000 passing yards and led the league in it. He threw 727 passing attempts in 2012 and threw 5,000 passing yards in 2011. In his final seven games, he averaged 199 passing yards per game

and had five total touchdowns and three interceptions. I don't know what to make of that. And I know that they're committed to Matthew Stafford, and I understand the weapons will be better next year. But, you know, if he's – man, if they're going to play that type of game with Matthew Stafford, then I don't see how – and limit his attempts. I don't know that the upside is there for those wide receivers. Yeah.

And Heath has Kenny Galladay ranked in his top 12 at the receiver position. I do think he's going to be one of those guys that takes the next step. Top 12? He hasn't 12. No, I don't agree with that, but he's top 15. I mean, he's certainly in that category. Entering his third season, that's typically when guys take that leap, and he's got the physical gifts, what he showed us this year when the targets were up.

Again, take that into account with Marvin Jones missing a good portion of the second half of the year after they traded Golden Tate. But still, it's a receiving core that's going to probably lean on those two guys. And with a defense that may put them in a position where they still have to throw even more. There's four teams I want to get to before we wrap this up in terms of the teams that are out of the playoffs or not dealing with new coaches. Minnesota being one. We know they made the coordinator change a few weeks ago, getting rid of DiFilippo and bringing in Kevin Stefanski. I'm assuming based on the relationship between Stefanski and Mike Zimmer, that's probably going to be the two guys in place at the top of the offensive

side of things at least. Next year, Zimmer is the head coach. Stefanski is the office coordinator. Kirk Cousins had a meltdown to close the year, arguing with Adam Thielen on the sidelines. How do you evaluate this passing game? Because clearly, Dalvin Cook's got a lot of upside, but looking at the passing game next year with Diggs and Thielen and Cousins, who is by far not worth the $84 million guaranteed, how do you break that down? Yeah, I think that what you're going to see is an emphasis from Mike Zimmer on getting better in the trenches and being able to run the ball more and being able to be better at play action than they had been.

It's pretty wild that – I mean, the bottom line, Kirk Cousins completed 70% of his passes, had 4,300 passing yards and 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He was a really good fantasy quarterback, and he didn't have – well, he was a fringe QB1, right? I mean, if you had him as your QB1 all year, you weren't disappointed unless he was playing in primetime.

Thielen, I think the problem with Thielen is that he cooled off, but he was always going to cool off. I mean, he broke Jerry Rice's records, and, you know, his final five games, the teams really started targeting him. He only had 20 catches for 235 yards. I mean, that's a killer. Thielen might actually present a little bit of value. I don't think they're going to start going away from him, but I do

think that what they're going to... I think that Diggs might be the guy I want more than Thielen next year if ultimately this becomes a run Dalvin Cook, and I think Dalvin Cook could be a second-round value as well if he didn't go in the first round.

He was fantastic in those last couple of games. Diggs is the guy that's going to be getting the play-action shots. Like, Thielen is kind of the ball-control, chain-moving guy. In the first, whatever it was, seven weeks of the season where he's just a target hog, he was getting more of that action. I think Diggs might be the bigger play guy that they utilize in this play-action offense. I just think that Mike Zimmer, when he decided to stay with Minnesota, he is going to get a commitment from Rick Spielman to operate the team the way he wants, both offensively and defensively.

And I don't think that is good news for the volume of Adam Thielen and Stephon Diggs. Yeah, well, certainly a team that's going to have a lot of eyeballs on it next year. And Cousins could be one of those guys that has a lot of bounce back appeal fantasy-wise because he's not going to be drafted as a number one guy after what we saw to close the season, especially with that meltdown against the Bears when they win and they're in and they lose and they get bounced. By the way, Diggs only finished. So Thielen finished with 153 targets.

He had 1,373 yards. I would guess he's going to go in the second round next year. Diggs has only four targets behind him, which is kind of shocking. Diggs had his first 1,000-yard season, and Diggs, by the way, only 25 years old. He's a star, yeah.

