Fantasy Football Today - 2021 Rookie QB Evaluations: Fields vs. Lance, Mac vs. Mills (02/23 Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: February 23, 2022How good was Mac Jones as a rookie? That depends on who you ask. Today we bring on Chris Trapasso who watched every throw from the rookie QBs in 2021. How would he re-draft the 2021 QB class? Then we ...focus on Fantasy and rank them for 2022 (3:00) and get into Mac Jones's rookie season (4:00). What do the numbers say? What did the tape say? ... Moving on to Trevor Lawrence (7:45), what kinds of improvements did Chris notice as the season went on? And we debate which 2021 rookie QB has the most upside going forward (17:25), who will have the most downside based on their ADP (21:30), and who are our favorites in Dynasty (23:00)? ... Talking Zach Wilson (27:30), comparing the 2021 rookies to Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts (31:00), analyzing Davis Mills (33:55) and really getting into Mills vs. Jones. And we finish with some Dynasty talk (46:00) as Heath tells you who is moving in his dynasty rankings ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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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with iGaming Ontario. This is touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck.
What's going on?
And we welcome you back for our second show on Tuesday.
You're hearing this on Wednesday.
Maybe you're watching on YouTube if you want to know what we look like.
This is what we look like on YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today.
We're joined by Chris Chappasso, who was wearing a blazer.
I shamed him for it.
I told him he was too overdressed and now he looks appropriate.
Chris, welcome to the show.
How are you doing?
I'm doing really good, guys.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you for being here.
Also, Jamie and Heath are here.
Whatever.
We're going to talk Dynasty later in the show
when Chris leaves.
He's shaved.
Who shaved?
Oh, he's...
Oh, my gosh.
You did shave.
You know, we had a guest coming over.
Had to clean up a little bit. Okay. You mean Chris or you had a guest coming over. Had to clean up a little bit.
Okay.
You mean Chris or you had a guest?
No, I meant Chris.
100% just for Chris.
Okay, cool.
We look good.
He's got a tower, so I don't know what you're doing.
Well, Chris is on the show because he has studied these quarterbacks.
He's an NFL draft guy for us,
and he watched every throw that these rookie quarterbacks made in 2021. So I'm going to start with a question for you, Chris. And by the way,
you can follow him at Chris Trapasso, which is at Chris T-R-A-P-A-S-S-O. If you're redrafting,
not in fantasy, I'll look at the fantasy stuff to Jamie and Heath, but if you're redrafting
now, if you're a GM, you're doing it over again after one year, how would you draft the rookie quarterbacks?
The specific order would be pretty tough because none of them were really that great.
And that's including Mac Jones.
I think Davis Mills would have to go somewhere inside the first round, particularly based
on the fact that he played, I thought pretty well down the stretch.
A lot of that was in garbage time and in games that really didn't matter.
Even that season finale against Tennessee that did matter, he was actually really good in that contest.
I think Mac Jones would have to go a little bit higher.
I still believe in the natural talent that Trevor Lawrence has, Justin Fields, even Zach Wilson,
even though Lawrence and Wilson were pretty hard to watch almost the entire rookie seasons for both of them.
I would still draft them probably one and two.
Trey Lance, I'm fine with being the third quarterback off the board because we kind of knew he needed a redshirt season and that it was all about the future for him and his running ability and the arm talent. After that, I think you could throw in Mac Jones maybe ahead of Justin Fields, but I would like to get Davis Mills into the first round
if I was doing a redraft. And I know that third round picks typically don't stick at the quarterback
position, especially if there's a coaching change on a rebuilding team. But really, Davis Mills
showed a lot of that promise that we saw in kind of a
limited basis at Stanford this past season with the Houston Texans.
Okay.
So you'd stick with Lawrence Wilson,
Lance,
and then maybe Jones fields Mills.
Yep.
Okay.
That's it.
We're redrafting in the NFL draft.
Heath,
Jamie and Heath,
you can go first rank them for 2021,
2021 too. That would be much easier. Yeah. draft. Heath, Jamie, Heath, you can go first. Rank them for 2021. 2021?
That would be much easier than 2022.
2022, fantasy-wise,
I would go Fields,
Lance, Lawrence,
Wilson, Mills, Jones.
Okay.
Jamie?
Kyle Trask, one.
I would go Lance, Fields, Lawrence, Mills, Wilson, Jones.
Oh, my gosh.
What a disrespect to Mac Jones.
Wait, Heath, where did you have him?
Last.
What a disrespect to Mac.
Come on, guys.
You know,
I thought the knock on him
was he just doesn't throw the ball downfield. He was
12th in air yards per pass
attempt.
I don't know.
Well, wait, that might change my rankings.
Because everybody wants to knock him for everything,
but he was by far the best rookie quarterback
by far. He was one of the better rookie
quarterbacks we've seen in a while.
And I'm not saying I necessarily disagree.
I'm just saying give the guy a little bit of love.
He also had 129 rushing guards.
Luckily, he had 15 rushing guards.
He's not Phillip Rivers.
He's not Stafford.
Chris, what did you see from Mac Jones?
And again, the air yards, they actually did really surprise me
because the impression, the knock that people want to give on him,
everybody wants to knock him, is that he just didn't make any throws downfield and he was just thinking and dunking all year.
Yeah, I was not really that impressed with Mac Jones, so I would kind of align with their rankings as well, that that he would be near the bottom of my list for 2022 for fantasy in that I think Josh McDaniels did as good of a job as any other offensive
coordinator, like scheming open throws for him. So even some of those downfield throws were to
like wide open wide receivers on a deep over routes or a hundred Henry down the seam off play
action or a throwback to the tight end. And so in this series that i did for cbs sports.com this year i did it
in 2019 too i had a best throws column and a worst throws uh like subheading every single week and
it was basically trying to find like the really good high caliber throws and then like the really
bad decisions or the off target throws from every. About six or seven games for Mac Jones, like up until December, it was hard to find throws for either category because what he was
asked to do was just not really that much. Easy throws into the flat, drag routes, screens,
and I think that's why there's a lot less hype for him going into 2022, despite the Patriots
making the playoffs and him, like you said,
being by far the best rookie quarterback.
He's great for them.
Yeah, for sure.
He's great for what they want to do.
You know, I mean, look, you're going to see the evolution of Mac Jones.
He's going to improve.
I think they're going to improve their receiving court.
At least that's the hope, you know, because Jacoby Myers is not a number one.
Kendrick Bourne is not a number one.
Nelson Aguilar, those guys are all complimentary pieces.
I mean, they fill their roles.
The tight ends really did not materialize, I think, the way that the Patriots probably hope with the money that they spent.
But they want to run the ball.
They want to play good defense and they want to limit the mistakes that their quarterback
makes.