I just think he... I think Thielen will go in the second or third round. I think Diggs might go in the fourth. No, they'll be very close. Last year, I had Diggs right ahead of Thielen. I was very high on Diggs coming go in the fourth? No, they'll be very close. Last year I had Diggs right ahead of Thielen. I was very high on Diggs coming into the season. Not that I discounted Thielen too much, but I discounted him to do this. And so I think you'll probably see a little bit more of going back to Thielen over Diggs.

I don't think you're going to see that much of a disparity, though, between the rounds. I think it's probably four or five picks, depending on how receivers go. They'll both be top 15 caliber receivers. And it goes back to Kenny Galladay, Amari Cooper, those type of receivers that are in that third tier. And by third tier, I still mean top 15 type of guys. The Steelers have two receivers who are going to be top 10

picks at that position next year with Antonio Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster. Do you see a scenario of taking Juju over Antonio Brown in 2019? Wow. No. I mean, nouju over Antonio Brown in 2019? Wow. No. I mean, no, right? No.

What? No. No for me. No for Dave. Not for Heath. I love Heath. I talk to Heath once a week. I love Heath too.

That is a contrarian of all contrarian picks. Now, everything aside from the touchdowns favored Juju this year. Targets were very close. Receptions were in Juju's favor. Yards were in Juju's favor. But Antonio Brown dwarfed him in terms of touchdowns favored juju this year yeah we're very close uh receptions were in juju's favor yards were in juju's favor uh but antonio brown dwarfed him in terms of touchdowns now the argument against antonio brown would be getting a year older and juju you know clearly entering his prime he's entering his third season next year uh i would i have them ranked right now antonio brown number three juju number six uh dave has antonio one. Juju, I believe, number seven.

And Heath has it. Juju, number six. Brown, number seven. You know what? You know what? I'm going to reverse course here and say I do agree with Heath. I think that, and here's why. One, Le'Veon Bell will be gone, which means they'll have James Conner

and Jalen Samuels, and they'll run the ball effectively. But this is going to be a high-volume offense. I don't think the defense is going to magically turn in to the steel curtain overnight. Two, I do think that when you watch Antonio Brown this year that he was demonstrably slower. I mean, he looks like he's slowing down. Now, he's still a great route runner. He's still got tremendous hands. He's still made some incredible catches.

But I think that Antonio Brown slowing down and Antonio Brown, I believe, will turn, Jamie, he will turn 30. I think he's 31. He will turn 31 in July. So he'll be 31 coming into the season. That's not ideal. And Juju's age coupled with his production is wild. He had a 1,400-yard season this year at the age of 22. So I think given that we know he's going to be in the offense, given that we know there's clearly enough volume there, both the

guys had over 160 targets, I'm going to take the younger guy who is going to get action. I would be stunned if Juju's not a 1,000-yard receiver. So I think there is a viable case to take Juju Smith-Schuster over Antonio Brown. Oh, I i certainly understand the argument i just think that i don't believe antonio brown is slowing down to the point of being passed by somebody on his own team and it's just like i think dave's look crazy to have brown over adams and hopkins and i say that having brown at number three um and it's kind of format he has he has brown over adams and Hopkins? He has Brown one, Adams two, Hopkins three. And again, when I say this, you may see something different by the time we come to August because we're still in the early evaluation stage of what we're doing with our rankings.

But for right now, that's where Dave has Antonio Brown. And again, where Heath has Antonio Brown. But I still think that the touchdowns matter for Antonio Brown and what he does in the red zone. Juju will get better. It probably will be closer, but we're kind of splitting hairs here a little bit. Dave is the furthest apart on these two guys between one and seven, whereas Heath does have them back-to-back. If you want to pass on Antonio Brown, I get that. You could probably, at the end of the second round, take a running back and get Juju early round two, and you'll be thrilled with the production there.