And so he fits what they want to do.
Now, again, you know, they followed that same path with Tom Brady.
Again, not to make the comparison, but, comparison, but it was game manager to superstar.
And maybe the same thing happens to Mac Jones over time.
But I don't think from a fantasy perspective,
different conversations I'm sure from where Chris is coming,
but fantasy-wise, things are going to really have to change
dramatically for him to be a great fantasy quarterback.
And I just don't see that happening next season.
Yeah, but you're taking Kyle Trask over him, Jamie.
I mean, that's just...
If Kyle Trask is the starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
I will draft Kyle Trask out of Mexico.
Okay, Heath?
And I also don't think it's really fair to say
he was by far the best rookie quarterback
if you're talking about fantasy.
I think he was a point and a half better than Davis Mills,
and Davis Mills played a half a game. I wasn't talking about fantasy. I think he was a point and a half better than Davis Mills, and Davis Mills played a half a game.
I wasn't talking about fantasy.
And I don't know that
all other things being
considered, I'm not sure he was
convincingly better than Davis Mills
last year in real life.
But he was much better than Fields.
And obviously much better than Zach
Wilson. And he was much better than Trevor Lawrence.
Trevor Lawrence was statistically dreadful.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, he was probably the worst quarterback in football just based on the stats.
What did you see, Chris, from Lawrence?
Yeah.
Trevor Lawrence, like you said, was really like there was a case that he was the best
or the worst quarterback in football this past season. What was so weird about it from watching him on film at clemson and then going into that
situation which of course was not great with urban meyer is that he was missing layups there were some
easy throws for him in september october even into november where four five six throws a game that
should have been easy completions that any starter in the league could make that Trevor Lawrence was either air mailing or throwing into the feet of his receivers
later there were some of those high caliber tosses and and like the improvisation ability
that we saw from him that was part of the reason he was so highly touted but it was just strange
seeing him miss open receivers and being slow processing what was going on. Like I wasn't shocked to see that from Justin Fields.
That was kind of the book on him coming out of Ohio State was that it was such a wide
open offense there and he needed to kind of throw to his first read.
But Trevor Lawrence was supposed to be a guy that could go from first read to second read
to third read and still make accurate throws.
And it all just seemed way too fast for him.
Really the only
positive thing that you can take from the beginning of Trevor Lawrence's season to the end
of it, he only had a 5% sack rate, which is actually pretty low for a rookie quarterback.
It's less than half of what Zach Wilson's sack rate was at 10.3%. So Lawrence did do a pretty
good job behind what I thought was a pretty bad offensive
line getting rid of the football but in terms of making good decisions not forcing the football
into precarious situations uh throwing with accuracy really any of the the boxes that you
need to check to be a good quarterback will uh Trevor Lawrence did not check any of them you know
I I watch games with uh with Pete Prisco week, and he obviously is well in tune with the Jaguars.
He does their weekly radio show with Tony Buscelli.
And so, you know, he's watching a lot of Jaguars games
and then re-watching them.
And then, you know, you get the secondary analysis
during the current game, you know,
from what he's watched the previous week.
And, you know, he would always point out like,
A, the Jaguars receivers, especially after DJ Chark was out,
they just didn't win on a lot of their routes
because there just wasn't a lot of speed there with those guys.
You know, Marvin Jones, you know, lost a half a step.
Levisco Chenault, never really a speed guy.
You know, relying on Dan Arnold, we had this conversation about our rankings disputes,
you know, not necessarily the best thing from a quarterback perspective.
And then a lot of times he's, you know, three steps, five steps, whatever,
you know, the progressions were, you know, He's footing in the ground to make a throw.
He's got somebody's face.
And so Chris's point, he's getting rid of the ball,
but he's doing it with somebody probably draped on him
or at least close enough to him.
So they have a lot to fix.
He certainly has the potential to take a huge leap forward,
and that's obviously the hope for Jaguars fans,
obviously for fantasy managers that invested in him
as the best quarterback coming into the draft last year for dynasty purposes.
So he's going to get better.
It's just a matter of what they put around him
to help him get better and who wants to come play with him.
That's the hope moving forward.
Chris, I don't know if you recall off the top of your head
his Week 18 film.
I was just watching it before.
What's so funny?
Heath, what are you laughing at?
I didn't say anything at all.
I heard you laugh.
No, I didn't laugh.
I just smiled.
I heard you smile.
Anyway, I was just watching it before the show.
It was Trevor Lawrence Week 18.
This was against the Colts.
This was a huge game.
Remember, the Colts choked.
All they had to do was beat Jacksonville.
They were in.
They lost.
I thought he was awesome.
If that was the only game you watched from Trevor Lawrence,
and he was making great throws.
He had a lot of time.
First of all,
his line did very,
very good job.
The Colts didn't really get to him.
He had a play where the ball was snapped over his head or he deflected it.
It was inside the five yard line is Indianapolis.
And he gets the ball.
He rolls out and he somehow throws a great touchdown in the back of the
end zone of Marvin Jones earlier in the game.
He had another touchdown that was dropped.
I just thought he was outstanding. And I'm wondering if you saw a lot of that
as the season progressed or if that was just a one game blip and we shouldn't make too much of it.
I think the fact that it was at the end of the season and that it was kind of the culmination
of outside of getting blown out by the Patriots, like the last month of the season, he looked to be maybe not the
worst starting quarterback in the NFL. Like from, from September until mid December, he looked like
this is the worst quarterback in the NFL last three or four games. Things did look to be a
little bit slower for him in terms of coverages and where he needed to go with the football.
I'm just looking at my um spreadsheet that i i had
and my grades were kind of just based on feel like i wasn't tracking every single throw and
assigning those a grade that was a 95 from trevor lawrence he had one other a minus game um so that
was the best game from him and i guess if you're a jaguars fan if you're uh an owner of him in dynasty you like
that in a crucial game against a pretty good defense with some playmakers on it lawrence like
looked the part as he enters year two okay heath i don't know if you want to get into lawrence or
we can do some upside downside fantasy questions yeah i just think like the hard thing for him and
the reason like it might sound weird for some people to hear us, Jamie and I,
both say Fields and Lance ahead of Lawrence
because Lawrence was ahead of those guys last year
and they didn't really do anything to take the step.
But the thing is Trevor Lawrence did not give us any indication
that he's going to make a major impact.
I mean, he'll run for the same amount of yards maybe that Patrick Mahomes does.
He has to make such a leap as a passer in the second year to be just fantasy relevant,
just to get into the discussion for the low-end top 12.
And I think that's the disadvantage he's at in comparison to Fields and Lance.
Those guys might run for 600, 700, 800 yards next year,
and they don't really have to get a lot better as a passer.
A little bit, sure, but they can do enough for their legs
to where we'll love them for fantasy anyway.
It's a really – I don't know how many quarterbacks we've seen be as bad,
like taking running out of it, be as bad passing the ball as he was as a rookie
and then be average or better in their second year.
Like it's a big leap for one year.
But there's a path to it though.
I mean it's clearly going to be decided what happens is off season. You know, if they, if they bring in top tier talent to put
around him, then there's definitely a path to see him get significantly better because the coaching
will be better. I mean, the urban Meyer experiment was obviously a complete disaster. Uh, the,
again, the weapons were a disaster. The offensive line was a disaster. So, you know, if they can
bring in two pieces on the line,
two pieces in the receiving core, whatever the case may be,
ETN is going to be obviously a big weapon that they didn't have last season.
So there's a definite path to success.
Whether that's top 12 fantasy quarterback success, I couldn't tell you.
But I think a lot of people are going to be excited to draft him
as a second quarterback with the hope that he can become that type of guy.
Jared Goff comes to mind, I would say, as a guy who took a huge leap from his terrible
rookie year.
Yeah, and I doubt he was that good for fantasy.
He's only threw for 3,804 yards in 15 games.
He just didn't really throw that much.
But then the following year was 4,700 yards, 32 touchdowns.
But he went from a 63.6 passer rating to a 100.5 passer rating there's one other guy i
want to look at here and that was mitchell trubisky uh obviously he had that rushing stuff too but he
was yeah he took a big he went from the guys that jaguars fans want to hear yeah i know that's
you know maybe you could have a jump but i don't know if you could sustain it but i don't know
lawrence obviously a better prospect than those guys,
even though Goff was a number one pick.
All right.
So who has...
But he was.
He was.
Right.
Well, and Trubisky was the second overall pick.
Yeah.
But Lawrence was a better...
I mean, Lawrence was...
Chris, correct me if I'm wrong.
Lawrence was a much better prospect than those guys.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
One other player that I would say that we always hear about,
Josh Allen's year three jump.
But going from his rookie season to 2019 he went from like literally the first two months of his
rookie season in buffalo looked like he was not an nfl starter at all and then down the stretch
like last four games made some plays with his legs looked a little bit better as a passer
and then in 2019 when the bills went 10 and six went to the playoffs, he was still doing some stupid stuff.
He was still sugar high Josh Allen a lot, but looked like he could, again, make another jump.
Like, I think that might be more of the blueprint.
If you're a hopeful Jaguars fan or a fantasy owner that you realize that, you know, he's never going to be a running threat like Josh Allen because he's like 30 pounds lighter than Josh Allen, but you know, super talented guy, big quarterback has the arm talent to be, you know, an upper echelon passer.
So maybe look at Josh Allen from 2018 to 2019. If you're trying to do a positive spin on Trevor
Lawrence developing. Oh, we got it. Where's the, what's the accent, Chris? This is such a unique
accent here. What do we got? It's Western New York, the Buffalo area. That's why I brought up Josh Allen, so it's perfect.
Yeah, it's perfect.
Yeah, after the Josh Allen thing,
I thought maybe we'd find out where that accent's from.
Okay, so first of all, I just want to remind everybody
that a lot of other sports are going on.
I know football's over,
but we got a lot going on in the sports world.
Make sure you get the CBS Sports app.
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app. It's very easy. Just download it, re-download it if it's got that little cloud logo next to it
on your phone. And you know we love those five-star ratings, so don't hesitate to drop one
for the app. As far as these now going to be year two quarterbacks go,
who has the most fantasy upside?
I'll let all of you answer.
We'll go Jamie, Heath, Chris.
Who has the most fantasy upside, Jamie?
I can't imagine anybody has more upside than Trey Lance if he hits.
I mean, just based on what he could do with his legs
and hopefully what he does as a passer.
But if Kyle Shanahan can sort of unleash him
and unlock the potential there, then you've got to love what the upside is.
The weapons are as good as anybody may have, you know,
with what Debo Samuel showed you, George Kittle is,
and Brandon Ayuk can become.
Yeah, I mean, I love Justin Fields.
I love the upside of Trevor Lawrence, but I think, you know,
Trey Lance has the most upside by far.
I'll say Justin Fields just because I think in year two,
I have more hope that he could be an accurate passer in year two.
I think maybe long-term Lance might have that,
but I don't think in year two Lance has quite as much upside as a passer
as Fields does, and I think Fields is closer to Lance as a rusher.
So I'll say Fields, but it's Fields or Lance.
Yeah, I'll say Trey Lance.
And I would put Justin Fields at number two for a lot of the reasons that Heath just said, because I did think coming out of college, Justin Fields was a more talented passer than Trey Lance.
And Trey Lance, I mean, we never really have seen Kyle Shanahan with a athletic quarterback. Like how much is he going to be used in the
designed run game?
I think Justin Fields is a better scrambler and will not hesitate to run with the football
if he doesn't like what he sees.
So that could lead to, like you guys mentioned, six, 700, maybe 800 rushing yards in his future.
I would certainly add a little boost to his fantasy value.
But right after Trey Lance got drafted last season, I wrote an article ranking the quarterbacks
by situation.
And I just ranked every layer of that, like defense, offensive line, coaching, skill,
position, talent.
And Trey Lance came out at number one in all categories.
I thought he was in an awesome situation.
He's still in a very good situation now that we pretty much are sure he's going to take over that starting role.
So most upside, definitely Trey Lance, but right behind him, Justin Fields, because of his passing ability.
Listen, Chris, Matt Ryan and Matt Shaw were really pissed off at you right now.
That was disrespectful. You're right.
Non-athletic quarterbacks at Palos Anjos.
Occasionally, Matt Ryan can make some plays with his legs,
but designed run game and running over linebackers,
I don't really think that's his forte or really ever was.
Correct me if I'm wrong, anybody here, but they were together with RG3, right?
You're right.
It's been 10 years, and I already forgot about RG3.
No, as did I, but he was part of that. That was the McVay
McDaniel, right? They were all together at the same time.
Yeah.
How many yards did he run for that year?
A lot. 800, 900?
Yeah, so there's the upside.
Was it that many?
I doubt it. I'm looking it up right now.
Yeah, go ahead. I'll give you some
numbers, some rushing numbers to get you
sound. 815. Wow get you. 815.
Wow.
Jeez.
815.
I don't remember that. He led the league at 6.8 yards per attempt.
Rushing.
Wow.
You think I would have remembered the yards per carry.
Only for running backs for me.
So Justin Fields, he wasn't really running when he started starting, basically.
His first three starts, he ran for 23 yards, something like that.
His last six starts,
not including the one he left with an injury,
his last, this is such an Azerset.
His last six healthy starts,
he averaged 56.3 rushing yards per game.