James Conner, does he feel like a slam dunk first round pick? He's a first round pick. Slam dunk. It's a no-brainer. Assuming full health, how many receivers would you put in your first round right now? I have four. This is PPR. I have

Adams, Hopkins, Brown, and Julio. That's probably right. And they all come after pick six. Seven overall is where they factor in for me. See, I would have Michael Thomas ahead of – I would have Michael Thomas in that group too, I think. Yeah, that's one that I struggle with is Thomas over guys like James Conner and Nick Chubb.

I just think the upside for those two guys, what we've seen from them, again, for Chubb will be coordinator change or coaching change. But Conner, I think what he was doing as a receiver, he basically looked like Le'Veon Bell in terms of production. The Broncos' new coach, well, again, we'll talk about them in the offseason. The Redskins, with what they battled through injury-wise and kind of what they're looking at going into 2019. Is there anybody that you saw this season,

assuming Adrian Peterson is gone and Darius Geist comes back at full health, besides the running backs, that you could say, I want a member of the Redskins offense on my fantasy team? The Redskins are in... I mean, they would be doing Jay Gruden a favor to fire him at this point. I mean, Alex Smith is uncuttable next year.

He has a $42 million dead cap hit if they cut him. He's owed 20 point, he's had a $20 million cap hit if he's healthy and plays. I mean, they cannot cut him next year. They are stuck with him. He has a broken leg. We don't know if he's going to come back, how he's going to heal from it, how the infection that he was battling is going to end up shaking out. And I just don't think that you can trust anything about this offense

because the best-case thing that they can do is – there's three outcomes here, Jamie, for this passing game. One, Alex Smith comes back and is healthy and is a low volume, 35 year old quarterback who doesn't challenge anyone vertically. Two, they go out and sign Joe Flacco, which again, you know, that's not Blake Bortles or somebody to a cheap contract because they're double dipping. And then three, they draft somebody like Daniel Jones, who just declared for the draft while I was recording this podcast, in the middle of the first round.

And if they do that, maybe they commit to Daniel Jones. The problem is they're locked into Alex Smith for two years, basically, already through 2020. And so I don't think there is any viability to the passing game here. I do think Darius Geis is a nice buyback low, where you can get the sixth or seventh round, because the offense will be so putrid, and because he could just see a ton of volume. And volume is king in fantasy.

But, man, I don't see how you can touch anything in the passing game. Yeah. And Jordan Reed, I think we've run our course with this until he'll be one of those guys that you either take a late round flyer on or maybe pick up off waivers. I don't think anybody's drafting him with any semblance of confidence. Jameson Crowder, Josh Doxon, these guys have proven to be just guys. They're not difference makers at the receiver position. And we'll see what they decide to do in the draft that they can upgrade at any of those spots but yeah darius guys for me is somebody that i'm still interested in but at the right price uh the raiders are going to have a lot of change on their offense

jordy nelson looks to be their number one receiver that's not exactly the most encouraging thing eric cook is a free agent he had a great season but we'll see what happens there their running back situation probably going to look dramatically different doug martin is a free agent. He had a great season, but we'll see what happens there. Their running back situation is probably going to look dramatically different. Doug Martin is a free agent. I would be surprised if Marshawn Lynch continues playing, but he surprised us before. Is this another fantasy wasteland for you two? Yeah, I'm not messing. Look, the Raiders are – they have three first-round picks.

They're building for 2020 in Oakland. I wouldn't be – And Las Vegas. Las Vegas. Yeah, they're moving to – They might be playing... Here's the other thing about the Raiders to really keep an eye on. It is a legitimate possibility that they play their... So they have

eight home games, obviously. One of them is already locked into being an international home game, whether it's Mexico City or London. I think what the NFL might try and do with the Raiders, play one home game in Mexico City and play the other seven in London. And then have like a – or maybe play like six more in London

and try and figure something out. If that's the case, do not draft anyone from that team. Take the under on the Raiders at five wins and profit because those guys will be bouncing back and forth all over the country, all over the globe, and you won't want anything to do with them. The volume won't matter. And I think this is probably a lost offense for one more season. Yes, I agree, and certainly location won't matter. We'll get more into the Raiders this offseason.