That's 958 rushing yards in 17 games.
Trey Lance, take away the games
where he just kind of came in as a gimmick or whatever.
He basically had two and a half games.
He started two games and he came in at halftime or just after halftime in the Seattle game in week four.
In those two and a half games, you take two and a half, you go 17 games.
He was on pace for 1095 rushing yards.
That's what he showed.
Incredible.
64.4 rushing yards per game if you look at two and a half games.
So those guys. 64.4 rushing yards per game if you look at two and a half games. Those guys, I'm not saying they're going to rush for 1,000 yards,
but they showed some potential to do that in 17 games, of course.
Who has the most downside among the quarterbacks?
Not just overall downside, but downside based on where you're going to have to draft them.
I think it's more of a consideration.
I think it's probably more Lance than
Fields just because
who knows if he's even ready
yet.
Okay. Chris, do you
think he's ready?
Yeah, I do. I think he's ready and that I've
seen, I mean, I guess the quarterbacks mostly that Kyle
Shanahan has had at his disposal in the past were more of those low ceiling but high floor types
but the fact that he's been able to get like eight yards per attempt out of guys like Nick Mullins
and Brian Hoyer and uh you know spot starts here and there from guys that are pretty just not that talented.
I think by next season, at the start of the year, Trey Lance will be ready.
Again, I'm just really interested and intrigued by how much he's used in the design run game.
As a passer, it might take him a month or so to really settle in.
But this is one of the most time-tested offensive quarterback friendly schemes
in the NFL with, you know, Kyle Shanahan as that coach. So I think he'll be ready and then we'll,
you know, sprinkle in the design run game and the scrambling ability a lot.
You're going to step into one of the best left tackles in football, one of the best tight ends
in football, one of the best do it all receivers maybe that we've seen in the last 10 years,
a run game to support you, a defense that's not going to put you in a lot of
compromise situations is a dream setup for any quarterback you know so
he just has to take advantage of it and hopefully he does yeah and he has to
beat out tom brady probably that might be a little tough who's your
favorite in dynasty favorite in dynasty heath
i'll stick with being the fields fan boy i've got him then lawrence
then lance jamie yeah lance feels lawrence that's the order from chris yeah that's the same order
same as jamie um i just think that like he mentioned the situation is good kyle shanahan's
not going anywhere uh maybe if you're really looking long view in dynasty the fact that trent will Trent Williams is getting up there in age and they may have to be
replacing him in the next couple of seasons.
And it's going to be a downgrade because Trent Williams is that good.
But I think right now it,
it would be easy to say,
Hey,
why are you putting Justin Fields ahead of Trevor Lawrence,
especially when he got injured and it's a new coaching staff.
But again, I, I never really thought that Justin Fields was that less talented than
Trevor Lawrence.
I thought they were actually pretty close in terms of their athleticism, the arm talent,
uh, and just the productivity that they had at, at two marquee programs in college.
And feels there's a, there's a lot to get excited about, you know, and all of the stuff
he said, and I know we've talked about this a little bit in the last couple weeks, they have to add a receiver.
This is a team that's losing Allen Robinson that somebody has to step in there.
Hopefully it's somebody of significance, but it could be in the draft.
I know they don't have a lot of draft capital, but it could be in the draft.
It could be free agency.
That's something that he did not have last season.
Adam, I know you're excited about Cole Komet.
Hopefully he takes a step forward.
You know, Darnell Mooney's clearly starting to establish himself as a good receiver.
I don't know if he'll be a great receiver, but he's got that potential.
Good running back out of the backfield.
Might get another weapon in Tariq Cohen if he's healthy.
And then the coaching staff.
You know, I mean, Matt Nagy obviously has shown some things,
but clearly had a lot of flaws.
And so we'll see, you know, if Matt Iberflues and his staff there is, you know,
going to do things to maximize Justin Fields. So there's a lot to like about
him. You know, for me, it's one on one, eh, you know, I don't want to make it seem like there's a,
a big drop up fantasy wise, you know, we could see what happens, you know, just in terms of their
play, but I think there's a lot to like about both those guys. And then you hope to see Trevor
Lawrence join them. I mean, you know, it'd be fun to see, you know, uh, a debate about these three
guys. I mean, Think about the conversations that
we've had about Josh Allen
and Lamar Jackson the last couple of
seasons. Just from that class, for a while
it was okay. Baker Mayfield was
maybe in the mix a little bit
as well, but clearly what those
two guys have done, you hope to see these three quarterbacks
being talked about as just superstars
for the next several years.
I'll just be different here.
I'm going to go Lance third,
and it's a real toss-up to me. I have Lance third.
That's not different.
What did you say?
I said Field, Lawrence, Lance.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you went Field, Lance, Lawrence.
That's okay.
I think that's where I am, too.
I might even be Lawrence one,
but all of the evaluators
are going to have to be so wrong
about Trevor Lawrence, I think for him to not be a great pro it's possible that happens, but, uh,
not being a great pro. No, what I'm saying is everyone thought he was going to be amazing.
So everyone would have to be wrong for him to not be a great pro is what I was trying to say.
And I don't want to judge him too harshly. I know he's not
going to have the rushing totals, but when I look year after year after year of the quarterbacks who
finish in the top five, they all have good seasons or some great seasons as passers. They all do.
So that to me is the most important thing first is, are you going to be a good passer followed
by the rushing? And I think he rushes enough. So I don't know that he's going to be the best
next year, but I think just from a dynasty
standpoint, kind of leaning Lawrence
one, but definitely
ahead of Lance just because there's so much uncertainty
there. But yeah, my
two cents, but I guess Heath, I'm sorry
about that, Heath. I heard you wrong. I already
forgot. Or maybe I just got thrown off by
the lack of... I mean, Lawrence ran for 900
yards in three seasons. Right, right. He's
going to run. I think you compared him to Mahomes, Heath, if I heard that and remember that correctly.
Right.
They ran for about the same amount of yards last year.
Yeah.
So I think he runs enough to be, if he's as good as everyone says he is, I think he runs enough to be in the discussion as a potential number one superstar, number one quarterback in football.
He's not there yet, but I don't know.
It's definitely top three for everybody. It's definitely top two for me.
All right. Let's talk about Zach Wilson and Chris, you said you'd still take him second.
What did you see from Zach Wilson? And you said that not from a fantasy standpoint,
but from a NFL draft. Yeah. Yeah. Just, just from a draft perspective. And that's,
I'll probably admit it. It takes me a little bit longer to give up on someone that I really liked in the draft process um but in terms of his film uh like I
said earlier 10.3 percent sack rate which is an insanely high number uh there was a little bit
a little bit of a stretch in December where Zach Wilson did look like that was he was kind of
settling in he was
getting more comfortable in that offenses uh targeting Braxton Berrios a lot more just getting
the ball out but then in that regular season finale against the Bills he got sacked a bunch
of times like threw for under 100 yards it's kind of a sour note to end on but I did see those
flashes the arm talent flashes where he's running outside the pocket, keeping his eyes up, dropping it down the field in the bucket.