The final team I want to look at is the one that got eliminated from playoff contention last night, the Tennessee Titans. Disappointing ending for them. No Marcus Mariota. We don't know what his health is going to be moving forward with that nerve issue in his elbow. Derek Henry finished the season as a star. There's another strong performance from him.

Didn't score a touchdown, but 16 carries for 93 yards. Corey Davis disappointing again, five for 48 on seven targets, but no quarterback situation there that you can say helped him. How do you evaluate the Titans going into the off season? We were having this debate in our NFL Slack room last Sunday or something. I don't know why, but is Derrick Henry a first-round pick?

No. Not for me, he's not. Don't be fooled by what he did at the end of the season to elevate him up the flagpole that much, but certainly he's put himself back in the conversation of being a third-round pick and a strong number two running back in non-PPR leagues. Because he outscored Phillip Lindsey, David Johnson, Nick Chubb, Chris Carson, James White, Tariq Cohen, Marlon Mack, Jordan Howard. I mean, he outscored a bunch of dudes.

When you have a 204 touchdown game, that's going to put him on a different level. But certainly, look, the way he played at the end of the season was the guy we were talking about going into the year. All I'm saying is that stupid things happen in fantasy drafts, Jamie. Off-season hype, Mike Vrabel committing to the run, beefing up the offensive line. We're really going to get Derek some work. He's going to be the focal point of our offense, blah, blah, blah.

I could see somebody being talked into taking him on the turn. I personally would probably not take him unless it was a third-round pick. I just think your investment is safer in a wide receiver or one of those tight ends that we talked about in the second round. Obviously, I'm not going to take him in the first round. I just think when you look at the guys that are on the list, I mean, I can see how it could potentially happen. All right. Well, let me throw some names at you. Tell me where you start to consider Derek Henry. All right. So you just listed off a few of the guys that are clearly in the conversation.

But you're not taking him ahead of Gurley, Barkley, Elliott, McCaffrey, Kamara, Melvin Gordon, right? No, no, no. Hell no. James Conner, Joe Mixon. Heck no. Heck no. Sorry.

Joe Mixon, James Conner, Nick Chubb, David Johnson, Donald Cook, right? No. So he's not a first-rounder. All right. He's not a first-rounder. No, no. This is probably the first two rounds. Le'Veon Bell?

No, no, no, no. I don't care where Le'Veon Bell lands. If he's getting paid the way he's going to be paid after a year off, I'm probably taking Le'Veon. Phillip Lindsay. I would go Lindsay, I think. Okay. So would I. Aaron Jones?

I would take Derek Henry over Aaron Jones. Okay. So you're kind of talking top 15. Yeah. Top 15 running backs. Yeah. Not in PPR. PPR may change a little bit.

Did you list David Johnson? Yes. Okay. All right. Would you rather have Leonard Fournette or Derek Henry? Oh, Henry. Okay. All right.

Oh, Henry? And Corey Davis. He'll be entering his third season next year. Let's assume Mariota's back and hopefully 100% healthy. What's your interest level on him? I will be buying a post-type sleeper for him too, I think. I thought he flashed a lot this season. He looks like he can be a volume guy who's a possession receiver and piles up yards.

I think I buy into Marcus Mariota. I think Marcus Mariota is a good quarterback. I think he's been hampered by injuries and by questionable coordinators. And I think in a second year with Matt LaFleur, we could really see him, Matt LaFleur-ish. I don't know why. Somebody had to do it. Azar's not here.