And he was a surprisingly good runner.
He had like a 40 or 50 yard run late in the season against the Titans in that surprising win, I think in late September or early October.
Looked like the BYU Zach Wilson that really elevated him to being the number two overall pick.
I think with Lawrence, a big key will be the Jaguars defense getting better. looked like the BYU Zach Wilson that really elevated him to being the number two overall pick.
I think with Lawrence, a big key will be the Jaguars' defense getting better so he's not feeling forced to throw the football into tight windows and take too many risks.
For Wilson, the Jets' offensive line just needs to get better
because at BYU, in that wide zone scheme, he was hardly pressured,
could really survey the field and just let his natural ability
as a passer show. Then he goes to the Jets. Mekhi Becton's hurt. The offensive line is really
patchwork. I think Joe Douglas, given his time in Philadelphia, understands the importance of
an offensive line, especially for a young quarterback, and will continue to invest.
But as that offensive line gets better, I think there'll be a straight
correlation with Zach Wilson improving in real life and in fantasy. And get everybody healthy
at the same time. I mean, Corey Davis in and out, Elijah Moore in and out of the lineup,
Michael Carter, you know, I mean, those, those guys together can certainly make a quarterback
look a lot better than they do, you know? So again, you know, you got to just sort of wait to see how these these teams sort of come together and what they look like in building.
You know, you referenced, you know, Josh Allen's leap into year three and think about what they did for him.
You know, it was a slow build with John Brown and Cole Beasley and and and Stefan Diggs and just putting, you know, talent around him.
Kyler Murray, you know, the addition of DeAndre Hopkins and putting just putting talent around him. Kyler Murray, the addition of DeAndre Hopkins
and putting a premier talent around him.
The Dolphins tried to do that with Tua.
It didn't work necessarily, but the high draft pick of Jalen Waddell
bringing in Will Fuller, adding him to Devontae Parker and Mike Kisecki
just didn't really see it all together because of Fuller's injury.
But that's what these front offices need to do
is just put talent around these guys.
If you're going to invest in them, make it so that they can be successful.
It's not just that.
Obviously, the offensive line is a huge key.
Adam, you obviously know this.
The Giants attempted that this season, but did they do the right thing with the offensive line?
You can see that they tried to do it.
That was the thing.
They completely neglected the offensive line, and they said,
we believe in our guys more than everybody else does,
and they sucked, except for Andrew Thomas.
They did take him,
but the Jets have two years in a row
drafted a lineman in the first round.
They brought in some guys who weren't that good,
but they're trying.
They do understand, it seems,
the importance of the offensive line.
I think I want to go a different,
I'm just going to completely go off the rails here
for a second, Adam, but I need toris a question because jamie brought up to a
and i think that's like and we're at that point now with talking about zach wilson and the guys
after him like where does this class compare to jalen hertz and tua because that's a decision
like that that rankings part i think most people are going to have fields and lance and lawrence
ahead of both of those guys um maybe not everybody but like where those guys rank with tua and hertz is really
interesting to me i actually like jalen hertz more than i like to right now in real life and
for fantasy and and this is coming from someone that certainly like i i was with everyone else
i had to uh behind joe burrow in the 2020 class, not that far ahead of Justin Herbert,
but I really liked him and I was not that keen on Jalen Hurts ever becoming even like a quality,
like a middle of the road starter. I think both quarterbacks in watching them, because the series
that I did was rookie quarterbacks and second year quarterbacks. They were both in a situation,
I think Nick Sirianni did a great job
just scheming open throws, high percentage tosses, same for Tua with that kind of split
offensive coordinator, weird situation this past year. Jalen Hurts looked more comfortable as a
passer to me as the season progressed. I thought he took less risks. He was not putting the ball
into harmful situations as frequently.
And of course, he's a much better scrambler.
I think really watching Tua, we saw a little bit of a step into year two,
but too many times it just looked like his athleticism was stretched to the limit
when he was under pressure, couldn't really evade a lot of those defensive ends,
defensive tackles, blitzing linebackers, and the arm talent really is just not there. I think Jalen Hurts
has actually developed a lot better than Tua in these first two seasons.
That offensive line was a travesty though. Absolutely. It was for Tua. So, you know,
again, this is a big off season. You know, this is a, okay, we got a new coach. He's an offensive genius.
This is what everybody's looking to see.
Is he going to help maximize his talent?
But they have the most cap space of any team as of now.
So go invest in that line.
Go give him all the protection that he needs
and see if he can make Jalen Waddell a superstar
and whatever else they put around him.
But if they don't fix that offensive line,
you just wasted,
you know,
three years of Tua Tungabelo.
Yeah.
And I just,
maybe I'm missing something.
When I looked at the free agent offensive lineman,
I just didn't really see other than Teron Armstead,
a lot of opportunities.
But again,
you can be creative like the chiefs,
you know,
you can find ways to,
you know,
take guys off of other teams,
rosters.
You don't have a first round pick.
So that's going to be hard.
They do.
Yeah. They have the 49ers. Oh, they have the 49ers. Okay. They do have a first-round pick. They do? Yeah, they have the 49ers.
Oh, they have the 49ers.
Okay, so they have a late...
That's what the Chiefs had, right?
They got a left tackle
for the last pick in the draft
or the second-to-last pick
in the first round,
whatever it was.
All right, so Davis Mills,
the last guy we're going
to talk about here.
And Chris, you already said
if you were redrafting,
you'd like to see him
become a first-round pick.
Heath and Jamie,
do you see any fantasy appeal?
They say Davis Mills is our guy.
He's our starter week one.
We're riding with him the whole season for the Houston Texans.
Heath, is there any fantasy appeal to Davis Mills?
And then I guess, who would you take, Mills or Zach Wilson in that scenario?
I would still take Wilson over Mills.
But I do think that, listen, more and more we see Dynasty pushing towards that super flex two quarterback format because there's so many good quarterbacks.
I think Davis Mills could be a very good number two quarterback.
He could be a very good streaming option off the waiver wire against the right matchups.
And who knows?
He could continue to improve and actually be better.
But I think for the most part, his upside right now to me looks like high-end number two quarterback. I would put him behind all the guys we've talked about so far from a dynasty perspective
just because his future is so uncertain.
But in terms of a projection for next year, I'd take him over Mac Jones.
You like to see guys in just disastrous situations thrive.
And I think you compare his situation to Trevor Lawrence or Zach Wilson.
He showed you things. And Chris, obviously, I'm sure you know you compare his situation to trevor lawrence or zach wilson he showed you things you know and and chris obviously i'm sure you know evaluating this you know you you look and you say okay this is a just a disaster you know all across the board
disaster we knew the texans were going to be bad you know at least with the jaguars and the death
you thought okay the quarterback might make some plays and it could be something that it's worth
watching davis mills when you watched it you were like okay you gotta worry about this guy if you're facing him and and
certainly he you know as we had the conversation with you know brandon cooks from our rankings
conversation um on the monday show or the tuesday show excuse me um that he he looked apart you know
he he absolutely looked apart and i know at the end of the season heath we had i think it was a
believe it or not topic for you about him you know getting the opportunity to be the guy next year he absolutely should
you know it it's not necessarily don't overlook something if it lands in your lap and clearly
they're going to have an asset to trade if Deshaun Watson's able to play and so you know you ask
about you know Jalen Hurts and Tua Tungabailoa if if Watson goes there the one of those guys come
back and then that's the guy that's potentially starting over Davis Mills. But if they send him to a place, send Watson to a place like Denver
or Pittsburgh or somewhere where he's not getting the other guys coming back
to replace Davis Mills, there's a lot to like about him.
So I don't know.
I agree with Heath.
I don't know if he's ever going to emerge as a number one fantasy quarterback,
but he could be in that Kirk Cousins range.
He could be in that Derek Carr range. He could be in that Ryan Cousins range. He could be in that Derek Carr range.
He could be in that Ryan Tannehill range.
You know, however they get there.
You know, obviously those guys do a lot of different things,
how they produce.
But, you know, it could be one of those guys like,
you know, maybe Tannehill's not fair to say
because he was starting and being drafted as a starter.
But one of those guys like,
okay, by the end of the season,
why didn't I draft him in this spot?
Or, you know, I'm winning my fantasy league
because of this guy.
And so the Texans have, you know, a lot of ammunition potentially to improve their roster.
And if they do it with some good skill players and good offensive line and, and Davis Mills now
has a better situation around him, it would not be a surprise if, if fantasy managers are talking
about him by the end of the 2022 campaign as a guy who helped him win the league.
I just don't really understand taking him ahead of Mac Jones.
I just,
I don't get that.
Especially if on one show we're talking about,
Hey,
I'm kind of,
you know,
I might be buying into these rumors that Kyle Shanahan really did want
Mac Jones at number three overall and not Trey Lance,
but you know,
so he could have been the third pick of the draft of Shanahan got his
way.
And yet you're,
you know,
you're taking a third round pick over Mac Jones who was 15th
who just had a really tremendous
rookie season. But not for
fantasy at all. We're talking about fantasy football.
It was a dreadful...
He was worse than Jared Goff.
Yeah, but
does that matter? It's not like Davis Mills was so good.
How would you ever take a third round pick over a first round talent
Russell Wilson, right? How would that ever go?
I think Davis Mills was better than him in the full games that he played.
I don't know.
You have to take quarterback.
Who are you drafting, Mac Jones or Davis Mills?
I'm taking Mac Jones.
Why?
I respect what he did.
First of all, mostly because everyone had him ranked ahead of Davis Mills
a year ago.
And because if Bill Belichick and Kyle Shanahan are going to take Mac Jones
over Davis Mills,
that's going to resonate a lot more to me than what you and Heath are saying
right now.
Sorry,
no offense.
It should,
right?
So why wouldn't I,
why would I take Davis Mills over Mac Jones?
Chris,
go back to your evaluation of these guys last,
last year.
Davis Mills was hurt,
right?
If I'm not mistaken,
coming,
coming out of Stanford.
Had he been a hundred percent healthy and not necessarily on a uh i mean clearly the caliber of team is different so
you're seeing mac jones a lot more and people are obviously resonating with that a lot more but
um just in terms of their play who was the better quarterback too when healthy i i think it was
davis mills uh and he was a late riser during the pre-draft process because, like you mentioned,
he was hurt and he only started for like 14 games at Stanford.
I was on a recent podcast where they said if Davis Mills would have stayed,
he would have been relatively high in this draft class because he was a major recruit.
The arm talent showed at Stanford, throwing 30, 40, 50 yards downfield under pressure. He's a pretty
good athlete. He's not, uh, you know, an elite caliber athlete by today's quarterback standards,
but just the traits that you're always looking at when you're a draft analyst,
Davis mills is just more impressive in the, in all those areas than Mac Jones. And I think if you
flip both of the quarterbacks, if you put Davis Mills
on the Alabama teams the past couple of seasons or Davis Mills in New England this past year,
I think Davis Mills would have been just as good, if not better than Mac Jones with all the first
round receivers and such an insulated environment with a really good play designer in Josh McDaniels
this past season. Okay. So people love to ask me questions to make me look bad,
but I'm going to make you answer it.
Jamie,
are you as now reevaluating,
are you telling me that you would draft Davis mills ahead of Mac Jones
after watching them?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
You could be right.
I just,
you know,
like I said,
I'm going to trust what the NFL with the NFL community thought last year. And then I still think we're just being too hard on Mac Jones. I think I don't think this isn to see, you know, players be great, but I, I, I feels like he has a ceiling and I don't know if we,
and we may have seen it and I don't know what Davis mill ceiling is because he
was just surrounded by a disaster. Whereas Mac Jones, you know, I mean,
look,
we all thought that the Patriots were gonna have a turnaround based on how the
2020 season unfolded compared to 2021 because of
the you know just a better you know all the guys adopted out and and coming back and you know just
a better roster and it played itself out that way and so if Mac Jones can be a difference maker
then those games against the Bills that mattered not the the game, the, the, the, the ones that,
you know, he needed to win and play better. And he hopefully plays better. And the game against,
you know, the, the games against Miami, he plays better. And, you know, when he's facing
a little bit tougher competition, does he play better? And, you know, and, you know, Davis Mills
played better against Mac Jones when those two teams went head to head, you know, nobody thought
that the, the, I mean, he was, he was a monster Texans were going to win that game. That's true, yeah.
I mean, he was a monster in that game.
And you just see flashes.
And again, I don't think I'm right on this.
I don't know until we see it when their rosters are as close to as good as they can be.
And maybe Mac Jones has already been that way.
But I just see a little bit more upside in Davis Mills.
And again,
I think he might be a better talent.
And I think from a fantasy perspective,
especially next year,
because the Titan or the Texans are definitely like a few years away from
being even close to being a contender from a fantasy like angle,
he's going to be playing from behind a lot.
He had four games over 300 yards passing.