Somebody had to step in with a pun. Yep. And, and so I would, I'm not going to be using Mariota as like a fantasy quarterback, but I think, you know, Corey Davis is going six,

fifth, sixth, seventh round. I think Michael later this year. No, no, no. Last year he was.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This year, I think you get him in like the eighth, ninth and 10th round. seventh round yeah and he might go later this year no no last year he was oh yeah yeah yeah this year i think you get him in like the eighth ninth and tenth round and he's somebody who really presents value and has that wide receiver one upside if everything breaks right uh but probably you know wide receiver three floor so i would i i like the idea of buying into cory davis at a much cheaper cost i'm in total agreement with you all right so we covered just based on some of the coaching changes the bangles the, the Dolphins, Cardinals, Jets, Broncos, Bucks, they all make coaching changes

going into the start of the offseason. The Packers and the Browns have already made their coaching fires. We'll see what they do in terms of their coaching hires. And then we covered the teams that are eliminated from playoff contention. Again, we're going to talk a lot about these teams, but I wanted to leave the playoff teams because we'll talk about that on our next show and just kind of what their outlook is going into wildcard weekend but i want to get your quick predictions will uh houston indy who wins i man this is a tough one it's gonna be awesome deshaun watson on the big stage he elevated his game in two years with clemson never seen him in the playoffs but i will not be fading andrew luck and frank wright who i think is a better coach than bill o'brien so i will take

the colts i will take the Colts as well. Chargers, Ravens. Who do you like there? You know, I ride or die with Phillip Rivers. All right. I think this is interesting. I read about this in my column on Monday on CBSSports.com. But do you know who the last quarterback to beat a top five DVOA defense in the playoffs was as a rookie? I'm going to guess Phillip Rivers.

Joe Flacco. Oh, there you go. So the last guy to do it as a rookie was Flacco. Now Lamar Jackson has to do it. Also, since 2008, no one has beaten a top 10 defense twice in one season. So I think it's very tough for Lamar Jackson, that Ravens offense, to beat the Chargers in a borderline consecutive week. So I like the Chargers in that season. So I think it's very tough for Lamar Jackson, that Ravens offense, to beat the Chargers in a borderline consecutive week. So I like the Chargers in that spot.

Okay. I like the Ravens at home just based on the way their defense is playing. Philly and Chicago. Who do you like there? I think Chicago is going to bloodbath the Eagles. The Nick Foles dream dies. That narrative is a little misplaced. Especially since he's not 100%.

He is going to play dealing with that rib injury, but not going to be at full strength. And then finally, Dallas and Seattle, the confident Dak Prescott going against the Seahawks, who the Seahawks beat them already once this year. I got a text today from a friend of mine, a friend of yours. What did it say? It says we ended up having a long conversation.

He said, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys. He says, Nick Costas thinks the Cowboys are going to smash the Seahawks, which makes me love the Seahawks even more. I've been saying for five weeks, Jamie, you could see it coming down the pipe as soon as Alex Smith got hurt and the Cowboys started to take control of that division. The Cowboys

were going to be the four seed. The Seahawks were going to be the five seed. And Seattle was going to be an underdog going in there and i love russell uh i love russell wilson as an underdog going into uh into dallas i think this is the seahawks easy yeah i said this on uh cbs sports hq and in a similar text message to mr costas i put that against jason garrett almost every time because i think he will do something like he did in week 17. How about the fact that in week 17, Jason Garrett just pulls it out and lays it on the table and is going for every fourth down in sight. Why don't you do this normally, dude?

What are you doing? Because he had nothing to lose. And he should have been playing his quarterback out there without his starting left guard and without his starting running back. So it was a little bit strange to see how they operated there. Will, I want to thank you so much for uh our first postseason podcast our first uh podcast in the offseason without adam azar and dave richard heath cummings and um please check out will brinson on the pick six podcast read all of his

stuff on cbsports.com and will hopefully will be uh kind enough to join us again and you're going to be taking part in our first mock draft on thursday so that'll be fun to see if you uh follow suit with your post-type sleepers with some of the guys you talked about. Yeah, it's perfect because Adam Ager is out being a good parent. He's in his first six months of being a dad. To do this podcast, I gave my son an iPad. And to do that mock draft,

I will be leaving my son's birthday. So that's welcome. Enjoy your precious time being a good father while he's young, Adam, because you're about to go up the rails once he's five. Dedication. I love it. Well, thank you so much. Well, Brent, I'm Jamie Heisenberg. Got to go. Bye. And we'll talk to you soon.