I think the Patriots
will be pretty stable. I don't know if during the end of the Bill Belichick era, they're going to
be legitimate Super Bowl contenders again, but you will see a lot of 15 of 25 for 220 yards with
one touchdown and one interception games from Mac Jones. You can see a lot of backdoor 300-yard games from Davis Mills as the start of this next season.
It never felt to me like the Texans
were or are completely sold
on Davis Mills. That's another thing. Every week, I would kind of try
to read a little bit. I never really saw a ton of buy-in.
That always kind of stood out read a little bit. I never really saw a ton of buy-in and that was, that always kind of stood out to me. No, people aren't really talking about Davis mills. Like, Oh, we've got our
guy. I don't think they feel that way. I don't think you're wrong in that regard, but I also
think again, it depends what they do with their biggest asset to trade. You know, if you send him
to someplace that has a guy that might have a better pedigree, they have to explore that.
So whether it's Jalen Hurts, who for the most part you can say same pedigree, but obviously different history.
But in terms of draft capital spent, it was the same.
With Tua, clearly there's a different name and the expectations associated with it.
So you have to see what you have there but i think if it's just okay are we we're not going we're not dipping our toes into the free agent
market we're not necessarily going to go into the draft because it's not a huge quarterback class
to go out and get somebody that's better than davis mills and chris told you you know mills
might be the the prime guy if he was in this class coming out now so he just he just looked
he looked good enough to say okay let's give it a chance in year two
and let's see with a better situation.
And I don't know if Lovey's the better coach from what they had a year ago.
I don't know if the personnel is going to necessarily be dramatically better,
but this team was just in cap hell, draft hell.
I mean, Bill O'Brien decimated this roster.
And then the Watson situation was just the, you know,
the nail in the coffin.
And so, you know, now they're trying to build back up
and they might have just gotten lucky
with the next great day two draft quarterback.
Yeah, Heath, I think you wanted to get in there.
No, I was just like going back to what you were saying.
I felt like you were making an argument for Mac Jones floor over Davis mills for it. That matters more to me in like the
fields, Lawrence Lance debate than it does in the Mac Jones, Davis mills debate. If we're talking
about fantasy football, like the cost for those two guys in fantasy football is so low that I
don't really care what their floor is. The odds are neither one of them is ever going to help me win a fantasy
championship,
but I think it's more possible with Mills than it is with Jones.
Okay.
It's good.
Go back to what you said in regards to nobody was talking about Davis
Mills to the same level.
Mac Jones,
your own guy was Pete Prisco was,
he loved,
loved Davis Mills and still does.
All right.
So we'll take a break chris i want to thank
you for joining us by the way great stuff appreciate it man and always follow him on
twitter at chris trapasso t-r-a-p-a-s-s-o and when we come back we'll talk dynasty
right now or right in a minute on fantasy football today see you later
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That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. All right. Sorry, we're back here. I was supposed to remove Chris. Chris,
I'm sorry about that. I'm going to kick you out now. Goodbye, Chris. Okay.
That was fantastic.
That's why I needed a producer for that. And I didn't have one today.
So yeah,
it was great.
All right.
Teeth.
I had some dynasty questions,
but I can just kind of make it completely open and open space here.
Safe space.
If you want to share some dynasty thoughts or I can ask you whatever.
I just updated quarterback and running back rankings today.
Wide receiver and tight end are coming tomorrow. So if you wanted to talk quarterback and running back rankings today. Wide receiver and tight end are coming tomorrow.
So if you wanted to talk quarterback and running back rankings,
I am ready for those discussions.
Although I think we just talked about a lot of the quarterback stuff.
A little bit, but only with five players, basically.
But what's the most interesting thing, I guess, with six players?
What's the most interesting rankings adjustment you made?
I think it's probably Deshaun Watson.
The thing I wrote about was Russell Wilson,
but that was kind of sparked by the stuff we talked about
on yesterday's show earlier today.
So I think it's how I'm starting to feel a little bit more confident.
And I made it clear in the article.
This is totally just my feeling.
I don't know anything more than anybody else.
That Watson's going to play football this year.
And that this situation's not going to have a worst-case scenario outcome for him.
I've had him closer to QB 20 than QB 10.
And I moved him up.
He's at 14 now and rising.
And listen, we haven't talked about the whole situation a whole lot for a good reason, but if six months from now,
Deshaun Watson has no off the field issues and he is on a new team, you might have a top five.
In fact, I think you do have a top five dynasty quarterback I've got Kyler Murray at fifth right
now and if there were no issues whatsoever with Deshaun Watson that didn't involve football I
would take Watson over Murray so where'd you say you had him I've got him 14 right now okay okay
and anything else at quarterback that you want to talk about? Um, I think it's interesting what to do with Rogers.
Yeah.
Since he was the other news item from yesterday,
just because he kind of,
man,
he's 38 years old and his,
his value is basically limited to four or five teams in your league,
but he also could be a top five quarterback this year.
So who do you have Rogers or Watson?
I have Watson at 14 Rogers at 15 Jamie.
Well,
I don't do dynasty rankings,
but I would definitely take Watson over Rogers dynasty wise,
which is,
you know,
just absurd.
If you just think about it,
because one guy may never play football again.
And the other guy could still have two or three years of just MVP level
performance.
But clearly if, if Watson's cleared to play,
you're taking the long-term upside of what he can be,
and hopefully he'll still be.
Well, that's the thing,
is both guys may never play football again.
Both guys may never play football again,
but one may not have a choice.
I mean, Watson is so good.
It is going to be interesting.
He's facing quite... He's facing a lot, obviously, and
hopefully we'll have a resolution in the next few months there.
How about running back adjustments?
I think, looking at that, it's the 27-year-olds.
We've got a handful of guys. We've talked about this before.
28 and beyond for running backs should be terrifying to you.
And I think everybody agrees to that on a macro level.
Like if you have an aging elite running back,
that's the most dangerous thing you could have.
But then when we talk about individual players,
nobody wants to believe it about those guys.
And when we get to next year, we've got Alston Eckler, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Derek Henry, Aaron Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, all 27 or 28 years old.
Anyway, when you say next year, you mean the start of the 2022 season?
The start of the 2022 season.
Okay.
Yes.
By kickoff of opening week, all of those guys are 27 or 28 years old.
The odds are that four or five of those guys
are going to see a huge drop in their value
in the next 12 months.
Yeah, I know who everyone's circling, right?
It's Zeke.
Everyone, I think people are worried about Zeke.
What were the names again?
Oh, I mean, you should be past worried about Zeke.
You've already seen the worry point of Zeke.
The other guys are the ones you have to worry about.
Yeah, I think you might have missed your sell Zeke window.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, who else?
That's the thing is with Alvin Kamara,
if he has a six-game suspension,
and his age 27 season we find out is going to be 10 games or 11 games,
he's probably...
You have to you know the the and we should we don't i don't think we do enough
of this is you know when to trade in dynasty you know when to you know bail on a team um like you
know and and you and dave i think are good uh candidates to discuss this because like you bailed
seeing that this was headed for your roster you
know you had a good playoff run in the 2020 season you saw that you had uh parts that were not
necessarily going to be successful long term you know you might have been able to contend this year
especially the way that our dynasty league is set up um but would you have won a championship and
and that's the question i think a lot of people don't necessarily have the ability to answer about their own roster because every time you
like i'm in uh two dynasty leagues the one with you and then another one and like my my team i
think for the last probably four or five years i don't know what year we're in maybe you're seven
um after having won two of the first three years,
has still been very successful.
But I'm at the point now where Michael Thomas has disappointed me
for two years in a row.
Christian McCaffrey has disappointed me for two years in a row.
I've gotten lucky with some of my draft picks
that I'm still able to be very much in contention.
But it's such a hard decision to make about when you're going to bail.
Dave, I think, should not have bailed like we had this conversation many times like he still
would have been in a very good spot and he may have improved himself for next year but uh with
some of the draft picks that he acquired but it's like it's such a tough decision that you have to
make about when do you actually step away from your team and say okay this is just not working
how do i you know and and it's you trade
dalvin cook while you may be in the middle of the pack team or alvin kamara's middle of the pack
team or you know eckler and these guys and is there enough coming back your way to to make it
worth your while yeah of those guys eckler is the only one who's still in my top eight in dynasty
almost all these guys were um one year ago um eckler's the only one who's still in my top eight in dynasty almost all these guys were um one year ago um eckler's the only one
who's still in my top eight um but i think really like jamie said if you're a middle of the road
team i think if you're not one of the top if you can't look at your league and make the argument
that you have one of the three or four best teams every one of these guys should be on the trading block. Who are you nervous about in your top 10 at running back,
other than maybe Eckler?
But who gives you some pause?
The dynasty?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'd say, I mean, Dalvin Cook's 11th,
so that would be one for sure.
The other one's probably for me.
I mean, I've got DeAndre Swift third.
Oh, yeah.
That's scary.
That's scary to me.
That makes me a little bit worried if his passing game role shrinks at all
or if he has another injury and gets the injury-prone label.
Oh, man.
So who's 4-5-6 right behind Swift?
Javante's 4.
McCaffrey's 5.
Eckler's 6.
Ah.
Huh.
But you could, I mean, across the board,
you can nitpick every single one, including Jonathan Taylor.
Yeah.
Like, you could find a flaw with all these guys.
Who's 2?
Am I missing this?
Najee.
Oh, Najee, right.
Yeah, I wonder if any of the rookies will jump into the top five, top three.
I think if Miami gets their hands on one,
people are going to get overexcited about that.
I think there's three at the top.
Brees Hall, Isaiah Spiller, and is it Kenneth Walker?
Kenneth Walker, baby.
Yes.
He's third for me. But i think if any of those three
guys are drafted in like the first 35 picks into a decent situation they probably jump into the top
10. okay top 10 i mean you know then you have to start asking all right well let's see the dolphins
just took kenneth walker do i take him over aging aust Eckler in dynasty? You know,
I mean,
could be.
Yeah.
I mean,
if you're,
if you're not one of the top four teams in the league,
I think you definitely should.
Is running back kind of stink right now.
Is that what I'm thinking?
Is this a pivot time in the running back position?
Are we about to have a big time changing of the guard or something like that?
Or is it just,
is it just not that good?
I don't really,
I'm not liking what I hear right now at running back. Right. Cause we've had,
it depends on what you're looking for. And I mean, we could still get another year or two
out of these guys, not necessarily the entire group, but you know, if McCaffrey has a resurgence,
if Barkley has resurgence, you can clearly see if those guys are healthy, what they're capable
of doing, you know? so there there's going to
be you know a player or two if not more that we just don't expect to have you know hopefully
sustained success you know whether it's a guy like Singletary or Penny or you know coming off
strong finishes you know I I don't know if it's necessarily a pivot point yet but there there's
there's we're a year away I I think, from this whole group.
Derrick Henry, McCaffrey, Eckler, Zeke, Barkley, potentially.
I mean, he's still young.
You know what, though?
Maybe it's the fact that these guys are catching fewer passes
makes them seem less valuable than the wide receivers.
I think it's a different discussion in redraft versus dynasty because in dynasty, you can look at it and you can see like a majority
of our top 10 over the last three or four years are all approaching the cliff together. And you
don't know, like, like Jamie said, a couple of them might last two more years, but it's like,
it's really close to that, that flip over. And, uh, there's going to be some teams that get hurt because they hold on too long.
It's also a year with the guys at the top.
We all saw Jonathan Taylor could be great.
And then I think just collectively, depending on however far you dropped him,
panicked because of Quentin Nelson and Carson Wentz.
So take him out of the equation.
But it was McCaffrey getting hurt.
It was Henry getting hurt.
It was Barkley not being good again.
It was Kamara and Galvin Cook having somewhat down seasons, you know,
based on the expectations,
it was he having a down season after a strong start, you know,
so almost an entire half fire was a layer, another bad season, you know,
on top of getting hurt, you know,
so it really wasn't the guys at the top that we expected.
We saw, okay, this could be the year for Joe Mixon,
but how many years in a row have we said that?
This is a great setup for Najee Harris, and he delivered.
Depending on how far you go, same thing with Austin Eckler.
It's almost like Joe Mixon.
Okay, this is the year for Eckler, and he took off.
I think it's just based on how you came away from this past year
and your feelings about drafting at the top.
So it goes back to our rankings dispute.
You know, I think the people that had success with their first round picks are going to go back to either those same guys or drafting a running back in those spots.
Or they're going to say, OK, I'm pivoting.
I'm going to take Cooper Cup.
I'm going to take Adams.
I'm going to take Jefferson.
Take Chase, you know, and get away from that completely.
Well, I also wonder if we had this incredible draft class 2017.
Fournette, McCaffrey, Cook, Mixon, Kamara, Kareem Hunt, Deontay Foreman,
James Conner.
I thought Aaron Jones was in this one.
Aaron Jones.
He was.
Jamal Williams.
This is a historic.
Chris Carson.
Historically awesome running back class.
And it's fading.
Okay.
Well, we are.
Yeah, we're out of time.
So check out Fantasy Football today in five.
Jamie and I are going to record that right now.
You can check that out on YouTube.
On Thursday, we're back to talk about the rookie running backs and evaluate them. Thanks so
much for watching and listening, everybody. Thank you to Chris Trapasso as well. For Heath and Jamie,
I'm Adam. We'll talk to you on Thursday on Fantasy Football Today.